Menu plan 18/03/13

MONDAY - Creamy beef & potato layer, carrots, peas and broccoli

TUESDAY - Sausages, yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy

WEDNESDAY - Omelet, jacket potato, salad, homemade coleslaw and bread

THURSDAY - Steak & ale pie (in freezer) mash and veg

FRIDAY - Bacon, potato cakes, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes & beans

SATURDAY - Homemade lamb burgers, chips, onion rings & homemade coleslaw

SUNDAY - Beef/veggie curry, rice and naan bread  

Welcome to my new follower Thrifty Living. Your very welcome and thank you for dropping by.

Well, we're onto the last portions of meat from my £70 meat pack from the local butcher. It's been a 5 week month for me  and we have had plenty of meat to cover the month. The family have really enjoyed lots of different cuts of meat which has put a bit more variety into their menu plan.The only thing the girls were not keen on was a shoulder of lamb which I cooked long and slow. The meat was tender but they said it was fatty. I have put the remainder of this joint in the freezer. I intend to mince it up and shall add to a tomato sauce to make a type of bolognese to have on pasta next Monday I think. It's payday next Wednesday so I've got a delivery coming and I shall place another order with the butchers to collect next thursday. We shall be ready then for the Easter holidays. Not that I will benefit from the bank holiday on Good Friday. Working for the NHS means we work bank holidays if they fall on days we work.

Just noticed today is my 100th post.
Anyway, it's time for me to get started on our evening meal so shall say, adios amigos!

What a bargain!!!!

This is my bargain of the year. So far anyway. I saw this breadmaker in the back of the charity shop I volunteer in this morning. As soon as I saw it I thought, I want that.

It was in perfect condition and I plugged it into a socket to check it was working. I bet it's only been used a couple of times it's like new.

It also came with it's instruction booklet and measuring scoops. I asked the manager how much she wanted for it and she said a couple of quid cos we can't sell electricals. Well, that was so cheap I put £5.00 in the till for it.

So at the moment it is on and I'm test driving it. So far it is work good. I do own a breadmaker already and it was only last weekend when I was making a loaf that I thought, I hope my breadmaker doesn't breakdown because it will cos a lot to replace it. So seeing this this morning I am prepared for when mine dies and will have a replacement machine already in the house.

Daughter No 3 said I was all giddy and excited at trying out my new breadmaker hehe. The simple things in life I can get excited about. And just to let you know. No, the breadmaker would not have been binned with us not selling electricals. We have a man who calls once a month to collect all electrical stuff and it's taken elsewhere to sell. Off to have a peek at my bread lol

Menu Plan Monday 11/03/13

MONDAY - Stuffed pork loin, mashed potatoes, vegetables and yorkshire puddings

TUESDAY - Homemade fishcakes, wedges and mushy peas

WEDNESDAY - Lamb steaks, roasted vegetables and jacket potatoes

THURSDAY -Homemade beef & ale pies, carrots, broccoli and mash

FRIDAY - Mascarpone tomato sauce on pasta with homemade garlic bread

SATURDAY - Steak with mushroom sauce, chips, onion rings & grilled tomatoes

SUNDAY - Omelet, salad, homemade coleslaw, Jacket potatoes and bread

Well it arrived again through the night. A light fall of snow and all day we have had short blizzards of snow. It's freezing because of the wind and really not been a pleasure to walk in today with the dog. My face was frozen and I had to put my jacket hood up against the cold. Did a quick shop in Aldi between the snow blizzards and have spent the rest of the day warm and snug in the house watching the weather through the kitchen window as I worked.

Some ironing done and our evening meal prepped as I have to take Daughter No3 to doctors for 4.30pm and know we shall be in the waiting room for ages. Made a half quantity of lemon drizzle cake mixture and made 7 lemon drizzle buns with it. These will be frozen to go in daughters packed lunches.

She says she made 7 buns well, we are down to 5 now with both daughters wanting to try out the buns. Think I better get the rest in the freezer or I'll have none left for packups.

To finish off another picture of my Mothers Day tulips which have opened and are a lovely colour. I just keep looking at them because they look so nice.
Hope your all keeping warm and you have not had too much snow today x

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all those Mums out there in blog land. I received some lovely gifts and cards from my three daughters. Not so much a relaxing Mothers Day as I have the two grandaughters here this weekend and it's always busy when they stay.

Our evening meal will be an easy event. I made the lasagne the other evening so it can be just popped in the oven to cook and a salad made in minutes. I'm going to put the bread machine on to make some dough so I can make a focaccia. Think a red pesto focaccia will go nicely with our meal.  

Just got stressed over dropping a bottle of very expensive Rapeseed oil all over the kitchen floor. It was a sod to clean up. Shards of glass seem to get everywhere and my new slippers have bright yellow oil on them now!  Think a nice glass of vino with my meal is called for. Chill Karen

Domestic Goddess

Well I truly feel like a domestic goddess today lol. I had a lieu night to use up at work so had last night off which left me with today free as I'm normally asleep through the day on Wednesdays. I got up this morning and thought, right, I'm going to make the most of today and have a right productive day. I started the day off with dog walking in the chilly, wet fog.

