Tuesday 29 October 2013

Ground Beef Salad

The last 24+ hours haven't been good for me. It was about 10:30am yesterday when I was sitting at my computer and I was overcome with this horrendous pain in my lower abdominal area. After about 20 minutes, the pain seem to localise to just my right side, and began shooting down my right leg. Needless to say, I was no longer sitting at my computer. You could find me huddled into a ball on my living room floor wondering what I'd done in a previous life to deserve this sort of cruel and unusual punishment. This lasted for about an hour and a half. **Dramatics over**. Unfortunately, it really was that bad.

I decided to Google Dr myself (I do not recommend this) and He told me that I had appendicitis. Or a kidney infection. Which could be Very Serious. After some kind words from twitter friends I took my sorry self off to the doctor. After he pronounced my last name wrong, (he added in a Q. And an A.) he then proceeded to grill me as to why I'm not on the pill, is it because I am planning to start a family? etc etc. (I haven't been on the pill for almost 12 months, and choose not to be because I think it is terrible for our bodies, but that's for another day. Nat Kringoudis is worth a look if it's something you're curious about.) THEN, he asked me about my eyes (they're different. We're over it.), a few other personal comments I don't wish to repeat here, and finished off by telling me he "didn't think it was anything serious because I'm 'not sick enough'". After this guy, I now remember why I don't go to the doctors. He told me that he thinks I may have some sort of cyst or blood clot on my ovaries that could burst, or something or other, and recommended an ultrasound, which all sounded very scary.

I pretty much slept the rest of the day yesterday, and woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am this morning. There's not as much pain today, however I think I must have/had  bladder/kidney infection of some sort... So I've been eating spoonfuls of coconut oil, warm water with ACV and lemon juice, cranberry tablets and blueberries. I'm already starting to feel better, the pain feels as if it's eased up quite a bit so it's just this awful bloated-ness and exhaustion I'm left with. Fingers crossed another good nights sleep and I'll be right as rain. :)

Onto the salad!

I love this salad. I've been eating it a lot lately, it's a good way for me to pack a lot of vegies in whilst getting dinner ready really quickly. And only using one pan too bonus.
I've also made it quite a few different ways, sometimes with beetroot, pork, apple, sometimes spinach, avocado, fennel.. it's very forgiving.
Also, the serving size might not sound like much but it's actually really filling! If you think you'll need more, feel free to serve it with some brown rice or quinoa, or even some crusty sourdough bread would be nice. Don't forget to save room for dessert. :)

Please note - this picture is only 1 serve!

Ground Beef Salad (serves 2):
☀ 250 grams ground beef
☀ 1 tsp paprika
☀ 2 cloves crushed garlic
☀ vinegar - ACV, red wine or balsamic vinegar

For the salad:
☀ half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
☀ half an avocado
☀ 3 or 4 swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
☀ pre-steamed beetroot
☀ a handful of rocket, spinach or both
☀ a couple of asparagus, sliced at an angle



Method: 
  • Heat a tbsp of your preferred fat in a pan on medium heat, and cook your ground beef stirring constantly to break it up. I like to slightly "overcook" mine so it goes nice and crispy. It doesn't at all taste dry because the meat pieces are so small.
  • Once your beef has finished cooking, crush in your garlic and your tbsp of paprika with a splash of vinegar - ACV, red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar all work well.
  • Remove your beef from the pan and put in a bowl. Heat a little more fat as needed and pop in your mushrooms. Season with S&P. Let them cook until they release their juices and begin to fry, about 5 minutes.
  • Toss in your halved tomatoes and beetroot* (if using) let them get warm - about 2 minutes.
  • Pop in your beef and the rest of your salad - asparagus, pinenuts, chilli, apple.. anything you like. Add in your greens, turn off the heat, give everything a toss and serve up. 

Extras:
>> * Put your beets in your oven, skin on on 200c for 15-20 minutes. When they're soft to touch, take them out and let them cool. Store in freezer or fridge for a few days. To use, simply quarter, slice, however you like.

Now I'm off to have a warm glass of water and watch some Gossip Girl! Do you think you'll make this salad? :)

Sunday 27 October 2013

What's happening in my vegie garden

❤  Warning. This is a pic-heavy post.

It's not really a vegie "garden" because almost everything is potted. Actually, everything is. Except some dill that started growing like mad next to the driveway.. from seedlings dropped from the herbs flower that we had in a pot! Coolest.
Very much looking forward to the day when we buy and we can fill the yard with all our homegrown vegies, herbs and fruits! Due to The Fiancés's job, we've moved around a fair bit in the past couple of years. We have almost been here 12 months though (record!) and I think it's pretty safe to say we'll be staying a while. Once you get used to this amazing warmth, the beaches and the sunshine, it's pretty hard to imagine moving somewhere where it's so cold you're not able to go to the beach and lie out in July. True Story. Sorry. :)

Blueberry tree

Mr Mint. Doing so well.

