mama's favourite pasta sauce ...

    Morning readers ... today again I will be in catch up mode ... Poorly baby weekend .. more about that later! Here is a recipe that is good for all, babies included! (prompted by a post from another mummy, actually one that makes Jewellery)
   This one always works for all and is dead easy so long as you don't mind chopping things!


Pasta sauce supremo


First of all i am rubbish with exact measurements but generally good at numbers ;0), this can be for either carnivores or vegetarians ... 


One large onion
One large stick of celery
Two medium carrots
One regular yellow pepper (any colour will do I just like the colour)
One medium courgette
Half a pack of closed cup mushrooms/or a whole pack if going meat free
One bulb of garlic ( well to taste really, we like a lot)
One small pack of mince
One tin of chopped tomatoes
One pack of passata(or make your own with 2lb of toms de-seeded and de-skinned and roasted and pushed through a sieve)
Three tsp Italian herbs (or a bunch of fresh ones basil/oregano/parsley/sage)
black pepper to taste
spot of olive oil
splash of Worcester sauce
a stock cube beef/veg




  Take all of the vegetables (the first five to start with) and dice them, all small and regular as you can in size, this basically keeps the cooking time for all similar. Carrots will take longer to cook through but this dish takes long enough to get them to the right state!
  Plop a little olive oil in a heavy pan (large one), and pile in your diced veg on a medium heat, make sure you stir them now and then. basically you need the onions to become almost see through before adding anything else. The pan should not be sizzling .. i believe the term is 'sweating' but that always makes me feel a bit ew!
  Next in are the mushrooms, which i slice thinly, this is the point at which you decide on the option of meat or not, without meat you add the whole pack, with meat just half. Stir those in and start them cooking.
  Peel and crush/chop your garlic .. i crush , hubby chops ... we don't mention the war ;0) it is best to add less then add to it garlic can be added right up to the end so its all down to personal taste and strength of garlic on the day!
   Carnivores now add meat, Worcester and cook through  (veggies ignore this one)
   Next in are the toms tin and then passatta (making your own tastes good but the packs are ok) This will also have to be down to eye as it depends how runny you like your sauce (ooo er!) 
    It is at this point that vegetarians should add all of their herbs and pepper and stock cube and leave to cook through (to bolster it up I add spinach sometimes right before eating) Your vegi sauce will be ready as soon as the carrots are in that case.
     Carnivores i would advise cooking this on a low heat for about half an hour, beef mince is better the longer it is cooked. Sometimes I cook for half an hour then leave covered and cool and reheat when hubby returns from the salt mines.


Et Voila! lovely pasta sauce to spread over your paste (In Roo's case over his whole body!) A scrape of cheese on top is beaut!


Usually i blend a bit with my hand blender for Roo and chop some spaghetti and mix, he likes some spaghetti on his high chair tray to play with too. This goes down really well and makes small people and veg haters eat 
their veg ;0)


 Go on give it a go!!
  

and now a sig ..

I think this might work just checking .. ahhhh i do like faeries =0)

Header ..

Done! Phew that was hard work remembering!
   I think this job may take a while ;0) ... In other news today Roo is really quite poorly unsure why but calpol and super mummy juice seem to be working thankfully! He must be feeling off colour he refused real food today at lunch time. Which reminds me, after my initial brush with Plum Organic last week I bought more of their products to try out. The most popular choice being 'Spelt fingers' with pomegranate;

The spelt fingers come in packs of two, perfect size for tiny hands and mouths as you can see below. The texture and taste is great and Roo absolutely loves them. The only downside I could see was the slime they leave behind, but as with any other rusk/biscuit type product, it is an occupational hazard unfortunately! Bring on the slime free rusk is what I say! i am always shocked at just how hard the aftermath is to remove from skin, hair and fabric! Again Plum have hit the jackpot here with a guilt free yummy treat well done! 

As you can see above, sock gloop!

Customising my blog ..

I could be some time ...
Have decided to try customising this thing, Its something I have done before, however it was some time ago and I am now very old .....
Wish me luck!

Conkers...

