My Slow Cooker Challenge

So, those that know me well know I was never keen on cooking. 

In fact, once upon a time I CHOSE, yep I CHOSE to do the washing up over cooking dinner every night. 

How times change......

Apparently becoming a Mum, a wife and now being the stay at home person, was enough to inspire me. Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE cooking! I love cooking dinners, breakfasts, I love baking and cooking sweets...I love my kitchen!

I am completely self taught. My Mum used to love cooking. It was her major passion, but her kitchen was HER kitchen! I rarely got to get in there and so I never really learnt the ins and outs of how to cook. Now I have my own passion for cooking, I kind of understand where she was coming from....maybe I get my need to control freak obsessive compulsiveness from her!

But, it turns out, I am not too bad at it, if I do say so myself! I rarely follow a recipe too closely, I usually tweak it depending on my personal tastes, what I have in the cupboard, or what I think I will just taste better! So far I think I may have had 1 or 2 failures, but thats it. The rest have turned out just fine and tasty!

So, to the slow cooker challenge. 

I have had my slow cooker for a couple of years now, but I have never really experimented with it. I tend to stick to 6 or so recipes I know work well and taste good. Family favourites. 

Well NO MORE!!!

Time to branch out and with the help of a Facebook page, Taste, and several other internet sources, I am embarking on a new journey, a new tastes journey!

Also, I'm looking for recipes with left overs, to freeze so I don't have to cook when Mr Squishy arrives! As any new mum knows, being prepared when a little one comes in and turns your lives upside down is VERY important. Given the fact we know I will be having a c-section, and that there is a longer recovery time, preparation is essential.

Until yesterday, I had never used my slow cooker for desserts. Then I may a To Die For Gooey Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding! Now, I know I will continue to use it for more desserts! 

I'm branching out! Experimenting. Having fun.

So each week, thanks to several friends and fans asking, I will bring you my favourite recipes, the ones that turn out tasty! Maybe, for a laugh, I'll also share the ones that crash and burn! 

This will be handy (I hope) and just in time for winter, when casseroles, soups and roasts are sooooo good! Loads of Winter Warmers, that are family friendly and most importantly, QUICK AND EASY!!

Date Night

So life is busy. Really busy. Really really busy. 

Between (and in no particular order!!);

• working
• attempting to stay on top of the house and yard work 
• spending time with the kids 
• Trying to make time for friends and family
• church
• the dreaded long drawn out "night time routine" 
• WAAAAAY too many sleepless nights
• after school activities 
• playgroup
• voluntary commitments 
• much needed personal "my time" 

there is very little time left over for our Relationship. Our Marriage. Us. 

Enter the idea of Date Night.

It is sad, that these days, in order to spend quality time with the person we love, we have to schedule a Date Night! We have done this in the past. I am blessed with amazing In Laws! (i know right?!! You are so jealous right now aren't you?!!). They look after Mini Miss every second Saturday night!! Our nights look something like this: out to dinner, eat too much, go for a walk, realise how tired we really are, come home and crashed into bed. Rather than feeling refreshed and more connected we end up looking somewhat like this:

Don't get me wrong, these nights are great. 
We talk. To each other. 
Without say things like "Put down the knife" "don't pull the dogs tail" "I can see what you are doing" "don't put that nappy in your mouth" mid sentence (these are actual examples of things I have said mid sentence without skipping a beat!). Conversations for us these days are like 2 people talking with Tourette's, you never know what is going to come out of your mouth mid sentence. But, because of our lives, when the much anticipated Date Night arrives, rather than this ideal:

we simply look forward more to the uninterrupted sleep than the spending quality time together. 

There are days, weeks even, when I feel disconnected. I still feel like we are partners in life, but not life partners. We go along, side by side, enjoying the others company, but still just working as a team, not really having any time together, to talk about US.

So my plan for the rest of the year is to ensure 1 Date Day (be it daytime or night) a month that is all about US. Doing things WE love to do. Not about catching up on the housework without Mini Miss underfoot, or catching up on much needed (and desirable) sleep!

We are going to test drive our local area for things couples can do together. Things that don't cost a lot of money, as we are trying to get on top of debt and spend less money (see EOFY post).

We live in a truly beautiful part of Australia. It is currently the middle of winter, and during that day a t-shirt and jeans are comfortable! The forest meets the sea here, so we have a choice of clean, beautiful beaches, or green leafy rainforest walks. As we both love photography, you can bet there will be lots of pictures! And of course, for locals and tourists alike, a list of the best activities for couples to spend quality time together!

Dorrigo 

Yes, these pictures are meant to make you jealous,
unless you live here too, in which case,
they are just to remind you how beautiful it is here!!

On our child filled weeks we may even do the same thing with Family Friendly activities and I will put together a list of cheap/free things to do for families too! 

Do you have a Date Night?