Friday Five - Meals we're eating this week

So this week I thought I'd share what we're having for tea/dinner/supper or whateveryoucallit.  On Sunday I sat down on the interweb thingy and found five recipes that tickled my fancy for the week and proceeded to do an online shop so I was organised and didn't have to make a daily trip to the supermarket.  Those of you who know me well know that I love the supermarket (truly I do!), but hey you know, lets try something different.  These are the meals I chose, so far we've had three because Andrew got home late last night and Thursdays meal was supposed to take over an hour to cook.  I didn't fancy dinner at 9:30 so it was toasted sandwiches for us.

1.  Bacon and egg filo pie.

This is a real NZ classic but with the healthier filo pastry.  Bacon and egg pie at home is usually served cold at a picnic but we had it warm.  It retrospect I'd have it hot because the filo lost its crunch.  I also didn't include any onions because, well I don't like onions in B&E pie, and I served it with salad leaves.  I also halved the recipe because there are only two of us, and Andrew had some for lunch the next day. 

2.  Sweet and sour pork.

Once I'd found that cool website with the pie I kept looking and found this recipe for sweet and sour pork.  Andrew cooked it on Wednesday and it was yum!  He'll probably be cross with me but I have to tell you, he messed up the rice, we don't eat a lot of rice, noodles are so much quicker and it had been a while since he'd cooked rice, and to be fair we usually have boil in the bag and were out of that too.  So I guess I'd better forgive him.  I can be a bit of a picky eater when it comes to stir fry foods, I'm not keen on big chunks of onion, the smaller the better, and up until recently I wouldn't eat cooked pepper so this was a big step, we're making progress folks!  

3.  Moroccan lamb pie.

This comes from Delicious Magazine which I buy every month without fail, its such good food porn, and I was browsing on their site and came across a category for Moroccan meals and found this.  It was so good!  I didn't make it in little pie dishes, just put the filo on top of the mixture in my Le Creuset and let it cook in the oven.  When I make this again, (Andrew just loves lamb dishes) I will def cook it for longer to get the lamb to break down and become even more tender, I might even try it in the slow cooker.

4.  Moroccan chicken stew.

I was so impressed with the Moroccan choices I chose another one of Delicious' suggestions.  I haven't made this yet but I'm swapping the chicken breasts for thighs for a bit more flavour.  I'll probably make up the cous cous with vegetarian stock too to give it a bit more zing.  

5.  Honey ginger chicken.

This will be Saturday nights meal and while I love honey chicken its a bit of a step outside my comfort zone because of all the stir fry veg, my mum will be pleased though!  Andrew loves Chinese food so I thought this might be nice for a weekend instead of takeaways (hopefully!)

There you go, my meal plan for the week!  I've already started thinking about next week too, but this time I'm going to challenge myself to use the mountainous small pile of cookbooks I've got, better get looking.

A week in my life - Wednesday

Well we've made it to hump day - hurrah!  Today was a bit hectic in some ways, and not in others, but it did mean that I haven't taken many photos so you'll just have to read my ramblings instead.

We all woke up around quarter to eight this morning and came downstairs for our usual breakfast, toast and yoghurt for Chicken, and toast and coffee for me, today I had iced vanilla, man I love our coffee machine!

After Chicken had finished eating I left her in her high chair for five minutes while I tried to tidy up the mess she'd made, but she wasn't having any of it.  She shouted and shouted until I conceded defeat and picked up the squirmy peanut butter mess that was my daughter.  Turns out she'd done a huge poo-losion and well, who'd be happy if that was in their pants?  I began cleaning her up, and then realised that there was just too much yoghurt and peanut butter and toast all over her to be able to do a proper job with just a flannel, so we had a shower together, not ideal, but man that peanut butter is sticky!

We had to be out of the house at 9:45 again so everything was a bit of a mess, but I did manage to put a load of washing on and load the dishwasher.  We power walked for half an hour (well I walked, Chicken slept) to a Children's centre, where a friend of mine (who works for the NHS) was running a breast feeding class for pregnant women.  After I'd changed out of my walking shoes and stopped looking so red faced we joined the group.  My job was to offer the perspective of a new mum who is breastfeeding and encourage these mums to do the same.  I also fed Eilidh there, and if the ladies wanted to watch (most don't, I think they're not quite comfortable watching someone in real life do it yet) they could.

