Getting in the groove January 23, 2012

Phew, so the madness of Christmas was closely followed by the madness of my birthday week, which included a Beatles themed bbq complete with shisha den out the back! Much fun was had. Our first Christmas with a baby was full on (as to be expected!) and filled with adoring family doting on Squid. Plus food food, food oh and more food! So with that all over, and an extra few kilos to show for it I’ve decided that this extra weight has knobs on and I have to do something about it! Squid is finally able to play happily by my feet for more than 5 minutes at a time, and he finally naps for more than 20mins at a time. You can’t sense the relief from the blogosphere. It’s HUMUNGOUS! I can occasionally clean and cook when noone else is home to hold the baby! Milestones ahoy, baby.

We’ve been having far (far, far) too much take away since Squid was born and now he can entertain himself I’m looking forward to nipping that in the bud. Take away food should be something to look forward to as a treat, like our awesome local japanese place, burger joint or thai. Not an exhausted 9pm text to my partner as he’s on his way home from work ‘Squid had the crappiest day. More teething. Couldn’t put him down. Need food STAT’ and lo and behold we get red rooster or hungry jacks. Again. Because only really bad take away places are open at 930pm.

My goal for the next two weeks is absolutely no take away at all. I’m going to trawl through my recipes and find those that have less than 15 minutes preparation tops and preferably 5 or 10! This’ll mean mostly Trevor ones then, I’m thinkin’. Any suggestions on your favourite QUICK and healthy recipes would be fabulous 🙂 Then next week I’ll be working from someone else’s menu plans. I’ve signed up for the million kilo challenge, with the goal of losing 12kg in 10 weeks. I’ve put on so much weight since having Squid that I sadly think that’s achievable 😦 Anyway, it includes a menu plan for each week and I’m planning on loosely following it, but I’ll have to adjust some to fit with my time constraints and baby-friendly food.

So in the mean time, this week’s Mad Dash Menu:

Monday:

lunch: leftover zucchini and mushroom slice based on this recipe and salad

dinner: tuna mornay (Budget Busters)

Tuesday:

lunch: sandwiches

dinner: lentil bolognese

Wednesday:

lunch: leftover lentils

dinner: chicken patties and salad (EDC)

Thursday:

lunch: leftovers again!

dinner: spiced meatballs (Dinner Spinner)

Friday:

lunch: spare

dinner: ‘fried’ rice

Saturday:

lunch: sandwiches plus afternoon tea for my 2012 Phoenix launch!

dinner: homemade pizzas

Sunday:

lunch: spare

dinner: spare

Baby’s calling (mamamamaaaaarghgurgleessaaaaahhhmmmm) better go!!

Christmas Week Menu Plan December 19, 2011

AAAAARGH!! How is it the week before Christmas? And who decided to make nice little gifts to go with bought presents while taking care of a teething 7 month old?? He’s got at least 3 teeth coming through simultaneously and I have a sneaking suspicion there’s more lurking. Teeth lurk, you know. So, this week’s menu is mainly Christmas gift related, and it seems I’m having a Very Tenina Christmas this year with the amount of recipes by her!

Monday: 

Gifts: Dried Apricot Preserves, Strawberry Vanilla Jam, EDC Marmalade, EDC Dukkha, Flavoured Salts (fennel, olive citrus, chilli lime, saffron, vanilla), Cookies and Cream Fudge.

Lunch: HAHAHA like there was time for lunch

Dinner: Lamb with olive and citrus rub and leftovers of the most awesome salad in the world

Tuesday:

Gifts: Hot Chocolate, EDC Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, Spelt and Rosemary Crackers

Lunch: sandwiches

Dinner: EDC pasta, probably involving bacon

Wednesday:

Lunch: out!

