Rest for the Heart......Contentment.

Dear Friends,
It is always such a joy to pause in my day and to write to you.  Thanks to my dear friend Annabel, who has brought us all together in our circle through her blog.
Today I want to speak about having our hearts at rest.  How does that sound to you?  For me, it means not allowing anxiety and cares to set up camp in my thinking or talking.
My dear friend Lyn sent me this quote this morning from Jesus Calling"....do not give in to fear and worry, those robbers of abundant living."
These are nest raiders are they not?

This morning, I awoke to the fire lit in our lounge room.  It was such a beautiful surprise to greet me as I opened our bedroom door, and felt the warm air fan my cheeks.
I breakfasted in front of it and I thought of how happy, safe and loved I felt. It brought to my mind that we are meant to have our hearts at rest....to feel contentment.
I have recently had extensive dental work completed, and we have cash flowed the whole thing apart from the last couple of thousand dollars.  That came from our savings and I have been eager to replenish the account.
Last week, I surveyed our overgrown garden, and the thought flitted through my mind about getting a gardener in to give us a quote with tidying it up. It's easy to look at something not quite right and feel discontented isn't it?
I dismissed it immediately and thought that we would do what we could with it ourselves.  Glen gave it a mow, picked up all the sticks. With this encouragement, each day, I went out and cut back ferns and shoots with some scissors and filled the wheelie bin.  Bit by bit, our garden was being revealed, and we were getting some exercise.

This morning, while Glen was using the chain saw to cut up the sticks that we had gathered for our fire, I got him to trim back some foliage with it.

It's hard to believe that this one little bit of garden was so overgrown that we could hardly identify the plants!
Another joy that has added to my weeks delight is that Jane Goble from Posy Typepad wrote to me!
You can find Jane's boards on Pinterest or she is on instagram @janegoble.

Thanks to lovely Jane, she has inspired me to source a fair isle cardigan.  I love it!  And I'm trying not to act like a five year old and want to wear it every day.

Well worth the $8.12 I paid for it!  This label really says it all.....Quintessentially British.  This garment has been designed with you in mind.  Wear it with love. x

The sum total of my musing today dear friends, is that our hearts can truly find rest, once we find contentment.  It's not something that is linked with a certain salary, or house or family size, but it's being at rest, finding useful work to fill our days, and delighting over the beautiful components that bless our life.

I've shared a little of my world with you today, but Annabel and I would love to know....where is it your heart finds rest?  What's there....is it a teacup that belonged to your grandmother, but now rests in your flour bin, is it the bunch of wildflowers that your children picked from your yard, is it the lilt of joy as your mother answers the phone and realises it's you ringing her?

Do share, we would love to know!

Love Helen x

Feather your Nest Friday, 15 May 2015.

I have news! This week we build up our family with a new baby!

Yesterday Lucy had her baby! I was dying to post right away but had to wait for all the family to know and such technicalities!

First of all Lucy is well and they all are fine. The baby is a little girl just under seven pounds which is really good as we were told she would be small. Lucy is tiny for anyone who doesn't know.

So here is Lucy with baby...

Her name is Harper Patricia Ivy.

Patricia is my Mum and Kato's Nana also.

Ivy is my Dad's Mum/Lucy's Great Grandma.

Dad is away up north working on cattle. I rang him and told him the name. He already knew about the birth as Mum rang him first. But he didn't know the name. I repeated it to him so he could hear over his bad hearing and dodgy phone line. 

He said "oh, thats marvellous" and kept saying "oh, thats marvellous" over and over and then he said "Oh, that's a bit emotional" lol He never expected his Mother's name to be in there. You could have wiped the floor with him. It was a joy to hear him beyond words over all of this. Dad has always been more like the girls Dad than Grandpa. He was their number one man in their lives and so the connection between him and both girls is so close.

Now, I am not the first Grand mother in the world. And I know my Grandmothers loved me and I loved them. But no one ever told me what it is like when your daughter has a baby. Not a word. Not until the last few months when Fiona and Kaye both shared with me that they felt intense emotions, anxiety, joy and a million other things when their own daughters had babies recently. Thanks to them I felt more normal and had someone go ahead of me and this was such a help. 

