Mud Cakes and Wine

  Oh my, we are so close to December and I am still so unorganized. A few new meals this week and some classic ones. But the meal plan is sorted. Normally now I would be doing a link to my post on Foodbank donations for December. This year we are being careful with going out so and I get all my shopping online so I will instead in early December make a donation via the foodbank website and they can get what's needed for Christmas. We will also be buying a couple of toys for our local children's charity. Friday - Pizza loaded Fries from Pinch of Nom looks amazing. Boys will have pizza and see if they like the look of this one. Saturday - Chicken Spicy Noodles for the boys and Pinch of Nom Hunters Chicken for us. Sunday - McDonald's for the boys as they had such awesome school reports. I found this pork dish that sounds lovely for dinner Braised pork chops with lentils Monday - Tortellini Pasta Bake - using extra veggies and pesto tasty and simple Tuesday - Spiced salmon Saga...

  Not sure why I have missed so many meal plans, it has been very last minute, and seems to be no time to write them up. But I need to get back into my old ways and get organized again especially with Christmas and we also have two birthdays to plan for. Being organized is the only way I make it through December. This week for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are easy meals as I have a parent-teacher chat each day and they are all around dinner time so need to be organized. Friday - Scampi and Chips for Mr MC&W and myself Fish Fingers and Chips for the boys. Saturday - Meatball Subs with mozzarella Sunday - Chicken Casserole with Dumplings Chicken red-wine casserole herby dumplings Monday - Creamy Pasta Creamy mushroom pasta Tuesday - Fish Cakes and Greens or Salad - Brought in not homemade Wednesday - Ham Pie this one we got as a mistake from Ocado so looking forward to trying it out. Thursday - Sausage Casserole with beans 

The weather is dull, cold, and grey so I have a cuppa, let's have a look back at the hanging baskets, with what worked and what did not. I had to but all my plants online this year from my local garden center this meant I had a few more petunias than I would normally have.  In baskets, there was Petunia Hot Pink, Purple, and Fanfare Red. The Pink and Purple did pretty well however the Red Fanfare was a total failure. I am not sure why, they just died. For the three-tier planter, two are Petunia Shockwave Denim and Deep Purple and Petunia Frenzy Pink. These did well to start with but then went downhill pretty fast. The bottom tier did nothing at all just sat there with a few flowers. The other two did ok but nothing I would get excited about. The wall baskets  This is the white one its Diascia White Blush, these were I am being very honest here, a disappointment this year which was gutting. I think I need to look into deadheading the Diascia as they ended up being brown sticks....

The meal plan has been pushed on the back burner for the last couple of weeks not sure why. But we are back and now with some full-on winter meals. Friday - Fish and Chips and peas for us all Saturday - Stand n Stuff Fajitas for us all Sunday - Meatballs for us all Monday - Smoked mackerel and beetroot salad for Mr. MC&W and myself the boys will have fish cakes beans and peas Tuesday - Sausage and fennel pasta bake the boys minus the fennel Wednesday - Cheick Kiev, new potatoes, and greens. Easy freezer meal. Thursday - Mushroom stroganoff with rice and sour cream. The boys like the sauce with pasta and some veggies, not mushrooms.