Our weekly meal plan! 13th - 19th July!! #MealPlanningMonday

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was a good one with lots of family time, we watched football, spent time together and that was pretty much it, apart from watching some movies and the usual boring chores which appear every weekend! Hmmf.

Last week's meal plan went pretty well. We managed to stick to most of the meals but by Wednesday it was just too hot to stand in the kitchen and cook. We ended up having leftovers and random things out of the fridge, which worked out quite well. I always think leftovers are a great way of using things up and saving a bit of money too. I've looked at the weather forecast and this week is set to be a little cooler. Phew! All winter I wished for warmer weather and now it's here I want colder weather. lol

This week I don't have anything planned for myself, which is quite nice. The rest of the family have lots going on but I will be doing my usual job of keeping everyone organised, making sure people are where they need to be and reminding them about things they have forgotten. On the meal plan, there are a couple of requests from the girls this week which makes my life easier. It's so hard coming up with what to feed everyone, every evening! The slow cooker will be getting plenty of use too, partly because it makes life easier and partly because it helps keep the kitchen cooler.

On the menu this week we have:

Monday - BBQ pulled pork in buns with potato salad.

It has been ages since we had pulled pork and Ellie requested this meal. It is one of those meals that feels like a treat but is actually really easy to make. I have found the simplest recipe and it will be cooked slowly throughout the day in the slow cooker. We will have it in buns with BBQ sauce and a side of potato salad.

Tuesday - Sausage pasta!

Tomato, onion and garlic pasta sauce with sausage chunks for a bit of substance. I might add some peppers and we will of course have it with a side of garlic bread!

Wednesday - Chicken curry, rice and naan bread!

This is Becky's choice and she has asked for chicken curry. She loves a korma, so that is what we will be having. Nothing too spicy, just a nice creamy curry with rice and naan bread on the side. I will be making it the lazy way in the slow cooker and using jars of sauce.

Thursday - Carrot & coriander soup with mango chutney pastry twists!

I know soup isn't usually a summer meal but this carrot and coriander soup is light, fresh and doesn't feel like a heavy winter soup at all. I will make plenty so we can have some for lunch the next day too. The mango chutney pastry twists are great as a side, they're just puff pastry with mango chutney spread on. I always make a few extra and have them for lunch on the day I make the soup.

Friday - Chippy tea!

Friday night and we're back to having a chip shop tea! No cooking, no fuss and the biggest drama is deciding what we fancy.

Saturday - Burgers in buns with fries!

Simple beef burgers on brioche buns with fries and probably some salad. Burgers always feel like a Saturday meal in our house. They are easy to make, everyone can add their own toppings.

Sunday - Toad in the hole, mashed potato and veg!

I am cheating and have bought ready-made toad in the holes which just need popping in the oven. Thanks Aunt Bessie! hehehe We will have it with a creamy mash and probably peas and carrots with lots of gravy over the top!

What are you eating this week?

A photo every day for a year! 5th - 11th July Week 28 of #Project365

Happy Sunday!! I hope you've all had a lovely week and are enjoying your weekend. I am writing this on Saturday evening before the big England match, so by the time you're reading this we'll all know the result. I am really hoping we won but after seeing a lot on social media, it feels to me, it's all set to be Argentina and France in the final.

Yesterday was the first Saturday in weeks that felt like a proper Saturday. It had cooled down from what it was and we did all our usual Saturday things. I spent most of the day catching up with housework, doing washing and getting a few blog posts written, Ellie was out doing her own thing, Becky slept off her night shift and Stu was at work. Once everyone was home, we had tea together and settled down in front of the TV. We have no plans at all for today. I think I am going to watch some movies and have a lazy day!

Now for a photo every day!

186/365 5th July

I had a sort out of all the things I bought from the country show and found homes for them. I got myself some bargains, a frame with glass art in which had a little scratch on it for £10 instead of £15 and this Harry Potter wall plaque. It only cost £2 which is great because you don't often find Harry Potter bits and pieces that cheap any more.

