So over a cuppa this morning in the cool mug they sent me to aid in my review (See they’ve done their research and know I’m a tea lover) I decided that the best way for me to talk about this, is to blog each time we use the products they sent us.  I love this cup BTW!

So last night we had a guest for dinner and I cooked up some more of MacSweens haggis with neeps & tatties and it was absolutely delicious and our guest, having just returned from Japan said it was the thing alongside fish & chips that he missed most about home. So I even scored brownie points!

All I did was bake the haggis in the oven wrapped in tin foil in a small amount of water, cooked up the turnip and mash and mashed them and served. Very tasty end to a hard day.

They have a fab website and if you are a haggis virgin, they’ve even got a challenge for you. http://www.macsween.co.uk/

If you’ve never tried Haggis, I challenge you to give it a go, it really is tasty and so filling!

Disclaimer: I was sent a pack from Macsweens for the purpose of this review.

Mrs M set this up and I joined the party and I have to admit it not only is keeping me organised for dinners during the week but it’s also saving me money!

Meal Planning Monday

This week I don’t need much from the supermarket, but I am starting to put together my hospital bag for when I have baby (yes i know it’s 6 weeks yet, but you just never know) so I have put some of these things on my list too. I have decided also to try out Asda rather than Tesco this week, just to see if it really is cheaper.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

Monday – Chicken enchilada pizza, this is a Pampered Chef recipe that isn’t available on their website, so I can’t blog it, but it really is tasty. If you are interested in giving it a go, I can always come and do a show for you and your friends, just let me know.

Tuesday – Smoked mackerel pate and baked potatoes

Wednesday -Tacos & salad

Thursday – Pregnant Jools pasta – Jamie Oliver recipe but I’m afraid it’s not available on his website, so I wont be able to put it on here due to copyright but it’s in the 30 minute meals and it is amazing – hits all the spots!

Friday – Chicken Biryani

Saturday – Baked salmon with chilli sauce for G Man as I’m out with the girlies for an indian meal – Yippee Skippee!!

Sunday – Jamie Oliver’s steak ciabatta – again from 30 minute meals.

Apologies for all of the Jamie recipes, I’ve just got Sky+ and I have recorded them all and I’m working my way through them. What I would say is that if you just use the book, then you may struggle to do them in 30 minutes, but having watched the show too, I’ve picked up so many tips and I am confident that I might be able to attempt them in this time. I love his nice relaxed way of cooking – limited stress, even with baking

I’ll update you with recipes of interest during the week.

And of course I’ll be using all of my fabulous Pampered Chef Products. I have my own website where you can buy what you like visit it here.

When G Man lost his job in July, we needed to rethink our entire spending. We went into strict budget mode at that point. I started to meal plan and budget. We have saved almost £100 off our monthly energy bills by not using the dishwasher daily & tumble dryer. But our biggest achievement I would say has been our meal plans.

We have always done this loosely as I’m a Virgo and very much a list person, so to get to my list, I would work out roughly what we needed. Then I’d go shopping and put all the offers that I fancied in the trolley too.

Our bin collection has been fortnightly for seven years and although people complained about it for first week, once they got used to it, it was fine. My weekly raid of the fridge for all the lurking out of date things would over fill my inside bin and I once worked out there was about £15 I was throwing away. What a waste, never did calculate it again. But I have to say since meal planning started last July, I have seen a dramatic reduction in our food waste. Our bin was emptied last Friday and having cleared out the fridge yesterday morning with the lurking things, there was a tiny bit of creme fraiche in a tub & half a tub of houmous (had a craving for this last week, when I tried it, it was horrible – But that’s pregnancy for you ). Our bin is only just covered the bottom of the wheelie bin, so by next week I expect it will be less than half full.

So on a weekly basis I’m spending around £100 (£70 on main shop & £30 top up / wine) but I’m not bulk buying, I’m not being swayed by offers, I’m buying what I need and not upsizing things just in case.

I do use my freezer effectively though, I bulk buy my seafood from Delish Fish and to be honest compare with some proteins, because the seafood is filleted and skinned, I don’t have any waste from using this. My meat is from Costco which I make batches of cooking for staples like spaghetti bolognese (the sauce only of course) & chicken stews, etc.

I have always felt guilty about what I send to landfill, having worked at Friends of the Earth Scotland for many years, I had my eyes opened to how bad this could be. We now compost all of our organic food waste for the allotment and hopefully this year that will prove successful and all of our veggies will come from there so we can reduce our food bill even more.

