Vegetarian Week- Recipe 3

I m not normally one for posting recipes but this week is special. It is National Vegetarian week and being vegetarian myself I am doing my bit and posting a new recipe each night. These are all easy recipes I use myself. I wanted to show that you do not have to be a fantastic chef to cook meals for your family. I myself am no Delilah but I do like to cook and like to know what we are eating, no additives and preservatives in this house...well not many! I am no Saint either! Anyway today's recipe is:

Cheesy Tomato Pasta Bake

You will need:

• 250g pasta
• Mixed fresh vegetables (eg mushrooms, onions, peppers, carrots etc)
• A tin tomatoes
• A tin of Heinz tomato soup
• Cheese
• fresh basil leaves
• Freshly milled pepper

First part boil the pasta so that it is almost cooked but not quite.  It should still be a little on the firm side.

In a separate frying pan sauté some onions, mushrooms, peppers and whatever other vegetables your family enjoy.  I sometimes add courgette, garlic, carrots or sweetcorn.

Tip the pasta and the vegetables into an appropriate oven dish.  Pour over a tin of chopped tomatoes and the secret ingredient....a tin of Heinz tomato soup. Honestly it is great for this sort of thing. This one is a bit of a cheat recipe.

Next top with grated cheese. If you want it really cheesy, stir some in with the vegetables and pasta first, before adding more on top. Sprinkle the top with pepper (I don't use salt but you could if you wanted to) and torn basil leaves if you have them.  As you can see from the picture below I didn't have any basil in tonight.

Pop into an oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the cheese is all golden brown. If you are running late and don't have much time you can just stir it all up in one of the pans to gently warm it and then pop under a grill for about 15 minutes until it is all bubbling and brown.

The result...a meal for the whole family to enjoy (except me who is on a low carb diet). This one is very easy to make and very cheap too!  You can serve it with salad or vegetables and crusty bread. The girls love it served with chopped tomatoes and cucumber chunks and whatever does not get eaten gets divided up into child sized portions and frozen for another day.  Perfect.

Hope you enjoy

Karen x

Terrible Two's..Nightmare!

This post should have done better!!

Thanks to TheBoyAndMe I am getting another chance to show it off.  If you have a post that you think could have or should have done better then head over to her blog!

For those of you who follow me via twitter, you may already have noticed that I am having a little bit of trouble with my eldest daughter.

Poppy is 3 in July.  She has always been a little angel.  Slept through the night (7pm-7am) by four months, took to food like a duck takes to water, has always eaten anything I put in front of her (except Brussels) and generally been a pleasure to be around.  A gorgeous happy baby, a content toddler but in the past two weeks she seems to have turned into a MONSTER!!!!

I have asked myself the question what has changed, what are we doing differently, but the answer is absolutely  nothing.

There has been no change to her routine, Husband and I get on well so there are no problems at home, she has not started any new group's, attends the same Nursery one day a week and we continue to attend all the groups she enjoys and have play dates with the same friends. She does not eat any junk food or sweets so I am battling my brains for a reason for this behaviour.

So how is she behaving differently? Well she has started to become very defiant and stroppy..a bit like a teenager.  It can be about anything from me wanting to get her dressed and she doesn't want to, to she wants the cartoons on and I say no!  She will scream, shout, kick and generally cause a scene.  Luckily for me it is only when at home so far.  The kicking is very new but she has kicked her baby Sister twice, as well as both parents and the sofa.  She has also started doing lots of baby talk when she has an excellent vocabulary for a 2 year old.  I find this difficult because we don't do the whole baby talk thing ourselves we don't say "bubba", "doggy woggy" etc so she is not copying the way we talk to Rosie. She also does this annoying pretend crying. Oh and she has suddenly lost her appetite so mealtimes are not anywhere as pleasurable as they once were. All in all, she is being a complete pain!

