Author Archives: admin

About admin

I am Emma, mum of 3 boys. I suffer for FND and I also have dyslexia and dyspraxia. I am also an ex NHS employee.

What Mother’s Day means to me…..

I remember growing up when it was just myself and my Mum. Seeing how hard she worked to provide for us, look after me and play both parenting roles. I just remember just wanting to always show her how grateful I was for everything she ever did for me. I still feel like that now.

Then I had children of my own and the realisation of how hard being a parent was kicked in I wanted to spoil her more in Mother’s Day. Showing her how amazing she is for all that she does for me and my boys.

Being a Mum your not just a Mum.

You are the mediator, the cook, the cleaner, the organiser, the friend, the boss, the educator, the party planner, events organiser, the singer, the dancer, the soother, the nurse, the doctor, the maid. You are the glue.

To me, Mother’s Day is everything. Mother’s Day is the one day where I hope to be spoilt. Not in expensive material gifts. Breakfast made, my daily jobs taken over, cuddles, my choice in what’s on t.v, family time, a nice meal chosen and cooked for me, a bunch of flowers and chocolates. Maybe even a trip out for walk or something.

To me Mother’s Day is everything. It’s the one day where your children and Spode can show their appreciation all that you do for the family and the children.

Much love

Emma xx

Emma’s Bites. Meal Plan and recipe. Week 5

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Welcome back!!!

It’s been a funny ole week this week with this virus going around hasn’t it? Hope you are all keeping safe and well.

We have had a few good meals this week and I can’t wait to share with you.

Monday 9^th March

Breakfast was the usual poached eggs on toast followed by soup and mini broughies for lunch.

Now tea time was so bloody good Ste and I both had seconds!!!

We had chicken and mushroom tagliatelle. The recipe for this is at the end of the blog!!! If you try it make sure you tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

Tuesday 10^th March

Simple food day yet I flippin loved it!!!

Sweet omlette for breakfast (if you have a sweet tooth this is just perfect for breakfast!)

Chicken and bacon sandwich for lunch with fruit on the side. I really love sandwiches and every now and then I really miss them. So I swap my favourite poached eggs on toast for something else so I can have this!)

For tea we had grilled chicken with couscous and roasted veg. Ste wasn’t a fan due to lack of flavors but me and Alfie loved it!!

Wednesday 11th March

I had a cheeky midweek fry up to start my day off today which included homemade syn free hashbrowns!

Lunch was something that impressed me if I do say so myself which was pizza on toast! With three slices for a healthy b on the kingsmill crustless this was an absolute must to have again!

Alfie has his swimming lessons on a Wednesday so it always has to be a quick tea. So for today we had quorn nuggets (seriously these are yummy), chips (homemade) and a bit of salad.

Thursday 12^th March

Weigh in day!! I didn’t do great but I didn’t do terrible. Maintain this week which was actually better than what I expected so I’ll take that.

My absolute favourite on the go breakfast is white choc and raspberry muffins. Found the recipe from someone else on Instagram and it’s delicious!!! The rest of the day went downhill as I had a really bad FND flare up and ended up with a packet of pasta that hubby made me. Not what I had planned but it was fine. Tea was a very yummy burger chips and salad. Something we don’t have often but still very nice. Tell me what your favourite type of burger is? What do you like to pop on your burger? Veggie burger? Beef burger? Tell me.

Moving on to weekend…….

Friday 13^th March

Eggs Benedict for breakfast. Recipe from @becs.bites on Instagram so go check her out. This was really tasty and only 1 syn. Couscous and roasted veg for lunch followed by a curry for tea!! I will share this recipe on my blog this time next week.

Saturday 14^th March

Another breakfast favourite which was breakfast hash. Then lunch was very uninspiring with another pasta packet again for lunch.Follwed by stuffed pasta for tea which you can find on a previous weeks blog!

Finally the end of the week. Sunday 15^th March.

This morning I decided to start the day with a bit of a fry up.

Lunch was leftovers while tea was much the same and whilst it was nice it was a wing it job as we didn’t know what else to have. So we had gnocchi bake with cheesy garlic bread.

I would love to know what meals you enjoyed this week.

So let’s get cracking on this chicken and mushroom tagliatelle eh?

For this you will need;

Diced chicken

Tagliatelle

Mushrooms

White Onion

Fat free soft cheese

Chicken stock – about ½ pint

Start off by frying the chicken off so it’s browned. Once browned set it to one side.

Then add to the pan your onion and chopped mushrooms with a little bit of your chicken stock.

Also you need to get your pasta cooking now, probably should have mentioned that!!!

