Menu Planning Monday.

Posting a bit early I know, but have got a manic day (and possibly week) ahead so playing catch-up before I get behind!

Monday; I'm out with 2 girlfriends so will be a steak and lots of wine no doubt. The Husband was going to have some filled pasta out of the freezer but his mum is coming to stay so he'll have to make the dish feed 2!

Tuesday; Feijoada, had this Saturday just gone and was proactive enough to make a double portion. Basically it's a beef, sausage and black bean stew, slow-cooked for about 5 hours, served with rice. It's the national dish of Brasil and one of those where every Brasilian household has it's own version. WIll blog the recipe later in the week - remind me please!

Wednesday; the eggs in purgatory that didn't get made last week.

Thursday; The Husband is out cycling with mates so he normally has several pints of beer and a kebab on the way home, and I'll no doubt have my usual prawn salad or stir-fry.

Friday; Mr Moo has a friend coming for a sleepover and has requested toad-in-the-hole with broccoli. To my shame I've never actually made this so hope it turns out OK!

Saturday; got friends round for dinner and haven't decided what to cook yet. Last time we went to theirs she cooked a stonking meal from Jamie's 30 minute meals so will avoid this cookbook. Ideas please?

Sunday; several paracetamol and a pint of milk for brekkie probably - and a roast for dinner if I can get my act together in time.

On a side note I can thoroughly recomend Tesco's jalapeno humous, had this for a snacky tea today on crackers, washed down with some Aldi white wine. Not counting our chickens yet but we hope to pursue things with the house we saw last week - and if we do will be seriously skint for about the next 10 years so are investigating cheaper ways to still enjoy our food and drink!

Now get thee over to Mrs M's to check out more meal plans!

The proof is in the eating!

Eventually the courgette and halloumi burgers were made - basically grated cooked courgette, red onion, cubed halloumi, an egg, breadcrumbs and seasoning, mix well and shape into patties. Leave in the fridge for an hour then fry (Frylight is fine) for about 5 mins either side.

First picture is tonight's green pork chilli; dry fry pork mince with shallots, green beans, green chillies, garlic, ginger, juice of a lime and any other green veg you have. Add a little stock and some nam pla (Thai fish sauce) a few minutes before its ready, and serve with rice and fresh coriander. I passed on the rice to keep calories/points down, and you really don't notice its missing.

So, the Husband did well this week, waddya reckon?

Menu Planning Monday.

Monday; courgette and halloumi burgers - yes, the same ones that have been on the plan for 3 weeks running but haven't been made yet. Only they have been made now and are waiting in the fridge to be cooked!

Tuesday; green pork chilli. That's not green pork, just lots of green things in it like French beans, mange tout and fresh coriander.

Wednesday; eggs in purgatory. A friend made these at the weekend and I had to google to find out what they are - the Husband is mortified as the dish originates from Naples which is close to where he was born, yet he's never heard of it!

Thursday; sausages and something. Morrisons have a new range of very tasty looking bangers, we'll have them with whatever's left in the fridge

Friday; kids are both at a party so we may pop to the nearby pub which does a mean crab sandwich.

Haven't planned the weekend yet as we may have friends visiting. Now pop over to Mrs M's place and see what she has planned!

I caved.

Not yet October, but I caved. The heating went on today. In all fairness I had about 3 loads of washing that my lovely mummy kindly did for me yesterday, and seeing as it's torrential thunderstorms out there (OK, I exaggerate a little bit) it couldn't go outside to dry so we needed some drying power, and fast - before the rest of the house goes down with a damp problem. That's my excuse for the heating going on, and I'm sticking to it.

On a similar note, today would have been the perfect day for an open fire. We had a yummy roast chicken as a late lunch (F1 not finishing til gone 3pm...) and then all snuggled up on the sofa with X Factor and Dancing on Ice on the gogglebox. Suppose I should confess now, after last week's house-related ramblings, that we've found what looks on paper to be the perfect place for us, think we can afford it, and I'll be calling an estate agent tomorrow to try to get ours on the market! Bit of a turn up for the books as we've put our life and soul into this house and intended to stay here forever, but we do feel we've outgrown it a bit. And this new house has an open fireplace in both the living and dining rooms...

Menu Planning Monday.

Hey folks, am back in the groove! Plans were up in the air a little this week as I was meant to go out tonight but am not now so chucked in an extra meal, then the Husband decided he'll go out instead so the plan has changed yet again. Oh well, will just lob things in the freezer!

