lunchboxes

Like most mums I have tried everything in regards to things like baby bottles, sippy cups, drink bottles, nappy bags, lunchboxes in the quest to find a really good one (I was going to say perfect but I really hate that word!!) With Amelie starting school it was time to find a really good lunchbox and drink bottle - she used to have 'lunchbox Tuesdays' but doing a lunchbox every day is a whole different ball game!
The lunchbox I've found for her is the one I like the best so far out of all the lunchboxes I've used over the years so I thought I'd share it with you, and the pro's and con's of the other lunchboxes if you are looking to get one for your kids. (Of course it's just my opinion and this isn't a sponsored post or anything!) I do like the other lunchboxes, but for school and for fitting into a school bag I like the Nude one the best.

This is the one I'm using for school and is my favourite- The Nude Food Mover Mini.  I bought it from Plastic Box but you can buy them online from Yum Yum Kids. There is also a larger Nude Food Mover but it is pretty huge!

Nude Food Mover Mini

Pro's

• not too bulky or long so easily fits in her bag along with her book bag and jacket
• easily fits a sandwich, muffin or other treat, raisins, babybel in the main compartment (I don't use the sandwich 'seatbelt') that comes with the lunchbox
• the two pod containers are great for things like pretzels, popcorn, crackers, cheese and carrot sticks, grapes, yoghurt...
• can take out one of the pod containers and put a small apple in the space

Con's

• The only con I can think of is your child losing the lids or the whole containers from the pod compartments so I've labelled the lids and the containers as well.
• and it can't fit a banana

Tupperware lunchbox

Pro's

• lots of compartments so don't need any extra containers which is great

Con's

• can't fit an apple as it isn't very high
• can be quite difficult for kids to open
• I find it a bit too long when stuffing it in a school bag with everything else in there!

Penny Scallan style lunchboxes

Pro's

• look very cute and the kids love the look of them too
• insulated lining
• fits an apple or a banana

Con's

• I found it quite bulky and difficult to fit in a school bag with everything else
• have to use gladwrap, snack bags or a lot of little plastic containers if like me you are not a fan of gladwrap!

Sistema lunchbox 'Quaddie'

Pro's

• compartments on top plus a compartment for small water bottle that comes with the lunchbox so no need for separate containers

Con's

• another one I found just too bulky to easily fit into a schoolbag
• the lid is quite heavy and actually takes up a lot of space in the main lunchbox compartment
• I could just see my 4 year old forgetting to shut the lids on the top compartments properly and then opening up the main lid and anything left in there tipping out everywhere. Maybe not but highly likely!

For her drink bottle I went with this Sistema one I bought from Plastic Box as well. It was only about $5 and is small, light and BPA free (I was looking for a small one as school bags can be heavy enough without a large, heavy drink bottle as well, and there's water fountains at her school too) and it's easy to open and close.

So there you go, my two cents worth on kids lunchboxes...

And here's a couple of tips from a really great blog post I read last year that had heaps of lunchbox tips and ideas but I can't for the life of me remember where I read it (if you have written a kids lunchbox type post let me know!) 

• buy two of the same lunch boxes and drink bottles so you've always got one ready to pack
• freeze a whole lot of muffins and mini muffins so you've got something to grab from the freezer. 

Any more lunchbox tips gratefully appreciated!

Megan x

my creative space: school books

Well my big 5 year old is on to day 3 of school today and wow it has been busy! My fantasy of life getting a bit easier with one at school has been completely turned on its head... getting two, sometimes three kids out the door before the 9am drop off and back at 3 has been a real challenge for me so far! Jack's afternoon sleeps have had to completely change and I actually think I am going to have less time not more because of that! School is going great though and she is very happy so that's good and I'm sure once I get used to it all things will settle down a bit (I hope!)
Anyway, on to my creative space- this was something I did last week that was soooo enjoyable- covering school books. Yes I hear you say - how can that be enjoyable but I really did enjoy doing this- probably helped that I set my little space up with a coffee and the sky remote too!

I had been thinking about how to cover Amelie's school books for a while as I love the creative aspect of this (any excuse to get a bit crafty) and the novelty of covering school books for the first time. I was actually going to cover them in fabric after seeing these great posts from Cotton Kiwi and Ruby in the Dust.

http://cottonkiwi.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/back-to-school-fabric-covered-exercise.html
http://rubyinthedustdolls.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/covered.html

But then I saw some book covers on the amazing Facebook page of Fairy Dust Stationery. Toni designed and printed out her own covers for her daughters school books and folders and covered them with clear duraseal.  I thought this was such a great idea as well - duraseal is not very eco-friendly but having seen how school books get treated it does appeal to keep the books in tact and waterproof! (I used to teach kids who had books covered in wallpaper which looked really great but didn't last long- it would end up ripped and tattered really quickly.) And I loved the idea of designing covers with her name and colours and pictures that I knew Amelie would like.

