Our weekly meal plan! 15th - 21st December! #MealPlanningMonday

Last weeks meal plan went well, we ate everything apart from the Pizza on Friday as my dad decided to give us it for lunch and the picky bits on Saturday as my family decided that they wanted burgers and fries. We were all home so I thought I would go with what my family wanted.

We had a good weekend. If you read my post yesterday you will have seen our internet was off all day Friday and most of Saturday, my dad did rescue us and leant us his router which can be used anywhere which was a lifesaver when it came to blogging. I haven't quite got the hang of writing blog posts using my phone so without the borrowed router there would have been no posts over the weekend.

I don't know what I have planned for this week, I feel in a bit of limbo. I am as ready as I can be for Christmas but it's not here yet so I am just waiting. I am wracking my brain thinking of things that I need to do and so far I can't come up with anything which I suppose is a good thing. We have 3 Gousto meals this week, all one's we've had before but not in a while.

On the menu this week we have:

Monday - Stu is cooking!

Stu is off work and will be doing the cooking so it could be anything from omelette to goodness knows what.

Tuesday - Gousto meal - Chicken & Stuffing Sarnie With Plum Chutney!

I think last time we had this I coated the chicken in gravy too which gave it that extra bit of flavour. This was actually the recipe that taught me that stuffing was so easy to make.

Wednesday - Gousto meal - Curried Veg Soup With Parsnip Crisps & Yoghurt!

You can't beat a big bowl of home made soup in the winter and this is a good one. It has that little kick from the curry powder but isn't too spicy.

Thursday - Gousto meal - Hoisin Glazed Meatloaf With Crispy Potatoes!

My family love anything with hoisin sauce so this was always going to be a favourite of theirs. I cheat a little with this and make the meatloaf in the air fryer, I think it cooks better in there than in the oven.

Friday - Fish fingers, chips and baked beans!

I always think of this as a kiddy meal but sometimes you need a bit of that and Friday is fun day so why not!

Saturday - Pizza!

We might make our own, well ready made dough but put our own toppings on. I will go with BBQ sauce, salami, ham, mushrooms and onions.

Sunday - Sausages, mashed potatoes and vegetables!

Nice and simple, we will probably have carrots and sweetcorn.

What are you eating this week?

A photo every day for a year! 7th - 13th December! Week 50 of #Project365

I feel like I am ready for Christmas, well apart from getting the fresh food shop delivered, I have the slot booked and everything in the basket, now we just wait for delivery day! The freezer food has been bought, presents wrapped, lots of Christmas movies watched and I am feeling more festive with each passing day.

Stu had a treat, having Friday and yesterday off work. It worked out really well because our internet went off sometime in the early hours of Friday morning and didn't come back on. He rang Sky and they said there was a fault with our box and they're sending a new one out which should have arrived yesterday but after having a look on Facebook there must have been about 25 people, all customers of Sky with no internet. It took Sky until lunchtime on Friday to acknowledge there was a problem in our area. Ugh!

Now for a photo every day!

341/365 - 7th December

Sharing a bit of real life, a mountain of washing. It was clean, it just needed to be put away. It all got folded and took upstairs by Stu and Ellie.

342/365 - 8th December

Terry's Chocolate Oranges are around all year but they are something I associate with the festive season. I always remember getting one a year, in my Christmas stocking. It seemed like such a treat, now I probably eat one every couple of months.

343/365 - 9th December

Becky got all of her Christmas shopping done within a couple of days and was showing off what she had bought people from town. She was so proud of herself and can't understand why it takes me weeks to buy all the presents. lol

344/365 - 10th December

We got Becky's report from her heart check up! I have learned not to Google the words and terms that they use in the medical world when it comes to hearts as it's all so confusing and can cause worry, we're just taking the fact they don't want to see her for two years as a good thing and are ignoring the leaky heart valves.

345/365 - 11th December

I got Ellie and I a meal deal for lunch which came with the food shop order. In my opinion this year Asda has the best Christmas sandwiches and snacks. Ellie has a prawn cocktail sandwich and chicken and stuffing balls with a cranberry dip and I had a Boxing Day sandwich with turkey, ham, coleslaw and chutney and as a snack mini waffles, marshmallows and chocolate dip! Yum!

346/365 - 12th December

My dad came to the rescue when our internet went down, he loaned us his router thing from his office. It's such a clever thing. It doesn't need to be wired in or have a phoneline to work, you just plug it in anywhere and you have internet, it's like magic!

347/365 - 13th December

The last flower in my garden, a pretty little marigold. What a trooper it is, hanging on this late into the year!

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

This week my Word of the Week is:

I love this time of year, I have hit that magic point where I’m almost Christmas ready, not quite done but so close that that the panic has stopped and the fun bit can finally begin. It’s crazy to think that in a couple of weeks it’ll all be over and we will be heading into a new year.

Earlier this week my Dad took me shopping like he does every December, it's our little yearly tradition of trekking around the supermarket and filling the trolley with all the freezer bits for over Christmas. We had such a nice morning. Nothing fancy, just chatting, wandering and my Dad stopping every few minutes to speak to people he knows, how does one person know so many people! Of course I ended up buying more presents. I’d fully planned on giving a couple of people money in a card and then I spotted some lovely gifts and thought that's perfect and so much nicer than money. I couldn't help buying more for the girls and to be fair Ellie actually did need the thing I bought her. Something for her bedroom that she’s wanted ages, the only reason I’ve not bought it before is because the idea of dragging it home on the bus made me want to cry. I could’ve ordered it online but the price difference was crazy! Hooray for my dad and his car.

