“Dull women have immaculate homes.” True or false?

For those of us who love a little visit to Officeworks.

A gift today, for those of us who get excited at Kikki K.

I read the other day that “Dull women have immaculate homes.” Which seems a little harsh on those of us who don’t mind a bit of order amongst the chaos of daily family life. There seems no harm in finding joy in a bit of neatness when it’s such a hard-won feat.

Although more accurate in my house would be, “Organised women used to have moth problems in their pantry.” Which is why I went a bit crazy a couple of months back finally getting everything into containers. Throwing packets of food away was depressing, and endless moth traps, while fascinating for the kids, weren’t such a source of joy for me.

As you can see, I store a few things in glass, but most of my pantry is BPA-free plastics. Please don’t e-lecture me about the evils of it – for someone as clumsy as myself, it’s a blessing. There’s only so much shattered glass that I can clean up (and stand in) in a year. If you are more co-ordinated than myself and are a glass-only household, then I wish you well and let’s leave it at that.

Luckily these cute labels will help keep things ship-shape no matter what your jar. Sure, you know what brown sugar looks like, but if you’re going to bother organising all this stuff, why not make it look as pretty as hell. It only takes a few minutes to print them out and stick them on.

See! Not dull, just making the mundane more interesting.

See! Not dull, just making the mundane more interesting.

When I had ingredients out to bake yesterday, I was LOVING MYSELF SICK. Besides, you can jot down the use-by dates on the back of the label, blue-tack it on and just admire yourself for being so damn together.

Download the 3-page pantry labels PDF here.

___________________

And if you like these, you’ll also like my printable shopping list.

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Help! I’m scared of my new appliance!

If Johnny Depp were an appliance, he'd be a pressure cooker.

If ‘Game of Thrones’ was an appliance, it’d be a pressure cooker.

I’ve never actually been scared of an appliance before.

There’s no shortage of gadgets in my kitchen. It’s an occupational hazard that I already own a fair few of them and usually I’m into them in a jiffy and using them for as many things as I can think of within minutes.

But ever since Kambrook sent me a pressure cooker to try out, I’ve had a half-unpacked box in the corner of my kitchen just looking a bit ominous and scary. Sure, my slow cooker is heavy, and my food processor is sharp, but neither of them have a reputation for EXPLODING the way that pressure cookers do. Not easing my nerves, most of the web pages dealing with these contraptions start with reassuring lines like “These days pressure cookers are safe and easy to use…” then off they go offering poetic descriptions of the hours of joy that await me.

Also alarming is the instruction booklet, which is 50 pages of info and recipes, but with some pages covered in more ‘WARNING’ panels than instructional text.

Yeah, sure, reassuring...

Yeah, sure, reassuring…

So tell me, do you use one? What are your pressure cooker staples and what recipes should I start with? This ‘Dummies’ cheat sheet seems a have a bunch of good basic information on using them and A Perfect Pantry has a good list of recipes – I’m thinking the beef ragu might be good (with a stack more vegies). And this pulled pork recipe looks good and cooks about 7 hours more quickly than my slow-cooker version.

I know many people are big fans of these contraptions, so if you can steer me in the right direction, I’d love to hear from you.

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Need some dinner inspiration for this week?

Struck dumb at the thought of another week of hungry mouths at dinnertime? Amazing how quickly Monday comes around and I’m left wondering, “What the hell am I going to feed everyone this week?” Which is weird, considering I’ve now published two cookbooks and three e-books on the topic and have around 200 recipes up my sleeve.

Still, being excited about making dinner EVERY SINGLE NIGHT is a battle for me too. Surely, SURELY, a night of air wouldn’t hurt while I have my feet up and my kindle (loaded with a crappy bodice-ripper) in hand? Alas no, pesky kids want actual food. So I’m trawling for meals that make me happy and inspired. Perhaps one of these will tickle your fancy this week too…

rice paper rolls

Rice paper rolls

Chicken nuggets

Chicken nuggets

Witches' stew (split pea soup)

Witches’ stew (split pea soup)

Vegie slice

Vegie slice

What about you? What’s on the list for this week?

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Five things we don’t want this mother’s day

No. We don't want this.

No. We don’t want this.

Dear husbands/ partners,
With Mother’s Day approaching and an entire letterbox jammed with catalogues covered in slogans like ‘Make Mum Smile’, I thought I’d jot down some warnings about what it is we DON’T want this mother’s day. Because heaven forbid you glance through the Big W catalogue and be swayed by what you find in there.

1. EARLY MORNING CELEBRATIONS
We’re happy it’s Mother’s Day. Stoked. Can’t get enough of being reminded that we’re mothers, because, actually, SO MANY days go by where we forget.

