Brio - Everyone can get in on the act!

Our collection of brio must be one of the longest lasting toys in this house (although that's quickly followed by Jaiden's clicky things aka zoob)

I have happy memories of playing with brio when I was a child, and it's one of the toys that has stood the test of time at my parent's house too - now being played with my grandkids. I remember the little boy my mum used to childmind, playing and making loops, and then after he went home, my dad would work on the track, developing and extending it to be even bigger and better! I also remember we used to buy Daddy bits of brio from the Early Learning shop for his birthday.

Our collection mostly came from hand-me-downs, charity shops, and from a lady I connected with through a wonderful facebook group called Enfield free for families - which is based in Enfield, Middlesex and the surrounding area, which my lovely friend established, and I've been a part of since the very beginning.

I know I go on and on about charity shops, but I LOVE them.  They are so good for so many reasons.
Money! The environment! One of a kind items! And much more.
If I could only shop in charity shops from now on, I would probably take that challenge on. I can probably count on my fingers how many times I've bought brand new clothes/toys/etc in the last few months.

These memories surfaced in my brain thanks to watching children at my work playing and loving brio, and reminded me how great it is for some many age groups and people. Plus I was looking at old pics on my computer and just couldn't resist this one of my favourite people.

A few more notable charity shop sourced outfits

 Angel costume! Soph grew out of the 'angel' costumes that most people wear for nativity shows, but we didn't let that stop us letting her be an angel in the church nativity. A top and skirt from the charity shop, along with tinsel pinned into her hair. Job done!

 This dress came from a charity shop, and all I had to do was shorten the shoulder straps a bit. Smart enough for a wedding, but without spending a million dollars. I believe it cost about £1.50 and she already owned the cardigan.
Likewise the jacket Jaiden is wearing. I found that in a charity shop for £5. And he loved it (It's always a bit hit and miss buying Jaiden clothes if he's not there, but at charity shop prices, it's worth the risk!)

 This was the Room on the Broom witch costume we made for World Book Day. The top was a red school cardigan she already owned, the skirt was made from a piece of purple cord material. I can't remember if I got this from a friend who was having a clear out, or from the charity shop. Either way, it was using what we had!
The hat and broom were borrowed from a friend, and the cat was cousin Phoebe's special Kitty, which was borrowed and carefully returned before she missed it too much! And the wand was Sophia's already too.

Finally, I have to mention some of our Christmas jumper finds. These were both acquired in charity shops, as have almost every Christmas jumper we've ever owned as a family. They cost between one and perhaps three pounds, and they've been passed on responsibly after we were done. This photo was from a few years ago, and Jaiden actually wore the penguin one this Christmas just gone. And I think the reindeer was passed on to a cousin. 

Throw back Thursday - August 2012

 

Because who doesn't want to see these cuties?!

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I have no idea why this photo is upside down, but I'm just going to run with it!

Have you ever made homemade chicken nuggets? They are super easy (and I guess this coating could be used on pieces of chicken like thighs or drumsticks too, although I've never done it).

Take your chicken and cut into nugget sizes pieces. These can be as big or small as you want. You just need to make sure they get cooked through, and I check that by cutting one in half. But anyway, first the method. Cut the chicken into pieces. I usually use chicken breast or boneless chicken thighs. Whatever I've bought reduced on last day of sale, and then popped in the freezer until we want them.
Set up your bowls - first bowl I put cornflour. A throw back to when I lived with my parents and we made everything gluten free, but you could use ordinary plain flour as an alternative.
Second bowl - a beaten egg, You can add more later if you need it.
Third bowl - breadcrumbs, or a trick I learnt from slimming world was to use potato flakes. Aka smash, but I bought the cheapo value ones. For the kids I generally go with plain breadcrumbs, or seasoned with salt and pepper. However, for myself and Menard I add some extra kick. Lately I've used some Jamaican all purpose seasoning his mum brought back from Jamaica for us. Or a chicken seasoning Menard got somewhere. So neither of those are helpful options for you, and that's probably why I don't do cookery blogging very often. But basically, use some seasoning that you like the taste of! Go for something with a bit of kick, or keep it chilled out.

