pleeeease

i love when mr Z sleeps well and is full of beans and energy. however he has so much enthusiasm that it can be hard to get out of the house when we need to. we move from room to room gathering clothes, siblings and food as we prepare to leave - each room is like a treasure chest - he finds something he desperately wants to do - we walk in to the living room and he spots a book he wants read to him, we walk in to the hall and he spreads a pack of cards on the floor and wants to play a game, we walk in to the bedroom and he wants to jump and play on the bed, we walk in to the kitchen and he wants to play chase or build a train-set, we walk in to his sisters room and he wants to play with the doctor's set. each suggestion is followed by desperate pleading "just quickly just mega-quickly","as a treat", "pleeeease pleeeeease". i don't enjoy having to say no a million times to all his lovely enthusiastic suggestions and explain that we dont have time and could do it later etc. this is why some days we just don't leave the house! and why birthday parcels are always sent late. 

our latest escapade was to the post office where i ended up holding up a HUGE queue while i crawled on all fours in front of the check-out, butt-crack on full show, over-heating in my cashmere jumper, scraping the contents of a huge box of scattered raisins up off the floor and trying to calmly tell my children not to keep running off and taking things off shelves, while defensively explaining to the lady at the check-out that it was her computer system being down that was holding everything up, not me!

Little mr Z's favourite meal is macaroni cheese. With the time it can take to get out of the house, do something meaningful or productive and get back again, i often need to be able to cook a quick (comforting - for me!) meal and this is a winner.

macaroni cheese

melt a big chunk of butter in a saucepan on low heat, add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir with a whisk for 1 minute.

while stirring, slowly add a little warm milk until it thickens, then add more.. continue this process until you have added about a pint of milk, stirring as much as possible along the way.

while you are making the sauce, boil macaroni or pasta of your choice. i normally add chopped up carrots or courgette and peas for the last 2 minutes.

add a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg to the cheese sauce

when the sauce is a nice thick-ish consistency, remove from the heat and stir in your choice of - some grated cheese, an egg, left-over sausages or bacon (chopped up).

mix the pasta, veg and sauce and serve. Little Z eats about three servings of this.