I had planned Veggie Pizza for last Saturday, but an unexpected trip to Eastbourne pier for fish and chips at lunchtime meant that no-one was hungry at tea-time. So it was a ‘Sunday night special’ of cereal for tea all round (Does this happen in anyone else’s house???) Veggie Pizza is making it’s final appearance on our menu for Friday night dinner this week.

Sunday we invited the in-laws round for a gorgeous meal of Smoked Haddock, Peas, Bacon with Jacket Potatoes & Mustard Cabbage. This was pretty easy to prepare and very tasty, even though I forgot the mustard in the cabbage. It provided leftovers for meals on the following three nights too which was a bonus. No 1 son enjoyed the fish, and no 2 son enjoyed the jacket potatoes, so it was pretty successful with the children too.

Monday’s Fish Pie (using leftover haddock from Sunday) was also very tasty but the slight downside was the amount of washing up created – I think I counted 3 saucepans needed which was a bit extreme for a mid-week supper. Very savoury though, with buttery leeks as the base which varied the flavour enough from Sundays meal.

On Tuesday we had stuffed baked potatoes, with spinach, bacon & cheese. I liked these because the spinach made you feel virtuous and they were substantial and comforting.

The winning meal from my childrens perspective was pasta with pea, bacon and parmesan on Wednesday – made with bacon and pea sauce left over from Sunday. Really easy to do because there was no preparation of the sauce and my eldest son had 3rd helpings.

A trip to Jamie Olivers Italian in Brighton on Thursday for lunch meant that our ‘freezer surprise’ dinner stayed in the freezer for another week…. And the lunch was fabulous in case you were wondering. Lovely little stuffed pepper nibbles that I’ll be looking to replicate sometime soon.

Stuffed Peppers (BBC Good Food)

Anyway, next weeks menu has a definite mediterannean feel (possibly inspired by my trip to Jamie Oliver today). Here goes:

• Friday – Veggie Pizza (Promise!)
• Saturday -Falafel Burgers
• Sunday -Paella
• Monday – Couscous with Pomegranate Molassses – this recipe is similar but my recipe adds Feta
• Tuesday – Stuffed Peppers
• Wednesday – Pasta with Cherry tomato, rocket & olive sauce
• Thursday – Freezer surprise (probably thai fishcakes….)

Hopefully that’s given you some inspiration – again would love to hear from you if you’re trying any of the recipes, or you’d like to share any of your own?

One of the reasons that I started Cheeky Wipes was because I suffer from Eczema and have done since I was about 5 years old. My hands are often particularly badly irritated and I found that using disposable baby wipes, even sensitive formulae ones just made it worse.

I moved to washable wipes because the calming lavender and chamomile soaking solution seemed to lessen the irritation and I reckoned that was good for me and my bubba’s! Since then I’ve had really good anecdotal feedback from lots of people who reckon that Cheeky Wipes are better for their babies with sensitive, dry or eczema plagued skin? So I’d like to run a little test to prove or disprove this theory.

If your baby has eczema and you’re willing to try an alternative (which is suitable for washable or disposable nappies), then I’ll provide you with a Cheeky Wipes Kit for £15. I would offer to do this for free but I want to avoid timewasters!

At the end of the two week trial period, you just need to give me some feedback via a questionnaire. If the wipes didn’t work out for you, after trying them for two weeks, then just send them back to me and I’ll refund you with your £15.

To apply, please complete the questionnaire here and I’ll come back to you next week if you’ve been successful. I’ll be selecting a maximum of 20 for the test.

Monday night I made Thai Fishcakes which were gorgeous. I’ve got a mental cooking block when it comes to standard potato based fishcakes which I’ve never managed to make successfully. In fact the last lot were so horrid I threw them out before my husband got home and he had cereal for tea! These were YUMMY. Easy to make with a gorgeous slightly sweet / sour dipping sauce that I could have eaten on it’s own. Because my eldest got fed on a playdate, I’ve got a meals worth of these in the freezer to look forward to also.

Tuesday was a storecupboard special for the adults as little ones had been fed at nursery -Grown up beans on toast. These garlicky, salty beans were just yummy on toasted baguette and Mr CW got to take some to work on Wednesday too.

