Recent Meals #1

Besides bump photographs, I've found that my most popular Facebook posts generally relate to food in some way. As such, I thought it would be fun to start sharing our recent food adventures, and how successful they were. 

Broiled salmon and roasted garlic cream noodles with crispy cauliflower and toasted pine nuts

Source: How Sweet Eats (Simon and I are slightly addicted to this website)

Who Cooked It: Rachel, although Simon helped with the salmon at the end, when he got home from work

What We Changed: We used regular spaghetti instead of whole-wheat, grana padano instead of parmesan (cheaper!), and since half-and-half is hard to get in the UK, we used 1/4 cup of semi-skimmed milk and 1/4 cup of single cream.

What We Omitted: Onion powder. We either use real onions or we don't.

How Easy Is It? This recipe isn't overly time-consuming, but it does require a lot of multi-tasking, since you need to roast the cauliflower and garlic, grill the salmon, as well as cooking the spaghetti, pine nuts and sauce on three separate rings on the hob. It can be managed in a small kitchen, if you don't get stressed out by doing multiple things at once, and if you clean up as you cook.

Verdict: This meal is definitely worth the time and effort! We loved the combination of flavours and textures, and we'll probably be stealing some aspects of it for other dishes, like the salmon coating and roasting cauliflower, which I'd never thought to do before. We highly recommend it. 

Korean Stir Fried Rice

Source: This recipe used to be on Jamie Oliver's website but disappeared recently, but you can find it here. You don't have to follow the brands stated on this website.

Who Cooked It: Simon

What We Changed: We used less eggs, and we'd recommend using Sriracha chilli sauce rather than sweet chilli.

What We Omitted: Nothing

How Easy Is It? You need to cook the brisket beforehand (we did it overnight in the slow cooker and used half of it for another meal) so you do need to plan ahead, unless you happen to have leftover brisket already in your fridge. Otherwise, it's not terribly complicated.

Verdict: I'm not a big fan of mushrooms, but we both really liked this meal. We nearly always serve our egg fried rice with fish of some sort, so this made a nice change. It's definitely a good way to use up leftover brisket. I think Simon probably liked this more than me. Unlike a lot of recipes that claim to make four portions, this one really did, so we had the leftovers later in the week.

Cullen Skink

Source: Simon made this recipe up, but it's pretty similar to this one here.

Who Cooked It: Simon

What We Changed: We used smoked river cobbler rather than haddock (cheaper!), lots more parsley than recommended, as well as thyme, tarragon, cornflour, some tinned sweetcorn and garlic.

What We Omitted: I don't think we used as much water as this recipe suggests.

How Easy Is It? It's a reasonably simple recipe, especially if you make a lot of soups.

Verdict: This is one of Simon's favourite comfort meals, and I really liked it as well. It's very filling with the thickness of the soup and all the potatoes. 

Spicy Chimichurri Burgers

Source: Simply Scratch

Who Cooked It: Rachel, although Simon came home in time to cook the burgers and insisted on doing that part. 

What We Changed: We used a full (but not particularly big) onion in the burgers instead of half, three bird's eye chillies instead of one serrano, cheddar instead of pepper jack, and only 500g of minced beef (but we were only serving two people--you might want to use more if you're feeding more people).

What We Omitted: We decided not to have avocado on our burgers as we were using avocado in something else the next day.

How Easy Is It? You need a food processor for making the chimichurri, but otherwise it's just a case of throwing together the burger mixture and cooking the burgers. We used our griddle pan, but you could also cook them under the grill or fry them in a frying pan. 

Verdict: Excellent! We've done a lot of veggie burgers recently, so it was nice to have something more traditional, although the chimichurri sauce definitely jazzed them up. We served these with corn on the cob (wrapped in foil and roasted for ten minutes) and onion rings (from the freezer--we don't do everything from scratch!)

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas

Source: Skinny Taste

Who Cooked It: Rachel

What We Changed: We used this enchilada sauce (without the stock), three bird's eye chillies instead of a jalapeno, regular tinned tomatoes instead of Rotel, plain tortillas rather than whole-wheat, and our black beans were ones that came dried in a bag and I cooked in the slow cooker (tinned black beans are expensive and hard find in the UK). You can follow the low-fat recommendations in this recipe, but if we start using low-fat cheese you should probably assume we've been replaced with cyborgs--we used extra mature cheddar, and probably less than this recipe recommends. 

