To deal with the Cauliflower I played it safe and went with the recipe in the Riverford leaflet for Cauliflower Biryani.  Getting rid of a whole cauliflower when there is only 2 of you is a bit of a challenge, so using it like meat seemed a sensible suggestion.

I spiced it up a bit - I know biryani isn't supposed to be that spicy but I needed a bit more a punch.  The overall recipe was nice but a bit on the sour side for me so I think I would probably make up a curry paste if I was doing again rather than relying on just curry powder, cumin and cardamon.

The base was very simple, rice cooked down with tomatoes, onions, stock and spices.  The cauliflower was roasted in a spice and yoghurt mixture, which surprised me by working very well.

The whole thing was finished off in the oven.  The recipe suggests the traditional vegetable curry side, which I didn't have the time to make...but did give me the good idea of using up leftover veg this way and freezing for future biryanis. 

This did tuesday and thursday dinners - I was out on wednesday for dinner (Wahaca, yum!).  So have 2 potatoes and 1 parsnip left! 

I haven't managed to get my posts out everyday but I have been keeping up with my Riverford Challenge.  Monday night was Spicy Sichuan Aubergine. 

The recipe is from Chinese Meals in Minutes, which I find a really useful book for cooking for one. 

This is definitely spicy, so probably to be avoided if you are not a fan of hot.  I throw in some coriander at the end rather than spring onions just to balance out the spice slightly. 

With that, another vegetable is down :-) 

Get me!  Three days running.  It will probably all go to pot when I have to go back to work.  Mother's day as a single mum pretty much rules out the breakfast in bed and lunch cooked for you, but Theo and I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen today.

I usually find I'm really bad about using up potatoes and onions so was looking for something to help me out there.  Potato, Onion and Rosemary bread - again from Riverford - kind of ticked all of those boxes for me without much effort on my part. 

I'm pretty pleased with how this came out and it tasted really lovely - even if I did have to use dried rosemary due to supermarket herb shortage. 

Bread wasn't enough to keep Theo interested so biscuits happened to.  Nothing Riverfordy about them at all but decorated as only a small child can. 

For dinner, I knew I had to use up the wings!  The chicken wings from Riverford are the only thing that come in the meat boxes having been previously frozen...so whilst everything else was unceremoniously stuffed in the freezer, these had to be used.  The only real thing to do with wings is cooked them off in a nice gooey marinade.  All you need is a good liquid base (oranges) and some stickiness (honey) and you can build off in any direction from there.  Add cayenne and chilli for something hot and spicy, soy and ginger for something more chinesy, some ketchup and worcestershire sauce takes you in the direction of bbq. 

Today I went for something pretty plain - a couple of oranges and zest, honey, garlic, cayenne, ginger.

Here they are ready to go.  We had them simply with some corn on the cob and some of the bread from earlier.  Tasty and lots left over for lunch tomorrow.  

So I made it all the way to day 2 of my self-imposed challenge.  Might be the longest i've stuck to anything ;-) Lunch is a tick as I used up some of the remaining quick-fry beef and herby salad with some other salady bits for a quick and easy lunch. Dinner, as I mentioned yesterday, is courteousy of a riverford recipe - Parsnip and Potato Cakes. 

It's dead simple.  Basically make mashed parsnip and potato the usual way, and add in some fried onions.  I used one of my teeny tiny frying pans to do the onions tonight.  Add a little garlic to the onions towards the end.  

Shove it all in a big bowl and getting mashing with milk, butter, pepper and nutmeg.  Then make in to cakes!  The recipe calls for fresh breadcrumbs, but I honestly think for things like this the fake packet breadcrumbs are much better - probably as they are already so dry it's easy to get a nice crunch. 

In to an egg bath, in to the breadcrumbs, pat in to shape and into a frying pan (normal one this time).  Whilst they fried I did the usual manic throw things in the dishwasher, put away shopping whilst answering the bizarre questions Theo chose to throw at me. 

We stayed veggie tonight and had them with the last of the salad leaves and some chutney.  Was actually very nice!  It also means I have completed 2 out of the 7 vegetable types so far.  I parsnip, 2 onions, a handful of potatoes, cauliflower and aubergine to go.  

I've been getting a mini riverford veg box every week and a quick and easy Riverford meatbox every 2 weeks for sometime.  I used to be really good about using things up but lately I've been lethargic about cooking and have been throwing a lot away - which makes me feel bad.  So I've decided to blog my meals to see if it will inspire me to get through stuff.  

My delivery day is Friday, so boxes were waiting for me when I got home.  In brief:

Meatbox: lamb chops (immediately snaffled up by my mother and whisked off!), mince, chicken wings, diced beef, quick fry beef and pork belly slices.  The meatbox is £30 and you get six items that would feed 4....if you are going to buy organic I think that's a bargain. 

