Exploring Different Tools part 2

The other day I wanted to show the children the effects rain can have on waterfalls. We often go visit the local waterfall at Shakespear Park at the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. It has been quite dry a lot of the times we go, so the waterfall can be a bit piddly. So we went and visited it the other day, after we had had some substantial rain. The walk was cool, we got to see some large Kereru (pigeons) in the trees. And the boys had a lot of fun throwing sticks into the water (boys aye! Even hubby enjoys doing that lol, I swear they never grow up).

When we got home, we decided to paint out own waterfalls. And to extend the whole painting with different tools thing, I sought out yet another tool to use - toothbrushes. One of the children discovered you could make different effects with the toothbrush by tapping it on to the page instead of scrubbing it.

Now, their waterfall paintings didn't look much like waterfalls being the kids are only 1 and 2, but I think they did a pretty good job! I had mixed together lots of different shades of blue, a touch of green and some white in there, and used blue paper for added effect ;)

Gala Time!

Our kids school gala is upon us this weekend. One of the stalls for my kids classes is the sweet stall (think fudges, truffles and coconut ice). So I have put my hand up to do a billion batches of coconut ice. I was given a recipe, that granted probably tastes better I am not sure (haven't had coconut ice in a LONG time myself), but was very time consuming and being a cooked recipe I couldn't guarantee it would turn out right! (I have limited success with fudges etc, but that was using my old stove which had some heat regulating issues I think! My new one should be better but I'm a little hesitant to use the members of public as guinea pigs so will save that for another day.

So yeah, as I was saying, I stumbled upon this recipe here which doesn't require cooking! I mean, it's SO quick and easy why WOULDN'T you volunteer to make it?

Well... it turned out quite well. Only hiccup was it was really hard to spread the pink layer on top of the white layer... by pushing it out, I ended up squashing the white layer really really flat, and the pink layer I couldn't manage to squish out to reach the edges! But never mind, I left it to set, and cut off all the excess around the edges (which I then scoffed more or less single handedly... I did share a teeny bit with the kids but it was just before their bedtime that I didn't want them to have tooooo much sugar...).

And it looked fine cut up. A bit flat, but that was my fault. Should have put it in a smaller tin, but I wasn't sure how much it would make (it didn't give any indication of what size tin! Silly recipe). I think double the recipe (make one batch white, then another batch pink) and put it in a standard sized slice tin, maybe a square cak tin, it would come out really good.

 

Coconut Ice - no cook easy version

Courtesy of www.food.com

 

 

150 ml (half a tin) sweetened condensed milk

250 g icing sugar, sieved

175 g desiccated coconut

2 -5 drops red food colouring or 2 -5 drops pink food colouring

 

Make this recipe twice, one with colouring and one without.

 

Line a slice/cake tin with greased gladwrap (cling film).

When making the pink batch, add the food colouring to the condensed milk in a bowl. Otherwise for the white batch do nothing extra to the condensed milk. Then mix in the icing sugar and coconut until it's fully mixed and stiff.

Press one mixture into the pan gently then top and press with the other mixture.

Leave to set then cut into cubes or fingers with an oiled knife.

To store: wrap or layer with waxed or greaseproof paper and store in an airtight container.







Exploring Different Tools

The kids have been right into painting lately. We get a bit bored of the same old paint and paintbrush thing, so we mix it up a bit. Sometimes we paint using water instead! The kids love that, they get to take the paintbrushes, the paint rollers, whatever really, and some water outside and let them go for it. They can "paint" anything they like with water, lately they have decided to paint the deck and railings for me as they need repainting haha. Sometimes we do pictures on the driveway. Good clean fun that keeps the littlies entertained for quite some time, and even the big kids quite like to see how big a picture they can draw before the sun erases it!

 

Thanks kids, I'm sure the water painted gate will do the trick.... hehe!

Or if we want to get a bit mucky, we get the actual paints out, but may use different tools to the usual paintbrushes. One we did recently was painting using cotton buds. Originally I had hoped they would be keen on finger painting. My own 2yo was very keen on the idea, he gives everything a go. But the other 2 I had with me that day were a bit more hesitant. I had no idea where the paintbrushes had last been stashed after the last bout of water painting (I dare say they are outside still! My big kids had a big water painting session after school one day and I often forget to remind them to put stuff away that they have taken outside). That made me have to be a bit more imaginative than I might have been feeling that day. But suddenly though about cotton buds. Pretty standard item in most peoples houses, and they make for pretty cool painting instruments.

Can create different effects to what you do with paint brushes, can make the paint swirl more etc. I also took the opportunity to shows the kids how mixing 2 colours together you can create a different one. Throw in a learning opportunity when ya can! And got some pretty pictures at the end of the day :)

Bring a plate? No worries!

Lately there have been many times that I have had to bring a plate to various events, or having people over last minute and need something quick and easy to throw together. I try to also have some sheets of puff pastry in the freezer, as they are so handy! I have even thrown a variation of these together before kindy once when one of the kids had a shared lunch I had forgotten about (and I only have about an hour from waking to getting the kids out of the house in the mornings!).

 

Puff Pastry Pinwheels. They are YUM. My fave adult version using ingredients I always have on hand are Pizza Puff Pinwheels. I shall share with you the recipe below.

 

 

 

Pizza Puff Pinwheels

 

Puff Pastry Sheets (2 or 3 is a good amount)

Tomato Paste

Bacon (cooked first, brings out the flavour more) or Ham, or Salami

Grated Cheese

and optional - crushed pineapple

 

Thaw the pastry sheets (or heck if you are really clever, make your own... so far I'm not that clever.. actually, I've just never tried!)

Spread tomato paste over the entire surface. A good thick amount for flavour.

Layer on the bacon/ham/salami leaving about an inch gap at the top free. Repeat with the cheese (and pineapple if you are doing pineapple).

Then roll the pastry from the bottom to the top, trying to keep the rolls as tight as possible, using the tomato paste to help stick it together at the top. Slice thinly (about 1cm), lay flat on a baking tray and bake at approx 200*c for around 10 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through.