What We Omitted: Nothing

How Easy Is It? It takes a while to cook the butternut squash, but you don't need to watch it constantly, so you can put it on to cook while you wash dishes, etc. And chopping a butternut squash can be challenging! But otherwise, if you're used to making enchiladas, this should be pretty easy. You can even cheat and buy prechopped squash or a jarred enchilada sauce to cut down on prep. time.

Verdict: We love enchiladas (especially vegetarian ones) as they're cheap, filling, easy to prepare and make good leftovers, and this will definitely be going on our list to make again. Squash is one of the few vegetables that grows in Britain over the winter, and it's fun to find creative things to cook with it. 

Sweet Potato, Cauliflower and Spinach Curry

Source: Simon made this recipe up, but Jamie Oliver actually has a similar one on his website. 

Who Cooked It: Simon

What We Changed: Compared to Jamie's recipe, we used sweet potatoes rather than regular, and more chillies. We also added in spring onions. Simon reckons we at least doubled the spices.

What We Omitted: We skipped the chickpeas, and served it with naan (Tesco Finest, not our own) rather than yoghurt and lime.

How Easy Is It? It might take a while to chop up the veggies and cook them, but otherwise this is an easy curry--you can pretty much throw together leftover vegetables that you have sitting in your fridge. You could easily use regular potatoes instead of sweet, or kale instead of spinach, etc. 

Verdict: This was a really nice curry. I'm not sure why, but we always seem to gravitate towards meaty curries, so we need to make stuff like this more often. 

Baked Pasta with Roasted Peppers and Zucchini

Source: Fuss Free Cooking

Who Cooked It: Rachel

What We Changed: We didn't use an entire head of garlic (maybe six cloves), and we used spirali pasta as that's what was on hand. Instead of mixed Italian herbs, I used a combination of different dried herbs. We probably used less cheese (cheddar and grana padano).

What We Omitted: Cannellini beans and parsley. We aren't a big fan of herbs as a garnish (it seems kind of a waste), so they either go in the recipe or they aren't used.

How Easy Is It? This is another one that you need a food processor for, and it does take a while to grate the courgette, but it's a pretty simple pasta dish that you can "hide" all sorts of vegetables in--I've added grated carrots in the past, when I've had them on hand. 

Verdict: We've actually made this one several times already, and Simon often requests it, which is funny as he claimed he wasn't a fan of pasta when I met him. It's a relatively simple, easy meal for the end of the week when you don't want to buy too many ingredients, and it can be served with a salad and some garlic bread to make it go further. 

21 Weeks

How far along? 21 weeks & 5 days
Total weight gain/loss: I've actually gained 5lbs! Finally. 
Maternity clothes? Definitely. I only have a few tops that still cover my stomach, so I think it's time to invest in some maternity tops.
Stretch marks? None
Sleep: Better this week, but I'm struggling to go out in the evenings as I start to feel drained about 6pm every night. I can stay awake, but I don't really feel like doing much.
Best moment this week: Technically this happened last week, but since I didn't do a blog post, I think I can count this here ;) Our best moment was definitely getting to see our baby again at our 20-week ultrasound! It was really exciting to see it moving around (not doing somersaults like last time, but it was kicking its feet) and seeing how it was growing. It sounds weird, but it's pretty cool getting to see its bones and heart valves and stuff like that. 
Movement: The baby is getting more and more active, and I actually got worried that it was being too active at one point, but apparently that's not something to be concerned about ;) Sometimes it kicks me quite hard, and at least twice we've felt it having hiccups. Pretty exciting!
Cravings/Aversions: I've been craving sweet things this week, which is actually good as we still have tons of Christmas chocolate left ;)
Gender guesses: You guys can keep guessing, but we already know! ;)
Labor Signs: None, although I did have a dream about going into labour last night, so clearly it's been on my mind.
Belly Button in or out? Still in, but I don't think it'll stay that way for much longer.
What I miss: Having more than two pairs of jeans to choose between ;)
What I am looking forward to: Buying baby things! I've managed to hold off buying too many baby things until now (everything we've got so far can literally fit into a plastic carrier bag) but now that we're more than halfway there I'm starting to peruse the clearance rack in the Baby section of Tesco for tiny t-shirts ;)
Weekly Wisdom: It is totally acceptable to delegate floor sweeping to your husband so you don't hurt your back. 
Milestones: Over the last two weeks, we've had a lot! 20-week ultrasound, hearing the baby's heartbeat, buying some baby clothes together, finding out the sex of the baby, deciding on a name, and my bump has officially got to the stage where nothing I wear will hide it. A pretty exciting couple of weeks, all in all :)

