A Mother's Ramblings

It's Sunday night, which means I'm a day and a half late in posting what we're having for lunch... luckily though we all knew what we were doing over the weekend even without the blog post to remind us. Saturday - Chicken and Pesto Mozzarella Ciabatta Rolls With Daddy and I trying to make new sandwiches each week, it's falling to me to come up with lots of ideas for different flavour combinations. This week I decided to spread Pesto over the two halves of a heated Ciabatta Roll (Gluten Free), and then place slices of Mozzarella and Chargrilled Chicken in the rolls whilst warming it on the griddle to melt the mozzarella. The result was a delicious lunch. Sunday - Gluten Free Fishfingers and Rolls Daddy was in charge of lunch today and he decided that fishfinger rolls would be the best lunch for us all, especially when teamed with tomato ketchup. Yum yum yum. Monday - Casserole Leftovers The casserole that we had for dinner last night was not only the best

I think something strange has happened to me... I've lost interest in food. I'm pretty sure this is just a passing phase, but honestly I seem to be in a food funk. It's taken so much effort to plan this coming weeks meals, I'm sure it's a sign of the end of the world or something! Saturday - Chicken Stir Fry Even though I'm not interested in food, I do know that a Chicken Stir Fry is lovely, quick and with the amount of vegetables I put in it only works out at about 100 calories a serving. Big Boy will more than likely turn his nose up, so he and Top Ender will have Chicken and Rice Noodles with a little of the stir fried vegetables instead of the masses Daddy and I will have. Sunday - Slow Cooked Rump Steak Casserole On Valentines Day we had a lot of Steak left over and Daddy thought it would make a great dinner. I decided we should have it this Sunday, so that everyone could enjoy it as it was really lovely. I'm going to do the casserole in the s

It seems that my focus at the moment is on the morning. Maybe I'm getting revelation to blog more about breakfast because it's the meal I think least about, just focusing on getting through the week, or maybe it's just because I'm being sent lots of things that make me think breakfast! Last week was no exception when I opened a box to find some rather lovely and posh looking porridge from Grasshopper . I love porridge, always have and I guess that I always will and Big Boy is rather fond of it too, although unlike me who likes to add cinnamon or ground almonds or even fruit to her porridge he prefers it plain (and of course no sugar). Top Ender, Big Boy and I decided on a pot of porridge that we thought we'd each like for Breakfast and I set about the complicated task of making the porridge the right consistency for us all. We all loved the flavour that we had picked and as I'm a very fair Mum, I got to taste test the flavours the children had taken an

This week Warburton's sent me a lovely box full of Warburton goodies and asked for me and you (lovely reader) to help them. On  a side note, those of you that eat Gluten free have you tried the Newburn Bakehouse range from Warburton's lately? Daddy has said that the rolls in particular are lovely and that Warburton's are doing a great job and seem to be constantly improving their recipe. Warburton's would love tips, recipes and ideas on how to make the Breakfast routine as relaxed as possible, as according to some research they have shared between 7:17am and 8:30am each weekday morning Mums are tackling an average of 9.8 challenges which include making multiple breakfasts, getting Children and partners up, getting Children washed and dressed and sorting out School Bags and Clothes. I shared a post (quite a while ago now) where I shared  Top Tips for being an Organised Mummy  (it was of course a big joke) but here are some of my very serious tips and you can share your

Big Boy is doing really well with recognising when his blood sugar are going low, but I'm still aware that the biggest help that I can give him is with the food that he eats. I've been experimenting to see what his blood sugars do with different foods and I'm hoping that I've hit upon the magic formula for him, but with him growing every five minutes I'm sure that it will change before I next publish a blog post. With that in mind here is lunch this week. Saturday - M&S Sandwiches One of the things that we used to love to do was to grab a sandwich when we were out and about. This stopped when Daddy was diagnosed as needing a gluten and wheat free diet as there is only so much Salad he can take (I could eat it until it came out my ears!). Then one day we saw that M&S had started doing gluten free sandwiches to take away. GENIUS! Sunday - Hot Sauce Steak When we were at Chiquito's the other night we all tried the Hot Sauce. I didn't think it

It's a great week for celebration meals as there are three events that we like to join in with by eating food linked to them (is there any holiday that doesn't have a special dish associated with it?!). They are of course, Chinese New Year, Shrove Tuesday and Valentines Day. Saturday - Nachos I swear the only reason we are having Nachos for dinner tonight is so that Daddy and Top Ender can share their favourite joke of "That is NACHO Cheese!". In reality it's because I haven't made Guacamole in a while and I do love it.