But life got a bit busy and then I had a brainwave- using my stash of scrapbooking and art paper and card that I have been collecting for ever.  I keep everything for my art/card stash- invitations, cards, packaging, magazine pictures, paint sample cards...anything that catches my eye really.

So in the end I chose some of the papers and card that I knew she would like,  cut them to fit the different school books and stuck them on using a glue stick (I only covered the front of the school books). Then I covered the whole book with clear duraseal. I had 6 books to do and all up this only took me less than an hour.  I also added cute stickers to some of the books and the name labels from Stuck On You (thanks for the advice re: school labels on my facebook page) before covering with the duraseal.

For one of the books I had fun doing a bit of 'patchwork'...

and for one I had this collage picture in my stash that I made about 4 years ago and had never framed so on it went!

I couldn't label the books for each subject as I wasn't sure what each book was going to be for so I added a blank label sticker to the top of each book after covering them.  I got the labels from this gorgeous sticker book "Crafty Stickers" from Book Depository. 

Another fun idea would be to use your children's art works or get them to design their own covers for each book if they're a bit older or use photo's- cut them to fit the book and cover with the clear duraseal- they would love that I'm sure. I still love the fabric idea as well so will keep that in mind for other things like having a special writing or drawing book for home maybe.

And I have to share this great tip from my friend Kylie for school- keep a jar with coins in it - because if you are anything like me you will never have cash in your wallet and there is always something your child will need $$ for school- mufti days, shows, trips, fundraisers etc. And they'll tell you just as you're leaving the house in the morning!

And thank you for all the great ideas about meal planning in my last post Organised Home Challenge: Meal Planning. Using random.org the winner of the tea towel set is Number 10- Miriam! Email me your address Miriam and I'll post the tea towels to you :)

For more creative spaces click here

Megan x

Organised Home Challenge: Meal Planning

It's been a little while since I wrote my last 'organised home challenge' post- just over a year actually! The last one was just before I had Jack and there has not been much organised home stuff going on since then that's for sure. But with Jack now nearly 1 and my eldest starting school I am hoping to make my life a little more organised again. I was inspired to start some meal planning after reading this post on the blog Modern Parents Messy Kids.  I was also reading Annabel Langbein's cook book Free Range in the City and she mentions meal planning and having a weekly plan eg: chicken on tuesdays, slow cooker wed night etc which really appealed to me. The other reasons I want to get into meal planning are

• we cook the same meals a lot and forget about all the other meals we can also cook
• it was taking me ages to choose meals for the week when I did the grocery shopping
• wanting to be more organised so we have all the ingredients we need for dinner and it is at least prepared during the day (if not cooked)
• want to do more cooking of double meals so every 2nd week we don't have to do actually do a lot of cooking
• trying new recipes
• giving the kids a wide variety of meals so they get used to different ingredients and food from different places - I love the idea of having themed dinner nights eg: Mexican night-eat nacho's, listen to mexican music (thank you YouTube!), look on a map to see where Mexico is, have little flags, learn some Spanish words eg: please, thank you, make up a menu etc.

So first off I made a big list of all the meals we already cook or want to cook and sorted them into

Mince, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Lamb, Fish, Pasta, Pizza, Eggs, Salads, Vegetarian and Soups. I used some of our recipe books, my recipe file and searched online for recipes too. 

Then I made up a blank table with a weekly plan (This might not work out every week but at least its a start!)

Mon- Lamb or Pasta

Tues- Mince

Wed- Chicken

Thurs- Beef or soup 

Fri- Fish, Pork or Sausages

Sat- try new recipe or cook a treat meal eg: steak

Sun- easy meal- eggs, soup etc

You can download my (very simple) blank weekly meal plan here- I've also got spaces for trying a new desert each week (really need to learn some more desert recipes as apple crumble is pretty much my only one!)  and baking for the week.

So I thought I'd share my list with you- you could copy and paste it and modify to suit your family if you want.  Some meals in my list have links to a recipe online and as I share/find more recipes I will link to them here. 