Balanced Challenge: Day 11: A Few Important Thoughts that Will Transform Your Schedule

In today's challenge, Tricia talks about different issues you can consider and ponder that can alter your schedule, and hopefully make your life more enjoyable and your work more effective! I really liked the suggestions she gave. Here are where my thoughts took me:

1. Take time to ponder where you’re falling short.
At the moment, I'm not having any trouble tackling my housework. There might be a few on-going tasks that get left to the end of my to-do list, but these are usually "I'll do these when I get to them" tasks like cleaning the windowsills or washing our chair-covers, not essential tasks like laundry or cooking. I think I'm doing pretty well in this area of my life.
However, I do find myself getting too wrapped up in housework (even non-essential housework) and pushing my writing to the side. When I was battling morning sickness, I allowed myself to do this, as I just couldn't focus on anything non-essential, but now that my health is a lot better, I'd like to make more of an effort with my writing. I think I need to schedule time each day for writing, and I'm trying to set aside 3-4pm each day for this.
I also need to be more effective with my editing work for The Christian Manifesto. I used to schedule an hour for this as well (at different points in my life this has been at different times: when I was a student, I used to answer emails, etc, between 8-9am, and when we graduated I moved this to directly after lunch, 1-2pm). I need to pick an hour that suits me and stick to it, rather than getting distracted by emails later in the day when I should be writing.

2. Take time to build teamwork in your family.
I'm learning to accept that even if I am a housewife, that doesn't mean that I need to do all the housework. There are some things Simon has always done, like emptying bins, but I'm learning to ask for help in other areas on the occasions where I'm too tired or nauseas to do something. And also to delegate tasks that I just can't manage any more; bending over to sweep the kitchen floor is getting uncomfortable. I need to remember that asking for help doesn't mean that I'm failing in my role as a housewife.

3. Take time to prioritize.
This is definitely something I've been working on a lot lately. Yesterday I even highlighted several items on my to-do list that I know I really want to achieve this weekend, which means the rest can wait until Monday. Prioritising makes life so much more manageable and lists seem a lot less overwhelming. 

4. Take time to praise.
There's always something to praise God for and be thankful for, even if you're having a bad day. Even just starting your prayers by thanking God for one, small thing can make such a difference. 

Right now, I'm thankful that Tricia took the time out of her busy life to write Balanced. I've been really blessed by this book, and I think I read it at the perfect time in my life. I'm sure I'll gain even more wisdom if I come back to read it when I our little one arrives and I'm balancing even more. 

I truly appreciated the concluding chapter of Balanced. Tricia writes:

"Balance isn't the ultimate goal. A quest for balance leads to frustration and exhaustion. I never have a day when I achieve the perfect balance of work, family, God, and friends. It's impossible. There are always interruptions. If we are working with real-life people, we cannot schedule our time as if we were simply sitting at the computer all day."

Honestly, I think I need to write those words on a sheet of paper and stick it to my desk. Balance doesn't mean perfection, and I'd hate to ever view my husband or children as interrupting my life. If anything, they are welcome interruptions. I feel truly blessed that I can work from home, even if it means I don't have a traditional 9-5 schedule. In fact, on nice days like today, being able to leave my desk to hang up the washing outside is definitely a nice distraction, because I get to enjoy the wonderful weather ;) And I definitely don't feel left out because I don't have to put on a suit and sit on a crowded bus for half an hour every morning! 

If you're a work-at-home mum, or you're thinking about becoming one, I definitely recommend Balanced. As a writer, I particularly appreciated Tricia's advice on that topic, and reading this book has encouraged me to get stuck back into my writing after several months of pushing it to the side. I might not have the perfect, efficient schedule for approaching my writing, but I'm determined to try.

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!

