That first cup of coffee in the morning...

I do love a nice cup of coffee in the morning.  I usually have 2 but that's my limit.  I quite like using this jam jar for my mug as I can microwave the milk, froth it then pop in under my little coffee pod machine to brew the coffee.  This is how it comes out before I stir it.

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This is my little machine, a Nespresso Essenza mini.  Very simple with no bells and whistles.  You fill the water compartment, pop in a pod and hit the green button.  

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Sunday morning breakfast - my first bread for the whole week...

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Lovely fresh, free range eggs from a quite local to us egg business...

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These are my poor potato plants that I planted out in early October.  I decided to pull the middle pot yesterday to see what the crop was like...

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Not that great!  They look big but they were tiny and not many of them!

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I washed them up and I added the bigger ones to some bought potatoes and we had them for dinner.  They tasted great!  I'm hoping the two other pots produce a bit more if I leave them another month or so.

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Even though I am on WW, I made bread rolls to go into the freezer.  Huz loves them and they take no time at all.  I shaped these as Kaiser rolls, brushed with egg and topped with poppy seeds.  Perfect!

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Huz also cooked dinner, simple lamb cutlets, steamed veggies with a bit of butter (actually Nuttilex) and parsley on the potatoes and carrots.  Just what we needed.

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Breakfast was 40gms muesli (6 points), banana, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/3 tub (56gms) Chobani strawberry yoghurt (1 point), 2 tspn pure maple syrup (1 point) and 1/4 cup Pura Tone skim milk. 

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My tomatoes are doing okay but are very slow to mature and ripen ...

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A few strawberries but these plants are producing really mutated looking strawbs...

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Strawberries in pots are looking a bit sad with leaf curl or something.  They've looked like this right from the word go...

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I gave them a handful of dynamic lifter to see if that perks them up...

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The day was spent washing bedding, remaking beds for our guests coming for the Australia Day weekend, general tidying and putting away.  I need to Marie Kondo my undies drawer again and relocate some other clothing.  It gets out of hand so quickly.

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WW Chicken Tagine tonight for dinner...I can try out my new black casserole...

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Cheers - Joolz xx

What I'm reading...

I bought this novel the other day - I want to read more as I haven't for so long.  I think my eyesight was a bit of a problem but I have readers in my glasses now so it seems okay.  I am a few chapters in and am enjoying this - a story of an Irish family who come out to 

Australia on free passage and with a promise of a land grant.  Love stories intermingled with hardship I think ... I'll have to keep reading.

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This one intrigued me so I bought it on my Kobo (similar to a Kindle).  

That is next on my list.  Have you got any great reads to share?

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Others that I have lined up on my Kobo are:

The Orphan Keeper - Camron Wright

Lion - Saroo Brierley

Heart of the Dreaming - Di Morrissey

Kimberley Sun - Di Morrissey

The Lake House - Kate Morton

The Reluctant Midwife - Patricia Harman

Tumbledown Manor - Helen Brown 

The Hundred Foot Journey - Richard C Morais

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Rhanna - Christine Marion Fraser (I read this whole series of books before I can kids - set in the Scottish Hebrides, love, lust, loss and more)

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Well that should keep me busy until 2050! 

 Hey think about this ...

 2050 is 30 years away ... and 1990 was 30 years ago...

I was 26 in 1990 and I'll be 86 if I see 2050 come around ... but I highly doubt that! 

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

Steel cut oats and getting stuff done...

Six for six days walking.  I quickened my pace today by more than a minute on yesterday's walk. There weren't many people around this morning, must be sleep in day.  It was nice and cool, just how I like it...

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I tried steel cut oats for the first time today.  They took a while to cook, which is a negative.  I can have a bowl of quick oats made in 3 minutes but these took around 15 minutes on the stove.

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They were nice - quite nutty and a bit chewy so I guess they are good for my insides.  They are more costly in WW points compared to quick or rolled oats.  A 1/4 cup of these is 5 points compared to 2 for quick oats. I used pure maple syrup and had a tablespoon for 3 points but will cut back to 2 teaspoons for 1 point as it was over sweet.  

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The bananas and blueberries make it really nice...

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I buy blueberries when they are on special for $2.50 - $3.00 and freeze them.  I will not pay

$5.00 + a punnett.

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With breakfast done, I did a few jobs around the place.  Namely get rid of all the Christmas crap tidying things away off the tables.  Just bits of Christmas left lying around.  I didn't decorate much or put up a tree here as we had Christmas in Adelaide.  We had Gus's side of the family over on the Saturday before and I stole the tree (simply decorated with baubles) from work and put that in the family room for the day, then it was returned to work the next day. Lol!  When we got home from Adelaide, it was nice not having to undecorate the tree. 

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I fixed my garden hose by replacing all the connections and joiners so they don't leak - that really annoys me.  I tidied my corner 'plastic container' cupboard.  It wasn't too bad, it just needed reorganising.  I keep lids with containers so you don't have to go hunting.  I did 3 loads of washing and got all caught up.  I even hung most on the line and got it dry within the hour.

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Another thing I did, was set a timer for 30 minutes (while I had a load of washing going) and I sat and read my novel without moving.  I went to get up once and thought, no, sit! 

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Lunch was Rye Mountain bread with turkey, cranberry, lettuce, mango, cucumber, tomato and beetroot.  Dinner will be fish as Gus bought some Kingfish from Robe when he went there this morning.

