Meatless Monday {2020 – week 41}

So here we are: week 41 of Meatless Monday 2020… We’ve had a good week, trying out our balance bikes, meeting up with lots of friends for walks, and getting a bit organised in house and garden due to a day off work. What have you been up to?

Here’s what we wore:

Me: Gilet= Joules, Hoodie = Abercrombie & Fitch {thrifted from Barnardos}, Long Sleeve Top = New Look, Leggings = Thought Clothing {outlet on eBay}, Boots = Clarks

Boys: Trousers and Jumpers, Long Sleeve Tops: Various sources/gifted/thrifted or supermarkets, Gillets: Matalan, Backpacks = Skiphop, Shoes = Clarks

What’s in my ears:

This week I went back to listening to the wonderful Elizabeth Gilbert‘s Magic Lessons, the podcast which she did right after her book BIG MAGIC, if you haven’t looked her up yet, you need to and this podcast and this book! It is such inspiring and uplifting listening, where she talks through a creative problem/blockage with just general members of the public and then asks her professional creative network to advise the best way out of their particular conundrum. But what I love about it, is you the listener may not have anything in common with the person she is interviewing, other than being a fellow creative soul, but there is just always a lesson to be learnt out of it 🙂 Listen to this episode and you’ll see what I mean….

Here is the synopsis of the episode:

Here’s my week in 4:

1. Getting to Grips with Balance Bikes: We have now been for 3 walk/rides with the balance bikes in the village, which have gone pretty well, the idea behind balance bikes for those who don’t know, is that it teaches young kids to balance so that they can go straight on to riding a regular bike without stabilisers after, I personally think this is a great idea, I also managed to get both of these bikes for free in the village from people who were done with them, which was a massive bonus! There has a been a bit of inevitable bickering over who rides which bike, but I’m trying to work on that by letting them swap and each have a turn, the joy of seeing them when they are both riding the bikes though makes all the bickering worth it, they literally fly! And they’re so happy 🙂
2. Lovely New Door Matt: My wonderful friend Laura G has always been kind of genius with gifts, the girl does her research, she pinterest stalks (God love her) and she just knows me so well and this week my belated birthday gift arrived, and it is the most gorgeous door mat that I barely want to wipe my feet on it, so I have put it by the backdoor, inside for people to use on the way in from the garden, as hopefully this will save mess in the house, to some degree, but the mat will last as it isn’t outside in the elements! 🙂
3. I cleared the Piano! : This was a post birthday project I had in mind, as it is the case that we didn’t have enough storage in our dining room/ office/ music room, so I decided to rectify this with some of my birthday money and buy another one of IKEA’s wonderful KALLAX units, this has allowed me to rearrange and store away the kids art stuff, the place mats, napkins and table wear, my blogging/vlogging equipment and things like spare tissue boxes and candles which were cluttering up the room. I am going to put the wash stand (I do love a wash stand) into storage for the future, as I know I will utilise this at some point, but for now I have my piano back and clear! Next step, book my first piano lesson with my neighbour 🙂 – I’ll keep you posted when I do .
4. Running my own meet up on Instagram: I just love meeting new people through instagram and I love that since the summer I have discovered something called Meet-ups, which are generally done in themes “meet a mummy sunday” for example, there’s also twin ones and eco ones, so I thought I would give it a go this week of starting my own one, and I have to say I’m really pleased with how it went. I have managed to get a lot of engagement for a first attempt and seemingly get some new people meeting some new people by sharing their eco connections and ambitions in the feed. So I plan to run it now every Sunday, if you want to get involved please find the details below:

Video(s) of the week:

I got to the end of season 4 of This is Us this week! Oh wow – this whole season is amazing! It started and ended with an episode entitled “Strangers” which was such a clever way of writing the show and introducing new and interesting characters into the mix. This video below is a great synopsis of the finale. I cannot wait for season 5! – the great thing about me only catching up on this over the past couple of month is that I actually don’t have to wait too long as apparently season 5 is coming to Amazon Prime at the end of October! Whoop! Hope this article is correct 🙂

What we ate this week…

Breakfast:

We all had cereal (boys – apricot wheats and me granola) and fruit (berries) and then the boys had milk and I had tea, I then had another (peaceful) tea in the garden after the school run…

Lunch:

I always love paprika crisps, they always remind me of holidays, as they seem to be one of the key flavours available abroad, so I love these paprika crisps I got this week, I then had some leftover brie and tomato pasta for lunch, followed by an apple and one of these oh so delicious Italian cake bars.

Dinner:

After school the boys split a banana and had a clementine each and I had two clementines and some matchmakers and a cup of decaf tea, oh and a naughty breadstick dipped in butter, a trick my husband found which is a bit too delicious when you are hungry to resist ;). Then I made a nice big batch of my mushroom and sun-dried tomato pasta – this recipe is so delicious, such comfort food it could definitely convert a meat only eater (with the exception of my husband as he is fussy) but it really is so so good 🙂 After I had some summer fruit juice and a little dark chocolate 🙂

Print

Sun dried tomato and mushroom pasta in a garlic and herb sauce

Italian-style pasta made with easy ingredients. Mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes go exceptionally well together in this easy creamy pasta dish.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• a pack of mushrooms
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 jar sun-dried tomatoes diced
• 2 heaped teaspoons of Marigold Swiss Veg Organic Bouillon or one veg stock cube dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water
• 150 ml single cream
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese shredded
• fresh herbs from the garden I used some marjoram, oregano, thyme and sage
• 500 g of Rigatoni Pasta or your pasta of choice

Instructions

1. Fill your pasta pan with cold water and place on the hob to bring to the boil

2. Heat olive oil on medium-high heat, in a pan which can accomodate the pasta later, add sliced mushrooms and garlic – and cook the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add diced sun-dried tomatoes. Reduce heat.

3. Dissolve 2 heaped teaspoons of Marigold Swiss Veg Organic Bouillion in 2 cups of boiling water. Carefully add the broth to the wok – continue to cook the vegetables in the broth on medium heat until the mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes absorb some of the broth and the broth reduces by half. Add cream and bring to boil just for a short moment. Add Parmesan cheese and cook the sauce, stirring, for a couple of minutes, on low-medium heat until the cheese melts. Add the fresh herbs.

4. Cook your pasta for 10 for dried pasta and 3 minutes for fresh.

5. Drain your pasta and add to your wok and turn over in the sauce before serving and enjoying 🙂

Please check out my Pinterest meatless inspiration board: #MeatlessMonday to gather some pinspiration:

Along with the official Meatless Monday board which I am also now sharing on:

Find out how I got onto Meatless Mondays in the first place by watching this video:

And check out #meatlessmondays on this blog to see all my Meatless Monday posts and recipes. Hope you have a lovely week. 🙂

Go on Pin it!