Our weekly meal plan! 20th - 26th July!! #MealPlanningMonday

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Our weekend was a quiet one but nice. I did a bit of gardening on Saturday, along with the normal housework and yesterday was spent watching sport. The F1 Belgian Grand Prix and of course the World Cup final. I've watched nearly every other match, so had to really.

Last week's meal plan went well. We ate everything I had planned and on the day I had planned too! It felt like I was winning at life. lol All the meals went down really well and were eaten without any complaints. I do like it when that happens.

This week we have a few things going on and Ellie and I are going to go on a little adventure which I will share more at a later date. Oh! and the UK is getting a new Prime Minister today. Andy Burnham is the 7th in the last 10 years, which seems crazy but it happened. Eek! Can we not just get a good one and stick with them for a while?

On the menu this week we have:

Monday - Chicken satay salad!

This is something different for us because we've never actually had chicken satay salad before. Obviously, we've had chicken satay and we've of course had salad but we've never thought about putting the two together. It's marinated chicken served with salad and topped with a satay dressing. The recipe also includes pomegranate seeds but I think we'll give those a miss this time. The dressing is the bit I'm most looking forward to though, we love satay sauce here.

Tuesday - Tuna Patties and sweet potato fries.

Tuna is one of those things I always seem to have hiding at the back of the cupboard and it usually gets thrown into a sandwich or mixed into pasta when I need something quick but this recipe caught my eye because it’s a bit different. The patties are made by mixing the tuna with herbs, a little lemon, Dijon mustard, breadcrumbs and egg to help everything stick together. They’re then cooked until they’re golden on the outside. I’m really curious to see what everyone thinks of this one because it’s not something I would usually make.

Wednesday - A help yourself evening.

This is one of those easy tea nights where everyone can help themselves to whatever's in the fridge. There should be plenty of leftovers to choose from, so nothing will go to waste. Ellie and I are out for the day and I already know that by the time we get home I won't be in the mood to start cooking.

Thursday - Ham pasta bake!

I found this recipe on the NHS website when I was looking for recipes to use up leftover ham and even though it's aimed towards little ones, I thought it looked like something my whole family would enjoy. We love a pasta bake here. It’s got all the good stuff in it too: pasta, ham, mushrooms, onions, garlic and peas all mixed together in a tomato sauce. I like that it’s got a few vegetables hidden in it because sometimes it’s much easier to get everyone to eat them when they’re mixed into something tasty rather than sitting on the side of the plate looking lonely!

Friday - A 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. Last week I had the best fish and chips and I am quite fancying it again.

Saturday - Home made pizza!

We do love homemade pizza. I will buy the bases ready-made and we can add our own toppings. I will be having BBQ sauce, smoky sausage, onions, mushroom and a little sprinkling of cheese on mine!

Sunday - Beef chuck stew with thyme dumplings, mashed potato and veg!

This is exactly the sort of meal I want at the end of a busy week. A proper comforting Sunday dinner. This is made with slow-cooked beef and carrots in a rich tomato sauce, with herby thyme dumplings on the top. I will serve it with mashed potato and vegetables on the side. It will all be cooked in the slow cooker!

What are you eating this week?

A photo every day for a year! 12th - 18th July Week 29 of #Project365

Happy Sunday!! I hope you've all had a lovely week and are enjoying your weekend. Ours has been a good week but a quiet one. Quiet is good and I am not complaining in the slightest.

Yesterday was just a normal Saturday. Meal deals for lunch for Ellie and I, I cracked on with the housework, got the washing done and even did some weeding in the garden as it was very cool. I am not saying cold because after the weather we've had over the last month or so I am glad for a break from the heat. I managed to get quite a bit done in the garden without feeling like I was melting! We don't have much planned for today apart from watching the Grand Prix and of course the World Cup final. I will be cheering for Spain to win, Vamos, Espana!!

Now for a photo every day!

193/365 12th July

Technically Sunday as it was after midnight when the England match finished. It was a late one because it went to extra time against Norway. I was definitely feeling it the next morning but it was worth staying up for. Jude Bellingham was fantastic throughout the whole tournament and especially at the end of the Argentina match when he slapped one of the players around the head. Hehehe. I know he probably shouldn't have done it but it did make me laugh.

194/365 13th July

We went to the all-you-can-eat place in Hull on Monday. We always have a bit of everything but my plate was mostly full of noodles, garlic mushrooms and Coca-Cola chicken! We realised it was a good deal on a Monday, £9 something for the food and then a few pounds extra each for a soft drink. We could have spent the same at McDonald's or somewhere else and felt hungry a few hours later. We were full for the rest of the day. I didn't eat anything apart from a couple of biscuits later on that evening.

195/365 14th July

I got a few things from Primark including this Bon Jovi T-shirt! It came from the men's section but fits just fine. I quite like looking in the men's section because band T-shirts are often better than the women's ones. There was a hoodie that I thought about buying but it was a cream colour, almost white and I don't do well with that colour as I am a muck magnet!

196/365 15th July

One of my sunflowers is now as tall as me, five foot five and a half! Lol. I don't think it has stopped growing either. Every time I go outside it seems to have gained another couple of inches. Everything seems to have shot up this week. Flowers, plants and my sweetcorn is almost as tall as the sunflowers!