 

 

Variations:

 

Vegemite and Cheese

 

Cheese and Onion

 

Jam with a sprinkling of Sugar

 

Cream Cheese and Herbs

 

 

Frankly, the list is endless with different variations you can try. The ones above are just ones I am more likely to throw together because of their quick and easy - and cheap - ingredients. If you Google I am sure a whole world of puff pinwheel recipes will be revealed!

Another recipe from the back of my cupboard

So I really couldn't be bothered baking last night but the kids had nothing yummy to put in their lunchboxes today (normally I at least have a box of muesli bars in the cupboard for when we run out of baking, but I forgot to buy some on my last supermarket trip!). So I had to force myself up and to do it, and I remembered I had not long ago bought a new slice tin (previously I have used various other non slice tins to bake slices in haha) so I decided I must make a slice. This is my favourite slice recipe I think, have been making it for a few years, grabbed it out of a magazine. It's easy and really yummy. Downside, I cannot stop eating it!

 

Oh, and as an aside - YAY I finally bought myself a new (second hand, because I keep breaking them) camera! Much easier to take pics and do blog posts now woohoo!

Chocolate Chip Slice

Courtesy of NZ Women's Weekly

125g butter (or dairy free alternative)
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c choc chips

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Mix in the flour, baking soda and chocolate chips until all combined.
Bake for 15mins at 180*c in a slice tin (I scrape the mixture into the dish, then using wet hands I flatten it and even it out).
Once cool, ice with chocolate icing (see below)

Choc Icing

2 cups icing sugar
1 Tbsp cocoa
25g butter / marg, melted
2-3 tsp hot water

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with enough hot water to make a firm icing. Spread over cooled slice.

What to bring for morning tea?

Went to visit my friend the other day (well, the other week now, this blog post has been sitting in my drafts too long!) who had recently had a baby. I LOVE baby cuddles. Wanted to take something along for morning tea/lunch and it had to be dairy free both for her and two of my kids. And I just really didn't feel like making anything sweet. But grocery day was approaching (and I only shop fortnightly so by the end of the fortnight, supplies start dwindling), and I wasn't feeling very inspired. So I was flicking through my trusty old Watties cookbook and came across the recipe for sausage rolls. I had never made my own sausage rolls before. I do have a friend who regularly makes them, and I'm a sucker for them, but for some reason I just never made them myself.

 

I compared the recipe in that book to some more recipes I googled and decided I would keep it simple and use the recipe from the book - it doesn't contain breadcrumbs as fillers for starters, and I had all the ingredients on hand. If wanting to make them dairy free, make sure your pastry is dairy free. The Pams low-fat flaky puff pastry is, that is what I use.

 

And as per usual lately, the photo is crap - taken on my phone, and also just a quick snap before the last couple of sausage rolls were snapped up, but better than no photo right? Or is it? haha

 

 

 

 

Sausage Rolls

courtesy of Watties Kiwi Favourites Cookbook

 

3 sheets pre rolled flaky puff pastry

450g sausage meat

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 egg, beaten

 

Preheat oven to 220*c

Cut each pastry sheet into 2 pieces

Place sausage meat in a bowl and mix together with the herbs and onion. Divide the sausage meat into 6 portions. Form each portion into a sausage shape and place on a piece of pastry.

Brush the edge of the pastry where it will join with beaten egg. Roll the pastry over to make a long roll. Cut into 5 sausage rolls and place fold-side down on a lined baking tray.

Make small cuts on the top of each sausage roll or prick with a fork, then brush tops with beaten egg.

Bake for 12-15mins or until cooked and golden.

 



Happy Birthday to ME!

Friday was my birthday, and my wonderful husband who very rarely attempts to bake (and when he does it is normally a packet mix), baked me a cake. From scratch. It's a cake I had only baked once before myself, for mr 5's birthday a couple of months ago. It was easy, and delicious!

 

Turns out, it was easy enough even for hubby to make it PERFECTLY. It was SO good. Caramel Cake. I am a sucker for anything caramel. Probably my favourite flavour in the whole world. Yum.

 

So yeah, today I share with you the recipe, as promised on my facebook page. It is a great recipe, you must try it. It would make scrummy cupcakes too. It's a dangerous recipe - will make me fat if I keep making it, so I must resist. Instead you guys must give it a go, give me your verdicts :)

 

This recipe was posted on the TradeMe message boards, that is where I originally found it months ago.

 

Excuse the photo, a) it's taken on my phone again (really must go buy a new camera!), and b) I only remembered to quickly snap a pic before we devoured the last couple of pieces!

 

 

 

Caramel Cake

100g Butter (or marg)
1c Sugar
1 Egg
1Tbsp Golden Syrup
1c Milk (or milk alternative... rice milk works fine)
1tsp Baking Soda
1 ½c Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

Cream butter and sugar. 
Add egg and beat well. 
Melt golden syrup and milk, when warm add baking soda. Add this to creamed mixture. 
Add flour, Baking Powder and salt. 
Pour into prepared tin. 
Bake 180*C (350*F) for 30mins.

 

Icing
2Tbsp Butter
4Tbsp Brown Sugar
1Tbsp Milk
Icing Sugar

Melt butter and Brown sugar together, add milk and bring to the boil. 
Add enough icing sugar to make spreading consistency.

So glad we don't have carpet

School holidays started this week, and we have been having a lot of fun so far. The biggest hit so far has been playdough. In nearly every house I have lived in with kids, I have had carpet in the dining room. Seriously, not a smart move really. Finally we are in a house with hard floors. Which means we play with playdough a lot more often now as I'm not scared it's going to get trodden into the carpet!

 

I shall share with you my favourite playdough recipe. It's a cooked dough, which doesn't suit everybody, but I prefer it as it feels so much nicer and silkier to play with and doesn't leave that yucky dry salty feeling on your hands like some other recipes do. And it's really nice to play with in winter just after cooking it!!

 

 

 

 

Playdough

 

1c flour

1/2 c salt

1c water

1 Tbsp Oil

2 tsp cream of tartar

food colouring

 

Combine all ingredients in a pan and stir.

