Just a quick one!

Well guess who went to bed last night after doing all the lunches, ironing uniform and sorting bags out so that all I needed to do was get up get dressed and get myself to the swimming baths as this week is the first week I planned to start my morning swimming.

Well I managed to start the day on the right foot, but just as about to leave the house I spot a pile of party invites on the armchair.... F#@%, at this point I realise I forgot to write my daughters party invites! So I stop and write them out, and by the time I finished I had ran out of time to go swimming.... Darn it!

Incredibly busy day at work won't bore you....

Got home, kids had eaten with in-laws and husband going out tonight, so I decided to make a dinner for myself with leftovers :-)

Grabbed an arm full of food out of fridge, roast lamb, red onion, sweet pepper, garlic, chopped tomatoes, coriander, chilli and spices, caramelised the veg in a frying pan, added lamb, spices, coriander and tomatoes, popped a bag of frozen rice in microwave and within 10 minutes, a lovely spicy lamb dish. Don't know what it's called, but it was yummy! 

One pot chicken!

YAY!!!!!
OK, so even though I was awful last week as far as my diet was concerned I managed to lose 1lb, now just remember small regular weight loss is easier to keep off, therefore I am aiming at 1lb a week so this morning I did a little victory dance around my scales and air punched (yes people I really did stand on my own in my bathroom and punch the air in victory).
I then set about in robot mode, pack lunches prepared, uniforms ironed, then I prepared dinner for that evening. Now tonight I chose a new recipe I have never tried before. It is from the Weightwatchers 'One pot meals' book. Mainly chosen for its simplicity. It took me 15 minutes this morning to prepare. It was 'Tray baked chicken and sweet potatoes', and was literally chicken and vegetables all together in a roasting dish that you pop in the oven. The most difficult part was the marinade, it stated to put the chicken in the marinade then leave in the fridge for an hour, but I decided as I was going to leave the whole thing in the fridge all day then I may as well give each piece of chicken a really good coating then put them straight in the tray. Then I just had to chop the various veg and throw those in with the chicken, I wrapped the roasting dish in cling film popped it in the fridge and then off I went to work.
Pretty good day all in all at work today, managed to strike some things off my to do list always a bonus. Left nearly on time..... give or take 30 minutes..... then called my husband on my way home to ask him to take the dinner out the fridge, give all food in the tray a good soaking with olive oil spray and put into the oven. By the time I got home 45 minutes later, it was cooked and as I opened the front door the smells that greeted me were gorgeous :-)



I really enjoyed it, the chicken was juicy as was the vegetables, roasted and sweet and juicy from cooking in the chicken juices. However my children loved the chicken but were not so keen on the vegetables, they ate them but under duress. My eldest told me the chicken was yummy but she thought the vegetables were too sweet and didn't like it, my youngest said the chicken was great but the rest yucky (she never holds back), when I said she could not have anything else to eat the little monster replied "well if you made food I liked then I would eat it"..... she gave a giggle and ran away... got to love her honesty! So I let her have an orange :-) My husband liked it too, he loved the vegetables but thought the chicken a little bland, which I think he has a point with.
So would I cook the meal again?... yes!
Would I cook it the same way?.....no!
I think next time I will mix normal potatoes in for the children as they were not keen on the sweet potatoes, and maybe some tomatoes for them. I will also add more spice into the marinade (paprika), to give it a bit more punch. It was a good hearty healthy meal that was very simple to prepare and easy to cook, perfect for busy families.

Falling off the food wagon

I have had the worst food weekend for awhile "gulp". OK it started on Thursday (I know not technically the weekend). I had my annual appointment with my Ankylosing spondylitis consultant, it went incredibly well!! My body measurement had improved by 0.2, which means all the painful yoga etc is worth it and then my actual session with the consultant was brilliant, it's lovely to have him grinning ear to ear at me rather than looking concerned and like he's about to tell me my puppy has died. Basically he is really pleased with my progress especially the changes to my diet and exercise. Reducing gluten and meat especially red meat has really helped my fatigue and daily yoga has increased my flexibility. So basically keep up the good work was the message of the day.... So how does one keep up the good work I hear you ask.... Well with Krispy Kreme donuts then a huge burger at the cosy club of course!!! Oh the irony....

All I can say in my defence is (1) I was celebrating (2) my bestfriend is a bad influence..... Ok maybe not the second one.

So Friday..... To be honest had a crap day at work, followed by missing shopping being delivered so my way to deal with it.... Stomp off to chip shop with the attitude of we don't have take away that often! So my kids thought they had died and gone to heaven and sank their teeth into good old fish and chips.

