Friday 28 February 2014

Corn beef patties

Adding menus suitable for my linky. This recipe is gluten/wheat/egg/dairy/peanut/tree nut free and could easily be made potato free.

This one is quick and simple and is adaptable to suit most allergies.

Peel and cook a choice of potatoes and vegetables. We used ordinary potatoes and a butternut squash



chop and mash a tin of corned beef



add the corned beef to the potatoe/vegetable mix


and shape. Add to a preheated oven to brown them off. 



Serve with tomatoes and beans. 



A tasty meal. The shapes sadly did not keep their shape, but you could just brown it in a baking tray instead. 




Saturday 22 February 2014

Are their legitimate risks in getting a prenatal ultrasound? During 1st trimester? 2nd?

After the excitement of finding out you are having a baby comes the time to get your first ultrasound. Ultrasound technology uses high-frequency sound waves to view the muscles and internal organs in real-time so you can see movement and blood flow. The question is, is prenatal ultrasounds safe or is there risks? And what about ultrasounds in the first and second trimesters?

Ultrasound has been used for over 20 years. The technology can be used to help athletes or to check on the health of your growing bundle or joy. The non-ionizing radiation has the same risks associated with x-rays. No known risks are attributed to ultrasound imaging, but there can be minimal effects to the body, such as the body tissue being heated or producing small pockets of gas in body fluids or tissues.


Although no long-term effects of ultrasound have surfaced, it is recommended that you get ultrasounds sparingly throughout the pregnancy. They are important to help discover any abnormalities and routine ultrasounds have shown no harm to mother and baby, but it is discouraged to keep getting ultrasounds just for keepsake memorabilia.

If you have experienced problems within the first few weeks of your pregnancy, your doctor may refer you for an early ultrasound when you are six to nine weeks pregnant. If this does not pertain to you, you will have two ultrasounds during your pregnancy.
The dating ultrasound usually takes place in the first trimester between ten weeks and thirteen weeks, plus six days, and this will tell you more accurately when your baby is due, reveal the number of babies you are carrying, and will check your baby’s heartbeat. The next ultrasound will be when you are about sixteen to twenty weeks along to check for any abnormalities, reveal the baby’s sex, and measure its size.


the twins at 12 weeks

Ultrasounds do have their limitations. For instance, an ultrasound may not detect all birth defects or it might suggest a defect that is not actually present. Either way, the pros of having a few ultrasounds done throughout the course of your pregnancy outweigh the few negatives it may possess.

Of course, each pregnancy is different and some women may have more ultrasounds done for many different reasons. Whether you have just two, or if you have more, ultrasounds are a safe and easy way to check your baby’s progress and health. There have been no legitimate risks associated with prenatal ultrasounds.

the twins at 20 weeks


This post was written for funasagran.co.uk by Glenn Josephik. Glenn is an account representative and the marketing coordinator at MedCorp, the industry leader and premier business source for used ultrasound machines. You can follow Glenn Josephik on Google +

Project 365 - 16th- 22nd February

Well I have to say it has been a very boring week, not out and about all that much to take many interesting photos. But that is what this project is all about - my week.


Sunday

The flight path to land at Prestwick crosses the road we use as well as the bypass. Here are the runway lights from nearly the bottom of the hill. They only light up when a plane is coming in to land so you don't see them on all the time.



the lights on the runway




Monday
Following on from last weeks wins. On Saturday I received a letter to say I had won an Acer Tablet in a competition. OH has been wanting a tablet for long enough, so he has claimed it as his.


OH with his, my, his tablet







Tuesday

Son in law has had a few shifts at work this week before the site opens up again at the end of this month for the season. He has been off since just before the twins were born. In some respects daughter is looking forward to him going back, in other ways she is not. So to save her the hassle of making tea for them she came to us instead. Fifi was away on a four day school trip so was just her Bob and the twins.

The twins are getting a bit more interesting now. I sat on the floor with Dinky for over half an hour with her smiling and chattering away. Took some video footage of them if you want to see it.



I love his (MInky's)  big eyes

If Dinky is laid on her front now she will attempt to lift her head to look around, Minky doesn't he just lies and cries.