No, I’m being jaded. We do like Mother’s Day and the special status that the day brings, but we don’t need our specialness to start too early. IN FACT, we’d be really, really, really happy if you’d pop off to the park with the kids for a bit and maybe we can start the ‘yay, me’ thing around 9am. And perhaps you can pick up a few pastries on the way home.

2. POO
Since it is our special day. We will not deal with poo in any form, in any location for the entire day. Not in nappies, on walls or smeared inside trousers. Not from children, dogs or cats. It’s your entire domain today. Actually you can deal with any wee and vomit, too.

3. KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN
An ex-KFC employee assures me that Mother’s Day is that restaurant’s busiest day of the year. Because it’s a well known fact that mums don’t cook on mother’s day, so apparently you’re going to get us a takeaway from there. Call me crazy, but I reckon, husband/partner, rather than gifting me a greasy bucket of lard, you’d be a hell of a lot sexier when you’re arm deep in home-made pancake batter or a roast. Don’t worry, we’ll have the patience to admire and appreciate your efforts, since we won’t be busy stressing about how many dishes you’re dirtying (that’s your job today, too).

4. MUSIC
We like music but please don’t get inspiration from the catalogues on the kitchen table. Because we don’t like Andre Rieu. That’s for your mother, not us. I’ll pop Michael Buble, Anthony Callea and Rod Steward into that category too, although others may disagree. At the end of the day though, what we really want is the chance to listen to something other than ‘Hi-5′, without interruption. Maybe in the bath, with a glass of bubbles, while you’re back at the park taking the kids for their afternoon run.

5. STORE-BOUGHT CARDS

And luckily for us, we probably won’t get them. We’ll get some half-torn, scrunched up bit of cardboard with glitter that falls straight onto the carpet and throughout our beds. Inside will be a drawing of us with a moustache or over-emphasised wrinkles. And we’ll love it, because in a few short years, the cards WILL be store bought, probably from the service station, which means that the kids forgot/don’t give a toss.

And if all this seems too much? Remember to look forward to that little father’s day thing in September, when you’re welcome to present your own list of requests.

And just in case you need help with what to cook us today, try one of these…

Oaty pancakes with strawberries

Pancake batter looks good on you, sexy husband.

Just five ingredients between you and a biscuit. I'll go pop the kettle on...

A biscuit and a cup of tea will SCREAM ‘special’.

Roast chicken is always a winner.

Roast chicken is always a winner.

Adam's bolognaise

And a pot of this will save us from the kitchen for another couple of days.

But don’t forget, most mums will be happiest, with something from the Vegie Smuggler’s shop. Of course, hardcopy books might not arrive in time, but the e-books can be bought and downloaded instantly.

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The current slow cooker favourite

Did you see ‘The Croods’? Delightful flick, following a cavemen clan as they explored the world and discovered new horizons. Great animation, likeable characters, interesting themes and pacey enough to keep me as interested as the kids.

Best yet, the female lead character had chunky arms, frizzy hair and unkempt eyebrows. Considering how I long for more diverse female ‘types’ in the media, it was a bit confronting to realise that I was watching, distracted by how ‘not pretty’ she was. Don’t get me wrong – I loved it, but I’m so programmed for all the animated women to be so effortlessly large-eyed, curvaceous and feminine that I kept waiting for her ‘big reveal’. Surely, I thought, the movie will end with her inadvertently falling into some magic dew that transforms her into a more conventional (ie, gorgeous) heroine.

But it never happened. She stayed grubby, squat and determined. And I was glad for my daughter to see that strength is more important than pretty and that ‘sexy’ doesn’t have to be part of a kid’s movie at all.

Snuggling into winter, today’s recipe does have a ‘big reveal’. You chuck all the ingredients into the slow cooker, go pick up the kids, take them to sport, piano, dancing etc etc then come home three hours later and find the most astonishingly welcome transformation has occurred.

Ta da!

Ta da!



Slow cooker chicken satay

This is based on a recipe from Sally Wise’s ‘Slow Cooker’ cookbook, but I’ve altered it quite a bit.

2 carrots, peeled, cut into thick batons
1 small red capsicum, cut into thick slices
3-4 button mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 sticks celery, thickly sliced
1 small onion, finely diced
700g chicken thigh fillets, fat removed, cut into slices
Handful of snow peas
Coriander
Lime wedges

270ml coconut milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp peanut butter (smooth if you have it)
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp brown sugar

2 tbsp corn flour (optional)

Spray the bowl of your slow cooker with oil (not essential, but helpful when cleaning afterwards). Place the vegies in layers in your slow cooker. Pop the chicken on top.

Combine all of the sauce ingredients, pour over, cover and leave on ‘high’ for 3 hours.

