Sunday Snippets

The days and weeks seem to be whizzing by, February already, eep!  I have been bitten by the knitting bug hence my absence from here :-)  I have finished the first sock for my February socks and they are a mahoosive size seven and intended for Benedict.  He is a very knit worthy young fellow and is long overdue some yarn love from his mum.  The brown aestlight shawl is off the needles and waiting to be blocked and I have started shawl number six with another of my hand dyed by me yarns!

The kids have been busy with meet ups, home school work and helping around the home.  Pip stayed with friends in Liverpool last week for three days, she stopped with homeschool friends ( we holidayed with them last year in Walsingham) and had a fab time.  Benedict is going on his very first sleep over with another home school family tomorrow and will also be attending his first ever woodturning class, needless to say he is super excited :-)

Here are some pictures of our days this past week:

Benedetto's Restaurant

 

 Benedict has been responsible for some rather tasty treats from the kitchen this past week.  Not only does he make delicious food he is "epic" when it comes to the post food prep and post meal clean up.  That boy is "King Cuisine" :-)

Junior Science ~ Our Bodies

Did you know that an adult intestine is 10 metres long?  

 

 Measuring using Dad's old metre rule from his civils days with the railway :-)

 Mum's intestine started in the conservatory ...

 ... through the lounge ...

 ... down the hallway and up the stairs and ...

 ... landing in Pip's bedroom.  Blimey no wonder I have stomach ache!

Our next lesson was demonstrating "peristalsis" and the proof that you can actually eat whilst standing on your head :-)

It has been a very loong time since I did one of these!  Pip thought it hilarious :-)  The last shot albeit red faced is me eating a rice cake, lol!

Our last practical experiment for the day was to make a plastic lung and the Usborne 1000 science experiments book was a great help:

Left to right, deflated and inflated.

A Dad and Son Day

On Thursday Pip was away staying with friends for a few days and I attended an away day at Rydal Hall, so it was the lads in charge :-)  A surprise trip to Benedict's favourite eating place was planned:

 Benedict's favourite.

 Dave's lunch.

Yarn Tales

 Summer Stripes, kool aid dyed yarn, aestlight shawl. 

I guess you could say, "that's a wrap!"  I really must pop by on a regular basis thus sparing you dear reader from an epic photo fest!

Be Blessed xx

  

 

Roasted Chick Peas :: Visitors :: Retinal Scan

I saw this recipe on Frugal Queen 

Really simple and tasty roasted chick peas ~ drain and rinse a can of chick peas, place in a bowl and add a glug of olive oil, a good helping of black pepper, a sprinkling of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon of medium strength curry powder.  Great as an addition to a salad meal but these would make an alternative healthy snack option to crisps.

Kathryn and Mary Grace visited for the day and as always their visit was a welcome change from the usual house related chores:

 Get ready now ...

... and blow!

Benedict overcame his nerves and went for his retinal scan today.  He is very wary of new procedures and quite rightly so, since he has had all manner of unwelcome tests as a result of the diabetes.  This test will now be performed yearly so that any changes in his eyes can be identified and acted upon:

 "Mum!  Not snapping again!"

 He did a great job keeping still, let's hope that the results are good.  I think they should be since his bloods although not always within target range have been reasonably stable.

From Theory To Practise

This past week Benedict has been working on the human body as part of his science topic; he has looked at the internal workings as well as the foodstuffs needed for healthy growth.  He enjoyed designing his own food pyramid containing some of his favourite foods and thankfully it was a well balanced display, all those "lectures" on healthy eating seem to have paid off!

He was so inspired by last week's study that off his own bat, he worked on a menu plan of some of his favourite meals.  He announced that he would be using some of them when Kathryn has her baby, since he has designs on commandeering her kitchen!  I was then able to use this work as a platform for yesterday's study, which was grading the food groups within each recipe and decide was it a really a healthy choice.

Today he answered the following questions:

1. Name two types of nutrients that we eat that can give us energy.

2. Explain why we need to eat foods containing proteins.

3. Give two reasons why it is important to eat some foods containing fat.

4. Give two reasons why it is important not to eat too much fat.

5. We are often told to eat five helpings of fruits and vegetables each day.   Explain why these foods are necessary. 

He then had responsibility for choosing the lunch menu and making any necessary adaptations to ensure it was a healthier choice so:

Chicken, Leek and Asparagus Pie served with Julienne Carrots, followed by  Peanut Butter Booster Bars were on the menu.