Wednesday

Was making toast and cheese, not much more to say really. This was about as exciting as my week got.



just thought it looked nice



Thursday

I was send Adam and Rover a while ago to do a review on. OH managed to win Whiskers, so she was sent to us as soon as she became available in the UK.



Whiskers and Rover



Friday

Look - the sun was out!!Was a cold day but dry and sunny till about 5pm anyway.



shadows of the blinds




Saturday

On Tuesday OH and I went back to the opticians to pick our glasses up. My vision has changed, slightly, in the last two years, so more glasses were called for. I use one pair for reading and one pair for distance. I now have one of each in the bedroom, one in the kitchen (well ingredients on packets are very small theses days), one of each in the living room, and a few to spare. Need to find a charity that collects them for sending overseas. 


too many pairs of glasses








TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

Friday 21 February 2014

Indesit FIM31KABK fan oven - a review

I was offered a wonderful opportunity to choose a product on which to do a review. So I looked through at what I thought would be useful to us, and liked the range of Indesit cookers at Argos

So I chose the Indesit FIM31KABK fan oven. 





Upon opening I first noticed how classy the oven looked. The black mirrored front looks good though this was a pain when shooting the video for reflecting back. We had it installed within two minutes of it being out of the box. It really was that easy to install. 

We have been using the oven for three weeks now. So what did we think of it? 







I have summarised our findings for you;

Pros
  • is fitted with a 13 amp pug so easy to install, no electrician needed
  • The oven is "A" rated
  • uses only 0.79 kwh, making it cheap to run
  • It reaches temperature very quickly
  • the outside of the glass door stays cool to the touch 
  • full width handle making it easy to open 
  • illuminated interior
  • simple to operate
  • has a manual timer
  • easy to clean enamel interior
  • the fan is very quiet


roasting a chicken


Cons
  • the grill only covers half the  size of the cooker
  • the timer is not overly loud


the grill and making toast and cheese


 It has done a great job of everything we have cooked in it, from roast dinners, to oven cooked veg, cakes and crumbles and even toast and cheese. I am very happy with this oven and from our findings I would happily recommend it. 



I give the oven 9 out if 10. 









Family Fever

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Seasonal veg with eggs in the hole.

As a member of BritMums I read many interesting posts, and when I saw this one I just had to join in. The challenge was
Share your quick family meals using eggs, as well as any other time-saving egg tips, in our #ShortcutEggsperts Linky Challenge.

We use eggs fairly regularly and so I thought this would be a good one to join in with.

I am quite a lover of making meals in the oven, especially at this time of year with potatoes and seasonal vegetables. This makes for a quick, easy, healthy meal that you pretty much just prepare, pop in the oven and turn over once during cooking.

This is a great recipe. It is easy to adapt, if the shop has veg on special or reduced then use them, there is no hard and fast list of ingredients as such, or quantities either, just make enough for your needs.

So I peeled, washed, prepared a selection of vegetables. I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, courgettes, carrots and leaks. I sliced them all through the processor to make them all the same thickness so that they would all cook evenly.


I placed the prepared veg in an oven tray, along with some frozen cauliflower,seasoned to taste, sprinkled with some olive oil and popped into a pre-heated oven at 180 oC.




After twenty minutes, remove the tray from the oven, agitate the veg, and then layer some bacon on top. I use cooking bacon, the value stuff is great, its not universally even in size and thickness, tastes as good as name brand bacon,  but is a great option when on a budget.




After five minutes remove from the oven again, make four holes amongst the vegetable and crack an egg into each.





Return to the oven for  a further five minutes or until the eggs are cooked. Serve and enjoy.






I like the versatility of this, is you are vegetarian it will be equally as tasty without the bacon.

This post is an entry for the #ShortcutEggsperts Linky Challenge sponsored by British Lion Eggs. Learn more and find recipes at www.eggrecipes.co.uk

Learn more and discover delicious recipes from celebrity chef Dean Edwards with a series of 10 inspired main meals recipes can all be made within 25 minutes.













Babbling Babies - a video of the twins

Daughter was over for tea last night, and where she goes the twins go. They are getting a bit more interesting, and are awake for periods of time now when they are not feeding. I sat last night talking away to the two of them.

