Meal Planning Monday; 28th October 2013

I'm aware this is Tuesday but for once I have a good excuse...storm Jude blew out our electricity from 7am to 2pm yesterday and hubby pinched my laptop to use for work when his laptop battery gave out. I wasn't too fussed but lack of power and the chest infection Bubbah and I seem to have now passed on made others in the house a bit more frustrated.

I took the opportunity of being free from electrical distractions (dvds, t.v., laptop, etc) to finally finish Bubbah's sock creature! He's yet to be named so it just referred to as the Sockasaurus but I'd love a proper name for him!

Wood walk

Last week's attempt at a meal plan (which I didn't put on here) sort of went out of the window with my chest infection rendering me incapable of doing much more other than opening the fridge/freezer and pulling out the first thing that came to hand. Thankfully a course of Amaxicillin later (I've got three tablets left and then I'm done) and a nice long walk in the nearby woods, and I'm feeling much better so I'm back with a proper meal plan.

• Meat slices (minced beef and onion/chicken and mushroom) with wedges, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing and veg
• Veg  soup for hubby on a fast day (Monday's was thrown out as he was feeling very sorry for himself) and fish, wedges and peas for me
• Chicken casserole with butter dumplings
• Lasagne with garlic bread
• Tuna pasta/chicken and mushroom meat slice (as hubby hates tuna)
• Pizza with the rest of the garlic bread from the lasagne
• Toad in the hole with roasties, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and veg

Chicken casserole and soup will be done in the slow cooker with extra portions ending up in the freezer to be used up on lazy days! I'm taking advantage of the next few days of sun/dryness to get the washing on the line as opposed to spending three days on our airer!

Ready for the mud!

 As usual I'm linked up to Mrs M's meal planning post so pop on over there to have a look at what everyone else is up to.

Times'a changing

So looking at my stats and I'm informed I haven't posted anything in two weeks...oops! My defence is that Bubbah came down  with a horrid cold which, at the end of last week, turned into a chest infection that promptly got passed on to me .

Thankfully after a course of amoxicillin (aka penicillin but that lovely banana flavoured medicine of many people's childhood) Bubbah is beginning to get back to his normal self and keeps presenting me with the contents of my CD collection to put on while he plays with his diminishing Play-Doh collection (to be remedied at Christmas) and I'm soldiering on with my more grown up course of amoxicillin film coated capsules and 9pm bedtimes.

Moving on though...how suddenly has autumn come on?! It was all lovely and sunny and suddenly there's rain and leaves practically throwing themselves off their branches - much to Bubbah's delight when we went on a wooded walk and ended up collecting several of these leaves, some holly, acorns and a lone clean feather to use for a "keep the semi-sick child occupied in a way poorly mummy can cope with" craft.


We've also been working our way through the Disney/Pixar films now Bubbah has reached the stage where he'll sort of sit still long enough to watch some, if not all, of a film. So far we've watched;

• Beauty and the Beast (where he thought the wolves were dogs and pointed at them sagely informing me "woof" whenever they appeared)
• Mary Poppins
• Aristocats (wasn't too sure on this, I think the story focus at the beginning put him off)
• Finding Nemo
• Robin Hood
• Lady and the Tramp (whereupon I was informed every time a dog came on screen which, funnily enough, is quite a lot)

Finally, and please allow me a moment of joy/pride at this, I have finished ALL my Christmas shopping! Everything! Presents, cards and wrapping paper have all been bought/pinched back from my mum's house where we left wrapping paper/gift bags/cards last year and stored in what I now refer to as "The Grotto" but is actually just the spare shelves in our bathroom...and the floor space in front of it...and the top of our bookshelf...okay so it may have expanded a bit which will probably cause me stress when it comes to the week/s beforehand and I'm trying to sort it all out but I don't have to worry for a good month and a half about any of it! I'm not normally so organised but as I knew we'd be on a pretty tight budget this year I started shopping in...oooh July/August time I think! Charity shops, online shopping and cheap/discount shops (think Home Bargains, B&M, etc.) have made up the bulk of my shopping as has a few cheeky discounts/offers in places like Tesco (such as their half price boxes of chocolates being snapped up ready for visiting various family members and a GIANT bar of Toblerone for my dad who loves the stuff).

I think my best buy was for Bubbah and it came from a charity shop (this is where we come back to the Play-Doh situation) in my mum's local town centre. For £8 I got a mega Play-Doh kit called mountain of colour which gives you 10 Play-Dohs (4 5 big, 5 small if I remember correctly) and loads of shape cutters. I googled it later and found I'd saved between £8 and £20 depending on where you shopped (it normally costs £30[!] but some places had it half price) and was practically in the same condition you'd get buying brand new!

So, has anyone else dared start their Christmas shopping yet or are you ignoring it for now? If you've started buying, what's been your best present so far? 

