family | Vegie Smugglers

Posts tagged family

The best things in life are ‘b’

August 17, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News · Tagged craft, educational, family

Big boy bravely betters brain...bravo!

With a move across town, I’m full-time mummying for the rest of the year until Mr M&P heads off to school. He’s a good little thing and I’m a bit of a sucker for him, so it’s a glorious chance to make the most of these last few months before he becomes a big cool boy who says things like ‘whatever’ and banishes me to the school gate (with no public affection). At the moment I’m allowed to cuddle him and smother him in kisses whenever I want and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

So with no formal care or school readiness program, I’m trying to pick up the teaching mantle a little and find a bit of time most days to do a bit of basic learning. A while back I started on the alphabet, and today I’m starting to work a bit more on details. Perhaps you’d like to too – so attached are sheets A-F with a bit of colouring-in and some letters to trace.

We’re a bit alphabet obsessed in our house – each of us with our own set of favourite letters. I’m a big fan of ‘c’, with its cakes, cookies, cuddles and chocolate. My best friend is a staunch supporter of ‘b’ – boobs, beer, bums, bacon and bonfires. Mr Meat & Potatoes agrees with dad and thinks ‘bumhead’ is the funniest word ever. Further proving the ‘b’ point are bananas, boys, buses, batman and BANG! Which leads us off into onomatopoeia territory (boing, boom, bonk, buzz, beep). But that’s a whole other post.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks and I’ll churn out the rest of the alphabet too.

Bookworm (and the need for school readers by Stephenie Meyer)

August 3, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents · Tagged craft, family, parenting

My kids snuggled up in my bed reading.... awwwwww

Miss Fruitarian has turned into a voracious reader. While she knew her letters in kindy, reading just pottered along at an average pace. But then towards the end of last year something just snapped into place. Since then it’s been an astonishing trajectory – helped along by the fact that she’s a nosy little thing and there’s nothing better than knowing what the road signs say, what mummy is writing in her emails and how to compile lists, lists and a few more lists laying out details for an upcoming 7th birthday party.

I’d like to take full credit, but can’t. It’s mostly her doing.

I’ve been a bit sporadic with library visits but have done well with daily bedtime stories and I have done my best to sneak off into my bed with a book on as many Sunday afternoons as possible (just trying to set a good example).

Scared by the wrath of Miss F’s teaching staff, I have however, been vigilant with the daily school readers. And BOY, aren’t THEY FUN… Yawn… I truly believe that if they were more interesting than “Jenny’s wobbly tooth” and “Plastics”, we would have much more active parent involvement. At the end of a busy day, the last thing we want to do is sit and hear a stilted rendition of “A present for dad”, complete with pictures of high-panted families from the early 80s.

If only the state governments would all pitch together and commission a series of readers by Stephenie Meyer or Jackie Collins. Wouldn’t that be great? Tales of Lucky Santangelo as a schoolgirl, scheming with baby werewolves who fight 5 year old vampires.

Anyway, I digress. Did you know that the number of books you have in your home is a huge factor in your child’s literacy levels? Really interesting article here.

So while my enthusiasm for reading painfully dull school readers may be low, I totally outdo the books-in-the-home quota. Moving house has made me realize just how many of the heavy, dusty things I own. Hundreds. Sure, they may be mainly how to draw manga ‘bishouju’ and 50 ways with salmon, but the research doesn’t seem too fussed on subject matter. I guess it’s a general indication of the importance placed on learning.

The research states, “A child whose family has 25 books will, on average, complete two more years of school than a child whose family is sadly book-less.” Interesting to ponder.

And encourage them along with this bit of craft. There’s three designs of bookmarks to have fun with.

A bookmark craftsheet – click to download

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And we’re off! (how FUN is moving house…)

July 23, 2011 · Filed under News · Tagged family

Thanks parquetry floors, it’s been fun

And there you have it, I’ve just finished packing four – yes that’s right – FOUR, boxes. We’re moving house you see, so now I only have about… ummm… well I actually know for sure, since the lovely man came and dropped off all the boxes, I now have just 86 boxes to go.

