How Time Flies……

I cannot believe how much time as went by since my last post!
And so much has happened.

I decided to take a little break from the Blog front to focus on my wedding.
The wedding has been and gone (it will be 6 weeks this Saturday) and we are now in the run up to the Mini Man joining Primary 1 and the Little Lady starting nursery.

More of these to come in Blog Posts 🙂

We also had the arrival of a good friends Gorgeous Girl, nelieve me she is a little cracker!

I am back on my healthy eating routine, unfortunately Pina Coladas do not count towards your 5 a day.

Exciting New Things ;)

Just a short, cheeky post to let you know about some changes I plan to make and get your thoughts on.

I am in the process of starting up 2 new blogs – 1 for myself and 1 for my mini’s.

The new blog for myself,  is basically recipes and anything foodie that I like.
Alas, my dear readers, I shall be keeping this one too.  Only it wont contain as much foodie posts.

The blog for my mini’s will be focusing on their cooking/baking, a tiny bit about what else they get upto.
I will be in full control of it, they will be in charge of the picking recipes, shopping and the cooking.

I hope you will enjoy the other blogs as much as this one, and if you have any hints or tips for us, we would appreciate them.
Maybe not the mini man, as we all know that 4.5 year olds know everything!

S x

Silent Sunday

I’ve Progressed to the Next Stage of QMT

The last few weeks have been filled with illness in our house.
Not very good at all.
First was Lolly who had pneumonia and am now glad to say is better. Back to her normal cheeky self, although still a bit raspy.
Then the mini man came down with a cough, which we have been told is a viral chest infection. Not sure if that’s right but it is what my local surgery diagnose everyone with.
And lastly me. I have Manflu. Its traumatic to say the least lol. I really don’t know how men cope with it. Oh yes, I don’t know as I still have to deal with the monsters sick or not. Can’t be lying in bed all day “dying”.

Yesterday was my hardest day, as I had felt the worst I have felt all week and all the monsters done was play up.
You name it they done it – fighting, jumping on beds, harassing the dog, harassing me, throwing things, etc etc.
I was so harassed, I couldn’t believe it. As soon as the Mr came home, went back out, came home again, I got myself in a roasting, toasting hot bath and had a snoop about twitter and get myself together.
And apparently while I was in the bath my crazed monsters turned into perfection personified.

I have come to the conclusion that after our few weeks illness and my week of harassment that I have progressed up the Quality Mummy Time ladder to – Night Away.
So I am going to book myself away for a day to a spa (and see how we get on there before booking a full night away).

Have you progressed in the QMT ladder?

How far up are you now? 🙂

X

Silent Sunday

Sssshhhhh

Spicy Yoghurt Pork Kebabs

This recipe was amazing! Tasty, simple and quick to make.
We are on a budget these days, upcoming wedding :), and the ingredients are regulars on our weekly shopping list. Which is great for us as it meant not buying food we wouldn’t use after.

You can use this recipe differently from how I have, I had diced pork to use up, you could use it on pork steaks instead.

What you need:

1 pack diced pork/4 pork steaks
8 tablespoons of low fat natural yoghurt
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 tablespoons coriander
2 tablespoons mint
Salt and pepper to season

You can always have less or more curry powder/chilli depends on how spicy you like it

What you do:

Place your diced pork evenly out onto wooden skewers.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together to make a sauce.
Spread the sauce over the kebabs, turn over and spread over other side, make sure they are evenly coated as much as you can.
Place under hot grill, or pop into oven dish (I used my Pampered Chef stoneware in oven) and cook for 10 mins each side under grill, or 15-10 mins in oven.
Serve with rice and vegetables or salad and chips like we did.

Enjoy x

Our Wee Unplanned Trip

Our weekend got off to a bad start 😦

My little lady had to be taken into the Edinburgh Sick Kids.
She had been not a very well wee sausage for the previous 2-3 weeks, on and off cold/cough. At the time I didn’t think it was anything to really worry about. But I was wrong.

We called our local doctors surgery on Friday morning as Lolly was really raspy and hadn’t eaten or drank much in the last 48 hours, and being the amazing surgery that they are, I was told by the doctor receptionist that it was not an emergency and I would wait in a queue for a call back.
Well I waited, and waited, and waited, and well you get the hint.

Quick call to Auntie Kaak, and followed her advice of calling NHS 24.
And we were sent to the hospital.

My mini man was packed off to his friends and off we went.
Met the Mr and headed to A & E.
Jeez Louise it was mobbed!
Again we waited and waited to be seen. 2pm turned into 4pm and the little lady seemed to have perked up.
I was now thinking, if not seen in half an hour we are leaving. She seems fine, wee cough but nothing too major.

Cut a long story short, we didn’t go home we waited and were seen at around 6pm. And I am so glad we never just went home. As after all the waiting, seeing a nurse, waiting, seeing a doctor, waiting, having x-rays, waiting, seeing doctor, waiting, getting prescription, we were told Lolly has pneumonia.
I was so shocked! And feeling really upset. My poor wee sausage!