What are we doing about it? Luckily, Husband and I are on the same wavelength and respond in the same way. We watched quite a bit of Super Nanny when I was pregnant! We have always had a very consistent approach to bringing up our girls. We make sure that we follow through on any threats, support each other and do the same thing. This means for Poppy: the naughty cushion, not let her have cartoons after her bath (she only has them on first thing in the morning and for the bedtime hour), or if Daddy is around for bedtime she may not allowed an ipad story (something he sometimes does with her and she loves). I will do a review on them at some point. We are also praising her when she is good and tell her regularly that good girls get lots of things (ie treats, trips out etc.) and bad girls get nothing.

However, even though we have a plan and stick to it, it is still not easy.  I have to try really hard to be calm and patient and not shout back as I do not want to be the kind of Mum that screams at her children.  I get down to her level and explain that "...is not acceptable behaviour and we do not do that/behave that way in our house" but inside I just want to scream " aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh do it because I say so!"

A few ladies on twitter answered my cry for help and told me it is an age thing.  They recommended books on disciple (which I am ordering) and reward charts.  Apparently sticker reward charts are so 90's and they do an iphone app so we are going to trial this and will let you know the results.  Any other advice would be gladly welcomed!

I am seriously hoping my little Angel comes back soon but in the meantime watch this space on how we are managing it!

Karen x
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National Vegetarian Week - Recipe 2

Okay so it is day two of vegetarian week and my second recipie.  Lke everything I cook, it is very easy to prepare, doesn't take long and can be enjoyed by the whole family.  Both my girls love this served with chunks of fresh bread.

Leek, Onion and Potato Soup

You will need:

• 4 large leeks
• 1 medium onion peeled and chopped small
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 1/2 pints (850 ml) hot vegetable stock (we use vegetable Oxo cubes)
• 10 fl oz (275 ml) milk
• Freshly milled pepper to taste
• 1 tbs oil for frying
• Fresh chives or chopped parsley to serve

Start with trimming the leeks, discarding the outer layer.  Split them in half lengthwise and finely slice.  Wash well.

In a heavy saucepan gently heat the oil and then add the leeks, onion and potatoes, stiring them all around so they all get thinly coated in oil.  Season with pepper, cover and let sweat over a very low heat for about 15 minutes.

Next, add the stock and milk, bring to simmering point, cover and let simmer for a further 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

Pour into a blender and blend to your desired consistency.  We like to have it thick with a few lumpy bits in it but its up to you. Return to the saucepan and reheat gently.  Finally stir in the chives or parsley and it is ready to serve. If you really want to, you could add a dash of cream or creme fresh before serving but we don't tend to bother.

Hope you enjoy

Karen x

National Vegetarian Week - Recipe 1

Apparently this week is National Vegetarian week. So being vegetarian I have decided to share some of my favourite recipes with you everyday this week.  Today's recipe is one I made up myself a few years ago.  I actually had it for supper tonight, luckily for me I am allowed this on my low carb diet.

Vegetable Mushroom Tower

This one is so easy, anyone can do it. Basically you take one (or as many as required) giant mushroom(s):

Top with chopped fresh tomatoes, spring onions and peppers. You could add anything else you like but there is not a huge amount of room on a mushroom.   I have used sweetcorn, pineapple and jalapeño peppers in the past (but not all together). You can be as inventive as you like.

Next sprinkled with a vegetable cube (1 cube will be enough for up to four mushrooms) and top with slices of Hulloumi cheese.  For those of you who don't know this is a Cypriot cheese and can be found in most supermarkets. Once it is ready place in an oven for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

The result is delicious:

The cheese is crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle and the stock cube mixed with the mushroom juices make makes a kind of sticky gravy.  For me being on a diet at the moment., it is the closest thing I can have to pizza.  I like to serve it with a large salad but you could also serve it with vegetables or whatever you like. Ordinarily, one would be enough but I was starving tonight so had two.

Enjoy.

Karen x

MoMenTum - week 3

Hello again ladies,

Well I am still doing pretty well with my diet and exercise.

