Meal Planning Monday - the autumn half term edition!

Yes, it's that time again. Half term in our house and not before time. It's been a long few weeks for the children and they need that time to let off steam and not worry about anything for a few days. Husband working evenings means he can spend some time with us during the day without having to take time off.

My meal plan is going to be as little fuss as possible, although I have one dish that I am finally going to make, having finally acquired ham hocks! It's going to be mostly using up freezer things.

Here we go then.

Monday - Sausage and bean cobbler (from the freezer)
Tuesday - Mushroom stroganoff
Wednesday - butties / keeping free
Thursday- Ham hock with pinto beans
Friday - Slow cooker chickpea and potato soup with pesto
Saturday - Thai spiced fish pie
Sunday - keeping free

And yes, all warming things - am sat here on a cold, wet day when it's got dark early for the first time feeling very cold.

What's on your menu this week? Happy half term if you are off too this week! Oh, and Mrs M hosts the MPM linky so don't forget to check her out!

Getting a-head with Lego Hallowe'en storage

Ahead, a-head. Geddit? Oh never mind!

We are a Lego obsessed household. Well, not me. Monkey, mostly, egged on by the other male in the house. New sets make it onto his present list every time Christmas or a birthday come round. But it's overtaking the house, especially his room. Over the summer holidays, the two of them had a sort out and spread all the Lego across my conservatory for weeks until I found a reason to eat in there (we have a dining table in there).

But now, and quite appropriately given that Hallowe'en is next week, Room sent us these to go some way towards controlling this plastic invasion. OK, so the brick isn't Hallowe'en themed (and rubbish photography on my part - you can't see that the brick is actually green. They really are like giant lego as they all fit together!

I'd show you the brick full to the brim with Lego bricks but Monkey, with infinite logic that only a 7 year old possesses, has decided that it is perfect for storing all his Match Attax cards (and that collection is almost as extensive as his Lego brick collection.) It looks and feels study and like it will withstand the worst a 7 year old boy can throw it - and that's quite a lot.

The Hallowe'en heads have also been used as props at the school Trick or Treat Bingo event and were quite a talking point as you can see at the top of this post. I think Monkey's friends were jealous.

I think I may use the orange one as a cheat's way of having a Jack O'Lantern without the pumpking carving bit. Lazy? You betcha!

(Room kindly sent us these products all the way from Denmark. All opinions are my own etc.)

How to go from coffee snob to coffee geek in one afternoon

Yes, I am a coffee snob. When I was younger, I drank instant coffee but over time, I have discovered fresh ground coffee and really, instant is not a patch on it. The more I drank fresh coffee, the less I drank instant. Now, I don't drink instant at all unless it is the only option. It's freshly brewed coffee or tea for me. With all these coffee shops around these days, that's fairly easy to do.

Then, when we went to Germany last December, we discovered the joys of a bean to cup coffee machine in the flat we were staying in and made it work by reading the instructions in English and translating the messages on the screen. We were sold and had to have one. We realised this dream in February, thanks to Christmas vouchers and special offers in electrical stores. Now, I drink a couple of freshly brewed coffees each day - two is my limit or I don't sleep - and for a fraction of the price of going out to get fancy coffee.

It was therefore a no-brainer when Taylors of Harrogate invited me to learn all about coffee in a coffee masterclass, especially as it was on a Friday, meaning my husband was off and I didn't need to rush home.

Having arrived a little late for lunch, caused partly by my phone rebooting itself as I used it to navigate my way across Harrogate (by the way, if anyone knows how to make the Navigation app on my HTC phone stop repeating the verbal instructions "Continue on Cherry Tree Avenue for half a mile" for EVERY route change, I'd be very grateful), we were soon being taken to the tasting room to learn about how coffee is made. Our guide Emily is a trainee coffee buyer, who said she had been training for three and a half years! Coffee is obviously more than just a few beans.

Actually, they aren't really beans. They're the stones in the middle of coffee cherries, so we learned. I learned loads about coffee production - like the cherries have to be processed the same day as they are picked or it rots. A lot of the process is very time sensitive, with the skill of the growers knowing that they have to complete the various steps in just about the right time.

