The Wee Kind Kitchen

07/10/2026

🎄💚 A wee exciting one from me! 💚🎄

As some of you might remember (or may have completely scrolled past 😂), alongside The Wee Kind Kitchen I’m also a trustee with CHUMS - Clacks supporting local families and children with additional support needs.

And on Wednesday 18th November, we’re having our FREE CHUMS Christmas event right here in Alva! 🥰

The Wee Kind Kitchen will be there too, running a little decorate-your-own Christmas cookie station 🍪🎄 — because obviously if I’m involved, food was going to sneak in somewhere! 😂

It’s been planned with ASN children and families in mind — relaxed, inclusive, accessible and no diagnosis needed. 💛

Everything you need to know is on the poster below 👇

I’d absolutely love to see some familiar Wee Kind Kitchen faces there. And even if it’s not something your own family needs, a wee share could help it reach a family who does. ❤️

Christmas, community, kindness and cookies. Sounds pretty Wee Kind Kitchen to me. 🥰🎄🍪

🎄💛 CHUMS CHRISTMAS EVENT – ALL FAMILIES WELCOME! 💛🎄

Christmas can be magical… but we also know that for children with additional support needs and their families, festive events aren't always easy or accessible.

So we're doing things a little differently. ❤️

Join us for a FREE, relaxed and inclusive Christmas event, created with ASN children and families in mind.

NO BOOKING REQUIRED

📅 Wednesday 18th November
⏰ 4pm – 6pm
📍 Cochrane Hall, Alva
🎟️ Completely FREE

There’ll be plenty to enjoy, including:

🎅 Meet Santa
🍪 Decorate your own Christmas cookie with The Wee Kind Kitchen
❄️ Step inside our Christmas snowglobe for a festive photo
🧝 Visit our Elf Help Station for useful tips, tricks and support
💛 Meet the CHUMS team, have a chat and find out about support and signposting available to families

Most importantly, you don't need a diagnosis to belong here.

Whether your child is diagnosed, awaiting assessment, has additional support needs without a diagnosis, or you're simply a parent or carer looking for a little understanding and support — you are welcome.

Our event will have ASN provision and accessibility in mind, with absolutely no expectation for children to behave, communicate or experience Christmas in any particular way. Come along, stay for as much or as little as works for your family, and enjoy it in the way that works for you. 💛

No judgement. No pressure. Just Christmas, community and a place where families are understood. 🎄

Because no one should be on this journey alone.

📧 [email protected]

💚 Please share! You never know which local family might need to see this today.

07/10/2026

✨ PIMP YOUR READY MEAL ✨

Because sometimes dinner is made from scratch…
And sometimes dinner needs to be ready in minutes. 😂🙌

Tonight's starting point was a creamy chicken & bacon pasta ready meal, but a wee rummage around the kitchen turned it into something a bit more exciting.

😍
I added:

🌽 Freshly cut corn — because bizarrely it was actually cheaper than buying a tin!
🌿 A good handful of spinach
🥛 A splash of oat milk to loosen up the sauce
🌱 Fresh parsley
🧄 Garlic granules
🖤 Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
🧀 And a wee grating of parmesan over the top

Served with some cheesy garlic bread because obviously...

And that's dinner.

No making a sauce. No massive pile of dishes. No pretending I had the energy to cook properly tonight.

Just taking something quick and convenient, throwing in a few bits I already had and making it feel a little more like dinner. ❤️

Ready meals aren't cheating.

Frozen food isn't cheating.

Shortcuts aren't cheating.

Fed is fed — and good food doesn't have to mean cooking everything from scratch. 💚

What would you chuck into a ready meal to pimp it up?

👀

01/10/2026

Looking forward to another Friday morning with our CHUMS - Clacks

Cakes on the cooling tray, must mean only one thing. It's nearly friday. See you in the morning. New faces always welcome 🥰

01/10/2026

🥚 EGGS IN A CUP & BUTTERED TOAST 🥚

Sometimes dinner doesn't need to be fancy.

Tonight I wanted comfort. Proper, old-school, reminds-you-of-being-wee comfort. ❤️

So... eggs in a cup.

Soft, jammy boiled eggs chopped up with a good k**b of butter, salt and plenty of black pepper, with hot buttery toast for dipping/scooping/mopping up every last bit. And because apparently I'm fully embracing comfort tonight, a big mug of decaf tea with two sugars. 😂☕

Cheap. Simple. Filling. Absolutely nothing fancy about it.

But honestly? 10/10. No notes.

