Blimey….where have I been….?

I cannot believe it has been so long so I posted a blog for you….I did sneak off and do a little writing elsewhere, plus a few major life changes….but here I am …I’m back….still cooking, still me, still spending too  much money on food.

Living in a place where I now have ready access to food shops, markets and off course online delivery, I have gone crazy….It’s got to stop, because I’m skint…and it’s a waste.

So let’s still cook, we can still have treats..and the occasional flash meal (haha…who am I kidding, I mean free range chicken.) But I do need to stop feeding the compost heap with veggies that were too cheap not to buy, then die a  slow death in my veg rack. I need to wake up and smell the brocolli (sorry). I need to realise I do not have the time or energy to make cauliflower cheese from scratch in the middle of the week. It is not realistic to cook a meal that takes 3 hours to cook on a week night unless we want to eat it as a midnight feast.  There are 27..yes 27 open bottles and jars of random ingredients in my fridge!!

So tonight, tonight is lucky dip night……I will not shop…but I will cook, I just need to decide what…….hopefully I will let you know…..or I might disappear for another couple of years, distracted whilst wading through my collection of dusty packages and tins of chickpeas….

It feels good to be back 🙂

love and savoury hugs

Sky x

 

 

 

 

Monday…it has to be simple

Monday is the day I dig out the house after the weekend…collecting stray cups and hoovering up the dust bunnies.

Some times I shop, but generally we eat up what we have. We converted to wholemeal bread over the weekend, so the feedback from packed lunches and dinner will be interesting…

Tonight shall be eggy bread, bacon and beans,(even I shall miss the white bread on this one 😦  Mushrooms for me too (the children wont even try them. grrr).

I shall light the wood burner and put clean sheets on the beds. There is something homely about the start of the week, when we return tired from school and work.

If I get my butt in gear there may be flapjack or cherry buns for supper (and packed lunches), but more likely bananas and custard for them…crisps for me. (hey I am not perfect and need some Mummy time..I might even have a glass of vino when they finally sleep.)

I must make sure I don’t sit down too soon and lose my momentum…

Happy Monday 🙂

Sky @ http://www.thesideplate.com

I can no longer tolerate boring vegetables…

Sometimes , somedays….well, I just give in. I lose the will to live over the vegetable wars.

I am lucky that my daughter does love carrots and will eat broccoli, peas and occasionally sweetcorn…My son on the other hand, pulls a face that indicates he ihas been poisoned, should anything other than baked beans appear on his plate.

I will be honest, I am not the greatest vegetable eater either. And today this will change.

I read an interesting article online that indicated children can be fussy eaters in order to survive..It would seem our cultures have evolved way faster than our basic instincts. What it comes down to, is that children like familiar stuff because they know they ate it before and didn’t die.

Now I grant you, this might seem like an off the wall approach, but I am going to run with it. But on my terms. We will not longer have boring peas, I shall add chopped bacon and maybe some onion. Brocolli will be stir fried with sauce instead of steamed. sweetcorn will be encased in a fritter..or god forbid actually mixed in with the fish pie. sweet potatoes will be appearing twice weekly (yum).

I can no longer tolerate a boring vegetable….let the vegetable carnival commence 🙂

Best wishes….a soon to be much healthier Sky x

http://www.thesideplate.com

 

I have gone off parsnips…but It’s helped me understand my children…

I have gone off parsnips….I am not sure why! I know it’s not the greatest breaking news, but I have always loved them. Generally roasted, and a long time ago as fritters but I have since lost the recipe.

Obviously it’s not a massive problem, the kids wont even try them. It has made me realise that maybe when kids suddenly decide they don’t like something anymore…well it may be true. I am not sure of the science, but am sure our tastebuds change with age. Maybe my hayfever is affecting my taste, maybe parsnips aren’t what they used to be. They are certainly better after a frost, which we have lacked this year.

So my darling children, you will be pleased to know that when in future when you tell me you know longer like what used to be a favourite. I shall not serve it anymore…However I will look on it as an opportunity to get you to try something new…

After all as they say…Variety is the spice of life 🙂

Keep cooking…

Love Sky @ http://www.thesideplate.com

Please feel free to contact me if you have an amazing parsnip recipe that may convert me back 🙂

Am I over re-acting??? Again

So there I was with my cooking ABC..

Yes we made it to C…chicken on the BBQ ..chocolate eggs..Chinese lol
Then I realised food is just too damn fun, tasty and interesting to get stuck in a list.

We always eat well in the school holidays because we have time..and that kind of shocks me!!

Shouldn’t we always have time for a good breakfast, a leisurely lunch and a dinner that we helped to cook. Is this not important to just about every other aspect in life?? or am I over reacting again??

How can we function if we don’t eat properly? ( I am not preeching..I am the worst culprit). I am just dumbfounded how we don’t put importance on the fuelling of our body and soul. How we aren’t even educated on how to. And how I am conforming and stumbling through life like everyone else I guess.

So I sit myself down and I think, What is important??

Fuel?
Joy?
Family?
Education in life?
Enjoying life and food??

So where do I go from here? Can I make more effort, do we go to bed later…get up earlier…fit fun into life??
Really is this how it works..or do I take a leap..defy convention…rebel now I am 40 lol ?

The truth is I don’t know. I am trying to figure it out. You comments are more than welcome..

Love, hugs and good eating
Sky @ http://www.skybendelow.com

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Happy Good Friday…it seems I cannot keep it simple :)

A strange day…not a particular festival day for us, but always grateful for a day off…..BBQ time I think.

I am full of cold (and grumpy..ask my boyfriend lol )..but the sun is shining and it is family dinner day.
I suggested BBQ..we will keep it simple I said….but oohhhh I cannot do simple!!!