If you’d like to thicken the sauce, place the corn flour into a mug or small bowl. Spoon a couple of scoops of the cooking liquid onto the flour and mix to a runny (lumpfree) paste. Stir back into the pot. Pop the snow peas on top, re-cover and leave for 10 minutes or so until the peas are a bright green.

Serve over rice, topped with coriander and lime wedges.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 4 KIDS.

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Freezer pleasers for a happy Term 2

Rhyming is big at VSHQ at the moment. Splat the flat rat yo brat attack. Good times, great rhymes etc etc. You get the idea, it feels as though I’ve emerged from the top of the Faraway Tree into rhyming couplet-land. There is no “let’s watch The Voice”, straightforward-style chat, more “It’s a great choice, to watch the Voice” type banter.

I suspect it comes with the extra time that school holidays bring. You know, there’s time to ponder such frivolous things and plan your next sentence. AS IF we have time to built poetry into our day during term time.

To help you navigate the upcoming chaos with ease and if you have a day spare (ie, in NSW, one of the two student-free days), why don’t you whip up some batches of these recipes. Pop them in your freezer, defrost whenever you need an easy dinner or a lunchbox treat and you’ll be so organised throughout Term 2 that you’ll have time, for rhymes so fine that kids divine will eat, not whine.

Word.

My kids love these so much, they don't care about what's inside.

Freeze individually and an instant healthy dinner is ready to go.

End the war with a stockpile of mash in the freezer.

Same goes here – frozen portions instantly add vegies to a basic dinner.

A sausage roll that Sam Kekovich would approve of.

Freeze these raw, then defrost and cook as normal.

These honey jumbles are from the new VS e-book.

These honey jumbles are from the new VS e-book.

And so's this muffin recipe, freeze, then add them into lunchboxes.

And so’s this muffin recipe, freeze, then add them into lunchboxes.

All the best for Term 2.

Comments (6) »

Mouse in the house

Crumbs for cutlets, not mice.

Crumbs for cutlets, not mice.

I found myself standing on a chair recently, squealing like a girl as a mouse that the cat had brought in scurried about. Luckily for me, my 8-year old daughter was home and could save me.

Fearless with creatures, she was onto it with such courage that even a nip to her finger from the pesky critter didn’t deter her from dispatching it outside. She’s also handy at rescuing penny lizards, cuddling guinea pigs and smothering her walls with posters of cute puppies and kittens.

She is so different to me that she’s sometimes a stranger. I gaze at her and am in awe of this growing and evolving person who is such a force of personality.

Perhaps it’s partly because they don’t look much like me, but I’ve never considered my kids to me ‘mini-me’s’. And there’s no chance that I’ll ever be one of those parents who pushes their own ambitions onto their kids – my ambitions wouldn’t suit them at all. I’ll just be happy if I can get to know them for who they are and get to share in the lives that they create for themselves.

The one thing however, that everyone in the family has in common is crumbed cutlets, which were a childhood favourite of mine and are just as popular with my kids now. It seems fitting to make them in this ANZAC week. It’s an important day and the weight of it is never lost of me. It seems like a good day to gather close those you love and feed them food that tastes like home.

Wishing you a happy week.

Yum, and easier cooked in the oven.

Yum, and easier cooked in the oven.


Oven-baked crumbed cutlets


This recipe coats about 7 cutlets, depending on size.

Oil spray (canola or olive)
2 slices stale bread (grain or wholemeal is good)
1 tbsp LSA mix (optional)
20g parmesan cheese (the block stuff, not the powder)
2 tbsp fresh herbs (I like a parsley/chives mix)
1 egg, lightly whisked
Just under 1/4 cup plain flour

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a tray with foil and spray generously with the oil.

In a mini food processor, blitz together the bread, LSA, cheese and herbs until you’ve got nice breadcrumbs. Place in a large bowl.

Pop your egg in a separate bowl and the flour in another. Season the flour generously.

Dust your cutlet in the flour, shake off excess, then dip in the egg until coated. Drain off the excess of that before placing it into the bowl of crumbs. Press over crumbs until totally coated then place onto your tray. Repeat with the rest. Spray them with oil spray then bake for 20 minutes. Remove, turn over carefully with tongs. Spray with more oil if they look dry and bake for another 10-15 minutes until cooked to your liking.

Cooks tip: don’t make this on the day you’ve mopped the kitchen floor – the crumbs do go everywhere, especially if the kids are helping.

Ready and waiting for you, in the VS shop.

Ready and waiting for you, in the VS shop.

PS. Did you see that my shop has had a rejig?

I’ve launched my new “10 quickbakes plus 10 sandwich spreads” e-book, which you can pick up for a mere $6.95. If you’ve never bought any of the e-books, check out my new bundles – there’s a complete pack with the deluxe multi-format meal planner or iPad users may prefer the special pack just for them – download the titles all straight to your device and read them in iBooks. Too easy! Visit the shop.

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