Full recovery!

I am pleased to report that Tabitha has made a full recovery from her gastro.  She slept beautifully last night, bed at 7:30pm, out of bed at 8am, feeding at 10, 2 and 6 overnight, as per usual.  She was pleasantly cool all night, with no sign of fever this morning.  Chattering and smiling away, chasing the cats.  And perhaps the best indicator - she just absolutely demolished half a piece of avocado toast, so her appetite is back!

The amount of laundry generated when a baby is sick is incredible - it boggles my mind to imagine the laundry when multiple children in a household are ill.  I did four full loads yesterday, the whole house is covered in muslins and towels and pyjamas.

In other news, Tabitha was given her first pair of Proper Ballet Shoes, by her Great Grandma.  My mother runs a large ballet school, and my grandmother also used to run a ballet school.  I did ballet for years (I was supremely dreadful at ballet, lacking both the focus and the flexibility), and also did adult ballet classes until I became pregnant.  I think it's a lovely activity for little girls, teaching musicality and dance and creative play, and my mother's school is nice and relaxed for the little ones - fun fairy dresses as the ballet uniform, and lots of creative dance in the lessons.

My mother's good friend also runs a ballet school, and is trying to persuade me to send Tabitha to her school for lessons instead!  I foresee two ballet classes a week, perhaps.

Tabby's Great Grandma bought a pair of nice Bloch leather ballet shoes in the smallest size they come in - so once they fit Tabitha, she can start ballet!  She also has a pair of cute Bloch glittery pink fabric ballet shoes, which my parents gave to her as a baptism gift.  These fit her now, and she wears them a lot.

Now that our younger cat, Possum, is one year old, he is finally calming down.  Instead of bouncing off the walls all morning from dawn, he trotted into our bed this morning at 6am and curled up in my arms, purring, until 8am.  I am thrilled - kittens are gorgeous but frustrating at times!

Here is my lovely squish-face baby, with and sans flash.  His true colour is somewhere in the middle:

Sick baby, tired parents!

Poor Tabitha is ill.  She has some sort of virus.  Nothing too serious, thankfully, but a raging fever and general listlessness and cranky-pants attitude.  She's thrown up just a couple of times, and the doctor says she'll be fine, but might be out of sorts for a few more days.

She's coping like a trooper, but is wanting to feed all night - and I mean ALL NIGHT!  Last night, and the night before, I managed maybe four or five 30-minute sleeps.  Apart from that, I was sitting up feeding her (she didn't want to feed lying down - oh no, that would be too easy!).  She wanted to sleep kneeling against my stomach, face down on the breast, arms wrapped up in my hair.  It was an awkward position for both of us to sleep in, but it kept her happy.  So I am feeling supremely tired and foggy.  I feel sorry for The Daddy, who has to go to work after being up much of the night as well.

Thankfully, on Thursday afternoons, Tabitha's wonderful Godmother Sophie takes care of her for a few hours, so I can have some time.  So I was able to run away while she had her afternoon nap, and get a haircut (by Nicolas at the fabulous Conrad Mace).  It felt brilliant to sit down and let someone wash and fix my hair while I had a cup of tea.  It was actually the first thing I'd had to 'eat' all day, apart from a crumpet at 8am!

After my hair, I went and sat by the river near our house.  There is a spectacularly pretty bend in the river, with a park bench and some glorious native trees, right near our house.  In Summer, we eat picnic dinners at this spot a lot.  Actually, we had some of our wedding photos taken there:

 

I sat on the bench and watched the late afternoon sun sparkle on the river, watched the school rowers training, and knitted away by myself for an hour.  Refreshing.  Now I feel able to tackle tonight's sleepless hours...

Leave of Absence

Oops!  Sorry, I've been a bad blogger for the last week.  I have had a lot going on (nothing bad!) and could not manage to sit down at the laptop.