Last Wednesday night I put a status update out on the A Mothers Ramblings Facebook page (it links to my Twitter account) about how the children thought I was the best Mum in the world for having given them Home Made McDonald's complete with Cardboard Box and Toy. It was just a passing comment, I didn't think anyone would be that interested, after all you already know that we do home made McDonald's as I talked about it when we made our Cardboard Box Cars almost a year ago. It seems though that everybody loved the idea and some requested more details so that they could plan a similar night for their families in the future. So here is what we did. My first port of call was to a local Party Shop. There I picked up two cardboard boxes, picking ones that I thought Big Boy and Top Ender would like from the range. As they are only 35p I don't think they are really that expensive, and as I planned for the children to use them again for a home made McDonald's in the

I attempted a Technology free day on Saturday. I failed, but I think it wasn't my fault. Let me explain. To start with I didn't realise it was Midnight. I was watching The Sixth Sense (because he sees Dead People you know) and turned the TV off to go to sleep. It was seven minutes past Midnight. I'd failed before I had even started. I decided that what I would just start from then, that would be okay, as long as it was a day it didn't matter what time it started from did it? When Big Boy woke up, the first technology of the day was thrust in to my path. Big Boy wanted to watch cartoons, so I told him how to turn the TV on and what numbers to push to get to the cartoon channel he wanted. This led to breakfast which meant that I had to use Big Boy's blood monitor, but this is an exception to the no tech rule. My Saturday morning routine, normally has me playing a few games on Facebook, before I check my email and see who's tweeting what. As I was sitting i

At the end of last year I made some Family Resolutions , one of which was that Daddy and I would have at least one date night a month. Rather fortuitously for us, Chiquito 's asked if we'd like to go and sample their new menu and that they'd pay for our meal and so of course we accepted and decided to go as our January date night. It was a last minute decision to go to the restaurant (I couldn't get the motivation up to cook) and so Top Ender and Big Boy came with us. I booked a table online, which I didn't need to worry about because when we arrived at the restaurant the waitress didn't worry about checking, but then that could be because the restaurant was almost empty. I've been reading the Facebook page and at some of the restaurants it's a good idea to book more than a few hours in advance like I did. After looking through the menu, both Big Boy and Top Ender decided to have Lasagne from the older kids menu and Daddy went for a steak. I wa

When I told Daddy that I had accepted the challenge of not having/using technology for a day he offered to write the blog post for me in advance. This is what he said. "Pippa is very good at switching off and doing manual tasks, activities and finding ways to entertain herself without resorting to technology.  I can't. Also she has been a pain in the arse all day because of it, so whoever set the challenge, I'm coming for you." I guess that he has a lot of faith in me as I was actually worried about the challenge, even though I agreed to it when Joanne mentioned it. You can read about her day and what she learnt here and read her daughters blog post about it and the rules here . I decided to bite the bullet and get it over and done with sooner rather than later, and also to do it on a day where everyone would be at home. That way if I had to cheat I could, I mean what would happen if the formation disability scooter men came past the house again? I'd h

I'm excited for this weeks lunches, I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm looking forward to making and eating them. Saturday - Toasted Duck and Cheese Sandwiches You are going to have to trust me on this one. When we were watching the American Sandwich programme this was a sandwich which really appealed to me. Daddy was less sure and it was only when he saw the completed sandwich that he thought it was a good taste combination. Sunday -  Sandwich It's the first Sunday of the month, which for me means Fast Sunday, so I won't be having breakfast and lunch today, as we're having a Roast this evening and I don't want to miss out on that! Lunch for the children and Daddy is going to be a Sandwich of what ever filling they decide they want, as I don't want to make them so I'm not tempted to snack. Monday - Chicken Wraps Some of the left over Chicken will go into wraps for the children to have today along with some finely chopped lett

Top Ender is like me, and by that I mean a stubborn sure they know the only right way pain in the arse. For me it's not a problem because as an adult as long as you follow a few rules of the land (like don't speed when you are driving, don't kill other people, pay for things in shops etc) you can be as different to the rest of the population as you like. Heck, we celebrate differences between people, we like that not everyone does the same thing, we like watching one person try to swim upstream against 100's of people going with the current, we like that people have opinions and that we question why things are the way they are and I think that we try to encourage it in our children. For Top Ender it is a problem and I'm not too sure what to do about it. As a child in a School you have to follow rules, some of which make no sense to you. I mean when you are Nine you don't care about reaching target A before B, you just want to finish the day so you can get

I was on the phone with my sister, having a chat like we do when we got round to the subject of food. As it happens we are both trying to have a super budget week of food, one google hang out later where we went through what bargains we had found and meal suggestions we had, I came up with this meal plan. I'm using up a lot of items that I have in the freezer and cupboards to help reduce the budget. Saturday - Sausage and Beans On Saturdays I spend time with my Mum, either doing her shopping for her, or going out with her if she is up to it and it takes up a large proportion of the day. I don't mind though because she's my Mum and I like spending time with her. I do then hate having to come home and stand alone in the kitchen as I rather like seeing my family so this week we've got Sausage and Beans which cooks easily in the slow cooker meaning it can be on whilst I'm out and served when I home! Sunday - Sunday Roast A Chicken Roast with Roast Potatoes