Which 5 things are always in your fridge or pantry?

There's quite a lot swirling around my brain (a death of someone I used to do ministry with this week; another divorce; too much work) all of which just stops me in my tracks.

Instead, let's chat about a fun topic like we did in this post.

This question is from the Shauna Niequist podcast but I'm going to tell you 5 food in
I'm going to break it down since that's the way my mind works.



Things I always have in my fridge:

1. Granny Smith apples
2. Cheese
3. Eggs
4. Yoghurt
5. Orange juice

That sounds quite boring but it's true - I always have those things. On the rare occasions when I'm sick and I have no appetite, I know I can always eat a yoghurt and apple to be able to take my meds.
 
In fact, Tsh used to ask on her podcast if you had to choose one type of food for the rest of your life, what would you eat? I can't say for sure - some days I think Thai, some days I think Mexican, some days I think Italian.

What about you? What would you eat for the rest of your life?



Things I always have in my pantry:

1. pasta
2. cans of tomato 
3. many, many litres of long-life milk
4. rice
5. a can of baked beans/ sweetcorn/ kidney beans/ tuna, etc.

So I can always whip up some supper!

What's always in your fridge or pantry?

PS Connor's list of his 10 favourite foods:

1. sweet things
2. curry/ biryani
3. eggs
4. pizza
5. jasmine rice
6. pasta
7. juice
8. water
9. cucumber
10. cauliflower

Let's talk about cauliflower

Ah, thank you guys for saying hi and sharing in the comments on yesterday's post. If you didn't know, I respond (most times) in the actual comments.

Thank you also on all the great comments on the whatsapp post - I loved reading them. Fun fact - I now moved whatsapp to the last page of my iphone apps. I have to physically see that notification pop up otherwise I literally only see the messages when I want to check on something. :)

I decided to put up a few light/ medium posts to see if that eases me in again, because I do like this little white block of therapy!

Now, cauliflower.

So we all know everyone's doing low carb eating and banting, whole 30, Paleo and whatnot.

I don't even know what the last 3 mean!

But if there's a chance to try something else that will be healthier, I'm all for it.

Like 11 years ago when we visited Australia and stayed with our vegetarian friends for a portion of our visit.

He does the cooking and cooks standard meals the veggie way, like bolognaise with lentils instead of mince.

Delicious.

When I got back home, I incorporated some of what I learnt into our cooking and I'm still adding lentils to my mince for bolognaise so many years later.

So my friend sent me a cauliflower stir-fried rice recipe sometime last year. The idea is that you blitz the cauliflower and treat it as rice when you stirfy your meat and veg, and voila! Low-carb goodness.

Except it was horrible. I powered on through but could not convince the rest, and since stir-fries are a staple around here and I need people to eat it, I never bothered with that again.

(It's on Pinterest as a "fail")

this is a delicious turkey burger at a Thanksgiving event

Then I saw Suzette DIY did some cauli pizza, and somewhere else I saw cauli breadsticks, so I thought I'd give it a bash.

Guys, it was horrible.

For real.

Connor and I powered on through (I read blogs while I ate so I didn't have to think about how horrible the food was), Kendra said "this food makes me want to vomit" and D said, "Marsh, I think we prefer cauliflower the way you normally make it".

Everyone heartily agreed, and I didn't even take offence.

So I guess cauli-whatever is not for this family.

As Amy Poehler says, "good for you, not for me"

Long live cauliflower with cheese sauce :)

Tell me, do you eat cauliflower? How do you like it?

3 foodie things and my grey/ purple coffee table

K & C had their party today.

In a nutshell - success!

But of course, once I download all the photos, I'll have to do a post or 3.

The sunroom, entrance way, dining room and kitchen were chaos, and then those rooms were tidied up and now my study is chaos because there is wrapping paper and presents everywhere.

Thankfully, the pile looked a lot smaller once all the packaging was removed!



But for now, a quick post on food :)

I've obviously been cooking a lot more now that I'm working from home. I love spending time in the kitchen nourishing my family with food that's been lovingly prepared.

(this may be a bit out there but I believe food tastes better when it's made with love :))

And of course, winter is the BEST time to bake. I like eating so it's win-win.

3 things:

1. My favourite winter lunch

Soup and a toasted cheese and tomato on wholewheat bread, or soup and toast with chunky savoury cottage cheese.

I tried a new combination the other day - baguette with some Mrs Balls extra hot chutney mixed into some plain chunky cottage cheese. OH MY WORD - it was heaven. YUM - I'm salivating just thinking about it. The sweetness and chili of the chutney with the cold, slightly tangy cottage cheese - DIVINE.

