IT'S MONDAY AGAIN...

Early morning picking today as the weather heats up, lots of zucchini and cucumber, the last of the beans and some yummy tomatoes.

At this point in our lives I have had to make compromises, my aim for 2017 was to cut back significantly on waste particularly single use plastic.  Of course I am constantly thinking about this when I purchase anything but circumstances have changed in our little home and our usually strict budget has now become a lot stricter.

As I am the main accounts manager and shopping queen I now have to look at things a little differently.  For instance, today I needed some fresh produce for lunch and some cooking, there was some organic loose leaf lettuce mix going out for half price, bargain! except that it was wrapped in plastic.  I had to make a decision and I chose to buy it.  There are other things that I would normally not buy due to plastics but I now may have to if they are a lot cheaper than the plastic free variety.

My lunch today was a salad using organic lettuce mix (half price), spring onions (in season and on sale), home grown cucumber and tomatoes, a small amount of feta (on sale and I will use it 3 different meals), a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.

We all have to make decisions, some more important than others, I'm not going back on my ideals but may just have to compromise here and there.  I intend on growing a lot more produce all year round to cut back on waste and of course keep up my cooking from scratch so that of course cuts down on a lot of waste.  If we all do a little bit, then we are making a difference.

For dinner tonight I thought I would use up some eggs from my girls and a couple of our zucchini. For the meat eaters in our home, curried sausages with rice and for me, zucchini slice.

AROUND HERE.....

Gosh time seems to fly by lately, I'm now working out of our home more than I would like to but now that Lachie has been selected into the State Cricket Training Team, we need more income to support all of the travel.

I took a little wander to my neglected vege patch today, well not that neglected as we've been picking lots of tasty cucumbers over the last couple of weeks and made some yummy pickles that I can't wait to try.

A couple of weeks ago I worked out that there was no way I was going to have enough tomatoes for sauce this year, so it was off to the farmer's market to buy a box.  My trusty Squeezo made it's annual appearance and now the tomato pulp is sitting in the freezer ready to make sauce this week.

My eggplants are coming along nicely but I'm afraid they may not get any bigger due to the cold weather we are now having, I might cover them tomorrow to try and keep some heat in.

I'm pulling the last of our carrots and totally stuffed up and haven't planted more as yet.

and the last of your very small amount of tomatoes this season.

So that's my life in the garden around here.  I hope it's nice enough weather for a bit of a tidy up in the patch tomorrow and some seed planting.

HAS IT REALLY BEEN A MONTH?

Gosh I can't quite believe I haven't posted for so long.  I have to say not a lot has happened during this cold winter month but now it's starting to get lighter, two of the chooks have started laying.  I'm so happy to have fresh eggs again, Chia and Cyril jnr have begun laying and keeping us stocked.

These eggs are Chia's, Cyril jnr's eggs are a lovely deep brown.

We had a very chilly day at the start of August, boy that wind was straight from the Artic!

I've cooked lot of yummy, nourishing food.

and I spent time out in the veg patch preparing for Spring planting.  Lots of weeding, mulching and adding manure and Seasol to the mix.  The worms are loving it and I can't wait to begin planting again.

Some other exciting news is that my friend Taryn (chook lady) is taking over a market garden in town at the end of September and has asked for help a day a week in exchange for a box of fresh veg.  There's so much I can't grow here due to space so I will be happily helping out and can't wait.

LETS TALK FOOD

This week I bought two items for the kitchen, the first is a Little Ark Grain Mill that I went halves in with my sister.  We paid $40 each for it which was an awesome price since they retail for $200.  I can't wait to try it out but am still trying to source some good quality, reasonably priced grain.

The second piece is a Spirooli.  I have wanted one for ages but have been wanting to buy local and as luck would have it when I was in our local organic store today, there was one on the shelf.  I made the most amazing sweet potato noodle pasta for tea tonight, two of the kids had a taste and asked me to make them some too which I gladly did. 

