WIAW - Lots of Cake and Tasty Pasta Bake

Apologies for my rhyming title - I'm clearly in one of 'those' moods! The title is true though - I have only eaten one savoury thing today, whoops!

Before I get onto the cake though, first things first - it's Wednesday - What I Ate Wednesday!



I haven't photographed everything I ate today, but I got the main things - including the cake - so we're good! :)

As baby is still covered in chicken pox spots, we had no plans to toddler group this morning. Boo. At least he's still smiling!

Anyway, because I was planning to go straight back home after the school run, I hadn't eaten breakfast. I had at least had a vanilla stevia sweetened latte - I like the stevia! :) Once we got to school, I bumped into 3 other Mum's who also take their younger children to toddler group - who all had chicken pox! All 4 other them (mine included) came out in spots the exact same day! One of the women invited me back to her house for the morning, which was really nice. The boys played in the garden and I drank several mugs of sweet milky tea and got to chat with another adult...being cooped up inside because your child has spots gets a bit tedious after a while!!

Of course, this meant that I ended up walking home - past Lidl and a bakery - at 11am, having not had breakfast. Dangerous. So my breakfast/lunch ended up being an apple doughnut...

a slice of battenberg cake...

and an unpictured golden syrup sponge pudding - by that time I was feeling too bleugh to even take photographs!!

So then I had an afternoon nap to sleep off all the cake. I will get back to slightly more healthy living next week, promise!!

When daughter got back from school we had an afternoon snack of buttered malt loaf...does that count as savoury/healthy??

Either way, I was definitely ready for some vegetables by the time dinner rolled round!! Daughter had requested a pasta bake, so pasta it was!

Pea and Courgette Double Cheesy Pesto Pasta Bake
(serves 3-4)

• 200g pasta
• approx 150g frozen peas
• 1 courgette, grated
• 30g butter
• 30g plain flour
• 360ml milk
• 1-2 tbsp red pepper pesto (I only used 1 tbsp because daughter is in a "not liking pesto" phase, but I'd advise using a bit more)
• 125g mozzarella, grated
• approx 80g cheddar, grated

1. Cook the pasta as per the pack instructions, adding the frozen peas for the last couple of minutes cooking time
2. Meanwhile, make the white sauce. Gently melt the butter, stir in the flour and allow to bubble for a minute. Then add the milk and stir vigorously. Bring to the boil and then simmer for a few minutes until beginning to thicken. Stir in the pesto, half the mozzarella and half the cheddar.
3. Drain the pasta and peas. Pour into a baking dish alongside the grated courgette.
4. Pour the pesto-cheese sauce on top and mix thoroughly.
5. Top with the rest of the cheese and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 180C.
6. Enjoy! :)

This was really good. I normally only eat a quarter of our baking dish, but between Liam, daughter and I, the whole pasta bake disappeared in minutes! Must-learn-to-eat-slower!!

String cheesy pasta with some green veg included...what's not to love?!! :)

As if I hadn't already eaten enough sugar today, this evening has featured this bar...

I love Conscious chocolate - my favourite brand of raw chocolate! This bar was no exception - the flavour wasn't as intense as the mint or orange varieties I've had before, but I really enjoyed the chewy dried fruit flavour running through it, and the chocolate was as rich as always. Delish.

Do you find that if you don't eat a good breakfast, your day spirals downwards from there?? Even though my breakfasts are usually sweet, I need to eat a proper meal in the morning or my day does not go well. Well, depending on your definition of "well" I suppose! I really enjoyed my apple doughnut and the Conscious chocolate, but the rest of the cake was a little bit unnecessary! I think I'm going to have to try to fit more than just a coffee into my pre-school run routine, if only to avoid the temptation of the shops on the way back home!

Right, Liam and I are now watching a DVD he rented - Life As We Know It - so I really must stop blog writing/reading so I can focus on the film! Have a great evening everyone! :)