I have so many things saved in my bookmarks that have found through blogs and other places. I really want to get into some of them! There are just sooooooo many of them (and I'm talking hundreds) that its hard to pick where to start!
I'm also incorporating this with Works for me Wednesday - Frugal edition.....
So - this weekend I'm going to start trying some of them out, hopefully with the help of my lovely daughter Ashlee. Tomorrow I'm going to spend doing my usual Saturday clean and make sure my washing is all up to date so when Saturday actually comes around I won't have anything to do.
Lets move onto some linky love now. Here are some things I would like to try out this weekend:
Stop using plastic zip lock bags!
We use so many lunch bags around here. You know those little snack sized ziplock bags. I'm really need good with washing and reusing them, I really can't be bothered...I know I know such waste. So here is a great tut about making your own reusable snack bags. I think they are a great idea but will probably add a little snapable flap to it so that it can be closed up for the lunch box. This is a maybe....
Don't buy them a bag for preschool - make them one!
Zach and Anna are in need of a little bag to take to preschool. Something that will just hold their lunch box, drink bottle and a change of clothes. I thought this would be a good idea consider I have a ton of ton of towels around here.
Make your own kids clothes and save money!
I wouldn't mind giving this a try either. I actually have a couple of pretty tea towels in the fabric cupboard that I kept just for something like this.
Then you have Shorts from tea towels! This also appeals to me. Tea towels can be picked up for very little in your local Sam's (or dollar store).
I love Baby Legs but we only have 1 pair each for the twins because the cost so much. Now I can get out the old stockings of Anna's and cut them up to make these. Great idea I think and would be a huge saving!
I think that would be it. I don't even know if I will get through them! We will see what the weekend holds.
Click above to head over to Org Junkie for more Menu Plans!
For Christmas I received '4 Ingredients #2' by Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham and for birthday I received '4 Ingredients'. Great books! Highly recommended!
All these recipes are from those two books but some have been slightly modified for the slow cooker/crockpot. I will be adding some links and recipes later today but now I have to run off and get some grocery shopping done! Come back - they are all super yummy and super easy recipes! There is a lot of Lamb this week as we have a lot of it in the freezer and I want to use it up before the next lot of meat comes in (from FIL's farm).
Tues 5th May – Sun 10th May
Meals with recipes in BOLD - Recipes Added Below!
Mains:
Easy Casserole - with mashed potato
Chicken Casserole - with rice
Balsamic Glazed Lamb - with garlic potato and honey carrots
Chinese Style Lamb Roast - with roasted vegetables
Irish Stew - with mashed potato
Lamb & Bacon Parcels - with zucchini hash browns
Sides:
Easy Fried Rice
Garlic Potato
Honey Carrots
ZucchiniHash Browns
Kids:
Bugs in a Rug
Fish Cocktails
Vegetable Lasagne
Baby Meatballs
Sweets:
Jam Drops
Custard Tarts
RECIPES:
Easy Casserole
Serves 4 - 6
1kg round steak, cubed
500g bag mixed frozen vegetables, thawed
(or fresh vegies of your choice)
2 cups V8 juice
Place steak and vegetables in a slow cooker, pour over V8 juice, covering contents well. Cook for 3 - 4 hours or until meat is nice and tender.
NOTE: I will be using fresh veggies this time. I'm also making double and freezing half for another meal.
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Chicken Casserole
Serves 4
440g can condensed cream of chicken soup
8 chicken pieces
4 rashes bacon, roughly chopped
Vegetables of your choice
Fry bacon, place chicken, vegetables, bacon and soup in slow cooker and cook for at least 4 hours.
NOTE: Again I'm doubling this one for later meals
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Balsamic Glazed Lamb
Serves 4
12 lamb cutlets
1tbs. Balsamic Vinegar
1 tbs. Honey
2 tbs. fresh Rosemary Leaves
Heat fry pan, grill or BBQ. Mix last3 ingredients. Cook cutlets for 1 - 2 minutes each side or until just brown. Brush with baste and cook a further 3 minutes each side, basting occasionally. Drizzle some juice over cutlets once served.
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Chinese Style Lamb Roast
Serves 4 - 6
1.5kg lamb roast
375ml can evaporated milk
1/2 cup hoi sin sauce
Place the lamb into an oven bag. Combine milk and sauce. Pour about half over lamb (remander can be frozen for another time) and seal the bag, piercing a few holes around the end. Roast the lamb in a 180c oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until desired doneness.
NOTE: Left over meat is great on sandwiches for lunch!