Tabitha and I went out walking yesterday afternoon, and found a tiny, sweet, fluffy little baby Ringtail Possum on the road in the sun.  It very nearly got squished by a car!  I scooped it up in Tabby's little woolen beanie, and carried it home carefully (Tabitha was completely taken with the fluffy baby, and kept desperately reaching out, while strapped to my front in the Ergo, trying to grab it!  It was a tricky walk home.).  We called Wildlife Victoria, who were lovely and most grateful.  They instructed us to keep it in the beanie, in a dark box, with some native flowers and / or roses, until the evening.  Then I had to go and take it to a local wildlife carer, in Richmond.  She gave the baby milk in a dropper, and it drank loads.  She said it was very dehydrated, and wouldn't have survived if we didn't pick it up.  Poor baby!  She said it will be just fine, though, and within a couple of days she will re-release it into a tree near where we found it, hoping that its mumma will come and find it (if not, it is just old enough to manage on its own).

Here it is tucked away in its dark box.  Look at that cute little tail!

The Wildlife carer said that I could take a photo (with no flash).  The baby was SO soft!

Over the last couple of weeks, we've done two Yum Cha sessions.  As I've said before, Yum Cha is just perfect for BLW babies - on Sunday, we went with two other couples and their babies (around Tabitha's age), who are both also BLW babies!  The three babies happily devoured lots of dumplings and buns, then some fruit salad, while the adults enjoyed a leisurely lunch.  Barely a day goes by that I am not deeply thankful for BLW - over the past week, I have enjoyed five meals out, and each time, Tabitha happily sat and fed herself, enjoying a range of food (rare steak, dumplings, sushi, French toast and vegetable curry) while I enjoyed my own meals.

In recent weeks, Tabby's dexterity has really improved - she can pick up and eat fairly small things, like sultanas, half grapes, small tortellini, small clumps of rice etc, and seems to enjoy the challenge, preferring small pieces over larger things like toast.

While it's not good to give babies and children lots of dried fruit, as it is very high in sugar, it is perfectly okay as a treat.  One of Tabitha's favorite treats is dried banana, which I buy from a nut shop.  It is good for keeping her entertained!

Tonight, I made a pasta bake for dinner.  I think that lots of people in Australia grew up eating pasta bake, and it is a fairly common 'childhood meal'.  Well, not for me!  I had never tried a pasta bake until my early 20s.  We were vegetarian when I was small, and I think that our family foods were fairly unconventional.  Perhaps because of this, I don't turn my nose up at simple meals like pasta bake - I love them!  The Daddy looked wary when he heard what dinner was - he said his memories of pasta bake were monochrome, gluggy meals.  But we both thought this one was very nice.  It was great for Tabitha to eat, too, with large chunks of tuna, penne pieces, and decent sized pieces of capsicum.  I served it with a side of steamed broccoli for all of us.  It is a fairly economical meal - this made four massive servings, and cost well under $20.

Tuna Pasta Bake

350g penne pasta (you could use other short shapes)

425g tin of Sirena tuna in olive oil, drained

1 brown onion, diced

1 red capsicum, in 2cm x 1cm pieces

40g butter

40g plain flour

400ml full cream milk

Most of a tin of diced tomatoes (maybe 3/4)

1 cup peas

Salt and pepper

A cup of grated tasty cheese

1/3 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Cook the pasta to al dente, drain and keep warm.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium/high heat.  Saute the onion for a few minutes, then add the capsicum, and continue to cook until onion soft and translucent.

Add the flour, and stir for a minute to cook the flour.  Add the milk, bit by bit, stirring well each addition, to ensure there are no lumps.  Stir over heat for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.

Add the peas, tomoatoes, and season well with salt and pepper.  Add the pasta, stir well.

Add the tuna, stirring it through gently but thoroughly.  You ideally want to keep some large-ish chunks of tuna whole.  Taste again for seasoning.

Pour the lot into a very large baking dish / casserole dish, sprinkle both cheeses over the top, and bake for 25 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.

Tabitha has become quite cheeky when getting ready for bed!  Here she is running away from us while we changed her nappy - she'd much rather cuddle her teddy:

Here she is trying to climb out the window!  She knows the cats are out there:

Only 5 weeks until we leave for our month in the US.  Exciting!

