Day 91

Saturday 31st March

Take heart dear reader the meals should be getting more interesting this week for a number of reasons. Firstly it's school holidays and Hope is far more engaged in the dinner prep. Secondly it's Easter week so we went a little crazy at the market. Thirdly I'm bored to bits with what we've been eating and I sure they are too. This little blog was never about showing off, I'm no masterchef that's for darn sure. But when you are in charge of the health and nutritional needs of four other people you do have to give it some thought.

Day 90

Friday march 30

Just the three at dinner tonight. Thom piked early after a busy day and a late afternoon bowl of pasta. Hope went to an end of term party where she ate bad nachos that were regretted at 3am. Mum, Al and I were bad catholics and ate lamb on a Friday. We also watched a Michael j Fox movie from 1993. Sad bastards.

Day 89

Thursday March 29

Steak, steak steak. My people are craving cow at the minute so I appeased them with the retro meal of steak salad and a hot bread roll. Plates were cleaned. Easy.

Day 88

Wednesday 28 March

We had Pho. Trust me.

Day 87

Porky pig

I know this meal kind of looks appalling but we are all a bit poorly this evening and needed simple food. Thom just completely lost it at the dinner table over some unknown injustice and only managed his corn before collapsing into bed weeping - he is a drama king of the highest order on occasion. Sigh.

Day 86

Meaty Monday

Lovely marinated chicken, sautéed potatoes (herb butter freezer stash now needs replenishing) and ubiquitous salad followed by lemon pudding. I know it's meant to be no meat Monday but we are poor this week and emptying the pantry of everything before the big shop.

Day 85

Sunday Sunday

A strange Sunday. A long sleep in, I didn't appear downstairs until 10. Little chores and errands filled the day. Tonight's dinner wasn't the traditional Sunday fare. Normally a roast is in order but I wasn't in the mood. We had a lovely herby pork fillet, a pear and walnut salad and what is fondly known in our house as festival rice. Dinner talk was about the meaning of the word 'next' as I'll see you next Tuesday. It got complicated. See you next dinner x

Day 84

Veal meal.

We had a lovely saturday. Coffee with a friend in the morning, a trip to a school fete, an afternoon crafting (Thom age 3 in charge of the glue stick) and now tea and chocolate post dinner. Marinated veal, roast potatoes, salad - really lovely. It's date night for us, we are off to see Margin Call at the Rivoli, room for maltesers will be a challenge!

Day 83

Friday 23 March

We had risotto. Take my word for it. I made the stock. I hate risotto. So much work for a lump of rice.

Day 82

Thursday march 22

We had a cold wet day that really marks the beginning of the melbourne chill. A roast dinner is never on the menu midweek but I really felt like it. I think everyone is sick of my roast chicken -4 weeks in a row and it has become tiresome. I have a tendency to repeat meals in blocks simply to make my life easier but enough is enough.I do love broccoli with white sauce tho!

Day 81

Curry in a not so hurry

Curry happened. I did a little test and just made everything in the one pan. Cauliflower with turmeric first, then the pappadums, then the curry. I dunno, it all tasted great and there is enough for lunch pies tomorrow. I'm not cleaning up and it's only 8pm so I should be pleased.

Day 80

Tuesday 20th March

I had intended to make curry but just couldn't be bothered with all the palaver that goes along with it. I did make an amazing sweet potato, chorizo and pea salad and another garlic focaccia to go with the steak and salad. None of us could finish our steaks - as you can see a ridiculous amount of food on our plates. We had a tv dinner and then spent the evening homeworking, reading, bad tv'ing and drawing before all being tucked in by 11.

Day 79

kind of no meat Monday March 19

Ok so there is a teensy bit of bacon in this creamy mushroom pasta, don't tell anyone! I had a day off today. I literally did nothing after driving Hope to school and doing a radio spot. I came home and literally did nothing apart from nap and then make dinner and then craft in the evening. The world didn't collapse around me, And I'm now committed to taking a few hours off each Monday to do nothing. It was good!

Day 78

Sunday roast

It was a busy Sunday for me. I had to wear all my hats today. But for some reason I was also an all day caterer. I made the boys porridge for breakfast because they were whining it was cold, had friends drop in for my morning tea banana bread, made the entire family grilled cheese and ham sandwiches for lunch, polished off the banana bread with neighbors and a cup of tea in the afternoon, then a little garlic lamb roast with whole potatoes, maple carrots and a little salad. We all feel a bit pooh bearish now. Tomorrow we will need a little exercise.

Day 77

Saturday night's alright

Burgers and fries. I can claim to have made the focaccia buns from scratch, and the chippies too so it's not as low rent as it sounds. When I was a kid you could still get a decent burger down at the local take away. These seem to have fallen by the wayside somewhat (along with mixed bags of lollies and the ice cream truck). I'm sure I'm just romanticizing them in my head. I did forget one very important ingredient tonight - beetroot! C'est la vie, they still tasted lovely. The focaccia was particularly fantastic, thanks Jamie Oliver.