Veg box: potatoes, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, onions, aubergine, herby salad leaves, cauliflower.  The mini veg box is £10.95 and works well for me as I'm often cooking for 1. 

It's pushing past seven when I get home, Theo has eaten with Grandma so its just me. I also don't get my supermarket shopping until tomorrow so choices have to be limited.  I zoom in on the quick fry beef and go for a stir-fry. 

Quickly cut-up half an onion, a big handful of the purple sprouting broccoli and the beef into strips. Fry the onion, then add the beef, then add the broccoli.  At this point it looks like this. 

Then simply add the sauce.  I like making my own satay sauce - Jamie Oliver has a good recipe in his 30-minute meals book, but this isn't one of those nights.  If you want something quick, this is literally the best Satay sauce you can buy.  It's more spicy than peanutty so really suits the beef.  I get it from the stores in China Town.  

In lieu of any coriander, I went for a small sprinkling of the herby salad leaves to finish it off. That's it!  Nowt fancy I'm afraid. 

Looking through the Riverford newsletter as I cook, there are 2 recipes that might be promising for helping me use up the veg this week  - cauliflower biryani and parsnip and potato cakes.  Now I need to kick myself in to action to keep this up all week. 

 

My son has Aspergers.

I know this well.

My son has Apsergers and I feel bad.

Today we went to the playground on the way back from the supermarket.  A natural thing to do with your  child on a chores day.  I was tense. I'm always tense going to the playground, as Theo doesn't react or behave the way a 'normal' kid does.

My son displays Aspergers in an unusual way.  He displays it with imagination.  Kids with Aspergers tend to focus on the facts, Theo takes his in to his inate imagination.  Actually he does the normal Aspergers stuff too. Precociously good at maths.  Very factually intelligent.  Doesn't undertstand the societal norms.  But he is very creative too, and lives in a fantasy / play world a lot of the time. 

Today in the playground, he was coping by dealing with killer crabs (don't laugh).  I yelled at him.

I told him he was scaring the kids and he should just go up and say hello.  I yelled that he was scaring people and it wasn't how I expected him to act.  I told him he was letting me down.

Now this weekend has not been great for me.  I'm pre-menstrual, I have another reason to be upset.  But i took my eyes off the patience of being a Mum with a child with Aspergers, and I yelled.

A couple of girls looked at Theo strange, and I freaked out. I was a bad Mum.

Then Theo found a little boy Tom, who was carrying a shark, and later on we found out he had another toy - a jellyfish - in his bag, and told Theo told him about his crabs ( still no laughing ). They ran around and played for a good half hour.  Theo spoke to Tom's mum and made her laugh.  He did 'the playground' perfectly. 

My son had a lovely half hour in the play ground being a normal kid, and i sat holding a half eaten punnet of mango feeling bad. 

When did it get bad for a child of 7 to play act? When was it embarassing it see a child that young publically expressing their imagination?  How quickly do they have to grow up, despite anything else? Why was I worrying?

 

 

My son has Aspergers.

I know this well.

My son has Apsergers and I feel bad.

Today we went to the playground on the way back from the supermarket.  A natural thing to do with your  child on a chores day.  I was tense. I'm always tense going to the playground, as Theo doesn't react or behave the way a 'normal' kid does.

My son displays Aspergers in an unusual way.  He displays it with imagination.  Kids with Aspergers tend to focus on the facts, Theo takes his in to his inate imagination.  Actually he does the normal Aspergers stuff too. Precociously good at maths.  Very factually intelligent.  Doesn't undertstand the societal norms.  But he is very creative too, and lives in a fantasy / play world a lot of the time. 

Today in the playground, he was coping by dealing with killer crabs (don't laugh).  I yelled at him.

I told him he was scaring the kids and he should just go up and say hello.  I yelled that he was scaring people and it wasn't how I expected him to act.  I told him he was letting me down.

Now this weekend has not been great for me.  I'm pre-menstrual, I have another reason to be upset.  But i took my eyes off the patience of being a Mum with a child with Aspergers, and I yelled.

A couple of girls looked at Theo strange, and I freaked out. I was a bad Mum.

Then Theo found a little boy Tom, who was carrying a shark, and later on we found out he had another toy - a jellyfish - in his bag, and told him about his crabs ( still no laughing ). They ran around and played for a good half hour.  Theo spoke to Tom's mum and made her laugh.  He did 'the playground' perfectly. 

My son had a lovely half hour in the play ground being a normal kid, and i sat holding a half eaten punnet of mango feeling bad. 

When did it get bad for a child of 7 to play act? When was it embarassing it see a child that young publically expressing their imagination?  How quickly do they have to grow up, despite anything else? Why was I worrying?

