The advantages to bulk cooking

In one of my earliest posts, I tell you all HERE about how I'm convinced one of the reasons $50 is a hard budget to stick to because I overcook.

BUT that's not always a bad thing. I just decided. I'm almost 31 weeks pregnant and right now, struggling to be motivated to be healthy at all. I've done well so far, I really haven't put on much (noticable) weight - which I credit to my toddling excersize machine. However, that doesn't mean that I can eat a family sized packet of BBQ chips and expect it to be ok. Not to mention the complete guilt factor of lack of anything nutritious in said bag of chips for the incubating one.

This:

Is the laksa I made a little while a go (I gave you the link to the blog with all the great recipes). This is by no means, a small wok. It's actually a pretty big wok. What I made that night was actually about 5 - 6 BIG serves - unintentionally. Now this is good, because Cue obligational feeling of eating something decent before I eat the packet of Timtams (cancel out the bad with the good, right?) I am currently eating Laksa that I had frozen just in case.

sidenote: Strangely - the Laksa I froze and then reheated is no where near as spicy as it was the day I made it - Great for a mummy who gets indigestion!

This: is the stew I cooked for dinner last night. It was massive. As you can probably tell. I'm not entirely sure WHY I feel like I need to cook for an entire army, but once again, it has worked in my favour.

I had 2 bowls of this last night and didn't even make a dent in it. Pat didn't eat any because he came home late.

So tonight, when I go out to dinner for a girls night (how exciting!!!) I know that both my boys will be well fed with no excuses.

Sometimes it's helpful to be a little excessive.

Lazy Sundays

Last night I was sitting here reading food blogs (as one does on a saturday night) and I found the AMAZING thestonesoup

Her recipes look delicious, simple, healthy and quick to make. She even has 2 free ecookbooks in the archives. In particular, I want to make the Laksa from her first free ecookbook and the LAMB_CURRY. So with these in mind and some inspiration to be healthy, using locally grown produce, I headed off to the markets to do my groceries.

Remember the $50 budget I had? Today I tried sticking to it. I had $50 and some coins in my wallet. So I got:

From the markets. That's mushrooms, bananas, apples, caps, lettuce, onions, sweet potato, zuccini, squash, cucumber, broccoli and fresh basil. All for $25.00

Then I went to the supermarket. And got:

(And looking at that, I've just realised I've forgotten coconut cream for the Laksa)

Any way - We have Lamb, beef, cream, spinach leaves, laksa paste, tuna, salmon and noodles for $29.77

Plus a couple of dollars for the Coconut cream I will have to go back for (we're having the damn laksa!)

And there is my reason for deciding to become predominantly vegetarian. We've played with it in the past. We both (Pat and I) felt healthier. Pat didn't get so bloated and lethargic. But I usually revert to meat dishes because I have no inspiration or because it's easier. Looking at the price difference though, there really isn't any reason to make excuses.

So there you have it. We will probably still have a meat dish once or twice a week. Although, I am really looking forward to the Lamb and Spinach Curry that I linked earlier in the post (HERE it is again in case you missed it). It just looks so fresh and flavourful!

Let me know what you think of that site. And if you have any other favourite foodie blogs, please, send them my way. I have a lot of hours to kill and there is only so many brownies I can eat.

The Pram is Here!

So, this is my new pram:

The Joovy Caboose Stand-on Tandem. And I must say, I'm really impressed. I'm a crazy person who saw this pram on the internet and thought it was really cool. I liked that I could put a capsule on it and I liked the concept of the older child being able to sit or stand on it, giving both you and them more freedom. I had no idea how big it was. I heard that it was compact. (I have a Toyota Corolla Hatch back so I hoped the reports where true). I heard that despite what it says on the website, the older child CAN sit while the capsule is in place.

So the first photo is to show you that it IS compact. Actually, all the photos show that. But this is as narrow as a capsule. No joke. It's narrower than my normal pram! Middle photo is with the capsule in place and Dex sit/standing on the seat/platform. And last photo is to show you just how little the pram actually is.

Things that impressed me that I didn't even know about? The front seat folds all the way back into a laying position (they need to update the website) and there is a 5 point harness for the child sitting on the toddler seat if you wish. AND it only cost me $360 including the caspule attachment. I think that's pretty darn impressive. (and no, I'm not getting paid for this advertising... I should be though!)

The other thing I want to show you is this:



I'm not sure if it looks as impressive as it tastes, but it tastes REALLY good. It is also fairly cheap to make. So, recipe time.

Garlic Buttered Roast Pumpkin and Bacon Pasta.

(very descriptive title)

1/2 Butternut pumpkin - small cubes

3 rashers bacon - diced

TBSP (?) Butter/margarine

tsp (?) minced garlic.

Pasta

Prehead oven to 180 degrees celcius

Melt butter, add garlic.

Put pumpkin in to an oven safe dish. Drizzle butter all over and mix well so all pumpkin is covered.

Chuck it in the oven. Took me about 45 minutes to cook it.

About half way through (so 20 minutes-ish) Add bacon.

Stir around a couple of times throughout cooking time to make sure everything is garlic-ed and buttered.

Cook your desired amount of pasta (I used fettucine)

When pumpkin and bacon is cooked (pumpkin should be tender but not mushy) add pasta to the dish and mix everything together so pasta gets garlic buttered too.

Serve and enjoy =]