The Hopes and Eyes of a Nation

 
Last Friday, after months of expressing their anger and
dissatisfaction, the people of Ireland were finally afforded the opportunity to go to the polls and make important choices that will effect our nation's prosperity and our children's future for years to come. One way or another.

Our little nation has been through some rough times. For the past fourteen years we have been (mis)lead by an inept Government that I will remember more for the astonishing arrogance they  have recently displayed  than anything else.

Last Friday, we showed that Government, Fianna Fail, exactly what we thought of them and ensured that they were banished from the dizzying heights of their power where they once  held 78 seats to the paltry levels of opposition where they're estimated to hold only 20 seats when the final counts are tallied. A mere six seats more than their arch-rivals Sinn Fein  (I shudder at the thought) and only one seat more than the 19 seats Independents/Others are projected to win. Figures are per this morning's Irish Times. They will barely be the leading party in opposition. Barely.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

They deserve to feel the wrath of the nation's people. There are undoubtedly good people in the Fianna Fail party but they allowed themselves to be led/bullied/cajoled/blackmailed (delete as you deem applicable) into backing their leader Brian Cowen when they recently had an opportunity to remove him from power. How they didn't try to oust him months ago is appalling and shows total contempt for the electorate. They allowed Party Politics and concerns for their own future in that party to take precedence over the good of our nation and it's people.

Fianna Fail dithered while Ireland burned.

I can never forgive them for that.


Fianna Gael had their confidence issues with their leader Enda Kenny and they ended up backing him too. Although Mr Kenny sidelined his rival somewhat he still kept him involved. That plays well into his statement last night that the team is bigger than any individual.

I do hope this issue has been put to rest as it's one thing I do worry about. We need a stable and balanced Government


At present it's looking like a Fianna Gael/Labour coalition which is what I hoped for, with a few interesting Independents in opposition who will hopefully play their part in effecting some important changes and put some manners on the longer serving politicians in this country while they're at it.

Oh yes, the little people of Ireland have spoken and negotiations to form a new Government are taking place as I type.

To this new Government I say....

Remember your election promises.

Make decisions for the good of the country and it's people and NOT simply to prolong your stay in Government.


Value and utilise this nation's most valuable asset -it's People.

Listen to the people when it comes to job creation. We are a resilient, innovative and informed people. Use that.

Listen to the people when it comes to reform: particularly in Health and in  the Public Service in general. The people on the ground have intelligent suggestions to make, work with them.

Trust the people and be honest with them. Keep us informed - tell us exactly how things are. Don't try to pull the wool over our eyes. We're not stupid. But I think you know this.

Above all treat the people fairly. especially when it comes to tax increases and cuts in spending. Try not to pitch one side of society against another and remember that you can't get blood from a stone.

Difficult times still lie ahead and I just hope that Fianna Fail haven't left some nasty-yet-to-be-revealed secrets that will make things even more difficult  as their Welcome to Government present to you.

I sincerely hope that Michael McDowell's premonition is ill-founded.

The people of Ireland have spoken. We must never, ever let a Government treat us the way the last one did. If we do then we only have ourselves to blame.

You may call me naive but I'm really just being positive and hopeful.

Good luck to the incoming Government.......

The hopes of a nation lie with you.

The eyes of a nation are on you.

Don't let us down.

This time we won't stand idly by.


xx

Blog Gems- Air Your Archives #10: HAPPY

This week Jen's theme for her Blog Gems over at The King And Eye is...... Happy.

As nothing makes me happier, or laugh as much as my WiiBoy does, I've chosen my WiiBoy's Words of Wisdom ; Act1 : Scene 3 (the Birds and the Bees) post in the hope that it makes you (and Jen.... especially Jen!) smile :-)

Gosh, it has been a while since I've done one of those posts. Must be time to do another. I do have one in mind but he says things too fast for me to note down!


xx

Taking It Easy

After months of enduring the madness of the merry go round that is Panto I suddenly find myself in the strange world of Taking It Easy.

