From My Kitchen - Sunday 17th June

Well I've been a bit slack lately, both with blogging and with meal planning. As I've said many times before, juggling study with full time work is pretty time consuming, and I'm glad to say that I've only got four weeks left until I finish work and become a full time student again. While this is a scary jump for us, I am looking forward to having less to fit in in a day! For at least the rest of this year, I will end up with far more time to bake, sew, garden and generally potter around home. The thought of being able to spend the rest of this cold, cold winter snuggled up at home, and not having to drive an hour to work each day is quite appealing! I'll also end up with much more time to blog about the things I am doing, so this space will become much more loved, I hope! I also look forward to a post about some of the delicious breakfasts we have been having lately, after I made an effort to hunt out some new, savory ideas for the cold winter mornings.

In the meantime, here is the next week's worth of eats:

Dinner
Sunday - Braised leeks with puy lentils and sourdough crumbs
Monday - Organic chicken, pear, kale and blue cheese salad with toasted nuts and honey dressing
Tuesday - Stuffed gem squashes with roasted Brussels sprouts
Wednesday - Organic Moroccan chicken with lemon and olives on brown rice
Thursday - Spicy coconut noodle soup

To Make 
- muesli
- chilli beans for breakfast
- brown rice for breakfast
- scones for lunches

To Do
- soak beans and rice
- soak lentils
- sourdough loaf

From My Kitchen - Sunday 20th May

I actually wrote this on Sunday and then forgot to post it! Duh. I was sick last week so battled through some essential work things for a while and then spent a few days chilling out with my knitting, my animals and some River Cottage repeats. It was just what I needed! I'm feeling much better now and hopefully able to troop through the last 6 weeks of term with no further issues. After that, I will be a free agent, work wise. I officially have 8 more weeks of employment, and then I will be a student again! Scary, but exciting! Hopefully once I have finished work and only have one major thing on my plate, I will have more time to dedicate to this space, too :)

Dinner:
Sunday - handmade pasta with to-die-for tomato sauce, homemade garlic bread and green salad
Monday - vegetarian bean tacos with a choice of fillings
Tuesday - greens soup (silverbeet, kale, cabbage, leeks, parsley and potato) with multigrain sourdough
Wednesday - sausages, homemade wedges, and beetroot and quinoa salad
Thursday - roasted corn pudding in gem squashes with kale salad

To Do:
- make bread and pasta dough
- make sourdough
- soak beans for tacos
- soak quinoa
- find some new breakfast ideas!

From My Kitchen - Sunday 6th May

Opps, I'm a bit late this week. This will be more like 'what I've eaten', as opposed to 'what I plan to eat'. I still like to jot it down though, for future reference, as I come here when I am stuck for ideas! It is getting much colder here and I am loving having the fire going at night and pouring over steaming hot bowls of Autumn/Winter goodness. Talk around the table tells me it is slow cooker season, and people are dusting them off all over the show! I haven't got mine out yet, but it definitely won't be far away! It's cold and grey today and I'm craving soup, so I think pumpkin soup and fresh bread will be on the menu tonight, after a stretchy delightful yoga class, to iron out the kinks.

Here's the rest of the week's food:

Dinner:
Sunday - slow-roasted lamb forequarter with roast vege mix (pumpkin, parsnip and potato) and sauteed red cabbage
Monday - sausage, roast vege and feta salad
Tuesday - roast pumpkin wedges with barley salad (barley, kale, red onion, garlic and lemon dressing)
Wednesday - curried pumpkin soup with fresh wholegrain rolls
Thursday - a Spanish recipe sent to me by my mother-in-law called 'moors and christians', using black beans, rice and hard boiled eggs!

To Do:
- soak barley
- make rolls
- soak black beans and rice
- make muesli

From My Kitchen - Sunday 29th April

What an exciting weekend I've had! My 12,000 word research proposal is HANDED IN; Paddy has built me the first of our 6 raised garden beds and I have planted veges in it (kale, rainbow beet, spinach and cos lettuce); we have planted the first two trees (peach and cherry) in our miniature orchard; and I made a delicious batch of croissants for breakfast this morning. Bliss! I have also spent lots of time with lovely friends too. What more could a girl want in a weekend!

