I have been a little slack when it comes to planning our family menu. The past two weeks, we have really been spontaneous when it comes to dinner time. My excuse… Um… I was sick, and I haven’t gotten much sleep. Ok. Fine. PMS. Whatever.

What I have come to realise though is that there has been quite alot of wastage. Food and money. You see, this blog started of really good. So did I. It was about how to save money where and when. But lately, I’ve gotten complacent about our finances (BAD) and just been winging it. REALITY check hit when I finally had a look at our bills. GAS bill particularly, and yes my bank account in regards to transactions at Safeway and Coles.

SO anyway, I have a point. You’ve heard it, and you’ll hear it from me. You would save some mmooolars if you just PLANNED your weekly groceries, rather than purchasing as you go day by day.

Sorry, I digress…I hate wasting food. So this week, it was all about trying to use what was there…and finnishing it…

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE RECIPE

NOTE: There is a proper way to do this, as in cooking the chicken and then removing it and dumping it in ice to stop the chicken from cooking… etc….etc… but this is a SIMPLIFIED fuss-free version.

Day 1: Chicken Rice. Ahhh… my hubby is a Chinaman so he likes his Chinese food. I can only cook a handful of asian dishes and the rest, so where there is luurrrve, there is a way and Google is my friend.

My mum did own a restaurant and I’ve seen my granmama cook this lots of times so here’s a quick cap of what I did. NOTE: I am not a proper cook  chef, nor am I intending to write a cookbook , so why the heck am I writing recipes???  so bear with me with the instructions.

FIRST: prepare your chicken by chopping off as much its fatty bits as you can. I just use a pair of scissors and cut around its bottom, and around its neck of all the excess skins and fat. Then set aside about 4cm lump for the rice.

1) Boil water in a kettle. Put your chicken into a pot. Once the water is boiled, pour over your chicken until it is covered with water by 2 cm. Drop in a lump of garlic, and some ginger. Switch on your stove, and boil away for about 10 minutes. Put the lid on. Boil for another 3 minutes, then switch off the stove. Leave the chicken in there while you wipe and bathe poopy bum  for about 40minutes.

2) The pot should be luke warm to touch. Remove the chicken, rub a generous amount of salt over the whole chicken, glad wrap it and set aside. Season the stock with 1 tsp of salt, and 1 TBSP of chicken stock powder.

3) In a pan, heat up (2tsp) oil, and fry (3 cloves) garlic, (sliced 3cm)ginger and chicken fat. Stir in 2 cups of (uncooked) rice, and fry it for about 1 minute. Remove and place into a rice cooker. Then pour into the rice cooker about 3 cups of stock, stir and season to taste. Set the rice cooker to COOK!

If you really wanted… make your own chilli sauce by blending:

10 red chillies (seeds and veins removed)

3 Birds eye chillies

7 cloves of garlic

2 TBSP of ginger

Juice from 2 limes

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 TBSP of sugar

1 TBSP of chilli sauce (Sriracha)

Then when its time to eat, chop up your chicken and serve with a bowl of stock and garnish with white pepper, coriander and spring onions.

We had some stock left over so over to the next day.

PORK BALL NOODLE SOUP

I got inspiration from MyCookingHut, but like I said, I made a simplified version.

1) Mince up in a food processor the pork ball paste- (300g )minced pork, (1TBSP) oyster sauce, (1TBSP) fish sauce, (1/2 tsp) salt, (1TBP) sugar, (1/2 TBSP) sesame oil, (1 TBSP) Cornflour, (1 tsp) baking powder and (1/4 tsp) white pepper. Finely dice some water chestnuts, and mix with pork paste.

2) In a pot, bring some water to boil. NOW, grab a fistful of paste in your left hand, and squeeze it so that it pops up through the gap between your thumb and index finger. AND using your right hand, with a spoon, cut off the ‘ball’ and drop it into the boiling water. As the float up, give time about 2more minutes and take them out.

3) Boil up yesterdays stock. Put in 1/2 can of quail eggs, and 1/2 can of straw mushrooms. Prepare noodles as per the packet instructions.

4) Put everything into a bowl and serve.

YES I had to slot in a pic of Missy A into the background just incase you didn’t think my noodles look appetizing.