Tabitha's tricks and 50s magazines

Have I mentioned that Tabitha and our youngest cat, Possum, are Best Buddies?  They practically wear BFF necklaces!  I know, it's very strange to have a cat that tolerates, let alone enjoys, a baby.  Luckily for us, Possum is no ordinary cat.  When we are being unkind, we say that he is 'a few sardines short of a tin'.  But the truth is, while he is a supremely stupid and uncoordinated cat (walking into walls, falling off the couch, that sort of thing), he is kind and gentle and endlessly patient.  He's barely one year old, a chocolate Burmese, and he's actually very small for an adult cat.

He always goes to stand a foot or so in front of Tabitha, then waits for her to lunge and throw herself onto his back.  He then lies there (purring!!!) while she lays on TOP of him, pulling his fur, squeezing his ears, and chewing his fur.  For ages, we worried for him, thinking he would get hurt, but every time we helped him escape, he just stood in front of Tabby again, waiting for her to pounce.  So we have decided that he actually enjoys these maulings.  Perhaps he lacks a pain gene.  Along with his missing balance genes and IQ points.  Anyway, we love him dearly, and are incredibly grateful to have a cat with whom Tabitha can play and cuddle.  The older cat stays away from her!

Oh - and Possum also enjoys fetching items from around the house, and bringing them to Tabitha, dropping them in her lap or in front of her - mostly small cat toys, which are a choking hazard!  So I am always taking them away.  But it is really gorgeous, the way he brings toys to her with such an earnest expression on his squishy little face.

Here they are having a cuddle this morning:

My little sister taught Tabby to 'high five' a couple of weeks ago.  Now she does it non-stop!  She initiates them herself - I'll be sitting in the living room, and she crawls over with one hand outstretched, smiling, waiting for me to high five her.  Then she giggles.  It is a very endearing new trick.  Except she loves to do it all through her meals, so I have to high five her greasy hands, covered in sardines or pesto or mashed up banana!

Here is Tabitha waiting for a high five during lunch.  She is eating a date scone.  There is some raw mushroom caught in her neckline:

 I love vintage magazines - primarily American women's magazines from the 1940s - 1960s.  I mostly buy them on eBay.  They are expensive (generally $20 - $30 delivered, for the good ones), however they are SO much thicker and more text-rich than modern magazines, so they take ages to read.  Plus I spend hours pouring over the ads!  I don't really buy regular (modern) magazines, so these are my 'trash reading'.

This is one of my favourites from my collection.  It is Ladies Home Journal from March 1955.  It cost 35c.

This is an advertisement for air travel - can you believe how they are sitting?!  This would be so lovely if you were travelling with friends or family.  Not so much if you were stuck dining with grumpy strangers.  Look at the curtains, the spacious table!

These magazines have loads of ads for canned and convenience ingredients, generally with a questionable 'recipe':

Yes, even the old magazines are filled with ads for face creams promising to remove wrinkles and years - no breakthrough ingredients, no Pitera or white tea or snake venom, just emulsified oils.  So it seems the claims are always the same, regardless of scientific advances!

Here is half of a double-page advertisement for that scary American yellow cheese, brought to you by the American Dairy Association.  Lots of lovely recipes involving frankfurters and chopped pickles.

I adore the fashions - this coat makes my heart sing!

I would be so thrilled to wear an outfit like this tomorrow.  I am a particular fan of white gloves (this is why Season One of Bewitched is my favourite - Samantha always wears white gloves when she leaves the house!):

The mothers in the advertisements are all SO young.  Their faces look like teenagers.  But their hair adds a few years to their look, generally!  I may be a boring traditionalist but I adore all the pretty photographs of mothers tending to their chubby, smiling babies:

The lingerie ads are a real highlight - gosh the underwear was a little scary back then!  The pointy bras fascinate me.  You can see that this ad hails from an age when having a 'Gay Time' meant something different to what it does today:

Dish Hands are a common concern in these magazines - thankfully, there is always the perfect cream available to cure them.

Twin beds anyone? I must say, though, I am loving that plant arrangement in the middle, so modern.  Is that a lamb at the bottom, or a poodle?  I can't tell!

I would love some gay sparking tiles!  They sound like a lot of fun...

