A Collection of Thoughts

The Bletchley Circle

I stumbled acorss this new series purley by accident  and I am so glad I did.  It's called the Bletchley Circle and is set in 1952. It's a mini series drama. These four ladies used to be codebreakers for during the war and have since returned to their normal lives. However a series of murders in their area show a pattern which leads them to start investigating themselves.

You can still see the first episode on Iview ( I think it's there for another week ) and then it shows on the ABC on friday night 9.20pm.

I'm loving it can't wait for the next episode!

 

Red Lentil Soup

Half way through the last week of school and I'm melting down - so much happening all at once. Richard has been in Melbourne for the last few days for work and the girls have been head down in assignment work and of course we have renos happening - some parts not so smoothly!

So for tonight I knew I needed to be able to come home to a yummy meal that required not much work.

 I threw this in the crockpot this morning

•  2 x bags of diced veges from woolworths ( in the fruit and vege fridge)
•  8 cups chicken stock
•  1 cup red lentils
•  1 tin of diced tomatoes

Leave to cook all day.

Blend it up and serve with some crusty sour dough bread that I grabbed from the bakery on the way home.

 So good and plenty left over for lunches tomorrow  - win win :)

 Two more days till holidays !

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day Seven

Today marks the end of our little Hip Hip Hooray series and what better way to finish than with some movie reviews.

Last night the girls and I snuggled up with popcorn and a DVD - it's a long weekend here in Australia so plenty of time for some extra viewing I say.

We watched Lifted which is under the family category at the DVD store but was rated M because of the content -Its about a 13 year old boy but his mother is a drug user ( and she does relapse). I let the girls watch and there was only one scene that I had to explain.

I just checked Kids in Mind but they haven't reviewed it.

Here is the blurb from IMBD

Henry Matthews is an exceptionally talented young R&B singer whose happy family life is disrupted when his father, a marine, is re-deployed to Afghanistan. Despite all the obstacles including losing the family home and being forced to move in with his grandfather who hates his music, Henry is inspired to enter a teen singing competition in the hopes of winning and escaping a world that is falling apart.

It gets slow as you go through the song contest and I was thinking blah this is a bit ordinary but then all of a sudden there is a big change and its totally worth watching. It's a tear jerker especially for anyone who has family in the armed forces. We loved it because the girls really enjoy anything singing related and hes really good :)

What's a movie without popcorn? I'm afraid we aren't very fancy here - it's just airpopped corn in our Kmart $12 popcorn machine and if I'm feeling very adventurous I'll add some salt or very kind then I'll add icing sugar.

But if you want something really good check out this link with 40 popcorn recipes that sound more like biscuits that popcorn. I'm thinking I'll have to try the smores one at some stage :)

via www.pixel-whisk.com

 Maybe sometime soon?  If  Lifted isn't your style of movie we have also recently watched  Cowgirls and Angels which we also enjoyed ( family movie). I was tempted to get this documentary too called I am Eleven. Maybe if we get all the  jobs I have in mind done tomorrow ;)

Don't forget to visit Mel- she has a lovely felt banner for you today.

We hope you've enjoyed this little creative start to winter. Keep warm!

 

 

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day Six

My goodness this week has flown past!

In winter I tend to wear dark colours - black, grey and more black. It's nice though to brighten up with a little spalsh of colour. Todays little DIY is a simple and really inexpensive project to brighten your wardrobe.

 

Firstly let's gather some supplies. Bead goodies are readily available in lots of discount stores. I found the bead elastic for $2 a roll. while I do like to make "real" necklaces with proper closures, these ones on elastic are super easy for a change.

 You need a clip of some description to make the threading easy.

Grab a necklace length that you like and measure out some elastic with a little extra for knotting.

 

Decide on a pattern for your necklace. I have one of these neat bead boards but you can make do without one easily too.

 Pop the clip on one end and start threading.

 

Once finished tie your ends together with a double or triple knot. I also add a dollop of craft glue to ensure it stays together - but that's optional.

 and ta da you now have a pretty spash of colour .

