Posted by Mistress B in Blogging stuff, Housekeeping, Menu Planning.
Tags: Menu Planning
I really need to do this at the moment with all the Christmas madness, PSLS being on the road a little more and extra peoples coming and going from our place
Monday -Fish, zuchinni slice, fritters
Tuesday – chicken, salad, bread rolls
Wednesday – Christmas party at local club
Thursday – Chicken burgers
Friday – Rissoles, mash, vege
Saturday – sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, vege
Sunday – BBQ sausages, veges
And I shall be shopping for ingrediants for this week’s menu plan at our newly opened Aldi store!
I love Aldi!
They are so much kinder on my purse than our other local supermarkets.
Now I just have to get used to only buying one or two of things when I go there instead of 6 like I used to in my once a month stock up when I was out of town lol
When I did my first shop at our local store the other day it felt pretty weird to be going through the checkout with only half a trolley of groceries instead of an overflowing one!
Now in the ‘getting ready for Christmas’ spirit, I need to pick up a few extras and it’s best to do a few things at a time so this week shall be pavlova bases, melting chocolate and shortbread baking supplies. mmmmm 😉
Posted by Mistress B in Blogging stuff, Health, Housekeeping.
Tags: cleaning products, Eco Store, product testing, soap
A little while ago I received an email asking me if I’d be interested in trying some eco- friendly goodies from Ecostore– “a NZ-based company that produces household cleaning and body products that contain no nasty chemicals”.
They promote their products as being:
•  plant and/or mineral based
•  free of nasty chemicals
•  using safer ingredients from renewable resources
•  formulated with your health in mind
•  safely super concentrated
•  meeting the highest environmental standards
•  having not been tested on animals
•  GE free
•  packaged in recyclable packaging
Sounds pretty good aye?
The products were offered to me to try without any obligation on my part to blog about them, just so you know and who doesn’t like to try new things?
Pretty soon a box of goodies arrived on my doorstep.
I’ve now been using these products for a month and I REALLY, REALLY like them.
First up to be tried out was the Citrus Spray Cleaner –
Tried it out on my stove top. No hassle! And no scrubbing either. Kitchen benchtops? No problem. Dining table? Gentle enough to not disturb the the wooden finish. Shower stall tiles? No problem either. Shower stall glass door? Sparkling clean and again no scrubbing! Simply sprayed on, left for a minute and wiped off with a paper towel.
Best thing besides it working really well? NO chemical smell or residue anywhere. My kitchen and bathroom smell clean and fresh from the citrus based cleaner, but there is no chemical smell lingering in the rooms, nothing to irriate my eyes or my nose or set off anyone’s asthma.
Next up the Laundry Powder.
Again it has that nice fresh smell that the cleaner does and look at this! –
the powder scoop is teeny – it really is half a regular concentrate scoop.
My clothes have no residue or scent when they are dry, I can happily continue to not use a fabric softener and the box is lasting me AGES because I’m using so little. My clothes are just as clean as with any other branded product that I’ve tried. And I must say that I have been using the regular washing powder in my front loader with no problems at all.
I’ve used the Oxygen Whitener
on my kids white sports shirts and school socks. As you can imagine white sports shirts get pretty grotty and need soaking reasonably regularly and they are coming up quite nicely too. I’ve only come up with one or two stains that I’ve needed to take stain remover too and that would have happened if I’d been using my regular one as well.
And lastly the soaps.
I LOVE the soaps. I was sent 4 varieties of soap – Coconut, Manuka Honey and Kelp, Vanilla and Lemon Grass. I’ve only used the Lemon Grass and the Coconut soaps so far and they are just lovely. The Coconut soap contains milk and looks quite milky on your skin as you wash and the Lemon Grass soap smells divine – very refreshing! They don’t lather up as much as regular soaps, but they don’t contain sodium laurel sulfates or any other of the chemicals that make regular soaps do that and I don’t mind one little bit!
I was very pleased when I found the washing powder, both top loader and front loader varieties, and dishwashing detergent in my local Woolworths supermarket last week.
I also found Eco Store Dishwash Detergent which I bought to try seeing as how the other products had impressed me so much –
I don’t do a lot of handwashing as we have a dishwasher, but the little I have done was a lot gentler on my hands than my old detergent. Again it doesn’t froth and bubble like regular detergents, but bubbles aren’t what makes the dishes clean and a little of this stuff goes a long way.
Pricewise I picked up the dishwashing detergent for $3.99 for 500mls. My old dishwashing detergent was around $2 for 1 litre. I only need half as much of the Eco Store detergent so it’s no difference in money at all.
The laundry detergent was $8.99 reduced to $6.99. Considering that I pay up to $5 a box for washing powder normally and the Eco Store washing powder lasting at least twice as long due to the small amount used for each wash, it’s no more expensive either.
One of the big pluses – it’s all safe to run out onto my garden without having to worry about phosphates or other chemicals.
The best thing of all?
I have had no eczma since about a week after I switched soap and washing powder.
Ecostore say that their products are “gentle on the skin and the environment, without compromising on performance or value for money.” and my experience is that their products live up to that statement.
I really like these products, have already bought these products, will continue to buy and use these products and really encourage you to give them a try if you see them in a store in your area.
Now if Woolies would start stocking the Citrus Cleaner I will be one happy, green, housewifey chick!
Posted by Mistress B in Blogging stuff, Family, Flying, Housekeeping, Menu Planning, recipes.
Tags: Chocolate Dream Bars, Menu Planning, organising, recipes
I haven’t done one of these for a while and the state of my pantry, fridge and freezer is a little worse off for it, not to mention my state of mind. I hate trying to decide at 5pm what’s for dinner that night!
