Menu Planning and More!

Well, who would have believed that I had been on holidays all this week! I thought I would get heaps done and I did manage to achieve a few things, but not everything on the list in my head.
I did manage to fit in some exercise, a few swims at the beach, a couple of visits with my parents, helped a friend move house, visits from the electrician and the freezer seal guy and spend part of one day with my best friend (zoe's mum) for her birthday!
I also managed to lose 2.2kg :)
I don't feel so bad now I have listed all of that!

Tuesday I am back at work so I need to organise the following before then:
- Ironing school and work uniforms
- finish a scrapbook for a 40th I am attending tonight
- make sausage rolls for above party
- make biscuits/muffins for lunchboxes
- cook freeze up glut of veggies remaining from my shopping on Sunday (mainly zucchini, mushrooms & plums)

I did manage to menu plan and grocery shop, but since it is already 2.30pm and i really need to get the album finished I will blog tomorrow about it!
Hope you are all having a great weekend :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dear sweet Dad turned 78 on Sunday. He loves nothing more than spending time with his children and grandchildren. So I organised to go over for afternoon tea. My Mum made some of her beautiful homemade scones, she bought a cake from the local bakery and I made these fantastic peanut butter cookies - I'll confess I ran out of time so I went with the traditional style criss-crossed with the tines of a fork. Sorry! But they were yummy :) I did have enough time to make extra dough and freeze the rolled balls in my freezer, to be baked for my Christmas hampers. I might try to do the chocolate drizzles on the next batch. Here is a picture of them in a jar as presented to him on Sunday.So what else do you get your Dad? A six pack of one of his favourite beers (Grolsch), a jar of home baked cookies (as above) and a CD of some of his favourite German music (thank you Steve for digitising some of Dad's old records!) He was truly chuffed with the whole afternoon and even had a bit of sing-a-long to a few of his favourite songs!
Love you heaps Dad!

Shoestring Sunday

Things don't really seem to have slowed down since my weekend in Melbourne. The shopping was great at the DFO @ Essendon although getting there was a bit of nightmare - the closest public transport was a twenty minute walk away! I must thank Sue & Frank for putting up with me for the 3 nights/4 days and Henrietta for her hospitality and helping me get reacquainted with the Melbourne Tram network. A big thank you to Zoe's mum (Cathy) for taking me with her! It went all too quickly but it was nice to get away.

Now as the school year grows to a close I am madly doing the following:

WRAPPING Christmas presents in newspaper with cute red ribbons (not my original idea saw it under a tree on a Christmas TV special last weekend) - thought it was a nice green alternative as it will all get recycled -plus I couldn't find any recycled wrapping paper this year in the stores.

BAKING various recipes to make sure they are okay in my Christmas hampers. This past week I have made refrigerator biscuits, cookies in a jar mix and some chocolate biscuits that my family have christened "Uncle Ronnie biscuits". (Will post recipe separately).

MENU planning; again something I will post separately.

FREEZING excess cookie dough, already rolled in balls. I read this on someone Else's blog, but sorry to say I can't remember where, but it is a good way to have a nice mix of cookies; by freezing some dough from each batch you make, as well as have some on hand when you need to bake in a hurry.

READING magazines and books from the library. Mainly at this time of year Christmas themed articles. Still haven't finalised the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day menus.

OP-SHOPPING for some baskets to put my Christmas hampers in.

A few links that I thought might help over the holidays when you run out of things or have more time to make it yourself.

Make your own brown sugar by thrifty mummy.


Yummy beetroot relish courtesy of the ABC website. (This will also be going into my Christmas hampers).

Homemade pancake mix - cook breakfast in a flash or whip up a batch when visitors appear on your doorstep from the Family CEO.

Home-made crackers and cheese ball would make a great snack anytime you are entertaining over the holiday season courtesy of the Common room.

What has everyone else been up to the last few weeks? Why not share in the comments (haven't got Mr Linky working tonight) or are there some great holiday idea links you want to share on your blog?
Have a great week
-hugs-
Lis

Another Shoestring Sunday

Shoestring Sunday's are a way to review my frugal/green activities for the past week and to look forward to what I might try next week.

MAKING - still working on the apron and haven't yet made my veggie bags!

REMEMBERING - to carry my zip-up shopping bag with me at all times. It takes up a little room in my handbag, but saves me so many times from bringing home another plastic bag. Also to put my "green" bags back in my car boot (trunk) as soon as I have finished unpacking the shopping.

SAYING NO - to plastic bags at the supermarket, by a small amount of rearranging my groceries they did all fit in my "green" bags I had brought from home.

MENU PLANNING - including side dishes in order to avoid wasting food. It seems I was in the
habit of buying the same fruit and veg each week, only to have odd leftovers which sometimes went bad before they got used. (see menu plan in separate post).

INVESTIGATING - Places in Adelaide that I can buy bulk items, like flour and sugar as well as looking for suitable vermin proof storage containers (also working out where to put said storage containers). Any ideas?

PRICING/investigating - Ice-cream makers. Have been thinking about it for a while as I can never quite figure out what to do with the empty containers. I would have one a month, sometimes more in summer, but given my son's limited diet it is one of the few treats he gets to have regularly. My parents are going to purchase my chosen model for me for Christmas. YAY!
Any feedback on this would be welcomed from any Aussie readers who have one - also would anyone know if Choice magazine might have a recent article I can read at the library?

BORROWING - Magazines, Books, CDs and DVDs from the library. This week we are listening to Lily Allen and watching Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.

COOKING - New recipes for Muffins, Greek Salad & Avocado and Orange Salad.

Thank you to Artman for my fantastic new logo :) If you want to join in shoestring Sunday please feel free to take the logo and use it on your page :)

All the small things...

If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito - Anita Roddick

It seems time has gotten away from me again and here it is two weeks without blogging! Thank you Jo for reminding me it has been a a while - I know you will be reading this :)

Life seems to be so many small things that seem to take up so much time. Sometimes I long to return to a simpler life where things passed more slowly.

Is it that we have less time or that we just try to pack too much in?

At the moment I have a few friends who are pregnant and I have been invited to two baby showers on the same day, at opposite ends of town. Fortunately the times overlap so I will be able to attend both. Common sense would have me attend only one, or none. In fact strangely I have never attended a baby shower before and now I get invited to two on the one day. Go figure?

Two of the girls having babies are people I have worked with so one of the projects a workmate and I tried was a nappy (diaper) wreath. Yes, it is basically a ring of disposable nappies(diapers) decorated with ribbons, toys and items for the baby. Unfortunately none of the girls were keen on the idea of cloth nappies (diapers), but you can make these items with the cloth versions if you know the receiver will use them!

We loved the first one so much we then made another. I still have a third gift to make so I am unsure whether to make another one or a nappy(diaper) cake. I still have a week to get my act together on that one :)

My apologies for the picture quality as they were taken with a mobile phone! Can you guess the sexes of the babies?

If you want to try this at home try this link for a diaper cake or this for the wreath.

Take care of you.