15 Minute Meals - Week 1

After having a lovely lunch over at my friends house thanks to a recipe from Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals I decided to get back on it and have a go myself. Turns out this was a great idea as my oven broke the first day of this menu (whilst baking bread) and luckily none of these recipes uses an oven, as it's all quick cooking you just use the hob. A real lifesaver!

Just before little one was born I used Jamie's book to get me through tired pregnancy days whilst working and looking after my eldest (who was then 2 years old) And I wondered why I had stopped? They're tasty, healthy and quick, plus it helps me really carefully budget for the week.

So this is my first weeks choice of meals. 

Day 1 - Tasty Daal Curry - Page 240

I forgot to photograph the accompanying lemon and tomato pickle which was the tastiest bit! This was delicious. We used green lentils rather than red lentils as it's what we already had in the store cupboard but the flavour didn't suffer from the substitute. This was Millies favourite one of teh week I think.

Day 2 - Pasta Pesto With Garlic and Rosemary Chicken - Page 172

This one was super yummy. I substituted the fresh lasagne sheets on this one for dried fettuccine as this was on special offer when I went food shopping making it loads cheaper than the fresh pasta and it stores better for future meals.

Day 3 - Blackened Chicken with San Fran Quinoa Salad - Page 46

I wasn't completely sure about adding mango to a savoury salad and being a slightly more expensive purchase I was a bit dubious however this was delicious and we all nommed it without complaint. This was my favourite.

Day 4 - The Best Fish Baps - Page 214

I used Pollock for this one as it was one of the cheaper white fish fillets I could find. Only £1.80 for all of us. This was made with home made rolls, which are obviously not included in the 15 minute make time. But I make my own bread all the time rather than buying it so this was no extra effort.

Day 5 - Sausage Fusilli with Creamy Garden Salad - Page 176

This is what had been made for me for lunch a week earlier and inspired this weeks menu. Everyone loves this one, it's a real crowd pleaser, who doesn't love sausage and pasta in a yummy tomato sauce. 

Day 6 - Happy Cow Burgers with coleslaw and corn on the cob - Page 222

These aren't really a substitute for a good beef burger, however they are really tasty and much healthier bean burgers. A great way to get some hidden veg into the kids. 

Day 7 - Chilli Con Carne Meatballs - Page 58

I will be making my meatballs and pasta like this from now on. They're full of flavour and work amazingly well. The original recipe here calls for Bulgur wheat but as I had some dried fettuccine left over from day 2 recipe I just used up the rest and saved myself a bit more money along the way. 

Lunches (Well some of them)

Spring Frittata - Page 242

Mexican Salad - Page 238

(Cooked just before my oven broke!) - Goes well with beer. 

Next weeks menu looks just as exciting and delicious. To be continued!

Scarlett's Veg Box - 2 Months

Mary, Mary, quiet and trary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells, and conker shells,

And pretty maids all in a row.

This is Scarlett's version of it anyway. The version she loves to sing whilst tending her own little garden.

Scarlett removing the weeds

The veggies are loving the warmer wet weather at the moment and they are growing like mad. Hopefully it won't be long until we have some peas! 

Fun Lunches - Flowers and Butterflies

For this month our theme was nature.

Using a butterfly cutter I have for cupcake making I cut out some pieces of carrot. I placed these with some slices of cheese which I cut into flower shapes using another icing cutter.

Scarlett then helped me make some pitta pizzas for her lunch. She chose mozzarella, chicken, sweetcorn and basil for her topping. She then cut the pitta into a star shape (as we don't have a flower cutter large enough) and we baked them in the oven. She was quite proud of showing these off to daddy when they were done.

Wholemeal pitta pizzas proudly made by Scarlett.

Finally for pudding we added a rice paper flower onto of a jam tart for a sweet treat to match our theme.

I think she liked it as it was all gone when I picked her up from preschool. Along with the fruit kebabs, smoothie and oddities I'd also packed. Love it when they eat well.

Baby Pinata

This will seem a bit of a random blog as I've not yet mentioned but our little-one is turning one very soon, so I'm in full party planning mode.

The theme of the party is yet to be revealed, however I've been racking my brains trying to think of party games for 15+ children ranging from 5 months old to 10 years. We have a bouncy castle booked but I wanted to add something a bit different to the usual pass the parcel. So I came up with this one, baby-friendly Pinata's. The idea of my older toddler trying to hit a box full of sweets with a stick around a load of babies did not fill me with joy, but this will hopefully fill them with joy.

These are pull Pinata's. Hopefully even the very little ones will have fun with these.

The finished baby pinata's ready to make a mess.

Essentially these are mostly toilet roll/ kitchen roll centres stuffed with crepe paper and toys, which you hang high above the children. The toys are tied with ribbon which when pulled will release the confetti and toy.

Firstly after collecting the rolls of different lengths and widths, I placed a paper end on the roll to stop the filling falling out. I cut a little slit to pass the ribbon through. The paper used is matching wrapping paper to the party theme.

I used 4 different papers which look good miss matched on each roll. I wrapped the rolls to completely cover. I then threaded the ribbon through the slit and tied it to a toy. I bought a load of party bag filler toys for only 15p - 25p each. Obviously only selecting light weight items in case they land on anyone. I part filled the roll with cut up crepe paper then placed in the toy. I topped the toys with paper to hide the toys inside.
Tip: I marked the inside of the roll to indicate whether the toy was one for a girl, boy or unisex. Therefore on the day I can make sure no boys get any butterfly hair clips and avoid any upset.

Filled tubes with long ribbon for pulling.

I then used a sharp pencil to make two holes in the top of the rolls to make a handle to hang the Pinata's.

The great thing about these is they cost less than £5 for all of them finished and when they are hanging they will add decoration to the venue.