At Home Day

Today we stayed at home all day which is very unusual for us. I generally like to take the kids out in the morning to tire them out so they have a good sleep during the day. However, I had tons of cleaning to do and I'm also participating in a 'No Buy July' challenge (not going so well) so I figured the easiest way not to spend money is to stay home!

I made Cloud Dough for the kids this morning which is something I've been meaning to do for awhile now. It's basically a 8:1 ratio of plain flour and oil. I used 4 cups of flour and 1/2 a cup of baby oil. It make a feathery light dough which moulds when you press it but is also soft and 'cloudlike'. I posted a photo on my Facebook page this morning of the kids starting out with it which was something like this:

This is how it ended:

It was not pretty and I think for a total time of about 20 minutes amusement the mess was not worth it. I won't be doing this again for awhile.

I posted a pic on FB of some Coconut Banana Cookies I made which were gluten free. The recipe was from Strands of My Life which has lots of GF recipes. They were like a cakey type cookie which I enjoy. I think I might try and reduce the oil a little but next time though. Here's the recipe:

 Coconut Banana Cookies

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 banana
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon bicard soda
1 cup coconut

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a cookie sheet with baking paper.
Whizz up dry ingredients (except coconut), oil, banana and sugar in a food processor (I used my trusty Thermie).
Add eggs and vanilla and mix.
Drop spoonfuls onto the paper and shape into circles.
Bake 10 mins until slightly golden then remove from oven and let firm up for about half an hour.

The mix is very wet. I made 6 huge cookies so you could easily get 12 normal sized ones from this. The verdict was positive. They were definitely sweet enough and I'll be making these again.

Until next time :)

Mummy Guilt

It's been a crappy couple of weeks, my kids have been sick constantly and so was Chris when he was home, I've been eating way too much, not drinking enough water and we've had lots of bills come in so I didn't get our organic fruit and veg box this fortnight and I was feeling pretty bad about it. Mummy guilt. We all suffer from it.

So I pulled myself together and remembered that you can only do the best you have with what you've got. So we went to the market today and got lots of fruit and veg and I'll just wash it all in a vinegar rinse before we use it. We're not going to be able to afford to buy organic produce all the time as much as I'd like to be able to especially as we're now tightening our belts (more on that in another post). There are loads of people worse off than us and that's something I have to remind myself from time to time.

As I was in between writing this, bathing the kids and making dinner I dropped the lid of one of my vintage canisters and it chipped - sob, sob, sob! Hopefully the other half can fix it for me when he gets home.

Lucky for me I baked some of these yummo Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies today (ignore the eating way too much bit I mentioned earlier) which I can have after dinner. The recipe is from The Buttercup Bake Shop Cook Book which I recently picked up secondhand for $2 - score!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I used raw)
1 large egg, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats
chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease 2 cookie trays.
In a medium bowl sift flour, bicarb and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer) cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in oats and choc chips.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets leaving a few cms between each one. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on trays for a minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely.

I reduced the sugar and also I should have had my oven at 170 as mine runs hot so I only baked them for about 8 minutes. They are delish and very very moreish.

That's enough moaning from me today. Until next time.....

Our New Addition

It's been awhile since I've blogged due to us using up all  of our internet download! Couldn't believe it since I don't think it's ever happened before. Very annoying having to wait for the month to tick over.

We have a lovely Community Garden about 15 minutes drive away and I often meet friends there for a coffee and playdate. It's great for the kiddos as they can see all the vegies growing and play in the playground there and there's also some rabbits and chooks. Oh and a worm farm which is most fascinating to toddlers! There's also a couple of scarecrows around and last time we went Ethan (formerly known as Master 2) decided that he wanted a scarecrow at home. Daddy was away at this point so I told him to wait until he came home then ask thinking he might forget about it. Nope not our Ethan! As soon as poor Daddy came home Ethan wanted to make a scarecrow and Chris (formerly known as Mr Steps) being Chris grabbed some of his old clothes and started him immediately. Warning photo overload about to begin.

Such a hard worker just like his dad. Except when toys need to be packed up.....