Dinky and I spent about half an hour having a rather one sided conversation. She wasn't so keen on the video camera and I did get more interaction out of her once I had put the video down.

This is the first video I have managed to get of them like this, so I thought I would pop it on here as a keepsake.






Saturday 15 February 2014

Project 365 9th -15th February

Sunday.

Here is one of the tickets I got through the post yesterday, won them from a competition. They are for Thursday night, we will see what the weather is like before we decide if we are going or not.







Monday

After our bedroom move round last weekend, the next easiest room to put back together was the now spare room,this is the room the children used but as the spare room is used weekends more often than not then it made sense not to just swap it with the one we had been in. We bought a new bed for it as the other was a king size and too big for the room.

Daughter No1 had phoned just after 7pm to ask if she could come round. Both the twins had been unsettled most of the day and she wanted out for a while.She brought the twins with her, granddad and I got to cuddle them and they were as good as gold. I like the smile on Dinky's face, she was being so cute.



trying out the new bed. 



Tuesday

With the bedroom move going on hubby was trying to create space in the loft for some of the stuff out the cupboards while he was the paint drying in what is now the children's room. He found this in the loft.

a butterfly that was in the loft.



Wednesday

I had been in the town and on the way home I had seen a bright rainbow. I just had to pull the car over and photograph it.This picture was taken through the windscreen. The streaks on the window had not been visible through my sun glasses else I would have cleaned the window before I took the picture.



a rainbow against the dark sky


Thursday

We used the tickets (Sunday's picture) that I won as the weather was dry at the time we were in Glasgow. It was a lighting display and this was a light pattern running uphill. Was impossible to get it without people on it as it was just far too busy. The wee boy had seen me with a camera, and so went and posed for me.
Have done a blog post on it if you want to see some more pictures.Have to say the coloured waterfall was amazing.



the lighting pattern running uphill



Friday

I got a wem on Wednesday to tell me I had won a £20 Valentines Dine In meal. Had to pick what I wanted in M&S and then give them a code at the till. I chose the steaks and rosti potatoes as our main course and added some veg to go with them, The whole meal was very nice.

steak and rosti potatoes with veg and elderflower "wine"







Saturday

Doing a double shift today, so I went out to the car to bring in my notebook that I use to amuse myself in the two hour break between my shift and the overtime shift. Saw these so called evergreen trees at the side of the car park looking decidedly sorry for them selves.

a bird flies over the trees 

TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

An evening at Electric Glen, Rouken Glen Park

As you may well have seen in my Project 365 posting I was fortunate enough to win four tickets to the Electric Glen at Rouken Glen Park.
 Electric Glen will treat visitors to a fantastic night time experience of light, sound and performance. 

A specially designed illuminated trail will guide visitors on a magical after dark adventure, deep into the glen, over the waterfall and around the boating lake, with a host of surprises, characters from Rouken Glen’s past and interactive fun for all the family.

My tickets were allocated for 8.10 pm on Thursday evening. Unfortunately I have another engagement in Glasgow from 5-6pm that night and it was too late to come home and collect the children and take them, so the three of us that had been in Glasgow went along.

Luckily while we were there it remained dry and fairly wind free, though the heavens opened within five mins of us being back in the car, so thank fully we had gone along earlier and got round in the dry.

So we arrived and took our place in the queue, seemed to be they were letting a big group of people in every twenty minutes, as per ticket allocation times without actually checking the time on the tickets.

we were at the back of the queue so didn't have too long to wait. 

When they let us all through we were directed to somebody filling you in on some of the back ground information. This was more aimed at the children joining in with filling in the sheet we had been given, so we just wandered on. 

The walk consisted of various zones, each different. Each zone also had appropriate music playing.



a row of blue archways

various coloured lights on trees


the crowd at the top waterfall

looking down on the river from the top waterfall

I have to say the waterfall was amazing, changing colours, and the colours spread right down the river the way they had done it. It really did make you think "wow"


the top waterfall lit up red

patterns on the stairs

a pattern running up hill

the moon was out lighting up the clouds,the trees had patterns shone on them.


I did take some video footage of the changing colours on the waterfall. 


