Our new chooks

We are still relatively new to chook keeping (we got our first little flock not long after Miss 2 was born), but it is one of those "frugal" things I cannot recommend enough. We had a sad time about a month ago, where our dogs suddenly attacked and killed our 2 girls, Nugget and Icecream. We've since done some re-planning on our chicken set-up, and have decided our new girls won't have as much free-ranging time as the other two did, but they still have plenty of room in the safety of their coop and pen to safely forage about, peck at grass and make us some delicious eggs and compost for our garden! 

Introducing Elsa (white), Anna (black) and Ariel (brown). I will get some better photos, but this one was snapped the afternoon we bought them home.

I missed having chooks about when our old girls were suddenly gone. They really bring something extra to our garden. The kids adore them, and they are a source of endless entertainment. I find myself sitting watching them and talking to them.

Aside from thier physical presence in our lives, I really missed their eggs, especially when I realised to buy a dozen "free-range" eggs in a major supermarket chain in Australia is now about $6. I never really rationed eggs before, but since the price had jumped up so much in the past 2 years, I found myself almost second-guessing using them. Also, I now know I've become one of those people who cry, "They taste so much better fresh!".

Our first two new-chooks' eggs. We used to have just Isa Browns, and they both laid quite large eggs. Our new girls are 1 Isa and 2 leghorn bantams, whose eggs seem teeny by comparison! I'm not sure if I'll subsequently need to use more in baking, I guess we will see :) 

I wasn't sure how we would go keeping chickens. I worried they would take too much time. I would guess they need perhaps 5 minutes of time a day if we are just doing bare-minimum caring, but as we consider them sort-of pets and we like them, I take my time with them.

I was shocked in the month of being chickenless how much extra food wastage we had. Chooks eat so many more kinds of food scraps than I ever imagined before owning them.

I am so glad we have our new girls. I think I can officially say I'm a chicken-keeper-convert!

Baking Scrolls

I started this recipe post a few weeks ago - the scrolls featured are now pretty much finished! I've been jotting down stuff to blog about but have been a bit busy actually doing stuff rather than blogging about it, but there are plenty of more posts to come ;)

Vegemite scroll dough all rolled up ready to be sliced

I had a big baking day yesterday, and filled a big container with 2 kinds of savoury scrolls and a big batch of Banana and Weetbix muffins (previously posted) to have some frozen snacks for lunch boxes on hand. I'm lucky in that my kids do generally eat fruit or carrot sticks without much fuss, but I am still trying to sneak in goodness where I can, so this time I added some pumpkin seeds in the muffins, and no one has even noticed! Miss Almost 6 is fussy with food, so if I find something she likes that isn't chips or chicken nuggets, I get excited.

A friend posted on Facebook that she was baking cheese and Vegemite scrolls and some pear muffins for her kids. INSPIRATION! Why hadn't I thought of baking savoury scrolls? My fusspot loves stuff like that from Bakers Delight, so I figured making them myself was worth a go, so she can have them and feel like it's a treat without it costing me. Success! Miss Almost 6 gobbled up four scrolls (only about a scone-size) for afternoon tea, and has asked for me to make more when these ones are done!

This is the base-recipe I used, though I doubled it and  I made a batch with just Vegemite (Miss Almost 6 requested no cheese with them) and a batch of bacon and cheese too.

Scrolls:

2 cups of Self Raising flour
A pinch of salt
85 grams of unsalted butter
2/3 cup of milk (though I added more when kneading it, as it was too floury)

Method: Mix flour and salt. Rub butter in with fingertips. Mix in the milk until dough forms. Knead on floured bench until all the flour is worked in (I had to add a little more milk as mine wasn't sticking together. You don't want it wet, just like play dough). Roll the dough out to a thickeness of 1cm, it should make a good 30cm circle. Top with whatever combination you like (bacon and cheese; cheese and sweet chilli sauce; Vegemite and cheese; tomato paste, ham and cheese), and roll dough into a log. Slice into approx 2cm slices and bake on a lined pizza tray. I glaze mine with milk, and bake for 12-14 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius.

Recipe notes: A single batch of these made 12 or 13 scrolls. I don't really do the sums on this sort of recipe, but given the most expensive ingredient would be the bacon, and the rest are pretty much pantry staples, I class these as pretty cheap!

All baked and cooling down

Dough rolled, cooked bacon pieces and grated cheese sprinkled

Bacon and cheeses all ready for the oven

Having  tub full of home-baked snacks on hand makes me feel super organised

Some more op-shop bargains

No idea why this won't let me flip it round, but this tutu I bought for $4.99. Perfect condition and made Miss Nearly 6's day.

This red skirt, looks new, Pumpkin Patch, $3.99




Long sleeved dress, a size too big for Miss Nearly 6, but it was $1. Yep, ONE FREAKING DOLLAR (and there is not a thing wrong with it).

