Meal planning

Oh the joys of shopping and cooking (read catering) for the large family and all that entails (mostly madness and chaos but also a little anal retentive organisation). We have come again to "Shopping Day" my busiest day of the week yet also my most cathartic. See I am an organiser, a list maker, a planner and so with "Shopping Day" comes the sheer unadulterated bliss of meal planning and shopping list construction. Being the organisational fury that I am (read micro-manager that must know exactly what is for dinner upon waking every morning) I do not simply plan for one week, I plan for ten days. Creating my "Meal Plan" is not as simple as it sounds, no basic list of ten possible meal ideas here...it is a carefully planned and orchestrated balance between nutrition, tastiness and the ability to be cooked with either help from a child or entirely by a child. Here enters the "Chore Roster" and the near ecstasy that envelopes me when I combine the "Meal Plan" with the "Chore Roster" to create the perfect balance of 'yumability' (a combination of tastiness and child ability...of course).

I thought that today I would share my near orgasmic organisation with you all so that my joy will spread and hopefully at least one person will put their hand up and admit to being (insane) a micro-managing Mum!

• Tues
 - Chicken Soup - Bella

• Wed
 - Pasta & Pesto - Tahlia

• Thurs
 - Fish & Citrus Salad - Nick

• Fri
 - Nachos - Sam

• Sat
 - Thai Beef Salad - Tahlia

• Sun
 - Dim Sum - Sam

• Mon
 - Chicken Salad - Nick

• Tues
 - Stir fry & Rice - Bella

• Wed
 -  Cous Cous Salad - Tahlia

• Thurs
 - Spaghetti Bolognaise - Nick

Now I get to do my shopping list! *cackles maniacally*

Vegie Rolls

Like sausage rolls only with vegies instead...of course!

Ingredients:
4 sheets frozen puff pastry*
Mixed frozen veg (peas, corn, beans etc)
2 large carrots, diced
1 cup cheese, grated
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

*Thaw frozen pastry on wire cooling racks with plastic still on bottom.

Cook frozen veg and carrots in a saucepan, drain and in a medium bowl mix with cheese, egg, salt and pepper. ~*Lay one sheet of pastry onto a large cutting board and cut in half length ways. Spoon mix in "sausage" shape along one edge of cut pastry. Roll pastry until resembles a sausage roll. Close ends by pressing with a fork and score top of roll. ~* Repeat until all mix/pastry used. Bake on a large cookie tray at 180c until golden brown.

My Rice Slice

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice (any variety will work - I have used brown rice, basmiati etc)

2 rashers bacon finely diced

2 spring onions finely diced

1 large carrot frinely grated

1 cup cheese grated

1 zucchini finely grated

1 red capsicum finely diced

3 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well and press into sprayed/greased slice dish (I use a shallow baking dish) and bake at 180c for approx. an hour. Allow to cool and cut into portions. Keep best frozen - or eat straight away! :-)

Catching up

Well it seems that life in general has been taking over far too much, leaving me no time for blogging (where is the justice), so this is me making an effort to catch up and actually update this poor neglected blog.

I guess the main reason why I find no time for myself let alone trivial stress outlets like this blog would be the delightful fruits of my loin that are currently fighting up a storm as I type. You wonder why I am not abandoning my 2 seconds of time out to stop them? Well before you call DOCS, let me tell you that this is the eleventy billionth time this particular fight has occurred over the last week* of school holidays. Hence my lack of kickassedness mediation. That and the fact that I simply can't be fecked any more. Bring on the return of school and some sort of semblance of normality I say.

I am sure my darling husband is also pining for a return to the norm with work and the gym to take up most of his time out of the house and of course coming home to a cooked meal and a wife and children who bless him with love and adoration upon his arrival. Being a cleaner at the school he also gets to "enjoy" school holidays and all the blessed fun that comes with having all five children home 24/7 with no outlet from each other (or the dreaded parental units) or outlet for their excessive holiday excitement enhanced energy. Needless to say being around children does go hand in hand with working at a school but he does have the joy of simply walking away and being "busy" at moments when he would be needed to step in if he was at home.

