Filed under: budgeting, city life, gardening | Tags: budgeting, city life, gardening
We had a little frenzy on the weekend, getting the first seeds in for spring/summer.
MrB planted his clumping bamboo seeds (we want it to screen our bedroom window from the street), and I planted 2 kinds of lettuce (Freckles and regular cos), some spinach (for the shady beds), and a punnet each of Tiny Tim and Tommy Toe cherry tomatoes. With our last two overcast/wet Sydney summers, we’ve had trouble getting larger tomatoes to ripen, but we’ve had good luck with cherries, so we’ll go with them again.
We’ve had bad luck with pumpkins, too, but being optimists we’ve started two varieties of non-running pumpkins in pots. We have lots of bees, so their problem isn’t pollination… they just rot on the vine. Maybe our luck will change this year.
I bought new rocket seeds, and some golden purslane for salads; and we’ve just ordered a replacement Fuerte avocado tree. The Hass tree has done well in the ground, but the Fuerte was never happy here… and finally died.
Our other trees are going crazy after nearly two years in the ground. The poor things were hammered by windstorms not long before we moved out of Newtown, and were a bit neglected last summer while I was recovering from my surgery. We gave them a big weed and feed a couple of weeks ago, and have started regular applications of EcoOil to start knocking down the leaf miners on the citrus trees. The multi graft stone fruit tree is starting to set fruit (though it needs some maintenance), and we’ve set out the fruit fly trap.
The multi graft citrus gave us 3 beautiful tangelos over winter, and now one of the other grafts is in flower (limes, I think). And the orange graft that was (accidentally) clobbered by the dog is recovering! The whole tree is looking much, much happier.
We’re still getting HUGE harvests of snow peas, broccoli, herbs, chinese greens and chills, though the lettuces are succumbing to the combined force of slugs and high winds.
And we’ve started our DIY Xmas gifts of mini herb gardens (in sterilised recycled pots). We bought premium potting mix, but very cheap punnets of sage, coriander, parsley, thyme and basil. We’ve added a cutting of our rosemary to each pot, and they’re lined up in the sun. We sound get 5 impressive home-made presents for an outlay of about 35 dollars (it would have been cheaper to start from seed, but we weren’t that organised).
It’s a beautiful sunny day in Paris, and I am cooped up in my room waiting for British Airways to deliver my bag – I made the Heathrow-Charles Du Gaulle transfer, but my bag didn’t. I’m here for a week for work so I REALLY need my stuff – I’m desperately hoping it turns up in the next hour.
I did a bit of research online before I left, and found some good tips. I thought I’d share a few of mine in return.
Food
As is pretty obvious from the food posts in my blog, I’m vegetarian, mostly at the vegan end of the spectrum (but not strictly). This can make travel tricky, so I was thrilled to find the Vegan Paris blog and ebook.
I sometimes find it hard to get enough protein while I’m travelling, & I can’t afford to be woolly-headed on work trips, so I packed individual Vega shakes & protein bars. I buy them online, and use them for early morning protein hits, and as backups in case of conference lunches composed of white flour and lettuce (alas, these are frequent). The shakes & bars have a ton of fibre, omega 3 & multivitamins included, too, so they’re good insurance against getting rundown/clogged up while travelling.
My final food tip is self-cater wherever possible. This trip I was fortunate to find a small studio for the same price as hotel room. It has a tiny kitchenette with a bar fridge, cooktop, kettle, microwave & very basic pans, plates, knives etc. I’m really happy to pay for delicious food & coffees, but I don’t like to have to go out for breakfast, and sometimes I’m too jet lagged to sit in a cafe after a big day of work or touristing. I buy ingredients from local grocery stores and markets…mainly nuts, fruit and salad basics, or soy milk/soy yogurt.
Even when I’m in a basic hotel room, I take my little lightweight camping kit, so I can have in room breakfasts & snacks.
Clothes & toiletries
This is not my first ‘lost luggage’ experience. As a result I always pack my toothbrush, deodorant, basic makeup, moisturiser and a clean shirt & underwear in my carry-on. I am always desperate to scrub up & get changed after a long-haul flight, so I was super grateful I had packed my insurance supplies yesterday. I also carry saline nasal spray… fantastic for dealing with the dry air on a plane.
I change into knee-high travel socks as close as I can to boarding time, to prevent puffy feet and cankles. I’m not high risk for DVT, so don’t have a custom pair of compression socks, but I do try & stretch and wriggle my feet to keep my circulation moving.
Girl Stuff
Getting your period while travelling is not fun, but it happens, I always pack pantyliners in case of spotting, and when I know my period is due, I pack the wonderful diva cup, and a packet of flushable wipes for cleanups. I’m not generally a clean freak, but I always carry antibacterial wipes (and tissues) on the road, in case of hideous public toilet experiences.
