Birthday dinner

Hubby's bday dinner of steak, creamy parmesan mash and a greek salad. I am obsessed with fetta at the moment! yummo!!!

Hot potato hot potato

I have mentioned before that Marco loves potatoes...and after seeing a book titled 500 Potato Recipes in the "Allbooksforless" bookshop, I was inspired to make something with potatoes....hence
BAKED POTATOES!!!

They were delicious with ham, onion, corn, low fat cottage cheese, some Wattle Valley Spinach and cashew dip and a capscium and cherry tomato "salsa".
After a very hectic day of newborn antics and a toddler decided she is going to hold on to all toilet movements, ones and twos, we also shared a beer.
I havent had a baked potato in years...actually the last time I think was at Darling Harbour food court where I developed my serious aversion to liquid cheese. Ugghh!!

Newborns and leftovers

A current theme in our house since we had kids is leftovers.
So last night we had leftover meatballs which I froze a few weeks ago, and leftover potato salad plus a hearty cup of baby spinach on brown rice.
I know I wrote it in the last post, but I really do like this potato salad. Maybe it is the chorizo, or maybe it is because I don't feel like I have been drowned in mayo.

You might think these portion sizes are enormous!! They are pretty big but I am breastfeeding and we eat at 5/5:30pm as to eat with Isadora, so they need to sustain me to 10pm at night, otherwise I snack on chocolate.

2 nights ago dinner

Me: Marco, what do you want for dinner?
Marco: Potatoes and we need some meat.

Always the answer with my gorgeous husband. He just loves potatoes. He tells me he likes them mashed, boiled, fried, baked, roasted, any way...he just loves them!!!

So two nights ago, for dinner we had a steak (which I cooked for too long, as Isa poured water on the ground mid cooking!!) and a makeshift potato salad with steamed potatoes, lightly steamed carrots and broccoli and pan fried chorizo and spring onion. It was actually really yummy and a lighter option to my standard potato salad which has heaps of mayonaiise and egg too.

For dessert we had sweet delicious watermelon. How I love summer!!

Do you like our new plates and cups from my mum for Chrissy. I thought plastic plates and cups would be a good idea considering we are a 'family' now. I would prefer we eat with the same cutlery and plates, so that the kids learn how to eat properly and as a family unit.

 

Along with mangoes, cherries and nectarines...watermelon is summer! 

What's for dinner this week Mandy?

This is a short week as we are off to my parents for Christmas on Friday...this week, our dinners will be:

Tonight - Black beans with chorizo, rice and salad

Tomorrow - Homemade fish fingers (first attempt but I think Isa will love them and the bought ones are pretty gummed up) with roast veggies

Wednesday - Morrocan inspired lemon chicken with a cous cous salad 

Thursday - Meatballs and mashed potato (this is a wierd one but I asked Marco what is one thing he wants to eat this week and his response was "Mashed potato". 

What are you having for dinner this week?

...and now we are 4

Our gorgeous little Maya was finally born in a mad dash of 2 hours...and now we are 4. It is so amazing to have two little girls in your arms. Even more amazing how much Maya looks like Isadora did when she was a wee one. 

So now we need to be even more inventive in the way we eat a) to have food ready with a house full of little people b) prepare food when you have had 4 hours of broken sleep a night c) prepare nutritious meals that a toddler will also eat!!! Kind of frightening really!!! 

For lunch we had a picnic in a Moroccan inspired tent...well really just a cubby house. 

And then tonight we had a pretty throw together meal of tuna sauteed with eggplant, chickpeas, broccoli and tomatoes a long with fried polenta.

I love chickpeas. Actually I love legumes too.

What are you having for dinner tomorrow night? I think we will have black beans a la Brasileiro with some meat off cuts and salad and rice.

Also who here orders their food online? I am going to have to start doing this. Too hard with two kids shopping. I have hubby for a few weeks of leave but still think I may endeavour to order online. I don't love Coles/Woolies produce much, not the freshest, so am thinking to use someone a bit more local like Vegies to your door.

Quick dinner

I can blame a lot of things, being 38 weeks pregnant, Marco not being home, Isadora liking it. Yet it always seems the days that Isa is in childcare, I am even lazier when it comes to dinner. I get sidetracked 'relaxing', cleaning or catching up with adult conversation.
So dinner last night was packet pasta. I pretend to myself that because it has spinach inside the ravioli it is better for you. But I tend not to read the ingredient listing because it might bring me into labour.
Coming off a month of trying to be unprocessed with our food choices has also seen me kind of binge back into packaged foods. I am even thinking about frankfurters for dinner tonight!!!! Eeeekkkkk, the idea freaks me out but the salty goodness of all the additive numbers is just delicious.

Filo wonderland

I love filo pastry as a handy way to get rid of leftovers. Admittedly, the mince and veggies inside are not actually leftovers tonight, but they are still a quick and healthy option for a family. I 'hide' grated carrot, zucchini and chopped broccoli into my minced meat to get some veggies into Isadora and she picks and pinches at the meal using the pastry almost as an eating utensil.
I love baby spinach as you will see, it's easy and full of vitamins and I am loving this gold capsicum for contrast. Capsciums are another saviour for toddler vegetable consumption.
This meal also pacifies my hubby as he can 'dip dip' (like Isa) his meal into his revolting America Masterfoods Mustard, yuck!!!

First post...test

I love food, I love family. Together we have great meals and this is what life is about. I wanted to have a simple blog about what my family loves to eat and how I try to make it semi nutritious....so this blog is about what Mandy, and our family, are having for dinner!