Daisy and Henry

Hi everyone 

After an anonymous comment on my last post (I'd love to be able to answer your questions and use your name) I thought I'd better explain...

Daisy and Henry are our grandchildren. Daisy is 3 and Henry is 9 months old. We do so much for them because we love them so much. 

Daisy has lived with us since birth and Henry came to live with us when he was 10 weeks old. I'm not going into the reasons because it's private and personal. 

My big announcement which I decided not to announce before was that we are now Special Guardians to both children. Everyone is happy with that decision.

We began a new chapter back then and we feel blessed to have the children in our lives. 

In other news...Henry now has the chicken pox and is suffering dreadfully. Hopefully he will improve soon. There's not much sleep going on here at the moment :(

I will try to catch up soon but getting Henry well again is my main concern at the moment.

Thank you if you decide to leave a comment, I appreciate that and enjoy replying to them.

Now it's time to get some sleep hopefully!

Mandy x 

This weeks grocery shopping...

Hi everyone,

Here's a quick catch up from yesterday first...

The wartime chocolate sponge all finished with melted chocolate and smarties.

On the baking table..Daisy is busy icing and decorating her fairy cakes while I filled this cake with homemade raspberry jam (a gift) and buttercream. 

Tea was pork chops, mash, green beans, peas and gravy.

Henry testing out his new pram shoes :) they stayed on for a short while anyway. 

Daisy and Henry playing together with Henry's new fisher price chatterbox phone.

We had to buy a new water tray for the garden. Daisy's fishing! She would play outside all day long.

Today for tea we had chicken salad with fresh bread and butter...

This morning I had my groceries delivered. I've meal planned for next week and taken some of the recipes from  the 1940s book 'Eating for Victory'. I took photos of my shopping to share with you. There's still quite a lot and I want to reduce it but I'm doing that gradually. I will cook from scratch everyday and bake. I bought a lot of vegetables to fill me up and very little rubbish!

Fruit...I'm trying so hard to eat more fruit. There's cooking apples too for a couple of recipes. There's plenty for us all here. I'm thinking about getting a fruit box delivered now.

Veg...I said I bought a lot!

Salad...salad can get boring for me so I got a few different bits this week. I'll be making coleslaw and I haven't bought bags of salad this week. Round lettuce and little gems instead.

Dairy 

Chilled

Meat...a small joint of pork and leg of lamb for the Sunday roast. I got two chickens because I like to eat cold chicken for lunch sometimes and it works out so much cheaper to buy a whole chicken than the cooked chicken slices. 

Bread 

Baking supplies...now that I'm back into baking, I need the supplies in my cupboard but the cupboard I was using wasn't big enough so I've had a rearrange in my kitchen.

Store cupboard 

Treats...Saturday is treat night! We watch a film with Daisy and have some goodies. We won't eat all of this! This section of the shopping has been reduced a lot!

Henry's baby things and cleaning stuff.

I know this looks a lot but I'm trying not to hoard food and cleaning things. I didn't buy any toiletries this week because we have loads already. I'm getting there, slowly. Next week will be better!

Mandy x

Wartime chocolate cake

Hi everyone,

Well today we decided to do a little baking. I chose a wartime recipe for chocolate cake. It was quite an unusual recipe with no eggs...

But it turned out lovely...

The top cracked but that's ok because it will have melted Cadburys chocolate on it. We also made some little cakes for Daisy to ice and decorate tomorrow. 

Continuing with my challenge, today I made toad in the hole...

 

One of Daisy's favourites!

Tomorrow is pork chops...

Mandy x

A new challenge...

Hi everyone,

Well I'm back again already! I've set myself a new challenge to use up what we have, reduce any waste to nothing and cut my grocery bill. I'm motivated to do this now and my freezers are full. I haven't been meal planning and I really don't know what I've got in the house. It's a bad state to get in :(

Well today is s new day and I've made a good start. For tea tonight I've got cauliflower cheese...

It's ready to be put in the oven. I'm on a low carb diet and this suits me well. It's made with double cream and Wensleydale cheese. I can't use a roux like I used to because of the flour.

