Mud Cakes and Wine

The meal plan is a little late as to be honest the last few days the last thing I have wanted to think about was food. We had no idea what we wanted to eat so late last night Mr MC&W and I tried to get a few meal ideas to get us through till new years day. Friday - We had turkey curry we got a sauce form the supermarket and some microwavable rice and the boys had the same. Saturday - Chicken Cesar salad the boys wanted spaghetti hoops and I said that's fine will have it with lots of cheese and salad bits Sunday - Ham Hock Burgers - I will use the left over gammon. The boys will have quorn nuggets, mash and peas Ham hock burgers   Monday - NYE we will have pizza and wedges followed by cheese and lots of prosecco. The boys will also have pizza and salad. Tuesday - Roast beef served on large Yorkshire pudding with roast pots, carrots and peas for us all. Wednesday - Gionos Healthy Spinach and Courgette Frittata. I add some potato to this for a little extra. The boys ...

O nce upon a time a few days before Christmas.... A stressed mother was dragging three children to the garden centre to buying kindling so they would stay warm over the cold winter week. When she happened to see a poor Christmas tree all alone when all others had been sold. The kind mother walked over to the tree and up bounded the salesman its yours for 10.00 The mother could not leave the tree there all alone so had to buy it, in her carriage it went. On getting home she noticed it had soaked her carriage boot where it had been sitting. She quickly removed the cable tie and red plastic packaging. The Little Christmas tree was drowning in thick, waterlogged mud,  no wonder her boot was soaked . The mother ran to her shed full of bikes and scooters, after rummaging around for what felt like a year, she found a largish pot and found some compost, it was all the poor mother could find so had to do.  The sad little Christmas tree was re potted.  We are...

So we have made it, the children have finished school and we are on the countdown to Christmas Day. I have ordered a few treats but not too many and we have lots of more savoury snacks arriving than sweet ones.  Friday - Scampi and Chips or myself and Mr MC&W the boys will have quorn nuggets, mash and peas Saturday - Sticky Chinese Chicken Sticky chinese chicken traybake Sunday - We are having a Charlie Bigham beef Stroganoff. Fish, Chips and Peas for the boys. Monday - Curry this is Mr MC&W family tradition again this is a lazy one thanks to Charlie Bigham as this festive break needs to give us all a chance to have time off. I made the mistake of asking the boys and they chose pizza Tuesday - Roast Turkey - we have a boned and rolled turkey breast served with roast potatoes, parsnips, honey baked carrots, red cabbage, sprouts and Broccoli. Plus the normal pigs in blankets and devils on horseback's all served with a lot of gravy Wednesday - Left overs I have...

I am trying to get my head around Christmas and the meals we will be having. This has only been achieved thanks to a lot of tea. School breaks and an I think we all are in desperate need of a break form it all. Friday - Its my birthday so take way for us. The boys will have tortellini as its Christmas lunch at school and I never know how much they will eat. Saturday - Spag Bol for us all Sunday - Family round so we have beef burgers and quorn burgers with chips and salad. Monday - Neapolitan rice salad from Gino's Healthy Italian cookbook for Mr MC&W and I after a weekend of rather large meals. The boys will have chicken goujons, beans, mash and broccoli Tuesday  - Jacket potatoes with cheese, beans and eggs Wednesday - Chicken Kiev with new pots and salad the boys will have pizza Thursday - Taco Thursday with all the sides you could imagine

What a week, we had all three children doing a play last week and each one was on a different day. I am shattered but they were all amazing (proud Mummy alert). The weather has been plain miserable so it is a week of pure comfort food this week.  Friday - Smoked Mackerel Salad for Mr MC&W and I. The boys will have MacDonald's as they all did so well this week and deserved a treat. I will write this one up on the blog as it has evolved from a few ideas into one big salad. Saturday - Burger night for us. The boys will have quorn burgers the chicken style one with a choice of lettuce and tomatoes to go with it. We will have southern fried chicken (thanks Birds Eye) with avocado and a yogurt dressing served with salad and wedges Sunday - Sausage Casserole with jackets Monday - Tuna Pasta bake - we add peppers, mushrooms and onions. The boys have sweetcorn and peas. Tuesday - Pizza and chips - brought in not homemade Wednesday - Slow Cooker Butter Chicken Slow c...