The pie recipe called for a flaky pastry which is high in fat, so we traded this for a simple shortcrust using olive oil based margarine; it also recommended a cream based sauce so we used flour and chicken stock to make our tasty base.

The booster bars contained gluten free oats, cornflakes, mixed fruit, honey, sugar, butter and peanut butter.  The sugar and honey content was reduced and we did keep the butter, figuring that only a small amount would be eaten in one sitting!  The recipe made 18 bars, so there is plenty to share in the next day or so.

Without further ado her is the (young)man of the moment:

Chopping.

 

 

 

 

Ready for the pan.

 

 

 

 

Pie Filling.

 

 

 

Rolling.

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the topping.

 

 

 

 

Mixing the booster bar mix.

 

 

 

 

Smiley Pie!

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the oven.

 

 

 

 

"Quit snapping Mum, I'm hungry!"

 

 

WELL DONE BENEDICT, LOVE MUM XX

 

 



St Patrick

With a bit of last minute organising, we actually managed to celebrate this feast day, my Nanna would have been proud since it is through her that I own my Irish heritage.


We read from this book and with what can only be described as providence, I was able to cobble together these napkins:

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks,

May your heart be as light as a song,

May each day bring you happy hours

that stay with you all year the long.

 

 

We ate lamb stew with crusty herb dumplings and colcannon and no St Paddy's day would be complete without a glass of the brown stuff!

 

 



Table set and waiting.

 

 

 

Lamb Stew and Colcannon.

 

 

 

Good Ol' Guinness!

 

 

 

 

 

Frugal Friday

 I thought I'd write a list of our food menu for the past week and how our £65.00 shop translated in reality.  Our food for the week included a variety of fruit and vegetables, milk, cheeses, eggs and a samll amount of meat, namely 250g minced lamb and a medium sized free range chicken. With judicious portioning the chicken alone constituted four of our meals!

Sunday ~ Root vegetable bake with greens
               Chicken and vegetable korma with rice.

Monday ~ Chicken and vegetable soup.
                Homemade gluten free pizza and salad.

Tuesday ~ Shepherd's Pie made with lamb, vegetables and cannellini beans in a
                 rich tomato sauce.
                 Caramelised onion, apple and camembert tart served with peas:               



Ready for the oven.

 

 

Cooked and ready to eat.

 

 

Wednesday~ Leftovers ( curry, shepherd's pie and tart) 

 

                    Chicken and leek pies with mixed veg.


Thursday ~ Lunch with our home ed friends, so no cooking for me!

                  Chicken and mixed veg frittata with oven baked spicy wedges.


Today I've made three different soups:  mixed vegetable, celery with potato and courgette with potato.  One we had for lunch and the other two are now in the freezer.  Our tea was a good ol' standby, baked potatoes, houmous and winter slaw salad.

I made our weekly food shop last night as their was a severe weather warning of snow today.  As a result Aldi was out of the question so unfortunately Sainsbury was my next best and nearest bet.  I swear you can add at least twenty pound to your bill the moment you walk through the doors!  I'd estimated the shop to come in at £80.00 and in fact it was £100.00 and there was only one miniscule portion of meat in the basket aswell!  See there's that infamous twenty quid discrepancy and guess what it didn't snow!!  Gah!


I'm still grappling with the whole SOLE model of sustainable, organic, local and ethical in addition to shopping within the constraints of a tight-ish budget.  A friend told me all about her local farmers market and so I'm going to give them a go and see what transpires.

 

 



This past week

We've seen lots of friends, it's feast or famine around these parts!  Our home ed friends from the north joined us for our usual Thursday gathering.  The boys did their own thing and the girls decorated cup cakes which we shared for afternoon tea:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday we had a visit from some long standing friends, they came for tea and left late on in the evening.  The kids had a blast charging around upstairs and the parents had relative peace and quiet downstairs!  We finally had chance to exchange Christmas gifts and they were gratefully appreciated on all sides.  Our God Daughter A, loved her gift and so teddy enjoyed a ride home in his very own papoose:

 

 

 

 

I made the carrier using the design from the "Growing Up Sew Liberated" book, there was one for A and one for Pip.

