Love, life and little things for April 2016

This month I'm tired, and I don't just mean physically, I feel utterly exhausted and drained. We've all had a silly virus/ infection type thing which robbed me of my voice for a few days and it seems to have really wiped me out. I've cracked open the Berocca and the Floradix and am plodding onwards. Onwards and upwards or at least forwards. I'm taking pleasure in the simple things - putting my feet up for half an hour, with a hot coffee and a Trio being my treat of choice at the moment.

I've got a few posts in the offing, but Harry's having a funny few weeks with his naps. Since he dropped to one nap, it's almost solidly been at least an hour and a half after lunch. Just lately - and probably to do with the change in the weather or being poorly - or the dreaded back doubles which are starting to make their existence known - he's managing an hour at best, and sometimes in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, and on really scary days... neither. Please don't mention nap dropping to me, he's not even 2 yet!

My favourite recipe of the last month has to be my Chickpea and sweet potato curry - we've eaten it more times than I care to admit - not least as it's syn free, and Harry loves it. The punchy flavours of the chilli, garlic and coriander really sing to me at the moment, and as a bonus it's cheap, full of veggies, and relatively quick to put together.



Once again Harry's language has come on in leaps and bounds over the last month - developmentally this is such a huge time for him - it's no wonder his daytime sleep is all over the place. And with those words, a growing obsession with modes of transport - especially trains - is emerging. Similarly, his imaginary play has come on in leaps and bounds - his chick, and bunny are frequently fed, offered milk, have their nappies changed and last night his sheep was given his dummy.  It's so lovely to see this development, and watch his awareness of the world around us change day by day.

I have the joy of starting a new blanket - this one is hopefully to be a new baby gift for a dear friend who's expecting. However, originally I thought it would be relatively gender neutral but it's turning out to be very girly so I think something else may be in order, just in case she has a boy. The blanket is Lucy's Harmony - and I'm thoroughly enjoying working the granny squares in such glorious colours, it's a really pleasure to sit quietly and make.

 There's been a distinct shift in the weather this month, in the space of a week we went from snowsuits  to sunhats. Last year I sewed elastic on Harry's sunhat, this year I'm unashamedly using bananas & biscuits as bribery. We use a sunblock from Superdrug - in SPF 30 which I religiously apply every half an hour - in an ingenious roll on design. It's fantastic as whilst Harry is quite used to having creams applied because of his eczema,  but the novelty of a rollerball keeps us all a bit calmer.

Chickpea curry recipe: vegan, dairy free, soya free, syn free

This quick, easy and incredibly tasty recipe is vegan, dairy free, egg free and soya free - when I Instagrammed it I used the #veganuary hashtag and it got lots of interest, similarly in both my Slimming World and CMPA groups people were after the recipe.

I wrote that first paragraph back in January. And then abandoned this post - and to be honest a lot of the blog. Without wishing to jinx things, I do have a few posts lined up at the moment.

This recipe was supposed to be the Chana Masala from the Oh She Glows cookbook, and it is still loosely based on that. However, I did that food blogger thing of adding a bit of this, a bit of that - until it became a bit different. Then when I made it the second and third times I did it from memory rather than a recipe and we seem to have set on my recipe so I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog it.



Chickpea curry - dairy free, soya free, vegan
Syn free on Slimming World

Fry light spray (or coconut oil if you're not on Slimming World)
2 red onions
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
Thumb sized piece ginger
3-4 carrots
2-3 sweet potatoes
2 - 400g tins chickpeas (if you're egg free, keep the water and use it to make awesome egg free meringues)
2 - 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 400g carton passata
1.5tsp cumin seeds
1.5 tsp garam masala
1.5tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
If not feeding a baby - Half tsp salt
Large bunch coriander

Either by hand or in the food processor, peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, chilli (I deseed it as I'm feeding Harry too) and ginger
Peel and grate the carrots and sweet potatoes
Liberally spray a large pan with the Fry light - or add about a tablespoon of coconut oil and warm it so that it's liquid
Add the cumin seeds and fry gently until they start to pop
Add the garlic, chilli, ginger and onions and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly. The onion should be really soft and completely translucent
Add all the spices and stir well
Add the grated sweet potatoes and carrots, and both tins of chickpeas. Stir to make sure that everything is coated in the spice/ onion mix
Add the tomatoes and passata and stir well.
Bring to a gentle simmer, put a lid on the pan and leave for half an hour - 45 minutes
Top with lots of freshly chopped coriander and serve with rice or roti.

Quick, easy, and super healthy. What's not to like?

