Kale and ricotta sausage roll recipe

This is a delicious recipe* that I have been tweaking over the past few weeks.  It is a simple and tasty way to use up leafy greens from the garden (we have a lot of kale at the moment!).  It is also a crowd pleaser since young and old tend to like sausage rolls.  You will need about 30 mins to chop the veggies (I tend to do this in advance earlier in the day and pop them in the fridge) and another 15 mins to roll the filling in pastry and put them into the oven.

Kale and ricotta sausage rolls

Ingredients

To make the kale and ricotta rolls you will need:

500g ricotta

1 onion and 2 small cloves garlic diced

4 leaves of kale finely chopped and 1 swiss char leaf (2 cups of green leafy veggies is required - use spinach or another variety if that is what you have. I remove the chunkier stems from the kale)

1/2 cup grated carrot and 1/2 cup of grated zucchini

2 tablespoons of parsley finely chopped

3 sprigs of fresh thyme - remove leaves from stems

1/2 cup bread crumbs

4 Square sheets puff pastry
Tomato chutney (optional)

Method

Grease two baking trays with butter.  Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius.  Fry onion and garlic in a saucepan until soft and translucent and set aside.  Add leafy greens, carrot, zucchini, parsley and thyme to a bowl and stir through ricotta and bread crumbs.  Add onion and garlic and combine through mixture.

Allow the pastry to thaw for about 10 minutes while you mix the filling, then slice each sheet in half, making two rectangles.  Add mixture in a line along the middle of each rectangle (I like to add mixture to each sheet and make sure that I have used it all up) and lift one side and roll. Turn so seam is upward facing and gently seal, possibly using water to help it stick. Roll over the sausage roll and brush the top with egg. Then sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Cut into desired roll sizes (I cut twice to make four rolls from each half of pastry).  Put into the oven for 15 mins or until cooked and golden on top.  Serve with tomato chutney or desired dipping sauce (optional).

*I adapted this recipe from a cook book that I was given at Christmas time, Something for Everyone by Louise Fulton Keats.  This recipe is quite different from the chicken sausage roll recipe by Louise but I wanted to acknowledge where the inspiration came from.

Would you like to use less cling wrap?

Here are a few simple things you can do to quickly reduce your cling wrap use:

Managing leftovers

Cover up bowls or plates with plates or bowls instead of cling wrap. This is very quick way to cover up your food before popping it into the fridge.  It also uses things that you already have (at no cost) so that is always a bonus.

Plate and bowl food covers

I do find bowls and plates can take up a bit of space if left for a few days in the fridge.  For some items it is definitely more practical to use a resealable plastic or glass container.  I recommend stocking up on a few different sizes of re-usable container.  They are easy to find at the supermarket or general household stores.  It may end up being a bit of an outlay to do this but having the right containers on hand makes it easy to store things as you need to.  If you don't want to buy new things then look for alternatives - op shops might have something or empty jars could be used.  If you buy or find a reusable container each week for a couple of months I'm sure you will quickly have enough to manage with little or no need for cling wrap.

A few of the containers that are currently in my fridge

Using the microwave

Basically the same rules apply here as for leftovers.  Use a re-usable plastic (the stronger or more rigid the plastic the lower the likelihood that chemicals may leach from the material into your food) or glass container.  Or simply cover a bowl with a plate and pop it in to cook.  The best part about using alternatives to cling wrap is that you won't have it melting in your food, further reducing the potential for chemicals leaching and entering your body.

Packing lunch

This is not rocket science - re-usable containers come into their element here, especially the flat plastic containers that you get when you order take away meals.  They are the perfect size for a sandwich to fit and not fall apart (that's right - put the sandwich in UNWRAPPED).  Play around with whatever items you like to take.  I tended to take a sandwich and crackers to work most days which fit perfectly in the flatter take away style container.  If I was taking fresh fruit then I would use a taller container (yes, the sandwich was still UNWRAPPED).

