Back to Basics Challenge

This is for the past month.

Sowing seed or Planting



I am very excited to have artichokes again after all these years!

Planning for The Future

I found out that romano beans in Australia are borlotti beans. I found this on a blog Belinda recommended for another bean called Lisa's Kitchen. I have been wanting to know for ages, as I know no one would have a clue on my menu plans what borlotti beans are. My menu plans are here.

I have been looking at menu planning videos on Youtube. What I found out you can view here. I have since borrowed the Destitute Gourmet book from the library to have a look as Debbie suggested, thanks Debbie. I liked the recipe for pumpkin and bacon pasta (a favourite here) that can be made without a bottle of mushroom Dolmio which we usually use.

I learnt you can make carrot cake icing without running out and buying cream cheese, you can use coconut cream, which I usually have on hand. It is very nice. Recipe here.

I had to stick Belinda's suggestion of a food blog on the sidebar of my other blog to remind me where it is. I have come to the end of the amount of blogs blogger allows me to follow. It was handy and I hope to use a recipe starting next week or the week after, and using up my stash of dried beans and lentils. I have quite a lot. It is sort of a pantry challenge. I have been doing a few lately, today I found we still have the odd thing from our Christmas hamper and they must really need using up by now.

Working for the Future

I am working on using up frozen baby carrots, a plum pudding, some mung beans, lima beans, and generally having a good look at what we have in the pantry, on the shelves and in the freezer.

We also have been looking at the paint we have in the shed, and trying to use it up rather than buying more. Today we surprised ourselves and found some ceiling paint we have been needing. We also had a surprise of pale pink pain that could be used on doors. We bought it when my daughter was a baby. The doors in question, one is quite broken, a solid door worth fixing, and a clean surface, even though it is pink, it is a soft colour and will look clean and fresh.

Building Community

Facebook has been helping catching up with people.

Learn a new Skill

I have been buying the Woman's Weekly, one copy, to get familiar with fashion again. Not to spend money, I was happy with how little I have spent for the deb ball. It seems like it is not necessary to wear a lot of makeup or jewellery for evenings these days. What do you all think? No one seems to wear stockings either.

This meme comes from Belinda's blog.