This week will see further planting of trees (nectarine and apricot), along with other flowery and herby plants; a birthday dinner for my brother; and the beginning of the next phase of my PhD, the Ethics proposal.

Here's the menu:

Dinner
Sunday - homemade free-range pork burgers with homemade buns and a variety of fillings
Monday - chickpea and pumpkin tajine and steamed kale with almonds
Tuesday - okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza) with roasted brocolli
Wednesday - vegetarian burritos
Thursday - pizza at my brother's house for his birthday

To Do
- soak the chickpeas
- buy a birthday present
- make wholegrain sourdough
- make muesli

From My Kitchen - Sunday 22nd April

A busy week at the computer, working away to get my proposal done. It will be handed in on Wednesday for a final check-over, and then I move onto Ethics approval for my project. It is never ending! Luckily, I only have one more school term left of juggling work and study, as I am finishing up at my job in July. A big step for us, especially financially, but for the best really as I need to dedicate myself entirely to my PhD. I've managed well over the past six months, but the stress of it all is turning me into a not very nice person, and I really don't want that to happen!

Anyway, enough about me, here's dinner for the week:

Dinner
Sunday - chorizo and baked bean soup with homemade ciabatta
Monday - Jerusalem artichoke soup with green salad
Tuesday - baked kumara with spiced millet and greens
Wednesday - roast beetroot and kale salad with quinoa
Thursday - poached eggs over rice (sans tofu) with roast pumpkin wedges

To Do
- wholegrain sourdough
- muesli
- soak oats for porridge (it's porridge season again!) 
- soak brown rice for salad

From My Kitchen - Sunday 15th April

It will be a busy few weeks for me as I work to get my PhD research proposal and Ethics application handed in. Balancing study with a full-time job is hard work and doesn't leave much time for play! That said, I have a Tupperware party on Tuesday to look forward to, as well as a session next Sunday to 'get my colours done', as well as a complete wardrobe sort! Hopefully this means that the mountains of clothes I don't wear will either be revived or moved on, and my shopping in the future will have some direction. I'm quite excited!

Most of my recipes this week are from this amazing site. I love that you can search by season, ingredient, or type of recipe. Check it out for some amazing whole food inspiration!

Here's the menu for this week:

Dinner
Sunday - ginger soba noodles with roasted garlic butter zucchini rounds (ok, it's basically a marrow...)
Monday - something from Paddy's brain
Tuesday - sushi bowl with organic chicken, avocado, brown rice and spring onions
Wednesday - red lentil soup with lemon and kale with wholemeal chapatis
Thursday -  lemony chickpea stirfry (minus the tofu)

To Do
- soak brown rice
- soak chickpeas
- make chapati dough
- make wholegrain sourdough

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

This is not so much of a recipe as it is a 'here are some things to put in a bowl together'. Paddy and I have been craving Vietnamese food since we went to a delicious, cheap and cheerful restaurant for tea a few weeks ago, and a lovely friend of mine has just gotten back from Vietnam. So jealous!

The beautiful bowl is from my mother-in-law. Isn't it gorgeous!

I soaked some dried mushrooms for a dish last weekend and my friend suggested keeping the soaking water to make soup out of. I decided to try it as the poaching liquid for the chicken for this salad instead. I threw in a cinnamon stick, some star anise, ginger root and galangal, and it worked a treat! You could definitely mix and match the ingredients to suit what is in your fridge, but the dressing is a must have!

Vietnamese Chicken Salad
- 2 organic chicken thighs, poached in stock or water with star anise, cinnamon and ginger and shreaded when cool
- curly kale (in leiu of red cabbage, which I had run out of)
- diced carrot
- diced cucumber
- diced red capsicum
- fresh corn, cut off the cob
- 1 finely diced medium red chilli
- a generous handful of cripsy noodles
- fresh coriander to taste
- fresh mint (I used Vietnamese mint) to taste

Dressing
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp each lime and lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Mix sauce ingredients together and set aside. Place all ingredients except crispy noodles in a bowl, dress generously and toss. Add the noodles just before serving. Enjoy!