Slack....

I've been very slack with blogging the past couple of weeks. Truth be told I used all our download (no idea how!) and even though we don't get charged for excess use our internet is slowed and it's just painful to use. My bad!

I've also not done a meal plan for this week and we've wasted quite a bit of food :( I started writing it down then kept forgetting. Time to recharge! Daddy has flown back out so I have 2 weeks to get sorted before he gets back. I'm also trying to get the house organised which is a very slow process. I have ALOT of stuff.....

Our littlest boy has been seeing a speech therapist for a little while now and one of the things she has told me to do is to go back to basics when I'm talking to him. So things like saying 'up' when he wants me to pick him up and 'down' when he gets down so he can copy the sounds. I'm finding this quite hard to do as my 2 1/2 year old is a brilliant talker and I basically have whole conversations with him all day so to then stop and go back to basics is proving difficult. The new plan after seeing our speechie today is to make bathtime the time where I do that and then hopefully it will filter into my everyday vocab. Here's hoping anyway!

So some things I am wanting to do is make up some baby wipes, start a 'Meatless Monday' in our home, make a housekeeping schedule and plan a night away for when Daddy gets home and blog more regularly!

:)

Mission Two - Reduce Food Waste

Every year Australians (homes and businesses) waste around 7.5 billion tonnes of food. How insane is that? When you think about all the people in our own country and around the world that don't have enough to eat then this figure is shameful.

I'll put my hand up to say that I am a food waster. Many times at the markets I'll buy fruit and vegies that we don't end up eating because I either buy too much or I don't have a meal to use them in or things are on special so I buy them for the sake of it. Now that I'm meal planning again I'm going to really try and only buy what I need for the week and bulk out all our meals with extra vegies and fruit. Tonight I'm sauteeing some kale that came in my organic produce last week otherwise I know I'll waste it.

Leftovers are another way that food is wasted and generally we do try and use these up but with my partner working FIFO sometimes things don't get eaten between the three of us. I'm going to start to freeze leftovers and that way they won't be thrown out and my partner will be able to grab stuff out for his lunches while he's home.

If you have canned,jarred or packet food that you know you aren't going to use then perhaps you could donate it to your local Foodbank or Women's Refuge or the like as my sister just did today. Great idea that I wouldn't have thought of.

So this week I will document everything that I throw away (or give to my chooks). Hopefully it won't be that much although I did throw away some baby zucchinis I found deteriorating in the crisper drawer this morning oh yes and some leftover cottage pie. Oh dear I haven't started well......

:)

Meal Plan 6th May - 12th May

Well it's not quite finished but I've done most of my meal plan for this week. I still need to add in one more dinner. The reason most of the lunch spaces are left blank is because I tend to give my boys a tasting plate for lunch. It generally has cheese, fruit, vegies maybe some ham if I have any and bread followed by a muffin or whatever I've baked. I find they eat more this way as they can pick and choose what they want.

We eat porridge ALOT as you can see. My boys love it and I know they'll be full afterwards. I stir raw hony and blueberries through it or some homemade jam or sultanas whatever we feel like on the day. I also cook it with a ton of cinnamon as we love it and it's so good for you. I've just bought some Mesquite powder last week which I've started adding to it too. It gives a lovely richness to the porridge.

Anyway here's the (un)finished product. A step up from no meal plan last week anyway :)

Things That Make Me Happy

I'm doing a random post today as I'm reorganising my house and coming across things that make me smile. Things that my other half calls junk...

Vintage glass makes me very very happy. Especially if it's coloured (this is an early Mother's Day present I just bought).

Vintage canisters make me happy too.

These things make me smile on a daily basis and that's really what's important isn't it? Having things in your home that you love and that make you happy.

:)

Mission One - Meal Planning

I must admit that I've fallen off the wagon these past few weeks in regards to eating well and I can definitely notice the difference in how I'm feeling at the moment. I feel a bit tired and run down and my skin is not happy so I'm determined to get back on and stay on! So I am starting weekly missions to help myself stay on track. You can come along for the ride if you like - the more the merrier!

I used to be fantabulous at meal planning. I would do it religiously every week and would know what we were having for dinner each night. I'm not sure what happened but sometime last year I stopped doing it and even though I keep thinking about doing it again I never have. Procrastinator that I am! Time to change.