I then felt anger towards my doctors surgery and that bloody receptionist!
Am I wrong to think she shouldn’t have been playing at doctors and just got us seen? I mean she’s 2 years old, you can’t muck about with a wee one.
I’m even getting angry while writing this.

The good news is that Lolly is on the mend and she’s not 100% yet but on the road to it.
My food bill has went down slightly this week as she has eaten very little.
I’m glad she had a good appetite before and that she wasn’t a slight girl.

And now I am off to write my letter to the practice manager in the surgery. Tips are welcome for the letter!

My Postcard From Team Honk in Ghana

************************

Dear Sarah

Mummy Barrow is forever blowing bubbles! We took a break from taking photos and baking to play with the children who go to nursery at the Virtuous Women’s Bakery while their mums bake.

Love Penny

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (www.mammasaurus.co.uk;www.aresidence.co.uk; www.mummybarrow.com) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork. 

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com

For other digital postcards please do join up and check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org#

I am so proud of Mammasaurus, AResidence and MummyBarrow for the #goodwork they have done by joining Comic Relief in this great cause.

Hop on over to their blogs, and have a read at their adventures over there.

Well done Ladies you are an inspiration 🙂

 

Fire! Fire!

I have been a little quiet on the blog front for the last week, sorry folks, but this post will explain why.

2 weeks ago we had a little incident in our kitchen, that involved a 2 year old toaster, and fire.
I had picked up M from nursery with Lolly in tow, once we returned home I was told that they wanted beans on toast for lunch, and apparently nothing else would fill up their bellies. I popped the toast in the toaster and nipped upstairs to the loo. Looking forward to a few minutes peace, like most mum’s out there, until I had just plonked my bum down and I heard screaming.

I honestly thought the pair were having a mini fight over a toy, as per most days, until I heard the words FIRE mixed into it. I came rushing out to meet M and Lolly screaming ‘Mummy there’s a fire in the kitchen!’.
I rushed downstairs to look through the kitchen door to be met by flames. Instinct took over and I started shouting at the mini’s to come downstairs as they had stayed up there. Lolly came down without a hassle but M started crying telling me he was scared. I ended up having to go up and get him, poor wee mite was terrified.
I took them straight out of the house, and literally threw them at my 85 ish neighbour, phoned the fire brigade, got Dougal Dog out and into my car.

I can honestly say I have never been so scared in my life. I could not even tell you how I remembered to shut the kitchen door and put jackets at the bottom, so as to keep the fire contained.

Cut this a little short and the firemen came, put the fire out and left me with a half burnt kitchen 😦 and 2 traumatised mini’s.
The firemen were fantastic, arrived quickly, got the fire out before it got too out of control, and fitted 2 new smoke alarms for me. They even had a little chat with M, as he loves Fireman Sam, and he is even more obsessed now.
The cause of the fire – faulty toaster!
It was also explained to me that Toasters, Microwaves and Washing Machines are the common culprits of kitchen fires. I had never given it 2 thoughts before.
My kitchen is getting gutted and replaced this coming weekend, and I am so excited for it to be finished, you have no idea. It has been driving me insane, not being able to prepare proper meals, I have been trying my best, but the kitchen is just not nice to be in.

I will do another post with the after pictures to show the difference.

One last thing before I go – Please Please, take care when using kitchen appliances and DO NOT leave them unattended, as you could end up in the same situation I was, and maybe not be so lucky. I know that I won’t be doing it in a hurry.

Keep safe x

Fire pics below

this is where the fire started

Meal Planning Monday – 21 January

We missed last weeks Meal Plan, as I was bogged down with a sickness bug and didn’t do much eating!  The monsters have though, and the amount they have eaten this week I have they have done the eating for me.  I am in shock at the amount they have filled their little boots with.  Growth spurt I thinks!

This weeks Meal Plan is coming to you from Rosemary Conley’s Low Fat Cookbook.  This was a random pick from my freind Jo, over at mummysknee.  Sent her a text telling her to pick from 1-10, as I couldnt decide what one to cook from!

As normal, they recipes are adapted to suit my Slimming World plan.

Monday – Cottage Pie with Leek and Potato topping

Tuesday – Chicken Korma and rice.  From what I remember the last time I made this, it was a winner

Wednesday – Smoked Ham and Chicken Jambalaya.  Its meant to be prawns, but I am not too keen on them, so have swapped it for chicken

Thursday – Herby Meat Loaf

Friday – Smoked Haddock and Corn Chowder.  Made with delicious, fresh fish from John at Delish Fish

Saturday – Going to have a relaxed dinner of Chicken Fajitas, not in the RC cookbook!

Sunday – We are having the Mr’s mum and dad down for dinner so going to do a fab Pampered Chef recipe – Haggis Ring.  Not tried it before and really looking forward to it!

Once again thank you to Mrs M for hosting the Meal Plan Monday, pop on over and see what she has cooking, and don’t forget to tell her where you came from.

Delish fish, provide a fab service of freshly caught fish to your door, you won’t get fresher!  If you are popping on over, let me know where you heard about them.

x