Meal Planning Monday - the Gousto edition!

Yeah, so I've been ill, as I might have whinged on here in past days. It actually went on a lot longer than I thought, and the doctor put me on antibiotics which seems to have been the catalyst for getting properly better. Because of this, I'm behind with pretty much everything. Thankfully, last week, the lovely people at Gousto asked if I'd like to try out some of their meals. The idea is you have a subscription, and pick out how many meals you'd like to feed your family per week then just choose the meals you want each week. All the ingredients are then delivered to your home with a recipe card for you to make your chosen meals.

Usually, that's on a Wednesday but because we're not quite in their delivery area yet, ours are arriving on Thursday, so we will be trying those at the end of this week. That just left me with the start of this week to sort out - some meals have been carried over again from last week and I've only just got around to deciding what else we're having but we are there.

Here, then, is our week in meals.

Monday - Special fried rice with barbeque chicken (yes, we have finally eaten this, third time lucky)
Tuesday - Minted lamb koftas, pitta, salad, tzatziki
Wednesday - Easy peasy lentil curry
Thursday - Basil mint pesto fusilli with pancetta and mushrooms

Friday -  Chicken with parsnip and raspberry basil sauce

Saturday - Ras-el-Hanout chicken with barberry bulgar

Sunday - Sweet mustard salmon with garlicky veg

What about you? Have you done a plan? Have you shared it with Mrs M yet? You know you want to! 

Our Olympic Scrapbook gets started!

This is a sponsored post, but you know that by now, don't you? 


So, it's day 2 of the action at the Olympics and we've completed our first two of our Olympic scrapbook from The Times & The Sunday Times. After my post on Friday, we all watched the opening ceremony - I know I said they were going to bed but they just seemed to stay up; once it started and was so magical, it seemed wrong to deny them . We all loved it - it was bonkers in a good way, it entertained, enthralled and gave us goosebumps. And, in an act of family unity, we all simultaneously laughed out loud when Mr Bean appeared in the orchestra.

So yesterday, Monkey and I sat down to choose some pictures for the scrapbook. Excuse the cheesy grin.

We struggled a little, as the ceremony finished so late, it seemed that a lot of pictures from the second half of the ceremony didn't make it into the paper. We chose to include a picture of Bradley Wiggins ringing the bell at the start as we are big cycling fans in this house, and anyway, he lives a few miles away from here. I wanted to include a picture of the cauldron so I printed a picture of it from the online edition. Our favourite picture was of the five rings that was forged together during the show as that was spectacular. We had to include Mr Bean of course, and Monkey was overjoyed to find a picture of Voldemort (he was very excited when JK Rowling appeared during the ceremony) so that has made it in too.

The children had a go at the challenges to win medals on Friday - eat 3 carrots to win a bronze, do a sit up for each year of their lives to win silver, and run 100m to win gold. I'm happy to report they completed all 3 challenges to win all the medals. They actually ran more than 100m as they went and ran round the small block, a ploy on my part to get a second's peace.

So that was the opening ceremony page done, now it was time to get going with the pages for the first day's action. We filled in quite a bit as we went along like the names of winners of some events - some definitely, not all.

Then, this afternoon, Missy Woo helped me choose the pictures from the paper to go in the scrapbook. She is very good at cutting out - much more accurate and careful than her brother.

We cut out some of the suggested pictures from the scrapbook page but didn't go with the one of Vinokourov winning the road race - not because we were bitter that Cav didn't win but because we don't like his stance on drugs. Instead, we found a picture of the GB women's team winning at football last night and Fabien Cancellara after he came off his bike towards the end of the road race. The GB women's picture,  I have had to do a bit of a fold job on to fit it in. We also have small pictures of Louis Smith, the gymnast, and Ryan Lochte, the swimmer.

We're busy filling in today's page but obviously, we won't be putting in the pictures until we get tomorrow's paper.

If you are joining in, I'd love to know how you are getting on with your scrapbook. There will be more posts as we continue to fill our scrapbook so keep an eye out on this blog.

Now all we need to really get going is a gold medal for Great Britain!

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network. I am paid an expenses fee to cover my time but Netmums have no editorial control whatsoever about what I blog about. Being a member of the Netmums Blogging Network means that I get to try out products and brands and get my expenses covered but that I retain full editorial integrity.

Ready, Steady, Scrapbook!

This is a sponsored post, you know the drill. 

