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.

Randomness on Wednesday

Well, I made it five days in a row blogging, I'm quite proud of myself, but there was no way I could do it on the weekend too, it takes me at least an hour to blog with photos!  Anyway I don't have a whole post to write about, so here are a few of my random thoughts.  Also, I've not downloaded my photos recently so I'll post them tomorrow or Friday.

1.  It turns out Chicken loves the park.  The only thing she's big enough (and not even properly then) to go on is the baby swing, and man does that make her laugh and smile.  She also loves watching the other kids, I think we could just sit in the playground watching the kids for a whole afternoon and she still wouldn't get bored!

2.  I lost one and a half pounds this week, 680g in normal peoples amounts, which is 12.5 lb total or 5.5kg.  And the good new is that I now fit into three pairs of three quarters that I didn't fit a month ago!! Can't wait to do some shopping when I get to Vermont.

3.  I am sooooo excited about going to visit Scott and Panda in two weeks, I can't believe its only in two weeks, I've already starting looking at websites for clothes and shoes for Chicken and I!! We're having a week or so in Vermont and then a couple of nights in New York, I love NYC and already have a long list of things to do that we didn't manage last time.

4.  I have to bake some biscuits tomorrow morning for a party.  My friend is finishing her job as a breastfeeding supporter tomorrow so we are having a farewell lunch and then a little party at our group.  I'm  sad shes leaving but I'm looking forward to having mussels for lunch!

5.  My computer isn't working at the moment so I have to borrow Andrew's which doesn't have a webcam which means no skype or skyping using my iPhone, which is super hard because Chicken wants to grab it all the time, and really who wants to look up a babies nose, not even me!

6.  I've joined a reading club online, and I'm really enjoying it so far, its one of the first books (not counting kids books) that I've read since I've had Chicken.

Happy Hump day everyone!

A week in my life - Friday

Today was a fairly normal morning, up at 7, downstairs to have breakfast, toast for Chicken, banana mango smoothie (yummy!) for me, no coffee though, not sure why not either.   Actually thats not true,  I do know why, the repair man was coming to fix our Sky TV so Andrew did Chicken's breakfast while I showered, didn't want to get caught in my dressing gown!   Anyway after saying goodbye to Andrew and tidying Chicken up, we came downstairs again to play with the new stacking cups.  Apparently they are good fun!

Shortly after this it was time for Chicken's first nap, 9:30ish so I took her upstairs for a feed and a snooze.  I came down and tidied up, not that it seems to have made much of a difference, 24 hours later it needs doing again, oh well.  

The Sky man came just after 10am and fixed the problem - yay! Chicken woke up and we played some more until the door bell rang and it was the Postie dropping off three parcels, what a score!  One was these fab shades because I'm doing the European version of Dear Lizzy's Shades of Summer so we spend five minutes in the garden trying to  take a self portrait, not too bad on the whole I'd say.

 Then I spent ten minutes trying to get Chicken to pose with them on, she wasn't having any of it!

 The second parcel came from my mum and was this super cute outfit, thanks Nana!  The third parcel came from the book club I've joined, which reminds me I've got to get my act into gear and post my book!

After that we Skyped my little bro and his gf in Vermont while they ate breakfast, I'll just say one thing, Skype with a baby is quite tricky on an iPhone!  By the time we got off it was 12 and Chicken was already ready for her next nap so we cuddled on the couch and I may or may not have watched Murder She Wrote. 

Eilidh woke up around half one and by this stage I was soooo hungry I wolfed down a ham, cheese and gherkin toasted sandwich while her fish pie cooled down.  She likes fish pie, especially rubbing it into her face!

 Chicken was supposed to also have mango for lunch but as I dropped the whole bowl on the carpet, not the splash mat, it didn't happen.  During lunch my friend Jo rang to say she'd be at ours in twenty minutes to go for a walk so we ran around like headless chickens getting ready.  Chicken was covered in so much fish pie I had to changer her into her new outfit, which is just sooo cute!

After getting organised, changing two nappies (one very poopy one, sorry TMI I know) we were ready to meet Jo and George.  We went for a walk with Jo's dog to a park I'd never been to before but heard good things about, turns out its a cool park and we'll be going back soon! 

We got home and Chicken spend fifteen mins or so in her door bouncer while I sorted out our dinner plans, and it turned out we needed a couple of things from the shop, so it was back in the pushchair and off to the supermarket.

We met Andrew at the supermarket and whizzed around before coming home.  Andrew fed Chicken her dinner while I made a strawberry mousse and these Pesto Turkey meatballs.  He then took her up for a bath and by 7:30 she was sound asleep.

We had dinner which was great, meatballs were awesome, shame I put too much chilli in the tomato sauce, a bit overpowering.  I had a glass of vino and toyed with blogging or scrapping but as Andrew pointed out, I'm not very sociable when I do those things and since it was Friday we watched Cougar Town and blobbed on the couch.  Which is why I'm writing about my Friday on Saturday morning, happy weekend everyone!

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!

Stealing my stuff, already!

Last week I went to Topshop to buy a fascintator for my friend Alice's wedding and I found this funky cream flower on a headband.  I liked that fact that it was cream and wouldn't be too obvious.  By the way, why is it called a fascinator?  Is it fascinating?

I've never worn a fascinator before, and I especially don't want to stand out like Princess Beatrice at William and Kate's wedding.

When I got home Chicken was a little whiney so I threw her the headband to play with, and of course she promptly showed it in her mouth.  I then decided to try it on her for a laugh.

And that back fired, she looked cute, super cute.  It even fits properly, we tested it last week and it doesn't fall off.

Looks like I'm going shopping for another fascinator next week!