 

 *****  This can also double as a bracelet wrapped around a few times ******

 Don't forget to visit Mel - she is chatting about all things crochet today:)

 

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day Five

Today I am reviewing the latest AWW Slow Cooker Recipe book for my Hip Hip Hooray for winter post. It's slow cook weather for sure!  If you haven't added a slow cooker to your kitchen tools I highly recommend that you do. They have really come down in price recently. You can pick up one from Kmart for under $50. I love slow cook recipes because mostly they are clean eating. You come home to a warm kitchen  that smells good. Unless of course you set it all up before you leave and forget to turn it on which I have done once - it was very disappointing.

This AWW No 3 is a great edition to your library of recipe books.  $12.95 available in the supermarkets and also at newsagents I picked mine up from Woolies.

I liked that there was a good variety of recipes that I hadn't heard of or thought to make in a slow cooker before - sometimes they tend to be all " stew and curries - look the same taste the same style".

 Here are my top 5...

 

Chicken Mulligatawny - this one is in my crockpot now ready to go for dinner tonight - I'll let you know how it turns out.

Morrocan beef meatballs - lovely mix of spices and I can see myself making a double batch of this to use in lunches.

 There are also some lovely curries -  Coriander Beef Curry is on my to try list

There is a nice range of vegetable dishes too  - including a cheesy cauliflower casserole and an eggplant with pinenut pasta sauce. I like the idea of this vegetable lasagna - while lasagna can be time consuming to make this one seems good in that it's really just the prep then set and forget.

Last but not least there is a dessert section too.   A yummy looking caramel rice pudding caught my eye but it involes two tins of caramel - delicious but hardly clean so I'll see if I can convert it a bit and give it a try. This chocolate pudding looks divine!

All in all I'd recommend this one - have a flick when you are at the supermarket next and see what you think.

Don't forget to visit Mel - she has the cutest mug cosy today :)

 

 

New Photo App

via rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com.au

I was so excited to see this pop up in my feedly reader -  Rhonna has created her own app due for release soon.

 Hurry up soon!!!

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day Four

 Hello :) It's super cold here today - ok let me put some perspective around that we do live in queensland  so it's about as cold as it gets- relatively mild I guess.

Yesterday I whipped up a big pot of soup ready for dinner last night. We had some conflicting commitments so it was rush out the door tag team everyone fend for yourself type thing in our house.

I love love love this soup recipe though.  It's so simple and can be ready in 20 minutes so you can throw it on run away shower, change and be back to ladle it up.

 You do need a food processor though to make the prep easy.

2 carrots

2 onions

1 parsnip

1 turnip or swede

4 stalks of celery

 500gm diced chicken

2 litres of chicken stock

Dice the celery and the onion. Grate everything else. Place all the ingredients in a pot.  Bring to the boil and then let simmer.

 Serve with crusty bread rolls or toasted sandwiches.

*** perfect for lunch box thermos too! *****

Don't forget to pop over and visit Mel.

 Yum scrum Hip Hip Hooray for winter  :)

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day Three

Winter is the perfect time for snuggling down with a new book and a cute bookmark too.

Let's get making :)

 Gather your supplies - a thin ribbon and with a large eye needle is best

 

 Ta Da you are done! Easy peasy and cute as.

 Here are the books we have on our bedside tables at the moment

 Talia is reading this one  Fire Spell

Clara disappears on her birthday. Exceptionally wealthy and exceptionally lonely, she requested that a puppeteer and his two orphan helpers stage a spellbinding show for her in the vast empty house. But then the curtains close and darkness falls ...The puppeteer, Grisini, kidnaps Clara and uses his sinister powers to imprison her body and mind in the form of a marionette.  The bewitching and brilliant magical adventure Fire Spell, published in the USA as Splendors and Glooms, was awarded the Newbery Medal Honor and is a New York Times bestseller.

 Both the girls read and LOVED this  The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell

Written by "Glee" actor Colfer, "The Land of Stories" tells tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

 Talia gave this series a go and she didn't love it but still says it's worth a read.

