Reasons to be Cheerful: family time #R2BC

As you can see by the badge the blog hop is back to Jo at Ojo's World and she is looking after us for the rest of the month! Thanks everyone who took part with me last month and made the world a happier place. Now here are my reasons to be cheerful this week as we have had so much fun as a family this week:

1) Kid's cooking

Seeing and sampling food my children rustled up together in the kitchen was amazing!

2) A trip to Manchester

We had a 3 generation trip to Manchester at the weekend which had been re-arranged from Christmas (as my mum broke her ankle). It started with lunch at Bella Italia in the Lowry Outlet:

#CountryKids A stroll along the Leeds-Liverpool canal by Botany Bay

We had to make a trip to Manchester today (second one in a week!) and on the way back decided to break the journey at Botany Bay off the M61 as its somewhere we have never been:

Not much of a country kids type place you would say... but when we drove into the car park we discovered that this old mill is (and its quite logical really) alongside the Leeds and Liverpool canal:

Recipe Variations on a theme with Venison Meatballs and Pasta

Like many families with younger children not everyone likes exactly the same foods. Now I haven't got the time or money to cook everyone something completely different every night (and nor should I give in to food fads too much!). However there are some very simple adjustments I can make to the basic recipe to suit all 3 of our tastes. 

Tonight I managed this with venison meatballs and pasta (just don't tell my son it was deer!). Whilst the meatballs were baking in the oven (20 minutes at 180C) I cooked some tricolore fusilli (don't tell my son what the green flavour was!). It's a nice relaxed way of cooking as there was minimal intervention required...

Now for my son just those 2 ingredients with cheese grated on the top are his ideal. My daughter has picked up on having gravy with hers as this is what they serve at school, though I think its with mash not pasta. I have tried this combo and wasn't keen so I just made enough gravy for her. For myself I was wanting something a little bit healthier but not requiring loads of effort, so I put some passata and mixed herbs in a little pan to heat through. For all of us I also cooked some peas in the microwave so at least the children had some form of vegetable.

Each of us was very happy with our own variations on a theme:

How would you serve your meatballs and pasta?

Learning Life Skills

My children have been inspired by watching the Canadian and Irish versions on MasterChef to do some cooking this week. The first I knew of it was being banned from the kitchen and the occasional request for info, a clattering of pans and the sound of team work. They rustled me up a spicy vegetable pasta:

Seeing as they had never attempted anything like this before it was pretty impressive but with room for improvement. Buoyed with their success they decided to make me tea too. The starter was devised and created by my 7 year old, a salad sandwich:

#SilentSunday