Fifteen Facts

Another challenge from Blog This: Be sure to click to check out the challenge. I copy and pasted it last week and I spent ages trying to fix the font and the colour of my links and it was seriously doing my head in. So I am not doing that again!

I am posting this now as I have had some trouble coming up with fifteen totally random facts about me. But I'll give it a go....please no judgements on what I tell you!

1. You all know I am a coeliac, I am also a vegetarian. I cannot stand the taste, smell, texture or feel of meat. However, I cook the stuff for my two boys as I think its important for them to have meat in their diet.

2. Strangly, I like the smell of BBQ's. Whether its onions, burgers, snags or fish. I know, I am strange.

3. I believe in the afterlife.

4. Hubby and I sponsor a little boy through World Vision. He has the exact birth date as my son.

5. I love saving money so much I hate paying full price for anything.

6. I envy American folks as they get coupons and so much free stuff in the States. I wish we did here.

7. I worked and lived in the Whitsundays when I was in my early 20's. It was seriously the best time of my life.

8. I have never been out of Australia.

9. Being a mum is what I was meant to do. Wish I could make money from it somehow.

10. I buy and read too many magazines.

11. I sneeze quietly. I cannot sneeze loud at all. People tell me not to hold sneezes in but I cannot help it!!

12. I love to cook but am not a foodie.

13. I hate events that revolve around food.

14. I wish someone would have thrown me a baby shower. :( I attempted it the first time but didn't have the strength and cancelled it. Never tried it this time around as being pregnant is exhausting. I know its not the done thing anymore but it would have been nice to be fussed upon for a little while.

15. I am kinda sad this is my last pregnancy. I love feeling bubs inside and seeing my bump grow. The anticipation of birth is exciting.

Wow I made it, never thought I could...

Dinner for 8

A challenge from Blog This:

The Dinner Party

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to plan a fabulous dinner party. You've been given a healthy budget, so don't scrimp!

Guest list - 8 people, dead or alive, real or ficticious.

The menu - will this be your very own masterchef moment, or is outsourcing more your style?

Is there a theme? What will be the entertainment for the evening? What will you wear? What will you talk about? Don't forget the wine!

So my fantasy dinner party... hmmm... this one has had me thinking all weekend. Who will I invite? What shall the food be? Will I cook? So many choices!

I have decided that as well as a dinner party, this will be a cooking lesson. Yep everyone attending gets to learn how to cook the dishes we are eating so they can learn how to make gluten free food and realise it is not that hard!

Firstly, my number one guest (besides hubby) will be Tobie Puttock. I think he is a fantastic chef. He thinks about us coeliac folk so much so that in his cookbooks he has a gluten free version of everything. So as well as attending, he gets to show us all how to cook the yummy dishes.

Next will have to be Ellen. Just because she makes me laugh and because I was born in Geelong, just like her wife, Portia. Oh alright, she can come too. Hopefully Ellen will come armed with tickets to her show as I would love to go to the States to see it one day.

Then to add more cooks to the broth, I would have to invite Rachael Ray and Nigella Lawson to get them to cook more for coeliacs! Actually Rachael does great recipes that are easy to convert, if only she knew that. Rachael can also come with tickets to her show, and her knives and cookbooks as they are virtually impossible to get over here.

Who else? Well the rest would be made of my mum and girlfriends so they can also learn how to cook gluten free.

So the menu, gosh this is a hard choice!

Well there has to be pasta there somewhere as Tobie makes his own gluten free pasta. I would love to know how to make good gluten free ravaoli, so maybe that for entree. With a vegie sauce as I am a vegetarian.

Then we will have homemade pizza. Yes I want a decent gluten free pizza dammit!!

For dessert... Lemon Meringue Pie.

And then HAS to be a cheese plate as I looovvveee cheeses. Oh and maybe a chocolate torte to have with coffee.

Drinks? Hmm... I am not a big wine with dishes matcher so I don't care what the wine is as long as it is decent and flowing! Coffee to end with.

I think this sounds like a fun dinner party, if I do say so myself and I am looking forward to it!

Menu Plan Monday - 29th June 2009

Well another week begins. I am 34 weeks pregnant, quite hard to believe really. I am not sure how long I can be bothered worrying about a menu plan to be honest! Next week hubby has the week off so I am really thinking of leaving everything to him, the planning, the shopping, the cooking.

This week is the first week of Victorian school holidays and we have something planned for every day this week - crazy! So another week of simple and easy meals.