I found lots of recipes on the websites below plus a few more like Masterchef, other TV cooking shows and celebrity chef websites too like Jaime Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Annabel Langbein. 

http://www.realstock.co.nz

http://www.foodlovers.co.nz

http://foodinaminute.co.nz

http://www.taste.com.au/

http://www.foodie.co.nz/

MINCE

• Cottage pie
• Meatballs with noodles and tomato sauce
• Meatloaf with mash and peas
• Lasagne
• Homemade cheeseburgers
• Nacho’s MEXICAN
• Taco’s MEXICAN
• Spaghetti Bolognase ITALIAN
• Baked potatoes with mince and cheese
• Chilli Con Carne

CHICKEN

• Chicken Fajita’s MEXICAN
• Slow baked italian chicken (Donna hay recipe)
• Roast chicken with roast potatoes and peas
• Chicken Noodle and Pea soup 
• Chicken drumsticks baked in oven with morocCan seasoning with couscous and roast vegetables (onion, carrot, pumpkin, capsicum, courgette) MOROCCAN
• Crumbed chicken drumsticks with homemade coleslaw
  http://chelseawinter.co.nz/crumbed-chicken-drumstick-recipe/
• Chicken cassoulet FRENCH
• Chicken stir fry with asian egg noodles and vegetables ASIAN
• Chicken Curry (Butter chicken/korma/balti/rogan josh) with naan bread INDIAN
• Chicken Schnitzel
• Chicken Pita Pockets
• Chicken Parmagiana ITALIAN
• Chicken Fricasse FRENCH
• Chicken Fried Rice ASIAN
• Chicken marylands/drumsticks, tomato and olives casserole
• Chelsea Winter Italian chicken and potato bake with mozarella and vinaigrette
• Roasted chicken breast with creamy herb sauce
• Gypsy Chicken
• Chicken Tenders Wraps

BEEF

• Beef and guinness casserole
• Whole scotch fillet with sauce vierge 
• Crumbed beef schnitzel, noodles and corn/peas combo
• Beef stir fry with rice and vegetables ASIAN
• Steak with creamy peppercorn sauce and potato gratin (Annabelle Langbein recipe)
• Steak Sandwiches
• BBQ Sausages
• Hearty Beef Minestrone
• Beef Bourginon
• Curried Sausages
• Beef and Vege Pot Pies
• Crockpot Potato and Sausage Casserole
• Tomato and beef casserole slowcooker recipe
• Creamy mustard sauce beef stir fry

PORK

• Pork sausages, cannellini beans and tomato stew 
• Pork chops, noodles, and peas
• Roast pork
• Pork belly
• Bacon bagels
• Pork Pops with sweet chilli sauce
• Pea and ham risotto
• Hot Dogs
• Scotch eggs

LAMB

• Roast Lamb
• Butterfly Lamb
• Lamb cutlets/lamb rack-with potato rosti's
• Greek style lamb kebabs GREEK 
• Greek style Lamb Steaks with cannellini mash GREEK
• Lamb and rosemary Potato Pie
• Moussaka GREEK
• Moroccan lamb stew MOROCCAN
• Lamb Kofta’s GREEK
• Greek style meatballs in tomato sauce
• Lamb wraps
• warm lamb salad
• Slow cooked lamb and lentils

FISH

•  Crumbed or pan fried fish, french fries and peas or salad

PASTA

• Macaroni cheese with bacon
• Carbonara
• Tomato and olive penne pasta 
• Pea and ham rissoto
• Sundried tomato and cream penne pasta
• Ravioli

PIZZA

• Homemade Pizza’s

EGGS

• Bacon and egg pie
• Breakfast dinner- eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, breakfast sausages
• Omelette
• Boiled/poached/scrambled eggs
• Cheese, bacon and spaghetti pie
• Eggie Surprise (poached egg on toast with spaghetti on top)

SALADS

• Chorizo and potato salad 
• Caesar Salad 
• Greek salad
• Potato salad

VEGETARIAN

•  Falafel with pita bread, salad and yoghurt dressing MIDDLE EASTERN
•  Quiche with bread rolls and salad/peas/beans
•  Frittata 
•  Vegetarian Chilli
•  Vegetable soup with yoghurt and olive oil, garlic and herb topping with cheese on toast 
• Corn fritters with sweet chilli sauce

SOUPS

•  Chorizo and lentil soup
•  Chicken, vegetable and pasta soup
•  Minestrone 
•  French onion soup FRENCH
• Chicken Noodle and Pea Soup

Easy kids meals

• Picky-tea- boiled eggs, sausages, cheese, carrot and gherkin sticks, sausage rolls?
• Sushi