Cook over low heat stirring until a ball forms, then knead until smooth.

 

It is very liquidy to start with, then turns into a sticky mess. When it starts to come together it will still be quite sticky, that's ok, just put it on a board and knead it. It will go all nice and smooth.

 

 

 

Then you can have fun playing with the playdough! The other day we got out some Popsicle sticks and used them to make funny shapes (the kids were 1 and 2, gotta keep it simple). They had great fun, and we got to talk about the different colours and everything - can turn it into not only a tactile experience but a learning one too with colours and shapes and whatever else.

 





Birthday Season

First we had mr5's birthday about 6 weeks ago, then DH's has just been. For his birthday cake, I dug out my old chocolate mud cake recipe at his request. It is far from dairy free, and never tried to make it dairy free so I do not know if it would work too well - you could find a dairy free chocolate, but no idea if it would turn out with using marg instead of butter - I suspect not. Some recipes just cannot be adapted lol. It is a beautiful cake, very rich! Please excuse the photo quality, I am stuck using my cellphone for pictures at the moment and it has a useless camera on it. Really need to get around to buying myself a new camera!

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Mud Cake

 

250g Butter

1 1/2 cup Hot Water

200g Dark Chocolate (I think I actually put in closer to 250g!)

2c Caster Sugar (I used about 1 1/2c)

1/4 c Cocoa

1Tbsp Instant Coffee

1 1/2 cup Self Raising Flour

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

 

Icing:

 

125g Dark Chocolate

125g Unsalted Butter (I used normal butter... would have tasted nicer with unsalted though)

 

 

Melt the butter with the hot water in a pot over low heat. Add the chocolate and sugar, stirring till smooth.

Gradually beat in the dry sifted ingredients.

Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.

Pour into a greased/lined 25cm cake tin.

Bake at 150*c for approx 2.5 hours (I found, baking in my fan forced oven at 120*, It was cooked in less than 2 hours - so do keep an eye on it).

 

Icing:

 

Melt chocolate and butter and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Pour over cold cake and smooth out.

Dinner time musings

So as I was cooking dinner this evening it occurred to me that I haven't shared this recipe with you lot. It comes from the same cookbook as my Saucy Meatloaf and the one I based my Devilled Sausages recipe on. The Watties Kiwi Favourites Cookbook. Seriously, my favourite cookbook ever. I used to make a Cottage Pie throwing together ingredients and thought it tasted pretty good. Then hubby brought home this cookbook, made this cottage pie, and I was converted to using the recipe!

It is one of my favourites, it's easy to make ahead of time and refrigerate until time to cook it (just remember if you do this it may need longer cooking time to get up to temperature). And it just tastes so damned good. The bacon really makes it I think. I use el cheapo rolled bacon because I'm el cheapo myself, and I use a good 5 or 6 rashers instead of the 2 they say to use. mmmMMMmMMMmm!

I don't have a photo of my finished product as a) it's still in the oven, and b) it doesn't plate up very prettily haha, so I have taken a photo of the picture in the recipe book! Cheater aye!

Cottage / Shepherds Pie

(You can only call it Shepherds Pie if it's using lamb mince... it's a random pet peeve of mine when people call it Shepherds Pie using beef haha!)

From the Watties Kiwi Favourites Cookbook

 

 

4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed (I do a mix of kumera and potato)

1 egg, beaten

500g lamb or beef mince

2 (or 5 or 6..) rashers of bacon, diced

1 onion, diced

3 Tbsp Tomato Sauce

1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp prepared mustard

1/2 tsp yeast extract, marmite or vegemite (it's a no brainer really, use vegemite!)

1-2 cups frozen mixed veges

1/2 cup cheese,grated (optional)

 

Preheat oven to 180*c

Cook potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water, drain, season with salt and pepper and mash. When cooled slightly quickly whip through the beaten egg (this is how I always do my mashed potato now, makes them so soft and fluffy without the wet taste of using milk and much better for you than using butter/cream/milk/whatever)

Heat a dash of oil in a frying pan and brown the mince and bacon, then add the onion and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Dissolve the yeast extract (VEGEMITE!) in 1/2c boiling water. Add it to the mince with the frozen mixed veges and cook for a further 2 minutes before placing in an ovenproof dish.

Top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle with cheese (if desired).

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the pie has heated through and the cheese has melted.

Welcome Back to me!

So, we bought our first house recently, and a little over a week ago we moved in. We are all settled now, and I have no excuse not to blog anymore other than being right out of the habit and not having a lot of spare time.

My last post was about lemons - far too long ago! Well, today it's about grapefruit! I was given a massive box of grapefruit a few weeks ago - bad timing really as it got caught up with the packing and moving. So I have lost several grapefruit to them going bad, but I still have about 20 or so perfectly good ones. Far too many to just eat, so I am playing around with recipes.

Today I bring you muffins as I like muffins - quick and easy, freeze well for school lunches etc. It's a recipe I adapted, the original recipe looked good but it uses the pulp after squeezing the juice, but the grapefruit that I have are full of pips, and well, it would have been one hell of a job to sort through the pulp, so I omitted it. I upped the juice, substituted a few ingredients, added some grapefruit curd, changed a few things, and well yeah, this is the end result!

 

Grapefruit Muffins - makes approx 16 medium muffins

Recipe adapted from South in your Mouth

1 1/4 cups Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (took me 4 medium grapefruit)
1/2 cup Oats
1/2 cup Coconut
3/4 cup White Sugar
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cup White Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

In a medium size saucepan, bring the juice to the boil. Remove from heat and add the oats and coconut. Sit aside for roughly 20 minutes (I left mine for less, impatient!)

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Add the juice/oat mixture and combine.

Spoon mixture into the muffin tins filling only partway, add a generous dollop of grapefruit curd, then top with the remaining mixture.

Bake at 180*c for roughly 20 minutes

Now, I have just moved house, so my recipes from now on may reflect how long things were baked in my new oven which is fan forced. My old oven wasn't. These took me 20 minutes at 170*c, however I would have baked them at 180 in my old oven, and likely taken longer.