Over the holidays we have done an incredible amount of baking which usually mean lots of creative thinking from me...when I am sick of going to the shops fifty times in one day (blasted memory or lack thereof, one day I will use a shopping list) I become rather adept at making do with the ingredients readily available in my pantry and therefore seem to come up with some great recipes (which I do try very hard to remember, one day I will write a recipe down as I create).

I have posted a few of these recipes to my facebook page but over the next few days (probably more like weeks) I will be attempting to get them all on here. Pics will have to come as recipes are cooked later as food simply does not last in the house! The first recipe to be put will be my Rice Slice and will even have pics (although they will be pics of it sliced, wrapped and frozen) as it was cooked today and is yet to be decimated.

Alright I guess my down time is coming to a close so I shall bid you adieu for now and return anon.

Bernadette.




*Why not the whole two weeks of holidays?...GASTRO that's why! Miss A brought the joyfulness that is tummy bug home from Prep on the last night of term, two days of "moan, groan, pooooooooop, moan, groan, poooooooooop" repeate as necessary followed. Of course two days was how long each of us suffered for, that's right it went through the entire family.

Pretty things!

Well my lovely Mummy bought me a brand spanking new sewing machine for my (gulp) 30th birthday so I decided it was high time I made some pretty creations for my two littlest girls.

I started off with an incredibly easy skirt for Annabelle using this pattern. It actually took me longer to measure little miss than it did sew the skirt - I will definitely be making more from this fantastic pattern. You can't really see in the picture but I have used bias binding on the bottom hem that is just gorgeous - I have several different colour ranges of the same binding and love using it to add a little extra pretty.

Lazy Days Skirt

Next I did a cute little dress for Lacey using the same pink fabric as in Annabelles skirt and pretty purple and silver stars fabric I have had tucked away for something special. The pattern is from the same place here and although it was definitely more work than the skirt it was still super easy.

Popover Sundress

The last creation of the day was another pretty little dress for Lacey taken from here. This one was just as easy as the Popover Sundress and although I didn't actually have a bordered piece big enough I think using the two different fabrics is still quite cute and the colours seem to go well together. I added the buttons for a bit of extra decoration.

Border Fabric Sundress

I am not sure what will come next but Annabelle is adamant that she is next in line for a sundress and no doubt that is what I will end up doing.

I have been sorting through my quilting fabrics and have come up with a rough design for a quilt for my bed and can't wait to get started, although being a queen size it will probably take quite a while to complete.

Baking on a rainy day

I was going to make banana muffins but I had left the bananas a little too long so had to come up with something different. I went with a savoury muffin instead.

Capsicum muffins
Ingredients
1/2 medium red capsicum, diced
1 small onion, diced
Mixed herbs
2 cups self raising flour
Pinch of salt
Parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs
1/2-3/4 cup of milk
2 Tbs melted butter

Method
Fry onion, capsicum and mixed herbs in small fry pan and set aside. Sift four into medium bowl and gently stir through salt and cheese. Mix through egg, milk and butter. Add fried ingredients and mix well. Spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake @ 160 degrees (fan forced) for 20mins or until golden brown.

*As we are currently on a healthy eating streak I used olive oil spray to fry, nuttelex instead of butter and low fat milk.

Prawn, mango and avacado salad

This a favorite of ours, especially living in a coastal town and prawns are so fresh!

700gm cooked, peeled prawns

1 large mango

2 medium avocados, peeled and sliced

1 small red capsicum, thinly sliced

3 shallots, finely diced

2 large handfuls baby spinach

1 medium cos lettuce, sliced

Dressing:

3 Tbls olive oil

1 Tbls lemon or lime juice

1/2 Tbls sweet chili sauce

Pinch of pepper

I combine everything bar the prawns in a large salad bowl and gently toss. I then serve onto plates and place prawns on top and drizzle dressing over the salad.

*This pic was taken before the dressing was on and once it was, it was too yummy to stop and take another.