Dumpling 1.0.1

Due to the school holidays, I thought instead of doing a lunch box goodie for you, we could have dumplings together :)

My kids LOVE a good dumpling, only the ones you buy often have MSG in them or enough salt to keep you preserved for a week, so we usually try to make our own........funnily enough though, ours never seem to look as good as they do from the shop???? (shocked I know)
That is however,  until you have a wonderful friend who grew up making and eating dumplings almost every week of the year as a child, willing to walk you through it step by step.

Here's how to make a mean lamb dumpling:

Firstly blitz together 2 carrots, 1 shallot and about a 4cm piece of fresh ginger.
In a bowl, mix together blitzed veggies with 1tsp sesame oil, 2tsp cooking wine, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp soy sauce and 500g lamb mince.
Using a fork, mix all ingredients together until it appears quiet sticky. (this ensures it all stays together when the dumpling is cooking.

Then simply open your packet of dumpling pastries (found in any Asian supermarket) and follow below-


 

using your finger, wet the edge of the pastry with water

 

repeat folding on the other side

place onto floured surface to prevent sticking

 

And there you have it.....your perfect little dumplings all in a row! Or if you get the kids to help the below image may be more realistic :)

They are fun to make, easy to prepare and healthy for you. You can steam them (we used a bamboo steamer for ours) shallow fry them, add them into a soup or even deep fry them. You can make them using pork, chicken, vegetables or even tofu and if you make too many you can pop them, uncooked, into the freezer for another day.

Why not have a go......see how yours turn out :)

school walk

hi ho, hi ho, it's off to school we go........



 

 

 

How does your school walk look? 

 

 

 

 

in the lunch box - basic biscuits

This biscuit recipe is one of my fav's. It is just so versatile. You can add anything to it and change the flavour or taste, depending on what you've got in the pantry - or simply add nothing and enjoy them as a simple butter biscuit.
We had a few last Easter eggs hanging in the fridge all broken, so I thought I'd use them up and make this batch a choc chip version.

 

 

Vanilla Biscuits

 

125g butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla ess.

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

 

Heat oven to 180 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.

Roll into small balls and place on lined tray. Press fork onto balls gently to flatten slightly.

Bake for 10-15 min or until brown.

 

Remember you can use this as your base. By simply adding dried fruit, choc chips, different essence flavours, chia seeds, golden syrup, chopped nuts, etc you will have a completely different tasting biscuit. Even changing to brown sugar makes a yummy change :)

 

Enjoy!

this moment

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. . - soulemama

 

are we there yet?

With a seven five and three year old in our car, road trips can sometimes become long and tiring. The bickering over seemingly nothing, the squabbles over who has more room than the other, the sharing or not sharing of the coloured pencils etc can really take it's toll when you have still hours on the road ahead of you.

Now I could just go and purchase one of those portable DVD player that keep the kids quiet as we travel, but then they would be missing out on so much more than just the destination. Just looking out the window provides so much scope for imagination, conversation and a growing understanding of the world around them. If they had their head in front of a screen watching a movie (of which no doubt they have already seen anyway) so many opportunities would be lost.

It can be difficult for young kids to understand just how long the trip is going to take though, it's hard to picture how long four hours is without something to compare it to. Explaining it in terms of something visual is often a great way to help young kids understand. With our kids, we use their bodies as a reference. "the trip is going to take from your toes to your nose" so when we get half way we can explain that we are up to the belly button etc.

We also have a few favourite games we love to play to help pass the time and with holidays just a few sleeps away, I thought I'd share.

Colour Action -
Every car colour gets given a different action. Example: blue - nod your head, red - clap once, black, roll your arms etc. When you see the the colour of the oncoming car you have to do that action. It's great when there's a whole line of cars coming!!

A-Z -
Here, everyone has to collect each letter of the alphabet in order from road signs. You can do it individually to see who gets to Z first, or work together as a family by calling out the letter when you see it. For example, 'S in stop'.

Two facts and a fib -
This is a fun game and reveals a lot! To play each person takes a turn to say 3 things about themselves, one of which is a fib. Everyone in the car has to guess which is the fib. Take it in turns around the car so everyone has a turn.

Who am I -
Here, you think of someone in your head and everyone has to ask you questions so figure out who you are. For example, ' Do you wear glasses' , 'Are you in our family', 'Are you a girl'. You are only allowed to answer yes or no and the winner gets to go next. You can mix it up and be an animal or a thing too.

Number plate animals -
This is a fun game using the imagination. The driver calls out the letters of the number plate in front and everyone has to use then to describe an animal. For example, ZYO becomes Zippy, Yellow Octopus.

Car trips are a great way to have fun together, learn about your surroundings and can provide the time for the kids to talk about issues that are on their mind that we sometimes don't have time for during the busy week.
Remember.......Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination.

Travels safe x 

In the Lunchbox - Feijoa Lime Loaf

We are in Feijoa heaven here. The tree is literally dumping bucket loads by the day and I'm trying to keep up, but man they just keep coming.

We are eating them till our tummies ache. We're cooking loafs, muffins, pies and cakes with them - we're even giving them away1 I've been making feijoa compote, I've been freezing pulp by the kilos and I've even dambled in a little feijoa and vodka mix (quite yum I have to say).

So I thought I'd share one of the favourites that was requested by the kids for this weeks lunchbox ...

Feijoa and Lime Loaf

8 feijoas, flesh only
2 cups s/r flour
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1 egg
50g butter
1tsp baking soda

Glaze -
1/3 cup caster sugar
3 tbsp lime juice

1. Bring to the boil feijoas, sugar, water and butter and boil for 5 minutes
2. Cool (allow to cool properly so egg doesn't cook in next step)
3. Add flour, baking soda and egg to you mix and fold together till combined. Place in lined loaf tin and bake for 45 min in oven set at 180degrees.
4. Mix caster sugar and lime juice together in a bowl and drizzle over still warm loaf then allow loaf to cool in loaf tin.

Enjoy x

one grassy hill.....

Question:
What do you get when you have one grassy hill, one cardboard box, 3 children, 2 adults and a dog in the one spot?

Answer:
Hours of fun and lots of laughter!



this moment

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. . - soulemama