They didn't rise much so are quite flat on top. But overall they taste pretty good and they used up a few grapefruit so that is all good.

 

Now, as I mentioned on my facebook page, I had never tried to make curd before using margarine instead of butter. Well, I tried it with marg in the grapefruit curd, and ya know what? It jolly well worked! Fantastic. Grapefruit curd doesn't taste nearly as nice as lemon curd though! I added a squeeze of lemon juice in there, but next time if I want to use grapefruit in it I think I might do half half with lemon.

Anyways, the recipe:

Grapefruit Curd

(yes this is the same as my lemon curd recipe, just using grapefruit...)

4 eggs

zest of 2 smaller sized grapefruit, finely grated
125ml grapefruit juice, strained (can make that up with part lemon juice too)
150g caster sugar (I just use normal sugar, it's fine)
100g butter (or margarine works fine too)

Lightly beat the eggs and strain through a sieve (this step is important, stops the bitty egg white bits you can get otherwise)

Combine zest, juice, butter and sugar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan. Gently heat and stir until the sugar dissolves and butter melts.

Remove from heat and whisk in the egg. Place back over low heat, stirring constantly until the curd thickens.

 

Enjoy!

Lemons!

My lemon tree has not been my friend this fruiting season. I believe it has ONE green lemon on it so far, and that's it. Last year it had a good fruiting season, and I have been told they tend to do every 2nd year (damnit). Never mind, I ended up getting a big bag of lemons when I was at a friend's house not long ago. Her tree is far from short of lemons! So jealous.

My favourite thing to do with lemons is make lemon curd! And this recipe is awesome. My friend Nicola gave it to me, the same friend who gave me her brownie recipe that features on here which I also used in the base to the peanut butter truffle brownies too. She has some yummy recipes that lady!

Anyways, back to lemons, and more importantly - the curd! I haven't ever tried to make this with margarine, only with butter. I have a gut feeling that it won't work without the butter, and I do not want a failure with my precious curd. However, if you try it with a dairy free spread, please do let me know if it turns out!

Lemon Curd

4 eggs

zest of 2 lemons, finely grated

125ml lemon juice, strained

150g caster sugar (I just use normal sugar, it's fine)

100g butter

Lightly beat the eggs and strain through a sieve (this step is important, stops the bitty egg white bits you can get otherwise)

Combine zest, juice, butter and sugar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan. Gently heat and stir until the sugar dissolves and butter melts.

Remove from heat and whisk in the egg. Place back over low heat, stirring constantly until the curd thickens.

You can then use the curd in baking, desserts or just as a spread. I jar mine, and have on toast or crumpets, and often make yummy muffins with lemon curd middles (I guess now I have mentioned that I better bake some and blog about them aye?)

Wow, just wow!

I cannot believe my blog has reached over 10,000 page views! That's amazing! Of course that wouldn't be possible without you guys, so thank you for making this worthwhile :)

Anyways, I made some biccies the other day. They are really quite yum, so I must share them with you as I don't often make biscuits. They were another pinterest find. I like soft biscuits as opposed to harder crunchy ones. And these fit the bill well. Taste-wise they were slightly lacking but texture-wise they were spot on. Hubby really enjoyed them too, so did the kids. So now to play around with the recipe a bit, but here is the recipe anyway.

Super Soft Choc Chip Biscuits

Thanks to Kirbie's Cravings

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (or just normal butter or margerine and omit the salt)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 180c.
2. Cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and blend in. Stir in flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Drop by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.

Unusual Ingredients

Ok, so my friend Kim gave me this recipe. It sounded... interesting. Different. Odd! But hey, I thought I would give it a go, and frankly, it's bloody awesome! So YUM! The recipe is for Boston Buns... the unusual ingredient? Mashed Potato.

Boston Bun

1c cold mashed potato (sieved, or well broken down)
¾c sugar
2c flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1c fruit (I just used sultanas)

1c milk (rice milk, whatever)

Beat potato & sugar until creamy. Add rest of ingredients. Bake 30 mins mod oven, in 2 sponge tins (well greased). (I cooked them in a texas muffin tin, for about 15-20mins... next time I'm going to do them in a normal muffin tin).

Ice while just warm & sprinkle with coconut.

(I just made up a quick vanilla icing with just icing sugar, a dash of vanilla and a splash of milk)

And yep, I have been missing in action a wee bit lately. Busy busy, barely have time to think! Hoping things settle down super quick (if it does it means we have had some good news!) but I may not be blogging so much for a couple of months, we shall have to see!

Are you tough enough?

Apparently I am haha! Yesterday hubby and I did the Tough Guy n Gal Challenge - a very very muddy mud run out at Woodhill in Auckland. It was SO. MUCH. FUN! Seriously, I cannot wait until next year's one! It's not often you get to run around in muddy swamps. I even got stuck in one mud pit haha, DH was right behind me so he couldn't help, luckily I was able to get the attention of somebody to the side to help pull me out haha, was such a weird feeling plodding along and then suddenly you can't move! Crack up.

I mean, how much fun does that look? That's me in the red top, this is towards the end of the race (6km). Actually, that guy in the army cap is the one who hauled me out of the mudpit I was stuck in, thanks mate!

Anyways, that was my first running event (though it was less running, more scrambling!!). Don't know our official time yet, can't wait to find out - then we are going to try to beat it next year. Have also convinced my Dad and stepmum to do it next year too, so the aim next year is to also beat them haha, can't have the oldies (who are admittedly quite fit) beating us!

Next up? 10km run in October. Better get training, so far 5km straight running is about my limit, so 10km is pushing it haha! A 10km run has been on my 101 Challenges list, so that will get crossed off once and for all!

A Fun Filled Day

So it would seem school holidays are super busy in my house! Today I had 5 kids ranging in age from 1 to nearly 8. Had to think of a full days worth of activities that was suitable for the young ones but that I knew the older ones would enjoy too (and well, my older boys really do enjoy preschool activities still anyway, so it wasn't that hard).