We have a busy week this week with a pre-high school entry meeting, AGM for our fire brigade, accountant appointments, dentist appointment, me going away to a course for the weekend and the rest of the family helping with a brigade job over the weekend. The last thing I need this week is to be tearing my hair out when no one can decide what they’d like for dinner.
Monday – Rissoles, fritters and salad
Tuesday -Spag Bol
Wednesday -leftovers or toasted sandwiches
Thursday -Chicken, mash, veges
Friday – BBQ
Saturday -BBQ
Sunday -At Nan’s, if not then takeaway
Monday – Corn soup
I need to get some baking in there somewhere too for us and for the brigade job over the weekend. with nearly 40 members on the ground, we’ll need some snacks on hand. I’m thinking Coconut Slice, Chocolate Dream Bars, Honey Rice Bubble Slice, Double Choc Chip Muffins, Banana Muffins and a Tea Cake or two.
Chocolate Dream Bars
110 grams Butte/ Margarine
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
2 tbsp Cocoa
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Self Raising Flour
1/4 cup cocount or chopped nuts (or both)
To make – melt butter, mix in Brown Sugar, add Egg and Cocoa, beat till smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix through. Press/pour into slice tray and cook in medium oven for 20/25 minutes.
Spread with chocolate icing mixture while still warm.
Allow to cool and cut into slices.
Posted by Mistress B in Family, Flying, Housekeeping, Hubby.
Tags: car care, house keeping
with myself.
I’ve managed to get a fair whack of stuff done today……….. despite the still sore ankle and knees and grumpy kids.
My front porch is cleaned off. Just needs a good hosing down.
The entrance area is sparkling.
The dining area is sparkling.
There is a few days worth of muffins in the freezer for school snacks and some in the container + a cake for this week snacks.
TJ has done not one but two sessions of piano practice today!!
The chainsaw is cleaned up and put back at the station.
And my car is completely cleaned out.
Now all I have to do tomorrow is service the bloody thing! Of particular importance at this stage is to clean the radiator out so I can run some leak stopper through the system. I’ve never drained a radiator before so this could be interesting. Not the physical doing of it. The trying to find the right tools for the job cos my damn PSLS stashes them all over the joint!
Ok.
Off to add some sparkle to my laundry before dinner and to sort some stuff in the bedrooms after. Oh and I guess I’d best bring in all that damn washing I did today…………
Posted by Mistress B in Blogging stuff, Finances, Flying, Housekeeping, Menu Planning.
Tags: Menu Planning
Our pay/shopping week is Tuesday to Tuesday so I’m finding I need to include the following Monday in my plan.
Monday – Spag Bol
Tuesday – Chicken and chips
Wednesday – Meat pie, wedges and veges
Thursday – Chicken Macaroni Bake
Friday – Sausages, Mash & veges
Saturday – make your own pizza/fritters/toasted sandwiches etc
Sunday – Rissoles, baked veges & greens
Monday – Fish, pasta & vege
Vege for us is frequently cabbage, peas, corn, sweet potato, pumpkin, broccoli carrot or cauliflower and usually everything except the peas are fresh not frozen. I’m really looking forward to being able to eat my own veges from my own garden soon.
For more menu planning ideas or organising tips head over to Laura’s.
Posted by Mistress B in Blogging stuff, Family, Housekeeping, Menu Planning, recipes.
Tags: homemaking, menu plan monday, Menu Planning, muffins, recipes
Yeah I know I haven’t done one of these for a while. Well, I’ve been doing them, but not posting them then losing them, then making stuff up as I go along……….. Yeah, I should post them where I can’t lose them shouldn’t I? lol
Monday – Spag bol
Tuesday – Hot Dogs & Potato fritters
Wednesday – Rissoles & Wedges with Corn on the cob
Thursday – Chicken Schnitzels & Salad
Friday – Sausages & Mash + vege
Saturday – Home made Pizza with various toppings
Sunday – Steak & Potato Bake + Vege
Also through the week I want to get lots of baking so there are a few weeks worth of stuff for school snacks in the freezer. We found a great recipe for Chocolate Choc Chip Muffins the other day
Recipe for Double Choc Chip Muffins:
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (125ml)
1 cup milk (240ml)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups plain flour (240g)
1/2 cup sugar (85g)
1/4 cup cocoa (35g)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (85g)
Extra chocolate chips to sprinkle on top (if desired)
Preheat oven to 200 C and prepare muffin pan by greasing or fill with paper liners. A nonstick pan requires no greasing, although I like to just grease the bottoms. In large bowl mix well the eggs, oil, milk and vanilla. In smaller bowl mix well the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips. Combine wet and dry mixtures and fold together gently until just mixed. Spoon into prepared pan and sprinkle choc chips of top of each. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.
Nice sprinkled with extra chocolate chips on top of each muffin before baking.
Posted by Mistress B in Housekeeping, Menu Planning.
I’d better get this up before Widdle Shamrock starts emailing me demanding to know what I’m eating this week. She gets anxious, she tells me, if she doesn’t know what we are having for dinner all week! 😉
Monday – Sausages, tiny taters, sliced zuchinni & carrot on the BBQ
Tuesday – I think I deserve a splurge for my b/day – I’ll let hubby off cooking and ask for chinese…….. Honey chicken mmmmmmmm
Wednesday – rissoles and roast veges
Thursday – sausages & veges
Friday – Fish, wedges & salad
Saturday – BBQ
Sunday – Bacon & eggs
There. Not terribly creative this week but, meh, you get that.