baked muesli

I don't know about you, but I love school holidays.  The pace is slower (because we don't need to be flying out the door at 7.40am every morning), the weather is cooler (which totes means it's acceptable to stay in your PJ's for as long as you want) and the kids are busy with play dates, movie marathons and  whatever else it is they're doing while I'm faffing about in the kitchen.  This morning, the slower school holiday pace meant I had plenty of time to whip up this delicious Baked Muesli, which I found over on pinterest.

Here's what you'll need to make your own at home:

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 chopped walnuts

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup milk

1 large egg, slightly beaten

2 tbsp melted butter

1 banana

1 cup berries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen)

And here's how you make it:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 deg C
2. mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl
3. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients
4. slice the banana and spread it over the bottom of a baking dish
5. top with half of the berries
6. sprinkle the dry oat mixture over the suit
7. pour the liquid mixture evenly over the oats
8. sprinkle the remaining berries over the top
9. bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is browned and the oats have set
10. let cool 10 minutes before serving

You'll get 4-6 serves out of this mix and anything left over can be stored in the fridge and re-heated the next morning.  And FYI, I told my gorgeous Sister-in-Law about this recipe this morning and she replied with the following sentence: "That sounds so good.  And perfect for the carb loading I'm doing at the moment in preparation for the half marathon I'm running on Sunday." BOO-YAH PEEPS, I'm eating like an effing marathon runner!!!!!

meal planning 101

So the lovely Beth from Achoo You is keen to know how I do the whole meal planning thing.  While I'm certainly no expert, I am totes organised/OCD/OTT when it comes to all things of a housekeeping nature, so brace yourself peeps, for some hardcore Meal Planning tips and tricks....

Step One:  Preparation
Get yourself a meal planner.  Mine's from Kikki K, although I have seen similar ones sold at Target and Kmart.  I like this one, because it has a massive magnet on the back, which means I can stick it to the fridge to refer to during the week.

Step Two:  Planning

Actually planning the meals takes me about 10 minutes.  And here's how I do it...

1.  I grab my planner and any recipes that I might like to use for the week ahead.  

2.  I only plan for dinners, which leaves the breakfast and lunch sections free to write notes etc in.  I usually write in any appointments/after school activities etc that we might have that week in the breakfast section, just to remind me of what the hell is going on!  Then I just sit and think about what I feel like making each night.  Sometimes I'll ask the kids if there's anything they would like and I almost always drag out a recipe book and have a crack at whipping up a dish I haven't made before.  This is the recipe book I'm using this week...(I'm going to throw together a baked lamb curry on Friday night.  Page 81 for those of you playing along at home.)

3.  Once I've asked the kids what they would like for dinner**, flicked through a recipe book or two and had a bit of think, I fill in the meals for each night...

**FYI:  asking the kids what they want for dinner, doesn't mean they will actually get that meal.  I just like to ask them to a) involve them, b) get ideas & c) keep on track with my never ending quest to win Mother of the Year.

While I'm filling in the meals, I make a list in the lunch section of any ingredients that I might need and then transfer that little list to a notebook that I carry in my handbag (like I said earlier, I'm totes OTT) which I refer to when I'm doing the actual shopping.  Here's what the planner looks like when I'm finished....

All up the process takes me about 10 minutes.  And saves me about 100 bucks at the supermarket cos I'm no longer wandering up and down the aisles wondering what the hell I'll cook for dinner each night and aimlessly throwing stuff in the trolley.  And, I'm in and out of that supermarket in under 35 minutes.  Cos I'm totes a power shopper.

How about you?  Did you find that helpful or were you totes rolling your eyes at me and my OTT Meal Planning abilities? 

a little celebration

Hey, so I'm just a little bit excited cos I've just seen that we've ticked over 30,000 page views and have reached 40 official followers. Ok, so I'm not exactly reaching the masses with those figures, but I still reckon it deserves a celebratory drink...

and possibly a trip to the shops....you know.  To celebrate. 

I'll be back later in the week with some Meal Planning tips and tricks and a recipe or two.   In the meantime, thanks so much for supporting my little blog.  I really appreciate it xox

Meal Planning Monday

Righto, so as most of you know, I'm a bit of a Meal Planner.  

And yes, that really is a picture of my meal planning.  

Because it's school holidays and I can't be bothered hitting the shops with two kids in tow, I'm going to try and use whatever's in my pantry and freezer for this week's meals. So, with that in mind,  here's what's on the menu at Team K&Co's place this week:

MONDAY:
hamburgers with mac & cheese
I found 4 patties that I'd made a few weeks ago in the back of the freezer.  Score!