Being a bit of a planner, I’m starting in a full two weeks early. Actually I’m being spurred on my the horrific memories of my last house move, which was with a 3-year-old and a baby, when I found myself with all these cupboards full of crap I’d forgotten about, screaming children and just hours until the movers were due. It was stressful.

This time I’ve managed to combine the stress of moving with the stress of buying and selling real estate. Apparently it doesn’t matter which side of the real estate deal you’re on, it’s always shit. Could have something to do with trying to buy in a sellers market and now selling in a buyers market. Or so my agent says.

Whichever way, it’s about this time in a move that I start to question capitalism, the western habits of acquiring so much stuff and humanity’s instincts of restlessness and the push to improve your lot beyond what your true boundaries probably are. Show me a person with a new mortgage, and I’ll show you a person who has just reached a bit further than they should of and has borrowed just a fraction more than is comfortable. But I suppose it’s that drive for greener pastures that makes life interesting, although not very zen.

Of course I don’t just get to move the family but my business as well. Vegie Smugglers will be continuing on fairly normally, with just a few days of disruption during the middle of August. Stay tuned to Facebook for more.

In the meantime, I’ve written up a few recipe & craft posts for your reading pleasure over the next few weeks. Starting tomorrow with a gorgeously delicious slow-cook chilli (with no chilli) recipe. Wish me luck!

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I am not your slave (well, actually… maybe I am)

June 26, 2011 · Filed under News · Tagged family, lunchbox, parenting, recipe

Sunday night and we’ve just been through the weekly children’s hairwash, total body scrub and nail clip. As I crouched down to attend to child’s toenails, child farted at my face level. Yes, my child farted in my face. And laughed.

At least it wasn’t vomit. I’ve long held the theory that mums are the ONLY people we can vomit on. Girlfriends will hold back our hair and husbands will run and fetch the bucket, but the only person who will stoically be coated in our insides are our mothers.

Apparently we ARE all slaves to our children. From the second they slide out and latch on, we are immersed in a kind of servitude to our offspring that I never thought possible.

Child farts in my face. No big deal. At least it didn’t have follow through, like in the early days. I guess we are making progress.

—————–

Stay tuned, later this week I’ll have the Term 3 lunchbox planner on sale. It’s a BARGAIN at $4.95 for a 25 page e-book. There’s an easy, seasonal recipe each week and a daily guide to get you out of the lunchbox doldrums. You can download a sample here….

More details later.

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(More) reasons why I will never be mother of the year

June 16, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News · Tagged craft, family, parenting

Between drop off one and drop off two this morning, I found myself in traffic being cut-off. I mean, REALLY, cut off. The type of cut-off where someone has their foot flat to the floor accelerating stripping you of any opportunity to merge, even though your lane is running out and they are only going to achieve the golden prize of being ONE CAR AHEAD OF YOU.

This frustrated me.

I may have exclaimed an unkind phrase and made some kind of hand gesture to show my displeasure.

Luckily for me, an eagle-eyed Miss Fruitarian was in the car, able to take it all in and no doubt report it all back to a saintly daddy at bedtime.

Afterwards (of course) I felt remorse at yet another incident, which proves what a rubbish mother I am. There are many incidents. The time I slammed the car door shut onto Miss F’s fingers. When I accidently fed her Arrabiata sauce, forgetting in my sleep deprived state that it contains CHILLI. The happy memory of exposing Mr Meat & Potatoes to porn… ahhh the list goes on.

At the end of the day I know that I am just regular mother, doing her best, getting it right most of the time and wrong just often enough to keep a wave of guilt nearby. Over on Facebook the other day, Katrina posted “I like anything that makes parenting easier…it’s the toughest job on earth!”