Lastly, you need a greased baking tray. Then get dipping. You will get a bit messy, so you could wear gloves if you want to. I just wash my hands well afterwards! I also tend to only use one hand. Which is a trick I learnt once from a book. They were talking about rubbing butter into flour, but they said either only use one hand, or keep a plastic bag handy, in case you need to answer the phone or go to the door.

So, take a piece of chicken, dip into the flour until covered all over. I tend to do a few pieces at a time. Then into the egg all over, then into the breadcrumbs. Finally onto the greased tray. Once the tray is full (leave a little bit of space between them), pop them into the oven. I usually cook them at about 190C/gas mark 4/something a bit hotter than 350F (I know 180c is 350F, and I can't be bothered to look up the conversion for 190C)
And cook them until they're done. As I said before, this depends on the size of your nuggets and how many you put in the oven. But use common sense, and cut the biggest one open, to see if it looks cooked inside.

There's definitely a reason why I don't write recipes very often. But I hope this inspires you to try it at least once?!

An honourable mention...

.... must be given to Menard, who has fun creating short videos or movies and publishing them on youtube.
Lately he's been experimenting with green screen and adding special effects. If you fancy a gander, you can check it out here, and you might get a few more glimpses of me and the kids too.

Charity shop sourced dressing up

One of the things I love/hate about the school my children attend, is the opportunites they give the children to be submerced in a particular era or event. They ask the children to dress up according to the topic they have been, or about to study. And then spend the day doing activities connected to that topic. I believe they also often work with portals to the past, who are a company? group? who come in to the school in character and lead the children through activities.

Most of the photos I have here are of Sophia, as she's older, and done more of them! But I thought it might be helpful to share how we have put these outfits together fairly cheaply, and mostly souced from charity shop finds.

Here is the latest outfit we need. It's not totally finished, so here are a couple of work in progress photos.
We started off looking for white dresses or tunics, however the charity shop didn't have anything suitable, but I was not deterred by this. Sophia took a little persuading, but with some more googling, we found some images of 'Egyptian people' wearing colours other than white, and decided that blue might work, with gold. We found this long dress, and I will need to take the shoulder straps up a bit. But it won't need anything fancy, I'll literally fold the strap over and hand sew some stitches. If you really don't want to sew, you could use tape or safety pins.

Next we needed to find something metalic to make the outfit more impressive. We though gold might look better.And with some more rummaging, we found this gold top. I scrunched it up here, for Soph to be able to see what it might look like once cut.

When we got home I cut the bottom half of the top off, then used a giant bowl to get the shape of a curve, and trimmed to make the piece that will go over her shoulders. I don't know what the technical term is! Then the bottom half of the top we put around her waist for a belt, just to see how it will look. There's about twice as much length of top than we need, so I plan to cut it in half and sew, so that she has a belt, and then the other piece we will use to hang down off the belt.

For the sandals, Sophia remembered that she has a pair that she can wear, but we did find a couple of posibilities in the charity shop, that we could have bought if she didn't have any.
Total spend was I think £2 for the dress and £1.50 for the top. And I will add to that maybe an hour of hands on sewing/cutting/thinking.

This white outfit we actually found in the charity shop on the same day, after we had already chosen the blue dress. I bought it for £1, and we passed it on to a friend for her daughter to use for the same event.

This outfit took a lot of time, well, actually it took less time than the one we made for me, which I started off hand sewing, until my lovely sister came to the rescue. Hopefully you can see it's the rainbow fish! Not for a day at work, although my costume was for the end of year party which was under the sea themed! I had lots of fun wearing it. The top Sophia is wearing was bought for 50p from the charity shop. Much of the material for the scales was from clothes that we'd grown out of, or from the charity shop too (I say 'the charity shop', we have a few around here, and we like them all, for different things!)