Here is the machine, it comes with three blades and is so quick and easy to use.  As you can see I just finished using it and hadn't cleaned it as yet.

Darren caught a small shark last night so it was fish and chips for him and the kids for tea, well Sophie and Lachie had two teas including my pasta LOL.  I didn't have time to make breadcrumbs so Darren coated the fish with polenta, I had a taste and it was yummy and crunchy.

On the weekend I made pizzas, meaty ones for my family and vegetarian for me.  To make the dough, I just used my everyday bread dough and the garlic bread was made from a leftover loaf I had made a couple of days before.  I think if I let them the kids would eat pizza every night.

IN OUR KITCHEN

It was a busy day in the kitchen making yummy beef and vegetable soup, banana muffins, rat bait and cheesymite scrolls.

I don't know about you but I keep my bread crusts in a bag in the freezer and when there's enough, I make rat bait it's so simple to do and the kids (and hubby) love it.

RAT BAIT

Spray a tray with olive oil, place bread on tray then in a bowl mix up some bbq sauce, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce and spread onto the bread.

Add chopped bacon and I added torn salami as well this time.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top and bake in a 180 oven until bread is crisp.

When cool cut into fingers.

CHEESYMITE SCROLLS

Once again so easy. Make bread dough and after rising, knock back and knead then roll out to a thin rectangle.

Spread vegemite with a knife and add grated cheese.

Gently roll up the dough.

Cut into scrolls and place on tray, allow space for rising and cook until brown.

And there you have it, lots of yummy snacks to enjoy.

TODAY....

I cooked and I pondered over whether I can really do this stay at home thing financially. Of course I woke at 3am and started thinking about this so I'm tired and now thinking I may go back to my part time job after all. I have a few weeks to reach a decision and I'm working next Wednesday to help out, so I guess I'll see how I feel after that.

Anyway, back to the cooking......
Yummy, creamy pumpkin soup.
Perfect for me right now.

Dozens of sausage rolls.
Perfect for the kid's after school snacks.

and banana muffins.
Perfect for school snacks.
(sorry no photo)

SUNDAY, THE DAY OF REST

Hardly, we were up early for Clean Up Australia day armed with gloves and bags. Sophie's class from school is learning about community and the kids are getting involved with different activities within the community. Next week they go to Meals On Wheels.
::Sophie with her friend Emily::

I've spent the afternoon baking.
::Bread::

::Muesli Slice::

::Banana and Raspberry Loaf::

Oh, and I now have a new laptop called Betty. Wilma gave up the ghost finally and I'm now finding out how good it is to have speed and Windows 7. I had XP before this and what a difference!

OUR WEEKEND....

Finally some lovely warm weather for our weekend. I can't believe I am in a t-shirt! Once again the boys are busy with cricket but I took some time out from my supporting role to get busy at home.

The warm weather gets me thinking about & eating this yummy food.

Almond milk was made, delicious!

and carb loaded snacks were cooked for the sporting family members to take away with them.

Out in the garden I've been cleaning out the chook house and spreading aged poo, planting lots of strawberry plants and erecting supports for my hardened off tomatoes.

(please ignore the nasturtium mess around the beds, they were looking so pretty until I spent the morning stomping all over them)

Not many people I know get excited about little pieces of green fruit on trees, well I do as some of these trees are having their first fruiting season and I'm think how each year there will be more and more fruit to sustain us.
Apples

Apricots

Quince

Cherry

Berries

Lemons

Kiwi Fruits are growing

Thanks for visiting, I'm off with Sophie to clean out her room, wish me luck!!!!

THANK YOU

Thank you friends for your comments yesterday. Today I took the advise of my lovely online friend Rose and I have pretty much done whatever I've felt like doing. A bit of cooking and a bit of gardening and now I'm going to enjoy doing a tapestry that my mum gave me for my birthday last year.

Impossible Quiche - recipe from Rhonda at Down To Earth.

Bottling the last of the beetroot.

Planting out some new herbs with the more mature ones.