day 282: muesli slice

day 282 and i am so lucky to have amazing friends.  one of my dearest dropped around some scrummy smelling dinners for the ENTIRE week today and didn't even stop so i could give her a hug ... i love you miss lana xx. we had the chicken casserole tonight and it was divine.  it often baffles me how some people know what you need even when you don't know it yourselves.

speaking of food, i sent my creative team back to the kitchen today to make some snacks for the coming week. i found this recipe from your cheeky monkey for muesli slice on pinterest that will definitely fill the tins.  the recipe is also pinned to my recipe must do's board.

we love this type of baking in our house.   i don't often buy muesli bars for the peeps as the homemade ones taste so much nicer and you can can make them according to your families tastes or whatever is in the pantry ;)  i  really liked the sound of this particular recipe as it has lots of coconut in it, a favourite of steve's, so it was a good way to get him on board with today's pinterest creation!  the other thing that intrigued me about this recipe was the use of oil instead of butter, something i don't think i have done with muesli slice/bars before.

not even the pretty eggs are safe!

dry ingredients....now simply add the wet ones and stir

polly helped, ben didn't

outcome: this went down very well with my cup of coffee this evening.  in fact the whole family thought it was a brilliant recipe and declared it was really simple to make as well ... that advice was from the male component of the kitchen team too.  the taste was really hearty and filling with all the oats and i have to say i really enjoyed the flavour and texture of it with the oil instead of butter.  i think the lack of butter made it less rich and chewy so you could really taste the coconut and oats, which i loved.

my thanks to your cheeky monkey for this recipe, it is definitely one i will use again and i loved that it didn't need butter in it, something i often run out of but never remember to buy at the supermarket :)

day 281: pistachio fudge for st patty's day

day 281 and my sweet husband has set me up in bed with a computer i can use lying flat on my back ... SO tomorrow i am going to spend all day catching up with what all my lovely web friends have been up to! but for today, i am in charge of the typing for today's creation while the peeps and steve do the making ... haven't yet figured out how to do baking from my current position!!  anyway, enough of me and on with today's pistachio fudge creation which comes from the recipe goldmine and is pinned to my st patrick's luck board on pinterest.

the original recipe is courtesy of mccormick and i am sure would be perfect for lots of festive occasions given it is green in colour :)  it also contains plenty of festive ingredients like chocolate, nuts, and sugar!  so for st patrick's day it goes without saying, it will be perfect for supper with the rugby tonight.

i talked the kitchen team through the melting of chocolate and the importance of not over melting, from which there would be no return!  it's important to get this point across to those in my family who have plenty of will but limited knowledge of our kitchen and how things work ;)  we then had a brief discussion about the fact there was no green food colouring, but combining two of the colours we did have would probably work just as well ;)

melted white chocolate into the cream cheese and sugar mix

pistachio nuts and colouring

in the fridge to set....its eggstremely cold in there!

outcome:  i'm guessing i will make this plenty of times over the coming years as it is easy to make, yummy, and would make the perfect gift for family and friends for all sorts of different festive occasions.  imagine making a batch of this for gifting to friends at christmas, awesome aye!?!

my thanks to mccormick for the recipe and also the recipe goldmine where it was featured.  great idea for finding recipes that work from all types of different sources and makers.

i hope you can tell how excited i am to have a computer sitting in front of me for the first time in ages without wincing!  thank you, once again, for all your continued support for my family and i on our challenge to create 365 (+ one leap day!) pinterest creations over a year ... it has meant so much to us :)

day 280: treat bags for st patrick's day

day 280 and i am back to creating today, if only for a brief moment!  today while the peeps were out at friends and steve returned to work for a couple of hours i made some treat bags for them for st patrick's day.

i loved these leprechaun inspired treat bags by julia at sweet serendipity, they are all so cute!  for today's creation i decided to go with her rainbow bags but add in some gold rolo's given these were destined for the end of a rainbow :)  this idea from julia is also pinned to my st patrick's luck board on pinterest.

you will need smarties or m&m's, rolos or other gold covered candy, some green ribbon, and some cellophane bags to make these gifties.  i used m&m's and rolos as my loot but did omit using the brown m&m's because they aren't very rainbow looking (but were steve-supper looking!).  i used the my memories software to make some very quick tags using julia's sentiment.

'you are my treasure at the end of the rainbow'

eeeeee fiddle de deeeee! (steve cant help himself)

creating the tags with my memories suite

lego leprechaun minifig used to attach the tag

outcome:  this was just the ideal little craft for me today and it is even more perfect with st patrick's day tomorrow and my need to treat my family for all they are doing at the moment.  we love the lego minifigs so the leprechauns will no doubt wind up on the peeps walls as part of my previous creations (day 70 and day 204).

my sincere thanks to julia for this lovely gift idea that is perfect for st patrick's day.  her blog sweet serendipity has so many wonderful ideas that are great for making the everyday just a little bit more sweet and exciting.

day 279: shamrock hand-print art

hi everybody,  just wanted to let you know how grateful and heartfelt i feel reading all the lovely comments and support steve and i have received over the last week where i've been unable to do anything.  i am really dopey with all the pain medication while i wait for the operation, but tomorrow i hope to make a comeback and do the creation for the day! :()

at the start of this 365 project, i said my family had agreed to support me in my efforts and nothing could be truer right now because i need them for everything at the moment! i just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to my sweeter than sweet husband (even though he is obsessed with eggs ... honestly honey, sometimes i wonder how your brain works!) and my awesome peeps for keeping the p365 project going AND for taking such amazing care of me while i can't care for myself ... you guys rock my world and i couldn't have coped without you :)    as for my awesome blog friends and followers, thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to support me .... your comments have spurred steve on ... the other night i saw him checking the new comments at 3am in the morning while he was giving me some medication!  we wouldn't have carried on without the amazing support we have been given over the last week, so a big hug of thanks to all of you :)

ok, over to steve and the peeps for today's creation :)

thank you honey......my only comment is that calling yourself 'really dopey' is a bit harsh!