The Curious Dictionary (Word Hunters)

 

Lexi and Al Hunter are twins with almost nothing in common - except their parents and their birthday! At school Lexi hangs with her friends in the cool crowd, while Al hides in the library reading about history, battles and faraway places. When the twins stumble upon an old dictionary, their world as they know it changes. They are blasted into history to hunt down the words that threaten to vanish from our past and our present

Does My Head Look Big in This?

We have been running a reading prgram during study at school for our seniors and I was caught the other day without a book so I grabbed this one off the shelf in the library. It's a fascinating read about a young muslim girl growing up in Australia. I am only part way through but enjoying the dialogue so far.

 

 - Just on a side note I'm considering kindles for the girls - they are at the stage where they are reading a ferocious number of books and its costing a fortune ( even with regular library loans ) They also like to look words up that they don't know and I'm thinking that's so much easier on a kindle - They could share an amazon account so share books.....  Have any of you bought kindles for your nearly tweens???

Don't forget to visit Mel she has some delicious cookies  - which would go down a treat as you snuggle up with a book.

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day Two

I actually love winter. I love being rugged up with snuggly jumpers and cardigans :) and I love wearing boots. I don't like the price of them. Especially when you have two girls who also like boots and their feet are bigger than mine. The price of boots for three is fierce! I try not to spend too much  and stick to getting them when on special but this season I found a pair at Novo for $59.95 and I just couldnt resist them.

I am keen for them to last all winter so I decided to get some boot shapers to help keep them in good condition. EEEEK now way so instead I have made my own.   $2 for the pool noodle and I already had the ribbon and fabric.  Bargain :) One noddle makes two sets of boot shapers.



  Supplies

•  One pool noodle ( I got mine at Stacks a dollar store )
•  About 50 x 50 cm of fabric
•  1m of ribbon

Measure your boots against the pool noodle - you want it to stick out over the top - mine was about 40 cm. Cut two lengths. I used scissors.

Cut two strips of fabric 25 cm   x  the length of your cut noodle with an extra 10 cm. My fabric had a selvedge so I didnt need to hem the top - if you do need to then cut it a little longer.

Hem the top of each piece  ( if needed )  fold in half and sew the edge and bottom together.  Turn the right side out.

 

 Pop your noodle in and tie the top with a ribbon.

 Place them in your boots.   YAY Boots that keep their shape.

Don't forget to pop over to Mel. She is stitching today too with some lovely fabric serviettes.

 Did you make some apple and pear crumble from yesterday???

 

Hip Hip Hooray For Winter - Day One

Welcome to our first post for Hip Hip Hooray for Winter.

Today I'm sharing with you my sweet girl's favourite Apple Crumble Recipe.
Sofia is the apple crumble making guru in our house. Mostly because she was always very patient with the rubbing in of butter for traditional crumble so has become known for her crumbles. We try to steer clear of butter and sugar these days so this is our latest version that we are enjoying.

Filling

• 3 apples and 3 pears
• 1 cup apple juice or water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Crumble topping

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 3 tablespoons organic maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons macadamia nut oil

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• cinnamon

 

Core and cut the pears apples into pieces. Place in a saucepan over a medium heat and let the liquid reduce until the apples are soft.

Add the oats, coconut, maple syrup and oil to a food processor and blitz till it resembles crumble. (You can also do this by hand and its not as crumby looking but still good!)

Put the fruit into an oven bake dish and place the crumble on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon and slivered almonds.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden - serve with custard cream or ice cream.

 ***** Make a double batch and have the kids take it in their lunches for a treat - good hot or cold - the girls take it warm in their thermo mugs and have it a recess*****

 Here is a link to our favourite custard by Teresa Cutter  - there is no beating it ;)

via www.thehealthychef.com

I do love a yummy dessert in winter (actually any day really ) but there is something so good about the smell of stewed fruit and cinnamon in the house on a cold evening.

Don't forget to pop over to Mel's to see what she has in store for you today.