Meal Planning Monday; 31st December 2012

So as I thought, last week's meal plan pretty much was a waste of time. We ate party food and visited relatives where we had, er, more party food? Oops! We did have the roast on boxing day though so some normal food was consumed, promise!

Bubbah quickly got into the swing of Christmas and was given the almost obligatory first Christmas Santa suit (courtesy of his aunt)

He definitely got into the swing of ripping off the wrapping paper (and becoming preoccupied with that and the cardboard most presents came in) to reveal TOYS. His favourites seem to be a musical set from the in-laws (especially the maracas and drum) and a musical phone (ish) toy from me and hubby.

Last week was a bit hit and miss as I got some bad family news concerning my grandad. As mentioned briefly here I went and visited him in hospital while hubby looked after Bubbah (a hospital isn't really up there on a list of places I want Bubbah visiting) where he thankfully was lucid enough to realise that a) I was there and b) who I was.

This week we're determined to get back on track with meal planning after a week of overindulgence at Christmas (hubby) and worrying about food/money wastage (me). We're sticking with quite simple meals and I'm hoping to batch cook a couple of them before hubby goes back to work on Wednesday.

And now, to the soundtrack of McFly (my soundtrack, although feel free to join in as you read this) here is this week's meal plan;

• Cheesy sausage pasta bake (brought over from last week)
• Pizza
• Mushroom risotto
• Vegetable bake for hubby/ lasagne for me
• Ratatouille for hubby/ sausage and mash for me
• Mushroom soup for hubby/ cheesy jacket and BBQ sauce for me

 I'll be linked up to Mrs M so head on over there to have a look at everyone else's new year meal plans.

What I did 30 December 2012

It was the last full week of December and I...

• celebrated Bubbah's first Christmas

• finally cracked open my Jon Burgerman tin of mini Lush bath bombs (I've had it about three years)
• hit the sales and bought hardly anything in them - but several new bits from regular stock
• found my new scent after all of my perfumes spoiled from sun exposure (Dot by Marc Jacobs)
• ate lots of party food over my usual meal plan (oops)
• fed some ducks and got ambushed by seagulls!
• visited my grandad in hospital
• got a Little Chef lollipop after visiting there on the way back from hospital (for a cheeky pre-dinner time snack and decadent hot chocolate)
• got woken up by Bubbah blowing raspberries on my stomach!

And that was (more or less) my week.

Meal Planning Monday; 24th December 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...


and I am SO excited! Hubby and bubbah are at the in-laws as I type this (Sunday afternoon, I already know the next few days are going to be absolutely manic)

So who's looking forward to the big day? What's your favourite bit? Personally I'm looking forward to the various roasts (two turkeys and one beef ones have been planned so far), opening presents with Bubbah (that wrapping paper will be so much fun for him to rip open) and Christmas t.v.! I've already set The Snowman and the Snowdog, Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, and about a million Christmas films to record on our Sky planner and cannot wait to watch them all.

Last week's meal plan went pretty well as practically all of our meals came from our freezer stock (handily clearing room for Christmas food) except Saturday night's which was a quick buy of sausages and curly fries after we had a date at Frankie and Bennys before realising we had pasta planned for tea (oops) and had to hastily come up with something else.

This week is very much a loose plan. Hubby isn't fasting because of all of the food he'll be surrounded by and lack of work to distract him. The only concrete things are Christmas day, Boxing day and Friday. But here's what we're thinking of having...

• party food picnic (mini loaded potato skins, chicken nuggets, sausage rolls, mozerella sticks, cream cheese bites, chicken satay sticks and chicken goujons)
• Christmas day roast (hurray) which will be had at the in-laws
• Hoping to see my dad Boxing day afternoon so possibly tea there
• Pizza (a Friday tradition that hubby asked to keep)
• Pasta bake - sausage and cheese for both of us
• freezer meal (as we still have a few left)

And that's our week! Hope everyone has a great Christmas.

What I Did 23rd December 2012

In the run up to Christmas next week (eek) I spent my week...

• hunkering down for last minute Christmas prep including food shopping, people planning and helping my mum wrap my niece and nephew's (bazillion) presents
• dying my hair in preparation for any surprise photos
• indulging myself in clothe sensuality courtesy of Tesco's cashmere jumper (it was on sale, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)
• watching excitedly as Bubbah got more adventurous with his cruising and tried to take some steps by himself (and failing but hey, it's the trying that counts)
• cheering as he managed to balance himself enough to stand completely alone
• swapping Christmas presents with my best friend
• despairing as he ate an entire corner off his favourite book (he likes me to pretend I'm the lion in Dear Zoo touch and feel book and eat his fingers when he sticks them through the hole)

And that was my week! 

