A Lovely Surprise

Good morning everyone.. well what a surprise we had last night, got a text from the in-laws saying they had picked up some reduced pumpkins for us, oooh lovely they got four for £1.98 and while they were out had looked on the flea market and found a Breville slow cooker for £10 so picked that up for us too.

What a lovely gift..we were thrilled as i had been looking for one for weeks on the Wednesday markets. Needless to say that evening it was thoroughly cleaned, one Pumpkin prepared, a potato, two carrots that were lurking in the fridge, vegetable stock, a onion and a dash of cumin, ground ginger, and nutmeg salt and pepper, i put it on low when we went to bed at 11pm, got up this morning at 6.45 turned it off and allowed it to cool down, i just whizzed it up in the food processor and voila .. the best tasting pumpkin soup i've ever tasted...yummy just what we need now the weather has changed :) It filled a whole tupperware lunch box..plenty for OH work lunches tea tonight and more no doubt!

I priced up what the Pumpkins should have cost = £8

And the Slow Cooker new is = £29.99

So £37.99 all together wow .. in all my lovely in-laws paid £11.98.. i feel very lucky... and we still have three Pumpkins to use up ... :)

Toodle Pip

AFM xx

Oh saved another £2.50 into the 50p jar :)

Hospitals and Bonfires

Hi again well im still not having much luck so far this month! im starting to wonder if i was born jinxed ...I however am totally thrilled with the cooker :) hooray i managed to do some batch baking :

9 Pumpkin soups from the Halloween pumpkin

3 Vegetarian Chillies

2 Bologneise Sauces

2 Vege Tikka Curry

2 Vege Korma Curry's

2 Quorn Lasagne's

1 Quorn mince Shepherds pie

1 Vege Cottage Pie

I have some shortcrust and puff pastry in the fridge so i will be making some pies and quiches and get them frozen too, be nice to get the freezer stocked up again.

So i have been waiting for a hospital appointment for some time to have a Tonsillectomy, i finally got a date for the 5th November, seeing as my OH was working all day and couldn't get the time off to come with me i decided to get the free shuttle service that runs to our hospitals. I had to get to the the bus station which is a 10 minute walk, then get a bus to the hospital which is less than 5 mins away and cost me blooming £1.70 but i had to pay it so that was that, that got me at our local Burnley Hospital, and i changed here for Blackburn Hospital where i was having my operation. Supposedly the buses from Burnley were running every 15 mins to Blackburn so arriving at ten past ten i had plenty of options available, or so i thought. I checked the internet timetable before i left home but according to the Hospital it had been changed so i then had to wait an hour and fifteen minute before the next shuttle service, my appointment was at 12 noon and the bus got me there at five past twelve.. all was well in the end but what a start to the day... oh yes it gets better my friends.. i got checked in, all the relevant questions asked, weighed, changed into gown, sat around for a couple of hours, the surgeon and anaesthetist came and spoke to me, put the frighteners up me even more than i was expecting, let me tell you i wasn't looking forward to this operation anyway!! a little more time passes then the surgeon came back and said sorry Mrs C-F we need to send you home as your Thyroid is not controlled yet and having surgery will be very dangerous...what?? was my response, and i went home.. i was furious about this, why on earth even give me an appointment if they already knew my Thyroid was still not functioning properly, i had already had two days off for this so now i am down two days pay and im back to work this afternoon..sigh..so im back to the waiting game...fingers crossed im not waiting too long i cant cope with all the Hospital drama needless to say the OH was fuming when i text to say they are sending me home, thankfully she managed to get out of work and pick me up at Blackburn..phew.. came home kettle on and my Son walked through the door from School, extremely pleased to see me, and produced me with a home made food tech shortcake biscuit with choc chips in.. blooming lovely..i must say.. you did good Mst J.

Luckily because i was sent home it meant that i could go to the local bonfire with my little family and the in-laws, it was a fantastic evening, bonfire and fireworks were splendid, it really cheered me up..in the end it was a great day :)

 

 

Speak soon

AFM xx

Pouring Rain

Morning bloggy world .. brr it sure is chilly and wet up North today wind and rain a plenty .. hopefully it will be third time lucky today for our yet again replacement cooker. In the end we put to another £80 and got a better gas stove, Currys was still selling them for £450 so paying £380 as said cooker has a teeny scratch on the back of it that you cant see, plus including free delivery i am very happy as long as it works, and arrives today...fingers crossed..

Halloween was a quiet one here this year, only one trick or treater at the door, we don't get many in our area, shame really, when my son was younger lots of family's used to trick or treat, seems a dying out tradition in these parts. Seeing as we still couldn't use the oven it was a use it up tea of something that was lurking in the freezer, a tub of curry and a tub of chilli came out, defrosted mixed together, added some bits that were in the fridge and cooked some rice, that fed three and could have easily stretched to four, did nicely, and was hot and tasty.. i nipped on Approved Foods last night, nothing much ever takes my fancy, i could have filled my basket with lots of treats and a few baking products but that's about it really! couldn't justify the minimum spend of £15, with a £5 delivery so i left it. Do you ever get any real bargains that you need or want from AF?

Eee cant wait to finish work today, its been a long two weeks, working full time is tiring, i am only used to part time hours so this weeks wages will be a great help and will go straight into our savings.

Catch you all later.

AFM xx