After that mix the tub of soft cheese into the stock and add to the pan of mushrooms and add the chicken back in.

Cook for a further 8-10 minutes. Once that’s done and the pasta is done mix the pasta in with the sauce and serve, adding a garnish of fresh parsley if you are feeling fancy!!!

We had second helpings of this and it was honestly really really tasty. If you do try it make sure you tag me on Instagram!!!!

Emma’s Bites – Meal Plan 4

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Welcome to another week of Emma’s bites!
How are you enjoying these meal plans? Has anything taken your fancy yet?
There’s been a few meals that we’ve had this week that I have enjoyed.
Anyway, enough chat let’s crack on with the food planning!

Monday
So today for breakfast I had one of my absolute favourites…….poached eggs on toast! Simple but my gosh I do love it!
Lunchtime was ham, egg and chips. Boring to some but so nice. I also really struggle with lunches so anything that is on plan that I will enjoy I am all for it.
Tea was something that Ste suggested which was chicken noodle stir fry. It was nice but Ste put a bit too much spice in it for me!!

Tuesday
Tuesday and Wednesday are my trigger days for eating more chocolate than I should do ha ha! So with this in mind I saved my healthy B choice for a snack. So all meals were planned around this idea.
Breakfast started out at with what I like to call Breakfast Hash! Normally I would also have spinach and red onion in and maybe sausage. However this time I didn’t have them in.
Lunch was a quiche. I made this on Monday to have for lunches this week and I have to say it was very very nice.
Tea was sweet and sour chicken with rice! Really good, homemade sauce of course but it was missing pineapple. Don’t ask me why I didn’t put it in!!!

Wednesday
Today’s food for breakfast and lunch was the same as yesterday.
However tea time was sausage casserole, usually something I enjoy but the recipe for today just wasn’t there in my opinion.

Thursday
Today was weigh in and a day where I don’t usually count the syns (shhhhh).
So breakfast was these gorgeous white chocolate and raspberry muffins.
Lunch was again quiche and salad! I realise this is the third day of having this but I just can’t face much else at lunch. I just don’t know what to have.
Tea was something Alfie requested which was soup and a sandwich! So I made my leek, potato and courgette soup. Sandwich was a halloumi salad sandwich which is my new favourite sandwich to have!

Friday
I was absolutely starving this particularly morning so, today for breakfast I had poached egg, toast, bacon and a Tesco and herb sausage patty!
Lunch was a mishmash of soup and a side of quiche.
Tea was actually really nice (something my Mum and Step Dad would be shocked at for me saying this!) we had fish and chips for tea. Ste was highly disappointed though as we had no peas in the house! No idea how this happened to be honest.

Saturday
Now if you follow my for slimming world reasons, I’ll be straight with you, today went to pot!!
However I really enjoyed the food I had ha ha!!!
Breakfast was another favourite of mine, white chocolate and raspberry muffins.
Lunch……..well this is when it went wrong!! Ste decided to treat me and the kids to lunch out. So we ended up at a sushi restraunt in Manchester. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE FOOD!!!
Tea was on plan with chicken fajitas and chips.

Sunday
Breakfast was my regular poached eggs on toast.
Lunch, I really enjoyed this today. Oven cooked chicken with a salad including halloumi cheese.
Tea is a firm favourite! Rounding off the week with roast beef dinner with all the trimmings including homemade Yorkshire puddings!

I do applogise for the lack of recipes at the moment, I promise I will try though for next week!!! However hopefully this inspired you to meal plan or try something different.
I’m not sure how many of you follow me / Emma’s bites for meal ideas or slimming world. However if you follow me and this blog thread for Slimming World, would you like a blog one week on how I spend my syns? Just a thought anyway.
What’s on your meal plan for next week?
What was pour favourite meal this week?
Have a good week everyone.
Much love
Emma

If I say no…

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If you ask for me out for a coffee and I say no, why not ask to bring it to me?

If you ask me to go and watch a film and I say no, why not come to me with a film instead.

If you ask me to go for food and I say no, why not bring it to me?

If you ask me out for some drinks and I say no why not come to me?

If you ask me to go out for anything and I say no, why do you not come to me instead?

Just because I can’t make it out of the house that day, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to see you. It just means things are bad that day and my home is where I feel safe.

It just means that I would still like to see you but that you might just need to come to me that day.

When I feel ok, I’ll be sure to try and return the favour if it’s needed.

I realise being friends with me may sometimes be harder than I once was (or if we’ve just met that it may sometimes be harder than other friendships you have), however I can promise you this. I will value our friendship like no other. I’ll be loyal and kind and our friendship will mean the world to me.

