A Cozy Winter Reset (Life After 50)

Hi friends. Today [music] started in the dark on my way to Pilates and somehow ended the soup. I declutter the drawer and rain pouring outside. Let’s just say the day had rained. Stick around. It gets better. So before any of this, [music] I was up before sunrise driving in the dark to gladis. Half asleep, but always so glad I go. There’s just something about getting it done first [music] thing. It just makes me feel like I’ve already achieved something for the day. One thing ticked off the list, [music] and the day hasn’t even really started yet. By the time I got home, all I wanted was a shower and a cup of tea in that order. [music] But first, I opened up the doors to get some fresh air through the house. My morning routine always [music] includes my first cup of tea with collagen powder. And I usually sit on the couch with Maple and Louis for a few minutes and work out what I’m going to be doing with my day. [music] Today is really just a bit of a reset day. All the usual everyday things that need doing, especially in the middle of a Melbourne winter. I’m going to make one of my favorite chicken [music] soups from scratch. Head out and grab a few groceries and hopefully find a break in this strain we’ve been enjoying. Uh to take the munchkins for a walk, but first [music] job of the day, the bed. I’m stripping the bed of the sheets and putting them straight away into the wash so I can get them [music] washed and dried and back on the bed tonight. I actually only keep one set of sheets for our bed. It saves the storage and honestly, once you find a really good set of linen sheets that works year round, I don’t really see the need to have multiple sets taking [music] up space. Once that was on, I got myself ready and then I got [music] the girls ready for their walk. There was a little break in the rain, so we took our chance and headed out. They’re definitely not the best walkers, but I love how enthusiastic they [music] are about stopping to sniff what feels like every single blade of grass along the way. They take their time, [music] but they absolutely love it. And it’s always nice to get out of the house for a bit of fresh air, [music] too. After their walk, it was time to head [music] out and do a little grocery shopping. I’d already checked through the fridge, freezer, and pantry earlier that morning um so that I knew what I actually needed. [music] So, I really only had what I thought a fairly short list to pick up. I’d also taken some chicken bones out of the freezer [music] to defrost because I decided dinner was going to be one of my favorite winter meals. A hearty homemade chicken [music] soup with lots of vegetables and tortillini. exactly what I feel like on a cold, rainy Melbourne day. Are you someone who checks the fridge and pancake before you [music] go grocery shopping or do you just head to the shops and hopefully this? Let me know because I’m curious what camp you’re in. Just as well that I only went out to get a couple of things. I took some food out of the freezer before I went out today. I took some chicken, some chicken bones with the intention of making chicken soup. And the intent for this week is that I’m going to clean out the fridge. And all I was going to do was go out and buy some of these milk packs, uh, chili, concine, etc. So that I would use up what I had in the freezer, which is minced meat and chicken breast. And then everything else happened. Had I sent my husband to the supermarket, he would have come back only with that and what was on the shopping list. Whereas I go and I see something on sale and I’ll buy that and then I’ll get an urge to buy something else and then eventually it’s all this. But let me go through the frozen things so that I can put them away in the fridge and freezer so that they don’t go off milk constant. I got some I got some protein yogurt because I’m trying to increase the amount of protein that I have in my diet. protein, um, fiber, and low carbohydrates. And this came up as a really good value yoga to have. This serving has got or a serving of this has got 16 g, whereas all the others were substantially lower. And then I was at Suckers and I saw that they had this for $1.96. Well, anyway, under $2 and it’s already flavored, no sugar added, vanilla yogurt, and this has got 15 g. It’s by the same company. So, I thought, okay, I’ll get that for baking because I’m actually going to be baking I’m not sure whether I said I’m going to be baking some high protein muffins for breakfast. For dinner, I’m going to make chicken soup. So, I bought these chicken tortillini. And for this four of us for dinner, I’ll probably use half and then the other half will stay in the freezer. So, let me put these away and then come