Also I had a lot of prayerful support and Lucy had more prayers than she will ever realise. Thank you to you all.

So in the afternoon Chloe, Mum and I went in together. Chloe didnt nurse Harper as she has a scratchy throat and was really careful.

Kato was nursing her when we walked in. Oh, my goodness she looked so tiny. Mum swooped in and had a nurse. I regret not getting a photo of Kato nuring her first but I will do that next.

Harper and Great Grandma! 

Then my turn!

She is just gorgeous with the cutest little face. And she did a lot of faces, frowning and lips moving. It felt so strange. Yesterday we had gone shopping and Lucy's belly was the feature and here she was!

Look at that little face!

I didn't really expect a nurse so soon! Luckily I did all my crying in the morning when I got the call and had de blotchified by the time I got there. And I didn't cry either. Impressive!

Last night I looked at the pictures over and over.  We all love her so much already.

What a day. What happiness, relief, everything....

This morning I got a text from Lucy.

It just said "Mum she is an angel. I am so blessed."

And thats how we feel too.

During the week I cleaned, cooked, gardened, took Lucy to hospital once with a false alarm, and kept extra busy as that's what I do to keep from worrying and thinking too much! It seems just wrong to post pictures of pies and so on at this point so I will save all that for next week!

I hope you had a wonderful week and had lots of opportunities to save and build up your nest.
We have a new little chickie in our nest! xxx

Pantries and Preparedness. Your garden as part of your pantry.

It was really thanks to Patsy at A Working Pantry that I came to realize everything in the pantry, store cupboards, fridge, freezer, shed and garden is ALL part of my pantry and preparedness. It is true. When we go to make a meal without running to the shops and using just what we have the garden is a part of it. And the things we can pick and use add freshness, nutrition and flavor to our meals.  If the shops were closed this freshness would be a great boost to our stored foods.

The US girls are planting their gardens as it is spring and we are getting ready for winter. So we are all in different situations and climates. And some of us may have no garden at all or a tiny space. But we can all grow a few things. And it's a money saver. Herbs are available to buy in many forms, fresh bunches, semi dried, dried... and they all cost a few dollars a bunch or packet. For the same few dollars you can buy several tiny plants and get them going for future use. Once you have some of them they go on forever and others seed like my Parsley that is now over a hundred baby plants! Some we can get going for free if a friend has rosemary or mint, for instance, you can usually pull up a little bit and you have a plant ready to go.

Only the other day I showed how I stacked four pots to form a herb garden in a small space. This grows a surprising amount of food. The bottom layer is a half wine barrel and will grow quite big things. But smaller pots will still give you a supply of your favourite herbs. If you are growing parsley you need a really tall deep pot. I could not ever grow it well until I found this out.

Grow what you love and use if it is suitable for your climate. The local nursery will help you with this.
I grow and use chives, garlic chives, oregano, two types of parsley... one is Italian the other I don't know! Also rosemary, thyme, chili, capsicums, tomatoes, limes and recently we planted an apple tree.

For a while there I thought my garden was quite full. Then when I had so many parsley seedings I started to look for spots to plant them and suddenly every small space was fair game. Now that I have done this I can see I can keep going and I have room for lots more herbs. It means my garden will look increasingly English Cottage Garden (which I love) rather than neat manicured garden which we inhertied when we moved in. So now I am gardening in the gaps!

Along the front fence I have three rosemary bushes. I cut this all the time and use when I am roasting lamb as it goes beautifully. It is so fragrant and I love it.

The front has roses which are lovely and I would never remove. But I have a lot of space underneath and between them that I think is fair game for more herbs.

Out the back I have my herb pots near the back door and a bit planter full of sage and parsley.

Mimi and Hilde taught me to make sage and burnt butter . Yum.

My basil is almost finished so not at it's best but I have had wheel barrow loads of it! 

