Wintery

So it's all wintery here now.

(My kids always feel ripped off because here in Hamilton it never snows. We get the freezing and the ice, but never snow. It's not a snowing place. I know there's a scientific reason.)

Winter means comfort food.

This is one of our favs.

We like to call it "Shirtlifter Casserole"

(look at the list of ingredients and you'll see why!)

I'm lucky coz my kids are great eaters. They will mostly eat what they're given. Plus, they like the shirt-lifter aspect of this one. It's a great excuse to fart, you know. Blame it on what you've been given to eat.

It's tasty, nutritious, easy and just made with staples from the pantry.
 I believe the real name is Lazy Lentils..
(recipe below if you're interested!)

And in other news....

We have a 6 year old in the house.. (his mate's Mum made him that lei)

And a 1 year old!

And I got a turquoise suitcase. More about that in another post.

Happy Days!
(and no hair change yet - not enough time to get to it-doh!!)


Shirtlifter Casserole
(Lazy Lentils)

6oz lentils (3/4 cup-ish?)(I've got an old measuring thing that has oz on it!!)
4 onions
2 gloves garlic
2t marmite
1t mixed herbs (dried)
grated cheese 
breadcrumbs

* Fry onions and garlic. Take off the heat.

* Add rest of ingreds. ,saving some cheese and breadcrumbs for the topping.

* Greased casserole dish, and add 400ml boiling water.

* Add topping

Bake 2hours @ 160c
covered.
Uncover towards the end to crisp up the top.
Voila!

Linking up to 
Just Another Meatless Monday
@ What's For Dinner Mom?

Strawberry Yum-ness

Strawberries are a certain sign of Summer.. which is well and truly on its way down here in NZ!!! 

My sister gave me a try of this dessert and I just about died of yummy-ness.

It's the easiest, yummiest, quickest thing you could make, and is relatively low fat. It also will be sure to impress as a take-along dessert to those Summer BBQs! 

Thanks to my sister, and Annabel Langbein, here we have 

STRAWBERRY CLOUD CAKE

(I got this Kenwood food processor from an op shop for $8 about 7 years ago, just by the way!)

I did it by hand mixer unfortunately - I'm still waiting for the Kenwood Mixer to present itself at an oppie or garage sale!

The cloud effect is far greater in a mixer (vs hand mixer)

Please try this at home!

That's what Annabel's looks like!

And now for something completely different...

 Thought y'all might enjoy this song and video about our favourite thing - 
thrifting/op shopping!

 I love it!

Happy days

OP SHOP STYLE

For those of you who haven't worked it out... 

Most of my clothing is from op shops, and that of my kids!

This has been the case since I was about 15, when I caught the op-shopping/garage sale-ing bug!

Clothing kids DOES NOT have to be expensive.

(I also inherit a lot of stuff for the kids from wonderful sisters, sisters-in-law and friends, which is SO cool and lucky..)

I don't claim to be a style guru by ANY stretch, but I would like to say (in case you didn't already know!) that  cool things can be found...

Lots of my blogging buddies are op/chaz/thrift shoppers, but this is for those who aren't!

And we can help charities and save the planet, one garment at a time!

I have been asked a few times for my top op-shopping tips .. I will put a post together about this asap!

Now that recipe that peeps have been asking after..

sheesh I'm boob-feeding again. I'll update this soon when he's asleep!

This recipe is from the fabulous Julie Le Clerc (of Garnet Rd Foodstore cafe in aucks..

So good. And easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Lemon Slice

Crust: 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 caster sugar and 150g butter, cubed.

Pulse the flour and sugar in your food processor to sift, then add the butter till you get breadcrumb texture. Press over a lined tin (20 x 30cm)

Bake 15mins (till golden) @ 180 celsius.

* Remove, reduce oven to 140 deg.

Filling:

4 large eggs

1 3/4 cups caster sugar

finely grated zest of 3 lemons

2/3 c lemon juice

1/3 cup flour, seived.

Whisk eggs and sugar together till very thick and pale. Fold in juice, zest, then flour. Pour over crust and bake 40mins or until set. 

Cool completely and chop it up! dust with icing sugar if ya want!