How to Keep your Bargain Bucket Flowers Perkier for Longer.

I love cut flowers! I have two designated areas for flowers in the front room and nothing makes me happier than when both vases are full of blooms. Ed usually buys me flowers for the larger vase, so the smaller vase is up to me to fill. I am aware that cut flowers aren't the best when thinking about green choices, so to try and balance this out I make a big effort to buy flowers from the reduced buckets. I like the feeling that I am saving them from just being thrown out and wasted. 

This particular bunch cost me £3.30 and lasted me for a good week and a half, even without any flower food being included. I owe the longevity of these blooms to a crafty little concoction, which is super cheap and easy to make.    

It is really simple to make a homemade substitute for flower food, all you need is sugar. I use regular white granulated sugar, but you can use whatever sugar you have in your cupboards, as long as it dissolves easily in water. 

For a bunch of flowers this size, put about 5 tablespoons of sugar in with clean, cold water and give it a stir until the majority of the sugar has dissolved. Then put your flowers in a vase and enjoy them for a long time. You can also use lemonade, especially if you have some that has gone flat (I think this works mainly because of the sugar content). 

I have found that flowers with thick stems, like tulips, last for up to a week and a half whilst flowers with woodier stems, like roses, are prone to drooping much quicker after being retrieved from the reduced bucket. So keep this in mind when doing your bargain rummaging. 

Happy Perky Flowers.

Much Love,

Kirst

Food to Cuddle the Soul - Veggie Stroganoff.

This is one of my favourite evening meals to cook at the moment, it's creamy, smokey and because it is the colour of sunshine it will help you banish those winter blues. This food is also kind to your pocket as it will only set you back a healthy £1.25 a portion! Here's how you make it...

Enough for Two Portions.

250g Mushrooms                         -  79p

2 Courgettes                                 - 66.6p

2 Carrots (130g)                        - 10.8p

1 Small Onion (113g)                 - 5.5p

3 Cloves of Garlic - 7.5p

Butter (5g)                                 - 2p

1tbsp (30g) Dijon Mustard - 9.4p  

1tbsp (30g) Ketchup                  - 5.6p

3tbsp (90g) Creme Fraiche       - 33p

1tbsp Gluten Free Flour (15g)   - 2.4p

(Regular flour works also)

Stock Cube                              - 6.5p

1 tsp Smoked Paprika (2.3g) -  4p

100g Brown Rice                     - 17.8

(Prices from Asda last week) 

This Recipe takes around 30mins to cook. 

I came up with this recipe one weekday evening when we had some creme fraiche to use up. The vegetables in this stroganoff are the ones that I usually have lingering in the bottom of the fridge so it is the perfect recipe to use up veg that may have seen better days. The key to making this meal super yummy is the different textures that the vegetables provide, that is why I cut them up in different ways. 

Firstly chop the ends off your courgettes and cut the courgette in half (not lengthways)  then cut them into juliennes that are about 0.5cm thick, quarter the mushrooms and use a potato peeler to peel your carrots into thin slices. Put a pan on a high heat and add the courgettes, don't add any oil at this point, once the cougettes have a little colour on them, remove from the pan and add the mushrooms. Once these have colour remove these from the pan as well. Roughly chop an onion and 3 cloves of garlic and gently fry these in butter for about five minutes on a medium heat, until they are soft and starting to brown. It is important to use butter because it thickens the sauce, if you don't have butter you can thicken it with cornflour later. Next add a heaped tablespoon of flour and stir it around the pan so it absorbs the butter and sticks to the garlic and onions.

Pour 300ml of boiling water over a beef stock cube in a jug (if you are vegetarian you could swap this out with half a tablespoon of marmite... trust me it tastes awesome!). Pour the stock a little at a time over the floury onions over a high heat and stir. You should see the liquid start to thicken. Now add the mustard and the ketchup and stir until the sauce is smooth (this would be the point to add your cornflour if you needed to). Turn the heat to medium and add the courgettes, mushrooms and carrot slices and cook for 5 mins. Then add the creme fraiche and stir, cook this for 10-15mins until the vegetables are cooked but still have some bite. Then all there is to do is to add the smoked paprika and a pinch of salt. 

Serve up with some brown rice and chow down to restore yourself back to your usual sunny vigour.

Much Love
Kirst xXx

Last Weekends Charity Shop Haul.

I was really excited to find all these little beauties in one charity shop at the weekend! I acquired 4 matching pheasant glasses, a well worn Jubilee side plate and a little bowl perfect for nibbles.

I was so lucky to have found these little treasures and only paid the very reasonable price of... £2.80 for it all!

I spotted these glasses immediately, they are just so rurally kitsch, reminds me of being back in Shropshire. 

I did stand their mulling over this plate for quite a while. It was a lot more battered than I usually like, but for some reason I think the wear and tear made it even more irresistible. 

I really love how all the gilding on it is a little bit shabby. I love to imagine all the use it has had over the years. 

This is the perfect size for nibbles when we have guests over, I'm excited to look out for more like this.

I think the colour and pattern on this, whilst being a little subdued, is really eye catching.

I was super happy with this charity shop haul, I must have had the junk fairies on my side that day.