Cooking

MMMMMMMM......food.

One thing about winter is it always makes me want to bake and eat, lol. Little wonder the weight I so desperately want to shift is hanging around, hehe.

During the last week the kids and I have tried a couple of new, and some old trusty, things in the kitchen...the results have been pretty good if I do say so myself.



We tried making bread for the first time, using a bread mix that I bought on special from coles about 5mths ago. We don't have a stand mixer or a bread maker so it was kneaded by us, left to rise, quickly kneaded again, smeared with some crushed garlic and then chucked in the oven. We had it with dinner last night, spiral pasta with a tomato and basil sauce, yum.



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We pulled out the trusty VVB recipe and made some choc chip biscuits.



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Late last week we needed dinner and the cupboards were bare, freezer was almost empty,the garden is only producing a few tomatoes, basil, sugar snap peas and lettuce and none of our usual meals were appealing.

So after riffling through the garden, freezer and cupboard I came up with:

500g pork mince
3 or 4 green shallots
a garlic clove
a bunch of shredded cabbage
2 or 3 grated carrots
Lettuce leaves



I browned the pork mince, added the garlic and shallots, cooked a bit longer, added the carrot and cabbage and cooked till they were softening.

Served in lettuce cups or leaves.....we are growing a more flat leafed lettuce so we wrapped ours around to eat.

Yum. The kids really enjoy it and I really liked that there was no added sauces or salts.

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I was mucking about on Wednesday....

2 cups of flour with 30g of butter mixed through with fingers, 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of water......mixed.....rolled and twisted.

I chucked them in oven and hoped for the best.



Tasted like scones, hot from the oven with butter.

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Picklets never last long in this house.



I use a recipe from a family circle baby food book, they puff up nicely and are super yummy.

XOXO Hayley.

TMI Warning: Period

This time (June) 2 years ago I had my last period, 2 weeks later Ari was conceived....and the rest, as they say, is history.

Two years is a long time to go without, I am very grateful that Ari and I have a fabulous breastfeeding relationship that has helped keep my hormone levels up and my period away.

I woke up this morning and quickly realised that my dream run was over *sigh*.......not to sure how I feel about being "fertile" again, especially considering we do not, under any circumstances, plan to get pregnant again. Plus add to that I feel drained and my back is aching and I have 4 kids to look after....*big sigh*..

The one positive to come out of the return is that I got to use my Lunette Menstral Cup for the first time, and it went really well. I found it much easier to use then I imagined and although I felt a little uncoordinated I know that will get better with practice. I didn't even have to trim anything.

So anyway, now you probably know more about me than you wanted.

XOXO hayley

Fabric Buckets

I made these this week, actually last weekend...super easy to make.

I have put the larger one to use storing some fabric but the smaller one (which is made according to the pattern) is so small I am not sure what I will use it for.

Tutorial is here.

http://vlijtig.blogspot.com/2008/11/here-it-is.html