July 26th, 2011
A little while ago I posted about the start of my lose the baby weight challenge. I bought the quite scary Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD and that was it, I was off.
Well, 7 weeks and 7 pounds (ish) lighter it’s all good. I really enjoyed 30 day shred although there were a couple of periods of 10 days or so when I couldn’t actually find the time to do it (in and around when my stock arrived and I was wading trough my mountain of back orders!) I loved the fact that it was just 20 minutes long, but for those 20 minutes you are really working. Like I said before it’s a really old-school circuit training DVD, and there’s lots of dynamic moves using the whole of your body at the same time rather than just legs or just arms.
I found it really motivating when I moved up a level, bizarrely enough. The next level is always really hard when you first do it, but by the end of that 10 day period it does actually get easier. I remember being chuffed when I realised that I could do 30 plank jacks without stopping, when initially I had struggled to do 10!
Now that I’ve got to the end of my 30 days, I’m going to keep going back to this DVD on days when I’m short of time. When I’ve got a little bit longer though, I’ll be doing 6 week 6 pack. Corny name I know but this ia a great DVD for toning up that Mummy Tummy.
It’s a combination of core-focused cardio circuits and ab-toning which comes in two different levels. I’ve only done the first level for a few days so far but amazingly I think it’s working already. I’m sweating buckets by the end which is always a good sign but probably not very pleasant for the poor UPS man who arived the other day just as I was finishing….
I’ll come back and let you know how it goes and if I can keep it up with summer holidays now upon us!
Tags: 30 day shred, 6 week 6 pack, Jillian Michaels
Posted in Family Life | No Comments »
July 21st, 2011
Top Tip 1: Buy Classic rather than Quilted / Velvet
Part of me thinks that I shouldn’t post this as it’s crossing too far into the realms of frugality to be almost called penny-pinching. But you know what they say, ‘Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves!’
So let’s talk loo roll. You know, the stuff you wipe your bum with. And kids’ snotty noses too. In our house we get through about 6 rolls a week (my kids poo a LOT). I used to buy whatever was on offer – in my local supermarket that tended to be the premium versions, like ‘Quilted’ or ‘Velvet’. I *thought* that I was getting a bargain, but one week there were no offers on, so I just bought the bog-standard (ha,ha) supermarket own brand. Not the value range as that would be a bit too scratchy on their wee bums, but just the normal own brand.
To my surprise it lasted a lot longer – something I only realised the following week, when I bought more loo roll as usual and then realised that we hadn’t used up everything from the previous week, in fact there were two rolls left.
It turns out that the quilted / velvet versions have much less paper on each roll – around 160 / 200 sheets compared to 240/260 sheets for standard. And, in our house anyway, we seem to use the same amount of sheets whether it’s quilted or not?
Comparing standard Andrex to their quilted version at the moment – both fromTesco, both on offer at 8 rolls for £3.50, you’d save £60 a year by using the standard Andrex. And of course, if you switch to an own brand you’ll save even more…
Top Tip 2: Squish your loo roll
Saddo that I am I was discussing this with friends yesterday and the lovely Sally had a top tip for those of us whose kids like to tug the bottom of the loo roll and then go ‘wheeee….’ watching loads come off onto the floor. If you squish your roll a little bit before you put it on the holder, it doesn’t roll quite so easily, so they’ll use less.
Any more top tips to share, please leave a comment!
Tags: frugal tip, toilet roll
Posted in Frugal Living, Green Living | No Comments »
July 6th, 2011
I picked up a fabulous wee book from a charity shop a few months back, the rather marvellous ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery‘.
Worth getting a pre-loved copy from Amazon, you can pick them up for 1p (plus £2.80 postage) which is a bit of a bargain.
It’s chock full of all the old classic indian dishes, including gorgeous naan and chapati recipes. Then I came upon this recipe for keema or ‘mince and peas’ as my husband calls it. I wasn’t convinced before I made it as it doesn’t sound terribly appetising but it’s absolutely delicious. First time round I made it with lamb mince which was quite sweet and then the peas added more sweetness. Since then I’ve also made it with beef mince which makes it a great everyday curry, just lower the quantity of chilli if you’re making it for children.
We usually eat it with home-made naan bread if I’ve had time to plan it or have made it from scratch. It freezes and reheats beautifully and makes a really tasty lazy dinner served with plain boiled rice.
I usually triple the quantity below and stash lots in the freezer.
Ingredients
4 tbs vegetable oil
75g onion finely chopped
6 – 7 medium cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
700g minced lamb or beef
2 cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 – 2 fresh hot green chillies, finely chopped (or to taste)
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1tsp ground cumin seeds
1/8 – 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
275 ml water
200g frozen peas
4 – 6 heaped tbs chopped coriander
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
Method
1. Heat the oil to medium heat, add onions when hot.
2. Stir-fry them until lightly browned, add the garlic and stir-fry for another minute.
3. Add the mince, ginger, chillies, ground coriander seeds, cumin and cayenne pepper.
4. Stir and fry the meat mixture for 5 minutes, breaking up any lumps of mince as you do so.
5. Add 175 ml water and bring to the boil, cover and turn the heat to low, simmering for 30 minutes.
6.Add the peas, coriander, salt, garam masala lemon juice and the remaining water, stir and bring back to simmer for a further 10 mins or until peas are tender.
7. Taste seasonings and add more salt or lemon juice if necessary.
8. Like I said before, this freezes really well – the beauty of doing this is that because you let the curry cool down before freezing, the fat on top solidifies and can be scooped out and chucked away, making it much healthier too.
Tags: beef keema recipe, lamb keema recipe, mince recipe
Posted in Feed your family for a fiver | No Comments »