I also uploaded some other to google+ album if you want a look feel free



I have to say it made for a different night out, but I am glad I did not drive to Glasgow specially for it, and would not spend money on tickets, but for a free evening it was different. 

Never been round the park in daylight in years, last time I went I worked as a play group leader and we took all the children for their school trip. Maybe take the children over the Summer. 

Sunday 9 February 2014

Apple meringue pie - egg/wheat/dairy free

FREE FROM EGG, GLUTEN, WHEAT, DAIRY, SOYA, PEANUT


We had friends over for a meal on Thursday while I had the children so as I was making a sweet for them I decided to make the same for Bob, but with ingredients that  he can eat. So here is Bob's egg/wheat/gluten/dairy/peanut/soya free Apple meringue pie. Adding this to my linky as it is a simple recipe that the whole family can eat.  

I started with a basic crumble mix that I keep a tub of made in the freezer, it is so easy to use from frozen and saves making it every time I need some. 


Peel and core an eating apple, cook in the microwave with a tablespoon of water for ninety seconds.Leave to cool.

Crumble

1 oz dairy free margarine, I use a sunflower one. (I make with a tub full at a time) 
2 oz gluten free flour (either plain or SR will work ( if using a tub full just weight your margarine and add double the flour)
1 oz sugar ( if making in bulk add the same weight as the margarine).                                                                                                                                    Rub the margarine into the flour and sugar until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Put into the bottom of a small flat oven proof dish and add a sprinkle of water, enough to join the ingredients together but not to make it soggy. You are aiming at a pastry but this is much easier than trying to roll it out. 
Top with the partly cooked apple. 



To make the meringue

Place 2 heaped teaspoons of egg replacer into a deep container, I use a pint jug and add 4 tablespoon cold water. Whisk with a hand held mixer until light and airy and mixture stands in peaks. Gently add a dessert spoon of sugar and stir in gently.                                                                                                                                                                   Cover the apples with the meringue, and cook for approx 20 mins at 140 oC. This will cook the pastry base but the meringue will still look white, it does not brown as per normal meringue




Serve hot or cold.


fun as a gran

Saturday 8 February 2014

Project 365 2nd - 8th Feb

This week has mostly been about getting the spare bedroom finished decorating and making it habitable as we have decided on a room move. The couple that live through the wall don't appreciate how loud their music sounds in my bedroom when they come in from the pub having had one or four. They do this Friday and/or Saturday evening, I am up at 6am at weekends to go to work. So this seems a solution to the problem.

 So last night the move in was completed, not telling you what the other two rooms look like as we have decided to paint up the room we were in and put the kids in there and make the room the kids are in into the spare room.

Sunday

Daughter No1 had been over and she was reminiscing about these spoons. The handles are bent as when the children were younger I use them to take tyres off their bikes to mend punctures. More worrying is realising my spoons are more than 30 years old.

                            



Monday

Was over at daughters as I had picked her up something from the shops that she wanted. Here is just to prove home educated children have to work as well.







Tues


Was an ok afternoon, not ok enough to go out in the car to find somewhere nice, but ok enough for Bob and I to walk round the village. He did have his camera with him but could not find anything of any interest to photograph. This is him skipping down the street.




Wed

Round at daughters again. Here is Minky with his other gran.





Thur

Fifi had been to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday with the school. While they were there protesters were outside protesting about legalising same sex marriage. On Thursday her and her friend E made wedding outfits for the toy dogs. Here is the bride, E had taken the groom with her. She also made a bunch of flowers, the two wedding rings and the meal of haggis. tatties and neeps.





Fri

Well we have seen Minky so have to show you Dinky as well. She is watching everything that was going on. I have done an update to the end of January if you want to see a picture from nearly every day last month.





Sat

Well this is what was the spare room, but is now ours. The patterned wallpaper is on the two end walls with a beige  *sorry hubby says its natural wicker*  on the other two. There are two windows and we bought a bedding set to match the curtains. A black lampshade on a silver lamp we had in the loft and a small black coffee table next to the bed finishes it off nicely.

Ignore the blue headboard, we need a new black one but not had time to find one yet.





TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky