Monday Menu Planning

I truly do find menu planning so grounding. It is the one thing in my week I cannot go without. Floors not swept? Meh. Having to rifle through 3 baskets of washing to find one crumpled but clean outfit? Meh. Dinners and shopping not organised and planned, taking into account our busy days, home days, suiting everyone's tastes? Chaos ensues!!!!

After we've been away for a weekend at my parents, menu planning the coming week is the first thing I do on a Sunday night once the car is unpacked. It gets my mind back into home-mode, gets me thinking about what we have on through the week, what we've got in the pantry, fridge and freezer to use up, how I can extend the boys' tastes a bit without overdoing it. I love sitting with a blank page, days of the week ruled up and ready to be filled in. I love dividing our shopping up into our different stops through the week, markets for fresh fruit and veg, the butcher, the grocery, the bulk wholefoods shop in the next town if we're heading that way (which we are this week!!!!), the dairy.

Anyway, I know not everyone is a menu planner, I *ahem* even know some people that roll their eyes when I get my pen and ask the question "what will we have for dinners this week guys?" but, for little old me, it is truly my most favourite household chore.

If it can in fact be called a chore!

This week we're having:

Monday
Tuna Mornay Pasta Bake


Tuesday
Boys - boiled dippy eggs and wholemeal toast soldiers
Adults - Laksa

Wednesday
Lamb, Barley and Cinnamon Casserole from Maggie Beer's Maggie's Harvest p659 Random Recipe

Thursday
Homemade pizzas

Friday
Pork sausages with mashed potato and steamed veg

Saturday
Ratatouille with quinoa

Lazy Days

I'm having trouble finding motivation to get stuff done at the moment, so this blog is very much reflecting my house at the moment.

All over the shop, forgotten about, needing more love and attention paid to it. The laundry is piling up, the floors are in desperate need of a sweep and as for cooking, well, let's just say I'm thankful for having a stock of yummy healthy meals in the freezer.

However, in all this humdrum-ness (if that even is a word!) I did see something this morning that made me smile as I cut watermelon for the boys.

I'm hoping that a weekend away will recharge me and have me return home refreshed and rejuvenated.

Wishing you all a happy and restful weekend! xx

Archie's Baptism

Well it's done! Archie's Baptism is done and dusted.

It was a lovely, clear day but I had quite a sleepness night the night before. There were howling winds and pelting rain and all I could do was pray and hope that by the morning it would have blown itself away, and it did! Not a cloud in the sky!

The service itself was short and sweet with just 14 of us there including the boys! Archie seemed to pay attention to everything going on too, when his Grandmothers were doing readings he watched them and listened, he watched the Priest blessing the water and oils, he stared at the candle as Godmother Helen lit it and held it for him. He wasn't so keen on his white Baptismal bib though, so that came off straight after the ceremony!

The dear wee man fell asleep in the car on the way home, all that Baptising sure does tire a boy out! So then it was lunch with the family, way too much food and presents which were all opened with an emphatic "WOW!!" and not wanted to part with any of them "Boat!", "Cup!", "Truck!".

So that was the day. Unfortunately it was too warm to wear "the cardi" and also, my dress wasn't as boobie as I remembered so it wasn't an issue. It was finished the night before, so I kept up my usual standard of leaving everything until the last minute!

Random Recipe Review

After all the busyness of the weekend and Archie's Baptism, I really needed to get back into my routine of meal planning today. I just couldn't face it last night and fell asleep on the lounge at about 7:30! It really was such a big weekend and I'll post more about it tomorrow.

The last Random Recipe was from a fortnight ago, I just didn't get a chance to post about it last week. The recipe was Boiled Chicken with Aioli from The Mediterranean Collection. It wasn't a dish that we'd normally have, but the sort that Matt would like me to cook more often. It was surprisingly yummy, really simple flavours that would be good for a cold winter's night. It was basically just making a chicken stock with added sausages and pancetta. Vegies like cabbage, carrot and potato are cooked in the stock and then it's all served up with reduced stock like a gravy. In the end I couldn't be bothered making the aioli so we just had it with the vegies cooked in the stock and some extra steamed greens, just cause I like to have heaps of veg!

Boiled Chicken with Aioli (without the Aioli)

Poule au Pot

 1.5kg free range chicken

1 onion, studded with three cloves

250g piece of pancetta

4 good quality pork sausages

4 carrots, trimmed

4 leeks, trimmed

bouquet garni

 4 waxy potatoes

1 small green cabbage, cut into wedges

1. Wash and dry the chicken and stuff the cavity with the studded onion (my onion was really big so I put half in the cavity and half in the stock). Place in a large, heavy stockpot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil, skimming the surface as necessary.

2. Add the pancetta, sausages, carrots, leeks and bouquet garni and return to the boil. Simmer gently, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Add the potatoes and cabbage and continue to simmer for a further 40 minutes until all meats and veg are tender.

3. When the meats are tender, carefully remove them and vegetables from pot and place, covered with foil, in a low oven to keep warm. Strain the poaching stock into a clean pan and boil rapidly until reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Carve the meats and arrange on individual plates with veg. Pour over some of the stock.

My Creative Space

With Archie's Baptism coming up on Saturday my creativity this week has consisted of menu planning, table decorations, place settings, Archie's outfit (drama upon drama upon drama) and the on-going project of the cardi. Luckily my Mum is sorting out most of the decorating side of things while I've started cooking up a storm! On the cardi front there is just the seaming up to do and sewing on the buttons. A late night last night saw all the bands knitted up so today and tonight will be the sewing up, my least favourite part of a project! Hopefully the boys will cooperate and play independently so I can just sit on the verandah and sew away!


So my apologies, another boring creative space here. Hopefully there'll be something more exciting next week and there will definitely be more exciting things here!

Prodigy?

Don't forget to check out more Wordless Wednesdays!

Sourdough Bread

My first ever attempt!

I'm not sure if it turned out right but it is yummy! It is really holey and spongey, dense and moist. And sour. I'm not sure if it's too sour. I may have used too much starter or it may have been left too long before baking. Either way, it's yummy (I think) although Elliot did tell me after a while that it hurt his mouth!

Archie devoured four slices with local jam from the markets for morning tea, so it can't be that bad!