School dinners and all related....

So the girls have returned to school, and both are now in juniors, this means that I now have to pay for 2 lots of dinner money - £2.30 a day each...  £92 a month! That's equivalent to one weeks shopping for a family of four, with enough left for a bottle of wine!  But I know they both enjoy school dinners, and they are freshly cooked at the school which is something, and with us parents having to work, it gives me piece of mind that they've had a cooked meal in the day - which takes the pressure off in the evening.  Especially good also is the fact that on days that they have Brownies or swimming, they have a cooked meal at lunch, and I can give them a packed lunch to have at afterschool club, pick them up - off to clubs then home, bath, bed, sleep, repeat.

Packed lunches are another bug bare of mine - and no I'm not on the band wagon and having a go at unhealthy choices for kids lunch boxes, I mean the lack of facilities to store them properly at school.  I mean take the average ham sandwich - it has to survive being in a plastic lunch box, which is quite likely going to be on a trolley with the rest of the classes lunches - for the entire morning and the trolley is quite likely to be parked in the vicinity of a heater or radiator.... not a refrigerator in site!  I think this is something they do need to address - goodness knows what germs will be lurking on the ham sandwich come lunch time!

Innocent grapes??

They look like innocent grapes right? Wrong! I bit in to one and they have seeds! Seeds I tell you! I thought grapes with seeds had been banned or abolished or something, but no they leap out and surprise you when you least expect them to, I could've chipped a tooth! 

However all jokes aside, my two girls were amazed at the grapes with pips and couldn't wait to try them, I explained that all grapes were like this when I was little, but through farmers developing their strains of grapes we now have seedless - they seemed a little shocked :D

Just another manic monday.....

Yep, manic, why are Monday mornings so incredibly hectic? And that before I've even left the house!
I'm hoping it gets easier as the children get older, but oh my goodness I can't believe how many times I have to repeat myself - 'have you brushed your hair?' 'have you brushed your teeth?' 'Put your shoes on' 'have you put your dinner money in your bag' it goes on and on!



Anyway, my Monday +Weight Watchers grub so far -
Breakfast: 2 pieces of toast and an egg - 9sp
Lunch - chicken and salad wrap - 9sp
That leaves me 12sp for tea time so planning on a jacket spud with tuna and sweetcorn.
After a morning in work the +Fitbit is reading 3012 steps - I'd best get walking between my patients this afternoon.

I'm back!

Hi there! Firstly I apologise for being a little absent but I've been struggling with time, family and a back injury! But am now mended and back to being organised.... ish.

This weeks shop - I went to Aldi for a change, I found lots of bargains and different brands to try, mostly this has worked out well and would absolutely shop there again and recommend it.

This weeks menu - hey! who knows! After all I did say organised.... ish.  I have planned tomorrows tea, so in keeping with traditional Monday grub - it will be jacket potatoes all around with various toppings to suit each person, this usually consist of the following in various combinations - beans, cheese, tuna, sweetcorn, coleslaw.  We tend to have this on a Monday as its quick, easy, healthy and filling.  I've also got some potatoes planted at the allotment, which should be ready towards the end of July (I think), I've planted some charlottes - beautiful for salads etc, some winstons which make delicious jacket potatoes, and also threw in some supermarket maris piper which had decided to chit themselves in my veggie rack - a bit of an experiment, but time will tell.

I'm still +Fitbit  crazy, but have also decided to throw in some +Weight Watchers  to boost my weight loss efforts, I've experimented with the app and website over the weekend, and officially start tomorrow, which is Monday - because all diets start on a Monday.

That's all from me for tonight, I'll pop by with another food/menu update in the week, goodnight folks!

Menu 1 week and beyond!

This week the shopping has been done for 1 week plus a few random meals - only because week 2 is half term an that will be weather dependant. So here's this week...

And next week I have quite a few meals on standby by! 

But tonight I've prep'd a slow cooker meal that everyone loves (husband and children!) chicken and chorizo stew, prep'd and in the fridge tonight? Then I'll put in the slow cooker before work tomorrow - ready for when we get in at around 6pm

Recipe - 

Chicken and chorizo stew

Brown onion, garlic, red pepper and chicken  3 breasts, then add a chopped chorizo.

Add chicken stock 1/2 pint, tin of tomatoes or pasata, 1 tbsp tomato purée, 1tsp smoked paprika, shake of dried chilli flakes. 

Mix. 

Add red lentils 8 tablespoons, add 1 peeled and chopped butternut squash or a bag of baby new potatoes, bring to boil, then simmer for 15mins,  put in the oven for 45mins on 180. 

OR slow cooker version - put all raw ingredients into slow cooker, mix and cook on low for 8 hours - serve with nan breads.

Oh my!

Now I'll admit to being a bit of a Facebook-aholic - and I do love the videos of recipes on there, I quite often send myself the link so that I have a list of things ready to try out. There's been a clip on there lately of a pastry Nutella star, I think it was by yummly - and tonight was the night that I had pastry that needed to be used up... cue the Nutella pastry star! 

So easy to make, cut two dinner plate sized rounds of pastry, spread one with Nutella, the put the other on top. Put an upside down shot glass in the middle, then slice outwards so you have quarters - cut these again, and the 8th again - it'll look a little like a sunshine. Then take a pair of sunbeam and twist twice outwards, work around until all are twisted. Brush with egg and bake on 180 until cooked, ta-daaahhh! 

My girls love them! The hubbys not home yet, best he hurries! 

fitbits, goals and life!

So at the end of last week - that marks 3 weeks of trying to get fit in 2016, unfortunately I had one of those weeks that were busy, tiresome and I just wanted to hibernate - you know the ones?  So by Friday morning I was feeling like throwing it all in, that was until I switched on the +BBC News and saw that the amazing Jo Brand was getting moving with a 170mile walk for sports relief.  Jo is an amazingly funny and shall we say curvaceous comedienne, and her interview and story was just inspiring!

If Jo could do 20miles that day - I was certainly not going to sit on the sofa and watch her, oh no sir! I pulled on my trainers and jumped on my treadmill - 5hours later that day I had my best ever +Fitbit  achievement and earned my next badge (its all about the badges :D )....

By the next day my legs were the achiest I ever remember them being, so after going for a 4mile run with the dog ( I had to walk off the sciatica somehow!), I relaxed in an Epsom salt bath - it was wonderful, I might have mentioned before that I love taking a bath - well I do and its even better when its following a good workout.  So that's my update for week 3 of January, wish me luck with week 4!