Oat and Dark Choc Chip Cookies

It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow in the UK. Now, to me, it’s one of those annoying, commercialised events where you feel obliged to give something so as not to seem like a terrible daughter and there’s no shortage of mass produced tat available for purchase this weekend. To be honest, it’s way easier to pop to the high street (or the nearest petrol station) and buy a bunch of over priced flowers or a twee little knick-knack and that’s usually exactly what I end up doing, but this year it’s different.

We recently discovered these fantastic oaty chocolatey cookies which are both simple to make and easy on the pocket. We’ve already munched our way through a fair few batches (all the while telling ourselves that oats are really good for you), so it seemed like a good idea to bake some for our mums. The recipe comes from an excellent cook book that I picked up for a fiver in The Works – it’s called The Busy Mum’s Cookbook and contains a wealth of yummy things.

To make these cookies you will need:

100g or 4oz butter

150g or 5oz light brown muscovado sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g or 5oz jumbo oats

pinch salt

75g or 3oz plain flour, sifted

200g or 7oz dark choc chips

1. Prehat your oven to 190c/fan 170c/gas 5. In a large mixing bowl beat together the butter and sugar until it’s pale and creamy. Next beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Fold in the oats, salt and flour then stir in th choc chips.

2. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet (I get about 9 to a sheet and do two batches). Bake for around 12-15 minutes until pale golden, then remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. They can then be stored in an airtight container.

To make them more gifty, I popped them into a cellophane bag and tied it with ribbon before putting them into a pretty cardboard box with a lid. I reckon the cookies cost about a pound per batch and the box was three quid.

Perhaps the best thing about this make is that the ingredients are easy to come by so it’s not too late to whip up a batch for your mum today!

Anitcipating

Christmas morning 2011

First things first, I cannot believe it’s been over two months since my last post. Life just took over recently and I’ve been too busy to really think about blogging and struggled to summon up any motivation. The main reason is that we’re in the middle of selling our house and buying another and if you’ve ever done either, you’ll know how energy sapping and soul destroying the process can be. Anyway, enough already, I’m back and what better time to re-enter the blogosphere than the lovely month of December?

I used to be a bit sneery about folk who put their trees up on the first of December, thinking it a bit vulgar almost, but I have to say that I’ve recently come to the conclusion that you might as well enjoy this time while it lasts. Let’s face it, it’s all about the build up isn’t it? Once the big day’s been and gone, then that’s it for another year, so why not start enjoying it early and make the most of it?

With this new found enthusiasm, we’re heading out to buy our tree later, directly after we’ve dropped in at our first Christmas fair of the season. M is helping to staff her Brownie stall (Brownie’s as in guides, not chocolate cakes) so we’ve promised to go and buy some of the mini Christmas cakes they’ve made. Bless them.

Everything seems to kick off in earnest this weekend and it’s all to look forward to. The work night out, the school nativity, the last minute shopping trips and the amazing panto at York Theatre Royal which is now a firm favourite with us – just some of the highlights of the next few weeks.

When does Christmas begin in your home?

Wholesome Tales

M loves to read and, if you’ll excuse the boasting, she’s pretty good at it too. She’s six and a half but has been reading well beyond her age for quite a while now. It seems to come naturally to her. Anyway, the upshot of this is that it can be a bit of a challenge keeping her supplied with reading material. She reads whenever she can: in bed, on the loo (gets that from her dad), in the car, whilst brushing her teeth, anywhere.

I regularly pick up book bargains from charity shops and of course, there’s the library, but one of our best sources of wholesome literature is her grandparents. G’s dad, in particular, is something of a hoarder and as a result they have a huge collection of stuff from when G was a lad, including some fantastic old books.

 

I love the fact that M’s a bookworm and has an insatiable appetite for words on a page. Reading has to be one of the most satisfying hobbies and it warms my heart to see her enjoying the likes of Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton just as much as I did when I was her age <wipes away a little tear>.

Do your kids like books? What are their favourites?

Easy Smartie Biscuits

M made these simple little cookies a few years ago when she was at pre school. She brought one home along with the recipe which the teacher had cleverly stuck in the bag. I always think if these things are straightforward enough for a bunch of three and four year olds, then they’re probably okay for me to have a go at too.