Hello people back again after a weekend with my older lovelies ...
   I have decided to begin the 'great fitness revival' for my own and others(those that have to look at me) benefit. Having a baby, at what ever age, smashes your brain and body for a little while. Sometimes a long while in my case!
   We have gym membership, and have had for the whole of my time being pregnant, silly I know but seemingly more hassle to alter than to keep paying. Anyway I digress, I have been telling myself to get organised for at least ummmmm six months, but having Roo has been enough to organise without thinking or myself. We all know how things end up when we have small people bounce back into or indeed come into our lives.
    The preparation for the gym has begun, well yesterday it did and I intend to go when I leave the keyboard and have fed the young one his lunch. I have decided as a kind of preliminary warm up to throwing myself back onto the treadmill I will be taking a long walk daily. with the help of a pedometer and google maps I worked out yesterday that I managed 4.8 miles. Which I thought was a great start and I felt good about it, it works on two levels you get to feel fitter and you don't want to eat! Bonus!
    Now Conkers, I managed yesterday to walk under around forty Horse Chestnut tree's on the way out of the village and down my chosen path, they were everywhere I looked. I just couldn't resist picking them up, they shone out of the grass and on the wayside like some glowing prize calling out individually for salvation from someone's shoe or horror of horrors the wheel of a car! What is it about them i find so attractive? They just feel so good and look so amazing far to good to pass by. They bring back memories of when my oldies were young, going off on a Sunday with a carrier bag with Nathan to get as many as possible so that he could show them off to his friends and play conkers with them. Now I do realise Roo is still far to young for this but it seems I am not!
     Now what to do with them? answers on a postcard please! ..... they are jolly good moth and spider repellents so I may have a go at making them look nice and hanging them around the house. They are just so pretty and tactile, I do hope I haven't disappointed too many children by taking them!

Plum Organic.........

Thought it was about time for another baby food review, I am going to stick with the pouches for now as I find the packaging so damn handy!

 The blurb say's this is 'organic superfood for babies' it contains 'supergrain quinoa goodness', the flavour we tried as you can see is spinach,parsnip and basil. First of all the packaging is great, has all the information you need on it and is free of everything you wouldn't want in it,preservatives, additives,salt,sugar,bulking agents,GM ingredients, gluten,egg and dairy! Also as the packet says 'guilt free'! It is also endorsed by 'Organic Farmers and Growers'.
Pro's

• Roo loved it ate the whole pouch (he is generally sniffy at lunchtime so this is a biggie)
• Texture was as expected
• smell was actually reasonable
• I felt 'good' giving him it (maybe part blurb and part spinach there)              

Cons

• Again the colour was awful but impossible to change (it did resemble fresh duck poo)
• Packaging is difficult to recycle for me ( Tetra pack is not accepted in our recycling bins)

   I am so very impressed by this they are certainly one to try ladies. I will be buying more for when we are out and about or when I just cannot be bothered to get the blender out! We all have those days dont we! Been over to look at there website http://www.plum-baby.co.uk/ and liked their facebook page I am so impressed.
   I must again add that I have not been given this to try or asked to do this review, tis just my ramblings! However if companies would like me to review thing's I am more than willing to do so contact me HERE .

Jabs and weigh day ...

