Aah, bliss

Aah, peace and quiet, bliss. Had a lovely busy Christmas. House full for the last two and a half days. Eight for Christmas lunch and 12 for Boxing day lunch. House looked like a bomb had hit it when I got up this morning! We had a fun night though.Waved goodbye to the family this morning then Hubby and I had a blitz on the house. All I plan to do now is chill! I'm going to laze around all day, read my new cook books and snooze. We shall eat leftovers as I am doing no cooking today then it's to work tonight to do a night shift.

Welcome to my new follower Anita.

See you all tomorrow : )

Merry Christmas 2011

A Merry Christmas to each and every one of my followers and readers. Have a lovely day with your families whichever way you choose to celebrate Christmas.

I feel quite worn out and tired sat here blogging whilst listening to carols being sang on the TV and sipping a glass of wine. Got up after about four hours sleep after my night shift and started the food prep. Hubby had been cleaning the downstairs shower room and running last errands. Daughter No3 and Hubby helped a lot with food preparation. After hours in the kitchen daughter declared she had to sit down her legs were aching : ) Just glanced at the clock and it's officially Christmas day now. 12.02 Merry Christmas!

I've got my table ready for the big lunch. Daughters set the table.

Crockery ready to be used

My fridge full of food and not one morsel shall be wasted. I have prepared food stored in all corners of the garden, garage and house that is cool because my fridge is too full to take anymore.

So enjoy your festivities and I shall enjoy mine and be back as soon as I get a moment in these busy few days x

Menu plan & a busy week

I may have everything sorted that I need to buy for Christmas but it does not mean I can sit back and relax now until Christmas day. If only. Today is like a Chinese laundry here. I've had two washer loads already finished and drying on the radiators and airer. Both daughters beds have been stripped and are currently in the washer. I have done a pile of ironing and  I have shampooed the living room carpet with the carpet cleaner to freshen it up for Christmas. I still have 3 double beds to change because all the beds will be used over Christmas so lots of washing being done here. Shame Christmas is not hot here. It would make all the Christmas preparations a lot easier if it were. The 3 double beds can wait until tomorrow or Thursday, need to get this lot dry first.

MENU PLAN 19/12/11

MONDAY - Egg, chips and baked beans

TUESDAY - Homemade mince and onion pie, mash, vegetables and gravy

WEDNESDAY - casseroled chicken legs & veg, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings

THURSDAY - Homemade beef burgers, chips and homemade coleslaw

FRIDAY - Tuna pasta and homemade garlic bread

SATURDAY - Takeaway

CHRISTMAS DAY - Prawn cocktail/ pate
                                    Roast turkey/mushroom wellington, roasted carrots & parsnips,
                                    roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, sage & onion stuffing, peas,      
                                    sprouts and gravy
                                    Christmas pudding & custard/ lemon baked cheesecake

BOXING DAY -         Leek & potato soup
                                    Roast pork loin joint, apple sauce, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes,
                                    roasted carrots & parsnips, cauliflower cheese, peas and gravy
                                    Chocolate orange roulade/ pavlova

Shall have a takeaway Christmas Eve as I shall be too busy to make anything. I won't be up until the afternoon that day because I will have worked a night shift Friday night. I have a lot of food to prepare and the Christmas table to set too. Hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly.

Hello!

Hi there, I'm back. Sorry not been posting for ages. Yet again feeling under the weather. Yet again full of cold. I seem to catch one after the other at the moment.

Well, how are the Christmas preps going in your house? Here we are all ready for the big day. Presents all bought and wrapped. Cards all posted. Decorations all up. Some food prepped and in freezer and the shopping order is done and coming later in the week.

My dining room Christmas tree

It's not really feeling very Christmassy yet to me. Hopefully as the week goes on I might get more into the feel of Christmas once I'm rid of this cold.

The weather today was lovely. Cold and frosty but a lovely sunny day.

