Morning!

22^nd July 2017

If tomorrow, all women woke up and decided they really like their bodies, just think how many industries would go out of business.  Dr Gail Dines

Oh hello 4am, it’s been a few weeks… It’s all good, I’ll be finished by half ten then I’ve got a weekend to relax.

When I get up at this time though, my head doesn’t work so I sit not knowing what to write, oh the highlight of my day yesterday was my meeting, love, love, love my Friday girls, then the other thing was bed time, mom and me ended up having a lovely giggle with Alfie, bit of love, a cuddle and a bit of play made up for all the tougher moments of the day. 

Oh I had a bag of 3sp snaps yesterday,  sat in my car and had 5 minutes, ate them slowly, that’s possibly the last bag I’ll ever have, they’re not so good when eaten slowly, makes you realise they ain’t as good as you think they are.  I’d have rather have eaten a piece of small cheese for 3sp.  Oooo cheese, might have to buy me a piece today, not had any for a week or so, my fridge is starting to look bare, my cupboards not much better, freezers still got a way to go but I’m not putting anything in it until it’s empty!  There’s a pizza in there, we might have that for lunch today actually, mom will enjoy that and I can have salad with mine.  Then there’s some frozen trout we could have that tomorrow.  I’ve got leftover slow cooker chicken in the fridge too.  It’s pay day Tuesday, but I’m still going to start being more careful with how much food I buy, it’s ridiculous.  There’s another one of those programmes on the tele at the moment, Eat, Shop, Save and one of the ways they recommended to save  money was to use lentils to bulk out meals, a 500g bag of red lentils is only 75p in Asda, one of your five a day too.  This is the recipe from the show;

Spaghetti Bolognese with a twist (total recipe = 73sp)

It doesn’t say how many the recipe serves but if it was 6 it would be 12sp each

1 large red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 red pepper, finely chopped

800g chopped tomatoes

500g of lean beef mince (5% = 12sp)

180g dry red lentils (14sp)

500g of whole wheat spaghetti (47sp) 

1. Add the lentil to a saucepan and cover it with boiling water and simmer until soft, then drain it and set aside. Sauté the onion garlic and red pepper along with a pinch of salt - until the onions and peppers have softened.
2. Add the mince beef and continue to cook until the beef is fully cooked. Add the lentils and chopped tomatoes then simmer for 10-15 mins until the sauce thickens. Finally cook the spaghetti as per the manufacturer’s instructions.

He also cooked this red sauce to try and get the kid to eat vegetables without realising they were there, great for a pasta dish, zero points too;

Red Sauce

Large red onion 1

Cloves of garlic 2

Red pepper (half

Courgette half

Tin chopped tomatoes 2x400g

1. Chop the courgette, onion and garlic.
2. Sautéed them in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
3. Cook until the courgette starts to soften
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until the flavours develop.
5. Then blend all together

Same with this curry sauce, only it’s not zero points;

Curry Sauce

1 red onion

3 garlic cloves

1-2 sweet potatoes (5sp per potato)

500ml veg stock

Mild curry powder

1. Finely chop the garlic and onion
2. Heat olive oil in a pan and sautéed the onions and garlic until soft.
3. Dice the sweet potatoes and add to the pan.
4. Pour in the veg stock in the pan to almost cover
5. Put the contents into a blender, add a bit of curry powder to your taste then blend together.

The one tip I did take was buy frozen fish, it’s as good as fresh and sometimes the fresh fish has been previously frozen anyway!

Right it’s starting to go light outside, moms about ready for another cuppa, here’s to a cracking good day and a relaxing weekend.  Hope you’ve got a good one planned BeYOUtiful. x