I couldn’t agree more. It IS tough and we do our best. I remind myself that as the primary caregiver, I have way more chances to make all of the parenting mistakes. I’m sure if my best-friend was in charge of drop-offs, clean uniforms and school notes that he’d show a similar level of ineptitude as me.

But the guilt remains. So to appease it, here’s a quick alphabet tracing sheet to download and help your kiddlies with. It may just help restore some semblance of perfection to your mothering day.

Don't worry, the actual download is perfectly alphabetical.

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Cakes, jams, woodchopping, cats and carnies

April 19, 2011 · Filed under News · Tagged family, kids, parenting

After years spent working on Australian magazines, I know that Rule One is to avoid offending non-Sydney-based readers by referencing Sydney.

Everyone outside of Sydney, hates Sydney. And with good reason, Sydney-siders are greedy, selfish, real-estate obsessed snobs. It is a city of wankers, a superficial place with little other than the harbour to recommend it. Although I must say that often you’ll find the driver who just cut you off and flicked the bird could easily morph into the delightful person who chats away with you in the Post Office queue. I suppose when forced together like this, perfectly lovely people survive with hackles up and their rude faces on.

Unfortunately I was born here and all of my family are here – which inhibits my natural desire to flee the congested, aggressive, unaffordable streets for some lovely smaller town where I might be able to raise my children with a yard devoid of overhanging balconies and police visiting to check how the neighbourhood dealer is faring.

So whilst I seem stuck here with a massive mortgage and medium density housing, I do like to try and soften the blow by enjoying the benefits of my home town when they occur. And really, they come no better than the Sydney Easter Show, which is bigger than Ben Hur and where the Vegie Smuggling family found ourselves on the weekend.

For those of you interstaters who’ve never been, stick with me, I’ll give you a guided tour…

Start slowly with a ferris wheel ride to see the scene and plan your route.

First stop- of course- the crochet (think I might enter next year...)

...a few doilies...

...and knitted clowns and carnies...

...prizewinning preserves (check out he passionfruit curd...

...lamingtons (plus sponges and insipid marble cakes)...

...our favourite stop - the regional districts fruit displays

...then pacify the kids with a few rides...

...oohhh and aaah over the cake display...

...including truly astonishing and gorgeous wedding cakes...

...and a novelty cake version of 'The last supper'...

...and one of suckling pigs...

...eat hot chips and fairy floss for lunch...

...then watch fast motorbikes doing cool boy stuff...

...and a bloke in a hat with a guitar in a ute singing about rodeos...

...and cats being judged on appearance (how Sydney).

Be freaked out by one of those scary, fluffy chickens...

...and the under 21s woodchop final (blades + feet = nervewracking).

A few more rides (we did more exciting one too)...

And a quick $80 on showbags that will be eaten or broken by tomorrow.

And there you have it. $300 spent wisely to get jostled by crowds, sore feet, a tummy upset and a few broken bits of plastic… aaaahhhh Sydney, how I love you.

We’ll be back next year.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….

December 1, 2010 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News · Tagged celebrations, Christmas, craft, family, ideas

a pattern for a paper snowflake to make with your kids

Nothing says 'Aussie Christmas' as much as a bit of fake snow

Ok, it’s officially December. Being born in late November, I refuse to do anything with tinsel or Bing Crosby until after my celebration of me, but that was last week and I’ve got no more excuses to keep stalling. Time to breathe deeply and tackle the whole enormous festive task.

When do the Christmas negotiations begin at your place? For us, it’s somewhere around June that the first hints start being dropped and the tentative seasonal foreplay begins. Will we lunch here, or travel to there, “Do you think you’ll be heading our way this year?”, “How about you come to us?”, “Last year you did…” You get the idea. Trying to make everyone happy and yet somehow leaving everyone vaguely cranky with you. By mid-October plans are firming and this year we’re biting the bullet and acknowledging that after a couple of years off, we’ll be spending a nice big chunk of Christmas day on the freeway between cities so that we can fulfill all of our family commitments.

