Health Update and Today's Baking

Thanks to Pat and Katie for suggestions on treating my sore throat. I have tried lemon and ginger tea with honey added and it is a lot better. Unfortunately, I pulled muscles at the base of my back yesterday, just bending to clear up cat litter. A hot water bottle behind me on the sofa, and some ibuprofen gel rubbed in has made a big difference and it doesn't really hurt now, it's just a bit stiff and so I'm shuffling about like an old lady. With my ribs still a little tender (but improving daily), healthwise it's just one thing after another lately. 

I did manage to hobble up the street, though, and I've stood in the kitchen baking, so I haven't exactly sat around doing nothing (which is what DH told me to do when he went off to work). As I'm still trying not to spend too much and to use up food I have in the house, today saw me baking flans and a pie/giant pasty.

I used 2/3rd of a pack of Aldi ready-rolled shortcrust pastry from the freezer to line flan dishes and made 2 quiches. One used up 1/2 a smoked sausage and the other some slices of chorizo from the fridge. I already had 1/4 of a block of grated mature cheddar, an onion, 1/4 pint of semi-skimmed milk and 4 Aldi free range eggs. The only thing I had to buy was a tub of Elmlea light double cream at 83p from Morrisons. Whisked with the eggs, milk and some black pepper it made a lovely, creamy, savoury custard filling poured over the other ingredients and baked for about 35 minutes in the oven.

Cheese and Chorizo Quiche

Cheese, Smoked Sausage and Onion Flan

There was a 1/3rd of the shortcrust left over and I also had 1/3 of a pack of puff pastry in the freezer from making the pastry-wrapped quorn roast at Christmas. Using the remaining chicken-style quorn in mushroom sauce from Monday's dinner, I rolled both the pastries a bit thinner and with the shortcrust on the bottom I simply spread the quorn mix over, wetted the edges of the pastry, put the puff pastry on top and sealed it all round before brushing the top with a little milk and baking on the top shelf of the oven with the flans on the shelf underneath. 

Giant Quorn and Mushroom Pasty

We had the smoked sausage quiche for tonight's dinner with spicy potato wedges from Aldi, salad leaves and lettuce. The large quorn pie/pasty will be served with steamed veg on Friday. The chorizo flan will go into the freezer for another day. 

Tomorrow we'll have bacon rolls and vegetable soup. The bacon and the veg for the soup will come from the freezer and I'll probably buy ready-to-bake rolls at 50p a pack from Morrisons. I would make the rolls but don't want to aggravate my ribs or back problem...I sound so pathetic.

An update on DD3's leg operation. She had a consultant's appointment today and has been referred for the op, hopefully in 2-3 months at most. It sounds more complicated than we first thought as the cyst is inside the thigh bone right up at the hip joint meaning her hip might have to be dislocated before they can even operate. The bone might also need grinding down a bit as it's possibly rubbing on the muscle and has created a small tear which will also need repairing. Worst case scenario is, at the age of 25, she would need a hip replacement...very unlikely but the consultant wanted to let her know the full picture. She'll probably be on crutches for a month (mind you, she's been using crutches on and off for nearly 6 months already) and then need physio for some time afterwards. It seems most unlikely that there will be a wedding this year. I think they'll wait until she's completely fit and has plenty of time to enjoy the whole planning experience. 

No news yet on DD2's heart op. I just hope they won't both have their ops at the same time.

The only other news is that at my slimming club weigh-in yesterday I had managed to lose the 2lb I gained over Xmas. Really pleased about that. I'm still being careful with what I eat as I'd like to lose another couple of lbs to get right back down to my target weight again instead of hovvering just above it.

Although it's raining a little at the moment the weather's been quite nice for most of the day and fairly warm too. I hope it's been dry and bright where you are. Have a good evening, love Helen xx