back. Although not that it’s necessary because it’s so cold outside and really gloomy and gray and wet. So really, it’s not like the food’s going to go off by being out for a little while. I have mushrooms because I’m making something in here that required mushrooms. What was it? It was beef stroganov. I’ve got leftover cream from last week. So I’m just going to make a beef. Oh, actually I’ve got leftover sour cream and I can use yogurt to make beef stroganov. So, I needed mushrooms to complete that because I do have steaks already in the freezer. This was an impulse purchase. It was a really creamy cheese from Sakas. There’s mortadella because I’m in love with those fkaca sandwiches with mortadella, boratha, which is here, honey, pesto, and what’s the other thing? Rocket. Rocket and pistachio nuts. Yum. Eggs. Potatoes. zucchini because I bought an enchilada kit and I’ve got chicken in the freezer. So, I’m just going to make enchiladas one night this week. And this recipe requires zucchini, so I did that. My decaf. Oh, no. These aren’t decaf. Oh, bugger. Bugger. Bugger. I was supposed to get decaf tea. Anyway, doesn’t matter. I’ll use these instead. Tissues. Our favorites. I always buy the largest ones. I just find that for the effort, I just rather get a large tissue and blow my nose. So, I got two of those. Four cans of canned food. And Maple is listening in, aren’t you, baby? You’re listening in. Yes. Okay. And then I needed some dishwashing liquid and tablets. We’re running low. And I’m finding that the tablets that we have are leaving um like a blue residue on our dishes. And I don’t know whether it’s the rinse aid or whether it’s the tablets that we’re using. So I thought I’d try these. I’m not sure whether they’re much for muchness, but they look okay. So we’ll try those. I bought a barista cup because when I take the dogs for a walk, sometimes it’s really cold and I want to take my tea with me. And I wanted something that was going to be effective in keeping the tea hot. And this is supposed to keep it hot for up to 5 hours. So we’ll see about that. I got that from Woolly’s. It was 40% off. Let me tell you the story about these sponges. We love these sponges and we use them all the time. And I went to Woolly’s because that’s the only place that sells them. And I’m looking across the shelves. I’m looking across down across down across. Cannot find them. In the end, I get down on my knees and they’re hiding in the bottom right hand corner right at the back. It’s the only place I can buy them. So, I stocked up. I got three lots of these cuz we love these. I’ve got chicken soup or chicken stock salt beef. I’ve got beef stock salt reduced. I’ve got vegetable. This looks very dark. Let me turn on the lights. It’s a very dark gloomy day in Melbourne. Not sure whether that’s going to help. Okay, that’s a little bit better. Okay, so I got chicken stock. They were having a buy two for a reduced price. So, they’re always good to have in the pantry. And then as I said, I’m making I’m experimenting with making my own high protein, low carb, low calorie muffins uh for breakfast, breakfast, breakfast muffins. And the recipe requires flax seed meal, hemp seeds, white chocolate because it’s going to take the apricot puree that I’ve got. What else? It requires protein powder, whey, and I feel like there’s one other thing somewhere in here. Oh, no. That’s the pets. Anyway, we’ll find it. I’m I’m running low on my collagen peptide. So, I’m just going to swap out of the collagen co just because this was on sale at Chemist Warehouse. So, I bought that from Chemist Warehouse and I bought this from Chemist Warehouse and I got this from Price Line. I finished it. It’s the Heatwave Illuminating Prep and Finish Spray by Berry M. Every time I wear this, someone comments on my videos how glowy my skin looks. And I thought I like the Milani one better, but no, I don’t. It doesn’t give me the same finish as this one does. So, I’ve gone back to buying this. And it was actually on special. Coohl’s was having a sale on Vitamus, so I stocked up on some fish oil hair and nails. We were using the gummies, but I hadn’t found that the gummies were really doing anything for us, so I thought I’d try these. Apparently, according to reviews, independent reviews and testing, the Black Moors nails, hair, and skin are supposed to be good. Half price, so I stocked up on those. U baking powder, I need it for cooking. Oh, here’s the other thing that I needed. The Whole Earth Baker Secret Ultimate Sugar Replacement. So, sugar replacement for when I’m making my muffins to keep them in low calorie and still sweet. This is a new brand of flour that I’ve stumbled upon. It’s the create something good plain flour made from 100% responsibly farmed Australian