Happy new year everyone. 2017 is here. What are your resolutions for this year? Mine are to plan my supermarket trips better, save for things that matter and to always do my best in every situation. For now I have managed to catch 2 colds in 2 months. Lol.  Anyway, I wish all of you a great year 2017.

You can see Justine with one of her Christmas presents, her Barbie house.

I have also been baking a little...above is a baked custard pot. Easy and enjoyed by my daughter (and me.lol).

A hot chocolate with marshmallows and some soft gingerbread...very soothing;)

Ways to save money

With summer holidays coming up and lots of us going away for short or long breaks abroad or at home, it's easy to over spend. I, for one, have been finding out that stretching the budget too much isn't good at all; not for the long term especially. So, I have been finding out ways to save or even to make some extra doh.
Maybe these will help you too, mums or busy parents and especially if you are job hunting:

1. An easy way to make some extra cash and declutter your house, garage or shed is to flog things that you don't need on eBay. The best and most rewarding way is to wait for no fee auctions (when you don't need to pay to sell something). These come up quite often; just keep an eye out for them.
2. Take online surveys and do reviews of products. They often pay you per survey or review and although it doesn't sound like much at first, it does add up since it doesn't take long to complete a survey or do a review.
3. Become a product tester or mystery diner. Search for these terms online and you'll find websites coming up that give you the option to sign up to eat at restaurants or test a product or even to shop at certain shops for free, with a reward in cash or gift vouchers.
4. If you have a talent or a skill, why not try and sell it? If you know a language, or play an jnstrument, post an ad for tuitions/lessons for a fee of your choice (keeping it reasonable and local is your best bet). Similarly if you have a hobby such as crafting, try selling your crafts online  (e.g, greeting cards, crochet items, knitted wares, sewn or embroidered items to personalise belongings). 
5. If you are a blogger or have a website, you can make money via adverts too.

OK,  hope that helps....If I missed anything valuable, I will update this section soon. See ya!

Nat x

Life is busy and it's all about fitting in some quality family time. My daughter and myself have been busy lately. I, for one, have been cooking and baking and my daughter has been helping sometimes. Together we made jewelry and lots of going out and visiting friends and places. We saw the Jungle Book at the cinema this half term break. The break is nearly over; after the weekend, we are going back to school and work. Here are some pictures to show what we have been up to. Some photos are on my phone and haven't transferred them to my tablet yet...above are the quick but yummy cupcakes we made on Thursday morning to take to my friend'save place to share with all of them.

Right above are the delicious naan bread I made to have with the scrumptious chicken curry I concocted. Then just beneath the picture of the naan bread is one of the lovely pancakes. We filled them with honey and lemon juice or chocolate spread of even jam and butter.

Hi there readers! How are you? Hope you are feeling better than
I am because I have a sort of cold/bug that is making me feel pretty ill.
However, I did promise some friends a couple of recipes and I wish to share them now. I will give you the one for Mauritian style curry and maybe fried rice noodle as well.
For the curry, you will need those ingredients and it will serve 2 adults easily:

• Curry powder (hot, mild or medium) - 2 heaped tablespoons 
• Vegetable oil - 2 good turns
• 2 fresh tomatoes or 2 tinned ones
• a bunch of coriander 
• 3 curry leaves
• a quarter of a large onion or half a small one
• 1 big clove garlic or 2 small ones
• 1/2 cm piece of ginger
• any meat or fish that you wish to curry (you can alternatively use hard boiled eggs)
• Seasoning (salt and pepper)

Method:
Start by cutting you meat/chicken/fish into pieces, seasoning them with salt and pepper and frying them in oil. Drain and put aside, leaving the oil in the pan. If there is more than 2 tbsp of oil, get rid of some or if there is too little, then add some.
Blend together the tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger and coriander until well blended into a puree. Now heat up the oil on medium low and place the curry leaves and curry powder in it, stirring quickly and adding some water to make a thin paste. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato blend to the curry paste and cook on medium high heat for about 5 minutes then reduce the heat and let the whole thing simmer for 15 minutes. Check occasionally that the mixture is not becoming dry; if it is, then adjust the consistency with hot water to get a runny paste. At this point, it is good to check the seasoning and to add salt if required. Near the end of the cooking time, transfer the meat/chicken/fish or hard boiled eggs to the pan and simmer 2 more minutes before switching off and letting it stand for about 10 minutes before eating.