Earplugs & noise-cancelling headphones
I have dodgy eustachian tubes, and have had painful take-offs and landings my whole life. A few years ago, I discovered that wearing regular foam earplugs helps stabilise the pressure in your ears, and yes, it most certainly does. Earplugs also mute the sound of one’s fellow passengers, which can be a blessing at times, (and are good for getting sleep in noisy hotels).
I have borrowed my mother’s noise-cancelling headphones on the last few trips (thanks Mum!), and they are fantastic – they filter out the rumble from the plane, and not only help me sleep, but allow me to turn the volume waaay down on the inflight movies. The only drawback of my Mum’s set is the size… they are large, & pack into a solid case that takes up a lot of room in my carry-on bag. I think it’s time I lashed out & bought a folding pair with a smaller case.
Jet Lag
I’ve tried homeopathics and other supplements, and frankly have never found any especially useful. My general jet-lag prevention tips are similar to many travellers: Eat lightly in flight, go easy on the booze, try and get out and walk around (ideally in the sun) as much as you can on the first day to help your body adjust.
After much planning and plotting, my friend Fluffy & I went shopping at Costco this morning. We split the cost of the membership, and considered the trip to be part shop, part adventure.
We weren’t convinced that a DINK & a single girl would find huge savings in the land of Big Family Bargains, but we were pleasantly surprised. We were both determined NOT to buy anything that we didn’t need, wasn’t cheaper than elsewhere, and/or wouldn’t store well over a period of months.
My good buys included
– a 3 pack of Rinse Aid for the price of 2;
– 300 gm packs of Australian goat cheese for the price I’d usually pay for 200gms. These were good til October, so I bought 4.
– a catering pack of baking paper;
– a 4 pack of Calvin Klein Boxer trunks (for Mr B) for the price I used to pay for 1 pair;
– organic salsa and small tins of Ayam Malaysian satay & curry sauces ( a good quick dinner option);
– a bulk pack of freezer bags;
– a 1.7 litre bottle of Smirnoff vodka for just $10 more than the cheapest 750ml vodka I could find locally ( this is the base for next year’s batch of Christmas Pudding Vodka).
Fluffy’s big bargain included big boxes of clumping kitty litter $5 cheaper than she usually buys, a BIG block of haloumi, a big tub of yogurt and a big bag of muesli, and some lovely new pillows. We split a big bag of walnuts between us ( I bought a big bag of pecans, too).
The verdict: we will definitely get our money back on the membership. We’ll go back, though probably not SOON. Mr B & I have discussed hosting his family Christmas this year. If we do, we’ll certainly head to Costco to stock up on party food.
Filed under: budgeting, food, learning, vegan eating | Tags: food, vegan eating
I was thumbing through Robin Robertson’s Vegan on The Cheap, and her Seitan Pot Roast caught my eye. I’ve made seitan by the ‘boiling on the stove’ method before, and I found it a bit fussy. I have also made oven baked and steamed seitan sausages, but they have a very dense texture, and are less chewy than ‘classic’ seitan. The seeming ease of a slow cooker ‘roast’ intriqued me. However…
I am a fan of seitan, but the omnivorous MrB is more ambivalent. Still, we had all the ingredients, so I thought I’d give it a try (there’s a slightly less ‘on the cheap’ variation of the recipe here).
The dish only took 10 minutes to put together. I made a few substitutions – fresh thyme from our garden instead of dried, sweet potato rather than carrots, crushed fresh garlic instead of garlic powder, flaked chillis instead of pepper, and a tablespoon of barbeque sauce instead of ketchup. I have a smaller slow cooker, so I used a quarter cup less vital wheat gluten flour than recommended, and fewer veggies than the large cooker version.
I also cooked it for the recommended 8 hours, but could have gotten away with 6 or 7, I think – my slow cooker is pretty warm, even on ‘low’.
The veggies were a bit mushy at the end, but I solved that by tipping them into a bowl and mashing them with a little soy milk instead of presenting them whole. I also tipped the cooking juices and beautifully soft and caramelised onion slices into a pan, added a little red wine, reduced them a touch, and served them as a gravy over the seitan slices. Even with the extra steps at the end (including throwing together a salad), the whole process was very easy, and it’s definitely a dish I’ll cook again.
MrB approved (though he will probably never request seitan, he is willing to eat this dish again), and even though we ate all the veggies, there was plenty of leftover seitan for my lunch the following day, and even more for the freezer.
The verdict – this was a tasty, simple, high protein ‘meat and potatoes vegan’ winter dinner with a short prep time. Robertson estimates the ‘on the cheap’ version is about a dollar a serve, & I think our dinner would have come in under $2 (especially as I used our home grown herbs and lettuce). I declare the experiment a success, and I’ll certainly cook it again.