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We're enjoying some cooler weather now for the next few days so I hope the fires on Kangaroo Island settle down.  It is utter devastation there.

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Cheers - Joolz xx

Muesli and Le Creuset...

This was my delicious breakfast bowl this morning...

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It looks a lot but there was only 1/2 a banana and 1/2 a pear in there and about 4 strawberries...

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As you can see, most of it is zero points except for the muesli and maple flavoured syrup.  I could do better with the muesli but you compromise on taste when you get into the really healthy muesli's and I'm sorry, I am not eating cardboard!  I also realised (when I used the food scanner) that for 2 tsp real maple syrup, its still 2 points so I'll be using that in future.  Anyway, it was delicious and took over 15 minutes to consume.  I have walked 5 days this week, today being the longest at 2km in 19 minutes.  I am no Usain Bolt, with rickety knees and sore feet, but I'll take that time as good and besides, I'm not racing anyone!

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This beautiful thing arrived today - Merry Christmas to me from me!  Gus and I didn't exchange presents at Christmas (because we did Kris Kringle with the kids) but we both had something in mind that we wanted.  Anyhoo, time ran out so I ordered this online (and on sale) and he has a hankering to get a new black lidded Weber BabyQ so he'll get that soon.

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I think with this black beauty, I should be able to get rid of every stupid fry pan and skillet lurking in my cupboard.  Even my electric fry pan can go.  This can be used to fry, wok stir fry and casserole.  Together with my big blue le Creuset, that should be all I need.  I will still have a tiny little skillet for scrambled eggs for two and another cheapy for making my flatbreads in at high heat but the rest - adios!

I'm thinking I might even be able to make some Southern style biscuits in there!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Blueberry mug muffin...

This mug muffin is a very filling breakfast and the flavour options are numerous...

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1/3 cup quick oats

1 tbsn wholemeal plain flour

1 medium, ripe banana, mashed

1 egg

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You can add other flavourings, still using 1/2 a banana for moisture - apple, cinnamon, medjool dates, raspberries ... endless possibilities.  Grated carrot and sultanas makes a great carrot cake tasting one! 

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I added frozen blueberries to this one.   Mix these ingredients together then pour into a large mug (I use one of those big soup mugs and line it with a muffin paper so it doesn't stick and is easy to tip out).

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Now, these muffins are called 90 second muffins but for me they take way longer.  I microwaved this on high for 3 bursts of 1 minute then a further 30 seconds to finish.  

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Here it is, topped with YoPro blueberry yoghurt and drizzled with 2 tsp Green's Maple flavoured syrup...scrummy!

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This came out at 7 WW points (on the blue plan which I am sticking to).

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I have updated my FitBit to a Versa 2 and it syncs with my Weight Watchers app so when I walk each morning, it tracks my movement by GPS and it gives me FitPoints.  That doesn't mean I can eat more, it just advises WW how much exercise I am doing each week.  It wakes me with an alarm (vibrate only) so that doesn't wake hubby up, monitors my heart rate, shows how many steps I walk, date, time and I can also play music on it too (haven't worked that out yet) and it tells me when my phone is ringing or if I get a text.  Very handy.

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I am 4 for 4 mornings with my walks, this morning I went a little further and longer, just a bit...

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This blog was published using  Blog Touch Pro - I downloaded the pictures first on my iPad at home then I wrote up the text on my pc at work.  If I do the text on my phone or iPad, BTP crashes and I lose my 'words'.  Not the mention the 'words' that come out of my mouth when this happens!  The pics come out larger and centred from my iPad but smaller and to the left with my iPhone.  Oh, the frustration!  I'll carry on this way until I sort out a computer/laptop for home (I reckon I've been saying that for over 2 years - I just hate change!) where I can Bluetooth the pics to it and blog from there.

I hope this finds you all safe and well
Cheers - Joolz xx

Overnight quick oats for breakfast...

I'm back on the band wagon with Weight Watchers so I made overnight oats with quick oats, chia seeds, grated apple, cinnamon and greek yoghurt.  This morning I tipped it out and drizzled a teaspoon of maple flavoured syrup on it.  Delicious!
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These little wallabies were in town, looking for a bit of green feed I think.  One was inside the cricket oval fence and the other on the outside.  I hope they got reunited.
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The town was very hazy with smoke this morning and the sun was a fiery bright red (my pic doesn't show the brightness) as I went on my walk.
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I believe the smoke is from the Kangaroo Island fires.  So much devastation across Australia, I don't know how everyone will recover...
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Cheers - Joolz xx

Italian stuffed cob loaf..

 We went to the beach on Sunday and being a little over having barbecues, I decided to make a stuffed cob loaf.

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I hollowed out the loaf then proceeded to layer it with cream cheese spread, caramelised onion jam, pastrami, baby spinach leaves, mortadella, cheddar cheese slices, salami, basil leaves, sun dried tomatoes, cheese stuffed peppers, repeating the layers...

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It was so good!  Very easy to transport, wrapped in cling wrap then foil and popped in our Engel car fridge.  Sliced into wedges, it was enjoyed very much and there was no clean up!

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We still have Ruby, our Land Rover Defender (she just turned 10 years old and has only done 40,000 kms).  We didn't get to go camping much in 2019, we just seemed too busy with work and other things on weekends.  I think we have a yabbying trip planned for early February.  Each weekend in January is already planned out.  I think it's going to be a busy year.

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Cheers - Joolz xx