one contented homebody

a vintage inspired life

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Menu Plan Monday


Image Credit


Monday: Meatballs and spaghetti, garlic bread

Tuesday:Fish, chips and salad.

Wednesday:  Schnitzels, gravy and vegetables

Thursday:Homemade Wraps with  marinated chicken and salad

Friday: Spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread

Saturday:Honey chicken, stir fry veggies, rice and bread rolls

Sunday: Crumbed chicken strips, chips and salad.

Desserts: Banana and honey pudding, Queen pudding, Coconut Impossible pie

Monday, July 20, 2015

g. Donna's - Generations Before Us

A new to me blog with lot of hints for living the old fashioned way. 


This post in particular caught my eye.


I love it!


Hope you enjoy it too J



Sunday, July 19, 2015

Menu Plan Monday

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Monday: Chinese Chicken Stir-fry with bread rolls

Tuesday:  Moroccan beef curry with naan bread

Wednesday:  Kangaroo Island Whiting with chips and salad

Thursday: Fast and easy chicken Lasagne with bread rolls

Friday: Rissoles and gravy with veggies

Saturday: Chicken bolognese with garlic bread

Sunday: Mexican Beef Slice with chips and Greek salad

Desserts: Chocolate pudding, apple sponge pudding



This week I am trying different recipes  from  The Organisd Housewife

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Health Benefits of Black Strap Molasses

Did you know that Black Strap Molasses is really healthy for us?

How I came to find this out was by doing a bit of research on the internet as we do these days. 

There is a story attached to this so I will start from the beginning.

 Hubby recently restored his grandfathers World War One 303 rifle.  He was advised to use molasses mixed with water to remove the rust etc from the barrel and the other bits (you can tell I know a lot about guns lol). This stuff is magic for removing rust! It is cheap as chips from a fodder store. I think it was $2.00 for two litres.

Anyway, I became curious as to what was in this product and why when I was a youngster on our farm, we used to give Molasses to our horses and the other stock. And so the searching began. 

I was amazed to find that Molasses has many  health benefits for us humans,  in particular Black Strap Molasses.  Organic and unsulfured is the best type to use.


molassesinfographic

If you are interested in learning more go here.

I found Molasses at Woolworths, it is on the shelf near the sugar, golden syrup and treacle.  I bought some and gave it a try.  It is not organic that I can see, and it is not Black Strap either, but it is unsulfured. I made some Anzac biscuits using the original recipe but they didn't spread out very well although they did taste delicious. So I have found an alternative recipe here. I am yet to try this one but it is on my list for this week.

I went on to look around the web for molasses recipes and came across this site.  There are some yummy sounding recipes like these ones, although these might not be so healthy  J


Mom's Ginger Cookies Recipe

Mom’s Ginger Cookies


Marble Cake Recipe

Marble Cake

Brandy Snaps Recipe

Brandy Snaps

Since discovering this product, I have been on the lookout for some organic unsulfured Black Strap Molasses, and today I ended up finding some in our local health shop. It cost $6.00 which I didn't think was too bad. 


And this is how I like to consume my molasses.

One teaspoon of molasses, mixed with water and bit of milk added.  Just like a cup of coffee or tea. It has a distinct flavour of its own.  I cant really describe it, you will either like it or you wont. J

My main interest in molasses has been for my skin and hair as I have reached "that age" where menopause is causing problems like extremely dry hair and skin. So far I think there has been an improvement.  I know I am feeling better, probably because molasses can give you energy, something I lack sometimes. I have been having molasses for about a month now, and I thought it was time I shared my findings with all of you.

Have you heard of molasses? And will you give this health tonic a try?