Out of the freezer is a beef casserole. This is a base for a meat and potato pie. I also took out a pack of shortcrust pastry to top the casserole to make a pie...

This will be eaten with half a bag of greens that needed using up...

For pudding we've got half a chocolate gateaux. We can't eat a whole one so this one has been previously cut in half. It needs using up...

Tomorrow there will be more surprises from the depths of my freezer! 

I'm hoping that my shopping will be significantly reduced this week as a result. 

Does anyone else not know what's at the bottom of their freezer? 

Mandy x

Chicken pox and a crumble disaster

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't written a post for a while. We've had so much illness :(

Now Daisy has chicken pox! She's been so good and trying not to scratch, but she's got it ever so bad...absolutely covered in spots. We've been waiting for Henry to catch it but so far no spots.

Chicken pox is no fun for a baby so we're hoping he won't catch it this time while he's still little. Henry has had his fair share of problems though...one new tooth through after another. Hopefully the next one will be through soon!

Recently our meals haven't been brilliant every day and the children have lost their appetites lately.  Well, despite the hot weather today, I cooked roast chicken for lunch. For pudding I made apple crumble using an old 1950s recipe given to me by my lovely friend...

As I eat a low carb diet now, I decided to make a crumble for me using coconut flour. I made a little pear crumble and a little pineapple crumble for the freezer...

When I opened the oven door I could smell coconut biscuits :) I served it with ice cream.

Oh my goodness it was so bad! It was dry and stuck to the roof of my mouth! I tried to eat it with cream instead but it was hopeless. What a waste! 

I will attempt a cake using coconut flour though and see how that goes. 

Has anyone else ever baked with coconut flour before?

Mandy x

A catch-up in photos...

Hi everyone,

I'm so busy at the moment with the children and decluttering the house. Daisy's been on her Easter holidays from nursery and Henry's been teething!

I have taken a few photos along the way to share with you...

I treated myself to a couple of dresses :)

More vintage goodies from yay retro!

Chocolate trifle

Last weekend we went to the carboot sale! I picked up a flower press for Daisy, 50p and a Jemima Puddleduck clock for £2.

Some old books, most of them only 10p each!

Short dungarees and knitted bits for Henry, 50p each.

We had a lovely friend come to visit on Friday so we baked a chocolate traybake

I made vegetable soup!

She bought me a beautiful scarf. We had a lovely afternoon :)

Now I've got the task of sorting out what's in the loft. I'm being ruthless!

Back soon,

Mandy x 

Retro shopping

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been a while but things have been pretty awful here lately :(

I have been busy as usual though with the little ones and still on a mission to declutter our home. It will never be minimalist with a baby and a three year old but it needs to be easier to clean. I've done really well but I still have more to do. 

I have been buying as well as decluttering, but I am either replacing things and throwing out the old or its things that are needed and practical. 

My reward to myself for keeping up the good work even though it's so hard, is vintage retro shopping. I have found a wonderful online shop and I'm now a regular customer. I'm gradually adding to my kitchen ware and everything I buy is being used, not just to look pretty! I've already shared one photo of my treasures in a previous post, but I thought you may like to see all that I've bought so far. The shop is called Yay Retro! 

www.yayretro.co.uk

The lady that runs the business is lovely and so helpful. She always gives me a postage refund after sending my parcels if I've been overcharged. She uses recycled packaging and I'm confident that my purchases will arrive safe and sound. I'm a very happy customer! 

I'll show you all the goodies I've bought so far...

You've already seen these finds but have included it for those that may have missed it.

I had the chance of the sugar pot too, but we really wouldn't use it as nobody takes sugar in their tea etc. 

A coffee pot just right for Sunday teatime...I actually can't stand tea!

This makes me happy! I love my orange scales :)

I collect the woods ware beryl and was so pleased to get the bowls.

My latest order! 

Please note: this is not an advert! I just love that website and wanted to share my photos with you. I'm always looking for new ideas to develop my style and hope you enjoy seeing what I've bought.

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x