Weekly Meal Plan - 27th May 2013

 

Forgive me but there's going to be no flash, jazz or flare to this post! Up until about 10 minutes ago I didn't even know what we were having this week.

I wasn't prepared to have it done at the weekend as he sun was shining on Saturday and we went out for the day to a local farm and then had a big walk around the lake.  

Sunday we were just chilling and visiting family but I couldn't bring myself to think about meals just yet.... On Monday JD and I went down to my mums to see my sister and leave in my brother in laws birthday present so. We were away the whole day.  Today my head isn't working and it's going to be a caffeine fuelled day to get me through.... JD keeps waking up at 5am and having a little chatter for about an hour and then normally falls back to sleep.  This morning she woke at 5am and was up chatting but then started crying so I ended up having to bring her into our bed so as hubby could get some sleep.  She went back over but it was after six she was going to sleep and awake again for 7am!! Shattered.  If anyone has any ideas of how to stop her waking at 5am I'd love to hear them! She's not waking for food she's just chatting and cooing away.

Anyway, the shopping is still to be done but I'm tied to the house as our bath is FINALLY being delivered today.....now to get it installed :s

So this weeks meal plan is as follows;

Monday - Leftover fajitas from Saturday

Tuesday - Tuna pie, baked beans and spuds

Wednesday - Omelettes and chips or hash browns

Thursday - Baked pasta dish

Friday - Burgers and chips

Sat - Chilli

Sun - A roast of some sort

It's somewhat uninspired but anyway it's all my brain can cope with this morning.

Hope everyone had a good week.  I'm linking up with Mrs M so why not head on over and see what everyone else is having this week.

Have a good one :)

Weekly Meal Plan - 20th May 2013

Morning, another Monday, just crazy!  Hubby will be in his new job 4 weeks now and JD will be 6 months this week.  I'm not sure where that times gone at all, I guess before I know it I'll be planning her first birthday.  I don't want to think about that just yet :(

Last weeks plan went pretty much to plan except for Friday where I headed out to see a friend, leaving hubby with the little one and a dinner from the freezer (well, I was nice I cooked it for him first!) and I had a great night chatting, catching up with my friend and gorging on take out food.

It was lovely having my mum and dad up and they enjoyed the Sweet & Sour Chicken, Hairy Biker style.  We did have enough rhubarb to make the rhubarb crunch and whilst the weather wasn't great it was still sooo yummy.  If you love rhubarb I'd definitely advise you to give it a go as it's just lovely.

This week we're still trying to use some of the freezer food up and then replenish the stocks, mixed in with some 'fresh' dishes.

Hopefully the sun will come back again this week.  We had a blink of it on Friday and then the rain set in for Saturday and Sunday.  Perhaps that was summer.

I'm linking up with Mrs M, so why not click the link and have a look at what everyone else is having this week.

Rhubarb Crunch Recipe

This is a recipe that my mum always made for us when we lived at home and it went down a treat!  Mum grows rhubarb in her back garden so it was always freshly picked for this.  Now in our own house we grow rhubarb too and it's lovely just being able to go out the back and pick how much you need for the dish.

Mum also made a lovely Raspberry flan with a sort of custardy filling...mmmm, my mouth is watering it's beautiful! So when we finally get some raspberries I'll blog that recipe too!

The finished product

Ingredients

1lb Rhubarb washed, trimmed & cut into 1 inch pieces

3oz Caster Sugar

1 Tbsp Water

1 Level Tsp Cornflour

2oz Margarine

40z Breadcrumbs

1 Level Tsp Ginger (or a few shakes more if you like it stronger)

2oz Demerara Sugar

15oz Tin Creamed Rice (We use 3 tins)

Method

Put the rhubarb, sugar and water in a saucepan and good gently until tender but still holding it's shape.

Rhubarb once it's been stewed

Mix the cornflour with 1 teaspoon of water in a separate bowl and mix to a smooth paste.