Balanced Challenge: Day 10: How to Say “No” (And 8 Things to Say “Yes” To)

The story that Tricia shared on her blog today definitely struck a chord with me. She talks about forcing herself not to volunteer for a certain activity at church, even though she knows she's capable of doing it, because she knows she can't stretch herself too thin. One of the recurring themes in Balanced is about how sometimes an opportunity can look good (either in its benefits for us or for others) but it might not be the right thing to do. Perhaps the timing is wrong, or you'd have to give up something more important. I know that I can be guilty of almost volunteering for something simply because a) I know I can do it, or b) I know it's important and no one else is volunteering. But honestly--are those the best reasons to do something? Nowhere in there did I say that I almost volunteer for something because I want to do it. And that's the crux of the problem.

I loved Tricia's challenge for this week, and even before taking notes or blogging about it, I discussed it with my husband over dinner. We had fun trying to come up with our "Eight Life Themes". Eight seemed like a lot initially, but after we discussed them it was pretty easy to come up with eight things that are important to each of our lives. Here are mine:

1. Being a Christian
2. Being Simon's wife
3. Being a mother
4. Writing
5. Being a housewife
6. Editing at The Christian Manifesto
7. Reading and reviewing books
8. Cooking and baking

I feel like identifying these eight themes will be helpful in figuring out what to say Yes or No to. If the opportunity doesn't line up with any of the issues that are particularly important to my life right now, should I really pursue it? Or is my time and energy better spent elsewhere? Even something seemingly good (like volunteering at church or for a charity) might not be overly beneficial if it takes away from my time with my family or my writing, or even the things that keep me relaxed and sane, like reading and cooking.

Identifying these themes also helped me and Simon to decide how we're going to approach the ways we serve at church once we have a child. At the moment, I work with the young children and serve on the hospitality team, while Simon works with the older children and plays in the band. Because of how the rota system currently works, we're each serving two out of four weeks every month. While we're comfortable with this right now, we've decided to take time out at the end of June, so we can enjoy a few more weeks (maybe even a month!) just being in church, before our baby comes. After that, we'll have plenty of time to figure out how much time and energy we can devote to serving with a little baby (getting to the centre of Edinburgh for 9:30am to set up church might be a challenge with a newborn!) Ultimately, even if we know we're doing something good in volunteering at church, our family should always come first. And we also don't want to be volunteering so much that we don't have time to just be in church and enjoy the worship, sermons and fellowship.

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!

Balanced Challenge: Day 9: How to Find Inspiration

Chapter 9 of Balanced started out with a quote that definitely spoke right to my heart:

"Most of all we just need permission. Permission to slow down. Permission to discover our deepest purpose. And permission to follow God-breathed dreams even when we still have kids at home."

I think a lot of work-at-home parents must be struck with conflicting feelings over whether to follow their dreams (even just for fifteen minutes) rather than tending to household chores or devoting themselves wholeheartedly to their kids. Does it make me a terrible wife or mother if I choose to write for an hour rather than tackling the ironing pile? 

I imagine that this conflict will get stronger when we have a little one in the house. In fact, having seen how friends with babies and small children are getting on with their lives, it seems like life is more challenging with a child who is toddling around, attempting to walk, and climbing or reaching into awkward places every time your back is turned. At least a newborn sleeps a lot and can't go very far, right? ;) 

In the midst of housework and raising children, it can be hard to find inspiration. Tricia shares the ways in which she opens herself up to receiving inspiration on a daily basis on her blog today. It made me think about how ideas come to me, and I'm not sure if I'm quite so intentional about making myself ready to find inspiration. Maybe it's because I'm not battling several small children to get to my desk and write, but at the moment, I tend to have ideas come to me quite easily. 

In particular, over the last couple of months, I've often woken up with ideas in my head--not just snippets, but often rough storylines and distinct characters. I haven't had this happen quite so much recently, but it was a great encouragement to me in the days when I was battling morning sickness and barely felt up to washing the dishes, let alone sitting down to write. When I did feel up to being creative, but only had a few minutes at my disposal, I would type up these ideas that had come to me in the waking hours. I'm not sure where I'm going to go with these ideas (currently sitting in a OneNote notebook provisionally and horribly titled: The Princess and the Security Guard, Professing Love, Rockstar Roommate & The Other Boy Next Door) but they're there when I'm ready for them. Sometimes I do end coming back to ideas years after I first scribble them down. Just the other day I found my original, paper notes for the novel I'm currently editing. Although it's changed a lot since I first came up with the idea in 2009, the original setting and some of the characters are still the same.

Two nuggets of wisdom particularly stuck out to me from today's challenge. First: dedicate your writing to the the Lord each day in prayer. Second: Write something, every day. Even if it's a scribbled idea on a post-it or a single paragraph of your current work-in-progress, just write something.

