Wk 11 - Happy, happy, joy, joy!

It's only Tuesday but I'm still feeling cheerful. According to the calendar I should be starting the downward spiral to PMT hell but so far I've felt like I'm on holidays - not stressing about too much, looking forward to going about my jobs, not fussing too much about the ratbag children and feeling like skipping. I suppose it's the power of looking forward to something. It's only 3 sleeps till we go to Melbourne and I'm feeling quite organised. Maybe I need a few more days to get to that frantic "nothing will be ready in time" feeling. It also helped that my hubby did such an awesome job getting the housework and washing done on Sunday, that I was able to start the week with nary a dark cloud to be seen on the horizon!

Yest, I had to get my head around what to do food-wise without buying too many groceries and using up all the bits & pieces in the fridge and larder. And today, I went to work and have planned almost everything up to the last meal. Monday, I did my Soup of the Week, thanks to Notebook Magazine (great mag that!): Roasted Garlic, walnut and Zucchini Soup.

8 garlic cloves unpeeled
3 lge zucchini, sliced
1/4 olive oil
sea salt
2 med brown onions, chopped
1/2 leek, white part only, finely chopped
2 lge potatoes, cubed
1 ltr chicken/vege stock
2 tbs chopped toasted walnuts

Roast garlic and zucchini in hot oven drizzled with olive oil and salt, till golden (about 1/2 hr). Cool. Heat remaining oil in stockpot and add onion and leek and saute till soft. Add potatoes, salt, stock and simmer till potato is tender. Squeeze out cooked garlic into a blender jug, along with zucchini, walnuts and blend till combined. Add the potatoes and stock and blend till smooth.

It was quite a creamy soup and reminded me a bit of potato and leek soup. The flavour is gentle and it is very filling. I used half chook, half vege stock and also forgot to add the walnuts, so just sprinkled them on top.

One of my kids enjoyed having some for dinner but the rest were using up old sourdough bread in their toasted sangers. I was very unhungry after snacking on this and that, so spent the rest of the night on the water.

Today, I enjoyed my last 2 vegan pizza bases for lunch with some luscious bits of salad and tahini, and a little cheese on top. I enjoyed plenty of fruit during the arvo, including a great smoothee and then cooked up a big batch of spaghetti mince so that the kids could have spag bol tonight and there would be plenty left over for tacos tomorrow night. That was great as I got rid of a heap of odds and ends in the fridge including leftover salsa, passata and cannelini beans. I also made up a batch of apple and cranberry muffins to use up a few other bits.

2 small apples peeled & chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used half brown, half palm)
2/3 cup plain flour
2/3 cup wholemeal flour (I used buckwheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 lge egg
1 cup skim milk
4 tbsp vege oil

Add sugar to apple and sit for 5 mins. Mix dry ingreds altogether and then add apple and cranberries to it and mix through. Whisk wet ingreds together and then add to dry. Stir till combined then fill a greased 12 hole muffin tray. Bake in mod oven for 20 - 25 mins.

Well, my muffin fiend child LOVED them and scoffed two straight off the bat, I quite enjoyed my taste although they weren't crumby muffins, more doughy - actually a little doughnutty.

I also had some fresh ricotta cheese that I needed to use up so I relished making some sweet baked ricotta in my mini loaf tins. I used 200g of fresh crumbly ricotta, and about 75g of smooth ricotta (out of a tub) and mixed it with 1 egg, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon & 1 tbsp of honey. They were baked in the oven for about 20 mins, till golden on top and I am looking forward to having them drizzled with a little maple syrup and some toasted macadamias - the perfect dessert!

So while the kids ate their spaghetti, I used up some prawns in an a decadent red thai curry - saute onion, capsicum in vege oil, add curry paste and prawns and caramelise. Add small tin of coconut milk and simmer till prawns cooked thru. Serve over rice or bean sprouts and top with chopped coriander and basil - mmmmmmmmmm.

So there is a great sense of well-being as I sit here and dwell on the staisfying things achieved. I also got lots of little run-around jobs done and some packing as well, so I am HOPING this continues till we leave. Gym in the morning and another day to get as much done as possible.