Around 1pm we left with plans to go to the park for a swing, but my hay-fever was driving me round the bend so we headed into town to get some tablets.  I walked and Chicken slept, if you didn't know, we only have one car which Andrew takes to work, so I go most places on foot.  I bought a few things, photo frame for a portrait of Chicken, clothes storage bags for all the clothes shes grown out of, food magazine for me to read and of course the essential hay-fever tablets and tissues.

We went to my favourite cafe for lunch, I had a coffee and a goats cheese and caramelized onion panini and Eilidh had meat mush and fruit mush.  She is very good at eating and wolfed it down with occasional squeals to remind her mum to hurry up.  After lunch we went to a few Charity shops to look at baby clothes,  since they get worn for such a short time I have no problem buying second hand.

I also tried on some clothes for our trip to Vermont next month and decided not to buy anything and do my shopping there.  This is Chicken playing with my sunnies in the changing room.

It was about 3pm now so we headed to the supermarket and I got the stuff for our dinner.  By now Chicken was being very shouty and the dummy just wasn't cutting it, so out came the snacks, which she is getting very good at eating.  We left the supermarket and it had started to spit, and of course I had not brought the rain cover for the pushchair.  In fact, I had left it at home on purpose!  We got half way before the rain got too heavy to ignore and I had to improvise a cover.

Got home around 4pm and I thought I'd feed Chicken and she'd have her last sleep of the day.  I picked her up and found out what all the moaning was about, she was wet!  Obviously the nappy I'd put on around 1pm had moved (she's a real wriggler now) or I'd not put in on properly and she had was sitting on wet leggings, poor baby girl!  I stripped her off and she had a play (not interested in milk) while I unpacked the groceries and finished my tidying up.  Around 5pm we both had a nap, couldn't sleep last night so justified in my book.  Then again, who needs to justify a nap!  Chicken slept much later than normal - 6:40 and woke up quite cranky, thats what you get when you don't drink your milk on time.

I was half way through giving her dinner, lunch left overs and peach custard when Andrew came home.  He took over the feeding and I put some washing out - don't you just love baby clothes all lined up.

Andrew took Chicken up for her bath and I cooked dinner, Gnocchi puttanesca bake, mmmm!

I went up and feed Chicken while dinner finished cooking.  It's not often we eat vegetarian but this was yum, the spice from the chilli and the plentiful portion of gnocchi meant I was really full!
I'm now blogging and since our TV refuses to receive a signal Andrew has gone to bed to read, which is where I'm headed now with my magazine, night all!

A week in my life - Monday

I got the idea to blog everyday for a week about what I get up to from Kat and Jenifer who did this in the last couple of weeks, it takes a lot of dedication and I can only hope I'm organised enough!  All of these photos are taken on my iPhone, which explains why most of them are portrait.

So here we go, at 6:30 this smile woke me up.  Eilidh and I were sleeping in the spare room because she woke up about six times during the night and this was the best way for the both of us to get some real sleep.  As 6:30 is far too early I fed her and we went back to sleep till 7:45, result!

This was the view from our window, a promising day!

 We came downstairs and Eilidh played in her playpen while I made a strawberry and banana smoothie for breckie, nom nom.

 Chicken had peanut butter on toast, she really loves her food and so far she's eaten anything we're given her.

 And this is the mess on the floor after she's finished her toast.  The stones are on a shower curtain that I put under the high chair to catch the mess, an essential piece of kit!

 After toast she has yoghurt, she's dropping her milk feeds quite quickly so I want to make sure she gets enough calcium in her diet.  Somewhere in all of this, Andrew got up, had breakfast, made his lunch and left for work.

 Now normally around two hours after she wakes up Chicken needs a sleep but today at 9:15 she looked like she was going to conk out in the playpen so instead of starting my exercise DVD (which she loves to watch me do, apparently I'm hilarious!) we went upstairs for a drink and a snooze.  However despite being in a grump, rubbing her eyes and making 'I'm tired' noises nothing seemed to convince her to snooze.  After an hour of getting quite frustrated (on both sides) I gave up on the DVD and we headed out for a power walk.