This outfit was for Roman day at school. The sheet was an amazing find by my mum - that's another handy tip for you - if you know what you're looking for, get your friends and family to keep an eye out for you. I told me mum we needed a white sheet, and she'd found it within days! It's now gone on to be repurposed again, but that's for another post.
The cord was from my mum's string bag, and the sandals and white tshirt we already owned. Total cost for the outfit was I think £2 for the sheet!

Here's the rainbow fish again, along side a dinosaur. This gets a mention because it was a Kermit the frog costume that a friend passed on to me for Jaiden. He asked to be a dinosaur for World Book Day, and thus an idea was born. We cut off the feet and sewed them onto the wrists, to serve as claws. We added eyes and teeth to the hood. And opened the back seam, and added in spikes (I'll have to see if I can find a photo of those). I say we, because my lovely mummy helped me with much of the sewing on this one.




Viking day at school. This one was included some fantastic charity shop finds. The main piece was a brown sheet, which I believe I paid £1 for. The belt we also got in a charity shop, probably for 50p or £1. The hat, I was in a charity shop and mentioned I was looking for one or other element of the outfit, and the lady told me she had a Viking hat out back, and sold it to me for 50p. The boots were quite worn, but for £1 I didn't mind too much. I think we actually bought them for her stone age outfit, but I couldn't find a photo of that. For the stone age costume she wore black leggings, a lady's top which was worn inside out to show off the animal print lining, and these boots. All we bought for that outfit was the boots and the ladies top, which was around £1.50

I love this outfit because it came together so well. We had bought the coat for Sophia earlier in the year for £5 and I realised it would be perfect for the outfit. Usually she wears trousers for school uniform, which I knew wouldn't look right for this era. But I found this dress in a charity shop I had popped in feeling somewhat poorly, after a trip to the doctors and pharmacy -  I think it was when I was off last year with a sinous infection and was off work for a couple of days. Anyway, I found this dress and was delighted. I believe it cost about £2 or £2.50.
The suitcase we already owned, and it made a perfect addition to the outfit. Otherwise I was going to sugest she take a sactchel style bag I own. The gas mask box was made from a box covered in some brown paper (I cut up a large envelope we had). And we added some prints out I found from a quick internet search for something like gas mask printables. Socks and shoes she already owned!


(This is my 1212th post, I like that number, so thought it deserved a mention!)

Words

I found this in my drafts. Unfortunately I'd clicked on edit, which overwrote the original date. But I'm guessing he can't have been all that old. Maybe 1 or 2?
He was too cute!
 -------------------

Words Jaiden pronounces incorrectly

Boh-bot (robot)
Mine instead of my ( that's mine car, foe-fee)
Foe-fee ( Sophie)

The year of January is nearly over*

This has been a very long month. Personally I've had shingles, a sickness bug, and ended the month with an eye infection (I don't know what qualifies it to be called conjunctivitis, the pharmacist I spoke to and got eye drops from seemed to distinguish between an infection and conjunctivitis, so who knows!)
I've also been to work less days than I ought to have (if I hadn't been ill), but more than I felt like I might manage when I was in the midst of all the illness in the first half of the month.

So it's been an interesting month, and obviously I've earned less than I would have done without all the illness, however I'm not too stressed about it all because a) I know I have a loving God who is in control, and I'm continuing to live in faith that we will get through all the ups and down of life. And b) we all know I love a frugal challenge!

So some of the things I'm doing, or planning to do -

Take a freezer and cupboard survey - that way I know exactly what I've got, and what goes with what.

Make a menu plan - Using the surveys, we can plan ahead, and that helps me with work lunches as well as dinners.