This world of Taking It Easy would be the perfect antidote to the the land of Pantomania, if it weren't  for the fact that this involves enforced rest and relegation to the spare room.


Straight after Panto I contracted my annual Cough From Hell, a cough that I have gotten every year since I was 13 years old. In fact, I have actually contracted it twice this Winter, both pre and post Panto. I have learned, over the years, that the only way to stifle the standard four to six week duration of this harsh, relentless and possible divorce-inducing cough is to go to the Doctor. I gave it a week and then went to the Doctor last Thursday and was astounded to learn that the Cough From Hell was probable Pneumonia! The doctor detected some fine crepes at the bottom of my left lung which, according to one-who-knows is most likely lower lobe pneumonia and has been brewing a while.


So, it's a case of I went to the panto and all I got was lousy pneumonia!


Well, that's what a certain Mr Jazzy believes anyway. That or out gallivanting 'til 7am at the wrap party! The fact that straight after attending my GP I went to the kids panto party and danced with them, however briefly didn't help! What was I thinking?? The fact is though that the kids in the school, whether involved in panto or not, were dropping like flies with all sorts. Tummy Bugs, Flu, Swine Flu etc; you name it and WiiBoy himself brought home a cold. Mind you that was after first Panto weekend. Hard to prove or disprove - 'tis the season and all that.


Either way, things are as they are. I have had an xray and have to wait five days for confirmation but judging on how I am feeling this must be pneumonia. I am completely astounded at how debilitating and exhausting this condition is. The smallest activity: making a cup of tea, coming down the stairs for example is exhausting. Having a shower is something that I have to conserve energy for so it's not a daily activity! Making lunches and dinners are beyond me, yet I find myself having to help and housework is an absolute no-no! Oh yeah, pneumonia sure does have it's good side :-)


I have received good advice from those in the know and the best thing to treat this, besides antibiotics is that lovely four letter word..... REST. Difficult to attain as I am an on-the-go type of person but I am getting as much rest as possible as I alternate between bed and sofa for the last five days. Sleep is difficult to come by though and after a sleepless night and lifeless day yesterday I took some more advice and slathered myself in Vicks (chest, back and soles of feet) and downed a very large brandy last night and got myself five hours sleep! This will now be part of my daily treatment!


Mr Jazzy really doesn't understand what this feels like but understand this, if I don't take care of myself I could end up in hospital and that is not going to happen. After all, in Ireland, hospitals are no place for sick people!

I'm not exactly being waited on hand on foot. I make my own breakfast for example - tea and toast as that's all I have the energy to make.However, as I say pneumonia does have it's good side....

I smiled when Mr Jazzy commented on how much a state the place was in - as in: this place is a kip - then unprompted took out the hoover and hoovered all of downstairs!

So far we've got by on the little M & S shop I did last Thursday and a takeaway dinner on Sunday so I laughed at his reaction to the prospect of him cooking dinner this evening! Actually, he laughed too so hilarious was  the thought! He came home early to cook the difficult meal of ....... Burgers and Chips! The middle of winter it may very well be but these burgers were going to be cooked Mr Jazzy style so a Winter Barbeque was declared. Which of course meant that the Barbeque had to be cleaned out. Oh, the joys!


Needless to say this culinary delight was cooked and served with a rather large side of profanities! And I had to help too which means I'm totally sofa bound for the remainder of the evening.


Actually, the irony of the situation didn't escape me. Through all this Mr Jazzy kept leaving the patio door open and it was all I could do to stop myself stating the usual: Close that door before I get pneumonia.... oops.. already have it!!


I am loving the fact that I can spend unlimited and legitimate time on facebook and The Twitter, as Pat Kenny might say!


I love that I can play silly games (among other stuff) on my iTouch. Who knew Monsta Puzzle was so addictive?


I love how much time I can devote to reading. Thanks to a good friend I am currently immersed in the tantalising tome: The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. That's keeping me occupied during any sleepless nights!