Dinner: zucchini slice

Thursday

Lunch: zucchini slice

Dinner: Asian style fish fillets (EDC)

Friday:

Gifts: almond chop chip biscuits, cranberry and choc chip biscuits, orange shortbread, pomegranate molasses biscuits

Lunch: probably biscuits to be honest 😉

Dinner: Prozac

Saturday:

Baking: Fruity pear mince tarts

Can’t think about eating anything. Oh all right maybe one mince pie

Sunday

Christmas! We’re having a big combined lunch at my mum’s house, with my partner’s family coming up from the country to join us for Squidlet’s first Christmas. We’re a cold meat and salad kind of family, but last year we had roasts on the bbq with salads because I was pregnant and couldn’t have cold meats. We liked it so much we’re doing it again! The in-laws are providing some organic, free range, couldn’t-have-had-a-better-life lamb from their farm, as well as eggs etc.  We’re taking salads to mum’s for lunch – that standby fruity harvest salad and a caesar salad using EDC dressing and the pear mince tarts. My brother will probably make his famous potato salad with basil and char grilled capsicum and there will probably be an Amanda’s salad, which is an in-joke. My mum is making her famous icecream cake with raspberry coulis. We’ve had this at Christmas for the last few years and mum puts in varying layers of whatever she feels like, but it’s always delicious! Cream, nuts, cherries, icecream, custard, choc chips…yuuum. Oh, and my Nanny is bringing a trifle, as usual. I think the thing I love about Christmas is the tradition. It doesn’t have to be stuffy, old style carols and trimming the tree together. In our house, it’s our favourite foods, the same people (with new additions!), the same old in-jokes that we laugh at every single year. Oh and then there’s a few games of ‘Gilchrist Tennis’ which my brother and I invented a few years ago. It’s just playing totem tennis while seated, because we were too full to get up and play 🙂 If the ball hits your hand then you both have to drop the bats and play with your feet. My nephew scores in the most fluid way possible and only he knows the rules 🙂 I guess you had to be there to understand, and we will be there again in a few days.

Merry Christmas!

 

On the menu December 7, 2011

I’m a couple of days late posting my menu. The last two weeks have been mad. I’ve become an independent trader for Phoenix cards and stationary as well as taken on a couple of paper rounds to get paid while I walk around the neighbourhood with the Squidlet 🙂 I haven’t even unpacked the card stock that arrived last week. It’s all taunting me from the dining room but today, TODAY I shall start! I’m very excited, as you can tell, being the gigantic stationary nerd that I am.

My partner alternates shifts every fortnight so one week he’s home for dinner and the other we have leftovers mostly, as I’m busy dealing with the Mr 7 month’s witching hour (or 3… or 4 hours) and bedtime. The first menu plan I’ve ever done was a roaring success and I can’t believe how smoothly everything went, how little food we wasted and how organised I was for Squid’s meals too. I’m definitely a convert to meal planning!

The spanakopita from last fortnight was lovely and used up heaps of languishing silverbeet from the garden.  The ricotta was so easy to make. I’m never buying it again! Tenina’s fruity harvest salad was the hit of the week. We had friends round for a bbq and two weeks later they’re still raving about this salad! I think I’ll be taking it to mum’s for Christmas lunch.

So, on to this week’s belated menu:

Monday:

lunch: sandwiches

dinner: teriyaki beef from Meat on the Menu (Squid – veges and couscous)

Tuesday:

lunch: sandwiches

dinner: minestrone soup with olive and rosemary spelt bread (Squid – same)

Wednesday:

lunch: minestrone (Squid – same)

dinner: leftover lamb tagine with pilaf (Squid – same)

Thursday:

lunch: out

dinner: falafel, hummus, leftover pilaf and salad (Squid – same)

Friday:

lunch: falafel kebabs (Squid – falafel and flatbread)

dinner: fish pie (Squid – same)

Saturday:

lunch: leftover fish pie

dinner: lamb bbq and Tenina’s seeded quinoa salad from the dinner spinner

Sunday:

lunch: cold meat and salad

dinner: roast pork if home, picnic if going to carols by candlelight 🙂

Really, really have to start thinking about Christmas, what to make as gifts etc. My plans of being all organised and ready early this year? Yeah, utter failure 🙂

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