Refridgerate left over pork balls for tomorrows dinner…

DAY 3: Tom Yum fried Noodles

OK, this was it. All the left overs needed to be used up.

I soaked some vermicilli in luke warm water. Heated up the pan, fried some garlic and ginger. Added the noodles, added bit of oyster sauce, fish sauce, soya sauce, dried shrimp, and grated carrot. Dropped in a TBSP of Tom Yum paste, stirred, and served.

THE rest of the week…

Well, I planned it well because my hubby got his Chinese food fix, and we will be heading out to the in laws and out laws for dinner, and somewhere in there, we will be hosting a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law.

Plans for that is Alvin’s DRunken and Bruised from Masterchef, and ok I’m done.

MAN, that was exhausting to relive…..

Stay tuned for coming posts on :

• Alvin’s drunken and bruised recipe
• some other money saving tips
• what I learnt at School Craft Group …
• …and yes maybe even a pic of me.

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….

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!

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!

OK, so what are we up to now… #5??

Lunch Box Idea #5: Avocado sushi, mummy’s b’day cupcake, handful of grapes and Vegiemite Cruskits.

THe sushi was surprisingly easy to make. As I got out of bed, I put 1/2 cup of sushi rice into the rice cooker to cook, and by the time I got breakfast ready, got the girls dressed and organised, the rice was cooked. Then poured in about 1/2 teaspoon of sushi vinegar, mixed it up and spread it onto the skin. Squeezed a line of Japanese mayo in a line, line avocado… then ROLL and cut. FRESH AND REALLY EASY. OTherwise if you are pushed for time, just make the rice the night before and keep it in the fridge. Then in the morning, warm it up in the microwave and roll your sushi!

OKs so you see… I’m not a food photographer but you get the picture….

Lunch Box Idea #6: Chicken Avocado Wrap, croissants and grapes.

Again, so so simple. When you wake up, start up the oven. Bang in the chicken tender (you can find these in most supermarkets), set the timer 15 minutes. Brush teeth, get everyone else ready. When done, microwave the skin for about 15 seconds so that it is soft to work with, slab on mayo, line up avocado, and place the chicken in its place. WRAP and GO!

BTW, it was my b’day on Wednesday, and IT WAS THE BEST B’DAY EVER! Will write more about it over the weekend, but when that post comes up you will probably see that I’m one of the simplest person ever. Or atleast lucky for Dave… very Low Maintenance, and by LOW I mean like McDonalds for Anniversary LOW.

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…

There has been such weird weird weather lately. Dust storms in Sydney, and today was like WINTER. Anyhoot, it is school holidays, and well, it isn’t the funnest thing to have kids indoors doing nothing while it rains outside.

You know, I think I have figured out the difference between ADULTS and CHILDREN. Adults are happy to do nothing sometimes, where else kids just don’t understand the concept of ‘doing nothing’ as a thing to do. We, adults can ENJOY doing nothing sometimes and kids find it REALLY REALLY BORING doing nothing. BLEH.

Anyway, so to brush off some boredom while it drizzles outside, I told Missy A that she could COOK lunch.

Was thinking of doing a video but I decided to TRUST her with a sharp knife this time and her standing over the stove. I was very nervous and wasn’t too sure whether I should give her an actual sharp knife but I think the  more I am around and I can keep an eye on her, trust her and encourage her, the better she can get with the knife and the happier she is. It is a big step from the plastic knife to the real deal, and she knows that and I think it was a nice confidence booster to know that I would trust her with the knife.

AND YES I even let her cook over the stove.

She definitely enjoyed this. I know I nearly had a heart attack stressing but I REMAINED cool. Phew…

And in the end, we had this. Yum. Tuna, onion and tomato pasta served with a wedge of lemon. I’ve grown a liking for lemon with my pasta.

Missy A the MasterChef and her version and recipe with John West Tuna and Beans. Please watch, and if you enjoyed it… do send this on to your friends to encourage them to EAT EASY PEASY YUMMY Food. Please comment a little encouragement so that Missy A would like to do MORE mORE!

Its school holidays… what can we do? What can we do?? Make Jelly!! All sorts! It doesn’t involve too much brain work, and well, not much cleaning up either.

Red, orange and green!

One NOT so bored anymore 4 yr old. YAY!