Life isn’t always instagrammable

There isn’t a recipe to post today because family life got in the way. I cook real time for this blog which means that Monday to Friday when the baby sleeps, or the mornings that she is at nursery, I cook something that is inspiring me. Then I serve it up, photograph it, upload the photos, write the accompanying blog post and publish it. And whilst we hardly live in the back of beyond, doing it this way requires a lot of fore planning. We have two shops nearby, Munich’s most famous delicatessen which is beautiful but is style over substance. It is perfect for beautiful fruit or picture ready vegetables, but it is not well stocked. On the flip side of that we have a tiny ReWe which is never fully stocked and is the size of a small express supermarket. There is an organic shop nearby too which is perfect for coconut oil and chia seeds but lacking in everything else. All of these shops close at the crazy early time of 7pm!!! Seriously who closes at 7pm? They are also shut on Sunday…and one of them shuts up shop by 4pm on a Saturday. They also don’t deliver. London (and Wholefoods) have spoilt me for choice and I have to admit that last weekend in Cambridge I may have gotten a little wet eyed in the middle of a Tesco Superstore.

Today I wanted to launch ‘Family meal’ week. A week of meals designed to allow you to cook once and all eat together. Food that could be pureed or mashed or simply served depending on the stage of your little ones. Today I wanted to make creamy broccoli pesto and had visions of some very stylish spaghetti wrapped fork photos in my head. I wanted to remind you that cooking for a family doesn’t have to be tricky and you don’t have to compromise on taste. That you can, easily, sit down round the table and all tuck in to the same meal.

But as I say, life happened. It has been pouring down all weekend and today is no different. The husband was going to do the weekly shop this morning in the car after his doctors appointment. Monday morning traffic meant he couldn’t even get near one supermarket and rainy day ‘everyone in their car’ traffic meant he couldn’t park near the other one. So we have nothing in the fridge. The baby had, what I like to think of as a picnic for lunch which means she ate the leftover baby friendly bits that we had in the fridge padded up with a few rice cakes. Im having a liquid lunch…of coffee (although I wouldn’t say no to the other). The baby is now asleep, the husband is on the turbo trainer in the basement. The fridge is still empty. The camera isn’t coming out.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will make creamy broccoli pesto and on Wednesday I will make ratatouille. Thursday will depend on the Great British Bake Off and on Friday I will introduce you to Yogi pie. Somewhere in there I will also make our weekly staple of banana eggy bread. But for today, Im going to make a big pot of bircher muesli, curl up on the sofa with a book and have a lunchtime out of the kitchen. If you need some ideas for Monday night dinners then you could always try my salmon fish-fingers or you could make bigger versions of the mini frittatas and serve with a dressed salad and some roasted veggies on the side? Happy eating and see you tomorrow x