This weeks menu plan:

Monday - Creamy Tuna and Basil Penne Pasta - I just use gluten free penne pasta for my part.

Tuesday - Vegetable Cottage Pie

Wednesday - Falafels for me and Chicken Rissoles for the boys (cheated and bought them from the butcher) serve in pita breads with various toppings, (sweet chilli mayonnaise for me!)

Thursday - Beef Vegetable Stew in slow cooker, with mashed spud. Indian Vegetable Curry for me.

Friday - Potato Frittata

Saturday - Homemade Pizza - carried over from last Saturday night as my parents came over and cooked :)

Sunday - Leftovers

Check out Org Junkie for more menu plans and please have a good week!

Meme Time

The lovely Katy at MamaKat tagged me for the latest meme that is making the rounds.

Here are the rules:

1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention & add one more question of your own.

2. Tag eight other people

What is your current obsessions?
Prams, prams, prams. Researching and sourcing the best pram for bubs and me. And food. Lots of food keeping me and bubs happy.

What are you wearing today?
Brownish maternity pants, tummy band and brown maternity top. Even though it is chilly, I am finding I don't need to wear as much thanks to bubs being on board.

What’s for dinner?
Dinner is finished with and we had yummy omelettes as I had a craving :) The best part was Little Man has never had one before and he ate the whole thing! I had tomato, onion, fetta cheese, sundried tomatoes and mushrooms in mine. Very very yummy. Thanks hubby for cooking!

What’s the last thing you bought?
Oh goodness. Little Man and I went on bit of a shopping spree today. He got new sneakers, gumboots, 3 jumpers and 3 tops. I got new jeans and top and a couple of pressies for other bubs being born and a 1 year old birthday we are going to in a couple of weeks. Everywhere is on sale at the moment and its great!

What are you listening to right now?
The dog snoring right beside me, he is sleeping on the floor at my feet. And hubby watching Fox Sports. I have no idea what is on.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Brisbane to catch up with my gorgeous friend :)

Which language do you want to learn?
I have learnt Italian, French and Japanese so polishing those up would be good. I would also love to learn sign language.

What do you love most about where you currently live?
The fact that it is our very first home and we built it so its new to us only :) Also the location is great, walking distance to shops and school and friends and parks.

What is your favorite colour?
Green

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
My Peter Alexander pj's. I have 3 pairs and just love them so much. They still fit me even now - so cool!

Describe your personal style?
Don't really have one, casual I guess

If you had $300 now, what would you spend it on?
Rocking/Gliding chair for the baby's room

What are you going to do after this?
Raid the pantry

What are your favorite films?
Pride and Prejuidice (BBC version), Notting Hill and Bridget Jones' Diary

Your favourite books?
Chick lit at the moment as they are easy to read. I do like Crime/Thriller ones too every now and then.

Do you collect anything?
Magazines. It is a bad bad habit

What makes you follow a blog?
If I know them personally or if I can idenitfy with them

Do you like to comment on blogs or just lurk?
Depends on the time factor, sometimes I comment

Whats one thing you dream of doing?
Visiting the States

What is your biggest regret?
Working for a year while Little Man was 2

What is your favourite thing to do on a rainy day?
Cook brownie and cookies

Do you have a tattoo?
Yes

You have 1 minute before you die, what do you say to your loved one/s?

Thank you for loving me

What is the one thing you like to do for yourself each day?
Read, usually before bed

I won't be tagging anyone, I think we have all been tagged? If not and you wish to participate then please consider yourself tagged!

Favourite Holiday

This would have to be my honeymoon. It was without a doubt what a holiday is meant to be; relaxing, resting and doing nothing.

Hubby and I basically did our wedding ourselves. Invitations, catering, booze, decorations, flower arranging, music, we did it all ourselves with a little help from family and friends. This was because we didn't have a huge amount to spend on a wedding and what we wanted was simple and easy and you cannot really have simple and easy without it costing a fortune!

I am so glad that we decided to go on a honeymoon (were thinking of just spending the honeymoon budget on the wedding!) and where we decided to go was heaven.

I won't keep you in suspense any longer. We went to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and stayed at the Hyatt Coolum Resort. On my goodness, it really is a gorgeous place. Spectacular. The weather was perfect (it was April) and it wasn't busy and we got a double room upgrade!!