Use what we've got - whether that's what's in the freezer and cupboards, or anything that's in the house (including non food items), I'm trying to find solutions with what we already have, rather than buying new. Or being canny with what I do have.
- I discovered that I've really enjoyed eating stir fried veg along with leftover protein, for my work lunches. On a Sunday afternoon I survey the fridge, and any veg that needs using up gets thrown into a big frying pan and sauteed together. Add a bit of garlic, soy sauce, or herbs to mix up the flavours. I might try tomato puree next time, as I appear to have stock piled that!
- I had loads of kidney beans, coconut milk, and onions, plus random veg. I bought some rice and made up a big batch of rice and peas. (And it turned out to be my best batch yet!)
Which we ate for a few days running, plus I froze some for a quick meal another day. So long as you reheat thoroughly, I've never had a problem with reheating rice, but I know some people prefer not to make it.
- I used chicken bones leftover from a meal, to make chicken stock. The kids aren't that great at getting all the meat off the bones, and I can be a little wary about chicken since i had food poisoning last year, so the bones weren't picked bare. However, throwing them in hot water with an onion (I was out of carrots) I made a gorgeous rich stock which is saved in the freezer for next time I want to make soup, or perhaps risotto or even rice and peas again.
- Today we cooked a loaf of chocolate and banana bread. I saved a banana from the other day, which Jaiden had taken one bite from, and decided it was too squishy for his liking. And there was another that had been accidentally opened but not eaten. I also used up some pieces of apple that had been abandoned and I'd stashed in the fridge - I used them to make a quick batch of applesauce, and used that to replace the oil in the recipe, to make it lower in calories. (My adaptations for that recipe - using applesauce instead of oil, wholemeal flour, and putting 100g of chocolate rather than a whole cup full).
- using leftovers for work lunches or dinner. I'll admit this week there was a bit of veg that got abandoned at the back of the fridge, and I had to throw in the food waste because it didn't smell right this morning. But I try to do my best to use it all up in general.
- Making pizzas out of English muffins and bagels. I brought home from work some out of date bread items, and we used them to make pizzas. These just had tomato puree and cheese on top, but sometimes we add other toppings, depending on what we have. I made extra and took some for lunch at work the next day - just zapped them in the microwave for 30 seconds, and ate them along with some salad leaves.
- we've almost run out of cereal, but we still have lots of oats. I plan to persuade my children that they'd like to have porridge or 'cold porridge' aka a bit like muesli, for breakfasts this week. Already they've been eating some cereal we did have that they weren't so keen on - I have a big plastic container, where I pour in different cereals and mix them up, to make the favourites, and perhaps less healthy ones, go further!

Those were all very much food related. What else?
Well, planning activities for work that didn't involve me buying anything special - that saved me and them money. I got my family to collect up all their silver foil from mince pies and chocolate coins over Christmas, and then used them in the messy tray for our space theme week.

Sophia needs an outfit to dress up like an Egyptian at the end of February. As soon as we heard this - last weekend, we went looking in the charity shops to see if we could find anything suitable. This meant we had a few weeks to get it sorted, if we didn't find anything right away. In fact we found a dress and a top, which with a few easy touches, will make a great costume, and we realised today she already owns some sandals which will complete the outfit. I'm hoping to write another post soon about homemade costumes...

Not going shopping or even 'window shopping', aside from that charity shop trip. The less I go in shops, the less money I will spend!

I was able to take part in some market research for a company which is in development stage. It interested me, and I was happy to be involved. I'd have done it for free, to be honest, but I was paid an amount which will come in handy for sure! I'm hoping to share more about them in the future.

I think I'd better end this post here, but hopefully it won't be too long before I post again!
(I'll try!)




