Menu planning, slow cookers and other rambles.

I'm convinced every mum needs a slower cooker. I just love mine. This one belonged to my Mother in Law and must date back to the 80's. It's still going strong. I love the retro look and it fits in well with my country style kitchen. In this model the cooking bowl is fixed in which makes it a pain to clean. We need to buy a bigger one as the kids get bigger.

I make most of my recipes up, like I do with my stews. A little bit of this and little bit of that and a never to be repeated culinary delight is born.

In the pot today went chicken drumsticks, mushrooms, olives, tomato paste ( homemade!) and a Maggie Chicken Chasseur mix. I didn't add any extra fluids as the drumsticks cook they release their juices to mix with the Chasseur mix to create the gravy. I put this on to cook at lunch time and it will be perfect by dinner time. I'm planning on serving with broccoli and rice.

Organisation isn't my "thing"

But every now and then I get the urge to get my act together. This is my way of menu planning. I printed a plan out, the kids put the stickers on and I laminated it. I meal plan with the kids. That way I can argue they chose it, they have to eat it. The above was while daddy was away! The kids are very good at telling me there aren't enough veggies on the menu. They've been studying nutrition at school. The plan lives on a nail in the kitchen wall and saves me from answering over and over again that dreaded question...... "what's for dinner?"

Why I get slack and stop menu planning, I don't know. It saves me a heap of time, money and waistline when I do.

I've come to the realisation that it's not the big things in life that cause the most dramas but the little things. And if you stop the little things from happening the big things don't happen. I just had a "little" thing happen that could of been a tragedy. I'm so grateful I caught it in time.

I remember my Nan telling me once to look after the pence and the pounds look after themselves, she was Welsh. My Nan passed away last year the day before my dad. I have some very found memories of her, even though I grew up thousands of miles away here in Australia. She'd lived through the depression and war years and never wasted anything. I inherited a lot from Nan. My Gall bladder, we both had ours removed and my fertility we both had 6 children in the same order of sex.

Thanks for reading my ramble if you got this far you've done really well.

Until next time.