Monday; was meant to be half-price steak at our local with a friend, but ended up being a burger with potato, carrot and beetroot cakes leftover from the weekend

Tuesday; smoky marinaded pork (a weird concoction of, amongst other things, coffee, honey, cocoa powder and garlic, will see what it tastes like) with a rocket salad

Wednesday; halloumi and courgette burgers

Thursday; suspect the Husband is out again so a prawn salad for me

Friday; kids are both at a sleepover so we're going out for an Indian!

Saturday; Harissa lamb with raita and flatbreads
Sunday; keeping free, hope for a roast of some sort.

I also plan to make (or persuade the Husband to make) large vats of salsa and Asian slaw for lunches at home - need to stop eating rubbish and shift a few holiday lbs!

Now pop over and see what Mrs M has planned for this week.

Decision time...

This week I decided that I hate my house. Despite living here for nearly 8 years and having spent all our life savings (and then a bit more...) on improving it and making it into the perfect family home, we've just had far too many problems with it recently for my liking and I want to move. Over the last year we've had the following;

broken fridge freezer resulting in 8 weeks without any chilling ability, in the run up to Christmas
rats, then mice, then rats again
2 fly infestations from the deceased rats
washing machine needed replacing
boiler needed replacing (that bill hurt, a lot)
penetrating damp in the entire side wall of the house, coming through into our bedroom
damp or soot coming through the chimney wall in my son's bedroom
attempted theft in the shed (the Husband was most upset about that, as he has three very nice bikes in there)
cracked plaster in the living room (plaster is only a few years old)
both loos are broken but one can't be repaired without taking down a wall

I'm sure there's more, and that list grew bigger this week with the 5 month old washing machine deciding to fuse all the sockets in the house. We got the leccy back, but have waited a week for Hotpoint to get their arse into gear and come out to look at it. They're coming tomorrow, and I just hope they cope with the fact that they'll need to take the sink off the wall to move it.

So, of course our thoughts turned to considering moving, to a new build. This is where the dilemma lies; we've been trying to reduce our mortgage over the last few years and don't really want to increase it now. On the other hand we are likely to inherit enough money to pay it off (and any extra that we want to take out) - but we clearly have no idea when that money will be coming our way, seeing as our parents are all alive and well.

We've had a look on t'web anyway, and these are the results at the moment;

This was my first possible, as it's a newbuild and in a great location near to the park, beach and school. Fabulous bedrooms, but where do you put a dining table, and where do the kids play when they have any friends around? Ruled this one out pretty quickly on that basis, even if it is affordable.

Next is the most sensible option. Even closer to school, decent garden and a drive and front garden which we don't have now. We could stretch to it, but in reality all it would provide is an extra bathroom for the Husband to clean. Oh, and a spare room for the MIL to stay in, though it would be shared with my office.

Now this one is rather quirky, gated private drive and a wonderful living space, but having driven round there it's all a bit cramped. The garden isn't great either.

Fabulous house, vineyard in the garden, amazing character - but needs serious cash spending on it and is very old, which is what we're trying to get away from here.

Lottery win needed for this one sadly, but would provide us with all the space we want plus more - and what an incredible kitchen/diner!

On reflection I think we'll stay here, and just leach more of our hard-earned cash into it. Oh well, a girl can dream:)

The real stuff.

After posting a rubbishy photo a few weeks ago of some cakes brought back from our cousin's cake shop in Italy, thought I'd taunt tempt you with some more pics - in situ this time!

These are the arogostini pictured before;



Just some of the counter in the main shop;




And the man himself;

Camp food!

Hey all, back into the land of the living - I think! The last couple of weeks have been manic and the proverbial is hitting the fan with house and electricals issues, to say nothing of work being crazy busy, so just a short post today. I haven't menu-planned for the week so am letting Mrs M down I'm afraid, but will be back with a vengeance next week...

Anyway, we just had a great weekend camping and wanted to share the evening meals that we had. Breakfast was a bacon sandwich on the first morning and a sausage sandwich on the second (washed down with large amounts of coffee) - nothing can beat that in the open air.

Noodles with chicken and red peppers for the kids - ours was pepped up with some jerk seasoning. Four empty plates afterwards;)

And this was corned beef hash with courgettes and home-grown chillis. Didn't go down quite so well with the kids who have requested it with tuna next time. But they still ate it all when liberally doused in ketchup!

Back soon with a write-up of our Greek trip which was just fabulous. Just wish the weather was better here so I can show off my tan!