2015 ... the year to be more organised

At work, I am probably one of the most organised people I know.
At home ... not so much. I mean, I try to be ... but I think I use up all my organisational mojo at work and then by the time I get home, well... you get the idea.

This year (2014) I made a huge change by implementing the budget and food plan. I even managed an exercise plan (for a few months - I really need to start that up again.

For 2015, I have decided to join an organisation plan. I know that there are a few blogs which offer a week by week task to organise your home, but I have decided to join this one: http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/organized-home.html#join because they even have a Facebook page which you can join.

New Years is just over a week away, and if you want to make a resolution that truly inspires you to change, then it's pointless just saying "this year I am going to exercise" or "this year I am going to eat healthy".

If you want to make a change, then you need to have a plan. I have my plan ... what is yours?

Christmas Snowflakes

Christmas is my favourite time of year...

I love the cheesy Christmas movies.
I love the Christmas carols (okay ... this part needs to be in moderation)
I love twinkling Christmas lights and the decorations at the Shopping Mall

And I love decorating my Christmas Tree.

This year, I am totally on a DIY / Crafty Christmas high.  Not only am I handmaking my Christmas presents, I also made some of my own decorations.

My moment of pride is my Snowflake Door.

I have the ugliest back door that you have ever seen. I can't even tell you how much I hate it. It is awful. But because we are renting, there is not much we can do about it.

For Christmas, I decided to jazz it up a bit with some snowflakes and here is the finished product (please excuse the low quality pics - it is actually quite difficult to take a picture of a glass door and I am certainly no professional)

 My door is so pretty now

This craft actually cost me nothing to do. I used some white tissue paper which I had in the house (I usually keep the tissue paper that comes inside handbags, etc). I spent a couple hours each night for a week cutting snow flakes while watching TV. When I had accumulated a whole lot, I stuck them onto the door using normal kiddies craft glue, which should be easy enough to clean off.

Just a note: Tissue Paper is super fragile when it gets wet and the most frustrating part was sticking the snowflakes to the door. The glue dried really fast, and if I needed to reposition the snowflake, it was quite difficult and resulted in a few rips (which I managed to fix, but still ... frustrating and stressful).

I eventually found a method that worked. Step 1: "Glue" the snowflakes on with water and reposition as necessary. Step 2: Before the water dries, brush over the snowflake with glue.  This worked out really well.

Saving the chicken!

You might remember a few weeks ago, when I was prepping my meat for the freezer, I decided to be industrious and freeze a few packs with some marinade. I used a Balsamic Vinegar and Honey marinade, which I had made before and was delicious on pork. I had a bit extra and added it to one of the packs of chicken.

When I made the first pack of pork, the taste was awful - balsamic vinegar and nothing else. The vinegary taste was so potent and really awful.  Thank goodness I had paired the meal with some potatoes, which made it a little more palatable.

The second time, same thing. Simply awful. I tried to add some bits of marinade I had in the fridge, but it didn't help.

I was so disheartened - what had I done wrong. The marinade had been so nice last time, and I have made it more than once with no problem.

So I did a Google search and came up with the reason: apparently you shouldn't marinade meats in vinegar based marinades for too long. It basically starts to pickle the meat.

So now I had a problem: I still had a pack of chicken in a balsamic vinegar marinade in the freezer.

So here is how I saved it and made a meal so tasty that impressed the Mr.

Step 1 was getting rid of as much of the Balsamic Vinegar as possible. I took the pack out the freezer and let it start to defrost for a short while - about 30 min. Then I rinsed it with cold water and got most of the marinade off.

Step 2 was keeping the defrosted chicken from sitting in any marinade that was still left. I used a mesh steamer cooker - put the chicken in the top and any marinade still left would drip through to the tray on the bottom.

Step 3 was getting some new flavour in.  By the morning, the chicken looked pretty much defrosted and there wasn't much marinade in the bottom - which meant I got most of it off, thank goodness. I moved the chicken to a bowl and stirred in honey and bbq marinade - the honey would hopefully help counteract the vinegar, and the bbq marinade has a strong flavour.

Step 4 was cooking the meat. I still had no idea what it would taste like, because I couldn't taste the chicken until it cooked. I opened a tin of canned tomato and onion, and added 1/4 of the can to the pan. I also added a few chili flakes.

