wholesomeireland

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Is Hello Fresh Worth It? A Deep Dive into the meal kits subscription service.

I’ve been seeing more and more stories about meal kits, and specifically Hello Fresh meal kits on Instagram lately. Due in no small part to a very clever advertising campaign which uses approachable family and lifestyle influencers to communicate the message that a meal kit is the answer to planning your dinners. Is it worth it though? Is it all hype? Will the meal kits feed my hungry family of…

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3 Money Saving Books For January

Reading up on money saving in January? Aren't we all?! Here's my short and sweet list of 3 books I've got on my list.

Happy New Year! In alphabetical order, these are the 3 books that I have ordered for delivery this month that I’m confident will be an addition to my bookshelf so I can continue to save money this year. I only recommend what I have bought myself; if you’re interested in how I get on, keep an eye out on my stories on Facebook and Instagram this month. I will actually be taking delivery of the…

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A Squash And A Squeeze

How shopping and eating on a budget really works at the moment.

How shopping and eating on a budget really works at the moment. When you are on a tight budget you figure out what you have to spend on essentials each week. You basically allocate set amounts for rent/mortgage, energy, household bills, and then food. These are fixed amounts and rarely deviate from week to week. Let’s say a large energy bill arrives (as has happened for almost everyone in the…

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Fruity Granola Bars

Fruity Granola Bars: A new recipe from my kitchen which has been requested ALOT recently. Lunchbox and allergy friendly all at once!

These chewy fruity granola bars will keep for up to 5 days in a sealed dry box in a cool place. I made these last night for a live cookalong and the boys had them in their lunchboxes today. It feels like an age since I last posted on the blog. Life has been… challenging as it has been for everyone. There were times where I felt like I was going crazy and honestly, sometimes there still are, but…

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Spice Bag Recipe

If there’s one takeaway meal that has an addictive moreish quality to it, it’s the Spice Bag. It’s actually incredibly easy to make at home...

If there’s one takeaway meal that has an addictive moreish quality to it, it’s the Spice Bag. It’s actually incredibly easy to make at home and this version serves a family of 5 hungry people. Leave out the chicken to make it plant based.

Due to the magic of the internet. I filmed myself making this live on Instastories. I’ve compiled it into a video and I’ll insert this below!

Ingredients…

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Self Acceptance

For years I sat on the beach and watched as the boys splashed in the surf with my husband. On holidays we’d go to waterparks and I’d brave a slide or two but mainly sit by the pool and keep a watchful eye on them.

It’s not that I wasn’t willing to go and join in but I was wary of myself. Of how I looked in swimming togs and being conscious of other people looking at me.

Recently it’s not…

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Meatball Sub Recipe

Whoever said that a main meal had to include rice, pasta, or spuds? Possibly noodles at a pinch?

The holy trinity of a double carb meal is one that my husband aspires to; a three-in-one contains rice and chips. The gourmet sandwich is always made with white sliced pan filled with Cheese and Onion Tayto. It must be cheese and onion. If it’s not cheese and onion classic, Southern Ireland, Tayto…

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Meatballs Marinara Recipe

New Recipe on the blog: Meatballs Marinara Recipe. A healthy & filling meal to keep the whole family happy!

My kids love meatballs for dinner. They beg me for this dish at least once a week. If I make meatballs and leave the kitchen I have to make sure to hide them from the boys. They have been known to sneak into the kitchen and eat them straight from the slow cooker when I’m not looking. Indeed, they’ve also been known to eat them early in the morning in the interests of breakfast. One of their…

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I'm Back

Back to the blog and thoughts about what the last few months have brought.

I finished up writing this blog as the lockdown took set. It wasn’t intentional, not at all! It’s just that as the kids finished school I began to realise that the juggle of working from home and home schooling was simply not compatible with writing here.

This time around I’ve given myself some time to load up the new recipes into the blog and space them out over the weeks and months ahead so…

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Energy Cookies

These energy cookies are a firm family favourite because they can be made by small hands with minimal supervision. Also safe to eat raw!

While school was underway these energy cookies made it into the lunchboxes at least once a week. For many reasons, not least that they are so darn easy to assemble in a food processor, but also because they are low on allergens. We have restrictions on certain food items in school due to children having allergies and I have to be extremely careful of nuts and sesame seeds in particular. I know…

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Reintroductions

It might seem odd me doing an introduction blog post but I figured that after over 500 posts on the blog and so much water under the bridge it was about time that I did some reintroductions.

Life has changed a lot for me since I started blogging so rather than focus on what has changed, I think I’d rather explain where I am.

My name is Caitríona, I’m a work-at-home Mam who lives in the…

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Surviving Job Loss

All of a sudden in the past 10 days 100’s of thousands of people lost their jobs. That’s people with mortgages, rent, children, responsibilities, and in a literal night and day shift they go from having money to pay for all these things to not.

That movement from having a job to having none was brutal and life changing and terrifying. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like. There’s a gut…

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Online Resources For Isolation

Free online resources to keep your kids amused if in isolation.

Here we have it. My free ‘what the heck do I do with my kids while they are at home in isolation’ guide to online resources. Bookmark this; in all likelihood we are all going to need it.

Just to mention; don’t unleash your kids at all of this in the first day or even days. There is loads for them to work their way through. If you let them do everything all at once they will become overwhelmed…

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Preparing for Isolation: Tips & A Shopping List

Preparing for Isolation: Tips & A Shopping List

I’ll be honest here. I’ve been betwixt and between about writing this shopping list. I don’t want anybody to think I’m jumping on a bandwagon because I’m not. It’s no secret that I maintain about a month’s worth of supplies in the house (okay it’s more). My supply levels are not a ‘prepper’ thing or even a ‘money saving’ thing. It’s simply that it was not too long ago that I didn’t have the…

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The Parenting Path Less Travelled

The Parenting Path Less Travelled

I’m more conscious about what I post online in the past few years. I’ve always included the boys in the conversation surrounding the blog. I have a blog and they understand that what I do is online. However, they are getting older and they are starting to make their own individual footprints in the online world so I’m trying to share what is going on without too much identifying information.

When…

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Plant Based Mayo

Plant Based Mayo Recipe

This blog used to be a space where I would spill my heart out and share the ups and downs of life, budgeting, parenting, and feeding my family on a budget. Now I carry around stories that are not my own to tell and while it feels odd not to share them here, I won’t be. I do find myself checking what I share online so as to respect the privacy of their owners. The reality of these stories are that…

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Strawberry Pizza Pancakes - Ad

Strawberry Pizza Pancakes – Ad

It’s a battle sometimes to get the kids to eat enough portions of fruit and vegetables in a day. I find myself having to resort to using every single Mam-trick in the book to convince them to add an extra portion into the day. 

They do however love strawberries and the beauty of this recipe is that the pancakes ‘look’ like a pizza but don’t have a savoury flavour at all.

This post has been…