Purple Spouting Broccoli, Anchovy & PastaThis was the meal that I was unsure about for two reasons. One, I didn’t know how tasty it would be and two, would my littlu’ns balk at just pasta with broccoli? I was worrying unnecessarily. They LOVED it with eldest son having thirds and the baby gobbling it up too. A definite winner.
Thursday was Bulgar Wheat & Sardines. I’ve made this one before but I’m always amazed at how tasty it is. I have to say I’m a little squeamish about the bones, but a good dollop of pesto really makes this a flavoursome meal – cheap as chips too.

Tonight (Friday) was planned to be veggie Pizza, but I’d forgotten we’re out for dinner tonight with friends as a joint birthday treat to Newick Park which I’m really looking forward to.  So the veggie Pizza is relegated and we’ll have it tomorrow night instead.

Budget: Last weeks grocery shopping came to about £110, but it was my week to do a big shop for cat food, there were a couple of bottles of wine and washing up liquid and washing powder bulk buys too.

Week 2 Meal Plan

4 of the recipes from this week are taken from the April Week 3. Our Sunday lunch forms the basis for our meals on Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday evening, meaning less cooking for me on those evenings (yippee!)  And I know that there’s bacon in a couple of the recipes, but as I said last week as long as meat doesn’t form the main ingredient in the dish, then that’s acceptable.

• Saturday: Veggie Pizza
• Sunday: Smoked Haddock, Peas, Bacon with Jacket Potatoes & Mustard Cabbage (similar recipe here)
• Monday: Fish Pie (using leftover haddock from Sunday)
• Tuesday: Stuffed Baked Potatoes with spinach, bacon & cheese (using leftover jacket potatoes)
• Wednesday: Pasta with bacon, pea and parmesan (bacon and pea sauce left over from Sunday)
• Thursday: will be ‘freezer surprise’, in this case, the Thai fishcakes from last week.

If you’re following me, why not join in and let me know what you think?  Or if you’ve got any favourite meat free recipe’s you’d like to share, please feel free.

(courtesy of www.rlv.zcache.com)

I sat down at my desk this morning and started working my way back through my emails, only to stop at this one:

 ’I'm another happy customer! I bought my Cheeky Wipes kit from Born in Bristol on the morning of the day my son arrived and I just wanted to write and tell you that I love, love, love our Cheeky Wipes! I am actually sad that they weren’t around for our first and second children. My third child is now 4 weeks old and we have used these wipes from the start. Even my husband who was a totally paid up disposable wipe fan has been converted and uses / raves about them. What a fantastic idea and well worth every penny.’, Natalie F

This has absolutely made my day!  As you all know (whether you work for someone else, work for yourself, or are a stay at home parent) it’s hard keeping your head down to the daily grind.  Feedback like this is just amazing, really motivating and reminding us again why we do what we do.

This particular piece of feedback is even more amazing because the lady in question has just had her third baby, so how she found the time to sit down at a PC and drop me a note is astonishing.

So, this is a plea to anyone reading this blog.  If you’ve had good service anywhere, or found a fabulous new product, then spare 5 mins to let the people behind it know.  It will be appreciated and you might even get a little something out of it yourself!

I’m delighted that she finally got to experience a natural labour and can’t wait for the gory details when I see her later this week.  I really want to give her a special present for her gorgeous new son.  Because she already has 3 older children (and a house full of toys) I didn’t want to go down the cuddly toy route…and she’s also got shedloads of clothes from her two older boys. 

My Little Patch Blanket - Bitter Chocolate and Duck Egg Blue

So when I came across these lovely bespoke blankets from My Little Patch I decided that it just had to be one of their lovely snuggly, minky-lined blankets. Each blanket is custom made, allowing you to choose from a range of funky cotton fabrics for the outer cover. I went for this beautiful chocolate brown and duck egg blue combination which is just gorgeous. The outer cover is made from 100% cotton, and there’s a range of funky fabrics available to suit every taste.  On the inside, there’s a layer of warm, soft, fluffy Minky fabric (again available in a range of colours) in an Ivory colour which will just feel lovelyagainst his soft newborn skin.  The blankets are priced at £25, which is a great price for a really unique baby gift.

My Little Patch is the work of an East Sussex based designer called Claire Sheridan and I LOVE her range of bibs, blankets and (coming soon!) Mother to be bags. We’re hoping to be the first retailer to stock her range of bespoke goodies, so watch this space for more details!