These photos were taken the day of the power failure so it was cup-a-soup plus cheese on crackerbread.

taken on my grey/ purple crib-turned-coffee table which I still love love LOVE

What the cot/ crib looked like before.... and after (I thought it would be more purple but I can live with it and it's PERFECT for photo backdrops, not that I recommend painting furniture just for a good backdrop).

2. Fudge brownies

If you know me at all, you'll know I love fudge with a passion. Especially when those blocks just melt in your mouth. In fact, I have homemade fudge on my birthday wish list. I should post that wish list.

Except... I have tried MANY times over the years and my recipes always fail. They just never set.

I'm fully aware it's ME, not the recipe. You can't be good at everything, right? This is what I tell myself when I have spectacular kitchen fails.

I also can't make peppermint bark but I still try every year. I figured out that it only works with Nestle Milky Bar chocolate, by the way.

(speaking of which, keep reading)

So my fudge failed. I had two dishes - one small round, and a rectangular one. The round one was the consistency of toffee so I'd have a spoon full every time I needed a little something. But the rectangular one was just a big mess. I tried to recook it and it got worse but I didn't want to toss it out (waste!).

Eventually I googled and found something to do with it. I scooped it all back into a pot, added one egg, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, mixed all up and into a dish. Baked about 15 mins - you have to watch these things - and the most delicious brownies emerged.

now you know why Pioneer Woman uses green plates. They're so photogenic!

I know none of you ever have fudge fails but if you do, then make these.

3. Apple bars



I have this recipe pinned here. I've raved about it many times because it's so easy and it always works.

In the photos mine doesn't look very appetising because I didn't do the sugar on the top bit. Normally I would if I make it to take somewhere or if we're having people over.

The recipe calls for 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar - I only use 1/2 cup total, and ours is still sweet enough.

Also, normally I peel my apples but I'd just made Se7en's apple crisp with peels... so I thought why the heck not?! and it works just as well.

The kitchen fail

Okay, and then in case you think this is only a successful kitchen, let me tell you about my spectacular food fail just last week.

I pinned some avocado pasta, and I did it all at about 4, tasted it and it was fine. I then left it and then warmed it when we were ready to eat at 6:30 - 7ish ..... and it was DISGUSTING once heated.

We all took one forkful and some of us actually spat it out.

I can't even remember what we eventually had - toast with something probably.

There's nothing wrong with the recipe - I do think she should have said with a bit more explanation other than just "serve immediately"... make sure your pasta is hot and ready to eat, quickly do this sauce and eat immediately - will not be good even an hour later.

Anyway, normally I can rescue a meal but this one went straight in the bin. Do you know how that kills me?!

So what have you cooked over the last few weeks?

Let's talk money - lunches and snacks

Jeepers!

It's been exactly 20 days since I wrote the last post on breakfasts.

I think I'm going to write the other 3 and schedule them to publish once every 4 - 5 days.


But before we continue, I must tell you that we've been Out of Control the last few months which has inched my final grocery average for the year May to April (that's just when I started properly tracking the grocery spend) up to R3 498,05.

(I went to check my spreadsheet)

Let's call it R3 500 and I'll also try to not twitch at the inexactness of that rounded up number :)

So since I'm "free", I've taken over grocery shopping for May. I'm aiming to keep the total in the R3000 - R3200 ballpark. I'll let you know how I do at the end of this month - I'll even put it on my goals list so I don't forget.

D's lunch at Valley Bakery while on holiday - I never eat anything with mayonnaise when I'm out because 1) I'm a control freak and I like to only use max 1 teaspoon and 2) I really only like Crosse and Blackwell TANGY lite

Now, there are two types of snacks.

Proper snacks - the ones between meals - and nonsense (chips, chocolates, biscuits, sweets, etc.).

I'm all for the proper snacks but the nonsense is also Out of Control.

I actually went through each receipt and just for April, our nonsense snacks are 17% of our total spend. Even if we don't totally cut it out, we could definitely reduce that to around 5%.
 

Snack total	503.05
Total spend	3 728.12
%	13%

Onto the detail:

The kids have an option to eat lunch at school but since I'm a control freak about food, I've always opted to have them eat here so they can eat better (a lot more vegetables, etc.). I also learnt recently that they make them finish their food there.

I don't want to get into fights but for the most part, I don't force my kids to eat. I won't give them anything else but if they don't want to eat, that's fine with me. You see, I believe that in a world where obesity and other eating disorders are so rife, we create emotional eaters when we force our kids to eat and clear their plates.

