I just can't hide my excitment

Look at her, isn't she gorgeous....?? I think so, but I'm her mum!  However just this morning I got a call confirming that someone else thinks she is as gorgeous as I do.

I'm so busy this morning I don't have time for this post, but I was so excited I just had to come here and tell someone.

I entered boy Rats in a baby and child competition a few weeks ago, a photographer took about 10 photos of each child and I chose the best one to enter in the comp.  I knew, just knew the second I saw the picture of my Rat_girl that she would be a contender for a prize, it was up there with one of the best of her I've ever seen.  So this morning it was confirmed, she is a finalist, in what category, I don't know...so no idea what she is in the running to win, but who cares.

I won't be telling her, we are just going to the presentation tomorrow and it will be a huge surprise for her.

Stay tuned for updates...and hopefully I can get hold of a copy of the photo.

One Pot Italian Meatball Rice + Bonus Self Saucing Pudding!!!

One Pot Italian Meatball Rice

Bonus Microwave Caramel Self Saucing Pudding

This was to be sausage rather than meatball, concrete_man didn't 'feel' like sausage!

Meatballs

500g mince (i just used beef)

1 egg

breadcrumbs

1/2 cup 4 bean mix mashed

or

375g lean italian sausages

Sauce

1 large onion chopped (I like red)

garlic

some italian herbs

250g cherry tomatoes halved

1 medium red capsicum, chopped

400g can diced tomatoes

3/4 cup un cooked rice (or there abouts)

1/2 cup frozen peas

Cheese to serve

Heat deap fry pan, spray a little oil, roll meatballs and brown.

If using sausages snip one end from each sausage, squeeze meat into pan forming small meatballs (discard casing)

Add onion and galic, cook till onion softens

Add herbs, cherry tomatoes, capsicum

Pour in diced tomatoes, cover and bring to boil

Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 8mins until sauces starts to think and tomatoes start to collapse

Add rice and peas, stir trhough, cover and allow to simmer until rice is tender.

Sprinkle or crumble some cheese and serve.

Microwave Caramel Self Saucing Pudding (a last minute dessert decision)

1 cup self raising flour
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, melted, cooled
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup peacan nuts chopped
1 cup boiling water
Icecream to serve

Grease a 6cm deep, 6 cup-capacity heatproof, microwave safe dish
Combine flour and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl
Make a well in the centre and add butter, egg and milk, whisk to combine
Stir in pecans and spoon mixture into prepared dish, smooth top

Combine boiling water and sugar in a heatproof jug, stir still sugar disolves
Pour mixture over the back of a large metal spoon to evenly cover pudding batter.

Place dish in the microwave (if you put on top of an upturned dinner plate it cooks more evenly) and cook on medium (50%) for 9 - 10 mins...I did 10. Remove from microwave...do I need to say carefully. Stand for a minute and serve.

I even broke the diet tonight and had a small peice, small than half the size of this one.  It was very yummy, and not too sickly sweet!

Enjoy!

Jatz Chicken with Blood & Guts Potatoes

No quite as horrible as it sounds!!!

I channelled my inner Nigella for this dinner, so first I put on some nice lippy, let my hair hang down and put on a very sexy, chest hugging top...! Ok, I was actually wearing a pair of board shorts atleast a size too big that don't zip up, some daggy singlet (possibly a bra) and my hair well it could have been mistaken for a birds nest!

But basically I saw Nigella cook this on TV the other night and Rat_girl proclaimed "mum that looks yummy you should cook that, eeewww blood & guts potatoes YUM" HAHA.  There is no doubt an actual recipe with quantities somewhere online, but I'll just make up what I did.

Blood & Guts Potatoes (also known as twice baked potatoes)

This served 4 people (half potatoe each)

2 x large(ish) potaoes, with skin on, scrubbed

Cheese, (cubed) I used just a chunk

Tomato sauce

Pierce potatoes with a fork, randomly a few times and place in a hot oven, straight on the wire rack to bake for about 1.5hours.  They need to be tender (mine weren't quite tender enough, I'm impatient!)

Once cooked pull out to cool for a bit before you handle them

Then slice in half and scoop out the guts...!

Then use a fork to mash with cheese and tomato sauce.  Then spoon back into the skins.

A bit more sauce on top and they are ready for the oven.  They don't need too long, just enough to melt the cheese.

Jatz Chicken

This served 2 adults, a 4yo and a 10month old (plus there are leftovers in the freezer waiting to be cooked)

2 x chicken breasts, cut into strips or nugget size pieces

butter milk, I had a 600ml carton I would have used about half (next time I might use low fat natural yogurt)

box of jatz biscuits, crushed

Marinate the chicken in the buttermilk, the longer the better apparently, it makes the chicken very tender and juicy...this is what Nigella said :-)

Then coat in the crumbs and lay on a baking tray, if you wish to freeze any for future use, do so at this point.

Bake in the oven, moderate, mine took no more than 15mins and my oven is crappy.

and then voila

Menu Plan Monday 29/03/10

Menu Plan Monday

hosted by

I'm and Organising Junkie

Slowly trying to get back into it

Monday

One pot italian sausage rice

Tuesday

Jatz Chicken with blood & guts potatoes and salad

Wednesday

Beef, Potatoe and spinach curry

Thursday

Chicken with Waldrof Salad (possibly some home made bread)

Friday (Good Friday)

Fish with Roast Vegie salad (I'll just be having the salad)

Saturday

Free Dinner...whatever comes up

Sunday

Roast Lamb dinner - this may be swapped with Saturday yet if we have some family over for dinner on Saturday.