The water to my right was frozen over and the ground was solid. I was all wrapped up against the cold
and really enjoyed the walk.

LAST WEEKS MENU

Mon - Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and gravy
Tues - Pork loin steaks, apple sauce, boiled potatoes, veg and a creamy sauce

Wed - Fish pie, peas, carrots & broccoli

Yummy fish pie

Thurs - Sausage, mash, veg and gravy
Fri - Spaghetti bolognese &garlic bread
Sat - Chicken/tofu fajitas
Sun - Pork loin ( reduced )roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, vegetables and gravy

We had lots of dinners last week. It's that time of year when I tend to cook lots of them. I shall do next weeks plan tomorrow.

I shall sit now and watch the final of Strictly Dancing. I don't watch it on the Saturday as nobody else in the house likes to watch it so I always watch it the day after on my own. I know who won so that's spoilt my enjoyment a bit. Heard it on the bloody radio this morning. Hubby had warned me not to watch the TV news because they were talking about the winner on there so I avoided the TV only to have it blurted out on the radio!

Bye for now x

Relax and shop

Relax in a chair and sip a cup of tea whilst doing Christmas shopping. That's the way I like to Christmas shop. Don't think I've been in many shops this year. So much easier and relaxing to surf the net and shop that way. Bought all my Christmas presents for the last six years this way.  Whatever you want you can get it on the internet. Nothing is out of bounds so why get stressed and traipse around shop after shop? 

I've even done my food shop on line. Got the day and the time I want it delivered already booked and got my groceries ordered. It has come at a cost, £5.00, but that is the best £5.00 I will have spent over Christmas. I HATE Christmas food shopping. Trying to find a car parking space. Four deep to get a sprout. Aisles so congested you can't move and the queues at the till!  No, not for me. I like to keep as far away from a shop as I can come Christmas week.

It's like everyone's gone mad. The amount of food bought and the amount that will get binned is madness. I plan for everything I will need and hope to keep waste to a minimum. Anyway, anything that is left over in my house will be used or frozen for another meal another day.

Do you love the hustle and bustle of Christmas or are you like me wanting it as stress free as possible?

Menu Week 05/12/11

MONDAY - Chicken/ seafood chow mein

TUESDAY - Pork loin steaks, potatoes, vegetables and apple sauce

WEDNESDAY - Casseroled chicken legs and veg, dumplings and mashed potatoes

THURSDAY - Spaghetti bolognese and homemade garlic bread

FRIDAY - Out at Christmas work do's

SATURDAY - Homemade beef burgers, chips, homemade onion rings & homemade coleslaw

SUNDAY - Roast chicken, roast potatoes, roasted carrots, veg and Yorkshire pudding

Got the Tescos 3 for £10.00 on meat this week. I'm going to stretch the 700g packet of minced beef to make three beef burgers for Saturday and the bolognese for Thursday. To make the mince go further I will add some breadcrumbs to the burger mix and will add a few lentils and a bit of quorn mince  to the bolognese sauce.

Today I prepared my Christmas day main and I'm having the same on Boxing day. This year I am having these http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12804/melty-mushroom-wellingtons They were simple to make.

I open froze them then wrapped separately and popped them back in the freezer. All ready for Christmas.


With the scraps of puff pastry I wrapped four sausages from the freezer in the pastry and cooked them along with the final scrap of pastry which I topped with a bit of tuna I had in the fridge and some onion and cheese. Whilst the oven was on I took a flan case I had in the freezer and filled with some cheese, onion and a couple of wrinkly cherry tomatoes and added a beaten egg. This quiche will do daughter for lunch tomorrow.

Also made a batch of Hot cross buns and boiled a gammon then roasted it in the oven with a good drizzle of honey. This will be sliced later for sandwiches for the week. I also made the sponge for a chocolate and orange roulade for Christmas. Can only freeze the sponge but it helps having this ready to save time at Christmas. Was going to make my baked lemon cheesecake today to put in the freezer for Christmas but could not make it because I forgot the mascarpone cheese! So this will have to be made later in the week. So a good day in the kitchen today.