Lemon Butternut Squash Lasagne

OK, I know March doesn’t officially start until tomorrow but it falls within the same shopping week at our house, so this is the first of our ‘Meat-free March’ recipes.

This Lemon Butternut Lasagne recipe is adapted from The Kitchen Revolution, and makes enough for 2 lasagne, each feeding 4 people generously. The second one freezes well, simply defrost and cook as per the original lasagne.

Although the recipe states that prep for this takes 30 mins, and 30 mins cooking, I found it took me much longer to prep, more like an hour including washing up. And believe me, it makes a LOT of washing up. All in all, this isn’t a mid-week supper but is perfect if you’re entertaining as you can prepare it all well in advance and then just pop in the oven.

Ingredients
2 medium butternut lasagne approx 1.6kg
1.6kg leeks
2 lemons
2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 sprigs sage (I couldn’t get any fresh, so used 2 tsps dried)
375g mozzarella
170g parmesan
75g pine nuts
2 tbsp olive oil
20 g butter
500g ricotta
300g mascarpone or creme fraiche
a little milk
10 sheets lasagne (approx 300g)
salt and pepper

Method

• Peel, deseed and cut the squash into 1cm slices
• Cook in your biggest saucepan in boiling, salted water for 3 mins
• Wash and finely slice the leeks
• After 3 mins add the leeks to the squash and cook for a further 6 – 8 mins, until the leeks are soft and squash is collapsing
• Preheat your oven to 200c / 400f/ Gas Mark 6
• While leeks are cooking, zest both lemons and juice one of them. Strip the thyme leaves and sage leaves and chop the sage leaves if using. Roughly grate the mozzarella and finely grate the parmesan. If the pine nuts aren’t already toasted, toast them in a pan, or in the oven briefly – watch them carefully, they burn easily!
• When the leeks and squash is cooked, drain them well, then toss the leek and squash mixture with the butter,oil and herbs. Season well. Add the lemon juice and zest, mozzarella & 1/3 of the parmesan.
• Cook your lasagne sheets as per packet instructions, refresh with cold water and set aside.
• Next make your ricotta mixture. Combine the ricotta, mascarpone and a little milk if necessary to get to dropping consistency. Stir in another 1/3 of the parmesan.
• Now you can assemble the lasagne. Put a quarter of the squash / leek mix in the bottom of each lasagne dish. Sprinkle with pine nuts, and add a layer of your cooked lasagne sheets. Then add a layer of your ricotta mixture. Repeat once more, finishing with a layer of ricotta on top. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/3 of the parmesan to finish.
• Set one lasagne aside to cool, put the other in the oven for 30 mins until the top is golden and a knife in the centre meets no resistance. Serve with spinach or other green veg.

Apologies that I don’t have a ‘cooked’ pic for you, but realised after we’d finished eating that I didn’t have the card in the camera, doh.

The Verdict?

I loved this as did my H. My lovely 15 month old really enjoyed it, my no1 son evetually ate it, but pronounced it ‘disgusting’ (he is 5 years old and anything aside from chips and fish fingers is ‘disgusting’ at the mo). No 2 son point blank refused to touch it. But – the majority of us liked it so it’s a winner!

Although we do eat veggie meals 2 – 3 times a week, I know that there’s a lot to be said for cutting down on the amount of meat we eat and increasing the amount of veg. And that’s not just from a health perspective. From an environmental point, eating less meat, but making that sustainably farmed meat, rather than factory reared is the way forward.

Mackeral & Bulgar Wheat Salad (www.mostlyeating.com)

So, during March, I’ve decided to reinvent dinnertimes at our house. We’ll be going (mainly) meat-free in an effort to find some great new family meals that can be made swiftly, and that everyone likes (yeah, right, with a fussy 5 year old and a contrary two year old to please that’s a joke!) I say mainly meat-free because some of the lovely fish recipes I’ve got use a little bacon – but as long as meat isn’t the focus of the meal then that seems reasonable.

A lot of the recipes I’m going to be using are from The Kitchen Revolution, including the Thai Fishcakes which are on my menu for this week.

If you fancy joining me, I’ll post my menu here every Thursday on the website (with links to similar recipes if possible). I’m also going to track how much my shopping costs to see if I save money and will also, most importantly post feedback on each meal as the majority of them are going to be new dishes.