Cry for help

I've lost my menu planning mojo...WHY OH WHY OH WHY!!!

I sit every few nights with recipes and my laptop and previous weeks menus yet I sitll fin no inspiration.

I'm not sure why, perhaps it's because I'm trying to keep the food expense down a little therefore each time I look at a recipe all I can think about is $$$$. 

But I need help I want my mojo back I neeeeeeeed my mojo back?

Oh the other thing is I think I want to plan about a month at a time and do the majority of the shopping for the month in one go.  I'm keeping an eye out for a cheapish food saver machine to make keeping my meat easier and also to look at freezing my own vegies in portions etc to make things even easier.

Maybe this is why I'm stuggling with my mojo, there are so many things I want to do and start to try make things easier and more streamlined that I just don't know where to start.

I struggle with breaking things down into tasks and I look at things as a whole and freak out.

Anyway I'll keep plodding....

Kids Cooking Thursday - Banana & Blueberry Bread (well cake)

Kids Cooking Thursday

Banana and Blueberry bread

adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

265g (1 3/4 cups) self-raising flour ( I used wholemeal)

40g (1/4 cup) plain flour (wholemeal)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
140g (2/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) skim milk (I used oat milk, it was all I had!)
2 eggs, lightly whisked
50g butter, melted, cooled
2 overripe medium bananas, mashed ( we had 3)
Blueberries...couldn't even tell you how many I used just threw them in.
 

Sift the flours and cinnamon

lightly whisk the eggs

mash the bananas

mix together the bananas, eggs, milk and melted butter (eeeeeewwww says Rat_girl)

Add the sugar to the flour, make a well in the middle and mix in the wet ingredients

then throw in the bluberries and fold through

Bake for about 45mins, cool in tin for a little before turning out. 

I've never made banana bread before and I'm not cook at making cakes etc from scratch.  This was yummy!!! It was cut up and frozen and put into lunch boxes.

Kids + Toys = lots of batteries

Not to mention living in a cyclone prone area, I always have to make sure I have plenty of batteries and make sure they are easy to find.

So just for a quick post today, here is how I keep mine.

This is the bottom (junk) drawer of the office

It makes it easy to see when we're low on a certain size battery and easy to find.

Though I've heard a rumour, someone tell me if it's true, that you shouldn't let the positive and negative ends of batteries touch as they lose charge...anyone??

Kids Cooking Thursday - Hamburgers and Porcupine Balls

This week is all about freezing meals and being prepared.

We mixed up some mince and made hamburgers and porcupine balls to be stored in the freezer to be eaten down the track.

Porcupine Balls

Ingredient

Meatballs:
500gr mince
½ cup breadcrumbs
½ cup raw rice ( I only have brown rice)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 egg
1 tbsp dried mixed herbs (or fresh if you have them) – I use basil, oregano
1 tbsp tomato sauce

Sauce:
Worcestershire sauce
Salt & pepper
Large can tomato soup and ½ can water

Couldn't be easier, throw everything in together

Give it a good mix (squeeeeeeeeze) with your hands

And roll into balls. We've stored ours in the freezer until we're ready to eat.

I promise to add a finished product photo when I make them.

Hamburgers

I don't have a recipe for these, I use similar ingredients as above but I add some veiges chopped up finely and thrown in.

And same as before throw everything together and squeeeeeeeeze!!!

Ours are then pressed into my hamburger keeper

And stored in the freezer until we're ready

Again I promise finished product photos later on.

I thought this was a good exercise to do with Rat_girl...we done the same with some cookies and cookie dough.  I'll have that post coming up soon.

How many serves of vegies do you eat??

Vegetables are a very important part of our diet, full or fibre, nutrients and water and they are low in calories so you can eat more for less.

There are a couple things I do here to help make sure we eat enough vegies.

First thing I do is, peel (if needed) and cut them up as soon as I get them home that way they are ready to go and only a small amount of preparation is required at meal time.  I know a lot of people do this now and it's exteremly helpful.

I've taken it a step further now and I cut up my ham along with any other cold meats, rockmelon, watermelon and also my cheese.  I've stopped buying grated cheese after I actually looked at the price and realised it's dearer per kilo and when I found out they put extra things it it to stop it sticking together etc.  So I now buy a big 1kg block and grate a third of it and cut the rest into pieces for Rat_girls lunch and stacks.

This doesn't just make it easier at meal times for me, it means that Rat_girl can help herself.  She just goes to the fridge and gets some cut fruit or some carrot sticks or some cheese or ham or whatever.  Oh and also boiled eggs, I also boil 6 or so eggs every 2-3days and put them still in the shell in a container in the fridge and shell as I need them.

There are some tips to make your vegies last longer, don't wash them before you put them in the containers, water drips off and sits in the bottom, wash them as you use them.  Put the containers (this goes for anything) in the fridge with the lid off for a few minutes, let the cool air into the container.  And when you open the container if there is condensation on the lid dry it off with a tea towel.

The other thing I do is add as many hidden vegies into my cooking as possible.  Yes I still serve vegies on the side because kids need to still learn it's important to eat them.  But just incase I throw some more in.

Here is an example of a normal bolonese sauce in our house.

I use this to chop them up nice and small

then throw them in, there is all sorts in there broccoli, caulilower, zucchini, carrots, onion, mushroom, capsicum plus probably some other randoms that I found in the fridge

Then meat and sauce, I use passata or a similar home style brand, it's cheaper than pasta sauces and will last (if you freeze left over in portions) for 2 or 3 sauces.

And there you have a bolonese sauce filled with plenty of hidden vegies....mmmm