RECIPE - ANZAC Slice

As it is ANZAC Day today, I thought I would post my recipe for ANZAC Slice.

I got this recipe from a lady on a forum I frequent.  It is quick, easy and yummy.  Our family love it.  It is made from ingredients that many people will have in the pantry.

Enjoy!

ANZAC Slice

Preheat oven to 180degC

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup castor sugar (I often use normal sugar)
1 cup dessicated coconut

125g butter or margarine
2 Tablespoons of water
1 big Tablespoon of golden syrup

Place rolled oats, SR flour, sugar and coconut into a bowl and mix well.

Melt butter, water and golden syrup together and add to the dry mix.  Mix up but don't overmix.

Press into a large slice tray and bake for 15-20 mins - watch it.  It is done when it is golden.

Leave it for 5 mins and then slice into squares.  Wait for it to cool completely and keep in airtight container.

Happy ANZAC Day - we will always remember.

Quiet productive long weekend over

It has been a quiet, yet productive long weekend.  We had beautiful weather but unfortunately as the boys were unwell we didn't end up going anywhere.  I tidied up the BBQ area/porch and put plants into the two big pots at the front.

I did a fair bit of cooking which was enjoyable.  Here is my latest, Mum's Banana Loaf.  I had three very yukky bananas which were past even smoothie stage.  I made my mum's recipe, which is a great recipe - not too fattening and incredibly tasty.  It only took me about 10 mins to whip up and 45 mins to cook.  Honestly it probably cost about $2 to make and is delicious.

I had to go into the shops to grab a few things.  I find the big Westfield extremely soul destroying - it is so busy, noisy and every sign says buy me, buy me - so much STUFF.  I cannot fathom how people would actually enjoy a trip there, but apparently many people do and I am the exception.  I was happy when I was heading home.

I went to a shop called the Reject Shop.  It is a big chain store of "stuff" but I do find some good buys there.  I need to use product on my hair because it is quite dry and can get frizzy.  If you buy the stuff at the supermarket it is nearly $10.  At the hairdresser's it is about 3x this amount and at the Reject Shop it is $3 for similar stuff.  I get the $3 stuff - it works and I can afford it.

I also needed a new hair brush.  I got a 50/50 nylon/boar bristle brush for $5 from the Reject Shop.  A similar one at Priceline was $20.  I got a few other things such as razors and toothbrushes.  All up I spent $16.50 at the Reject Shop, less than what one hairbrush at Priceline would have cost, pretty happy with that and it feels nice on my hair.

I had to take Michael and Ben to have blood taken and saliva/cheek swabs today at RNS Hospital as Ben is getting further testing for Fragile X and they both are part of a research group for Fragile X at the moment.  Michael was so GOOD, he didn't even flinch when his blood was taken.  Ben, on the other hand, screamed loud enough for him and Michael.  That little boy is extremely strong when he puts his mind to it and it took all my strength to hold him for the test.  Poor little munchkin.  However - good old McDonalds makes everything better and soon all was forgotten.  It should be the last of the invasive testing for my boys thank goodness.

At work tomorrow and Thursday and have a fun weekend planned with friends.  Life is good.

When life has other plans - it's all good

I am VERY familiar with handling the "when life has other plans" sentiment.  It seems to happen regularly at my place.

I had grand plans for today.  I was going to take the kids on the train and the ferry and it was a beautiful day for it.

Sadly my little Ben got really, really sick with fevers yesterday and slept from 2pm yesterday to 10.30am today (with me checking on him a million times to make sure he was ok).  Ben is our on the go boy and I don't think he has slept that much in his life.  Thankfully he is on the mend now.  Rhys has also got a terrible cough, which gets worse at night.  Oh the joy!

Instead, I pottered around the garden, cleaned up our little BBQ area/verandah (photos to come) and did some cooking.

As I had heap of ripe and unripe tomatoes on my tomato plants which are on their last legs, I decided to make some Mixed Tomato Relish.  

I had all the ingredients in the pantry

All chopped up

Cooked it down

All ready to go

I got seven jars all up.  I hope it is ok - I taste tested it and it was yummy.  I didn't use the cornflour to thicken it and it does look a little bit runny.  Fingers crossed it will be ok.  Will let you know.