187/365 6th July

A sort of salad for tea! There was ham, lettuce, sweetcorn, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, beetroot and new potatoes. Nothing fancy but exactly what we all fancied, especially after all the hot weather we've been having. It was nice not having to cook. I left Stu to watch the ham as it boiled and he cooked the new potatoes too, so when I got in there was nothing left to do apart from put everything on a plate!

188/365 7th July

My tomato plants are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing and I have tons of little tomatoes growing. I'm hoping we get a really good crop this year as I have plans for them. Usually I end up picking them, washing them and putting them into a bowl in the fridge where everyone just grabs one every time they walk past but this year I have plans to make home-made pasta sauce, bruschetta, salsa and chutney!

189/365 8th July

Stu knows someone who was lucky enough to go to the British Grand Prix last weekend and he asked if they would mind picking up an extra programme for Ellie. They did, which was so kind of them. When I saw the price I was shocked, it cost £20 but once we started looking through it though I could understand why. It's absolutely packed with information about Formula One, the teams, the drivers, statistics, interviews and loads more. Ellie was so pleased with it and I know it'll be something she keeps rather than just flicking through once.

190/365 9th July

I spotted these Minecraft ice creams in Tesco while doing the food shop and I couldn't resist buying them. The girls used to be crazy about Minecraft and still play it now and again. They thought they were brilliant. Of course I had to try one as well. They tasted OK but nothing amazing. They're more exciting to look at than they are to eat but kids will love them!

191/365 10th July

Blue skies, sunshine and another stupidly hot day. There was no escaping the heat on Friday. I walked to my dad's and it wasn't too bad, as there was a bit of a breeze but as soon as I stepped inside it felt like walking into an oven. He had fans going but they didn't seem to make much difference. They were just moving hot air around rather than cooling anything down. I got home and went straight into a cold shower, which helped for about 10 minutes. Ugh!

192/365 11th July

I used to love the Feast ice creams, not any more! What have they done to them! They used to be chocolate ice cream on a stick with a chocolate coating and a solid chocolate centre. Now the chocolate ice cream is vanilla and the hard chocolate centre is basically a blob of Nutella. They're too hazelnutty and are not nice at all.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

This week my Word of the Week is: Unexpected!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

This week has had a lot of the unexpected and has been full of little surprises. From the weather changing, to football results, to Ellie making plans for the future and to random flying visitors in the bedroom.

The week started with us going to an agricultural show and it was a fantastic day out (I have a post coming about it). The weather was perfect, although not quite in the way I expected! Throughout the day it was sunny and bright for 10 minutes, then the clouds came in and we had a chance to cool down. When we left the house, it was grey and overcast and I thought it was going to stay like that, so stupidly didn't bother with sun cream. By the time we got home, my shoulders and back were starting to sting a little. I slathered myself in after sun lotion and thankfully, it helped. I peeled a little mid-week but it could have been worse and at least I have a nice tan to show for it, even if it wasn't gained in the most sensible of ways! It's a reminder that you can never fully trust a cloudy day.

Did anyone stay up and watch the England match on Sunday night? I didn't but did catch up the next morning. Everything seemed stacked against England, with Mexico not losing many matches, not losing at their stadium and our boys playing at altitude but they did great and we got the win! We had a day without football on Wednesday and it felt strange after having so many matches over the past three weeks or so. I didn't realise how much I had got used to having a match to look forward to. It became part of my evening routine. Tonight it's the England match and I am part excited and part nervous! All I've seen on my TikTok over the last couple of weeks is Erling Haaland. He is quite the character and it's quite scary how fast he can run! I know a little about football and my thought is Dan Burn needs to start the match to deal with him. I've seen them play against each other in the past and if anyone can stop Norway scoring, it's Big Dan Burn! Football is full of unexpected moments, which is probably why we all love watching it.