 

 

We are making concerted efforts to shop frugally and so thanks to Aldi our weekly shop came in at £65.00 not bad for a family of five.  I still have some gluten free flour to buy, but even with this added on our bill will still be less than £80.00.  I also tried out a yummy recipe that my friend had blogged about here:

 

 

 



Root Vegetable Bake.

 

 

I served ours with leafy greens and omited the parsnips and switched to swede instead.  A very simple yet tasty dish.

 

 

 

Benedict worked with Shein this morning.  Whilst I was looking for home ed web resources Sara very kindly took Pip for a walk and then the two of them made our favourite pizza.  After lunch Benedict read "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" by Roald Dahl and Pip spent some time with the knitting fork:

 

 

 



 

 

 

It's been a quietly productive day snuggled around the wood stove as the weather outside has been very cold and grey.  Some parts of the UK have experienced snow, we've had sleet rain instead!

 







Frugal Food

Whilst Sara was staying with family last week, both her and Nanna H attended a seasonal and cheap food cookery demonstration at Forum 28.  The demonstration was organised by the Co-operative Society and in amongst the free recipe guide was a vegetable base pizza, a great way to encourage kids to eat more veg and a useful means of using up the odd shrivelled carrot lurking in the bottom of the vegetable box!

Having tasted all the recipes at the demo, Sara in particular raved about the pizza, so with some trepidation I set about making the pizza base.  Normally I am fearless in the kitchen but gluten free flour is notoriously difficult to work with and I was unsure whether it would turn out all right.  I need not have worried, apart from the dough being a very sticky consistency to work with, once it was shaped and on the tray it rose really well.  I served the vegetable, cheese and tomato pizzas with a homemade coleslaw and the meal was wholeheartedly rated a success.

 

A light and fluffy deep pan pizza.

 

 

 

  

Wholefood Cooking :: Diabetic Doldrums.

Well I managed to avoid couch sleeping last night, changing the basal rates seems to have worked for the time being.  We are still not hitting good readings and still have crazy figures of 32mmol/l but at least these are balanced by more manageable readings in between.

  Frustratingly we did receive a snotty letter from the consultant as we missed yet again another appointment due to sickness.  I did have the courtesy to inform the sister in charge of the clinic that this would be the case and that we had good reason for being absent.  The team have no idea what we go through each day just to keep Benedict out of hospital, it's not the first time that family members and friends have commented that I do to good a job in keeping him safe and out of ICU.  Needless to say a reply will be landing on the consultants in tray within the next few days outlining, just how bad things are.

As an attempt to lift my spirits and deal with my lack of enthusiasm in the kitchen I signed up for a three month wholefood course, over on this website:

Beauty That Moves

Tonight's menu was :

Sauteed Kale with Pineapple and Caramelised Onion

Raspberry Oat Bars

Having been upset by the horrid letter from the hospital, I was not the most organised of kitchen cooks, which can be a little disastrous in such a small space!  Despite this, the evening meal was ready just before six.  The children were not keen on the main course, Benedict's blood sugars were affecting his appetite and I think Pip was led by his behaviour.  The adults however thoroughly enjoyed the meal.  Needless to say the raspberry oat bars were a hit with both kids and adults alike.  I made double the recipe and intend to freeze half of the bars so that we can take them to the grandparents when we visit next week.  Kath one of our older daughters is suspected coeliac so she in particular was interested in the oat bars.

Raspberries, Flour, Walnuts and Egg.

Dry ingredients of walnuts, flour, oats and cinnamon.  Added to this was agave syrup, melted butter and beaten eggs.  Once combined the mixture can be pressed into a greased baking tray.

Frozen raspberries were squished on top followed by the remainder of the crust mixture, it was then baked in a 180C oven for about 30 minutes.

 We served the bars with vanilla yogurt for dessert.

 

Sauteed Kale with Pineapple and Caramelised Onion.  Served on a bed of Quinoa and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds.

All that is left for me to do now is to tackle the mountain of pots in the kitchen!!