Very Hot Summer Day

In the morning had to take a walk in the garden to cool down from a hot night. My sweet peas are flowering lots. Love the different colours, very cheerful.

 

Look what I found, our 1st passion fruit. I saw the beautiful flower, but didn't think it would fruit. Pleasantly surprised.

 

And look our 1st blackberries. I have to help support the vines onto the fence, as they were going exploring.

  

3 days worth of eggs (but we did use 3 for baking on Thursday). Will be using more today with baking and dinner. Our Brown shavers are laying now (those beautiful brown eggs), and with the others we are getting about 6 eggs a day. I should start recording our eggs, see how many we get per month (and year).

 

Our Waste Not Want Not Cup Cakes. They are really Banana Cupcakes, the bananas were at the bottom of our fruit bowl and starting to go brown. So we needed to use them, then some of our eggs. Also these patty cases were from a Christmas present. They were for shortbread biscuits that come in a box, (biscuits all eaten). Perfect for our cupcakes, since I had run out of patty cases. Made 12 cupcakes. I also added some wholemeal flour to them, with plain flour. Partly to make them abit healthy. But mostly to stretch our flour supply to last till I can shop next week.

 

With 8 of our eggs, and 2 of our courgettes made this Courgette and Carrot Quiche for dinner. Served with some our Butter Beans, picked this morning. Large slices were very filling. Yes we are still slowly going through our courgettes. I have a few more dinner ideas for them yet. Then I will start freezing them.

Some Cucumbers, Courgettes and Sunflowers

Went out to water the garden this morning and look what I found. 1 Cucumber and 7 courgettes.

 

So added them to what we have already. I won't count them. So I have started to give them away. Though I going to change the menu to use some more up. Instead of Sliver Beet Quiche on Saturday, it's going to be Courgette and Carrot Quiche.

  

Had to share what was waiting for me by my computer this morning. My lovely sunflowers (and a few inch worms hee hee). At least I'm still getting to enjoy them.

  

Now today when I went to make sandwiches there was very little mayo left. Now because we are doing so well with the $100 Food Shop, I didn't want to go buy some more. So mashed up 3 avocados and added them to water down mayo (so I could get it all out of the container). And it's yum. A good waste not want not dressing.

 

Going to use the leftover avocado mayo with the roast chicken tonight :)

Grow Our Own, Make Our Own

One of the wonderful things about having a veggie garden is being able to grow ingredients needed for making our own products.
We are not able to grow everything we like but sometimes we get blessed from our friends who have had extra (hope to do the same for them).

Our first cucumber for the season. Have more growing :)

2 boxes of Broccoli thanks to dear friends.

Got right on to preparing them for the freezer.

Our basil growing in the garden. Have over 20 plants now around the garden. So using to make our own basil pesto. Will freeze some for the winter months.

We used the pesto here with risoni. And had a side dish of our courgettes with onion. Was a yummy quick dinner.

Started up a ginger beer plant to fill our cupboard's with the refreshing drink. And a good use for our lemons.

The ginger beer in bottles. making our own means we can control what goes into our drinks (less sugar, and real ingredients not chemicals)

And look what dear friends have blessed us with more. Plums and tomatoes. Our tomatoes aren't ready yet, so these were very welcomed for our salads. Plums will be cooked up and preserved for the coming winter months.

Waste Not Want Not - Be Thankful For What You Have

Mum's Office

With the wild Spring weather we have been having, gardening was not an option. So our home became my focus and getting that cleaned up and organised. So got to work on my office space.
I need an area for me, and the dinning table is not ideal.
So.....

Here was our junk closet, a large space under our stairway.

Took everything out, and gave the place a quick clean.

Moved a writing desk in. This desk has been in my bedroom, taking space. It wasn't in a good spot and didn't know where else to put it.

This desk was my dear Nan Nan's desk. She left to me after she died, because of the memories we had together with it. Visits to Nan Nan's house and the treasures in this desk she would share with me.