Ethan couldn't rest until he had put the hat on the scarecrow.



But Daddy's not satisfied and has to sew the body parts together with fishing line instead of just tying a rope round his middle.

Rawwwwrrrrrr!!!

I asked Ethan what the scarecrow's name was and he said 'scarecrow'. Hmmm sounds about as original as when he named our fish - Fishie.

Then the morning after Chris flew out to work again we went out the back to feed the fish and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw him as he'd been moved to right in front of our patio and I wasn't informed! Ethan thinks he walks around the garden and also told us he should sleep in our caravan because he's cold outside and sad. So cute!

Sick

I've been sick for the past couple of days which is really unusual for me. I have lots of recipes that I'd like to share which my bestie at work and I have found. She's a super healthy mum who has always cooked from scratch for her kids (who are now teenagers) and she's definitely an inspiration to me. Not only in the kitchen but in the parenting realm too. So there will be lots of that to come.

Anyway I thought I'd just share a few photos of what we've been up to lately.

Foot tracing with the kiddies. Kept them amused for a few minutes....

Having extras brekkys alone with these two as Daddy is away for an extra week this time :(

Lots of park visits which always go down well with my super active two.

I made this gorgeous beetroot bruschetta from the Vegie head website. Have look here.

For a bit of fun I did a food colouring bath tonight - a red one which we I photographed it came out looking a strange shade of wee colour. So I won't bore you with that lol!

It's been very chilly here so we've had the wood fire going constantly but unfortunately I almost ran out of wood as Mr Steps wasn't meant to be away so long so he hadn't left a whole heap. Luckily some gorgeous friends of ours stepped in and brought a ute load over for me. Love them. I'm also quite proud of myself for actually lighting the darn thing as it's always been the monkey on my back. Thanks to a tutorial from a girlfriend I've got it down pat now.

Now I've bored you enough with all those photos I'll say goodnight and hope I wake up brighter in the morning!

:)

My Girls

I never ever wanted to have chickens. Mr Steps wanted them in the last house we lived in but I always thought they would bring rats and to be honest, they sort of freaked me out a bit. However when we bought this house on half an acre it wasn't even up for discussion. The chooks were coming to stay!

Now that we've had them for six months or so I couldn't imagine not having them. They are so friendly and when we go in their pen they squat down for you to pat them. I've even held them a few times and they're not so scary! Oh and not to mention the delicious eggies we get from them everyday. We use ALOT of eggs in this house and I haven't had to buy any for months and I get to give some away to family and friends when we have extras.

We started off with 6 Isa Browns and 2 Silkies (which were meant to be pets for the boys) but the poor silkies got overtaken and pecked constantly by the bossy Isa's so we rehomed them to a friend of mine who has a chook refuge :) Now the Isa's rule the roost lol!

Our girls are very spoilt and get lots of yummy scraps. I was giving them everything (except meat) until I found out that there a few things that they shouldn't have.

Raw green potato & peel - this contains Solanine which is toxic
Avocado skin and pit - these contain low levels of toxicity - OOPS! I only have just found this one out....
Raw eggs - obviously
Dried beans - these contain hemaglutin which is toxic to birds
Sugary foods

I've also read that citrus peel is bad for them due to the amount of acidity in it but there is alot of debate over this so I'm not too sure if it's true or not. I don't give it to mine anyway just to be safe.

They pretty much will eat anything though as any chook owner will tell you. I've read that giving them natural yoghurt is fantastic for them so I'm going to try them with a bowl of that.

Here are my lovely ladies

And here is the food and water shelter the talented Mr Steps made for them recently which of course they have pooped all over straight away!

Love my girls!

Early Mornings and Lost Keys

Why do small children (particularly mine) insist on waking up before dawn? I'm not a late riser by any means but these 4 and 4.30am starts to the day are getting ridiculous. I thought that as the sun started to rise later then so would my children but it's seemed to have the opposite affect on them. Very frustrating when they get so grumpy mid morning because they are tired. It makes going out for the morning very trying.