I had to consciously work on stopping when I'm full for years........

Lunch is 

1. a fruit to start (I read somewhere that our bodies digest fruit better if it's eaten first. Also, who wants to have an apple after your lunch. Not me. They taste better first thing.)
2. a brown bread sandwich with either ham/ cheese/ peanut butter/ egg/ cottage cheese (now and again they'll have leftovers)
3. their choice of veggies - tomato/ cucumber/ carrots/ in winter I have soup available for their veg (I make our soups from scratch every weekend so every portion of my soup has at least 1 Weigh-Less portion of veg - 100 g - sometimes more)
4. water

The kids have a snack at around 4pm of another fruit and some plain yoghurt. Sometimes a small muffin (also baked by us so has no more than half a cup of sugar for the batch)/ half a hot cross bun and a small cup of rooibos tea, especially in winter.

Here is my tip for kids who eat well:

We only feed them at "specified" meals (unless they're sick and it all goes out the window anyway). Obviously if they tell us they're hungry or start being grumpy and I can see they're hungry, we will give them their snack a bit earlier. And mostly, non-carb snacks.

They are genuinely hungry at supper time so they mostly (98% of the time) polish off their food and if I want to introduce a new food, I'll "bribe" them for the first 3 times with something after. My bribes are a handful of raisins/ a "sweet yoghurt" to share, etc.

My kids aren't angels obviously because they're 4! We started to have a tantrum yesterday when I said to the waitress to please take back the sweets (with the bill). But I explained to the offender that they ALREADY weren't listening; we certainly weren't going to voluntarily make that worse by giving them sugar!

It helps because I don't like grazing either unless it's while I'm cooking supper and then I'll eat an apple or some carrots dipped in peanut butter (mmmm) so I like to think we mostly model good eating habits.

D takes 4 slices of bread, yoghurt and dry muesli to snack on at work. He never changes his routine and he really likes cottage cheese but then the variety would be savoury cottage cheese vs chives cottage cheese :)

When I worked at Secret Company, I had a ginormous lunch bag. I don't like to get hungry because I get grumpy and because I have low blood pressure, I sometimes start feeling really sick.

So.

For my snacks, I always had two fruits (Granny Smith apple, orange/ soft citrus, pineapple, pear if in season, etc.) and two yoghurts. I'd eat the 175ml yoghurt with my breakfast and the 100 ml one at 3:30 ish. When I'm being good, some carrots to snack on too.

My lunch is almost always a wholewheat bread sandwich with ham/ tuna/ some good low-fat protein and tomato/ cucumber. My favourite lunch in winter is tomato soup and toast with chunky cottage cheese - YUM!

I don't like to eat a big meal at lunch because it weighs me down too much to concentrate properly in the afternoons. Of course it's probably best to have your main meal then but Secret Company used to pay me for my brain so I have to be alert :)

Something you may not know but probably suspect - I'm very fussy with sandwiches and don't eat anything that's been made more than like 10 minutes earlier :) Which means I take EVERYTHING with me (or keep in my desk knives, salt, pepper, plates) to make it fresh.

When I worked on that project in the call centre, I'd take pasta and a sauce about twice a week so that it cut down on my lunch (BILLABLE HOURS!!!) - heat for 1 minute, eat for 5 minutes. Done! The sauce was obviously made by me (see control freak above!) with lentils/ kidney beans and onion/ tomato. Proper W-L - so 1 portion low-fat protein and 2 portions veg.

I also like to use lunches now and again to meet with friends (Louisa and another L friend when I worked in the CBD) and then I'd obviously pay more for lunch.

This has been a very long post! Here's your gold medal :)

All that to say I think this is the most cost-effective but still healthy way for my family to eat.

What do you have for lunches?
Were there any surprising things in this post?

...these are a few of my favourite things

Cat's been posting about her kids' favourite things.

 

I tried with my kids ... it was about 65% successful... but that's a post for another day :)

 

Some of my current favourite things:

 

1. Woolworths multigrain flakes with fat-free milk

 

2. Salticrax (supposedly for my low blood pressure) with sundried tomato and basil low fat cream cheese (Connor told me he prefers them plain)

 

3. Jeanette posted a pic on her FB with Woolworths' new mini doughnuts - chocolate and apricot. I had to go out and get some! Well, the verdict is in: I still prefer the original doughnuts so I'll have to take a bag of apricot doughnuts with me to work tomorrow :) Have you tried the new mini doughnuts? What do you think?