 

 

For those of you that know me, it's fair to say that the last 5 years or so of my life have been pretty rough going.  I don't really want to get in to why, but if there is anyone who needs a bit of magic to perk life up again, it's definitely me. 

One of the things that has kept me sane over the last year or so has been reading the Bloggess.  I first came across Jenny's blog when someone sent me a link to the story of Beyonce the big metal chicken, which made me smile for the first time in ages.  Jenny's posts have been making me smile ever since.  

At the end of last year, the Travelling Red Dress went from being one of Jenny's personal projects to something that was happening all over the US and indeed all over the world.  You can read all about it here.  The idea is simple - any woman should be entitled to wear an amazing, ridiculous, fabulous red dress and have a special moment.  

The idea appealed to me.  A lot.  So I decided to take the plunge.  I already have a red dress in my wardrobe, but I decided it just wasn't fabulous enough.  So on behalf of women in the UK I whipped out my credit card and went searching for something fabulous.  I found it.  I ordered it.  I'm really hoping it will become a UK traveling red dress and the story can spread over the pond.  

I have to say I'm nervous.  I've ordered the dress from China and I'm worried it might not turn out to be right.  I'm also worried because I've put myself out there, and it might be that no-one wants my dress.  I'm really not good at this sort of thing, so in a way the very action of ordering the dress and trying to get it travelling is my own red dress. 

Oh and Tallulah.  Well I'm hoping that there will be more than one red dress in the UK and it would be nice to have an easy way to track them - so I decided to give my dress a name.  She's Tallulah.  I'm placing an awful lot of faith in Tallulah coming through for me, but with a name like that - she's going to Rock.

So if you'd like to have your own red dress moment, please do get in contact with me.  Also if you are a photographer or a make-up artist and want to help someone have a red dress moment, then I'd also love to hear from you.  I'm also lucky enough in my job to get to travel quite a bit, so it may be that we can get Tallulah really travelling.  Fingers crossed. 

Oh, and what does Tallulah look like?  She looks like this

but in magnificent red.  

 

 

 

Today in the park felt a bit like a script from pinky and the brain.

Theo: I know the difference between blackberries and raspberries.
Me: yes Hun? That's good.
Theo: raspberries are rarer.
Me: oh. I thought it was the colour.
Theo: Mummy, you're silly. Unripe blackberries are red too. The only difference then is that raspberries are rarer.
Me: ok. Well that's useful to know in case I accidentally eat a raw blackberry. I'll watch for the rare ones instead.
Theo: it was silly of them to make them like that.
Me:Them?
Theo: (gestures all around him). Yes. Them. You know. The makers. (dramatic eyes and arms). I'd do it better.

My son. Literally planning to make the world a better place. Through fruit.

Ignore this if you have no interest in dieting women.

So I've had problems with my weight for ages.  I yo-yo from a size 10 to a size 16.  After a stressful year with lots of illness and lots of stress and lots of conferences and lots of drinking too much, I've decided to try and lose weight sensibly for once!  So I've signed up for weightwatchers. 

Other problems are with cooking for one and having a child.  I've fallen in to a terrible habit of cooking more like 2 portions than 1, and also finishing Theo's food.  None of this really works for the waistline apparently.  Who knew?

I'm three days in so far and all is good.  I can eat within my 'points' fairly comfortably and the tools you are given are great.  I've got the scales out in the kitchen and in the bathroom (gulp).  I'm really focusing on portion control.  The other great thing with the tools weightwatchers give you is that you can select a recipe and then automatically add all the ingredients for that recipe to a shopping list.  All I then need to do is take my iphone to sainsburys and bob is your uncle.  Even better, transfer it across to shopping online with sainsburys and I don't get tempted with unncessary things :-) It's also easy to

I also need to get exercising again.  I used to be really good about doing a short set of exercises in the evening but this fell by the wayside when I got ill at the end of last year and when I prioritised polishing off a bottle of wine.  This week is hard because I have a stinking cold and can hardly breathe let alone exercise! 

Good things so far:

• A gin and slimline tonic is only 2 points :-)
• You get a set of anytime points that you can use up when you want, which makes it good to plan for meals out etc.
• I've got access on my computer, iPhone and iPad so no excuses!  I also like playing with all the tools and checking in, sort of works in the same way as 4square but for food consumption.  The gaming sensation of dieting.
• I'm just doing it online so no worries about going to meetings and discussing dust consumption.
• I got exercise points today for gardening. 

Things I'm worried about:

• Conferences and meeting.
• Stress days.
• Going camping in a week!
• Getting back in to exercise.

So weigh-in days are Thursdays for me, so I will update then and will see if this has actually done any good.