It’s Friday and we have so much to discuss.
I knew I wore this scarf and wide grin to work for a reason…
my tickets for Texas came through today and it’s only 17 sleeps until I fly. Behind that wide smile and cabin crew-esque scarf there’s a bit of mild panicking going on. Visa waiver stuff to do online, bank stuff to organize, packing (oh the packing) and some hectic times at work to survive but I’ll get there. My mum and aunties are flying in ahead of my trip and whatever chaos may be brewing ahead of their arrival, you can rest assured it will all be put into perspective by the time they’ve taken off their shoes, cleaned the wheels of their suitcases at the back door before rolling them in (don’t ask…) and the kettle’s been put on. I can’t wait to seem them all and neither can Preschooler SSG.
And that, my friends, has probably been the most exciting moment of my week.
Not that I haven’t tried to ignite some excitement and interest elsewhere in my life…
Do you find that most of your visits to a 7/11 are slightly ‘walk of shame’ tinged? Back in the day, it might have been hangover related but nowadays it’s for more mundane reasons such as lost Opal cards or bribes snacks to avoid a public full body foot path tantrum.
Due to a bit of public holiday Tuesday brain, I found myself without a key component of my lunch on Wednesday. So I had to go to the 7/11 to find it. Which was great except that the only sized tin of corn they had was huge. Then came my light bulb moment of using a clean slurpee cup and lid to store the remainder for lunch the following day. I’m happy to report that my corn kept well in the fridge in its ingenious new packaging.
Remember all that Lorna Jane leggings euphoria around Easter? When I loved my new leggings so much I was actively engineering ways to spend more time in my activewear? The love is still there but I seem to be losing my exercise mojo. Not even the allure of wearing those lower body changing tights gets me out of bed easily at the moment. Nor, come to think of it, did the motivational words or Instagram feeds of those pretty young fitspo princesses. I had to dig deeper and wouldn’t you know it, – The New York times raised me up in my moment of need with
this article they recently published about the life improving benefits of regular running. It’s been proven to add quality years to our lives, it’s a cheap and easy aerobic work out, it makes me feel good once I hit the pavement. To paraphrase Nike, I just have to do it.
The universe also delivered this article to me about HIIT workouts and specifically just how effective a simple skipping rope based routine can be. It’s still a struggle getting out from under my doona on these suddenly cold mornings but having this evidence base is helping to silence the lazy procrastinating voice inside me.
Speaking of the sudden cold change, do you have a favourite bed sock? Mine are Explorer socks. The dark coloured and functional original wool blend ones. I wish they made them for little people too.
Food and nutrition wise, let’s start with the healthier food choice first.
Did you know that baking medium firm / hard tofu makes it easier to stir fry? I baked mine for half an hour (sprayed lightly with olive oil spray first) and turned my slices over at the halfway mark. For the record, I used a firm tofu from Woolworths that was labelled stir fry suitable.
The baking process gives the tofu a bit of character around the edges and makes it firmer on the tooth. A bit like the commercially prepared tofu puffs and deep fried tofu slices you can find at Asian grocers but healthier for you. Interestingly, Preschooler SSG really enjoyed this tofu stir fry.
Chocolate pikelets. They’re a thing but sadly appear to be around for a limited time only. I’m hoping that ‘limited’ means ‘years’ because Preschooler SSG is loving them for a quick breakfast.
While the pikelets have a strong chocolate flavour, they’re not oozing with actual chocolate and neither are they super sweet. Which also makes them a hit with me.
I’ve had a fascinated with doctored cake mix recipes for the longest time. Preschooler SSG wanted to bake cupcakes yesterday so I thought I’d put one of my favourite cake mix life hacks to the test. To the ingredients for this Betty Crocker mix, I added an extra egg and double the amount of melted butter.
It resulted in a very airy and light batter
which produced these super domed mini cup cakes.
The additional ingredients did give the cup cakes a ‘could be home made’ taste. We iced four of the cup cakes (that was all the included icing would stretch to!?!) and froze the rest. I think I just might be able to make some frosting from scratch when we get around to defrosting the rest of our cupcakes. The star shaped funfetti was from Woolworths. The sprinkling was ably done by Preschooler SSG.
