The One-Minute Writer: Today's Writing Prompt: Overindulgence

In what way is 21st century society the most overindulgent?

We live in a very overindulgent society.

Single people and couples are living in large executive houses with a lot more rooms than they need.  Many of these people have huge modern kitchens with all the latest mod-cons, but they never use them!   They may have a gleaming stainless steel range cooker, but they never cook!  Instead, they eat out, buy take-aways or perhaps pop a ready meal in the microwave!

People are regularly replacing items such as televisions, mobile phones, computers and furniture, when they are still in good working order.  They do not need to replace these items, but simply want the latest model or just fancy a change.

Many mothers are not dressing their second child in hand-me-down clothes, but buying everything from scratch again!  Clothes are being replaced, rather than mended.

People buy too much food at the supermarket, resulting in fruit, vegetables and bread being thrown out, having gone off!

We live in a very wasteful society!

Guest Post by Jen Malik

It’s fun (well, for most of us…I think!) to have the entire family together for a Christmas dinner. You share good food and good times on that special day of the year. But, what happens to the food once the meal is over? Well, I’ve got 8 ideas for you and hope they’ll come in handy.

- Make soup. Soup is a very comforting and warming dish when the temperature begins to dip. Using chicken or beef broth, you can use your leftovers to make some chicken noodle soup, turkey noodle soup or even beef stew.

- Freeze them. Freezing means that you can enjoy your Christmas fare at anytime. If you use plastic storage bags, make sure that they are freezer bags and write the date of freezing on the outside. When you divide food into portion sizes then you can thaw out only what you need and not the entire lot.

- Send guests home with food. Why keep all the bounty to yourself? Load up on reusable food containers (in festive colors) so that each guest can take home some food for later.

- Make a salad. Green salads can be so boring sometimes. Add a slice or two of turkey, beef, chicken or ham to spice it up. Leftover meats make great salad toppers.

- Breakfast additions. Omelets are fun to make. Even more fun than making them is adding different items to them to see what kind of combinations you can come up with. Use leftover Christmas dinner fare to decorate your omelet. Ham can be diced to use as an omelet add-in. Leftover vegetables can also be cut up to sprinkle inside an omelet.

- Go eastern. Did you have steak for Christmas dinner? Cut the leftovers into thin strips. With a few stir-fry vegetables you have created a new dinner meal. If stir fry is not your cup of tea, you can make lo mien, fried rice and other Asian dishes that include steak. Or if you had the traditional turkey, go wild with turkey chow mein.

- Casseroles are always a hit. Who doesn’t love a good casserole? With Christmas dinner leftovers, you can whip up a casserole for any meal. With breakfast, combine ham, veggies and shredded cheese with egg for an after Christmas treat. For lunch, use some turkey, rice, cream soup and vegetables for a midday meal. For dinner, try chicken, vegetables, noodles and cream of chicken soup for an easy all-in-one meal that takes less than an hour to cook.

- Create a pie. This is not the sweet treat but a dinner pie. Turkey or chicken and even beef can be placed inside a crust with tons of delicious veggies to make a pot pie your family will love.

I know it can be overwhelming when faced with all that leftover food, but hopefully these ideas can make sure nothing goes to waste.

Shopping Lovelies in Navy and Cream

I have a fabulous Trolley Dolly from ZPM London to give away.  This magnificent product in the ‘Shopping Lovelies’ design retails at £29.95 (GBP). 

Trolley-Dolly is the world-first, patented solution to shopping without using a single plastic bag! There are 24 bags all packed neatly in one great outer bag.  For more details on what’s inside and other clever features, you can visit the official ZPM London site here.

Unfortunately, due to the weight of this item, I have to restrict entry to the giveaway to UK and Ireland residents only.

