Top Ender Giggles - When she is right, she's right!

Last Sunday the car was covered in salt and sand from our trip to the seaside to see Nanny B, so Top Ender and Daddy went for a quick car wash whilst Baby Boy and I stayed at home.

Top Ender was sitting in the front seat whilst they were in the car wash and was looking out of the passenger window.

"We're moving Daddy" said Top Ender
"No it is just the brushes making it look like we are moving" answered Daddy knowingly
"No we really are moving" said Top Ender
"No Top Ender it is just the brushes, it is making an optical illusion" Daddy said trying to dust the dashboard
"We really are!" exclaimed Top Ender
"Top Ender! Daddy pleaded
"I swear we are moving!" muttered Top Ender

A few minutes later as Daddy started the car to drive out of the car wash he realised that the handbrake wasn't on.

"Oh erm you know what Top Ender? We probably were moving." he admitted
"I knew it!"

New Dinner Ideas for under £1 per person

Some of the most common search terms for my blog is to do with food, new dinner ideas, frugal meals etc. Well instead of people coming here and being disappointed I decided to post some new dinner ideas that come in at under £1 per person. It's also good timing as this coming month I have told Daddy that we are going to be eating cheaply... very cheaply.

First things first if you want to (or need to) cut your food budget there are several things that you can do that will save you a small amount each week depending on what you shopping budget was to start with!

1. Eat meat free one or two nights a week. Even if someone in your family feels that a meal isn't complete with out meat and two veg, if they know that the food budget needs to be cut they should understand. There are some meals that they might not even notice the lack of meat in listed below!
2. Portion control. Think about how much you serve everyone at meal times, it might be too much. Try reducing everything slightly and this should help.
3. Reduced produce. If you can buy the food at a reduced price then it will reflect in the budget!
4. Plan your meals. If you know that Wednesday nights is always really busy then plan something that is quick and easy for dinner, or something that can be cooked in the slow cooker.
5. Stop Eating out. Stop having takeaways or going to restaurants, if you do number 4, then you won't have to anyway.
6. Take lunch to work, don't wait for the Sandwich van to come round. Take some with you and save a fortune!
7. Save your leftovers. Buy some plastic pots (Tupperware!) and either freeze the leftover meal or save it for lunch the next day. If you do freeze the leftovers make sure you label the meal AND list it on a freezer inventory!
   
   
8. Stretch your meals. Rubber chicken for example is a favourite in our house (although it was Rubber duck last week!) and it is so cheap!
9. Make double and freeze it. Sometimes it is cheaper to make more than you need. No really. A good example of this is Curry. I like to buy premixed curry spices from eBay and then make a huge batch of curry which I then freeze in family sized portions.
10. Shift down a brand. If you normally buy named brands then go down to Store brand, if you don't like something then don't buy it again. Just don't buy the cheapest of the cheap or value brands for some items unless you read the ingredients first!

And now for the list of dinner ideas, if you need recipes feel free to ask but most of them are things that should be in any good cookery book or search engine!

Beans on toast (with an egg on top)
Casserole
Cauliflower cheese
Cheesy Bean pie
Cheesy mash and beans
Cheesy pasta (have pasta add cheese)
Chilli
Chilli Pasta
Corned beef hash
Corned Beef Hotpot
Cottage pie
Cowboy Casserole
Egg and Chips
Eggy Bready and beans
Fishfingers in tomato sauce
Fish pie
Fishfinger pie
Home Made fish cakes
Home Made Pizza
Jacket Potato and a whole variety of toppings!
Lamb Stew
Lasagne
Lentil Soup
Liver and onions (although not for pregnant women)
Meatloaf
Omlette (with or without additional items)
Pasta Bake
Pasta in Tomato sauce
Pasta with Bacon
Poor Mans Pasta (pasta with no additions other than butter)
Potato and Bacon Hotpot
Potato and Cheese Bake
Quiche or flans
Risotto
Sausages and mash
Scrambled egg, beans and bacon
Sheppard's pie
Spaghetti Bolognese
Spanish Omlette
Spicy Wedges and coleslaw
Toad in the hole
Toasted Sandwiches
Tuna and Pasta (with a little mayo)
Tuna rice salad
Veggie Stir Fry
Vegetable Rice Salad

I am thinking of doing a post next week about what to do with Leftovers, so let me know if you are interested!

And one last tried and tested idea, try to get invited to other peoples houses for dinner as often as possible!

Top Ender Giggles - Look at that!

Top Ender was sitting in the front of the car whilst we were driving home. We were all chatting together about various things when Top Ender suddenly shouted out

"Look at that!" and started pointing to the sky, just above the rear view mirror.

Wondering what was happening both Daddy and I bent to look out the window and it was lucky that we were at a junction or Daddy might of crashed the car.

"That is the biggest rain drop I have ever seen!" Top Ender explained "Well apart from that one just above it.."

Top Ender Giggles - Thats my girl!

As it is half term Top Ender has been allowed to stay up late to watch films and spend time with us before going to bed. Tonight she and Daddy were watching The Golden Compass whilst I worked.

At one point Daddy was a little lost with what was going on and asked

"What is in the bag?"
"Well Daddy if you weren't busy playing on your phone you wouldn't of missed it would you!"

Baby Boy Giggles - In the Middle of the Night

It has become the arrangement that if Baby Boy wakes up earlier than Daddy or I want to get up (After 5am but before 6am) he can come into our bed and have his morning milk whilst we all doze together. The other morning it happened and we all dozed off together after a few minutes.

Top Ender came into our room just after 7am to announce she was awake, but after a quick cuddle with me decided to go downstairs to listen to her ipod without her brother hassling her for a listen. Daddy decided that he would go downstairs to use the toilet and to just check that Top Ender was okay a few minutes later and as he left the room Baby Boy rolled away from me into the space that Daddy had just left.