At least it gets me out of cooking the turkey. So all that’s left on my list of things to do is… ummmm… everything, actually. Possibly you are in the same boat as me? So to get things started and ease a bit of Christmas cheer into your life, here’s a paper snowflake to make. Just print it (onto coloured paper if you have some), fold on the dotted lines and cut on the solid ones. And voila! Straight to top of the class at The Northpole-Elf-Craft-Academy.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

And as another Christmas sweetener, for the next few days I’m offering a giftwrap service when you buy a copy of the Vegie Smugglers cookbook. Just write ‘giftwrap’ in the special instructions when you order and I’ll deliver it to you in a lovely bright giftwrap, complete with ribbon…

What the kids eat in… China

November 9, 2010 · Filed under All recipes, Chicken, Food experiences, What the kids eat in... · Tagged chicken, Chinese, cooking techniques, dinner, family, feeding the family, mealtime, vegetables, vegies

Actually, I suspect more folks outside of China might actually eat this dish. But let’s not worry about pesky facts and just enjoy this delicious messy mass of tasty goodness. I did try to research the origins, but perhaps it’s one of those ‘from everywhere’ dishes with no particular source, although I did see claims of origin from Thai to Cantonese to the good ol’ USA. One cute internet fact (and maybe even true) is that the name translates as ‘lettuce delights’, which sounds so lovely!

I got thinking about this dish after my 14-year-old niece whipped up a version at a recent family get-together. At 14 I could melt cheese onto corn chips in the microwave, she can whip up a meal for 12 people. Very impressive stuff. The kids LOVED having her cook for them and ate up every little morsel. So I’m naming this dish in her honour.

Apparently teenagers aren’t necessarily too fussed on vegies either, so I’ve built on her recipe quite a bit, smuggling in a stack load more vegies. Use iceberg lettuce to wrap the mixture up as tightly as possible. The result is hot/cold/crunchy and absolutely delicious. Just keep a washer handy and lettuce delight indeed…

Lettuce delights for your munching pleasure

Sarah’s sang choy bao

Sauce
2 tbsp shao hsing wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn flour

Lettuce leaves (iceberg or cos both work well)
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 onion, finely diced
500g chicken mince
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
4 green onions, finely sliced
225g tin water chestnuts, drained, finely diced
1 cup mushrooms, finely diced
1 carrot, peeled, grated
125g can corn kernels

Combine all of the sauce ingredients together and set aside. Carefully remove whole lettuce leaves, wash and drain on clean tea towels.

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium/high heat. Add the onion and stirfry for 3-4 minutes until translucent and turning golden.

Add the chicken mince and stirfry until it changes from pink to white. Break up lumps as you go to ensure there are no hidden raw bits.

Add the garlic, ginger, green onions, water chestnuts, mushrooms, carrot and corn. Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until the green onions are tender and the mushrooms are nice and soft. Pour the sauce over the top and stir-fry for another minute or two until everything is piping hot and cooked thoroughly. (NOTE: if you are making this to reheat later, leave everything slightly undercooked)

Spoon -1 cup quantities of mixture into the lettuce leaves, wrap up carefully and enjoy!

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Lunchbox lethargy and a good schoolyard chat

November 2, 2010 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, News, Sweets & treats, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged family, feeding the family, ideas, lunchbox, parenting, recipe, vegetables

I’m back into the groove of term 4 and the other morning I found myself in the schoolyard way past bell-time, gas-bagging away with my new collection of mum friends. None of us are shy about a chat, we talk kids, schools, educations, housing, ponder why our daughters are all such chatterboxes and we chat chat chat. We see the irony.

Conversation got onto the dreariness of our daily lunchbox scenarios – even I had to admit that my sandwich repetoire is getting a little stale. I’d started the year well, but now mostly opt for cheese, but fancy it up with chutney, mustard or avocado. There are the usual dried fruit options, the odd muesli bar and fruit, fruit and more fruit.