And a wee tip because, despite once being a chef, I can NEVER get my boiled eggs exactly how I want them 🤦‍♀️😂 — tonight I finally nailed them!

🥚 Room-temperature eggs
⏱️ Into already boiling water for 6½ minutes
🚿 Quick 10-second cool under the tap
☕ Straight into a pre-warmed cup
🧈 Butter, salt & pepper, then roughly chop them up

Perfect soft, jammy yolks without them being completely runny — and warming the cup means your eggs don't go freezing cold while you're faffing about with the toast!

Sometimes The Wee Kind Kitchen isn't about creating a recipe at all.

Sometimes it's just about remembering that a warm, comforting dinner doesn't have to cost much, take an hour, contain twelve ingredients or look Instagram-perfect.

Sometimes eggs, toast and a sugary cuppa are exactly what you need. 🥰❤️

What was YOUR proper old-school comfort dinner growing up? 👇

28/09/2026

I for one am very proud to be part of this community 🙏

24/09/2026

🎉 THE WEE KIND KITCHEN IS GROWING!

We're already over 500 of us... so let's see if we can get 1,000 wee kind foodies round the table! 🥰

💚 THE WEE KIND KITCHEN COMMUNITY CHALLENGE 💚

With World Food Day on 16th October and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17th October, I thought it would be the perfect time to do something a wee bit different...

I want to see what YOU can make from what you've already got. 🥔🥕🍝

It could be:

🧊 A proper fridge raid
🛒 A reduced-bargain dinner
🥫 A cupboard meal
♻️ Something made from leftovers
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 A meal that feeds the family without costing a fortune
❤️ Or simply a dinner that got you through a really rubbish day.

No fancy ingredients.

No perfect plates.

No judgement.

Just real people making real food with what they've got. ❤️

And here's where we grow our wee community...

To take part:

👉 Follow The Wee Kind Kitchen
👉 Like this post
👉 Share this post so someone else can join in
👉 Post a photo of your wee creation in the comments OR tag The Wee Kind Kitchen in your own post/story.

And because I don't want this to turn into a competition about who has the fanciest dinner...

Everyone who takes part will go into a random draw. 🎉

I'll pick one person to win a little Wee Kind Kitchen treat — something useful, local & food-related. 🥰

But honestly, the prize isn't really the point.

I want to see your dinners. Your ideas. Your shortcuts. Your wee bargains. Your "I've got absolutely nothing in the house" creations. 😂

Because good food doesn't have to cost a fortune, and nobody should feel like they're doing it wrong because dinner came out of the freezer or was made from three random things lurking in the cupboard.

Let's make this a big wee community table. 🥰🍽️

And please tag your pals, your mum, your neighbour, the person who always knows how to make a dinner out of absolutely nothing... 😂

Let's see how many people we can get round the table. 💚

22/09/2026

🍲☁️ Cloud Dumpling Chicken Soup

This is one of those dinners that has become a proper family staple in our house.

It's cheap, quick, comforting and made with ingredients I can generally grab from the cupboard without having to think too hard about it.

I've been making this chicken noodle soup for ages — but I've finally perfected the dumplings.

And when I say light as clouds, I mean LIGHT. ☁️

Soft, fluffy, still beautifully moist inside and packed with savoury, herby flavour.

This is proper cosy food without needing to spend hours making homemade chicken stock. Don't get me wrong, if I've got the time I'll happily make one from scratch, but on a normal midweek night? Absolutely not. 😂

🛒 You'll need

For the soup:

• 1 packet Knorr Super Chicken Noodle Soup
• Water according to packet instructions
• ½ chicken stock cube, extra
• 1 small tin sweetcorn, drained
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• Extra black pepper, to taste

Optional: leftover shredded chicken or any vegetables you have to hand

For the cloud dumplings ☁️

• 100g self-raising flour
• ¼ tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
• ¼ tsp garlic granules
• ¼ chicken stock cube, crumbled
• 8g ground flaxseed
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• 1 egg
• 30g butter, melted
• 1 good handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

👩‍🍳 Method:

1. Make the dumplings

Mix together the self-raising flour, salt (if using), garlic granules, crumbled chicken stock cube, flaxseed and white pepper.

Add the egg and melted butter.

Mix with a fork until you have a sticky but manageable dough.

Pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

2. Make the soup

Prepare the chicken noodle soup according to the packet instructions.

Add the extra ½ chicken stock cube, sweetcorn, chopped spring onions and a little extra black pepper to taste.