Step 5 - tasting the meat. It was delicious. Couldn't really taste the vinegar at all.

So, my lesson is learnt - and luckily I didn't ruin too many meals.  I have a much better grasp on what kinds of marinades are suitable for freezing with meat.  I will make the balsamic marinade again - but probably not for a while.  The taste is kind of ruined for me right now.

And at least now I know - meat should only sit in balsamic vinegar for a short time before cooking.

Remind me never to be this productive again

Before I start, let me just say that being this productive has been a work in progress.

I have been fully inspired by this blog post: http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html, and although I am still not completely this organised, I am well on my way, and I think it will be worth it.

And so it was that I spent my Sunday afternoon doing the following:
(the carrot and pineapple was made last week, but I've included some of the pics here)

1. Making parrot chop

About 4 weeks worth of parrot food

2. Chopping up the fruit that didn't make it into the mix - either to give to my parrot frozen, to use in infused water or for smoothies

If you freeze the fruit in ice trays individually first and then put them into bags, it prevents them from sticking together.

 

3.Chopping up veggies for the month

Corn and cauliflower - these are "dry veggies" so if you freeze them in ice-trays, they will crumble when you take them out the ice tray. If you want them to hold their ice-cube shape, add a bit of water to the veggies before you freeze them

Green pepper and onion - these are "wet" veggies, so they will retain their ice-cube shape when you take them out. If you don't want to use them in ice-cube sizes, then you can always place them on a baking sheet in the freezer and flash-freeze them this way before moving them over into a ziploc bag.

Grated and chopped carrot. These are also dry veggies, although previous experience has taught me that grated carrot will hold its ice-cube shape without water. I did add a bit of water though, just to make sure. The chopped carrot I left dry.

Once I put the chopped carrot in the bag, I bashed it up a bit with the end of a wooden spoon to break up the cubes.

I also made up some veggie mixes for future meals

4. The onions were the last veggies I chopped up, then I took a tea break to clear my kitchen of the onion fumes which were making me cry.

5. Chopping up all the meat for the month.

Before and after - I always like to write the dates on the packs

6. Because I was feeling industrious, I also marinaded some of the meat before freezing

And after that, I was full-on exhausted. I don't know if I will ever do this again! 

But if I do: I will start with the meat, so that I can make the chicken stock while I do the rest of the food. As it is now, I still have to make chicken stock sometime this or next week. On the other hand, I don't have much space left in my tiny freezer, so maybe it's a good thing to wait until next week.

If I ever decide to do this again, and do it all in one day, I won't do it on a Sunday afternoon because I was pretty much done energy-wise and I didn't have a chance to recover before hitting work on Monday. Definitely would prefer doing this on a Saturday afternoon or even a Sunday morning, so that I have some time to relax and recover.

Although I was pretty exhausted afterwards, I was pretty happy with myself. Joking aside, I think I will do it again, and maybe I can even prepare some of the sauces beforehand as well - either to freeze seperately or to marinade with the meat.

One more thing I like to do when making sauces is to make double, and freeze half, save myself a bit of time and energy next time around.

So this may (or may not) be my last kitchen / food blog for a while. Now that I have learned all my important lessons and organised my kitchen for the month, I intend to focus my energy on some other things for a while.

Inspiration for the week

Why do I put so much pressure on myself to be everything, all at once, all the time.

Why do I never feel good enough, never feel like I have done enough, never feel like I have accomplished enough.


This week, my meditation is going to be "It's okay not to be perfect". I need to be more accepting of who I am, flaws and all.

Meals from the Meal Plan

Here are some meals I made with the Budget. Most of these took me 5 - 10 minutes to prepare, and most of them require very little "supervised" cooking.

I do prepare a lot of ingredients beforehand - chopping and grating vegetables, sauces, etc .. basically anything that can be frozen. Because everything is on a meal plan, I can just take out all the ingredients to thaw overnight without having to spend ages pondering over what to make.

These went just over the R20.00/ meal budget (only by a few rand, I promise)


Bacon, mushroom and cream pasta
- 1 packet of bacon bits cost me about R30.00, I used 1/3
- 1 250ml tub of cream cost about R10.00 (I think it was just under, but still)
- Fried some chopped onion, bacon bits and chopped mushroom together, added the cream and cooked for a bit. Served with spaghetti.