Recipe binder: sage stuffing

Years (nearly a whole two decades ago) I swore off onions. Even in stuffing. But I liked stuffing...I just didn't like the onions in it. So my lovely grandma who was already making the stuffing from scratch anyway would always make me my own little dish of stuffing sans onion. My grandma died a few years ago now and I never got the chance to get her recipes from her (she never wrote them down, simply remembering them) but after several attempts I finally managed to recreate it last weekend, allowing me to introduce hubby to the wonders of home made stuffing.

Image taken from BBC good food

What you need

• 80g breadcrumbs (blitz a slice of bread on high/ice crush mode in a blender for a few seconds)
• 1 egg
• 3 or 4 tea spoons of sage (depending on taste)
• Boiling water

What you do

• Mix the sage, breadcrumbs and egg together
• Add boiling water as you would boxed stuffing mix (like Paxo)
• Cook for 30 minutes in a dish or roll into balls, place on a baking tray and cook for the same time on gas 6

Seasonal foodie goodies

Around this time of year you get a mixture of themed food stuffed onto every possible shelf space and there's always several things in particular I look out for...

I'm not big into Halloween for numerous reasons but something I am big into is good old Mr Kipling's Fondant Fancies. My brother and I always used to fight over the pink and yellow ones when we were little as they were our favourites. I love the Easter strawberry ones but these 'fiendish fancies' are a lovely little bundle of loveliness of their own!

 These seem to be popping up in place of popping candy elves (see further down on my list) and I haven't given them a try yet but I know I will and I know I'll love them because, how could you not love Freddo?

My ultimate Christmas treat I practically stalk along the Christmas aisle(s) hunting these beautiful sweets out. If you could these all year then I probably would get through a ridiculous amount of them!

Magical elves (with popping candy) seem to have disappeared this year (see Freddo popping candy) which is a shame as they were quite sweet and made a nice little stocking filler for my niece and nephew, especially as I could pick a particular elf for them.


What are your favourite seasonal goodies? Is there any food - sweet or otherwise - that you look out for at a certain time of year? Let me know in the comments below.

Meal Planning Monday; 7th October 2013

Goodness me, how is it October already? All the Halloween/Christmas bits are now out in full force. Not that I need them thanks to my Grotto (aka present haul in the bathroom using up the spare shelves) I'll probably stock up on some more wrapping paper and there are a few cards left for specific people (I'm looking out for extra special cards for hubby and Bubbah) but there's not so much pressure this year so I'm feeling quite relaxed about it all. All the better for casually selecting Christmas sweeties to have in the cupboard for when a sweet craving hits.

Christmas is here already!

Last week's meal plan went pretty well with few meals being swapped about/disregarded altogether. I ended up finding a peppercorn sauce in the reduced aisle so used that with my pork steaks with some simple wedges and veg. This week I decided we should use up some of the stocks we've been building up in the freezer to help make some space and save money at the same time.

This week we'll be having...

• roast chicken and veg pies with mini Yorkshire puddings, home made stuffing (recipe to come), roasts and extra veg
• Cheese and tomato tuna pasta bake with extra mushrooms/ ratatouille for hubby
• Lamb casserole with dumplings (veg soup using the veg from this for hubby as he's not a fan of lamb)
• Pizza - sausage and mushroom for me, veggie for hubby using a new cajun spice I found recently
• Fish pie for me and veggie fingers with wedges for hubby
• Slow cooker spag bol (recipe to come) with garlic bread

Let me know what you're planning this week in the comments below. If you're looking for inspiration yourself and none of these tickle your fancy head on over to Mrs M's meal planning linky to see what everyone else has planned.

Recipe binder: butter dumplings

Now I will be honest, before yesterday I hadn't ever had dumplings before. However after seeing them on Jamie Oliver's show the other week I decided to give them a go when I made chicken casserole. And goodness me was it worth it! Making them with butter instead suet makes them a lot lighter. This recipe makes between 6-8 dumplings depending on how big you like them.

Source

What you need

• 115g self raising flour
• 55g butter (cold)
• Cold water

What you do

• Rub flour and butter together until you have what looks like breadcrumbs
• Add a small amount of cold water to form a stiffish dough
• Roll into small balls
• Boil in salted water or cook on the edge of a simmering casserole/soup for 10-12 minutes
• Serve immediately

Meal Planning Monday; 30th September 2013

Goodness me I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last blogged! *Slaps self on wrist* The time seems to be running away with us all as it gets closer to (whisper it) Christmas. I've been super/weirdly organised and have got nearly everybody's Christmas presents, all my Christmas cards and some wrapping paper. Not as bad as someone else my friend was telling me about who's already wrapped all their presents! Needless to say our spare shelves in the bathroom look a bit like Santa's grotto at the moment but it'll be worth it as I've got some brilliant bargains, especially for Bubbah, my niece and my nephew (who's birthday presents are also up there ready for November).

