Belinda Moore

1.5kg ripe cumquats

3.75 cups water

.75 cup lemon juice, strained

10 cups sugar

1 sachet Jamsetta

Chop cumquats roughly.  Place into saucepan with water and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.  Crush the fruit thoroghly with a potato masher.  Strain using jelly bag or piece of muslin over a strainer.  You should get about 7 cups of liquid.

Place cumquat liquid with lemon juice in a large saucepan.  Add sugar and mix well.  Bring to boil, stirring constantly.  When boil is reached, stir in Jamsetta.  Then bring to a full boil again and boil hard for 3 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat and allow to sit for a few minutes.  Skim off foam with a metal spoon and pour quickly into hot, sterilised jars.  Cover at once with lids.  Label.  Makes 12 cups of jelly.

250g butter

250g grated cheese

2 cups wholemeal spelt flour

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp herb salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Few tbspn grated parmesan

Rub butter into flour. Mix cheese through. Add spices. Stir milk in to create a workable dough.

Roll dough into balls. Press into parmesan and bake on oiled tray @ 180 degrees C for 10-15 minutes (until edges are golden). Cool and store in airtight container. Suitable to freeze. Makes a couple of dozen large biscuits, depending on how big you make them.

Based on a recipe shared at Simple Savings.

2008 National Home Education Week 11 – 17th May

“With so much dissatisfaction with private or government schooling many families are finding that DIY schooling is a great deal easier and more enjoyable than they imagined.” - HEA

For further info on home education, see this page.

I adapted this recipe for Black Bean Burgers to suit what I had at hand and our tastes.  Here’s what I did:

3 cups cooked black beans, 75% pureed with stick mixer

1 large clove garlic (giant), minced

1 large onion, chopped finely

2 tsp sweet paprika

pinch of very hot chilli powder

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup besan flour to coat patties

oil for frying

Set aside flour for coating.  In a medium saucepan, saute the onion, garlic and spices until the onions are softened.  Set aside.

In a suitable large bowl, blend the black beans until about 75% are pureed.  Alternatively  you could use a fork or potato masher.  Mix in breadcrumbs, onion and spice mix.

Divide into 10 patties - roll and flatten, coat in the besan (chickpea) flour.

Fry in oil (I used organic sunflower) until crisp on both sides, about 5 minutes each side.

Everyone loved these served with tomato, lettuce, beetroot and sauce on wholemeal bread rolls.  Some had a fried egg as well on their burgers.

* Adapted from a recipe in the Australian Women’s Weekly 100 Delicious Biscuits and Slices cookbook, by Ellen Sinclair (1972)

4 cups wholemeal spelt flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

250g butter

2 cups raw sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk

Sift flour and baking powder with salt.  Set aside.  Cream butter, add sugar gradually.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Add well-beaten eggs, vanilla and milk.  Add sifted dry ingredients and work until the dough is firm enough to handle.  Refrigerate at least one hour.

(Next you’re meant to roll out and use a cookie cutter, but we didn’t)

Roll dough into balls and place on greased baking sheet - they expand.  Some we sprinkled with hundreds and thousands found lurking in the pantry.

Bake at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.  Cool on tray and store in an airtight container.  Makes many!

We had a couple of mix-ups last week. Moved the pasta to the next night, skipped the burgers, and missed out on the soup because I forgot to pack it - so had store-bought gnocchi with a jar of pasta sauce! Back home now and hoping this week runs more smoothly.

I’m still over-budget so need some magical solutions for the groceries for the rest of May.

Monday: steamed vegies, rice, gravy

(soak beans for Tues)

Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers

Actual recipe used here.

(buy tomatoes, beetroot - use rolls from freezer)

Wednesday: (BIG day) eggs or baked beans on toast (dessert - yoghurt)
(got bread in freezer?)

Thursday: bean enchiladas, corn chips (dessert - choc mousse)

Friday: pumpkin soup, damper/bread, (dessert - cake)

Saturday: spelt fettucine, white sauce, broccoli

Sunday: roast vegies, steamed greens, cheese sauce

Baking etc: bulk biscuits for snacks and freezer, cheese biscuits for hubby’s lunchbox, damper/bread Friday, desserts for Thursday and Friday. I almost always roast a tray of pumpkin when we’re baking. I adore roasted pumpkin and we have dozens of homegrown pumpkins. It’s great in salads, soups, sandwiches and wraps, on its own (sweet, salty, lightly olive oiled… yum!)

Lunches: soups from freezer, salads from garden (with tinned chickpeas & dressing for example), and our usual leftovers etc!

The post explaining my menu planning method is here.

This post is part of Meal Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com.

Thanks to Mealopedia for some ideas and recipes for this week.  I found Mealopedia through Simple Savings.

For lunch we mainly have leftovers. Sometimes the leftovers are bulked-out with ordinary bread, flat bread (Mountain Bread), a salad, tin of beans etc. If there are no leftovers we will have any combination of:

salad sandwiches or wraps

toasted sandwiches or wraps - baked beans, cheese & tomato, egg etc.

pasta with butter & herbs or other simple flavours

rice as a simple risotto or with simple sauce etc

a platter of fruit, nuts, cheese or dips and crackers

eggs - boiled or an omelette

pancakes - sweet or savoury

a salad with tuna or eggs tossed through it

soup - from the freezer or made especially on a cold day with bread

One of my favourite lunches is to use rice spring roll paper and roll up leftover stirfry vegetables and eat cold and un-fried (they’re fine like this, really!) with sweet chilli dipping sauce. YUM! We always have leftover stir fry, so I’m going to keep a packet of these papers handy from now on!

I’m always keen for new lunch ideas, so if anyone has any to share, please leave a comment.

I’m in awe of those menu planners who can plan 3 meals a day plus snacks!  I’ve only ever been good with planning our evening meal and more recently, our baking.

What do we eat for breakfast?

Wheat Biscuits (Weetbix - organic) with honey & milk

Puffed Brown Rice (organic) with honey & milk

Wholemeal bread, toasted, with spreads

Rice cakes with spreads

Wholemeal bread, toasted, with boiled or fried eggs

Porridge, with milk, honey and cinnamon

Fruit

Muesli & yoghurt & fruit & honey if required (some don’t like tart yoghurt)

and that’s about it!

Everyone chooses what they eat and prepares breakfast for themselves and each other (younger children).  We only eat together if I make a big pot of porridge or their Dad makes eggs.  Otherwise, breakfast is spread over about two hours each morning!

We missed out on our roast vegie night again last week, because we went out to friends’ for tea. We took some roast vegies, salads and desserts though.

My April grocery budget challenge was a bit above what I aimed for, but much better than previous months. I have set myself another challenge for May, but with camping, visitors, two birthdays and Mother’s Day, I’m not sure… So far I’m over budget, but we’ll see what the coming weeks brings.

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