For those who know me, I apologise, but there is a bit of background to highlight before I start. My dad had his own shops and ever since I was small, I have worked in them. He taught me well, the customer is always, or make them think they are! Manage their expectations and if you have an important conversation with someone, get their name & put it in writing. Well here goes Orange, you are not listening to your customers so I’ll put it in writing for you!

I have been a customer of Orange since I’ve had a mobile phone. I am a gadget person so always get swayed by the deals. I’ve tried to leave a number of times but they’ve always got me with the better deal so that I have stayed. Well not this time!

I am on a contract that ran out in Dec 2011 and Throughout the contract I have had major issues with the phone. I have had reviews of my data usage and as I don’t send many texts and barely using my phone for calling, in September they finally admitted that there was a technical fault with some of the HTC handsets (only a few) and I had one of them. They said I could contact HTC direct and get it sorted. After 18 months of data being eaten phone bills ranging between £35 – £70 I decided that actually I was going to change contract at end anyway so not to bother, it could take weeks to get sorted without a phone.

My bill, averaging around £35 a month is quite expensive, I’d expect that for an iPhone but not for the piece of nonsense I have, but anyway. I called to cancel and they said they would send me a PAYG sim, after a week I call them, getting more & more frustrates that I am still being charged for a contract I have asked to terminate. Person at other end of phone said ‘I can see the PAYG sim has been ordered it will take 28 days, should be with you on 10th Feb’ what, why didn’t they say that in last call! Still not having received it by yesterday I called again ‘yes Mrs Dunlop, well you are 14 days through the notice period of your contract and the sim won’t turn up until after the 30 days notice you need to give’ I was livid. I had gone out meantime and bought a PAYG sim to transfer across as I thought they were just playing silly buggers. Now I do understand that this was in the small print, but why did nobody say. I am so angry at Orange, that now any hope of them keeping me as a customer is well & truly shot!

So for me, Orange customer service need to learn a lesson here. Had they managed my expectations as a customer, sorting out my extortionate bill and not just blaming me for using it too much data and training the people who are in the call centre to listen to the customer & explain what is going on to them, we’d all be in a much happier place right now!

Thank you for listening. xxx

Ingredients:
For the meatballs:
Mince
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp tomato puree

For the sauce:
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
2 cans chopped tomatoes

75g Spaghetti per person

Method:

I usually make lots of these at once then freeze half of them. I use 500g of mince, last night that made me around 20 meatballs.

1 Add all of the ingredients for the meatballs to one large bowl and squash and squish with your hands – Excellent job for kids!! We then make into small meatballs – This is actually quite therapeutic.

2 Brown the meatballs in a skillet or frying pan then set aside in an ovenproof dish (Pampered Chef covered baker) while you make the sauce.

3 I use tongs to remove the meatballs as then I am left with the olive oil that I fried the meatballs in which has juices from the meat but also the spice from them too. I fry the onion until softened. Nigella says add a little salt to help draw out the water from the onions and it helps them to soften rather than burn. I tried this last night and it worked!! No burnt onion!!

4 Once the onion is softened add the crushed garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes and bring to the boil. At this stage, you can add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar as it gives a nice depth to the sauce, but it is not vital.

5 Pour sauce over meatballs and cook in preheated oven for 30 minutes. I then serve with spaghetti. If you want to, you can pop the lid on the covered baker then cook for 2 hours and it gives you a slow cooker effect in half the time.

Relax & enjoy, let me know how you get on by commenting below.

Thank you Mrs M for setting this up, here is our weekly meal planner.

Meal Planning Monday

So I’m back to getting my Monday morning Tesco delivery. I’m finding this meal planning and extremely useful exercise. Because I’m going on maternity leave soon I need to curb my spending, so we only have £70 a week to spend on food. This doesn’t include milk (we get this direct from Wiseman’s) or fish (we get this on a monthly basis and freeze what we are not using that week from Delish Fish). This week it was £50 including delivery as I’m using up freezer items to make room for my batch cooking that I will do at start of March (provided baby hasn’t turned up by then )

Monday – Spicy meatballs – This is so easy we make it ourselves, I’ll definitely blog this one as it’s a great one for an easy weeknight meal.

Tuesday – Lemon sole goujons & chips

Wednesday – Chicken & bacon pie a variation on the chicken & mushroom pie we made last week – That reminds me I have to blog that one for you too, it was soooooo easy!

Thursday – Langoustine risotto, I know this has been on our list for a few weeks, but I keep forgetting to take the langoustine out the freezer. I have put an alert on my phone!