So, if you’d care to give them a try, you’ll need:

6oz SR flour

4oz light muscovado sugar

4oz softened butter

1tbsp golden syrup

2 tubes Smarties or similar

Basically you cream the sugar and butter til light and fluffy, then stir in half of the flour before then adding the Smarties and the remaining flour to form a soft dough. You can then use your hands to form the dough into 24 little balls which you then ‘plop’ onto a greased baking tray and stick in a oven which has been pre-heated to 180c/gas 4/fan 160c. Cooking time is betwen about 7 and 10 minutes.

When they’re golden on top, remove from the oven and leave on the baking sheet to firm up a little, before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

And that’s it. Job done.

Busting the Myth

M lost her first tooth a couple of weeks back and was VERY excited. She was one of the remaining few children in her class not to have lost one yet, so when it started to wobble, she fiddled with it more or less constantly until it came out. In fact she came running through into our room at just after 5am the other morning to tell us. So, anyway, it was a big deal. Obviously we made a whole hoopla out of it and discussed the procedure for the tooth fairy and M went to bed that night in a state of extreme anticipation.

Well, the tooth fairy came and deposited what M later described as “a fancy pound” under her pillow (the coin had the leek design on it, this is fancy apparently). The following morning M awoke to find all was in order and that the visit had taken place as expected. We didn’t think too much more about it after that, at least not until last Saturday when M was hanging out in our bedroom and just happened to open my bedside drawer. You’ll never guess what she found in there, secreted in a little jewellery box. What, you guessed? Really?

My heart missed a beat while she held out the box saying “What’s this Mum? It looks like my tooth!”. All I could think to do was burble something about how the tooth fairy must return teeth to their owner and that we wouldn’t have known that as it’s our first visit etc… etc… I think she bought it, but I felt BAD. When I told G what had happened he said “Yeah, she often rummages in that drawer”. This was news to me.

So, having managed to chip away at my daughter’s innocence, the main thing is that the myth appears to remain in tact, unless M’s just humouring me.

The Great Outdoors

First off, can I ask what has happened to the glorious weather of last week? Second off, why has it disappeared just as we’re preparing to go on our first ever camping trip?

If you know me in real life, then you’ll probably be aware that I’m not naturally ‘at home’ in an outdoor environment, so the decision to purchase a tent and borrow a load of other kit is a tad out of the blue. It’s fair to say that the whole ‘glamping‘ phenomenon has helped to sway me towards the idea although I expect our set up will be more sham than glam (do you see what I did there?). I have a vision of a pretty little campervan bedecked with bunting and strung with fairy lights. Our tent is big and green and practical looking and will no doubt end up with damp clothes hanging from it. Hmmm.

Seriously though, I am looking forward to it. The plan is that we’ll be able to have lots of short, fairly impromptu and, most importantly, cheap breaks. In theory the girls should love it too although M’s already shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm (hope she didn’t get that from me). No, they will have fun.

We’re staying close to home for our inaugural trip (heading to a lovely looking farm about forty miles away) and we’ve only booked for two nights, so if there’s a problem (what could go wrong?) at least we’re not overly committed.

Once it dawned on me this this is really happening, I decided I needed to get organised. I foolishly googled ‘camping with young children’ and was immediately overwhelmed by the search results. There seemed to be hundreds of forums dedicated to the very subject, each offering a neverending supply of hints and tips from seasoned campers. On the back of this, I began writing a list. I used one of those sticky note things that sits on your computer’s desktop so each time I log in, the list is there, glaring at me and getting longer by the day. It seems that there are whole areas of camping that we’d never given any thought to. For instance, did you know that you basically need to go to bed in your clothes so you don’t die of hypothermia, even in the summer? G’s bought himself long johns, a thermal vest and a fleece especially. I need to do the same apparently.

So, this time next week we’ll be there, hopefully cooking sausages on a little barbecue and swigging wine from mugs while the kids romp playfully nearby. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Spring Saturday in the Playground

Raising Girls

Playing hairdressers

First things first, I love having daughters. To be fair, I’m sure I’d be equally happy if I had sons or one of each, but for me there’s something special about bringing up two little women. Now, I don’t want this post to descend into soppiness, so let’s move it on swiftly.