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Lamb & Bacon Parcels
Serves 4
4 loin lamb chops
2 rashers of bacon, cut in half
4 tbs. wholegrain mustard
2 sheets puff pastry
Cut meat off the bone and trim fat. Cut puff pastry sheets in half and spread each generously with mustard. Place the lamb in the middle of the pastry and top with a half rasher of bacon. Seal edges and bake in 180c oven 20 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.
NOTE: Haven't tried this one before, maybe cook the meat before putting it into parcels?
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Zucchini Hash Browns
Makes 4
1 cup zucchini, grated
2 tbs. oil to fry in
2 eggs, beaten slightly
Mixed seasoning to taste
Heat oil in a heavy pan. Mix all ingredients together in a medium size bowl and gently drop 1 tbs. of mixture in hot oil. When brown on one side, turn over and cook on the other side. Stack on a plate and keep warm until whole batched is cooked.
NOTE: Kids love these!
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Bugs in a rug
Makes 12
3 slices brown bread
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup butter, melted
12 cocktail frankfurters
Preheat oven to 180c. Pierce frankfurters all over with folk. Spread tomato sauce on bread, then cut into quarters. Place frankfurter diagonally on each quarter of bread. Bring up edges and secure with a toothpick. Brush with melted butter. Place on greased baking tray and bake for 10 minutes until bread is crisp and lightly brown.
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Baby Meatballs
250g lean mince
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
Preheat oven to 180c. Combine ingredients. Roll into little balls and place on baking tray. Cook for around 20 minutes. Drain excess liquid before serving.
NOTE: I serve these with a side of greens.
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Custard Tarts
Makes 12
2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
500g premium vanilla custard
3 tbs. brown sugar
Preheat oven to 200c. Cut 6 rounds from each sheet of pastry and line a non-stick muffin tray with them. Place a circle of baking paper with some uncooked rice on each and blind bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove paper and rice and cool. Spoon an equal amount of custard into each and sprinkle with brown sugar. Place tarts under a preheated grill to melt sugar before serving.
NOTE: Another yummy filling is Caramel Top 'n' fill! Just beat caramel well before spooning into tarts and top with fresh whipped cream - delicious!
I'm back! Again participating in the Cindy's Eye Spy Sunday (on a Monday). This weeks theme is thanks to One Red Robin.
I have a real problem with blog reading - I'm hooked on it! I have hundreds and hundreds of blogs on my reader and if I don't read regularly it turns into a real disaster! BUT I can't stop, its hard to unsubscribe so usually I don't. I do however get many brilliant, awesome and excellent ideas from all these blogs and I love the insight into other peoples lives.
I am always finding new blogs to read. Reading one blog that links to another and another - whats a girl to do?! Here are just a few of my more recent finds....
"The "Proximidade" or "Friendship around the World" award is for blogs that are special in some way and extend the hand of friendship around the world. All I have to do is pass this on to eight of my favourite blogs, and ask that they do the same."
Lovely idea - I always wonder who starts these. Here is my eight blogs that I would like to award for being 'totally excellent'!
Not to much apart from everyday life - busy busy! I don't seem to have much time to get on here and blog - as much as I want to! The days seem to be flying by even with daylight saving. By the time I get everything done around the house its time to head to bed it feels like!
I have had a few minutes here and there which has been spent reading mostly. Organising a few last minute handmade gifts and organising some Christmas food ideas. Today I have spent a bit of time with this.....
Although I don't usually buy this magazine, this issue had some super yummy recipes in it for Christmas. I have found myself spending a bit of time hovering around this page
Looks like Christmas dinner might have some delicious dessert!
But I'm really keen on this too!
I thought this idea was cute...
Might even try it! I certainly have plenty of baby socks hanging around here!
I have been loving the 'practical uses' in this book (and have been using a lot of them too!)
Cleaned the microwave with a simple wipe after boiling up vinegar, water and bi-carb for a few minutes. Adding vinegar to my rinse cycle in the washing machine to cut down lint and even smells. I especially love using vinegar with my MCN's now. No more lingering 'smells' that make you think somethings gone on down there when it really hasn't.
Yesterday I had a lovely prize arrive in my mail box. A sweet smelling package from the lovely Angelique from No life without Wife! When I entered this giveaway I never thought I would win anything (I never win anything). Well I in fact came second, and only through luck as even having a second prize winner was never mentioned.
Take a look a this lovely fabric and some absolutely beautiful smelling soap! You could smell it before you even opened the package! Devine!
THANK YOUAngelique! The package has arrived and it is loved!
Lately I have been spending some time in my garden with my camera, I am loving spring. This is our first spring here and I can't get over how this garden comes alive in spring!
The beautiful flowers that adorn our carport - complete with little bees!
The gorgeous pink flowers that are growing in a corner by the pond - which is now full thanks to Mitchell and the hose today!
