How to make oven fries

I have finally found a way to get my kids to eat potato.

Now, potato is not a must-have, it is very carb heavy and from testing when I had gestational diabetes, I know that eating it makes my blood sugar go up and stay up for too long. Or maybe that's just when I'm pregnant, I haven't actually checked it regularly since.

But, organic spuds are a beautiful, earthy thing to behold I find, and I don't mind my kids and hubby eating them once in a while. As long as they ARE organic and not laced with any nasty stuff.

So , frozen oven fries from the supermarket are O.U.T.

And this is what is in:

Home made oven fries

Scrub some (preferably organic) potatoes, leaving the skins on.

Any type of spud is fine, I have used kipfler recently and they worked well, much less insipid looking than your average white spud.

Slice them super thinly, the thinner you slice, the crispier they will become. I slice the spuds into thin sheets, then stack the sheets up a few at a time and chop them into matchsticks.

(You'll notice in my picture, they are not sliced that thinly. I have since learnt that thinner is better.)

Throw your spud matchsticks in an oven proof dish, and dribble on some olive oil.

Keep them to one layer, don't pile them on top of each other.

Grind salt and pepper over them and toss them round till coated.

You can also sprinkle over some paprika or another flavour instead.

(See, much too chunky here, thinner IS better, at least in this situation)

Heat your oven to 200c/400f and when it's hot, put your dish in and set the timer for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, toss them around a bit more and put them back in for about another 20 minutes.

Add some dip or sauce if you like and you're done.

Note: Today I discovered if you put them on a TRAY, instead of in a dish, they cook a lot faster, so be sure to adjust your cooking times to allow for thickness of spud and whatever you are cooking them on.

I whipped some of these up today when we had unexpected guests for the second showing of the Grand Final, as believe it or not, last week's Grand Final was a draw.

Quick (to prepare) and easy, kept everyone happy :)

Everyone outside! Introducing, The Swinging Thing

I've been struggling this week. 

Last week, and the one before that, it seemed like I was on a natural high, nothing got me down.

This week, I'm doing it all with gritted teeth.

The boys are picking at each other every given opportunity, the weather is cold, windy and grey, we're in a small house and, and, and.......I'm just on edge and crabby.

Yesterday, I walked the boys up to pre-school and dropped off my 5 year old. 

Then I had to run back to one store to retrieve my wallet I thought I had left there.

 It wasn't there, which lead me to unpack the double jogger of blankets, wheat bags, snack for 2 year old and a few groceries.

 My wallet was underneath it all. Of course.

20 minutes later we were ready to trek back home and I had to race back to where I had unpacked the jogger earlier to retrieve one of the kids blankets I had left on a shelf in the store. Right.

Today we went off to swimming lessons only to realise while in the pool and still about 20 minutes from lesson time, that lessons are actually on TOMORROW.

The same day of the week that the lesson was on LAST week. And the week before that. Duh.

And yesterday afternoon my 5 year old developed a peculiar eye-rolling tic, which appears to be involuntary and is just a tad worrying. Off to the Dr and chiro for him tomorrow.

Sooooo, getting the boys outside is a hugely important part of my day, even more so this week, for the sanity of all, to get us some sun (hopefully), blow out the cobwebs, burn off some energy and get my head on straight again.


Enter, The Swinging Thing.

Take some old pantyhose or stockings and cut one leg off at the knee.


Ball up some newspaper and shove it down into the toe.

Tie a knot in the stocking just above the newspaper.

Wa lah. You have made a Swinging Thing.

See it?

There it goes!

Now see how long it takes them to throw it on a roof.

But seriously, these are cheap to make and great fun.
 Perfect for open spaces and if you play a game of see-how-far-away-mum-can-throw-it, you'll keep then entertained for hours.

Certainly long enough to blow away my cobwebs. Phew, what a week!

Extending the life of kids clothes

I sometimes look at my two little boys and mentally go over what they're wearing, partly to take delight in my frugalista mama ways.
You see, nearly all of their clothes were bought second hand, which is such a great saving that I wonder why anybody anywhere would buy their kids clothes new.

Lucky for me they do, otherwise I wouldn't be able to buy them second hand, would I?

Why do I love buying second hand clothing for my kids?

• All the extra dyes and chemical stuff have been washed out already.
• It is a form of recycling.
• It is a GIANT money saver.
• My kids wear good quality clothing brands that I would not otherwise buy.
• Wearing clothes that I bought for $1 per peice means I am not precious about their clothes at all. Want to wrestle with your mates on the muddy playing field? Go for it. Need to splash your way through those calf-high puddles? Knock yourself out. I'm not sure I would say that if they were wearing a new $25 pair of jeans and $19.95 top, but $1 per piece? I'm comfortable with that.

The issue I'm finding now though, is that as boys get older...and maybe girls too but I have no experience there..they tend to wear their clothes out. Particularly their jeans.
As in, wearing them until the knees are threadbare and the hems are raggy.

So it's harder finding jeans in that size at all and often if I can find some, the knees look like they might last just one last wrestle. But then if the rest of the garment is fine, adjustable waist, plenty of pockets, good length, no stains or holes....for a couple of $$, I'll take 'em.