I don't know much about herbs but am trying to improve. Glenda is helping me with that. And my philossphy is to grow the things that I am successful with and in big quantities. I am happy to grow much more than I can use as then I have bunches to give away. Once I took a basket of rosemary and bunches of parsley into our local cafe which has a market garden theme and lots of fresh produce. I got to know the people in there. They gave me free coffees after that! But anyone who cooks will love a fresh bunch of herbs. The basil smells just beautfiul. 

Plenty of chopped parsley goes into my chicken soup and I serve it chopped over spahetti sauce and as an addition to lots of meals. I use this most.  The chives I sprinkle over potatoes and sour cream potato salad, in savoury muffins, with eggs and tomato (the addition of chives makes Andy like anything).

Basil, I make pesto and a simple basil and tomato summer salad that is lovely. I add fresh oregano chopped over spaghetti sauce, this is delicious. Last night we had lamb with baked feta and sprinkled with thyme and it was lovely. I know I do use something from the garden nearly every day. And I have been able to give away and also do some trading. I wonder what this all would cost me per week to buy? I would guess if I bought several bunches of fresh herbs per week it would mount up pretty quickly. Or I just wouldn't use so many because of the expense. So the abundance I have makes a difference!

Mum has the hugest Bay Leaf tree that she planted about thirty years ago. We all use the leaves from this lovely tree. She also has rosemary and lots of lavender.

Now to look at what to add and make the most of my spaces. It is wet here now and there are things I could plant. I am not too worried about frost as open spaces get it but not so much in more protected spots and it is not winter yet anyway.

Pa grew comfrey and used it to make a tea that was a liquid fertiliser for the garden. So comfrey is something I will look to add.  I could probably add ten more things...

What do you grow? Do you have somewhere you could add a little more? I thought if I could learn more about different herbs I could further expand my pantry this way.

There are times like during floods where our garden might no longer be a help to us. If you are in a flood prone area some pots up higher with your herbs might be better. And there are those who have tons of room that can go way further with lots of fruit trees and vegies.  I know Cath grows a great crop of pumpkins in her back yard. The thing is to use the space we have, even if it is a balcony or tiny courtyard, to grow what we can. The first time you go out and snip herbs to go with dinner they have paid for themselves. They are always there to add freshness to your meals and goodness in your cooking. I know, at least, I am not relying on the shops for this part of my pantry.

I am sure I can expand on this in my garden and also use more herbs in cooking and dry, freeze and preserve reserves. I am just learning. All tips and recipes will be appreciated!

My bit is to encourage us all to include some things from our garden into our supplies and reserves. We will be so glad we added what we could. 

I hope you are having a good week! Hoping to have god news to report soon! xxx

Stretch a Meal and Use it Up. Flans, Quiche, Impossible Pies.

Nothing uses up leftovers and makes a great meal better than a pie! These are such an opportunity to use up little bits and pieces and make something spectacular. And the bonus is they are great for breakfasts, lunches and dinners and also made in small sizes they are great for sending in lunch boxes. They are also very portable. Perfect for a picnic or to take as a gift of a meal to someone.

Recently Lucy took me to a cafe nearby and they specialized in Flans. I wish I had taken photos now... Firstly they looked spectacular. Each one was placed on a large cake stand. They had all kinds of interesting fillings like pumpkin, sun dried tomato and feta, spinach, chicken and so on.
They just looked glorious and I thought how easy these are to make and people were going crazy over them! I also should have priced them. But going by the price per serve it would have had to be $50 for a whole flan.

Yesterday for Mother's Day Lucy asked Mum and I over. Lucy who is meant to be resting on Doctor's orders and due in a few days...

Anyway we arrived and she had made us all a lovely lunch. First I'll show you desert which is really nothing to do with anything I just have to show you! :)
Desert was a baked cheesecake which was just beautiful...

Her main was a Chicken and Spinach Quiche with rocket, pear and walnut salad. It was yum!

And she decorated it with hearts for Mother's Day. Which I loved.

Inspired by how nice this looked I thought today I would add Quiches and Flans to our ways to stretch a meal and use it up.