Friday – Mackerel pate, beetroot salad & baked potato

Saturday – Spaghetti bolognese

Sunday – Morrocan Lamb – thanks to my Twitter friend Baker’s Bunny for the inspiration. I’ll be using the recipe I’ve pinned on my food to try on my pintrest account.

I’ll update you with recipes of interest during the week.

And of course I’ll be using all of my fabulous Pampered Chef Products. I have my own website where you can buy what you like visit it here.

G Man and I are pretty musical, but we had very different upbringings in terms of experiences. In terms of music specifically I was quite musical and as my Mom wasn’t given the opportunity to play music, the piano specifically as soon as I was old enough, that was me I was shipped off to lessons. I went through gradings and hated it. The teacher was odd to say the least and I found the whole experience daunting. But at school I wanted to play sax, I took the test and they gave me clarinet. Ah, well I didn’t want to do that, but was told that if I persued the clarinet, then perhaps to could progress.  Got to grade 5 and there was no sax forthcoming, so I decided to park that idea.

G Man on the other hand wasn’t force, he is self taught on guitar and he is AMAZING (I know I’m biased). So Buddy has a piano, a guitar, an harmonica and does play with them, he taps his foot in time to the music, but we never force him, at 2 years & 8 months we just let him play with them if he likes. So here’s the question, should we encourage more of this, or just leave Buddy to play it if he wants, then when he is old enough, tell us that he wants to pursue music as a hobby.

I’ve got mixed emotions – Having spoken to my friend the other day, her parent’s didn’t give her the opportunity so she wants her kids to have access to these things. Yet as a child I know that because my Mom didn’t have opportunities she created them for me.

So it begs the question, at what age should you actively encourage kids to get involved in things and how do you choose what they should do?

I’m not going to lie, this is a cheats pizzas but very simple and so easy to make that I thought I’d share it. Buddy & I made it together, shame this didn’t help him to eat it, but we’ll try next time.

Ingredients
1 pack of pizza dough mix made according to instructions
3 tbsp passata
1 tbsp tomato ketchup (another ploy to encourage child to eat it – didn’t work!)
Cheddar cheese sliced thinly

Method:
1. make pizza dough according to instructions.

2. roll out to cover Pampered Chef Round Stone

3. place passata & tomato ketchup in the middle of the dough and use back of a spoon to spread it out

4. use cheese slicer to slice cheddar for the top

5. bake in oven for 15 – 20 minutes depending on how you like it

Verdict:

Apparently Buddy tells me ‘no like pizza’ but we get that every night and eventually he comes round, but this has cheese on it and it seems to be a common occurrence with the old orange stuff! I loved it and the tomato ketchup gave the sauce a nice sweetness. The base was extremely crispy and G Man asked if I could make it again. Happy days!

Thank you Mrs M for setting this up, here is our weekly meal planner.

Meal Planning Monday

So it’s Monday again already. I can hardly believe it! Whilst Buddy, G Man & Grandma went swimming yesterday, I spent some time looking at my meal planner and trying to make it as cheap as possible (I’ve overspent again on food, etc) Here is what we are having to use up the things in the house and hopefully our shop will be less than £40 for this week as we have everything bar the fresh veg.

Monday – I’ve got my Resident’s Association tonight, so Buddy & I will eat together. We were planning to have pizza just cheese & tomato but I’ll get Buddy to help so hopefully he’ll eat it

Tuesday – G Man wants a chicken pie so we’ll make this along with peas & chips (homemade ones, which are mega easy with the Pampered Chef crinkle cutter, it only costs us the price of the potatoes and takes seconds to make.)

Wednesday – langoustine risotto is on the menu for Wednesday where I’ll quickly flash them in the pan with garlic butter and serve on top of a plain risotto. Nom Nom!

Thursday – Baked potatoes with mackerel, beetroot & apple as the filling. A great way to get your Omega 3 and so tasty.

Friday – Homemade chicken curry, I always try to make new recipes and when I asked my Facebook friends for some inspiration as friend from school Stephen McLean offered me his chicken curry recipe so that’s what we are going to try out. Stephen we’ll give you our verdict

Saturday – Salmon en croute – This is so tasty, a staple in this house.

Sunday – Pregnant Jools Pasta – A Jamie Oliver recipe and last time we made it, I froze half of the sauce, so it will be a mega easy tea.

I’ll update you with recipes of interest during the week.

And of course I’ll be using all of my fabulous Pampered Chef Products. I have my own website where you can buy what you like visit it here.

All of the fish featured in this weekly meal plan is from Delish Fish, they deliver it direct to your door the very next day. They’ve got an offer on just now too, £64 pack fro £44.