Time for me...........

So my baby is about to TURN ONE in a weeks time and as a family we are about to head into the next phase of parenting. In a way I'm really excited to see how Quinlan grows, how his personality will develop and more importantly how he'll interact with his brother and sister's. However, the one thing that I've been thinking about during these last few weeks is that it's about time I lose all the extra weight I've gained.

 

You see I've punished my body, I haven't looked after it and I've just taken it for granted. I had three pregnancies in 38 months and that takes a toll on you, your relationships and your emotional well being. Being a mum is the best thing I've ever done, I love staying at home with the kids and just watching them, listening to Mackenna sing her beautiful songs, watching Viveca follow Mackenna around the place trying very hard to be like her big sister, Caelan trying to show everyone how independent, big and grown up he is and then Quinlan moving around at lightening spreed getting into everything BUT always watching and learning. Being a parent is one of the few things I've stuck at. I am known for starting things but never finishing them. I have a brand new house to prove it, after four months of living here I still haven't unpacked everything and the car isn't even close of getting into the garage.

 

During the recent school holiday's I spent and entire day at home all by myself trying to work through some of the boxes that still needed unpacking. During this very quiet time I got to thinking about how I was going to start looking after myself so that I could be a fitter, a happier mother and to work towards improving my diabetic control so that it's back to were it was prior to falling pregnant with Quinlan.

 

February 2013 will be my time to celebrate 20 years of being a type one diabetic, since my diagnosis things have changed greatly but I'm still not in the drivers seat when it comes to knowing and doing everything correctly. So long story short I have decided to lose some weight, how much I'm not sure as I haven't weighted myself and frankly I'm too scared to. What I have decided to do is to see if I can drop a dress size once I've achieved this then I might think about getting on those scales.

 

Today is the first day of my weight lose journey. I have decided to use a food plan that takes all the guess work out of it for me. I'm starting off having 5 days worth of food delivered which will total 1200 calories a day. After doing this for a while I'll try to incorporate some exercise into my routine and then from there I should be able to improve and change things as the weight drops off.

 

So far I have eaten strawberry yoghurt and muesli for breakfast which is a world first. Although I've never had strawberry yoghurt before I was 110% sure I'd hate it and I didn't. Lunch was a turkey salad, fruit and a cup of tea which was also really good. What I like most so far is I'm still getting to choose what I want an I'm not been forced into having to eat what's written down for the day.

 

So fingers crossed I have some success doing this because my poor neglected body needs it and so do my kids. I want to be able to run around and play with them especially Quinlan because he has so much energy. I'm also thinking that maybe I should change my hair style BUT I might wait a while to do that to.

 

We'll see how the diet goes first.

 

Megan

5 Minute Craft Project.

The other day as I was packing one of the many boxes that still need unpacking I came across my cake stand. I was really happy about finding it because Quinlan's First Birthday is coming up next week and having the stand will allow me to ice all of his cake instead of missing sections so that I can transfer it to a plate. I gave it a wipe over and then sat it on my kitchen bench for a couple of hours.

Sorry for the poor quality photo's I used my mobile.

I had previously cleared all the clutter off the top of the kitchen benches and they needed to be dressed a little it pretty the area up. I knew that on the benches near the oven I had to keep my utensil container and the knife block so I was only left with the island bench to use for my cake stand. Above my island bench is three orange pendant lights and when turned on they give off an orange hue, which at night is nice especially if you want to spend time talking with your significant other.

 

Now with four children I didn’t have much time to think about how I was going to spruce up the cake stand so I left it until the following day as Mr Opoes was taking all four kids out to a Lego display. Not long after they left I remembered that I’d bought some Washi Tape a couple of months prior to moving into our new house. So I grab my supply of tape and I sat down with the cake stand and tape to see which one worked best.

 

As soon as I opened up the package I found this cute orange washi tape that was 10mm wide. This size was perfect for the cake stand as the plates rim was about 5mm wide so it worked well. I lay the stand on its side and then I wrapped the washi tape around the rim and hey presto an instant make over.
 

Again another bad mobile phone photograph BUT if you look
closely you can see the orange colour around the rim of the cake stand.