TUESDAY:
roast chicken 
world's biggest chook is defrosting as we speak/type/read


pavlova 
totally going to cheat and use a pavlova egg that was bought for a school project and not used....long, weird story...let's just say that Year 6 is all about the science projects


WEDNESDAY:
chicken, bacon and leek pies 
will use leftover meat from the world's biggest roast chook


THURSDAY:
chicken burgers 
I have 3 chicken breasts in the freezer, so I'll use those.  I know.  It's totally chicken overload this week!


FRIDAY:
steak sandwiches 
I'll have to buy the steak, but just quietly, by Friday I think we'll all be ready for some red meat!


SATURDAY:
oven baked lamb curry.  
I've never made this before, but I'm going to give a go.  If it's an epic fail, then it'll be Thai Takeaway all round!


SUNDAY:
Leftovers/help yourself/mum can't be bothered cooking.  Which may or may not be my favourite night of the week x


How about you?  Do you meal plan or totally wing it?  Tell me everything....

Little Suzy Homemaker: Muesli Magic

So I've been on a bit of health kick lately and have taken to whipping up my own muesli.  Don't panic, because it's nowhere near as daunting as it sounds, and the end result really is quite delicious.  See...

Here's what you'll need to make your own at home:

4 cups rolled oats

1 cup rice puffs (sorry, I totes forgot to take a pic of the packet but you'll find them in the health food aisle of your supermarket)

1 cup walnuts (or any other nut you'd prefer)

couple of large spoonfuls of LSA (again, find this in your health food aisle)

1/4 canola oil

big blob of honey

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

And here's how you make it:

1.  Pre heat your oven to 150 degrees C

2.  Pour your dry ingredients into an oven dish...

                    (this is what rice puffs look like)                                       (oats)

                                                                           (walnuts)

LSA

 3.  Pour in the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

4.  Now here comes the painful bit...you need to cook the mixture for about 90 minutes, stirring it every 15 minutes.  If you don't stir it every 15 minutes, the nuts will burn and taste, well burnt.  But trust me, the tedious mixing and oven watching is totally worth it.

I like to serve mine with a sprinkling of Chai Seeds (again, find these in the health freak section of your supermarket), skim milk and fruit (in the warmer months I use frozen raspberries and in the cooler months I use a chopped up banana...because my old nanna teeth don't cope well with cold things in winter)  Enjoy!

the week that was

So last week started off with the blog Turning One.  On the same day as the Queen's Birthday.  Coincidence?  I think not.  So we celebrated with crappy candles and a public holiday.  Where I put Scott to work, and got him to do what he does best.  Lift heavy objects and hang things up.  See...

Crappy DIY Candle.

Somehow I don't think I'll be opening at Etsy shop anytime soon!

Scott.  Looking good while fixing things.  He's quite the catch.

Tuesday was spent marvelling at my new look blog.  Thanks Sharnee.  You did a great job.  Oh and there was also some hardcore housework done and a bit of baking.  Cos it's not all blogs and makeovers around here.  Well not all the time, anyway.

I don't know about you, but I'm still loving the new logo sick.

Wednesday was spent on an excursion.  At a Wildlife Park.  I know.  I don't know who I am anymore either.  After putting in a solid 4 hours with all things nature related, I declared myself Mother of the Effing Year and demanded a cocktail.  Except I couldn't get one because I was trapped on a bus with 60 tired children.  For.An.Hour. 

Look I'm not going to lie, the Koala's were cute.  

But the snakes?  And the Brolga?  And the Dingo? 

 Yeah, not so much.

Which brings me to Thursday.  Where I woke up sick as a dog.  Probably because my body was in shock from interacting with so much wildlife the day before. After doing the morning school run, I dragged myself to the doctors who gave me a long list of over the counter medicines that would allegedly help my recovery, before telling me to do nothing but rest for the next few days.  Um, have we met?  And do you have children?  Somehow, I think not.

Anyho, after dropping a lazy 50 at the chemist (I mean really, who doesn't love spending their hard earned on pharmaceuticals?) I did exactly what the doctor told me to and rested.  Well, in between school runs, karate drop offs and drama classes, I rested.  Yep, I totally neglected the housework, only cooked one meal, didn't leave the house between the hours of 9am and 3pm...not even to go to the shops...and spent a lot of time sleeping like a bear hurtling towards hibernation.  

Which meant that Scott and the kids were kept very busy looking after the housework, the meals, the everything.  And I'm so grateful for their efforts.  They've looked after me so well in the last 5 days, that I'm almost back to my normal, healthy self.  And won't the good people at Myer be pleased to hear that?!

