From Deploying Dinners to Employing Wine – A Meal Plan.

When people walk into our home there is generally an underlying waft of Shake’nVac accompanying whatever is cooking in the kitchen.
Whether He is around or out of town I am fanatical about meal plans. I like to keep it cheap, exciting and above all, easy. All of the following you can make if you are home alone and need to constantly wander off after children, hoovers, disappearing sanity.
I am constantly being asked for a copy of what I am making for dinner the following week so I thought that perhaps I would pop it on here too, just before you begin your grocery shopping list.

Monday: A Sneaky Roast Chicken

Use the best chicken you can afford. A corn fed supermarket bought one goes for around £7.00

PreHeat oven to 220*C

Stuff the inside of the bird with a whole lemon (pricked and microwaved for 30 seconds prior) and a handful of whichever fresh herbs you have mincing about at the back of the fridge. We tend to have thyme and mint.
Slice the flap (excuse me?!) above the open cavity and slide thin slivers of butter beneath the skin. Massage them down until you have covered its whole body. Pierce the skin surrounding the breast and thighs with cloves of garlic and end off with a grand seasoning of salt, pepper and olive oil.

In a roasting tin chuck in washed carrots, potatoes, parsnips, anything thats lying around from the week before, no need to peel or chop, and plonk your chicken on top.

Pop into the oven and adjust the temperature down to 200*C, set your timer for 45 minutes, sit down and watch DinnerDate. When that ends you’ll baste the chicken in its juices and if the veggies look a bit dry you’ll add some water to the tin to prevent burning. Re-set for the final 45 minutes and settle down to watch Millionaire Matchmaker with a glass of ice cold white wine.

Serve with gravy (We use Bisto) and a smug smile.

Tuesday: Chicken Pie with Green Beans

Using the chicken leftovers from the night before.

Preheat the oven to 200*C

Saute a chopped onion in some oil for around 10 minutes
In a separate container add 300ml of boiling water to a stock cube, before pouring into the saucepan, holding back around 50ml.
Add a tablespoon of cornflour to the remaining 50ml and stir into a paste before adding to the onions and stock.
Add 2 or 3 chopped carrots, celery, leek and some salt and pepper and allow to gently simmer for around 20 minutes.
It’s at this point you can pour a glass of wine while taking the puff pastry out of the fridge to reach room temperature and fold any laundry that’s just come off the line. The kids are fine. You’ve checked on them.

Pour the chicken pie filling into a pie dish and ease your rolled out puff pastry over the top, allowing it to hang over the sides – we aren’t entering any competitions for presentation, we are aiming for maximum yumminess. Pierce the centre of the pastry lid a few times and if you have the inclination crimp the borders. Finally brush the pastry with a little milk and pop into the oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Chuck your green beans into some salted simmering water and cook for 5-7 minutes. Dress with olive oil and salt.

Serve with pride and a bottle of cider. Also gravy and, if you’re feeling adventurous, a carrot and swede mash.

Wednesday – Chicken Broth with Cheese Dumplings

Look at what you have done! You are about to have created 3 meals from a £7 chicken. What?!

Into a stock pot or a large saucepan, toss:

The chicken carcass with remaining skin, fat, herbs & lemon from the initial roast..
An onion cut in to quarters
4 to 5 whole crushed cloves of garlic
3 to 4 carrots washed and cut in half or quarters
3 stalks of celery washed and halved.
750ml of chicken stock.

Stick it all on a very low heat on the stove top, covered, and … walk away. Hoover, watch Homes Under The hammer or Judge Rinder, check e-mails, drink coffee, chat to yourself, your child, your neighbour. Cut the grass, do the online grocery shop, iron some shirts, badly.
After 90 minutes or so, uncover and allow the stock to simmer and reduce.
I reckon one more episode of Escape to the Country and you can drain the stock through a sieve into a clean saucepan and allow it to simmer for a further 30 minutes to an hour, season to taste, skim the fat and nod to yourself at how flipping great you are.

For the Cheesy Dumplings, so, SO easy.

Makes 12 dumplings.