How did it get to the 30th November?? the next week or two are just full of school plays and events and meetings. So I need to be organised at least with the meals. Friday - Pizza for the boys and myself. Mr MC&W will have a microwavable curry as we have the school disco and that means the two of us driving up and down to school approx 4 times in round 2 hours!!!! They have sweets at the disco and we will be trying to sort Ollie's levels out for the rest of the night. Saturday - Fajitas for Mr MC&W and I. The boys will have fish, Chips and Peas Sunday - Slow roast Lamb shanks for lunch with roasts and carrots and green veggies Monday - Spice Honey Salmon with Couscous with roasted veg. The boys will have omelette's and chips Spice and honey salmon with couscous Tuesday - Gnocchi with broccoli and mushrooms for us all. This is from the Madhouse Cookbook by Jo Pratt Wednesday - Shepard's Pie Jackets served with peas for us all Shepherds Pie Jackets T...

It has been a long old week, Mr MC&W has been away in India since Saturday and I have been solo parenting. This is fine, the hardest part is all the type 1 decisions I am making on my own with out him to talk it over with. This week is not too heavy food as he has informed me all he has done is eaten three course meals for lunch and dinner. Friday - Chicken Cesar Salad for us as it is a light and fresh meal. The boys are having fish and chips as last week they had McDonald's aster the eldest had an accident at school. Saturday - Spag Bol for us all Sunday - Quorn dippers, mash and veggies for the boys and we are having a fish and lentil dish this one is so simple and tasty Braised peas with bacon lentils-and-cod Monday - Spinach and Courgette Fritatta with salad this is from Ginos Healthy Italian. The boys will have tomato soup with rolls Tuesday - Maple Glazed Sausages in rolls with wedges. The boys will have spaghetti in a homemade tomato sauce and cheese Maple ...

We have done very well on the food waste side this week and used up everything which is good. This week is a little crazy with appointments and Mr MC&W being busy at work so the meals are simple to cook and everyone will eat them. Friday - Scampi and Chips for Mr MC&W and I. The boys will have fish and chips Saturday - Quorn Burgers and Salad Sunday - Sausage Casserole and Jackets Monday - Oven Baked Risotto, will be roughly based on this Oven baked risotto Tuesday - Taco Tuesday as the boys like to call it served with lettuce, tomatoes, natural yogurt and some cheese the boys can choose what they want to add Wednesday - Ham, Egg and Chips Thursday - Pizza from frozen as we have a hospital apt that PM

It has been a busy time in the garden, with the leaves falling fast. Though this is now great fun as we treated ourselves to a leaf blower, I get to channel my inner ghost buster. As you can see I rock the glamorous leaf look. The cosmos have completely gone over so they have been pulled up and put into the brown bin. I had some help from my middle boy, he loved pulling the big plants up which was a joy to watch and very helpful. He takes after his mother and likes destructive gardening. We have increased the size of this border and added a fence to hide the oil tank. As it was just a space that was a pain to mow and serving no real purpose. We will add some stepping stones in so we can easily get behind the tank. The now much bigger border is wonderful but the ground needs a huge amount of work. I will be off to the garden centre for lots of manure and clay buster so it can work into the soil over the winter months and hopefully be much better in the spring. Thi...

