Month: November 2012

Meal Planning Monday – 19 November 2012

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I can’t believe how fast the weeks are flying in!
Felt like only yesterday since I wrote my last Meal Plan Monday.

We didn’t really stick to the meal plan last week, between a poorly me, poorly monsters, etc, it was basically a get what you want dinner system.
When the Mr was hungry it was upto him to sort his food out (naughty me!) but I wasn’t feeling too great, hence why he was left to his own devices. Mainly pizzas!
Feeling a bit better this week, not 100% but getting there 🙂

Monday – Sausage, mushroom and tomato pasta

Tuesday – Italian Chicken bake

Wednesday – Smoked Haddock kedgeree.

Thursday – Fried rice and stir fried veg

Friday – Slow cooker red Thai curry

Saturday – Joe’s burger and chips

Sunday – I have left open as I’m not too sure what our family day plans are

Most of my meal inspiration this week is from Take a breaks little meal magazine, I picked up in Tesco for £1. Bargain with lots of recipes in it.
Will def be buying again.

Thanks to Mrs M for hosting the meal planning Monday.
Pop along and have a look 🙂 and let her know who sent you.

Wedding Bells

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Today, I thought I would do a blog about my forthcoming wedding 🙂
I am getting married in 2014, or as I like to say in 20 months as it sounds sooner than 2014!

Myself and the Mr first got together when I was just a young pup (19 to be exact) and we have been together for just over 8 years.
As you know, we have our 2 monsters, Junior and Lolly.
Since falling pregnant with Junior I had been patiently waiting for the Mr to get down on one knee and make an honest woman out of me.
He didn’t. And I still kept on waiting.

I was still waiting after the birth of Lolly.
Until, the 1st January this year.
We had been out celebrating the New year from around 1pm (monsters were at Granny’s) and this happened at about 8pm.
Did he do it because he was drunk?
I don’t know. But I wasn’t waiting around to find out, I said yes straight away. I had waited long enough already!

We decided that we would marry in 2014 as it would give us enough time to save money and also it’s our 10 year anniversary that year, so fairly special.

It taken us forever and a day to decide where to get married. When we finally agreed on a local venue.
The Mining Museum.
And it’s perfect, the space for the ceremony etc is absolutely perfect. It’s part of the local heritage, it’s not a common place to get married. Saying that it is becoming more and more popular. And it’s local.
It won’t take friends and family long to get home (my good friend Jo can just hop over the back fence and she’s nearly home!)

I’m determined not to become a bridezilla. However, I am trying to be organised. I have 90% of things booked, including band, photographer, flowers.
This will help me budget etc, well fingers crossed.

Do you have any tips/advice for planning the wedding?
Or even money saving ideas?
If you do, give me a shout as I need all the help I can get 🙂

MasterChef The Professionals

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MasterChef the Professionals hit our screens again last week.
And boy was I excited!
It’s one of my favourite shows, much better than the drivel of X Factor and the likes.
MasterChef is about true cookery talent and is certainly not “fixed”.
I doubt very much that Monica Galetti could reign those facial expressions back!

I think the pairing of Monica and Gregg Wallace is a classic combination.
The looks they give each other, without having to say a word, and they know what each other is thinking, is one of the many reasons I watch.

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I love the honest, harsh at times, words Monica gives the chefs, but you know, some of the dishes made I wouldn’t feed my dog. And believe me he would eat anything, he’s not a fussy chap.
When it’s going to be put in front of a magnificent chef like Michel Roux jnr, Monica clearly needs high standards from the chefs.

Monica recently had a nasty backlash on her comments to one chefs dish on Mondays episode. Someone even had the nerve to call her an f*****g bitch.
Now that to me was very harsh, unlike her comments about the dish made.
The dish was certainly not enticing in the look of the lentil purée.
Her words were just honest truth. Unlike the authors of the vicious tweets.

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My biggest dream would be to meet the MasterChef Professional team (and John Torode wouldn’t be turned away if he tagged along too!). I’m sure my cooking wouldn’t knock their socks off, maybe my cakes would put a smile on Greggs face though ;). I can but dream.

And now the biggest dilemma of all.
What am I going to do when the series is over???
Answers on a postcard?! 🙂

What’s been your highlight of the series so far?
Do you think Monica is out of line with her comments? Or do you think the chefs should buckle up and take the critiscm?