He opened one eye and looked towards the door and Daddy

"Ssh!" he hissed at his Daddy's retreating back.

A few minutes later Daddy reappeared and gently edged into the bed. Baby Boy rolled over to me and cuddling in to me whispered whilst snuggling into me.

"Ssh Dad-Dad!"

I'm so proud ;)

I can't wait to be a Grandparent.

Then I can buy Easter eggs for a January birthday. I can complain loudly that I don't see my Grandchildren enough. I can spoil the Grandkids rotten. I can tell my children that they were just the same at that age. Or I could take round huge tigers for the Grandchildren to play with.

Of course the giant Tiger will breed if it is allowed to roam freely. The grandparents forgot to mention that when they brought it round.

That Baby Tiger Cub there looks a little tamer than the other two though doesn't it?

And because its Friday and Friday means a video of me here is one I prepared earlier. I'm not quite sure how I got involved in a Twitter Dance off... but I think that my team won.

 

Daddy Giggles - Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids

Baby Boy had insisted that Daddy sit down on the child sized bench at the toy piano and play for him. Baby Boy had then picked up some spoons in order to play the air drums as Daddy launched into singing Rocket Man in his best Elton John impression to date (he also does a pretty good Barry from the Bee Gees impression, a very good Yellow Wiggle and once a very good impression of Otis the Aardvark. His impression of Hagrid isn't that good however!).

Top Ender was sitting on the sofa and suddenly jumped up and rushed to the bathroom squealing as she went;

"I have a little bit of sick in my mouth!"
"I didn't think I was that bad!" sassed Daddy




Top Ender was completely unharmed in the making of this Blog Post and the subtitle is a line from Rocket Man!

Wordless Wednesday - Top Ender seduced by Valentines Day cakes

(Top Ender was seduced by the plastic glittery bling on the top of the cakes. She also thought they tasted good too!)

Fireman Sam saved my life... well sort of.

I never knew that watching Kids TV Programmes would be so beneficial. I mean I knew that my kids learnt from them, but I didn't realise other than the five minutes of peace that it gives me that *I* would learn from them.

It all started last week when Baby Boy and I decided to give the new Fireman Sam a try. We had seen a fire engine earlier that morning and spent the rest of the morning nee nawing around the living room. Anyway the episode was about how air feeds fires and the annoying kid Norman somehow managed to learn this at the Fireman training session.

Fast forward to Sunday and the idea that instead of any other form of potatoes we have deep fried chips with our oven baked Salmon and vegetables. Daddy, Baby Boy and Top Ender were all in the living room whilst I was serving up in the Kitchen. It was just time for the first lot of chips to be taken from the fryer and as I lifted the basket out my eye was caught by a pretty orange colour under the oil.

At first I thought that it must of been a chip that had been lost through the holes in the basket, when I suddenly realised that chips in bubbling oil don't turn bright orange. At this moment time slowed down. I remember calling out "Chip Pan Fire" in a matter of fact manner and Daddy appearing at the Kitchen gate.

It was at this point that I remembered the Fireman Sam episode so I knocked the lid of the chip fryer shut as I reached round to unplug it from the socket and wonder why the plastic dial at the front was glowing so orange. Surely if the oil was on fire then it would be contained in the metal pan?

The whole chip pan was on fire!

Having shut the lid however, there wasn't any air for the fire to feed on and it soon put itself out. A look this morning shows that the bottom of the metal liner has a small hole, which was the start of the fire I think. We really were lucky to have not had any damage to the kitchen, (or me!) and I think that it was all thanks to Fireman Sam and the annoying kid Neville.

And just because I haven't been able to stop singing this since Sunday here is a YouTube video of the old Fireman Sam theme tune (you know where he seems like a pyromaniac as "He's always on the scene!")

Top Ender Giggles - Ultimate in bad service

Going past this sign (yes I did make Daddy drive that way the next day so I could take a photo!) Top Ender was practising her reading skills and stated that the new McDonalds in the area wasn't very good.

"Whys that Top Ender?" we asked

"They only serve two meals every 24 hours" explained Top Ender

A Mothers Ramblings take on the Shiny Happy People Meme!

I have been tagged in the Shiny Happy People Meme by New Mummy over at New Mummy Tips and I was actually very pleased that I got this one as I had been waiting for it!

So this is the Shiny Happy People Meme and the rules are;

1. Name a song that makes you happy - a song you would listen to if you needed a sudden injection of happiness. And
2. Post an image that makes you smile. It can be anything - a silly photo, an image taken from the Internet, It just has to make you smile.

So here is my song. Yup Ghostbusters. I stick by my choice!!!!

And here is my image. Okay so there are two here, but I couldn't decide!

These were the first two pictures that were taken of me Top Ender and Baby Boy. I just love how in the first picture I am looking at the camera and Top Ender is looking lovingly at Baby Boy and in the second photo Top Ender is looking at the camera and I am looking lovingly at Top Ender and Baby Boy.

And now I tag;

Bare Naked Mummy

Kathryn at Crystal Jigsaw

Wordless Wednesday - Window patterns by Mr J.Frost

Top Ender Giggles - At least it wasn't in Tescos

I need to have a word with Mrs Wise Owl.

Top Ender was playing with Daisy and Daniel (her rabbits) and had just put them to bed.

She then announced that they had been having sex and they had filmed it on their mobile phones for them.

A quick discussion about what sex actually was (in broad terms) and she told Daddy and I that it was okay because her Rabbits look the same naked and so it was just like having sex with a mirror.

It was at this point Daddy nearly wet himself laughing and had to duck out of sight.

As I was saying I think I might need to have a word with Mrs Wise Owl.