This era really took its silverware seriously:

An age when every woman aspired to own a mink coat.  I cannot think of a modern alternative?  There doesn't seem to be any universal status item that is currently on the wish list of most women.

Gee whiz, that panty girdle DOES look comfortable!  I must say, though, for 5+ years of my life, I wore suspenders (proper 4- or 6-clip ones from Secrets in Lace or What Katie Did, not flimsy fashion ones) and nylon or silk stockings almost every day.  I hate pantyhose.

I can't decide whether these little kids are incredibly sweet or a little creepy:

This is the start of a brilliant article written by a 'manly' 50s dad, who actually enjoys caring for his son - even *gasp* changing nappies and chatting to his baby, despite endless mocking and derision from his friends.  It's actually quite a bittersweet article, as he struggles to justify why he chooses to care for his baby, rather than leaving the 'women's work' to his wife.  It makes me glad that we live in an age when men are actually considered to be equal parents.  I spoke to a man once, whose children were born in the late 50s, who recalled being yelled at by a nurse in hospital for trying to bathe his baby - apparently men weren't to be left alone with their babies lest they break them!

I am always on the hunt for a 'new' vintage magazine.  I used to also collect vintage hats and dresses, however I got rid of a lot of them when we were cleaning out before the arrival of the baby.  Hopefully they found new loving homes!

Our day, our week.

 I caught up with a friend on the weekend who asked me, "what do you DO all day?"  She didn't mean it in a rude way - quite the opposite.  She said she found the idea of entertaining a baby all day, every day, really daunting.

My mother said to me that when I was a baby, her days were long and lonely - no car, no television, no internet.  None of her friends had babies.  There was no Mothers' Group in her area.  Her local ABA only met once a month, and most of the other mothers were a fair bit older than her.  Dad was working and studying.  The highlight of her day was when the mail came!  That sounds so sad and boring - babies are gorgeous and fun, but they aren't generally enough to keep you busy all day.

I think there is a fine balance to reach, between doing enough to keep yourself and your baby entertained, but not so much that you are both tired and overstimulated.  Of course, this depends entirely on each individual mother and baby - some babies (and mothers) thrive on activity and social interaction, whereas others need plenty of quiet at-home time.

For us, I find that we need to get out of the house most days, however if we are out all day, we both crash and burn.  In each day, I like to include some time in the fresh air, some walking, some interaction with people (and ideally, babies or children), and some free play time.

So our week is roughly as follows - I hope that this is interesting or useful to others with young babies.  I find it interesting to hear what other people do to entertain their little ones!

Generally, Tabitha gets up at around 7:30am, then naps at 10am - 11am or 11:30am, and naps from 3pm - 4pm or 5pm.  She goes to bed between 7pm and 7:30pm.  Before each bedtime and nap, we read one or two stories.  Current favourite naptime books are Hairy Maclairy series, Green Sheep, Ten Little Fingers and a baby animals book.

Tabby eats breakfast at 8am, lunch around noon, and dinner around 6:30pm.  She has breastfeeds at roughly 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm and 2am, with some extra little ones in between sometimes.

This routine is fairly new - for the first 6 months, things were very loose and unstructured, which suited us both.  Now she really prefers a predictable routine, and it suits me too, as it's easier to plan the days.

Here are our daily 'main' activities.  Aside from these, it's mostly quiet play, errands, walks, and meeting people for brunch / lunch:

Mondays - Swimming

Tuesdays - Food shopping at the market

Wednesdays - Gymbaroo

Thursdays - From 2pm - 5pm (including her nap), her Godmother Sophie takes care of her, while I do some ABA study at a local coffee place or the library.

Fridays - ABA local group meetings in the morning (every fortnight), as well as Mothers' Group every Friday afternoon.

Saturday - Farmers market in the morning, or my dad over for a visit and play.  Catch up with friends during the rest of the day around her nap times.

Sunday - Normally a big walk with The Daddy, then nap then yum cha or out to brunch with friends.  Quiet play in the afternoon while we clean the house.  Early dinner out with family or friends.