How much!

Nipped into Tesco this morning because I really needed some mayo for packups and Hubby wanted some deodorant. Thought I'd buy a tin of Tescos value tuna chunks for sandwiches but did not even bother picking the tin up when I saw the price. Bought some maybe 10 days ago and a tin was 55p, today they were 66p! Stuff paying that . Will look in Aldi next time I'm in there as they were selling them at 55p at tin.

I bought 4 of the little Lindt bear chocolates in Tesco to make  little chocolate bags for the grandaughters. The bears were 50p each or 4 for £1.00 so I bought 4. I put them with some chocolate lollies I bought for £2.00 for 6 at the weekend and a bag of chocolate coins which were 75p.

Popped them into two little bags and tied with ribbon. Two little bags of chocolate for two little girls this Christmas.

Whilst in Tesco I used my £12 of vouchers they sent me towards a turkey for Christmas and I also bought a rather large pork loin joint which they had on offer so they are both in the freezer now for Christmas. The rest of the bill was taken out of my Christmas food money. Every month we save into a separate account just for Christmas so we have enough money every year to cover Christmas presents, food and drink. I remember those years oh so well when we never saved for Christmas and just put everything on Visa and then spent half the year clearing the bloody debt. Never again . No debt for us once Christmas is finished.

Cleared a spicy Thai bean burger out of the freezer for my lunch which I had in a breadcake with sweet chilli sauce , also from the freezer. Nothing else coming out of the freezer today. Our evening meal will be pasta and a tomato sauce with cheese. I have just made some bread to turn into garlic bread to have with the pasta. Will make extra pasta so daughter No3 can take pasta to school tomorrow for lunch. Also just boiled some eggs to make egg mayo for my sandwich for work tonight and for Hubby if he wants it for his sandwich tomorrow.

Hello Friends

Hello everyone and can I just say, thank you all for your lovely comments over the last week. Much appreciated.

Don't know where to begin. Not going to dwell on why I've been away. Things still need sorting. What I am faced with is a deluge of food. Upon my return home I thought I had better call into the supermarket first and stock up on some shopping. I spent about £40.00 on a good amount of food that would make food for us for at least five days with stuff for lunches too. On arrival home Daughter No2 was home and informed me they had all gone shopping last night. I looked in the fridges and cupboards to find we had nearly duplicated a lot of the shopping. I have so much veg, cheese and meat I am going to have to get my thinking hat on and start menu planning a lot of extra veg into our meals over the next week.

Not going to waste any of the food and shall be creating more veg based meals to make best use of all this food. Hopefully we can eat for quite a while on what we have in and I hope to not shop for quite a lot of days. Hopefully not until pay day. I also want to use up as much as I can from the freezer to free some space for the Christmas turkey. I also want freezer space for all the food I am going to start preparing for the festive season. I have a lot of tried and tested desserts that freeze really well so need the space for these.

I spent this evening at the dining table writing my Christmas cards. All done except the personal family cards which I shall buy Friday in The Card Factory. They are so cheap in this shop and save us a fortune compared to buying in a top name card shop. I also got a pile of presents wrapped. I've made my Christmas list for Santa! "All I want for Christmas is" a pile of cookery books. I've made my list of books. I've sourced the cheapest place to buy them all (Amazon) and the list is on it's way to Hubby. I love my cookery books and only indulge at Christmas when other people can buy them for me. Ordered a couple more presents today off the Internet. Two personalised books for our niece and nephew. The books are  printed with the child's name and friends names, birthdays and where they live into the stories. I thought they were a bit different to the usual gifts and I'm sure the kids will love to have a book with themselves in it.

Feel like I'm nearly sorted for Christmas now and that's a good feeling!