Filed under: budgeting, food, vegan eating | Tags: budgeting, food, vegan eating
A couple of months ago I bought 5 kg of chickpea flour from the magnificent Fiji Market in Newtown, source of all my great bulk legume purchases. I love chickpea flour, but I tend to use it in just a couple of recipes (specifically pizza bases, & homemade seitan chorizo), and I began to suspect I had overdone it with the bulk-buying thing. However, a bit of websearching revealed this fabulous tip – chickpea flour can be used as an egg replacer.
Since I was out of soy flour, and hadn’t yet opened the box of commercial egg replacer I had on standby, I decided to try chickpea flour in an experimental batch of pancakes. The results were great, so the next experiment was a batch of savoury muffins – superb. It adds a little extra protein golden colour, & an earthy undertone to dishes that I really like. And it makes gluten free, soy free, egg free baking much easier (if you’re into that sort of thing). And it’s cheap! So yes, three cheers for chickpea flour, a revitalised pantry staple.
I have dry skin at the best of times, and in winter it can get super dry. I’ve had good results using macadamia oil as a body oil in winter, but it’s hard to get showered & dressed in a hurry in the mornings if I have to wait for the oil to sink in.
I know lots of people who swear by sorbolene, but I don’t want to use a petroleum-based product if I can help it. Luckily, Newton’s Pharmacy (a naturopathic pharmacy in the Sydney CBD) makes a veggie sorbolene that it sells in 500ml tubs.I stirred through a 30ml bottle of rose hip oil, and some rosewater to make the texture lighter (and add a little scent). The result was a big tub of very nourishing, rapidly absorbed plant-based cream I can use on my face & body, at a total cost of $30 for half a kilo. Not super cheap, but a bargain compared to ‘body butter’ sold in 200ml tubs at $10 a pop.
of $30
The front two rooms are finished, thanks to the hard & meticulous work of the lovely MrB (he checks this blog sometimes).
I assisted with moving the bed & bedside tables in last night. I have 2 surprise days at home (I applied for leave in order to do some sideline work, but the job was postponed) so today will be spent getting the bedroom sorted, and tomorrow will be devoted to organising my study. Both the bedroom and study are beautiful, & I am SO looking forward to knowing where all my clothes & books are again.
Once the front rooms are organized, the next major house tasks (in no particular order) will be:
Wipe down futon/sofa bed frame with eucalyptus oil, & buy a new, mould-free futon so we will have a guest bed that doesn’t trigger anyone’s allergies.
Get an armchair sofa bed from ikea, so we have a single kid sleepover bed (and a comfy chair for my study).
Find a second hand dining table & chair setting that we both like. I ‘d like it to seat 8-10, so we can easily feed visitors ( probably using leaves to extend).
Setup the little room off the kitchen so MrB can put a desk in, perhaps with shelving for bulk storage (we’re currently using the laundry, but it is the worst inulated room in the house.
Install doggie door.
Get leak in roof fixed.
Most of these jobs involve spending $$ to a greater or lesser degree, but we are doing ok with our budget – we have been consistently ahead $500 a month, and we have just put an extra 10k on the mortgage principle. The sleepover chair & futon need to be new due to our guests assorted dust & mould allergies, but we’re more than happy to buy second-hand dining table & chairs.
I recently discovered the Only Australian online grocery store, that stocks (as you might guess) only Australian owned products. Their range includes some of the main things we go to Coles or Woolworths to buy: recycled toilet paper (discontinued by Aldi), Sanitarium veggie products & greywater safe washing powder. They also stock my new favorite organic shampoo & conditioner (Sukin) in one litre pump bottles. Since then we’ve made two bulk purchases ( including 10 kilos of washing powder) & I’ve been very happy with their service. There are downsides: they are slightly more expensive than the local supermarket, and the order is sent by road from Brisbane. However, I have bought a 12 month ‘gold’ membership that entitles us to a 5% discount, so I believe I’ll keep using them for big purchases til the end of the membership, then reassess. It means we can pretty much rely on a big Aldi shop every 3 weeks, and our regular fruit & veggie purchases.
And as for the ‘cheese’ sauce. I am on leave this week, and had a craving for broccoli pasta for lunch ( I throw the broccoli in with the pasta for the last minute of cooking time). I wanted a vegan cheesy sauce to go with it, but didn’t want to go to the trouble of cooking a batch up. Leafing through Joanne Stepaniak’s Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook for the first time in aaaages, I discovered her ‘Minute Man sauce’. My version involved the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoon of tamari, two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a tablespoon on tahini and just under 1/4 cup of water. Stepaniak’s recommends simply stirring this all up in a small bowl, but I used the stick blender to zip mine up with some basil, parsley, garlic leaves & shallots from the garden. I used just over half on my bowl of pasta & veggies, and mixed the rest with my leftover pasta for tomorrow’s lunch. Delicious, and very easy to adapt with different seasonings, herbs etc. An excellent find!
Ms Betterhome 