There are two main "quiches" I make. The first is a quiche that has the custard like filling and make modifications to the filling. And a pastry base. This is a chance to use.... onion, practically any cheese you may have, spinach, asparagus, bacon, ham, sun dried or fresh tomato, roast pumpkin or sweet potato... and so many other things. You can use a sprinkle or a lot depending on what you have.

You can make your pastry or use ready rolled. The basic filling is 3 eggs blended with a cup of cream. I mostly use evaporated milk instead. It is very flexible. Classic quiche might have stricter rules but we are being versatile!
A yummy trick is to cheat and use Mimi's Onion Confit spread over the pastry base. Then pour in your egg mix. This is beautiful and I call "Caramelized Onion Quiche".

The next version is to use sour cream. A simple mix is 3 eggs to 300ml/10oz sour cream and your choice of fillings. This gives a thicker consistency and is good when using more fillings.

Another variation is to use dried breadcrumbs sprinkled over the bottom of your dish. Then fill with your fillings and gently pour your egg mix over the top and bake. This gives and easy pie crust.

The other way I will do this is to make a more rustic pie and use some flour in the mix instead of pastry. Impossible Pies work as the flour sinks and the pie is self crusting. This works best if you let your pie sit for a few minutes before baking. It is a super easy recipe and so versatile.

The basic recipe is 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk or cream or a mix, and half a cup of flour. Blend all together and pour over your fillings. There are so many versions of this.
Grated zucchini (or thinly sliced) is good in this.

Some basics are use seasonings of your choice, saute your raw ingredients that need it like onion or spinach to reduce it down. Others like tomato, corn etc don't need pre cooking. Some things are decide for yourself!

I always serve with a relish of some sort and a little side salad.

For lunch boxes I make any of these in muffin trays. For little kids I would make mini sized ones. If you are low carb or gluten free I would use no flour in the impossible quiche. Really then you are making a frittata but lets not get technical!

This is Lucy's recipe for her pie. She pre baked her short crust pastry base (with weights) and the hearts. She added the hearts to the pie after it was almost cooked.

1 and a quarter cups shredded cheddar cheese,
1 cup cooked diced chicken.
1 ten ounce package frozen spinach thawed and drained really well. (this is half a cup)
1/2 cup chopped onion.
3 eggs.
3/4 cup milk.
3/4 cup mayonnaise.
Salt and pepper.

Fill your pie shell with your chicken, onion, spinach, cheese..
In a bowl whisk the eggs, milk, mayo and seasonings. Pour this over your dry ing.
Bake in med oven until knife comes out clean. Let sit a few minutes before serving.

This is beautiful. Next time you have left over cooked chicken reserve a cup for this.

For a large serving I double or triple the recipe and line a baking dish with non stick baking paper. Then just make a giant rectangle. This cuts up into lots of serves.
To make it look spectacular make a cake sized on and place on your loveliest cake plate or stand. It really looks fantastic!

These recipes are very flexible. But with a few ingredients and some eggs you have a meal. I keep  tins of evaporated milk and long life cream in the pantry and I always have cheese in the fridge so I mostly can whip something up in a hurry!

I would love to hear your versions. Mimi makes a Salmon luxury pie, I think we had better get on to her about this recipe. I made it once for Valentine's Day. It it an example of a recipe with a little bit of a strong flavored ingredient that makes it wow.

Some of us are in spring and others are in autumn! This is good as these recipes are just as suitable as a hot meal or as a cold picnic lunch.

I hope you have a wonderful week. I am out the door to the shops and then getting some soup on.
My plan is to make a muffin tray of bacon impossible pies to go in Andy's work lunch for the next few days.

Last week we did "substitutions" in our Stretch a Meal and Use it up series. The comments, ideas and recipes you all contributed made it wonderful. It was epic! Thank you!

Lots of love.xxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 8 May, 2015.

Friday! I really like our little "stock takes" at the end of the week! Thank you to everyone who joins in too. When there is joy in the ordinary things, of getting stuff done, meals on the table, a little bit extra done here or there... all these little things, we are bound to be happy.

