Comfort cooking

Lately I have become very economical in the kitchen and using every last scrap of leftover food and I am very impressed at how far leftovers can go by being a bit imaginative.
I have always hated wasting food and I must admit that I have overeaten far too many times just to prevent food being thrown away. I'm determined to break this cycle without depriving myself or my family of some favourite comforting foods.

I used the leftovers of a Sunday roast chicken in two dishes. The first was chinese style egg fried rice with shredded chicken and peas, sweetcorn and any other leftover vegetables you have in the fridge. The second was chicken and vegetable soup made with the stock from the chicken.

I had a big amount of lamb mince in the freezer and I used some to make spaghetti bolognese but I didn't need to use all of the mince. I used the leftover lamb mince to make ''arayes'' which is an Arabic appetiser and is literally translated as 'brides' or it could even be 'bridegrooms'.
This is made by mixing the lamb mince with finely chopped onions and parsley and then spread as a filling into flat bread such as pitta bread. The sandwich is grilled and it can also be a meal in itself with some salad and hommous as sides. My children like it with fries.

I used sliced bread in a bread and butter pudding, and while researching the recipe I discovered that the pudding itself was invented purely out of frugality, to reduce waste and make use of stale bread. The recipe uses egg yolks to make the vanilla and nutmeg custard, and I have reserved and frozen the egg whites to use in a meringue recipe another day.

I also used leftover grilled salmon fillets to make salmon fishcakes, made with leftover mashed potato, spring onions (or parsley) and breadcrumbs which can also be made from the leftover bread. Because all the ingredients are already cooked, they can be grilled to make the breadcrumbs crispy, or lightly fried till golden and crunchy.

Fishcakes after cooking....and tasting!!

In my research I also found out that there are actual names for recipes that reduce waste such as ''Econo cooking'' and ''Frugal cooking'' There are communities of people who build up and contribute to these websites that make use of leftovers, making more with less and budget cooking on a non-junk food, non-takeaway diet. Credit crunch cooking, recession recipes, leftover queen, it goes on!

Children Learn What They Live

I have always liked this poster which I see at my local playgroup so I wanted to share it

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn 

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight

If children live with ridicule, they learn to be shy

If children live with shame, they learn to  feel guilty

If children live with tolerance, they learn to be patient

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence

If children live with praise, they learn to appreciate

If children live with fairness, they learn justice

If children live with security, they learn to have faith

If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves

If children live with acceptance and friendship, they learn to find love in the world

Rediscover Peanut Butter

Most of those who know me know that I am a chocolate lover. A cake lover, an all desserts lover. So I have to talk about my latest secret discovery. A had a day off work, the first one in a long time and after we picked R up from school we decided to go to the local shopping centre, the Harlequin.

We went to buy R's long overdue Eid present, which she had chosen herself from the Argos catalogue. It had been out of stock in all the shops for a few weeks and I finally managed to reserve one and we went to collect it. It is the Moonsand BakeShop. The amazing thing about this is that you can shape the sand with your hands and it moulds into any shape you make. Then when you have finished you just crumble it up again.

While we were strolling along, we stopped at a sweet shop aptly named Sweets from Heaven. This little shop is a treasure trove of sweets absolutely filled from floor to ceiling of every kind of sweets you've ever had, imagined and more! I discovered a Twix bar made with peanut butter chocolate. Instead of the caramel, there is peanut butter and the biscuit is chocolate. It cost £2.50 but worth every mouthful! Another treat that caught my eye and made me feel very nostalgic was a jar of Marshmallow Fluff but I resisted buying it. There was also all kinds of treats like Willy Wonka branded bars, and having recently read the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to R, I could really show her the bar of chocolate that Charlie found a golden ticket inside, as well as the everlasting gobstoppers and other sweets that were mentioned in the story!
The next day in Tesco, I couldn't resist buying a jar of peanut butter!

My new cookbook is coming along really well. It's like a recipe scrapbook which I have put together from a stack of recipes that I've torn out of magazines, ingredient packets, notes from television cooks, supermarket suggestions etc. I've been keeping these cuttings for years in a plastic pocket and now I needed to have a way of being able to retrieve a recipe easily.
I have divided it into 2 sections, desserts and non-desserts. Now I see that I need a subdivision of starters and main courses, and further subdivisions of chicken dishes, vegetable dishes, fish dishes etc. I am even going to index it. I love flicking through the pages of my favourite recipes and getting inspiration from my book.