What I also learned was that there are two varieties of coffee - arabica and robusta. Arabica beans are the premium beans, with robusta often tasting more bitter and ashy - and have twice the caffeine of arabica beans. To add to this, the beans produce a different taste depending where they were grown. To demonstrate this, we were given a load of single variety coffees to taste - doing the old slurp and spit routine. I was brilliant at slurping, but kept forgetting to spit so I was probably high on coffee within 10 minutes.

It's true. The difference in taste was amazing - some of the coffees actually had a citrussy taste to them that you'd never expect coffee to have. We tried a robusta alongside the arabica - eurgh! If that's what is usually used to make instant coffee, no wonder I dislike it.

The range of flavours is why Taylors make blends of coffee from different sources - to balance the different flavours available and make a coffee that meets our tastes. And tastes ARE changing. A few years ago, their Lazy Sunday blend was their most popular and trust me, it's quite mild in flavour. Now, their most popular blend is Rich Italian, substantially stronger in flavour. We got to do the slurp-spit routine things again, tasting all their blends ranging from medium to rich roast. There's even a half caff coffee blend too, for those who want to keep your caffeine levels down.

The strongest, Hot Lava Java, is not for me at all - way too strong, and has some robusta beans in the blend that make it taste really smoky. If you are scared of buying a pack of new coffee and not liking it, Taylors have started selling selections of their different blends. It's like variety packs but for coffee - 4 little sachets of different blends of coffee, just enough to make one cafetiere so there is no waste if you don't like it. Genius.

Talking of cafetieres, we were also shown how to make the perfect cafetiere of coffee - 45g of coffee in an 8 cup cafetiere, filled with freshly drawn, freshly boiled water left to cool slightly after boiling, stirred and left to brew for 4 to 6 minutes. Et voila!

Our lesson in coffee ended with a tour of their factory, which involved the requisite hairnet and sexy disposable overalls. We saw the beans coming in and being sorted, mixed together and then roasted for uniform colour, and the whizzy machine that grinds the coffee and packs it all within seconds. The roasting, grinding and packing all has to be timed as carefully as production of the beans. It even weighs every single bag to ensure there is enough in the bags. Some of the machines pack the pallets automatically too. It's automation heaven!

So now, I can start to understand why someone can still be a trainee coffee buyer after three and a half years. I learned a lot, and this knowledge will only fuel the fires of my coffee snobbery, although I am now developing into a coffee geek - I'll be boring anyone who dares to mention coffee within earshot about arabica beans, coffee cherries and coffee production methods.

Oh dear, Taylors, what have you done?

(Taylors of Harrogate kindly paid my travel expenses to allow me to attend this event)

Meal Planning Monday - the last week of half term family favourites edition!

Bit of a long-winded title, but it's all true! Whilst a good part of England and Wales are off on their holidays this week, we're soldiering on for another week and half term is next week, so we have another week of school and it's fairly busy, it has to be said. I have a meeting at school, there is a Hallowe'en bingo event on at school and the usual things that come along with a holiday. It's been a long half term so on Saturday, I asked the children to come up with some things they wanted to eat and I made some suggestions to help them along the way. On Saturday, the children and I are going to York for the day and on Sunday, husband is running the Guild half marathon in Preston and I've got cake club.

You've probably seen most of these recipes on my meal plans before but it's nice to have familiar food from time to time.

Monday - butties
Tuesday - Honey mustard pork, mash and broccoli
Wednesday - Lamb, coconut and mango pilau
Thursday - Fajitas
Friday - Mexican pork burgers
Saturday - keeping free
Sunday - not cooking

And yes, my children really did ask for the fajitas and the lamb pilau. I suggested the pork burgers after Monkey said he wanted to have burgers.

So what is on your menu this week? Are your family on half term holiday? Does your meal plan reflect that? And have you been over to Mrs M's yet to check out the rest of the Meal Planning Monday entries?

National Baking Week and my attempts to conquer pastry

It's been National Baking Week this week and I've failed to do baking.

Which is a crying shame when I recently acquired a Kenwood stand mixer. As I'm still getting used to it, I thought I'd try to make pastry in it as it is something I struggle with. I was also sent some Trex to try out and the recipes included pastry items so I thought I'd give it a go.

I remember Trex from my childhood but I've never considered using it. It's a vegetable fat so I worried about the fat being hydrogenated but apparently, it's not. It's also dairy free, so great for people who have dairy allergies and want to bake. We decided to make sausage rolls for tea but the children wanted to make lemon curd pies too.

