A new royal start

QueenJess

Well tomorrow is back to the office day and I'm dreading it.  Pointless waste of time as I have calls all day with no one in the office, it's absolutely freezing outside, DH is away all evening so I have to deal with the kids and I have a horrible cold that I just can't shake off.  On the plus side, I've already prepped my breakfast (greek yogurt, berries and mixed seeds) and my lunch (hm potato and leek soup followed by a lonely chocolate chip muffin I found in the freezer) ready to grab as otherwise the choice is a terrible cafe and dismal supermarket food.  I also have a banana and two green satsumas which I am currently addicted to - they are so juicy and full of flavour!

Went to the first of two open days today to pick DS's new school.  I wasn't that impressed and thought they would be much better, but then it might make everything much simpler.  The other one isn't for a couple of weeks, so nothing to compare it to yet.  Looking forward to the week ending and then next week we'll be away for half term in a cottage.  Just need to shake this cold off first...  I'll have to breakout the fruit teas I bought myself ages ago and haven't used yet.

Blasting through the fridge and freezer as much as possible before holiday.  Currently on a food buying freeze until we need something.  Lunch was leek and potato soup with heated bread rolls.  Dinner was going to be cheesy pasta until DS told me that was what he had for lunch, so I randomly threw together a veggie sausage stew with broccoli stalks, onions, celery, greens, lentils, butterbeans, chopped tomatoes, spices and some naan bread from the freezer.  Cleaned out most the veg from the fridge bar the largest amount of cabbage and spinach known to man.  I also have leftovers for lunches on Weds/Thurs as well as tons of spare soup.  It'll all last through to the weekend.  Tomorrow night as it's just me struggling through with this cold with the kids, I'm going to throw on jacket potatoes with beans and cheese.  Desserts are all what I can find in the freezer at the moment, although I keep finding cake in there so no one will be going hungry.

My brain wasn't quite ready for the cold weather quite so soon.  When it's cold I definitely eat differently to the summer, although I much prefer winter food anyway.  However, I find it difficult to switch my brain between winter and summer food, so it'll probably take me a few weeks before I switch into fully winter mode.  Is that just me?!  I would never cook a full on roast in the summer for example or a stew as it just doesn't really feel right.

Bluegreen143

I would say there is a general shift in our eating seasonally but not totally rigid. You get enough wet cold summer days (alas) that I do still make stews and soups, just not as often 😂 and I still eat salad in winter for lunch, though not as much. In the summer I do tend to switch from roasts and pies to doing bits of meat in the barbecue or with salads. So I might still do a chicken on a Sunday but I’ll spatchcock it, marinade it in more Mediterranean herbs etc and then serve with salad stuff. 

QueenJess

Yes of course - if it was cold all summer it probably wouldn’t change much. I struggle when it’s really hot and try to get away with cooking as little as possible. I don’t like the cold, but I do love roasting piles of veg in the oven and all the stews and hot desserts

I keep stumbling into cooked red cabbage in the freezer from last year 😬. I love it but never have much idea what to serve it with bar “some meat”.  Answers on a postcard please as I need to use it up before I get more of the stuff in a couple of months!

Pollie

Topping a jacket potato?  I can eat a pot of spicy red cabbage with crusty bread and butter.

Kerreh

a la Jamie O could you mix it into some sort of 'bread balls' for roasting? I can't recall the episode of his £1 under meals but he used liquids and bread and herbs and wet it/made them into balls and baked on top of roasted veg and had with Yorkshire pud...

QueenJess

Pollie said:

Topping a jacket potato?  I can eat a pot of spicy red cabbage with crusty bread and butter.

Kerreh said:

a la Jamie O could you mix it into some sort of 'bread balls' for roasting? I can't recall the episode of his £1 under meals but he used liquids and bread and herbs and wet it/made them into balls and baked on top of roasted veg and had with Yorkshire pud...

Thanks both for some great ideas. I think some sort of wrap with spicy cabbage and a pile of other salad could be nice as a lunch, or a jacket potato.  I’m sure a ball type thing could be passed off as food for the kids as well 😂

QueenJess

Thank goodness for the end of the week. The last couple of weeks have been horrible and DH has been completely absent from it, which is irritating me as I have to do everything and I still cant quite shake this cold. I am also completely exhausted, so plan on a lie in tomorrow and Monday to catch up.

Lots of baking planned later as we are going away for a few days on Monday for half term and I want to make some nice snacks to take with us to stop the kids eating junk.  I also need to use up the chickpea water leftover from roasting some chickpeas earlier in the week, but DD will be very pleased to see meringues back on the menu! They last ages, so will make them to free up the fridge and they will happily sit in the tin until we are back. Flapjacks and mini muffins will probably also be on the baking list and I’ll probably make a big bag of popcorn to take as well as all the fruit we have lying around.

