Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
This week Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer has designated WFMW as The Kitchen Edition. I’m really looking forward to reading everyones tips, I’m interested in anything that will make life easier in the kitchen 
My tip has to do with time management in the kitchen:
While you are cooking dinner, during the time you are waiting around for the water to boil or for your food to finish baking make your childrens lunches for the following day. You’re in the kitchen anyway so it’s one less chore you have to do later……. It works for me!
Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 12:56 am
Taco Stuffed Potatoes Cook the potatoes following the instructions below.
Great Microwave Potatoes (recipe from
Fruitful Words)
Wash potato thoroughly. Poke through several times with a knife.
Place one on a plate and microwave on high 4-6 minutes – depending upon the size of the potato.
2 potatoes cook 6-8 1/2 minutes.
3 potatoes cook 8-11 minutes.
4 potatoes cook 11- 14 minutes.
Take potato(s) out of oven and wrap in tinfoil. It (they) might still be a little hard.
Then wrap tea towel over the foil for about 8 minutes.
Taco Stuffing
1 small onion, finely chopped2 cloves garlic, finely chopped1 tablespoon olive oil500g beef mince1 tablespoons chili powder1 teaspoon paprikaPinch of saltPepper to taste1 cup grated cheesesour cream for topping.
Cook onion and garlic in oil in large nonstick pan over medium heat about 2 minutes or until onion is tender. Add mince, cook about 5 minutes, breaking up large pieces, until beef is browned. Add chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper; heat until hot.Stuffing the Potatoes.Unwrap the potatoes, cut a cross in the top of the potato (not quite all the way to the bottom) place in a bowl and squash down so that the potato opens out. Sprinkle some grated cheese on the hot potato.Pour some of the taco stffing mix over the top of the cheese.Add a dollop of sour cream to the top and it’s ready to eat.
Edited on 10th March to say that these were a hit with my family. The potatoes looked and tasted like they had been baked in the oven for hours and the mince was delicious!
Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
As I mentioned in a previous post I have set myself a challenge to only spend money on Wednesdays and Saturdays (you can read about my challenge here) so Wednesday is going to be my groccery day. Which means that tonight and Tuesdays dinners are going to be made up of what we have in the freezer and pantry.
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Monday – Toast (the girls have a school disco tonight, so dinner will be simple)
Tuesday – Spaghetti, Salad and Garlic Bread (I made a double batch last week and froze it )
Sunday – Dinner at Mum and Dads
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Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
The party at 5 Minutes for Mom is in full swing and can you believe that I have just checked in there and there are 604 links… thats 604 great blogs to check out!!!!
I have visited 150 so far…… only 454 to go!!!! I’m starting to think that perhaps Janice and Susan should have made this blog party a month long instead of a week long…….. oh well, I’ll soldier on and try and visit them all before the week is over I’m sure my DH and kids can live without clean clothes, clean dishes and clean floors for a week…. can’t they???
Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 2:28 am
Here is a really easy recipe for parties or if you have a few people coming over.
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Spinach Cob Loaf
1 large cob loaf
2 x 250 g packets frozen spinach
1 x 30 g packet Spring Vegetable soup mix (dry)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup light sour cream
4 spring onions, chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
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Hollow out the cob loaf and cut the bread into 3 cm squares.
Mix all the ingredients together (if possible do the day before).
Place the mixture into the cob loaf and serve with the bread.
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Cut up some extra crusty bread to serve with the dip because the bread tends to disappears before the dip does!
Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Firstly I’d like to welcome you to my blog and thank you for joining the blog party!
Can I offer you some Spinach Cob Loaf??? It’s delicious isn’t it?. Can you have the recipe?? Sure, here it is!!!
Let me tell you a little bit about myself…….. My name is Rachel and I am a 30 year old, Australian SAHM to Chloe (8), Clare (6), Caitlin (4) and Riley (2) and baby number 5 who is due on the 22nd April.
