Back to the Meal Planning

Recently I've been slacking off with the meal-planning,as well as the blogging, but I'm planning to make a concerted effort to get back on track over the next few weeks. Today I sat down with the iPad (and a couple of cook books) and planned out this week's meals.

I've already got a Lamb and Potato Balti simmering away in the slow cooker for tonight, which will be served with some basmati rice. Monday night is always a bit manic as both children now have swimming lessons at 6pm, so I often slow-cook on a Monday to minimise preparation time. The kids tend to just have a cold tea before swimming - they take an eternity to eat anything hot so it is just easier that way. Plus, it's really nice to come home after swimming to the aroma of something tasty!

The rest of the week is looking like this...

Tuesday - Beef in black bean with stir-fried veg and noodles (quick after work dinner for the Husband and I)
Wednesday - Tuna pasta bake topped with crisps (a big favourite with the children)
Thursday - Pesto topped salmon fillets with green beans and new potatoes
Friday - Greek chicken, herby couscous and tzatziki

Not a particularly 'exciting' week but they are all tried and tested recipes which we enjoy, and hopefully next week a bit more inspiration will strike. I haven't planned the weekend as we probably won't be home much so there doesn't seem much point at this stage.

Thanks to Mrs M for the link

Tales from the Olympic Park

Last week the children and I had a day out at the newly-opened Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, along with what seemed like half of London! It was a beautiful day - relatively warm sunshine and cloudless blue skies and we had great fun exploring. Undoubtedly the 'best bit' for my two was the water play area in what is known as Tumbling Bay. Shoes and socks were quickly discarded, jeans rolled up as they got stuck into a complicated game of building / destroying dams and pumping water.  What was really lovely was the way in which so many children who'd never met before just joined forces to play - it seemed like there were two teams, one trying to control the flow of the water and the other trying to stop it by building dams.

Once dried off (stupidly I'd forgotten to take a towel so we had to improvise with the clothes that the Little Princess had discarded... we did have spare clothes for her), it was on to the amazing treehouse inspired climbing nets and rope bridges. Jedi Boy was immediately climbing across the nets and making his way up a fairly tricky rope ladder to the top of the tree... I had my heart in my mouth as he slid down the very high fireman's pole, but sometimes you just have to let them get on with it. This is a great playspace for children - it is designed to blend in with the environment without sacrificing any of the fun - and it isn't as 'safe' as some playgrounds seem to be these days. It even has a properly slippery slide!

We had a fabulous day out at the Olympic Park and will definitely be going back there in the future - there was another playground over by the Olympic Stadium which was too busy to explore properly, fountains which will be brilliant fun to splash in on hot summer days, a climbing wall (for over 11s) and plenty of quiet footpaths to explore. I'm looking forward to our next visit already!

Musings on my failure to blog...

I really want to give this blogging thing a proper go but, as you can probably see, blogging regularly isn't something I've managed to do so far. I need to get my head round the idea of blogging from the iPad so this is a bit of a test post. So far, so good - am stretched out on the comfy sofa, iPad on knees, big cup of tea beside me on the coffee table and typing doesn't seem too hard.

It's the first day of the Easter holidays. Both Jedi Boy and the Little Princess are in the other room, monopolising both the PC and the other iPad with their current obsession, Minecraft. I've stripped the beds, washing machine is spinning (loudly) and dishwasher rumbling away in the kitchen and now taking some time out before I drag the kids away from Minecraft and attempt to do something more constructive with our day, i.e take the library books back before they fine me again... Or, maybe I should just appreciate the fact that for once they are playing together, there is no bickering / telling tales and chill out for just a bit longer.

It is one of those holiday periods where, actually, we don't have much planned - a trip to see what the new bits of the Olympic Park that opened last week are like, maybe Kew Gardens if the sun shines, a Wembley trip for Jedi Boy and his Dad and our family's traditional Easter Sunday visit to the funfair on Hampstead Heath. Hopefully it will be fun!

Monday Meal Planning in the snow

I have been slacking off on the Monday meal planning recently but the threat (and subsequent arrival!) of the snow forced me to be a bit more organised. Given the choice between trekking through the snow to the supermarket accompanied by the Little Princess, or doing an online shop, I chose the latter - and thanks to the Sainsbury's delivery man making it through the snow this morning, I now have both a fully stocked fridge and a proper meal plan.

This week I am continuing my quest to cook more new recipes, re-visiting the speed cooking with one of the Jamie's 15 Minute Meals that I have already tried (20 minutes and 4 seconds to beat) and adding a few old favourites for those after work dinners when I can't be bothered spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

So, here is this week's plan

Tonight - Greek chicken with herby couscous and homemade tzatziki (from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals)
Tuesday - Teriyaki beef stir-fry with veg and noodles
Wednesday - Pasta with Lamb Ragu (from Nigellisima - this week's new recipe)
Thursday - Thai Red Prawn Curry with saffron rice
Friday - Chicken Fajitas (from Jamie's Ministry of Food - a real favourite in this house, thanks to Mrs M for reminding me!)
Saturday - still tbc
Sunday - a roast of some description, am thinking chicken at the moment...

