Wicked Wednesday -11/02/15

Thought I would give #wickedwednesdays  a go - here is my 1st photo.

What Maddie Did Last Week...

Hi all & welcome to yet another weekly round up. Almost 10 days into Feb already - WOW! Soon be Xmas again ....!

As with every week lets get the food stuff out the way 1st.

1:- Lunch on Monday was this yummy scummy bacon & cheese omelette. I also had a glass of Banana & Strawberry Smoothie ( Innocent brand.) 2:- Homemade Shepherds Pie for dinner on Tuesday & 3:- Homemade Quiche on Wednesday lunchtime. 

1:- Bangers & mash with onions & gravy. Perfect British food for these winter evenings. 2:- Jacket with Cheesy Coleslaw from Waitrose. 3:- Breakfast today was Porridge with Raspberries.

As well as the Quiche this week , there have been a few things made by my own fair hands. I do enjoy baking stuff from scratch, just wish my kitchen was a little bit bigger! 

1:- Victoria Sponge - surely no one can go wrong with this. I make mine without any cream as eldest won't eat it otherwise. 2:- Cheese Straws. Recipe here. 3:- Banana Muffins. Recipe here.

A little bit of what I have been doing .... 

1:- Another Cafe Nero stop with a good (ish) book, Chai Latte & a Pain Aux Raisin. 3:- Waitrose cafe this time along with another Chai Latte , the same book & a toasted teacake. 3 :- Finley & I had a day or so to ourselves & this was the results of a crafty afternoon.

Lots of dog walking as always on quite chilly days mostly & a trip to the park for Fin.

Reading ...

I have somehow managed to finish 2 books this week. 2??? To be fair Attachments was OK but not exactly hard to read very quickly. I actually had to read the blurb on Amazon to remind me what it was about & I only finished it a few days ago.
Deceit by Clare Francis was much better. These magazines will last me a while though as I tend to only read a couple of pages at a time when I sit down for quick cuppas. I always keep one by my bed as I like to always read before I go to sleep but don't always have the attention span for a book. The free Benefit mini "Rollerlash" mascara with Elle is amazing if anyone is interested.

Rounding off with my outfits.

1:- For February I am taking part in a My Style Photo Challenge on Instagram. Day 2 was Layers. This was my interpretation for it.
2:- Wearing my new Berry leggings from Next along with the new berry boots from Clarks.
3:- Sporting my new Peter Storm jacket. One of those that has the removable fleece bit so will be quite versatile.

1:- Love this cardigan from Next so much. I had a leopard print theme going on it seems. Oh & I love my new bag very much. 2:- The print scarf again along with my lovely Holly Hobo bag. 3:- My casual Sunday attire.

Thank you all as always for reading.
See you again soon
Amanda x

Banana Muffins

Today's make & bake is banana muffins , another recipe I found at All Recipes.

 Popping the mixture into the cases - this bit does NOTHING for trying to diet! The urge to lick the spoon never goes away.

Very pleased with the result - although naturally I don't know what they could possibly taste like **

Thanks for dropping by

Amanda 

**That is an outright lie ; they were yummy scrummy in my tummy - yes I am 5!

Cheese Straws

I woke this morning - well Wednesday morning - with a desire to make some Cheese Straws. My recipe came from All Recipes.

I adjusted things slightly. For instance , I thought 450g of cheese seemed an awful lot & as I only had about 250g grated in a bag so that is all I used.

I also added 2 table spoons of Colman's dry mustard powder as although there is no mention in this recipe , it is usually a staple of such recipes.

Lastly, I was the 3 reviews it had & the last one mentioned they also added an egg as the recipe seemed too dry. I agreed with this & beat an egg. I actually only used about half of it & this was plenty enough to do the job.

Here they are  all  their ready for the oven splendor...

...and all baked! They look much better in real life, my camera did not want to pick up how lovely & yellow they look.

I thought the amount I used of cheese was OK. I think Rob when he tries them will say add the full amount next time but personally I think they taste just fine.

Mine have been made into just flat straws but if you want you can get all fancy & make them into Cheese twists!

If you try this recipe, let me know how it goes.

Amanda x

Throwback Thursday

Awful quality photo but here is me on my wedding day on 12th October 2005.

See you soon

Amanda x

January Purchases

This post brings you my purchases for January. The 1st 3 items are online purchases & the rest is from my trip to Gunwharf Quays so as they are outlet shops I am struggling to find any links. 

Anyway starting with the online stuff & you would have seen this already when I blogged about it in Spring Fever.