Pinterest helped me out with some inspiration (not just for today but for future days too). I got our first main activity's idea from this blog Hands on as we grow - it has so many awesome activity ideas for preschoolers so I urge you to have a good look at their website. I'm going to get a lot of ideas from there I am sure.

So this first activity was using cut up egg cartons, with holes punched in each side, and threading them together with pipe cleaners. All the kids really enjoyed this, and continued to turn the activity into something else.

Mr 7 made a super long train, connecting a few pipe cleaners together, then added a piece of notebook paper and everything into the train. He then drew windows on the "carriages".
Mr 4 made the creation below... I don't think he even knew what it was meant to be, but hey, it kept him occupied for quite some time!
The 2yo's and the 1yo had fun stacking the egg carton bits, and sticking lots of pipe cleaners into each hole.

Overall a successful activity for all ages, putting their own spin on it. Great for their hand eye coordination and their fine motor skills.

We had a great time with water play after that, filling plastic tubs up with warm soapy water and getting out all my large spoons and measuring cups etc.

Later on we did some arty crafty stuff. Nice and easy, and for the American folk I guess it could be a good craft idea for the 4th of July, which is what it happens to be today, coincidentally... can say its fireworks.

AGES ago I bought this bag of shiny confetti for a couple of dollars from one of the dollar stores. It goes a long way, we have done these sort of pictures a lot, and I still have about 90% of the container left! So easy - the kids paint whatever design or blobs they want to on a piece of paper, then tip some confetti over it, and then shake off the excess. Makes a big mess but easy enough to vacuum up, and something even the littlies are capable of doing without much assistance.

Baking with the Kids

I swear, baking with the kids is like some form of punishment to me. The bickering over "it's my turn" "no, it's MY turn" really does my head in. Even though I am right there saying "uh, no, it's his turn", it all seems to turn into a bigger drama than it really needs to be! Is it any wonder I very rarely bake with my kids? I do it with the kids I look after a lot more often - they don't bicker stupidly like my own kids do haha. Much more civil. Plus, I get paid to do it, that compensates any hassles. But baking with my own kids in my own time, well, lets just say it's not something I like to do all too often! Baking is how I relax. It is far from relaxing sharing the fun with the sprogs.

Nevermind, I stupidly suggested we make gingerbread men, and tradition would have it that the kids help from the get go, not just the decorating. Damn, didn't think that through now did I?? Nevermind, we ended up getting through the activity without incident, and now I share with you what I think is the BEST gingerbread man recipe EVER. It has a strong ginger flavour, and I absolutely ADORE that. We are ginger lovers in this house. You could play down the ginger flavouring with less ginger if you prefer.

Note: this recipe makes a huge amount of dough, you could probably get away with halving it, which I think I will do next time! Good doing this many at Christmas time, but just randomly, well, it's a bit excessive! I made up 2 cookie sheets full, then we ate the leftover dough. Haha, yummo.

Gingerbread Men (and stars and whatever other shape you do....)

In a pot, melt together:
125g butter (or dairy free spread works fine)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup golden syrup

Add:
3 cups flour
2 Tbsp ginger and mixed spice (whatever combo you like, I tend to do roughly 1tbsp of each)
pinch of salt

Stir together with the melted ingredients

Dissolve together
1tsp baking soda
2Tbsp cold milk

Then add the dissolved ingredients into the dough and mix together. Leave the dough for about 1/4 hour, then roll out and cut into shapes.

Bake at 160*c for 10-15mins. Allow to cool for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack. Cool fully then decorate as you please :)


Now, for some reason my dough came out too sticky today. It didn't happen last time I am sure. I do not recall having issues with this recipe, but typically today I have. I could blame the kids, but really I was the one who measured everything so I'm not sure what happened. In the end I had to chill it for a while in the fridge and just used LOTS of flour to roll out, and they ended up perfect.

Now the fun part - decorating. This is where I let the kids go wild. We have icing pen tube thingies that are awesome for decorating gingerbread men, however as it is winter (icing isn't as soft) and the tubes are nearly empty, the kids found them a bit too hard this time. So they required a lot of assistance from us. Yes, hubby gets in one the decorating, we each decorate one gingerbread man each haha, then the kids get to go nuts decorating the other shapes with a basic icing made up of icing sugar, water and colouring, smeared on with knives. They get no assistance for that part! The pic above is Mr2 getting in on it, so it's an activity that suits all ages really.

Paper fun!

I have a thing for paper. Paper, cardboard etc. It's cheap. Or free. I pull it out of the recycling to use! And we all know I am cheap haha.

Anyways, today we had fun with an old newspaper. I got the idea off Pinterest, from a blog called Inner Child Fun. They did it better than me - they rolled the paper rods, then used a hole punch and pipecleaners to secure, making them reusable. Unfortunately this was a last minute "what shall we do for the next hour?" decision to play with paper rods, and I didn't have any pipecleaners in the house. It is however on my shopping list, I do intend to do this activity again, and the pipecleaners would just make it that much cooler. Instead, we just sellotaped the rods together (don't even have a stapler haha!). It worked fine, just means the rods arent reusable.

Anyways, this activity was a bit above the 1 and 2yo's level, don't have any 3yo's in my house at the moment, but the 4yo thought this was the coolest thing ever. He absolutely loved it and kept gushing about how awesome this was lol. And if Mr7 was home I would dare say he would have enjoyed it too - I might have to do it again over the school holidays.

I bought me a plant

So on my 101 Challenges, one of them was to buy a new potplant, and keep it alive. You see, I kill all my plants. Mostly from nelgect. So I bought a plant that I find beautiful, that I really do not want to die.

Pretty isn't it?

It sits in my kitchen, in a nice sunny spot. Apparently I have to turn it a quarter turn every day so they grow straight, and not towards the light. Yeah, good luck with me remembering but I shall try! They bring me joy when I walk into my kitchen, and let's face it, I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. They sit in the spot that I tend to reserve for vases of flowers from hubby. But as the years go on, I am starting to realise that that spot is empty for longer and longer. Hehe. Not to worry, my tulips are there to bring me smiles!

