This new potato, pancetta and goats cheese and frittata is a quick, easy and most importantly delicious lunch.

New Potato, Pancetta And Goats Cheese Frittata

• 140g Cypriot New Potatoes thinly sliced
• 1 small red onion tinly sliced
• 65g smoked pancetta cubes
• 8 eggs
• 75g goats cheese
• Fresh mint

This is my entry to the #CypriotNewPotatoes challenge on Foodies100 with Tesco. The ingredients were supplied by Tesco.

Cappuccino Cupcakes

• 2oz butter
• 2oz caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 oz self raising flour
• 1 dessert spoon of instant coffee

L'ortolan is a Michelin starred restaurant in Reading, Berksgire, If like me, you are a bit of a foodie, you will have probably eaten in a Michelin starred restaurant. If you haven't then I think you should give it a try. It can be expensive, but if you go for lunch or dine on a weekday evening, there are usually some good offers to have.


I have visited L'Ortolan a number of times, for lunch and dinner and never been disappointed. My husband received a gift voucher as a leaving present from work and on Saturday we had a  fantastic meal which was hard to fault in any way.

We started by having a drink in the bar area. Even better than my Mojito were the canapes. When it comes to eating in a Michelin starred restaurant I have one rule. To try what I have been given whether I like the sound of it or not. I can tell you that I am not a major fan of pigeon from my meal at the Fat Duck, but I can say I have eaten chicken. Under normal circumstances I don't eat raw fish, black pudding or crackling. I ate all of these at l'ortolan and enjoyed them.


We opted for the A la Carte Menu which is £65 + 12.5% service plus drinks. Wine can cost as much as you want to pay. My husband liked the look of one, until he saw the price. £600 was a bit steep for us! Thankfully there are wines in the £40-60 a bottle too.

As an amuse bouche we were presented with a parsnip soup. I say soup, but that is doing it an injustice. It was the most amazing parsnip flavoured soup with pickled pear and roasted onions.

Then they gave us some homemade breads. The onion one was to dye for and the waiter bought us out an extra piece as we liked it so much.

Both of us opted for the Hen egg ravioli, butternut squash and truffle. It tasted as beautiful as it looked.

For main I opted for the pork. The belly had been cooked in a variety of ways for over 40 hours! It was amazing. As I mentioned before, there were aspects that I wouldn't have normally eaten, but they were cooked to perfection and complimented each other perfectly.


The pre dessert was a coconut foam with pineapple and once again delicious.

Today's rant comes from my friend sharing a meme on Facebook. It read:

"Today is middle child's day.... so we're just gunna ignore it!"


Now I know that it's just a joke and that I am probably just wearing my grumpy pants today, but for God's sake, when are we going to stop this whole blame culture that we are in? There is always an excuse.

A person is no longer allowed to be selfish it becomes " Oh well it's because they are an only child, they have never known how to share." Um no! That is an excuse.

A person can't have a lack of direction in life as it becomes " Oh it's because they are a middle child.

Just stop with the excuses.

I myself come from a family of 4. Poor old me was the eldest. I know, it was so hard. I was an experiment that my parents conducted so that my sister would turn out fine. It is just all a load of rubbish. We all stumble through parenthood doing the best that we can.

I have three boys. When I had little man, people actually asked me if I would have a fourth so that middle man wouldn't suffer middle child syndrome. "Um no, I would prefer to have my sanity than a second middle child" I would reply puzzled.

Do I treat middle man differently to the other two?

My first instinct was to say no. But then I thought about it and the answer is yes. Why? Because I treat them all differently. No child (or person) is the same. You do treat them differently. As a parent you do what is best for each child, irrelevant of their placing in the family.

If anything, middle man has the best of both worlds. He has an older brother to look up to and a younger one to boss around. Does middle man get ignored? No more than the other two! Am I worried about him growing up in the shadow of big man? No. Big man likes karate and running. Middle man likes acting. They are totally different. Both intelligent, but in different ways.