 

4. The warmer weather... and beautiful light. I'd forgotten just how much my photography depends on GOOD light. I chased the kids around the garden after lunch today while they were kicking balls and whatnot and OH MY GOODNESS, I got some fabulous pics of them.

 

5. I've convinced my partner in photo crime, Mandy, to do something with me. We're going to host a photo link-up for the 5 Saturdays in Sept. There'll be a theme each week which is wide open to interpretation. I'll do a proper post soon but get ready with any and all cameras and let's have some fun - it's SPRING after all :) I am super-excited.

 

6. Getting stuff done - I printed the party pics and put them in a little mini album. I also got my year in review book up to date with the pics from the last couple of months. Concord pics are also printed. I've selected Charlotte and am about 10% through choosing NYC pics. I LOVE crossing things off my to-do list.

 

7. Acts of kindness - I got 4 things ready this afternoon and I can't wait for the people to get them.

 

8. Reading - I spent FOUR glorious hours reading last night before tearing myself away at 1:40 to go sleep. Yes. It was good. Another Dorothy Koomson (The woman he loved before). By the way, we're reading the Love Languages for Kids. I'm two chapters in and it's goooooood. Sadly, there are only 2 Dorothy Koomson books that I haven't read. One is on my Kindle already and one is going to be released on 30 Aug. It may be a good time to put a little dent in my 38 things list - I have about 5 reading goals on there.

 

9. Thornton's original toffee - oh my word. I'm addicted. I could happily eat the whole bag by myself (yesterday I did except for two pieces - D and the babies shared a small piece) - it is SOOO good.

 

10. Sweet babies. When they're good, they're sooooo good. You had to hear Connor in the car coming home from church this morning. So polite and well-mannered. I was utterly charmed. (of course, when they're naughty, I want to tear my hair out) 

What are some of YOUR favourite things at the moment?

PS I had to stop myself from writing down a whole lot of stationery items because stationery is really SOOOOO easy to be on any favourites list.

{USA 2012} Eating and drinking :)

As always for me, the eating was one of the best parts of my trip :)

I probably ate most regularly while in North Carolina (I told D this is all due to MandyE who kept us all on track) and also most healthily.

In NYC D and I did our usual thing (when without kids) which is to eat as we feel led. Which means lots of junk.

The things that were different from South Africa:

- glasses of water without asking (this was good for me because that's my drink of choice anyway)
- in NC, sweet tea and... I'm not a lover of sweet tea. I like my tea hot and with milk :)
- too much ice in everything. I'm not into ice so much especially with the aircons on full blast but the people there seem to love it.
- they bring separate bills without batting an eyelid (so much more civilised than we do here where we all haul out our calculators!)
- seemed like they mostly added a tip automatically (I didn't mind because it was easier than working it out, and there was actually service)
- they also didn't even blink when asked for peanut butter sandwiches and milk for the kids. I've never asked for PB in SA but maybe I should try.

Concord

1. On the border - Mexican

Loved all Mexican food. I loved that there were different bits to the
meals... And the black beans!

Charlotte 

2. Mimosa Grill 

This is where I had some of the best trout ever. Served on mashed potato with green beans. Yum! I didn't have dessert but Mandy had crème brulee and J had peach cobbler.

3. Vida Cantina 

Mexican again. This time with the other Mandy and her family too. Yummy food. I love the chips that keep on coming.

4. City Smoke

Here I had pulled pork, Texan toast and two sides (I had mac 'n cheese and Lexington slaw). Beth had fried chicken with fried okra, things I'd only read about. D was aghast when I said I didn't even try grits or any of the Southern food. I tried the chicken and okra though.

fried chicken

New York City

5. Starbucks

For the internet, obviously. I don't even like coffee and it about killed me to pay those prices for 3cm of a drink plus ICE.

6. NanKing

D and I had a Thai meal here on night 1. It was delicious. Surprisingly reasonable for Times Square. I think we spent about $30 for the two meals.

7. Panera Bread

Oh, how I love bread. We had bagels and cream cheese here one morning for brunch - delicious.One of my regrets is that I couldn't have more of their food. It all looked so good.

8. Pax

More bagels one day...

9. Barnes and Noble

One evening I had a quick supper at B&N - soup and a sandwich.

10. Fortina

Supposedly the best pizza in NYC - it was good enough but not the best. We went here after the Susannah Conway talk on the Wed evening.

