Little Women

 

Cushion fillers purchased, it was time to make the covers, in preparation for my Dad's 50th Birthday Celebration. And as a party would hardly be a party without bunting, we decided to make that too. My Mum, my sister and I had a rather good production line going on, and Teddie found a good vantage point on the ironing board!

 

you and me we're just fine

The Land of Flat Pack Furniture

I love Ikea, although you do tend to enter the building with joy and excitement in your heart and leave with not much left apart from a desire to get out, invariably feeling drained of all energy. I visited Ikea recently, the purpose of the trip was to buy some cushions to make covers for. This was accomplished, although in their wrappers, the cushions  looked rather like the plastic cheese you sometimes have in burgers! I spent the rest of the day coveting house set ups and not knowing whether to be endeared or freaked out by the stuffed animals who were watching me. But I found that a bowl of chips can calm frazzled nerves and fill an empty stomach, (despite instantly regretting it once finished eating!). My main achievement of the day was putting together my first piece of flat pack furniture! The Resistant Materials GCSE finally coming in handy...?

 

clouds shifted and sunlight crept through once more

Pub Scrawl

The result of another quiet night...

 

...her hair grew considerably as the evening went on!

 

Relieving the Boredom

I've had several rather quiet shifts at work recently, fortunately if I have a pen and paper, there's always a way to relieve the boredom!

 

An Easy Healthy Meal: Bean Casserole

Having lived off cookies for several days, I decided it was time to make something healthy. I thought documenting it would help me remember the process, although I can't claim any credit for the recipe!

As a note of pre-warning, my instructions may seem unnecessarily detailed, this is to help out an incompetent person like myself, rather than to insult anyone's intelligence!

The ingredients listed serve six people. If you're feeding fewer you can freeze the sauce for another meal, or just halve the ingredients.

The Bean Casserole could be served and eaten with jacket potatoes, rice, bread, or anything else you have in your cupboard I'm sure would work! The meal outlined below is for a Bean Casserole served with rice. 

Utensils Required:
Measuring device for rice portions (can use a mug)
Two pans
       I used a deep sided sauté pan for the sauce and a small sauce pan for the rice
Sauce pan
Wooden Spoon
Sharp Knife
Chopping Board
Seive

Ingredients*:
Three cans of Tomato

Two cans of Beans

 

Two peppers

Olive Oil

Tomato Paste

Clove of garlic
Red Onion
A White Onion



Mixed Herbs

Black Pepper

Basil

*Note on the ingredients: Onions, Garlic, Tomato paste etc. add flavour but are not vital, so can be mixed out on a budget. The recipe is pretty flexible so you could add courgette, aubergine, or carrots instead. So its a good meal for finishing off left over vegetables.


Preparations:

Peel then chop up your Onions.

 

Chop up your peppers

 

Chop up some basil

Wash the beans


Directions:

First Place the pan on a medium heat.
Medium as in literally between the highest and lowest temperatures 

Then pour a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan.

Pour the onions  into pan and cook gently for about 5 minutes, till soft.

Add a clove (one section) of garlic.

 

Stir for four minutes

 

Add the Chopped peppers and cook for about five minutes; till softened.

 

Toss the vegetables around in the pan, cooking for a couple of minutes

 

Add the tomato sauce

 

Add a teaspoon of tomato paste

 

Add in tins of mixed beans

Add Black pepper and a sprinkling of mixed herbs, using the cap is a good measure.

To make the sauce hotter you could add half teaspoon of mild chilli powder, or half a teaspoon of paprika (milder)
 

Cook for twenty mins, letting it simmer, gently stirring.


Then Enjoy!