At the end of last week, I felt like there was no routine to my life. I like routine. I used to have Tuesdays and Wednesdays by myself when Ellie was at college but now she is home more and I was starting to feel I had no time to do my own thing. I don't think it helped that Stu had a couple of days off work and Becky had the whole week off so everything felt strange. This week was just what I needed. Becky and Stu were back at work and Ellie has been here, there and everywhere this week doing her own thing. She met up with friends, had a visit to college to sort some paperwork out that she should have done before she left college and went shopping for something to wear to a job interview. She hasn't got an interview yet but she wants to be prepared as she has been applying for a lot of full-time jobs. She applied for a dream job during the week: it's local, dealing with one of her favourite things and something sort of to do with engineering but not the typical engineering job. I don't want to say too much yet but it has made me smile how she is following her dreams in a round about way.

I can't have a Word of the Week post without talking about the weather. It has been another warm one. I am sitting here at half past 10 on an evening and it's still 21C (69F). It's going to be fun trying to sleep tonight. Last night I was lying in bed and heard what I thought was rain. I thought surely not, so I got up to look and it wasn't raining. I turned my head back to the bed and could still hear the noise and figured out it was coming from a plastic bag. I was brave, picked the bag up and looked inside and it was a fly which must have crawled in and couldn't find its way out. Somehow, I managed to keep it in there, tied the bag up and threw it downstairs. I swear the bugs are terrorising me! Just the other week I wrote in my Friday Favourites post how a bug had found its way into my laptop and was crawling around behind the screen. It's still there but hasn't moved and I don't notice it any more! Phew!

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

What I have loved this week! Week 28. #FridayFavourites

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine has been a good one. We've had lots of family time, days out and plenty of time to relax. Over the weekend we went to a local country show which was a favourite but I have a whole post coming about that, these are just the little things which I have been loving and I am of course linking up with Erika and Andrea to share.

The Sheep Detectives!

Every night a shepherd reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand. When he is found dead, the sheep realise at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it.

I love movies with talking animals and this was just brilliant! The Sheep Detectives on Amazon Prime was such a fun and easy watch, although there were some moments when I felt myself tearing up. The sheep all have their own funny personalities and I got way more invested in them than I expected. It's a mystery but it's not too serious, so you can enjoy it without having to think too hard and it has Hugh Jackman, which is a bonus!

Fudge!

Of course I got some fudge from the country show that we went to over the weekend and I have been eating it slowly, as I know I won't get any more until next year. I got Turkish Delight, Skittles, Baileys, Eton Mess and Malibu coconut rum flavour!

Project Hail Mary!

A science teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing Earth's sun, and realises that an unexpected friendship may be the key.

I finally watched Project Hail Mary on Amazon Prime. I'm not usually someone who gets excited about films set in space but this one, I enjoyed. It had me laughing, it had me worrying about what was going to happen next and I didn't want it to end. Ryan Gosling was great but Rocky stole the show for me. It wasn't all serious either, there were loads of funny moments mixed in with all the drama.

Horse Art!

Last year, at the show, I held off buying things until the end of the day and a lot of what I wanted was sold out. I ended up buying a little horse thing in a frame made of feathers but really wanted one made from shotgun cartridges. This year I got one to go with the feather one from last year.

England!

We're through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup and I think if we can get past Norway tomorrow night we might get to the final. I didn't stay up and watch the England v Mexico match, the 1am start was too late for me and then it got put back until 2am because of the weather. I did catch up on it when I got up and it was one of the best matches of the tournament and I'm not just saying that because I am from England. I shouldn't laugh after Jordan Henderson was injured but he did something special, getting a yellow card and being stretchered off without even playing a second of football. lol I hope he makes a speedy recovery.

Things growing in my garden!

Last week in my Word of the Week I mentioned my garden is doing well and this week it has got even better. The corn silk has started growing on my sweetcorn plants, which means there are ears of corn growing. I noticed my pepper plants have mini peppers on and my tomatoes are growing too! My flowers are blooming and the weeds are not actually taking over. I feel so pleased with my garden this year!

What have you loved over the past week?