 

The great thing about the washi tape is that if you make a mistake you can pull it up and re-stick onto the stands surface. When I was happy with how it looked I stuck the remaining tape under the plate so that it wasn’t visible.

 

Now I had to test it out to see if it worked and I’m pleased to stay that with a quick wipe of a damp clothes the plate stand was clean and the washi tape was still in place. This was a quick and fun project so I’m looking for other things that I can decorate.

 

 

Megan

Try Something New Tuesday # 2

A Killer Mac 'n' Cheese...

Jamie's lovely looking picture that's
styled beautifully.

 

Pull up and chair, sit down and join me in a bowl of Jamie Oliver's version of mac 'n' cheese. I've started doing this series of weekly recipe blogs so that as a family we could start trying the beautiful photographed recipes that I see on Pinterest all the time. I'm also hoping to expand the horizons of my fussy children and encourage them to try things that they deem to be horrible.

 

With this series I'm hoping it helps increase the number of recipes I can use in the future. Jamie Oliver's killer mac 'n' cheese won't be something you eat all the time especially as it's not great in the nutritional department. Now I'll warn you that my pictures won't come close to the one that the stylist have produced for Jamie. The reason for this is because the kids were so hungry that I only had the opportunity to get the one picture. I also made a couple of changes because some of the items were expensive or I didn't have them on hand. Also this meal feeds 8 so you may like to make changes if the quantities won't work for you.

 

A Killer Mac 'n' Cheese

Ingredients:

45g butter

3 heaped tablespoons plain flour

salt and freshly ground black pepper

10 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 litre skim milk
600g dried macaroni
8 tomatoes or 400g tin diced tomatoes
150g freshly grated Cheddar cheese
100g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 big handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs (can use dried if you don't have any)

olive oil

Optional Extras:

a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce

a grating of nutmeg

 

Method:

1. Bet a large pot of salted water on to boil. Melt the butter in a large ovenproof saucepan over a low heat, when melted add the flour and turn the heat up to medium. Stir all the time until you get something that looks like a paste - this is your roux.

2. Add the sliced garlic - these will caramelise like toffee in the roux. Keep cooking, stirring until golden and the garlic is nice and sticky. Slowly whisk in the milk a little at a time to ensure you get a nice smooth sauce.

3. Bring the mixture to the boil, turn it down to a low heat and leave it to simmer, stirring occasionally.

4. Pre-heat your oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7.
5. Add the macaroni to the pot of boiling water and cook it according to the directions on the packet.

6. Meanwhile, either roughly chop the tomatoes on a board and season them well with salt and pepper. If using the tin tomatoes drain most of the liquid and season with salt and pepper.

7. Drain the macaroni and add it to the roux. Give it a good stir and then take it off the heat. Add your grated cheeses, tomatoes and any of the optional extras.

8. This is the most important step you now need to work on the flavour. TASTE IT and season it until it's hitting the right spot. You'll want your mixture to be slightly too wet as it'll thicken up when it's in the oven, you can add a splash of water if its needed.

9. Transfer your mixture to a deep earthenware or ovenproof casserole dish. Bake it for 30 minutes in the oven, you'll know its ready when its golden, bubbling and crispy.

10 While the macaroni is in the oven, put your fresh breadcrumbs into a pan with a few drizzles of olive oil over a medium heat. Stir the breadcrumbs until they are crunchy. Remove from the heat, once the macaroni is out of the oven sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the dish. Alternatively if using dried breadcrumbs you can mix them with a little cheddar cheese and the sprinkle this over the macaroni prior to it going into the oven.
11. Serve either on its own or if you want a healthier element serve with a green salad.

 



Told you that my photo was B O R I N G.

The kids ate everything on their plates when I served this. Only one of them picked out the tomato which was great as none of them like eating tomatoes insert big smile here. I didn't use the breadcrumbs as I didn't think the dish needed it but I did add Worcestershire sauce just to give it a little kick. The kids asked to keep this one and they want to have it at least once a week but I'm going to keep it for maybe a monthly meal or every two months depending on how many other recipes become favourites.