Cornflour & water mixed into a paste

Add cornflour paste to rhubarb .  Bring to the boil to thicken and cool.

Melt margarine in frying pan, stir in the breadcrumbs and ginger.  Cook until brown.

Stir in sugar and continue to cook until crispy but not too hard.  This really is just trial and error and probably to taste too.  Sometimes they crisp more when they cool.

Breadcrumbs when they're brown & crispy

Put alternate layers in a bowl starting with some of the rhubarb, then crumbs, then rice and finish with crumbs on top.

Put in the fridge to cool and serve when you can't resist the temptation any more.

Enjoy!!

Weekly Meal Plan - 13th May 2013

How's everyone this happy Monday? (You can tell I'm off on maternity leave when I'm saying that!)

Last weeks meals went pretty much to plan, however we had a panic for a few days as we thought our freezer was on the blink.  A warning light kept flashing at us which normally suggests the temperature isn't right.  I think the door might have been ever so slightly ajar, but after 24 hours when the light was still flashing it looked like it wasn't going to be good and the freezer full of food was going to have to be quickly eaten.  The strange thing was that the food in the freezer was still frozen, but anything new put in the top drawer didn't seem to be freezing... Very strange! So Saturday's tea was bumped in order to start using up the freezer.

Anyway, thankfully a day or so after the mysterious warning light has now vanished and the food still remains frozen so hopefully there won't be the need for a new freezer after all. (Fingers crossed).  I've taken it as a good opportunity to use up some of the freezer meals I have in there and get it defrosted and hopefully that will make it happy and help it to continue working.

Oh, on other news JD mastered how to roll from her back to her front last week.  As a new mummy of course I was very proud and just think she's amazing.  She's now trying to 'flap', sorry crawl, but it really is more of a flapping her arms and legs and she's getting frustrated that she can't do it. I'm sure that will happen soon enough and then I might cry a little as she's only wee and I want to keep her that way :(

Anyway, enough blethering and on to our meals this week: -

My Mum and Dad are coming up to visit us on Saturday so I'm making the Sweet & Sour Chicken fresh for them.  Hopefully I might get to making a Rhubarb Crunch, but just need to check if we have enough rhubarb in the garden.  If I make it I'll be sure to blog it as it's one of my favourite dishes....layers of yummy rhubarb and creamed rice...mmmmm.....

I feel a little lazy cooking wise with all the meals being from the freezer but hopefully it means that the weekly grocery bill will get a bit of a reprieve too.

I'm also trying to think of different things to give JD for weaning.  I'm trying to put a few flavours together but if you have any suggestions of good recipes or ideas I'm all ears!

What are you having this week?  Hope you have a good one!

As usual I am linking up with At home with Mrs M's #MealPlanningMonday.  Why not click on the badge and have a nosey at what everyone else is having this week.

Mum's the word weekly meal plan - 25th March

I'll be honest when I was working and before little bambino came along I would never plan meals so to speak.  We normally decided a day or two in advance what we wanted and had got a shop probably the week before ending up getting lots of things we didn't need, or worse didn't eat and would end up being thrown out.

These days I'm trying to be a lot better mainly from Lauren's meal planning blog post,planning what we're going to have and only shopping around that to cut out waste and costs.  The odd thing that's not on the shopping list does find its way into the basket but generally I try to be good. Somehow though our food bills still seem to be rather high.  If someone has any advice, tips, ideas I'd love to hear them as maternity pay does make things that little bit tighter.

So here goes the first post instead of a note in my phone:-
Mon - Mince pie, corn on the cob & mash
Tues - Chicken Broccoli Bake
Wed - Hairy Bikers Chilli Salad Bowls
Thurs - Sausages, beans & mash
Fri - Spicy Beef & rice
Sat - Smokey Philly Chicken, mixed veg & baked potato
Sun - Roast Turkey dinner at my mums for Easter

Fisher Price Rainforest Playmat/Gym

Rainforest Playmat/Gym

About a month after our little one, JD, was born we wondered if we should get her some sort of playmat/gym to keep her entertained.  I can't remember how we came across this one (probably Hubby and his love of googling) but we decided to go for the Fisher Price Rainforest Gym.  I'll be honest it's not cheap, it's currently selling in Argos for £40.99 on sale but it's retail price is around £50, but it's money well spent.

Being made by Fisher Price the quality is excellent.  I don't know what it is about Fisher Price toys but my mum has ones from 30 years ago when I was a baby and they're still going strong.  I think in some cases it's definitely worth spending a bit extra for a quality product.

The playmat/gym is so colourful it's easily attractive to little people, with so many things to keep them entertained.  

View of the base of the playmat.
Plenty to keep them entertained during tummy time.

It's simple to assemble, by slipping the feet of each of the arches into a hole at each corner.  We keep the mat laid flat when it's not in use but the arches can be swivelled around easily so the mat folds in half and can be placed behind the couch or in another room until next needed.

The playmat runs on 3 C batteries and has three different settings, music, rainforest sounds and music on movement, where the baby has to pull, push, touch something in order for the melody to continue.  Ours is used everyday, numerous times a day and now 5 months later the same batteries are still going strong.

There is 5 movable toys that come with the playmat and approximately 8 different hangers at different heights and positions on the mat that the toys can be placed on.  A monkey who hangs by his tail, a toucan that rattles, a parrot that has a spinning paddle, an elephant that has little balls in it's spinner to rattle and a mirror that if your child is like ours loves looking at herself in!  There's also a bug printed on the mat that is hiding underneath a leaf.  I didn't even know it was there until recently!

Toys included with playmat.

When the melody is playing there is also lights which go on and off to the music.  These are placed under the control unit so the baby can see them when lying down.

Without a shadow of doubt it's one of the best things we've bought for JD since she's been born.  When she was little the lights, bright colours and sound would take her attention.  Now that she is older she's gone from just looking at the toys to reaching for them and playing with them.

It's a great mat to use for tummy time and because all the toys can be unhooked they can be repositioned anywhere to suit where the little one is placed.

Another great feature is that it is machine washable.  I've already had ours in the wash as tummy time inevitably brings out burps, which always leads to a little moisture being expelled.  The mat washed really well and wasn't damaged from the washing machine in anyway.

If you're pondering over a playmat/gym to get your little one I'd really recommend this one.  There really is lots to keep them entertained.

This post isn't sponsored and I haven't been asked to review this.  I just thought I'd share my thoughts on what a great product this is.  Well done Fisher Price - I hope it's still standing in 30 years time!

Breastfeeding - How it doesn't work for everyone

All through my pregnancy I was told that "breast is best".  All the midwives and literature informed that breastfeeding was the best and only thing to do in order to give your child the best start to life.  As a first time mum I obviously wanted to give my little girl (JD) the best, so I was certain that I was going to breastfeed her as soon as she was born.

In the hospital I was given no choice whether I was breast feeding or bottle feeding my baby, she was just put on and there was no if's or but's about it. I found it very hard to know if she was latched on right. All the signs showed that she was, pulsing beat at her earlobe, most of the areola covered etc, but I felt a pinching which always suggested to the midwife that she wasn't latched on correctly.  No matter how many attempts at latching I always felt a bit of discomfort.  We were told JD had a slight tongue tie, not serious enough to fix, but I think it seemed to affect her latching on correctly.

Unfortunately in the early days JD was also a lazy feeder, she didn't want to wake up for a feed and we had to use horrible tactics of putting cold water on her face and stripping her down to just her happy in order to wake her and get her to feed.

Our first night at home was horrendous, I wish I was over exaggerating but JD was up feeding nearly all night, by the time she'd finish and I got her down for sleeping she was only down 5-10 minutes before wanting fed again. Being a first time mum I had no idea if this was normal but I kept thinking that surely it couldn't be right. Surely, although everyone said you'd have a lack of sleep they couldn't mean that you'd only get an hour or so a night.  I had endless tears as the never ending cycle kept going and the clock felt like it was going backwards and morning was never going to come.

By morning I was a wreck and when the midwife arrived and greeted me with "well, how is everything going?", I burst into tears and told her things weren't going very well at all.

My midwife was lovely, I told her how to me JD looked like she was latched on properly but there was some discomfort when she was feeding. She watched to make sure I was doing it correctly and then let me in on a secret that no other midwife had told me, in fact, they'd made me think that I was doing it all wrong...breastfeeding IS uncomfortable, it IS sore.

JD dropped down from 7lb 14oz to 7lb 3oz which is within the 10% margin that they expect of newborns to loose within their first 5-7 days. It was expected that she would be back to her birth weight again quite quickly but unfortunately at the next weigh in she had only put on 2oz.

The horrendous nights continued with very little or no sleep to be had, I was starting to feel so worn and run down after so many nights of little sleep and felt like I was becoming a vampire, awake at night and asleep during the day. Night after night I was in floods of tears and felt so pressured to feed myself and not poison my child with formula.  That I must be doing something wrong as no one had ever said that breastfeeding might not work for you.

After a few days I started to get hot and cold flushes and thought that I was just getting run down from getting such little sleep.  I spoke with my midwife to find out that I had mastitis on one side and so was given antibiotics to clear it up and paracetamol to take down my temperature.  As I was just getting rid of it on one side I then got it on the other!  They advised to continue feeding during mastitis in order to keep the milk supply flowing and to stop it getting painful from the milk not being used but this was easier said than done.  It was painful for her to feed whilst having it and I'd raw and cracked nipples on the other side from her feeding so much that it almost filled me with dread each time I had to feed her.  I'd get her into position to be latched on, hold my breath and curl my toes until the pain passed and it was bearable again.

After two weeks of living like a zombie, JD hardly gaining any weight, the midwife and I talked and decided to knock it on the head and to breastfeed but top up with a formula feed to ensure she would gain weight.  I'll never forget the day I went to buy the formula from a local Boots store. It had been another dreadful night with very little sleep. On taking the formula to the cash desk I asked if I could pay for it with the points that I'd accumulated on my advantage card.  I was soon informed in a rather snooty tone that points couldn't be used to purchase formula products as they couldn't be condoning the use of it when breast feeding was best for a child. Well sleep deprived and struggling to get weight on my baby this was like a red rag to a bull, it's not often I would voice my opinion but I snapped back with "if you'd had the night I've had then you wouldn't be saying that".

As I fed JD formula for the first time I felt awful. I felt like I was poisoning my beautiful baby girl. I was formula fed, my hubby was formula fed and we're both fine (well maybe a little nuts round the edges but who isn't!), but I still couldn't shake this feeling that I was giving up, that I wasn't giving her the best that I could have.

As it turned out, formula was the best thing for JD. We worked out that I wasn't producing enough milk for her so that's why she was up so much during the night because she wasn't able to fill her boots with what she was getting from me. On formula she was a changed baby, I was a changed mummy and I could finally relax and get to enjoy my precious beautiful baby girl.  As she was so much happier on formula, I decided not to breastfeed at all and just solely give her formula.

I'm not saying I don't agree with promoting that breast is best, but I think there shouldn't be as much pressure on Mum's that they have to breastfeed or that they are wrong to formula feed. There needs to be a happy medium, a realisation and understanding that it doesn't work for everyone. What about mothers who have had a mastectomy, should they feel shame that they aren't able to breastfeed their child?

I'm glad that I was able to at least give JD the best I could for the first two weeks and that she got the goodness of the colostrum (even if it was in drips and drabs) but I wish that I'd listened to my husband and my mum when they said I didn't have to put myself through this.

If you're a first time mother and breastfeeding isn't working for you, remember that you DON'T have to put yourself through this, you aren't a failure and you aren't doing wrong by your baby. Just because you aren't breastfeeding doesn't mean that you aren't giving them the best start in the world. Don't put yourself under the pressure that I did to continue with it when it's obvious it wasn't working for us at all.   

Weekly Meal Plan - 6th May 2013

Another week gone and another week closer to the first half of the year being gone!  It must be me getting older but I definitely think time is going quicker!

The first half of the week for me was a wipe out, unfortunately I woke up on Monday with a bug but thankfully by Wednesday it had packed it's bags and vacating the building.  I was even more thankful that no one else in the house, especially little JD got it.

We managed to still have all our meals on the meal plan, bar Saturday when we were out and decided to ditch the sweet and sour and get a yummy chicken fillet burger from the chippy instead. (Oh well, can't be good all the time!)

So on to this weeks plan!

As you can see the sweet and sour has made it on to this weeks meal plan as I'd bought all the ingredients in the online shop last week.  Speaking of online shops, I don't know how but every time I shop online and get vegetables I always end up with far more than I wanted.  The first time I did an online shop with Asda I wanted one onion and ended up with a kilo, yes 1 kilo!! of onions.  I had them coming out of my ears!  This time I wanted a small knob of fresh ginger for the sweet and sour, well you can imagine it already.  I've ended up with a couple of huge bits that I have no idea what I'm going to do with!  So any suggestions on what to do with it will be greatly appreciated!!

The baked pasta dish is a tasty little recipe that I found online.  It's great as it makes 5 portions of the sauce which is a handy wee quick dinner when you've it in the freezer, cook up the pasta, top with cheese and pop in the oven - done!

The spicy tuna fish cakes were a real hit the last time I made them and so are featuring again to give us a break from our poultry heavy meals.

The Cajun Chicken Pasta and Chicken & Chorizo Stew are both new recipes so will look forward to trying them out for something different.

I'm linking up with Mrs M for the #Mealplanningmonday so why not head on over and have a jook at what everyone else is having this week!

Have a great week! :)

Weekly Meal Plan - 29th April 2013

So it's Thursday and I'm only writing this Meal Planning post.  In fairness, I had our meals all worked out on Sunday and was going to write this on Monday as we were only home on Sunday night from staying overnight at my mums, then I was hit on Monday morning with a vomiting and diarrhoea bug (sorry if you're eating!) and couldn't face it.

Thankfully it seemed to only be a 48 hour bug but it's long and hard enough when you're trying to look after a 5 month old at the same time as trying to run for the bathroom.  A friend and my mother in law did offer to look after the little one, but of course I was stubborn and although I wasn't well thought I still should be the one to look after her.  By Tuesday I threw that right out the window and my mother in law kindly came and looked after the wee one whilst I could lie down.

Anyway, thankfully I had some meals on the plan that were 'frozen'. My mum had made us a turkey pie and there were some Kiev's in the freezer that hubby could knock himself out with, as I was sticking to dry toast (one way to loose some weight anyway!).  I got the shopping delivered yesterday so the rest of the meal plan should pretty much stay the same.

The Meatball Sub was just made out of my head last time but was sooo tasty that hubby wanted it again.  This time we're having a tomato & basil sauce on it instead of a tomato & chilli sauce (the sauce is shop bought).

The Sweet & Sour Chicken is another favourite from the Hairy Bikers Diet recipes, we've had it before and it is really tasty.

I'm looking forward to trying the Maple Pork Chops.  I saw this on Daft Mama's Meal Plan for last week and so had to give that a go.  I'm normally not a fan of pork chops, I think it comes from years of having them at home and they always seemed to be dry (sorry mum!) so looking forward to seeing what these taste like.

Hopefully everyone had a good week last week and are having a great week so far!

Happy munching :)