Easy Crispy Turkey

The Hairy Dieters (Bikers) have done it again, and I bet they keep on at it.
They have produced a recipe that’s is simple, fast and really tasty.
Easy crispy chicken, is by far my favourite recipe from their new diet cookbook, followed by their chilli salad bowl.
If, like me, you’re on the Slimming World healthy eating plan, the recipe can be adapted. You need to use your healthy extras to cover your breadcrumbs and Parmesan used in the recipe.

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The recipe doesn’t call for expensive fancy ingredients, you will no doubt have the ingredients anyway, as they are fairly basic. The only thing I had to pop out for is the Parmesan cheese.
The recipe is for chicken, because I didn’t have any I just used turkey steaks I had in the freezer.
They were quite chunky so I cut them in half.

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Once you have turned your toast into breadcrumbs and mixed with the rest of the dry ingredients, dip your chicken/Turkey into flour, dust off the excess, dip into natural yogurt, making sure it’s covered and roll into the breadcrumb mix.
And hey presto they are done.
All your left to do is pop them in the oven to cook for about 20 minutes.

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We had ours with new potatoes, sweetcorn and cabbage.
I had some extra and decided to take them to mummysknee as we had a blogdate and play date.
I think it’s fair to say that I impressed Jo with them 😉
She made a lovely simple salsa to go with it – chopped tomatoes and red onion, crushed garlic and some chilli. It was delicious.

So thank you again Dave and Si for this simple and wonderful recipe.

Christmas!

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I know, I know, it’s not even December and yet here I am writing a post about Christmas, with my apple and cinnamon spice candles to get the Christmas effect.
It’s only 42 days until the big man in red has been and delivered his presents.
And the next 41 days will fly by before you know it.

I always get excited for Christmas (you would think I was 7 and not 27!) and this year I am more excited, for a good few reasons.
Junior is nearly 4 so he understands more about Christmas, not to mention the Santa’s watching bribery now works! (Naughty mummy)
His little sister will be turning 2 in a couple weeks and its fair to say she doesn’t really have a clue. Just copies her brother shouting “Santa Santa” when he talks about it.

Previous years, I have spent far too much on the pair of them and went completely over the top. Our house was literally brimming with toys as granny and grumpa like to spoil the monsters too.
This year I firmly put my foot down and have been quite thrifty with the present situation. And I am quite pleased that I have managed to stick to my plan.

I have bought presents throughout the year, during half price sales and the likes.
We got a lot from the last ELC sale and at great prices too.
Now I have all their presents in and hidden, it just leaves me enough time to try and persuade the Mr to get me an iPad for a present (he should shouldn’t he??).
My plan for Decembers payday to only be spent on food for Christmas dinner and not forgetting the wine, is coming together.

My last reason for the excitement is that my little old dad is coming up for Christmas :).
It’s made us so happy, as he stays down south and its a good 4-5 hour journey so we don’t get to see him as often as we would like.
I’m a proper daddy’s girl, always have been, and the monsters adore the ground he walks on.
You can see why we are ecstatic about this.

The only down side is my big sister can’t make it up for Christmas. Her Mr is taking her away for her birthday and they won’t be back until Christmas Eve. She also stays down south.
I mean how rude is it that she has a birthday 4 days before Christmas! Ha ha. (We love her really)

Are you excited for Christmas?
Doing anything extra special??
Share your Christmas plans and get in the festive spirit like me 🙂

Meal Planning Monday 12 November 2012

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It’s that time again, to plan this weeks meals.
I’ve noticed that since I have started taking part in the Meal Planning Monday, I have reduced my food waste and reduced my weekly food shop bill. Which makes me a happy mummy.

Again, this week I will be mainly using my Hairy Dieters cookbook, I love it that much, some really great recipes in there and am looking forward to trying out a lot more.

Monday – weigh in night. I don’t have dinner until after I have been weighed. So will just use up some leftovers I have in the freezer

Tuesday – roasted haddock with Parma ham and peppers. Meant to be cod but I only have haddock, recipe states any white fish can be used. Fabbi.

Wednesday – Spanish style chicken. The picture looks amazing, drooling ready!

Thursday – Mediterranean beef burgers

Friday – Chilli Lemon tuna and broccoli spaghetti. Looks lush.

Saturday – is a girls shopping day out followed by a cheeky few drinks and dinner out and bingo with a couple great friends.

Sunday – Southern style jambalaya. Will go nice with some lovely crusty bread.

Thanks to Mrs M for hosting the meal planning Monday.
Pop along and have a look 🙂 and let her know who sent you.

Pop over to Delish Fish for some fantastic fresh fish at great prices, mention myself when popping in.