The magic of lasagne.

Why is that if you call something 'lasagne' you can pack it full of all sorts of inedible ingredients (to a 3yo) and it still disappears as if it were a bowl of hokey pokey ice-cream!

We had lasagne for tea. It was combined effort between Alison and myself. I borrowed her basic ideas but made it my own, and it was still wolfed down by all. Feeling very virtuous about all the coloured veges that the kids had consumed I followed it up with self-saucing chocolate pudding and hokey pokey ice-cream.

In case you're interested it went something like this: Cook some brown lentils until soft (I usually stick some in a pot first thing in the morning, bring to boil, turn off, leave an hour or so, bring to boil again, turn off and leave until soft). Throw in food processor with a tin of tomatoes, a roughly chopped onion, a packet of any sort of soup (I used tomato), some basil and oregano, 5 big cubes of defrosted frozen spinach (or huge pile of fresh if you have it), 1C hot water. Whizz.

Layer in crockpot with lasagne noodles then pour over 1C milk, with 1Tbsn cornflour and 1 egg all whisked together. I threw the grated cheese on once I took it out because I find it sort of burns in the crockpot.

Ah, the magic of lasagne, wonder what flavour we'll have next.

Balmy autumn days.

We've had a great day today enjoying some unseasonably warm May weather. This morning I popped both girls in the Chariot and went on a big bike ride to the wool shop. I bought some yummy wool for a couple of birthday pressies, we admired LOTS of wool, then the girls got back into the Chariot and I biked towards home.

It's quite a loooong way to the wool shop! I know that now.

Half way home - once all the busy roads were crossed - we hopped off again to have a picnic. Isabella was asleep, so we left her sleeping in the Chariot and Ciara and I just hung out by the river enjoying our picnic, the view and the peace. Ciara kept asking why there was no-one else there. I wondered the same thing. It was so beautiful, I couldn't believe there weren't more people out enjoying the day.

We had a lovely chilled afternoon tidying up, pottering around cooking a vegan dinner, and playing with some balls. Oh, and I knitted up a storm trying to finish Brendan's slippers so that I can start on my new wool.

Visiting friends and the Next Door Cat

Well, today was a big day for us...

but before I go on, I just have to say that we've had a very busy couple of years, hence why I haven't posted for a while. I was waiting for something momentous to start our blog up again, but then a friend pointed out if I waited for it to be perfect, it would never happen, and she's right, so here we go again.

... anyway, the big moment was that Ciara went and visited a wee friend, on her own, and she had a ball! I have a bad cold, so when we were invited to Z's house I didn't feel up to it, but Ciara did. So Isabella and I dropped her off for a couple of hours. Five hours (and one phonecall) later she eventually arrived home, with blue paint on her nose, a big smile, and a full tummy. I'm not sure what they ate, but Z tells me 'they ate all day' and she didn't eat much dinner here. Funny that. No doubt Z's food was so much more interesting than ours.

Now, the Next Door Cat.

I looked out the window, to see Jack, the cat from next door - who spends all day here - jumping into the compost bin. I wondered why because soggy old porridge, ripped up envelopes and vegetable peelings doesn't seem very appealing to me, even for a scrounging cat, but I soon saw why. Seconds after jumping in, he jumped out again, with a mouse in his mouth. Both the girls were eating dinner, so I decided to postpone any conversations about Jack eating our mice, and other than taking a quick walk outside to confirm my suspicions I said nothing. I suppose I should be happy that we haven't got a mouse infestation, but I did feel a bit sorry for the poor wee thing.