25/52

"a picture of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2014"

This kid likes to pull faces, let me tell you. This week Romy started to really refine her 'cranky' face with one raised eyebrow and all. It's the face she pulls at me when I go into her room first thing in the morning, and it is almost as good as a big cheesy smile. She knows we find her 'cranky' face funny and a sly grin usually comes straight after. Her cheeky personality is definitely shining through more and more each day.

How Do You Like Those Apples?

Apple Deep Dish Pie 

 Apple + Peanut Butter Cookies 

 Apple Farro Salad 

 Curried Apple Soup 

Lately I've had more of an interest in trying new recipes & experimenting with everyday ingredients in a different way. One everyday ingredient that I'm enjoying using & that is pretty darn versatile is apples. My favourite & first choice of apple is the Pink Lady apple, I like to grate it & add it to our coleslaw mix & salad wraps. I read in a magazine a few years ago that someone added grated apple to their spaghetti bolognase & while that seemed weird to me at the time I totally get it now! It also goes quite nicely in quinoa dishes and salads. Now that it's getting to the colder months I'm pretty interested in trying out the curried apple soup, I don't know how it would go but it sure sounds interesting! 

Currently

Reading:  I'm finallllly getting around to finishing off the Sookie Stackhouse books, which I started reading way back in 2009. I got hooked on them instantly and even though I'm not usually into that sort of supernatural fantasy fiction, I couldn't stop reading them. Well, that was until I got swamped by my homework and distracted with the tv series adaptation and after season two of that my interest completely fizzled out for poor old Sookies woes. Until a couple of weeks ago when I was unpacking a couple of boxes I found 'Dead & Gone' and got stuck into it and finished it in a week or so. These books are super easy to read and so ridiculous that you need to keep on reading, plus I really look forward to the parts with Eric in them. I have just two more to go.

Watching: Luke & I just finished watching 'Breaking Bad', and holy smokes! After years of being told to watch this series I finally let my guard down about it and gave it a go. My bff sent me a copy of season one in the mail and Luke & I were instantly drawn into Walter White's wrong turn. We had a little break before watching the final 8 episodes, and halfway through them I just wanted it to be done because it was making me feel stressed out for the characters. I hated feeling like Hank was the bad guy and not wanting Walter to get caught, when if this was a situation in real life most people would be disgusted with Walter's actions. So the last episode was quite a satisfying end to Walter White's tumultuous journey. 

Listening to: Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience. Every morning when Romy has her breakfast, and when she is being fussy at meal times. She loves it! She really seems to like Jay Z's rap in 'Suit & Tie', (I kid you not) she gets her little fingers in a pointing gesture and bounces up excitedly when it comes on. We're going to have to find something else for her to get hooked on because I'm starting to hear these songs even when they aren't playing.

Loving: The colder weather that has just started to kick in here & while I'm sure I'll complain about it if it gets really cold, for now I'm loving it. I put flannelette sheets on our bed a couple of nights ago and it was simply magical getting to sleep on them for the first night of winter. 

Working on: A project with my buddy Ally. It's in the early stages at the moment but it's really exciting.

Eating: Scones with jam. Last weekend Luke's Mum & Grandmother came to visit Romy so for afternoon tea we made a batch of scones up, and a few days later when my parents visited they came with a basket of scones in toe. So we've been making the most of this scone run with cups of tea and it certainly has been the weather for it here.

Looking forward to: Season 5 of Pretty Little Liars, I mean, aren't you? 

24/52

"a picture of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2014"

I set out to post a picture of Romy each week so at the end of the year when I get that end-of-the-year-nostaligia I can look back on how much she changed from week to week. I missed quite a few weeks on my blogging sabbatical so instead of taking a new picture today, I thought I would come back with a bang with this beautiful photo taken almost two weeks ago by Rikki Jones. Aside from being a 10/10 kind of person, Rikki takes the most delicately crafted memories without missing a single bit of detail. Seconds before Rikki snapped this picture of Romy she was mid-tantrum throwing the washer out of the sink because she didn't want to get out of the water, and then Rikki appears with her camera and all was forgotten. Romy loves having her picture taken!

Pizza Sunday / Green Pizza

Green Pizza

It was my choice this Sunday, & by the time Luke got home from work it was too late to go to the shops to get anything specific so I worked with what I had and decided to go with all green ingredients. This week I put on small florets of broccoli, capsicum, avocado, sautéed zucchini & steamed silver beet. I had to fight every urge within me not to put mushrooms on this pizza as I usually put mushrooms on everything. 

It wasn't a horrible pizza, but the topping took on a slight packaged pizza taste and I think that was because of the raw broccoli. Next time I'm the pizza sheriff and use broccoli as topping I will steam the florets a little beforehand to see if that makes a difference. I would give it 5/10.

Saturday Style / Window Boxes

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Because seriously who doesn't love a good window box?! 