The waiting is over. Almost. Some of us have already had an Olympic experience (we went to a football session at Old Trafford last night) but tonight, finally, the Olympics officially opens. I've explained before how excited we all are but it's taken on a slightly different meaning for us since I agreed to be involved with the Times Olympic Scrapbook, detailing our experiences of cataloguing the events of the next 17 days.

I've just been told that if you've missed out getting a scrapbook before, there is one last chance to get your mitts on one before it all kicks off tonight. What you will need to do is to go here and print the voucher, fill it out and take it to your nearest WH Smith or Waitrose before they close TONIGHT. Yes, that's right. If you really want to join in and get scrapbooking the games with your children, you need to be quick off the mark! That way, you'll be ready and raring to go to start scrapbooking tomorrow.

If you've been away and have no idea what I'm talking about, my original post about this project explains more. The Times and Sunday Times have already given away more than a million of these scrapbooks, so there are a lot of people poised to start collecting their favourite memories, starting of course, with the opening ceremony. Even today's edition has a special games section - I liked the clever world map showing which nations excel at which sports. We're good at "sitting down" sports and the Americans just about everything, of course.

From tomorrow, there will be 15 special souvenir editions of the Times and we'll be cutting out our favourite pictures. For the children, tonight's ceremony is going to be just too late - normally, I'd let them stay up as a special occasion but we did that last night and then they only slept until 7 so both are somewhat lethargic. I have promised to record it all so they can see it in the morning - memories don't have to be watched live, do they?! I have high hopes for the ceremony after seeing the briefest of sneak previews - I love Danny Boyle's style and the way he doesn't take himself too seriously so I suspect that something of him may go into this, along with all the over-the-top events that can only feature in an opening ceremony.

Come back again soon and see how we got on with scrapbooking the opening ceremony, but don't forget to be quick if you want to grab that voucher and get one of the last scrapbooks so your family can join in too!

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network. I am paid an expenses fee to cover my time but Netmums have no editorial control whatsoever about what I blog about. Being a member of the Netmums Blogging Network means that I get to try out products and brands and get my expenses covered but that I retain full editorial integrity. On this occasion, I have been asked to share some key information about this promotion, which I have done because it is relevant to the project and informative.

How to make yourself feel better

I have been feeling quite rough for a few days now although I did actually make it to the supermarket yesterday. It's some kind of virus with a horrible cough that is just totally debilitating with my temperature spiking up and down at will. A great way to start the holidays, eh?

When you're feeling like this, there are only two approaches to make yourself feel better. (Beyond the "dose yourself up to the eyeballs" method - seriously, I'd fail an Olympics dope test right now).

The first is to turn to chocolate. Not my usual method, I'll admit, but as it had happened, a few days before, a lovely lady who runs Chocolate by Genevie had offered to send me chocolate and husband has instructed me never to turn chocolate down.  These arrived on Monday, probably when I was feeling at my worst.

Yeah, there are some missing because we tried some before I even managed to summon the energy to take a snap. They were absolutely gorgeous, although there was no card describing what each one was and not all the decorations on top made clear what was in the middles. They didn't last long and the children enjoyed them as much as we did. They were a lovely pick me up on an otherwise horrible day. I could have happily ate a whole box of the coffee flavoured chocolates. Thank you, Genevie - it was perfect timing.

 The second is to try to be kind to yourself and eat as healthily as possible. Also quite coincidentally, Blue Diamond Almonds sent me a hamper full of breakfast goodies to try out their Almond Breeze almond milks, a healthy alternative to dairy and soya milks. I haven't got around to drinking the champers as yet - the past four days have felt one massive hangover without adding any alcohol into the equation. 

I love the muesli they sent, which I then poured their unsweetened milk over and it was nice. I don't normally like soya milk. I haven't been brave enough to try it in the tea but we don't recommend it for drinking with filter coffee as it seem to split. I thought it would taste strongly of almonds, but given it is only 2% almonds, it doesn't really have a taste at all. It's a good source of calcium and a number of vitamins and the unsweetened version has less than half the calories of skimmed milk, and half the calories of soya milk. So it's good for you too!

So, a two pronged attack. Strange that the chocolates have disappeared before all the muesli and almond milk, isn't it? That is because I can keep the muesli to myself without being pestered for it. Kids, eh? It'll do me good. That, and the dosing to the eyeballs method, is going to have to get me fully back on my feet fast as we're going to the Olympic football tonight!

(I was sent the above products to try for the purposes of review. All words and opinions are my own and I have not been paid a fee to write this post). 

Meal Planning Monday - the easy cooking edition!