  Hello intrepid readers, firstly apologies for not managing to visit this space yesterday but the day was indeed action packed and sometimes fun.
      It was an early start at Moon Mansions, as usual, Roo likes to get up once awake in the style of most babies I am sure, there is generally something he might be missing. Mostly of late the whereabouts of the wipe packet seems paramount, that lovely crinkly item seems to be his favourite toy for now. Breakfast was soon gone, the banana/wheetabix combination is doing really well at the moment! After his wash we got dressed, I flicked an eye at the clock and realised I would have time for breakfast too, luckily! I am desperately trying to re-implement breakfast for myself and kick start a new eating regime, I wont for now call it a d**** because when I do that it all goes wrong and people start expecting things, or is it vice versa  ?? Anyway I digress... There we are, after aforementioned breakfast and with five minutes left before we have to dash for the bus, when I realise that to go to the doctors and clinic I need to take the 'red book'. The usual 'panic shredding' of the front room and study ensued until I found it just in time to run for the bus, drag the pushchair onto it and sit down.
        'Inoculation day' at the doctors is instantly recognisable by the pile of pushchairs and car seats and the intermittent wails from behind the nurses' door. All of us sat with our little lovlies on our knees', giving them our best 'everything will be ok, I promise' look, waiting for the call from the poor nurse who has an equal if not excelling 'everything will be ok, I promise' look for them on arrival. They must have an inkling what is going to happen by the time they get to the third set, which we had yesterday. Roo I think resigned himself to the fact it was happening, there were no tears at all, just a little yelp and a huge feed straight away afterward. The worst part was holding him still to tape down the cotton wool I think. It did however make me wonder if I had become immune to the process somehow as I watched other mum's wander in and out clutching their precious cargo, hearing the screams and seeing their poor eyes still full of water after their experience. I have to say we fared rather better for it whatever it is.
        To add insult to injury, it being a Tuesday, we went down to the 'Drop in and weigh' session at the sure start centre straight afterward. By the time we arrived there Roo was a wafer from a beautiful sleep when once again lifted him from the seat and took my number and waited to be called. As ever the room was full of mums of all ages with their tots and teenies of all ages and sizes. We got a distinct amount of 'hair envy' for some reason yesterday, there seemed a glut of babies with luscious locks, Roo however is still sporting the 'Ray Winston', or indeed the 'Alan Shearer' as my hubby likes to call it. I would describe it more like a lovely blond peach fuzz. I am used to having babies with this hair style two of my girls were like this and now have good full flowing locks so I do realise it wont last. In fact i think it was rather worse for the girls, especially Kate, she had similar till she was nearly three, and I tired of being asked how old 'he' was! it was soon my turn and Roo was weighed, after some visable sigh's at his size from a couple of the other mum's I proudly placed my 'cherub' on the scales. He is following his 'line' so no worries there, the health vistor seemed happy. she doesn't say much, so we got dressed and went off for the bus. As we did the heavens opened, both myself in sandals and Roo in shorts got duly soaked.
          The whole morning did get me thinking, why do we all inherently 'size up' each other's perfect progeny?  Do we really need centiles? And ... of course ... Why does it always rain on me??
       

Weekend sewing ...

  Due to a few obstacles blogging this weekend was of course a big fat zero, reasons for this as follows ;

• Rugby world cup (sorry ladies I cannot resist the lure of all those men grappling, oh and sometimes getting muddy ... drool ...).
• I had promised myself I would finish a shirt I started two weeks ago
• Roo has been decidedly fun, chatty and wide awake!
• I have a book to read and review!

   Due to changes in plan, and the fact that hubby had an awful day at school, I told hubby I didn't mind if he went out to play with his friends Saturday morning at the pub to watch the rugby. I was happy to watch at home, as most of you are probably not interested in rugby,suffice to say England won Huzzah!

   Strangely afterward whilst sat 'conversing' with Roo, who has created all manner of new noises for our delectation this weekend, I somehow managed to find 'Big Brother' on channel five. Now speaking as a total BB convert, I had been avoiding this year especially after the move to channel five and awful guests in the celebrity edition. So with one eye on the guests as they entered and the other two on Roo the day progressed.  I have to say I really don't envisage watching any more of it what a motley crew they have chosen! Lots of fame hungry kids who think they are just so talented and beautiful it makes them want to squeak! What is the point of it this time, there will be little of interest to learn from them and even less to watch apart from posturing and flouncing and the off-chance they may get egg on their faces in some silly task. For me it's the end of and era, sadly.

   Roo is five and a half months now , hard to believe, it seems to have gone so quickly. I am however noticing and logging every second as  I did with the others. I think because he is probably going to be the last the watching and photographing has taken on a life of its own! It was commented on recently by an old ( and childless) friend, something long the lines of 'haven't you got anything better to do than take photo's of him?' I have to say I don't think there is much better use of time than spending it with my children. She will now and forever be known as the 'baby grinch'.

   Ah sewing, now for those of you that are just joining hubby and I like to go into other centuries now and then. Mostly 17th century English Civil War with a smattering of early eighteenth (recognizable by looking at the pirates movies). Soooooo i like sewing and making costume, i also have some idea's for more modern sewing pursuits in the pipeline so watch this space. But for now here is the shirt I have been working on this weekend; it is made in a lovely fine linen and is all hand sewn, not quite finished yet and I think it may fit Roo when he is about three haha!#

Anyway back to this book!!

For him .... by e.e.cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

The breakfast of kings! ....

     I think I have found it ... for now anyway ... i am sure Roo will be as fickle as any one of my other children but just for today it got a 'double leg kick jig' from Roo!
    I only ever get the 'double leg kick jig' for booby or peaches otherwise so far ... this is big competition so I thought I would share.

