Weekly Meal Plan

You may have noticed that I like to cook.
My latest goal has been to try out new recipes, hoping to add some to the pile of family favourites.

I thought I'd share our weekly meal plan for this week with you.
This week I am trying to empty out some of the food we have in our freezer.
Since we moved we couldn't bring our lovely big freezer with us so we are back to the tiny one with our fridge.
This can create problems since I like to buy meat when it is marked down and freeze it and my dear husband likes to buy tubs of ice cream :)
So this week our meals look like this:


SUNDAY: Vegetarian Boscaiola (Use meat free "bacon")

MONDAY: Savoury "Mince" (Using my vegetarian nut meat, very healthy stuff) with rice.

TUESDAY:Honey, Sesame & Garlic Chicken Drumsticks (marked down to $2.60 for 6) With Rice and Veges.

WEDNESDAY:Burgers With The Lot (Baking fresh bread rolls for these)

THURSDAY: Fish Fillets With Roast Veges

FRIDAY: Chicken/Vege Laksa

SATURDAY: Salmon Steaks With Rice and Steamed Veges

Of course I also like to do a little snack food cooking with Eve, it helps keep her busy, gives her something new to try and keeps the hubby happy too!
Last week I made these:



The recipe is for a slice but I wanted single serves to avoid the massive pieces my hubby dishes up.
The recipe is HERE and if you are confused at what wheat breakfast biscuits are they are an Australian cereal but you can substitute corn flakes in instead and it is still super yummy.

Not everything is sweet though, I also made this to use up some ham:
Zucchini, Carrot and Ham Slice.
I added some cheese to give it a little more flavour.

I also like to make breakfast a little more tasty than just toast or cereal so this week I'll be making these Pear, Banana & Cinnamon Pikelets.
Though I do alter the recipe a little by using regular flour and adding an egg or two to help the batter hold and cook better.

Do you have any favourite recipes you'd like to share?
I'm looking for cheap and easy ones!
:)

Yum Cha, Fountains, Sharks and Chocolate...

Yesterday we had an amazing day.
Two of our good friends from our old area came down to Sydney for the weekend and we were lucky enough to squeeze in a day full of fun with them.
I only wish I had taken our camera so better than phone snaps could have been taken.
Silly baby brain makes me forget things!
We started off by having a gigantic delicious lunch at the Marigold Yum Cha, followed by a quick shop across the road where we discovered a dollar store with too many goodies! I couldnt risk this really cute wall sticker set for only $3.



After a bit of retail therapy (and a messy nappy changing experience in the pram involving wee everywhere!) we slowly walked down to Sydney Harbour. It was a warm day and as we approached the water fountains we saw parents with children swimming, splashing and taking advantage of the cool water.
So we decided to do the same.
We dipped our feet in.
Then jumped right in, clothed and all.
The water was just about knee depth and the sweet coolness was so refreshing.
We stepped under the water jets and splashed around.
Eve came in with us though was a little scared at going in the water and preferred to sit on the edge and dangle her feet in.


(Just a little bit sunburnt by this stage!)

We finally dragged ourselves out of the water and headed off to the next stop....
The Maritime Museum.
Our friends had found out there was a free shark exhibit and well, we all like free things so we dove on in.
It was fascinating, so many teeth and terrifying facts and stories of attacks.
Us girls were more visual, don't read, lets walk and talk and explore while the boys slowly walked behind, reading every plaque.



The most surprising thing was that Eve managed the whole time in the pram and only fussed towards the end. We checked the time and somehow it was 4:35pm already! Time really does fly when you are having fun.
We decided to quickly head on over to our final destination....
The Lindt Chocolate Cafe.
Mmmmmm YUMMY!
I should have taken a photo of the food while it lasted.... But that wasn't long.
I ordered profiteroles and the hubby had an iced mocha.
The profiteroles were chocolate custard heaven. The small serving was not enough.
I explored inside the shop where they have so many more flavours than I have ever seen before. I went a little crazy and bought myself one cookies and cream ball.... For $1.25!
I can't say if it was good or not as it still sits in the fridge waiting......
Then it came time to say goodbye, find our car and drag our very tired selves home.
Waiting for the next adventure.....
:)

So many changes, in so little time.

So here I am again, after another big break from blogging....
So much has happened!
We moved down to Sydney into a little 2 bedroom unit my in laws own. Cheap rent but not quite the house we were hoping for.
We will get there though!

Of course I have already made a few crafty alterations to the place..... Hanging giant paintings done by my daughter down the plain white hallway and giving the balcony a touch of bamboo screening and pretty plants. Am eagerly awaiting our next trip to my parents place to pick up our final load of stuff (including the all important baby stuff!) and my polystyrene boxes full of veggies. I definitely miss having my own veggies to pick at whim!



While the hubby is at work the day can go slow and trying to entertain Eve can get rather difficult..... It is much too hard for me to take her out by myself as we live on the top floor (two flights of stairs with a pram!!) and since my baby belly is rapidly expanding I am much more limited by what I can do.