30g cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 cups of self raising flour
60g finely grated cheddar cheese

Rub the butter into the flour until crumbly. You can do this with the bowl on your lap if you are catching the end of Come Dine With Me or overseeing any homework that is being done.
Mix in the cheese and about 1/2 a cup of water to bind it all together. It will be sticky.
Roll large teaspoons of the mixture into balls.
Pop them into your simmering broth and cover for the around 8 minutes.
Season to taste.

Serve with a mothering glow and an ice cold glass of whatever is left in the fridge.

Thursday – Mexican Bean Burgers with Coleslaw, Beans and Chips.

Mexican Bean Burger

Its a meat free meal and it’s one our favourites.

It is so straight forward.
Into the oven go the burgers – we use the Sainsbury’s Mexican smoky bean burgers. In go the frozen homestyle chips.
Coleslaw – grate cabbage, carrots and a few apples, mix with mayonnaise and a teaspoon or so of dijon mustard.
Beans – Heat up in a saucepan with the optional addition of some hot sauce and a few handfuls of grated cheese.
1 minute before the burgers are due out chuck in some brioche rolls to toast and layer a few slices of cheese on the burgers to melt.
To plate up; Build your cheese bean burger with salad leaves, tomatoes, avocado slices and lashings of mayonnaise, serve with a hunk of coleslaw and your hot beans. Salt and vinegar the chips. Naturally.

Serve with a wink, a, “Howdy!” and a refreshing beer or an icy rose wine. You are the best mum. Ever. Oh and the kids don’t get the beer or the wine. But you knew that.

Friday – Spag Bol that becomes Saturday Sloppy Joe’s

Saute onions and garlic (a lot of, like 4 cloves, I know! I’m sorry.) in a little oil on a very low heat for as long as you can stand there stirring. It’s a great excuse to have Him child mind for a while. If you can get to around 15 minutes you’re golden. As are the onions.
Add 500ml of beef stock, diced carrots and celery.
In go a tin of tomatoes.
A hefty shake of the Oregano bottle.

In a separate frying pan, brown off the mince and drain in a sieve. Sounds laborious, however it rids you of the excess water from the beef.

Browned mince into the bubbling tomato sauce. Salt and pepper. A glass or two of red wine (One for you, one for the pot etc.) and turn onto a very low heat to simmer.

Go and see if Him and Child are still alive. Hint that the washing needs to be brought in. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Cringe) is about to start. During the advert breaks pop back to give your amazing bolognaise a stir and a taste. One it has reduced, if you have a hand held blender, get to work and turn that sauce into a SAUCE.

Pour your spaghetti into a vat of salted, boiling water and leave to cook for 15 – 20 minutes until al dente. Drain and plate up.

Serve with grated cheese, a garlic loaf and a tomato & mixed leaf salad. Along with a large glass of the red. If there’s any left.

Saturday – Brunch – Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joe’s -These can only ever be eaten for Saturday brunch. It is the rule. Nay. It is the LAW. Unless you have a mid week hangover (Silly Billy Mummy!) Totally cancels the first rule out.

Heat up left over bolognaise sauce.
Butter a sweet, soft Brioche roll.
Heap buttered fresh roll with hot bolognaise sauce. A handful of grated cheese is absolutely necessary.
Thank me later.

Serve with anything bubbly. Prosecco or a Berocca. Depending on the reason you have had to make a Sloppy Joe.

Until Next Time xoxo

From Being Smart to Chocolate Tart ( Which is not a tart, but a sponge) – A Tag

Fairly recently I was tagged by the fabulous Domestic Goddess, who you can have a sneaky peek at here, The Domestic Goddess , She is witty, smart and forever popping on to my blog to offer words of support and encouragement. She suggested that I had a go at ’11 Things About Me.” which I have done. So completely off topic and with not an ounce of military house wife-ness about it, here are the 11 answers to the 11 questions Domestic Goddess asked;

What Is Your Favorite Movie You Have Watched This Summer?

I have not watched a single movie this summer. How is that possible?! However, I would like to see Trainwreck and Sisters at some point.
If You Had To Choose Between Good Looks Or Being Smart Which Would You Choose?

I reckon I would like to be smart enough to use my good looks 😉

What TV Show Is Your Guilty Pleasure And Your Are Embarrassed To Say You Watch?