I was wondering whether I should order the navy one instead as I was thinking it may be a better option. However I stuck with the green & I am glad I did. The website makes it look quite deep in colour but actually it is a lot more pale & even nicer.

Holly Hobo - Oasis £34

I've been wanting some Burgundy jeans or leggings for ages but struggle to either find some I like or in the right size. Next came up trumps with these denim leggings though in grape.

Pull-On Denim Leggings - Next £18

I decided I needed some more brown things in my closet - I have no idea why other than I actually don't have a great deal of. It was a struggle to find much actually especially as I wanted just a plain brown top & as basic as poss. Joe Browns were the only ones to tick the boxes. It comes in loads of other colours too 

Versatile Long Sleeve Top - Joe Browns £14.95.

Now we move on to the outlet purchases. As I said I have not got the links so it really is just showing you what I got. Sorry.

I have wanted to replace my Cath Kidston purse for a while & after a look 1st in radley & at 2/3 other places I settled on this one back at Radley :-). So cute. I will always have a soft spot for this cute little doggy friend.

Radley purse - Originally £55 , I paid £22.

This bag was bought to replace an old black New Look one that I use for dog walking & the school run. Just big enough for keys, phone & poop bags! They don't have this blue one on the website but they do have it in a red spot though.

Cath Kids bag - Originally £12, I paid £8.

My next stop was Gap & I can't find any of these on line at all & can't even remembered what I paid.

There were lots of these t shirts. Other place name sin other colours but i wanted this New York one & with it being teal as well this appealed even more.

Last stop Clarks & like the trousers I have also been searching for some burgundy boots. Sorry no link yet again!! 

These were £31.99. I can't remember what they were before but I know I was happy with the saving.

So that brings the January haul to end. A little bit of a dud for links for which I apologise again.

See you soon
Amanda x

Maddie's Weekly Round Up

I'm back again with another weekly round up.

As usual starting with some of the food I have been eating...

1: Potato Gratin, Chicken , Bacon & Green Beans. PG is a favourite meal of mine right now. Yummy!! 2: Inspired lots by Dorothy Camper with my breakfast this morning - mine is not as colourful though!! 3: Dinner last night with hubby & the kids. Beefeater do the loveliest spicy chips!!

1: Tried something new this week by marinating the chicken. Served with rice, coleslaw ( for me not hubby) & sweetcorn it went down very well. 2: Trying hard to keep a bit healthier so lunches of Jacket potatoes lots including this one with Tuna ( in low fat mayo) & a hard boiled egg.) 3: Hubby cooked a lovely Roast dinner today.

A few miscellaneous pics as did not have quite so much going on this week.

1:- A new coat for pup. early days but she does not seem to mind this one as much as the jumper. 2 : Body Shop bath jelly in Glazed Apple - I was a bit late in the day to get the limited edition seasonal things so this was all they had left. Makes my bath smell gorgeous. 3: I think I forgot I am meant to be cutting out the naughty things & came home with Wagon Wheels - they are smaller than the normal ones & so not as easy just to have 1 - & these Mousses by Gu ( OMG!!)

1: Went shopping to Gunwhaf Quays - yesterday loved these animal print DMs but came out empty handed. 2: Chocolate cake baked Sunday morning at request of Brad - its almost gone as it usually is. 3: The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas - my reading material this week. A good easy read.

What I have been wearing....

A real mix this week. I have felt a bit more into what I wearing this week more so than previous weeks. The middles picture I am looking rather windswept as I still insisted on having my photo outside!

The camel coloured cardi is a recent purchase from Next. Middle shot taken in the "Animal" shop at Gunwharf , you can see the odd look from the sales assistant - us Bloggers eh? lol. Today's outfit was for a casual comfy day of baking, cleaning , blog posting &  pup coat shopping...!

lastly, what I have been buying ...

Holly Hobo bag from Oasis as featured in my Spring Fever post - I did um & ah about colour as wondered if a blue or grey would get used more but I stuck with this one & it is gorgeous. Another bag this one From Cath Kidston Kids - I needed a new smaller bag for the dog walking - my old one from New Look is a plain black one I have had for about 6 years., Time for a change & this is perfect for everything I need when I take Clara or for the school run - it was £8 too which made it even better. They don't have this one on the website as I got it from the outlet shop. Here it is in red though. I have not bought anything Radley for ages but wanted to replace my Cath Kidston purse & found this one in the Radley outlet shop so again I don't think it is on the website.
Lastly, I needed a anew phone case & bought this cute Owl one from eBay - they have other ones for different phones as well.

So that's my week rounded up. Hope you have had a good one too & hope next week is even better.

Amanda x