My menu plan for w/c 28th Feb is as follows:

• Sunday – Lemon Butternut Lasagne (similar recipe here (my recipe makes an extra one for the freezer)
• Monday – Thai Fishcakes
• Tuesday -Grown up beans on toast
• Wednesday -Purple Spouting Broccoli, Anchovy & Pasta
• Thursday – Bulgar Wheat & Sardines (sorry, can’t find exact recipe online, this is similar but more of a salad)
• Friday – Veggie Pizzas

If you’re interested in trying a ‘Meat Free March’ yourself, or if you’ve got any veggie / fish recipes that you’ve tried yourself and would like to share, then feel free!

From an exhibitor standpoint it’s a great show (mostly). Especially if you’re like myself and an online retailer, it’s a fantastic opportunity to meet your customers face to face, hear their questions, and get their feedback. I was really delighted to see some of my first baby show customers from last year who let me know that they loved their Cheeky Wipes – and yes, I was tempted to pay them to stand around near my stand and talk very loudly about how fab they are!

On the negative side it’s a nightmare in the weeks prior. Between organising hotels, displays, stock travel etc. Not to mention childcare, which is a bit of an issue with 3 children during the half term holidays. And then when I arrrived last week I found that the bookshelf that I’d bought for the last show had been broken at some stage which meant that I had to hire one at ridiculous expense. Humph.

But it’s all over now (until the Scottish Baby Show at the SECC, end April) and I’ve got the Baby Show blues. I think there’s so much build up in the weeks prior, now it’s all over and I just feel a bit bleurgh and unfocused. So I’ll be starting tomorrow with a big cup of coffee and a new to-do list which will hopefully be enough to give me my mojo back! Aside from that, feel free to give me a kick start.

Sure, it’s convenient to be able to wrap up a stinky poo and chuck it in the bin, never to be seen again (just don’t think about it rotting SLOWLY away in your local landfill site.  Nice.)  But it’s not that much harder to flick poo off a cloth nappy, into the toilet and flush it away!

When you’re out and about the only minor inconvenience about using washable nappies is that you’ve to bring them home.  Most modern cloth nappies (like my lovely Itti Bitti’s) have a popper or velcro closure which keeps the soiled nappy closed and makes it easy to transport home for washing.  Even on occasions when I’ve forgotten my wet nappy bag, I’ve been able to throw the dirty nappy straight into my bag until I got home, with no problems.

Itti Bitti Bum

It does take a little more planning to use washable nappies successfully in that you have to get a bit more organised in terms of washing (and drying) your nappies, but once you get into a routine of doing so, it becomes much easier.

In fact the only time that I can see that the ‘convenience’ of disposable nappies wins is when you’re on holiday and don’t have access to washing / drying facilities.  Even then though you’ve still got to either lug your disposable nappies away with you (and if you’re going for 2 weeks, that’s quite a lot of nappies).  Or you need to find somewhere locally that sells them.

For some reason, in my house, these things are mostly Thai related. I think it’s the combination of zingy lime, spicy chilli and pungent fish sauce that grabs your tastebuds and shakes them until they explode. We usually end up eating this on a Tuesday evening, especially if we’ve had a roast chicken on a Sunday and I’ve managed to make some stock. That doesn’t always happen though, but a stock cube does the job pretty well.

If the kids are eating with us, I’ll do 2 slightly different versions, one without the lime and chilli.  One of the reasons I love this is that the recipe is so flexible.  I can use whatever I have to hand as long as I’ve got noodles and decent chicken stock.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

• Leftover chicken
• Chicken stock (allow 300ml per person)
• Egg Noodles (1 ‘nest’ per person)
• Garlic, 1 or 2 cloves
• Chilli to taste (I often use the jarred ‘easy’ chilli)
• 1 or 2 Limes
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• Parsley or Coriander (I’ve just discovered frozen coriander which is perfect for this)
• Beans.  I use tinned butter beans or frozen soya beans, whatever I have to hand
• Veg of some sort.  Cherry Tomatoes, Pak Choi and Spinach all work well.

Method:

• Chuck everything aside from the noodles and beans in the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes add the noodles and beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Serve…with extra coriander on top if you have some around.
• This produces a slurpy noodle type soup.  If you want a more broth-y soup, cook the noodles separately and just add them at the end.

If you’ve got a ‘Temple Food’ type recipe that you’d like to share, I’d LOVE to hear about it!