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.