Small containers are great for snacks like nuts or sultanas, which are a great pick me up in the afternoon.

For kids lunches you can use the same approach above or if you're worried about things getting messy (since your child might not take the same care that you would) then buy a compartmentalised lunch box for your child.

You can also buy reusable sandwich holders if you can't handle the idea of a naked sandwich.  However, these can become expensive if your dear little one has a habit of losing things.  For those of you that are thrifty (or have loved ones that are) here is a link to a tutorial prepared by the Eco Faeries on how to make your own sandwich wraps at very low cost.

Storing odds and ends in the fridge

I think this is a big saver of cling wrap that you probably don't even think about using.  Do you automatically reach for the wrap when you have used half a tomato or avocado? Or any other vegetable or fruit? Why not put them all (separately or together) into a reusable container? It's faster and more convenient when you are making your next meal since they are all stored in one container for you to grab out.

The vegetable drawer in our fridge

Are you convinced? Can you imagine life without cling wrap? 

I am so used to doing all of the above things that when a visitor pulls cling wrap out of my cupboard I am always surprised to see it there.  If you do want to try some of these ideas then I would love to hear how it goes.

Post-holiday summer gardening with benefits

After a rather busy and bustling visit to the relatives over Christmas and the New Year we have returned to the garden and our pets with a mixture of relief, exhaustion, excitement and apprehension.  Another year begins.  

I have taken eight months off from the part-time work I returned to last June.  Therefore I have time to languish Turtle with attention and at the same time develop my own personal pursuits, such as Lizzing Lightly, my yoga practice and experimenting in the garden, kitchen and beyond.  One of the main projects I want to focus on is the vegetable garden and making it as productive as we can.  I also want to try and use all of the produce we grow in delicious meals. 

We returned to the garden looking quite lush since our house sitter made a big effort to water a lot during the heat wave that hit Perth while we were away.  The kale that I planted a week or two before we left in mid December has flourished.  The celery, which we planted in about September, has also done really well.

Radicchio, kale and celery flourished in the back garden bed while we were away

The baby eggplants are also going really well.  We planted it, along with a capsicum, in the half wine barrel in Paradise Patch at the same time the celery went in and they are a good use of the space. 

Baby eggplant and capsicum plants in the half wine barrel

Unfortunately the capsicums have been struggling a bit so I've been picking them while they are still green.  I think they either have a disease or the sun is baking them so that one side goes all thin and loses it’s structure.  While I’m home I can keep a better eye on them and pick them if they start to turn.  We eat all of the unaffected fruit.

A couple of the eggplants had sat on the plant for too long so the bottom of them was a bit brown (see pictures) but we returned to a pretty impressive crop of 10!

Our harvest of ten baby eggplants

Our heirloom tomatoes have been a disappointment unfortunately.  We have harvested only a few fruit from three of the plants in pots.  Overall I’m extremely pleased that the garden has survived our absence and that we are getting some food upon our return (we were worried that we would miss out!).

The first big summer harvest - a good reward for our efforts

It’s nice to be home again to tend to our plant babies, although the heat is definitely a challenge to work around.

How is your garden faring? Are you also in post holiday recovery mode?

Wishing you a happy start to 2015. 

Lizzing Lightly

Old Stockings as Garden Ties

I have been using old stockings as garden ties for a few years now. It is a great way to stake or espalier plants whilst allowing room for growth.

Our crop of tomatoes after being pruned and tied using strips from an old pair of my stockings

I'm not sure where I heard about using stockings but I suspect it was from Gardening Australia. We are pretty big fans of the TV show and have been receiving their monthly magazine for a couple of years at least.

I can't say I wear stockings often but I usually ruin them the first or second time that I wear them if I do. It's great to have a useful purpose for them after they rip.

The benefit of using stockings is that they are soft and elastic so the plants can grow for quite awhile without the risk of being cut or damaged.  Hard plastic ties are rigid and don't last very long.

