Homemade Play

I'm trying to do something intentional each day with Milla.

Last week I made play dough for the first time. What could have taken 10 minutes took me the whole. day. In between naps, hungry children and motherly demands I finally finished two batches of the soft stuff. I felt pretty proud (and exhausted. How will I ever have hobbies again!??) by the end of the day.

I used the post on homemade play dough from Modest Mom to guide me in my first attempt. The post came with free printable labels too and I used those to decorate my containers. I gave one batch away to a little Lion turning two at the weekend. The container and labels really helped make it a presentable gift!

I made two batches of the dough which gave me enough to make six smaller sized pieces. I saved the colouring for after it came off the stove because I wanted lots of smaller colours rather than one huge lot of the same.

I did destroy my skin with food colouring, next time I'll be more careful / just make one batch at the time and colour it while its in the pot!

Millas play dough tendancies are to keep the colours seperate and after I have rolled them all in balls to put them back in the container. Then out of the container. Then back in the container. And out of the container. She is so neat and so interesting to watch.

We'll be playing with this more, I think its good for her to figure out how to play with something "messy" in her own way.

So, I managed to make something! With a newborn! Huzzah!



READ MORE:
More creations on Sophie Slim
Joining in with Show n Tell
Play dough receipe

2012 Goal Review

My 2012 year consisted over the months January - October. Anything after the last half of October I consider a write off. Life sucked into a vortex never to be seen again.

January marked the beginning of a few new goals, and a few more were made along the way.

Namely, being more efficient with my time. This mostly included less procrastination and more doing. Less internet time, more productivity.

I'm pleased to say that I feel fairly successful in this area. I spent a week without Facebook which ended up being my most productive week of the year.

I also learnt to plan my blogging around my time, only blogging when Milla was asleep and mostly in one big go (on a Sunday night) for the week and scheduling my posts, along with keeping a blog book (that I lost and found!).

Just recently I have turned on word verification for my blog comments because the spam was getting ridiculous (I woke up to 40 spam comments and said enough was enough!) which has cut down the time I spend in my emails.

Also, I learnt to turn the day time TV off, something I used as company and comfort. I quickly learnt to play more music and spend more time focussed on Milla.

Becoming more creative in the kitchen was a big fail. I aimed to make one new recipe a week and did this for about four weeks, then for a number of reasons lost motivation and interest and didn't pick it back up again. The meals I did make were delicious and I have continued to make them throughout the year.

This is something I would like to continue to work on, and feel that I am, but didn't stick to my goal.

I did however become much more skilled at meal planning and shopping on a budget and kept our family fed, toiletried and nappied for only $90 a week.

In february I also made a goal that I wanted to make $1 from blogging in 2012. I had a huge desire to know that I could make money from something I loved, which at the time made sense to be blogging. I am happy to tell you that I well and truly completed this goal, and felt empowered and fulfilled doing it.

I also opened an online Felt store and sold one of my baby blankets, another marker in my life where I made money doing something I love.

I did lots of other awesome things in 2012 and truly enjoyed the year. Thanks for sticking around and encouraging me on my journey!

Being A Smart Wife

If I look back and take stock over my last three years I notice and appreciate how far I have come. 3 and a bit years ago I got married to my fiance, we moved in together, and I became a wife who cooked and cleaned and ran a house having previously never done anything like it before. My signature (and only) dish was a stir-fry which I had made about 3 times. 

Life became interesting.

Now, 3 years later I realise that I actually have learnt a lot in that time and I have become better at a whole lot of things. Everyday I continue to learn better and easier ways of doing housewife things but recently I have become much more interested in being smart at them.

That is, being smart with my time and methods. Is what I'm  doing really a good use of my time? Could I do this a faster, easier way? Do I even need to do this? Am I doing it well?

One thing in my home that I have a love hate relationship with it cooking and baking so I'm trying to get smart at it. You see, I love having food in my belly but I hate preparing it. Mostly, its a lack of knowledge and understanding of food. Oh, and a loathe of dishes.

Last week I realised that if I baked 3 batches of cookies all at once I still do the same amount of dishes and it only takes me about 10 minutes longer (!!!!!!)

So as I was going to bake my usual batch of Edmonds basic biscuits with chocolate chip cookies I tripled everything, rolled them into balls and freezed them in 10-biscuit-lots. 

Brilliant.