day 279 and day 9 with steve.  tomorrow is st patricks day and there has been a particular paddy's day themed craft the kids have been itching to do.  this shamrock handprint art was inspired by shelly buck's pinterest board my handprint art.

ingredients: four kids hands, two 12"x12" canvas boards, green paint and one smart-ass egg

polly loves art and getting her hands dirty!

ben loves art and hates getting his hands dirty

see the little bit of paint on the end of his finger?  that was required for ben to 'test' the paint!

ben really hated this bit

nearly there ben.....

polly had some glitter paint and was desperate to use it, so she added a border

not to be out-done by little sis, ben added one also

outcome:  comparing our efforts with the original hand-print art, my kids either have grotesquely massive hands for their age or we should have used 16"x16" canvas boards.  i suspect (and hope) the latter.  the important thing is the kids loved the exercise, including ben even though polly and i spent five minutes chasing him around the property trying to convince him to paint with his hands!

regarding my allegged obsession with eggs, i have apparently passed this onto my first-born as he was responsible for todays guest appearance!

day 278: raisin bread pudding

bread pudding served with yoghurt

day 278 and day 8 with steve.  to be honest things were a bit rushed today and felt a bit stressed about what to do for kirstys blog.  dinner was already sorted thanks to left-overs from day 276 great grandmas stew beef, so i thought "how about a pudding?".  a quick search on pinterest turned up this recipe for Bread Pudding from allrecipes.com.

a perfect way to use day-old bread, better yet this recipe nails four eggs 

raisins were optional but i couldn't help myself 

i cant believe how easy this is

wow.....five minutes later its in the oven

outcome:  my mum used to make bread pudding and i loved it.  i knew the kids would love this because it was pudding.  i went out on a limb with this because years ago kirsty tried bread pudding and she didn't like it.  kirsty really liked this version though (it didn't taste eggy) and i still cant believe how simple it was to prepare.

bread pudding is old-school and so was the perfect thing to have after great grandmas stew beef.  and on that note, the stew beef was even better with mashed potatoes!

day 277: st patricks day themed home-school

thanks to everyone who left comments on yesterdays post.  kirsty and i really enjoyed reading them!!!

day 277 and day 7 with steve.  today is a bit different as we chose to print out numerous ideas from kirstys st patricks luck board on pinterest and incorporate them into a themed home-school day.  as you can see, ben is still wearing his favourite hat so was right into the theme!
the worksheets came from a variety of websites:

• enchantedlearning.com: a tabbed workbook providing a great overview of the saint, symbolism, and irish culture.
• hellokids.com: nifty little leprechauns treasure box that we filled with chocolate gold coins.
• educatorworksheets.com: good variety of craft, spelling, comprehension and math exercises.

you would be surprised at what these will teach your kids......did you know for instance that a rainbow is actually a complete circle but we can only see part of it?  i didnt until my kids told me today (followed quickly by a sly-dad google confirmation).

a hive of activity

word association exercise

word search exercise

leprechauns treasure box craft exercise

outcome:  home-schooling has been a challenge over the last week with kirsty out of action.  these fun worksheets allowed the kids to be fully engaged throughout the day with kirsty nearby resting flat!  the day was finished up with a small craft exercise with dad to pimp out a few eggs leprechaun style.

bens

pollys

day 276: great-grandma’s stew beef

day 276 and day 6 with steve.  before i get started i have a challenge for kirstys readers and followers out there.  hundreds of people visit kirstys blog each day.  a small group of you regularly leave comments and i thought this would be a great time for some of the shyer people out there to come out and tell kirsty what you think of her blog in general, or perhaps what your favourite blog entry was......better yet if this has inspired you in any way to try one of kirstys blog entries.
to be honest, part of me is wondering if my efforts (complete with kiwi blokey humour) might have turned some people off the blog......so this is also about my piece of mind.

anyhow the weather here today is cold and wintery.  we also had more doctor appointments throughout the day so i thought a crock-pot meal would be perfect.  my taste is pretty old-school and nothing is more old-school than great grandmas stew beef which i found in kirstys recipe must do board on pinterest.  its easy and chances are you have all the ingredients in the pantry so no excuses not to give it a try right?

no eggs required so they are happy.....

throw in cubed beef, pepper, onions, sage, onion soup mix and water......easy

oops.....collateral damage

time to thicken, and lastly add the parsley

served with brown rice and silverbeet........grandma says "you got to have your greens sonny"

outcome:  amazing really.  perfect combination of flavours, there was no need to even add any salt!  there is also enough left over for tomorrow night where we will try this with mashed potato.  we all loved the meal as evident with ben lining up for seconds.

initially i was a bit sceptical when i saw onion soup mix in the ingredients.  was this really around when great-grandma was cooking for the family?  read the original posting on kitchenscoop.com where it explains how this recipe evolved over time to what it is now (click 'backstory' link next to 'recipe' tab).  im sure great-grandma would be amazed at the global efforts taken to recreate this meal.

ben lining up for seconds......excuse the hat, we are getting ready for st patricks day