I'm very excited about today for several reasons; hubby has the day off so we get a bit of an extended weekend feel, this also means I get some child free time(!) as hubby has agreed to watch Bubbah so I can go out for a drink with a friend and actually contemplate ordering a hot chocolate that will be warm when I drink it and not stone cold after numerous rounds of "no, that's mummy's drink" and finally....Taylor Swift has announced 2014 UK tour dates for Red! Being a mega Taylor fan this made my morning when my friend messaged me the news and we've promptly picked a date and she's flexing her fingers ready for the 9am ticket selling time on Friday. We've gone to every concert she's done in the UK so it's almost tradition for us now.

I'm hoping we'll be this close to the front again next year!

Anyway, on to meal planning...

After a few lazy weeks of "I'll buy random stuff and cobble together some sort of food from it but it'll be pot luck on the day" I'm back to proper planning after complaints from hubby when his question of what's for dinner was greeted with "dunno yet" oops!

This week we're having...

• chicken casserole with dumplings using up leftover chicken from yesterday's roast
• Ratatouille for hubby, ham and pork filled pasta for me
• Cheesy cottage pie using mince I found in the freezer when searching for roast potatoes yesterday
• Pizza with sausage and mushrooms for me and tomatoes, sweetcorn, mushrooms, peppers/chillis for hubby served with wedges or garlic bread
• Mushroom soup for hubby and tomato or steak and vegetable soup for me
• Curry with egg fried rice and cheesy naan bread for hubby, something with pork for me - any ideas? I can't quite decide but I have two pork steaks to use up in the freezer
• Turkey meatballs with spaghetti in a tomato sauce

Lots of lovely warming meals as the weather is supposed to turn after today (I'm taking advantage of late September sun to dry our bedsheets before having to wait a million days for them to dry on the airer for the rest of Autumn/Winter) and get back to being cold and rainy.

On that note I'm also setting aside some time to bake some gingerbread, possibly covered with Nutella for an extra naughty note of yumminess.

I'm linked up to Mrs M so head on over there for more meal ideas.

Hope everyone else has a lovely week. Let me know what you're cooking this week in the comments below. Don't forget to comment if you have any ideas what I can do with my pork!

Recipe binder: pizza

Over the last year or so we've slowly scaled back our pizza night from take away to shop bought, to pizza base and just added stuff (so half home made) to completely home made. A friend lent me Lorraine Pascale's cook book and I came across this pizza base recipe and decided to give it a go after hubby kept asking for stuffed crust pizzas. It's actually really simple and yummier than anything from a shop.

What you need;

• 250g strong white bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fast acting yeast powder
• 125-140ml warm water
• 30ml olive oil

What do to;

• Mix the flour and yeast powder together in a bowl, make a well in the middle
• Mix with olive oil and warm water together
• Pour into the well
• Mix together until you have a soft - but not sticky - dough
• Knead for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface (or 5 mins in an electronic kneading)
• Gather into a ball
• Roll out on a lightly floured baking tray
• Add tomato purée and cheese and other toppings
• Roll the edges over and press them down if you're doing a stuffed crust
• Cook for 15 minutes, gas mark 7

Ideas for toppings;

• Meaty - sausage, bacon/turkey bacon, ham, chorizo, chicken pieces, meatballs
• Mushrooms
• Olives
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Sweetcorn
• Peppers
• Courgette
• Aubergine
• Seasoning - BBQ, chorizo

What are your favourite pizza toppings? And are you a stuffed crust or flat base fan?

Recipe Binder: Quiche

This summer I have absolutely been loving quiche as a quick, light meal option. When Bubbah was little my mum taught me how to make one from scratch and since then I can't stand shop bought ones. Hubby is also a massive fan of my quiche and will quite often request one. You can have a variety of fillings once you've made up the base, which also makes this a brilliant versatile recipe. This recipe makes one quiche which can be cut into four big portions or eight smaller ones.

You will need

• 250g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 300ml single cream
• 3 eggs
• filling of choice
• cheese

What to do

• Rub together the flour and butter in a bowl until it is like breadcrumbs
• Either roll out or (if you're a bit of a quick cook like me) press into flan dish
• Poke with a fork (or the pastry can go a bit soggy in the oven)
• Mix together the cream and eggs, season with pepper if you like
• Layer your filling on the pastry
• Pour the cream and egg mix on top
• Cover with grated cheese
• Cook for 25-30 mins on gas mark 6

Filling ideas

• Bacon
• Tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Sweetcorn
• Chorizo

One of my favourite things about this recipe is that you can freeze whatever you don't eat. Frozen quiche slices take about four minutes at most to heat through in the microwave, or slightly longer 15/20 minutes in the oven. Quite often I make myself quiche Lorraine and Hubby has a veggie one. I serve up our dinner slices and freeze the rest for a quick dinner another night. Great served with new potatoes, potato salad, wedges, salad or coleslaw.