The thing I love the most though is the effect my pneumonia is having on WiiBoy. Ooh, this is exciting!! Wait 'til you hear what's been happening.

Following my instructions he made his own hot chocolate drink last night for the very first time and then insisted on making me some, so thrilled was he with his new found independence!

This led to more independence as he decided he felt grown up now and wanted to make his own lunch! Being the encouraging mum I am I, well, encouraged him!

He was up bright and early this morning dressing himself, getting his own breakfast and making his own ham sandwich! Although I tried my best he didn't extend these new found skills to preparing a ham sandwich or breakfast for his poor old sick mum!!

This is the start of things to come though. As a wise friend suggests, he could yet be able to pour me the perfect glass of wine!

I just knew this Cooking With WiiBoy idea of mine was a good 'un!!

His friend's mum has been bringing him to and from school for me but she couldn't collect him today so, for the very first time WiiBoy walked all the way home from school today with his (very sensible and road savvy) pal!! I was a nervous wreck but he did it no bother! Big, big step!

Oh yes, the start of things to come alright :-)

So apart from the downside - the no snuggles or kisses rules and the abandoned plans for mid term break (I dread mid term) which means no trips or activities that I had planned to do to curtail his xbox activities- it seems that pneumonia is a very positive event at Chez Jazzy!

I'd better milk it for all it's worth ;-)

xx

Seasonal Gardening.....

Oh dear. My poor garden, with it's relatively newly-laid lawn, has really been through the mill this winter and is now ripe for some seasonal Spring lawn Care.

The frost and snow in December really hit hard....

It was beautiful to look at and to play in but it lost it's luster before long!

Although I will admit that it was lovely to have our first proper White Christmas, ever.

The snow came upon us so quickly and left even quicker. Within 24 hours of a big rainfall on St Stephens Day (Boxing Day in the UK) the snow you see in the above picture, which had been there for almost a full week,  had completely disappeared.

That's a lot of water for our garden, with it's poor drainage, to deal with but thankfully there was no flooding.

The snow and it's rapid evaporation has been followed by regular frosty mornings. This has resulted in our lovely lawn now looking like this....

Which is a far cry from how it looked only last October....

Oh, the difference a season can make.

It's okay though, the new season is almost upon us and a bit of Spring Time TLC will soon return our lovely lawn to it's former glory... I hope!

What? You don't believe me that Spring will soon be springing...all over the place?? Too cold and miserable for that to be possible, I hear you say?

Well, here's another picture from my garden, taken on the 8th of February which proves that Spring truly is on it's way!

Ooh...nice juicy raspberries come the Summer, I hope!

In the meantime  I'd better go do some gardening.....

 xx


 


Note: This was a sponsored post, thanks for reading.

Celebrations

I like celebrations.

I don't like events or special occasions to pass by without celebrating them in some way, however small.
 
I like Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, for example. Unfortunately Mr Jazzy doesn't so we don't do anything special to celebrate them. Fortunately, however, our WiiBoy is now coming of age and I can easily manipulate encourage him to join me in some small celebration!

I like birthdays too and I really like to celebrate them.

Again, unfortunately Mr Jazzy does not.  He absolutely does not want a fuss made when it is his birthday and doesn't want any presents etc. I respect his wishes and go along with them to a certain extent and only make a fuss if it's a Special Birthday. I now give him money as a present, to put towards something he may be saving for and WiiBoy may give him something small too. However, I insist that we go out for a family meal, Early Bird or a low key lunch, in celebration. For WiiBoy's sake.

See, I compromise for his birthday.

Yesterday was Valentines Day AND MY birthday...... a double whammy for Mr Jazzy! And he acted same as always. Totally understated.  

Note: Mr Jazzy firmly believes that special days like Valentines Day and Mothers Day  etc are Hallmark inventions!

I compromise around my birthday too though. If Mr Jazzy won't celebrate it in any meaningful way then I'll surround myself with events to make up for that! So, I had a couple of evenings out in advance of the day and have a few more planned besides. Okay, most of them are catch-up-with-friends dates that happen to be suggested at this time. How convenient!