The other thing I've finally done is set up a master list for my grocery shopping- I shop online with Countdown.  I was re-inventing the wheel every week adding the same stuff and the same amounts to my basket so now I can just add all of that straight away and then add any other extras we need plus the ingredients for dinners. Can't wait to see how much quicker it is next week having that done!
Have you been doing any organising lately or have any organising you want to do? Or do you have  a favourite dinner or desert recipe on your blog that you'd like to share? Or just some more ideas for meals or categogories?  Leave a comment and you'll be in to win this cute tea towel set :)

Thanks for reading and happy organising!
Megan

Winter Clothes

I love corduroy for kids winter clothes- warm, hardwearing and just a little bit of an old fashioned vibe to it. I went to Spotlight in the weekend when they had their 40% off sale and they had the most gorgeous range of printed corduroy for boys and girls. I bought some of this cream Babushka's cord and made a really quick skirt for my 5 year old for school.

Teamed with a long sleeve top and leggings from JK's in their 25% off sale it's a great little outfit for a small cost really!

I was also lucky last week to find this cute- as brown corduroy Nature Baby dress in Zero To Five (a second hands kids store here in Tauranga and the Mount) for my 3 year old for $9 -score!

Even though it didn't really need it I added a few hearts (inspired by one of my favourite bloggers Clare at Greenvalley Crafts).

This will look so cute with a long sleeve top or merino underneath and some stockings :)
I love sewing....
Megan x

Meals for new mums

It was really lovely to read a comment from Lisa at Sweet Georgia and the Crafty Squirrel recently saying that some of the recipes I have put on my blog have become family favourites-they are mostly my hubby's recipes as he is a far better cook than I am!  It's been a while since I shared a recipe on here but this one by NZ chef Ray McVinnie is one I've been meaning to share for ages as it's a real goodie.

Chicken Fricassée by Ray McVinnie

There are 5 reasons why I love cooking this meal for a friend who has just had a baby.

1.  It is all cooked in the one pot.
2.  A whole meal- meat, potatoes and veges- is in this dish so all a new mum or dad has to do is heat it up- there's no need to add anything.
3. Toddlers and children will eat this meal as well- well mine luckily do and my friends' 19 month old did as well!
4. If you break it up with a fork it's also a great meal for a baby- Jack loved it tonight (being on the tramp with his crazy sisters for nearly an hour might have helped him build up an appetite though!)
5. The chicken, bacon, baby potatoes and creamy sauce make it a really tasty dinner which is a nice treat for new parents.

This recipe comes from Ray McVinnie's cookbook 'Everyday Sunday' (his collected recipes from the Sunday Star Times 'Sunday' magazine).  

I have found it enough for 4 adults and 2 or 3 children +baby as well. There are a lot of ingredients but it is an easy meal to cook.

"Fricassée is a French term for a traditional dish of white meat like chicken or veal in a creamy sauce with vegetables."

3 tbls olive oil
3/4 tsp dried tarragon
3 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 stick celery, thinly sliced
1 leek, thinly sliced
5 rashers rindless bacon, chopped
300 g button mushrooms, halved
6 skinned and boned single chicken breasts, each cut into 3 across the grain of the meat
125ml dry white wine
12 baby waxy potatoes, well scrubbed
750ml chicken stock
3 tbls cornflour mixed with 3 tbls water
250ml fresh cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup coarsly chopped chervil (or parsley), plus exta for garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large, wide, deep pan over moderate heat. Add the tarragon, garlic, onion, carrot, celery, leek, bacon and mushrooms. Fry gently, without browning, for about 10 minutes until the onion is soft.
2. Add the chicken and mix well, letting the chicken colour all over. Add the wine and let it bubble then add the potatoes and chicken stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are tender.
3.  Bring back to the boil and stir in the cornflour slurry to thicken the fricassee.  Stir in the cream and bring back to the boil again.
4. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add the chervil and mix well. Remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes so the chicken absorbs the sauce.
5. Serve sprinkled with extra chervil.

Other meals I can think of that are good to take around to new mums are lasagne, shepherds/cottage pie, meatloaf, chicken soup, chicken pie, sausage, bean and tomato stew- would love to hear of more ideas- (maybe you have a recipe on your blog and could put a link to it?)

Megan x

my creative space: a fabric bookmark

Finally a creative space post- a little something I made the other evening for my nearly 5 year old Amelie. I have been really looking forward to reading chapter books with Amelie so I thought I'd make a little fabric bookmark to mark the occasion so to speak!  I received this amazing bag of scrap fabric from Nin last week as part of her 'Scrap Bag Swap'- what a treat to go through all the gorgeous fabrics.

Amelie and I had heaps of fun choosing our favourites- there was some debate going on in regards to some of the fabrics that we both wanted for our stash's (yes Amelie has a stash already ;) so I used some of the fabrics she chose for the front of the book mark...

