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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Some more simple recipe's... Part 2

As promised here are some of the simple recipe's that I have cooked/will be cooking this week as part of our Meal Planning Monday, weekly meal plan.

Chicken Soup..
I have had an absolute craving for a homemade chicken soup since late last week, so it was so indulgent to be able to finally cook and eat this wonderful hearty soup!

What you will need:
(you can increase/decrease the ingredients to suit your family size etc)
  • 6-8 Chicken Drumsticks (you may also choose to use chicken pieces/chicken breast etc)
  • 2 small onions (or 1 large.. I only had 2 small)
  • 2 carrots
  • 4 washed potatoes
  • 1 stick of celery
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Mushrooms
  • Baby Spinach Leaves
  • 4 Cups of Chicken Stock or equivalent
  • 250 ml of water
I chose to cook our chicken soup in the slow cooker as I had a few errands to run in the evening and wanted to keep the meal simmering to ensure maximum flavour, however, cooking it in your stock pot works just as well and the recipe runs the same (just alter the cooking times)

1. Place your chicken into your pot/slow cooker. There is no need to brown it first.
2. Add your chopped Carrots, Onions and Potatoes to the pot. It depends how you like your vegetables as to how you cut them. I halve my Potatoes, cut the carrots into rings and cut my onions into quarters.
3. Add your 4 cups of chicken stock over the top of the chicken/vegetables. If the meat/vegetables aren't entirely covered, you will need to add water until everything is just covered by the water.
4. Season with salt and pepper and any herbs you may like.
5. Allow to cook in the pot or the slow cooker.. I usually use a low heat, so it takes quite a while, I find the flavour better and love how the chicken falls apart by the end of the cooking process.
6. In the slow cooker, I wait about 4 hours, then I add my mushrooms, baby spinach and black olives and then continue to cook.
7. Towards the end of the cooking you may wish to take your chicken legs out of the slow cooker and separate the meat from the bones, then you simply add the meat back to your pot and discard the bones.
8. After about 2 hours in the pot or 6 hours in the slow cooker usually the soup is ready to serve!

Super yummy and super freezable.. I always make larger portions so I can freeze some for later :)



Chicken Caesar Wraps..
This is a super simple recipe, great for dinners or lunches when you couldn't be bothered cooking!

What you will need;
  • 8 Tortilla's or you may choose to use mini tortilla's for younger children.
  • 500g chicken breast (or you can use a box of chicken tenders)
  • Washed baby spinach leaves
  • Chopped cherry tomatoes
  • Grated tasty cheese
  • Black sliced kalamata olives
  • Caesar salad dressing
1.
Start by either dicing and cooking the chicken breast in the fry pan or adding your chicken tenders to the oven.  If I am cooking my chicken breast from scratch, I will also add diced onion to the frying pan also.

2.
Whilst the chicken is cooking, it is best to prepare all of your salad items for the wraps.  So when the chicken is cooked you can start to put the wraps together. Spread your wraps with some avocado, add the grated cheese, the spinach leaves, chicken and top with tomato and olives. Once you have added all the ingredients onto your wrap (you can of course change these to suit your tastes) you are ready for the sauce.

3.
We buy a Caesar salad dressing and add this as our sauce, but you could easily use sour cream and sweet chili sauce, BBQ sauce, tomato chutney - whatever suits your tastes.

4.
Fold the wraps up and enjoy!


I will post the remainder of the recipe's in the upcoming days..

Monday, March 21, 2011

Space for Tween's...

I have two 'tweens', you know the age 9 (going on 10) and 10 (going on 11).. They have outgrown many of their younger childhood toys, feel they should be treated older and most definitely crave their own space, particularly away from each other & their two younger siblings who are aged 7 and 6. I tried a little experiment starting a couple of weeks ago, whereby I was seeing how they went at making their beds and keeping their rooms tidy and organised.. needless to say it was an abomination!

The Before's!


So today I caved and tidied their rooms for them.. I could no longer stand walking past their rooms and looking at the mess.. I love their beds, they are loft beds with a desk, drawers, wardrobe etc all built in, so they are the ultimate space savers which is handy in a house of soon to be 5 kids! Today I have focussed on the lower half of the space, tomorrow I will remake their beds with fresh linen etc.

My Stepson aged 10, enjoys reading, playing his DS, playing lego, sketching and his Bop-it indoors.. We added a computer and a desk lamp to his desk today, so I know when he returns on the weekend he is going to be super impressed by the new setup.. here's hoping he keeps it clean!



