Amelia's first holiday and our Food Challenge fail

Now, I know what everyone’s thinking: they just love their food too much to complete a food challenge. Yes, we do love our food, but that’s not why we failed! Mark, being a man, ‘forgot’ we were going to start our Food Challenge on the 10th and, that day, came home from work and announced that he was on a very strict diet. I didn’t believe him, since this isn’t the first time that one of us has said we’re on a diet, then minutes later is eating cake, but this time he was for real. He’s doing really well actually, and it’s kicked me into action too. Let’s face it, I can’t use the I’ve-just-had-a-baby excuse any more. Anyway, until we’ve reached our weight loss goals, we’re postponing our Food Challenge. I promise we’ll do it at some point!

Before we started our diets, I squeezed in some baking. I made chocolate cupcakes for the year 11s to celebrate surviving their GCSE Music exam:

dulche de leche brownies:

and Nutella-stuffed brown sugar cookies:

I was pleased that my own versions of dulche de leche brownies and Nutella cookies were edible!

Anyway, that’s enough about food. At the end of last month, we spent a day with Grandma Seaside, Great Grandma and Ray and Great Auntie Wendy, Great Uncle John and second cousin Jake. We also took Amelia on her first day trip. We visited a stately home and its gardens with the Samson family. It was a lovely day and surprisingly Amelia wasn't scared of the horses! Here are a few photos:

And very excitingly, we took Amelia on her first holiday last week! We spent a lovely few days in St. Austell, Cornwall with Granny Jan, Grandad and Great Grandpa. We stayed on a farm close to the coast. Here’s our holiday in photos:

On the way back, we visited Grandma Seaside in Swanage, where Amelia played the saucepans for the first time.

This month seems to have been a month of firsts actually. Amelia now rolls over, has a bath in the big bath and sometimes sleeps on her tummy:

And next week she’s been invited to her first hen party!

Amelia’s also eating really well now. I’d been a bit worried that she wasn’t eating enough, but since I’ve stopped puréeing her food and started giving her things that Mark and I would eat, she’s been shovelling it down! She has a whole Weetabix and a whole banana for breakfast, a cheese, egg or tuna sandwich and fruit for lunch and a whole cooked meal (her favourite at the moment is chicken, mashed potato, leeks and peas in a cheese sauce), more fruit and a yoghurt for dinner. I’m so proud of her!

Our Food Challenge

I’ve decided that Mark and I eat too much AND spend too much on food. We don’t go out very often and we’re not especially unhealthy, but our portion sizes are probably larger than average! On Friday, I wrote down everything we have in the freezer and at the back of our kitchen cupboards:

3 cans peeled plum tomatoes

7 cans chopped tomatoes

Crisps

2 cans baked beans

Sausage casserole recipe mix

2 cheddar cheese sauce mix

Breadsticks

Sesame seeds

LOADS of pasta!

2 ½ packets rice

2 jars plum sauce

1 packet stuffing mix

Lots of OXO cubes

Soya beans

Peas

Six sausages

and came up with 10 meals I could cook in the week using as many of these ingredients as possible. It sounds a bit sad, but it was actually quite fun! We’ve agreed to spend no more than £10 on fresh ingredients over the 10 days. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but we’ll see how we get on!

Our Food Challenge will run from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 June and Sunday 23 to Friday 28 June. We go on holiday in the middle!

Here’s the plan:

Tuesday  11 June

Chicken Drumstick Casserole (using a jar of the plum sauce)

Wednesday 12 June

Broccoli and Tomato Gratin (using one of the cheese sauce mixes and a can of the peeled tomatoes)

Thursday 13 June

All Green Pasta Bake (using some of the pasta and peas)

Friday 14 June

Honey and Five Spice Chicken (using some of the Five Spice mix and sesame seeds)

Sunday 23 June

Baked Bean Chilli Con Carne (using a can of the Baked Beans, a can of the chopped tomatoes and some of the rice)

Monday 24 June

Spaghetti Bolognaise (using a can of the chopped tomatoes and some of the spaghetti)

Tuesday 25 June

Baked Bean Fajitas (using a can of the Baked Beans)

Wednesday 26 June

Sausage Casserole (using three sausages and the sausage casserole recipe mix)

Thursday 27 June

Sausage, Bacon and Cauliflower Cheese (using three sausages and one of the cheese sauce mixes)

Friday 28 June

Chicken and Stuffing Bake (using a packet of the stuffing mix)

I’ll post our recipes and photos every day if I can. Wish us luck!

It's nearly been a month!

We’ve had a busy few weeks! Amelia is a lot more chilled out now. She used to get overwhelmed at our baby groups and cry easily at all the new people, but now she’s happy to play with other babies and doesn’t mind too much when there’s lots going on. She still cries when strangers hold her, but at least she doesn’t burst into tears when they just look at her now!

We had a lovely bank holiday weekend. We went to Helen and Will’s beautiful wedding in Hertfordshire on the Saturday, Mark’s business park on the Sunday where we enjoyed the sun and fed the ducks, and Birdworld on the Monday! Granny Jan, Grandad and Auntie Holly stayed with us on the Saturday to look after Amelia while we were partying. It was the first time I’d left her in the evening; it did feel like I was missing a leg, but it was nice to go out with Mark and catch up with some friends without a crying baby on my hip. Thank you Rudges!

Here are some photos from our long weekend:

The reception to Mark’s offices has a piano for its employees to play:

What a good idea!

We also had a Southampton reunion at ours this Saturday. It was so nice to see everyone – especially those we hadn’t seen since our wedding day two years ago! Sad times. I’m thinking of making this a biannual event? Discuss.

We’re still going to lots of baby groups and meeting up with friends in the week. It’s nice to keep busy and have adult conversations. If you have a baby you’ll know how lonely it can feel sometimes! Mark’s not had to work the last few weekends either, so we’ve been making the most of our time together doing grown up things like going to B&Q and garden centres and pottering around in the garden.

Amelia is already a fan of heat magazine:

Amelia is now very good at sitting and is becoming more independent every day. She still doesn’t like being on her tummy, so I’m not sure she’ll be crawling any time soon, but you can tell she’s desperate to move around when she’s constantly reaching for things at all angles! She’s starting to enjoy solids a little more, but is still quite picky. She loves Weetabix, toast and fromage frais though!