About ME!

HELLO!!

I'm Christine. I'm a busy mum to 5 year old twins, Robin and Evie and wife to Ian. I also run a property management company. We live in a small village in beautiful, rural Northumberland. I love spending time at home with my family, running and exercising and socialising with my fabulous friends.

When I'm not busy with work, family or friends, my favourite pastimes are cooking and eating (often a combination of family/friends and food). I particularly get so much (too much?!) pleasure from making healthy, nutritious meals from nothing (well, whatever I've got in the house!), making leftovers exciting and not wasting a thing. I HATE waste. I've wanted to start a blog for a few years but time just hasn't allowed it. But I'm very excited about getting it going now and sharing my passion for food with the world!!

I'm very health conscious and want to feed my family good food, on a budget. As you can imagine, time is not something that I have a lot of so my cooking has to fit in with my busy life. Weekday cooking has to be fuss-free and speedy but I still want it to feel indulgent.

I am also a keen vegetable gardener. There is little better than creating a whole meal from produce that you raised with your own fair hands. And in the British weather, it's not always easy. It makes you appreciate it even more though! I would urge anyone to have a go at growing their own. Even if it's just a few of your favourites in pots or some herbs on the windowsill. Do it!

I'm going to try and share some of the recipes that I create and any tips that I have along with general ramblings about food and the good life!

Don't expect fine dining, just homemade, tasty, healthy and wholesome food. Always on a budget! Maybe with the odd flashy, entertaining number thrown in for good measure. The budget won't go out the window though.

I'm very new to this so please bear with me until I find my feet!!

I hope you enjoy it. All feedback very much appreciated!!

Thanks y'all!

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

TIP: Get more out of your potatoes

I've just got back from my holiday and haven't been to any shops yet so have been cooking from what we have left in the cupboards for the last few days. 

I had some mince in the freezer that I bought on offer in lidl before the holiday (£1 for 500g!!! I bought 6!). And I had some potatoes left so I've just made a big cottage pie which should last is a couple of days. 

When I was making the mash, I decided to steam the potato peelings over the potato pan. I was really doing it to give them to the hens (spoilt chucks) but it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to do it other times too as most of the nutrition is in the skins so I guess some of this goodness should have worked it's way into the pan below. Just using common sense, so I may be wrong!!

I had a load of leeks that I dug before I went (to make way for new plants) that I didn't get a chance to cook so I desperately needed to use them. So I decided to make leek and potato soup for our lunches this week. 

To try and use fewer potatoes in the soup and to avoid losing any of the potential nutrients that I had (hopefully) just created in the mash water, I used all the potato cooking water in the soup. That way I would get the potato flavour and the starch needed to make the soup thick and creamy. 

It seems to have worked as it's super-creamy and really tasty! Fabulous!

Right, off to the shop to get some veg. Won't be long until I'm eating from my garden again. Can't wait!




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