Feeling like a domestic goddess!!

[Lellyj]

I'm having a lovely time thermomixing through the school holidays!  Don't you just sometimes get a glow of satisfaction from how clever you can be with the help of TMX!!  Today for example I made butter and buttermilk bread, Nay Nay's passionfruit butter to use as a flavouring in my home made yougurt (still tweaking that one), a vegetable soup that I kind of just invented, ricotta gnocci with Farfallina's zucchini cream sauce (this is my DS age 16's favourite meal) and orange cake!  Woo hoo! I was very impressed with myself and my family gobbled everything down . . . although my son did say "So . . . did you make the plates too" in quite a sarcastic tone.  Maybe I'll take him up on that challenge--Heston Blumenthal watch out!!

[judydawn]

It is a lovely, rewarding feeling lellyj and it is amazing how much can be done in an uninterrupted day of cooking. I've been very slack of late - either trying to clear out the freezer or eating out - but I will get back into it soon.

[Lellyj]

Judy, with my family being massive eaters, I rarely have left overs and I failed shopping 101--feel very remiss when I read others post about their over-full freezers!!  If I could, I would choose what I wanted to cook on the day and then shop for it, in fact before children when I lived in the inner city, that's just what I would do!!  But not so easy now that I live in the country and the little local supermarket is very expensive (when I first started working full time, I think I single-handedly  provided a massive boost to the local economy!)! Now I do an Aldi shop with kind of a master list and this forum and TMX ownership is making me be more organised as there are so many recipes I want to try!  Who knows maybe one day I will be like you and Hally and some of the other forum members with bulging freezers!!

[djinni373]

I have the same problem Lellyj. My family eat faster than I can cook.

I have definitely NOT been a domestic goddess so far these holidays. I have not cooked much recently and the freezer is bare (so are the cupboards). Worse still, I have put on a few kilos (aaaarrrghhh) as the food I have been eating is not nearly as healthy as the food from my thermie. Meant to be raining in Sydney this weekend ( so I can't fix the neglected vege garden) so I'm planning a huge cooking weekend. Good thing thermie is always up to the task

[CreamPuff63]

by gee that son of yours has a sense of humour 

[Frozzie]

hahaha you should make your plates too just to shut him up lellyj

i wanted for a while to get some porcelain plates and design my own crockery...one day...no time for the moment...taken up with house, DD an DS and DH lol!

[Vivaroo]

It would be funny to make some http://www.ehow.com/how_5114365_make-tortilla-salad-bowls.html
for your son.

I'm with you Lellyj, i often would shop day by day.  The more space I see in my fridge/pantry the calmer I feel and I make more good meals with less, when I have too much choice it's confusing and things get lost and wasted.  Lucky the shops are just around the corner for me. And in my ideal world I would meal plan.

[obbie]

  I am about to do my meal plan for the week, and start cooking.
My kids need biccies, so about to bake cakes, biccies, slices ready for school again.

I saved about $200 last week on groceries, as I just used what we had in the freezers / pantry.

Robyn

[Coops]

Domestic goddess here too    Passionfruit butter and choc sprinkle cookies this morning, yesterday was curry beef, lasagne, laksa and meatballs, all frozen in portions ready for quick and easy meals

[Frozzie]

i dont know how you guys eat all this stuff...i find if i cook a dish and or biscuits it lasts a while but we arent big eaters and i restrict the kids with biscuits and cakes etc but it seems everyone makes so much food...that will probably change a little when the kids are teenagers !

[fundj&e]

Just you wait a see frozzie, you will need to get a job just for the food bill 

[Lellyj]

Ha ha Vivaroo, thanks for the link . . . would be fun to do that!

I am working on the meal planning thing.  . . getting so much better!

Frozzie it's true when the kids hit teenagerhood you need to put a lock on the fridge and the pantry.  I often laugh at how I used to worry that they weren't eating when they were little and now I can't keep up with them.  My daughter has moved out to go to university, but I look at my two enormous boys (my youngest is 13, 6ft 2--taller than his father and older brother--with size 13 feet) and I wonder how could you have ever been little tiny toddlers who I used to coax to eat.  Now the main problem I have is that they wolf down the food, then leave the empty boxes and biscuit tins in the pantry, hoping they will regenerate I guess!, and I think there is still stuff there, and when I go to get it--it's gone!!

[Frozzie]

haha yes well thankfully a few years off for that!! For the moment I still have trouble getting them to eat...I used to worry but like the pediatritian said if they arent losing weight its fine !!

[meganjane]

I love to do meal planning - that's what makes me feel like a domestic goddess!! I use my own template that I created in Publisher and I sit down every Sunday fortnight and plan for the next two weeks. I pin it up on my corkboard and also print off my shopping list with my menu on the back.

I only do a big shop once a week and buy incidentals in between at our local store. I find that my fridge isn't full of stuff that I'm not going to use and my shopping bills are much smaller!

I've made a plain version of my planner that can be downloaded from google docs.Weekly Planner

[fundj&e]

do you actually stick to it 

i know in the morning when i start cooking, lets say chicken we end up eating fish,DH has given up asking what for t love