Today I am baking mini muffins with K. It's my first time baking muffins and his first time baking! When R comes home from school she will be icing them and sprinkling them with her sprinkles and cake decorations. They are for the school cake sale tomorrow. Now K is the ultimate copycat. He repeat every word I say and he sounds like Mickey Mouse! And poor R, she puts up with so much of his copycat behaviour I feel so sorry for her!

Indulgence: homemade spa night and cannelloni

Lately, I have been thinking about indulging and spoiling myself, because I worked out that my duties as a mother dominate my mind, my thoughts, all my waking hours and a fair amount of my sleeping hours too, in fact every aspect of my life. I think I probably spend 99% of my time being mummy and very little time being myself, just me. And besides, I'm worth it! *wink with a cheesy smile a la L'Oreal ads*

Don't get me wrong, being a parent is the greatest blessing I've been given, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but once in a while I really love being alone. I love having the TV and the remote control  for a whole night all to myself lying on the sofa under a snuggly blanket and a mug of hot chocolate to watch the art documentaries, geeky historical biographies, and period dramas that no-one wants to watch with me. 

So today, I decided to spoil myself some more. I have wanted to make cannelloni for a long time, and I finally went out to shop for the ingredients. It is so easy to make if you are using the ready made tubes of course, and it can be made with so many fillings, but I went for the classic spinach and ricotta filling, my favourite, with a bechamel sauce. 

I made some variations from the original recipe, for experimentation purposes, and to make the dish unique. First, I added some chopped chestnut mushrooms to the spinach and ricotta filing as I had a packet in my fridge which had to be used, and this made it taste even better, because mushroom, pasta and bechamel go beautifully together. Filling the tubes was fiddly but fun once I got into the flow of it. 

For the bechamel sauce, I used the leftover cheeses in my fridge, including white Cheshire, Caerphilly, Lancashire and Wiltshire, and grated them straight into the pot so I ended up with something like a four English cheese bechamel sauce. I also sprinkled grated parmesan over the top before baking. 

I left out the tomato element from the recipe simply because I just didn't feel like having any tomato in it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my finished dish. And it looked so good! 

The indulgence didn't stop there. After my Tesco cannelloni ingredients shopping trip, I couldn't resist popping into Boots to pick up a bath product. This was the first time I noticed that there is a whole section of aisle dedicated to ''Luxury Bathing''! I was familiar with the usual aisles like soap, shampoo, shower gels and bath. I felt like I had made a secret discovery when I found the luxury bathing products! How come I've never noticed this before? I feel like I've missed out and I took my time to choose something, and selected Sanctuary Foaming Bath Soak. So; luxury bath product, check. Scented candles, check. Bath pillow, check. Face mask, check. Soft and fluffy bathrobe, check. Children asleep, check. Husband fed and watching football, check. Soak away in peace, that's pure indulgence to me.

Playdate and magic dream spray

Today R had her first ever playdate with a school friend, and it was my first ever too as a hosting mum!
I have to admit that I was looking forward to it just as much as R! When R woke up this morning she kept asking if it was time for her friend to come yet, and if I could call her mummy to ask her when she was coming. Seeing as she wasn't coming until after lunch, I had to think of something to do for her to pass the time. So we went to the fun day which was being held in the local high street where A works. The children had a turn on a fire engine carousel ride and then on a trampoline. Next we went to the library for some reading.
When the time came and her friend arrived, she was so excited and happy to see her. She didn't know what to start playing, so I offered some guidance and suggested play-doh. This kept them busy for the best part of an hour. They even allowed little K to play with them, and he was so chuffed to be playing alongside the two girls. Next, they decided to play dressing up, and they chose princess dresses along with tiaras, slippers and purses. Adorable! Then I arranged a picnic tray of snacks which they wanted to have under the table along with their teddies and cuddly toys arranged inside their 'tent'. After this, they went back upstairs to R's room and played 'shop' with one of them buying and the other selling. All this time, K was just so happy to be playing alongside them, they never argued once about anything. Throughout the whole 3 hours they were together, there wasn't a peep out of anyone. I was truly amazed! Finally, they sat down to do some colouring before it was time for her friend to go home.

Recently, R has been waking up several times a night and coming to my bedside. She says she has bad dreams and when I take her back to her room, she says she doesn't want to sleep alone. I decided to try something I'd read in Jo Frost Supernanny's books and try a magic spray. This was suggested for keeping monsters away, so I've adapted it to have special spray that makes you not have any bad dreams. Last night it worked, and I'm using it again tonight.