A Mother's Ramblings

There are many things that I love. Eating is really the main thing if I'm honest and this is probably why I can't lose weight as easily as I would like! It's all well and good telling someone to exercise more and eat less, but I do that and lose maybe a 1lb a week, which of course is great, but I really need to lose more than that... which is why I'm doing something a little drastic this week and going on a different meal plan to the rest of the family after Saturday. I may blog about this more later in the week, but until then here's what the rest of the family are eating this week. Saturday - Chilli We're having a Chilli off at Church along with our Trunk N Treat. I actually don't think we're going to eat Chilli, I think we're probably just going to eat sweets and feel full from our lunch that we're having at Jamie's Italian. Sunday - Beans on Toast (with an Egg on top) Daddy is going to a recording of RHLSTP (at least that's

I've been really naughty this week and haven't spent time working out what we are going to eat next week, well this week... in fact I even went to the Supermarket to do the Shopping before having written my shopping list! That for me is the most terrible thing I could do, it's a way to waste money and end up with nothing in the house worthy of eating... which is sort of what has happened! Saturday - Steak and Chips I picked up some cheap Steak in Tesco for Daddy to have whilst I was out on Wednesday night (I was at Relief Society) and the Children ended up stealing half of it from his plate. We decided to have it again as a family, although Big Boy decided that Sausages were better for him than Steak. We prefer to get the so called cheap steak in Tesco (the value range) as with our griddle and my secret seasoning trick (it's just Salt and Pepper, nothing secret really!) it makes it really lush and tasty and like you'd hope all Steak would be!

One of the first ideas I came up with for the Bernard Matthews challenge for creating some fun lunchbox ideas was Turkey Stuffed Pittas. This is something that is good for getting extra vegetables into the Children and also brilliant for little hands. Turkey and Veg Stuffed Pittas I used the Turkey Breast Slices again for this, mainly because again there was a distinct lack of Bernard Matthews Cooked Meats in the supermarkets and also because this is actually BB's favourite of all the products. Top Ender is really good at trying new things and eating a wide range of products, BB less so at the moment and so yes, we are pandering to him. Ingredients Turkey Slices Cherry Tomatoes Cucumber Mayonnaise Salad Leaves Pitta Pockets Seasoning Method This can be made really quickly if you need too, but you can also make them the night before and leave them in fridge ready for packing in lunchboxes the next morning. Put the Pitta Pockets into the Toaster, to wa

Ever since I was young, my favourite food has been a Chinese Take Away and any time I can recreate a dish similar to something I may order, I jump at the chance. This was part of the inspiration for the second lunch I made the Children using the Bernard Matthews Cooked Meats Range and I used the Bernard Matthews Turkey Sweet Chilli Breast Chunks (RRP £) as the protein of this lunch. I had been looking for the plain chunks, but they didn't have any in the three supermarkets I tried, they are obviously very popular, probably because they taste great! Sweet Chilli Chinese Wraps Ingredients Sweet Chilli Breast Chunks Wraps Cucumber Hoisin Sauce Mayonnaise Salad Leaves A word of warning, as I was making this lunch, it looked and smelled so yummy that I started making a third for my breakfast, so be warned you might want to make extra for yourself. Method To make the sauce, you have to mix a teaspoon of Hoisin Sauce, and a dollop of mayonnaise. I find it easie

Bernard Matthews had a great idea, they thought that the Children might like to suggest some fun ideas for their School Lunchboxes using the Bernard Matthews Cooked Meats range as the protein and creating lunches that they would be excited to eat. Now my Children have been, up to a point, rather spoiled when it comes to lunches. As you may remember I like to make the Children's lunches look fun and interesting. Other than telling me that they love the Bernard Matthew range of Turkey and Chicken products, and that loads of their friends have them in their lunchboxes my Children were useless. Seriously, I asked them what they'd like me to make for them and I got blank stares back! In the end they said, Mum can you make whatever it is that you are going to make us for lunch fun, exciting and most importantly tasty? I panicked. Eventually, I had some ideas that I hoped would be tasty and most importantly quick to make. Yes, when you read further on you might think that they ar

Last week Whitby Seafoods sent me a voucher to buy some of their lovely seafood products so that I could make a Spooky Supper for the Children and I. We decided to make ours ahead of Halloween so that you'd have a chance to make something similar for a meal for your family next week! I present to you our take on the Spooky Supper!

In my weekly posts about what we are going to eat, I often talk about how I forget about meals that we love as a family. Tacos are one of those meals, and so when Old El Paso sent us their new Smoky BBQ Stand 'N' Stuff Soft Tacos to have one night when Daddy wasn't in (because they have wheat Tacos which he can't eat), I knew the Children and I were going to be happy. Actually scratch that, we were going to be very happy and hopefully also very full! When I'd been shopping at the weekend, I'd seen the new Stand 'N' Stuff Tacos Kit (RRP £3.79) and was able to check that all I needed to add to the meal was Mince, some Lettuce, some chopped Tomato and of course the all important cheese. Everything on the list is something we normally have in our trolley, so it was a very easy shop and was the sort of meal that I could keep in the cupboard (well the Stand 'N' Stuff Taco part, the rest would be in the fridge or freezer) for a quick midweek meal.