To re-use the stockings just cut into strips appropriate to the use. When expaliering the olive tree I use small short strips but when tying tomatoes around big stakes I use long strips. I usually cut them 2-3 cm wide for strength.

An olive branch tied with a small stocking segment - you can see the  stretch it provides.
I usually cut off the hanging ends to neaten it up.

I must admit that when I was checking on the olives a couple of days ago and tying some new branches down I realised I had forgotten to cut off the stocking ties I had used three years ago.  They were very tight but starting to break down.  So although stocking are much gentler to use make sure that you get out and cut them off once they have served their purpose.

The espaliered olive trees that we have trained for just over three years using stocking ties

Do you repurpose used household items in the garden too? I'd love to hear how.

Buying Secondhand Joy for Christmas

We have been looking to get a push along walker for Turtle to play with.  She is really enjoying standing up at the moment and building her confidence towards walking so we thought she would get some use out of it.  After having no luck borrowing one through the toy library we decided it would be a good Christmas present.  We looked them up on Gumtree, which is a great place to buy cheap secondhand baby things.  It turned out that many other families had the same idea.  We found a couple of nice Vtech walkers that are about $99 new from the baby store.  On Gumtree they ranged from $10 to $40.  I have recently limited my travel distance to collect things on Gumtree to within 20km from our home and so we only looked within this range.

The first three walkers that we enquired about were all $10 to $25 and all of them had been snapped up before we saw their posts.  While Mr Fix It was out salvaging for treasure on Saturday night I decided to check again and saw two walkers had been posted a few hours earlier.  One was a Scout and Friends walker and it was still available.  We managed to get friends to pick it up on their way to our place for lunch on Sunday too so it was a very good shopping experience. The Scout walker was $20 and turned out to be new and still in its box.  Since we are going away for Christmas and won't be taking the walker with us Turtle has been allowed to play with it since we got it.

Turtle is a little excited by her new toy

I am so pleased to have found such a lovely toy for Turtle to play with that was cheap and buying secondhand meant that it wasn't wasted even though the first buyer didn't use it or need it.  I don't see why it is necessary to buy toys brand new when children outgrow them, or get bored with them, so quickly.

I would love to hear about any secondhand presents that you have found for loved ones.  Did you feel like you had made the gift more personal by researching and putting a bit of extra effort into finding something that way?

From Trash to Treasure... Are Santa's Elves Upcycling Toys?

It is a foraging time of year in our area at the moment.  People in the neighbourhood are clearing out unwanted items for Council collection.  About two weeks ago things started to appear on the streets.  It really hit a peak last weekend with people driving around in vans looking to snap up some treasure.  You might notice I am hesitant to call the unwanted items rubbish or waste.  This is because most of the time it is not.  Mostly it is unwanted or underused things that are taking up valuable space in our homes.  With Christmas on the way toys are also being cleared out in anticipation for Santa's arrival in a couple of weeks.

As initially raised in Striving for a Minimalist Birthday we are trying to make sure Turtle's baby toys are secondhand wherever possible.   We had a lot of luck from the verge collection.  Mr Fix It went out Saturday night (we have such an exciting nightlife!) and came back with a car full of things.  A roller lawnmower that is compact and doesn't need fuel or electricity to run, an old wheel barrow that we are going to plant out with something (possibly mint) as a feature in the yard, two kids bikes (that went back on the curb since they were broken) and a really great activity table for Turtle.

Turtle playing with her new salvaged activity table

We gave the salvaged activity table from Mr Fix It's big night out a good clean and it is practically like new. Only one of the features is broken and it still plays music.  Since we are going away for Christmas and won't be taking the activity table with us Turtle has been allowed to play with the it immediately.  Seeing as she is still only 14 months I don't think she will remember having toys before Christmas Day.

We have decided it will replace the slightly less flash activity table that we had picked up a couple of months ago from the roadside collection in the suburb over.  That one is a bit unpredictable with its music but Turtle still loved playing with it.