It will just be burgers and sausages.. (no steak, chicken, prawns.) but whilst My Love is at the Big Shop..I am secretly boiling Bantam eggs (it is Easter after all). There will probably be a potato salad….Hummus….cous cous??? Brownies…maybe millionaires shortbread…hey I am not going mad I am ill ..it will be a lovely distraction..unobligated cooking makes me happy.

I can’t do simple…It is a feast for the people I love…there is no better celebration than that..I shall cherish every moment

Whatever you celebrate….have a happy one

Love and Hugs
Sky @ http://www.skybendelow.com

An accidental hummus….

I shall be honest, I have never been a great lover of hummus. I find it grainy and bland, and am never sure what to eat it with.
However last night and a failed, improvised recipe, I feel in love with it.

I had slow cooked some belly pork for a late supper, But as it is school holidays and I am avoiding shopping, I was at a bit of a loss at what to serve it with…we didn’t even have any salad in. (the young ones were already fed and I didn’t want anything heavy at 9pm :S ).

One of my favourite cookbooks is Leon book 2, Naturally fast food. I decided to try the Tuscan beans with sage.
It didn’t start well…mainly because I only had chickpeas, and I probably rushed it too.
The anchovies I had used were out of a jar and I was getting cross because they didn’t melt, just added bony spines to my dish. So in a tantrum, I stuck the lot in the blender and warmed up some pitta bread.

Well what can I say….an absolute triumph. If you are going to eat hummus I think you might as well make it.
It was tasty and cheap, and I believe healthy..Wow what more could we want.

Next time I shall prepare more and make the dish properly….but last night I was glad I failed..

amazon link for fab Leon cookbooks…I earn a few pennies if you choose to buy 🙂

http://leonrestaurants.co.uk/

Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Winston Churchill

So here we are…..A

Well here we are A in my kids foodie education.

They decided they didn’t want apple fritters after all..so I made muffins.

They were delicious, although a little more messing about on a morning then I would like lol. Next time I shall pre make them and just reheat. I am not a morning person, and beginning the day looking for damn baking powder didn’t help my pre 2 cups of coffee mood :S

In line with the whole learning thing, I intend to buy one of each kind of apple available in the supermarket, and find its origin on a map. Hey we might even buy and plant another tree. We are also going to look behind the prices of them and why they might be priced differently. (This wont be today..hey it is the school holidays .. I am breaking them in gently).

If you don’t already know I am considering going back to home education…simply because I cant see what they are learning at school. I am not knocking schools..but beyond basic Maths and English, I can’t see a love of learning developing, and I certainly can’t see rounded life learning. It also surprises me that although I left school with my 8 GCSEs, I really know nothing..so I can learn too. I haven’t committed yet..but we shall see.

So now…well now I am going to go end enjoy my children and the sunshine….life is for living..Enjoy

Love Sky @ http://www.thesideplate.com

Recipe for apple muffins
http://thesideplate.com/recipes/easy-apple-muffins/

an Amazon link to apple things…generating a few pennies for us 🙂

I shall practise what I preach :)

It is all well and good my ranting about how our kids are not being taught…..and not doing anything about it. So as today is the last day of school, I am going to make a real effort to get the kids really involved in our cooking.

We have decided to do the food ABC. We shall try something new (hopefully each day, but I am not promising lol) as we work our way through the alphabet.
I reckon I can incorporate maths, English, cooking, art, geography and fun….possibly all in an hour a day.
It may be brilliant, it may end in tears. All I really know is, I will have tried.

We will start off gently…As you may know, my daughter is pretty good at trying stuff. Her brother less so. I spend too much time trying to work out if this is because of his autism or if he is just bloody fussy.

We are all pretty open to the idea of apple fritters….I don’t think I have a hope in hell with avocado. anchovies I might sneak in. For years I have wanted to try making Pissaladiere (a kind of anchovy pizza). I guess now is my chance.

so here we have it…I am excited. I love to learn, and I am trying to make sure my bubs do too 🙂

I hope you may join us, or share your ideas. I will try and post as many recipes as I can…..my mouth is watering already 🙂

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things to get your kids cooking…I recieve I few pennies if you buy from this link…ta 🙂

A taste of China…

Well you have probably grasped by now that I quite like cooking….Ok, I really like cooking (slightly obsessed even?).

I like eating even more.. one of my favourite foods has to be Chinese.

Now I obviously didn’t think this through when I moved out into the sticks. I love being in the country…we have a wonderful view and a lovely long garden, which I am going to hopefully grow some of our food in this year (dependant on the dog :S ).

However…we are miles away from a takeaway..and the one that will deliver isn’t that good to be honest. So I have been practising with my wok and steamer, and its going pretty well. I did find ingredients limited in the supermarket, so this weekend we took a trip to a wonderful Chinese supermarket in Leeds. My gosh it is fab.

They have an absolute wonderful array of all sorts of wonders. From basic ingredients (The lemongrass and bay leaves were fantastic value.) to prepared dishes such as salt and pepper spare ribs and wantons. There was every type of noodle known to man and lots of exciting seafood all at fantastic prices.

My freezer and cupboards are now back to brimming 😦 but at least it is with new exciting stuff.
The char sui marinade transformed a dish of chicken thighs. the dumplings and ribs added to my increasing waistline.
I am sure it was a lot healthier than a takeaway. It was a lot cheaper that’s for sure. and it was a lot of fun…

Tonight we are having white fish steamed with lemongrass and ginger, and prawn chow mein…

Whats not to love?

Happy eating..
Love
Sky @ http://www.thesideplate.com