We have heaps of rose bushes around , all producing lots of lovely flowers...
I have also been loving the water shots over at Sarcastic Mom. I thought I would try some out myself. Lots of fun!
We also took a little trip down to see 'Pop' at the farm. I did get some lovely shots while there. Loving the blue sky! It was a beautiful warm sunny day!
See for yourself! When I say warm - I mean warm!
Mitchell did some 'fishing' in the river. Brett and 'Pop' fixed the water pump.
And its always fun throwing rocks in the water too!
We also marvelled at the circle of life...
I think that is about all for this post. I decidednot to join in this week with 'Not Me Monday' as I was just Not Me. Feeling unwell and lacking for words. Lets hope this week goes a bit better.
We are heading to Canberra this weekend too! Looking forward to seeing everyone again....
Like my new template?! I love it! Thank you Allie!
I hope Allie doesn't mind but I had to make one small adjustment to it in Photoshop (just viewed it on another screen and may need to make one more slight change) as it wasn't full screen and even after following her instructions I still couldn't get it to work! (Allie please let me know if this is not ok). I will give total credit for this layout to Allie as it is all her work. Go check her blog out, she has HEAPS of stunning back grounds and they are all free!
Still playing around with the blog design today so don't be alarmed if you have arrived here and it looks a little weird ... hahaha. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also HELP NEEDED!! I can not for the life of me get my Post titles any bigger. I have tried to play around with a few different things, it begins to load bigger then it just goes small again. Is anyone out there able to help me?? Or do you know someone that may be able to help me?? I want my post titles bigger! PLEASE PLEASE HELP! ----- OK SCRAP THAT, I WORKED IT OUT! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My reading time is pretty hard to come by at the moment and most of the time the only reading that I get to do is keeping up with my blog reading. Ijustloveallyouguyssomuch (and those are just a few) that I just have to make time!
Well I have looked around Pioneer Woman's site a bit and read over some of her tut's regarding photography and photoshop. I decided I would have a go at shooting on manual with my little baby: The Canon 400D. I've had a bit of a play in the past but really have tended to stay with the Auto setting, but that doesn't always give the best shots either. So I played with ISO setting and pretty much everything else a bit to see what she could do. The bad part is that I was shooting inside in terrible light but I also had my ISO speed up to high when I got the best expressions from our little truckie training. Below is a SOOC (Straight out of Camera) shot....
Its not to bad but I found that it did look quite grainy and also a bit dull and dark (not to bad for my first go). So I thought I would have try out some of Pioneer Woman's tips and see what I could do with it.
Firstly I added an action or two (I won't go into detail as I'm still learning and really don't know what I'm talking about ... lol!). Then just played with the curves and levels a bit. After that I added a burnt edge action and this is the result ..... (oh I also cropped it tighter)
I also had to add a bit of blur as the grainy-ness (is that a word?) was really showing through. Not to bad for a first try. Although inbetween hanging out washing, feeding, changing and playing with our twin bubs , organising two 4 year olds and doing the dishes - it has taken me pretty much all day! lol!
I thought I would try a bit of a different effect on this one as well. A slightly vintage effect I think it was - see I really don't know what I'm talking about! Or I guess you could just call it a wash out.
Before I go and do the school pick up - see I started this post at 10am and its now 3:10pm! - I thought I would just show you one more. Here is the SOOC....
And here is my edit. Think it looks any better?
On this one I ran a vintage action and an edge burn action then just played with the curves and levels again to get the desired result. I also did a bit of a crop on this one too. It really brightened up the photo. I couldn't really go colour on this one as it was another were the ISO setting was to high and it was really dark. When I brightened it up in colour it became extremely grainy and looked wrong. Anyone out there a whizz at Photoshop and have any tips for me? I'd love to hear them!
Better ran, Ashlee won't pick herself from school nor will the milk and bread walk home from the shop on thier own .. lol.
Take care!Just adding one more pic - ?? Now that I look at it, I actually look really goofy! LOL!!!!
(Please do ask me where I found it, I read so many blogs last night that I really lost track.) Anyway, my personal opinion is that this is one of the most amazing websites I have ever come across. It has (almost) everything I need! I say almost because it lacks just one thing, scrapbooking .... lol! The photography on this site is just stunning. I love the photos from the ranch and the gorgeous shots of the kids (among others). Also if a shot just needs that little bit tweaking, she has a whizz at Photoshop, Lightroom, CS3 (please correct me if I'm wrong) that gives you tuts on how to 'fix' em'! Here are a couple of shots that I LOVE!
Aren't they stunning?!! (Well the photos on here don't them justice!)