More to come this week, I've been busy crossing lots off my gardening to-do list, and had a big day baking some yummy treats today! I love being busy but it's nice to put my feet up tonight!

My weekend garden to-do list

Just a quick list today. It's a school day and Miss 2 is at day care, so I have about 5 hours to myself. It's literally been months since I spent any time gardening, but today and tomorrow are when I am diving back in. I sort of went into hibernation over winter, but now spring is here in full force I am ready to get back out there. We don't have any vegetables growing at the moment, just a little potted herb garden, but we still have our fruit trees and ornamental garden beds to look after, and boy do they look neglected :( Onward and upward though.

We are having friends over for a barbecue tomorrow night, so Anthony will spend a few hours mowing tomorrow while I potter around with the kids ticking the remaining things off my list. I love showing them how to do things in the garden, and teaching them what my parents have taught me. I hope they continue to love nurturing and reaping the benefits of gardening as they grow up.

My to-do list: 
Weed all garden beds and pots

Feed fruit trees

Plant new herbs (a lovely friend sent me and Anthony a gorgeous planter of fresh herb seedlings for our birthdays, but I am transferring them into our bigger herb pot so they can grow a bit, and we will keep the planter as a little feature, it's really pretty)

Water all pots on the patio

Compost flowering cherry tree

Trim the front hedges

Transfer the compost in the blue bin to the black one and move the blue bin to new location

Re-fence the side of the chook pen (We did have a couple of chooks, but a few weeks ago they got attacked by our older dog. He had never so much as licked them before then, but we adopted a new smaller dog about 2 months ago and we think his 'pack mentality' may have kicked in to overdrive, and unfortunately the chooks kept escaping their pen and copped it. The kids especially miss them around the garden, and so do I! Plus having to buy eggs sucks after having them fresh from our own chooks for 2 years. I am hoping to introduce some new ladies soon though. Watch this space!)

Fix the gate on the chook pen

Clean the BBQ

All this plus my normal house work makes for a busy day! I'd better get to it. Happy weekend! xx

Banana and weetbix muffins

Our Family Day Carer passed this recipe on to me a couple of weeks ago. She got it given to her by another parent and assured me they were worth a try. I figured any home-baked treat for the kids lunch boxes that contains fruit and wholegrain cereal is worth a shot. Happily, these were a huge hit with my kids, and a friend's kids whom I road-tested them on when we had a play date.

They did take a little longer to prepare than the recipe I usually use, but the kids and I had a fun morning baking together and they especially loved crushing up the weetbix and taking turns adding ingredients and mixing :)

Ingredients: 

Bowl 1

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 TBS brown sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Bowl 2

2 eggs
3 TBS oil

Bowl 3

3 ripe bananas, mashed
4 weetbix, crushed (I used the Aldi brand)
1 cup milk

Method: 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and line a muffin tray with patty pans

Add each of the ingredients to its designated bowl. Once you've added the banana, weetbix and milk to bowl 3, let it soak for 10 minutes.

Beat the eggs and oil (bowl 2) well

After the 10 minutes is up, add the beaten eggs and oil (Bowl 2) to your other wet ingredients (Bowl 3)

Combine Bowl 1's contents (flour, sugar, choc chips), and then mix in the mixed wet ingredients (Bowl 1) until just combined, do not over mix

Spoon mixture into a prepared muffin tray and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Notes:

This made us a batch of 24 cupcake-sized muffins, but if you use the larger muffin cases I would guess you'd get at least a dozen. These were delicious on the day we baked them, and the left overs froze well for later use in the kids lunch boxes.

All ready for the freezer

Getting the washing done

When we first moved to this house (4 years ago) the backyard had a standard rotary clothes line. It was in an annoying spot though, taking up valuable play-space for the kids, and was in the way of some fruit trees we were wanting to plant. We replaced the rotary line with a wall-mounted line around the side narrower side of the house, and it is great on warmer or windy days. It does get rained on though, so isn't great on wet days. With just myself, Anthony and our eldest daughter, we didn't have a lot of washing though. It was manageable, and being a stay at home mother gave me the wonderful power of being able to choose when the washing got done based on how busy we were, and of course the weather.

By the time Miss 2 came along, our washing baskets seemed to overflow more often, and I needed the ability to get washing done no matter what the weather was doing. Our house is only quite small (by today's standards - more on that in another post), and filling it up with clothes horses with 2 kids running about it was just annoying, though we put up with it during winter.

We toyed with getting a clothes dryer, but first decided to try using our under-covered pergola. I had, in the past, tried hanging our washing under the pergola on clothes horses, but the wind kept blowing them over and they would get dirty again - extremely annoying!