This is also a great opportunity to use up whatever you've got lurking in the fridge — extra vegetables, cooked chicken or leftover shredded chicken from a Sunday roast all work beautifully.

Bring to a gentle simmer.

3. Make your clouds ☁️

Using slightly damp hands, divide the chilled dough into 8 roughly golf-ball-sized dumplings.

Gently shape them into balls — don't overwork the dough.

4. Carefully drop the dumplings into the gently simmering soup.

The dumplings will roughly double in size as they cook.

You're looking for them to float to the surface.

The best test? Carefully lift one with a spoon — it should feel almost ridiculously light. You should barely feel any weight when you pick one up.

That's when you know your little clouds are ready. ☁️

5. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with some extra finely chopped spring onion whites.

Then tuck in. ❤️

🌱 Make it vegetarian

This recipe is really easy to adapt.
Simply swap the chicken stock cubes for vegetable stock cubes and use a vegetarian-friendly soup base.

Then add whatever vegetables you have available.

💚 Wee Kind Kitchen tip

This is exactly the sort of food I love making at home.

It's not fancy.

It's not expensive.

And it doesn't require everything to be made completely from scratch to be good food.

Could I make a proper homemade chicken stock? Of course I could.

Do I have time for that on a busy midweek night?

Absolutely not. 😂

A packet of soup, a few simple additions and homemade dumplings turn into a proper comforting family dinner.

And those dumplings?

Chefs kiss 😘

Because good food doesn't have to cost a fortune. 💚

Serves 2 generously or 3 smaller portions.

This one is for my dear friend Padma Rekhaa Lalieath Kumar 🫂💞

20/09/2026

☕️ SUNDAY MORNING VIBES ☕️

A nice quiet cuppa this morning, listening to my littles happily playing away in the background. ❤️

There’s something about a slow Sunday morning before the chaos of the week starts again.

Now the important question…

🍽️ WHAT’S EVERYONE HAVING FOR SUNDAY DINNER?!

Are you a traditional roast kind of family? 👀
Something quick and easy?
A proper comfort-food feast?
Or are you staring into the fridge hoping it tells you what to make? 😂

Tell me what’s on the menu — I need some Sunday dinner inspiration! 👇❤️

18/09/2026

😂 OKAAAAAAY… I KNOW IT’S A STRANGE DINNER FOR THIS WEATHER.

It’s absolutely bucketing down outside — classic Scottish September — and what have I made?

SALAD. 🥗😂

But honestly… I regret absolutely nothing because this is HITTING THE SPOT. 👌

Just a proper fridge raid of things I actually like:

🥬 Gem lettuce
🫑 Yellow pepper
🌱 Spinach
🥒 Cucumber
🌸 Radish
🧅 Onion
🍅 Tomatoes gifted from my neighbour’s garden
🌰 Tamari-roasted seeds for a wee bit of crunch
🍤 A reduced-label prawn cocktail from the Co-op

Then just a ridiculously simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, c***r vinegar and coarse salt.

And because apparently salad wasn't random enough…

🫒 Olive breadsticks — because that's what I had in the cupboard and that's what I fancied!

No complicated recipe.
No big shop.
No perfectly planned meal.

Just use what you've got, chuck it in a bowl and make something you actually fancy eating. ❤️

And you know what?

It is absolutely bloody delicious. 😂🥗

18/09/2026

💚 A wee shoutout to CHUMS – Clacks 💚

Unfortunately I won't be there this morning as both of my littles are feeling poorly, so we're having a quiet one at home. 🤒❤️

But if you've been thinking about going along to the CHUMS group, please do!

I can genuinely recommend these lovely ladies.

They offer such a welcoming, non-judgemental space, whether you need a bit of support, a lot of support, or simply fancy a wee blether with people who get it. 🫶

You don't have to know anyone, you don't have to have everything figured out and you don't have to explain yourself.

Sometimes just getting yourself through the door is the hardest bit — and they're there to help with that too. ❤️

So if you've been wondering whether it's for you… go and say hello. You might be really glad you did. 😊

And hopefully I'll see you all next week! 💚

Another week has flown by. Sorry we've been a little quiet. We are working on some very exciting things, and will share very very soon.

As usual we will be in the library tomorrow 9.15 - 11.15. Please come along and say hi. Whether it's a little bit of support or a lot. Or just for a blether we are here every week. Again if anyone is a wee bit nervous, one of us will be outside for the first 10 minutes, or in reception area if it's bucketing down!

Random pic for post power