Slightly less flash activity table back on the curb - hopefully to be reclaimed again

I think salvaging treasures from other peoples trash is something to be respected and encouraged.  It is not something that everyone seems to do (or at least talk about much if they do) but hopefully it is going to be become more and more popular as people realise that they can find great gifts that are cheap and that divert things from being wasted in landfill.

I would love to hear about any creative gifts that you have salvaged or made from salvaged materials for loved ones.  Please share your ideas in the comments below.

Finding ways to work within (and accept!) your limits

It is somewhat ironic that I am writing this post since I struggle to accept my limitations and I am always pushing to do everything myself.

I think this is always the case when you worry about reducing your impact on the environment.  Every trip to the shops becomes an ethical struggle (e.g. should I buy local or organic eggs? I really need cheese but there is no local cheese sold here and I don't have the time or energy to go to the other store that I know sells it).

There is also the motivation to cook for yourself since you have control over what ingredients are used and so you can be confident that you are using pretty ethical and healthy produce. More often than not it will also taste better. It is also likely to save you a bit of money too, particularly if you live in Perth since eating out is pricey.

To manage these never ending self expectations and somewhat exhausting jobs (don't get me wrong I get a lot of joy and satisfaction out of the things I do or else I wouldn't do them) it is good to have a couple of 'outs' to give yourself a well earned rest every now and then, or even just to catch up on other things in our lives.  We often use them when commitments are getting on top of us, when Turtle is teething and keeping us up at night or even when the pets are being crazy (like the cat at the moment but that is a whole other story!).  Here are a couple of our 'rest' solutions that we try to take as guilt free breaks: 

1. Doing all of the shopping at a major chain supermarket

I did this last weekend for the first time in a long time (possibly in years!). The reason simply being that I had been to the toy library that morning, our cupboards were bare and I wanted to get  to yoga that afternoon. Somewhere in amongst all of that I wanted to fit in some family time. So I (prepare yourself!) bought meat at the supermarket! Lots of meat- dog meat (minced beef), stew meat and a pre-cooked free range chook. Mr Fix it was stoked about the chook. We normally don't buy them pre-cooked since they are usually not free range. We normally only buy meat at the local butcher except for kangaroo mince for the dogs food. Since the Christmas season has filled meat sections in supermarkets with legs of ham, turkey and other festive meats the kangaroo mince has been difficult to get, hence buying beef mince for a change.

2. Disposable nappy weekends

Turtle is in re-usable nappies most of the time.  We usually do a load of nappies every one to two days.  Since she was 6 months we have started using disposables at night-time since re-usable nappies were leaking through the night.  We also tend to use disposables if we are going out for more than a short trip so that we don't have to go through the stress of changing her out (she pretty much hates having her nappy changed!).  While it isn't so much effort to wash the nappies there are times where the washing piles up (it did this especially when Turtle had reflux, which was up until she was about 6 months old) and we have a disposable nappy weekend.  Two days to catch up on and forget about washing and then start afresh.  It might not sound like much but when you are averaging two loads of washing a day it's a pretty nice break.

3. Take away

We all do this one of course.  We try to only do it every few weeks but every now and then it does get more frequent.  Our take away favourites are noodles in a box; pizza and Vietnamese.  So yummy but questionable how much faster it is than cooking.  I think it's the lack of preparation and cleaning up that makes it a treat when we just cannot be bothered anymore.

4. Organic Veggie Box delivered to your door each week.

It is so nice not to have to go out shopping for fruit and vegetables each week but we do run down on all the other staples because we don't need to go the shops for as many items.

5. Cooking up a big batch of food so that you can reheat it and eat leftovers (or freeze leftovers for another time so you don't get so sick of it).

6. Go on holidays!

This is on the cards in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to a rest from our day to day jobs and commitments.  We have an awesome house sitter lined up so we don't need to worry a bit.

What do you do to take some time out of your busy schedule? Do you have some "outs" to help you slow down and avoid a nervous breakdown?!?