My Planting Series - Butternut Squash

Hello,

Today I am sharing with you my first blog in 'My Planting Series'. I have decided to start with Butternut Squash.  I love buying Butternut Squash in the supermarket and making risotto, soup and pasta sauce out of this vegetable.  Butternut Squash is rich in Vitamin A. It is a creamy vegatable that little ones love to eat.  This vegetable is an interesting and tasty addition to the standard vegetables and it offers many uses in cookery.  Butternut Squash is easy to grow, needs no great expertise for success.

See below the full health benifits of the Butternut Squash;

One cup of Butternut squash, cooked, baked, drained with no added salt has 1.84 grams protein and 82 calories.

Minerals:

Potassium - 582 mg Phosphorus - 55 mg Magnesium - 59 mg Calcium - 84 mg Iron - 1.23 mg Zinc - 0.27 mg Copper - 0.133 mg Manganese - 0.353 mg Selenium - 1 mcg Sodium - 8 mg
Also contains small amounts of other minerals.

Vitamins:

Vitamin C - 31 mg Niacin - 1.986 mg Vitamin B1 (thiamine) - 0.148 mg Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - 0.035 mg Pantothenic Acid - 0.736 mg Vitamin B6 - 0.254 mg Folate - 39 mcg Vitamin A - 22868 IU Vitamin K - 2 mcg Vitamin E - 2.64 mg
Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.

Butternut Squash are heavy feeding plants.  they grow quickly and use large amounts of nutrients from the soil and alot of water. The ideal place to plant your Squash is an area fully open to sunshine with good shelter.  The soil should be rich.  Every year we get a truck load of horse manure from our neighbouring horse Stud Farm.  This really enriches our raised beds, it is great for ensuring good home grown veggies!

You should sow your your Butternut Squash seeds in late April or early May. I had mine inside by a large window that gets alot of sun.  If you have a greenhouse even better.  These plants cannot tolerate frost.  Sow each seed, on its edge, in a good sized pot to avoid potting on.  Be careful not to over water, as this can cause the seed to rot.  Allow the compost to dry abit before watering, but do not delay watering at the same time.


Planting out your Butternut Squash
Harden off the seedlings towards the end of May or early June and plant outside after a few warm days.  The planting site should be well prepared with compost and manure.  Set the plant on a slight mound, about 25 centimetres from the plant to allow the watering layer.  If the plant is a bit floppy, a light cane can be used to secure it against wind damage.

Aftercare
Allow the plant to settle and do not water until it has hardened and settled fully.  Watch out for slug and snails! When the plant begins to grow, it will grow very fast.  The Butternut Sqash plant takes up alot of space. Butternut Squash seeds can send out vines up to 15 feet long!! If cultivated and maintained properly each seed could potentially yield 10-20 squashes.  Allow the squashes to continue to ripen into October, then they will begin to colour and our ready to be picked.

Enjoy planting amd growing.  I love this time of the year, getting all the seeds growing and the great hope for lots of home grown vegetables at the other side.  My children love to help maintain the plants by watering everyday.  They love nothing more than the excitment of spotting the vegetables arriving!

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Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri X

This Sunday you have to try this!!

Baked Creamy Leeks

This is an absolutely fabulous accompaniment with any Sunday roast chicken dinner. I'm thinking I might even make it on Christmas day! My leeks are ready in my raised beds so I used them to make this dish.  It was beautiful and easy to make! Not for those counting calories! But sure what you eat on Sunday doesn't count ya?! ;-)

  

This serves 4-6 people

How to make it?

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Get 800g of Leeks.  Peel back the scruffy leaves, trim the ends and discard, then quarter the leeks lengthways and roughly chop them.  Put them into a sieve, give them a really good wash to get rid of any dirt. Then drain them.

Peel and finely slice two cloves of garlic.

Put a large pan on a medium heat and add two knobs of butter, a lug of olive oil and the garlic.
Pick the leaves off the 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, discarding the stalks.  I have the thyme growing in my raised bed also.

Just as the garlic begins to take on the smallest amount of colour, add all the leeks and thyme leaves and give them a good stir.

Turn the heat up and cook for about ten minutes until the leeks have softened.

Grate 100g of cheddar cheese.

Remove the pan of leeks from the heat and season with a good few pinches of salt and pepper.

Add 200mls of single cream and half the grated cheese.

Mix everything up and transfer into an earthenware dish.  I used my Chasseur Dish. It is perfect for this. 





The leek mix should be about 2.5cm thick in the dish.

Sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and bake in the preheated oven for 20minutes until golden and bubbling.

Enjoy! I did!

A Leek soup is next on my agenda, anyone got a good recipe?

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Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri

Try this!! Italian Vegetable Soup

Italian Vegetable Soup

                                                                                                              

                                                                                                             

This is such a nice soup, it went down well with the girls and my husband, give it a go! Full of goodness xx

Ingredients

• 2 each of onions and carrots, chopped
• 4 sticks celery, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 bay leaves
• few sprigs thyme
• 3 courgettes, chopped
• 400g can butter beans, drained
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1.2l vegetable stock
• 100g parmesan or vegetarian equivalent, grated
• 140g small pasta shapes
• small bunch basil, shredded

Method

1:Gently cook the onion, carrots and celery in the oil in a large saucepan for 20 mins, until soft. Splash in water if they stick. Add the sugar, garlic, purée, herbs and courgettes and cook for 4-5 mins on a medium heat until they brown a little.