I slowly came to the realisation though, that that's not quite the same as having your family, as small as it is, celebrate your day with you and as the day approached I found myself getting more upset and cross. Very cross!! And the worm was turning....

I dropped hints. Lots of them. I even roped WiiBoy in as far back as two weeks ago by pointing out a small present he and Mr Jazzy could get me. I'm not greedy, I just think he should be involved in choosing a small present for his mum, like he does for his dad and besides, I am so fed up with buying everybody else's presents for them all the time ... including theirs for me!

It was 6pm the proceeding day before I was begrudgingly asked if I wanted to go for dinner for my birthday! I immediately said yes and was asked to book it myself! See what I mean? Well, I did book it. Always mindful of the recession I booked the Early Bird in our favourite Indian restaurant and had such a laugh with the guy who took the booking - over the fact I was booking for three. On Valentines night! I think he was initially afraid it was a Menage-a-Trois!! Best laugh of the day, I must say.

Thing is, if it was more enthusiastically suggested, I would have been perfectly happy with an inexpensive take-away meal that I didn't have to go and get, presented on a nicely laid table that I didn't have to set with candles and plates that I didn't have to wash afterwards. Throw in a bottle of wine and he'd have himself a very happy wife indeed!

Now please don't get the wrong impression of me. I'm easy to please really I am. I know plenty of women who are spoilt rotten on birthdays and Mother's Day etc. I'm not expecting any of that, honestly.

I just wanted my birthday to be acknowledged by those closest to me.

I wanted to be acknowledged by those closest to me.

I wanted WiiBoy, for once, to give me one small present that they had chosen together. A bunch of cheap flowers form Spar for example or even something from the 2Euro shop.

Even something as simple as them both insisting I sit down and they'll bring me a cup of tea would have really pleased me. Instead of rattling off jobs that needed doing that day.

Surely that's not asking too much, is it?

If WiiBoy isn't taught how to appreciate/acknowledge his mum how does he learn to appreciate any future women in his life?


I had a lovely day yesterday, as it turns out. I had lovely birthday snuggles from WiiBoy to start with - the bestest present a mum could ask for really:-) Priceless.

Also special were the amount of birthday texts I received and I was overwhelmed with the amount of  facebook birthday wishes. A very big thank you to my facebook friends.... you all put such a big smile on my face:-) Also priceless

Two surprise little gifts from two very thoughtful gals also meant  lot to me.

Birthday/Valentines Day cards from my two special men were presented to me late in the day, which is fine and money was my present. More than I needed or expected - and more than the small present I asked for cost, but I'm not telling!!

There were no cards in the post from my immediate family members though and I found that very disappointing and quite frankly, upsetting. Especially as my mam drives me demented all year round remembering everyone else's birthday and pestering me to send them cards etc.  Anyway...

It was a good day and we had a lovely family meal with a very enthusiastic and well-behaved WiiBoy who ate from the adult menu, starters included! The best present of all. Totally priceless.

See, family celebrations are fantastic social learning experiences ;-)

Perhaps I felt this year more than others as this is the Penultimate Birthday. The one before my Special Birthday next year.Yikes!!

I'm not expecting, nor do I want, any special events to be organised for me.

Nor do I expect to be whisked off on an expensive surprise trip.

No doubt it'll be business as usual.

Special Birthdays are ones to be celebrated though. That's the only way I know how to cope with them.

So, I have a plan. I've already dropped hints but I'm not hanging around.

I have a slush fund and I'll keep adding to it ;-)

xx

Blog Gems-Air Your Archives #9: LOVE

Well, being as it's Valentines Day tomorrow (and a certain someone's birthday....ARE YOU HEARING ME, MR JAZZY???) Jen over at the King and Eye has chosen LOVE as the theme for her fortnightly Blog Gems- Air your Archives  linky thing!