   I took one of the wheaty biscuits and added half a banana and some milk (from the aforementioned place). He absolutely loved it in fact I have never seen him so sad when a bowl has been emptied!
    Once again just passing on my opinion and Roo's of course! i bought these in Asda last week on the off chance, I will however look at the difference in ingredients between these and regular Wheatabix  and see how the prices are.
   Always good to find things that make your children smile I find!

Another milestone ...

  Ok so I thought in the spirit of mothers everywhere I would write to tell you of Roo's latest milestone. I wonder if you will guess which one it is? .. Actually I have to say I very much doubt that you will, No its not sitting up (he does this when he feels like it), No no its not crawling (Him tummy gets in the way) and no not a word yet apart from gloob gloob rarghhhhhhhhhhh. Which I challenge you to find in any dictionary!
   The milestone of which i speak is one that most Mum's and Dad's will have encountered and mentally noted but maybe not spoken about apart from perhaps with their relevant other or Mother. It is the great milestone of the 'real human poo'.  
    I know this may mean nothing to some and lots to others, but I guess the reason it has stuck, for want of a better word, in my mind is that it seemed to take so long this time! Roo has been and still is exclusively breast fed obviously now alongside some food and baby gloop. Hence his offerings have been and remained the yellow seedy mustard crossed with runny custard kinda deals that occur with most bread fed babies. It has its own smell but not a particularly awful one.
   But after some blockage yesterday saw the milestone laid, and indeed laid again and again! ;Now he has got the hang of it there is no stopping him!
    I have mixed feelings about it but most importantly it means that his nappies will be infinitely easier to wash and i will have to start using flushable nappy liners .. so all in all ... HUZZAH!!!

Weaning ... the REAL food challenge!

  Ok so you will have seen the earlier blog about 'testing the fruit'  earlier today I am sure... If not go and see!" Today for the purposes of this blog and my sheer annoyance at the quality of said fruit puree I have just given Roo some banana and strawberries ...

  The first thing you will notice, apart from the fact my blender is older than my oldest child, is the colour! It smells like ... you've guessed it ... banana and strawberries ..... and tastes just the same!
  It took me three seconds to whizz and Roo took around 10 seconds to eat it ( maybe a slight exageration there).
   Roo yummy factor 10 (tho most things are as yet)
   Mummy yummy factor 10!

Facebook link page ..

   Now ... remember I am very 'old' .. I think I have set up a blog page on facebook that lets me post these blogs for all to see that want to. But I am as yet reasonably new to blogging and all that stuff. facebook is great I guess , it is at least something I have done for some time. However I prefer this platform somewhat.
    I guess I just feel I can write my inner ramblings here and people chose to read it or not whereas facebook seem's to throw it all at you whether you like it or not!
   

Testing the fruit ...

   For those of you that know me personally, Roo has been eating fruit and vegetables that I have made for a couple of weeks, I have basically gone with my instincts re weaning as I did with the others. However after reading some of the bumpf I have been handed and sent from various angles I have decided that I will take a look at some of the advice and test some of the pre-packaged food that we have all been sent through the post by various companies and see how they live up to their claims. This of course is only the opinion of one 'rather old' mum and one 'jolly gorgeous' baby.
    I would like to just add here that I have not been paid in any way for this I just think it may be valuable to other mums starting on the weaning journey. It may however of course never be read and be no help whatsoever =0).

    Here is today's offering this i recieved through the post from Hipp Organic a few weeks ago with some vouchers no doubt but I can't be sure as I never manage to redeem he things in time" (am I the only one??).

Pro's

• He ate it
• the packaging is handy (if not fully recyclable)
• texture was good

Con's

•  it smelled of nothing
•  it tasted of nothing 
•  the colour was awful

   I do realise that packaging and mass producing food like this causes its own problems but I really feel at least with this product that no one actually thought to try the taste of it. I am really grateful that it is all organic and 100% fruit but what happened to the flavour? I am a cook and create and use puree's for all sorts of recipes ( see fruit leather), so i am well aware of how to keep and adjust flavour and colour. It is totally doable!

     Also in my opinion the packaging should by now be fully EASILY recyclable. I added the 'easily' because most of us now have recycling solutions close by, in my case on my doorstep with a selection of bin's and boxes. Surely by now there are recyclable options available, rightly or wrongly I always think that this should be in the front of more companies minds especially those that have gone through the bother of sourcing 'organic' produce. Mind you I guess I could be barking up the wrong tree there of course all food however and wherever it is grown is organic! Anyway back in my box for now =0)

Weaning ....