wheat and 10 cents per pack supports farming communities. It was actually 10 cents more than the home brand. And I thought, oh well, I’m paying 10 cents more, but it’s going to farming communities. So, I thought that was good. And then I got this tip type0 extra fine flour, Italian flour. I’d like to make some fkaca bread at home. So, that look out for that. That should be coming up one of these days. Brown sugar. And then the floor cleaner that I use, I don’t like the scent. I really don’t like the scent. And I’ve tried two different floor cleaners and I don’t like either of them. So, I’ve got the I ended up buying the Ajax floor cleaner and Bistos floor cleaner. This has got a really nice eucalyptus scent. So, I really like that scent. I’m a scent person. Whenever I mop, I’d like the house to smell like like I’ve actually mopped. Dishwashing liquid was on sale half price and I needed wool and delicates detergent. The dogs needed some new treats. So, I got these dental sticks daily oral care from Coohl’s. It was funny because these were under $2, I think, but the equivalent from a non Coohl’s home brand was $7 for a packet. So, I thought, how bad can they be? They look the same. The ingredients list looks the same. So, I thought I’d try them and give it as a treat to our dogs to keep their teeth clean. I got some Nature’s Gift, a mini treats kangaroo flavor for them or especially for Maple when she’s being a good girl and I’d like to spoil her. And then a Tender Straps beef also as a treat. Dinner for them is the Pedigree casserole. They like the casserole. They don’t like the loaf. And then just veggies or fruit. So I’ve got nuts. Walnuts. We’re loving walnuts at the moment. So I stocked up and bought a whole bag, which I saw it’s actually broken. So I wonder how many nuts I’ve lost out of that packet. Some navel oranges. I’m a sucker for navl oranges. I just love the way they look. And I’m going to have one. Some seedless mandarins. These are really cute. They’re they look like tangelos to me because of the raised top, but they’re mandarins of some sort. Bananas were on sale at Sakus for under $1.98. I think they were $1.78. And then I needed some cabbage to make my chia. So that was it. So much. Oh, actually, let me share a story. Um Oh, cat food. We’ve got three cats and our dogs also eat cat food, but I also buy them cat dog food. So, they’ve got that as well. So, keep give them separate um food, but they do like to eat the cat food instead. Let me tell you a story about my latest addiction. So, when we were in America early this year, my daughter Charlotte introduced me to Celsius zerocalorie, zero sugar energy drinks. I love these. I love them in America. They don’t have an aftertaste, but they do give you that extra energy. I don’t want to know what’s in them. I don’t care. I just know that they work and I get that energy boost that I need sometimes in the afternoon or middle of the day just to get me fired up a little bit. Anyway, I fell in love with them in America and then saw that they also had them at Woolly’s and Coohl’s. Problem is, they’re a little bit pricey when you buy the cans, so I save to buy them when they’re on sale. And today, they were on sale at Woolly’s. So, I stocked up on those. That’s it. That is my grocery haul for this week. So, let me put all this away and I catch you up later when I’m actually cooking dinner. So, this is the point where I realize in editing that the audio wasn’t turned on when I was actually filming this. So, apologies, but you’re going to get a voice over while I tell you this really funny story that I’m sharing with you on video. I was vlogging that day and my daughter tip Charlotte Charlotte, my daughter Charlotte was home with me and she heard me say that the drinks that we had tasted in America were Celsius and in actual fact it wasn’t Celsius. It was actually Bloom, the brand that we tried in America because we can’t get them here. And Sh had seen them when we were in the States or she seen them on Tik Tok and she wanted to taste them when we were in the States. So we bought them while we were there. And I’m not normally a uh fan of energy drinks. However, I actually like these and I found that they were very effective without giving me that caffeine high or that caffeine rush that a lot of them do. These just taste like a soft drink, but they give me that energy boost that I sometimes need at the end of the day. Anyway, so when I came back to Australia, I started buying the energy drinks called Celsius. And Charlotte said that you couldn’t get them in in Australia. You can only get them in America. But then she saw on Tik Tok an Instagrammer or a Tik Toker that she follows that she was drinking it. and she then found out that you can actually buy them at 