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!

Balanced Challenge: Day 8: 3 Ways to Make Today Amazing

Balanced talks a lot about putting joy into your day, or being joyful in everything you do, no matter how mundane. It might sound bizarre to be joyful while hanging up laundry or shopping for groceries, but it definitely beats dwelling over all the other things on my to-do list that are still waiting for my attention. Having a joyful heart can really out a positive spin on the outcome of every day, and I'm trying to remember to insert some joy into every day.

Today, Tricia suggests three ways in which we can add more joy into our lives: Be thankful, play, and give. Here are some ways in which I try to add these things into my life:

1. Be Thankful. I've tried keeping thankfulness journals and other written methods of recording my thankfulness and none of them have been entirely successful. Instead, Simon and I make an effort to pray over our evening meals and, out of habit, we always list two things we're thankful for (often things that are on our plates!) We also always start our evening prayers listing those things we're thankful for.
2. Play! While we might not have little ones to play with yet, we do enjoy playing games together. Simon has been amassing a rather large board game collection over the last few years, and we try to play a game together at least once a week--sometimes a quick, smaller game like Carcassonne or Lost Cities, or a longer game that takes all evening, like Ora et Labora or Tales of the Arabian Nights. We've also played video games together, including LA Noire on the computer (not technically a two-player game, but we work through it together) and Little Big Planet and NHL14 on the PS3 (much to my surprise, I'm actually pretty good at virtual hockey. Racing games are an entirely different story, sadly). We have fun researching games and figuring out which ones we'll enjoy playing together.
3. Give. We periodically donate clothes, books, films, CDs, ornaments and miscellaneous items that we're no longer using to charity--or to people we think will benefit from them. Since my brother is about the same height as Simon (but skinnier), he often gets Simon's old clothes, and we've made up bags of duplicate kitchen items for both of our brothers over the years (Simon's brother is just finishing university and mine is just about to start). A few months ago we found a collection of unused folders that had previously stored my work from high school and the first two years of university, and we managed to find students in our current church who could use them. Not only does it feel great to make space for the things we need (particularly with a baby coming soon!) but it's encouraging to know that items that are sitting unused in our house will be appreciated in their new homes.

Not only are these items beneficial to me, but having an attitude of thankfulness, playfulness and generosity will hopefully set a great example to my kids someday. 

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!

Balanced Challenge: Day 7: Chores for All the Family

I've read a lot of Amish fiction over the last few years, and while there are some things about their lifestyle that I don't agree with, I definitely admire the way that the whole family works together, including young children. I remember tidying my room when I was young, and washing dishes and ironing when I was in my preteen years, but other than that I don't think I was particularly involved in household chores. By the time I left home at eighteen, I knew how to cook some basic meals and operate a washing machine, but I don't think I'd ever scrubbed a toilet, mopped a floor or cleaned an oven. I had a lot of learning to do in my first year of university. Based on my experiences, I'd like to involve my children in household chores from a young age so that they can gradually build up their ability to manage housework.

Since my own child won't be born until August, I don't have any advice to give on age-appropriate chores, but Tricia lists some great examples on her blog. Even three-year-olds can be involved in something as simple as putting laundry into a washing basket or carrying dishes to the sink. They might not be terribly efficient or tidy to begin with, and this is something I'll have to learn to let go of. Sometimes I ask my husband to help hand up laundry, and I find myself readjusting half the clothes because they're not hanging in a manner which is going to help them dry quickly, but I know he tried and that the clothes will dry--eventually. More importantly, he took a burden off my shoulders by helping! It's the same for children--they won't learn how to do something if we take the task away from them and do it for them because they're not doing it perfectly the first time. Tricia talks a lot about letting go of unrealistic expectations in today's chapter, and I particularly appreciated her comments about how having a desire for perfectionism at all times not only sets us up for failure, but it can also damage our spouses and our children if they don't feel like they measure up. 

Another reason I'd like to involve our children in housework from a young age is so that it becomes part of the natural rhythm of family life. Instead of seeing their assigned activities as "chores" that they have to do in order to be allowed to play outside or watch TV, I hope that in participating in such activities from a young age, our children will see that helping around the home is part of being a family, and something we do to help each other. They might not necessarily look forward to washing the dishes or sorting socks, but hopefully it won't be something they dread either! 

This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!