So, the kids are off school now and this week, so is husband. And the Olympics start on Friday. Well, actually, for us it starts Thursday as we're going to the Olympic football at Old Trafford - so I won't be cooking then.

With the Olympics starting, I'm going to be making stuff as simple as possible. The special fried rice and chicken you might recognised from last week - various things means it never actually happened so I'm rehashing it this week.

Here is my easy peasy week

Monday - Special fried rice with BBQ Chicken
Tuesday - Gnocchi with roasted squash and goat's cheese
Wednesday - Chicken tomato curry (made with a sample of a sauce I got ages ago)
Thursday - not cooking
Friday - Olympic bagels, onion rings (the snacks), donuts (can you spot the theme?!)
Saturday - New potato and smoked mackerel salad
Sunday - Beany nachos

That's it. What about you? Have you been to see Mrs M's linky with all the other MPM entries this week?

Olympic Scrapbook - have you got yours yet?

This is a sponsored post (but it's not that bad really).

If you read my post last weekend, you'll know that I'm going to be blogging about our experiences completing the Olympic Scrapbook that appeared in The Sunday Times last week.

If you missed out last weekend, don't fret as you have one last chance to get one. Get yourself down to a WH Smith or Waitrose this Saturday as you'll be able to get one free when you buy a copy of The Times. Then, the next day, The Sunday Times will have an exclusive sticker set which you'll be able to use in your scrapbooks, and I've been allowed to give you a sneaky preview of how those stickers are going to look.

Monkey, in particular, is excited about the stickers so I'm going to have to try and rein him in so that he doesn't stick them all over the scrapbook within half an hour. We've been looking at The Times all through this week but nothing has yet made it into the scrapbook as we're waiting for our Olympic experience to begin (which will be next Thursday as we are going to some of the early games in the football tournament the day before the opening ceremony). We're going to collect front pages, choose the pictures to cut out and stick in, and fill in the statistics - another Monkey job; he'll be there with his statto hat on, and will probably try to write the results in almost as they happen!

Olympic legends have been supporting the Olympic Scrapbook this week as the two papers build towards the London 2012 Olympic Games. Here's the lovely Roger Black:

And also, the great Ade Adepitan, pictured at the recent premiere of Chariots of Fire.

Take a look at this (very short) video which shows you how the scrapbook works. 




You can also find this video here.

This time next week, the Games will be upon us. Excitement is reaching fever pitch here. If it is with you, get your scrapbooks and stickers and join us cataloguing this very special occasion.

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network. I am paid an expenses fee to cover my time but Netmums have no editorial control whatsoever about what I blog about. Being a member of the Netmums Blogging Network means that I get to try out products and brands and get my expenses covered but that I retain full editorial integrity. On this occasion, I have been asked to share some key information about this promotion, which I have done because it is relevant to the project and informative.

Can you hear that sound?

Across (largely) England and Wales, I mean? That hissing sound that's getting louder and louder and louder with every anxious hour?

Do you know what it is? It's the collective sucking in of breath by parents of children in school. For, over the next few days, children will finish school until September. September! That's a whole other season away, isn't it?

I view long holidays with a mixture of joy and trepidation. Joy that the morning rush with recalcitrant children is over for a few weeks at least, that I can turn the alarm off on my phone that I have set in case I ignore the clock radio, that I don't have to clockwatch all day to ensure I don't forget to collect them from school and see how far I can push it. ( I may have left at 3.30 to pick them up on the odd occasion this year but only on days they have afternoon assembly. School finishes at 3.30, we live a 5 mins drive away.) Trepidation because what are we going to do for 6 weeks? Trepidation that they will just drive me mad and each other mad. Trepidation that I will get no work done at all. Trepidation that it will just rain for 6 weeks and we'll all go stir crazy.

In reality, I realise I am very lucky that my work allows me to be at home with them during the holidays. We have plenty to do, including trips to two Olympic events, the Olympics themselves, a wedding, several parties, a christening (I think), a summer dance school for Missy Woo. No doubt we will be 3 weeks in when we realise that we need to get ready for going back to school. The children are growing up fast and more able to entertain themselves every day. Last week, Monkey was off sick with a bad cough and although it was disruptive to me, he did amuse himself quite a bit.

Still, it doesn't stop me joining in the collective sucking in of breath as parents brace themselves for the holiday. Come September, you'll hear the sound of parents letting out that breath in a sigh of relief.

In the meantime, we're holding our collective breath and crossing our fingers behind our backs.

Wish me luck.