I am not in good form this evening so my entry will not be relationship based (believe me, you wouldn't wanna read what I feel like saying right now!) Therefore I'm choosing a post I did two years ago when we returned to our house after 3 months away from it.

Home Sweet Home...

You never appreciate what you have until it's almost taken away from you.

And I guess the same can be said for relationships.....sigh.

I'll get down off my high horse soon.....promise!

 xx

Cooking With WiiBoy #2 : Homemade Burgers & Sweet Potato Chips

Welcome to Part 2 of my Cooking With WiiBoy series. Having dealt with an extremely fussy eating child with ASD for a number of years I eventually discovered that including him in food choices and involving him in the preparation and cooking of said dishes  improved his eating habits immensely. Of course early intervention therapies helped hugely in getting him to a place where he was open to trying new foods. Our motto? "Try it and see", he takes a lick, a mouthful or eats the lot- either way huge praise is heaped upon him. I am no cook so anything I share with you will be easy to make - trust me!


Burgers are a favourite of WiiBoy's, so making homemade ones is appealing to him.

Here's another recipe we've tried from the lovely Margaret Smith and her UmNumNum Cookery School!


Homemade Burgers

Makes 6-8 burgers

Ingredients

• 454g of minced beef (lamb or turkey is good too)

• Handful of porridge oats

• 3 dessertspoons of burger relish

• 1 red chilli very finely chopped(optional)

• 1 medium egg

• 1 small onion

• Fresh herbs (parsley, thyme or basil)

• Flour for rolling out patties

Cut up your onion very finely and fry in a pan on a gentle heat until the onions are soft and transluscent.

Place minced beef, porridge oats, burger relish, chilli and fried onions into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Then crack an egg and whisk for a second and add to your burger mixture. When the mixture is nice and wet and sticky it is ready for making the burger patties.

           It's Okay, unlike the chicken fillets, the feel of  minced beef is tolerable!

Put some flour on your surface so that the burgers won’t stick then take a handful of mixture and form a ball. Then rolling the ball in the flour to make sure it is completely covered with a gentle dusting of flour.

Flatten your pattie so that it looks like a burger now.

Fry your burgers in the pan for a few minutes until brown on both sides – transfer to a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at 200 degrees.

Toast your buns while you are waiting.



SWEET POTATO CHIPS

Peel the potatoes and half them, then half again and then once more- more like wedges.  Drizzle them with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper- do them in the oven at 200 for about 30-40 minutes.  Test that they are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.  Ovens can vary so you may need to adjust the temp of your oven up or down -  if you find they are crisping up too quickly or conversely not crisping up enough. <They only took 30 minutes in my oven>

VERDICT

I loved the burgers, but then I can tolerate Tomato Ketchup on a burger in a bun whereas WiiBoy can't. He only uses Tomato Ketchup on the side of plate, not touching anything and only for chips.

Although he ate every last morsel he said that they were nice but that he preferred "the usual ones" - Superquinn's own burgers.

To conclude I'll say that this is a fab recipe that you gotta play around with to get the taste and consistency right for your family's taste.

I will definitely be trying them again and next time I intend to attempt to cook them on our George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine which would be even healthier!

We have just become accustomed to sweet potatoes and love them mashed and mixed with ordinary potatoes. So the sweet potato chips was just another step forward and he loved them! We have since had them with the Homemade Chicken Nuggets we made the last time. Those chicken nuggets have become a staple in our weekly menu. I make them most weeks and freeze them.

UmNumNum for sure!

You really have to give these recipes a try!

Bon Appetit!


xx






Note: Click here for Cooking With WiiBoy: Homemade Chicken Nuggets

The Gallery: Togetherness

This week's Theme for The Gallery is Togetherness and there are lots of lovely photos to browse through over at Tara's Sticky Fingers blog.

I know it's not really Valentine's Day material per se , but I'm done with that day! So I have chosen this as my Togetherness photo....

WiiBoy sure loves his Sunny. He lovingly says goodnight to him every night!

So cute :-)



xx

Jazzymum Comes Home!