I also made a chocolate brownie for dessert.

Chocolate brownie cooling

Nom nom nom

Very exciting news, on Wednesday 16th April 2014 Mr Michael lost his front tooth.  It was very wobbly and finally came out!! Yay.  The tooth fairy delivered him $2!

Doing the cool kid pose

Happy Easter weekend everyone.  We aren't religious, so it doesn't hold any significance from that point of view however we love the chocolate!

Making something out of nothing - think outside the square!

As I have said previously, we are wanting to pay down our mortgage as quickly as possibly so we can have some options for the future.  I will discuss what we are thinking in another post later but this goal is really one that I especially want to achieve.

We have been doing our last renovation and that has taken up all finances and time as it is a big job (and expensive!).  It is almost complete and then we can focus on our mortgage as the main priority.

One of the tips that I always try and remember, is to think before you throw anything away (especially food) is "can I use this up?".   The reason - over time it saves SO much money doing this.

I received 2x old apples from a friend (for the chooks) and had some old cut up pieces of apple that the boys hadn't eaten.  Most people would have thrown them away or composted them (or given them to the chooks LOL).

But I thought, can I use this up?  Yes!  I peeled the apples and pieces (they were perfect) and chopped them up.  Put them in a pot with a little water, a teaspoon of cinnamon and stewed them up.

This is my dessert for the week, served with a little bit of vanilla ice cream - YUMMY.

I haven't blogged as much as I wanted to this week due to having sick kids and not feeling 100% myself - just very tired so I was off to bed nice and early.  I do feel better for it.

This weekend is Easter holiday weekend.  It is a beautiful day today and we have been to the park, pottering in the garden and relaxing.

Weetbix slice (L) and Anzac slice (R) yum yum

I made two of our absolute favourite snacks - Anzac slice and Weetbix slice by 9am this morning.  We are set for the weekend with these.  The recipe for Weetbix slice is in the recipe section and I will put up the Anzac slice recipe when I get a chance.

I will try and update this blog more regularly from now on.

RECIPE - Lemon Meringue Pie

Here is the recipe for the Lemon Meringue Pie I love to make.

This is a great recipe because it is fairly inexpensive, makes a lot and is extremely yummy.  The whole pie costs about the same as you pay for a slice in a coffee shop and tastes BETTER.

1/2 pack plain biscuits - crushed

80g melted butter

1 tin sweetened condensed Milk

3 or 4 egg yolks

1/2 cup lemon juice

3 or 4 egg whites

1/4 - 1/3 cup castor sugar (if you don't have castor sugar, whizz up some white sugar in the food processor)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Base

Combine crushed biscuits with butter and press into greased pie place.  Chill in the freezer.

Filling

Beat condensed milk, egg yolks and lemon juice together until well combined.  Pour onto pie base.  Bake at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes while you make the meringue top.

Meringue Top

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add castor sugar and continue to beat until you have firm peaks and mix is white and glossy.  Spoon onto pie filling, ensuring mixture touches the sides of the pie place.

Bake at 180 degrees C for a further 10 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned.  

Put in the fridge and cut and serve chilled.

TIPS

• I buy condensed milk from Aldi for $1.79
• I buy milk arrowroot biscuits from Aldi for 99c
• I get my eggs from my chooks and my lemon juice from my lemon tree.
• I freeze my lemon juice in 1/2 cup amounts if I have a lot of lemons.

Enjoy!

Rach xxx

A fun weekend - especially with our friend Chuck (not!)

We were having a great weekend, and then Chuck came to stay for a while.  Here's what happened....

I had a lovely catch up with some old school friends who I hadn't seen for many many years.  It was a mutual friends birthday and I was lucky enough to be able to attend, and child free at that.  It was a lovely afternoon.  

Lovely catch up with some old school friends

When I got home, all of my washing was dry (I do a LOT of washing in my house) which was great because all the school uniforms had to be ready for the last week of school.

We are renovating our laundry, which now isn't our laundry, but is now our walk through pantry and second toilet - got that?, ok!  Greg has been going great guns and picked up the vinyl flooring from the hardware.  We now have a toilet installed and this week the flooring will be done.  I should be able to put up photos by next week of it finished (fingers crossed) - here is a sneak peek of the loo hahahahaha.