Sunday, July 12, 2015

Menu Plan Monday

Image Credit

Monday: Cowboy Casserole with vegetables and garlic bread


Wednesday:  Fowler’s Bay salmon, chips and salad

ThursdayMozzarella stuffed Meatballs  with spaghetti and bread rolls

Friday: Chicken Laksa, Singapore noodles, naan bread

Saturday: Beef and vegetable curry with buttered toast

Sunday: Homemade crumbed chicken tenders, chips and salad

Desserts: Golden syrup dumplings, lemon pudding, apple pie.

I found a blog recently with plenty of easy tasty looking recipes that I cant wait to try.  Emily doesn't blog anymore which is a shame, as I really enjoyed reading her blog. I have included three of her recipes to try this week.  
You can find her blog here

Friday, July 10, 2015

A Busy Week and Some Savings

Here is what I have been up to this week.

I made a whole orange cake from gifted oranges.

 I have been adding pretty touches to my journal/diary. This is how I  keep on track with daily jobs and different things.  
I have a to do list and I write out a little scripture from the Bible.  At the top I add the weather showing the temperature with a sunny or cloudy picture.  I keep record of how many eggs I collect and how much rain falls as well as how many mandarins in weight I have harvested.  
So far I have picked 67.3kgs of mandarins and the tree is still loaded.

I  decided to make use of my fireplace to dry breadcrumbs.

And I hung bunches of parsley and thyme near the fire to dry as well. This was really successful.


 We did a flying trip back to our hometown to catch up with friends.

 Ceduna is located four hours away.
 My parents live along the way so we stopped there for a day and night.

 Although it was cloudy the whole time we were there, the water was glassy calm.



This is the view from our friends house. 
I can imagine waking up to this each day, simply lovely J

I took some cuttings from my friends geranium plants.  I love these old fashioned flowers.  They grow really well here as they are so tough and hardy.

A gift from my dad.  
An old trolley that has a tabletop with drop sides.  It is still at my parents house because we didn't have the room to bring it home.

Here are some strawberries that were given to my parents. These came from the local supermarket and were going to be  discarded. Having a friend whose family owns the store can be a real asset. This is a large ice cream container full, and I was able to bring them all home.

 I also brought home some pineapple,

 onions,

 and avocados. 
These were all given to my parents.
I wish I lived closer as mum cant always handle all the food they are gifted. She does what she can by making jams, freezing etc to use things up, but sometimes the food ends up being given to the chickens, which is still okay, and they definitely don't complain  J 

 I prepared the strawberries for the freezer. I will make some jam with these and use some in our smoothies.

 There were eight pineapples all up.   I gave one to my daughter and the rest I peeled, chopped and put into bags in the freezer.  I am going to make some jam from these too and add to smoothies, pizzas etc.

My mum had these two jars in her cupboard. 
They are quite large and will come in handy for storage in my pantry. There are also some smaller ones in the op shop that my mum is going to get for me.  I like the way that Annabel has decorated these types of jars for her pantry.

 Another gift from dad. 
This time a retro plant stand.

 I gave it a clean and added some furniture oil to the wood, then placed my coleus in it. This plant started with the tiniest cutting I brought home.  They are so easy to grow, especially in a well lit area.


 On to our savings from my previous post.
Here is the bottle full of $2.00 coins.

All counted and it held a total of $948.00.
Not quite $1000, but close enough.
We have put this money in a tin to use for our travels.
 

We are in for a rough, freezing cold weekend.  Next week will be much of the same.  I will be getting some jobs done inside with the fire going to keep us warm.


Stay cosy everyone J 




Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Simple Saver

We saw this on face book recently.  Admittedly we scoffed and thought it would be impossible. Anyway it got the better of us so we had to take up the challenge. 

And here it is:

Take one empty 600ml bottle of Coke and fill it with Australian $2.00 coins.

When this bottle is full it will contain $1000.

We estimate that there is about $700 in our bottle at the moment, and it is about three quarters full.

Will this bottle fit another $300 in?  We think it will go very close.

I will keep you posted.



I am unsure if my overseas friends can try this experiment as I am not familiar with your currency. 

Why not give it a try?  A great way to save a little extra J