Organising Baby's closet

I am one of those people whose closets gets out of order rather frequently, even though I try to have some sort of system in place. Once Baby #2 comes along, I kneow I want a system for his clothes that is easy to manage and that others can follow, as there may be times when I want a specific top but am unable to get up, or if someone else is dressing him, or even if someone else is putting the laundry away. I found this on Pinterest and thought it looked too easy to work, but work it did!

First I cut out 6 6x4 pieces of cardstock in Butter Yellow, then printed the provided templates as 6x4 photos. The templates go up to six years, but I have only done the first year for now.

I then cut out the hanger part as instructed.

Lastly, I placed each divider in the closet to divide up all the clothes- easy peasy!

Now I know exacly where each size begins and it will be easy not to get clothes mixed up in the closet. You could laminate these or print them on thicker cardstock if needed, but I am very pleased with this as a temporary solution. When the baby grows out of each size, the plan is to cut off the hanger part of the divider and place the size part of the sign at the front of the box when I put away the clothes.

Freezer Meals made easy

Not long to go now until Baby #2 makes his way into the world, and my nesting has kicked in to high gear. I will probably end up with a c-section due to medical reasons and complications from my first son's birth, so I wanted to make sure my son and husband had some food to see them through the 4-5 days I will be in hospital as well as in the weeks following the delivery. So I stocked up my freezer with these recipes, which serve 2 adults plus 1 toddler:

Lamb Kheema with Peas
Adapted from skinnytaste.com

Ingredients:

1 large onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, chopped

2 tsp butter

1 lb lean ground lamb

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup frozen peas

1 chili pepper, minced (or more to taste)

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1 bay leaf

salt and fresh pepper

In a large pan, heat butter and onions on medium heat. Cook about 8 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook another 2 minutes. Add ground lamb to pan and brown. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, cayenne, chili powder, turmeric, garam masala and cinnamon. Stir well. Add chopped chili pepper, cilantro, bay leaf, tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of water. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes then add frozen peas and simmer covered another 5-10 minutes.
To freeze: Cool the lamb mixture to room temperature then freeze in a freezer-proof container. I freeze this with cooled cooked rice so that it is a complete meal when defrosted and reheated.

Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Adapted from Penniesonaplatter.com

150g  cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup salsa

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chili powder

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp chopped cilantro

2 Tbsp sliced green onions

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 cup grated cheese

small flour or corn tortillas

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder and garlic. Once combined, stir in the cilantro and green onions. Add the chicken and cheese; mix thoroughly.

Working with a few tortillas at a time, heat them in the microwave between two paper towels until they are soft enough to roll (about 20 – 30 seconds).

Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto the lower third of a tortilla. Roll the tortilla as tightly as you can.
To freeze: Freeze the taquitos in a single layer on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes, then place in a labeled freezer bag and store up to 3 months. To bake a frozen taquito (no need to thaw first): Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Hawaiian Chicken- directly from freezer to slow cooker
Adapted from six-cents.com

• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• Small can of pineapple pieces
• 1 red bell pepper sliced into thin strips
• 1 large onion sliced into strips 

Place all the ingredients into a freezer bag or container. When required, place the frozen ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.  Serve on buns with lettuce and cheese, or over white rice.

I hope these recipes can help you for the times when you need to stock up your freezer with easy food! I also bought a lot of staples such as rice, spaghetti, canned tuna, chicken breasts etc to make some easy meals after the baby arrives, as well as a lot of freezer-ready options such as crumbed fish, family sized pies, meat and vegetable stir fry mixes and beef schnitzel. Overall, I have three weeks worth of meals on hand, plus another week of dinners planned out that I haven't shopped for yet. For the sake of a couple of hours today, I now feel prepared and know that my family will have lots of options for cooking dinner when I am not there.

Choco Coconut Banana Muffins

I always seem to end up with bananas that need to be used in baking- a lot of them end up in the freezer too! I decided to bake some yummy muffins today with some of the frozen bananas I had in my freezer. I love the flavour of coconut, so these have a very tropical taste to them.

You will need:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp coconut extract (can sub vanilla if needed)
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup chocolate chips (not pictured)

Preheat oven 180C.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until well combined, then whisk in the mashed banana, coconut milk, butter and coconut extract.

Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until just combined, making sure no streaks of flour remain. Stir in shredded coconut and chocolate chips.

Pour batter out into prepared muffin tins. I find this mixture gives me two batches of standard muffins and two batches of mini muffins, which is perfect for snacks for the week for the whole family, plus anyone who decides to pop in for a coffee.

Bake for 25 minutes for mini muffins or 30 minutes for standard sized muffins. Best served warm, but will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

New house and a Snow Day!

Sorry I have been offline for a while, we sold our house and had no internet while we moved over two weeks, working around painters, vinyl layers and other workmen. The new house is a lot bigger, and my son has loved running around in it. We had a lot of help with the moving, and I am so grateful to everyone who pitched in.

Luckily we moved in when we did, because yesterday the snow started! So I thought I would share some photos of the new house in the snow- plus my son playing. he was not very impressed at the snow and demanded to go back inside when he realised his precious Thomas gumboots were getting covered in snow!

The house at 8am in the morning.

Snow was still falling at 4pm.

Me and my son outside.

What is this stuff Mum?

Frosted Designs Scrapbook Bingo

Yes, another challenge for me to do this weekend! I love the Frosted Designs blog and one of their challenges was Scrapbook Bingo with Diana. I thought I would play along using the following combination:

Tags

Buttons

One Photo

Three Patterned Papers

Here is what I came up with.

