The weekend is nearly here and even thought it is going to be another cold and wintery one we have lots of fun things planned indoors so it is all good.
We are obviously all looking forward to the X factor this week; following Jamie’s shock departure last week who knows what will happen! I am starting to predict Olly, Stacey and Jedward being in the final. Then again I change my mind every week. I am hoping the single will be number one this week in the charts as all the money goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a very worthy cause!
We will also be playing lots of games and having lot of general indoor fun. I came across a new game from StoryBox as well yesterday which will be fun for the younger two. Plus it is totally free, which in the run up to Christmas is a winner for me! The game features the StoryBox Favorite character Polo and is very interactive for the kids. They can “hunt” for the Christmas shapes around Polo’s tree-house.
I’m feeling rather grumpy today and I am sure it is S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder) kicking in. Last winter I bought a special lamp to help out so I hope to spend some time with that later today. Keeping busy is another great way to distract me, so later today I am going to clear out the big chest freezer in the garage in preparation for Christmas. I am sure this will leave me with some interesting meals for the next day or two as I struggle to put together some meals with odd ingredients, but sometimes this is when my most creative dishes are created. Plus I am hoping to do round one of the Christmas shop today… wish me luck
I thought it had been a while since I had tried a new recipe (and of course shared the good, the bad and the ugly details of said recipe)!
If you are a regular reader, you will probably know I love Thai food and often try out different recipes for different curries. I also love introducing lots of different cuisines to the children; we don’t allow picky eatings in our house (although I don’t make the kids dishes to spicey).
Anyway, one famous Thai dish I have never tried out before is Pad Thai. I have bought some rice noodles especially for the job and some fresh lime too, plus I have some freshly laid eggs courtesy of my lovely chicks! I’m going to have a go at a prawn one tonight as there were some lovely big king prawns on half-price I picked up the other day! If not I would probably do a vegetarian version, as I have tried one made with tofu before and it was so delicious. I do try to eat a vegetarian diet when I can, and tofu is both cheap and very nutritional. I will let you know how it goes down anyway!
Sadly, yesterday I realized that when it comes to making dresses, I am not supermum as I first thought. Darning snags on clothes is one thing, but making a dress from scratch… I don’t think my skills can do my little girl justice on stage so I have been looking into buying something instead. I do feel a bit guilty about that, but still, I don’t want to let her down with my shoddy attempts. I gave up after about an hour yesterday having come to realize that I really was not up to the job.
Some good news though, James our little hamster is doing very well now! We bought him after one of the Bayard books did an article on hamsters and the kids were determined to own one. We also have lots of chickens (who lay me delicious eggs) but Michael was joking the other day as this month’s DiscoveryBox has a really cute feature on macaque monkeys and he was saying he wouldn’t be surprised to come home and find a cheeky monkey running around the place. Whilst I do admit my place might sometimes be considered a bit of a madhouse, I don’t think it has quite come to that yet!
Good morning everyone! I hope you are well and had a lovely weekend.
We have been total slobs this weekend, as I couldn’t resist buying the new DJ hero game. In all honesty I think I still prefer the guitar hero game, as before the days of children I was a bit of a rock chic. Still though, the new game is lots of fun and very addictive; Michael loves it too. So that means six people in our house all desperate to have a go; besides X factor it has taken up the best part of our weekend.
I did still manage to cook a scrumptious roast dinner yesterday though; it’s really starting to feel like winter again (especially when we have been stuck in the house all weekend) so I thought it was about time I did a proper family roast (I can’t remember the last one we had as a family – how shameful of me!). I even made some home-made bread sauce (Delia’s recipe with real cloves – a bit of effort but to die for!) to go with the roast chicken (non of that packet rubbish!) and I am looking forward to my favorite “leftovers” sandwich this lunch!
Whilst I have lots of housework and jobs to be getting on with, all the kids are back at school today after half-term…. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have another quick go on DJ hero!
We had great fun making our chocolate and banana muffins yesterday and Michael had an even better time eating them afterwards!
Today, seeing as the weather is still rather nice, we are going to be heading out for a “woodland wander”. The kids will be looking out for all sorts of wildlife, but also it is an opportunity to run wildly through all the beautiful russet and amber leaves that litter the floor all throughout the local country park right now. I do really love Autumn when the weather is like this, quite cold and yet bright blue sky, green on the evergreen trees and all the other reds and oranges that bring the ground to life.
Seeing as the “wonder with WhizKid” feature this month explained all about the seasons and why trees lose their leaves this time of year, the kids should be pretty clued up on that too. I think the older two know it quite well anyway, but it will be a good opportunity to chat to the younger ones about the seasons and see how much they understood and learned. And of course, feed the ducks and hunt for squirrels, in the name of science, obviously.
Right, where are my wellies?
Hello there everyone, I hope you are all well and had a lovely weekend.
Michael and I actually managed to get into the garden yesterday and get a lot done. I was surprised by the glorious sunshine and blue skies we had. Yes indeed it was a little bit chilly, but not enough to keep us from the task at hand. After all with the kids in all week this week its not going to get done for a while and with the clocks going back, dark nights and winter drawing in, it could have been my last chance for a long while to get ahead.
Now I’m off to have lots of fun with the children; this afternoon we are going to be making some muffins (chocolate and banana). That should please Michael when he gets in later!
Some brilliant news! My darling daughter’s netball team won their first ever match last night, so we had home-made pizza for dinner and ice-cream for pudding as our celebration! I was so proud of her.
Well, with half-term looming next week it looks like I’m going to be spending the rest of this week getting ahead with all my various jobs around the house in preparation for having the brood in! In addition to thinking up various activities to keep them occupied and prevent any kind of cabin fever setting in. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the weather is going to be up to much so indoor activities are a must. Sadly Centre Parcs just isnt going to happen right now; we really need to put out extra money into the house. I’m off to research some other fun things to do now! We had a great time at water world recently, so perhaps a revisit may be in order! I must see what is showing at the cinema too, it’s been ages since we had a visit.
Now contrary to popular belief, I am really not a big television viewer at all! I limit what the children watch in a big way and will never be the sort of parent that will simply allow their kids to watch the box for hours on end. (Instead I prefer to encourage reading and activities; having studied psychology I know how important it is to encourage a diverse range of activities in order to help with their cognitive development!)
However, this week I have caught a bit of the new masterchef series; masterchef the professionals. It really is very good, especially for a cooking enthusiast like myself! I would love to go on a show like that, but reckon under the pressure I would make silly mistakes.
It has inspired me though, so tonight I am going to have a go at making some Thai Fish cakes – a recipe by Rick Stein. Yummy!
As the weather was so good last night, we decided to BBQ the salmon I had ready for our dinner last night. I was going to serve it with a salad, but I had a quick search for some new recipes to try out and came across this “Asian Salmon” dish I was keen to have a try. While Michael cooked it on the BBQ I did a quick stir-fry with yummy noodles, broccoli and sugar snap peas. We just served the salmon steaks on top of the stir fry and everyone loved it. Plus it was a very healthy and nutritious meal, which always puts a smile on my face. It’s so so simple, and makes a change from the salmon with Caesar salad and new potatoes which is my culprit standard dish when we have salmon steaks in!