7-Eleven. So, if you’d like uh to try Bloom, you can get them at 7-Eleven. If you want a replacement for it that comes on sale more regularly at Bullies, then you can try Celsius. I love it. I prefer Celsius. Um the only reason I don’t buy Bloom is because it’s substantially more expensive than Celsius. [laughter] So, anyway, back to what I’m actually doing here. I am making my chicken soup. And I start off by chopping up two large carrots. My quadrefecta of what I put as a base for all my soups is always going to be garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. I have some onions chopped up and frozen that I took out earlier that day from the freezer. I buy a large quantity of onions when I go to Costco because they’re so much more affordable than just buying them individually per kilo. And then I just chop them up and segment them into little snaplock bags and put them in the freezer so that next time I use them I need onions they’re all ready to go. I chop up the garlic, open up the packet of onion, chopped up onions and I also had the last little packet of celery that I’d also chopped up and I sauteed that in some olive oil. Earlier that day when I was trying to work out what I needed to add to my shopping list, I realized that I had three corn on the cob that I could utilize. They were getting a little bit old, but they were fine for cooking in this soup. And I thought, why not add them to my chicken soup? I don’t normally make chicken and corn soup, but I thought, well, if I’ve got the corn, not don’t waste it. I’m going to add it to the chicken soup. So, I remove it from the core and then add that to the carrots and the other vegetables that are sautéing in the pot behind me. I find that a really good economical way of making your own chicken soup at home rather than just buying out uh a whole chicken and boiling it to make the stock or soup. I like to buy the chicken casses from the butcher or the chicken store um and then use those to make my stock. You get the flavoring from the bones and the leftover meat that’s on the carcass at a fraction of the price. I wash them out and then I dry them, pat them dry with some kitchen paper. I don’t like to handle meat, so I generally wear food safe gloves if I’m handling chicken, fish, or meat. Uh I just don’t like that feeling of it. And then I stir the vegetables that are in the pot and then top those with the chicken carcasses. Put the lid on it to let them cook. So the microphone stopped blooping. I don’t know when. So only when I go to edit will I know what’s been recorded in what place. I might have to do a little bit of a voice over in this spot. Anyway, here is the chicken base cookie. And now all I have to do is add some water to it. While the chicken soup is cooking, the sheets have dried in the dryer and now it’s time to make my bed. You’ll notice that I’ve gone and removed the checkered blue highlight or the throw at the foot of the bed that I used to have the extra duna. I’ve now created very much a very beige color on color. So, my sheets are beige. My Duna cover is beige. And the only accent that I have is the green cushions and the throw. And then the last feature cushion, which is the tapestry cushion that I made um from Spotlight. I really like this. It’s I find it very soothing, very calming, and just very easy to maintain. Though I have to say I love having a throw at the foot of my bed. I just find that it sort of coordinates and it gives you that um I don’t know like lifestyle uh look that I really aspire to having in my bedroom. But I find that I just don’t have a knack for throwing a throw at the foot of the bed. It just it just lays there. But despite that, I like the look and I find that my bedroom is really nice and cozy and welcoming at the end of the day or any time of the day if I’ve got the time. Now, I have this corner in my room where I have my reading chair. And I don’t have a side table for it, but I found recently at uh Bunnings, this Boston side table in green. They also had it in cream, but I thought that green would actually coordinate with the rest of the room being that it picks up the color of the accent in the room. And this was a really easy side table to assemble. It’s basically just a very simple round base with three legs that just screw into it. I liked it and I’ve coordinated or I’ve I’ve finessed it by having some of my reading books. These are the books that I’m currently reading that I borrow from the library. And I’ve just turned them around so that you don’t see the color of the spine. You just see the beige of the pages. And then I’ve added a tumbler with a pen, a nail file, and my reading glasses. And then a lovely perfume that my viewer and lovely subscriber Polly sent me for my birthday. I just