Life, love and little things. July 2016

I've been on an unplanned hiatus from these posts for a while, for absolutely no reason other than those horrible headaches and migraines which are blighting my days. However, that doesn't mean there aren't wonderful things in my life and as always I'm looking forward to sharing them here.

I finished another blanket this month. This one's a baby blanket for a dear, dear friend who's expecting. It was a lovely thing to hook such love into every row, for the Mama and her bubba. It was also incredibly pleasing to stitch something that I finished in a shortish space of time.

I'm still working on my massive neat ripple for our bed. It uses the Last Dance in the Rain colour pack from Scheepjes for their crochet-a-long in memory of Marinke Slump. I've written about it here and am fairly decided I'll tackle the pattern again, some time next year. I've currently got 2 blankets and some cushion covers on my hooks, and I'm also thinking about socks!



We had our annual Brownie holiday in July - which was the first time I've been away from Harry for two nights, and the first time in the new kitchen in the Division's holiday house. It was glorious to cook in, so much space - and made me loathe our kitchen at home a bit more! The holiday theme was Alice in Wonderland, so on Saturday we had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party - with the ubiquitous jam tarts, cheesy caterpillars, White rabbit sausage rolls and some playing card fairy cakes. Drink me potions and Eat me fruit also featured on the menu. The girls had a wonderful time and I really enjoyed my role as QM.



July is M's birthday and this year was a big one - so a special cake was in order. Harry helped me and together we made him a Funfetti cake with blue buttercream - which is what happens when you let your toddler choose the colour! Topped with a fondant road and some lovely wooden cars from Babi Pur, M adored it. And it tasted lovely too.

The end of term for Guides clashed with some lovely sunny days, and despite having had my feet in the paddling pool at home all day we finished our term in the same way - only adding ice creams into the mix!

The glorious summer weather has not just meant long days in the garden, but lighter food as well. M is not a fan of salad, so I've been roasting peppers, courgettes, mushrooms, red onions and garlic and topping them with our favourite dairy free Heck sausages, or stirring them into pasta. I've also had a (very successful bash) at recreating my favourite Carrefour carrot salad that I eat by the bucketful when in France.

Despite not blogging much, July has been full to the brim of fun and family and of course some fab food too. Lots of blessings for me to recount in my Bullet Journal and of course say thank you for.

If you like these sneaky peeks into our month, why not follow Penelope's Pantry on Instagram for regular snapshots into what's going on.

Meal Planning Monday

I've kind of lost my meal planning mojo over the summer. My tendency in the warm has been to pick up a chicken from the Supermarket and roast it, mainly to provide cold meat for the week. Baked potatoes, and salad from the garden have featured heavily. That said, even M looked sad when I said "Roast chicken?" this week, so I thought it was time to get back on it. Please note we've got roast chicken on the plan still - I listened, it just works! 

I've changed how Harry's eating a little bit of late as he's in the midst of dropping a nap, so supper is a bit of a race against his drooping eyelids. I was bringing it earlier and earlier and then decided to switch up lunch and supper - making the latter more of a picky, light meal and swapping the main meal to lunchtime. As regular readers will know I'm always conscious about maintaining Harry's weight so for me I'm really happy that for him this has worked so well. 

I'm still doing Slimming World (although I suspect I'm the worst slimmer in our group) the combination of a restricted diet and mummy hood really don't always leave me particularly motivated. But I've kicked myself into touch of late and seem to be doing a little bit better. 

Breakfasts - I'm in the midst of a shocking cough and cold (that we've all had, I just got it last) so am mainly breakfasting on toast, marmite and fruit. Once I'm feeling better I'll be back onto my overnight oats, but right now I need something that's dryer. 

Lunches - I've been making up a bowl of something like a quinoa, couscous or pasta salad and having that for my lunches. It keeps me from grabbing a sarnie (bread is my downfall) and as it's ready and in the fridge I do actually eat. Funnily enough, when I'm disorganised and skip meals I seem to lose even less weight! 

Suppers - 

Monday - Pulled pork, with baked sweet potatoes, corn on the cob and salad

Tuesday - Leftovers in a wrap with rice and sweet potato wedges for M, with salad and sweet potato wedges for me

Wednesday - Roast chicken, potatoes, broccoli and carrots 

Thursday - Leftover roast chicken, baked potatoes and salad 

Friday - Much to M's dismay I've completely gone off risotto (perhaps because when it's cheese and butter free it's just rice and stuff) so either a soy sauce free chicken chow mien, or a stir fried chicken and broccoli. 

Saturday - we're at CarFest for M's birthday so I'm hoping for something fab and dairy free. We'll take Harry a Yumbox and I'm going to hope that there's going to be dairy and soya free fare on offer *fingers crossed* 

Sunday - My super speedy chilli I think - as it'll provide us with lots of leftovers in the week ahead. 

I'm not planning on baking this week as I'm trying to be good, and also I just don't fancy anything! 

Be sure to hop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to as the summer holidays come to a close. 

Meal Planning Monday: The edition for M's eyes only

Not in a filthy way you understand, but I'm not here for most of the week - banished to the South Coast leaving M to entertain himself and start a new job. It's rubbish when dates like that don't match up, but what can you do.

This weekend was intended to be another quiet one, but a hugely successful archery event at M's club, a visit to the Proms tonight, moving furniture for Mum, and lots of pottering in the kitchen have meant that this last of the summer bank holiday weekends has flown past. I'm hoping that it doesn't usher autumn in too quickly as I've just started enjoying the sunshine.

I'm installed on the sofa at present enjoying Sense & Sensibility before we head off into town, and despite not being the person installed at the cooker this week I didn't want to not submit my meal plan.

Breakfasts: Yoghurt & fruit for me. Buckets of tea and coffee as always.

Lunches: M will be having - sandwiches, crisps, cereal bars, dried fruit, cheese, banana and coke. I'm training so salad and fruit for me.

Dinners:

Monday: Tonight we're out and I'm supposed to be finding somewhere for us to have tea, not watching what the Dashwood sisters get up to next. Oops.

Tuesday: Sweet and sour chicken with rice. I made this last week to a recipe another Guider taught me as it's a quick camp cook. Leftovers went in the freezer.

Wednesday: Courgetti spaghetti - frozen leftovers again.

Thursday: The last portion of sweet and sour chicken with rice

Friday: I'm hoping not to be back too late from Poole, as we're going to fit in a food shop - so whatever we see there. Something quick and easy I hope.

 

Saturday: This is where inspiration abandons me. I'm not sure what we have planned - if it's just a pottery day or a 'here's our list of all the many, many things to do' day.

Sunday: A roast dinner I think - either beef, chicken or pork - I shall see what's in stock at the butchers