The evolution of breakfast

A while ago we posted the recipe for Lucy’s breakfast flapjacks, which at the time were a healthier improvement on cereal. Now we’d like to update the recipe, as since then they have got significantly better in two main ways:
– Nearly all the sugar has been removed
– They are now set in the fridge rather than baked in the oven! (An idea we had when our oven went through a phase of tripping the electrics a few months ago.)

Seedy Fridge Flapjacks
You will need:
A big tray and some greaseproof paper
250g block of unsalted butter
About 75g of molasses sugar or other really dark brown sugar
Up to 500g of basic porridge oats
4 tablespoons of fair trade cocoa powder
As much as you want of seeds, we use sunflower, brown linseed (flax) and hemp

Melt the butter completely in a saucepan. Take off the heat. Add the molasses sugar and squash it with a spoon to remove lumps, then mix. Add the cocoa, mix again, then add the seeds, and then keep adding oats until you get to the point where the chocolate mix can’t coat any more oats.

Line the tray with baking paper and pour in the mixture. Squash it down well with a spoon. Pop into the fridge! It feels so good to bake something without using the oven at all. It must be saving us a bit on our energy bill, as these are made at least once a week. Once they have set, cut through them with a knife (this below tray makes 12 squares) and store them in an airtight box in the fridge, with the clean bits of the greaseproof paper torn off and separating the layers.

Lucy has two of these each day for breakfast, in a bowl with a serving of summer fruits, or kiwi fruits, or both, and a big handful of walnuts of almonds. Basically, there should be enough fruit and nuts to totally cover up the flapjacks, as demonstrated by this morning’s helping, below. On workdays, it all fits into a little pot which has separate compartments for the flapjacks and fruit, then you put it all together when ready to eat.

This breakfast might be why Lucy hasn’t had a cold for a year, coupled of course with the reduced stress from simplifying our lives with Brian becoming a house-spouse!

This week we also:
– Sorted out our car for the year: MOT, new tyres, tax. It’s now 7 years old & doing fine.
– Embellished our cheap wall lights with some copper wire artistry (the glass Christmas decorations stay there all year round)

– Had afternoon tea and cake for Lucy’s Dad’s birthday sitting in the garden
– Discovered Gallant on Later With Jools Holland. Singers should leap about more.
– Strictly Come Dancing started, so it must be autumn. Fabulous!

Emeralds, pincers and snippers

Willow Emerald Damselfly

It isn’t often that we spot a species in the garden (or anywhere) that we’ve never seen before, but in the last month it’s happened twice already. First was a Willow Emerald damselfly by the ditch, increasingly being observed in our part of the UK, and then one afternoon we spotted this scurrying around on top of the worm compost bin:

Our friendly local pseudoscorpion

It looks like a bug with pincers, and by typing that into a search engine we quickly found out what it is – a pseudoscorpion, a type of arachnid, very common, virtually everywhere but very rarely seen out and about. It seems to have several mites on it, so it’s a walking habitat itself! (Or are they babies?)

The mites are probably not annoying the pseudoscorpion as much as Lucy’s hair had started to annoy her, having got too long and heavy, so it was also time for a chop last weekend. Only a small amount of actual hair appears to have come off (see below), but it’s significantly shorter as a result – that’s the rebound effect of wavy/curly hair! This was the third home haircut session, and its one of the most rewarding things to be able to do ourselves for free.

Freedom from heavy hair! (this all went in the compost)

This week marks the 1st anniversary of our decision for Brian to leave his job, and it’s  things like home-haircuts that best represent the principle of our decision and our hopes for what life would be like with more time and energy to do things for ourselves. Anything we can do which feels liberating is a step in the right direction.

This week we also:
– Enjoyed the Mercury Music prize and became fans of The 1975, and the winner Skepta
– Modified our woodshed and added more firewood for the coming winter
– Were taken out for a wonderful family meal, walk and catch-up: thank you!
– Went into a good amount of credit on our electricity bill, so await a reduced monthly Direct Debit…

Simple Living Review: Augfest 2016!

A common darter dragonfly

 

We have just finished our summer staycation. Thanks to the wonderful weather, exciting Olympics, and time off together at the end of the month, August has felt like a big fun festival so we re-named it Augfest. It was also a bit of a spendfest too, but we know it’s a relatively small outlay for such a holiday season.

Spending report
Well, we didn’t save anything! But it is only the second month since we started our one-income lives that we’ve overspent, and it was all worth it:
Food and drink – £17.55 per day average! Includes ice creams, a bottle of wine, coffees, fish and chips, cheap beer from Aldi and many other goodies, but no restaurant meals – we don’t miss that at all
Clothes: The first pair of shoes for about a year: Brian bought some trainers. And some T-Shirts.
Luxuries: Music downloads, Open Garden, seaside parking, and tennis court hire!
Home and garden: Oven gloves, a wall-mounting TV stand (not yet fitted) and DIY items
Toiletries & health: This shampoo and conditioner, which smell amazing and work well which means Lucy can finally stop shopping around
Misc: Lucy would like to note that she spent 50p on a shiny colourful pencil to use at work and is delighted by it every day, possibly the best value for money material item in terms of enjoyment:

During our staycation we’ve relaxed in the hottest weather, eaten our dinners outside in the cool evenings, and had plenty of leisure time. We visited friends and enjoyed an outdoor curry cooked in a dutch oven over an open fire followed by toasted doughnuts (they go crispy on the outside), a game of frisbee, a go on a trampoline and a unicycling demonstration.

We went to the seaside twice, to the same beach, the second time was in the early evening to see the sunset over the ocean.

We’ve also been thinking about the fact that our simple lives need to be designed to suit us. There is no one right way to do it. When we started talking about thrift and de-cluttering and reading blogs about tiny houses and minimalism, we couldn’t really tell which of the many aspects of it were going to suit us, it was all exciting. There’s plenty to read and be inspired by about growing veg and fruit, making your own clothes and other crafting, baking, and going car-free and zero waste.

We’re now much more aware of what fits for us. It may change over time, but we have now embraced the fact that we don’t really want to grow too much veg and fruit, or do a lot of crafts, baking or creative thrifting  – although we still like reading about it online. Instead the things which provide us with the most fulfilment and reward are:
– Decluttering, but most of all, thinking of ways not to bring things into our lives in the first place
– Home and garden projects, such as making our seating area outside, creating real habitats for wildlife, removing all our carpets room by room, and dealing with the fabric of the house
– Appreciating our home & garden so that we don’t crave meals out or holidays or regular room make-overs for novelty
– Reading, writing, chatting, watching films and TV shows that make us happy – all very low cost hobbies!
– Being as low impact as we can, with less driving, more cycle commuting, re-using things and choosing natural products
– Taking a Photo of the Day of little special moments

Four duck bottoms in a row!

 

Our simple life is all about noticing things, and not over-committing ourselves to activities and projects (however frugal or resourceful) that take away our time to notice things.

Seedheads on a Willowherb

 

Lucy’s Record & Book Club:

August playlist:
Christine & The Queens/Perfume Genius – Jonathan
K D Lang  – Infinite and Unforeseen
Arcade Fire – Reflektor
Antony & The Johnsons – Christina’s Farm
Benjamin Clementine – London

Books read & enjoyed:
Steve Toltz – Quicksand
Emma Donoghue – Room
Matt Haig  – Reasons to Stay Alive
I started a very big book too, so that’s why there weren’t many finished this month:

Lucy’s beer and library books at the start of the staycation