I find that having a meal plan helps in so many ways. You can plan healthy and nutritious meals for your family, you know what you are buying at the supermarket therefore you save money on random purchases and also you reduce food waste. The key is also to stick to your shopping list which is also something I need to get better at (note to self - no more Hot Wheels cars!).

I personally find it easier to have my meal plan written out on paper and stuck somewhere in the kitchen rather than have it on the computer or an app on my phone. I found a weekly meal plan on Everything Mom which I like as it has space for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can find the free printable here. I've just saved it to my desktop so I can print it out each week.

So this is mission number one - meal plan each and every week. I don't want any more wasted food in this house and I would love to stick to my grocery budget for once. I'll post my meal plans each week so you can see what we're doing over here and I'd love to hear what you'll be having too. Who's with me? :)

Pesticides

There are over 7000 registered pesticides for use in Australia - how scary is that? Many have not been tested for long term effects on health either which is even more scary.  It's virtually impossible to wash all of the pesticides off your fresh produce unfortunately so if you can make even a small change and buy just one item organic (mine is apples) that would make a big difference. Basically leafy greens, produce with edible skin and soft fleshed produce are the top of the list for buying organic as these soak up the pesticides more and have been found to have the most residue on them. If you simply can't afford to buy organic then perhaps you could try growing one or two items yourself a go. You don't even need to have a garden as many things can be grown in pots and there's lots of varieties of dwarf trees (we have a Pinkabelle apple tree). An added bonus is that gardening is a great activity for the kiddies to get involved in, they have so much fun 'helping'.

These are the worst offenders for pesticide residue:

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries 
Peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries
Carrots
Apples
Spinach
Nectarines
Capsicums
Lettuce, spinach 
Pears
Tomatoes
Grapes
Celery
Pears
Leafy herbs

Thick skinned produce and things like bananas where you have to peel the skin seem to be more resilient against the nasties.

Remember to wash all produce really well. Here is a fruit and veg wash that will help remove more of the residue from your produce than just water alone. .
Mix the juice of one lemon, 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, and one cup of tap water.

This mixture can be put into a spray bottle and sprayed onto fruit and vegetables before rinsing in water and preparing to be eaten.

I'm thinking of doing a weekly challenge for myself to make one small change in my home which will make a big difference. I'll keep you posted :)

Daddy's Home!

My partner works FIFO 2 weeks one and 1 off so when he's home I like to make sure that we at least do something fun as a family even if it's just taking the boys to the park. He misses out on so much during the year so I think it's really important we try and make the most of his time home especially while the boys are little and not at school. It's not always easy though as there's always so much he needs to catch up on around the house and he always has a project or ten on the go. Today however we packed up the kids and drove to a fair at a Primary School about 40 minutes away from us. It was another glorious Autumn day (Will the cold weather ever arrive?) so it was a great opportunity to get out of the house. Due to another 5.30am start both boys had a sleep in the car on the way there:

It was lovely to walk around and see all the of the bits and pieces the kids from each class had made. There was a secondhand clothes stall there too and I scored a gorgeous pair of Country Road cords which were like new for a dollar! Bargain of the day :) The local markets were on too so we popped in there afterwards and I bought some organic fruit and veg. We also got a couple of Frangipani trees which we are going to plant in a corner of the garden. When I say we I mean my partner as although I try, I don't have much of a green thumb. After that we took the boys to our local park for a play then it was off home for much needed naps.

I had some pears and a couple of bananas I needed to use up so I made some muffins up while the kids slept which turned out to be very yummy. This is a recipe from an old but fabulous blog - Super Organiser Mum and I just added cinnamon.

Banana and Pear Muffins

1 1/2 cups SR Flour

1/3 cup raw sugar

60g butter

1 large mashed banana

1 pear diced

1 egg, lightly whisked

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Rub together the flour, butter and sugar and cinnamon until the mix resembles breadcrumbs

Stir in mashed banana, pear, egg and milk to combine.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pans. Bake at 190 for 20 minutes.

I would normally substitute the SR flour for spelt flour and baking powder but I've run out unfortunately. I'll talk more about spelt later in another blog post.

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend as much as I am :)