Meal Planning Monday; 26th August 2013

Happy bank holiday! I've had a lovely day today with my morning spent baby free food shopping and lunch with my mum followed by a nice family afternoon walk in the woods after Bubbah finally had his nap. While hubby is cocooned off with his dad watching football I'm curled up in the living room with some cloudy lemonade, hot chocolate (I couldn't choose!) and Benefits Britain 1949.

Quick side note; has anyone been watching Benefits Britain 1949? I've genuinely been fascinated, humbled and annoyed with every episode. I think Channel 4 has genuinely struck a decent balance between making a point and providing something interesting. Let me know what you think!

This week is a quiet week, getting things back to normal as school terms start and all the summer programmes Bubbah and I have been enjoying over the last few months finish up. A trip to the children's centre for one last play session and a library visit are in order, but otherwise a quiet week with lots of cooking/baking included.

A pretty basic meal plan this week as it's the week before pay day but yummy nonetheless...

• Monday - peppercorn kievs with cheesy potato and bacon bake (all from the reduces/whoopsie aisle when I went shopping this morning) and cauliflower. Also found some choux buns in said aisle so we had those as a treat.
• Tuesday - I'm out all day so hubby will be having curry from a batch I made last week (recipe to follow) and I'll have tuna pasta bake when I get back
• Wednesday - I'm out again so hubby will have veggie fingers with sweet potato wedges
• Thursday - I'll be making quiche Lorraine for me and Bubbah and tomato and mushroom quiche for hubby which I'll serve with sweet potato wedges
• Friday - a friend lent me one of Lorraine Pascale's books and I've been making stuffed crust pizzas using the pizza base recipe in it with a meaty one for me and a veg loaded one for hubby.
• Saturday - lasagne
• Sunday - toad in the hole with roasties, veg and stuffing.

And that's our week. For more meal plan inspiration head on over to Mrs M.

Unexpected hiatus; my return

Oops, naughty me for disappearing for so long! I can honestly say there's no reason other than being busy with life/summer! Bubbah and I have been taking great advantage of the gorgeous weather and spending as much time as possible out and about.

 Things have been a bit more difficult recently so we've had to do some belt tightening. Thankfully our children's centre has had a lovely summer programme of free play sessions which Bubbah has loved as it meant he's been able to squidge his hands in paint and smear it all over the paper, which was a new experience for him!

 Belt tightening has meant I've made a few new found friends in charity shops and bargain shops (think home bargains, b&m bargains etc) resulting in me being super organised and having all of Bubbah's Christmas and birthday presents, as well as all of my nieces and nephew's Christmas presents, my nephew's birthday present and numerous friend/family Christmas presents sorted. My little present stash area is overflowing but I feel a lot less stressed knowing most of it is sorted.

 It's been lovely thinking back to last summer and just how much Bubbah has changed. He's now walking, talking (loads) and making animal noises to his hearts content. He's also developed a kissy face which looks like he's sucking a lemon and that is what I'm greeted with every morning when he wakes up - any time from half 5 to half 7 - and I go in to his bedroom.

I've got myself more organised (for once) so I should be on here more often and plan to be joining in with Mrs M's meal planning Monday's once more. I've also got a few new recipes up my sleeve so keep your eyes peeled!

Meal Planning Monday; 27th May 2013

Happy bank holiday! I have loved the day or so of sun we've had this weekend. It's been so nice after a week of rain to actually be able to get out of the house, even if it's just into the back garden. I'm generally walking around in a bit of a half asleep daze at the moment as Bubbah is teething awfully and waking up anywhere between half 5 and 6am and being crabby the majority of the day. However I did come across an old picture from the start of the year which was a lovely one of us which cheered me up a bit...

My make up course has finished now and I used my new found skills on a date night to see the Great Gatsby with hubby on Saturday night. Thoroughly enjoyed it. As expected, Baz Luhrmann's version is visually amazing and, of course, Leonardo DiCaprio was wonderful in it.

But enough of that! I've been absent meal planning wise due to teething issues as previously mentioned and because our meal plans have been a bit boring/spontaneous. However I've got back into the swing of things and we have a nice, if somewhat split, meal plan for this week.

• Pie (steak and kidney for me, chicken and mushroom for hubby), potato croquettes, stuffing, yorkshire puddings and veg
• fish pie for me and bubbah
• cheesy meat pasta bake (bacon and sausages)
• jerk chicken
• chicken tikka masala/veg masala for hubby
• veg pasta bake for hubby
• stuffed peppers for hubby and bolognaise bake for me
• soup for hubby and leftover fish pie/pasta bake for me

I told you things were a bit split! As it's half term this week and not much is planned beyond returning Bubbah's library books and visiting my mum I'll quite possibly do some baking. Probably cake knowing me!

As usual I've linked up to Mrs M so mosey on over there to see what everyone else is cooking this week. Hope everyone has a lovely week!