Saturday....much the same awful food choices but managed not to suck my kids into my bad weekend and food blip. Day started well with boiled eggs, I loooovvveee boiled eggs, major nostalgia moment! 

Sandwiches for lunch and fruit snacks, then the kids had jacket potatoes for their dinners while I allowed my evil husband to convince me take away pizza and a film was a great idea.... Oh and don't forget the cider... Doh!

So today I woke up with the biggest food guilt I've had for awhile, and I do what i always do, I over compensate. Cereal for breakfast followed by everyone off swimming, oh yes we'll burn these calories off! Then my eldest had a party to go too, which was at an activity center, so yet more exercise, and afterwards I dragged her food shopping with me. I use fitbit and by now I've met my step requirements. I had already rang home and gave my instructions for dinner, roast lamb, mmmmmm. My husband turned the oven on to slow roast while I shopped. Then here comes the most OTT thing I did, I came home prepared the vegetables and put them in the steamer. I have an ace steamer that you can time each section and it also keeps everything warm for 40 minutes after. So while that's cooking I go cycling.... Oh and here's the best bit, it's 'spitting' rain but I think oh it will be ok......

I was saturated!!!! The 'spitting' turned to torrential rain. I had to get a hot shower to warm up!

When I came down all I had to do was serve the food and I can tell you roast lamb and vegetables was just what the doctor ordered!

Now lay here on sofa trying to convince myself to turn pc on and write my report for work tomorrow..... Been a bad but good weekend :-)

Nutty fish!

Today I tried a new recipe. Pecan encrusted cod with creole vegetables, it's out of my 'low-carb' cook book. Now always a test cooking fish in my house, it's my favourite food and my eldest daughter loves it but my husband finds it boring and my youngest is hit and miss. But the recipe stated about 15 minutes in total, cooking and preparation. Always a bonus!

Easy to make to be honest, was done from start to finish in about 25 minutes. Fish pretty straight forward and the veg you literally shove in a pot and let cook!

The verdict..... Well both myself and my husband loved it, he very nearly licked the plate clean, and it does leave you feeling pretty refreshed, which I know sounds weird but being as it's fish and veg you don't have that bloated feel afterward, satisfied but not stodgy. Now my eldest started off loving the fish, but got halfway through and the subtle heat of the cayenne in the coating got too much for her so I had to remove the coating, and honestly she took one taste of veg and said 'Yuch'! My youngest ate it but she too didn't like veg really.

So next time, I think I may either leave cayenne out because it didn't really need it or at least reduce it, and myself and my husband will have veg but maybe jacket potato and peas for the kids.

Diet enforcement commences!!!

Yesterday was a manic long work day and it was also the luxury day where my in-laws feed the kids 😉

Now normally on these nights myself and my husband treat ourselves to a take away and snuggle up watching a film.... However yesterday morning I weighed myself and discovered I had put on 2lbs!!!! Argghhhh!!! Now the result of this is my husband suffers with me and is put on my diet as I can never be bothered to cook 2 meals so what I eat he eats!! Or the lazy ass can make his own... Simple 😜 what normally happens is he eats the food but will eat crisps etc as he doesn't need to worry.

So long day, fat belly, haven't done shopping all equal a throw together dinner. I made spicy chicken pasta, it's easy and fast. Chopped up onion, sweet pepper, chilli and garlic, fry in some olive oil then add chopped up chicken thighs, cook through then add diced tomatoes and basil. Once cooked then toss in some cooked pasta and mmmmm lush!!!

A simple day

 Today started well. Last day of the bank holiday weekend and last day of no alarm clock! The kids slept later than normal after using up all their energy the day before at my friends house, so I even snook in a crafty 30 minutes lay in bed reading - absolute bliss!

Obligatory hot cross buns for breakfast, it is Easter after all, would be rude not too. Then off I went on my mountain bike for some fresh air and excercise, leaving my husband setting my daughters up with the latest craft project. Now today is my first adventure out on the new bike, actually first adventure out on a bike properly since i was a child ( except for the odd flit during holidays) I decided to cycle up to a woodland area by my house, then round the woodland area and back. Well.... There's a steep hill to the wood and I can proudly say I didn't get off the bike and successfully made it there, however, I only cycled a short distance around the wood then cruised back home down the hill. I covered just under 2 miles, and wow did I sweat!! Point to note here I have Ankylosing spondylitis so big effort for me. But was worth it feel fitter and woods were really relaxing 😊

Now I also made the little mistake today of giving the children the luxury of choice for their lunch..... So of course they wanted completely different things! Morgan was easy, boiled eggs and soldiers, but Florence... Pasta! Here's my tip for quick easy pasta, chop cherry tomatoes and cook them with salt, pepper, basil and olive oil until caramelised then add Parmesan and stir in cooked pasta... 15 minutes in total and really yummy. 