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. No one knows this. My mother would be horrified.
What Is Your Favorite Place To Go On Vacation?

Anywhere warm, with a beach, some culture and a cocktail menu. Favourites are; Santorini, Greece, St. Maarten, Caribbean, Cape Town, South Africa and Hvar, Croatia.

How Do You Like Your Coffee?

I don’t drink coffee. Or tea, but I like my Prosecco ice cold with a raspberry.

What Is Your Favorite Dessert?

A chocolate ‘melt in the middle’ sponge, with Madagascan vanilla bean ice cream. Oh. My. Goodness. Why have I even allowed myself to write this before lunch?

What Song Do You Put On When You Need Something To Brighten Your Day

Ferris Beuller’s version of Twist & Shout

What Is Something New You Have Been Wanting To Try But Have Not Done So Yet?

To go to sleep in silence.
For as long as I can remember I have had to fall asleep listening to something, whether it be the television, the radio, an audio book. My mind wont just switch off on it’s own. I would like to be able to fall asleep in silence while meditating or something equally beneficial and calming.
What Life Lesson Do You Wish You Had Listened To When You Were Younger?

I’m pretty glad that I didn’t listen to any of them! I am who I am today because I muddled down my own little path and got to this point.
Would You Rather Have A Big Mansion Or A Nice Home In The Country With Lots Of Land?

I’m all for abundance, so how about a big beach front mansion with lots of land?!

What’s Your Favorite Holiday?

Christmas. I am not a fan of the cold weather, however I am a fan of how it justifies the amount of food and drink that I consume. I adore the love, the buzz and the traditions that settle over any given community over the festive season.

Quote of the Week: 

“Everybody has a chapter they don’t read out loud.”

Until next time xoxo

From Deployment to Enjoyment

Towards the end of July it became apparent that the best that Puddle* could offer in the way of Summer was in fact … Autumn.  Peering out of the landing window both Baby and I would struggle to see the shimmer of grey that was the sea, somewhere down below the rolling crop fields. The sheep stomping past our back garden with an obvious annoyance at having their winter coats shorn off, the lambs cowering beneath their mothers swollen, warm bellies.

Our daily walks through the bustling farm yard and down to the damp, cold sands were often accompanied by fleeces and wellies. Not that Dog minded, it was all the same to him, bounding fearlessly through the hedgerows and somersaulting into the frothing black waves.

    

On the few occasions that the sun mooched smugly out from behind the tumbling clouds, the whole of Puddle would seemly melt into a typical English village**

The wheat fields, with their chessboard of bales, would glisten against the sky, the calmer waters in the bay would shimmer and gently lap at the shell strewn sands. The breeze would carry the scent of warm hay and dried seaweed, barbecues and soft pink roses as it wandered lazily up through the woods to our kitchen window. The woods, where the trees and the hollyhocks meet in the middle, soaking everything beneath it in a magical soft, green light. The narrow foot path hidden by bracken and nettles. The larks and the bullfinches darting from branch to stream, whilst the dormice scramble back through their tiny front doors as soon as Dog crashes through fallen tree branches and last years forgotten leaves.

    

When He strides out of the front door, uniform clad with kitbags and briefcases hanging off his towering frame, it’s a little bit sad and a little bit scary.

Sad, because when he is away I miss him. I miss the adult, the humour, the second pair of hands and his ability to pop to the only shop in Puddle to procure wine whilst I am up to my elbows in bath time bubbles.

It’s scary, because the most obvious unanswered question is, will he actually be striding back through that door again, alive? The less unanswered question is, what will I do at 5pm every evening when he normally brings relief from the routine?

And above all of this, you’re about to spend time alone with yourself. A lot of time.

For the first half of our marriage I was a martyr. I doted obsessively on our newborn, ensured the house reeked of magnolia Shake ‘n Vac, hosted glamorous lunches and marched the dog along the river twice a day. I owned not one, but two, under eye concealers and kept madly muttering to myself about self pity. I would tut!

He would pop in occasionally with mountains of laundry, crumpled boarding passes and photographs of hot countries and cold beers. Bursting with pride and excitement.