..and this beautiful yellow fabric for the back- we both love this fabric :)

Thank you so much again Nin for the fabric, and for organising such a great swap. Check out Nin's blog as she has made a Scrap Bag Swap Tutorial page - there are lots of great ideas for things to do with fabric scraps.

I made a pile of the chapter books I want to read with Amelie first- most of them from when I was a child hence the tattered look of them! The only one missing is Pippi Longstocking which I will need to buy as that is one of my favourite books- I have very happy memories reading about Pippi's adventures.

Here's my list if you are wanting some ideas for chapter books for your children...

• Little Old Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Proysen (I bought a second hand box set from TradeMe)
• Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
• Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
• Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Road Dahl
• The Twits by Roald Dahl
• Falter Tom and the Water Boy by Maurice Duggan (this is a wonderful story but is now out of print and quite hard to find- I managed to get a copy from a secondhand book dealer)
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Famous Five series of books by Enid Blyton

And just had to share this- if you are wanting something to keep the kiddies amused for a while- read them this picture book...

The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch by Ronda and David Armitage, 

then give them a basket tied onto a rope and loop it over something like this or a tree branch and show them how to pull the basket up and down like a pulley just like in the story. The girls spent nearly an hour (honestly!) filling up the baskets and pulling them up and down!!

Would love to hear of your favourite children's novels or authors :)
For more creative spaces click here

Megan x

A mousehouse playhouse

Hi all and Happy Valentines Day to you!  I mentioned a few week back that I had a playhouse reno to share and have finally got around to collating my pics so you can take a look. This project was the reason my grand plan of handmade christmas presents went out the window last year (really need to prioritise my projects...) and yet another reason why my hubby thinks I am (just a bit) crazy.
It was seeing Stella's gorgeous play kitchen that she and her hubby made for her 2 year old that finally got me inspired- I just loved it as did my two girls when I showed them Stella's photo's. I always wanted a Wendy house as a child so this project was really me fulfilling my dream of a little weatherboard cottage kitchen- in fact if I lived in a little cottage I would pretty much want to decorate it just like this!
Here are a few Before pics of the inside the playhouse. We got it 3 years ago from here - I painted the exterior soon after getting it (which took ages) so for the inside we just bought a little toy oven, put in a bench on both sides of the house, added a sink and taps and a shelf from Bunnings and a blackboard from Warehouse Stationery.  It has been the best thing over the last 3 years to have outside- they girls love it, as do their little pals that come round.

  

And here are the After pics...

First off my hubby made the three shelves to go right across the wall above the bench. Then I painted the whole interior white and the floor grey.

 

For the colour scheme I had the idea of using the colours in Orla Kiely's multi stem fabric print (one of my favourite prints). So I ordered a metre of the fabric from ebay.co.uk and made the skirt to go under the bench and hide the plastic storage bins under there. 

And then I found this gorgeous set of Duraware cups and plates (called tennis sets) on TradeMe which pretty much matched the colours in the fabric. Duraware is great as it is like a very strong melamine- everything for the playhouse has to be very durable having seen what happens to it in there over the last 3 years!

To choose the colours for the scallop bunting I took the cups into Bernina here in Tauranga and found this lovely 'linen-look' fabric they had just got in in every colour imaginable so it was really easy to match the cup colours to the fabric.  Then it was just a trip to my favourite op shop to find some more stuff and a few more Trademe purchases and it was done. The girls loved it and it got them re-enthused about playing in it which was great.  I should add that it looks nothing like this now- most days it looks like a mini tornado has been through it and most of the stuff ends up on the lawn but hey it was still a fun project!

Here are some details about some of the other things in the playhouse

'Learn the alphabet' wooden toy from second hand kids shop Zero to Five. Phone from Kahu's Nest- a second hand shop that's part of the Raglan Transfer Station.

The microwave was a gift and the yellow scales were from TradeMe. There's a little shop till that sits on the bench too but it's not aesthetically pleasing enough to be in the photo hehe. The microwave and the phone are drilled to the bench- if you have small children you'll know why- heavy phone pulled onto little toes not fun! 

Vintage sifter and measuring cup from TradeMe. The sifter is a Bonco one if you like the look of it.

Fairy Friends print I won in a giveaway from Charlotte and Austen. Shelf from an op-shop that I painted. Flowers in glass jar purely for photograph- they would last about 2 minutes in there! 

Pots from Op-shop, play food from The Warehouse. 

Hope you enjoy the pics and thanks again Stella for the inspiration:) 

Megan