I know that when you use butter for making pastry, it needs to be super cold and cut into cubes. Trex however is not as solid as butter and cutting it up, it felt kind of greasy in my hand. For both recipes, I rubbed in the fat with the mixer which did a fine job of making it into breadcrumbs. However, I think my problem is I add too much water because I think it looks dry.

After a spot of resting, we started putting pastry into my  mini tart tin. I couldn't be bothered rolling it out, so we just used my nifty Pampered Chef tart shaper to bash out the bases.

Because we didn't have a lot of pastry left over, we just cut out stars to put on top. My only problem was that the pastry just didn't really colour. It remained very pale indeed and even though I cooked the tarts for a bit longer, the tops still didn't go very golden. I think it was the Trex because even my pastry made with butter goes browner than that. At least there were no soggy bottoms!

Once we'd made the pies, the children abandoned me for the television whilst I made the sausage rolls.

The recipe suggested adding spring onions but I decided to add a bit of tomato puree, some sage and some finely choppped onion to the sausagemeat.

Again, the pastry didn't colour well and these were even glazed with egg wash. The picture at the top makes them look more golden than they appeared in real life. I think my pastry technique still needs some work you know.

Not that anyone is complaining - there are only a couple of sausage rolls left and the lemon curd pies are disappearing rapidly. What can I make next to practise my pastry making?

(Trex sent me 3 packs to try. I have not received any further compensation. All opinions are my own.) 

What's in your boot?

In mine, I have five shopping bags. Empty ones, of the reusable sort. And that's it. Yes, really. When the kids were smaller, we used to keep the buggy in the boot too. Apparently, I'm quite unusual. There are a whole load of you driving around with the kitchen sink (or garden shed) in it.

Don't just take my word for it. Take a look at this.

The reason I'm mentioning this is Shell invited us to an event at Aston University in Birmingham to talk about their Target One Million campaign. Their aim is to reach one million people with advice on how to save fuel and drive more economically.

As I was on my own with the children, we actually travelled down to Birmingham by train. There's fuel saving in action for you. Seriously, they love trains and it was good for me to keep them amused.

The event was opened by the above Quentin Wilson, who I have met before at a previous Shell FuelSave event in Manchester last year who is master of a bit of hyperbole to launch the campaign, and then handed over to Punk Science to demonstrate what factors can affect fuel economy and they asked for a volunteer. Whose hand shot up? This handsome young man.

Those flippers caused no end of trouble, he kept falling over. They also had grown men wearing ponchos and riding Space Hoppers. No kidding. 

One of the ways Shell is aiming to get the message out there is through a series of games on their website called the FuelSave Challenge. Monkey had a go at playing some of the games using the iPads. 

Don't think it kept them occupied all the time though - over lunchtime, Monkey brought over one of the iPads and asked me to help him find Gangnam Style to show the others!

We also got to see the Aston Shell Eco Car, which was designed by some of the Mechanical Engineering students to take part in the Eco Marathon which is a competition to go as far as possible on 1 litre of fuel. The car, designed to be as sustainable as possible, won the design award at this year's competition. 

During lunch, those of us that wanted to got to take a spin out with Quentin around Birmingham in the Shell FuelSave car to see how economical we could drive. I was doing really well until I had to do a hill start - I wasn't confident enough to stop the engine and get started again. Apparently, my overall MPG was the third best out of the drivers that had a go. I was quite proud of myself, although too preoccupied with wondering where our taxi back to the station was by this point. He did eventually find us but he was so late that a run for our train was necessary at New Street -  we just made it before the doors closed. 

Keep an eye out on the Shell FuelSave page as more games will be launched over the coming weeks. In addition, if you register and complete the games, you will be entered into a draw to win one of 10 iPad3s, which is not a bad return for learning a few fuel saving tips. 

Oh, and don't forget to check what's in your boot - clearing it out could save you fuel, and a lot of cash. What IS in yours? 

(Shell kindly paid our travel expenses to attend this event, gave us lunch and a goody bag to take home containing snacks for the trip home. They have provided me with some images and videos from the day, but all opinions, as ever, are my own.)