Crumbed and stuffed chicken breasts with butternut mash and roast potatoes
- Mashed the butternut with some maple syrup and brown sugar
- Roasted 2 potatoes with some rosemary
- Chicken breasts were stuffed with some zucchini butter and grated carrot, crumbed with breadcrumbs, Parmesan and finely chopped almonds
- Link to recipe for zucchini butter: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-jennie-cooks-zucchini-b-121770

R20 almost exactly

Butternut and Bolognese Cannelloni
- Made the Bolognese sauce with mince, 1/2 can of tinned tomato, 1/2 can of tomato puree and 1/2 packet of tomato paste, and I added some butternut (which I had boiled first). This actually made enough for 2 meals, so I froze half the mince mixture).
- Stuffed into the cannelloni and topped with a white sauce (which I made from a packet sauce) and some grated cheese.

Breakfast for Dinner
- Used my muffin pan to make breakfast cups and baked french toast. It was delicious. 


R10.00 - R20.00 per meal

Chicken and pineapple skewers with roast potatoes
- I basted the chicken and pineapple in sweet-chilli sauce and skewered them because everything tastes better on a skewer.

Boboti and Rice
- The Boboti sauce was made from a packet sauce

Satay chicken on skewers, with oven chips and onion rings
- The Satay sauce was made from a packet sauce
- Oven chips and onion rings were part of the grocery budget

Spaghetti Bolognese
- Mince, 1/2 can of tinned tomato, 1/2 can of tomato puree and 1/2 packet of tomato past2
- Served with spaghetti

Roast chicken, roast potatoes and roast vegetables
- Pretty much a staple food in my house. Each week I used a different vegetable - whatever I had in the house

Chicken casserole with rice
- Another staple in my house. I used different things to make the casserole sauce - sometimes a packet of soup, sometimes some chutney and mayo. Add some chopped vegetables (whatever I add) and potato.

Less than R10.00

Fried chicken strips with oven chips and onion rings, in a pita or with baked potato
- Yet another staple in my house, because this can be paired with almost any side dish and cooked with just about any marinade
- Fried up the chicken strips with some onion, grated carrot, green pepper etc, with whatever marinades or sauces I had in the fridge.
- Perfect for a Friday

Mexican rice
- By far the cheapest meal I made
- Link to recipe: http://damndelicious.net/2014/08/27/one-pot-mexican-rice-casserole/
- I made everything in one pot. It was enough for 2 meals, so I froze half.


Inspiration for Next Month's Meal Plan
Here are some things that didn't make it onto the menu in October, but I am planning for November. I can't vouch for how easy they are to cook, or how easily they fit into the budget, but it's always nice to have some inspiration.
Korean Beef: http://damndelicious.net/2013/07/07/korean-beef-bowl/
Asian Beef with Mushrooms & Snow Peas: http://juliasalbum.com/2014/09/asian-beef-with-snow-peas/
Sweet & Sour Chicken - no real recipe as yet, just an idea formulating in my mind
Something with Quinoa - I have only made it once and I think its time to try again - maybe this: http://damndelicious.net/2014/04/09/one-pan-mexican-quinoa/

Going easy on myself

I'm definitely having one of those weeks where I am feeling overwhelmed. 

The house isn't just its usual "lived in untidiness" ... it just seems, dirty and messier than usual.
And why are there always dishes to be done. And clothes to be washed.

My cupboards have gone from bad to worse, and I only have myself to blame. Why do I always just stuff the clothes in there. I could, like a normal person, take the time to put them in neatly. But I don't, and now it is an unliveable mess.

The meal plan needs to be done, and the grocery list needs to be drawn up and I am feeling uninspired. Do we really need to have dinner every night?

There is so much in the house that needs to be done, why am I the only person it bothers. Why am I the only one who see's the mess and the dust.

And all I want to do is run away from my life. Not forever. Just for a day or two.

I know in a few days my hormones will be calmer and I will go back to ignoring the piles of laundry and dishes. I know that eventually everything gets cleaned. I know that living life is more important than fretting about the housework. I know that I don't need to take on everything myself.

I have my own meditation at times like this, something along the lines of "just go easy on yourself".  It doesn't help right away, but it does help me to stop and breathe and relax for a minutes.