How to make time.....

I am trying hard to make time.....time for my partner, time for the children, time for my friends, time for family and time for work.

well unless I have the ability to turn back time. 

So I am now trying to plan the next few weeks/months. 

Work has been very busy and as you can see from my blogs in the last week or so I have been having a few late nights and was planning to get the slow cooker out more....

Yesterday, instead of clearing the loft, I embarked on a major cooking session. 

These are the ingredients for Somerset pork,(except the swede) 

some roast chops , the base for shepherds pie and swede for clapshot.

2 portions of minced pork with onions, peppers and mushroom for use in chilli and spagbol.

2 finished shepherds pies with a roast pork joint.

cooked somerset pork, clapshot, and some bacon and veg soup..

There was also a bacon joint and some sausages that I cooked off without photographing. 

So the meals for the week are sorted. Sunday,roast pork (as above) 

Monday, the rest of the roast pork heated with rice, shallots, lemon and garlic with sweetcorn. tasted great, I just forgot to photograph it! 

Now in the freezer we have, 9 meals for four ready to go, that is not including the soup and soup ingredients still in the fridge. Also in the freezer is a chicken for Sunday lunch next week. so my plan is to go to Aldi for some veggies, fruit, yogurt and milk and that is it. 

I hope to make some time in the week for me. i am going to try and have 1 day per month off to spend with LSP and 1 day to spend with friends. I want to make a nice lunch and have a leisurely lunch giggling at the table, having time to have conversations that last more than 5 minutes. 

my days with LSP will be trips out for us, we have planned January and February and I am looking at March.

Also the need to plan to get our brood round the same table at the same time and to try and enjoy things together that are not about shopping! (the joy of having daughters) I love shopping I would like to do other things as well. 

So my way of creating time is about planning. I am making time by fixing time. putting time aside and planning for it. 

Have a good week. x

Lamb stew and a trip to Wales.

Morning.

(these were the clouds over the garden this morning) 

We have had a busy few days. It started with a mega shop on Thursday night. This was a now rare Tesco shop. we are doing more and more shops at Aldi and Lidl, however once in a while we need to stock up on the bits and pieces that they do not sell. odd things like, my favourite shaving gel, clear recycling bags, favourite coffee etc. It also meant for a mega meat shop! they had lots of short date, lamb, pork and mince. So I made a lovely slow cooked fruity lamb stew.

 You may observe one or two strange ingredients. tomato sauce, brown sauce, cranberry sauce and rose wine.

When i make stew, it is often a chance to use things up. the wine was left over from Christmas day as was the cranberry sauce. The tomato and brown sauce were nearly used up so they were swilled out and added to the mix. we had an assortment of potato's both old and new so they were chopped and peeled and thrown in.

How did it taste?? lovely. however we have not had any yet. We gave my sister some and the rest went into the freezer for an easy meal in the week.

Friday. ahh I had a day off on Friday. I had planned to return to the loft and continue with the big clear up. Did that happen? No. I spent the morning pottering and then the afternoon shopping. lots of lovely Christmas shopping. I have bought the presents for my cousins and lots of bits and pieces for the girls for Christmas. I just love the words 70% off.  Home then mince and tatties for tea. double the amount 1/2 for us and 1/2 for the freezer. I now have to get the   presents into the loft and away from prying eyes.

Friday was also a sad day. I am a public Sector worker and the cuts are really taking effect. many of our colleagues and friends are having their posts cut and are either being made redundant or having to first interview for their own jobs. its horrific. Some of our friends found out on Friday so we were texting and messaging people to find out if they survived the cull. I still have to wait and see if the axe will fall on my team but we wont know till after April.

Saturday.
We went visiting wider family in Wales.

A lovely day to be travelling as the weather was good and the motorway was clear. I still get excited at going over the Seven Bridge, although was not happy that the toll is now £6!

It was a very busy day filled with lots of talk and chatter. We went to an Italian  for lunch. The food was nice and we got very engrossed in our conversation. We took our time over our meal, then dessert, then coffee. We got the hint that we might have overstayed our welcome when the waiter was coming over every 5 minutes to take something off the table. First the cups, then the jug of water, then the salt and pepper, then giving us the bill, then the music being turned off. We decided that we were either being ushered out or the waiter was interested in what we were saying.

By the end of the day we were tired and ready for drive home. Once again the motorway was clear.

So now its Sunday morning. I am sat with a cup of coffee and listening to the Archer's and writing this blog. Perfect. Hope you all have a nice day. x

dinner time.

its time to get the sloe cooker out as yet again I am very late with the dinner. Luckily we are a house of adults now. So people are able to snack and wait for me to get in.  Its now 7.55 and we have just finished. tonight it was spag bol with garlic bread.

So next week the stews and slow cooks will start again, that way no one has to wait till 7.30pm.

My favourite slow cooker meals are...

Lamb stew,
Pork stew,
Chicken stew,
Chicken cassolet.
shepherds pie
mince and gravy
chilli con carne

and that's about it.....i have some lovely slow cooker recipe books and the whole WWW, I just keep cooking the same things especially in the slow cooker.

I cook without thinking, I find it really hard to explain timings and quantities. I cook from memory, I know when to put things in and the exact ingredients depend on what is in the cupboard. I am the first to admit, I do not cook everything from scratch. I do get assistance from jar's from time to time. especially for tonights spag bol. fresh onion, mushroom, mince, jar of sauce, linguine, parmasan, and garlic bread.

I start cooking and it all falls into place.

I have a shelf full of recipe books and only use them when I am trying something special or new. Or baking.

So I am going to try to add some variety to my slow cooker meals. watch this space...