Coupla' strawbs plants. Love me some strawbs.
Le wall of Pots.
Obviously when you don't have the luxury of a yard to plant all your herbs and vegies, you make do. See here, our windowsill of pots! It's the perfect place to put some of our pots, we have a couple of chillis growing, a few parsley, a couple of tomato, some oregano, sage, chives and dill.

These little yellow toms make me all warm and fuzzy.

Said Sage. Mental.

My fig tree. This also gives me warm and fuzzies!

Spinach from seedlings. These guys need a little more TLC.
One of the many Parsley Pots.

Mr Basil. My all time Favourite. I pick them dry though!
Crazy Habaneros. The Fiancé and I are quite chilli mad.

Picked this bad boy up at the markets. Money well spent.

Said Dill taken up residence by the driveway!
 I feel like I don't have nearly enough on the vegie side of things, so I'm working out a way to grow more. Pretty happy with my herb-age though.

What about you? What do you grow? Green thumb? :)


Friday 25 October 2013

Friday bits'n'bobs

Ah Friday. It was super hot here yesterday until about 4pm when the clouds rolled over and the rain started, it's still cool and cloudy this morning. I love the sun but sometimes it's nice to lie in bed a little longer when it's a bit darker outside. Ya know :)

Friday bits'n'bobs:

☀ This little orchid lost all it's flowers this week. Sad times. I can see little closed buds so hopefully it doesn't take forever to flower again!


☀ I love Sourdough. And I hate that junk Coles and Woolies try to pass off. This article about sourdough and honest bread is a good read.

☀ I've been wanting to check out the pupsters diet and make at least half of their meals for them for a while now. I've been researching on a lot of the methods used, and finally decided on a half raw BARF diet and half pet food. I had a nice long chat with one of the ladies at PetBarn yesterday and she was super helpful on what to do, how much, which kibble she recommended, and also which butchers sell the whole animal (not just meat, bones etc as well) at a ridiculously cheap price. So today I will be making pet food!

☀ If you follow me on Twitter you may have read about the OTH convention in Paris. Wish I had've been there. :(. I miss this show. I've spoken to The Fiancé, and said that we should (finally) begin planning our wedding and have a honeymoon next year. Around October. In Milano.  


☀ Arj Barker baby. Second time seeing his Go Time show last Friday. HA-larious. Tickets aren't expensive, he still has a bit of Australia to tour and his starting act, Aussie Joel Ozborn is a cracker as well. Get on it.

Fennel ice-cream. We broke out our el' cheapo ice-cream machine last weekend to make some coconut cacao goodnees, but I'm super keen to give this a try.

Foods you can grow from kitchen scraps. I've given most of these a go with varying levels of success - mainly due to my lack of watering! I will be trying it again though, watching my little celery, leek and spring onions shoot up in a jar of water on my kitchen bench was pretty thrilling. Need to get a life.

My heart and prayers are with all those affected from these awful bush fires. And children being the ones who started them. What the. I can't even properly comprehend that. 3 dead already. Fingers and toes it ends soon.

Enjoy your weekend all!

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Simple Citrus Kitchen Cleaner

Bit of a break in between posts this time.
I've started studying, I had a little bit of trouble with my (stupid) computer - very stressful indeed. Can't predict these kind of things, they always happen when you need everything to be working perfectly!

But all is going well now! The Fiance went back to work for his week on this morning so it was another 3:30am start (yes, you read that right) for me dropping him to Brissy airport. I really hate every second Wednesday morning.

Today I'm posting one of my favourite kitchen cleaners. Super simple, uses what would otherwise be wasted with other ingredients you would have on hand. What's not to love?

(( I don't remember exactly where I found this recipe, there's actually a million when you search for them - I've changed it a little to suit our needs. ))

We juice a lot in my house. My favourite combination is beetroot, fennel, celery, orange, carrot and ginger. Yum yummmm.
But I hate the waste. My gorgeous munchkins can have the pulp for breakfast, but for the orange peels, well there was nothing I could really do with them. So in the bin they went :(

"It IS a hard life you know" - up all night causing mischief.
Don't they just kill you with CUTENESS!

Until I discovered that I could use the peels for making an easy as, all-purpose kitchen cleaner.  Frickin chicken amazeballs.
I'm sure you've noticed that most supermarket kitchen cleaners generally have lemon or orange extract (or flavouring/essence). This is because citrus fruits contain d-limonene, which is a natural solvent that chemically reacts with dirt and grease to break it down. Perfect for your benchtops, oven, sink and even your floors*.
I was already a big fan of cleaning with vinegar and/or hydrogen peroxide, but I mean, the smell from vinegar is a bit too... vinegar-y. Right.
Sooo presto.
Homemade all-purpose kitchen cleaner!