Won't bore you with rest of the afternoon.... Laundry, tidying and built a Building blocks world.... 

Then dinner was traditional cottage pie with a twist.... I used 50% normal potatoes and 50% sweet potatoes. Cook them and mash them together, it's a big hit with the kids and I always get clean plates. I find as well that if I put everything in serving dishes on the table the kids eat more veg, mainly because they like helping themselves, makes them feel grown up. Now I will say slightly annoyed as left pie in a little too long and the gravy bubbled up over the top, but still tasted great!

 Now my big secret when doing this is to make 2 cottage pies, then I have 1 for the freezer. So for a weekday when I know I'm going to be back abit late or my husband is cooking dinner I can take the frozen cottage pie out in the morning and then later it's just a case of popping it in the oven and sticking some veg on, homemade frozen dinners 😜

Toast, Salad and Nasi Goreng!

There is nothing that can beat the feeling of waking up naturally. No alarm clock and no child peering into you eyes from 0'm distance asking for;
a) A hug
b) A drink
c) Do dragons really exist?
d) its too hot
e) its too cold
f) is it morning?

Because today people is the first day of my Easter holidays, a lovely long weekend.

So I go about planning my lovely lazy day. Breakfast consisted of a HUGE plate of toast, with a variety of toppings, jam, peanut butter, chocolate spread, butter. All lovingly prepared by my husband along with glasses of juice and steaming cups of coffee. A big heaped up plate sat in the middle of the table and we just all dive in and take what we want and it takes no time at all for it to be reduced to a plate of crumbs.

The luxury of being at home all day is not having to eat a packed lunch, today was a chicken salad. Just a normal salad using variety of leaves and salad vegetables, with some sliced up breaded chicken I had in the fridge, topped off with homemade croutons.

Homemade croutons

Simple really really simple. Just take a piece of sliced bread (the crust is better), tear it into pieces, as small or big as you want. Throw them into a roasting dish, add some rosemary leaves and then spray with olive oil (you can drizzle with oil but I prefer the spray as it limits the oil and is therefore less fats).

Then put them under a hot grill, turning them over and spraying again mid grilling.
Once golden they are ready to scatter onto salad. By the way whilst preparing this salad I cooked some rice up ready to cool and put in the fridge for later... you will see :-)

 

The rest of the day was spent shopping for bike accessories as I had a lovely new mountain bike for my birthday.

 

For dinner tonight I made Nasi Goreng. Which basically is Indonesian Fried Rice. Rice with Bacon, Prawns and Chicken. I took the recipe from 'The practical cookery book', which states it is a simple and quick recipe. Lets see shall we....

 

Right firstly I did read through the ingredients that morning to ensure I had everything and noticed it stated cooled cooked rice. Now I don't know about you but I have been bitten so many times by this, I see 'rice' and don't notice the 'cooled and cooked' part. This then adds 25 minutes onto cooking time and also the meal is never quite the same as the rice ends up more 'squishy' than pilaff. This time though....it wasn't going to get me!

 

So to make life easier I brought lardons of bacon to save time in preparation. But the key to any successful meal is the preparation.

There is a reason they do this in restaurant's, it's because not only does it save time in the long run but it also helps give you a better meal in the end, as you don't end up over cooking anything while your still chopping up the herbs!

So how did it go I hear you ask? Actually really well, its a very simple throw everything into the wok meal. The recipe was very easy to follow and it tells you when to throw each thing in so you don't end up with over cooked prawns. It took about 5 minutes maximum to prepare, however this does not include the 30 minutes at lunch time when I cooked the rice, but for future planning I will do this the night before. Cooking was 15 minutes maximum. Oh and yes I know when you look at the picture below.... I need to work on my presentation.

The verdict from the family, they ate every last grain of rice! My youngest daughter stated "Mummy thank you for making food I really like".... :-) We even had prawn war!! The annoying argument between the kids on who has the last prawn, of course as a loving mother there is only 1 solution.... I ate it!

 









Emergency....action stations

Remember in one of my first posts I stated that I will admit when I got it wrong....... today is one of those days!