And I am happy with my week. I got lots done and am counting my blessings. Andy started his new job and went really well and loves it. Plus he got extra work last weekend and extra this weekend. It is also a blessing that he just takes it despite no days off for the time being. It is a big thing to me that he doesn't complain about long hours or no day off. He is a good guy.

We had rain and the garden is watered.
We had a storm and we were ok and didn't lose power when many homes did.

Lucy has about six days to go until the baby is due!

On that note... I plan and hope to post as usual. And I have worked ahead on posts so that some are almost ready and lovely Helen is posting for me also. But it is possible when this baby arrives that I will forget I even have a blog for a little bit!
This is like years ago we went to LA and went to Disneyland. On the flight home Chloe must have started to think about home again. She said "I forgot I had a dog!" and it was as if we all were having so much fun we forgot everything else. Well, it could be like that!

This week I saved money and feathered our nest by:

I made broccoli soup. At the end I add cheese and it is yum.

I also made bargain zucchini into a big crock pot of soup. I packaged this into small containers for the freezer.

Another night I made butter chicken and gave the expecting couple a dinner with all the trimmings, rice, salad, raita, bread etc.


I made my raita with mint from Mum's garden. All I do is get a thick creamy yoghurt. I like one that is naturally quite sweet. I pick and wash a couple of huge handfuls of mint leaves and blend this with my stick blender into the yoghurt plus add half a teaspoon of Cumin. I try to do it a few hours, at least, before the meal as I think the flavors improve. This is so nice with any warm/hot dish as it is so cooling and yummy. So easy and nice. I am not much a curry or spicy cook but I can do this!

Mum came and brought me a box of really huge coffee jars. Her friend saves them and has boxes of them if I want more. Yes please! I can make up my mixes! These are giant sized jars, I could even do double cornbread or muffin mixes in them.

Mum made me a scarf. She made me one a couple of weeks ago which I have lived in so she made me another one. (excuse the selfie)

I downloaded quite a few free really good e books. I have mentioned before that I thought I wanted a Kindle and asked for one as a present. The girls told me it wasn't a present as I could download the Kindle app for free to my i pad. Oh. I didn't know that! So in minutes I had a Kindle on my i pad. Now I add free books almost weekly. If you follow Money Saving Mom each week she posts a newsletter. Many of these newsletters have a list of free e books. I just choose what looks good to me and download them. I have a wonderful library of 100% free books. These include cooking, pantry, preparedness, classics, organization and all kinds of wonderful books. What happens is authors now and then put their books free for a day. It helps them get reviews and exposure. So even the expensive books are sometimes free for a day. You just have to be quick as it is usually for a very limited time.

Mum helped me sew in the ends on my blanket... it is almost finished. Maybe another week? Mum has a bad shoulder and is semi out of action but she can still sew and crochet! However Mum's "out of action" is most peoples "flat out busy."

I packaged up lots of freezer meals. The place looks like a take away shop. I did lots for baby week with no washing up using containers I had. I know I will be glad of these.

Mum also gave me an English Country Decorating magazine that is perfect for lots of card making.

I built up my home by adding to my pantry and my supplies in case the power goes out, batteries, matches, candles and torches.

Today I am just cleaning and tidying up. Being at home and catching up are my favourite days.

How was your week and how did you build up your nest and save money? As the season changes there are different things to do. The US girls are planting their spring gardens and getting their produce in. You have to be watchful of the seasons and make the most of the opportunities! Many things have a window of time. For me our season means it is dark very early. It is almost dark at 5 o'clock. So everything outside has to be done. It means I get more crafts made and crochet done as in the evening we are inside. This is the time of the year that I get lots made toward my Christmas presents.

Have a wonderful weekend! xxx

Pantries and Preparedness. Be ever watchful.

Of all the wonderful blogs I follow and helpful information I come across nothing has as good advice on preparedness and prudence as my Bible. I am continuously amazed.
This has been hitting home with me lately more than ever.
There are so many preparedness gems, some I have mentioned already, like the Proverbs woman not being afraid of the winter as she is prepared!!
Also I look at a woman looking well to the ways of her household to totally include being sensible and prepared.