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My Go-To Evening Meals

When we moved back to Newcastle I was by myself in our new house for the first few weeks while Luke finished up at his old job, and in that time I was forced to face my ongoing struggle with cooking decent meals for myself. Until recently I hated cooking dinner, and trying to think up something different each night that would require next to no cooking skills. So steamed vegetables are quite obviously a big staple in my dinner menu. I've always wanted to put in the effort to extend my cooking skills, but have never made the time to do so. Now, I am definitely not saying that I can now excel in dinner delights, but now I plan ahead during the day and have expanded on my steamed vegetable dinners. I'm the dinner sheriff a couple of evenings a week when Luke is working and for one night of the week I try and make something different and put a new go-to meal in the works, it might not happen every single week but I most certainly am putting in a hundred times more effort than I did four months ago. So I thought I would share my go-to dinner meals that are ridiculously simple, quick & easy to put together.

Veggie Plates

This is my first choice go-to meal, and something I have for dinner at least one night each week because above being quick & easy, it is delicious! I have chip sized cuts of sweet potato & white potato all ready to go in the fridge for steaming & baking for dinners & Romy's lunch during the week so this cuts down dinner prep time by a lot. I put a small handful in the oven to bake for 20 mins or so & season them with cracked pepper & sea salt. While the chips are baking I cut up a large silver beet leaf, a few large florets of cauliflower & broccoli and steam those. And when both of those are almost ready I sauté a couple of mushrooms and half a zucchini, and then you're done! 

Steamed Veggies & Quinoa

Normally when Luke makes quinoa based dinners we always have a decent portion left over, & I found a great way to use it up in an easy dinner. I cut up whatever vegetables I want to have with it which is usually sweet potato, pumpkin, silver beet, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, mushroom & zucchini, and steam them. Once they've finished steaming I chuck them in a sauce pan with a little bit of olive oil & moroccan spice to flavour and then your dinner is ready! If you've got quinoa boiled & ready to go this meal takes no longer than ten minutes to put together.

'Meat' & Veg

This is a great option for last minute dinners, or for when you just don't care what you're eating so long as its half decent. Now while I don't include actual meat in my diet I do keep vegetarian bbq sausages in the freezer for these types of meals. Before you pass mashed vegetables off as 'baby food' consider just have many veggies you're having in this one serve - half a medium carrot, a large silver beet leaf, a handful of sweet potato & pumpkin, and four florets each of cauliflower & broccoli. Not a bad amount for baby food. Some nights I have just a bowl of mashed veggies. I also cut up half a zucchini & two mushrooms and sautéed them in a hot pan, these two ingredients together are the perfect side combination that I almost put with most things.

Return of Pizza Sunday

Vegetarian with spicy olives

This week I was in charge of the pizza making & much to Luke's dismay I did not put nearly as much cheese topping as he does & found I enjoyed it a lot more. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing better than a cheesy pizza but the spicy olives were the hero this week & leaving off the extra cheese sprinkle was for the best. It has been quite some time since I made just a basic veggie pizza, & it has been even longer since I added olives to the mix as I go through phases with them.

For this weeks simple vegetarian pizza I cut up cherry tomatoes, baby spinach, mushrooms, red onion, Danish feta,  & spicy chilli & garlic stuffed olives from the deli. The olives gave this simple veggie pizza the extra kick it needed!

Hey June!

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Hey June, you're here already! Last month I took quite an extended break from blogging for a couple of reasons. I needed to take a step back & not have anything to do or worry about & while it was great to have free evenings to do as I pleased, I do like to be busy & this little blogging hobby definitely keeps me busy & keeps my creative mind ticking up ideas. As soon as I sat down to plan this months blog posts I came up with so many great ideas for all kinds of other projects, illustrations & new content. At the beginning of the year I spent a good amount of time planning new posts and features for this space, & while some have stuck I did let a few of the newer features slide because I just didn't feel like they were a good fit for me on this space. And thats okay, you have to try these things to know they aren't for you. Also at the beginning of this year my little family uprooted and moved back to Newcastle to start things afresh. And while we have been here since the end of March it has only been in the last couple of weeks that we have finally unpacked everything, made space for new furniture & found places for old knick knacks. We also recently switched our internet providers & now we have a much better internet connection, so that was another reason for my extended hiatus. 

I have a couple of months worth of internet to catch up on so I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things & reading new blogs. The few times I did sign into my blog I noticed my feed was flooded with sponsored content & outfit posts. While that is a really great achievement for those bloggers to be able to stock their closets with sent items & blog about it, I would really like to find some new blogs just about everyday life. I like reading about what you did over the weekend, and how you spent your days off. Don't get me wrong I also like seeing what you wore & what you're buying & trying, but I also read magazines so I can get my sponsored fill from those, ya know? Anyway, I'm looking forward to a new outlook this month & once again being focused on positive change & creativity.