Parenting, Pizzas and Piles of Washing

This morning we waved goodbye to Mrs P and I said hello to 2 days off work! Whop whop. However nobody told my body clock and I was awake at norm al time, bright eyed and bushy tailed. If you believed that you’ll believe anything. For Mrs P was going to sail away to Amsterdam and walk the plank walk the catwalk for a well-known Vintage inspired brand. This is awesome and when told we were all ecstatic as it sounds amazing. What an opportunity, just like when I went to Paris, it’s something you can’t turn down. So at the crack of dawn with my list of things that I really need to do in hand, Ebay was at the top followed by, packaging for Ebay items and then posting in Matalan? Am I reading this right? Yes, I used a weird postage thing online and Matalan was a drop-off point. Erm ok! Having a pickpocket for a daughter is also fun which meant that bank cards were firmly on the list. I can’t find any of mine including a set of house keys and the spare for the family run around. Tea leaf. So having ticked off the list, dropped Marie Celeste off at the train station, visiting the banks on route back to the car. Dorothy and I spot something interesting! The Wigan Latics Shop! As a fair weather fan, I haven’t been much this year despite having three season tickets in our family. The poor people sat next to us must think we’ve emigrated. I’ve wanted to get Dorothy her own kit for so long but she’s so small and they were so expensive. So when I see one reduced to £9 and then get told about the loyalty discount for being a season ticket holder (made me cringe as I’m not very loyal at the moment), it was coming home with us.   It’s a little bit big but she can grow into it! So having got home, I started to wonder how the hell Rachel got through so much washing in a day. I’ve managed to turn my wedding day boxers pink too. I feel like there needs to be a subsidy for tumble dryers in Wigan as there’s not enough sun. Luckily, after another trip out to our favourite value supermarket (gotta watch the pennies), we arrive home in the dad chariot just as Beth’s walking through the door. You see our trip out was to pick up ingredients for a previous recipe I featured about how to make a cheap and easy homemade pizza.  See making these blog posts are great but I don’t want to be a parent blogger that doesn’t parent so I decided we’ll all make pizzas! It’s not often that it’s just me and my two daughters so that a perfect time. The plan was simple, make the dough and in the time the yeast was doing its thing cut up all the vegetables and get the cheese and meats together. With Beth being at home it was amazing, I even got prepared and got some sheets down for ultimate protection. Having the dough at this stage meant it was ready to be rolled, so I got stuck in with the flour and made sure it was all a little bit drier. This meant that there was less sticking to clothes/hands/tv/cupboards/face/cat and more for our pizza bases. It was amazing to have my two girls together having fun, they really do love each other very much and even though it’s a big age difference. Dorothy just adores Beth and vice versa. Here the dough is just too much despite the messy play and food covered pictures I see on a daily basis. As you can see from this picture, we have the dough (1kg flour 70p), smoked cheese (79p), salami (99p), 1 of each colour pepper (£1.29), 1 red onion (20p), cherry tomatoes cut into fours (20p), sweetcorn (30p) and passata (39p). So dinner tonight was costing us around £5 for the ingredients we used. P.s. there are loads of the ingredients now in freezer bags ready for next time. Having them laid out like this meant there was always something to do and no time to look anywhere else, move anywhere else or mess up anywhere else 😉 I let the girls choose their toppings and what a marvellous concoction there is! I love that smoked cheese and while it doesn’t really melt the same as normal cheddar, it created a really nice flavour. One of the most amazing things was we ate most of the mini pizzas despite ravishing the ingredients! What can I say, we all like peppers! Parents, this is how to cut pizza. Small finger sized portions are perfect for grabbing and face planting. Smaller mess and if one is dropped, no biggy! So all in all a fantastic day coupled with an easy bedtime routine for Dorothy leaving me to finishing off the washing. In fact, I think that’s the washer finished now….. ]]>