Taking care of my family and myself!

As a stay-at-home mum I take care of my family, that's my job. I make sure they get up on time in a morning, take them to school, look after them, and cook most of their meals. Teaching them to be decent human beings, as well as being able to look after themselves, is something I try to do each day. And with all that I often forget to take care of myself, to give myself a little break and as part of taking on 2019 I have decided to start taking care of my family AND myself.



Morning coffee


I adore my morning coffee, whether I choose a fancy coffee (hello Nescafe Gingerbread Latte!) or a regular coffee it helps me get ready for the day ahead. The thing is, for a long time I've had to make do with instant coffee. It's certainly not the same as "proper" coffee but I couldn't justify buying a coffee machine when I'm the only person in the house that drinks it. I did try out a cafetiere at one point, but it took so long for the coffee to be ready I just didn't have the patience for it.

Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | This Coffee machine lets me have fresh coffee every morning - a little something for me.


Recently though I've been enjoy a proper coffee thanks to the lovely people at Wayfair who sent me this wonderful Digital Filter Coffee Maker, and I have to say it really is wonderful. Since no one else likes coffee I can keep it in my office and have freshly made coffee while I'm working. It's so simple to use too, I thought it would be really complicated because the machine was a lot bigger than I expected but to be honest it's easy.





To me, the smell of fresh-made coffee is one of the greatest inventions. 

Hugh Jackman





You can use ground coffee or you can choose to buy coffee beans and have the machine grind them for you! How awesome is that?!

Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | This machine can grind your coffee beans or you can use ground coffee. It's awesome.


It can make up to 12 cups of coffee at once and it can keep it warm for up to 35 minutes - another great thing. Needless to say it's getting a lot of use at the moment!

I get to enjoy a morning coffee, the rest of the house don't have to deal with the coffee smell (because it's in my office), and best of all I can leave it to it while it makes the coffee. All I have to do is pour and stir. Awesome.

Just a little thing for me at the start of every day.



Easy dinners


I do enjoy cooking for my boys, making sure they get all the nourishment they can out of the meals I cook. But sometimes it's nice to do something simple, a meal that doesn't involve lots of ingredients and standing in front of the cooker for more than an hour.

Again Wayfair came to my rescue with this 3-in-1 Contact Grill. My boys have been asking me to cook quesadillas for ages, ever since we first took them to Taco Bell in Nottingham. I don't particularly like tortillas, but when they're grilled or toasted they're nice. So I figured with this new grill I'd try out quesadillas.

My recipe was fairly simple - chicken mini fillets cut into small chunks, mushrooms, cheese, taco seasoning, and the tortillas.

First I cooked the chicken and mushrooms, then coated them in the taco seasoning. I made sure the chicken was cooked before putting it onto the tortillas.

Once the chicken was cooked and it was all coated nicely in the taco seasoning I heated up the Contact Grill - it's easy, you just have to plug it in!

While the grill was heating I put the first quesadilla together, starting with the tortilla. I then folded it in half, opened it up again and covered half the tortilla with grated mozzarella. I then added the chicken and mushrooms to the tortilla and added more mozzarella on top. Then I folded the tortilla over. By this time the grill was hot and ready.

Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | Putting quesadillas together is a little messy!
Putting them together is a little messy!


I put the tortilla onto the grill and closed the lid down. This was where I was a little nervous, having never cooked quesadillas before I was a bit worried it wouldn't work very well. I waited a few minutes and then lifted the lid on the grill. The lines on the top of the quesadilla looked a little burned so I figured it was time to remove it from the grill. I used my big fish slice to do this because it was much easier than trying to use my hands and burning myself!

Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | Cooking quesadillas is surprisingly easy with this grill.
Simply squash it down and the cheese seals it together. Yum!


Once it was on a chopping board I cut the quesadilla into four and handed it over to LP. He gave it a bit of a worried look but when he bit into it he had a huge smile on his face. Within a few minutes the whole quesadilla was gone - I took that to mean it was good!

Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | The quesadillas were actually really good - one to be added to the list!
They really were good!


The only downside I can see with this grill is that it's only big enough to fit one large tortilla at a time, which means when I'm cooking one for each one of us we're all eating at different times. But to be honest I think that's okay, given their reaction to being able to have quesadillas at home!

With the success of the first I have no doubt this new contact grill will be getting a lot of use over the next few weeks. I have a few ideas for the different kinds of things I could put into the quesadilla, including mince beef, mince turkey, peppers, onion... I have so many ideas!





Cooking is an art form, a creative thing. 

Clarence Clemons





At least my boys will be looking forward to their dinners for a while!

Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | I can still take care of me when I'm a mum - in fact, it's quite easy!


Like I said, I cook a lot and most of the time it's meals that take time. The great thing about this new grill is that I can still know what my boys are eating but the meals don't take a long time to cook and it's nice and easy. Giving me more time to chill - and that's gotta be a good thing right?



How do you take care of yourself as well as your family?






Take care of yourself by grabbing this Captured! colouring page for your kids and make yourself a hot coffee while they colour in!


Taking Care Of My Family And Myself | Grab the Captured! colouring page for your kids!