Tasty Tuesday

Another weekly round up of recipes I've used recently. With summer and the warmer weather coming abruptly to an end this week all I've wanted is saucy mince or chicken with crusty bread. My weight loss brain is trying to coax me not to, but it's so hard! The number on the scale is still going down (very slowly) but it's hard to be satisfied with wraps when it's cold and stormy!

This Chicken Parmesan is a healthier version of the dish. It got the thumbs up from the husband which is a big deal in our household.

I'm not a whiz with pasta by any stretch, but this recipe for Caramalized Onion and greek yoghurt was super easy and super tasty.

I think this Mars Bar Brownie recipe has now become my go to brownie recipe. The Mars Bars weren't evident in mine in terms of look when they were ready but the nougart definitely made them that lovely chewy texture that you want - so they have that crunch on the outside and delicious chocolatey chew on the inside. Mmmmm. They went down a treat at work.

I sweetened this Banana Loaf with honey rather than sugar to make it a pretty damn healthy snack - and a delicious one at that!

Weekly 10 - A better week for sure!

 That was a much better week! Super proud of my achievements.

Believe it or not, I began this post on Sunday night.... and then my week became very sick. It's been sitting in the back of my browser here since.

Productivity:
1. Water blast the fence around the washing line.
Reading for painting now.

2.  Plan the 'gourmet meal' meals for the 30 before 30.
You can see the two potential menus on this post.

3. Print out Willow and Leah's birth announcements to frame.

For the family:
4. Take the girls for a walk at Awhitu with Rachael & Maddie.
Didn't happen this week, bummer.

5. Take photos of the girls - Willow with her last punk baby bib on for instagram.

Just for me:
6. Read!
7. 20,000 steps each day
I got at least 15000 each day, but not 20,000
8. Have a night off - BSB concert!!!

Work:
9. Put CV stuff onto appraisal website. 
10. Mark writing samples. 

Alright, what to get up to this week...hmmm.

Productivity:
1.  Buy frames for the whanau wall writing and pop them up.
2.  Do a 52 lists
3. Make a new cocktail.
4. Do a restaurant blog post.

For the family:
5. Do some 'tiny adventure' activities with Leah - she's dying to do the eggs one.
6. Invitations & Food list for Willow's birthday.
7. Buy Leah some warmer clothes.

Just for me:
8. Get my nails did.
9. Book in first tattoo for sleeve for holidays.
10. Finish reading 'One plus one'.

Which menu do I choose?

This week I had a look into recipes for my 5 course gourmet meal. First I had to find out what a 5 course meal entailed exactly.

I found this out:
Course 1: Soup
Course 2: Entre'
Course 3: Main
Course 4: Pudding
Course 5: Cheeses

Which gave me a decision to make. We don't really like soup and I wasn't really fussed on the cheeses as it was putting together produce rather than doing anything technical with food. I was either chucking out the 5 course idea in lieu of a 3 course meal, or changing up the courses somewhat. I decided on the latter.

I've come up with 2 menu ideas. Mostly because I really want to do the beef wellington, but my husband (who I'll be cooking for) doesn't do mushrooms (idiot).

So, I'm asking, which should I do? Which do you like. Do you like them as a whole or should I swap one out for something else?

Option One:
1. Caprese Tartlets http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/caprese-tartlets
2. Steak Rolls http://picturetherecipe.com/index.php/recipes/balsamic-glazed-steak-rolls/
3. Herb crusted pork loin http://littleleopardbook.com/2011/11/09/whats-for-dinner-rosemary-balsamic-pork-tenderloin/
4. Lemon Possets http://whatjessicabakednext.com/2015/04/20/lemon-possets-with-berries-shortbread/
5. Baked Brie http://www.willcookforfriends.com/2014/01/baked-brie-with-rosemary-honey-candied-walnuts.html
 
Option Two:
1. Pepperoni Caprese Bites http://authenticsuburbangourmet.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/pepperoni-caprese-bites-with-basil.html
2. Chicken artichoke bites http://www.homemadeinterest.com/chicken-artichoke-bites/
3. Beef Wellington http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/individual-beef-wellingtons
4.Brownie Caramel Cheesecake http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/brownie-caramel-cheesecake
5. Baked Brie http://www.willcookforfriends.com/2014/01/baked-brie-with-rosemary-honey-candied-walnuts.html
 

Tasty Tuesday

These tenders and the sauce were an easy Friday night dinner.

In addition to that, this one pan pasta was an easy and scrumptious Sunday night dinner...also accompanied by this slow cooker lava cake. Nom! Gotta have treats like this with Winter looming.

I like so many things about this recipe for BBQ Chicken in the slow cooker. Number one is that it's about the easiest thing you can do, ever. Not only that but it also makes 3 dinners, as outlined in the post. We had it in burger buns with cheese. Super yum and super easy.