 Five minutes from our house is a public footpath through some farms, and for an hour I walked through the fields while Chicken got her sleep.

 She woke up about five minutes from home and spent the time looking up at me, no body around to make smiles at I guess.

 It was about 11:30 by the time I got home so I fixed our lunch, Cauliflower and broccoli cheese to start and then pear and blueberry puree for pudding.

 And for me, ham and cheese on a homemade roll.  Andrew fancies himself as a bit of a bread baker on the weekends.

 Again, one happy customer!

 I had a shower after this (this is not normal for me, I'm usually dressed by 9:30 most mornings) and we sat down to play until 2pm, when the baby weigh clinic started.  However, once again our plans didn't quite work out.  Eilidh decided about 1:30 that she wanted a nap so we snuggled on the couch for what I would have expected to be 45 mins or so, but not today.  Today she slept till 4:15!! I couldn't believe it, this is not like her at all. On the plus side, I got to blob and watch a Kardashian marathon on E!  When she woke I gave her a feed and we headed out to the shops, having missed the weigh in.

 Eilidh loves going out and seeing people, she flashes them her big smile and I get stopped at least twice every time we got out, but not today, today she was making funny noises and becoming agitated so I did what any mum would do, I bribed her with a snack!

When we got home Chicken played in her playpen aka the cage while I got her dinner ready.  At the moment her favourite thing is for me to fill the pot with toys and then she goes through them all one by one, easily pleased huh! 

 At 6:15 I fed Chicken her dinnner, homemade spaghetti bolognese and peach rice pudding, and a pre-dinner G&T for me!  Andrew arrived home half way through dinner and did his best to distract her, lol!  I

And thats where the photos stop I'm afraid, I cleaned up Eilidh and got started with dinner while her and Andrew played for a while.  At 7pm Andrew took her up for a bath and I went up to give her her last fed and by 7:30 it was lights out for our wee girl.  I finished cooking, chicken and artichoke casserole that was supposed to have cabbage in it but someone (not me) didn't buy any at the Farmers market yesterday, despite being asked, hehe.  We ate and then settled down on the couch for internet, blogging, and sky TV, good times!  Blogger was being super slow so its taken an hour an a half to upload photos and write this post, so at 10:30 I am off to bed, night night!

Food glorious food!

About eight weeks ago we started weaning Chicken, that is introducing solid foods.  The NHS here suggests introducing foods at six months but as I've found out, not many people stick to that and will begin between four to six months.  This has changed since I was a baby (1980) because my mum found my baby records and the nurse suggested mashed banana at three months - which might explain why at 6 months I was two pounds heavier than Chicken!!  Anyway, I'm getting side tracked, people say I do that easily, ooohh shiny things!

We (well I, Andrew lets me make these decisions so far) decided to go down the puréed food route and I bought Annabel Karmel's book to give me some ideas and promptly set off to the supermarket to buy half of the fruit and vegetable aisle (not quite but you know...)  First up was apple.  Lets just say that apple wasn't a huge hit, she'll eat it now but its definitely not her favourite.  I think one of the reasons for the screwed up faces was that Chicken didn't quite know what we were doing, but once she did, well things have taken off!

Firstly we tried pears, sweet potatoes and apples mixed with baby porridge.  The porridge was great because it made the food more palatable, sweeter and creamier if you get my drift.  She also occasionally had the baby porridge by itself.  At this stage we were only have one or two meals a day.

A few weeks into this I added mashed banana, peas, carrots, blueberries, and baby fromage frais. all of which she's loved!  The only thing that hasn't gone down well  has been this fancy yoghurt I got from the farmers market as a treat, turns out my kid doesn't like posh food!!!

Now all this home made mush is all well and good at home but when we are out  and about I use pouches like  these and to start with only vegetable dishes.  A pouch will last for two meals, and while it isn't cheap, its not super expensive either, and there are lots of great flavours! (in the scale of things)

A couple of weeks ago I decided that it was time to move to three meals a day, and I have to say, my world seems to revolve around feeding my baby, possibly even more so than when she was a new born.  Back then, all I had to do was whip out a boob, but now I have to cook, serve, clean up (way, way too much cleaning up!) and also breast feed in-between, busy busy!