And my stepdaughter she enjoys much of the same, plus Littlest Petshop, Pixel Chix, Beado's and making her friends endless books, cards, friendship bracelets etc etc. she is also branching into an interest in scrapbooking and beadmaking, so I have set her up some baskets to contain all of her supplies;


So now iv cleaned up, I think I'll find it much easier to keep it clean (and for them to keep it clean..) and hopefully it will spark some new interests for the both of them! 

Meal Planning Monday



Well I guess I'd best get back into the swing of things after a week of feeling quite under the weather. I still feel quite unwell, most likely a cold - ill bundle myself off to the doctors today and get the groceries afterwards!  No rest for the wicked.. :) 

Here is the meal plan for the week, my apologies for not getting the recipe's from last week on here, as I was sick, some of my meals were changed or hubby cooked for the evening. For example tonight we went with Tomato's on toast.. exciting huh?! LOL.

So here goes; The meals highlighted in red will get their recipe posted later in the week :-)

Monday: 
Chicken Soup! (I think its in order for this sick girl!)  Plus I love it, and ill make a large batch and freeze the extras!

Tuesday:
Ceasar chicken wraps.

Wednesday:
Spaghetti Bolognaise Pasta Bake - a slight twist on the original because Mr 6 has decided he no longer likes Spaghetti Bolognaise & I think ill be able to con him into eating this way!

Thursday:
Beef, Tomato and Mushroom casserole.

Friday:
No cook night!

Saturday:
Beef Nacho's with sour cream & guacamole.

Sunday:
Roast of the Week - Lamb! :)

Recipe's to come during the week.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Sorry to all of my regular blog readers, Iv had a little bit of a blogging break whilst I have been feeling unwell.. But I will hopefully be back on board tomorrow with lots of lovely catch up posts from the week just gone! :)

But right now, off to rest up and recuperate! xo

Friday, March 18, 2011

20 weeks..

Tonight was the first night I have woken up and my belly hasn't deflated on me! Granted its a really bad piccy, scratches, blaring flash and all.. but a moment I felt worth capturing! LOL. Ill take a better piccy and upload it with an ultrasound pic or 2 from the morning as we are going for our 20 week scan.. that is if the little one is cooperating of course!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Meal Planning Monday (Yes, I know its Tuesday..)

Oops, Meal Planning Monday has ran over into Tuesday this week as I felt a little off yesterday and didn't get a chance to post. Ill be doing my grocery shopping this afternoon, so it still works out ok.

Monday -
Steak, Egg and Salad burgers (cooked by Hubby! - they tasted awesome!)

Tuesday -
Ham and Salad (It is so hot today, I dont think I could cook in a hot kitchen tonight!)

Wednesday -
Steak with vegetable bake (potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin and corn) Green salad on side.

Thursday - 
Beef and Mushroom Casserole.

Friday -   
Kitchen Free Night - Eat out night..

Saturday - 
Home Made Pizza Subs.  

Sunday -   
Savoury Mince.

I will post my recipe's for Beef and Mushroom casserole, vegetable bake, Savoury Mince and Home Made Pizza Subs as the week progresses so stay tuned. Right now, im off to the shops to escape the heat and indulge in some air conditioning!!!!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

A Busy Weekend!

Wow! What a busy weekend we have just had, problem is, it's now Sunday night and I'm totally not prepared for Monday! I feel like I need a weekend to recoup after the weekend..

What kept us busy this weekend? 

The kids kicked off their weekend with a sleepover at Grandma's house on Friday night (which they haven't done for a long time) meanwhile no rest for the wicked, I caught up on a late night grocery shop and even managed to watch a movie off of the IQ box (I have about 30 shows to catch up on, since I've been falling asleep so early each night) I cant wait to catch up on Glee, Desperate Housewives and Better Homes and Gardens!  On Saturday I woke up motivated to go to the markets, so with my Mum and two kids in tow we set off for a baby and children's market. I bought some MCN's and an organiser for my fridge and then we proceeded to 'get lost' in the big smoke, had lunch and checked out a few more shops before heading home and calling it a day.  By the time we got home, it was time to head to the drive-in's where Tangled & Tron were playing - I love the drive-in ($25 for 2 movies for 6 people.. whats not to love!) we load up the car with pillows, blankets, snacks and drinks and have a great time (despite the fact I slept through all of Tron, I found it quite boring..) So that was Saturday!

Today, being Sunday was just as full.. after school mass it was onto the Baby and Kids market, which I adored! It was like being a kid in a candy store.. so many great buys, we certainly didn't leave empty handed (more on that later this week).  Next onto IKEA and more great buys.. nothing major, just a few organisation type products that will come in handy around the home and finally onto HOME!

So yes, a bigger weekend than what I have been used to of late.. I think I might sleep now!