The Best Dhal

Today I tried another recipe from Naturally Sassy and I have to say it is one of the best dishes I have made in ages.  I really love spicy food so I regularly make a korma with any variation of  veg and nuts in it, I have to say though I have generally bought dhal.  I am now thinking why? I know how to cook lentils and I put them in all sorts of things so why has it taken me so long to make a dhal.

I saw this recipe this morning as soon as I went to look on the Naturally Sassy blog and decided to make it today for lunch. It is really colourful, which is always a good sign and smells amazing.  It does state it serves four but I had a second helping however there are two portions left which are now in the fridge.

If you haven't looked at the blog before do so now, this lady is amazing, she is a ballet dancer, cook with her own book not to mention she runs lunch events.  I would love to attend but I am a bit out of the way up here in the North.  It certainly gets you thinking when you see what some people achieve, but mostly I admire her positive attitude towards food.  So as I mentioned before go take a look now, if you follow the link Naturally Sassy it will take you straight to the page with recipe for the dish above.

Something that is very satisfying about cooking more things from scratch is that you don't have that moment where you are reading the ingredients on some container thinking 'now what on earth is that?' I like knowing exactly what is in my food and that it is all there for a purpose and. not just as a filler which is what many ingredients in pre-packed foods are.

I hope at least a few of you take a peek and find something scrummy to make, I'm sure I have probably mentioned the blog before.

Summer Declutter

The decluttering goes on and I am beginning to wonder how we ever get to this point with so many items in our homes and cupboards.  I met my friends the other day for lunch and dropped off two bags at the charity shop on the way, yesterday I  sorted some more and then dropped off a further six bags of clothing!  I am not finished by a long way, there are still more of my sons outgrown clothes to go through, plus games, books etc.

I have read a few articles on this that suggest that it is better for your well being to let go of items however my nature has always swayed towards saving things for projects that may come in handy.  While I will always keep a box with craft items such as papers, card and fabrics in, my days of saving fabric passed on from others are over.  With each bag of unwanted items that leaves the house I feel a little lighter and even though they were out of sight in cupboards, it just goes to show that there is a weight associated with our possessions.

So I will continue by doing a little each day getting rid of the bulk of the outgrown items and then beyond that I will continue to get rid of one thing each day that I,  or we don't need or use.  I read somewhere of someone who did this  while going minimalist. Now I know I won't be taking it that far (I have trouble even travelling light!) but I will try it until it becomes impossible.

It has been amazing weather this week but it has also completely wiped the dogs out so walks have been in the evening. Today was a little cooler so we managed to get out for a walk at teatime.

My other two dogs are with my husband who was taking the photo.

When the weather is this good who needs to travel.

Also I sat outside to eat, you have to make the most of these lovely days.

Gadget Pouch for Upper Arm with Dog Bag Pocket

These warm days have presented me with a problem, now while they are lovely and I'm not knocking them  I do usually have to wear either jeans, a jacket or both when out walking in this country.  So this usually means I always have somewhere for dog bags and my mp3 if I take it.

Summer dresses however do not have the necessary pockets so I have been finding that I sometimes have to take a bag, a bag with three dogs in tow is not very practical, I just feel too overloaded so tonight before we went out I quickly stitched this little pouch to go on my arm.

I know you can buy them but it is just a pocket with a strap after all so I just recycled a bit of denim and it was ready in about fifteen minutes.

It is nothing fancy but it serves the purpose and I can fit the dog bags in the front and tuck the excess wire down the side of the gadget.  A couple of bits of Velcro to make it stay put and it didn't fall off so success.

The good thing about making it myself is that it is exactly the right size for my mp3 (creative Zen x-fi, I have had it about five years, amazing sound) just fold and place on where you need to stitch.

There we have have it, I didn't set out to make anything today but things you need in a hurry are always the most satisfying however rough around the edges, if it does the job that's what matters.