Let's just hope I can stay being organised!

New Years Resolutions

Every year I have the same resolutions - lose some weight, exercise more, don't spend so much money on things we don't need, make more effort to keep the house tidy. To be fair, I do usually lose some weight (in the first part of the year anyway, when I've got a sunshine holiday to aim for), I exercise fairly regularly and I 'try' to do the other two things but usually don't succeed. So, this year I am going for a new approach of setting myself some mini goals along the way. These aren't going to be big, dramatic resolutions. They will just be a few little things that I'd like to achieve each month and will hopefully make me feel more positive about myself.

So, for January I would like to;

Cook Six New Recipes - I have got a shelf literally over-flowing with cookery books and one of my aims for this year is to widen my range of meals as we often find ourselves eating the same old favourites time and time again. So far, on day 6, I have only done one new recipe - Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Fresh Corn Salsa (from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals) which we really enjoyed, so next week I will be adding at least one new thing into our meal plan.

Run 40K - Hopefully if I achieve this goal; I will be well on the way to getting back into running regularly again. So far I have done 9K which is a good start.

Create Four Scrapbook Pages - I love scrapbooking but since the Little Princess dropped her afternoon nap, it is one of those things that has fallen by the wayside a bit. I have a huge stack of lovely photos from last year, a cupboard full of fabulous materials (including birthday and Christmas presents which I am waiting to try out), a new scrapbook to fill and I just need to get on with putting our memories down on paper. So, I am aiming for one page a week this month - and hopefully, 52 pages in the year!

Start the Great Declutter - Unlike the other three resolutions, this one is a bit vague. We have a lot of projects that we'd like to do in the house this year and, to do that, we need to create more space. So this month I am going to start decluttering - just haven't decided what to tackle first!

And, on top of that, I'd like to lose 7lbs (if I ever buy some new scales) and blog more.... that should be enough to get going with.

Meal Planning Monday (on Tuesday!)

After a couple of weeks of spectacularly failing to meal plan (due to a combination of the Jubilee weekend and half-term), I am back on both my diet and my meal-planning mission this week. I am attempting to low-carb which is a new thing for me, the carb-addict, but hopefully it will give the diet a boost.

Yesterday we spent the day dodging the showers / incessant drizzle at Legoland with the kids, taking advantage of an inset day at the end of half-term. Despite the weather, we actually had a fabulous day - both kids were happy all day and we enjoyed ourselves even more because of that. It was just lovely to have a day without a single tantrum / drama queen moment from either of them.

So, on to the meal-planning...

Monday - Fishcakes and caesar salad (all shop-bought due to post-Legoland tiredness)
Tuesday - Tray-roasted salmon with green beans, cherry tomatoes, anchovies and olives (one of our favourite Jamie Oliver recipes)
Wednesday - Lamb Rogan Josh with cauliflower rice
Thursday - Steak, with potato wedges for the Husband and a pile of veggies for me
Friday - Halloumi, chorizo and pepper kebabs with salad
Saturday - Out for a meal for our 9th wedding anniversary (how did THAT happen?)
Sunday - Roast dinner - either at home or the pub for Father's Day.

I think it sounds like a good week - let's just hope I stick to it!

Thanks, as always, to Mrs M for the link...

Hangover Munchies

Last night the combination of free-flowing Prosecco (and free-flowing Chardonnay once the copious supply of Prosecco ran out) and my lack of willpower when faced with waitresses topping up my glass got the better of me...  I'd like to claim I wasn't drunk but, in reality, I probably had one or two (or three) glasses of wine more than I should have had - due to the enthusiastic glass-filling I don't actually know how much I had.

So today I have the hangover munchies - I've been attempting to stick to a relatively low-carb diet this week (lots of salad, protein and no bread) but my hangover is demanding bread. And it is demanding it so loudly that it makes my head hurt. Not only did I succumb to the temptation of the mid-morning bacon sandwich run, I then followed it up with a brie and cranberry panini. And yes, it was good, but I am so going to regret it when I step on the scales next week..

I've also been thinking about my favourite hangover foods - a bacon and fried egg sandwich with a big dollop of tomato ketchup, chips covered in melted cheese, sea salt and balsamic vinegar Kettle Chips, cheese and crisp sandwiches (yes, I know that one is weird), cheesy mashed potato, cheesy pasta... spotting a theme here anyone?

Of course, there is one other thing that will make me feel better, more Prosecco - roll on wine o clock!