Soggy sandwiches are a major problem in our hot Australian conditions, even with the coolie brick. And then there’s the time factor and the fact that the lunchbox usually gets thrown together in less than 5 minutes.

So what can we do to break the dreariness?

Try and find 20 minutes at the beginning of the week to mix up or bake something interesting that you can dig into for the rest of the week. Try savoury muffins, salmon pikelets, beetroot dip (there’s a good recipe in the Vegie Smugglers cookbook), poach a chicken breast or just chop a batch of carrots and cucumber into interesting shapes.

Have a go at this home made muesli slice. It’s really quick and easy to make and you can modify it to suit the tastebuds of your family.

***Since I first posted this, I’ve gone on to create The Complete Lunchbox Planner, with 40 weeks of seasonal recipes to keep you inspired throughout the year.

Made by mum - not Uncle Toby

Home made muesli bars

Butter, for greasing
2½ cups rolled oats
½ cup desiccated (or shredded) coconut
1 cup Sultana Bran
½ cup All Bran
1½ cups dried fruit (I use chopped prunes, chopped apple and sultanas)
125g unsalted butter
¼ cup grapeseed oil
¼ cup honey
2 eggs, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a lamingon tin with baking paper, allowing overhang on each of the long sides.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the fruit and mix through well.
Place the butter, oil and honey in a small saucepan over low heat. Melt gently till the butter just melts and mix together. Add to the dry ingredients. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Press firmly into the pan (roll a glass over to apply even pressure) and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden. Leave in the pan to cool and refrigerate until set and firm before slicing into squares.

MAKES 15 SQUARES

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Perfection, for one minute only

October 27, 2010 · Filed under News · Tagged family, parenting

Parenting bliss, for a fleeting moment

In our house at the moment, the tantrums are over. Mr Meat & Potatoes has reached that magical age where logic prevails and his vocabulary is sufficient to render tantrums a bit useless. He’ll still have a go, the face screws up and a wail begins, but then for a split second he gets eye contact with me, sees my cross face and realises that there’s just not really any point. He’ll sigh dramatically, storm off telling me that “I’m not your mummy” and that’ll be it.

After 4 years of living with toddlers, it’s a strange revelation to be coming out the other side.

I ask the kids to take their discarded clothes to the laundry – and they do. I warn them to take little bites because something is hot – and they do. I scream at them to stop fighting – and they don’t… I guess we’ve still got a way to go.

Yesterday as they ran off to the daycare entrance together – Miss Fruitarian in her school uniform that now vaguely fits and Mr M&P with his own backpack full of grown up stuff like a spare pare of undies and a blankie – I was struck by this lovely moment of perfection. The sky was blue, the day warm and my lovely little children were giggling and running just for the sake of it, because it feels good. They yelled, “race you mum” and then at the gate they were triumphant but softened the blow of my poor performance with “don’t worry mum, you’re lucky last”.

These perfect moments are always just a flash throughout a mundane day. They’ve happened throughout their childhoods, but are occurring now with more frequency. Perhaps pushed forth by their impending change into proper grown-up children. I’m so aware of the daily little events that are all about to disappear. The little hands covered in baby fat, that still curl up around my neck when I pick them up. The clumsy running styles, the little nudie runs at bathtime and my pathological need to squeeze their little bums whenever they’re presented to me (and them letting me do it). Their enjoyment of being with me, the way they like me to hold their hands the whole way to their destination. How I’m supposed to stay in the playground to wave goodbye. Their pride at abstract scribbles and folded bits of paper. At the moment, it’s all PERFECT.

Which means of course, that any day now I’m going to wake up and find that it’s all in the past. They’ll have suddenly made the leap to the next level and I’ll no longer have a 6 and 3 year old (and I’ll no longer be 37). Will I grieve it? Hopefully it’ll just be replaced with another stage of enjoyment. And just for today, I have one more chance to embrace my inner-Buddhist, and live life wholly in the moment, enjoying the perfection surrounding me.