11. Dunkin Donuts

I had the Most Delicious doughnut ever - an apple cinnamon one. Oh MY - a taste of heaven.

12. Auntie Annie's Pretzels

I bought a cinnamon sugar pretzel before we went to Top of the Rock and people, it was the best thing ever. Bread plus cinnamon = drool. I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm still dreaming about that pretzel.I pinned a recipe for pretzels today and can't wait to try make them.

this is the dude making them - he thought I was mad for taking pics

13. Mc D

Boring but had to be listed. My very first meal in the US and I had hot cakes (flapjacks), scrambled eggs and orange juice.

14. Tao

We went for drinks here with Heather and Tom.The food looked and smelled delicious.

15. Spigolo

And out to supper here. The food was amazing and we met the chef!!!


Whenever I leave the country, I get a bit crazy when I come back. It's the reverse of converting to $.

I start thinking how cheap our food is and how we ONLY pay Rx for a meal... as opposed to $y. The minute I landed (while waiting for D) I went to Illy and bought a hot chocolate for R20. And suddenly it seemed so cheap. And buying a bottle of water for R6 - R7 compared to R20.

The joys of travel!

(I also have to post about things that I REALLY loved in the US. My list will probably surprise you).

So, did any of the USA vs SA differences surprise you?
Do you prefer to decide on a tip yourself?
And how do you like your tea - sweet and cold, or hot with milk?

I have a love-hate relationship with fudge

I love it.

It hates me.

I've tried to make fudge over the years and I keep thinking, "this is it. This time it's going to set and be okay" and it's not.

So I was inspired by Dollimama's recipe ...and then I saw links to fudge all over the internet (as you do when your focus is on something).

This one in particular caught my eye.

Source: motherthyme.com via Marcia on Pinterest

It's cinnamon fudge.

Oh my heart :)

I checked all the recipes and they all seemed to ask for 3 standard ingredients - condensed milk, chocolate (2 cups) and butter.

Well, I made this version but I threw in some nuts too.

It didn't set.

Disclaimer

I didn't do mine on the stove - I used the microwave directions.

The other recipes said to cook until all the chocolate melted - I did that.

It tastes delicious BUT it doesn't set. It's like a very gooey toffee at the moment.

So is there any way for me to make it set?

Shall I scrape it all off, put back in the microwave and maybe add another cup of chocolate?

Have you ever rescued fudge successfully?

Also, a PS, what does 1 bag of chocolate chips weigh? Tell me in cups or in grams please!

Christmas = kitchen time

I've been thinking about what Christmas means to me, tradition-wise.

Of course, the reason for the season is Jesus.

Aside from that, what makes it feel like Christmas for me?

Cards, music, gifts of FOOD!

I love the idea of baking things in my kitchen and giving them as gifts.

It;s an act of love for me and hopefully, a bit of pleasure for the people receiving it too.

Last year I read on a blog (Sadia's) about peppermint bark and I was hooked - it looked so easy and I had to try it.

Mine flopped big-time.

My chocolate wouldn't melt and I eventually added some milk and the result was better but not great.

Well, let me rephrase - it still TASTED delicious but was not presentable enough to hand out as gifts.

So D and I enjoyed my un-presentable peppermint bark for about two months!

This year I started seeing things again and went out to get chocolate. And I messed up two bars of my favourite chocolate, Cadbury's, before I decided to ask on FB.

A Canadian friend (that's a story for another day - remind me to tell you how we met!) who lives in Jhb told me Cadbury's is not meant to melt. And many others told me about low, low heat and to do it slowly.

Do you guys know me? I don't do things slowly!!! D even said he doesn't think this "peppermint bark suits my style". Very true.

So I went back and got some Beacon and Nestle - those melted perfectly. Amazing to me - in literally one minute both slabs had melted beautifully in the microwave.

But ... I can't let go of my beloved Cadbury's.

I bought a couple of slabs again because I'm a glutton for punishment and I did it exactly as Ginger said to do and it worked. Not as well as the other chocolate, but it worked.

I used some candy canes and some endearmints (I squished them flat with my thumbs and then cut into little squares with my kitchen scissors - worked beautifully) to put on the top.

I used glass jars to package them so now all I have to do is put little labels and tie a ribbon around the rim.

The only problem is... it is summer here and hellishly hot so these things start melting in my hot kitchen.

At the moment I have about 10 glass jars of peppermint bark in my fridge!

By the way, I only used glass jars because I had them. They would also look very pretty in those little cellophane bags with a nice red ribbon.

