finally a working oven!

after a year without a working oven (only the stove top worked) I finally (with thanks to ebay) have a new oven that works!

It's fan forced too, not something i have owned before so that will be interesting and the seals work so no more cooking everything at full blast!

Tonight to celebrate I ma cooking a roast lamb. Then once thats doen there will be a batch of home made sausage rolls ready to go in and after that a lasagna!

Looking for more oven cooking ideas to feed big families!

what I'm cooking....

 What I'm cooking right now...

I've made this dish a few times over the last few weeks and packaged it into the freezer for healthy lunches for Campbell and myself at work.

Its super easy, fresh and yum!

All it is diced chicken breast, browned off with some garlic, ginger, fresh chilli and a tablespoon of kasoundi add sliced red onion, mushrooms, red capsicum, yellow capsicum/chillies, zuchini, coriander, spinach leaves and a tin of tomatoes, . Once the chicken is browned add the spices, then heat through then add all the vegies and tomatoes and cook until vegies are just a litle soft. Its really easy! Freezes well for reheating too!

The timber fruit boxes are our next project... operation new vegie garden... more on that soon. 

What a fabulous weekend we've just had!

Headed off to Shepparton early Saturday morning. It was one of Campells old mates wedding and we were not just guests but also the photographers for the day.

It was so much fun working and shooting with Campbell. We're both photographers, he ran his own wedding business (only just getting back into photography after a break) and has a BA in photography and I run my own full time portrait studio/business.

The day started with photos at the grooms place, followed by the bride (both were very nervous!) then off to Hurlstone Homestead for the ceremony. Gorgeous place for a wedding and the weather was also very kind to us (if a little too sunny!) After the ceremony we headed to the lake and river in Shepp and captured some more shots before heading to the reception where after alitle bit. both Campbell and myself relaxed and put our feet up for a night of good company, food, laughs and a few wines!

The original plan was to drive back to melbourne after the wedding, but I cant drive at night (poor nigth vision on those country roads) and once Campbell started relaxing with his old mates he didnt want to go home either so we grabbed a motel room and decided to make more of a weekend of it, just slow the pace of life down for a bit.

and that we did.

Sunday morning we were up and out and headed down to Shepp lake (a fav spot) to eat our usual fair of a kebab from Mustafas.
I then remembered a fellow photographer ( Liz Arcus) who is local to Shepparton was having an exhibit this month so I looked it up and we headed on down to see it. Grabbed a coffee and had a very decent browse of her works. If you're local I recommend going down to see it, its at Letizias 67 Fryers St in Shepparton
We figured then lets enjoy the day and look around before slowly cruising home. We headed to the Mooroopna Farmers market and grabbed ourselves some bargains in fresh produce (and supporting local is awesome too)
when we started heading back to melbourne we decied to not take the main highway and instead take the back routes through the smaller towns. So we travelled across to Seymour then Yea and then down through the yarra valley, driving into kinglake also before getting back on the melba hwy and heading home. We stopped at a few little spots to have a look around and had a most enjoyable trip home. Victoria has many beautiful pieces of countryside.

the pantry

We've done some rearranging around the house.

With so many of us we really needed something more than my pokey little kitchen for space. The front of our house is an old traditional type 40's/50's weatherboard with the old l-shape lounge. The room had been out of use for sometime (it was my ex's hang out spot when he lived here so after he went i kind of just never used it) and had become a place that collected junk. So after much sorting, pulling up of carpets, polishing floorboards etc we now have converted it into two rooms. A bedroom for Campbells two boys and the bit that leads into the kitchen is now alarge walk in pantry. Its great as there is loads of storage space now. We have an upright deep freezer so its been moved in there (after living for the last 2 years on my deck) and Campbells fridge has been moved in there also. Thi

s allows us to shop in bulk more and to have more space for the food for the hoarde of people and pets who reside here!

The now pantry, used to host a bar so we pulled the bar out but l

eft the shelf and cuoboards that were behind the bar. these have formed awesome pantry shelves for all out tinned food, school snacks, and other things that can live alittle exposed.

In the original kitchen pantry I now have a full shelf entirely for herbs spices etc. and loads of space for the every day cooking things like flour etc and the stuff the kids use all the time (cereal and spreads)

Next job is to continue into the kitchen cupboards and donate all the unused plates, pots,pans etc to the op shop and sort it into usable space again!

The thing I love most is I can now easily see at a glance what we have in stock so when menu planning it will make things a lot easier!

Menu Planning

Having a larger family to feed means I have had to go back to menu planning. It is good though but its taking laitle time ot form the new habit properly again. I noticed when I did it a few weeks ago just how much cheaper the shopping was for the week, plus we ate a lot healthier than usual with hardly any take away or buying on the run.

I try to plan for breakfasts and lunches too, more importantly too now as I am doing michelle bridges 12wbt and need to be organised foodwise to keep those calories under control (and be not hungry!)

So this week in no particular order we have for

Breakfasts -

corn flakes

eggs (poached , scrambled or fritata)

toast - with spreads for kids with avocado and tomato (or one or the other) for us.

yoghurt (need to make up a batch in the yoghurt maker)

Lunches-

kids rolls/sandwishes and left overs.

Us - leftovers.

vegie curry

penang curry

chicken and salad

beef and salad

chicken and avocado wraps with cottage cheese

Dinners

Chow mein

penang curry

vegie curry

thai beef salad

sausages.mash/veg (kids)

kievs (kids) and salad

Chicken and salad (us)

tuna pasta

fish and veg

Beef and noodle soup

Pork and coleslaw/veg

some of the meals are already cooked, I've been cooking tonight and sorting kids snacks into boxes ready to go for week etc too. Trying to save time/have better time management. we'll see how it goes.

Change

Change...

It's a positive thing... life can change in the blink of an eye. but what you take from it often leads to growth, so as I said... change is a good thing.

A LOT has changed since my last blog post.

I have had a few failed relationships, but met the man of my dreams, Campbell (ok ok yes I know soppy but hey!) last year and we are now engaged and getting married later this year. who would have guessed that one? Certainly not me.

I did a post here http://susandarcy.com.au/myblog/2012/02/13/a-personal-post-to-share/ about how we met and a brief run down.

Short and sweet tonight... I'm exhausted.... but I plan updating this blog more often

inspiring