 

So the next recipe we are going to do is an Impossible Pie and this is a request that come from my comment box. Now there are quite a number of sweet flavoured Impossible Pies and although they all look nice I'm going to try a savoury one. So I hope you can come back next Tuesday to see how that turns out. Remember I'd love to get your suggestions or ideas on what to do next so just leave me a message in the comment section and I'll get working on it. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next week.

 

Megan

Date Night



Flying through the air.

 

Back in September I was over at Naomi's blog Seven Cherubs were she shared a new family tradition that they had started with their seven children. The idea was simple, easy to achieve, it created memories while also been very relevant to my little family. Naomi said that "we have always been mindful of our children growing up in a large family and try hard to make time in our schedule to prioritise our spending time with them. It was from this thinking that we decided to start date nights with each of our children." (this is a direct quote from Naomi's blog)

 

This was so relevant to us and our family, I'd recently noticed that I was relying on Caelan to do more and more of the babysitting for me. Every afternoon I was giving him Quinlan to entertain while I rushed around trying to get dinner organised before Mr Opoes got home. Caelan is a good hearted boy and although he didn't really want to babysit he would do it to help out. With Caelan helping me his homework wasn't been done until after dinner and this meant that bedtime was getting later and later.

 

So after reading Naomi's post I rang Mr Opoes who if I remember rightly was interstate and I ran the idea past him to see if he'd be interested in doing something like this with our kids. We decided to give it a go starting the first Saturday of October and we even held a hat draw so that the kids got to see how we picked the order that the date night would go and to show them we were been far. Know we have four children so that should mean that we'll be going out ever Saturday BUT because as Quinlan isn't quiet twelve months old he'll get time to spend visiting grandma and grandpa. The other change we're going to make is that we'll only do three dates a month so that grandma and grandpa can still do things that they want or need to do.

 

So Mr Opoes and I had our first date with Mackenna. She decided that she wanted to go to a park to have a play. We've made these dates 2 hours long so that we have time to talk, laugh and just have some one on one time with each of them however, it's also a good amount of time so that grandma and grandpa don't get left with three children all day. We have made our date time during the lunchtime period so this allows the child to choose to have lunch at a special place or to do something else they like. 

 

Now we had to tweak Mackenna's date a little as we were running late due to have a tradesman come an give us a quote for some landscaping. Due to not organising any food prior to leaving we called into a place of her choosing so we could grab a quick bit to eat, then it was off to the park. The one thing that Mr Opoes and I noticed straight away with Mackenna was that her voiced changed when she spoke to us. Mackenna has a tendency to talk like a baby at times and she can be very moody if she doesn't get her own way. For the two hours we spent with her she talked nicely, she was polite and she seemed grown up. We had a lovely time, I real enjoyed the time we had speaking, it just melted my heart to see Mackenna smile from ear to ear and her laughter was infectious.

She smiled like this the entire day and we could see how much she enjoyed herself.

 

Next week it's Caelan's turn and he is still in the process of deciding of thinking about what to do. He wants to do so many things and he's forgetting that he'll get to have another turn in four weeks time. It's funny because Mackenna already knows what she wants to do.

 

So to I want to say a big thanks to Naomi for sharing your family tradition with us. We've decided to use your idea in the hope that the time spent with them individually will allow us to reconnect with them now so that as they grow they'll feel comfortable talking to us about anything. I'm hoping that the kids continue to enjoy doing these activities with us and that life doesn't get in the way of us spending the time with them.

 

Megan

 

Special Fairy Cakes



Pretty Dancing Fairies

 

A Fairy Dance.

Dance along to the fairy beat,

wave your wand and tap your feet.

Dance along as the fairies sing,

twirl around in a ring.

Dance along as the fairies play,

point your toes then fly away.

 

This little song is one of Mackenna's favourites and you will often see her dancing around the house with her fairy friends which Mr Opoes and myself can't see. Caelan is also on the outer now because he's becoming to old and fairies don't like boys according to Mackenna. This whole fairy thing started when Mackenna bought herself a fairy kit just over twelve months ago. She talks all the time about her fairy friends and when they will be arriving in our garden which we have to design, price and construct first before they can even think of move in.

 

So as I'd previously promised the girls I'd make Fairy Cakes with Mackenna and Viveca. Both girls were really excited and they rushed about going to the toilet, washing their hands and trying to find something safe to stand on so that they could reach the mixing bowl. They took it in turns to put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl and I was the safety officer.
 