Finally, after weeks of Panto madness Jazzymum is home and life is slowly (very slowly) getting back to normal!

Panto was great, all six shows went really well and there was plenty of positive feedback. The children all enjoyed their moment of fame and I'm already being asked what Panto 2012 will be! Very eager indeed. My WiiBoy (AKA Panto Boy for three months of the year) thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being on stage.....

He mixed well backstage with the other boys who, incidentally are not in his class. The big moment for me though, was seeing him chose to sit chatting with the girls from his class whilst waiting to go onstage at a big rehearsal and then seeing his fun reaction to said girls as they (nicely) slagged him! This is what the NT kids do all the time you see so this is HUGE! See, Panto is good for Social Skills too ;-)

So now it's back to normal. I always laugh when people say:  What will you do now? You won't know what to do with yourself with all that extra time..... etc.

Thing is, there are tons of things to be done as lots of jobs have been long-fingered for so long. Hectic weeks of rehearsals etc are simply replaced with normal everyday stuff. After a few days rest of course. Monday was inadvertently declared a Duvet Day after WiiBoy pulled a sick day and I didn't have the energy to fight him. I was tired, you see, from two hectic weekends of shows. Staying out partying until 7.00am on the Sunday morning had absolutely nothing got to do with it whatsoever!

The first serious job to be tackled is my very untidy and unclean house!

So I got stuck into that this morning. It took three hours to get to the point where I could actually hoover! And that's just downstairs! Still it looks a bit better now.

Tomorrow I'll tackle upstairs. Next week will be time to do some real Spring Cleaning.....starting with WiiBoy's room. I definitely need to psyche myself up for that job, you should see the state of his room and the piles of...stuff..he has accumulated over the years. Dear Lord!

I'm pleased that I've gotten off to a good start though, but there are other more enjoyable long-fingered activities to catch up on. Like meeting with friends! Ooh, this is the best part of Apres-Panto!

I start off with a meal tomorrow night with some friends then a meal and a movie on Saturday night with a lovely lady...can't wait to see Black Swan. You never know, I may also be brought out to dinner on Sunday 13th or Monday 14th  ;-) You reading this Mr Jazzy?

This is a lovely start to what could become a bit of an unplanned birthday weekend ;-)

Followed next week by a coffee morning with two good friends, breakfast with another and I have some other friends I am due to have a meal and a natter with also. Looking forward to it all!

Life is good.

Jazzymum is finally home..... almost ;-)

xx

The Pinocho Post....

 The lovely Lora recently saddled bestowed me with this fantasmagorical award! Now, no-one loves receiving awards more than me. I  read blog posts and if I see my name in the awards lists I get really excited and can be heard  excitedly squealing:  Me?? You mean me??? Oh thank you, thank you.... so much"!!

I jokingly say saddled above because I do love it but this is a very difficult task for me.

You see, in order to accept this award I must follow the rules below, as designed by Jillsmo :

 
1. You must proudly display the absolutely disgusting graphic that I have created for these purposes. It's so bad that not only did I use COMIC SANS, but there's even a little jumping, celebrating kitten down there at the bottom. It's horrifying! But its presence in your award celebration is crucial to the memetastic process we're creating here.

2. You must list 5 things about yourself, and 4 of them must be bold-faced lies. Just make stuff up, we'll never know; one of them has to be true, though. Of course, nobody will ever know the difference, so we're just on the honor system here. I trust you.

3. You must pass this award on to 5 bloggers that you either like or don't like or don't really have much of an opinion about. I don't care who you pick, and nobody needs to know why. I mean, you can give a reason if you want, but I don't really care.

4. If you fail to follow any of the above rules, I will harass you incessantly until you either block me on Twitter or ban my IP address from visiting your blog. I don't know if you can actually do that last thing, but I will become so annoying to you that you will actually go out and hire an IT professional to train you on how to ban IP addresses just so that I'll leave you alone. I'm serious. I'm going to do these things. 