Yesterday was a 4am wake up for Master 1 and I generally bring him into my bed around this time to feed him (yes I'm still breastfeeding my 14 month old) and he'll doze back off. Not this time! Pair that with him still waking up on average 3 times a night and gosh I was tired!

We were meant to be somewhere at 9am that day so after entertaining the kids for 4 1/2 LONG hours, at 8.30 we went to hop in the car but lo and behold - no keys! Now I often misplace my keys but I always find them in about 5 minutes. Not yesterday. Half an hour later I still hadn't found them so I called my friend I was meeting to let her know we wouldn't be there on time. Another half hour and I called it quits before I blew my top. Master 2 assured me he hadn't played with my keys since coming home the previous day and I (stupidly) believed him.

There was a plan B to getting into town and that was use Mr Steps car. Now Mr Steps is very particular about his car and doesn't like me to drive it at all. However he is away at the moment and I was desperate so off we went in Daddy's car much to the delight of Master 2 who told me several times that I was holding the steering wheel wrong and that I didn't hold it like Daddy does.

After a much needed coffee, cake and play date with my friend and her sons at the local Community Gardens I felt much better and we headed home after lunch and we all had a quick nap.

Later on that day I was packing some toys away when I discovered this:

:)

Friday

I feel like I haven't stopped all day long. Probably because Master 1 only slept for half an hour in the car today so I've had no Mummy time. We went to a play centre today with a friend and her son and stayed there all morning. I love those places and this one was not too big so we could sit and have a coffee and watch the kids until they needed us to climb through tunnels and up big foam mountains.

 

 

 

After we got home and Master 2 was asleep, Master 1 and I went out the front and I did some gardening while he played in the gorgeous sunshine. Winter are you ever coming? When we moved to this house we inherited about 50 odd rose bushes which we were originally going to pull out but I sort of fell in love with them and now they are staying. We have some really old varieties and some which smell gorgeous. This one looked and smelt beautiful today.

It will be time for their annual mega prune in a couple of months but I'm not game enough to do it myself yet so we are going to get someone in to do it for us. A lot of love and time has gone into these roses over the 25 odd years this house has been here so I don't want to be the one who mucks them up!

There was more playing out the back later on when Master 2 woke up. I'd opened Daddy's shed to get some chook food out and it was game on! Sheds are like Aladdin's Cave for my little boys. There's so much to get into - and onto in this case.

Please excuse the terrible photo I'm desperate for a better camera but money doesn't allow just yet. Maybe after tax time.....

I made a curry for dinner and I thought I'd share the recipe. It's a Curtis Stone recipe from a Coles catalogue but I made a couple of changes as I'm not a huge fan of spicy food so I didn't want it too hot. Master 2 did tell me that 'it doesn't have a very nice taste Mummy' but I enjoyed it so I'll share. I think this would be great with chicken in it which I'll try next time.

Pumpkin Curry

1T coconut oil
500g pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2 cm cubes
1 onion, medium dice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1T curry powder
2T apple cider vinegar
400ml can coconut milk
400g can chickpeas, drained
1 cup vegetable stock
thickly shredded silverbeet

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil and heat for 1 minute. Add the pumpkin and onion and cook for 5-10 mins until pumpkin starts to caramelise and onion becomes translucent. Add garlic and cook for a further minute.

Stir in the curry powder and cook for a couple of mins. Add vinegar and stir and scrape the bottom of the pan. Add chickpeas, coconut milk and stock and stir until simmering. Reduce heat and let simmer gently for around 30 mins until mixture has thickened. Add silverbeet and cook until wilted. Enjoy!

I served ours with brown rice and natural yoghurt. I cheat and use a rice cooker. I have never, ever been able to cook rice on the stove. I also haven't been able to get brown rice to work in the cooker until tonight. I just added way more water than I usually would and it magically worked. Here is the finished product featured in another bad photo!

So that was my day for whoever is interested. I like the idea of this blog being a sort of diary I can look back at when the kiddos are older since I still haven't filled out their baby books or kept any sort of record of their milestones except for posting them on Facebook........

:)