That's all I have done so far, since I want to give careful thought as to what else will go in. I would like to get a small office chair on wheels. I have a pin board, but need a few more pins. I will have my cards kept in here, and stationary. I have a little basket for my bin. I don't want to be buying things for this little office, but reusing what we have.
I will share more photos after I get some more done.

Helpful Free Plants

One of the things I love about gardening is how it doesn't have to cost alot. Sometimes it's even free :) I have been waiting for Thornless blackberry plants, to fill a spot. And my dad was able to pass on some plants that have started to sprout. They had to be removed from an old garden, and instead of them going into green waste they are blessing our garden.

A little garden that was once a bare fence. Will hopefully be a fruit harvest,

Cute little blackberry sprout.

 Now I'm keeping my eyes open for a Tansy Plant. Reading up on Blackberry plants they are suppose to be great companion plants.
Dad also passed on another free plant. He had brought a Scallopini in a pot, and there was 2 plants. So another plant in our veggie garden.

Scallopini in our veggie garden. Will have to move the chickens soon to start on the next stage of the garden.

Time For A Food Challenge

The Monthly Shopping has been a big help with less time at supermarkets. Especially as the past 2 months have been very busy. But this month is the time to a stocktake and cleaning, where we store our food. As well as prepare for the coming busy months.

So $21 Challenge here we come :)

Have just finished a stocktake and with a bit of filling we have almost enough for next months dinners. Almost enough meat for each day, OH BOY!
Might need some flour and sugar for baking. With our chickens provide us with eggs and a freezer with 7 butters, we don't need much else.
We have lots of potatoes, silverbeet and oranges
So now to menu plan.
Will come back to share how that goes :)

A Winter Walk in Our Garden

Loving our raised garden bed. The plants are really taking off, leaving more space in our veggie garden for other plants.

Peach tree asleep for winter, We have to give it abit of a trim. Can you see our chicken's free ranging by the sandpit? Catching lots of bugs :)

Have been working on the veggie garden. Planting our beneficial herbs in pots so we can move them if we need to. Rosemary is in the red pot with Broccoli planted around. Oregano is in the black pot with Cauliflower planted  around.

With cleaning up the veggie garden, look what we found. Our last pumpkin. We roasted this pumpkin for dinner, and it was good to eat :)

Our Oranges are starting to colour up, looking forward to freshly squeezed orange juice.

Our mandarins are blessing us with a bumper crop this year. The fruit is starting to weight down the branches. Excellent for school lunches (and so helpful with our food budget).

We recycle and reuse in the garden too. This old plastic toy box is going to be used to plant our garlic in.  We first drilled holes into the toy box, before filling up with soil from the chicken run. But we are not planting yet till the shortest day.

Now to get some baking done for school lunches this coming week.

Waste Not Want Not Food and Hand Powered Gadgets

Had some leftover banana, apple and cream. As well as some chocolate chips (not enough for cookies). What to do so they don't go to waste. Make a family favorite ABC Muffins (Apple, Banana and Chocolate)

Had to take a photo quick, they don't last long in this house :)

ABC Muffins
1C mashed banana
1/2C Brown sugar
1/4tsp salt
1/4C oil
1 large egg
1/2C milk
1/4 to a 1/2C chocolate chips
1 apple, grated (I do it with the skin on)
2C self-raising flour
Mash banana, sugar, salt, oil, egg and milk mix together in a large bowl. Mix well, then stir in chocolate chips and apple. Fold in flour until just mixed. Spoon into muffin pans and bake, for 10-12 mins. Cool on rack, can freeze these for another day, or eat in two days.

Ways to save power in the kitchen, a hand powered chopper instead of a electric food processor. Chops onions, garlic and fresh herbs really well.

My newest hand powered gadget is an Apple peeler. It cores as well as slices the apple to. And you can used with potatoes, beetroot, and pears.

So easy to use, so will be preserving some apples soon :)

I love gadgets like this that are better and faster then I am (doing the job), but are not another machine we plug into the wall. Next will be a hand beater, my electric beater Sparks when we use it.