Jerk chicken with rice and peas

This dish was the last week of my Cooking Around the World course. I've always loved Caribbean food's smell (I used to babysit for a family whose dad would cook said food before going to work for the kids' tea, just walking into the house made me hungry!) but have never known/been brave enough to try it. I thought it would be really hard. This dish is simple enough to brave a new meal but complex enough (courtesy of the jerk marinade) to amaze people. This was requested numerous times in the weeks after I brought it home and will probably make its way onto a meal plan in the near future.

·         1 chicken thigh (although other pieces of chicken such as breast can be used)

Jerk marinade;

·         Small amount of spring onions, roughly chopped

·         Small, finger sized piece of ginger, roughly chopped

·         1 garlic clove

·         ¼ small onion

·         ½ chilli (deseeded if you want less heat)

·         ¼ teaspoon dried thyme

·         Juice ¼ lime

·         2 tbsp soy sauce

·         ½ tablespoon vegetable oil

·         1tbsp brown sugar

·         ¼ tbsp ground allspice

Rice and peas

·         50g basmati rice

·         100g can coconut milk

·         Small bunch of spring onions, slices

·         ½ tspn dried thyme

·         1 garlic glove finely chopped

·         ¼ tsp ground allspice

·         ¼ can kidney beans, drained.

To make the jerk marinade, blend or dice all ingredients very finely and mix together. Taste the mixture – it should taste pretty salty but not unpleasantly so. To make it spicier add more chillies, the make it less salty and sour add more brown sugar. Make a few slashes in the chicken and pour the marinade over the meat, rubbing it into all the crevices. Cover and marinate overnight.

To cook, heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4. Put in a roasting tin with lime halves and cook for 45 minutes until tender and cooked through.

Prepare the rice and peas while the chicken is cooking. Rinse the rice in plenty of cold water, then tip into a large saucepan with the remaining ingredients except the kidney beans. Season as required, add 75ml cold water and set over a high heat. Once the rice begins to boil, turn it down to a medium heat, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes. Add the beans to the rice then cover with a lid. Leave off the heat for 5 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.

Thai prawn curry with fragrant rice, cucumber salad and peachy dessert

As promised quite a while ago now, here is one of the recipes from my Cooking Around the World course. This was, obviously, Thai week and went down well, even with my fish hating hubby! There's a lot of ingredients but don't let that put you off by any means as it's actually fairly simple, just a tiny bit time consuming with all the chopping (any helpers you can draft in for prep will only be to your benefit) but it's definitely worth it!

Curry

·         1 stalk of lemongrass

·         ½ fresh red chilli

·         1 clove of garlic

·         A bunch of fresh coriander

·         1 jarred red pepper in oil

·         ½ heaped teaspoon tomato puree

·         ½ tablespoon fish sauce

·         1 tablespoon soy sauce

·         ½ teaspoon sesame oil

·         1cm piece of fresh ginger

·         Handful of sugar snap peas

·         3-4 oz small cooked prawns

·         1.3 400g tin of coconut milk

Rice

·         ½ mug of basmati rice

·         Olive oil

·         1 mug boiling water

Cucumber salad

·         1cm fresh ginger

·         ½ tablespoon soy sauce

·         ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

·         1 teaspoon sesame oil

·         Juice of ½ lime

·         Cucumber

·         Coriander

·         1/3 a chilli

Peachy dessert

·         Peaches

·         Greek yoghurt

·         Lime zest mint leaves

·         Macaroons

Cucumber salad:

Peel and grate the ginger on a serving platter and add soy sauce, olive oil and sesame oil. Squeeze in the lime juice. Peel the cucumber in long ribbons and discard the watery core. Take a small handful of coriander and finely chop the stalks. Sprinkle the stalks over the cucumber. Chop the chilli and sprinkle over. Put to one side (toss and dress when ready to eat)

Jasmine rice

Put a medium saucepan on medium heat. Add the rice, salt, a splash of olive oil and the boiling water. Cover and cook for 7 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to steam with the lid on for 7 minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork when cooked and serve with the prawns.

Red curry

Put a frying pan on medium heat. Trim the ends and tough outer leaves on the lemongrass stalks, cut into chunks then put into a food processor with the red chilli, garlic, coriander, red peppers, tomato puree, fish sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil. (To blend better, add some of the coconut milk – approximately 3 tablespoons) Peel and add the ginger. Blitz to a paste. Drizzle some olive oil into the hot frying pan and then the curry pasta and fry for 1-2 minutes. Then add in the coconut milk and gently simmer (if not included it in the blending process). Gently simmer and add seasoning if required. Add sugar snap peas and prawns. Cook for a couple of minutes. To serve, scatter with coriander leaves.

Peachy dessert

Add some peach slices to a bowl. Add Greek yoghurt and grate over some lime zest. Tear a few mint leaves and serve with almond macaroons.