There are several ways to enter:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Subscribe via email and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Tweet about this giveaway .and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/mammakerr (@mammakerr) and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Fan me on Facebook (see widget below) and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Stumble this post and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Bookmark me on any other platform and leave a comment to say you’ve done so.
• Blog about the Mamma Kerr blog and this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your post.
• Link to this site via the Mamma’s Link page and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Subscribe to my Top Spots and leave a comment to say you‘ve done so.
• Email at your friends about this blog and the giveaway and copy me in on the email at mammakerrblog[at]yahoo[dot]com, then leave a comment to say that you’ve done so.

Each method mentioned above will gain you one entry into the draw. Whatever, method of entry you choose, you need to also leave a comment on this post to let me know how you have entered.

The draw closes at midnight GMT on Saturday 21st  November 2009. The winner will be chosen by www.random.org and announced on Monday 23^rd November 2009.

NB:  I am an official Ambassadolly for ZPM London.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck!

Congratulations to Claire, who won the pre-school puzzle from Barefoot Books in my previous giveaway, which closed at the weekend.  Well done, Claire.  I’ll be in touch with you soon to arrange delivery…

Well, I was absolutely thrilled this week, when I found out that Bagpuss is set for a TV comeback.  Production companyCoolabi, who have held the distribution and merchandising rights to Bagpuss for several years,  have now struck a deal with the programme’s creators to make a new series of the much-loved animation.

The project is still at an early stage, and no decisions have been made as to the particular style of animation that might be used for the new series.  Personally, I hope they stay as true to the original as they can.  I would be disappointed if the turn it into a cartoon.  I want to see Bagpuss as a saggy old cloth cat!!

This is the perfect time to bring Bagpuss back to our screens.  I remember fondly how the weekly stories revolved around a lost broken piece of junk, which Bagpuss and his friends set about “fixing” and “mending”.

Do you remember the little mice squeaking in song: “We will fix it.  We will mend it!”

How apt these little stories of “make do and mend” are today in our troubled economic climate.  What a lovely idea to teach our children to re-use and recycle their belongings, rather than to simply discard and replace!

Do you have fond memories of Bagpuss?  What changes, if any, would you suggest to Coolabi?  What other childhood favourites would you like to see brought back?

Don’t forget that TODAY (Friday 9th October) is the closing day for my Barefoot Books Giveaway.  Please visit the post for details on how to enter: http://www.mammakerr.com/2009/10/giveaway-childrens-book/

There’s a full page of coupons in the paper (14 offers in all), which will come in very handy for the School October Break.  Many of the offers are available until the end of November.  Therefore there’s enough activies to keep you and your family occupied during the October break and every weekend until the end of next month.

Offers include M&Ds, Motherwell, The Falkirk Wheel, Falkirk, Sea World, Oban, The Wallace Monument, Bridge of Allan  and The Dungeons in Edinburgh.

I’ve already put this page of offers aside for inspiration for a frugal school break.  I’ll certainly take advantage of the Falkirk Wheel and Wallace Monument offers, as these attractions are not too far from home.

I’ll be writing about some more school break activities in a later post.  If you have any school break tips to share, I’d love to hear from you!

I too, am looking to make lifestyle changes. I am striving to be more frugal, self-sufficient and environmentally friendly. I intend to blog about the step changes, as they occur, in this website.

I came across an interesting book, which I fully intend to buy, while browsing the newspapers yesterday. John Lewis has compiled dozens of tips into a booklet called Make Do And Mend – the title that was used by the UK Government for its own pamphlet of money-saving advice almost 70 years ago.

The tips have been compiled to help us save money and survive the recession, and offer an alternative to the throwaway society of recent years. Make Do And Mend combines tips our grandmothers would have employed with 21st century suggestions on electrical equipment.

Store group John Lewis says the booklet taps into a desire by families to return to a more sustainable way of life, getting full use out of products rather than dumping them in the bin and buying new.

The company said: ‘The British have always been famous for having a spirit of “make do and mend”.

You can read more about this on The Daily Mail website here: http://www.mammakerr.com/dailymail-thriftytips

Do you have any household tips passed on to you from your own grandmother? My Grandmother was knitter and seamstress, skills which I sadly have not naturally inherited. However, in order to adopt a more frugal and green lifestyle, I intend to work on improving these skills.