197/365 16th July

A few Crimson Clovers appeared in my garden this week and the bees and butterflies are loving them. After Googling it, I read that it is one of the most popular cover crops, meaning it's planted between growing seasons to improve the soil and the soil in my garden can do with all the improvement that it can get.

198/365 17th July

My dad's cherry tree is looking fabulous at the moment and is full of cherries. He is going to pick me some over the weekend as we only noticed them as we were leaving and we were short on time. I'm already thinking about what I'll do with them. I'll probably eat most of them just as they are because they're one of my favourite fruits but if there are enough left, I might make a crumble or pop some into a pie!

199/365 18th July

As I write this, I am sat here watching Little House on the Prairie, the remake on Netflix and I am loving it. The scenery is beautiful, the cast work well together and it is just so wholesome. It has that feel-good factor that is quite hard to find these days.

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

This week my Word of the Week is:

I hope you have all had a great week. I've had a good one but I feel like I don't have much to write about as not much has been happening here but I am sure once I start writing a post will come together.

The biggest news from this week is that England are out of the World Cup. Hmmf. I am gutted that they lost against Argentina. It seemed as soon as they went a goal up they panicked and played too defensively. Instead of continuing to play and making Argentina worry about them, England started focusing more and more on stopping Argentina scoring, which did not work. Oh well, we have one more match today against France to see who comes in 3rd place, which seems like the most pointless match ever. I'll still watch it though because it's football and I can't help myself.

This week we found out that Ellie could have another year at college if she wanted. She gets another year funded because she doesn't turn 19 until the end of August and the cut-off date is the 31st. It was quite a surprise because we'd just assumed that it was done with. She would love to do another year because lots of her friends will still be at college but that's the only reason. She's now reached the point where she feels like she's closed that chapter of her life and is ready to move on to whatever comes next. She has an interview next week for a little something, so we're keeping everything crossed that it goes well.

On Monday we went into town for a little mooch around the shops. We didn't really need anything so there was a lot of window shopping. We ended up stopping for lunch at the all-you-can-eat place because it's only £9 something at lunchtime on a Monday, which is such a bargain. I didn't eat another proper meal all day and just had a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits later in the evening. I definitely got my money's worth.

I've just started watching Elle on Prime. It's a prequel to Legally Blonde and I'm really enjoying it so far. Now that the football has finished, I can get back to my watch list and I have so much on it since I haven't watched anything apart from football for the last month. I want to watch Little House on the Prairie, I Will Find You, The Five Star Weekend, Ride or Die, Off Campus and Dutton Ranch. I don't know when I'll fit them all in.

A hosepipe ban came in at the start of the week and watering the garden has become a bit of a chore. Filling watering cans over and over again isn't nearly as easy as standing there with the hose. The plants are definitely worth the effort though. I remember at the start of the year when it seemed to rain every single day for weeks. I complained constantly about it. Well, I take it all back now. A little bit of rain would actually be quite welcome.

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!

All the little things I love about my garden! #FridayFavourites

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine has been a good one but quiet and I don't have many favourites to share from it, not because there hasn't been good things happening but because I haven't really done anything exciting, so I thought I would write about my garden. I am of course still linking up with Erika and Andrea to share.

I never used to be someone who got excited about the garden but these days I find myself looking out of the window to see what's changed overnight or wandering outside just to have a little look around. Here are some of the little things I love most about my garden.

Everything is growing really well!

This year everything seems to have gone a little mad. Every time I go outside, something else has grown, another flower has opened or a plant has doubled in size. It is amazing to see and it feels like all my hard work planting and nurturing the little plants has paid off.

The bees and butterflies!

One of my favourite things has to be all the bees and butterflies that visit my garden. I could happily sit watching them buzzing around for ages. I love how the bees disappear into one flower and then make their way on to the next one and I love how the butterflies seem to float around without a care in the world. I like knowing that the flowers are doing their bit to attract them too.

Random flowers that appear from nowhere!

I'll be walking around the garden and suddenly notice flowers growing somewhere I wasn't expecting them. Half the time I've completely forgotten planting them and the other half I haven't got a clue how they got there.

The afternoon sunshine!

One of the best things about our garden is that it gets all the sunshine from about 11am right up until it sets. I should really sit out there more but I don't like the heat and just sitting bores me senseless. I do pop out there throughout the day for a few minutes at a time for a mooch around, to take photos of my plants and give myself five minutes.

It's nice and low maintenance!

I'm not someone who wants to spend every day gardening. I like a garden that mostly looks after itself with the odd bit of help from me. I'll water the plants, pull out a few weeds, cut back the odd plant and that's about it.

Stu cuts the grass!

I think this deserves a special mention because it's one gardening job I don't have to think about. Stu keeps on top of cutting the grass, which I'm very grateful for because pushing a lawnmower around isn't really my idea of fun.

The birds!

There are the blackbirds hopping around looking for worms and the pigeons wander around like they own the place. I was sat here in the week and saw birds flapping around the front of the house and I looked and there must have been about 50 birds just pecking for worms or whatever they were doing. It was very odd to see! I love hearing all the birds singing first thing in the morning too. It's a much nicer alarm clock than my phone.

Everything changes so quickly!

One thing I love is that the garden never stays the same. One week there are buds everywhere, then suddenly they're all flowering. The colours change all the time and every few days there's something different to notice.

What do you love about your garden?