My freezer is still going down and I managed to squeeze purple cabbage into dinner last night (veggie burgers, sweetcorn, purple cabbage and sweet potato chips) so I’m hoping I only have one box left, but not dug right down to the bottom yet.

Going to work meetings is a bit like being forced to watch horrible stuff on TV against your will. I’ve had enough and I don’t want to know anymore, but they keep telling me stuff 😂. The latest nugget is lots of people asking for flexible hours to pick up/drop off kids, so moving working hours by 30 mins or whatever, it being rejected and then they’ve been forced to take a pay cut and formally reduce their hours by 30 mins a day. It’s so unbelieveable, but is real sadly. I am ignoring it and doing what I have to. It totally doesn’t work for me as I can’t join most the meetings I need to, so not sure what I am meant to do. Boss hasn’t put in the flexible working requests formally yet. On better news though, I have progressed a teeny bit further and have a small recruiter I already knew from years ago on the case looking for a job for me. Apparently there are plenty of working from home jobs still out there! I’m not too bothered about that as I’m perfectly happy to be in an office if it’s closer. It’s the commute that kills you. 

DS has been behaving much better recently at home.  It wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t helpful and I am the only enforcer in the house, so had my eye off the ball whilst I was working full on at the busy period. I was struggling with DD the other day (think terrrible 2’s) and she was refusing to continue the walk to nursery. I picked her up and so she kicked her shoes off in defiance. DS without asking came and picked them up and carried them for me. So he has been listening when I’ve explained it to him. I have been investing lots of time with DS recently and it’s definitely paying off. He’s also started just sitting around reading books on his own which I’ve been trying really hard to get to (I love books and I want him to love them too).  We also had parents evening and had a really good review - they said “he really is a credit to you” 🥰

I definitely need this holiday as I’m run down and need a reset. So tired at the moment that my eyes really hurt 😬. Post holiday we need to rein in spending as we are still recovering from spending too much over the summer holidays and I need the joint account to recover before the higher mortgage hits early next year. 

Dinner and lunch are unknown today… kids will probably have beans on toast for lunch and then they are having tea at a birthday party. I shall be scouring the fridge to use up everything before we go away!

QueenJess

Well that was one way to heat the house. We now have 8 small chocolate chip muffins, 8 small lemon and poppy seed muffins, a tin of flapjacks and a huge jar of granola to take on holiday with us. I also made the meringues and had forgotten how nice they are slightly warm from the oven.. most of them managed to make it into a tin 🤣

QueenJess

Back from holiday now and feel even more stressed than ever with things not great between myself and DH and having to go back to work next week. Not sleeping with all the worry and I have a list of things I need to get on top of and sorted, which is a bit overwhelming. I need more time to spend at home with DH and the kids, but work is taking me in the opposite direction and just giving me less and less time, which is stressing me out quite a lot. Next week I will find myself another recruitment agent and step up the job search. I’m just not sure I will last the end of the year even given the way things keep going there.

I also need to get on top of Xmas presents (I have lots tucked away, but need to make some decisions and have no idea what to get DD).. I also have to sort car MOT, car insurance and get on top of the joint finances. We need to start spending less money overall and I will go back to tracking everything to try and keep it under control. I also need to defrost the freezer this month, so will be continuing to use up everything that I can and am hoping that will help the food bill a little.

Sent DH to do the food shop whilst I wait for DS at gymnastics. We wrote the shortest list we could get away with and I am feeling very exposed without our veg box until Thurs which I usually use as my starting point for my meal planning. Planned some freezer food using up as part of that list and hoping it doesn’t cost too much and that I might escape doing the food shop for 11 days after this. Lunches I am winging for the week, so will be digging through freezer and cupboard supplies to cobble things together.

Lunch today is scrambled egg on toast with beans, with smoked salmon for the adults. The kids will have their body weight in yogurt for dessert. Dinner is spag Bol defrosted from the freezer followed by the choc chip/lemon poppy seed muffins that need to be used up. I may need to make another batch of flapjacks for the kids snacks and will be convincing them to try and eat the solitary bagel left in the freezer! We also have 2 blackened bananas that I will use to make a big batch of banana drop scones that sadly will need to go back into the freezer, however, they shouldn’t last more than 3 weeks and am hoping the rest of the freezer will be run down by then. I like having things in reserve just in case and so am getting very nervous by running down the freezer completely!

TallGirl

Sending you hugs sounds difficult. Didn’t your DH drop a day so can he not pick up things like the car stuff? Sounds like you need some time as a couple but tricky with kids and it doesn’t sound like you have any family nearby that could help out a bit. You are more important than work please look after yourself and good luck with the recruitment agencies.