Autumn Fall Cookbooks My Faves!

I love cook books! I love the photographs, the graphics and even the smell of a good book, lol! I thought I would share my fave family cook books that I bring out in the Autumn Fall season to stay warm and to keep the family nourished! I hope you find some inspiration here in this video for your own family.

There are links at the bottom of the page where you can buy the books from Amazon, (they are affiliated links and I should probably notify you that I might earn 10p or so if you click it lol!!!!) If you have an independent book shop, order them in there and support small local business instead!

With love x


Autumn Monthly Meal Plan

The cold is setting in quickly into this part of the world and I don’t know about you but I’m all about comforting warming dishes this time of year! I love a good slow cooker recipe or pressure cooked stew.

Check out the video below for a look at our September monthly haul and the cosy four week meal plan is at the end of the video. It is also written at the bottom of this page for you.

I hope you find some inspiration for your own family meals, love Angie x

Apple Oat Bars

These are such a great breakfast snack and make a perfect make ahead breakfast for busy families!

I used the apple pie butter recipe for the filling but you can also use canned pureed fruit. The recipe is very simple and I hope you enjoy these fruity bars as much as we did!

Love Angie x

Ingredients

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 cup quick cook rolled oats

2/3 cup of brown sugar or coconut sugar

1/4 tsp of baking powder

1/2 cup of butter

1 1/2 cups of apple butter or other fruit filling

Preheat the oven to 180, grease a baking tray and combine the flour, rolled oats, brown sugar and baking powder. Crumble and rub together in the bowl until it looks similar to the crumb topping for apple pie.

Set aside half a cup of this mixture and press remaining into the tray. Spread the apple butter on top of the pressed in mixture and sprinkle the remaining oat mixture on top. Press down lightly.

Bake for 30-35mins. Cool, then slice into chunky bars!

Apple Butter Recipe

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I made this super delicious apple butter recipe at the start of the week last week and used it in over 3 recipes! We had apple butter on banana bread, apple butter filled oat bars and oat muffins with apple butter as an ingredient. It was a real time saver and it was enjoyed by all the family. You can also spread it on toast, dip fruit in it, serve it with ice cream or even use it for pie filling! mmmm pie! 😉

Below is the recipe for this super delish apple butter!

Ingredients

8 Large Granny Smith Apples

3 cups of apple juice

1 cups of sugar

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of ground cloves

1/2 tsp of ground allspice

Peel and chop all the apples up and pop into a large pan with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a quick boil then lower to a simmer for 30mins, stir frequently and mash at the end. Store in a kilner type sealed jar in the fridge to use as needed. Enjoy!

Aug – Family Breakfast Ideas

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We are still in August but to be honest it feels more like September with the colder temperatures and rain we have been having. Below you will find my ‘week of breakfasts’ video which I created from our weekly breakfast meal plan.

We decide on 5 breakfasts for Monday to Friday and repeat those throughout the month. This way I find we eat more variety (yes more!) and we are prepared for breakfast in the morning. Meal planning also helps a lot with budgeting and meal planning and has helped us stick within our budget and even save money from it too.

Click the video below to watch our week of breakfasts in August, I hope you find some ideas for your own family:

Monday – Peanut butter bagels with bananas

Tuesday – French toast sticks with berry topping

Wednesday – Granola and yogurt bowls with fresh fruit

Thursday – Omlette with spinach and cheese

Friday – Granola with almond milk and fruit

With Love

Monthly Food Planning

Hey Everyone!

I have saved so much time and money by shopping and meal planning on a monthly basis. I wanted to share my method with you all and hopefully you will also benefit from this method in some way.

Budget –

So lets talk money first! I budget £25 per person per week, my children are all eating fairly large meals now but If you had smaller children you could perhaps budget £25 per adult and £10-15 per child. It is entirely up to your own requirements and circumstances but I feel £25 a week per person works out well for us.