Day 76

Friday Night Lights

We've been watching a great series on SBS called God in America. It goes some way to explain fundamentalism and of course in our mixed belief household has been cause for some energized conversations! Being Friday we had seafood - spaghetti marinara. Being an atheist Hope had steak and salad. God bless us all.

Day 75

Thursday 15 March

Sadly the day ended with crankiness and door slamming but dinner was delicious.

Day 74

March 14 Wednesday

After a very important meeting that ran for over two hours I was left feeling like a zombie. When this happens I go to default settings with dinner. The meal that most dominated my adolescence - little bit of steak, lots of salad, chippies (gems in this case - so wrong I know) and garlic bread. I managed with mums help to get dinner on the table by 630 and everyone in bed by 9. Except Hope who worked into the wee hours studying for her first philosophy exam. Socrates extolled the virtues of a healthy body = a healthy mind. I wish he'd made his argument for this in simpler terms so she could get more sleep.

Day 73

March 13 Tuesday

We seem to be having a last ditch at summer this week so to to celebrate we ate outside. This is a complete lie actually. The house was in such utter chaos there was nowhere to eat inside. I had literally covered every surface with stuff - piles and piles of stuff. Books, papers, projects, washing, ironing, magazines, mail, toys, more books and way too many tea cups. We had dinner and I spent the next 90 minutes cleaning the house so everyone could watch The Vicar of Dibley and Father Ted in comfort. Oh it was BBQ lamb chops with salad and potato gems, ice cream cones for dessert.

DAY 72

Monday March 12

My lovely Hope is in the midst of evil final year study and is feeling incredible stress. More and more you'll see her favourite dinners appear as I do everything I can to make her days a little easier. With the left over chicken and a chunk of smokey bacon, some fresh herbs and vegetables (peas, corn, carrot, onion) and the perfect bechamel sauce this was one super tasty tasty pie. Yumbo in my tumbo.

Day 71

Sunday March 11

Does soft focus make the roast chook look better? A report was released this week that showed that people who ate red meat every day increased their risk of premature death by 20%. I was relieved to hear this was an American study and they counted hot dogs as red meat. Still, I'm giving this meat thing more thought of late. The chook was a happy one so tasted delicious. Mum made the gravy which was award winning. Nice that there is an extra day off tomorrow for the worker bees. I'm working on the 14 hours work, five hours sleep and five hours fluffing about - haven't quite got the work life balance thing perfected yet.

Day 70

Saturday March 10

We had a curry. You'll have to make my word for it because I forgot to take a photo. We watched a terrible terrible movie and ate far too much chocolate. Bruce Willis really needs to STOP.

Day 69

Friday 9th

Alan and I had a fantastic date night. We went to see food writer chef Anthony Bourdain speak for two hours on all things travel and food. We were ravenous by the end and found ourselves craving (unusually) Italian. We climbed up the rickety stairs to the waiters club and indulged in spaghetti marinara and creme caramel. Burp!

Day 68

March 8 (Thursday)

Ok so I knew that today was going to be tough. I put a half leg of lamb in the slow cooker with some stock, onion, tomatoes and olives hoping the magic machine would do its, well magic. Sadly by 6pm the lamb tasted like leather and an emergency trip to the uber market to fetch a marinated veal piece to BBQ topped off what indeed was a very tough day.

Day 67

March 7

We have been buying our meat from the market for a while now and I have to be honest with you I'm finding it a little hit and miss. The cuts are pretty rough and ragged, I'm not sure if they actually represent good value for money. The pork chops were pretty tasty tonight but it took marinating and then grilling. I having to rethink our meat purchasing a little I think. No small subject as you can imagine.

day 66

March 6

We saw Jamie Oliver tonight in conversation with Matt Preston. Between you and me he seemed pretty weighed down by the world and his ongoing campaign to get us all to eat better. We ended up in our local Vietnamese haunt talking about food politics. I hope Jamie got a good nights sleep.

Day 65

March 5

Risotto is remarkably difficult to photograph. I made chicken stock this morning from last nights bird bones, fresh bay leaves, carrot and onion. Chicken and mushroom risotto is a great comfort food. It was an exhausting day and it was nice to have a stick-to-your-ribs dinner.

Day 64

March 4

Sometimes, especially on a cool Sunday night, a roast chicken is what is needed. I didn't cook this one, mum got busy in the kitchen so I could keep working on a project that involved an excess of glitter and glue. Dinner was lovely.

Day 63

Steak night

We watched a terrible movie and had dinner on our laps. I made individual macaroni and cheese pots to make it easier to eat, which everyone just loved. I cooked the steaks on the BBQ to avoid cleaning a pan. A really lovely Saturday night at home despite the sniffles.

Slacker

March 2 Friday

We had fish. You'll have to take my word for it.

Day 61

March 1st

With all of us suffering colds I thought a hot curry was in order. I know why I don't cook curry very often, despite everyone enjoying it - too much work and too much washing up. And the whole house smells of cumin.

Day 60

Leap Wed 29/2

This looks like a weird beer I know. It is in fact pineapple jelly and icecream. Dinner after a meeting that went til after 9pm. I cooked spag bol for the others but no one photographed it. Off to bed zzz