I have to say this is the best party I have ever been to. It’s 4.30 in the afternoon and I’m partying in my nighty…. well it’s hot here, I’m hot and 33 weeks pregnant and my nighty is a nice big sleeveless sack that is very cool and very comfortable, so please forgive me for not getting dressed up for you 
How rude of me, I didn’t offer you a drink……. What can I get you?. Fancy a cocktail??? My favourite is a Midori Splice….. surely it can’t hurt the baby to have a virtual cocktail…. can it?.
What are my hobbies you ask??? Well at the moment my favourite thing to do is to blog (you would never have guessed that would you?). I love blogging, I love reading blogs and quite frankly I spend to much time blogging. But I love it. I don’t always have a lot to blog about, well I do, but I think you’d probably get bored reading about how Riley fell over and scraped his knee on the way home from school today or how Caitie drew a really cute picture of me and her at the park, so I am loving getting involved in blog carnivals that give me something to blog about each day.
I also enjoy selling and buying on eBay, reading when I get the chance, scrapbooking when I get the chance and also sleeping when I get the chance and I enjoy getting out and playing in my vegetable garden
If you take a look at my posts you will find that I have quite a few other passions like collecting recipes, menu planning, podcasting and challenging myself to be a better SAHM. I have found that my blog helps me to stay focused and to achieve my goals… just another reason why blogging is such a great idea
To find out a little more about me scroll down my right sidebar until you come to 20 things about me!
I hope you have had a good time here, come back and visit me often Here are some flowers to take with you!
Don’t forget to leave a comment for me if you had a good time .If you haven’t been there already go and visit Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom to find links to other party bloggers! You can read more of my blog by clicking here!Read more of my Ultimate Blog Party Posts by clicking here!
Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 11:05 am
My challenge for March is to only have 2 days a week where I can spend money.
I tend to duck out to the local supermarket every couple of days to pick up a few things and always come home with heaps more than I had planned to buy. Not to mention the treat that Riley insists on each time we enter woolworths, and then if it’s around lunchtime I tend to buy something yummy for lunch too. Not only is this bad for the budget but it’s also bad for my waistline.
I read a tip somewhere (I wish I could remember where) from someone who only allowed themselves to have 2 days a week where they could spend money, so I’m going to give it a go.
It means that I am going to have to be more organised with my groccery shopping, so that we don’t run out of bread and milk.
It also means that I will need to make a list of things that need to be bought so that I have a list to go off when I do go to the shops. That should help with any impulse purchases.
I have decided that my shopping days will be Wednesday and Saturday. These days seem to suit my family the best.
I’d love to hear from anyone who is currently doing something similar to this or anyone who would like to try this challenge with me
I’ll keep you updated on my progress
Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 12:58 am
During the first week of each month I like to take a look at my vegetable garden and decide what needs to be done. The photo above was taken on the 1st February and the photo below was taken today.
As you can see there has been quite a lot of growth.
- The cucumbers on the trellis on the right have not done so well in the heat but there is still a bit of green vine and some small cucumbers so I’ll leave it in there for now. I want to get in there and pull out all the dying leaves though.
- Some of the lettuce is just about ready to pick so I want to plant some more lettuce seeds in the gaps.
- The radish have just about all been picked so I will plant some more radish seeds and also some carrot seeds.
- It’s also time to get leeks into the garden, so I will either get some seeds or buy some seedlings.
- The zucchini is doing really well and I have heaps and heaps of little zuc’s that should be ready to pick in the next week or so.
- The eggplant is still doing well and there are quite a few little eggplants growing on there so nothing needs to be done with them. A few of the plants need to be staked so I’ll do that.
- Behind the eggplant are the tomatoes and basil. The tomatoes are getting quite tall now and I need to stake them too. There is no sign of fruit yet but hopefully soon
- And the whole garden needs a good dose of Seasol and a bit of weeding.
- I bought a hose weeks ago to make into a drip irrigation system, but I haven’t put the holes in it yet, so I need to do that and set it up in the garden.
So that’s the plan for the next week. I’m hoping now that summer is over we will have some tamer weather and hopefully some more rain.
