What I to do with a Kadu?

This is a Kadu. A guy Dave works with grows these, he is from Pakistan and he told Dave he uses these in curries. I have never seen or heard of them before! I think it is a cross between a zucchini and a choko - kinda. The inside has a marshmallow look to it - very different.

I made a pumpkin and kadu curry. I got about three different recipes off the web and fused and fiddled about with them, and it really tasted nice, the spices give a depth of heat that set off the sweetness of both veggies.

I have frozen the excess to add to winter casseroles and stews. I still have half a kadu left so I will make a different curry over the weekend and freeze that too.

I made these buns last night and they were freaking delicious! I go the recipe from Frills in the Hills.

Cause I am trying to not waste food I made a Zucchini slice. Even though Wes says he doesn't like zucchini he gobbled this down and even took it for lunch! Now just to get Amelia to come around!

Bronwyn's Mum, Dorothy, made some crabapple jelly and gave me a jar - it is delish! AND it doesn't taste like apple like I thought it would, which was a surprise. I have never had crabapple before so thats too new things this week alone!

This bucket is my latest idea for being a bit greener. It is thought that most households throw away about 30% of their food. I hope we don't throw that much away! In monetary terms if we did in fact throw away 30% it would be throwing away $1950.00 a year - isn't that ridiculous??? So for this week we are putting any food that we would usually throw into this bin, just to see. It's already making me make sure nothing it is wasted, I am checking the fridge everyday!

Show and Tell

We don't use paper towels, haven't done for close to 6 months now. At first it was really really hard, but we now are just used to it. We use alot of tea towels and calico squares and its worked out really well, so with delight I saw at Coles they had 10 tea towels for $5! That's only 50c each - loving that. We also don't use tissue, just hankies. I nearly wrote a letter to Amelia's school when they sent home notes with a list of things the kids needed to bring which included 2 boxes of tissues, but didn't as I hadn't wanted her teacher to think I was a freak!!!!

Here is Dad's birthday present, well half of it anyway. And that's about as much as I can show as Dad does see this blog and it's got to be a little bit of a surprise. Hence why the strategically placed ball of wool! Hee!

Paid bills this morning - that is the least funnest (new word!) thing, though putting away groceries is pretty dull too. God my life sounds exciting.

Cheap Milk

I bought my last bottle of $1 = 1L of milk at Coles or from Woolies. I am going back to my normal buying habits. Why? Well cause this type of pricing is only going to result in either two things as far as I can see;

1. Dairy farmers will get less money than the pitiful amount they already do and
2. the stores will put prices up to ccompensate.

Actually I take that back both things will probably happen. Isn't capitalism fantastic?

In other news I have just finished recess baking for this week, we are having brownies and muesli bars. I have GOT to make banana bread tonight as the 'nanas that are left are overripe and now perfect for it.

Valentines day, hmmm. Dave has assured me that he hasn't bought me anything even a card going with our trying not to be spendy pants'. I did crack and get him a little box of Rose chocs (his all time favourites) for $3.88 and I wrote a lovely card which I printed off the internet, thank you WWW.

It's bad but I hope he did get me a card LOL! Can't please me!

Extra Money

Yesterday I rang Telstra, what a joy that is - not. My phone bill is $147 in credit and I wanted to get $120 recredited to our account. I have done this twice before so I know it takes all of about 4 mins to do, however it took 3 transfers and 29 mins to get it done. Blech! But it is done and it will be credited on Monday.

Today I rang Country Energy, the lady I spoke to was lovely. I rang 'cause I hadn't recieved a bill and we are on Easypay where they average out your yearly usuage and you pay fortnightly. However when we moved in here the previous owners were really high users so we have been paying $111 per fortnight. So I rang we are in $206.95 CREDIT! Well, I got them to send me a cheque for $200 and cancel our easypay and just debit us $75 a fortnight which should still pay the bill off each quarter.

So two phone calls = $320 of our money that companies were earning interest of that we will have back very soon to put towards more bills! Hurrah! LOL!

Spendy Thursday

So I remembered that other item, USB key for Wes for school. He announced it was "urgent" this morning.... hmm how urgent? I asked, but alas it is needed for Friday. So away to Big W after work. It cost $10.93 for a 2G, I rang Dave to see if I was being ripped off but he reckons that is about right, I also got Amelia her scissors ($1.88), Wes a spare book ($1.42) and Daves valentines present ($3.98). I then went to Coles and got 3L of milk for $3. So I spent - $20.21. Not too bad.

However Dave had to use our CC to pay for some thing at work $18, and they reimbursed him in cash, now what did we do with that? Oh we got a cup of coffee and a crepe each - $15, maybe not a great choice and now I have to add an extra $15 to the CC payment. Stoopid!

Tomorrow I am aiming for another no spend day.

Lets visit the Garden

I haven't taken any garden pics for aaagggeeessss partly cause stuff has been ripped out and I am in planning for the next push.

These are my lettuce boxes. I planted 6 seedlings on the weekend. The bigger plant is my one remaining lettuce that I have coaxed NOT to go to seed like all the others.

One of my spinach seedling I planted about a dozen in the rain yesterday afternoon. Look at all that beautiful mulch - thank you potatoes!

Zucchini's are still going but not as prolific as they were. I am hoping they last a few weeks longer.

My capsicums are just starting to flower. I am all over trying to find recipes so I can store them for use later on.

Our latest saving idea for the kids. We have told them that we will give them 50% of what they can save up to 1 August. So if they manage to save $20 we will add $10 etc, we are hoping that the idea of such great interest will help them learn the value of saving and how to balance the spend/save equation.

Dave and I have been doing really well not spending, but there are a couple of unavoidables coming up this week, sport is $27 which is due before the 14th and something else that I can't remember. Oh well, I know its a school thing too so I will check the notes.

Today we spent nothing. I love everyday I dont spend. Here is a good example why I resent spending money - sometimes. I bought the kids uniforms as I have previously mentioned. Amelia has worn her sport shirt once and as she was putting on this morning I noticed a hole in the sleeve seam, there is a section where the overlocker hasnt caught the seam at all! That polo shirt cost us $28! Then yesterday Dave noticed that a 2 inch section of the zip on her school dress wasnt even sewn!!! Grrrr!!! And that little girls uniform cost $46, hows that for value - NOT!

And here are the kids lunch for tomorrow - mini quiches made with tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and leftover yolks from the pav. Yum!

Paint Shirt

I got the pattern from SewMamaSew blog, she has a really easy to follow tutorial on there. Amelia needed a new paint shirt for school, (it was on her list) and after feeling pretty crap about my dress not fitting I needed a good project to do.

It has a tie on the back of the neck - the bias binding extends to make itself the ties.

This is a picture of my homemade bias binding. I had bought some, which I used on the sleeves, but I ran out so I made my own! It wasn't very hard and it looks very good. The material I got at a garage sale (as you may have seen previously) for 50c and the bias binding cost $1.10, so it cost $1.60 butI still have some more of the blue material left and I really didn't need to buy the bias binding so I could have done it for 50c.

My Dress

Here is my dress. It came out really well and I followed the pattern to the T. There is only two things wrong with it.

1. The neckline is too plunging and will need to have some stitches in it so it doesn't look too booby.

2. It doesn't fit.

I can not tell you how mad I was yesterday when I tried it on. My bust is too big for it. I thought that the sizing was right - it fits my waist, hips and is the perfect length. I am keeping it for "one day'. I costed it and the dress cost all up $18.75. I really love it though.

School Days

I made Wes and Amelia some drink bottle sacks for school. They are quick and look good!



And can I say the heat is just filthy but..... at least I don't live in Gunnedah!