*Hat tip to @veryBritishproblemsofficial for the title of this post

Chrismas is coming, the Debs is feeling fat

Found in drafts and posted from last November. Hopefully, possibly, more up to date content to come soon



I need to work out how to do my current job, be a wife and a mummy, and get back on track with getting healthier. I was doing Slimming world for a while, and had some success at the beginning of the year, but that was before the world of work got in the way. I could go on a Saturday morning, or an evening session, but to be honest, I resent the time I could spend in bed! (and that goes for a Saturday or sometimes an evening, I have days I go to bed at 7pm when I feel a catch up is in order!)

I know that I need to eat more (read at least some)  vegetables, and a lot less sugar. And probably less potatoes and bread. But those are very much what we get a lot of from work, and what Menard is good at cooking!

For starters I'm working on good breakfasts. And good lunches. That are not only healthy, but also ones that I want to eat! And less toast and bagels and other bread products at work!
(I probably need to suck it up and go low carb and no sugar, but I'm also realistic that that will be a very hard thing to do)

Homemade Christmas food gift type things

This year (as most years) there will be lots of homemade food-y things being given.

I may make lemon (or lime) curd again, especially if I get any more lemons from work!

Jam. There is always jam. I've not many any weird flavours lately, but my general rule for pretty much any sort of jam is using the same amount of fruit as sugar. Again, there are many other places who can give you much more information about making jam, but if you want to come make it with me in person, that's probably the best way for me to impart my knowledge and 'feeling' about making jam.

Chocolate bark. This is a fancy link to give you an idea, but I'll let you in to my little secret. Mine is almost always made with super cheap chocolate, and I'm probably more likely to use smarties on the top than any of the fancy things they suggest, but I've not had any complaints about it yet!
A silicone mat is very useful for doing the flat pieces to break up, and I've also got a growing selection of different shaped silicone moulds in a variety of shapes (like Christmas trees, circles, and Father Christmas)

These are my go to ideas, I'll let you know if I branch out and try anything else this year.

Homemade Christmas gift related ideas

Working with little kids, and planning Christmas activities with them, I've spent a fair amount of time on google (I hate pinterest, so don't suggest it!) and have found a fair number of fun projects.

Christmas cards or wrapping paper made with hand prints. I'm not including a link, but there are sooo many ideas. At my work we did cards with Rudolph (hand fingers down for the face, two hands fingers up to be the antlers). Father Christmas, I think the hand was the beard? And Christmas trees, where the hand with fingers pointing up was the tree, then finger prints on top added decorations on the tree.

Salt dough decorations. There are many places more experienced with these. I will let you google. We are hoping to do initials of the children on a background piece, which will allow there to be enough dough to make a hole through for the twine. You can also do hand prints and paint them to be similar things to what I said above. I'm going to experiment with making coloured salt dough, to save making (then drying) then painting. I'll let you know how it goes!

Decorations/present tags with photos on. Over the weekend we watched a lot of Christmas films cos I was too tired to do much else, and I saw this cute idea in one of the films which had a little snowman with a photo of the child in the family as the head of the snowman. I'm probably not describing that well. The head of the snowman was a photo of a child. It looked very cute. I might have stolen it for work, had my colleague not already made snow globes with a photo of each child inside a laminating pocket, along with some confetti/sequins, and sealed around the edges with a pair of straighteners.

Apparently these are all craft-y ideas, so maybe I'll do another post with food ideas!

Chrismas is coming, the Debs is feeling fat

I need to work out how to do my current job, be a wife and a mummy, and get back on track with getting healthier. I was doing Slimming world for a while, and had some success at the beginning of the year, but that was before the world of work got in the way. I could go on a Saturday morning, or an evening session, but to be honest, I resent the time I could spend in bed! (and that goes for a Saturday or sometimes an evening, I have days I go to bed at 7pm when I feel a catch up is in order!)

I know that I need to eat more (read at least some)  vegetables, and a lot less sugar. And probably less potatoes and bread. But those are very much what we get a lot of from work, and what Menard is good at cooking!