If that's piqued your interest in a dairy free or vegan curry - why not try one of these recipes from some other lovely bloggers too:

• Over at The Veg space there's a lovely Swiss chard and new potato dhal that's ideal for those of us who are dairy free as it's packed full of calcium containing greens.
• Recipes from a Pantry has a gorgeous looking Roasted pumpkin red thai curry  Do not that you'll want to omit the fish sauce if you're veggie or vegan. Bintu suggests simply and easily replacing it with extra lime juice
• There's another Thai curry - this time green from Tin and Thyme - packed full of loads of lovely veggies and with my favourite cashew nuts too
• Tinned tomatoes has a curry my hubs would love - Mushroom and potato 

I'm adding this post to Attachment Mummy's Friday fabulous linky...

And A mummy too's Recipe of the week one too

Meal Planning Monday - 14th March

It's been weeks WEEKS since I meal planned, or blogged in any way shape or form. There's some very good and some less good reasons behind the hiatus. But in a nutshell, there has been lots going on and lots of it has been wildly stressful. I'm hoping and praying that the worst is behind us now, and one of my aims for this week is to get at least a couple of blogposts up to try and get myself back in the swing of things, and lets face it, this one is what's known as a quick win. 

Breakfasts: Harry's very much on a Weetabix kick at the moment, I've gone completely off porridge so am dithering around with toast or crumpets at the moment. I do need to find another cereal so that I can get some almond milk in me, but for now - toast, peanut butter and banana does what it needs to.

Lunches: Evidence of the recent stress is clear in the fact that I've been existing on sandwiches. It's unsurprising that my weight loss has completely stalled. That said, I was eyeing up some elderly looking carrots and half a swede in the cupboard yesterday and thinking about a big pan of my Spiced root vegetable soup.

Suppers:

Monday - tonight was a rather hopeless miss mash of leftover roast chicken, baked potatoes and veggies. A usual Monday night supper after a roast, but it really didn't sit well tonight.

Tuesday - Chickpea and sweet potato curry (post to follow at some point, possibly by next January at this rate)

Wednesday - Leftover curry

Thursday - Super speedy bolognaise.

Friday - Leftover bolognaise

Saturday - Sausages, sweet potato wedges and veggies.

Sunday - Chicken and butternut squash stew

Baking wise,  I'm yet to make our Simnel cake so that needs sorting this week and I'm desperate to make a batch of my Cherry and Almond buns

I'm going to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to try and get myself back in the swing of things. Wish me luck.

Meal Planning Monday

This week I'm doing something different with our meal plan. Writing it on Sunday for starters! But also I'm using Danni Martin, of Hungry Healthy Happy's new book of the same name as inspiration for our week's dinners. This isn't a sponsored post and I bought the book myself, I just fancied planning our week using a different inspiration and thought that was a good way to start.

Breakfasts: I made a highly experimental carrot cake porridge last week. As you can see it's not up on the blog yet and still needs some tweaking. Hopefully it'll be here next week - if I improve it.

Lunches: I didn't make soup last week, and ended up eating lots of sandwiches, so this week I have a pot of butternut squash soup on the planner. I'll roast the BNS with some red onions and garlic tomorrow morning before blitzing with some chicken stock and chilli.

Suppers:

Monday - Leftover chickpea curry, with brown basmati rice and roti. This is my recipe, and the post has been half written since the first week of January - this makes a lovely supper dish and I will blog it soon.

Tuesday - Sausage casserole with roasted garlic mashed potato from Hungry Healthy Happy and veggies. I'll adapt the mashed potato to be dairy free, and will be using Heck sausages for the casserole as we know they're dairy free.

Wednesday - Leftovers of casserole with baked potatoes and veggies

Thursday - Spaghetti bolognaise from Hungry Healthy Happy - sadly not with courgetti as we don't have a spiraliser (I've been meaning to splash out on one but just not around to it) but with pasta, and over broccoli for me as a comprimise

Friday - Leftover bolognaise on baked potatoes

Saturday - Chicken Tikka masala from Hungry Healthy Happy - but adapted to be dairy free, instead of yoghurt using coconut milk with brown rice.

Sunday - Roast chicken - we haven't had a roast since Christmas, and I could do with an easier week next week with leftovers as the basis.

I've got no baking planned this week as I'm trying to keep my snacking to speed foods (Slimming world jargon for  fruit and veggies) and resist temptation to eat all the cake!

As always I'm linking up with At home with Mrs M and Organising Junkie so be sure to head on over and see what the other planners are up to.