So far my Christmas baking includes:

1. peanut butter chocolate oats cookies
2. oats and raisin cookies
3. savoury chex mix, South African style
4. sweet chex mix............ I will post all these recipes - promise. I've even taken the pics so I'm halfway there :)
5. peppermint bark

What are your favourite things to bake at Christmas?

What are your favourite parts of Christmas?

PS Kendra says her favourite Christmas song is Jingle Bells. They have a baby CD and she asks for Jingle Bells all the time.

They redeemed themselves

Today we did our usual thing which is to rush around like maniacs getting ready for church.

The kids are usually ready with bags first as they can't wait to go see Thembie and Lizzy. They say "ThembieLizzy" like it's one person.

I've said before that exactly the 7th time we left them at children's church there was no crying, nothing.

And they've been happy ever since.

I love watching growth in people generally but seeing it in my own kids is just so special.

My children now go up to other kids (!) (there's another set of girl twins in the same class and the one girl HOWLS every week) and say, "don't cry" and similar words of comfort.

Confession - we have a family room where you can go with your kids if you don't want to leave them at children's church.

D and I have been dropping the kids and then going to the family room ourselves. At first it was because I really couldn't walk very well after the gall bladder op but lately it's because we don't feel like walking ALL the way to the main auditorium and we feel like we can walk in and out more easily.

And every week we say, "we really need to go back to the proper service" but we don't.

Teehee.

Of course, people are watching us because who would voluntarily go sit with kids if they didn't have their own kids there?

There was the cutest baby there today doing that rocking back and forth thing they do before they start crawling, and then they sort of do a little gallop on the knees. Actually both MY kids did it so I'm just assuming.

I got all soppy - thank goodness I have this pic on canvas to remind me of the crawling stage, which is still my most favourite stage ever.

I think it's the controlled mobility...:)

We decided to go to Ocean Basket afterwards and the kids were AMAZING.

D and I said this was one of the most successful times we've had eating out yet. I agree.

Mugg and Bean was the first one.

They ate everything (fish bites, chips and rice), had some of our food, drank tons of water and were well-behaved and even cute with people at neighbouring tables and the waiter.

Kendra eats slower so after Connor was done, I took him for a lovely walk in the shopping centre after playing peek a boo around a pillar and he was just delightful.

And then when we got home Kendra and I had some 1:1 time reading (me on my Kindle, K with a magazine - she LOVES the gift insert in the Clicks magazine) while Connor slept and D went to buy nappies.

Anyway, our day was nothing out of the ordinary but was just so lovely - it's how I imagined family for all those horrible infertile years and I finally have it.

Tonight we had my version of Jayme's enchilada casserole (without the enchiladas and on toasted garlic rolls - double yum!)

Source: tatertwins.com via Marcia on Pinterest

and of course for dessert I had an apple bar. I made another batch yesterday morning and there are 3 pieces left!

D told me tonight that I need to try another fruit in there so I told him I'd do it with peaches or apricots (I think this would work with any fruit) as he also doesn't like pineapple (my other love!).

And on the to-do list, I've finished book 2 for the month and October photos are DONE!


What did you do this weekend?

This week I'm looking forward to supper with Hayley, signing off some stuff at work, seeing friends at two socials on Sat and finishing my year in review pages for Sept and October. And both dreading and looking forward to seeing a sneak peek of yesterday's shoot.

What are you looking forward to this week?

Five (foodie things) on Friday

I saw some pictures in my files that I hadn't blogged yet so this week I'm doing a food focus.

I pin a LOT of things to bake and you all know the goal is to try two recipes a month. By the way, I thought those expectations were low and then I was scrambling at the end of the month.

My new thing where I try a recipe or two weekly is working much better. 

Anyway.

1. I made these peanut butter chocolate & oats cookies at the end of August. They are SUPER easy to make and taste great. The key is to have your baking paper-lined cookie sheets ready because once it's all mixed, you have to drop them quickly to set. I'm done apologising for bad photos - the fact of the matter is that anything out of the ordinary gets done when the kids are in bed and if I waited for good light, I'd get nothing done.

 

2. Then a couple of weeks later I made pumpkin bread. Oh my gosh, it was heaven. Nice and moist and pumpkinny. I keep buying pumpkin to make it again and somehow we end up eating it. And I buy a 500g bag because the last time I used the entire bag. I can't tell you how yum this was - you will DROOOOOOOL.

3. On Monday I felt like eating something "apple". My favourite fruit on God's entire earth is the humble apple. He really, really knew what He was doing with the apple. And so I love anything apple. If you invite me over and make me apple something I'll love you forever. Seriously. I am fickle! And if you add cinnamon, oh, then we're best friends for life.