This weekend we are putting the heating on, Daddy has said that it is just too cold for him getting out of bed in the morning and so we need to go and bleed the radiators, ensure that nothing is leaning up against them and generally just be good homeowners. I'm going to try the tin foil behind the radiators tip this year too. Have you done that to your home? Anyway, on to what we are eating! Saturday - Sticky Sausages with Bacon and Apples After going shopping with my Mum (and Top Ender too!) when we get home Daddy has normally cooked for us. We tend to have a family meal and one that is warming and filling... which we might not need now that the heating is back on! We'll go for Sticky Sausages because Daddy is the one who makes this the best and because everyone loves it. Sunday - Turkey Roast I think that the next couple of weeks will be our last roast for a while, I like to make sure that the Christmas Roast is special and I don't think it is if you have b

So, this week is Chocolate Week . I'll just leave that there, I don't need to bother writing the rest of my post do I? Yeah, I know I do really. So. I am a Chocoholic. No, surprise right? Yeah, didn't think so. When I received a lovely Chocolate hamper from Whittard of Chelsea I was REALLY excited. IT WAS FULL OF CHOCOLATE! I passed the Tea and Coffee to my Sister, I'm kind like that and also because I'm LDS I don't drink Tea or Coffee and neither does Daddy... My sister said the tea was lovely. She sent me pictures of it on Whatsapp in her little teapot that I got for her a couple of weeks ago. The Teapot has a sweater! I can't get over this, it just amuses me so much. Anyway. That's not what I wanted to talk about. We can talk about Rocky Road Hot Chocolate or the fact that the White Hot Chocolate is my new favourite drink of all time all we want however it won't change the fact that this week is Chocolate week and I'm tr

So, after we decided to paint the Hallway and decided on a paint that we liked we purchased the correct amount we'd need, the masking tape and even some new brushes. If we were doing this we were going to do it properly it seemed. Daddy had a day off planned and so we decided that we'd use that day to paint the hallway. Well, rather I decided that he should use this particular day to paint the hallway and Daddy just agreed. Daddy actually started painting the hallway yesterday, whilst Top Ender and I were at Church. He knew that the amount of wallspace we had wasn't enough for the time he felt we had put to one side (the time the Children are at School!) to do two coats. Anyway, I helped paint a bit. Whilst Daddy was painting the walls previously unpainted, I started going over the walls that he had painted yesterday. Well, I was painting until I got annoyed with my husband because of the way he talked about my painting skills and the brush I was using and well pro

This past week has flown by, now I just need to get the rest of the month and next month to do the same and it'll be Christmas and I'll be as happy as a clam at high water. Are Clams happy? I don't suppose they'd be that happy if they were on the Menu this week! Saturday - Chicken Curry for the Adults I don't know about you, but for us we'll go off certain foods if we have them too often. The problem is when Curry tastes as good as the ones we make in the Steamer, we fancy it for a few weeks... then of course we get sick of them and we end up not having it for ages, which means we crave it for a few weeks and then we get sick of them and... I don't need to go on do I? Pizza Challenge for the Children Top Ender and Big Boy are constantly watching videos where the aim is to out gross each other. Okay, maybe it isn't really but the amount of time that the children spend making retching noises when they watch these videos is enough to make me t

Today I pretended to be a Teenage Girl. Despite what my Mother might tell you, this doesn't mean I took to wearing all black (I have a white T-shirt on!), putting on heavier eyeliner than the stars of Black Swan and generally being the worst person to be around in the history of the world. Instead I pretended to be a Teenage Girl in the world of today.  Why? Well, last week Dove shared with me some research they have done as part of their Self-Esteem project, which was started back in 2004. The idea was that the project would help young girls raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential, help them to increase their body confidence and they have partnered with other groups to help reach more girls across the world. 

The week started with us as normal going food shopping with my Mum. The only difference was we should have been at Legoloand, but with BB being poorly we had to skip it. The good news was that this would also mean we could watch Doctor Who at the same time as the rest of the nation! Sunday Top Ender and I were at Church, we had a great day with Top Ender giving a talk in Primary during the Senior Primary Time. I love the fact that being in Primary means I get to hear different talks each week from the Children and I get to hear my daughter of course too! In the evening we had the Missionaries round to share a meal and to teach a lesson. They taught a lesson about Talents, and using our talents. It was a really great lesson as the Children had to think about the Talents they have and how they use them. It was lovely because after the Elders had left the Children spent some time talking about talents they see in each other and other people they know. Most of this week I was doing sma

This week things got away from me. Normally I like to sit at home during the week and think about the food we are going to eat so I can base it around what we have in the Freezer, Fridge and Cupboards and what is on offer or I can get a good price on! This week however, as I said things got away from me and I was out shopping before I'd even written a list let alone looked properly in the Freezers, Fridge or Cupboards! This is therefore me working backwards and I apologise to my wallet and bank manager. Saturday - Turkey Curry Daddy refers to this as a Steamed Curry because we do it in the Morphy Richards Intellisteam Food Steamer and so it gets Steamed. It makes the meat very moist and honestly is one of the best ways to make a curry in our very humble opinion. As Top Ender is now able to have Curry with us I made sure that Big Boy had something he liked to eat and so he had Toad in the Hole. Sunday - Roast It is General Conference this week, and due to the magic of

I get several emails and DM's a week asking me how I manage to do so much in a week. I honestly don't think I get that much done in a week and I'm sure if you asked my husband and children they would fall about laughing, but some of the emails are from people who honestly seem to think that I have it all. They seem to think that I can impart some words of wisdom so that they can have it all too.  Like I've said though, I'm not Supermum and I doubt I could even impart an ounce of wisdom to anyone but... here's how my life works. For example right now as I write this, let me tell you what is happening. Top Ender is doing her homework, upstairs in her bedroom. She's just been downstairs and asked me for some advice about her artwork and so I paused my TV show (I'm marathon watching The Good Wife on Netflix) and BB kindly paused his Video game that he is playing so that we weren't distracted. I was actually looking up some ways to teach t