Drawings, plans and stir fry...M&S product test

I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog before but we're thinking about having an extension, well to be accurate we've been thinking about it for a long time, since at least when Lauren was born, maybe before. First we were thinking about having a loft conversion, which would involve the raising of the rafters and extending to the back, but a visit from an architect a year or so ago soon squashed our enthusiasm, with tales of enormous costs and potential pitfalls.
We put it on the back burner and it would come up in conversation every now and again, until finally about 6 weeks ago, we finally decided that we had to at least go to planning stage and see what was possible.
A couple of months ago we had got the big computer out and done some blue sky drawings of what we would like our extended bungalow to look like, we knew what we wanted but could we think of ways to fit it all in. After a couple of non starters and at least one drawing where we thought we had the perfect design and then realised we'd not got a way in to our bedroom, we ended up with something workable.
About four weeks ago I finally got round to e-mailing a man who advertised in the local church magazine that he did drawings for private projects, for the purposes for the blog, we will call him "The Architect". He didn't waste any time in coming to see us and even though he was going on holiday, within a few days he had some outline drawing through our door, he'd measured the house and been down to the planning office to get some opinion. We were impressed but slightly scared, after dallying around for years things were suddenly going top speed.
Wednesday "The Architect" returned to get our thoughts and adjustments and give some advice and he has now gone off to do "The Plan".
The meeting meant that tea was very delayed, so I needed something quick and easy to whip up once he had finished.

I decided on a stir fry and instead of making one up, I bought the components from Marks and Spencer.
Fresh noodles, some boneless skinless chicken thighs, a couple of packs of stir fry vegetables and a Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Sauce.

I started off by stir frying the chicken in some ketjap manis, it's a sticky Indonesian soy sauce. Then I stir fried the vegetables in some oil, adding some soy sauce and chinese five spice.We like a bit of spice but Lauren doesn't so I dished hers up before adding the sweet chilli sauce.
We all cleaned our plates, but I think it would have to be an awful stir fry for us not to. We love them!
The M&S packs of vegetables

Sticky chicken

are lovely, so often you end up with a bag of soggy beansprouts and bitter carrots with bits of browning veg and packed out with huge chunks of onion from the supermarkets, but these were tip top, extremely fresh, with a nice variety spring onions. red cabbage, pak choi, chives with flowers, chillies, baby sweetcorn, brocolli, carrot curls, baby courgette and mange tout amongst other things and all stood up well to cooking.
The M&S fresh noodles are really nice too, not too thin and not too thick, by far my favourite fresh ones and  they hold the sauce well.
All in all, if you need a quick fix, you can't go wrong with an M&S stir fry and they quite often do bundle offers, or 2 for one on the vegetables and noodles.

And as for the plans, I will keep you posted. I'm sure if things go ahead, you will hear a lot more, but one thing is for sure, the bungalow will always be a bungalow!