Middle man is his own person and that is what I love best about him. He wont be pressured into anything. He isn't fussed that he can't ride his bike and little man can. He will do it when he is ready. It isn't because we have ignored him and not helped him learn. It is that at the moment he is far more interested in building lego than going outside on his bike. It will change. But when he is ready.

People can blame the actions of others and themselves on family order as much as they want. Blame is the easy way out. People are the way they are due to the choices they have made. So can we just celebrate people for being individuals and stop looking for and creating excuses.

Are you a middle child? Do you think you were treated differently from your siblings?

Prawn And Chickpea Curry

If you are thinking about moving house this year you may be wondering whether Purple Bricks are any good. Or any online estate agent come to that matter. If like me, you don't trust an estate agent as far as you could throw them, then the appeal of essentially selling your house online, is tempting.


I am basing this post on Purple Bricks as that was the online company we chose to use last May. The concept is simple. You pay the estate agent to take photographs of your house and put them on Right Move. It is an upfront cost that you won't get back. You can pay extra if you would like the estate agent to do the viewings. Once your house is online then people that want to view can book an appointment with you through the website.

I would say that the valuation with Purple Bricks was realistic. They weren't trying to add on 25K like some of the standard agents that we had to value our property. The photographs were OK but not amazing. We chose to do the viewings ourself. One of the biggest problems we faced was that there were a lot of people wanting to view the house who weren't in a position to buy. This is annoying at the best of times but when you are trying to keep a family house "viewing ready" it is really hard. We had a big influx of viewings in the first few weeks and then a steady flow for the next month.

The fact that viewings can be whenever is convenient can be a good thing. However, you will find that some people will book a viewing at 10pm Friday evening, wanting to come the following morning. If you try and rearrange they often aren't interested which means they often aren't serious buyers in the first place.

We then had an offer which we accepted. Your estate agent with help with negotiating a price if you ask them to. All in all the process was simple and if the sale had gone through we could have saved thousands.

Unfortunately Brexit then happened. Our buyers lost their first time buyer. The chain broke. And the climate changed a lot. We put the house back on with Purple Bricks at the end of August. We had a couple of viewings from people that weren't in a position to buy and that was it. Tumbleweed. Whilst Purple Bricks had been fine to list with when the housing market was moving, it wasn't the right place for us post Brexit.

We eventually moved to a standard estate agent and although it was quiet, they did get people in a position to buy through the door and we are now SSTC again. Fingers crossed that this time it all goes through.

So would I recommend Purple Bricks? It's a hard one. If the housing market is moving, if your house is in reasonable condition and if you don't mind losing the fee then I guess it is worth a go. You could save thousands. However, if you want to sell quickly and if the housing market is slow then it is probably best not to.

Have you sold with an online estate agent? Would you recommend them?

These red velvet cupcakes are the perfect Valentine's Day treat if you are like me and don't like buying presents but do like an excuse to eat cake.


These cupcakes are actually gluten free as I have been trying out the Free From Fairy Plain Flour. I gave them to the boys and they just exclaimed how nice they were, so clearly don't taste any different to normal.

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

• 40g butter
• 75g caster sugar
• Red food gel (I actually used Colour splash raspberry colour)
• 1 egg
• 3 oz plain flour (I used Free From Fairy Plain Flour)
• 1 dessert spoon of cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1tbsp milk

Here is a picture of me enjoying one in the sun at the bottom of Arenal Volcano. Often the strawberry part at the bottom is the bit where the alcohol is so a bit of a mix when drinking it is a good idea.

Lava Flow Cocktails (Or Mocktails)

• 1 cup of frozen strawberries
• 1tbsp grenadine syrup
• coconut milk
• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• pineapple juice
• Bacardi rum if making cocktails

This butternut squash and parma ham squeak is the first recipe I have tried from The Body Bible from Clean Eating Alice. I saw the book on offer in Sainsbury's and liked the idea that the recipes are simple and easy to prepare. One of the hardest things I find about healthy eating is the preparation time, so simple recipes are key for me.