But a theme mentioned many times is being watchful. Being sober and watchful. It is another thing that has layers like an onion! Being watchful includes many levels including things like are we on the right track? Are we being deceived? Are we keeping our priorities straight? A whole list of things that we need to be continually watchful about.

But being watchful is also many practical things. Since scripture covers so many practical avenues of life from planting a field, knowing what to make to sell, preparing for the winter, observing the seasons, being like ants who work quietly away... there are a lot of practical things about being watchful.

How does this help us with preparedness?

In many ways! We already talk about being watchful with the price cycles of groceries, of sales and mark downs, of opportunities to stock up and build up the pantry. Wendy posts once a week the best specials in the catalogues! (she just has today in fact) This is being watchful. This helps us manage our budgets and get good food on the table.

I have talked about knowing every lemon tree in a ten mile radius! lol. I probably do! But being aware of all the things available to us is being watchful. We are watching for opportunities. Picking things in the right season is being watchful so that we don't miss the perfect moment to strike!

When we need to make a big purchase like a new fridge and we know when there is a big sale, that is being watchful.

But the other day I had a moment that was an eye opener. Chloe and I went into the city. We pulled up at traffic lights and before us a scene unfolded and it was like slow motion where you are just amazed and frozen. The traffic in front of us just had the go ahead to turn right. And at that moment there was a girl... she had ear phones on and was holding her phone up in front of her face and she walked straight in front of the wall of cars coming right at her! She took seven or eight steps out right into the middle. Cars were honking, slamming on breaks.... and she never knew. No idea. When a cars bumper bar was right up next to her she looked up. She had no idea where she was. She saw and heard nothing. It was such a close call and her survival was all thanks to the drivers.  We were gobsmacked.
When I told Andy this he said he sees this every day. They don't know where they are. They don't look up. They are in a total world of their own. If someone is shouting at them they don't know, if a dog is barking at them they don't know... and what easy targets.

So this is about as far from watchful as you can get! To not know your surroundings, be able to hear a warning, be alert... and I thought about this. I wonder if that girl would know much of world events, if it is going to be a storm tomorrow?   I just thought about awareness and how our safety depends on it on so many levels!

I read a while ago that in self defence one of the biggest things we can do is have "situational awareness."  Police and military are trained in it. The basics of it are just sensible. To know what is going on around us. To be alert and observe. To notice. These things are actually skills. And they can save our lives.  Even the most simple thing like being aware it is late and dark so don't walk through the park is situational awareness!  This is a really interesting subject and you can increase your skills in this and become watchful and observant. This really can be a life saver. It is a really interesting subject and there are easy ways to improve your skills.

Not everything of course is something we can see coming. But many things can be seen coming! We have a great advantage that now there might be several days warning that a cyclone or terrible weather event is coming. This is an advantage but only if we know about it!  When cyclone Tracy destroyed Darwin it was observed that all the birds left and went inland. Some people would have observed that. Probably many never noticed. But before weather warnings and satellites that's all people had, signs in nature that something was coming.

Making sure we hear and see warnings is a major help in preparedness. Having an action plan for those times is a huge help. Debbie said the other day that they had no power for three days and that candles, batteries etc sold out of the stores. She was affected by the massive storms over Sydney and NSW. This was forecast so there was some warning. Debbie had gas to cook with, a good pantry and everything they needed. People were killed driving through water over roads. And it has happened again since too. In this situation following the warnings, heeding advice (not to drive through water) having candles, torches and food in the house were all life saving things.

Andy had to go early in the Adelaide Hills over the weekend. I was able to tell him there was a traffic warning about fog and ice. These things make a difference! Warnings are helpful. They save lives.
If there is a storm coming do you know about it?
If you are travelling do you know the dangers of where you are going? The different laws? The different health risks?
If a product is being recalled because of health risks or contamination would you know?
If the power goes out can you still follow the government advice in an emergency? And follow updates?
 Having some warning where it is available is worth a lot. A little time to take action can make the hugest difference.