I used Storybook Creator Software with the Serene, Cheerful and Rugged Digital Kits.

Thanks for the challenge Diana, it was fun!

NSD: My Day of Fun!

It is National Scrapbooking Day (NSD) In America today and I have been playing along with some of the challenges. I am currently working on my son's album, so I based my challenges around his photos and finally got to use some of my newer Digital Kit purchases. The challenges were posted as part of the Creative Memories Go Digital Fan Page. You can find them here on Facebook.

Speed Scrap #2- Nancy O'Dell Recipe Kit, Modern Kitchen Kit. Font used is Andalus.

1. Choose 5 photos. Pick one for a focal photo.
2. Choose 3 patterned papers. Make 1 the background.
3. Make your focal photo large & the other 4 small but equal in size. Line up the 4 small photos in a row.
4. Add 2 rectangles to the page. and fill with the other 2 patterned papers. Layer them behind the photos.
5. Add 3 ribbons.
6. Add 3-5 embellishments.
7. Add title, jounaling and date.

Speed Scrap #4- Rugged Digital Predesigned Pages, Rugged Outdoors Digital Additions, Cow: CM Digital Freebie, Title font: Desyree, Font: Brook 23.

1. Select several pictures that go together to tell a story.
2. Arrange your pictures into a collage, adjusting the sizes to fit nicely to fill the center of the page.
3. Select a background paper to compliment the photos/story.
4. Add one large mat behind the group of photos--choose a paper, photo mat or embellishment to suit the grouping.
5. Add a title using insert text shape.
6. Add or tag or journal mat and other embellishments as desired.
7. Add your text and date.

Speed Scrap #5- What A View Digital Kit, Discover Digital Power Palette for Summer title, CM Digital Freebie Frame, Tag from Webdings Shapes, Distressed Digital Embellishments and Totally Fun Digital Kit used. Font is Brook 23.

1.  Pick 4-5 photos. Make them all the same size.
2. Pick 2 patterned papers & 1 solid colour to match. Make 1 patterned paper the background.
3. Insert a shape & make it very large. Fill it with the solid colour you've chosen.
4. Mat all your photos with the second patterned paper.
5. Add a frame to the page, anywhere you like.
6. Add embellishments as you like but include at least one brad.
7. Add title, date & journaling. Add shadows if you wish.

Speed Scrap #8- Just Fun Kit, Wishful Kit, Serene Kit and Basic Stitching Embellishments. Font is Brook 23.

1. Choose 3 photos, make one larger and the other two smaller. Keep pictures in a cluster and/or a line.
2. Layer 2 patterned papers, reducing opacity of the top one so that the lower one shows through. Place behind the pictures.
3. Since those two papers are now like one paper, choose one more patterned paper or mat AND add any shape to your page and fill with 1 cardstock color.
4. Layer both the paper/mat and cardstock behind your pics using as a clustered mat.
5. Cut corners on your photos. You can choose to do all photos or some; you can choose all corners of a photo or some.
6. Add 4 embellishments.
7. Add title, date, and journaling.

Speed Scrap #9 using Bunny Hop Digital Kit, Just Fun Alpha Set, Serene Alpha Set, Cheerful Alpha Set and Monkey Business Digital Additions. Font is Brook 23.

1. Choose 5 photos
2. Choose 2 papers. Make one the background
3. Make 2 of the photos large and line them up, and make the other 3 small and place them as desired
4. Add a rectangle of the second paper to mat some of the photos and use the edge cutter on one edge.
5. Using fancy text, create a heading. Use at least 3 different alpha sets.
6. Add 3-5 other embellishments. Include at least one tag and one flower.
7. Add journaling and date.

It was so much fun to see the interpretations of each Speed Scrap I participated in. I would love to see what you can come up with using these guidelines too!

Triple Chocolate Cake

My mother in law celebrated her birthday this weekend, and I am usually in charge of providing the birthday cakes at the family get togethers. We decided on a triple chocolate cake of some sort and so then I went scouring through my recipe books, favourite blogs and Pinterest. I came across this recipe and thought it looked delicious! I am sharing it with you today in case you need an amazing chocolate cake recipe too.

Triple-Layered Triple Chocolate Cake
(from Raspberri Cupcakes)
Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups plain flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
240ml buttermilk (I add milk to 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to make my own)
120ml vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line 3 19cm round cake tins with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. (I only had one pan so I used 2/3 mix on one bake cycle then the other third I cooked after the first cake had been removed from the pan.)

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.

With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. (If you used two tins like me, wait until completely cool before slicing up cake into layers.)

For the chocolate ganache:
300g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
150g white chocolate
600ml pouring cream

Break up chocolate into small pieces and place in separate bowls. Slowly bring cream to just to the boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat and cool for a couple minutes. Pour 300ml of cream over the dark chocolate, 150ml over the milk and 150ml over the white. Leave it to melt for a minute, then stir each of them to combine. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat each ganache separately until it is shiny, fluffy and just holds its shape. This part can take a while!

When ready to assemble, spread white chocolate ganache over bottom layer, cover with second layer of cake, then spread over milk chocolate ganache, top with final layer and cover entire cake with dark chocolate ganache. Make sure to work quickly or ganache will set. I added a Flake on top as well for extra chocolate garnish, but you could definitely get fancy with piping, chocolate etc.

Serve at room temperature, run a knife under hot water before slicing up.

This cake was everythihng I was looking for in a chocolate cake. It was moist, decadent, impressive and tasty. I was extrememly happy with the end result and plan on making this my go to chocolate cake recipe. Thanks to Raspberri Cupcakes for the recipe!