   Ah that fateful time ... time to remember all that you did before and forget it and read the new rules again! I swear that these 'health professionals' and baby food creator's are in cahoots to try and make us change our weaning patterns every year, in fact possibly bi-annually by the look of all the information I have just been thrown for Roo!
    Bearing in mind that I am indeed 'very old' and have done this four times before even I am surprised and astounded at the sheer amount of differing information there is in each company specific pack that I have been handed.
     I have decided to try and wade through it all and try and test the idea's and give my view on them and on each different food we encounter along the way here .
    I didn't realise it was such a contentious subject either ... anyway ... BED! (more tomorrow)

Roo

Roo is the little fattypuff ... he makes me smile and loves to poke out his tongue!

Nathan ...

Nathan is my oldest ... I used to call him bean ... doesn't matter how far away he is i still love him!

Sammi

Sammi is my tiddler  .. she would so say this .... she needs to realise just how clever she really is!

Kate ....

Kate is the oldest girl and her hair is better than this ... in fact I am quite jealous of her hair ... she is beautiful and i love her!

Rose .....

 Rose is my middler, she is now 15 ... The smallest baby and longest birth ... a beautiful mind and possibly way too much thought! This is the colour of the roses my mum bought for me when Rose was born. I only wish that Mum could see her now x

Smartipants ....

  Well here goes nothing ... before the holiday's some lovely lady came to visit our 'baby time' session and talked to us about the council initiative for refunding some cash if you invested in re-usable nappies. Details here. 
  She was a lovely young lady called Faatima, and was a Nappy Guru for Flll your pants. She offered all of us a sample pack of 'smartipants' nappies, each pack containing two spartipants wraps and two 'super absorbent microfibre' liners. Faatima was very helpful and sweet and introduced us all to the scheme and gave us the infor on the nappies she gave us and information on the website.
 'Smartipants' , at first look appear to be very similar to other nappies available on the market. In fact almost exactly the same as some i bought from China on Ebay. The poppers being exactly the same position wise and the 'leak guard technology' ( a seam) almost exactl;y placed in both.
 We do have many different brands of both nappy and insert and I would have to say they are much of a 'muchness' with the others we have. 
  Pro's 

• They are slim when dry and wet
• they wash and dry well and quickly
• they are easy to use
• wide range of colours
• good strong snaps

Con's

• they are not well 'finished' considering the price you are paying
• Liners supplied are just ordinary
• 'leak guard technology' is a seam and doesn't seem to work particularly differently to any other nappy I have used
• they promise the world and are at best ordinary

    The biggest plus point about this freebie from the Nappy guru, is that they were well packaged and supplied in a lovely wet nappy bag. I have I admit used the wet nappy bag more than I have the nappies! It is dead handy all the time.
      We used the nappies whilst away camping and at home over the six weeks holiday, I have not been asked to do these reviews or given anything for the purpose of this blog. Whilst I am happy to review if companies/people wish me to this review has been written for anyone that cares to read it and I hope it will help other people make an informed choice when buying their cloth nappies.
       On the plus side, all I can do is praise the work of the Nappy Guru's and sing the praises of http://www.fill-your-pants.com/. Without one i would not have found the other! http://www.fill-your-pants.com/ is an amazing website very easy to use with lots of offers and giveaways available. I am most impressed by the 'pants points' such a good idea and a great way to spread the cost of cloth nappies.
      I was a convert before I found the site but I do feel it is the most informative and friendly of the various sites available on the web today. They hold lots of stock not only nappies and they are well worth a look!


  The opinions here are mine and I have not been paid or invited to write this review.

Coming Home ....

  Well at last we are home for a while with no great rush to pack up the car/mini bus for yet another excursion. So far this week Roo has spent 28 days under canvas, pretty good for a five and a bit month old! It has however been twelve weeks of walking in and out of the house and washing cleaning ironing and repacking So it is great to have landed finally!
  Have lots to share on the holibobs but will do it slowly as and when I have time. Yesterday i realized how filthy my carpets were for example ... its all go around here!
   Just taking advantage of a small sleep from the boss to get on here and start again! Whilst we have been away we have had fun with all sorts not least with some washable nappies from 'smartipants' which I intend to review as my new blog in between the madness!
   Its good to be back!