I know ignorance can be bliss at times. But it is risky!

The bigger picture of being watchful is what is going on in the world. I always used to ask the girls why were the three wise men wise? Why were they called the three wise men? They were wise becasue the knew when they saw a new star over Bethlehem that Jesus was going to be born. HOW did they know this? Because they knew their scripture!

Lately I am amazed bu the things happeneing in the world that I have been reading about all my life thinking oh that probably won't happen in my life time. And many things are happening! I wouldn't know what was going on at all if I didn't know my scripture.

Be watchful. Be ever watchful. Be sober and watchful.
It could save your life. It could save your family. It will help with being prepared. It will help with your priorities and planning.

Do not be like the headphone girl and walk straight into trouble.
"the prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty." Prov 27.12
'

How can we use the advantages we have to be aware of what is happening? Many places have alerts you can sign up for. Our state sends texts in extreme emergencies. But there are many ways of keeping an eye on things that we could consider taking advantage of.
How can we be more watchful and use this for our families safety and also for gathering the things we need, saving money and doing well?

My little progress report is i have been stocking up on matches, batteries and candles due to what Debbie said last week.  (thanks Debbie)  These things sold out in the stores. I thought I would add to my supplies! Also I realised that a torch next to the cellar door might be a wise move since it is pitch black down there when there is no power! So I added a torch to keep right there at all times.

When I use candles or tea lights I pop them inside jars. I feel much safer with them this way and I am mentioning it as several people have said something about candles and safety. We have a battery lantern that gives out a lot of light as well.

I hope your pantry is growing and that being watchful helps you build it up as well as keep you safe!
Week by week every little thing adds up! xxx

Stretch a meal and use it up. Substitutions.

Last time I talked about Crumbles (Crisps) and general meals that are great for using things up.
Mimi posted a really wonderful comment (I will let you just read that) about how she saved lots of what seemed like excessive ingredients from a recipe, made a few substitutions and got two dinners out of it instead of one. One of the things she did was use broccoli stalks sliced finely through the first recipe instead of celery and carrot. The celery and carrot then made it into the next meal.  This is a perfect example of substituting and stretching!

This can be just amazing, a few substitutions and a few changes can result in big savings.  Many times recipes are actually produced to promote an ingredient. Most times recipes do not have your families budget in mind. But we can outsmart them! Also we can build up our recipes that are flexible and have variations. Straight away you are able to use things up, use what's on special and save money.

My simple method to stretch something is very often to simply double the recipe but not the expensive component. So I have made blueberry muffins, doubled the recipe thus getting two dozen, used one lot of blueberries and a tablespoon of berry jam instead of the second amount of berries. This works so well. They are beautiful and you would never know. If you think about it blueberries are the expensive component. You could leave them out altoghether and use apple. Or half blueberry and half chopped apple.  You could decide to make another kind of muffin althogether!

Many ingredients that add a ton of flavor are only needed in small quantities. Sun dried tomatoes, nuts, fancy cheeses, chorizo, salmon etc are great as you actually only need a really little bit. You can well and truly double the recipe but not these without losing much at all. Or you can add a little chorizo to a pasta dish and give the impression it is a meaty dish with very little meat in fact! Clever use of ingredinets can bolster up flavour and stretch plainer (and cheaper) ingredients. Recipes using these type of ingredients are easy to stretch without needing to use more of the expensive components.

Most casseroles, fried rice, meat and vegie dishes and soups you can substitute the vegies of your choice and use far more than the recipe calls for. We probably all do that.  There are times certain vegies are crazy prices. Like here Caulifowers are $8 each at the moment. No recipe will have me buying one just now. I'll make something else! If we can just swap our recipes around to suit the price and season we are half way there.

