Tuesday Snapshot- Little Smelly Brown Thing

What was I up to at 8am today? Carefully handling this smelly little brown ball.

Human poo? No. Dog poo? No. Possum poo? Nope.

This stinky brown treasure breathes and you can eat it... What is it you ask? It is a very pungent souvenir my parents brought back from their recent Tasmania trip.

I have to take my little smelly buddy out of the container to breathe for ten minutes each day and then it goes back in the box in the fridge. Not sure what I'll be making with it.

Since I'm on my cooking strike it will have to be a really fabulous recipe if it is going to be a strike-breaker isn't it?

Any ideas, suggestions?

P.s It's a truffle

What's for Dinner Wednesday?

I was thinking tonight that we could have a weekly post with quick and easy dinner ideas.

Would anyone be interested? I'll post one each Wednesday. It has to be something easy, quick and reasonably healthy. I often find myself feeling slightly Iron Chefish when I have no idea what to cook for dinner and no time to nip out and get ingredients so I need to make do with what I find at home.

Tonight I had some fresh corn fed chicken breast fillets and not much else. For a change, I had a shot of brilliance and remembered an easy weeknight meal recipe I read at the doctor's surgery on the weekend. I have been known in the past to do a cheeky rip and steal of a good magazine page but with a bouncy toddler to entertain, thieving pages just wasn't possible. Fortunately it was a basic recipe so I managed to store it in my mind. I amended it and tried it this evening,

BBQ Balsamic Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Veges

2 Chicken Breast Fillets
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 cup Olive Oil
2 tablespoons Soft Brown Sugar

Mashed Potatoes- I keep riced potatoes in my freezer and when I need them I just add them to some boiling milk with a spoonful of butter. You have perfect mash.

A potato ricer is a great tool to have, you really should get one if you haven't already! To use the ricer you boil the potatoes with the skin on. When cooked you peel and put through the ricer. This is the only way to make good mash, I've seen people boiling peeled potatoes and I don't like it. You fill your potato with water and it doesn't taste so good.

Anyway the frozen riced poato freezes perfectly and I always try to keep a little stockpile for nights like tonight when the little one went to bed late and I wasn't in the mood for cooking much.

Steamed veges- whatever you've got in the fridge/vege patch or freezer.

I had some broad beans in the freezer tonight so I shelled them and gave them a quick steaming and I had a couple of carrots that I cut into little Julienne strips and steamed quickly. Simple!

Now for the chicken you cut it horizontally so you have 4 steak-like pieces. You add the oil, balsamic vinegar and sugar to a bowl mix and add the chicken. Let it sit there while you prepare your veges and set the table.

Throw the chicken on the BBQ about 5 mins per side and serve with the mash and steamed veges.

Healthy, low fat and quick and easy. Everyone has a bottle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar at home and brown sugar of course. Chicken breasts are easy to freeze so you should have them on hand as well.

So there you go, it was really good and really quick. If you have a recipe you wouldn't mind sharing please email me and I will post it next Wednesday. If you have a photo that would be fabulous. I only thought of the picture after we had eaten so it was too late, sorry!

Food- You name it, I'll eat it.

Since having my Tinker my diet has changed drastically.

When I was working I'd start the day with my fancy Carmens muesli. Then I'd drive to court and I'd buy myself a coffee at the cafe facing the courthouse. Not the one next door, not the one behind. I was very particular and I only liked my coffee if the older lady with the accent made it.

Then I'd slink down to the cells and see my clients while munching on neatly chopped organic celery sticks and slurping my coffee. Court usually breaks for recess mid morning and I'd have my little parcel of diced carrot and dried fruit while sipping my Evian water.

At lunchtime I'd usually eat down in the cells because time was short. I usually had a salad collected from a particular shop by one of my colleagues. While I was intensely busy I always managed to stick to my diet, and my 28" jeans proved it.

Now for breakfast I have yogurt. I lick it off my pyjama top. That's where it lands when my daughter throws it at me. Morning tea is a chocolate eaten in the pantry so Tinker doesn't see me and demand "choc-choc". Lunch is whatever she has refused, usually eaten cold, with a plastic baby spoon. Afternoon tea? Oh that is a cup of coffee if I'm lucky and she is had a sleep.

Dinner? Usually I have this at about 9pm on my own, in front of the computer. Usually a chocolate bar, a glass of wine, some toast and a piece of fruit.

Nice.

Even the 5 second rule doesn't apply anymore. It is more like the 5 minute rule. Tinker will throw her sandwich on the floor and then it becomes my lunch.

When I am out and about I'll eat anything. Gone are the fussy -I-won't eat-there!-days. I'll eat anywhere, anything. Motherhood does that to you I think. You can't afford to be fussy you have no time for such frivolity.

My little girl on the other hand, is uber fussy when it comes to food. She drives me mad. Basically she lives on yogurt, grapes, toast and cheese. I keep checking for Scurvy but so far so good.

For those with kids, what has happened to your diet following parenthood and for those without kids- sit down and have a fussy meal just for me tonight, ok?