Hello y'all. Hope you are all keeping well in places hot and lands so cold. Here in England, the winter has been pretty mild up to now. Christmas is fast approaching but we might be moving house soon so I refrained from putting up any decorations. We, my daughter and myself, think it will be better, in terms of layout in the new place. We'll see...:)
I am making this entry because I was astounded when realising I had not made an entry for such a long time.
It is still early here...about 7.50 am. We saw Santa yesterday at the Squires garden centre. It was brilliant! Justine got a gift but still thought she'd ask for a book and a bath fizzer shaped like a cupcake! Lol. Justine absolutely loves bathtime so I thought it was fair to allow her a treat.
I just got some interesting vouchers from the garden centre in my mailbox. Their vouchers are great; usually free drink or cream tea for two half price or something similar. This time of year, they sent some lovely Christmassy offers too.
Since the end of year involves lots of shopping, both for food and groceries as well as gifts, I think any way to save is helpful. Waitrose "pick your own" offers are hard to beat. You choose ten items on which you'd like to get 20% off every time you buy them; you don't have to buy all ten of them at any one time. You can periodically change the items, which is good.
Anyway, I better go and do something. I need to buy some groceries today and clean the house too. Have a great Sunday everybody. I will be back soon.

Solutions to stains

Motherhood taught me many a thing, one of which is that I must absolutely know how to get rid of stains because somehow, it seems like stains is a daily thing nowadays...Indeed, little ones come from school with uniforms tainted with paint that is, apparently, washable but will not wash off when you pop in the machine along with the rest of the laundry. At tea time, you can be sure something will miss the mouth and will land on the dress or the leggings, so you better be prepared just in case it results in one of those stubborn stains that just won't budge. I have had to deal with cherry stains, chewing gum and blueberry juice on my daughter's clothes and to my own astonishment I managed to get them off the clothes and they looked as good as new after.
How easily to you get cherry stains off the clothes will depend on how fast you deal with the stain. You will have guessed it, the faster you try and get it off, the better! First place the garment in the sink and pour boiling water from the kettle directly on the stain. It should wash the most of the stain away and if it doesn't, then get some lemon or lime juice and some baking soda. Dab some baking soda on the stain and saturate with lime or lemon juice. Let this duo work its magic for a few minutes then again with the boiling water. If that was not enough, pour some concentrated washing up liquid on the stain and leave to stand for a further few minutes and wash off, preferably with hot water. That should really do the trick and should leave your garment stain-free.
As for chewing gum stuck to clothes. You know the ice cube trick, don't you? It just involves taking an ice cube and rubbing it on the chewing gum to make it hard and easier to scrape off. Sometimes not all of the chewing gum will come off that way and one thing that will get it off completeley and utterly is salt and washing up liquid. That's how you proceed: cover the chewing gum area in washing up liquid and liberally sprinkle salt on it. Rub the salt in with your finger and the chewing gum should start to leave the fibres of the garment. You can then wash the garment as you normally would.

Not for those who are on a calorie-controlled diet;)

I can't stop cooking and baking. Now I took up my crochet hook again too. Looks like something good came into my life and motivated me more than ever! Not that I have ever been bored in my entire life. Anyway, enough chit chat. You probably liked the recipes I posted last time and are coming for more!;) If you are on a diet, go easy on them but, hey, what's life without occasional indulgence really! lol. OK if mum reads that, mum hope you remember what 'lol' means (I told you last time when we were chatting but if you forgot, no matter, I will remind you).

Now to the recipe(s)...I thought I would include something very easy that can be ready in under 15 minutes. Quick dinner, healthy and scrumptious; what more can someone want! Today the recipe is Prawns with vegetables and Shitake mushrooms. You will need:

• Vegetable oil (2 turns)
• A teaspoon of butter
• Prawns (about a good handful)
• A handful of green runner beans cut in pieces
• Shitake mushrooms (about 6, sliced)
• Soy sauce
• Lemon juice, about 2 tablespoons (preferably fresh)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Garlic (2 cloves minced) and a small piece of ginger (grated or minced)

Put together the ingredients and let them work their magic! Heat up a frying pan and add the butter and the oil. The oil will make sure the butter does not brown and burn. Add the prawns and half of the garlic and ginger. Fry just for 3 mins maximum on medium heat. Then remove the prawns from the pan and add to it the beans and the rest of the garlic and ginger; saute those for about 3 mins then add the mushrooms and soy sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep sauteing until the mushrooms are cooked and the beans somewhat softened. If the sauce is too thick of you can hardly notice any liquid in the pan, add a little bit of water and as soon as it comes to the boil, take the pan off the heat. This is best enjoyed with plain boiled rice but is just as nice with plain boiled noodles (type of your choice). Enjoy!