Hi everyone!
As requested by Grammyscraps, I am no longer writing in pink. I love pink and only used it because it's my blog and I'm free to choose the design of it. I hadn't realised that it caused a glare for some people - I'm sorry about that. Obviously I want anyone that finds me to be able to read all posts, so I won't be using the blue or purple either from now on. Welcome to my blog grammyscraps!
I didn't get a lot done yesterday because of the tennis, but while it's on I am spending time with Daisy playing. We bought her a playpen on Sunday and she is happy in it for about half an hour before wanting a cuddle. I never seem to finish a job that I start and the playpen means she is safely contained when the oven is on. Normally she will love to rush around in her walker while I'm cooking, but suddenly we are interested in the cooker and the cupboards and the chairs and the dog's bowls! I did manage to cook a tasty tea - spag bol. Simple but nice. Daisy really enjoyed it (I make a different version for her without the oxo and Worcester sauce etc) and was making happy noises while eating!
Daisy was 10 months old yesterday and had her first time in the big girl's bath! We also bought an aqua pod from Mothercare which is a bath mat with little seat attached. She still fits into her baby bath (she is so small) and we thought she may be scared in the big bath. Last week we put the baby bath inside the big bath and she was fine, so we moved on. She had all her bath toys in there and splashed away happily.
Thank you for all your comments. In reply:
Loo - is there anything you don't like in a cake (eg: I hate coffee cake), because I've got a lot of recipes?!
Jane - (comment from the other day) I meal plan as I go, shopping for offers and creating meals to suit. I love AF for the giant cake and bread mixes, but I struggle for storage. We're about to start decorating our spare room, but hopefully it will double up as my sewing room, so there won't be much space for food. I keep them on top of my kichen cupboards at the moment, but it does look untidy.
I love to be stocked up with food, but in the past I have had to throw away food because I just had forgotten how much stuff there was and it was past it's best. I am a lot less fussy when it comes to best before dates now.
I'm currently not working (had to give up my teaching assistant job because of family illness), so I can cook from scratch, although it can be difficult if Daisy is having a clingy day. A couple of months ago we were eating way too much meat, so I have cut it by half. I bulk buy, then portion it into the freezer. There's only Daisy, my daughter, OH and me now so we don't need to be eating as much. We have a lot of meat free days too now. My OH is a self-employed builder and works very hard, six days a week, so he needs man food to keep him going - a salad isn't enough really! We had cheese salad last week but that was a change of plan because he came home ill and wasn't eating tea with us.
We shop at asda fortnightly and the local butcher now and then. We never 'top-up' shop in our village like many people do. The asda staff always think we've got a lot of shopping until we tell them that this is what we buy for the whole two weeks. A lot of people go several times a week, filling a small trolley. Half of the bulk in our trolley is Daisy's nappies! We're doing Frugal Queen's challenge to get into the habit of cutting our food spend. We still buy a lot of what we like, rather than just what we need! Spare cash would be good for our savings tins (holiday, Christmas and home improvements) and we want to move so badly, but the house is not ready for selling yet.
Update with my daughter situation - we speak every day and she is making plans for her new house. She has an awful lot of stuff to buy for Daisy (we are keeping everything because we bought everything), so moving in for Daisy will not be for a while yet. I've suggested that she has her for the day once a week until she's sorted and I can send her stuff in the changing bag etc.
Jane - (yesterday's comment) I'm not shocked by four freezers, I used to have three until one broke. I've got a chest freezer in the garage and a fridge freezer in the kitchen. I also have a fridge in the garage too. You can never have too much freezer space.
Well done on your weight loss!
Do you still want meat based recipes? I assume that your OH eats meat, as you said Daniel is not a big meat eater. On a good day, I would make a dinner and pudding and bake once a week. I make simple cakes mainly - my OH loves plain cakes like victoria sandwich with jam inside and a dusting of icing sugar on top or fruit cake. My daughter is also quite happy with cake without icing, where as I love icing! These sorts of cakes I make without a recipe because I've been baking since I was a little girl, but I also love to try out different recipes and if we like them, I will make them again. I cut recipes out of magazines, I write them down as I read them or hear them on tele and I have a huge collection dating back to when I did Home Economics at school!
If I get any specific requests, I'm sure I will find suitable recipes for you all to try. I love to bake and need to make more time to do it (instead of reading blogs!)
I hope you're all having a good day and I look forward to the recipe requests...
Thanks for reading,
Mandy x