Every time I sat down this week and got comfy, without fail someone has knocked on the door with yet another parcel for Becky. She’s done nearly all her Christmas shopping online and had everything delivered, which is very organised of her except she works nights, sleeps during the day and I have become her unofficial parcel secretary. I feel like I've spoken to more delivery drivers than actual people this week. I had my own little moment of chaos with parcels this week. I got a text saying I had a DPD parcel arriving between something like 11am and 1pm. So there I was waiting but then I get the your parcel has been delivered message, I open the photo and it is not my house. I had a little panic and then it hit me, it wasn’t my parcel, it was one of the presents I’d ordered for someone else which was delivered to their house. They messaged me, thanked me for the gift and then I realised they had got their Christmas gift, I had sent them a birthday gift which was supposed to arrive before the Christmas one. It was all so confusing but they have their gifts so all is good.

I dedicated 2 days to wrapping presents this week as I do every year, plonked myself on the floor, legs going numb within about five minutes and just got on with it. I got everything wrapped and I am now laughing that the girls still haven’t started and Stu still has mine to do too. This is Ellie’s first year buying Christmas gifts with her own money and bless her she’s already learned an important life lesson: do not buy awkwardly shaped presents unless you’re prepared to suffer. Not one single thing she bought is in a normal square box, everything is round, lumpy, strange shaped or comes in packaging designed by a complete lunatic.

Present wise I’m pretty much done now. Everything’s bought, wrapped, organised and waiting to be delivered to family. This is the easy part, the fun bit. dropping things off and having a little catch up. I will of course get a telling off from my dad, saying we shouldn't have bought him anything. it's practically a tradition now. It isn't that he's not grateful, he just thinks we should spend our money on ourselves. It's just a joke now between my brother and I as to who can wind him up the most. hehehe

I am expecting a present of Sky today! Our internet went off yesterday so Stu rang up and the guy on the phone said our router was not working so he'd send a new one out. It was only after when I went on Facebook saw Sky Broadband was down in our area. Eesh. So if there is no blog post tomorrow you know our internet is still off and I have limited access.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good week. 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 50. #FridayFavourites

Hello there and happy Friday! I've been thinking, the first few months of the year drag and since October time has flown over! I’m torn between wanting Christmas to hurry up because I love it and wanting everything to just slow down a little so I can actually enjoy it without feeling like someone’s pressed fast forward on my life. Anyway, I’m linking up with Erika and Andrea again to share what I've been loving over the last week, week 50. We are so close to the end of the year!

Not catching the cold!

I'm classing this as a big win. I’ve dodged the cold, the one my eldest had. Bless her but the quarantining her to her bedroom worked. She’s better, she’s back at work and so far none of us have caught it. I feel like I should get a medal for avoiding germs.

A little treat!

You know when your kids do something small that just warms your heart more than any grand gesture could, Ellie did exactly that. She was out and about minding her own business and spending more money than she planned and she spotted a Maltesers Reindeer and bought me one! They only cost about a pound but she thought of me and I am never going to refuse chocolate! This is the kind of parenting win they don’t tell you about in all the books, it’s moments like this that make you think that they have been listening and I have raised a thoughtful child!

Half the Christmas food shop is done!

I went out with my dad during the week and bought all the freezer stuff for Christmas. We went with turkey and gammon for the meat, I got the sprouts with bacon bits and of course some extra stuffing because you can never have enough stuffing! I also bought a ton of party/picky bits. Mini quiches, sausage rolls, mini pizza, chicken on sticks and things like that! The freezer is full and I had a game of Tetris fitting everything in but it will keep up going well into the new year.

This weird sky!

Now this was a bit strange. I was sat here on Sunday, minding my own business and I glanced out the window. The sky was orange and not the usual sunset strip of colour either, the whole sky looked like someone had thrown a giant Instagram filter over it. There is no filter needed on the photo because nature was doing its own weird editing. It was eerie but also really pretty in an should I be worried kind of way.

Amazon Prime!

I need to take a moment to appreciate my eldest girls shopping skills! She absolutely smashed her Christmas shopping. She started Monday afternoon and was finished by Tuesday evening. She ordered just about everything with Amazon Prime and there have been deliveries all week. She wouldn't have managed without it. She picked up the last few bits in town and she's done, apart from the wrapping which she says she is doing tomorrow.

Spotify Wrapped!

I was late in seeing my Spotify Wrapped and last weeks post was already scheduled so it's making this week! Of course Taylor Swift was the top artist in our house but surprisingly Whiskey in the Jar by Metallica was our top song! I think we all listen to it, it's one of our families favourites.

Harry Potter!

I am having my annual watch of the Harry Potter movies. I only started watching because it said on Netflix they were leaving soon. My youngest has been watching them too and I cheated on her yesterday and watched the 5th one without her. I'm not even sorry, I'll happily watch it again.

What have you loved over the past week?