It was a special week where we didn't need to be anywhere at any particular time, we could sit by the pool all day if we wanted (and we did!). No phones, noone bothering us. It was bliss. We treasured every moment as we knew as soon as we got into married life we would not get the chance again.

Really truly special.

Now this post is meant to be a part of Challenge 5 over at Blog This: but silly billy pregnant lady here got her times mixed up :( and realised they had to be up by 7.30pm not 8.30pm :( Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Menu Plan Monday - 22nd June 2009

Another Monday, another week and another Menu Plan. And countdown to bubs arrival. I am 33 weeks now - eek!

Not as a busy week as last week thankfully, I might get onto tackling that baby's room.

Here is the menu plan:

Monday - Mushroom Risotto - from 4 Ingredients

Tuesday - Meat Tacos for the boys and Bean Taco's for me.

Wednesday - Omelette and homemade wedges

Thursday - Curried Tuna Slice and Salad

Friday - Salsa Chicken in the Slow Cooker for the boys and I will probably have Lentil Dahl

Saturday - Homemade Pizza


Sunday - Leftovers

Check out Org Junkie for more menu plan ideas.

Have a great week!

Random Acts of Kindness

I love the concept of Random Acts of Kindness - a small simple gesture that will bring pleasure to someone else's life. What a great feeling that is. What is nice also is when someone does that to you. How special do you feel? I feel wonderful!!

A dear friend of mine recently did something wonderful for me. As you all know, I am pregnant, currently 32 weeks. My new little man is going to be a cloth baby. I just love the concept of Modern Cloth Nappies not because they are cute but because they'll save me money, they'll help the environment and its a great way for mums to make money at home. They are easy to do... well I won't go on and on about them - this is all about my friend after all!

I had been buying some gently used cloth nappies off other mums to save me even more money and I was telling her about this. Well you know what she does? She sends me her entire collection that she had, as she isn't needing her cloth nappies anymore, for free! She doesn't want any payment for them or any postage as we live far apart from each other. She could have made $$ off these wonderful nappies but she chose to send them to me.

Thank you darling girl. I appreciate it so much and my new little man will love his new nappies. Thank you, thank you, thank you! xx

This post is part of Challenge Four over at Blog This:

Menu Plan Monday - 15th June 2009

Busy week ahead! It is all happening, so sticking to the menu plan may not happen but at least I know I have a plan.

A close friend has just had a baby, we are off to visit them tonight in hospital, another friend is due to have hers Wednesday. She is interstate but I have to organise posting a present to her. My brother, brother-in-law and nephew all have birthdays this week and I am looking after another girlfriends son for the day Thursday. Phew! I am exhausted just thinking about it all.

Monday - Salmon and Potato Cakes

Tuesday - Spaghetti with Sundried Tomato Sauce - from SuperFoodIdeas Magazine, October 08.

Wednesday - Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Nacho Spuds

Saturday - Tuna Patties with Homemade Potato Wedges

Sunday - Homemade Pizza

Check out Org Junkie for lots more menu plans.

Have a great week!

Favourite Photo

I have been tagged by fatmumslim to share my favourite photo. Here is her blurb from her post:

It's really simple. I love how every photo tells a story. Some short stories, some long tales. I want to know what is your favourite photo of yourself. Everyone has one. The photo they look at and smile. It reminds them of something, some time, some place. A moment in time.

So share the photo, share the story and then tag three other people. I want to see photos and stories all around the blogosphere.


Here is my favourite photo that always make me smile. It was taken February 2005, 4 days before Little Man was born.

I wasn't even aware that hubby took this photo.. he caught me gazing into the bassinett in the baby's nursery, full of emotion, wonder and nervous excitement that all first time mums feel. 4 days later the most amazing thing happened to us as parents and a couple, our beautiful boy was born and our lives changed forever - for the best!

Now I am meant to tag 3 more people, seeing as Liss from Frills in the Hills also tagged me, I am still only tagging 3. Please feel free to do this though if you so wish to!

I tag:

'H' is for...
Mother Me
Planning with Kids

The Little Things

Its The Little Things in life that make me happy....hope you enjoy my photos :)











This is Challenge 3 from Blog This: as written on the blog:

Challenge 3:

Photographic Challenge - "It's the little things".

Simple, everyday things which make your life a pleasure.
Limit of 10 images...no minimum. You don't have to be a fabulous photographer, just have fun.
No words required, let your photos tell the story...

Are you an Aussie blogger? Yes? Have you joined Blog This yet? No? Why not?! Off you go!