One day a week I have to travel from the Midlands to Somerset to work in our Somerset plant and today was one of those days. But me being me made sure everything for the evening meal was planned in advance, however I made a fatal mistake. I went away from my normal routine. Silly Lesley! Normally I will put something into the slow cooker before I leave the house in the morning, it cooks slowly all day and then when I get home I just dish it out. But this week I decided to plan cooking Nasi Goreng tonight, which is a rice dish. Easy to prepare as all ingredients are chopped up ready in the fridge I would just need to throw it all into a wok... just like that! You see easy..... well it would have been .... 



All was going well until I looked up at the clock and realised that I had about 20 minutes left before I needed to leave work and about 60 minutes worth of work left, arrggghhh!!! So I try and get my butt into gear and finish off, but by the time I had finished my work I was an hour late. This is when the song ironic starts rolling around in my head, you know the one "traffic jam, when you're already late". I hit the road and the traffic was bad, and at this point I realise by the time I actually get home it will be too late to feed the children. Once I had finished swearing at myself I realise now is one of those times the emergency meals come in handy! You see when I make meals, I always try and make more than is required, then I freeze portions. That way I always have home cooked meals frozen, ready to defrost.

Taking a big deep breathe I phone my husband to make my apologies and start grovelling. Bless him he then defrosts meals and makes sure the children eat.

So you see, even on a bad work day, with contingency planning your family can still eat home cooked food.

One good thing about Monday - Chip Night!

Well it's Monday and the alarm started at 05:45am, it's at this point of time I lie there and try to work out whether or not I can get away with another 10 minutes sleep, but as per normal my better judgement prevails and I get myself up. This morning was a little more awful for 2 reasons, 1) it's Monday, 2) My youngest Florence had her booster injections last Friday and on Sunday afternoon she started to get ill, so during last night she woke me up 2 times for cuddles.
OK, so here is where the organisation starts to kick in. Luckily Easter holidays started today and the girls were going to my in-laws so I only had to make my lunch :-)
So in the first hour of my day I did the following;

• Sorted out the laundry that I had put on over night, swap stuff between dryers, baskets and washing machines. Joy!
• Prepared chips for the evening tea. I don't like frozen chips has to be real ones, and I use my latest most love gadget the 'actifryer' which cooks chips using hot air, and they are incredibly tasty, easy to make and healthy.
• Made my packed lunch.
• Made a coffee for the road.
• Have 5 minutes quiet time eating my muesli and soya milk
• Sorted out kids outfits
• Finally... attempted to make myself look awake and presentable.

Then off I trudge to start a new week in the office.... I won't bore you with the details, lets just say I went in, worked several hours in front of a PC, sat in meetings, oh and happily did an interview and think I have finally found a new engineer... yay!! Then trudge back home.

The joy of spending that 5 minutes in the morning hand cutting chips means that when I call my husband on the way home he starts the dinner so when I walk in I am there in time to help lay the table and dish the food up. You see one tradition I have learnt from my mother is to sit down and eat together as a family. It's so important, helps to build the family bond and some of the funniest conversations I have had with my children is over dinner, it is also a nice time to catch up and get the last work related vent out with my husband. So this is what we try and there is only 1 day a week where we do not do this and that is on Tuesdays when the children eat at the in-laws and I pig out on take away with the husband.

So I walk in tonight to lovely chips, quorn kievs and peas and a bizarre dinner conversation with my eldest daughter about the tooth fairy (she lost a tooth this morning), several renditions of 'let it go' from frozen from my youngest.

Now finally after putting them to bed, doing my yoga I am sat here relaxing and about to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones..... Happy Monday Everybody!

Just a film snack

Yesterday we went out for lunch to a lovely play area, this was so that the kids could burn off energy while we sat and chatted without the distraction of household chores.  It was bliss, and a great little place as they have a massive indoor play area but just as important is the food selection. Yes they have the burger and chips option (I opted for veggie burger), but they also have children's 'picky plates'. This is a plate with grapes, cheese, breadsticks, cucumber, carrots..... the list goes on, my kids love it and given the option of burger or picky plate they chose picky plate.... Yes people I admit I was annoyingly proud and smug at the time!
Anyway, last night nobody wanted an evening meal as too full so I ended up making cheesy ciabatta for the kids while me and Jim opted for 'a snack' while watching a film.....

So here's our snack, advocado nachos, a healthier version of a classic sharer snack.

Its made with basic ingredients, using avocado salsa and a point to note is that I use low fat cheddar cheese and low fat sour cream to make this a healthier option. No one in the household knows this and they have never commented.

