Cooking up a plan, Stan November 21, 2011

In an attempt to be a tad more organised and save my remaining brain cells, I’m starting to menu plan. I was inspired by  Quirky Jo’s thermomix menu plan over at Quirky Cooking and decided to take part in her great idea of a Thermomix menu plan link up.  The menu below isn’t entirely thermomixed but thems the breaks. Squid is able to start eating meat now, though he’s been on solids for a couple of months (due to reflux issues and 2 teeth that sprung up at 4 months and now another humungo one has appeared. My boobs are cringing). I usually freeze his purees into ice blocks to thaw as needed but I’d like to start offering him what we eat now too. So, here goes!

Monday

Lunch: leftover roast chicken (Squid: apricot and yogurt)

Dinner: Arancini balls with salad (made with leftover mushroom risotto from EDC recipe) (Squid: risotto)

Making: spelt bread; chicken stock and vege puree for Squid using chicken bones and freezing

Tuesday

Lunch: sandwiches (Squid: chicken “casserole” made yesterday)

Dinner: slow cooked lamb tagine made in the morning (Squid: tagine + pumpkin/sweet potato/potato puree)

Making: pumpkin/sweet potato/potato puree and freezing

Wednesday

Lunch: leftover tagine (Squid: leftovers)

Dinner: spanakopita using some of the buttload of silverbeet in the garden (Squid: spinach/ricotta and fruit pieces)

Making: ricotta for dinner

Thursday

Lunch: leftovers (Squid: leftovers)

Dinner: beef tacos (Squid: taste of taco mince, toast fingers, fruit)

Making: Spelt bread

Friday:

Lunch: minestrone soup from EDC (Squid: minestrone and toast)

Dinner: Asian-style fish fillets from EDC (Squid: fish and cheese)

Making: green mango chutney from Indian thermomix cookbook

Saturday

Lunch: leftover minestrone (Squid: minestrone and toast)

Dinner: we’re out!

Sunday: 

Lunch: probably sandwiches

Dinner: BBQ with friends including Tenina’s Fruity Harvest Salad (Squid: chicken casserole, pear slices)

Gah, no idea what happened to the formatting there but I have to go so no time to fix! Whingey child awaits

Been a Long Time November 20, 2011

So, this blog has been languishing in the ether for 18 months now. Whoops. Quick wrap up: Holiday in Thailand in June -July last year as a last gasp of freedom before we had kids and then in August I fell pregnant. Well, that was quick! As you can imagine, gardening took a backseat to clearing out a space in our teensy house for a baby. Pregnancy over a very long, hot summer also didn’t inspire me to garden, nor did the blistering sun, which scorched everything in sight on a particularly hot week. I gave up after that and retreated to the air conditioning to complain about my resemblance to an orca in a quite nice maternity dress.

Fast forward to the present and I’m now loving my time as a stay at home mum to my gorgeous 6 month old boy. He’s a really happy baby now that he’s able to lunge around and grab, well, anything within reach really!  He loves ‘talking’ and ‘singing’, which are just freaking adorable. It took a while to get here though. The first few months were tough. In fact, I remember a pregnant friend calling me up a few weeks after Squid was born and I said in a feverish tone something like: “no, really, they say it’s exhausting and really hard and you prepare yourself for it, but NOTHING can prepare you for this. Nothing, It’s a total mindf*ck. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. EVER”. At the worried silence on the other end of the phone I tacked on “oh, but also the best thing ever. It’s truly magical”. And it is.

It’s taken me this long to recover some brain cells though and even then they’re still stumbling around in the dark after a hard night. There’s enough of them that I’ve got stuck into the garden again and I’m contemplating things like work. I know, right? Probably a guaranteed way to get those brain cells comatose again. I may have to change the name of this blog though, as in true mumsy fashion I’m branching out from gardening and knitting into (really crappy) sewing and more cooking. My nannafication is now complete. I’m a rabid thermomix fan for cooking and I sing its praises to anyone who doesn’t back away slowly from the maniacal glint in my eye.

The vege patch is coming along after a year of neglect. I’ve planted some tomato, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin, rainbow chard and capsicum. Chilli is going great guns and the silverbeet from last season is still hanging around. We got a couple of lemons off the dwarf tree in it’s first year and more are coming out now. I’m hoping to really get it looking nice outside again. There’s a chance at least, because Squid LOVES his swing so it’s pretty much the only place in the house I’m guaranteed to be able to do something without him getting upset. Hooray!