A little Project - hairband holder

My girls have recently aquired quite a collection of cute little hairbands.
I fell in love with them when i was lucky enough to win a couple of sets on a friends blog, Busy Brissy Mum. She now has a little Facebook business and i can't help myself!
I do find, however, that i had nowhere to store the bands that was accessible, orderly and well, pretty!

'Little Piggies' from Ruby Jean

I happened to have a blank plaque hanging around in my craft stuff. So after a little bit of pasting and nailing, I now have a pretty answer for my problem. I still plan to do something with the middle of the plaque (unless i fill it up with more bands before i get a chance!)

(Yes, there are a couple missing. My girls won't go anywhere without wearing them!)

Forgive the wall paper...its going eventually!

Bake Up - Simple Baking Recipes

One benefit of being more organised around the home, and especially in the kitchen, is that we spend less on groceries. I am loving this because it means that we can buy some 'special' items, or save the excess money for other way more interesting things than groceries!
Today, I only have the youngest 2 of the 4 at home, and as they both sleep half the day, I decided to do a bit of a bake up. I started off with the goal to use simple recipes that used the ingredients i had on hand, nothing fancy.
First up was this lovely 'Bounty Cake'. I found the recipe on what is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs... Just Love To Bake. Now before you go visiting here, beware of all the tempting recipes! I mean it! I can feel my waistline increasing just reading them, let alone making them!
This one, however, isnt too naughty, especially if you leave of the icing, which would still taste yum (Not that i did that :))

I also made apple muffins and berry muffins using this all purpose muffin recipe.

And a carrot cake without egg, since we ran out!

We already had some biscuits around, so i havent yet had need to, but i am planning to try out this great 4 ingredient recipe from  Stay at Home Mom. This is said to make 120 biscuits for $4! Now thats impressive!

I must say, all this baking has my home smelling beautiful on this wintery day! And we now have a lovely stock of yummy morning teas in the freezer for when i start uni back on Monday!

Getting Organised- Meal Planning

Recently I have stumbled across a number of websites/blogs all about organisation in the house and home. One of my favourites is Super Organised Mum. Jade is mum to 2 boys, and seems to be THE most organised person alive. She shares her tips and love for all thing organisational in a very helpful blog.

With the addition of number 4 ( making 6 all up), our house is desperately in need of some new routines and organisation to keep us all sane. I've been attempting to take on some of Jade's ideas to make our household run a little smoother, and one of my favourites has to be from a recent post, sharing her "To Do List" and "Meal Planning" setup. (You can see the original posts Here.)

I loved her clipboards and planners so much that i just had to make my own, so here is my very own clipboard and my Meal Planner for this week (next weeks is on the reverse side, ready to go!).

Before I did our grocery shop, I planned out what meals i wanted to have for the fortnight, to make sure i got the ingredients. I did forget a couple (oops!) so I have written in the 'grocery list' section the items i still need to get, or that we run out of during the week.
This clipboard has pride of place above our dishwasher, so both Tim and I can clearly see what is for dinner, and also, jot down anything that is getting low or empty.

Be sure to check out Jade's blog for more great ideas, and if you're interested, below are a couple more great pages for tips and ideas to help with house organisation, food budgeting and cleaning:

The Organised Houswife

Stay At Home Mum- The Secret to Living On one Wage

Once A Month Mom 

Do you have any useful tips or tricks for staying organised around the home? 

{Sweet Potato Damper}- Egg and Dairy Free!

It seems every second person has a food allergy or intolerance these days, be it egg, dairy, gluten.
I recently picked up a cook book for Allergy Free Baking, and given that i had no eggs in the house anyway, I decided to give the following egg and dairy free recipe a try. (And for a bonus, its healthy and contains vegetable!)
The original recipe calls for gluten-free SR flour, but i used ordinary SR flour as gluten is a problem with our family. I also replaced the milk and margarine with lactose free versions, to make it friendly for my lactose intolerant daughter.

 

SWEET POTATO DAMPER

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cupa Self-Raising Flour

1 tsp caster sugar

1/4 tsp salt

20g Nuttelex Margarine

1/2 cup mashed sieved cooked sweet potato

1/2 cup lactose free buttermilk*

2 tbls water

(*Place a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup, Add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line, Let stand for five minute)
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 C (fan-forced). Grease a baking tray
2. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl; rub in margarine. Add sweet potato, buttermilk and enough water to make a soft sticky dough. Knead until smooth
3. Divide dough into small balls (makes roughly 9), place on baking tray and cook for 15-20 mins

ENJOY!