I have to say though, Chicken loves her food!  She gobbles it all up (bar the fancy schmancy yoghurt) and often squawks for more.  This week we've branched out and I made rice pudding and cauliflower cheese, and tomorrow I'm making cheesy fish pie and fish and sweet potato mash.  The opportunities are endless!  There is only one downside, and I think its the first time I've been sad that my baby is growing up.  I'm sad that I'm not the one feeding her any more, perfectly natural I'm sure but sad nonetheless.  Anyway, talk to me in six months when she's walking, four years when she's going off to school, eighteen years when she's going off to university etc etc, and then I'll be sad that she's growing up!

These photos are from Chicken's first feed, sooo much has changed, she now gobbles up all food!  PS Check out Andrew's facials!

A list on Sunday

I have a lot of mini thoughts to write about, but none of them by themselves would be a full post, so this morning, we have a list!

1.  Its been quite nice in my part of England this week and today we are having some family over for a BBQ. Isn't it typical that I wake up and the sky is overcast.  BBC says its going to be warm all day with a chance of rain in the evening, stay away rain!

2.  I've been meaning to bake a certain cake for about two months now.  Its a pistachio, lemon and polenta cake, the recipe comes from Sainsbury's magazine about two years ago and it looks good.  Why do I keep putting off making cake?  I mean, I'm quite good at that sort of thing, must do that today, it'll be nice for the BBQ.

3.  We went swimming at the local pool last week.  Now this would normally fill a full post, but since you are not allowed to take pictures in public pools (and cause I don't want photos of me in a swim suit on the net) it wouldn't be as much fun.  We did have a great time and Chicken really loves the water and is becoming more and more confident.  She also has the cutest outfit!

4.  My father-in-law Graham (and MIL Moira) are staying with us at the moment, and we asked him to do some gardening to tidy up a bit.  There is a privet tree out the front of our house and I said he could trim it as it makes me sneeze and it was quite over grown.  This is what he did.  Effective but it will take a bit of getting used to, and anyway, plants grow back.  And I am very pleased that the privet has gone!

5.  We watched Roman Holiday last night with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.  This was the first time I've seen a Hepburn film, great eyebrows and I love the pixie hair cut, but what big ears!  I got it at the supermarket for £3, and didn't realise till I got home that it was in black and white.  I really enjoyed it, such a restrained love story, they don't make em like they used to!

6.  Because the in-laws are staying I have farmed out my child Chicken is spending quality time with them while I write this, makes things go much quicker.  Thanks guys!

7.  I made ribs yesterday, two different marinades even.  And well, they were ok, I mean ribs, if not overcooked are usually nice, but these marinades didn't quite cut it.  I like sticky ribs and they had potential but ... oh well, I'll keep trying.  Apparently my little brother makes nice ribs, maybe he'll make some when we visit him in September.

8.  Speaking of my brother, his girlfriend Amanda, who make this amazing quilt for Chicken got a kitchen aid mixer for her birthday recently.  I am seriously jealous!  I covet one, sooooooooooo much, shame the voltage is different for electrical things from the US to the UK, I'd put one in my suitcase in Sept!

9.  I am going out this Wednesday coming at night time without Chicken.  Since she now takes a bottle I am going to go scrapbooking for a couple of hours.  I chose this time cause the in-laws will be here to help Andrew if needed.  I'll let you know how it goes, a practice run for the hens party in a month!

10.  I said to my friend Jo the other day (we are new friends btw) "I don't know if you've realised but my brain things about lots of different things at once, which is why the conversation changes a lot" and she said (in a deservedly slightly sarcastic tone, "No Jess, hadn't noticed at all, not!"  She also said she likes it and it keeps her on her toes because she has to pay attention to the whole conversation.  I hope she meant it and wasn't just being nice, I don't think so, she doesn't seem like that sort of person.

So, my point being, this list of ten is really just my stream of consciousness (I think that's what its called) on a Sunday morning.  Hope you have a relaxing Sunday, wherever you are!

Oh wait!

11.  My little girl was five months old yesterday, where has the time gone?