Lara’s Mac N Cheese Special

I love Mac N Cheese so much. I love pasta bake and I love cheese. What’s not to love?
When I was living in Guyana I used to get boxes of it when is megs hungover and it was the perfect cure.

I also love love love cauliflower cheese as a side when you go for a fancy roast and this dish combines both.

At the moment it’s a go to recipe for me cos it’s really easy to whip up, it’s got veg in it, it’s semi healthy and it’s easy to make baby portions for Fred. It ticks a lot of boxes!

I use half fat cheddar and crème fraiche but you don’t have to.

This is an adapted Jamie Oliver recipe.. To be honest the only thing I’ve changed is adding peas and using half fat ingreeds.. And he makes a bacon crumb topping but I think it’s a bit excessive for a midweek supper. It’s absolutely amazing though.

Oh the other thing is I changed the proportions of pasta (more veg less pasta) and I use a big tube pasta rather than actual macaroni cos the baby seems to prefer it.

I’m not a loser diet freak though I just like semi healthy alternatives.

So you need:
240g pasta (rigatoni works well it’s got good bite)
Tub of crème fraiche
120g Cheddar
Some peas
A large cauliflower (leaves trimmed off vand then quartered)
Dijon mustard

What to do
Pre heat oven to about 160 on a fan oven and 180 non fan

Cook pasta and cauliflower in one pot.

Drain and reserve some of the cooking water.

Using a potato masher gently break up the cauliflower.

Add the crème fraiche, cheddar, mustard and peas to the pot and mix well. Add some of the reserved cooking water to loosen. The consistency should be nice and wet but not watery.

Transfer to an oven proof dish and bake for 20-30 mins until the top is golden and crunchy.

And that’s it! So easy!
Enjoy.
Unfortunately it was so delicious we ate it before I could take any photos.

So here’s a photo of Fred looking megs cute. 

A Tale of Unrequited Love

There’s a love story unfolding in our house. It’s quite touching but also sad as it’s completely one sided.

Fredrik has been in love with Jamie Lannister (Lanny) the cat since he could see. When she saunters into the room his face lights up and he looks at me with glee. If she walks right up to him or glides past, tantalisingly close, he tries to grab fistfulls of her fur (his version of a cuddle). Of course at 9 and a half months old he’s also incredibly mobile and he will doggedly (cattedly?) chase after her until he gets a bit of that sweet fur in his hands.

The problem is that Lanny hates children. She barely tolerates adults but she really hates children. If any kids come round she hisses at them and runs away. It’s not hate actually..it’s stone cold fear which translates to hate. Like me and rats

She disappeared through this tiny door!

She’s got a lot of issues actually..she’s afraid of all the neighborhood cats and she has an eating disorder..She eats her feelings.

And now she has a small monster terrorising her. High places are her friend.

I can’t feel too sorry for her though..sometimes she goes and just sits next to Fred and waggles her tail in his face. Tease!

But she’s never hissed at Fred. And she sometimes gives him a little nip as a warning but has never bitten or scratched. I think she knows he’s a bit pathetic. Takes one to know one!

I think when he’s older and he understands how to feed her, they’ll become fast friends.

Here’s a cute video from my instagram…
https://instagram.com/p/1uyHsIQ07l/

The C Word (two words)

Controlled Crying
For those of you who don’t know this is a sleep training method where you let the baby cry for periods of time to teach them to sleep on their own.
And it’s mega controversial.

I didn’t even know it was until really recently..I know quite a few people who have used it on their kids..Super Nanny Jo Frost is an advocate…I thought it was just an accepted thing to do if your baby doesn’t sleep well.

But I’ve heard a lot of people calling it bad parenting or unkind. I’m a member of a local mum’s network on Facebook and they keep posting messages saying that they’ve had lots of reports of trolling and online bullying from people who are anti controlled crying! Nuts.

But anyways, Dan and I have recently used the method with Fred.
He’s not a terrible terrible sleeper, but he only naps twice in the day for half an hour and at night was waking up at 4 for a feed and then just getting up at 5. Most mornings he was coming into the bed and I was feeding him lying down to try and keep sleep going a bit longer..but he was basically using me as a human dummy and I wasn’t really getting much more sleep after that.
Basically I wasn’t sleeping much after 4am and then having no naps in the day.

The tiredness was making be quite down and emoshe…I’ve never really been tired in my life I now realise..the tiredness of broken sleep on top of early starts on top of full days where you have to be ON IT at all times was getting a bit much. I was crying about nothing…

I cried because I couldn’t think of anything to make for dinner.

I cried because my wardrobe was messy.

I cried because Freddie bit me once and oh god does this mean I can’t breastfeed anymore wahhhh.

So we started using the Super Nanny Jo Frost method of controlled crying exactly a week ago. (Shout out to Super Nanny Jo Frost)

I made sure he didn’t fall asleep on the boob at bedtime and at 4am we used the method..And for his morning nap.

There were quite a few mornings where we were just awake from 4.30 to 6am but he’s slept through the night twice now…his naps are still short but I’ll take that..I can handle that after a full night’s sleep…guys…8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I’ve only had it twice now but with that I can take on the world. I can do anything.

I feel like it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s the decision I’ve made that I’ve felt most comfortable with.

Maybe it is controversial for other people but for me it’s been great and it’s given me back confidence.
Also my mum did it on my brother and he turned out great! Oh…wait a minute…..

HHAHAHA SISTER LOLS.

Here are some photos of Fred…

Faux money faux problems!

I called this blog post this because my outfit features faux leather! HAHAHAHAH HILARIOUS.

An outfit of the day post!

Today I went to visit my friend Chris and his lovely housemate Robin Taylor.
They live in zone 2! Fancy!

I didn’t want to rock up to their cool flat in cool town looking like a daggy mum so I tried something different with my outfit today.

I recently sorted out my wardrobe..Every 6 months or so I realise my wardrobe is a total mess and I freak out and HAVE TO SORT IT OUT. I also only like clothes hanging up that I would wear any day so anything that doesn’t fit needs to be put away. Ditto anything for the wrong season.
I’ve also been buying up nice hangars from Primark…so Dan kindly watched the baby on Sunday even though I’d been out all day Saturday, so I could spend 2.5 hours doing a wardrobe tidy.

The reason I’ve told you all this is because I now have loads of clothes hanging nicely that I’d forgotten about! And they’re easy to find cos I colour coded.

So I put on this asos shirt (with faux leather collar) and zara trousers (with faux leather pocket detail) on a whim. And I liked it! But I wanted to show I don’t have a massive fat “I just had a baby” belly anymore so I tied the shirt at my waist. I’d seen on the vogue website that this is very “in”.
And I liked it more!!

I wore the outfit with pointed zara flats which I love, and berry nails and I felt like a cool fashion forward mummy about town.

And there you have it.
Catch you later!