finally a working oven!

after a year without a working oven (only the stove top worked) I finally (with thanks to ebay) have a new oven that works!

It's fan forced too, not something i have owned before so that will be interesting and the seals work so no more cooking everything at full blast!

Tonight to celebrate I ma cooking a roast lamb. Then once thats doen there will be a batch of home made sausage rolls ready to go in and after that a lasagna!

Looking for more oven cooking ideas to feed big families!

what I'm cooking....

 What I'm cooking right now...

I've made this dish a few times over the last few weeks and packaged it into the freezer for healthy lunches for Campbell and myself at work.

Its super easy, fresh and yum!

All it is diced chicken breast, browned off with some garlic, ginger, fresh chilli and a tablespoon of kasoundi add sliced red onion, mushrooms, red capsicum, yellow capsicum/chillies, zuchini, coriander, spinach leaves and a tin of tomatoes, . Once the chicken is browned add the spices, then heat through then add all the vegies and tomatoes and cook until vegies are just a litle soft. Its really easy! Freezes well for reheating too!

The timber fruit boxes are our next project... operation new vegie garden... more on that soon. 

a pleasant week

life feels like its settling into a nice pace.

Had a lovely week, did some op shopping one morning, decided I have ben working hard so on my drive to work I thought I had no urgent deadlines so I took the morning for me and visited 3 different op shops.

I picked up a great bookshelf for eldest dd's (10) room, its in need of another full overhaul, she is such a clutter queen!
I also got a small tv that was in fine workign order for $20 for her room, she has no idea i bought this though it will be gifted to her once her room is organised. Hope she isnt dissappointed that foxtel wont work on it though!

I grabbed myself a few books fomr the the op shop also and dd2 (7) a skirt and top.

I also headed of to the good guys sale during the week, they had an extra special discount evening where i picked up a dishwasher. We have wanted one for some time especially since i am working full time now, it will just free up some time to be witht he family and get other stuff done. It is a Bosch and is a 4.5 star water rating which is good.

I treated myself to a new snapshot camera, the new Lumix waterproof/shockproof camera, looking forward to that, i hate lugging my big slr everwhere so quote simply i just dont do it!

and I got a few things for the astudio, a coffee machine and a microwave, so now I can do a big cookup on weekends and not have ot buy takeaway for lunch (though must admit the cafes near the studio are incredibly good!)

speaking of cookups this week I have been ona cooking frenzy. (did I say how much I love the seperation of work and home home feels more homely hence I have been more homely!)
This week I cooked up 2 quiches, a big pot of stovies 9a scotish dih mum made as we grew up) a beef casserole, a lentil and chick pea curry, a lentil shepherds pie and roast lamb :) I now have alittle set of caontainers of frozen lunches and we've been eating well!

Also been starting to declutter yet again at home. Does anyone else seem to find no sooner have they finished decluttering the entire house that they have to go back to the start as its building up again!!) this week I cleaned the fridge out, cleaned 2 drawres in the bathroom and the sink top and did half my wadrobe (being more ruthless this time, I am notholding on to as many older clothes, have packed a suitcase to pass onto the girls as they grow up)

speaking of the girls growing up, I measured everyone on our wall again today, dd 10 yrs is now 5 foot tall! she's pretty much as tall as both mine and hubbys mums! Pity they arent around to see her.

Recipe Book

Today I helped a good friend wiht a bit of packing as she is moving into their first home!

In the mormning I got up and decided to clean up a bit before going and then figured I'd cook too.

Yestrday I missed the osso bucco due to Joey being out for the night so we did take away.
So today i cooked it.

I photographed as i went along as i am thinkig I will make a recipe book for the kids with all my fav recipes for them.

This is Osso Bucco.

Brown Osso Bucco in a pan and lay in baking dish.




dice up
-1 carrot
-1 onion
-2 cloves garlic
-2 sticks celery
- 1/4 red capsicum

In a pan, cook diced vegies until slightly softened.
-add around 1 cup of wine (choose a wine you like whether its red or white, amke sure you at least likethe tatse!)
-1 chicken stock cube (or 1 cup of chicken stock)
-1 large tin chopped tomaotes (or fresh tomatoes if you have them)

Cook for around 10 minutes on a medium to high heat.