What you need:

- orange peels
- salt
- vinegar
- jar with a tight fitting lid (I got a bit lazy on one batch and put it in a pitcher, and just wrapped it with gladwrap. Big no-no. Cue: mold)
- spray bottle


Method:  
  • Make yourself a delicious glass of juice. Keep your citrus peels. Alternatively, everytime you use a lemon/lime/orange for cooking, zesting etc, keep the peels in a ziplock bag or container in the fridge for later use.
  • Pile up your peels in a layer in your jar, scattering salt over the peels every 2nd layer or so. The salt helps to draw out the oils from the citrus. I like to sprinkle some salt on the top at the end as well.
  • Fill your jar with vinegar and water, 50/50 ratio**
  • Pop on your lid and give it a bit of a gentle shake around to get the salt in and around everywhere, then put it out of the way for about a week.
 After a week or so, open up your jar and strain out your liquid into a spray bottle. Fill up with water and you're good to go! :)


Extras:
>> *I always use my citrus peels twice. Follow the same method, and it's a great floor cleaner. Using it for a floor cleaner the second time you do this ensures that it won't be sticky at all. I've never had this problem with the first round, but I figure it's much more economical to do it twice :)
>>**I usually fill my jar initally 50/50 water to vinegar. If you'd prefer it stronger use all vinegar, and fill it 50/50 when you top up your spray bottle. Entirely up to you.
>> I don't use plastic where I can avoid it, so I store my citrus cleaner in an old Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar bottle with a spray nozzle from another bottle.

 So there you are, a super easy, chemical free and ridiculously cheap way to clean your kitchen!
Do you think you'll give this a go? :)

Monday 14 October 2013

Rise and shine! & breakfast

New day, new week.

Breakfast is a battle for me most mornings, I'm never quite sure what I feel like past coffee - a double shot long black yespleasee. (x2).
(sometimes 3. shhh)

delicious coffee

Some mornings I want something that's a bit more warming -
poached eggs with a touch of paprika on top, and avocado with spinach and roasted balsamic cherry tomatoes (or on crusty sourdough toast)


yum yum yumm

or an old favourite.
The Smoothie.
I jumped on the smoothie train a couple of years ago, it's such a great way to have breakfast on the go, or just generally pack as much goodness as you can into a slurpy (sometimes green) drink.

smoothie breakfast


 Soooo good for this summer-like weather we're having. We've skipped Spring here, how about you?

Green Smoothie Goodness. This one is nice and simple. It has:

☀ coconut meat*
☀ coconut water
☀ 2 cups spinach
☀ 1 frozen banana
☀ 1 tbsp chia seeds
☀ 1 tbsp maca powder


Method:
  • Throw into blender.
  • Blend. 
  • Serve 
  • Slurp. 
  • Enjoy.

>> Now I know you may not have access to coconut meat from a fresh young coconut you cracked over the weekend, so feel free to substitute that for coconut cream or yoghurt.
>> And when you do have leftover coconut meat, you now know smoothies are the way to go! :)

Official first day of study for me!

Happy Monday! :)

Friday 11 October 2013

Friday bits'n'bobs

Friday, again. This week has flown by! I've pretty much spent it all looking at my clock and thinking, in the rest of the country, it's actually an hour later. *tear* Takes a while to get used to this whole no daylight savings business.

Officially 3 sleeps until I start studying! I was able to log on and view my subjects for my first block of study yesterday afternoon, I'm going to have a bit more of a play around today so I can make sure that I'm feeling 100% prepared and ready to go.
I have had a few "W! T! F!  am I doing!??!" moments... I think the idea of going back to study is just plain old scary. And there's always good ol' "fear of failure" chirping up in the back of you head planting doubt. Fun times! But all in all I'm really looking forward to it, and I need to remember to pull myself back when I get too far down my negativity path.

On to the Friday bits n' bobs:

☀ Have you met my babies yet?

Coco and Simba, my little labbies

☀ Is anyone as scared/excited as I am that there's Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE? I love Christmas and am hanging to put up my tree!! I've decided to wait until 30th November, hard as that will be, it's a Saturday and the FH will be home from work.

☀ We had an "Oktoberfest" themed BBQ here with friends on Sunday. Long weekend and all. We made pulled pork and sauerkraut, pickled carrots, salad and some garlicky mayo for pretzels. Good times. Monday was not so fun. Hangover, people. Just don't do em. I think it was about Wednesday before I started to feel 100% normal again.

☀ I neeeeeeeeeeeed these double chocolate cheesecake brownies in my life. Did I also mention they're gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free?? And also, have you checked out Deliciously Ella's blog yet? She has amazing recipes!

☀ The Vampire Diaries is back, YAY! And the spin-off The Originals has also aired. All is right with the world again. (Damon..❤)

☀ I love this Crazy Sexy Self Care Planner by Kris Carr. It's so important to make sure we're getting enough us time in some way, everyday. And to know what self care involves for ourselves.

☀ I've been reading each of The Veggie Mama's "31 Days of Confessions". She got the idea from fat mum slim's post, 50 things to blog about, and decided to turn it into a month of confessions.

☀ I went to Eumundi markets with an ex-colleague on Wednesday. I've been before, but I have to say I much preferred going on a Wednesday over a Saturday, much less busy. If you don't live on the Sunshine Coast and are ever visiting, it's definitely worth checking out :)

This warmer weather is just screaming BEACH to me. I think I'll be spending some time there tomorrow!

TGIF!