And that's another off the list. I should look into getting some of the really easy ones checked off soon! Though it's time that I'm lacking at the moment, and most take time. Or thinking power, and I'm not sure my tired brain is up for much of that at the moment!

And for a few linkies, tonight for dinner we had Crustless Quiche along with my "a-typical roast". Yummy. Yesterday I made Spaghetti Pinwheel Scones for the kids lunchboxes.

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A Quick Nom

Discovered this recipe is NOT light on the ol' calories (well, cut as large as I cut them, into 16 squares), they are nearly 300 calories each! holy moly, I scoffed 2 down this morning before I worked out their calorie content, best lay off them the rest of today! The are SO more-ish though. SO good.

This is actually the same recipe as the base of the peanut butter truffle brownies - it is best made with real butter, as with margarine it doesn't get quite the right ooey gooey texture but I tell ya, it does come close. The brownie in the picture was made with dairy free spread, and dairy free chocolate drops. It is still damned delicious. However the times I have made it with real butter, it's just that much more delicious.

Chocolate Brownies

200g butter (or a dairy free spread)

1/2 c cocoa
2 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c flour
2 eggs
optional ¾ c choc melts added after eggs (I used Pams Dark Chocolate Compound Drops - they are dairy free)

Preheat oven to 180c. Melt butter and cocoa in a large saucepan. Add sugar and vanilla, then remove from the heat. Add flour, then the eggs. Finally add the chocolate melts (optional). Mix all together then put into a greased/lined 13" by 9" slice pan (I put mine into a square silicone cake pan). Bake for roughly 20 mins. I find less cooking time is best for the goo factor! It does harden more upon cooling.


And now it's time for me to stop procrastinating and get on with the housework before I go pick up the kids!

MIA

So I have been missing in action a bit. Life has gotten busy, but I like it busy. Means my blog gets a lil neglected though. However, having a lazy day at home today after a big night here last night, so thought I would touch down on my 101 Challenge and how I am going with that. I haven't forgotten it, and have been slowly chipping away at my list in the background. The ones that cost money are being delayed due to working hard to save save save at the moment, but they will get done sooner or later... probably later haha.

Lets have a look...

1. Do this challenge first - Buy yourself a notebook. Use this as your journal to document your challenges. Take pictures of completed challenges where possible and add them to it. Use this notebook to collect all the things you need to write down. Use the notebook for all the lists you have to create during challenges. 10-2-12

2. Buy a pretty apron to wear whilst in the kitchen - and wear it - Well, the sort I have my eye on, are not cheap. So this must wait for now. Maybe I will get one for my birthday :)

3. Join the gym - and go at LEAST 2x a week - joined 14-2-12 - and have been going 4 days most weeks! Quite proud of my efforts there!

4. Finish putting together our wedding album - yeah.... I will get there. One day soon, it's been on my mind lately, so I will get to it in some spare time I find.

5. Do parent help at kindy - something I really need to get a move on with, my kindy boy starts school in a few weeks! Will have to give up one of my kid free days to do so which is something I loathe to do haha, Im a wee bit selfish about my time out!

6. Go for a family walk on the beach at sunset - That can wait till the weather warms up a bit!

7. Go out of your way to do something kind for a stranger - Just waiting for an opportunity really

8. Buy a blank canvas. Get 3 favourite colours and with the kids help, create a master piece together. - maybe these school holidays

9. Write a letter to myself to read in ten years time. - haven't really though about this one yet

10. Buy an utterly frivolous piece of lingerie. 6-03-12 Something for our wedding anniversary later this month hehe!

11. Collect all my family and friends birthdays, put them into my calendar and send them all birthday cards by post - collected 10-2-12, yet to send any.....    And, yeah, I sent like one card. Then the next birthday I had the card all ready, then it was in a bag with a carton of eggs. I dropped the bag accidentally, and the card got biffed along with the eggs and it was all downhill from there! I really must get back into it, it felt good the whole idea of it.

12. Go to the home of a friend who has just recently been sick, take a homemade casserole or soup and help out in any way needed during this time. - This one is a hard one to do, somebody has to coincide getting sick with my free days haha, so far I haven't had the chance, but hey, it's winter, I'm sure the chance will arise!

13. Cut flowers, weeds, tree branches whatever is there and arrange them in a vase creatively. 26-02-12 http://tastytidbitsandrandomrambles.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/another-one-bites-dust.html

14. Blow up balloons for the kids birthdays and leave them on the floor for them to wake up to. - The next kid's birthday is in August, watch this space

15. Have an old fashioned picnic - we picnic a lot, but I really want to do the whole old fashioned way, like with lots of home made finger foods, instead of bread rolls and ham and stuff from the supermarket. This will have to wait till Summer too

16. Make homemade jam for the first time 10-4-12 http://tastytidbitsandrandomrambles.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/got-into-bit-of-jam.html - maybe that should have been "SUCCESSFULLY make homemade jam for the first time" - because I haven't yet done that hahahah!

17. Jump in the bath with the kids. - 23-02-12, and I had fun! Granted it was only the littlest kid, we only have a shub so no chance 4 of us can fit in there, 2 is a tight squeeze lol.

18. Make a time capsule. - maybe these holidays? Watch this space

19. Go to a market/fair and look at all the colours, people, stalls etc Look Listen & Smell. - so far haven't wanted to give up my sleep in to do this haha, really must organise to go with a friend, then I cannot back out!

20. Finish my bag shelves space - 6-03-12 YAY http://tastytidbitsandrandomrambles.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/my-days-excitement.html

21. Do something to help others in the community. 28-05-12 Gave Blood, that's gotta count

22. Spend a day with the kids letting them dictate every single thing we do from what we eat to where we go and what we do (within reason) - Possibly these holidays

23. Book a great restaurant and take yourself and husband out for a dessert-only dinner. You must only eat from the dessert menu. - Maybe next time we manage to organise a babysitter we will do this. As on our anniversary, we went out for dinner but didn't order dessert (both our fave part of the meal!) as we were just far too full after a day of eating eating eating haha. That was the last time we had a babysitter (back in March! Must get on to that. Actually it was early April by the time we could get a babysitter overnight lol).