Pour mixture over Osso Bucco and cover with foil and bake. Preferably ina slow oven for many hours, if not ina medium to high oven for 1 hour (ours today had 4-5 hours in a slow oven)

serve with mashed potatoes and steamed greens (we had silverbeet from the garden, about the only thing currently growing !)
FREECYCLE is cool :)
Check out these gorgeous cannisters I picked up today! They are like new and are really lovely! I also picked up 2 dripper hoses yesterday form freecycle for my vegie garden.
I also went op shopping today and yesterday! I picked up this great little enamelware/cast iron pot. Its made in poland (or so it is stamped) I initially bought it to use a pot for a plant outside (have been collecting enamelware pots for this in different colours) but now I am not sure if i want to keep it in the kitchen instead!


I picked Liam up some dinaosaur activity books which he will love as he is dino mad!I also bought myself a heap of different books over my travels.
I LOVE hunting out books in op shops. i am drawn to cookbooks, gardening books, sometimes novels, books that I had in childhood etc. I love reading, love researching, love learning and books fulfill all of those things!

Some of the titles i bought:
The Australian heritage Cookbook
Australian counrty style -country rooms
The complete gardener
Natures super foods
and many more!

I baked bread!

I'm doing a personal eco house challenge for a fortnight. I am writing down the meter readings for each of the following, water, gas, electricity and the car odometer, also counting how many garbage bags we go through in a week.
The aim is to take notice of how much we do use and how much making changes reduces our usage.

I had a goal to cook more and to cook more for myself (from my list) and today I baked bread!!!!
I was very proud of it too :)
I also made a lovely cauliflour soup and a sausage casserole for the kids and a chicken thrown together curry thingy for Joey and I.




OK the bread was by this recipe,

and the cauliflour soup:

(in progress)

1 head caulfilour
1 leek
1 clove garlic
some vegie stock
can light evaporated milk.

Chop ingredients, put everything except the milk in a pot and boil for about 20 minutes.
Then add milk and blend. Was very easy and was yummy!

Sausage casserole:



sausages (I used 5 thin ones)
2 onions sliced
1 clove garlic.
half a bottle of tomato passata (puree)
small can crushed tomatoes
1 tbs bbq sauce
2 carrots chopped.

Brown sausages then chop, throw all ingredients in a pot and cook for about half an hour :)

Then this is a recipe I just chuck stuff in.
Chicken thrown together curry:



1 kilo chicken cassorle pieces
1 red onion roughly chopped
1 large sweet potato peeled and chopped roughly
2 tomatoes chopped
large handful fresh spinach
half red capsicum chopped.
curry spices (I used cumin, garam masala, a malaysian pre mix of spices form my asain grocer and turneric)
a little water.
chopped fresh chilli
chopped fresh coriander.

Thrown everything in a baking dish and cover with foil and bake in oven for about 1 hour.

Today I also spent a good bit of tiem in the garage sorting through piles of stuff! the place is a bit of amess so I dragged each of the bins into the garage ot make it easier to sort. I also grabbed some bags to do bags for the op shop.
I am about half done will finish tomorrow, will be easier once done, one more area organised and also will maen i will be able ot access my gardening stuf much easier!

Pumpkin Soup

One of my goals is to cook foods from scratch as much as possible. Tpo cook a variety of foods so we don't get bored with food and to also cook healthier foods as much as possible... oh and ofcourse the aim is for it to taste good!

So today I made pumpkin soup.

Susan's Pumpkin Soup:

• 1 butternut pumpkin
• Half an onion
• 2 sticks celery
• 1 potato
• 1 massel vegie stock cube

Chop all ingredients and toss in a pot and add enough water to cover.
Bring to boil then simmer for 20 minutes.
Either mash wiht a potato masher or give the lot a quick whizz with a bamix.
Eat :)