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Showing posts from March, 2014

Homemade cleaning product recipes!

Home made cleaning products are easy to make, cheaper than bought ones and work just as well! I have been making my own for quite a long time and have had no problems with them at all. I reuse the commercial bottles and when they finally give up on me, I raid my (unenlightened) friends who still buy cleaners, for their old spray bottles! So my labels aren't always what they say they are - although I try to put the same type of thing into the bottle with the right label, just in case some else in my house takes upon themselves to clean.... Here's what I do...   My basic homemade cleaners are (L-R)   Watered down bleach, glass cleaner, spray and wipe and air freshener.           Glass Cleaner is made up from a mixture of half water and half white vinegar. Then add two small drops of detergent and one of blue food colouring! If you add too much colouring, it can stain your benches so go easy on it!  Spray it into a white sink and if you can see a lot of

Bunya Nuts: collection and preparation!

I had been sitting on the computer looking at 'pick your own' fruit farms and trying to find ones close enough to us to make it worth going and getting them for home jamming, bottling or preserving when I came across a page on a website that had lots of interesting info about Bunya Nuts . Apparently February/March is Bunya nut season here in Brissy and the site had a bunch of locations where people had seen trees and you might be able to get a few from. I gave the list to the husband who travels around a lot for work but, despite my constant reminding,  he didn't find any actual cones... Obviously we aren't the only ones who had looked at that site! However, a random visit to a friend in the Gold Coast Hinterland bought us in contact with some on the side of the road!! I was for the first time in my life not only in the presence of a Bunya nut but also in possession of three whole cones! Here's what I did...   First - park your car well away from the tre

Cooking Pizza's in the home BBQ

We live in the sub tropic and spend a lot of time outside in the evenings. We have been playing with cooking pizza's in our BBQ over the last few years and have got quite good at it. At the beginning of the year when I was sorting out menu planning I decided that we were good enough at it now to do it once a week. So Sunday evening has become our Pizza in the BBQ night. Its great fun and a wonderful way to wind down and catch up with everyone. Here's how we do it...     To cook Pizza on a BBQ you need one with a hood. You can see in the picture what ours is like. If you cook a pizza straight on the BBQ plate (even in a pizza tray) It simply burns the bottom of the pizza, so step one is to raise the pizza cooking area up. We are currently using a commercial pizza stone ($10 - $15) set up on bricks but four washed food cans works just as well. We use bricks (red ones are normal house bricks and the other purpose made fire bricks - but we haven't found any differe

Making weeks worth of lunches in 20 minutes!

I have a few part time jobs - all of which I enjoy - but one that doesn't allow me to get out to buy my lunch. In the mornings, I can get too busy watering gardens, hanging out washing and having a cup of tea with the chickens to get organised enough to get my lunch made. That was leading to buying food on the way home from work when I was starving and my blood sugar levels were waaaaaay too low and my sensible decision making ability was long gone. I was spending a small fortune on junk food and it wasn't doing me or my wallet any good. When I decided to do a "No spend on anything but essentials" month (have a look here at the Cheapskates website for more detail) I knew I was going to have get my lunches sorted for once and for all. Here's what I did...     I got out all the containers needed for the main part of my four lunches. These are washed takeaway containers and the little pots come from the ginger at the sushi places! The blue and yello

Slow Living Essentials Monthly 9 Link Up - February 2014!

I have been following  Christine at Slow Living Essentials  for a couple of years now! In 2012 she started a monthly round up to record on our blog, how we have "slowed down" under nine categories - I have been doing this since she started it at the  beginning and really get a lot out of it.  Here is what I have been up to this month! Click on the link to go to the link up and visit other linked up blogs! NOURISH:  Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.        Bread rolls cooked in the BBQ along with the pizza's - super yummy! We always cook from scratch and are now enjoying Eat, Bake Grow , a fortnightly farmers market that opened up a 10 minute WALK from our house!!! This month's real food has also included making birthday cakes from scratch along with some home made biscuits for a birthday present!      PREPARE:   Stockpile and preserve
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