However, as you might know via twitter I am really  struggling with cravings for chocolate. This is unusual for me this far into a high protein/ low carb diet! However, I have tried eating nuts, drinking diet Coke and making sugar free jelly and cream but so far nothing has hit the spot. Today I am off to Boots to get myself some low carb Atkins chocolate bars!! I will probably do a little mini review on how good they are and if they rid my cravings once and for all! So watch this space!

The one thing I have noticed recently is that my shape has really changed since having babies and I am not at all happy about it. Obviously my boobs have got bigger, I would have expected that, but I did not expect my lower body to change so much.

Want to be hourglass again!

Now I am finding that my thighs have spread a bit and that my bottom is definitely bigger! Not a good look. I think Gok would tell me I was an hourglass and am now an apple shape.I am hoping through diet and exercise I will be able to change it back but it is taking longer than I thought.  I am about to be an ambassador (along with other members of this group) for Zaggora Hotpants.  I am hoping they are going to be the magic answer. They should be here in about two weeks so watch this space!

To help demonstrate I have decided to share a photo.  This was me at the Zoo yesterday.  I am definitely looking slimmer but still have a way to go! My legs are a long way off being ready for shorts but I am still hoping to get there. My face is thinner, my waist is smaller (although you can't tell in my unflattering top), my stomach is flatter than it has been in a while, oh and my boobs are back in the right place since I got rid of the nursing bras. So all in all I am doing okay but still need to keep it up!

Hope you are all doing okay too.  Good luck with this week and if you have just come across this blog hop for the first time, feel free to join us.  We are a lovely bunch of people supporting each other with shaping up for the Summer.

Karen x

Were going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...you can come too!

Today we went to the Zoo.  It was such a lovely family day out and we took some lovely photos that I decided to share them with youl. I was going to wait until tomorrow and just leave the one up for Silent Sunday but me being me, I'm not very good at being silent so here I am tonight.

We are Zoo members, something I would definitely recommend to other families.  You join one but get to use most of them around the Country.  We live pretty close to one, so go all the time, even in the Winter. There are things to do for the whole family: look at the animals, play in the soft play area or various play parks, enjoy a meal in the restaurant or a picnic in the grounds, take a train ride (we haven't yet) and generally just enjoy the walk around the beautiful grounds and a family day out!  Our tickets have been used so often we have definitely got our moneys worth and we don't feel like we have to spend the whole day there either as we go so frequently.  Often we just go for a few hours at a time.

Anyway, pictures...here is one I took.  It was a close call between this one and the one I used for My Silent Sunday picture.  I think he looks very old:

 

This is one of Poppy and Daddy in the Elephant house.

Now Poppy loves going to the Zoo and asks to go every weekend, however, she likes to rush around the animals really quickly and instead is happy to just run along the paths and pick up sticks.  Typical two year old:

Today there were lots of peacocks out and both girls were fascinated by them.  The male ones looked very important strolling around the grounds.  I loved the one I used as my Silent Sunday post which was a close up but think this one is lovely too:

As I mentioned before, we go pretty regularly but today we discovered an area we have not been to before.  The crocodile swamp.  Daddy was very excited about this and I must admit there was a very pretty walk before it too.  This photo makes me smile:

Next we saw some goats.  I think they might have been a bit hungry as they kept trying to eat the buggy board and my Mummy bag:

Before we went home, we promised Poppy she could play in the park.  She wanted to go on this slide but couldn't get up by herself as it was for older children.  Anyway Daddy went with her and they did it a few time.  She was ecstatic:

Oh hang on, nearly forgot to put some of me on here.  Here is me with the girls and the giraffes.  I love seeing the giraffes and the orangutans best:

Here is one of me with Rosie.  However, she is too busy looking at her Sister in the background.  She was climbing sandbanks:

 

So all in all a lovely sunny day, enjoyed by the whole family. I love days like this. Zoo passes definitely recommended!

Karen x

Silent Sunday