Make LEMONADE! Yes I know, cliche… cliche…

BUT seriously, it is lemon season now, and everyone’s but my lemon tree is in full bloom with golden liquid sour gold bundling off their trees. I tell ya, the neighbours at my parents place have this medium sized lemon tree and it’s got SOOO many lemons. Lumps of yellow hemorrhoids just drooping off… and I bet you they’re just leaving it all there to show off! Grrrr….

Unlike my lovely neighbours, they bagged the lemons, and leave them in a bunch free for people to take. How nice huh? So despite me having a lemon tree… I have no lemons, so I grabbed a bag. Note to self : Write thank you card for lemons to neighbours.

Anyway, so with all our lemons, I thought I’d teach Missy A how to make lemonade – In case she ever wants to set up a lemonade store (random).

Homemade Lemonade Syrup Recipe as adapted from AHandmadeLife

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

2 Cups lemon juice

Basically, just put the sugar and water to boil. Then stir in the juice! So simple.

When it came to juicing the lemons, I thought I was going to dislocate my shoulder from all the twisting so as a TIP in juicing the lemons and getting the MAX out of your lemons….cut it length wise…

See all that wastage from the lemon on the left in comparison to the one on the right. OOOohh you say…. go try it . Also I heard that if you stab your lemons a few times, and then nuke it in the microwave for 10 secs, it makes it easier to juice. I was going to try it but cutting them this way was easy enough.

I figured that cutting thing after my 5th lemon… grrrrrrr

Well, I have my lemonade syrup so I’m happy. Into the fridge it goes. I know there’s heaps of sugar in it but at least then you can control the water ratio when you mix it up for the kiddies AND you know for sure what is really in the syrup unlike the stuff you get at the shops that have preservatives, flavouring and colouring… right?

I’ve been trying to document the food us Lee family eat, so stay tuned for a few more of my easy peasy recipes!

And… sorry for the lack of “What I wear each day” because, well I’m sure you probably won’t want to see pictures of me in my 1 week old PJs, and grubby jumper and uggs look. HEY, I have my days too….

Kids are greedy little buggers. They take stuff from you. They throw stuff at you. They puke on you. They poop on you and they eat from you.

Ok, so its not enough that…

• I now have to share Daddy with you
• that my bed has now converted itself into a bunk bed for 4
• that I have to share ME time with YOU making it a YOU time
• that my photo albums are al stocked up with all pictures of YOU
• that my handbag space is divided 94% You, 2% me and 4% food scraps
• that when I shop for clothes, I have to think of what’s practical for you
• that when I shop for shoes, I have to think of what’s practical for you
• that when I’m decorating the house I have to bear in mind what’s good for you
• that the space on the couch between me and Dad is reserved for you…

YOU HAVE TO EAT MY FOOD!!??

The kids just keep eating my food! No, they refuse to eat their own. They have to eat whats on my plate. Its the same stuff!! I thought maybe because they like the ADULT plate that it is on, so I swapped plates/bowls with them. NOPE. They just want to eat off my plate. ERGh.

Mind you. I do love my kids…….

So I am the last minuter. Monday comes and I was searching the internet for things to do. In the end, with the weather crashing down on us… it was all about TIME AT HOME.

Scarey for some parents, but I sure prefer it. OK, we were not at home the whole time but for most of it… and it was fun. So far… so good.

1st Activity: Bunnings Warehouse, FREE Kids activity – Paint your own canvas.
2nd Activity: Grocery shopping for Gingerbread cookies!
3rd Activity: Bake Gingerbread cookies
4th Activity: Decorate cookies!

All smiles from here!

Missy C keeping herself occupied by going through my bag… sigh… She always seems to know how to whip out my credit card… hmmm the force is strong in this one…

Gingerbread man in budgie smuglers!

OOoh we were going to have Roti Canai for dinner and its quite ‘heaty’… so I made Chrysenthemum tea! HAHAHA MY grandmama would be so proud of me! I even added some gei ji (??) and some dates too…

OK so it doesn’t look appetising but IT WAS YUMMY! And Oh I’m so proud of myself for making it! lol…

Everything mixed into one. Food, clothes, cooking, and whatever pics I found interesting that captures my past couple of days… hehehe

Our hearty dinner meal. Chicken, bacon and mushroom pot pie with baby chat potatoes

Making breakfast interesting. Sprinkles on oats!

I harvested our corn to make way for our new landscaped garden. YAY! We are going to have grass!!

I gots myself a new hair do…

Happy April from the Livingfootprints family!

School has started and I am still in HOLIDAY mode… gawwwwww……

So no pics as I have been rushing out the door, and quite frankly I’ve been lazy. *sorry*

Lunch Idea #13 – Monday: Pork Floss on Sour dough sandwich, dried mangoes, dried apples and Vitawheats

Lunch Idea #14 – Tuesday: Tuna, avocado and tomato dip with rice crackers, Vegemite vitawheat biscuits, dried apple and cranberries

Lunch Idea #15 – Wednesday : Avocado and cream cheese on sourdough sandwich, dried mango and dried apple.

So, slight variations there, and a good use of an avocado. Still sticking with the varied texture which still makes things interesting….. and gives their jaws an exercise not that Missy A needs it OMG she won’t SHUT UP these days!

Apart form lunches, I’ve been busy slowly decorating our little humble home. Here’s one of our walls.

I have been wanting to do this for ages in terms of ’summarising’ our year up where each month has a photo to represent that month and then putting it into a book so we have a collection of every year we have as a family and for the rest of our lives. So if you have a closer look, each frame has a month to it, and i’ve finally printed out up until March. Will wait for the end of April to decide on which pic we will use. I love it! Um… that big BROWN one is well.. June I think. hehehe I ran out of frames and also Js. BARh.. so its special for this year. This is super easy, and cheap too. I bought the frames from Ikea and these were the odd ones from the ‘As Is’ bins so they were even cheaper. Missy A and I painted them up with shiny black paint bought from Bunnings, and then hot glued gun the wood letters that were bought from Riot. I think it all costed up like… $12 for frames, $4 for letters and $4 for paint. *shrug* something like that anyway.