For starters I'm working on good breakfasts. And good lunches. That are not only healthy, but also ones that I want to eat! And less toast and bagels and other bread products at work!
(I probably need to suck it up and go low carb and no sugar, but I'm also realistic that that will be a very hard thing to do)

I also need to work out whether I try very hard to actually get to the gym, or whether it's time to admit it's not fitting into my life at the moment, and work out what would fit.

Good evening

Well my little run of blog posts got a bit scuppered, firstly by getting better from my chest infection, so although I had a few posts scheduled, I then didn't have time to write any more. And then, when I had a productive weekend on the computer planned, to get my assignment written and some blog posts in between, my clearly weakened immune system when down with a horrible stomach bug, which had me weak and feeble for several days. Tummy is ok, but still feeling a little tired and run down, so I'm hoping and praying I can avoid the germs while I try to get myself even better.
I've started taking a probiotic that my sister recommended, after the antibiotics. And I've been started off with some kefir grains from a friend, so I've been trying to drink some of that every day. Hopefully all the good bacteria will have me up and running in no time. I have three weeks left of my term (four for Soph and JJ) and it's all guns blazing from now until the end of the term, so I need to be not getting any more illnesses!

Christmas Presents

One of the things I hate about Christmas is the hype and the money spending. We had a wander around The Range the other day. If you don't know it,  it's one of those shops where you can buy anything and everything. Craft stuff, sewing, hardware and building bits, kitchen stuff, furniture, food and more!

We had a wander around looking at things for present ideas for the kids. OK, this may shock people, but while we were there we allowed them to pick something each that they wanted to be their Christmas present. And then we bought them, with them right there with us. And brought them home and put them away. I expect we will get a few little bits and pieces for them that will be a surprise, but right now they both have a big ish item, that they know about, and that cost around £15.
Yes, that's it. £15 is all I spent on each of my children for Christmas.  As I said, we may get a couple of other things, but I very much doubt we will spend much more than £5 or £10 on each of them beyond that initial spend.

We will read books during December about the story of the Christmas nativity (more about that idea in another post, maybe). Each of those books came from the charity shop and cost 20p or 50p. They sit in a basket that cost about a quid, also from the charity shop.
We have a tree we bought last year from tesco, and the box was a bit battered, so it was reduced. I forget what to, but I think it was under ten pounds. We have a bunch of Christmas decorations. There are the ones the kids made, like the angel that sits at the top of the tree. We have a lot that we found in charity shops for a small amount of money.

I bought presents in Sainsburys the other day with some of my nectar card points. I've done the same with amazon cards I earned doing swagbucks and an online market research website.

Other presents we give will be homemade - jams and chutneys, most likely homemade chocolates and maybe biscuits.

I share these facts from our little world, to perhaps inspire, maybe make you stop and think. Perhaps you'll just think that I'm a cheapskate and leave it at that. But I'd like to inspire people to not just think about spending lots of money, not to think that is has to cost the earth. But instead, perhaps Christmas could be something different and something more than that.

Goldilocks and the three bears

I can't wait to use these story stones with the kids at work! They were beautifully painted for me by a friend, and I'll be using them this week for literacy and maths activities. Jaiden just tried them out and did a great re telling of the story! I'll let you know how it goes with the kids :)

Early Christmas Presents

My slow cooker, which I got when I was pregnant with Sophia, is giving up the ghost. It's been overheating somehow, which means it needs to be stood on the wooden chopping board, to protect the surface underneath, and it doesn't give us confidence to leave it alone cooking when we are out. (Basically it's regressed and turned into a reluctant small child?!)

So I'm been starting to look at other options to replace it, especially since my lovely Mummy offered to buy something for my Christmas present this year. I've looked at slow cookers, and I've looked at instant pot/pressure cooker type cookers, and I haven't been totally convinced about either. And then we went out too look for Christmas presents on Saturday and I spotted the air fryers. I'd thought about one of those too, but having looked up prices for the branded ones, I'd quickly moved that thought on!