To be friends with someone and choose to have that someone in your life is like a weight worth in gold.

Much love

Emma xx

Emma’s Bites – Meal Plan 3

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Well what a mix of a week! Sadly I don’t have a recipe for you this week but I do have a meal plan for you.

So this is a reflection on what we had for tea’s this week.

Monday

One of my favourite things to eat are sausages! Be it on a sandwich or as sausage and mash!

So today we had sausage and mash using Aldi’s skinny sausages. Really really yummy and low on syns too on Slimming World.

Tuesday.

I’m going to be straight with you, today’s meal was totally planned around having pancakes for after tea lol! Alfie and Ste had what I call ‘real pancakes’. I saved my healthy extra b from Slimming World so I could make some pancakes!

So for tea we have papadelle pasta.

Photo is of my my pancakes that I made.

Wednesday

Being Ash Wednesday it was only right that we had corn beef ash today! Simple, effective and bloody tasty!

The corn beef was a reduced fat.

Thursday.

So today’s meal for a treat after weigh in was halloumi salad on a flat bread! Omg it was so so so good!

Friday

Today’s meal was beef in black bean sauce. I got the recipe from somewhere online but I have to say I wasn’t that impressed which made me a little sad.

Saturday

Yum yum and more yum!

Pizza, chips and salad! Granted I wills gave preferred a ‘proper’ pizza. However it was nice and better than nothing!

Chips are homemade and the salad was just lettuce, pepper, cucumber and grated carrot.

Sunday

How flipping good are roast dinners on a Sunday? You can’t beat them. Apart from the washing up that’s a ball ache!

However I still love them.

My favourite has to be roast beef dinner with Yorkshire puddings. Next favourite is roast chicken and stuffing.

What’s your favourite roast?

Anyway, as I said that’s all I have for this week.

Hopefully next week I’ll have a recipe for you as well.

Much love

Emma xx

Emma’s Bites / meal plans and stuffed pasta

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Hey everyone! So here we are again! It’s Sunday which means it’s time for another Emma’s Bites blog!

For those of you that are new, there are lots more of these in my archive on my blog. Both Slimming World friendly and none.

Anyway, I’ve lots to write this week so less random chat and more food chat eh?!

First half of this will be the meal plan. Then the latter half is a recipe from one of the meals made this week.

Hope you enjoy it, let me know if you create any of these and if your on Instagram then please please tag me. You can find me @mrs_shep_unplugged.

Monday

After finding some large pasta in Aldi recently I couldn’t wait to make something from this! It’s something I keep my eye out for this pasta. Anyway we had stuffed pasta with a tomato sauce and cheese. This is actually the recipe I am sharing with you this week and I’m so excited! It’s meat free, not many ingredients and super super tasty.

Tuesday

Today was a bit like a cheeky mid week roast. We had pork chops, roasties and veg. Super super tasty and the sauce was syn free. I think I just did balsamic vinegar and some herbs and sweetner. Really really good.

Wednesday.

Now as you probably know from last weeks blog, it’s the day we have swimming so I decide on a meal based on not having to do much or something that Ste can heat up quick after work for us all.

Anyway, today was braised steak veg and dumplings.

Erm, I love beef stew but I don’t think I use my slow cooker enough to practise with though as I just didn’t enjoy it. It wasn’t for me but it filled a hole and it was hot.

Thursday

Thursdays are the day I get weighed at Slimming World, so today I made us a lasagne as a ‘treat’! Don’t ask me why I think of it as a treat lol! Anyway, as usual it was delicious!

Friday

OH MY GOD!

Now, if you don’t believe me then believe the rest of my family. But today’s meal was absolutely incredible! There wasn’t a scrap of food left! In fact, my father in law actually wants to come back again for tea soon to have this again!

We had paella! I wanted to do something that was easy and where I could add meat in easily. My mother in law is vegetarian the rest of us eat meat. Also with 6 of us for tea that night I was trying to keep the cost down and still have a super tasty enjoyable meal! I served the meat separate and those that wanted meat added it to our plate easily. The paella itself was left in the large pan and placed on the table for everyone to help themselves. A massive hit and a definite to have again.

Saturday

Last nights meal was chilli, normally something I enjoy but Ste made it and unfortunately it was far too spicy for me & Alfie so we literally just had rice for tea while Ste had the chilli lol!

Sunday

Which leaves us with today!

Today we are having a roast beef dinner. It’s honestly one of my absolute favourite roasts. Ste makes the best Yorkshire puddings as well!

