five days, five meals, one packet of mince... really.

i bought a pound of mince from the local butchers and for the first time ever, i meal planned. properly.

i always, always make a huge batch of something and freeze portions. always have done. always will. it makes me feel frugal. and thrifty. and housewife-y!
but this week was different. this week i made a big batch of mince and made five meals out of it. yes. FIVE.

here's how i did it...

i browned the mince with some onions, garlic and oil. put half of it into another pan.  i added chopped carrots, mushrooms, courgette and a red pepper to both and to one i added two tins of chopped tomatoes to one and some tomato puree.

meal one - mince and tatties ~ add baked beans to the left overs and cover with mash potato in a casserole dish to make meal two - cottage pie.

meal three - spaghetti bolognaise

meal four - add chili powder and kidney beans to the the left over spag bol mince and hey presto we have chili con carne {add rice}

meal five - add all the left overs from meal two and meal four together with some cooked fusilli {any pasta would do though}

now, we are a family of four. four big eaters. and this was plenty of food! okay, so i bulked it up with lots of veg, chopped tomatoes and i added potatoes, rice and spaghetti {and a sneaky garlic baguette or two} but i still managed to feed the entire house {except the dog} a home cooked, evening meal for five nights. wholesome? i think so!

birthday girl

well, poppy turned two last week and to celebrate we had a few friends over to play... 20 to be exact! yikes!
I made a delicious carrot cake with pink sprinkles and some blueberry muffins, rocky road (for the grown ups!) star shaped sandwiches and other snacks and tasty treats. a stressful day or two to organise but well worth it to see her playing with her buddies... albeit primarily playing side by side with them instead of 'together'.

lots of food was eaten, plenty of toys unwrapped and tea drunk (again... the grown ups!)

needless to say it was a lot of fun and poppy treated us to a two hour nap that afternoon to recover!

yummy snack

i thought i would share with you one of my absolute favourite things i like to do as a mummy... bake for my little girl!

she was baby led weaned and so i started with finger food straight away and these banana biscuits were life savers... and still are!

take one very ripe banana and mash it with some fine oats and a bit of milk if you need to make it softer, add a handful of raisins (optional) and mix together.  let it all soak in together till it makes a bit of a thick gloop. then form it into round biscuits, or use cookie cutters, and bake in the oven for 8-10mins at 180ish... yum.

healthy. tasty. wholesome.

don't be fooled - these will not be tasty enough for grannies, aunties, friends or older kids... so make some rocky road... also incredibly easy!


melt some good quality chocolate and mix with bashed up biscuit like digestive then stir in some raisins (we go through a lot of raisins in our household!) and marshmallows - you can also add maltesers and cherries too. then put into a shallow baking dish and leave to set.








enjoy...