Mud Cakes and Wine

Last week while doing the weekly shop I was thinking about the joys of Saturday lunch, trying to find a meal that all four of us can eat which is also quick and easy to prepare. The change in the season has already had a large impact on the food I am cooking, the slow cooker is out for so many meals from Caribbean chicken to sausage casserole.  Then I walked past the humble butternut squash it's sweet so the boys would like it and they do so love soup add a bit of spice to make the husband happy. The soup bowls were empty and in ATM words it was lovely mummy so the recipe is as follows, you may want to increase the spices, I was trying to make sure it was OK for a 3 and 4 year old. 1 butternut squash peeled and cut into chunks 1 red onion peeled and cut into chunks 2 cloves of garlic whole and skin on 1 medium potato peeled and cut into chunks 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp coriander 1/2 tsp chili powder 1 tbsp olive oil 1 litre of vegetable stock Heat the ove...

I  know all parents struggle to find out about their children's days at school I talk with all my amazing friends who say they ask what they have done at school and get "humm can not remember" or "I did so much I can not remember" they all ask leading questions did you play with sand etc again nothing.  However I can not gleam anything, one day I thought I had cracked it "did you play with sand" I asked yes he replied OK I thought, did then do some counting? Yes came the reply OK thought mummy lets try a third was counting fun? Yes came the reply OK thinks mummy we have gotten three yes answers did you fly to the moon? Yes came the eager response. OK thinks mummy where do we go from here.  This is it, my wish from teachers, I know your busy you have lots of children and parents who all need your time and attention but I need to know something about my boys day. He goes to school at 9.30 I collect him at 2.30 and I will know nothing about the whole day ...

Thursday 4th September 2104 I have been finding food tough recently with a fussy eater to think about and being a little shattered food has slipped and all I want is easy meals. I had a good look through my books and found my woman's weekly slow cookbook which contained a few gems to at least try this week  Thursday - omelette's and chips for everyone lots of cheese and mushrooms and maybe I should throw in a little bit if salad Friday - Mexican meatballs I found this one in the book it said to serve with tortilla but I have gone for tortilla chips and going to make tiny meatballs.  Going to try out a little chili for the boys well spicy mince.  Saturday - having in laws over going to be lazy and get some ready made pies etc from Waitrose so we can all have a catch up Sunday - we are going to Richmond for a christening so it's a tesco meal deal that night as the next day is also OB first day at school Monday - waffles, poached eggs, oven roasted tomatoes ...

I am  not very good at making up recipes, I do tweak ones in books but that's mainly due to the fact I have forgotten something in the shop meaning I have to change bits. For lunch I was cooking the boys mini roast potatoes with a homemade tomato sauce, they always love this lunch but I for some reason had only done enough for a tiny serving for myself so needed to improvise. This is what I came up with and I must admit it was very very tasty. To prepare the mini roast potatoes most people would cut them not small chunks and roast them in the oven, to be honest I par boil mine for a couple of mins it's extra work but I think it makes them fluffy and lighter. Then pop them into pre heated olive oil and cook in the oven at 200 for approx 35 to 45 mins depending when crunchy and lightly roasted. I then made up a salad of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, peppers, grated carrot or what ever you have left in the fridge. I made up a small amount of mayonnaise mixed with yogurt and got out...

With everything going on I have discovered more and more the delights of our garden. The garden is a mess and it's taking a lot of back breaking work but it's just what I need at the moment, digging and then weeding you can get lost in everything. Most of the time I have my boys with me so have a combination of gardening and being invited to a tea party of muddy water and a mint and basil cake or pulling all the flowers from any shrub or rose and telling me it's party time. I thought I would post a few photos to show what we are working with and how we are moving forward, be it very slowly. A image of the borders I am trying to clear out. This is my amazing but very small part of our bramble jungle that needs to be gotten rid of, though not before we have lots of blackberrys to put into vodka. I also need to rescue our sloes from the brambles, need to get my prioritys right, sloe vodka is amazing. This is our front border at the moment, as you can see I need to continu...

Our meal plan for Thursday 28th August 2014. As mentioned we are starting from scratch with OB food to see where things are going wrong. Thursday - broccoli and mushroom gnocchi from the madhouse cook book by Jo Pratt - boys are having plain pasta with cheese grated on top carrots and broccoli Friday - Homemade Burgers with blue cheese - boys are having gnocchi with a tomato sauce but I will purée down the sauce so there are no bits. Saturday - fahitas - boys are having homemade pizza using left over sauce from yesterday. Sunday - lasagna Monday - Chicken Potato curry in a hurry again from the madhouse cookbook by Jo Pratt - boys are having mini roast chicken, roast potatoes, carrots and broccoli Tuesday - Jacket potato with tuna mayo or baked beans everyone is having this Wednesday - smoked salmon pasta - boys are having carbonara

It's been a long old week in our household and yet again it's food that is making us want to bury our heads in the sand. OB has always had issues around food mainly involving texture and the look. But now he has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes this means when I administer his insulin I need him to eat or he can hypo which means blood sugar running to low and he will not feel very well (putting it mildly). We inject before meals as it's to easy to forget after and I feel have your injection them yummy food is a good way round. So when you have given the injection and for the fourth day running he looks at the meals he normally eats says yuck and demands cake you wonder a few things. Is it the food are the issues regarding texture and look increasing or is he in fact thinking if I do not eat i get something sweet so let's cut straight to sweet or is this a normal child development and it's a phase. Tonight I got to a point we had given him his insulin and sat him ...