Preserving and Home-made Goodies

As part of my quest to live a simple life I am starting to embrace preserving. There are a number of reasons for this including cost, taste and control of ingredients.

In January we went berry picking with some friends and I turned some of the fruit into jam. Luckily, I have a breadmaker that also can make jam so it was quite an easy process with yummy results. So I ended up with lots of rasberry and blackberry jam.


This weekend I really pushed myself full on into the preserving world. I purchased a box of tomatoes - over 16kgs!! I had already taken a couple of kilos out before taking the photo.

So then began the process of turning them into some useful produce. I have made both pasta sauce and salsa. It has been a bit of an effort, however, I was able to get B to help with some of the washing and chopping of tomatoes and using the mouli food mill. Yesterday I bit off more than I should have by doing 2 batches of 5kg each. Today with only finishing the last 6 kilos was much easier to manage.

Cooking happily away

First lot of pasta sauce all done.

Empty box!!!!!!!

This has been a really enjoyable (and messy) process and I'm now really looking forward to being able to enjoy the fruits of my labour over the next few months. I am actually considering going back next weekend and getting another box which should really set me up for the year.

In the meantime, tomorrow I have to decide what to do with this pumpkin and later in the week the zucchinis that are in the garden!

Health and Exercise

I have struggled with exercise over the last few years. Prior to B's arrival I was going to Curves 3-4 time a week. I was able to continue this right up till about the 30th week of my pregnancy. I was really fit and felt really good at the time. Unfortunately after his arrival I no longer had the time or money to keep it up.

I have let my fitness (or lack thereof) slide recently and have been saying to myself that it would have to wait till he goes to school and I have a bit more time to myself. One day it hit me that that will not happen for another 2 years and that is a LONG time to neglect such an important thing.

I still do not have the money to join a gym and then leave B somewhere. I purchased a Wii a couple of years ago and while he was still napping in the afternoon I would do the Wii Fit while he was asleep. As he has stopped that I haven't been able to do it. I could do it after he goes to sleep at night but I'm usually too tired then. I know, it is an excuse and I will look at breaking that and getting it out again.

In the meantime, last week I decided that I could walk. It's free and I can do it whenever it suits. So every day (except for the 2 days I work) I have got B on his bike and we have gone on a brisk 30 minute walk. The other day I walked to a nearby park which is about 15 minutes walk away so he got out and had a play then I walked home again so it was still my 30 minutes but broken up in the middle. Where I live is quite hilly so I am not only walking up hills but pushing a bike and a 16kg toddler so really feel like it leads up to a good workout. Or at least, as good as I can get at the moment.

My commitment was tested this afternoon as just as I was thinking we should go there was a huge thunderstorm rolling through. I got us out of the house quickly and walked even quicker to try and beat the rain. And beat it we did - by about 10 minutes!!

I am already feeling much better by this exercise and think it is great for both of us to get out and exercise together. I have also noticed on the days we go for our walk/ride that B goes straight to sleep at night instead of bouncing off the walls for about half an hour (or longer). Definitely motivation to keep going - hehe!!

Another area I'm working on is my diet. It is generally pretty good as I want to set a good example for B and have him enjoy healthy food. I tend not to keep unhealthy food in the house but sometimes I buy a block of chocolate as a "treat" for myself. Over January I read Peter Walsh's books. One of them is called "Does this Clutter Make my Butt Look Fat?" It really resonated with me that clutter can be tied into weight. I have been working really hard at decluttering (another post on that later). But one thing that really resonated was he said to ask yourself "does this help me live the life I want?" (I have paraphrased here) It was a bit of an a-ha moment and I realised that even though I enjoyed my "treats" in the short term in the long term they were not doing me any favours. I am not one of those people who can have chocolate in the house and just have a little. If you are I really admire your willpower but if it's there I eat it!!

So there it is - more ways for me to look after myself and I look forward to reaping the benefits of my new regime. I will keep this up - if only to get an early night!!!

Lists

I have recently discovered the joys of lists. From time to time I have written out shopping lists - and usually then left them at home!! However, lately in my drive to live a more organised life and to try and save some money I have recently embraced them a bit more.

I now keep a list on the fridge for the supermarket so that I can write things down as I use them. It has been really useful in cutting down the trips to the supermarket and not cluttering up the pantry with stuff that I couldn't remember if I needed.

But a big step for me is a to do list and menu plan. I have previously resisted both of these as not my kind of thing. I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl right? Not the type who needs lists everywhere. Well, that may have been the case but now that I am a parent a little more organisation is called for.

Last month I came across this weekly planner at Kikki-k and thought it would really suit my needs

It allows me to outline my week ahead and I also use it to plan what we are having for dinner each night.

I get my fruit and vegetables delivered each week in a box. I choose to get the box where they select the produce and I just take pot luck. I can access the list of what is in the box from a Friday although I don't get my delivery till Wednesday. I use what I am going to receive in the box to assist in my menu planning.

There is also a section on the right hand side listed "to do" which I have been writing all the things I want to achieve during the week (in addition to our activities/appointments). This is very useful to keep me on task and to also have the satisfaction of crossing them off as they are achieved.

I have been using this for about 4 weeks now and it takes me only about 10-15 minutes to fill out for the week. The benefit I feel has been huge and enabled me to feel a little more in control and ready to face the week.

I have also written out a schedule for housework. I find that having a set day for cleaning different areas has made a huge difference.

For someone that has always resisted these types of lists I will confess that my life has become a lot easier since I've started using them. How about you? Are you a list person?

Home Grown Vegetables!

Well this is the view of my veggie patch! The pumpkins and zucchinis are a bit out of control and taking over! They are also growing into the neighbours!

Over the past year or so I have been trying to grow more of our food at home. Some successfully and some not so much. There are a number of reasons for this. I like to know where my food has come from and to cut down on my food miles. When I grow it in the backyard it becomes food metres rather than miles! Also, when I have grown it I can pick just as I need so it's beautiful and fresh. It also encourages B to eat more of his veggies when he knows where its from and he has participated in the growing process. I find that he is really fussy with "out of season" produce but anything in season he will wolf down.

One of my favourite stories is last year when I had some a friend's children over one day. Her eldest picked an ear of corn and I cooked it up for him for morning tea. His response? "This is the best corn I've eaten!" Couldn't ask for a better reason!! (For all my friends in Iowa my corn is just about ready to harvest now)

There were huge hailstorms here in Melbourne on Christmas Day and I thought I may have lost my tomatoes with the storm. Another friend had to pull his out as they were so damamged. I didn't think mine were too bad so I thought I would just leave them in and see. And surprise, surprise I now have lots of tomatoes growing! So glad I left them in.


Here are some more photos of my garden up close:

Zucchini

Cucumber

Lemons. When I moved in about 15 months ago the lemon tree was in an awful state. It hadn't been pruned in a very long time and was full of gall wasp. I cut it back very hard and have had to wait patiently for it to regrow and fruit again. It will still be a while till I get lemons but it's exciting that it will happen soon!

And now I have started harvesting!

Zucchini - so glad I'm not producing for supermarkets - they would not accept my bent ones! hehe!!

Strawberries - yum!!

The next challenge is to try and refine my process so that I can harvest produce nearly all year. This will involve some planning to ensure I have seedlings ready to go when I pull finished ones out. It's an extra challenge as our backyard isn't huge so I don't have a lot of space to expand the patch without taking too much toddler playspace!!