Recipes - Choc Orange Brownies

Choc Orange Brownies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/3    cup   cocoa

1        tsp    Bi-Carb/baking soda

1/2    tsp salt

1/2    cup sugar (Can be brown sugar or caster sugar. Either is fine. Brown sugar will give you a more caramelly flavour in my opinion)

1 tsp  Vanilla ess

1/4  cup vegetable oi;

Juice and zest of 1 orange (You can actually increase this to 2 if you really want/like the orange flavour)

1 cup Milk or Buttermilk. (You can even substitute for warm water if you want this to be dairy free)

Optional: Choc chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C degrees (355 F)

2. Grease or line a baking pan. (If you want thicker brownies go for a smaller pan, thin brownies go for a bigger pan. I tend to just get out whichever I find first)

3. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl

4. Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to the sifted dry ingredients.

5. Mix until all combined. Add choc chips if using

6. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-40 minutes (depending on thickness). Cool (or not!) and eat. Yummy

 

 

While I have no idea of the actual nutritional stats these are what I consider to be on the healthier side of baking as there is no butter, no eggs and only 1/2 cup sugar.

A great way to use the mountains of oranges growing on my tree.

 

 

Meal Plan Sept 16

I had my 20 year high school reunion this past weekend. Leading up to it, I was excited and nervous all in one, but I ended up having a great time. Facebook took a lot of the guess work out of knowing who was who but I still found myself looking at a couple of people for a few minutes while the old brain clicked over.
In all I think everyone looked great - we must've been a good looking year to have aged so well! ha ha.

Looking towards this week, I've settled into my new job but realise that I need to be careful with what I plan for meals at the beginning of the week when I am doing 9-5. Thankfully my husband is a great help and so I can tell him what needs cutting up and what he can do and that saves me time when I get home, otherwise we aren't eating until 7-ish and it simply allows too much snacking time (mainly by me! the kids are fine).

So this is what we'll be eating:


Monday

 Mexican Chicken & Bean bowls
As I do with all my mince meals, I'll grate carrot and zucchini into the mince mixture. I serve this one like Nachos but  not all cooked together - I serve the mince mixture in bowls and then add a little bit of grated cheese and a handful of corn chips - The kids still feel like they are getting nachos but its a healthier way to serve it up. Win win. If I was really good I could toast some tortillas and that could cut down on the salt from the corn chips...but after working all day that may cut into the 5 minutes I get to relax!


Tuesday

Pork sausages and mash
Plain old bangers and mash - An oldie but a goodie. I do my mash as half normal potato and half sweet potato and add a dash of sour cream if I have any (which I will have leftover from Monday's dinner).


Wednesday

Fried rice
Quick and easy. Perfect for mid week. Instead of bacon I'll have vegetarian and I'll add a tin of Tuna for the boys.

Thursday

 Honey Mustard Chicken strips
I haven't made this one before but I'm thinking it sounds pretty delicious.


Friday

Bolognese Pasta Pie
I haven't made this one before either and I am hoping it's not too fiddly. I think that the boys will like it though so I am going to give it a go. There's tons of recipe variations for this one online and the one i have linked to seemed easy and gave step by step photos - I love step by step photos.

Have a great week

New shoes. Yay!!

In general, I am totally hopeless at making decisions on bigger purchases.
Having to spend our money gets me that little bit anxious - for example, it took me about 12 months to decide on a new dinner set and I was only ever looking at plain white ones. We went without a dishwasher for about 2 months before I was forced into buying one. And, as my first pair of running shoes - well that took me about 5 months to decide on. I must've tried on about 20 pairs of shoes at around 10 different shops.

I do sometimes wonder why I am like this and if I'll ever get better at spending money. I am NOT a shopper. If I ever find myself in the situation of being with girl friends at a shopping centre (which I try to avoid) you will most likely find me out on the husband seat!

I think the reasons for my anxiousness stem from the following:

      1. I worry that I will get buyers remorse and/or have picked the wrong product. When I buy something new I ask for everyones opinion. And then I ask them additional questions. I research on the Internet, for way more time than necessary. I read as many reviews as I can. I go to shops and harass the staff there with a lot of questions. And believe me, I ask a lot of questions.
     2. Spending money on myself and for things that I am going to use. Growing up I was taught to be mindful of money and, extending on from point one, I hate the idea of spending money on something that turns out to be wrong. And spending money on myself is much much harder than spending money for my boys.
     3. I think there's a part of me that likes the research side. Much like a holiday - the planning is half the fun.
     4. A fear that I will see the same thing on special somewhere after I have already purchased. I always hold out hope for some super special deal. Consequently I have missed things in the past which have simply been discontinued; which inevitably puts me back to square one.

Anyway, after 9 months and around 1000km in my running shoes I really knew that I needed a new pair. The 'bounce' was gone from my old ones and my shins were not liking the pounding on the pavement.
I had read about a shop in Brisbane and went there with a few ideas in mind of what to try.