Meal Planning Monday; 13th May 2013

Happy meal planning Monday everyone! I was absent last week partially due to the bank holiday but also because the entire household got struck down with one of those vile 24 hour bugs, starting with Bubbah and ending with the in-laws. Safe to say, logging onto a laptop and thinking, let alone typing, was the last thing I felt like!

We managed to enjoy a nice weekend where nobody was ill. I took Bubbah to visit my mum as my brother was over with his family. We took advantage of the sun and spent some time in the garden where the sand pit and water table were thoroughly enjoyed by Bubbah, my niece and my nephew.

It was also an early celebration of my niece's birthday (next weekend) as we won't be seeing her until a good two/three weeks after her actual birthday. She picked a cake and opened presents from us all including good ol' Elefun!

This week we've got some pretty basic meals as I'm fairly busy this week with my make up course on Thursday and my mum's birthday on Wednesday. My plan seems to have predicted the weather as most of my food is not that summery...

• bolognaise bake (recipe to be blogged later)
• sausage casserole/pasta bake
• nandos or bbq chicken with home made potato slices
• mac n cheese
• cottage pie
• possibly dinner at my dad's

And that's the meal plan. Simple as possible. I'm linked up to Mrs M's meal plan linky so have a nosey over there for further inspiration.

Meal Planning Monday; 29th April 2013

Happy Monday everyone! I've been enjoying a very social week with two courses (with Bubbah in crèche  albiet somewhat reluctantly on his part thanks to a spout of separation anxiety) at the local children's centre, a gorgeous sunny afternoon in the park (which resulted in me having sunburn on my back, ouch!) and a visit to a stay and play group where Bubbah walked up to a little girl his age and kissed her on the cheek! As such I've been so busy that not many pictures have been taken so apologies for the text heavy post!

Last week went pretty well although the next two weeks of meal planning will be pretty simple as we're on a strict budget courtesy of hubby switching from agency worker to proper employee, meaning we're on a monthly pay rather than a weekly one. Thankfully we have a lot of stock cupboard supplies including lots of rice, pasta and lasagne sheets.

We've also had our sideboard delivered and put together (the joys of flat pack) and Bubbah is thoroughly enjoying going through the cupboards and drawers on it as well as trying to colour in anything possible with the crayons he's finally taken an interest in.

Last week's cooking lesson was cod in white wine with linguine and fresh basil. I've also started a skincare and make up course (how amazing are children centres!) where I learnt that...I knew nothing! I invested in some new skincare and make up stuff from Benefit and have managed to stick to it for...oh two days now! I'll let you know how good I am in keeping it up as the course is on for a few more weeks.


Anyway, all that aside, let's get on with this week's meal plan...

• lasagne
• toad in the hole (probably mini ones rather than a big one)
• vegetable soup, or throw in some sausages and turn it into casserole
• fish pie
• macaroni cheese with bacon and three veg
• risotto
• Nando's lemon and herb chicken (they've released a seasoning kit to do your own and I had to try it)

I just hope there's room in the freezer as most of these get batch cooked! That or I'll have some hearty leftover lunches in the week!

The lovely Mrs M is hosting the meal planning week as usual this week so check it out for more ideas.

Meal Planning Monday: 22nd April 2013

And it's another week, another meal plan! I'm absolutely loving being back on my cooking around the world course. We ended up doing Greek and made moussaka with spinach and feta cheese filo parcels. Hubby was the tester (as I'm not keen on either dish) and declared it "too Greek" for him due to the amount of cinnamon they use!

This week's lesson is Italian, although the dish is to be revealed as the teacher recognised me and vowed to change the meal from last time to keep it interesting for me (which was a shame as I loved the salmon linguine we did previously) so that shall be interesting. Hopefully I'll be able to get online this week and post both the Greek and Italian recipes for anyone who wants them.

We had a lovely weekend and took full advantage of the sunshine with the local farmer's market (fresh bread and free samples of various sausages including Moroccan lamb!)  and saved about £15 on our normal supermarket shop as a result. I snapped up some scrummy looking cupcakes and took them with us when we went to my dad's where my brother and his brood were also visiting. We took Bubbah to the park where aside from one minor incident with a too big for his boots 12 year old who said the wrong thing in ear shot of me (Twitter for those who want to know in detail) we all had a lovely time and the kids promptly tired themselves out!

Bubbah and my niece

Bubbah has entered a new stage I've dubbed "the destruction phase" It pretty much goes something like this: Bubbah enters room, sees toys/books/clothes cupboard all nice and tidy and pulls it all apart, throwing it around him until within the space of literally a few minutes you end up with this:

Lovely!


Anyway, this week's meal plan is a bit up in the air as I've been feeling somewhat uninspired. I hope to bake some biscuits and a batch of chocolate fudge honeycomb cupcakes (which are as amazing as they sound and not sickly at all) but meal wise I know the following for definite...