Here’s a throw back photo to another day when Ste made his Yorkshire puddings.

So that’s our week in meals!

Below is the recipe for the stuffed pasta. Then if you follow me on Instagram I (@mrs_shep_unplugged) am uploading a video of my food shop hail for this week if you fancy a nosy. Where you can see all the food I bought for this weeks meals, lunches and breakfasts.

If your stopping reading here then thank you for reading! Hope you have some great meals this week.

Stuffed pasta.

So for this you will need;

Passata

Bag of spinach

Soft cheese

Lumaconi pasta

Parmesan

Worcestershire sauce

Oregano

Basil

Black pepper

Smoked paprika

Garlic granules

Pine nuts

First of all cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. (Just a heads up but I tend to make for four people that way I have leftovers).

While that’s cooking, on the hob in a large pan add your spinach with a little water and wilt. Once it’s wilted add the tub of soft cheese and mix together. Once it has softened and mixed together the leave to one side.

Once your pasta is done, drain and cook if you need to. My husband stuffed the pasta and can seem to handle very hot things without noticing lol! I don’t think he’s got feeling in his hands ha ha!

Anyway, the next step is to basically stuff for spinach mixture into the pasta. Add this to a large baking dish and lay them out next to each other.

Once that’s done, you need to make your sauce.

In a jug, mix together the passata, a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a teaspoon of the other herbs and spices.

When that’s done, pour the sauce over your pasta. Don’t worry if you don’t think there is enough sauce as it will spread a bit when in the oven.

Finally add some Parmesan and pine nuts and bake in the oven for about 5-10 mins. It doesn’t need long at all.

Then serve and enjoy!

It really was delicious and it’s another dish that we are definitely making again soon!

Please tag me on Instagram or comment below if you make this or any other meal I have mentioned this week.

Much love

Emma xx

Diets? Weights loss? Is it really for me?

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Why I don’t think I’ll ever loose weight……

I have followed Slimming World for a number of years now and I once lost four stone following this plan.

However since I got FND, I am obviously not as mobile as I used to be.

This is problem number one! I’m not burning any calories that I actually consume!

I can follow the plan, do the meal plan, measure the milk and cheese allowance.

However my problem is the syns!

I’ve never been much of a drinker when it comes to alcohol. Maybe on the odd night out when I was younger, but not any more. Drinking alcohol when you feel rough every anyway isn’t much fun I can tell you!

I’ve also never smoked.

So you see chocolate is my only vice! Like most people I tend to comfort eat, which if you follow me on Instagram there’s a always something several

times a week that gives me a reason to comfort eat.

I’m the type of person that eats chocolate spread from the jar while hiding somewhere.

I’m the type that goes out of my way for chocolate and yes I have taken chocolate from someone else’s stash!

I am quite sure I’ve got a problem when it comes to chocolate. It doesn’t matter if it’s chocolate spread, chocolate cake, chocolate bar or hot chocolate. I’ll have it!

So you see.

Combined with my inability to walk far now and my never ending chocolate addiction. No matter how much I follow the meal plans for Slimming World.

I honestly can’t see my me loosing this weight again.

Then again who knows?! Hopefully I can prove myself wrong x

Meal Plan Number 1.

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Welcome back to another edition of Emma’s bites!

I don’t know anything you but I’m still going through the phase of homely warm cooked meals. You know the comfort food, slow cooker type meals. It’s just so cold!

So I planned 5 meals. For this week. The only ones I didn’t plan where Friday night as we where going to Wales to drop the eldest off at his Grandparents for half term. I also didn’t plan for Sunday which is today! We love roast dinners in our house but man the washing up is a pain afterwards!

I was actually chatting to @daddy.hew about this last week. His roast dinners are mega and always look amazing, however even he agreed that the washing up after is just painful!!!

Anyway. Less chat and more meal panning eh!

I’ll tell you what was planned and what we had and what we all thought!

Monday

Something we hadn’t had in a really long time was sweedish meatballs. I’ve tried many a time making my own but they always fall apart. I had a trip to Iceland’s food store the other week for some slimming world supplies and I picked some meatballs up. I wan the d to do something different so I googled slimming world sweedish meatball recipe and gave that a go. It was quite nice actually but probably needed more gravy / sauce.

Tuesday

Fish chips and peas.

Now growing up I hated fish. It was a constant battle with my Mum about having fish. I eventually refused to eat and said I would rather starve than ever eat fish lol! If you had told 10 year old me that when I had my own house I would voluntarily buy fish for myself I would have called you a liar!