Some of the substitutions I use are:

Blanched almonds in the place of pinenuts in pesto.
Vegetable oil instead of butter in cakes (it works in most, they also keep fresh longer)
Yoghurt or milk with lemon instead of buttermilk.
A plainer cheese isntead of a fancy one.
Evaportated milk instead of cream (in quiches, tarts etc)
A cup of pureed fruit instead of a cup of butter or oil in a cake.
I crush or break up chocolate from a sale of left overs rather than buy chocolate chips.
Chicken thighs for chicken breasts  or a whole chicken  as it is often cheaper than two chicken breasts!
The meat thats marked down for the meat in the recipe.


There are times when you can just skip something all together without any disasterous effects. Or add heaps more of something that you do have to stretch the overall number of serves. Many recipes call for one carrot or something like that and I add four. More vegies are a good thing, at a cheap price... the meal will go further.

One of my favourite highly interchangeable meal is pizza.

First of all the base can be so many things...

Make your own dough using yeast and flour.
Make your own dough using yogurt/milk and flour.
Use some kind of bread as the base. I love to use turkish bread cut in half lengthwise.
Use bread and make as toasties for the lunch boxes.
Split muffins and make mini pizzas.
Lebanese Bread or flat breads.
Pre made pizza bases.
On the weekend I made my dough with yeast but other times I have used all of the above. It depends on what I have.

Next the sauce can be...

Tinned tomatoes, a jar of tomato pasta sauce, homemade tomato sauce, BBQ sauce (this works great with chicken topping) also onion jam or Mimi's Onion Confit, Pesto...

Mine this time was just a jar of tomato pasta sauce...

..

Then toppings can be..

Tomato bolognese sauce with or without mince, bacon, ham, cooked chicken or lamb, tomato, capsicum, onion, capers, anchovies, pineapple, salmon, prawns, salami, mettwurst, soft or hard cheese or a mixture, sun dried tomatoes, roast pumpkin, sweet potato, onion, mushrooms... I am sure there are so many more things I've missed! But the idea is to look and see what you have that you can include.

Mine was salami, bocconcini, pineapple, grated cheese, bacon...

The last layer, after the pizza is cooked could be mixed hers, rocket, fresh soft cheese that then melts gently, a sprinkle of herbs.


We all get to end up with our favourite combinations. Andy likes salami and strong flavours like that. The thing is you only need a really little bit to get that effect and these peopele are happy!

Now my combinations would proabbly give an Italina Chef a heart attack... but the flavors are yummy, you use up all kinds of left overs and make meals that are good hot or cold! I would never made one pizza. I usually make three  or four, at least. If you are doing this you might as well end up with lunches, lunch box food, maybe an easy dinner in tow nights time...
This is such a chance to make an inexpensive dinner and use up all kinds of things.

I made half a dozen smaller pizzas that went on a fishing trip and made lunches...

On the subject of stretching meals and using things up Stephanie on her blog posted an idea on avoiding food waste. It was one of those "WHY didn't I think of that moments!" I will let you read it for yourself here Avoiding Food Waste. I am implementing this idea.

If you have excess bread I have a great use it up recipe here which is a beautiful bread and butter pudding that cuts like a cake and looks spectacular. Hilde reminded me that if you go to many bakeries at the end of the day you can often get bargain bread, buns, croissants etc. All of these make wonderful bread and butter pudding. You adjust the sweetness ie if using sweet buns you wouldn't need to add sugar to your eggs, milk/cream and vanilla mix. This adds even more substitutions!

If you have excess fruit this is a cake that uses up plums, peaches, nectarines or apricots...  the recipe is  here. This also makes great muffins. Pictured here with nectarines and at the top of this post using plums.

What are substitutions you use to save money, make a meal stretch or make it healthier? The more confident we are with substitutions the more we save.

I am working on a post on how to stretch meat meals. I am married to a meat eater and a lot of ladies are, I know from comments! My Nana elevated stretch meat in meals to an artform and so well I never realised until recently. Meat is one of the most expensive parts of the food budget. So making it go as far as possible is a big help!

Have a great week! I am heading off to grocery shop and have zucchini soup to make from my bargain zucchinis. I hope to get a good start to the week! xxx