I have to admit, I've started this blog a few times with different names. I'm not sure why, it's just nothing has seemed to really summarise what's been happening over the past week or so.

First up, we've been using our slow cooker much more. Nothing too inventive yet, just really stews - primarily beef - although I've used turkey this time, so we'll see how they go. I'm thinking I put too much water in this time as it seemed a little more soupy than previous attempts. In good news, hubby will be home a little late tonight, so I'll try to thicken his up before his dinner.

Secondly, I've been trying some new recipes for Mick to take for his lunches and breakfasts. Some of them are naturally BTD compliant whilst others aren't really, but can sort of be made that way. For example, bacon and egg muffins. Now, generally this would be a no-no. But, if you bake compliant spelt-based english muffins and use roast turkey that's been lightly fried rather than bacon, they turn out ok. They also got the thumbs up from him - I consider that a massive achievement. Lunch wise, thus far he's had the shepherd's pies, turkey red curry with rice and turkey filo parcels. Not all of them have been massive hits, but at least it gets away from the same things all the time and gives him the opportunity to try something new as well.

Next up - we got our side of organic, grass-fed, local beef! Plus a whole lamb. The puppies have some bones and lamb flaps from the same animals so nothing should really be wasted! There's about 90 kilos of meat all up with probably 20 kilos of bones/dog food. Next up I'm ordering in some free-range turkeys so that the freezers are well stocked and we have no excuse for having anything but good quality, home cooked food.

Which brings me to my final piece of exciting news - we have a vacuum sealer. Seriously, this thing, although it uses plastic bags, is great. You can vacuum seal pretty much anything. Mick joked that if he stood still long enough, I would have vacuum sealed him, but it is great. I packaged up all the meat into meal sized serves then vacuum sealed it. No risk of leakage in the freezer! I've also been experimenting with frozen cookies (making the dough, then freezing it ready to bake), cakes and muffins for lunches. I'm hoping to do one big batch every month or so, then just take off what I need for that week.