See my problem is that I am the world's worst liar. I can't make up stuff!! I know  you can't actually see my face  but I know you can tell..... and you've no idea how long it's taking me to do this!

However, I don't want to be incessantly harassed.

So, here goes...

1) I'm a fabulous singer and  on the third Thursday of every month myself and my mother (wheelchair included)  go to a karaoke bar and belt out Dancing Queen by Abba, in full Abba attire. Naturally!

2) Being a self-confessed Desperate Housewife, stuck at home in these recessionary times, I have followed the business advice of one of the cast members of this popular TV show and set up my own ...ahem.... cleaning business from home. I have built up quite a client list at this stage, from all over the world. Poor Mr Jazzy can't quite figure out why the phone is always busy these days. And Jazzy's Hotline is ALWAYS busy ;-)

3) I hate wine. Never drink the stuff....ever!

4) I loved singing when I was a child and my party piece was  Congratulations by Cliff Richard. I used to do  the mouth/teeth thing he does too!


5) Excited squeals of joy (Me?? You mean me??....) can be heard at Chez Jazzy whenever an award is bestowed upon me ;-)

Oh...look at that...there's my five. I was just getting into it...and getting to like it too.  
Included in my five are three out-and-out lies, one semi- truth and one absolute truth.

Whoop.... I did it!

I know you can spot the lies though!


And now to pass  this  award on to others... 

With the powers invested in me I now bestow this salubrious award onto my fellow blogging pals:


Jean at Planet Outreach

Zarah at Lifeasweknowit 


Alysia at Try Defying Gravity

Hammie at Hammiesays

Nan P at Journey into Grand-Motherhood

Have fun!


Don't forget to link back to Jillsmo's Bloghop when you're done :-)


xx 

Cooking With WiiBoy: Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I have shared our Food Diary to Food Miracles story with you before, chronicling the journey of our fussy eater. A story most of you are all too familiar with. Things are consistently improving though, with WiiBoy not only interested in trying new foods but also in helping with the cooking...... of dishes that interest him only, of course!

I have embraced this new found  interest in earnest and set about trying to find some mouth-watering, very easy to prepare dishes (The Dummy's Guide to Cooking would be good!)  to whet his appetite. I am of course mindful of the fact that cooking not only helps expand his food choices  it's also great O.T..... sometimes!

Thankfully, a very nice and exceedingly helpful Twitter pal of mine Margaret Smith, who runs her own cookery school in Cork, came to my rescue and very kindly sent me two recipes to try out.

The first one we tried was .....

HOMEMADE CHICKEN NUGGETS

Ingredients

225g(8oz) brown breadcrumbs

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon paprika

1 egg

125ml(4fl.oz) of milk

900g(2lb) chicken

Serves 4

Preheat the oven to 200degrees C/400F/Gas 6. Slice the bread, then toast until light brown. Break up into pieces and reduce to fine crumbs in the food processor. Add the garlic powder and Paprika and whiz again. Place the breadcrumbs in a plastic freezer bag or a deep tray.

Beat the egg in a large bowl with the milk and add the chicken pieces, in batches if necessary. Transfer the chicken pieces to the bag or tray of breadcrumbs and toss to coat evenly. Arrange the crumbed chicken on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until browned crisped and cooked through.

We followed the recipe but replaced Garlic Powder with Garlic Puree as that's all we had. WiiBoy only helped for a very short time though.
 
O.T. isn't always what it seems, you see. Beware of textures..... chicken fillets are very like women's boobies apparently and he didn't like that. How he knows this I have absolutely no idea but long may it last.....

As there were some breadcrumbs and eggy dip left over I made pockets in two chicken breasts, stuffed them with a slice of Brie and some Oak Smoked ham and coated them in breadcrumbs for Mr Jazzy and I!

Yummy...... UmNumNum, even! (You need to click on the above link!!)

WiiBoy seemed impressed with his also.....

But....... did he like it?

Yes, he did. But he had one complaint......

There wasn't enough!

Seriously UmNumNum indeed :-)

xx Jazzy