• spaghetti carbonara using up leftover sauce from Sunday night's where I made too much sauce when we had a friend over for dinner
• something with sausages in, possibly toad in the hole as I didn't make it last week
• gammon (from the market) and home made chips
• my mystery Italian dish from cooking class
• Pizza with home made chips
• Risotto or a pasta bake depending on how lazy I feel come Saturday!

And that's my rough, quickly put together meal plan! For some more organised meal plans, pop on over to Mrs M to see what everyone else has planned this week. Have a good week!

Recipe binder: cheesy cottage pie

This has been on my meal plan posts for a couple of weeks now and I promised a recipe for it so here you go...

Cheesy cottage pie

What you need:

• 400-500g beef mince
• 3-4 potatoes (depending on size, if they're big go with three, but be prepared for more)
• Beef/meat gravy
• Butter
• Cheese of your choice

What you do:

• Peel and chop potatoes into small pieces (so they cook through quicker)
• Make up gravy (I like mine thick) and boil potatoes
• Brown the mince and then add in the gravy
• Allow to cook for a few minutes so that...
• ...you can make up the mash! (I use just butter but you can use milk/cream if you wish)
• Take mince off the hob and spoon into a casserole dish
• Top with the mash, run fork over mash (this helps it go crispy)
• Cook for 20 minutes gas mark 6
• Remove from the oven and top with grated cheese
• Cook for a further 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and/or the potato topping has going crispy
• Serve with veg or just eat by itself

Meal Planning Monday; 15th April 2013

Goodness me is that sun I see out of my window this morning! Last week was quite nice and relaxed with very little to do except enjoy the sunshine and have Bubbah weighed. Hubby got promoted from agency worker to a proper permanent employee of his company (hurray) which means, among other things that he now actually gets a pension. So we ended up having a cinema date and Indian take away over the weekend to celebrate (we saw A Place Beyond The Pines which was, it has to be said, rather depressing as much as Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper are both lovely to look at and good actors) said promotion.

This week we're starting to get back into the swing of things. I start a cookery course this Wednesday (cooking around the world) so Bubbah will be in crèche for a few hours. I'm also taking him to get his feet measured again as I suspect he needs new shoes already despite getting new ones less than two months ago. Hopefully it will be sunny and we can enjoy warmth when we go out rather than being pelted with rain. Bubbah has some sunglasses at the ready, just in case...

This week's meal plan is pretty simple and batch cooking friendly:

• Pizza with garlic bread
• Toad in the hole (I may make mini ones)
• Mac n cheese
• Tuna pasta bake or caluiflower and broccoli cheese depending on preference
• Salmon linguine with home made pesto
• Risotto

Baking this week will be:

• blueberry fairy cakes
• caramel muffins (a hummingbird bakery recipe I've been desperate to try)
• possibly some shortbread

I'll be linked up to Mrs M so for what everyone else is cooking this week head on over there and have a read through for inspiration.

Meal Planning Monday; 8th April 2013

Ooops! I completely forgot to link up last week's meal plan to Mrs M but I promise you I kept to it, more or less!

It's been somewhat uneventful here, I've been hibernating as school holiday business drives me insane and makes me loathe to leave the house any more than necessary. Bubbah had a play date mid-week and that's been pretty much it. Oh, except Saturday where we went into Welwyn Garden and visited the market that was on there. We also had lunch at Ask where Bubbah quite happily acquainted himself with spaghetti carbonara...

Clearly it doesn't take much to impress me because one visit to the fruit and veg stall later and I was enthusing to my bemused husband about how amazing it was. To be fair, I got a huge punnet (400g) of strawberries, a punnet of raspberries, grapes and 100g of mushrooms for £4. Please tell me I'm not the only one impressed with that! To compare; 400g of strawberries from a supermarket is usually between £2 and £4 depending on brand/offers.

This week is quite plan light as well, although Bubbah has a doctor's appointment this afternoon courtesy of a horrid cough (think smoker's cough for example of the noise) that's stubbornly refusing to shift itself and keeping him (and me!) up all night.

Our meal plan is full of big cooks that will fill up the freezer quite happily...

• veg lasagne for hubby (who insisted that I make it again after having it last week)
• Quiche lorraine for me after picking up some really good quality bacon from the butchers at the Welwyn market
•  Cottage pie - I made this last week instead of lasagne for myself and it was SO tasty I decided to repeat it.

My cottage pie complete with cheesy coating

• Pizza and garlic bread, possibly with curly fries
• Pigs in blankets with curly fries or home made chips depending on my mood
• Mac n cheese
• Chilli sin carne (no meat chilli) for hubby
• Spinach and tomato quiche - made up in advance for all of hubby's lunches

This time I'm linked up to Mrs M, I promise!

Meal Planning Monday; 1st April 2013

Goodness me, a bank holiday AND April Fool's day all in one! A lovely Easter weekend has been had with lots of family time and time with friends too (I didn't have to cook three days in a row; it was wonderful!) Hubby and I even managed to squeeze in a date night too for the first time in about three weeks and saw GI Joe: Retaliation where I was one of three women in the cinema! Great film and one I'd recommend. Bubbah got hold of a pair of our 3d glasses too...