think that it finishes off that corner really well. And I like it. It’s really an a very comforting and very relaxing corner. And I have to say that the person or the living being that actually makes the most use of this chair is actually Louis. He loves sitting there any time of the day. It’s his favorite spot. I love the original color. It’s just yellow and chickeny by itself on its own. I think probably the corn gives it that color cuz I haven’t actually added anything to it. I’m about to add some chicken stock flavoring from Vegeta. That will enhance the chicken flavor. And I probably added about 3 L of water to this. And now I’ll just let it simmer away and cook down. Back to finishing off the bedroom. I give the floor a quick vacuum with my handy dandy little stick vacuum cleaner. And then I’m off to mop to finish off cleaning up this room. I’m using the Ajax floor cleaner, the lemon scented one. It smells divine. And as I finish mopping, the skies just open up and it starts bucketing down. And so not to let water go to waste, I move these plants that are potted in the porch and move them a little bit further out onto the deck a little bit further out so they can access and get watered naturally by rain water rather than me using tap water. And I think that’s a very good effective way of using what mother nature gives us freely. And now that my bedroom is all cozy and neat and tidy, there’s one drawer that’s basically the bane of my existence. It’s my underwear drawer. And I’ve really been ignoring it for the last few months because I just didn’t have the head space to just go through everything and identify what actually fits, what doesn’t fit, what stays, and what goes. So today’s the day that I thought I would actually get to it. I’ve got the energy, the willpower, the mental bandwidth to just go through each piece and decide what stays and what goes. Basically, this drawer has got underwear, bras, thermal wear, sports bras, and even bathers and bikinis. Although some overlap into the bottom drawer, which is my sock drawer, but I’m going to leave that for another day. What I’m going to do here today is just take everything out, sort it, and decide what stays and what goes, and then organize it so that it looks like a Victoria Secret lingerie store. One bag of old ratty underwear that doesn’t fit. And now tidy underwear drawer. I’m pleased with that. I’ve tried to get it color coordinated [laughter] cuz when I shoved them in, it was a little bit messy. Probably have to clear out some of these undies. But what I’ll do is as I wear them, decide whether I find them comfortable and keep them or throw them out. Another task done in your bag to throw out. Now back to the chicken soup. Now it’s time to take out the chicken bones and to just blend all the vegetables so you get a nice thick but not chunky consistency of soup. Then I take the chicken bones and once they’ve cooled down, I take out any of the edible flesh from it. What looks good, I will put back into the soup just to add a little bit of texture to the soup. And then once probably doesn’t look as nice, then I’ll [snorts] put it aside and give it to the dogs because you can’t give chicken bones or cooked chicken bones to dogs. So I take out all the cooked bones and just give them the nice juicy tender uh meat which they will lap up and enjoy the bones for the bins. Dogs dinner tonight and maybe tomorrow night cuz that’s a lot. And this goes back into the soup. So it just adds a little bit extra texture and it’s got the leftover veggies that didn’t get blended so it’s going to make it a little bit chunky. bit of salt and I don’t boil my tortillini in the soup cuz I find that it makes the soupy. Although it is thick, I boil it first in a separately salted pot of water and then once they’re almost done, I’m throwing the soup to finish off. M. This soup is worth the effort. It hits just right to warm not just your tummy, but [music] your bones, too. It’s a flu fighter in a bowl. Let me know if you try it. [music] There’s something about [music] a day like this. Pilates before sunrise, a bit of chaos in between, and rain by the end that leaves you feeling more settled than [music] you expected. Do you have a version of a reset day like this? I’d love to hear what yours looks like. [music] If you enjoyed this, give it a thumbs up, subscribe if you’re new, and I’ll see you in the next one. And if you made it all the way here, I’d really [music] appreciate you leaving me a bowl of soup in the comments or a hug. Thanks for watching. Bye. If I’m going with you, I [music] know we’ll get to the other side. The dogs enjoyed it. [music] They finished it. [music] Enjoying it. [music] All finished. All finished. [music] Well done. How’s that, [music] Louis? Yum. Yum.