So it's not mind-blowingly exciting, but it's certainly not a boring week for me.  I don't really like television (particularly not when I'm tired), so while she naps, I normally knit, read or bake.  I get some 'me time' when her Godmother takes care of her for a few hours on Thursdays, and in the evenings (and Sundays) when The Daddy is home.  I don't really exercise, since we do plenty of walking.  I generally make dinner in the evenings with Tabitha wrapped onto my back, so she can watch me cook, but is out of harm's way.

On a side note, here is a strawberry and rhubarb lattice pie going into the oven.  Soon, I will do a post on making lattice tops - they are incredibly easy, and make pies look so pretty!

Recipe Fail.

So, I had a tin of condensed milk (minus two tablespoons) to use up.  Of course, one option would be to pass it to The Daddy, with a spoon - I'm sure it would be gone in minutes!

Instead, I decided to try a baked slice recipe from my latest favourite baking book Ladies, A Plate.

Sigh.  I suppose there is one in every recipe book - a recipe that Just Doesn't Work.

Here is what went wrong:

In the book, the cake / biscuit part of the slice was a rich, dark chocolate brown.  Despite following the exact ingredient measurements, my cake / biscuit part was a soft tan.  No discernible chocolate colour.

Despite being a slice, this recipe called for a size cake pan that I do not have - and that is saying something.  If I don't have a particular tin, sorry, I don't believe that it's a standard size!  I have over two dozen tins!  I made do with a standard slice tin.

The method is just plain strange and unworkable.  Generally, a slice like this includes a biscuit/cake type base, which is pressed into the base, followed by a gooey layer, which is poured on, followed by an icing layer, which is poured or spread on.  This slice has two cake layers, one on either side of the gooey layer - now, obviously you can't press a cake layer over a molten, gooey layer.  So the recipe instructs you to roll out both cake layers, then lay them in the tin.  Okay - well, the dough is waaay too soft to roll out.  And it's too soft to move without breaking if you do manage.  And it's near impossible to cut it to the correct size, then lower it exactly down.  So this caused me great frustration!  

Now that I've done it, here are my tips (none of which are included in the recipe!) - firstly, you need a whole lot of flour when rolling it out.  I'm talking a couple of tablespoons on the bottom and top of the dough you're working on!  You need to roll it into a rectangle larger than the tin, then measure the area, and cut it out with a sharp knife - it needs to be pretty exact.  Then to lower it on, I recommend using the method of gently draping it over the rolling pin to move - don't try to move it with your hands, it will break!  Even with all this, my top layer tore a little as I put it on.  So I just patched it with some scrap dough - you know what?  This is okay.  Once it's baked, the whole lot is covered in icing anyway, so it won't show.

If you use the icing recipe that is suggested, it will crack while you cut it, ruining the smooth effect, even if you use a hot knife.  So I recommend using melted chocolate instead of icing.

To be honest, once I had assembled the layers and baked the slice, I still wasn't optimistic, and was about to dump the whole thing in the bin.  But I went ahead and iced it, allowed it to cool, and sliced it up.  And I'm glad I did!  It doesn't look like the picture (the colour of the cake is worlds apart, they must have used a different amount of cocoa from the recipe!).  But it does taste really good - and after discarding the dodgy pieces from the very edges (by discard, I mean give to The Daddy), I was left with around 24 decent little bars of slice!

Ultimately, I will make it again.  I am shocked to say this.  But I will.  Next time, I'll use more cocoa in the cake part, and use melted chocolate on the top.  I'll use more flour when rolling it out.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Chocolate Caramel Fingers

Preheat oven to 200 degrees, and line a slice tin with baking paper (including up the sides).

Prepare the caramel filling by combining in a small saucepan:  1 tin of condensed milk (minus two tablespoons, in this instance!), 100g golden syrup, 115g butter, 100g sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Combine over low heat, stirring, until it all comes together in a thick caramel.  You don't need to boil it or anything, just stir it over the heat for a good few minutes.  Set aside to cool.

For the cake layers, cream together 170g softened butter with 115g caster sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in an egg and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Sift together 250g plain flour, 1 tablespoon cocoa and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and mix into the creamed ingredients to form a soft dough.

Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for about half an hour.

Roll out the first half to fit the tin - lay it in the tin, then pour over the caramel.  Roll out the second layer, then carefully lay over the caramel layer.

Bake the slice for 20 minutes or until it feels firm on top.

While hot, ice with a simple chocolate icing (I used 120g icing sugar, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, 30g melter butter, and boiling water to get an icing consistency) or spread with melted dark chocolate.

Let cool, then carefully lift out of the tin (using the baking paper lining).  Cut into roughly 30 small fingers.

I'm not happy with the batch I made (above).  But I think I can fiddle with it and get it right.

Do you get disappointed when a recipe doesn't work?  Do you ever give it another go, or do you write it off in disgust?  Maybe you are the sort of person who NEVER has a recipe failure?  I would like to learn your secrets...

Highlander Biscuits

I have a fascination with recipe books put out by food manufacturers - you know the sort, '100 delicious meals with cream cheese', 'Pork for all occasions', 'Tomato soup in every course'.  Those sort of books.  They bring me great amusement - there are normally one or two good recipes, and then dozens that are really scraping the culinary barrel.

These sort of books were especially popular in the 1950s - 1970s, when processed and packaged foods were introduced and gaining popularity.  Manufacturers were keen to extend their reach, so often distributed free booklets full of (questionable) recipes utilising their products.

One particular feature that these books tend to share is their inclusion of recipes requiring only a tiny portion of a package on ingredients - for example, a sauce requiring one tablespoon of mushroom soup.  I suppose that they hoped women would purchase a whole stack of cans, to ensure they always had a tablespoon available for their brilliant sauce!  Or maybe it was less sinister - perhaps they simply ran out of recipes requiring any decent amount of the product, and therefore tried to sneak a little in to all sorts of normal recipes, without any genuine impact on the taste of the dish.

You will understand, then, that I greeted the Highlander Biscuits recipe (from the Highlander Condensed Milk Cookery Book, c. 1913) with some suspicion - these seem like fairly ordinary butter biscuits, with the addition of two tablespoonsful of Highlander Brand condensed milk.  I was dubious as to whether the small amount of condensed milk would add anything to the recipe, however the photograph of the cookies (found in Ladies, A Plate) looked appealing, so I decided to give them a go.

Well - I am thrilled that I tried this recipe!  The cookies are dense and short in texture, pleasingly solid without being heavy, and indeed, the condensed milk has imparted a delicious, subtle caramel flavour to the otherwise simple chocolate-chip cookies.

Apparently, with the chocolate added, these are not officially 'Highlander Biscuits' - they have become 'Kiwi Crisps'.  No matter.  They are delicious, and a nice example of the 'product-specific cookbook' genre.

Highlander Biscuits / Kiwi Crisps

Cream together 115g softened butter with 55g caster sugar, until light and fluffy.

Beat in 2 tablespoons of condensed milk (note - these are NZ metric tablespoons, so 15ml each), and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Sift together 170g plain flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and work into the creamed mixture, along with 60g of dark or milk chocolate chips.  Once you have a 'crumbly mass', tip it onto the bench and quickly, gently knead together into a rough ball.

Roll teaspoonsful of the dough into balls, and place them, spread apart, onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Press each ball down to flatten somewhat with a fork.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes at 180 degrees (because I have a powerful oven, I tend to err on the side of caution with cookies and biscuits, so I baked mine at 175 degrees for 12 minutes, and they were spot on).

Cool on a rack, and store in an airtight tin.  This made around 25 small cookies for me.

I took a tin of these to my friends who run the Wondoflex Wool Shop in Malvern - we have a pretty good arrangement:  I bring in baked goods, regularly, and in return, I am always given a nice cup of tea while the talented Jill fixes up any knitting mistakes for me (shh!).

Now, of course, I have a tin of condensed milk, minus 2 tablespoons.  So I suppose I will go and bake something else requiring condensed milk...

They're called rissoles, love.

In the eternal quest to give Tabitha lunches that are a) nutritious b) varied and c) easy, I made an enormous batch of rissoles tonight.