What makes it a favourite is the mixture of tastes, textures and its great finger food. You have the crunch of the nachos, sweetness and crispness of the sweetcorn, the softness of the avocado mixed with the gooey cheese and sour cream. On top of that only takes 20 minutes, 5 minutes prep and 15 minutes in the oven.

No better way to spend a Saturday evening, snuggled up on sofa, glass of voignier, Latest hobbit movie and yummy messy finger food to indulge in!

Saturday = Planning Day

Right its Saturday, so that is my planning day.

This is the key to ensuring that I do not end up doing that emergency drive thru macdonalds on the way home from work!

Every Saturday morning whilst the kids are doing their colouring or as this morning, watching 'Frozen' and singing their hearts out, I sit with my coffee and the following;

• My magnetic meal planner that sticks to my fridge.
• A stack of cook books
• My laptop

 





First I write down where me and my husband are each day, then I flick through the books looking for simple recipes that would suit my family tastes, at this point my eldest child normally gives me a list of what she wants, generally something obscure. At the moment she has developed a taste for duck and salads, so I am having the discussion that you can't have that everyday. I try and work the following into the week, 1 fish dish, 1 red meat, 1 vegetarian, 1 chicken, 1 traditional English roast, we have 1 day a week where the children eat at my mother-in-laws so we have take-away and film night :-) then I always leave Saturdays as 'free'. This is because I am at home and I can experiment.
After planning the meals I then write down a shopping list of all the items I don't have in the cupboard, and go online and order my shopping (all major supermarkets have online delivery now). All my shopping is delivered the following day.
I know this whole process seems very structured and a bit OCD, yes I have lists and plan the whole week on a Saturday. But the whole process takes about an hour, and I challenge anyone to do their normal weekly shop in this time!

As a result I have the rest of the weekend to spend with my husband and children.... and of course doing what I love... cooking :-)

So this week we have planned (oh and by the way... its my birthday Tuesday so bit of a different week ;-) and probably not the best example when starting this blog....)

Mon - Something and chips - haha well, my husband is cooking, so it is cheat night! I did say I share my bad habits too! Basically I make a lot of hand cut chips and leave them in fridge then he will cook these in the air fryer later along with grilled chicken or sausages.
Tues - Its my birthday.... so its a surprise for me??
Wed - Nasi Goreng (trying this for first time)
Thurs  - Pecan Crusted Cod with Creole Vegetables (another first)
Fri - Cottage Pie (Trusted family favourite)
Sat - out for dinner
Sun - Roast Chicken & Vegetables

So that's the plan, lets see if I stick to it?

Lesley

New to this.... so bear with me.

Hi, well this is officially my first ever blog post in my first ever blog, and I have no idea why I am sat here so nervous?
OK, firstly the boring introduction bit about me, promise I will be quick! I am a 37 year old working mum. I am married to Jim and have 2 amazing little girls Morgan (6yrs) and Florence (3yrs). I have a pretty high pressure job working in automotive engineering which is a very male dominated environment and finally I have Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), which is a nasty form of arthritis.
Hopefully you have not nodded off or switched off yet....
The reason for me turning this pc on and starting a blog? I am hoping that by sharing my experiences and some of my hints/tips etc I can help other mums in similar positions to me. You see, I work long hours but refuse to allow that to dictate what my family eats. Too many times in the past I used to rely on jars of sauces... frozen dinners... take aways. But not anymore. Each night my family eats home cooked nutritious food, whether I get home at 6:30pm or not!
For the past few months I have been posting pictures of the food I cook on facebook and since doing this I have lots of people ask me for recipes or tips, and the main things I get asked are;

• "How do you manage to do all that and work... its not possible?".
• "Where do you find these recipes as I can never find anything that's easy to prepare?"
• "How do you get your children to eat that?"

Well I can honestly say, it is possible, there are recipes out there and my children do eat it. But and its a big but... it took me awhile to get a structure, routine and finding the food my children will eat. I have failed several times (so I always have emergency baked beans waiting). So I decided to document my days here in a blog.... I can share how I plan and organise and importantly do the things that I could not find guidance on, So I can point you in the direction of good, quick, nutritious family meals that I have tried and tested so you don't have to. I will also share my disasters, the meals that took an hour rather than the quoted 30 minutes, the meals that were OK but took negotiation to get the family to eat and the meals my kids spat out and ended up in an emergency can of beans situation!

I hope someone out there will find this blog useful, if I help at least 1 person I will be happy :-)

Lesley