The girl's looking very happy with their efforts.

 

Fairy Cakes
 

Ingredients:

125g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup sultanas

1/2 cup self-raising flour

icing sugar to decorate

12 paper cases

 

Directions:

1. Ask an adult to turn the oven onto 180°C.

2. Mix the butter and caster sugar together using an electric beater.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well.

4. Stir in the sultanas and then mix in the flour.

5. If the mixture is too thick add a splash of milk to make it runnier.

6. Place the 12 paper cases inside the muffin tin. Spoon equal amounts of cake mixture into each one.

7. Ask an adult to put your fairy cakes into the oven and let the bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

8. To decorate, sprinkle the top of the cakes with icing sugar.

 

The hardest part for the girls was waiting for them to cool down. I decided to have the cakes for dessert as we were having a meatless meal and usually the kids tend to complain that they haven't eaten enough. Everyone loved their fairy cake, Mr Opoes gets to take one to work and Quinlan also loved his cake. I was able to save four of the fairy cakes so the kids have something for their morning tea tomorrow.



The finished Fairy Cakes ready to be eaten by my Hungry Hippo's

These fairy cakes aren't bad for only 5 ingredients. If you want to change them up a little bit you could try to add other dried fruit instead of using the sultanas. I'm thinking that next time the girls want to make them I'll try using dried cranberries and see how the kids like them.

 

Megan

Resin Jewellery.

For Christmas 2010 Mr Opoes purchased me a 'Red Balloon Experience' and I had 12 months to use it. I was really excited to use my experience but I got pregnant, sold a house, moved into a rental, bought a block of land, signed a contract to build a new house, had a baby and moved again. So with all this going on I quickly forgot about the Christmas gift that Mr Opoes bought for me. Each experience is valid for 12 months so you can imagine surprise when I found my voucher a few hours before it expired. I jumped on their website and after a few minutes of searching I came across a jewellery making workshop that used resin to create three bracelets. Not really knowing what resin was I was just happy to come away from the experience with three possible Christmas gifts for my sisters and my mother so I was happy to pay the additional money.

 

Originally I was going to book myself into one of the classes been held in March but unfortunately the only date available was Caelan's birthday and I also thought that Quinlan might not have lasted the three hours without a feed and we couldn't give him any food because he would have only been 5 months old. So just before we moved into the new house I looked again on the Red Balloon website and I chose the last weekend in September to do my lesson. For everyone who knows me I am really good at forgetting things so I was pleasantly surprised to receive a telephone call to remind me about my upcoming class.

 

So Kylie was our lovely teacher and there were only six people in the class so we could ask questions and get her help when needed. Kylie did a run through of all the steps involved to pour a bracelet and ring and surprisingly all you needed to do was mix your colour into the 'A' container until you were happy with the overall colour. The next step was to mix 'B' for about 15 seconds or until it warms up and then you pour it into the mould. Most of the other girls knew what colours they were going to use prior to arriving so I took my time making my decisions because once you've poured you moulds you can't make any changes.

The first bracelet mould.

I was really confident picking my bracelet and ring designs, choosing the colour I wanted and mixing the solutions together. The part that scared me the most was pouring the warm liquid into the mould, the gap was really small and I didn't want to ruin it as we didn't get another opportunity to do it all again. I chose to do a purple pearl colour however I didn't realise that the pearl powder would lighten the colour. I was still really happy with the colour and how it turned out.

 

The first ring mould.

 

To create a pearl effect you use as little or as much of the pearl powder as you want.
The pearl mix comes in a silver and gold tint I went with the silver.

You can see  how I over poured the ring, I had
a big job trying to fix my mistake.

The only negative part of the class was that I wish I hadn't poured too much resin into the moulds because after you take the piece out of its mould you have to use sandpaper to get rid of the rough edges. I quickly realised this after over pouring the resin into my ring mould as it was really difficult to take it out and then I had to spend ages working on fixing it up.

 

This is my first finished bracelet and I'm really happy with it.