So as a family of five our monthly food budget is £125 x 4 = £500 per month

Meal Planning –

I use cookbooks and my own family recipes to plan our meals for the whole month. I usually just plan for Monday to Friday as the weekends can be pretty busy and we tend to eat out sometimes at the weekend so I like to keep options open for the weekend.

I plan all the evening meals, two soups for the week, two baked snacks(cake etc.) for the kids, I also buy several sandwich fillings and have a soup and sandwich most days. I keep the breakfasts pretty loose and buy in ingredients to have porridge, eggs, smoothies etc. Sometimes if I have extra time I will plan a few different smoothies for each week but I tend to make up my own super food smoothie recipes if I am not using my smoothie book.

I also buy in all of the kids school snacks, lunch box items and any other snacks that they like to eat. We don’t really buy biscuits and sweets apart from the odd bar of chocolate but do eat treats when we are out and about. I find if we stock lots of unhealthy snacks in the house the kids and myself included will eat them up too quickly.

I buy all the toiletries and household goods in bulk and any other items needed on a daily basis. I also like to bulk up on a couple of items for the larder/pantry cupboard and choose a couple of things to bulk up on per month such as rice, pasta, tinned foods etc. I find it works out cheaper this way and reduces my monthly shop overall in the long run.

Shopping –

I split the budget up as follows –

1 Monthly Bulk Shop – around £200-250

3 Weekly Mini Top Up Shops – £30-£50

1 Monthly Bulk Order of household, toiletries, larder/pantry goods (usually from amazon) – £100

Sometimes I will have money left over, sometimes I am slightly over budget but it all works out in the end.

This method saves me so much time, money and effort I can’t imagine swapping it for any other at the moment.

Click on the videos below for a look at my monthly hauls and weekly mini top ups. Any questions drop me a line.

Love and happy meal planning!



Melanzane alla Parmigiana

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Vegan friendly if you use dairy free cheese!

I love grilled aubergines, my kids are not big fans though I’m afraid but they usually manage a little of this dish due to the creamy cheesy texture. They also love a classic Italian tomato sauce so it tends to go down pretty well because of the flavours. You could also add in some sliced courgettes and perhaps roasted red peppers but I like it simple.

I’m afraid after slicing it up and serving it didn’t look as photogenic as I had hoped for ha ha ha but I can assure you it was delicious! 🙂

I made this dish as part of my monthly shopping meal plan which seems to be working pretty well to keep us well fed and organised. Check out my video in the video section or click the YouTube header at the top of the page. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Ingredients

2 aubergines sliced length ways

Olive oil

1 Tin of chopped tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic

2 balls of fresh mozzarella or dairy free equivalent

Parmesan or dairy free equivalent (roughly 100g)

Grated breadcrumbs

Chopped basil (optional)

Salt & pepper

Instructions

  1. Start by slicing and grilling the aubergine under the grill or in a George Foreman type grill with a little olive oil and seasonings. I love my Foreman I use it for so many things. Once all the aubergines are grilled set aside on a plate.
  2. Next you want to prepare the Italian tomato sauce. I would usually cook up my tomatoes and garlic etc. in a pan for this type of sauce but for super time saving prep I’m using my blender (Vitamix). Put the tinned tomatoes, garlic, a dash of olive oil and salt and pepper into a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside in a jug.
  3. Slice up the mozzerella or dairy free equivalent and set aside on a plate.
  4. That’s all the ingredients prepped now its time to assemble together lasagna style.
  5. Using a small lasagne dish pour a little tomato sauce into the bottom of the dish and place a layer of aubergine slices on top. Cover with a layer of mozzerella slices and a layer of tomato sauce. Repeat with the aubergine, mozzerella and tomato sauce until finished and top off with grated parmesan or dairy free equivalent and grated breadcrumbs. You can add some fresh chopped basil on the top here if you have to hand.
  6. Cook in a medium oven about 140-160 for 35 minutes or until completely browned and golden on the top. Serve up with some fresh salad or greens on the side. Enjoy and love!

If you enjoyed this recipe please pop over to my YouTube channel for more recipes and holistic health ideas for you and the family.