cupcakes_4_me

As I sit here munching on a navel orange, I thought I would link you all to a wonderful blog that is written by a friend of mine called Jordan. I read it today and it just makes me love her more and more. She is a fantastic writer and incredibly thoughtful and insightful, i love her to bits and it would be awesome if you would read it!! Well worth your time!!

Here's my mums meatball recipe, its really simple and yummy as. No pictures though as i made it last week sometime.

600g or so minced beef/lamb
Small diced up onion (as fine as you can manage)
Garlic (about 1 tsp or the equivalent in dried/powdered stuff)
2 tbsp stuffing mix or breadcrumbs and some extra seasoning ( i use a dried italian herb mix)
2 eggs beaten
Pinch of mixed herbs (optional)

1) Mix everything together in a large bowl until blended.
2) Put some oil in a fry-pan (but dont turn it on)
3) Roll the mince into balls and place in the fry-pan [tip: have a small bowl of water and dip your hands in it in-between each ball to stop the mix sticking to your fingers]
4) Turn the fry-pan onto medium/high and cool all the sides until there a nice brown.

Serve on top of cooked pasta and heated pasta sauce (i have that going whilst i do the meatballs) and garnish with some basil.

Enjoy!!!

These past couple weeks i have been making some changes so i can be more environmentally friendly =] these are the changes i have made or am in the process of making:

+ Use my "green" bags
+ Swap light bulbs to energy efficient ones
+ Collect water from dripping taps/start of shower to water garden/fill washing machine
+ Use biodegradable cleaning products and use vinegar/bicarb soda for most cleaning (which i do)
+ I bought washable cloths to do my cleaning with :)
+ Make cloth wipes and nappies << in the process of doing
+ Do the dishes & bottles in one sink of water (tho have been doing this one for ages)


Oh and I'm planting a veggie garden in pots =] so far planted some tomatoes last week which has just sprouted today.. and this afternoon/tomorrow i will be planting the rest: spinach, baby carrots, baby cabbage, lettuce and broccoli..cant wait for it to all grow!! I will post pictures once everything starts sprouting he he..

Well anyways that was just a quick little update from me and i will put up the cookie recipe once i get it back from my mum (she borrowed it last week)... they aren't the healthiest of cookies but gosh they're nice

Oh and spaghetti and meatballs for dinner YUMMO!!

x o x
Emma

After visiting www.galadarling.com i was lead to this post by Dumb Little Man.
All I can say is WOW!! Its really made me think. The things that were listed are so simple yet they could do SO much for our health, both inner and outer. I think I need to chuck a few of these things into my life, it could benefit me greatly, which in turn, benefits everybody around me :)!

ALSO... One of my knitting needles has dissapeared, and i had almost finished Evans scarf. On Sunday I unravelled the horrorible oddly shaped piece and restarted.. and i only had a couple more rows to go.. grrr..

This morning I took a couple photos of my gorgeous little boy Evan and MY how he has grown :O its crazy..

This is from another ThreadBanger tutorial :) man, i love that site!! Anyway as the title suggests i made myself a Jean Bag.. it only took me a couple of hours and i am quite proud of my efforts! The jeans were only $5 from good sammys (felt like the biggest shame to chop them up as they looked like they had never been worn :P) and the red shirt i used to line it was $2, again from good sammys! The peacock i had laying around in my craft stuff.. its an iron-on transfer thingy.

Whilst browsing the web i found an absolutely awesome knitting tutorial!!! So i rang my mum borrowed some needles and have been knitting all afternoon :-) and this is what ive done so far:

Hello everyone! Im currently thinking about starting a business, tho its in the embryo stages atm..

This recipe is again from my SILs recipe collection, this one is out of an old womans day magazine. I wrote down how i made it (edited the recipe a bit)

Time Required: 25mins
Serves: 4
+ 200g Rice Vermicellii noodles
+ 500g chicken breast or thigh (skin off) cut into strips
+ 1 tbsp thai-style seasoning (or whatever else you like, i used chives, garlic and cracked pepper)
+ 3 cups chicken stock
+ 1/2 cup coconut milk
+ 150g shredded vegies (i chopped up some carrot and beans for mine)
+ Fish Sauce & Lime Juice to taste (i used oyster sauce and lemon juice)

1) Place the noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 2 - 3mins, drain well and using scissors, roughly chop into shorter lenghts. Set aside.

2) Sprinkle chicken with seasoning mix. Put stock in a large pan and bring to the boil, reduce heat. Add the chicken and cook for 5 - 6min, stirring occasionally. Stir through the coconut milk and vegetables. Simmer for 1 - 2 minutes then season to taste with fish sauce and lime juice.

3) Divide noodles between serving bowls then ladle over the soup.

Finished Product:

It was really, really creamy and delish! Even my fussy boyfriend Aaron ate all of his.. I would reccomend giving it a try.. and i give it a 3.5 out of 5.

xo
Emma

Found this recipe whilst looking through my SILs thousands of recipes (all magazine cutouts), it sounded easy and yummy and it most certainly was!!

+2 cps Grated Cheese
+1.5 cups Sifted self raising flour
+1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (i substituted this for some dried chives from the cupboard, added about a tablespoon)
+1 lightly beaten egg
+1 cup milk
+pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 210C.
Combine the cheese, flour, herbs and egg in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
Then add the milk and salt and stir until everything is combined.
Spoon mixture into a 12cup greased muffin pan and bake for 12 - 15mins or until cooked through.

The finished product:   

Oh and the added bonus? Evan ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM!! There arent many things my 14 month old will sit there and eat, but he had two for breakfast this morning and there isnt a crumb left of them!

So give 'em a try and tell me what you think!!

xo Emma

For the music/movies etc that i like and pictures of me and my child (none of partner but he is my first friend) head over to:
www.myspace.com/cupcake_loving

Anyways this blog is going to be a mixed bag, a bit of fashion, a bit of music, a bit of creativeness.. also some diary entries here and there, some recipes also.. it will have a lot of mum in it but i think it'll be worth reading :D..
Though im new at this so your gonna have to bare with me until i get the hang of things..

Im 18 named Emma, my partner (also baby's daddy) Aaron is 18 and our son Evan is 13months old! We reside in Perth, Western Australia!!

x o x