Just another manic Monday...

And I definitely wish it was Sunday! We're all feeling very sorry for ourselves this morning. Hubby practically dragged himself to work this morning as he was so exhausted; Bubbah spent most of last night crying in pain and kept being sick for some mysterious reason to the extent that I ended up sleeping in his bedroom out of fear he'd be sick in his sleep and choke; and I've got a horrid cold so I feel generally rotten and could do with a day where all I do is eat comfort food, watch cheesy movies and do not much else.

Unfortunately I can't courtesy of everyday living so things such as cleaning the kitchen and the mountain of washing that need dealing with prevent me from doing so. Humph.

Fortunately Bubbah fell asleep on the way back from Tesco (for a sweetie and tissue run) so I've managed to grab a few moments to myself after sweeping and washing our kitchen floor with an ice cream and an old(ish) episode of Doctor Who (The Pandorica Opens for anyone who cares, I love Rory the Roman!)

Here's hoping things calm down!

Meal Planning Monday; 17th December 2012

It's the week before Christmas! After a very slow build up I've finally become excited about the big day. I think it helps that the last week or so has seen me finish wrapping up presents and writing cards so all of that stressful part has finally disappeared. Although Bubbah has decided to add a new element called "pull down the Christmas tree decorations when mummy's back is turned"

I've come down with a horrible cold that's left me feeling rather miserable, thankfully last week's meal plan went pretty much according to plan. Friday (our pizza night) I had spag bol at my dad's house but hubby did still get his pizza so I'm counting that as a successful meal plan night! Saturday's meal failed when hubby decided he didn't want the meal I'd planned and we ended up with curly fries and chicken kievs.


This week I've moved from cupboard staples to freezer staples as I'm determined to rid our surplus food as opposed to it sitting there languishing until I end up throwing it out. I might do some baking this week, probably some cupcakes (in Christmas cases because I actually do own Christmas cupcake cases, I do like my bake ware) on top of the normal meals.

So, this week we're eating a rather mismatched set of meals where no two meals match up for me and hubby:

• Tuna pasta bake for me when hubby is fasting
• Ratatouille/pasties and potatoes
• Broccoli, tomato and cheese quiche/bolognaise
• Pizza
• Sausages and roasties, possibly with home made yorkshire puddings
• Bolognaise/soup/pasties for me on hubby's other fasting day

And that's our week! As usual I'm linked up to Mrs M's linky so head on over there and see what everyone else is cooking up pre-Christmas!

What I did this week

This week I...

• enjoyed (well Bubbah and I did) more snow...
• ...although I'm not enjoying the cold that has come along since then!
• did some last minute Christmas shopping
• wrote what felt like a million Christmas cards
• and finally, made some gingerbread biscuits;

Meal Planning Monday; 10th December 2012

Goodness me, just over two weeks until Christmas; how scary does that sound! Thankfully I've done all my wrapping (bar two last minute presents when my brother and his girlfriend decided they were actually doing presents after all and I hurriedly bought them gifts) and just have a few cards for family to write.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post Bubbah has been much better this week, much to my relief! He's also learnt a new trick; climbing the stairs. Imagine my horror when hubby went upstairs while I was in the kitchen washing up and didn't shut the door properly. Of course as curious as any other baby, Bubbah crawled off excitedly to explore. I realised it had suddenly gone quiet (usually to be treated with suspicion when children are involved in the day time) and went to investigate to discover Bubbah hitting the bottom step. Several minutes later, with me firmly wedged in behind him to stop any falling over, he'd scaled the stairs. He repeated this later on yesterday after I went to put some washing away and he's so proud of himself. Time to start bolting everything down!

Cheeky, well padded and cosy!

I didn't really go out much last week because we had some snow(!) and that always makes me want to hibernate. I did venture outside with Bubbah to explore the snow because I couldn't resist his excited face when I showed him the newly whitened back garden. We also went Christmas shopping with my mum on Thursday and put up our Christmas tree so it was a very festive week indeed!

Last week's meal plan went pretty well, although we didn't have sticky chicken as I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer (doh) but I did manage to remember to blog the recipe for those who asked so here it is. Instead we had a nice lazy Chinese take away (yummy) while watching the first half of the X Factor final with my mum and discussing Christmas presents, onesies and snow boots.