2:Pour in the beans, tomatoes and stock, then simmer for 20 mins. If you’re freezing it, cool and do so now (freeze for up to three months). If not, add half the Parmesan and the pasta and simmer for 6-8 mins until pasta cooked. Sprinkle with basil and remaining Parmesan to serve. If frozen, defrost then re-heat before adding pasta and cheese and continuing as above.

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Thanks for reading

Orla & Kerri xx

Our kids do chores do yours?

'Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mum with the dishes' :-)  P.J.O'Rourke

On today's blog I am discussing children and chores. We both feel very strongly about ensuring we provide our children with opportunities to be responsible and carry out their own jobs in their own home. Good habits last a lifetime and your future daughter/son in law will thank you for raising tidy children :-)



Here are a few jobs I have my girls carry out in the home; watering the raised beds, putting their dirty clothes in the laundry basket, putting toys back in their right place in the playroom, laying the table, handing me the clothes from the basket to be hung on the washing line and recently Farrah has been doing some hoovering for me! Happy days! Kids like to help,embrace this and always provide lots of positive reinforcement.

Kerri also get's her son Seán to do his daily "jobs". These include counting out the correct amount of cutlery for dinner, setting the table, bringing the used bowl or plate back to the sink and then putting it into the dishwasher. This is a chore but also something that if taught from a young age, when do so out of home especially, it becomes good manners. Hoovering is also a favourite of Seán's: if he does a good job he then gets a spin on the hoover! Of course he does not hoover to any great standard, but thats not the point. The idea is teaching him responsibility and identifying and realising the jobs that need to be done in a house. Bringing his clothes down to the washing machine is a new job for him and the novelty factor is keeping it going..here's hoping it stays!  Tidying away toys in the playroom before bed is one we are currently working on...it's not going too well, but i'll stick to it! 

Here are some tips in getting your children to help with chores at home;

Start young. Make a tidy up session before bathtime an integral part of the day.

Set ground rules. For example-pen lids must be replaced,outdoor shoes(wellies) must always be put away, and pyjamas folded under pillows.

Everyone helps. Children grumble about clearing up when they didn't personally make the mess. You can make the point that it wasn't mum or dad who scattered jigsaw pieces or dropped play dough on the floor. Make it clear that everybody tidy's up,every day.

Show what needs to be done. If we don't water the vegetables we won't have them to eat for dinner because they need water to grow big and strong. Also dont expect a child to know what to tidy up,show them exactly. Children often don't recognise toys on the floor as mess.

Make it easy. Use easy to reach boxes for example, one box for play food, one box for Lego.

Reward particularly good behaviour. Positive reinforcement is so important and works wonders. Household tasks should be regarded as part of family life, not something that children are paid to do. Besides lots of positive reinforcement, extra special effort can be recognised with sticker charts for younger children and additional pocket money for older kids.

Easy Tasks For Children

Pre-schoolers
Picking up toys
Watering plants
Putting clothes in laundry basket
Laying the table

5 to 10 year olds
Loading the dishwasher
Washing the car
Sweeping the floors

11 to 16 year olds
Vacuuming
Gardening tasks
Taking out the rubbish

Let me know if your children help at home,what tasks they carry out,do they complain or enjoy it? We would love to hear.



Until next time, thanks for reading!

Orla and Kerri  xxx

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Sweetie Soup ;-)

Hey,

This week I made Sweet Potato and Orange Soup. It is a lovely creamy soup filled with goodness that your little ones will just love. My girls love it and I always receive an empty bowl back! One happy mum! 

Give it a go!

Ingredients:

20g Butter
1 large Onion
500g Sweet Potato
200g Patato
2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed Orange Juice
700mls Vegetable Stock
1/2 teaspoon of Ground Coriander
150ml Milk

Just leave out the milk for a dairy free option still tastes nice :-) 

Melt the butter,add chopped onion, cook gently until soft without Browning.

Add chopped sweet patato, patatoes, Orange juice, vegetable stock and coriander.

Bring to boil,cover and simmer for 30minutes until vegetables are tender.

Add milk and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!!

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Let me know if you try the soup and if it was liked by the family,I would love to know!

Happy Saturday from all @ Countryside Mumsie

Orla & Kerri xx

Yummy Carrot and Ginger Soup

Morning,


This morning I am sharing my love for making soups and a great little recipe. 

I am always trying new recipes for the girls and I. My girls will drink a bowl of soup through a wide straw and I just adore the idea of them getting a meal packed full of goodness. I am in my cooking mood today and plan to batch cook for my ladies to get myself organised as returning to work is on the horizon.

I have made this particular soup a few times and its a big hit each time.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

1 medium Onion 

8 medium Carrots chopped

Teaspoon of ginger 

500mls of Stock

Peel and chop the onion. Splash of olive oil in a pot,cook onions for 5minutes until soft but not browned. Carrots and ginger are peeled and chopped.

Add the carrots,ginger and stock and bring to the boil. Then simmer for 20minutes.

Blend to smooth soup consistency.

Yummy! Enjoy!


PS. These are the stock cubes I use, available in Boots.

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Orla & Kerri Xx