A trip to Bunnings later and we'd invested in a cheap-but-thoroughly-effective retractable clothesline, which Anthony installed. It isn't very big, but it cost under $30 and because it is completely sheltered I can hang our things up in the fresh air no matter what the weather is doing.

Our under-cover line, which is approximately 6 metres across, with 2 lines. It fits a big load of kids clothes, or a few loads of towels or linen. 

I would love to get another one, it's on my to-do list, but now spring is here and I can use the outside line more it doesn't seem as urgent.

We did end up buying a clothes dryer this past winter, purely because even though we have a sheltered line, in the icy cold winter it can still be a struggle to thoroughly dry things, and now needing to have school uniforms ready 5 days a week, I wanted to be sure I'd always be on top of them.

I gave myself some rules (which were just logic for our circumstances really) with the dryer though, to minimise the cost of running it and the environmental side of it. I only use it to finish off drying things, they first must be hung up for at least a few hours, and I am only using the "warm" setting, not the hot. I also only put it on for the bare minimum time, depending on what needs finishing, and I check the clothes regularly to see if they are dry, so as not to have them in there for ages if they only need a quick spin round. 

Recent Op shop bargains

Excuse the dodgy photo (I snapped it quickly today after bringing in some washing, in between cooking dinner and helping a certain toddler cope with being tired and hungry!), but I love getting bargains like these.

I know some people don't like hand-me-downs. Or buying stuff second hand. Or op shopping. I'm not one of those people, I love it! We've always been very fortunate in having people around us (hello to family and friends) who happily pass on clothes their kids have outgrown, or who sell us their kids' clothes at ridiculously low prices. I'm talking stuff that is in excellent condition, as well as stuff that is a little more worn, but perfect for messy-play and Day Care days. This has all been a huge blessing to us, and I love knowing not only have we saved money, but we're recycling as well.

We've also had a totally accidental saving by having 2 daughters, so although Miss 2 has had some new clothes (gifts and stuff I couldn't resist!),  I would guess a good 80% of her clothes have been second hand. And she is yet to complain ;)

Miss Nearly-6 has had a lot less hand-me-downs, but I've always loved the thrill of occasionally doing a trawl through some local op shops. I generally do a big bargain-hunt to go with the changing seasons, so I am currently in the process of establishing her summer wardrobe.

Over the recent school holidays we had some time to kill near a "Savers" store, so me and the girls had a quick look. Miss Nearly-6 recognised her school dress amongst the racks, and it is just the size we will be needing next year and was just $2.99. The school dresses retail for $32 at our local uniform shop, so we snapped this one up!

The other 3 items (2 skirts and a sun dress) were less than $4 a piece, so for under $15 we have 4 almost-new items, given money to charity (Savers support Diabetes Australia, a cause very close to my heart), and saved ourselves a chunk of money all at once.

I've had a few more lucky finds recently that I will post as soon as they've come through the washing.

:) 

Child Care options, choices and costs

It seems the subject of child care in Australia pops up in the news quite regularly. It can place a huge cost on families, even with government rebates and benefits (for any non-Australian readers, Australian families can get a discount on childcare fees up to a certain amount per year, and if both parents are working or studying a certain amount of hours a fortnight, they can also receive half their out of pocket costs back - again, up to a certain amount, which can help take the pressure off the cost of parents working).

When I first became a parent I thought I would never need childcare. Then reality set in, and by my eldest daughter's first birthday, we had enrolled her for one day a week at a local long day care centre. She loved it there, and it gave her so many positive experiences. By this time I had returned to work 2 days per week, so it also gave me a few hours to myself - priceless!

When first choosing childcare for our daughter, Anthony and I only really explored long day care (as it is called here), where the children are dropped off at a purpose-built centre and spend the day with their carers and other kids in their own age bracket. It worked well for our first daughter, and we paid about $40 a session for her to be there, after our rebates and other government assistance.

By the time our eldest was 3, a friend of ours begun working as a Family Day Carer. This child care option is where up to 4 non-school-aged children are cared for in a small group in the carer's own home, which is set up to meet a lot of safety requirements. The only major difference is nappies and food are not included with most Family Day Carers.

When our daughter was 3.5 years old, and I was quite pregnant with Baby #2, we swapped from long day care to my friend's Family Day Care, and with the amount of money we saved each week I kind of wish we had explored this option sooner,

As I was now no longer in paid work (and at home full-time), our Long Day Care fees were about $30 a session, where Family Day Care cost us about $7 a day out of pocket. Big, BIG difference.

Fast forward to the here and now, and our eldest is now in primary school, but Miss 2 is currently attending another Family Day Care twice a week. We enrolled her with our current carer about 12 months ago. Once Miss 2 turned 1 year old I began to research local Long Day Care centres, and again the price difference between LDC and FDC was about 50%.