Today, daylight savings ended.  Unfortunately we didn't get a sleep in as Ben woke me at 5AM!!!! vomiting in his bed.  I got him sorted but then Rhys had woken up and wanted to get up too.  So I was up with the boys.  I tried to let Greg have a sleep in but when Ben started chucking again, he got up to help.

Rhys'eye and Ben
About 2 seconds after this picture was taken, cheeky Ben was chucking every where

And poor little Ben has been chucking the whole day on and off.  Yuk.  The washing machine has been going full blast and the first load I put on the line, but then it became very cold and started raining, so into the dryer they have gone (because we keep running out of towels due to Ben's spewing).  I'm desperately hoping no one else gets it............ fingers and toes crossed!

I don't use the dryer very often as it costs a LOT of money to run.  You really can get your washing dry, in Sydney, Australia, even on an overcast day.  If it is raining, we use drying racks and that usually works fine.  In worst case scenario, I run the dryer after 11pm as that is our off-peak electricity and it is 1/2 price, except on days like today when we desperately need towels.  On it goes!!

Thank goodness after his sleep, he stopped vomiting.  Not sure what was going on but now he seems fine???  He is a kid who licks everything, I think it is a Fragile X / Autism thing actually, so he could have got a bug in his tummy from doing that.  As long as he's not chucking, I'm happy.

Garlic and Herb Lamb - very delish

I have a Garlic & Herb Lamb in the slow cooker (using lamb leg chops which were on special for $9.99kg - cheaper than shanks) and I have made a Lemon Meringue Pie - using lemons from our lemon tree and eggs from our chooks.  Yum, yum, yum.

Yummy!

Hope your weekend was as much fun as ours HA HA..... actually is was a lovely rainy, snuggly (lots from Ben as he wasn't well) Sunday and a great catch up with lovely people Saturday - what more could a person want in life?

Take care,

Rach xx

Edited to add - Ironically after I pressed publish on this post, Rhys started crying (I think the smell was overwhelming for him).  I went in and Ben had vomited all over his bed and himself!!   Jinxed myself eh.  All sorted now and Ben has a fresh, clean bed and fresh clean clothes, poor little munchkin.  Rhys is in a non smelly room now and is sleeping soundly!  

Good to be back after nearly a year

Wow, it has nearly been a year since my last post and it feels very good to be back.

I have had a year of change and it feels wonderful to come out the other side a lot stronger, a lot wiser and a lot happier.  We have decided that we want to achieve some specific goals (mainly paying off our mortgage ASAP) so we can have some wonderful options in the future, so I will be talking about that a bit and also how we save money, in real life, with little kids.

At the end of 2013 Michael finished his early intervention with Lifestart after two years and he also finished up with his Pre-School, where he had been attending for five years.  Both these organisations were so wonderful with Michael and seriously have made him the wonderful little boy he is today.  They were also a great source of support for me when we realised we had some serious issues with Michael and then gained the diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome.

I started back at work, in a different role temporarily, two days per week.  The early days were difficult for me on a personal level, but I am very thankful to the people in the main centre for making me feel very welcome and like part of the team (I work in two different areas now).  My own team mates have also been wonderful as well. It has been lovely to get back into working life as well as having time with the kids.

Michael and his buddy Sandy

In 2014 Michael started school.  I was very worried about how he would cope at school, very worried.  I needn't have been concerned at all because he has absolutely thrived at school.  He absolutely LOVES it and has settled in beautifully.  All that hard work getting him prepared has paid off.

It is looking more and more like little Ben is suffering from Fragile X Syndrome, much like Michael.  Ben is a high count carrier like Michael and we are going through the in depth testing phase at the moment, in the genetic area.  He will be developmentally assessed when he is around three.  We know what to expect and if he is anything like Michael, he will be a delight and certainly have wonderful life.  All the kids are doing fantastic things, which I will talk about as time goes on!

We have sadly lost a few Critters over the months gone by and we have been doing some renovations to the Cottage which I will blog about soon.

I'm so pleased to be back and updating my little blog which is about seven years old now.

Take care

Rach xx