This week is a store cupboard week as, after reading everyone else's meal plans I realised our cupboard was disgustingly full of tins and I had no idea what we actually had in there! So I cleared it out and made a list while Bubbah was asleep and came up with a meal plan from pretty much everything in there.

So this week we are having:

• Risotto (probably vegetable or sausage and vegetable)
• BBQ mac n cheese
• Pizza
• Pasta bake (tomato for hubby, tuna for me)
• Pasties or fish fingers for my free meal days (when hubby fasts)
• Egg fried rice and chicken chunks

I've also got lots of soup in the cupboard so I'll probably have those for my lunches with the doorstep bread I bought today (easily the best thing to have with soup) or just some of the bagels I got in the reduced section while shopping today - 24p for a packet of 5, needless to say I bought two and promptly pre-sliced them and whacked them in the freezer!

As usual I'm linked up to Mrs M so head on over there to see what everyone else is cooking up.

My week; a round-up

Hello and happy Sunday! I've been unhappy for a while with how little I've been posting other than my weekly meal plan. The truth is Bubbah keeps me so busy that I have little time to blog during the day and I simply have no energy left to do anything other than veg out with a book and my tea by the time he's in bed. Sunday is usually my big blogging day so I've decided to make an effort and blog on a Sunday to be scheduled out during the rest of the week.

And here is the first of said posts, a little round-up of my week with links, videos and pictures...

This week I...

• watched with excitement as Bubbah walked very well (and very quickly) with his walker:
  


• rejoiced at getting back to normal after two and a half weeks of a horrendous viral infection ruling our household
• looked into getting a physical copy of my Nano WriMo novel
• did all of my Christmas wrapping

• indulged in several jumpers including a Christmas one and a pretty one (because everyone needs pretty knitwear, right?)
• received a lovely bouquet of flowers from hubby

• put up our Christmas tree (out of Bubbah's reach!)
• cleaned out our cupboard
• bought a new non-novelty hat for Bubbah as he kept trying to eat his lion one

And that was my week!

Recipe Binder: Sweet sticky chicken

This has appeared several times in my meal plan since I pinched it from some foodie browsing online. As several people kept asking for a recipe after its latest appearance, here it is! Apologies for the bad photo, I just about remembered to take one before scoffing it down.

What you need:

• One chicken breast per person
• Soy sauce
• Runny honey

What you do:

• Mix up approx four tablespoons of runny honey with a couple of tea spoons of soy sauce, adding soy sauce or honey to make it runnier/thicker as needed
• Marinade the chicken in the soy sauce and honey glaze in a baking dish for a couple of hours (or all day if you're going out)
• Cook for 30 minutes, gas mark 7 or 8
• Serve with pasta/mash/noodles/rice

Meal Planning Monday; 3rd December 2012

Hello everybody and hello December! Blimey that's come about quickly, hasn't it?!

The last week has been extremely tiring as Bubbah dealt with his horrid viral infection and the ever impending Nano WriMo deadline. Thankfully both have passed and hopefully the next week will be a bit easier. Bubbah seems to be getting over his viral infection after two weeks of it and is finally back to his normal happy self. I also completed my NaNo WriMo successfully with a grand total of 50,618 words, so cheers all around!

As I type this on a freezing Sunday night I have a discounted Sainsburys' lasagne cooking away while half of my nails are drying in a beautiful sparkly blue (hey, t'is the season and all that jazz) and Bubbah is with hubby at hubby's parents to give me a bit of a rest after several nights that included me staying awake with a screaming baby until 3/4am.

I got a bit of a pick me up when some photos arrived from Pixi Photo we'd had done of Bubbah at the beginning of the month, it was a nice reminder of the fact that he could smile when not horrendously sick.

We managed to stick to last week's meal plan pretty well, with the exception of Friday where I shared a sausage plait with my mum instead of having pizza. I also had some lamb meatballs as opposed to a pasty one nights as they needed using up.

This week it's a bit of a mix between freezer stock and fresh meals...

• Fish pie while hubby is fasting (he hates the stuff so it's normally my only chance to have fish)
• Pasta bake (tomato and veg for hubby, cheesy tuna and veg for me with some set aside for Bubbah)
• Sweet and sticky chicken (honey and soy sauce marinade) with potato, rice or noodles
• Jackets with spaghetti/beans
• Pizza
• More fish pie/tuna bake for me on hubby's other fast day

And that's pretty much it! I'm making some mini cakes for a friend's little boy's first birthday too so there'll be some cake in the cupboards for yummy snacks during the day.

I'm linked up to Mrs M so mosey on over there to have a look at what everyone else is cooking up this week.