AND here’s a pic to melt your hearts…….

…she thinks its funny when we sneeze!

ARgh… so naughty but so CUTE!

Hahaha I think my title for this project keeps changing.

Anyway, I recently watched a little bit of an interview of Jamie Oliver when he was down in Oz, and everything he said… I SAID! Lol.. he’s stealing my stuff! hahaha… anyway what he said about School LUNCHes and kids these days went somewhere along the lines of that packing their lunches should have a variety.

He said: “Different textures”

I say: “Something crunchy, something mushy something soft, something hard?”

He said: ” Different colours”

I say:” Abit of green, abit of red, abit orange, abit of yellow…. anything blue??”

Anyway, this was last week’s school lunch box.

See all the colours!

School Lunch idea #6: Edamame, cherry tomatoes, Tasty Cheese, Wholemeal Vitawheats and peas and corn. IF you look closely, there’s also two gummy treats to balance out the healthy stuff as a surprise.

School Lunch idea #7: Banana bread, Carrot sticks, Grapes and a plum (COLOUR COLOUR! So exciting!) This time was a sweet one.

School Lunch Idea #8: Pork floss sandwich on 10 seeds bread, small seving of cherry tomatoes, Tasty cheese, Vitawheat, and cranberries.

School Lunch Idea #9: Homemade carrot, zucchini and bacon quiche, plums and fruit nuggets made from 99% fruits!

The QUICHE was really easy to make and could be made the night before, or atleast all the prep can be done the night before. All you need to do is shred the carrot,  zucchini and cheese. THen cut up frozen puff pastry into squares. As it defrosts place the pastry into a muffin tray with the bottom lined with a small piece of baking paper so that it comes out really easily when it is cooked. Press the pastry in lightly. In a mixing bowl, stir up eggs, a dash of milk, shredded vegies, and cheese (saving some later for the top). Scoop spoonfuls of mixture into the cases and top it off with the left over cheese. Bake in over until golden brown (approx 20mins).EASY.

So depending how many you want to make, will depend on the quantity. Sorry, I’m not very good at putting quatities for recipes, because… I’m asian?? I just… “agar agar”.

I only made 6 quiches, and I used 3 eggs, and my muffin tray was one of those mid size ones??

OK… Hope that helped or inspired. THinking about Jamie Oliver now, I hope that you are inspired to giving your kids healthy lunch boxes, because what we feed them now will make them what they will be tomorrow!

Am I up to three?? I dunno, but I know that I’ve but last week was alittle on the slack side because Missy A had a day off school, my mother-in-law hosted a sleep-over (hence I didn’t have to bother), and well, our stove is stuffed! Damn you Whirlpool and Ikea!

So anyway, I only really managed to get together one pic of last weeks lunch.

With no usable stove, all my plans of steaming foods, and baking quiches went out the door, so maybe next week. Lucky for us and advancing technology, we had a wonderful microwave! So this school lunch idea is SUPER simple. Edamame! Missy A loves this. While we were in M’sia, she tried her first taste at a Japanese restaurant, and every since… loves loves this.

ANYWAY, so School Lunch Ideas #3?: Microwaved Edamame (Fresh green soya beans, that you can find in an asian grocery store in the frozen foods section – kinda like you would for frozen peas), cut carrots, slice of cheese, dried peas, cranberries and sultanas and for an extra treat, one of those fruit muesli bars.

Next week’s school lunch box idea may include baked mini quiches, some muffins, and possible that Orrechiates that we so loved – but this time with wholemeal flour! YUM!

I did say that I was going to take photos of the lunches I make for Missy A… but Um.. I’m not perfect and we tend to always be RUNNING out of the door on school mornings. LITERALLY.  So I have… two pics do far.

School Lunch Idea #1: Steamed broccoli, dried cranberries and sultanas, rice cakes and YUP you see right… a CUPCAKE! (How lucky is she huh??)

School Lunch Idea #2: Sourdough bread sandwich with chinese pork jerky (OMG.. yummiest ever, not so sure about healthy, but I could eat this EVERYDAY), cherry tomatoes, dried peas, and raspberry & blueberry jelly.

I like to give her a few different textures and in my head, its like something healthy, something not… it all balances out. So the last school lunch idea has something mushy, something crunchy, something chewy and then something… fresh.

My last post idea, I had Orechiate pasta which we planned to make for dinner and then for her school lunch… and WE DID! AND OMG.. it was so so yummy, so will put up that recipe for that and in the meantime here’s a pic of us making it…

We ate everything up and forgot to take pics.. hehehe… sorry but will defintely be making more this week, so yeh. Coming… Sooon…

MAN, house-keeping really sucks the gebeezuz life out of you! Haha… or atleast that is my excuse for not blogging long time now.

Anyway, picture galore coming up!

Here’s what I’ve been wearing the past few days…

…This is what we’ve been up to lately…

Yes, I have been attacking a bush that has overgrown. It has tried to take over my clothes line…but NAH NAH!! I KILLED it. Muahaha…

YES… I am knee deep in weeds… and I have a rosemary bush TREE!!! Not one but TWO! ZOOOMMGGG…

Missy A has been warming up the house with her delicious hamburgers…. hmmm.. perhaps it is now time for me to teach her how to use the mop and bucket now that she has the kitchen / cooking down pat….

Haha.. TAG dag! Missy A is soooo PUURRTTYYY!

Lunch in our backyard.