And patch 'em.

Just cut some heavy fabric to size, cotton drill or cord work well, fold the edges of the patch under, pin and sew. It is a wee bit awkward and you need to take the platform thingy off from around the foot of your machine, but it can be done.

I used to use those small stick on/sew on patches that come in shapes and characters, but then the knee would wear through above that and I'd need to re-do the whole thing with a bigger patch. And those little suckers were expensive too!

These ones are just a wee bit big for Mr 2, they're a size 4, see where the knee patches are?

I've also cut jeans off and hemmed them into shorts
and, if you have a girl, you could try this:
(In fact, I wish I had a girl JUST so I could try this!)

(Image is from youcanmakethis.com)


You can get the pattern for this in e-book form at You Can Make This.com or if you're crafty you can probably figure out how to do it yourself.

And this link has excellent how-to instructions, including pictures, for giving a favourite but outgrown tee shirt a new lease on life.

It does help to have a sewing machine but that doesn't need to be expensive either. I found mine on ebay, one of my favourite places to shop, cheapie that I am!

How to make a snow cake

If you're after a quick, cheap but entertaining activity, this one's for you.

My little fellas and I tried this out one morning after reading a kid's book entitled The Lemon Sisters.

Straight after breakfast, actually, as can be evidenced by the stack of bowls in the sink and the washcloths lined up in front of the sink. If I'd got the 'lil fella in a picture you'd see him in his footy pjs and if I got me in a photo, you'd see me in all my morning glory. So be thankful I didn't.

I think the author actually called it lemon ice, but somewhere in the book they talked about a snow cake and that's what stuck in our heads, so snow cake it was.

Now, in our hemisphere there actually IS snow around at the moment, though not close to where we live.

If you had real, clean snow you could certainly use it or you could do as we did and crush some ice instead.

If you happen to be living in the OTHER hemisphere though, this is a great little cool treat for a hot day.

Just sayin', ya know, in case anyone's HOT over there.

OK.

First up, gather some snow, or, crush some ice in a high powered blender.

Or in your thermomix, as I did.

Scoop some snow into a bowl and squeeze over some lemon juice.

Now sprinkle over some sugar.

Using white sugar obviously keeps it all white, but you could use brown sugar or rapadura instead.

Layer more juice and sugar and snow, as many layers as you like.

Scoop into bowls and enjoy.

Now chase the 'lil fella round the house to get him out of his thoroughly sticky, damp, lemony pjs and wipe down all kitchen surfaces that have lemon juice, sugar and melted snow drips on them.

Mmm mmm, ' twas tasty though...

Could you do without your washing machine?

When my washing machine broke down last week it was full of cloth nappies/diapers and cloth wipes.

In their just-emptied-from-the-nappy-bucket-so-as-yet-unwashed-at-all state.

Yum.

As well as some family cloth that my 5 year old uses.

Well, mostly him, occasionally the rest of us use it too.

Extra yum.

The machine, a front loader, filled itself, then would not start to spin but switched itself off.

I tried to start it again, with the same result.

So, the machine is full of very soggy, unwashed cloth nappies, cloth wipes and family cloth.

Mmmm mmmm.

I pity the poor technician who has to come and fix it.

I rang the company, who agreed to fix it under warranty even though it is eight days out of warranty.

Eight freaking days!? Do they program these things to break down in that time period??

One would hope not....

So I don the rubber dishwashing gloves and haul everything out of the machine and back into the bucket.

Buckets, plural. Everything seems to have multiplied.

And start thinking of my options.

Throw the stinky, drippy buckets in the car and drive around to find a laundromat. Blerk.

Leave them in the buckets for the week-to-10-days it will take the company to order a new motor and install it. Worried that the nappies etc will start to go mouldy on this option.

Start to realise how ridiculously reliant I am on this silly but useful modern day machine.

Determine that I will deal with this myself, in house.

Google hand-washing-cloth-nappies and find that other people wash cloth nappies by hand, so I can too.

The bath. Of course!

I dumped in the buckets, gave everything that needed it a bit more of a rinse directly under the tap, then filled the bath with the hottest water the taps can produce.

I then swished them all round with a big stick and squeezed and scrubbed with my gloved hands.

And drained the water.

That's the pre-rinse cycle on my machine.

Then I filled the bath again with hot water and some detergent and added a couple of kettles full of just boiled water for good measure.

And swished, squeezed and scrubbed as per above.

That's the wash cycle on my machine.

I know you were just dying to see it, so here it all is.

(Ignore the pink, yes, I only have boys but the pink nappies were a deal I couldn't turn down...)

Filled it again with hot and let it all soak.

That's the extra rinse cycle I use for washing nappies in my machine.

Drain.

Wrung it all out by hand.

Oi, one of these old fashioned wringers would have come in handy right about then.

(As a kid, our neighbours had one and we thought it was the coolest thing ever!)

Peg it out on the drying racks and wait several days for everything to dry because we're officially in winter - not good drying weather.

Then I do one load of towels this way before I decide to send hubby to the laundromat with a couple of loads of essentials.

Conclusion:

I could possibly live without a washing machine.