How to be a great volunteer and get the most out of volunteering

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Before you click away thinking "Oh, how boring", just ask yourself if you are a volunteer. You might think you're not but you probably are. If you help at your child's school or preschool, you are a volunteer. School governors are the largest force of volunteers in this country. If you're on the PTFA, PTA or whatever it's called, or have even ever stood on a stall at a fete, you are a volunteer. If your child or children are still too young for school and you help at a toddler group, you're a volunteer - even if it's just putting out the chairs and tidying up the toys. If you've ever hosted a coffee morning at your house, you too are a volunteer. If you help at a child's sports session, dance school, cub pack or guide company, you're a volunteer. And they're just the examples I can think of that most parents are likely to do.

Volunteers are a huge force for good. If people didn't volunteer, then quite simply, lots of things wouldn't run so smoothly, or at all. They raise much needed funds for community projects and charities. But it's not all one way traffic. Volunteering can really help people develop new skills that can be transferred into the workplace, it can help improve confidence and give you a sense of belonging. Just look how well received the Games Makers were during the Olympics and Paralympics!

But how can you get the most of volunteering? Having been a volunteer, managing other volunteers, an employee working with volunteers, and still volunteering myself, I have some views on that and some tips you might like to consider.

1. Don't be scared to offer your services. People often look at voluntary organisations and think they have it all covered, but the fact is they may be struggling with people doing multiple roles and they just need a break. New volunteers with fresh perspective and enthusiasm are always welcome.

2. Consider what you have to offer and what you can commit. There are volunteering opportunities that may take a few hours every now and then, ones that can be fitted in around very small children and can be done from home, or ones that are restricted to an hour at the same time each week. Go for the ones that fit you and your lifestyle in the best possible way. Choose things you enjoy doing because you'll enjoy it more and that way, you'll do it for longer. There are voluntary roles out there doing lots of different things, and using lots of different skills. If you want to develop a skill, volunteering is a great way to do that if you can find the right role - your local CVS can help you find something specific if you are struggling to find something.

3. Don't be afraid to try different things, especially if you don't really know what it is you want to do.

4. Get training if it's offered. Some volunteering opportunities (I'm thinking Samaritans here) have a compulsory training course that you must complete. Others may offer regular but not compulsory sessions. Even if it's optional, it will benefit you and the organisation you're volunteering for to attend some training, even if it means taking a little time out. Usually, the organisation will pay for your travel so don't worry about being out of pocket. Even if there is not structured training on offer, ask if someone can show you what to do if you're not feeling confident.

5. Don't be afraid to admit if you've bitten off more than you can chew. This is one aspect of volunteering that, as a manager of volunteers, I struggle with regularly - people take on something they can't (or don't want to) do so instead of telling someone or asking for help, they just go silent, do nothing or very little and cause no end of problems. Be honest with yourself - and if it's not working out, ask for help, there is no shame in that. Nor is walking away if you really can't do it. People will appreciate your honesty. No-one is indispensable. No-one.

6. Don't be a martyr. Don't take on lots of different tasks or roles because it looks like there is no-one else to do them and sigh about how there is no-one else to do them. I have known at least one person who had multiple roles who ended up dropping them all because it was negatively affecting their relationship. They believed that there was no-one else to do those roles but there are now several people are doing the things they were doing alone before. If it becomes too much and is affecting your health or well-being, it's probably not the role for you. Be honest with yourself, and with others.

7. Don't allow yourself to be treated as a second class citizen. Employees are not a better class of worker - they are paid for what they do, volunteers do it for nothing. You're amazing. Employees are usually there to help you. Tell them what you need and they will usually do their best to provide that, within limits of course, because charities are not awash with money. Don't be afraid to give constructive feedback if you are encountering problems with what you do.

8. Understand your role. Being a volunteer doesn't mean you don't have responsibilities - some voluntary positions come with a lot of responsibility indeed. If you have a responsibility, do your best to fulfill them and just like at work, do let someone know if you can't, for whatever reason.

9. Have fun! Volunteering is something you do in your spare time so it'll feel all the more rewarding if you enjoy it. If you have meetings, make them fun whilst getting the business down. This usually involves cake. Or wine. Or both.

10. Just do it! You have nothing to lose. And if it doesn't work out, just try something else. As I said before, it can be extremely rewarding and improve both your skills and confidence. And you might even enjoy it too.

Good luck!