Generally, if we are out at lunchtime, I buy Tabitha's lunch - a sushi handroll, a sandwich cut into pieces, some fishcakes, dumplings, or stirfried vegetables are all regular lunches.

However, if we are at home, I prepare something just for her - I am a grazer, nibbling at food all day, so I normally share Tabitha's little lunch with her (and then eat another mini-meal a couple of hours later.  And another, a couple of hours later...)

I keep a stash of lunch foods in the freezer - lamb chops, schnitzel strips, ravioli, veggieburgers, dumplings etc.  My freezer stash is getting dangerously low, hence the mega-rissole prep.

These rissoles are good because they are high in protein, iron, vitamins and minerals and fibre, with moderate fat, and low salt and sugar.

I use the grating disk on the food processor to grate the vegetables - it makes them beautifully fine, so they mix in with the mince very well, and cook quickly.

Healthy Rissoles

In a large bowl, mix together:

• 1kg mince (I use medium-grade mince.  That is, not too lean, nor too fatty.  Some fat is important for flavour.)
• 2 large carrots, finely grated
• 2 large zucchini, finely grated (for both the carrots and zuccini, I use organic, and do not peel them, since most of the vitamins are in the skin layer)
• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup of fresh (stale) white breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon of mixed dried herbs
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste

(I also added about half a cup of mashed up roast veggies, since I had them leftover.  It's not essential!)

(You could also add some stewed apple, some sultanas, or other stewed fruit or mashed veggies)

(You could use chicken, turkey, lamb, pork or another mince, or a combination)

Make sure everything is well combined, then form into small rissoles with your hands.  Place on a couple of trays, freeze, and once frozen, pop a couple in each small container or plastic bag.

Take a couple out of the freezer the night before, then pan-fry in a little olive oil.  I serve them with some cheese pieces and salad vegetables (cut up capsicum and cucumber, for example) and for myself, I eat one in a sandwich.

Just Do Something

Most people with young children and babies will agree that it is easy to let the house get out of control!  I find that it can be spotlessly clean one day (scrubbed floors, dusted sils, toys all away, clean benches) and within 24 hours or so, can be back to complete chaos (sticky spills on the floor, rugs covered in dirt, toys everywhere including the bathroom, washing all over the house).

I am the type of person who gets both panicky and miserable when the house is chaotic.  I am not a neat person by nature, but I get anxious if things get beyond a mild state of disorder.  I find it overwhelming to look at a room, covered in stuff - where do I start?!  Will it ever get tidy?!

So I have a policy of 'Just Do Something'.  It is SO hard to find a block of time to really get stuck into cleaning, so instead, I just chip away at it all day.  Every time I open the fridge, I try and throw out five things.  When I was making lunch, I threw out an expired yoghurt, a near-empty tub of ricotta, some medicine, half a limp cucumber and a forgotten lamb chop.

Every time I walk from the living room to the bedroom, I take a few things with me - some clean washing, a book, a pair of shoes.  When I walk into the bathroom, I change the towels or the water in a vase.

It never seems like I'm actually doing much - but these tiny things, combined with a single "burst" (I often race around for ten minutes in the afternoon and do a speed-clean, including a vacuum), mean that things really do stay under control.

So when it all seems too much - I suggest you Just Do Something!

PS - I have to share a bit of hilarity.  Look at Tabitha's passport photo.  Doesn't it look like a baby mugshot?  She has her Very Serious Face on:

The Meal Rotation

Are you a regular meals person?  Do you serve the same thing each Wednesday, and do you find comfort and rhythym in a predictable routine?  Or do you have a looser rotation - the same large handful of meals, appearing regularly but in no particular order?

I have been torn in the past - I love the idea of a structured rotation (easy to plan ahead, shop ahead, you can look forward to a specific meal) but since I love to cook, and like to cook a real mish-mash of dishes (from oyako don to paella to lacquered duck to bolognaise), I quickly worked out that I could never commit to a weekly rotation. Choose just seven dishes?  Impossible!

For a while, I tried a monthly meal-plan.  I know, it seems crazy to me now too!  Each month I would sit down and plan every meal for the following month - I'd need to schedule any nights out (such as a planned dinner with friends) and would try and schedule meals so that leftover ingredients would be used up (for example, risotto on one night, then a couple of nights later, another meal requiring a little chicken stock).

