{this moment}

A Friday ritual Inspired by SouleMama

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see

Bargain

Back in December last year and again earlier this month I started to plan out my garden for this year.

What to plant, when to plant and where to plant

Last year before I moved to Germany, I made some grea sales on seeds (salad, herbs, tomatoes, peppers) , so when I planned I took in consideration of what I have and what I need.

Today I went into town to drop of some sale items at the post office for shipping. My mom had asked me to go to this discount center in town to check out if they have a few things that she is looking for while there, so I did. While there, I came accross this massive box of seedlings with the sign 'to go for free', I checked out what was in there, mainly salads and leek but also a few others and with a bit of looking I found some peas, bean and carrots along with leeks, kohlrabi and rocket salad that I took home for free. That's what I call a bargain.

Morning walk

I woke up tonew snow this morning and how better to start the day then a long walk through the winter wonder land?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can't beat a night sky in the country

 

 

Last night between 9 and 10pm, I took the dogs out for a quick walk before we settled in for the night. It was a moonless, quiet, clear and cold night and I could clearly see the stars in the sky. There were no other lights around us, no noice other then the dogs running on the grass and I was reminded once again that as far as I am concerned, I live in a little slice of heaven on earth. It reminded me of my childhood and nights that were spend outside just looking up in the sky, gazing at the stars. It is something that I missed when I lived in Newcastle. The closeness to the city meant that no matter when I looked in the sky, there was always sorounding lights. The simple act of basking in the wonder of a night sky and marvelling at its mystery is an experience that is shared across humanity, throughout history, no significant knowledge required. Sadly this experience is growing more rare, as large numbers of the population congregate in urban spaces and augment city borders, pushing their innate desire for constant light up and out, spilling light pollution into even the rural areas hundreds of kilometres outside of those major cities. I am glad I was reminded about the beauty of the night sky last night

...for the love of bread...

Nothing beats the smell and taste of freshly baked homemade bread.





I love baking bread, I love the kneading of the bread by hand and I love the smell in the house of freashly baked bread.  I have been baking bread for 12 years now and I have not bought bread in the store for 5 years now. My mom had a bread maker like 12 years ago and that bread tasted amazing but I prefer using my own hands to make the bread.

Yesterday evening I prepared some sourdough and today I spend the morning kneading, baking and eventually eating freshly made bread.

The garden

It's been rather mild outside for the last few days, so I figured that I could do some more work in the garden. The plan is to put a fence through the garden soon, so that the vegtables are safe from the dogs ;-)

Last fall I created a new piece of land but I still wanted to put some corner stones around it. We have lot's of stone plates left in the garden...so I hauled them over 1 by 1 to the place and then dug into the soil to create a hole, so that I could put the stone in and create a small border wall. Some other stones were used as a path way. After two hours of good work, I was done. Now all that I need to do is build or set the actual fence.

Now it's getting late in the day and I have just finished to prepare the souerdough for tomorrows break baking. I am very much looking forward to the fresh bread and the smell in the house

January Money diet

It's been a week now that I am participating in the January Money diet, the tips and hint provided are very useful and the community is great to keep going. A lot of the things I already do but everyonce in a while I come accross things that will help me further.

In terms of spending, I have not spend any money apart from the insurance pay at the beginning of the month.

So far no grocery shopping was needed (Actually that's not true I did buy chickenbreast for 2.50 Euros on the 2nd of January and 1.5 kilo of banana's for 1.45 Euro's but that was it) and I had homemade food each day of the new year. I have lot's of frozen berries, cherries and apples in the freezer that have been used for smoothies in the morning or dessert or snacks in between. I have ate a bit more vegan this week than I usually do and tried some new recipies, with the ingredians that I have. I have also baked some fresh bread.

Further more I am looking for ways to save money. Todays challenge was to find way to safe eleetricity and while I found no new ways (yet), I was glad to realize that a lot of things I already do and that I was raised in the way to safe electricity from when I was young. It's good to know that those lessons from my grand-ma do pay off :)

{this moment}

A Friday ritual Inspired by SouleMama

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see

January Money Diet

I am participating in the January Money diet this year held by Eliza over at Happy Simple living. The goal is to stop any unnecessary expenses during the month of January and to safe money. I am usually pretty good at saving money and don't spend money with unnecessary things but having a community behind you and sharing what you've done is very helpful and keeps you motivated.