We seem to have naturally acquired two quite typically girly girls. We didn’t set out to make them that way, honest. It just happened. When M was small, we made sure she had a train set as well as a doll’s pram and G tried to encourage her to go and watch football with him. I tried to avoid overly girly clothes (by which I mean pink and frilly) and we generally did things in a fairly gender neutral way. As her personality developed though, it became clear that she was naturally drawn to fairy princess dressing up costumes and playing house. Why was that I wonder?  Why didn’t she want to play pirates or cowboys or whatever little boys like to do? M’s six now and is turning into a very bright little girl (I know, I’m biased). She’s reading at a level way above her age and she writes some fantastic stories and poems. She loves the order and discipline of school too. She also likes physical play and sport and isn’t afraid to have a go at stuff, which pleases me more than anything (I was always such a timid kid).

K’s just starting to show her true colours. One of her big passions is playing with baby dolls (of which we have many). She seems to have an innate understanding of caring for them and it’s fascinating to watch. How does she know what to do? She too seems keen on donning a frilly dressing up frock and prancing around with a wand and tiara. It’s perhaps a bit too soon to know if she’s going to be as girly as her sister, but the signs are there.

For me, the whole nature v nuture debate is a bit of a no brainer. In my work as a teacher I see it too. In most cases, girls and boys seem to have a natural propensity towards certain traits and characteristics and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

 For G and I, it’s important that our daughters grow up to be confident, kind, intelligent, healthy, generous, adventurous and, perhaps most importantly, individual. Sometimes I’m at a loss as to how to help them achieve this and  I worry quietly about what will happen when peer pressure kicks in and suddenly they’re not happy with their weight or the way their hair looks or they’re afraid to try something for fear of looking silly. I guess we’ll cross those bridges when we get to them and hope we don’t fall in on the way.

Do you have daughters? Tell me about them.

Thrifty Thursday: The Humble Packed Lunch

With M back at school this week I was keen to sit down and blog – feels like ages since the last post, but somehow I just couldn’t get around to it during half term week. Anyway, I’m back on track now.

This clearly isn't one I made earlier...

So, it’s all about the humble packed lunch today (or ‘pack up’ as it’s called here in Yorkshire – what do you call it where you live?). M takes one to school and I’m sure it works out a whole lot cheaper (and dare I say nicer) than school dinners. G usually takes one to work too. He used to be one of those people who spent £££ each week buying meal deals from Boot’s or yummy things from Pret until it dawned on him just how much he was spending. I’ve never sat down and worked out how much M’s lunch costs, but I’m going to guess at around £1 per day (school dinners cost more than twice that and she doesn’t like them anyway!).

M’s average lunchbox usually consists of:

Some form of bread and filling (I believe they’re called sandwiches)

Bread types include wraps, bagels, pittas, sliced wholemeal, bread rolls.

Fillings include cream cheese & ham, turkey & cranberry sauce, tuna mayo, cheese and chutney, egg mayo & cress (stinky though)

Fruit

Pretty sure we all know what fruit is, but ideas include pot of grapes, clementines, small apples, dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries, pot of blueberries and strawberries.

Some type of ‘sweet’

Favourites here include cereal bars, chocolate biscuits (e.g Kit Kat or the like), fromage frais, homemade (occasionally) cake

Some type of  savoury ‘thing’

This nearly always involves a Babybel. You know, those overpriced, bland little flat cheese balls with the red wax jacket. M LOVES them.  Alternatives to this include a pot of humous and some carrot sticks, small pot of crisps (from a larger bag), couple of cheese crackers (the Cheddar type ones), breadsticks.

Bottle of Brita filtered water (posh, eh?)

I really do think there’s a lot to be said for taking a packed lunch when you go about your daily business. Aside from the financial benefits, there’s something kind of wholesome and satisfying about tucking into a homemade lunch.

Now, as you can see, I’m not exactly overflowing with exciting lunchbox ideas, so PLEASE let me know yours and pass on the thrifty love!

Happy Winter