24. Clean out your closet and donate everything to your local charity shop rather than sell it on Trade Me. - 20-02-12

25. Plant some vegies - I have a black thumb so the results will be interesting! - Waiting for spring, might have better luck then

26. Find out what a friend’s favourite cake is and make it especially for them for no particular reason at all - this one is right up my alley. Just gotta decide which friend is gunna be the recipient!

27. Go for a walk along the beach at night – almost dark. Take your shoes off and walk in the water. - again, Summer! Bit chilly for that at the moment!

28. . Spend one day taking pictures of everything you find beautiful. - Well, this will have to wait. My camera is broken!!

29. Write a letter to yourself at seventy from yourself right now. What do you need to tell yourself? - Gotta think about this one

30. Lay on a blanket with your kids and watch the clouds. - No excuses as to why I haven't done this, really should make myself a list of things to do with the kids that I can check on regularly for ideas

31. Talk to a mortgage broker and set proper plans in place towards saving for our first home -
2-05-12

32. Do a triathlon/duathlon/part marathon - Well, it's not quite one of these 3 but in 2 weeks time I am doing the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge (a 6km mud run) - should be fun!

33. Be a good neighbour/friend and take over a batch of homemade cookies or a cake. - Next door has recently sold, however they haven't moved out yet. But when the new owners move in, I am planning on taking over some baking and introducing myself.

34. Buy a hard-working friend a take away coffee and drop it off to them. - 6-03-12 A friend who runs a business, has 3 kids including 2yo twins was having a rough start to the week, so I turned up with a couple of coffees for us and a couple of fluffies for the kids, and had a lovely chat :)

35. Put a love note in hubby's car - should do this!

36. Pay for someone’s coffee that you do not know. - Keep forgetting about this while I'm out.

37. Sort out my old file and start using it again - *groans* one day

38. Look for a funny childhood picture of a friend or family member. Frame it and give it to them for no reason other than to celebrate family. - Will get there

39. Go on an op-shopping adventure with a friend - Need to organise this... only issue was the best op shop up here recently burnt down. It's reopened now, but it will take a while before it's as awesome as it used to be

40. Light a candle and put on great music - need to do this

41. Sit at the table with the kids and draw lots of pictures together - maybe these holidays?

42. Have a day with the kids, painting using only our bodies as canvases - this should be fun, will have to wait till the weather is warmer!

43. Get wedding photos printed for the wall - Hung them up 23-02-12

44. Do at least one craft project a month - #1 13-02-12
#2 6-03-12
#3 20-03-12
#4 18-05-12
ooooh crap, need to get on to this, June is nearly over haha! I am actually busy trying to find something I feel like doing but just not managing to get inspired at the moment.

45. Get a massage - $$ is delaying me

46. Write a list of things you would like to do or achieve before you die – ‘Bucket List’. - Before I die, I will do this. haha!

47. Save all my spending money for 2 weeks - then frivolously blow the lot in one go! - This is hard for me. I am a saver not a spender, so the idea of spending it all and not having anything in my spendings account worries me haha.

48. Send a handwritten note/letter to 3 friends letting them know how much their friendship means to you, include a gift. For no reason other than friendship - I shall get there

49. Learn to crochet - Yes, really need to do this, then I will have so many craft things to do! Maybe I will have to teach myself with the help of youtube

50. Finish making my recipe binder and keep it up to date with new favourite recipes - Really have no excuse not to!

51. Find something ugly at an op-shop, and make it look prettier - good things take time

52. Take the kids for a coffee date straight after school - Something I have been meaning to do for a while, will get there. Last week of term this week, so maybe I will do it one day this week

53. Clean the inside of my car - show it some love! - 14-03-12

54. Organise a babysitter once a month and go on a date with hubby - March '12... Set up a babysitting swap group with a few friends, first date night is for our wedding anniversary, then already have a date night booked in with a friend babysitting in April too :)... Update: and then we all just got too busy and poor that it all ended up falling through again haha!

55. Plant spring bulbs - another garden one, good luck to me! - spring

56. Start meal planning again - I'm struggling with this one, but no real excuse not to, other than I often don't buy my meat before my big grocery shop (fortnightly) so yeah, it all depends on what meat I get!

57. Make something for your children. Wrap it up and put it where they sit at breakfast time. - but what?

58. Write down 7 separate places in your life that you hope to take your children to see. - There are so many easy ones like this, I really should just do them!

59. No takeaways for dinner for a month - May 2012

60. find a roadside fruit or vegetable seller & make a purchase - my lack of carrying cash always stops me here haha. Maybe I should just get a fiver and leave it in my car in case I spot something I want to get

61. Buy a christmas present to put under the Kmart Christmas tree - obviously, gotta wait for Christmas

62. Write something inspirational or copy something inspirational on lovely paper. Put it in an envelope and put it under someone’s wiper in a car park. - so easy, I should do it.

63. Send a surprise I-think-you’re-fabulous handwritten note to someone - also easy!

64. Choose a photo of you and a friend. Write something on the back and send it to them telling them why you like the picture - easy again!

65. Write down 100 things you are grateful for in your life. - Probably not so easy, but I should do this some time

66. Start the C25K challenge (running challenge) - Started 28-02-12, finished 15-04-12

67. Donate some food to a foodbank - just gotta remember to do this while out!

68. Donate to your favourite charity. Every little thing matters. - 28-02-12 Bought a couple of books to donate to Starship via somebody in the community doing a collection for them

69. Go outside in the rain and get really wet. - maybe when it's warmer!

70. Bounce on the tramp with the kids - no excuse here lol

71. Reinstate regular "feet treats" with a friend again (pedicures) - lack of $$ at the moment, but maybe in summer when people actually see my feet

72. Have a family meal by candlelight. - maybe the boys and I can surprise DH with this one night. Granted it's still light when we eat haha

73. Take care of a nagging life admin item (a trip to the post office, filing an insurance claim, making a doctor’s appointment). - 13-02-12 - updated insurance on my car

74. Surprise your children. Keep each of them (one at a time) off school one day and have a fun day with them. - #1 we went mini golfing - 29-05-12
#2 we went 10 pin bowling 12-06-12
#3 we get a lot of 1 on 1 time lol, so won't do him until he's a big kindy boy!