Given all it takes is me packing an extra lunch, nappies and snacks on Miss 2's FDC days, for us it is worth the little extra time to save over $20 a day, or $40 a week. Although day care is an expense we are choosing for our family (it's not like I'm working outside the home and it is a necessary expense) and I consider it a big luxury for myself (even though Miss 2 benefits from it as well), I am still so glad we did some investigating and found the cheapest, best option for us.

Having experienced both Long and Family Day Care as a parent, I can see pros and cons for each aside from the financial savings using FDC.

I like that Family Day care is a smaller group of children. Our carer has no children of her own (though has 10+ years in the childcare industry, including time spent working as a private Nanny), so I know there will only be up to 3 other kids with her, and she won't get "lost" in the group. I like that with FDC the children get to go on outings to local parks, the library and organised playgroups (at the Carer's discretion and with parental permission). I like the consistency of getting to know the carer better than in a Centre, for my children's' sake and my own.

Of course I would suggest to any parent looking for child care options to go and explore each kind of care before ruling out one over the other, and go with your gut feeling. I think care for your child should not be primarily a financially based choice, BUT we have been amazed at the quality of private care that is out there for a fraction of the cost of a big-name centre.

Aunty Conny's Spaghetti

This recipe has a kind of cult following within my family. My Mum started making it for us when I was maybe 8 years old, and she got the recipe off our Aunty Conny, hence the name! It is just a basic pasta recipe, and although it wouldn't win many awards for how it looks, it is an easy mid-week meal, or quick enough to put together instead of resorting to junk food. I consider it to be a fairly cheap meal, and it's handy because all the ingredients are what I consider pantry staples.

It is great to stretch over two nights (though I would add a bit more mince and pasta), and it tastes even better the second time round. It also goes well frozen, just make sure you reheat it thoroughly.

My little family of four (2 adults, one finicky nearly-6-year-old and a ravenous 2 year old) generally eat it as it is, with crusty bread and butter on the side, but it is also great with a fresh salad, or even some hot veges along side it, for more of a vitamin fix and to ensure more left-overs.

Ingredients:

300 grams, give or take, beef mince - the best quality you can afford
1 large onion, diced
1 packet of dry chicken noodle soup
1 tin of diced or whole tomatoes
1 tin of condensed tomato soup
About 2 cups of uncooked pasta - we use either small spirals or penne (I prefer the spirals)

Method: 
Brown your mince in a large frying pan (the deepest one you have!), breaking it up as you go, and while it's doing it's thing, throw on some water to cook your pasta.

Once the mince is cooked through, add the onion. Once the onion has softened, sprinkle over the dry chicken noodle soup, and mix the mince/onion/soup all together. Add the tomatoes and the tomato soup. If you've got the whole tinned tomatoes, use a spoon to break them up into bite-size pieces. I also always rinse the cans out with a little water and add the liquid to the pan and mix it through.

Let the sauce simmer away while you cook the pasta, usually about 10 minutes in the boiling water. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and mix it through the sauce.

You can leave this all simmering if you're waiting for someone to arrive home, or for the table to be set, or for the kids to calm down and let you serve dinner. Just make sure you give it a stir every few minutes, and keep the heat down low, or it will potentially stick to the bottom of the pan and dry out a little.

Notes: My family would eat this as it is, but if you're feeling fancy you can add some herbs to jazz it up. (I've done that on the odd occasion and for me it didn't taste quite 'right', but please yourself!) The quantities I have listed would do us a pretty filling dinner, with enough left over for Anthony and the girls to have for lunch the next day.

Introductions!

I've had far too many blogs since the internet became a thing, but this one has been brewing in my mind for a little while.

We've been a single income family for over 4 years now. Every now and then I get asked how we do it. I don't think there's a cookie-cutter answer I can give, but I do want to start journalling our day to day lives to share with anyone interested. I've been an avid follower of some home-making blogs for a few years now, and always wished I had something to share with the community.

I don't think our story is particularly unique, but I still love the idea of sharing recipes, what works for me as a mother and as a home-maker, as a budget-keeper and as a wife. I like giving and receiving frugal tips, and how to live a rich life with not worrying so much about making money. I love finding a cheaper way to do or make something, and I want to test out new ideas I've been wanting to try and report what works as I am learning. I love sharing all this with my daughters, and watching them learn with me.

So if this all sounds interesting to you, welcome!

My name is Larissa, and I recently turned 30. I'm a stay-at-home mother to Miss-Nearly-6, and Miss 2. My husband and I have been together since I was 18 and he was 25. The time has gone fast, but we have grown a lot together and learnt a lot about life, what works for us and makes us happy. We live in a small house (by today's standards) in Pakenham, about 60 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.

I look forward to sharing with you.

Larissa x