Today's challange was to create a menu plan for the next week and to plan ahead for the cooking of meals. Well, as you might know, I usually menu plan ahead for 4 weeks so that was an easy challange. What I decided for my self though was to ensure that I will eat much more fruits. I am still having lot's of canned cherries and pears that need to be eaten some time and don't let me tell you about the 3 dozen bags of frozen berries, apples and cherries still in the freezer. So I have added this to my menu plan as well. The last few days I have defrosted a mix of berries, cherries and apples each evening and then had them available for fruit smoothies in the morning and during the day. I also took out a glass of the cherries, to have with lunch and as a snack in between. Very healthy.

For todays lunch I decided to make chicken nuggets. I had some left over potato salad that had to be eaten and I figured some nuggest will go great with it. Plus I will be out of the house all day tomorrow so, would be able to take the left over nuggest with me :)
Now usually when you hear chicken nuggets, you probably think of the fast food or frozen nuggets from the supermarket. Well I am not a fan of those and prefer to make them myself, they are much healthier and taste way better anyway ;-)

So how do you make nuggets you ask?

- Heat up some butter (I usually put it in the oven and pre-heat the oven at the same time)
- fill a bowl with 150g breadcrums and mixed it with a spoon full of tyme and a spoon full of Oregano, also add a bit of salt (when I first tried it I added nearly a tsp of salt but it was a bit too much for me and I now take way less)
- usually take 2 or 3 pieces of chicken breast and cut them into 2-3 cm chunks

 - next you put the chicken chunks in the melted butter and then in the breadcrums/spiece mix and coat them well
- put the chicken on an oven rack

- cook in the oven for 25  minutes

Done and ready to eat...

As I said I picked some canned cherries and had them as a side dish after the nuggets and potato salad.

Now the great thing is that you can also tkae the nuggets to work the next day (or to school) and either have them cold or heated up again.

2013 Goals

Last year I had a few goals that I set myself and not all of them have been reached... :(

My first goal was to focus on growing salad, tomatoes and potatoes, maybe carrots etc. I would consider this goal partly met, partly because the weather in the UK was rubbish in the first 6 month, very wet and I was still wearing my winter coat in the beginning of June. By the end of June I gave up on attempting to grow anything, even the salad would not grow. By that time I was also already half way packed for the move to Germany. I had been to the house in Germany in march and had planted some fruit trees that are coming along nicely and hopefully have fruits this year. I was able to plant and harvest a few things in my new and improved garden in Germany in the second half of the year.

The next goal was to learn how to knit, another goal that was half way met. I learned how to knit in the beginning of the year and then didn't do any until the end and forgot how to do it
I did however do more craft and sweing projects, one of those my baby cousin Sienna was wearing for New Years day

The next goal from last year was to become more selfsufficient, and do more canning less freezing, that's definetly something that I have achieved. One of the main reasons behind the move was the massive garden and opportunity for animals that I will have, I am still debt free and I canned way more then I ever did.

So what are my goals for the next year?

• The first goal that I have is the homestead, which will be split in 2 parts garden and animals, during autumn I spend a lot of hours extending the garden by reducing the grass and preperaring the spoil. I have already started to plan what will go where and how to use the space for all that is needed
• the plan with the garden is that I want to be able to grow +70% of my fruits and vegetables in my own garden or by bartering with neighbours. If I consider the  frozen and canned fruits and Vegetables that I still have from last year, I know that they will happily get me throught the next 3 month.
• I also want to start to introduce animals to the homestead, I don't have as much room for those as I want, so after careful consideration and the fact that I have access to free-range eggs from my neigbour, I will start with introducing rabbits to the homestead this year.
• The next goal will be to continue with the wholefood diet that I have started last year. The goal is that +90% of my meals with be wholefood made from scratch. Meat will only be bought locally and fruits and vegetables should come from my own garden, with a few exceptions like bananas that won't grow in Germany and possibly potatos that will be bough locally too
• The last goals is to finish a minimum of 6 sewing/knitting projects. At least one of them should be a pair of knitted socks. I love knitted socks and it's high time that I am able to do them myself.

So that is me done, do you have any goals or resolutions this year? If you have, please share them in the comments section

Happy New Year 2013