Herbed Ricotta Fritters

Your wish is my command...well, not quite! However, this is one request I can fill without any trouble at all!

Herbed Ricotta Fritters

500g fresh ricotta
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup self rasing flour
2 cups mixed fresh herbs *
150g parmesan cheese, finely grated
vegetable oil for shallow frying

1. Preheat oven oven to 160C/300F.
   
2. Place ricotta and egg yolks in a bowl and mix well. Add flour, herbs and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until well combined.
3. Form mixture into tablespoon sized balls.
   
4. Heat the oil. Fry the balls in batches until golden on both sides. Remove from pan and place on a wire rack over a baking tray and keep warm in the oven.

* I've used parsley and rosemary, because that's what I have in my garden. I use about 3 sprigs of rosemary, and about the same in quantity when chopped, of parsley.

Monday goes with Menu

Another week sails into being. Why is it the older you get, the quicker the year flies by you? Remember when you were a child and the year seemed to take forever. Birthday's never seemed to come around and summer holidays took forever to return. Since I had children of my own it seems that time just flies by faster than I can blink!

So what's on our plates this week? Last night's roast chicken became Chinese Corn Soup & dim sims...otherwise known as 'steamies' in our house. So I'm going with the roast tonight....I actually got it out already so it WILL happen today!

Monday: Roast chicken, roast potato, steamed vegies
Tuesday: Pasta & vegetable sauce
Wednesday: Oven Fried Chicken & vegies (KFC doesn't stand a chance!)
Thursday: Sweet & Sour Pork, brown rice
Friday: Ricotta Herb Fritters, vegies or something!
Saturday: Dinner out at a BYO meat BBQ
Sunday: Potato & Leek Soup, h/m dinner rolls

For those who are wondering, we're winning the lice war. Miss Mischief seems to be clear now. Miss Sunshine is slowing down with the baby hatching. I think in a few days she'll be almost clear too.

I can't wait for their hair cuts to happen....their hair has grown so long!

How to Feed Your Family...Cheap

This was the headline on A Current Affair last night. I watched with interest, thinking "wow, $75. I wonder how they do it. I'm sure to learn something I didn't know".

I learned nothing new :( And what I learned is that this family use no meat and that their morning and afternoon teas both include cakes. Not so healthy and doubly disappointing. The $75 also, obviously didn't include the few cleaning items that I buy, or bandaids & panadol! I was pleased to see that ACA had a nutritionist or someone saying that having no meat might save money now but would result in health & medical bills later. For myself, I know this to be true. We ate 50% vegetarian a few years back because we just couldn't afford more meat, but I didn't know that I should've added more legumes to our diet. My iron levels suffered. So it was either buy meat, or buy iron pills...which then block you up.

Us meat eaters can still eat cheaper than most people think is possible. You just adjust the cuts of meat you use to suit your budget. I made Lamb Shank & Vegie soup last night using lamb neck rosettes. They were $4.99/kg and had heaps more flavour than the shanks, because of the neck bones. There was still enough meat to get a good serving each. Whenever I need to buy chicken fillets, I use chicken thigh cutlets. They still have the bone in and it's a pain to cut it out, but the savings are so worth it. The difference in price is about $8/kg!!!!

A friend of mine made us a beautiful lunch the other day, of vegetables & chickpeas in a tomato based sauce over cheesy polenta. I loved it so much I had to ask for the recipe the other day. My kids wouldn't eat it, but I can make that for a healthy lunch for myself. For those whose kids don't mind 'wretched evil beanies' (ie legumes) it would be perfect!

What I learned last night is that we're doing pretty well...for a meat eating family. I generally spend about $100-$130 each week. For some reason, the last month has been around $110. We have all enjoyed the meals we've eaten and they included a wide variety of styles. I've been under my budget :). If you're spending a lot more and want to save money....eat along with us. There's enough menu plans here now for you to go through and pick out what you like. Try a couple of vegetarian meals each week. Two or so each week will be good for your health and your budget ;)

Clean, Green & Frugal

I looked out my kitchen window the other morning and what did I see? Daffodil bulbs were poking up through the garden bed. We're only half way through winter, but there they were! Daffodils are something we all enjoy at our place ~ they remind us of Dh's mother, who passed away 9 years ago now. They were her favourite flower and we were very excited to discover the previous owners of this house had planted them right where we would see them every day from the kitchen & meals area of our home. Apparently spring it on its way already.


On the clean and frugal subject, I am trying something at the moment. No hair conditioner. I think I've reacted to the conditioner I bought last time ~ I'm all itchy only in the area where I put the conditioner. And no, it's not lice!!!! I was chatting with a friend yesterday and she mentioned she never uses conditioner. Now there was a light bulb moment for me. I must say, so far, I can't tell the difference, but my hair is only drying after being washed so time will tell. If I really can't tell one way or the other I will abandon the conditioner completely. I'm not abandoning the hair straightener though LOL.

The Latest Quilt Block

Yes, it's that time of the month ~ the first Wednesday...when I learn a little more on quilting! The above block is what my half of the group worked on last night. My my how we struggled to get our heads around the little triangle pieces and attaching them to the background squares. And then to figure out how to put it all together. It ended up being simple really...but as with any new thing the first time is always the trickiest.

I'm so glad to do the first block in class before going home and trying to get it done without anyone to check with!

The ladies in my half of the class are a joy to spend time with and we spend a lot of time laughing over different things in our lives. We've only met three times and yet we've come to enjoy each other's company.

One More on The List

I've just discovered another thing to be dealt with.

Lice.

UGH.

I thought I'd just better check...just in case... We have hair appointments next week and they won't cut the hair if the kids have lice. I don't want Miss Sunshine, particularly, to miss having her hair cut...she needs it. Just as well I checked. I'm surprised she wasn't itchy at all!

I've combed through the girls, checked Mr Busy and emailed the school. I guess we'll be combing twice a day for the next 10 days....and beyond!

How did I miss that?

I've just realised it's Wednesday and I didn't post yesterday? Now how did that happen? I think holidays have already mushed my brain to nothingness! We began the morning without electricity. It has been raining and we've had gale force winds, so of course the power went out! That's what happens when you have overhead lines and tall gum trees together. Later on in the morning I prepared some nibbles and we then spent most of the day with a friend and her kids and a couple of others. The kids had fun....we had a good chat. Then I shopped on the way home! Not the best timing, but I had to take advantage of being near Aldi, didn't I?!

I don't know about you, but when school holidays come I tend to get the urge to get my house back in order. To anyone walking in, they may not notice, but I do. So what's on the winter mid-year break to-do list beyond my picket fence?

Floors ~ vacuum and mop throughout. When I say that, I mean get out the little attachment and get into the corners and do a proper clean, not just a quick whip around. Put the furniture up, shake out the mats, clean off the little pads on the bottoms of the chairs etc.

Clean up and clean out the laundry. How on earth are clothes meant to get clean when there is so much mud traipsed into that little corner of the house? I tossed all the old worn out shoes already, and now I need to get into those corners again. Perhaps in doing that, I should look into getting the upright deep freezer repaired?!

Bedrooms. Mine is nice and sparkly now. Two of the kids need to get in and get rid of the junk and clean up properly.

Clean the bathrooms. The kids are pretty good, but I want it Mummy-clean. Ya know, getting UNDER the claw foot bathtub...not just around it!

Prune the rose bushes. July is the time to do that down under. I might do that this arvo if it's still sunny and not so windy that I get blown away!

Weed the herb garden. There are some prickly little evil things in there right now that need to go.