I got a little creative with the last bracelet and ring and I decided to use two colours. I tried to mix an opaque colour with a translucent colour. I ended up with it all been opaque but I was really happy with how it turned out. One of the ladies had a bit of orange resin left over so she poured it into one of the moulds I had and then she let me have it. I was shocked because I really liked the colour and as she had already made herself a bracelet and ring I thought she'd add it to her collection. I really like my new ring now all I have to do is find something to wear with it.

 

My two toned bracelet.

This bracelet is a cream colour and a deep pearly purple colour. I love how it's nearly a 50 50 split of colour and all I had to do to create this effect was to lean it up against something on an angle and wait 5 minutes before I started mixing up the next lot of resin. I started with the cream first and then I went onto the purple which had a hint of violet added to give the colour some depth. And the last picture is of my three rings. The first is a translucent orange, the next one is to go with my two toned bracelet so its cream with a small amount of the pearly purple added and lastly is my nearly translucent pearly purple ring.

 



My three new rings and no one else has anything like them.



So now I have a few accessories to wear when I go out. All that's left to do is to find somewhere a little up market to wear them, I think they are just too good to wear grocery shopping. One day I'd love to make some more resin jewellery but I think I'll wait until all the kids are at school. If you have the opportunity to make some resin jewellery you won't be upset with the outcome.

 

Megan

Try Something New Tuesday # 1

 

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies.

 

Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you my first ever attempted at making the sweet, yum and dreamy looking Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies with you. The reasons I decided to do this series of weekly recipe blogs was because I wanted to start trying new recipes, I loved looking at the beautiful pictures on Pinterest and lastly because it was about time I started introducing the children to new foods and treats. One day soon I can see the children demanding that I STOP making cupcakes all the time and maybe try some cookies.

 

So with this in mind I created this series and I hope that it helps me broaden my horizons within the world of food. Our first ever recipe comes from Christina over at Sweet Pea's Kitchen and I have to say that just looking at her beautiful pictures makes you want to run to the kitchen and start baking. I made a few changes because the original recipe used ounces and not grams and Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. I also rounded things up because I still haven't found my kitchen scales and with it been a public holiday here is Queensland none of the shops were open tonight.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

60g dark chocolate, grated

1 cup castor sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons red food colouring

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

250g cream cheese at room temperature

1/3 cup castor sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200C°. Butter an 8 inch metal baking pan and place a long piece of baking paper in the bottom of the pan. Allow the paper to extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. This will make removal easy. Butter the baking paper.

2. In a small, heatproof bowl, add the butter and chocolate together. Melt in the microwave in short 20 second bursts. Stir with a metal spoon until it's smooth and combined. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food colouring. Add the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add the flour, stir until just combined and there are no streaks of dry ingredients remaining.

4. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

5. To prepare the cheesecake mixture, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until its smooth. Place 8 large dollops of cheesecake mixture over the batter that's in the pan. Using a knife swirl the brownie mixture and cheesecake mixture together.

6. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the brownie and cheesecake mixtures are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

7. Let it cool completely in the pan before lifting the baking paper out to remove the brownies.

8. Place the brownie onto a bread board and cut it into small or large pieces.

 

This recipe was fairly easy to follow but I would recommend not making the entire recipe while been on the telephone to your sister in Townsville. I spent a little over two hours on the telephone with my sister last night so I basically did everything one handed, which at times was a little difficult but because I'm a mum and I can multitask I was able to pull it off. Mr Opoes liked the look of the brownies this morning and when I gave him a piece his eyes lit up, he thought all his Christmas's had come at once. So I thought I'd show you a picture of what it turned out like so that we can compare my Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies to those that Christina made.

 

Christina's Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

 

My version of Christina's Red Velvet
Cheesecake Brownies.

 

I'm thinking that I'll make this again but I'll only make it for Mr Opoes as the children will polish this off in a few minutes. If time permits I may put this on my Christmas day lunch menu but I'll have to see if that's what everyone wants this Christmas. I hope that you will come back next Tuesday to see how I've gone at making a main meal that the kids aren't the greatest fans of. I'll be giving Jamie Oliver's Killer Mac 'n' Cheese a go as one of our main meals this week.

 

Remember if there is anything you want to suggest that I try making leave me a comment with a link or the dish name and I will add it to my Pinterest board. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next time for an American classic.

 

Megan