Week 10 - A new week

I gave myself a little bit longer than I normally would to complete the set of goals (two of them) I had. I'm quite happy with my efforts over the last couple of weeks, even though I didn't complete everything. I also want to change Weekly 10 up a bit, so I'm focussing on all parts of my life and enriching them rather than just adding to the endless pile of things I have to do.

But first, lets see how I did.

The first list said...
1. Waterb last the area around the washing line.
2. Begin planning my gourmet meal for 30 before 30. 3.  House lists - start adding to these. 4. Organise photo cupboard.
5.  Get photos printed.
6. Plan for more photos for the the 'Whanau' wall. 7. Check smoke alarms.
8. Read!
9. Organise Recipe folder. 10. Have some fun with the family in the weekend. Spend some time not worrying about getting things done! 

Did lots of that last one, especially this weekend, with our lovely trip to Cornwall Park with my beautiful girls. I'd really like to spend some time with photos to choose some more for the 'whanau wall' and I really need to get my A into G with the waterblasting and gourmet meal, so perhaps these will reappear in a coming list.

1. Snuggle up with Leah on the couch when Willow goes to bed.
2. Talk to Leah about the games she's doing on her iPad.
3. Take some staged photos of Willow with her Punk Baby bibbies.
4. Read one more book that I usually do with Leah at bedtime.
5. Make a yummy pudding for Damien one night.
6. Watch TV WITHOUT doing anything else at the same time.
7. Read, read, read.
8. Count to ten before I get grumpy - especially when someone isn't doing as she's asked.
9. Make and freeze kumara mash for Will.
10. 20,000 steps a day (this does seem like adding something - but I'm really enjoying this, so why not?!) 

Smashed this list, which showed me a couple of things.

I need to make sure I make space for things in my list that are about family and just me, as well as the 'getting things done' goals. A couple of these a week are sufficient, especially considering I'm someone who liked to keep a tidy house, have at least 3 'new recipe' dinners a week, and has a full time job and two children under 4! Lol. Time to be more kind to myself with my lists. Hell, I could even include some work things in there, as I need to be doing them.

And so! Weekly 10 will now have some headings: Productivity, for the family, just for me, and work. No set rules on how many of each, I just want to make sure I'm balancing my life a little better, and can be happy that I've completed a list - cuz I do get a wee bit down when I don't.

New Week's List:

Productivity:
1. Water blast the fence around the washing line.
2.  Plan the 'gourmet meal' meals for the 30 before 30.
3. Print out Willow and Leah's birth announcements to frame.

For the family:
4. Take the girls for a walk at Awhitu with Rachael & Maddie.
5. Take photos of the girls - Willow with her last punk baby bib on for instagram.

Just for me:
6. Read!
7. 20,000 steps each day
8. Have a night off - BSB concert!!!

Work:
9. Put CV stuff onto appraisal website. 
10. Mark writing samples. 
 

"There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a great one".

Happy mothers day everyone x

Tasty Tuesday

Rather than have Tasty Tuesday as a weekly feature it is just sort of coming up whenever I have recipes to post. Who would have thought that life with 2 kids under 4 was hectic? Not as many new recipes as I normally like to be making, but now and then I squeeze some in.

This week we had a new dinner recipe that we'll be having again and again during winter. It was Rustic Chicken with Garlic Gravy. It was super easy to make and with a loaf of crusty bread it was an absolute winner. YUM!

I'm wanting to get to using my crock pot again, especially in the winter (2 kids under 4 remember?) and this was a nice start. Slow cooker Fajitas, a delicious variation of chicken wraps. A bit toooooo capsicummy for my liking, but great none-the-less.

My naughty husband doesn't eat seafood so unfortunately I had to make these Bang Bang Tacos with chicken. Fortunately though, they were super yummy! Another addition to our weekly menus.

I love enchiladas. So I had to try this enchilada cassarole. I made it with standard salsa, and it was still delicious.

"If you can't say something nice about yourself...practise"

I'm a huge advocate of positivity, not being too hard on yourself and taking it easy....except when it comes to myself. With myself I strive her perfection, and when I don't get it, I get pissed. As you can imagine, that happens often, daily in fact and the little dickhead inside my brain tells me how much of a failure I am.

Recently I've been chatting inside my head to myself about how lazy I've been with doing special things with my girls and I've been crap at taking photos of them. Today, little Miss Willow has been very kind and slept a lot, and Leah has been happy to play while I work on the girl's yearly photo books. Before starting work on each book I've skipped through the pages prior, and seen what they've done in the past 6 months or so, and figured that I haven't been that super bad...there's actually a lot of stuff we've done, and clearly, a lot of photos taken - lovely ones at that!

So today I give a big middle finger to my inner monologue, cuz self - you're a super dick sometimes.

Here's the books if you're keen on a geeze. Enjoy xox

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