Nayu's Craft Time #263 Condensed Milk With A Pea

Passing time can be marked by a sundial  I love this elaborate one! It's so colourful.

I hadn't realised it was that long since my last post (maybe 2 weeks...sorry!). I know I had a week being away with the fairies thanks to my strong meds, then it was mega cold so I wasn't up to much. I did visit my craft friend on Tuesday, but didn't do much crochet! Well, I sort of did, but for once I couldn't talk and crochet at the same time which led to mistakes, undoing, and redoing of a few squares.

The cold weather is here to stay, unfortunately, so will be unwell a lot until Februry - my body hates it being under 10C, and under 5C I don't really function. I have a handy weather app to look ahead on when there might be a rise in temperature. It uses a term called RealFeel which calculates how we perceive the temperature according to wind/sun/other factors. So sometimes it may be 7C but it feels like 3C (or in the minus figures). Feeling like I'm fighting a virus all winter isn't fun, but all I can do is rest lots and pray for an early Spring.

My current passion

When it's cold I like curling up and gaming, occasionally reading, but often watching dvds or listening to audiobooks with simple handheld gaming rather than console gaming. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know I've been busy jigsaw puzzling - I'll be doing an update in the next post which will be in 2 days time (I've pre-scheduled it!!!).

You are probably trying to get your head around this post's title. It's an amusing incident that happened the other day. Me and my family freeze mostly any food. They'd put a partially used can of condensed milk upright in the freezer. They were getting something else and saw the tin of condensed milk had tipped over and there was a sticker mess in the freezer drawer-apparently it doesn't freeze solid! There wasn't a lot of it left in the tin so I took it, had it with frozen berries and even made delicious hot chocolate.

Not this guy...

...one of these!

It was doing the latter that I made the startling discovery of a green blob. Initially I wondered if it was mouldy, but it didn't smell and it tasted fine. My family took a look and instantly knew it was a pea - it must have got in accidentally when it was set upright after it's fall. So no, I don't eat peas with condensed milk - or, as the famous nursery rhyme goes, with honey. That doesn't sound at all appetising to me!

Have you heard this poem before? It was common when I was young here in England.

Today's food issue is to do with the brand of tonic water I use changing it's recipe to have sweetner instead of sugar, which shouldn't affect the bitter taste but it has so I need to investigate another brand that tastes like it should instead of like the same brand's lemonade (without the lemons). 

Nayu's Recipes #8 Speedy 3 veg stirfry

Sorry it's not the best picture, took it with my tablet camera.

With autumn most definitely on the way, I have plenty of meals prepared in the freezer since my body hates the cold & wet English weather so cooking is low on my agenda. Last week I needed to use up a home grown yellow courgette given to me by a family member, 

Yellow courgettes taste similar to green courgettes (at least they do to me), so green ones are good for this recipe too!

so I teamed it up with delicious aubergine and some peas to create a super speedy stirfry! 

Purple and delicious aubergine! Super yummy.

Ordinarily I like to start a stirfry by gently frying an onion, but I had none so didn't use it. I simple chopped the courgette and aubergine into quarters then sliced them. I added a bit of olive oil, and began cooking the veg. 

A smidge of olive oil goes a long way. You can use any oil, depending if you want a strong taste or a lighter taste.

The exact timing is unknown, since I did it to how cooked I like both veg. Part way through to help with the cooking I did add some water (instead of more oil) - water frying is super easy to do, and if you look it up online you'll find out all about it. I then added the peas, and let the 3 vegetables cook some more. 

Peas are super yummy, full of protein, and most people like them! I added mine straight from frozen but you can defrost them if you like

Once I was getting close to the veg being cooked to my taste I popped a microwave rice packet in the microwave, and crumbled 1 vegetable stock cube into my aubergine, courgette, and pea mix. I then added the rice once cooked, stirred it around and voila! My aubergine, courgette, and pea stirfry was ready! 

It tastes super yummy, and is an easy recipe to adapt to whatever vegetables you have. You don't have to use microwave rice, any rice will do, or if you want a change try some noodles. Whatever's in your store cupboard will be fine, and you can add whatever seasoning you fancy. Instead of a stock cube I sometimes use soy sauce and ginger, or I buy a stirfry sauce and add it. I'd love to hear what your go-to stirfry is!

I found a purple frying pan! Not mine (which is my family's and a boring black) but looks so cool! What colour would you have?