How about you?

Is your house as germ ridden as mine?

And are you actively encouraging your children to become pharmacists when they grow up?

Or maybe that's just me....

PS:  Most of the photos in this post were taken using my all time favourite app, Instagram.  My Instagram handle is kandco, or you can click on the Instagram badge thingy whatsit on the side of this blog, you know, if you want to follow me and my mad photographic/filtering skills.  Or not.  Totes up to you xox

a fresh new look

So as most of you would already know, the blog turned 1 yesterday.  And today, she has a fresh, new, slightly grown up look.  What do you think?

The very clever Sharnee from Suck My Lolly put it together for me and just quietly, I'm thrilled with the results!  I can't thank Sharnee enough for her hard work and mad design skills that went into the bloggy makeover and highly recommend her if you ever need any blogging templates whipped up.  She's super efficient, very reasonably priced and very, very patient when it comes to high maintenance newbie bloggers who asks lots of questions and request numerous changes.  Or so I've heard.

how much do we love the new logo?!

Anyho, feel free to have  a look around the newly improved K&Co. blog.  You might even like to start following the blog officially...just scroll down to the 'lovely followers' ribbon (which I'm loving sick btw) and click to follow.  Or you could grab my button for your own blog.  Or leave a comment with your thoughts (good, bad or otherwise) on the new look blog.  Really, the options are endless....

happy birthday

So today this little blog is celebrating it's first birthday.  I know.  They grow up so fast.

I was planning on throwing a bit of a party to celebrate, you know with cake and champagne and all that good stuff.   I even had a crack at blinging up a candle, just like this one that I saw over on  pinterest

source

But just quietly, I don't think crafting with a hot glue gun and teeny tiny crystals is my strong point. ...

So I put the stupid hot glue gun down and did what any normal mother/blogger would do.  That's right.  I had a drink.  Or two.

Don't panic, I didn't have an apple martini with a Budweiser chaser.  

The Bud belongs to Scott.

Now I don't normally condone drinking as a way to solve your problems,

but lovely readers, those two martini's went down a treat and made me realise that a blog's first birthday, which happens to also fall on the day that we celebrate the Queen's Birthday, doesn't require crappy blingy candles or a cake.  No, it requires all attention to be directed towards The Queen.  

And when your good friends send you pictures like these:

with the words "this sounds like something for your hardcore royalist self"

you take up that challenge and you take it up hard.

So Lovely Readers, this is how the K&Co. blog celebrated it's First Birthday....

with a hardcore celebration of the Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee.

Because let's face it, I've always thought of myself as a bit of a Princess.

So there we have it.

One year down...not sure how many to go?

How about you?

Did you do anything exciting this weekend?

Tell me everything....

little suzy homemaker: chocolate chip scone

Righto, so here we go with what it quite possible the yummiest scone recipe you'll ever whip up.  Big call, I know.  But it's really delicious and despite the fact that a) it's not a scone in the traditional sense and b)there being far too many steps in making it for my liking, it's totally worth it.  Promise.

Here's what you'll need to make yours at home....

(please excuse the crappy photo quality.  I used my iPhone because I couldn't be bothered going upstairs to get my fancy pants proper camera.  Totes regretting that laziness now.)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups self raising flour

3 tbsp chilled and chopped butter

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1 egg white

1 tblsp sugar

Method:

whack the buttermilk, sugar, vanilla and egg into a bowl.

Whisk it up.

In another bowl, throw together your flour and butter...

blend it together using either a couple of knives (totes old school)

or use your kitchenaid (totes snobby new school) or other mixing appliance....

Once the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs,

throw in your chocolate chips

(Don't forget to taste test them first.  You know.  To make sure they're not off)

Pour in your egg and sugar mixture...

and blend until it looks like a bit of a dough...

Sprinkle flour onto a clean surface....

and tip the dough mixture onto it....

Flour your chubby little sausage fingers as well.

This will stop the dough from sticking to said fingers.

and knead until it looks like this....

Place the ball of dough onto a baking tray that you've lined with baking paper

and press into a flat-ish circle...

Cut the dough into 8 pieces.

Or 12, if you're sensible and prefer smaller portion sizes.

Clearly I don't adhere to that ridiculous policy.

Whisk your egg white...

and spread it over the scone....

Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the top...

and whack it on the oven for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees C.

30 minutes if you have the world's slowest oven, 

which is in desperate need of replacement.

And that's it!

You're done.

Serve piping hot with lashings of thick whipped cream and a scoop of ice-cream,

before passing out on the couch in a sugar coma.

Enjoy!