75. Organise a night away with your husband for no other reason than because you can. - We need this!

76. Learn a fancy way to fold serviettes and do it randomly for dinner one night. - This can coincide with the candle thing

77. Let the kids decide the dinner menu one night, help them to make it, set the table and decorate it with whatever they want.  - This also could coincide with the candle thing

78. Buy a song off iTunes. Play it loud and sing along. - Easy, I should do it

79. Have a media-free day. - Not so easy!

80. Get an indoor potplant - keep it alive! - Yes, I want to do this, and soon

81. Create another piece of wall art - 13-02-12 Toilet Paper Wall Art

82. Explore rockpools with the kids - Maybe when it's warmer

83. Hike to the lookout at Shakespear Park - 10-06-12 with my 2 eldest in tow :)

84. Wash the outside windows - haha this looks really lazy. I wash the ones I can reach regularly, but the ones on the other side of the house I don't, and those are the ones I need to do!

85. Invest in some new acrylic paints - $$

86. Study a flower and paint it - I used to enjoy painting, haven't picked up a paintbrush in YEARS, it will show! - Need the paint first

87. Another gardening one - replant the rest of my pots outside and keep them alive! - haha! I will blame lack of money here too haha

88. Do some macaroni art with the kids - This is on my things to do soon list!

89. Get some more photos of the kids on the wall - one day....

90. Get dressed up in a dress and heels, put on some music... and do the housework!! - Been thinking about this one lately! Maybe I should just do it hehe

91. Get/make a present for hubby and leave it under his pillow just randomly - Should do this soon

92. Go garage saleing one morning - hard to give up my sleep to do so!

93. Don't complain about anything for a week. - *snort* yeah...

94. Make up cookie dough to keep in the freezer ready to bake freeze biscuits when somebody drops by for a cuppa - 3-04-12 http://tastytidbitsandrandomrambles.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/cinnamon-goodness.html

95. Read 20 new books - #1 6-03-12 Songs of the Humpback Whale, Jodi Picoult
#2 21-03-12 Rich Again, Anna Mexted
#3 30-03-12 Three Girls and Their Brother, Theresa Rebeck
#4 10-04-12 False Advertising, Dianne Blacklock
#5 22-04-12 The Truth About Ruby Valentine, Alison Bond
#6 13-05-12 A Spot Of Bother, Mark Haddon
#7 31-05-12 Seventh Heaven, Alice Hoffman
#8 11-06-12 Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult
#9 17-06-12 The Time of My Life - Cecelia Ahern

Currently reading 50 Shades of Grey lol. It's, um, interesting... I don't really see what the big fuss is to be honest, it's badly written! But it's entirely readable so on I read :)


96. Every day for a whole week, do not turn the computer on until all my morning housework is done - I really struggle with that!

97. Get photos printed and put into albums - Mr2's baby photos - The more time that passes, the harder it is to get around to this lol

98. Make 5 things off my Pinterest crafts board - #1 13-02-12 Toilet Paper Wall Art
#2 20-03-12 I ♥ U anniversary card
#3 18-05-12 No Sew Scarf Necklace

99. Redo my Christmas ball wreath that got knocked down and ruined last Christmas 29-03-12 - I really should blog about it actually.

100. Read over my notebook and feel fantastic about everything I have achieved.

101. Buy my next notebook, and start my next list.


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Baking up a storm

Decided to whip up a quick batch of muffins yesterday so there was something to throw into the kids lunch boxes this week. I snuck one, and YUM.

It was just a quick adaptation from my choc chip muffins - instead of chocolate chips, I threw in a tin of drained tinned fruit salad. And then I sprinkled some dark cane sugar on top (simply because I have a bag of it here that I got free ages ago and never use it!). I really do love that recipe! Did I mention it was quick and easy? Haha. But seriously, the muffins are just so good. MMMmmmMMmMMM

Fruit Salad Muffins

2 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

100g butter (or margarine), melted

3/4c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 c milk (or milk alternative)

1 tin of fruit salad, thoroughly drained

Preheat oven to 220*c. Mix all ingredients together with a wooden spoon until just mixed.

Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake for 12-15mins.

And then today, just now, I decided to try a recipe I found in The Healthy Food Guide magazine that is lying about the house at the moment. Biscuits! As you might have noticed, I rarely make biscuits. I don't know why, but they annoy me haha. I find them fiddly and annoying. But these ones were quick to whip up, and were ready and waiting by the time the oven got to temperature. You could do them in 1 bowl too, the cheats way, but I followed the recipe as is simply because I didn't read through it before making it haha. (I often skip the mixing of the dry ingredients together, just skip to the 2nd bowl and do the wet ingredients, then dump all the dry on top and stir it all in, still works and less dishes haha).

Chocolate Chip and Spice Orange Cookies

thanks to The Healthy Food Guide

1 cup oats

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar

115g reduced-fat spread

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp mixed spice

1 orange, zest

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 190*c. Line baking tray with baking paper.
2. Mix oats, flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl (or just skip this step if you like)
3. In another bowl beat sugar, spread, egg, vanilla, spice and orange zest together.
4. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture to just combine (or just measure the first lot of ingredients directly into the wet ingredients, then stir to combine).
5. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon mixture on tray leaving space in between for spreading while cooking.
6. Cook for 12-15minutes or until golden at the edges and firm to touch. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from tray. Cool completely then place in a sealed container to keep for up to 2 days.

If you make the above recipe into 14 biscuits, then each biscuit will be 125 calories. Not too bad.

And ooooooooooh my god they are divine! Wow. Just ate one after typing out the recipe. Still warm from the oven. YUM YUM YUM! Alright, this is going to be a semi regular feature in this house!

 

 

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