I will write a full review of the book once I have tried some more of the recipes but after trying this for lunch, I am keen to try some more.

The key to the book is firstly it is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change. Secondly, use coconut oil to cook with. And finally, that you should enjoy what you eat. I am all for that! There are also some exercises at the end of the book which are recommended you do alongside the recipes. This isn't for me, but I am pretty sure that following it alongside the recipes would give you some great results.

I made a couple of tiny tweaks to the recipe to fit the ingredients I had. To be honest I would have used frozen butternut squash if it had been in stock as I find preparing them extremely time consuming. I also couldn't work out from the recipe whether the parma ham was meant to be in the squeak or not. (I think that for photographic purposes it wasn't as it looked prettier but the recipe suggested it was.) I therefore went with my instinct and put it in. I also made the odd tweak to fit the ingredients I had. As it has quite a delicate flavour, I think it would also work well on top of the squeak, uncooked, rather than in it. Here is the recipe I made which I made above.

Butternut Squash and Parma Ham Squeak Adapted From The Body Bible

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 red onion
• 1/2 a small red chilli
• 3 slices of Parma ham
• 2 eggs
• Coconut oil

This recipe is listed as a breakfast, brunch or lunch idea. Personally I only think I could manage a meal like this for breakfast at the weekend and it is more of a lunch idea for me. I am really excited to try some more of the clean eating ideas. If you are interested in buying the book, it is currently £7.49 in Sainsbury's and can also be found on Amazon. Have you tried clean eating recipes? Are there any other books you would recommend?

Raspberry Brulee

• 1 packet of frozen raspberries (350g)
• golden caster sugar
• 300ml greek yoghurt
• 300ml double cream

What is your go to dinner party dessert?

Well a belated Happy New Year! I didn't even manage to make it to midnight on New Years Eve, but had fun with friends. Don't worry they had left it wasn't just me snoring on the sofa whilst they partied around me. I was very impressed that the boys managed the mannequin challenge and being the responsible adults that we are, we hid in the conservatory talking whilst the kids played and wrecked the rest of the house. I tried to take a family photo in the morning and this was the best I could get. There is a reason that I have moved to being a more food orientated blog!



When it comes to resolutions I have given up with hard targets as I tend to fail. Instead I have set myself some vague directions which can be easily achieved to varying levels.

My Goals

1. Continue going to the gym and try and make healthier choices. 

The gym is really important to me. For my sanity more than anything. I worked out years ago that I had to do classes as I have no self discipline in the actual gym itself. My aim is to make it three times a week to a class. When it comes to eating, I just need to stop the snacks. I am a big picker. I have managed to stop before and I need to try and do it again.

2. Think about me more.

I am a typical Mum. For the last 9 years I have put myself behind 3 and often 4 other people. I need to make more time for me and not feel guilty about it.

3. Less social media between 3-7pm

This is a hard one for a blogger who works from home! You really can miss out on opportunities if you are offline for a few hours. However, getting a work/life balance is far more important. So I will aim to be online less at these times. Of course, if I am stuck in the park whilst the boys are playing and there is no one to talk to, I reserve the right to have a peek.

Blogging Goals

1. Improve my photography

I actually cringe at my old photos. Physically cringe. I know that improving my photography is important so that is top of my list. The lovely Nicky from Kitchen Sanctuary recommended an online book from Pinch Of Yum. I have bought this and also booked on a photography session with a local photographer. Hopefully, you will see a difference in my photographs in the coming weeks.


2. Vlogging

Two years ago I said I would start vlogging. Whilst I have a you tube channel, I really need to post more regularly. I am going to aim for once a week. If you have any ideas of vlogs you would like to see, please let me know in the comments!

3. Make an effort to meet other bloggers

Last year I decided that I needed to meet more bloggers. It is actually really great being surrounded by other people that get blogging and vlogging. I went to a number of blogging conferences last year and got something out of each one. Mumsnet was the most inspiring for me and I am hoping to go again next year.

So there are my goals. All achievable. I hope. What are your goals for 2017?