Mud Cakes and Wine

We have a manic week ahead of us with play dates, dentist appointments and the garden being finished. Lots of simple food is needed. Friday - Hot Dogs for us all Maple glazed hot dogs Saturday - Thai Curry - Ready made meal. Boys chicken fingers, chips and salad Sunday - Roast Beef Monday - Roasted Gnocchi - never tried this before. We will all have this. Roast mushroom gnocchi Tuesday - Fish, Rice and roasted vegetables. Sausages and beans with jackets for the boys. Wednesday - Chilli via the slow cooker. Going to try the boys on this one and we shall see Chilli Marrakech Thursday - Pie, new potatoes and salad. Nuggets, mash and peas for the boys.

I was given a lovely bag of soup vegetables from our local farm shop, Isfield Farm Shop, as part of a promotion. T here was a leek, beetroots, parsnip, carrots, potato. Mr MC&W does not like soup so I decided to see what we could use the veggies in our meals that week. Now you could easily increase the quantities and I am considering cooking this for Christmas, as it is a big bowl of tasty veggies cooked in one. Pre heat the oven  200 fan 180 Gas mark 6 1 Parsnip 2 Carrots 2 small beetroots - uncooked 2 teaspoons of honey 1 tablespoon of olive oil Squeeze of garlic paste or two cloves of garlic 50ml orange juice Peel and Cut the parsnips and carrots into batons  Peel the beetroot and cut into quarters Put the beetroot and carrots into a roasting tin with half the oil coat them well and roast for 20 Min's.  Add the parsnip and roast for another 10 Min's.  Take from the oven and mix in the honey, garlic, orange juice and oil and roa...

We have Grandma MC&W down this weekend, so its going to be all rather busy, but lots of fun for us all. The meal plan got rather late and ended up being a bit of a rush. Friday - Smoked Mackerel Salad with roasted new potatoes and beetroot. Boys will have a picnic dinner as it was fish and chips at school. Saturday - Ham, Egg and chips for us all Sunday - Roast Pork Monday - Puff Pastry Tart topped with aubergine, goats cheese the boys will have one with cheese Tuesday - Spicy Harissa Chicken. Boys chicken curry. spicy harissa chicken and lentils Wednesday - Tuna Pasta Bake Thursday - Mushroom Risotto

When the leaves start to fall from the trees you will hear a lot of gardening folk talking about making leaf mulch. From what I can gather, it is excellent for the soil, it can be used as top dressing in autumn and the worms will take it down into the soil over the winter, it is easy to make and free. So how easy is it to make? I decided to have a go. We have a couple of trees in the garden and I spend most of this time clearing leaves and putting them in the garden waste bin. So I thought I would try to make one bag of leaf mulch. According to the google searches, you need leaves, black bin bags, some water and a place to pop the bin bag full of leaves for a year or two. That is it in simple terms. But when reading more they kept saying the leaves needed to be shredded, hmm that is not as simple as I first thought. So I have swept up my leaves, yes you read that correctly, I swept up the leaves. I do most of the gardening with the toddler and an outside hard broom means i...

Yet another week has passed and I have no real idea where it went. The meal plan starts with ready meal after ready meal due to being rather busy. I always want this post to reflect the busy times we all have, the microwave will be working hard this weekend. Friday - It is the school disco, the boys are having picnic dinner. Mr MC&W and I will both be having a microwave meal, both of us will be sharing the driving and getting various children to bed. Saturday - Mr MC&W is going to the the rugby and will be no doubt eating burgers and drinking beer. The boys have requested pizza and I am going to have cannelloni via the microwave while watching strictly. Sunday - Moussaka thanks to charlie bigham with a large Greek salad. The boys will have sausages, beans and jacket potatoes Monday - Chicken Chow Mein Chicken chow mein Tuesday - Tomato, Mozzarella and spaghetti bake Tomato and mozzarella spaghetti bake Wednesday - Having a friend for tea so its pizza for the bo...

This week our local farm shop where I buy all our meat from started a promotion for 10% of vegetables when you brought your meat. This was started with a free soup bag, as you can see lots of lovely seasonal veggies.  Now the problem is Mr MC&W does not like soup that much, even as a warming lunch. So I got thinking, treat this bag as a use up and see how many recipes I could use bits with and cam up with this Friday - Scampi, Chips and peas, Boys had Fish and Chips at school so had picnic dinner Saturday - Lasagna - shop brought, Pizza for the boys Sunday - Roast Chicken served with honey roasted beetroot, Parsnips and Carrot, along with roast potaoes and broccoli Monday - Chestnut mushroom, Fennel and bacon Pasta . Bacon and tomato sauce pasta for the boys Chestnut mushroom fennel bacon fusilli Tuesday - Mango Chicken with Spiced Rice. Curry for the boys. Mango chicken with spiced pilau Wednesday - Leek, Mushroom and Goats Cheese Strudel. Torte...