Where the heck have I been?

Where have I been?

Well I could lie and say I won the lottery and took a first class trip through Europe (sadly nope)...

I could contribute my crappy (and slowwww) internet connection to the lack of posts but I don't think that is a good enough excuse.

Truth is... I just haven't been feeling it. It takes a fair amount of time and effort for me to pretty up my food and a decent chunk of luck to find the perfect natural lighting to shoot my pictures.

Instead I am just going to do a mish-mash of my life over the past week. All the pictures are just shot on my iPhone and I use my 'pic jointer' and 'camera +' apps to pretty them up. 

This week...

I made veggie pizzas - perfect way to use up leftover veggies you find hiding in the back of your fridge.

The boy bid us adieu and had to go away for work for the week (YAY he is home tonight!)
Me and Milly have tonnes of fun when is he away though - I think she misses him as much as I miss him though... so cute!

To relieve my boredom of having him away, I drunk my fair share of the wine we have been accumulating and may have over indulged in some leftover choc honeycomb self-saucing pudding I made last weekend.

Of course, to make up for the over consumption of warm chocolate goodness I may have killed myself in the gym... Result? I have buggered some tendons in my back (or something like that) my physio strapped me up and has banned me from all physical exercise... Oh the dismay!

So now.. I am trying to think of what I can do with limited mobility over the weekend... Knit? Call my grandkids? Play bingo? I feel like a frickin' old grandma hobbling around.

What is everyone getting up to the weekend?

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Hungry Recipe - Orange Meringue Pie

I thought I might share a yummy recipe I tried last weekend. It got the tick of approval from the boy and it helped me use up some of the oranges that are ripening on our orange tree in our backyard.

Orange Meringue Pie - Serves 8

Pastry
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
125g butter, chilled, chopped
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon cold water

Orange Filling
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons cornflour
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup pure cream
3 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
1/2 cup orange juice

Meringue
3 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour

Make the pastry

Place the flour,sugar and butter in the food processor. Process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add yolk and water. Process until the dough just comes together. Turn the pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Need until smooth and shape into circle. Cover in plastic wrap and pop into the fridge into 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius.
Grease a flan tin (approx 23cm round). Roll pastry until approx 4mm thick and line the tin with the pastry. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then line the flan with baking paper and fill with uncooked rice/pie weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove rice/weights and baking paper and bake for another 10 minutes.
Cool pastry case and reduce the oven until 140 degrees Celsius.

Make the Orange Filling

Mix the sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Add eggs, cream, orange rind and juice. Whisk until combined. Pour into cooled pastry case. Bake for 40 minutes until just set. Cool. Reduce oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Make the Meringue

Beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time while beating until all sugar is dissolved and the mixture is thick and glossy. Beat in the corn flour.

Spoon the meringue over the filling and bake for 6 minutes until golden and your all done!

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WIAW - Self Confessed Hopeless Snacker

First off, welcome to this weeks WIAW. For anyone who want to learn more or to join in the paaartay, head over to visit Jenn at Peas and Crayons.

For the lovely month of June Jenn has given us the theme of sensible snacking. I need to admit that I did a terrible job at sensible snacking for this week's post, I have no excuse I just had a bad day :S




Anyhoo... let us start with breakfast shall we... It may look a little sad but it is a perfect start to the day. This egg white scramble consists of 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg, half a zucchini, a few mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and crumbled feta! After inhaling this I jumped in the car and went to work.

Lunch consisted of leftovers from dinner the night before roast pork with roasted brussels sprouts, asparagus, apples and homemade gravy... swoooon! So good :)  

~~~~~I forgot to save this pic to my USB so I will upload when I get home from work!~~~~

Now for snacks, I am so dodgy but all I packed for snackage today was chocolate covered peanuts and coffee. I don't generally get hungry in between meals when I am work (may be because I sit on my butt all day in front of a computer)

Dinner was amaze-balls. I came home from work last night to the delicious smell of slow cooking bolognese. After I finished my quick evening workout I cooked up some spaghetti, nuked some peas and topped the meal with some grated Parmesan. Yum.

I couldn't finish off the day without a slice of the orange meringue pie I made the day before (recipe to come soon). Of course a few teensy scoops of vanilla ice cream were required too....

How is every ones Wednesdays going? I can't wait for this work week to be over. Australia has Queens holiday next Monday so it is a long weekend for me!

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Boys weekend & one rainy Triple J One Night Stand

 Generally my weekends are pretty boring... I go shopping, we work on our house and garden or go out for a casual breakfast with family/friends. I am not really a huge drinker/dancer/partier... not the case this weekend. 

The boy's best buddies visited from out of town and to join us on our trip to Dalby for the Triple J one night stand (click here for more info).

The boy and his best man awaiting the taxi.

The boy and his best gal pal :) aka ME!

After partying into the early morning we woke up and made our way to Dalby - the boys were a tad worse for wear haha

When we first arrived, it was only drizzling a little bit but it ended up pouring rain by the end of the night.

We got to see Matt Corby, 360, Stone Field and then the gig got cancelled due to flooding of electrical equipment before we could see Temper Trap :(

By the time it was cancelled the show grounds was a mud pit with the water flooding up above ankles... yup really gross!

Twas a great and truly memorable few days but I am soo looking forward to next weekend being quiet, normal and hopefully super boring!

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Guest Post over at SewCal Mama - Healthy Food Swaps

I have been such a slacker at getting posts up, so sorry! My internet is balls and it just completely won't work at night time (which is the only time I get to blog)

Sooo... I am quickly typing this at work because I want to share a guest post I wrote over at SewCal Mama about healthy and nutrient dense food swaps! Click here to have a read!

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