Anyone still out there?

Well hello!
It's been a while!

I've been a bit busy. Since my last post in 2014 we've moved house and had another baby so I guess I can be excused. Oh, and the 2013 baby has now turned into a fully fledged 3 year old tyrant who has taken full control of the Norman household. He seems to turn slightly psychotic when I get the laptop out so it rarely happens now.

All that coupled with the loss of the desire to become a domestic goddess meant I abandoned the blog. But now I'm back.

I'm inspired again. I've got a garden, I've got a vegetable patch, I've got a growing boy to feed, I've re-found Pinterest. Heck, I've even got myself a slowcooker!!! Let's give it another shot and see if I do have it in me to come at least somewhere close to being a domestic goddess capable of providing my family with healthy, nutritious (and preferably edible) meals. Every day of the week. Every week of the year.

Let's see.....

Nx

Things I learnt today....

When leaving your baby on the bed while you have a shower, DONT leave a roll of toilet paper in arms reach.

Wow where did 2013 go?

It passed me by in a haze of pregnancy, sleepless nights, new born baby, sleepless nights, laundry, feeding and sleepless nights. It was an amazing year, my little boy was born at the beginning of June and he has bought us endless joy and giggles. I am constantly overwhelmed by the emotion I feel for this little person we created. Everything he does is exciting, interesting and just plain brilliant. He grins at me when I get him up in the morning, he eats everything we feed him, he goes to bed without complaining, he doesn't complain when he gets dragged round shops. He's just amazing. I LOVE him!!!

He is definitely a big part of my desire to become a domestic goddess. I want to be able to provide for him, to feed him healthy food, for him to live in a clean, happy, comfy home, for him to be happy, confident and make sensible choices. I want to read with him, play games with him, go to exciting places, see interesting stuff with him. I want to be Super Mum. That's easy, right?

I haven't made any New Year's resolutions since I was about 14 and pledged to stop biting my nails but I guess that this year would be a good time to decide to make a few changes, or to maintain some of the ones I made when the little man came along.

So I guess that this year I want to

• ensure I make decisions based on what is best for him
• continue to try to make fresh healthy meals for all of us
• perfect at least 8 meals so that I don't fall into the category of women discussed in this Daily Mail article

I guess that will do!

Happy New Year everyone xxx

Red wine velvet cake

In all the foody excesses of the last week or so, there is something that most definitely stands out.
We spent Christmas day with my inlaws, having roast beef for dinner. But my father in law had made what I can only describe as the most delicious cake I've EVER eaten. His wife (my step mother in law I guess) was listening to the Foody Thursday Radio 2 programme on the way home from work a few weeks ago when they made red wine velvet cake. Apparently Simon Mayo and his team had raved about the cake so much that she looked up the recipe. And boy am I glad she did.

And here it is http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03h4220

Seriously, give it a go.

I'm not a massive fan of chocolate cake and can sometimes find them a bit too rich. But this one was delicious. Very alcoholic but delicious. I will be giving it a go in the near future.

Watch this space.............

Enjoy x

Getting in the spirit

As Christmas approaches I always fancy a spot of baking. Normally I'm so exhausted and behind on my shopping that it's the last thing I actually have time for but this year is different. Most of the activities that the little man and I go to finished last week so we found ourselves at a loose end this morning.

And these had caught my eye!




Source


Aren't they A-MA-ZING????

I HAD to try them.

I used this recipe for the gingerbread as  I've never made it before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are so much fun!

I'm going to make another little herd closer to Christmas.

 

Meal Plan Monday - on a Tuesday again!

I struggle to get my meal plan posts done on a Monday as I'm out at Guides in the evening and I don't really get the time to write a blog post while the little man is awake.

So, as it's nearly Christmas life in our household is a little crazy. My husband works for a toy retailer so he gets really busy and often gets dragged into one of their stores and puts in insane hours in the week before the big day. When I was working as a teacher this was my busiest time too with carol services and discos so this year I'm enjoying the relative peace and quiet.

But as a result of him being out most evenings there isn't really a meal plan for this week. Or at least there is, it's for me to eat as many of the frozen meals as possible.

I'm hoping to get some baking done this week, I'd really like to try some of these:

 Source

and hopefully that cottage mould will arrive from Lakeland do I can get my chocolate melt on! 

What Christmas baking are you up to?


Thanks to http://orgjunkie.com/ for hosting the linky.

 and http://athomewithmrsm.blogspot.co.uk/



Look what I've ordered....

One of these........

From: 

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16789/Fairy-Tale-Cottage-Mould

I'm very excited. I've wanted to make a gingerbread cottage every Christmas for years but a) couldn't really be bothered with making it and b) I'm not a massive gingerbread fan, I'll be honest. But the photos on the Lakeland website show the house made of chocolate!!! How exciting!!! A whole little house made of and decorated with chocolate. What more could a girl want?? 

So that is what I'm going to do, make a chocolate gingerbread house. I might take it to my sister in law's on Christmas Day, if there's any left by then! :)