Anyway, I had the slimming world Thai fish cakes with SlimmingWorld sweet potato chips and peas. I’ll be honest. It looked awful and my taste has been off all week with my FND being bad.

However it was really really delicious! Alfie has fish fingers and Ste had a lemon basa fish from Aldi. She didn’t like the chips but everything else was enjoyed.

Wednesday

Alfie has swimming lessons on a Wednesday so I try and plan something that is pretty much instant to put on the table. So we had leek and potato soup with sandwiches. I won’t lie I really love this meal. It’s so yummy, warming and just feels like proper wintery comfort food.

If you want to recipe for my soup, check out the Emma’s Bites section of my blog.

Thursday

Now I had planned sausage egg and chips but someone……(Ste! Aka the husband). Got two sausages out not the whole pack. So instead we had quorn nuggets with egg and chips and honest, it was bloody gorgeous!!! I love home cooked food but sometimes you just can’t beat something to shove in the oven.

Friday.

No evening meal planned for today, however Ste was off work and so I decided to make us the ultimate Valentine’s lunch! Steak sandwich with chips and salad! You honestly can’t beat a steak sandwich! Well we can’t anyway!

Saturday

Curry is another firm favourite in our house. So we had a chicken curry with rice and homemade slimming world friendly onion bahjis! Exgrnely tasty however a little bit too hot for my liking.

Sunday

So that just leaves today! After not knowing what we wanted I decided I did want a roast dinner today, I just didn’t want to cook it! So with that we are going to my parents for tea today! Perfect answer if you ask me. The roast without the mess ha ha!

I do hope this gave you some inspiration to try some different dishes!

I am making something tomorrow that’s a mixture of a recipe I have found and a bit of my own flare. So I can’t wait to share that with you next week!

Take care and enjoy whatever meals you make this week.

Much love 💕

Emma xx

Don’t judge a book by its cover

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Don’t judge a book by its cover is one of my favourite sayings.

You never know what someone is having to deal with. You don’t know what’s going on inside.

I remember the early days after I had lost Ethan, looking around and thinking that everyone who had a baby where lucky. That they had everything they wanted and they where lucky.

The truth was I had no idea if they had suffered before like me. If they’d lost a baby, struggled for years to get one or adopted because they couldn’t have one.

That parent in a shop who’s battling with her child yet again, who’s probably close to tears. Look a little harder. It might not be a naughty child, may be there’s underlying problems they aren’t discussing with anyone yet.

Maybe they are battling a long term health condition. Maybe a loved one died. Maybe they lost their job. Maybe they are struggling in ways you can’t imagine.

Never judge a book by its cover. You never really know what’s going on inside.

Emma’s Bites – Beef Wellington

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So a few weeks back we cooked beef wellington and I have to say it was amazing!

So being the wonderful person I am, I thought I would share it with you!!!

So for this you will need;

Beef roasting joint

Pancake mix: flour, eggs milk.

Spinach – 2 frozen blocks

Mushrooms – 283 g

Shallots – 6

Tarragon – 1 tsp

Parsley – 1 tsp

Salt

Pepper

Ready Rolled Puff pastry (depending on the size of your beef you may need two sheets of (pastry)

Egg – 1

Now we seared our beef first in a pan but you don’t have to. We also found that due to the size of the beef that part cooking our beef first probably would have been better. Once it’s almost cooked (I would say take out 30 mins before the end) take it out and place it in the fridge to cool. You can leave it on the side but we found it quicker this way.

Then pop your mushrooms through a blender and the shallots. Add the herbs and season and fry them off in a pan. Set aside and leave to cool.

Next you need to make your pancake mixture. (Trust me with this you will not regret it!) Make your pancake mix as usual or buy pre made if you can’t make them or even buy pre made if you don’t want the hassle. Before you make your pancakes you need to add your spinach. Now we used frozen and defrosted in the microwave and once defrosted we added to the pancake batter and blended thoroughly. We told our youngest it was a Hulk pancake and he loved it!!! When your mixture is made, get your pancakes going and set aside. You may only need about 3.

Now this is where the fun bits start!!!!

Get your pancakes on a flat surface making sure they overlap. Place your beef joint on top of the pancakes. Get your mushroom mixture and cover the beef with it. Then you need to wrap the beef with your pancake. The next tricky bit is to wrap this in cling film and let this rest for about half an hour.

Once the time is up you then need to wrap this in your pastry. Place it on a baking tray and brush with the egg. If I need to tell you at this point to be cracking your egg and whisking before attempting to brush the pastry with your egg well then my friend I don’t think making Beef Wellington is where you should be started your cooking experience!!!!!