it is a bloody challenge!

[thefoodschool]

hey fellow MN bloggers. in my house this week the kids had nasty pink hotdogs from a tin and i had a G&T. I think we are now allowed to mention our blogs so see how i've done this week at recipes-for-my-daughters.blogspot.com/

if you can't be arsed the answer is not too well. anyone else having an uninspiring food week?

[ComeWhineWithMe]

My dc had cereal and crumpets for dinner one night this week . Am seriously lacking inspiration and about to do an online shop and will be looking for a recipe on your blog will let you know what I think.

[thefoodschool]

may i recommend the spaghetti with bacon pangratatto. i'm going to try a slow cooked chilli made with shin of beef (as blogged about by the harassed gastro)

[Tee2072]

Dinners don't seem that hard to me, but lunch when my son is home OY!

I used to not eat lunch or have a piece of ham and a roll standing over the sink. Now I have to actually think about it!!!

He's not well right now so today we had a 'sofa picnic' of pretzels, cheese, apple and pickle. He isn't eating much anyway and mostly had pretzels and milk!

Any lunch recipes on that blog of yours, thefoodschool?!?!

[thefoodschool]

eating over the sink now i love that! don't knock it. I'll be putting some lunch stuff on during the summer holidays when i'm home with the kids - thats when it becomes a challenge of epic proportions. For now i'll put one or two of the things we do in school in the blog

[ShirleyKnot]

HELLO!

Would you mind if I helped you?

You're blog is...interesting but hard to look at - sorry!

[thefoodschool]

any help gratefully recieved shirley. i'm not great with these things.

[ComeWhineWithMe]

Yeah, I was thinking the same. You need photos :).

[thefoodschool]

i have just about mastered microsoft word so my IT literacy is a bit crap. i tried to put a picture on earlier but deleted half of my content! i would genuinely love some help and have a thick skin so be honest. it is the only way one improves i guess

[ComeWhineWithMe]

Are you on blogspot? If you are just click the photo icon when you are doing a post and upload your pic. It lets you choose where on the post you want it.
You just have to fiddle about and use google, I was asking it lots of stoopid questions when I did my blog :).

[ShirleyKnot]

Yy comewhine!

Have you thought about taking some pics during prep of the food, and the end result?

It will break up the text.

[ComeWhineWithMe]

Look at other blogs so you steal their ideas gain inspiration.

citymama.typepad.com/cityfood/

food-and-family.blogspot.com/

www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2008/10/making-blogs-look-professional/

[thefoodschool]

thanks for all your suggestions. watch this space!

[overmydeadbody]

I like your blog foodschool, and I agree with the others, put more pictures on it, I spend longer on blogs with pictures, even bad pictures, have your camera around as you are cooking and snap random shots, they don't have to be perfect photographers images. I want to see your dirty dishes, the table after dinner, your kids eating etc etc. It shouldn't be too hard to upload images on blogspot.

Looking forward to seeing what you suggest for lunch! I have just had homemade lentil soup with homemade bread (half wholemeal half white) which I used to make cheese on toast. It was a yummy lunch and a staple at the weekends when everyone is home.

[thefoodschool]

thank you for that comment overmydeadbody. i'll take more pics and stick them on during the week. i think catering for the kids all day can be a nightmare so i'll get my thinking cap on for quick and easy lunches. love lentil soup though!

[MmeLindor.]

I have a few failsafe ingredients that are always in my fridge and make up my CBA last minute meals.

Bacon bits
Pastry
Pesto
Tomatoes
various veg (whatever the farmer has this week)
Eggs
Cheese
Chicken
Sour cream

From that I can pretty much whip up a meal in 30 mins. Spag carbonara, quiche, pasta with veg and various sauces (which feature a lot here, but we all love). Or pizza, we can always have pizza.

But sometimes even that doesn't grab me and we have bread, cheese and ham - which we call a Brotzeit in our German/English speaking household.

I sometimes use the big posh camera to take photos, but as often as not I just take pics with my iPhone as I go along. I actually take photos of meals that I am not intending to blog about right away so that I have extra photos if the mood takes me.

The one thing that I am bored bored bored of seeing (and apologies to anyone who uses this) is the iPhone app photos, the ones designed to look like old polaroid photos.

I often start with the ingredients lined up, then take photos as I bake/cook and then close ups of the finished product. like this.

[MmeLindor.]

Oh, and another thing. I noticed that my tags did not import from blogger properly so have gone through the blog adding them again. It is worthwhile doing this, and so linking your recipes.

So, if someone looks at the salmon recipe above, they will also find other salmon recipes (I seem to use a lot of salmon) that are on the blog.

[thefoodschool]

I should have mentioned this earlier but i haven't had an oven or grill since october. it got into difficulty on afternoon roasting my beloved belly pork and despite my manly attempts to save it it died (wiping away tears at the memory). well why haven't you replaced the cooker i hear you say. well my kitchen has been ready for me to refit for the last 4 years and it should be done now but it isn't as i keep putting it off. so until i actually get around to it then i have to make do with just a gas hob. i only mention this because i love making pizza and miss it

anyway i will have a proper look at the blog later in the week and find out what 'tags' and 'importing' means. i'm doing kids reports all this week so am a bit busy all week

i like the idea Mmelindor of having a few ingredients in the fridge that you can turn into a decent meal anytime. is it worth putting together for the blog say 10 essentials and their recipes that you can do at the drop of a hat?

[MmeLindor.]

That is a good idea, will do that this week.

I couldn't live without an oven. Especially when we have visitors. How on earth have you managed?

[thefoodschool]

don't feel sorry for me when i say this but we don't have visitors very often (we like our own family time and it suits us)- maybe once or twice a year so thats not a problem. to be honest it hasn't been too bad - i only really miss roasts and pizza. i've had to adapt - lots of asian and italian food. should have one by september!! hopefully

i have just compiled a list of 10 store cupboard and 10 fridge items and by next week i will have associated recipes. i will let you know the list soon - just need to double check it.

[MmeLindor.]

Would be good idea if we both did a post (and anyone else on MN blogger network) and linked to each others blogs. Thus increasing hits to everyone's blogs and having a wealth of new recipes

[thefoodschool]

good idea!