However, what we spotted was a generic brand type air fryer, of a decent size, for an ok amount of money (and when it rang up £15 off at the till, that was even better!). I did some on the spot googling (gotta love phones these days!) and checked some of the things you could make in it, we saw it had a three year guarantee, and thought, hey, let's go for it. (And Menard said he'd get it for me for Christmas, so I'll have to come up with another idea for my mummy!)

And y'all, although we said we'd put it away for Christmas, the urge to make chips in it right away was too strong, so we pulled it out and go on with it. We made chips for lunch and they were pretty good. Then later we cooked some pork and veg (Carrots and potatoes) for us, and we did some fish fingers and potato croquettes for the kids (cooking bits and pieces sort of day). And we were impressed.

Today we've cooked a pork joint (rather than the tiny piece we had yesterday) and we were still impressed. I quickly cut up and cooked some roasted veg to go in the fridge and be taken for work lunches, and it cooked in under half an hour, and I can walk away and it stops itself. I didn't burn my veg because I'd walked away to do something else! That is a game changer right there!
And the timings. It's quicker than in the oven! And healthier - less fat.
Although, healthier... well, I have to go. I need to check if the chocolate  brownies are done yet...!!!

Talking of how grown up my children are..

She's nine, people. Nine! Going on thirty? Or something!
We love this coat we found in the charity shop the other day for £4! Four Quid!
Amazing!

Thinkings from my brain part two

I am very lucky to be able to share though my work, in the scheme a local supermarket have for sharing some of their unsold food from the day before, which is collected by someone at work, and then shared out with families who use our facilities. Because I hate food going in the bin, if there's any left at the end of that day, I can often be seen taking home a motley collection of bits and pieces to share with my neighbours and cook for our dinner!

I think, so long as you can detach yourself from the idea of the perfect carrot, anyone can take a slightly sad carrot, wash and peel it, and give it new life in a meal.  It may be slightly sad and wanting, but it can still taste amazing!

For example, things I do with carrots who've seen better days...
*Throw into soup. My favourite recipe is a butternut squash, carrot and cumin recipe, but to be honest you can't go too far wrong just throwing things into a pan with some homemade stock, or just hot water and a stock cube. My only advice would be, don't go too big if you're being experimental (unless you have some willing friends or family who'll help you eat up a vat of soup) or have some pots handy for freezing in portions. If I were super amazing, I'd use glass to freeze portions in, as is it, I tend to use plastic pots which get used umpteen times before they're recycled, so that's something anyway.
*Risotto is another fairly easy recipe to throw random veg into. You can always serve with bacon or sausages if you need your meat in the meal.
*Roasted veg. Any number of root veg can be thrown into a bowl and tossed in a little oil and herbs, then roasted on an oven tray. If you use what you've got, then eat time it will taste a little different, but it will most probably be delicious!
* Grate into other dishes. Things like courgettes and carrots are so easy to grate into other things. Bolognase, chilli, omlette filling, sausage casserole....
*Put it in a pie! I make chicken and veg pie. I'm a working mum, so don't judge when I say I usually buy the pastry (reduced, if i see it!).  A little chicken can go a long way. I either use leftovers, or poach some breast or boneless thighs. You can make a white sauce easily, or to be honest, I quite often use a tin or two of chicken soup (some of those came from work too!). Use loads of veg, saute together, starting with the stuff that needs longer cooking, like onion, or chunks of carrot, or grate the carrot in, and it'll cook quicker.
*Use it in baking. Carrot cake, muffins, most recipes are very versatile. You'd be surprised what I've used up in muffins, unless you know me in person, in case you might not be surprised!
*Throw them (peeled) along with an onion/celery/some herbs or peppercorns and some chicken bones into a saucepan or slow cooker and make your own stock. Add a dash of acid like vinegar or lemon to draw the nutrients out of the bones. 

