Super Easy Tomato Sauce

This is a super quick and easy way to make a tomato sauce that can be used as a base in so many dishes (pasta sauce, pizza, dips, spicy prawns etc). I like to bake it in the oven as I find the flavours become nice and rich.

You will need: 1 large onion, about 6-8 large ripe tomatoes, olive oil, 2-4 cloves of garlic, herbs, salt and pepper.

1. Thinly slice your onion and garlic and scatter them in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes turning half way through (I use temp of 180°C).

2. Slice the tomatoes and place on top of the onion. Sprinkle with your herbs, salt & pepper (I used time here). Roast for another 15 minutes mixing half way through.

3. Blend together and there you have a super easy tomato sauce base

I Can Skip ... Honest!

I love it when my girls get the better of either me or Mr Dad especially when it has jaw dropping quality.

As they get older they are spending more and more time in the company of others and mine & Mr Dads understanding of what they know and what they can do is sometimes very very wrong.

The girls have been learning to skip with a rope over the last few weeks. RoRo and RaRa have watched in envy as eldest gained more and more confidence moving from a couple of skips, to 10, then 23 and then to infinity and beyond.

Mr Dad decided to take take time out to help RoRo and RaRa.

As with lots of children their age they think they know it all and Mr Dad was having trouble getting them to listen to his top skipping tips. RoRo in particular was getting more and more annoyed.

RoRo: "I can skip Daddy! I can! ... places skipping rope in front of her feet.


Mr Dad: " RoRo. You need to put the rope behind you"


RoRo: "But this is how I do it!"


Mr Dad: " No ... it's easier if you start with the rope behind you. You need to put the rope in the right place. Remember how eldest does it?"


So grumpily RoRo puts the skipping rope behind her and struggles to do a couple of ungainly skips over it. And so this continues for a good  few minutes with RoRo really trying to do what Mr Dad is saying all the while protesting that she CAN skip.

Having tried really hard Mr Dad agrees to let RoRo do it her way. He very quickly runs indoors and grabs the camera ...

It totally floored me and Mr Dad.

It's interesting that her id twin sister can skip forward but not backwards. RoRo is also left handed and RaRa is right handed. More 'mirror twin' indicators??

How To Draw A Whale And Other Interesting Whale Facts

There is a fab little competition (actually it's a rather big) over on the Tots100 blog and it involves getting your children to draw a picture of a whale. Fab I thought ...

So over dinner I talked it over with the girls, setting them up for an afternoon of collage creativity. I had visions of a fantastic blog starting with some shots of us looking at whales on the internet to give them some ideas. They would then sketch their ideas on to paper and transfer those into a collage.

RaRa was absolutely, definately, positively, "are you sure you understand mumma?", NOT GOING TO BE JOINING IN.

Luckily, RoRo and eldest were hugely excited and planned to make a picture together.

They ran upstairs to wash their hands and that was the last I saw of them.

There was no discussion. No browsing the internet looking for images. No talk about different whale species. And no input from me!

This is the finished picture (it will become a collage tomorrow) ....

and this is their presentation (edited to a much shorter length!!!).

Shades of Blue - 2True Nail Polish

A few weeks back I won some 2True make up in a competition run by the lovely Jo Gifford (@DexDiva). I was lucky enough to win a lip gloss, eye shadow, 2 glitter eyeliners and 2 nail polishes all in fashionable shades of blue.

Now I'll hold my hand up high and say I'd never heard of 2True until the competition and I'll also admit to having not frequented the doors of Superdrug for many many years. 2True is a makeup range for Superdrug started up in 2006.

Since having the girls I haven't really painted my fingernails. I have plenty (over 30 bottles!) but the effort involved in painting them, letting them dry only to have it chip a few days later just wasn't worth it. The 2True win has changed that ... I love the nail varnish.

The shades I won were Glossywear No. 48 & No. 49. They are wonderful spring like blues with a healthy splattering of super fine silver glitter which gives the finished polish a wonderful shimmer.

I even like the fact that the lid and the bottle are the same size. It gives it a clean contemporary feel. 

It's quite a thin polish to put on and although the bottle says apply 2 coats I would recommend 3 to get a good depth of colour. The images below show how the colour changes through the 3 coats. Don't let the three coats put you off though ... it dries really quickly. 

1 coat

2 coats

3 coats

It lasts me about 3 days before chipping and I'm a busy mum of three who's always washing up, cleaning up, gardening, making things with the girls ... you get the picture! A good quality top coat might make it last longer but to be honest it's so quick and easy to apply I wouldn't bother.

Aubergine & Lentil Salad

This is a really tasty vegetarian dish full of texture and flavour. It makes a great main course but also works well as a side dish with meat.

You will need:
2 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp Coriander seed
2 good sized aubergines
Olive oil
4 good sized gloves of garlic sliced
Puy Lentils (green lentils) - I eyeball this but would say approx 200g of dry lentils but you could use tinned lentils instead
Punnet cherry tomatoes
small handful chopped mint
large handful chopped coriander
salt

1. Put dry lentils in saucepan, cover with water and cook until soft. When ready wash in cold water. If using tinned lentils empty into a sieve and wash with cold water. Leave to dry.

2. Preheat oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6 (adjust depending on oven). Lightly toast Coriander & cumin seed in a dry saucepan (no oil) for a couple of minutes. Pour into a pestle and mortar and crush.

2.  Trim ends of aubergines and cut into chunks. Put them in a roasting tray and toss with olive oil, cumin and coriander seeds and salt. Roast for 10 mins, turn them, add sliced garlic and cook for further 10/15 mins. Remove from oven and put in large serving bowl to cool.

3. Chop cherry tomatoes in half. Coarsely chop the coriander and mint.

4. Add lentils, tomatoes, coriander and mint to the aubergine and gently mix. You want a nice even distribution of lentils, tomato and aubergine. 

Enjoy.