I got cross. And then more cross and then a lot cross. Cross that I had given up a career, a lifestyle, friends and family to effectively be someones housekeeper in strange, far-flung towns that I knew nothing about. Cross that He wasn’t around to appreciate my new role (and the smell of magnolia) and just cross, because I didn’t know what else to be at that point.

And then I burst. It was just as dramatic as I had fantasised in my dark, angry mutters. It was fabulously cathartic.

We went to see a marriage counsellor. And left six sessions later wondering why we hadn’t seen one sooner.

In the days, weeks and months that followed I let the anger and the resentment go. My fears and anxiety melted away revealing a young woman with so much to be grateful for and excited about. Look at what I have when he is away!! I have time! Time to explore my ambitions, my mind, my beliefs. Time to create, to ponder, to read. Time to cook delicious hearty meals, to walk through forests of bluebells and beaches full of rock pools. I have time to be silly. I have time to do nothing, to just be. Had I not met and married this man I would be stuck in a suffocating city, in a job that would never be my own, clock watching and constantly trying to keep up with the Joneses. Always finding an excuse as to why finding my version of bliss would have to wait. Procrastination would have been my ever present hashtag.

 

Having all of this time alone has allowed my imagination to wildly bound over societies expectation of how a woman, not least a human, should exist. I have no excuses now. I have to fill my time with something and why not by reinventing myself as many times as I please? By conquering fears and irrational thoughts? By embracing all of the change, the opportunities for not only myself, but Baby, to immerse ourselves in different cultures constantly? I can pick and choose the hobbies I attempt, the books that I want to read, the paths that I want to follow.

Granted, when He is away it is also a fabulous excuse to get the Prosecco on ice, invite a few of the fellow wives round, indulge in carbohydrates and in the ever present moan about husbands never being present, washing machines going bust, being the default parent and shaking our heads at the lack of new scents being launched by Shake’n Vac, but a girls gotta do …

So, as much as I could wallow quite comfortably in the sympathy and awe of others who marvel at the way we military housewives cope with the isolation, the fear, the never ending list of responsibilities and the constant upheaval, I also want to make it quite clear that I have grabbed this lifestyle with both hands and am going to use this twisted journey to my advantage over and over again until I have found what I’ve been searching for. And do you know what? The realisation and acceptance of that on it’s own has made me a happier, lighter, more fun person to be around so that when He does walk back through that front door he feels nothing but love, appreciation and contentment. What more could any man want from his family and what better way to serve the man who serves his country?

*Puddle, not it’s real name.

**Side note; Puddle cannot be classed as an actual English village due to it’s distinct lack of pub. DISTINCT LACK OF PUB. You read correctly. And I live here.

Top Tip:

A quote again,

Oscar Wilde once said, ” I think it’s very healthy to spend some time alone. You need to know who you are when you are alone and not be defined by another person.”

This rings true in my lifestyle, because I’ve learnt a lot about myself by not being surrounded by the influence of my husband, my parents, my siblings, my friends and former colleagues. It’s been just me … looking at me. And it’s not as scary as you think it might be. Be brave and embrace the solidarity that we have been gifted.

Until next time xoxo

From Civilian Life to Military Wife – A List.

The 10 Signs That You Are A Military Housewife

1. You panic when you receive paper work that requires you to fill in your address history from the past five years.
2. You don’t know any of your husbands friends and colleagues by their first names. They are all a last name with the optional “-y” or “-ie” at the end of it. Smithy, Jonesy,
   Awkward when their wives engage in leisurely chat with you referring to their other halves by their first name. Who now?!
3. Everything gets written on the calendar in pencil. Because it is going to change.
4. You’ve known your best friend for three weeks. She’d help you with a bikini wax if she was asked.
5. Another spouse goes ‘Cray Cray Loco,’ and forgets her husbands rank is actually on his chest, not hers.
6. When He gets on your nerves and you say, “Surely it’s about time you were due a trip somewhere.”
7. He makes a good bed. When he’s around. 
8. For some reason, you know the phonetic alphabet. Will come in handy. Said no one ever. But it sort of does.
9. He has more clothes, shoes and bags than you ever will.
10. You and He genuinely have the self sacrificing, ‘we can over come anything,’ kinda love that only happens in films made in the 90’s.

A cheeky 11. You pack like a boss.

Until Next Time

xoxo

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