It sure was fun to plan (for a weirdo list-nerd like me), but it proved unsustainable.  Inevitably, plans would change, and we'd go out for dinner on a night when I'd planned to cook something specific.  Ingredients went to waste, favourite meals were missed for the month, and there was no room for whims - "gee whiz, I really feel like a massive plate of chili con carne and cornbread tonight!" sort of whims.

So now, I am back to drifting.  I do have an extended list of meals I like to cook, which I keep on my iPhone when I need some inspiration, and there are certainly dishes which we eat more often than others, but I prefer the freedom of being able to decide what to cook on the day, or to wander around the market and buy whatever looks particularly good at the fishmonger, poultry man or butcher.

I love hearing about what other people eat!  I like peeking at other people's menu plans, shopping list, shopping trolleys, and I always ask my friends what they are having for dinner when I talk to them during the day.

So in the interest of sharing, here is the list of foods which appear on our dinner table - regularly or just occasionally.  Tabitha can easily eat all of the below, with the exception of soups.  When we have soup, I dip fingers of toast into the soup, and she eats it that way.

Poultry

• Green curry
• Paprika chicken and nokedli
• Coq au vin
• Chicken and mushroom pie
• Teriyaki chicken
• Oyakodon
• Udon noodles with sesame poached chicken and bok choi
• Chicken Kiev
• Lemon chicken
• Chicken schnitzel and vegetables with Israeli couscous
• Chicken Provincal
• Roast chicken
• Southern-style chicken and dumplings
• Duck breasts with orange / soy / ginger glaze
• Congee
• Chicken risotto
• Pot roast chicken
• Yakitori
• Hainanese chicken rice
• Soy sauce poached chicken
• Chicken satay
• Fajitas
• Chicken and corriander quesadillas
• Chicken and cashew stir fry
• Chicken rice
• Pan-fried chicken with thyme, cream and mustard sauce
• Chicken marylands with spiced skin, potatoes and lemon

  

Seafood

• Teriyaki salmon
• Salt and pepper grilled fish
• Tuna and zucchini pasta
• Salmon kedgeree
• Tuna mornay
• Garlic prawns
• Spaghetti marinara
• Salmon Patties
• Paella
• Hot smoked salmon pasta

  

Meat

•  Roast pork / beef / lamb
• Baked ham
• Lasagna
• Bolognaise
• Chilli con carne
• Pork chops with apple cider
• Osso bucco
• Lamb shanks
• Sausages with mash and onion gravy
• Meatloaf
• Beef burgundy
• Beef and vegetable stew
• BBQ pork ribs
• BBQ steak with salad or vegetables
• Shepherd’s Pie
• Homemade rissoles with grated vegetables
• BBQ Pork Fillet
• Char Sui Pork
• Beef stroganoff

Vegetarian, Pasta and Vegetable-Based

• Pita pizzas with roast veggies
• Agedashi tofu
• Spinach quiche
• Potato salad
• Roast vegetable frittata
• Carbonara
• Pesto
• Polenta corn fritters
• Vegetable lasagna
• Bubble and squeak
• Baked potatoes

Soups

• Roast pumpkin
• Lentil
• Dad’s Healthy Soup (veggie / bean / bacon)
• Chicken and matzo ball
• Winter chicken soup
• Pea and ham soup

If I don't feel like cooking, we get take-away, generally a few times a month.  We are fortunate to have lots of great takeaway options in our area, including some healthy choices.  Our favourites are:

• Japanese from Ocha2Go
• Thai from Sukhumvit
• High Tech Burrito (amazing healthy burritos full of Spanish rice, beans, salad etc.)
• Charcoal chicken (our local uses free range chicken)
• Hainanese Chicken Rice from Hawker's Cafe
• Baked potatoes from Spudbar
• Indian from Bombay Beat or Tandoori Den
• Chinese from Choi's or Chun's
• Indonesian from Kedai Nasi Uduk
• Pizza from Mojo's Weird Pizza