We did well with the meal plan this week, though the slow cooker chicken somehow turned into a take away, but unfortunately they did not put the vegetable curry in so we wished we had stuck to to the slow cooker version.  We have no left over pots in the fridge which is a great place to be. as you can see I am using pesto in two meals to try and avoid waste. Friday - Pizza and salad for us all. Brought not homemade. Saturday - Chili done in the slow cooker served with nachos and dips Sunday - Roast Chicken Monday - Bacon, Mushroom and pesto Pasta Bacon and mushroom pasta Tuesday - Stuffed peppers from Ginos Healthy Italian. Tomato soup for the boys Wednesday - Toad in the hole Toad in the hole Thursday - Chicken, Mozzarella and pesto tarts - it says filo but i am going to use puff pastry and do the boys a puff pastry tart Chicken, mozzarella and pesto filo parcels

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas, the news headlines seem obsessed about how much was spent over Chritmas time and if it does not go up that is deemed as a failure, this has always seemed so wrong to me. Spending more each year is not what Christmas is about, this year I wanted to give more back. I was wondering how this was possible but then a tweet from katykicker popped up about #foodbankadvent and this was perfect. I spoke with a couple of friends about it and we are going to do it together so roughly 6 days each, but we may do more if we want to. We are going to hand it in early December Christmas so the food bank know what they have stock wise. We will be putting in in lots of lovely treats for Christmas these are a few examples Biscuits Chocolates Coffee Tea - ours currently has plenty so will check this again Hot chocolate and marshmallows Sanitary products - ours currently has plenty so will check again Shower gel, Deodorant, Shampoo and Conditioner Gra...

This year I started a little experiment by planting some Autumn flowering bulbs in pots, they are now starting to flower. It made me think about trying some winter flowers in baskets and pots this year. Firstly I decided to plant a hanging basket with some violas, I want bright pretty colours and loved the white and yellow. They were doing so well I thought it would be nice to do a few more. I chose Violas as I am not a massive fan of pansies. I love the small delicate flowers of the viola and the wonderful colours. I am not looking to do anything like I do over the summer but a couple of pots and baskets with some flowers would be very cheerful so I decided to give it a go. Our local garden centre was selling 4 packs of violas for 12.00 so I could not say no could I. I also picked up some wall flowers to try in one of the wall baskets, as I beleve they flower then stop and flower again in the spring. We shall see how these do and if they lift our mood...

I got a lot of people liking the sound of the samosa pie and I can confirm it was lovely. I was worried it would be too dry but the sweet potato ensured it was not. I also put the lamb mixture in the slow cooker and then finished of with the pastry in the oven.  I am in shock it is November and I found planning this weeks meals really hard it too me ages.  Friday - Fish, Chips and Peas for us all Saturday - Spag Bol for us all Sunday - Roast Rack of lamb for me and Mr MC&W and the boys will have roast chicken breast Monday - Cauliflower Cheese and Spinach Pasta bake. The boys will have cheesy pasta bake with out the cauliflower and spinach but will try some cauliflower on one side for them Cauliflower cheese and spinach pasta bakes Tuesday - Slow cooker chicken curry Slow cooker chicken curry Wednesday - Tacos made with quorn strips will put they family style with lettuce, salsa, cheese and sour cream so everyone can choose what they want. Thursday - Ba...

We are back after a few hectic days in North Devon and had to rush the first part of the meal plan. The weather has suddenly changed this weekend and wow we are feeling the cold. You will see the meals are changing to reflect this.  Friday - Pasta with mozzarella. Tomato Soup for the boys. Pasta with mozzarella mint and fresh tomato-sauce Saturday - Cesar Salad for myself and Mr MC&W the boys will have spaghetti with ham and peas and lots of cheese Sunday - Party for the middle boy. The others will have pizza and we will have salmon Mustardy salmon beetroot-lentils   Monday - Samosa Pie for us all with a carrot salad Samosa pie Ccarrot and cumin salad Tuesday - Baked Chicken and chicory with sage and mustard. This will use up some creme fraish. the boys will have chicken risotto Baked chicory with chicken in a sage and mustard sauce Wednesday - Smoked salmon and pea Frittata the boys will have this with ham Smoked salmon and pea frittata Thursda...