The guy who helped me was great. He watched me run in my old shoes, listened to what I do running wise and then brought out a few pairs for me to try on. I went in with the idea that I'd try Asics Kayano (what I was currently wearing) plus, based on the info I'd gathered from other people, I would also try Altra's and the Brooks Pure range.
Well, he didn't even bring out the Altra's or Brooks Pure. So I asked why not. He was knowledgeable enough and got both pairs for me to try so i could feel why they may not suit.
I tried a few more on, and some were comfy, some were definitely not right for me and I was able to narrow it down to 2 pairs. In the end I couldn't go past what I knew and had worked so well for me for the last 9 months.
And I committed - then and there in the shop.
OK, so I did have to ask him to hold them for me while I went and had a coffee to think about it, but I went back and bought on the day. BIG deal for me.

What I really really liked about this shop, and a big reason as to why I purchased from there
is that they give a 14 day guarantee on the purchase - I can wear the shoes for 2 weeks on any terrain and if I get pain or excessive blisters or something just isn't right then they will swap them over. Perfect for someone like me who fears committing to a purchase.
(For reference this place is called Intraining - their site is: http://www.intraining.com.au/)

My new PINK Kayano's. The photo doesn't show it very well but the laces are fluro yellow too. No chance anyone will miss me coming in these!
 

I couldn't wait to try them out so I took them for a spin that afternoon around the place where I grew up. I even ran past my old primary school - the place where I ran my first school 'fun run' 28 years ago.

And the verdict - So far, so good!

Meal Plan Sept 9

There's quite a few people who I follow on facebook who also meal plan each week.
I love looking at their ideas and reasons for doing a meal plan.
My main motivation for doing so is because it saves me time and it saves me money. It saves me time because I can start to prep in the morning and there are no mad dashes to the supermarket after work. It saves money as I am one of those people who always gets a couple more things than what is on the list.
Another fantastic thing about doing up a meal plan each week is that the rest of the family know what's for dinner too - It saves the nagging voices of starving* children asking me twenty times "What's for dinner". They simply go to the fridge and look at the list that is written up there.
(*I'm going to make a big assumption and presume that people actually know that my children are NOT starving, and that it's just a figure of speech)


Monday

 Home Made Pizza
Ive really only put this picture for ideas. We all have different pizza toppings in our house and this is always a winner


Tuesday

Chicken Schnitzel and potato salad
I actually don't make the schnitzel in the picture and in fact the link doesn't take you to a recipe. Essentially I set up 3 plates - one with plain flour, one with a lightly whisked egg and one with breadcrumbs, mixed herbs and finely grated Parmesan then simply dredge the chicken through all 3 in order. Then I use cooking spray and lightly fry them. They are delicious and I try to make leftovers as they are even better cold


Wednesday

Beef and Rice Noodle Stir Fry
I usually add extra vege's to this one. Things like baby corn, capsicum, broccoli, cauliflower or mushroom work well.


Thursday

 Spinach and Feta turnovers
To add some extra flavour I generally add some cheddar, nutmeg and paprika to the mix. Yum

Friday

Beer Batter Fish and chips
Can't go wrong with fish and chips!

Meal Plan Sept 2

I start a new job this week.
Which is kind of a big deal as this is the first job I've had in around 3 years which involves me leaving the house to go to work. No more slippers on my feet in Winter. No quick dash to the clothes line if it starts to rain. I'll probably miss my coffee machine the most of all. We've built up quite a relationship in the last few years.
On the upside I get to leave the house to go to work. Working from home means that you never leave work, and that can get very annoying. I'd get on the Internet at night or on the weekend to look at something and I'd think, oh, I'll just check the work emails before I log off; suddenly an hour or two has passed. It will be nice to finish work and leave for the day.

I'm still hopeful that I will have the time and energy to make all the dinners on this list:


Monday

 Honey Spiced Chicken
I 'm still loving the website called Budget Bytes and this is another recipe from there. Seriously check it out if you haven't already


Tuesday

Stuffed Capsicums (Slow cooker)
I am hedging my bets that son number one won't like this one all that much because of the capsicums. However, I am hoping that he likes the filling and I'll just eat his capsicum. My Mum used to make a recipe like this one when I was a kid. I can't remember if I liked it or not, but I'm willing to give it a go now!


Wednesday

Cream cheese Beef rolls
Always a winner in our house.


Thursday

Coconut Prawns
I've done these before and they're very yummy. My first job was in a Thai restaurant and they used to make a dish similar to this but their sauce was just mayo and curry powder, which i think is nicer than the lime mayo in the recipe. And actually, I'll personally be doing this with chicken instead of prawns - But only because son number 2 is allergic to prawns so they are a big no-no in our house unless we feel like a late night trip to the emergency department!

Friday

Braided Spaghetti bread
OMG i feel full just looking at this one. But it sounds too good not to try. I read a few of the comments and a good suggestion was to butter the bread dough with garlic butter before placing the spag bol on top