One of *those* Mothers

I am one of *those* Mothers.

You know the ones that bake cakes with the children and say it was fun.

One of those ones that make their children dressing up costumes even when there isn't a party or school event.

Well I know who she is supposed to be.

One of those ones that turn shopping into learning experiences.

One of those ones that read books to their children that they want to read but are just too young for.

One of those ones that make paper plate faces.

One of those ones that make paper plate cafe food.

One of those ones that spend hours searching the shops for a special ribbon.

See that Gold present there with the rainbow ribbon? Yeah hours that one took.

One of those ones that saves toilet rolls and asks others to save them too so she can build a castle.

One of those ones that spends Friday night watching a film with the children.

One of those ones that knows what is going on at school.

One of those ones that talks to their child and the child talks back.

One of those ones that I didn't ever want to be but it turns out I am and I wouldn't have it any. other. way.



With thanks to Chatty Mum and Fashion Mum for pointing out I was one of *those* Mums last Thursday!

Princess Mummy (and Daddy)

What did I learn in February? I learnt that I need to learn when to keep quiet. Actually no, I learnt that I need to learn when not to leave comments on blogs and then to follow my comments up in Twitter.

The Internet is forever don't you know?

You see it all started the other day when I was reading Living with Kids and there was a great post about the British Dance Council and Disney supporting each other with the creation of the Disney Princess Dance. It is all about encouraging our children to get active and as we all know we should lead by example!

I commented;

"I am so going to vblog this!"

And just over four hours later I was involved in another Twitter Dance Off (I won the last one I tell you, look its here if you don't believe me. I am the one in the nappy and its not true about the camera adding weight. I also look several years younger and more male...)

So here is my entry (with a little help from Daddy.....) into the Living with Kids Princess Dance Challenge... and if you want to see the competition I'm up against then take a look at Karin at Cafe Bebe and Manda at Flying Start who have also filmed themselves dancing to this.

Unless, of course, they were lying and its just me.

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 - And Goldilocks ate it all up!

Daddy looked in the cupboard and decided that breakfast for Top Ender and Baby Boy would be porridge seeing as the snow was still quite thick on the ground.

He was helping Baby Boy to eat his when;

"This doesn't taste right Daddy" said Top Ender
"What do you mean?" answered Daddy
"Mummy makes it with flavour" said Top Ender

Daddy did tell me, but grudgingly so.