Last week I had a meal plan, I just didn't post it. I forgot my laptop when I came back from staying at my mum's and had to go and get it and then, well, life happened I guess and I barely had time to sit down!


This week our plan is pretty simple...

• fajitas with sausages for me and lots of veg in general served with home made potato slices
• risotto
• lasagne
• chicken tikka with home made naan bread
• sausage casserole
• mac n cheese

Nice and simple with some old favourites! How was everyone's Easter weekend? As usual I'm linked up to Mrs M so head on over there and see what everyone's got planned for their eats this week.

Meal Planning Monday; 18th March 2013

Goodness me if this year flies by any quicker I think it's going to be Christmas sooner than we think! I seriously keep thinking it's February, or even January! However my calender firmly insists that we're in March. Which promptly leads me to complain about the lack of lovely sun coming back. It's Spring; I want pretty daffodils and sunny days please, not freezing wind and drenching rain every time I step outside the front door!


To cheer myself up I treated myself to some Next homeware (guilt pleasure, and Next does such lovely stuff) to a MASSIVE mug for my hot chocolates (no other hot drinks need apply)

I love yellow and it never fails to give me a burst of happiness. That coupled with the cute bird design and "hello sunshine" writing (I call Bubbah sunshine when he wakes up so I felt it appropriate for a mug to wake me up with a similar message) made me crave to own this mug.

The last week our meal plan has gone pretty well. The mince I bought I ended up making a massive batch of spag bol with as it was easier and I fancied it over rissoles  I even managed to wangle a roast dinner for myself and Bubbah at my mum's on Saturday, cooked by my sister in law as my brother and co. were visiting. Bubbah is fascinated by his cousins and will just stand there staring at them for ages in silence before suddenly emitting an ear piercing scream of excitement!


I have also spent this week introducing the concept of a fork to Bubbah, which he seems to have taken to quite quickly. I managed to get a Mr Happy set of cutlery for him to experiment with.

This week our meal plan is partly made up of regular meals and the reappearance of a few old favourites! In a spate of being organised I bought a specific meal planning/shopping list note book after getting tired of writing lists on random note pads we have lying around and then losing them and ending up with about five copies of the same list!


Our meal plan this week:

• Cheesy chicken pasta. An oldy but a goodie with lots of extra veg (peas, mushrooms and sweetcorn normally, but I am debating about adding carrots)
• Steak casserole for me; veg soup for hubby who will be on a fast day
• Home made pizza
• Quiche (Lorraine for me, spinach and tomato for hubby) although hubby will have his for lunch and have veg soup for his second fast day.
• Rissotto - I'm thinking mushroom made with veg stock but I could easily change my mind!
• Freezer meal - mac n cheese for hubby and either a spag bol/lamb casserole for me

And that's our meal plan this week! As always, I'm linked up to Mrs M so pop on over there to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Meal Planning Monday; 11th March 2013

Happy Monday everyone! I hope any mummy reader's had a lovely day yesterday and were thoroughly treated :) Bubbah treated me to an hour lie in and lovely cuddles before he bit my chin!

So moving went quite well, I managed to unpack everything bar a massive bag of DVDs and put it all away within the first half of the week (spending about an hour last Sunday making the living room area suitable for Bubbah to be unleashed into the next morning) and thankfully Bubbah settled in very well indeed; even sleeping through a couple of nights which is a extremely rare event!

Halfway through unpacking

We had a busy week last week with Bubbah's jabs (whereupon he screamed for ten minutes and could be heard in the waiting room), unpacking and general sort out and various visiting around to family, friends and playgroup. Bubbah and I have also managed to come down with a horrible cold.

Finally organised!

That said, our meal plan went pretty much, well, to plan! Toad in the hole was replaced by sausage casserole but that was the only swap about. I also managed to make some cupcakes  and it'll be interesting to see if they've lasted the weekend!


Our meal plan this week is more of the same with lots of lovely warming food that requires little effort and can build a bit of a stock pile in the freezer we share with hubby's parents. I'm also planning on baking MORE cakes at some point during the week, possibly Monday as I'm visiting my dad and staying for dinner to give my step-mum a mother's day card from Bubbah.


This week, our meal plan consists of;

• mac n cheese (again!) with various veg thrown in for a lovely health kick
• home made pizza with curly fries and garlic bread (and salad for hubby)
• chicken casserole or pasta bake, depending on mood
• some sort of mince dish, perhaps beef rissoles or spag bol for me and Bubbah
• dinner at dad's so hubby will have to dig out some mac n cheese from the freezer or join his parent's meal for the night
• steak casserole for me and Bubbah
• veg soup twice in the week for hubby's fast days

And that is our week! What's everyone else got planned? If you're stuck for inspiration head on over to Mrs M and see what everyone else has planned for their meal plans this week.