The not so little bump is growing so fast, and the urge to get everything set up is nagging at me. We have kept the sex of the baby a surprise and names we have chosen a secret. This does make it a little bit more difficult not knowing if we can keep all the girly baby clothes we already have or if we need to buy more!

Since we moved into such a small place, I had to be brutal and not bring any of my crafty stuff with me :( Very sad and hard to do but we just don't have the space for it here and I doubt I will even have the time with a little baby on the way and an already demanding toddler. I am ever so grateful that my mother has taken a heap of fabric off my hands and is letting me store some things there. It has taken me years and years to build up this stash, not easy to let it all go.
But I do let my creativity out with my cooking. Our kitchen is probably the best we have had for years and years so I have been giving it a big workout! It isn't huge but with the numerous cupboards and massive pantry we manage with everything.
I guess my favorite has been baking and doing the meal planning. Meal planning is such a great help with food shopping and cutting down on waste I don't think I could ever not do it. Of course I do allow room in the weekly shop for some baking to be done, lately I have been trying new recipes with some very yummy results. I will definitely be sharing recipes with you and even post the utter disasters if they happen (I hope not!). The latest yummy new recipes I have tried have been:

Low fat blueberry muffins (a recipe from an app I have on my new iPad that looked a little different to the traditional.....tastes great too!)



Polka dot cookies (very yummy but very crumbly and messy)



Key lime pie (So rich but so good. Will be making it again!)



Parmesan and parsley crusted fish fillets (I have never cooked much with fresh fish but wanted to try it out. Big hit with everyone! Will be doing this again!)

I have also decided that we need to finally do a budget and stick to it and organize ourselves a lot better. Since the hubby's has bills come out of his account he has been a little less than organized when it comes to when things come out and how much it will be. Let's just say we have had bills come out while we have been food shopping and had our cards declined at the register.... Not very nice at all!
So I have drawn up a budget of what comes in and what comes out and we were both shocked at how much we are left with. WHERE DOES IT ALL GO!?
I have printed up monthly calendars for on the fridge and put when things will be coming out and how much, so we are a little more prepared.
Am hoping these changes will help us in that never ending struggle to pay off debt :)

Anyway so my blog will probably be a bit less crafting, a bit more cooking and budgeting and a bit of anything else in-between.
:)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Just A Little Update

Hello!
I am here, back again!
So much has happened these last few months, all starting with a very sudden and rushed moving of house.
A very long and terribly boring story of why we moved....
I won't bore you, I'll keep it short.
My poor husband was working hard and getting paid a very low wage. Not enough to cover our bills, so we gradually slipped further backwards.
Not good at all. (Especially with another little one on the way!)
So we decided drastic actions must be taken.
He made numerous phone calls, and I made one.
He got a better job, with much higher pay. It was in Sydney (a mere 5hr drive away).
So we decided on the tough decision on him staying with his parents in Sydney and Eve & I staying with my parents in a small country town 8hrs drive away.
Not an easy decision, but we knew we had to do it.
There was no way Eve & I could fit in his parents house and my parents happen to have a lovely little converted honey shed where we have been living.
So we went for the cheapest living arrangemennts possible and made a vow to really throw everything at our debt.
So far we have done quite well, it hasn't been easy though.
The distance is too far, but it makes his visits even more special.

One of the many advantages of staying with my parents (apart from their lovely company) is that Eve absolutely LOVES it here.
She chases chickens, but the ducks get the most attention. They can waddle pretty fast when they need to!
She "Mooooo"s at the cows and calls them by name now.
She "BAAAAAAA"s at the sheep.
She loves all the birds and tries to mimmick their tweeting.
But I think most of all she loves having her grandma so close.
She loves to go down to the house every morning to steal some breakfast.
She loves helping grandma getting the bucket ready for milking time, and even keeps grandma in line by reminding her that it's milking time NOW!
She helps in the vege garden while we plant and weed, she digs with her spoon, chases our dog or picks flowers for us.
She has grown so much and her vocabulary is expanding almost daily! Of course she is very fluent in her own little yabbering language and not afraid to chew your ear off!

The not so little baby bump is going well, a little wriggler who is already being picked on by his (not sure if its a boy but we all think so) big sister. I am so blessed to have such an easy pregnancy so far, the only difficult thing is being so exhausted but having to run around after a toddler and keep her entertained too!

The next steps seem very uncertain right now, all I know is that I promised my husband we would live in Sydney for one year but before we can even think of doing that we need to find somewhere to live down there! Most importantly somewhere we can afford! Renting is not cheap down there, the frugal lifestyle will be back in full force! First step: VEGE GARDEN!!

Here are just a few photos of our journey so far......



A new found love for Babar...



Enjoying her grandma cuddles...



The "BAAA"s



The lovely surrounds...



Modelling the pants I made for her from an old shirt..



They started so small...







And these were taken a week or two ago, already much bigger now!







Here's the new little edition to the family....



He'll probably be just as helpful as his sister in cleaning up....



When there's a sweet reward!!

Plenty more photos to come soon!
:)