We have had "fresh" cookies almost every night this week, I simply take a bag out the freezer whenever we want them, put them in the microwave for 1 minute, push them down with a fork and bake for 10 minutes. We literally have fresh bickies in 13 minutes (before my milo has even gone cold)

Once I realised how genius this was of me I have since baked 20 individual handmade pizzas of different toppings to quickly pull out for lunches when I can't be bothered making the husbands lunch (yes, I make it, I know).

Now I'm looking for other ways I can be a very clever home maker. Do you have any ideas for me? Leave a comment and let me know!

Broccoli and Pesto In The Kitchen

Fettuccine Broccoli and Pesto Pasta

YUM! This whole trying something new each week is really achievable and SO satisfying. I'm a meal planner, like, to the ingredient. I only buy whatever I need in the groceries and I know ahead of time what we'll be having for dinner, what I need to prepare, defrost etc. We have a tight budget and I'm not very confident in the kitchen so I have found this works best for me. Otherwise I wonder down the supermarket aisles in a stressed daze not knowing what to buy, and often buy far more than we need. Planning these new meals is really easy, I'm using Jaime Olivers Food Ministry book and each week I flick through and find something new to try. Mostly he uses heaps of ingredients, so I simplify it (so I'm sure the meals could be much nicer) but it means its easier and cheaper to cook :)

This week I made Fettuccine, (was supposed to Tagliatelle?) and I added broccoli, potato slices, pesto and parmesan cheese. I've never made a pasta like this and it was a really nice change from my usual spag bol'. 

The photos are terrible because we ate it at 10pm at night. I know. Pasta at 10, shocking. But we were hungry and I had everything ready to go. I've also noticed that Mr Moo specifically comments about every new meal I've made. Usually he just says "thanks", but with my new ones he always says how much he likes it - A definite motivation to keep feeding my family with new and exciting things! 

Best of all, this only took about 20 minutes from start to eat. Bonus! I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of broccoli. It's usually in most of our meals during the week because Mr Moo eats everything and I cook for him, but I usually dont include it in my meal. So I didn't actually have bits of it in mine, but what I did eat was delish! :)

This year I'm trying to learn more about the food in my kitchen. Each week I'm making a new recipe and this one was taken from Jaime Olivers Ministry of Food (with a few short cuts here and there). Click here to see what else is In My Kitchen

Tikka Masala In The Kitchen

This weeks Tikka Masala wasn't too different - I've made indian before (but never like this!). When I first started out in the kitchen it was my favourite meal - meat, sauce and rice. Perfect. No veges, no funny bits. I knew what to expect and I got it. Unfortunately, I've only ever made indian out of a bottle. Fry up some chicken, dump in the sauce, heat it up and serve. 

I branched out a little from that with this dish. I added a curry paste, coriander (!), diced tomatoes and coconut milk. So exotic! This time around instead of cooking the meat right through and adding the sauce I prepared the sauce, chucked in the meat and then finished off the sauce. I allowed it to simmer for 20 more minutes with the chicken cooking slowly inside the sauce. The meat was so deliciously tender. I've never made curry like that before and I'll definitely be doing it like that from now on. 

I also made popadums! I love them, so salty and crunchy. Yum yum pigs bum! They were pretty cheap ($3 for a box of ten) I just brushed them in oil and chucked them in the microwave for 40 seconds. You can deep fry them, but I didn't have enough oil for that. A nice fancy touch if you're trying to impress some friends or score some wife points from the husband (no such luck this time around I'm afraid)

This year I'm trying to learn more about the food in my kitchen. Each week I'm making a new recipe and this one was taken from Jaime Olivers Ministry of Food (with a few short cuts here and there). Click here to see what else is In My Kitchen

Fajitas In The Kitchen

Recently inspired to get back into the kitchen and try some new things I have been thumbing through Jaime Olivers Ministry of Food. 

My cooking is bland because when it comes down to it I don't actually know how to cook. I can follow a recipe but I dont know what most foods taste like or what goes with what. Everything I make is mostly stodgey, definitely bland and unoriginal. Its usually meat, sauce and a few vegetables.

This week I made delicious fajitas. We ate them like a salad and I used a taco seasoning, salsa, peppers and gaucamole. I branched out, did something different. And... it made me feel alive. I'm still thinking back to that delicious meal and looking forward to what I will make this week. There was no pasta or potatoes. We even ate outside in the sun on our new outdoor setting that was a Christmas gift! 

Perfecto!