Roasted Beetroot and Goats Cheese Salad

This recipe is very simple but combines three of my current obsessions in one fell swoop - beetroot, goats cheese and a (slighty altered) recipe by the beautiful Rachel Khoo. I am very late on the uptake of Little Paris Kitchen but have SKY +'ed the series and am making my way through the scrummy recipes. I LOVE it and hope Father Christmas is reading this as the book is on my Xmas wish list! Rachel uses a dill vinaigrette in her recipe but I am not keen on dill so have replaced it with basil. The beetroot is the king of the root veg- so colourful and sweet and the perfect partner for salty goats cheese. I have used the absolutely delicious Stawley cheese which is made by some friends of ours locally at Hill Farm Dairy - it really is a cut above the rest so if you get the chance definitely pick some up.

200g Puy lentils
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
1-2 cooked beetroot, peeled
200g goats’ cheese
extra virgin olive oil

For the Basil vinaigrette
½ bunch of basil
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp salt
a pinch of sugar

1. Wash the lentils under cold running water, then put them into a large pan with the bay leaf, thyme and a generous pinch of salt. Cover the lentils with at least double their volume of boiling water and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.

2. Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette by whizzing the basil in a blender with all the other ingredients.

3 Chop the raw beetroot into chunks and roast oven for half an hour - allow to cool

4 To assemble, arrange the lentils in the bowl, crumble over the goats’ cheese and drizzle with the vinaigrette and a little extra-virgin olive oil; finish with a sprinkling of salt and crack of pepper.

Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails..... Boys Wish List

1. Kanken Mini rucksack - £45 i love my kanken 2. Darma Sheepskin Jacket - £38 Tootsa MacGinty 3. Personalised Knight's Sword - £15.50 Wooden Toy Gallery 4. Caribou Boots - £85 Sorel 5. Ride on Racing Car - £77 Oskar and Catie 6. Catapult with Foam Balls - £3.99 Doodlebugz 7. Schoenhut Piano - £125 Wood Thats Good 

Store Cupboard Activity

This is an activity is designed to hone in on those fine motor skills and concentration and teach about colour mixing. All you need is water, food colouring and some kitchen utensils. So yay its free! (if you already have food colouring) The original idea was to use a pipette to transfer the coloured water between bowls or into a seperate clean bowl (we used a pipette from some ear drops but any pharmacy will have one for pennies) The colours marble together nicely and the pipette ensures only a small amount gets transferred at a time. Well, this is the theory anyway. In our house the pipette was too fiddly for Lenny and he lacked the patience required so we changed tack and used any plastic spoons we had and a syringe from the Calpol box. A large turkey baster would be perfect but alas we do not have one. He really enjoyed this for a while..... that was until he discovered it was quicker and WAY more messy to simply pour water from bowl to bowl and all over my lovely unpolished wood table. Hey ho you win some, you lose some. This transferring activity would be perfect for either someone slightly older, more patient or less fond of making mess!

Sunday's Snapshots

It's been a wet week. Rain, rain and more rain so much of it has been spent playing indoors and explaining why we cannot go to the park in sheeting downpours. Such explanations are totally lost on a 2 year old so in the end I bought him some waterproof Muddy Puddles trousers - now, I just need some too! We are all knackered tonight after several play dates, a dinner party on Saturday and friends for lunch today - a very social week for us! Next week I think we shall take it easy.

Who can roar the loudest?

Kisses

Hilarious. Lenny acting out the Marching Elephants from Disney's Jungle Book and singing along...."hup 2,3,4 keep it up 2,3,4"

This Mint is patience itself. He is constantly being man handled.

Higher!

Happy chap

So grown up all of a sudden!

This weeks favourites. Thanks for the Duplo Anna!

bedtime

Handsome.

Before the chaos.

and count to 10...... just sorted all the bl**dy washing and turned my back and Lenny has destroyed it again.

Tea Party

Spooky

Sofa Slug.

Smiley.

Silly Daddy

the favourite puddle in the garden

blondey

Just checking perspective

Daddy's nail bar. Ever since I cut the tip of Lennys finger with the clippers when he was 10 days old this job has been Ru's.

Waterproofed.

Sleepy

Moi

This guy.

Whats for tea?

About 2 years ago Ru swore if I presented one more salmon fillet for supper he would divorce me. As tempting as this was I had to concede my suppers had become rather predictable to say the least! So, taking myself in hand I ran up a list of meals that I could cook easily, quickly and would not break the bank. The list is still pinned on the door of our kitchen cupboard ready to be consulted every Sunday when I plan the week's food. I have just read that back and I do realise how amazingly dull and mummyish it sounds but it does work! Varied meals equals happy customers and smiles all round. Plus if you have ideas to hand then shopping is so much easier and you will have more time to pour that wine and relax while the chicken's in the oven. I would not call myself an expert chef by any stretch of the imagination but I would like to think I am a pretty decent 'home' cook hence my list is less sashimi and cerviche and more spag bol and chicken pie. However, if you need some inspiration here it is....

*These photos are not taken by me (alas) but sourced from Pinterest

Girls Wish List.... Sugar and spice and all things nice....

1. Palle Nulle by Lucky Boy Sunday - £68 Lapin and Me 2. Carousel Dress £44 - Belle and Boo 3. Mongolian Boots - £65 Celtic Sheepskin 4. Honey Bunny Coat by Little Goodall - £96 Etsy 5. Felt Elephant Bag with baby elephants - £42 Sisters Guild 6. Fold away Play Tent - £129 Nubie 7. Chevron tights by Bobo Chooses - £18.99 Kidsen

Snapshots..... Instagram

Well, we have had a great week - as it's half term none of our normal classes were on so amongst the normal day to say ticking along we headed out to see friends in Dorset, visited two stately homes for a walk and scones, had friends over for a play and pizza tea, had a visit from some childhood friends of mine and went to our NCT groups 2 year birthday party. I would love to be able to illustrate this but this week saw my camera head to snappers heaven. It was dropped (by me so cant even blame the kids) and the lense and internal workings smashed. RIP old friend, it was a cracking 10 years. On the plus side - a new one arrives tomorrow.... I am SO SO excited I can hardly contain myself..... feels like Christmas and Birthday all at once....

In the meantime, here are the photos from my phone from the last few weeks.......