I would however need to be very organised and have a better wringing out system than just my hands, as that would help with subsequent drying time.

And summer would help too.

However, the machine was fixed this afternoon, so it's a moot point.

The technician did say though, that on the brand of machine I have, the 5 year extended warranty option would have been a good investment. Oh.

(LG, in case you're wondering. And he said the same for Samsung.)

And the new motor has a 3 month warranty. Ack.

I hope there's no more handwashing cloth nappies in my immediate future....

No shampoo! Or, Another revelation.

I decided this week I would try out a method of hair washing I had heard about a number of times recently.

This method involves no shampoo, only baking soda, water and apple cider vinegar.

If it were to work, I would be able to cut my $20 bottle(s!) of shampoo out of the shopping budget, AND, I would stop lacing my scalp with a mixture of Sodium laurel sulphate, Methlyparaben and Ethylparaben, to name but a few of the less desirable ingredients.

I'm a bit particular about my hair, it's dark, longish and wavyish and I like it.
(Ok, this is an old photo, this lil guy is 5 now, but my hair is largely the same.
Umm, just more grey.)

Usually, I like it.

But not right now because I'm sporting a REALLY BAD HAIRCUT which I detailed here.

However, a really bad haircut combined with nasty looking greasy hair would be much worse, so I decided the time is right to try this new method, as I am not working outside the home. Mostly.

The worst that would happen is the lifeguards at the pool would reel back in horror and the other mums in the playground would keep their distance.

So try it I did.

And it works!

My hair is just as it should be, apart from the bad haircut of course.

It's not greasy, or too dry, or heaven forbid, smelling of vinegar.

And a big positive, my scalp is much less itchy than it has been lately, I have a feeling all the nasties in my expensive shampoo where drying out and irritating my scalp.

Here's what to do if you would like to try it:

Wet your hair. Duh.

Make a thickish paste of baking soda with a bit of water.

Massage the paste onto your scalp.

Rinse it off well.

Mix about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar with 3/4's cup of water. More or less.

Rinse your scalp and the length of your hair with this.

Rinse with water. Or not. I did.

Dry as normal.

How easy, and cheap, and environmentally friendly is that???

I love it!

Homemade birthday cakes

I don't claim to know how much a store-bought decorated cake costs as I have never bought one, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be much cheaper to make your own.

And most probably it will taste better and if you like, it could be better for you, too.

This year, my about-to-turn 5 year old requested a Batman ice cream cake.

Um, right.

That means I won't be using my best ever birthday cake cake recipe.

And I even resorted to the idea that I would source and buy the Batman decal for the top of said ice cream cake. Because my decorating skills......and time and patience....only stretch so far.

Except by the time I came to this realisation, it was Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

And I needed the cake for Monday of course.

So, a trip to the grocery store to buy 2 x 2 litre tubs of ice cream, a rummage through the cupboards to unearth some marshmallows (expired but hey, they worked) and the appropriate colours, hubby on the net finding the Batman insignia and wah lah!

I was ready to cake it up.

My idea was to squash the ice cream into the correct sized spring form tin....that's the circle tin with the removable base, and make some marshmallow fondant with which to decorate the top.

And, it worked, see?

The marshmallow fondant recipe is here.

I used yellow colour and tumeric for the yellow and I mixed cocoa and black colour for the black. Although to get it really black in a short space of time (it was nearly 10pm Sunday night) I painted black food colour directly on it.

Now, I'm not big on my kids eating food colouring, or marshmallows for that matter, but I was 99.99% sure they would not want to eat this topping.

It certainly tastes ok but it's just not their thing, so I was happy enough adding as much colour as I needed.

Phew, another birthday cake success.

Note to self: be more organised, remember your 1st post of 2010!!

Make your own Babylegs and Huggalugs

Babylegs and Huggalugs, cute names, huh?

Well, what are they?
Only the cutest thing to put on your bub, especially your cute cloth nappied bub.

Baby leg-warmers.

Yeah, bring back the 80's I hear you cry! Um, right, no thanks.

Ok, they are definitely a non-essential, especially at their retail price, but they are the easiest thing to make yourself. And very cute!


I made my own with this tutorial from Everything your mama made and more, took me about 10 minutes.
I put them on the bub when it's bare butt time, as it's winter so I don't really want him running round half nekkid. Or just when I want to show off a particularly funky modern cloth nappy. You can team them with a onesie or bodysuit, or put them with a dress to protect and warm little knees.

And my older one is inclined to put on shorts and a t-shirt when it's icy outside, so to my cries of "come on kid, it's freezing, put some real clothes on!" he will run to his younger brother's clothes drawer and come back adorned with zebra stripe legs below his shorts and and polka dotted arms.

In lieu of real clothes, obviously. Smart boy.

This is my bub when he was a bit younger, sporting the polka dot pair. I'll see if I can do better tomorrow and snap my four year old dressed up to the nines.

Maybe I'll make a pair for me next, have a look at the instructions and pictures on Little Birdie Secrets, those hot pink ones look very cosy....!

Ok, here's my veeerrrry reluctant 4 year old model,

And his baby brother, moving too fast for me to get his head in focus, so I cut it off, haha