So I made Sarah's apple bars. All I can say is..... thank goodness D doesn't eat cooked apple and I don't allow the children to eat sugar :) The only complaint I have is that the recipe only makes a very small pan (literally 8 pieces). This was heavenly. Heavenly. And I'm making another batch tomorrow :)

4. In 2009 I gave our family friends oatmeal cookies for Christmas (they are the easiest thing in the world, delicious and you can eat 4 before you even blink). Last year I gave Bakerella's Cowgirl Cookies. So next up for me is to try a couple of other recipes to decide on this year's recipe.

I'm thinking I need to try these lemon crinkle cookies and these apple raisin oatmeal cookies (this one sounds good for the kids too)

5. I've also tried about 3 - 4 new main course recipes in the last 3 months. All of them except a pan pizza recipe I won't do again. Nothing wrong just it felt like the recipe was trying too hard :) Do you want the details on those too?

So do you have an easy, not too unhealthy (I don't mind sugar but I don't like cooking with a lot of oil or butter (about a 1/2 cup of anything is as much as I like to go) cookie/ biscuit recipe with apple?

Or maybe not apple but something super-easy that makes a lot (I'm still lazy; I just enjoy food)?

Saturday sightings, also known as Featured Friday again late

This is actually my Feature Friday post, again late!

I looked in my Google Reader and saw tons and tons of the crafty/ home/ decor/ variety so I'm going to have to categorise them further so that I don't only pick 2 - 3 and forget lots of my other favourites.

Let's start with food blogs.

I love a good food blog with a story - I want to be transported and feel like I'm watching Nigella :)

I also love reading food blogs where the blogger clearly loves food and is not just posting recipes.

And good pics ALWAYS help - always.

So these are some of my favourites:

The Pioneer Woman - I was reading way back in the day long before she was as famous as she is now.

Things I still want to make - cinnamon rolls, chicken spaghetti and I'm trying these baked beans out tomorrow. I've got to start jazzing up my baked beans.

When I decided to start eating better, I unsubscribed from all the cooking blogs (to set up my environment for success) and the ones below are all new ones I'm folllowing but please go have a look and drool...

Joy the baker

The girl who ate everything (don't you love her blog name?!)

Bless this food (this is a girl who loves her food)

Two peas and their pod

and one I found on Friday, Skinny Taste. I've already bookmarked her skinny tuna noodle recipe.

I also have started putting together that recipe blog I spoke about before :)

I have a loose plan for all the food I plan to make "one day".

I pull out the recipe (if from a magazine) or print off the internet and stick it all in a folder in my kitchen.

Here's the thing - I put the date on the top and if about 6 months have passed and I haven't bothered yet, then clearly I'm not that into it.

So then I'll either write down the missing ingredients, go buy them and cook the thing (if it still looks good) or I'll toss the recipe.

I will say that I am more likely to try baking something than cooking it (because I can't follow a recipe exactly!) and I only tear out recipes that are quick and easy so chances are I already have the ingredients in my kitchen.

What are your favourite cooking and baking blogs? What's your favourite recipe? Do you like trying out new recipes? Do you have a plan for testing things out?

PS I've already decided that my 37 things list will include trying 2 new recipes a month - a cooking and a baking one. Can't wait!

Caught out

Spotted while I was doing a walk around at work with an art director scouting for locations

This morning I was walking across the parking lot at our church when my phone beeped.

I checked the message and it said, "Marcia, please come weigh in so I can help you. Maureen".

Caught out.

I replied, "You are SO sweet! I'm at a church thing but I do need help and will phone you. Marcia"

I'm terrible at texting but I had to respond immediately because the Weigh-Less Group Leader figured me out.

I haven't been to weigh-in at Weigh-Less for two Saturdays.

And the week before that I'd put on 0.6 kg. It was the Saturday after our holiday so I chalked it up to being out of your routine on holiday .

The next week I was exactly the same on my scale which means the same on their scale too.

And this morning I was only 0.2 kg lighter.

So I told myself, "what's the point in going?" and "I don't have time"

I never, ever believe people when they say, "I don't have time".

A better thing to say is, "I'm choosing to do this instead of that".

In the interests of full disclosure, I spent some time this morning looking at A's teddy bear bday party (thanks for your Picasa link, Cat).

I could have gone to weigh-in even though I was on my way to church.

I've been having lots of constipation problems and lots of birthday problems.