There you go, at least six different ways to use up slightly (or very) sad carrots. What ingredients would you like ideas for? I might just have some ideas to share...

* By very sad, I mean the ones that are actually going a bit black on the outside. If they're not total mush, you can actually use a decent peeler and scrape that stuff off and still use the carrot. Ok, it won't be as good for you nutritionally as a fresh grown one, but it's still probably better than other things you might choose to eat. I dare you to give it a go!

Thinkings from my brain part one

I've been reading a lot lately about reducing plastic use. I'm definitely not an expert in this, just sitting here, I'm looking around my room and I can see all sorts of plastic around me. But I definitely think it's something that every one needs to think about seriously. Recycling is not enough (although it's definitely the right thing to do with any plastic you have already that can be recycled) but we need to ultimately cut down on using plastic altogether.
Things I've tried to do so far -
* Reusable containers in the lunch boxes. I take a lunch to work every day. The kids have one maybe once a week, when they really don't like the school lunch options that are available.
I have a bunch of plastic (yes, still plastic) reusable pots which we use for sandwiches and fruit like grapes or raisins, rather than using plastic bags that will be thrown away after one use.
- more things I could change - working on sending homemade things like flapjack/cookies rather than sending things like cereal bars that we sometimes buy and send.

*Similar to the last one - reusable drinks bottles. Sophia has a metal one that she got for a birthday, from a company called One Green Bottle, I believe.  My sisters are both further ahead on this with me. We also have some plastic bottles which get washed and refilled many times before they are thrown out. (Some are systema, bought ones, a couple are purchased drinks that are reused). Again, not the best solution, but better than throwing a plastic bottle in the bin every day.

* Plastic containers/glass/plate on top options for saving leftovers. I could pretend that's because I've stopped using cling film, but actually, I've always hated the stuff and avoided it like the plague. So really I was just ahead of the pack on this one, right?!

* Shopping bags. I've got a lot of reusable bags. Some are plastic, some are better fabrics like cotton. ideally they'd all be organic fair trade cotton or something, but I settle for reusing what I have now, and making better choices if I do have to buy any more.

I'm sure there are others, but there are also people doing this far better than I, so get googling, and if I find any good resources I'll try to share.

This is me, November 2018

Well well well, hello little blog, nice chatting to you again.

This post is inspired by a chance comment from a work colleague, so perhaps, here I go again .

A lot has changed around here. At February half term I put a cv online and got set to put my toe in the water for being a working mum. I had a half term temping in a lovely school, but the commute was too much and it wasn't working out for my family, and after much thought and tears, I realised I had to put my family first. Next came some temping in a nursery much more local, but they didn't have a job for me long time, and the temping hours were unpredictable, so I needed to look elsewhere.
Of course, I'm not going to tell you exactly where I am now, but I'm settled in a lovely early years setting, with an amazing team, and have been since June. I'm working towards an early years qualification, because despite having lots of experience and qualifications, I didn't have anything that was exactly what they needed in regards to legalities for staff ratios and stuff like that. So that's where I am, working fully time, every weekday. Menard, in the meantime has had to pick up a lot of the at home stuff, on top of his working hours, so things are a little different. However, by God's grace, and that alone sometimes, it is working!

Sophia is now 9 and JJ will be 7 in December, they're both growing up fast. It often, and especially with facebook memories and things like that, seems like it was just yesterday that they were little and it was all breastfeeding and waking in the night, the logistics of making sure we got out the house to wonderful mums and tots groups and all that jazz. Wherever did that time go?! I am enjoying working with little ones again, but also appreciating how grown up and responsible my two have got (most of the time!).  They're definitely still kids, but they're kids with their own minds and opinions and questions (and boy, does Jaiden have good questions!And by good I mean very hard to answer sometimes!)

So with all that going on, I don't really have time to resurrect my blog again, but I think I might like to all the same, to give myself a little place of my own to escape to briefly sometimes.