The promise of sunshine after the fog did not materialise yesterday and I don't expect any today. After our walk I set to a job I just hate. Oven cleaning. Got both ovens sprayed and left them for a  couple of hours for the spray to do its magic.

 I got the breadmaker on with a batch of hot cross bun ingredients. Then it was upstairs to daughter No2's bedroom to the cupboard in the corner that never gets entered. This is the reason why...

Years and years of toys and junk the girls keep hold of. Well today I was going to get rid of a significant amount of the stuff. I Put 2 large sacks of stuff in my boot to take to the charity shop tomorrow. Two large sacks of rubbish went in the bin. Lots of paper and cardboard went into the recycle bin. I then took down to the conservatory a lot of toys and games the grandaughters would like to play with. The end result was a lot better  than when I entered a few hours earlier.

I then went and cleared all the toys out of the conservatory that the grandaughters had outgrown. Lots for the charity shop and some binned. They will love it on their visit this weekend having lots of new games and toys to play with.

In between the cleaning I finished my hot cross buns and got the breadmaker back on to make a couple of baguettes. Made coleslaw for tea and make a cheese and onion flan for tea. The slowcooker was put on with a batch of bolognese to cook. I stripped daughters bedding too and got this washed and dried. It's left on her bed for her to make, think I've done enough today. Did relax for half hour after I got back from walking the dog at lunchtime while daughter coloured my hair. Time to relax now I'm back from my third dog walk of the day. Think a glass of wine is called for : )

Menu Plan Monday 04/03/13

MONDAY - Breaded fish, chips and mushy peas

TUESDAY - BBQ Lamb steaks, pesto pasta, roasted veg & homemade flatbreads. Me - Halloumi

WEDNESDAY - Bolognese pasta and homemade garlic bread

THURSDAY - Gammon, egg, chips, peas & mushrooms

FRIDAY - Cheese & broccoli flan, potato salad, coleslaw & salad. All homemade

SATURDAY - Chicken/tofu Fajitas

SUNDAY - Vegetarian Lasagne, salad and homemade garlic bread

Today we were going to eat for tea the mushroom & chestnut cottage pie that we were supposed to have had last week but didn't have because daughters boyfriend stayed and he would not have eaten it. So this afternoon I followed the recipe and got all the veg and sauce cooked and decided then it was a mistake to make this because I JUST KNOW none of them will eat it so I've abandoned the meal and shall have it myself over the next couple of days for my lunch. When daughter No3 came in from school today her first words were " Hello, what's for tea tonight?" Told her to look in the kitchen at what I'd made but was not giving her now. She said "Good cos I wouldn't have eaten it!"  Tea tonight shall be a couple of breaded fish fillets that were yellow stickered in Aldi for 90p and some fish fingers, chips and mushy peas followed by homemade rice pudding and warmed jam.

Really enjoyed my lunch today even though it nearly blew my head off with the hot spicy chilli sauce. Still had some spring onions to use and I had a big bag of coriander that was out of date but still good. There were a lot of mushrooms on the turn and some sweetcorn in the fridge. I got a few prawns from the freezer and soaked some dried noodles. What I wanted to use up was the trio of indian dips I had leftover from Saturday. Saturday we had lamb burgers and Hubby likes riata on his lamb burger. I had no plain yogurt in or any mint so thought I'd buy him one of those little pots from the supermarket. They had ran out of the little pots so I got the trio of dips pictured below

The dark red dip I had on my bean burger Saturday and it blew my head off it was so hot. The rest of it along with the chunky tomato dip went into my stir fry. 

So that got rid of a few more bits in my fridge and was very tasty too. Not bothered shopping today as I was late menu planning so shall go tomorrow. Just need to sort my shopping list now.

Hate colds!

Had a week of wiping my nose every minute and coughing and spluttering away. It's now easing off but my poor nose is sooo sore. I'm now concentrating on repairing the damage with lots of soothing moisturisers and balms. Don't you just hate having a cold?

Anyway, onto other things. My meat hoard has hardly been touched. Need to get some minced lamb out for burgers for tomorrows homemade 'takeaway' of burgers and chips. Menu meals have been swapped around a little as daughters boyfriend stayed the night we were having creamy mushroom pasta and he won't touch mushrooms. So had to swap for a meaty meal. I'm looking forward to my mushroom pasta tonight so she had better not ask if he can come for tea tonight. I'm not changing it again!

Fancied something different today for lunch today so had a mooch in the fridge to see what grabbed me. A bunch of spring onions were calling out to be used so I grabbed two of them, some cheese and two eggs and the loaf of bread.

I cut two slices of bread then thinly sliced the spring onions. Half of the onions were placed on a slice of the bread then topped with cheese. The second slice of bread on top to create a sandwich. I then got a large plate and whisked the eggs, remaining spring onions, sprinkle of salt, a grating of pepper and a sprinkle of chilli flakes. I dipped both sides of my sandwich in the eggy mix until it was all absorbed then fried the sandwich in a little oil.

I ate half before I realised I hadn't taken a picture. I was too eager to get stuck into my lunch. It was very yummy with a dollop of ketchup on the side  : )

Off to walk some of these cheesey calories off now with the dog. Enjoy your day x