Birthday problems- these are no excuses. I accept full responsibility.

The table where the birthday girl/ boy puts all the cake and goodies at work is right across the aisle from my desk.

The way I achieve goals is to set up my environment for success. So I don't take any food to work I can't eat. E.g. Julia commented in a post a while back when I mentioned the ginormous bag of food I take to work that I should leave some things there. I can't. If I'm at any point hungry, I would polish it all off since I have very little self-control.

We've had two birthdays in the last two weeks. All with VERY good cake. I've had small pieces but still...cake. I have no problem with things I'm not keen on - fresh cream, lots of icing, etc.

Thank goodness the next birthday is only mid-July!

Then, constipation.

Let's just say I've always suffered somewhat but usually the water and the all bran flakes do the trick.

Not anymore.

I had to buy Dulcolax on Wed because I'd had no success since Sun (TMI!) and yes, it worked on Thurs but I felt so ill I'm considering the rest of the box worth R60 a waste of money. 29 tablets, anyone?

Today my friend told me to try Benefiber so off I went to Clicks again this afternoon and got me some. R85 later, this stuff better work.

There's also one other thing which seems very superficial but here it is:

My jeans are already loose.

The weight I've already lost coupled with the "magic" of the personal trainer has meant my size 34 (10) jeans are all loose around my thighs. So are my work pants and therefore I feel thin. I've even been turning down the waistband to keep the jeans on.

I think I should fit on some of my old size 32's so I can feel a bit fatter and get motivated to lose these last almost 4 kg :)

Here's hoping this week is better and I lose something crazy like 2 kg :) Look at me, over-achiever extraordinaire.

How good are you with self-control and eating the "wrong foods"? What do you tell yourself? What are your tips for "eating success"?

PS I've just realised - I haven't been exercising!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's probably reason 3.

Body issues, what I'm learning about food and tons of pics

love this pic - it's so me - grey skies, cold weather and warm clothes - LOVE!

walking through a cemetery in Scotland

no Photoshop - the grass at the Blarney Castle is really that green!

beautiful street in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland - isn't it quaint?

me in Scotland (just for you, Roz) - down one of the side streets off Princes Street, Edinburgh

in England somewhere - love the colours

my 2nd bloggy meet-up in Scotland - the lovely Suzanne, my organising buddy :)

D & me at the Blarney Castle grounds

me in Chester, England - love this kind of gorgeous little street

I answered in the comments of that torso pic :) but wanted to quickly write it here in case you don't go back and read comments (I know I don't).

Contrary to perception, I really don't have body issues.

I'm happy with what I look like, even the 5 kg overweight version :)

The thing is... I know what my body is capable of and I really hate to see it not living up to its potential.

Confession - I hate seeing any person not living up to their potential.

I want to run up two flights of stairs and not be out of breath.

I want to chase Connor around the garden for hours on end.

Etc. etc.

And I want to be toned and athletic :)

I can dress to camouflage the bad bits... somewhat... but I just want to be the best possible me.

Does this make sense or do you think I'm talking rubbish?


So this time around Weigh-Less is teaching me a couple of things that I'd forgotten, and some new things.

1. Two herbal tea bags in a litre of water plus two sweetener is almost as good as water. I make a jug and drink from it the entire night so that I don't drink endless cups of tea (as I normally do). Delicious. Also helps you get to the water quotient in winter.
2. I have almost gone off normal tea because I'm being intentional about my calories and that extra quarter spoon of sugar (I take 1 equal sweetener (Canderel is too sweet!) plus a 1/4 spoon of sugar in a mug of tea) is just not worth it.
3. I really, really, REALLY look forward to my real cups of tea/ coffee these days because I can only have 3. Sometimes I don't even make it to the 3rd cup!
4. Other than the tea/ coffee, I really prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them. I can easily turn down milkshakes, smoothies, juice, etc.
5. I choose proteins that have the least amount to eat since this is the one I really battle with. So feta cheese over lean ham :)
6. Soup is my friend
7. When I'm organised, I'm much happier (I now carry a herbal teabag in my handbag and to meetings so I'm not tempted by our delicious cappuccinos) and cheat less.
   

And some things I'd forgotten:

• To not buy food I normally don't eat (like those darn Finn's rye biscuits - gosh, they're like cardboard)
• How much I love baked beans and tomatoes!

So how do you feel about your body? Do you have body issues?

And have you learnt anything about your relationship with food lately?

PS there's no reason for the pics - I just felt like looking through some of them and thought you'd enjoy them too :)