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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Stacking Up The Vegetables

Recently I was lucky enough to receive a pack from Gourmet Garden 

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and with the busy week we have just had I finally found time tonight to use some of them
The first thing I noticed was the great packaging, that you can see the yumminess inside the tubes.
The second thing was that each tube told you how many ‘real’ fresh ingredients were in the tube
Eg: the 115g tube of chillies contained 5 chillies .
and the other thing I noticed was the amazing aroma that escaped when you peeled back the foil lids!
Inspired I decided to cook two dishes to share with you
the first was a modified Chilli Honey Mince with Beans
This one is a new family favourite and is great because I use whatever mince and vegetables I have on hand,
so this time we had lamb mince and loads of vegies

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Ingredients

Peanut oil
500g lamb mince
1 onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon Gourmet Garden chunky garlic
1/2 tablespoon Gourmet Garden hot chilli paste 
2 carrots, diced
200g green beans, chopped
1/4 cabbage, shredded
1 small zucchini, diced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/4 cup honey
Instant Noodles

I started by chopping up all the vegies

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Want a tip for cutting onion??
Get someone else to chop it for you!
I am such a sook when it comes to cutting onions, truly sad!!!!

Once the oil had heated in the wok I cooked the mince

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Once it was brown I removed it from the wok and put it aside in a bowl.
Then I fried the onion, garlic, chilli, carrot, cabbage, zucchini and green beans in same heated, oiled wok until just tender.

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Returned beef to wok and cooked until hot.

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Stir in sauce and honey.

To cook noodles, I used 4 “blocks” of noodles (what do you call them??)
to feed the 7 mouths that were at our dinner table tonight (Grandma is here tonight. HOORAY)

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Serve mince on a bed of noodles

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The other thing I decided to try was some Thai mushrooms

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I simply cut up my mushrooms, I think there were 9 or 10

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then fried them off in some olive oil

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when they had softened I squirted in about 1and a half tablespoons of the Gourmet Garden Thai Seasoning
I served these with the mince

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So some things to note…

I thought the HOT chilli paste might have been hotter than the chilli we normally use, hence me using a little less than normal.
However the amount I used wasn’t hot at all.
You didn’t get a chilli bang at all and the only hint was when you had finished eating and then you noticed a slight tingle on your lips.

I wasn’t sure how the Thai would go with the mushrooms.
I don’t like Mushrooms.
But everyone else does.
So my Mushroom lovers were my taste testers and all but one gave it big thumbs up!!!
And I have to say that cooking this one made me salivate because the smell was amazing!

I so wish I had more time for baking/cooking this week
I had plans in my head of making some herb scones with the basil or thyme that I was sent.
I also wanted to make a pumpkin and feta salad with the coriander
But sadly it didn’t happen but I’m glad I’ve been able to share these two recipes with you as part of the

Disclosure: This is not a paid sponsored post. I received complimentary pack of Gourmet Garden products, for review purposes, and all opinions expressed are purely my own.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Caterpillar In A Tree

Inspired by the White With 1 challenge I made this page

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Using a photo, taken on my mobile phone, of Megan in the outfit we bought for her school social

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I used the gorgeous Scrapmatts Butterflies

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and added creamy/white things
Like paint, sticker leftovers, masking tape, lace trim, clear dymo tape and some alphas

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Passing Time With You In Mind

The weeks are slipping by so fast
The days have been filling up even faster
and the calendar is doing it’s best to overwhelm
I have been busy and I’ve found that busy kills creativity
So today I finally found time to finish off a page that has been in the making for a while
I was inspired by the new Scrap The Girls challenge
and I have found that challenges are a great way to kick start my creativity
and this one did just that

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Inspired by the quote, from the challenge, I scrapped a quote from 2 weeks ago

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The chevron bag,

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the sunburst badge and the fabric flower are all from The Greatest View 

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Twas good to get back into creating something again
Work tomorrow but hope to be back at the craft table again soon!

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Sunday, May 06, 2012

We Read To Know That We Are Not Alone

I’m pretty sure I only have one more Spring Crop layout to share with you
This one is for my 2nd challenge

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I used some old Gin-X rub on hearts, adding some glimmer mist for colour

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an old(ish) tag from 7Gypsies that I layered up with some rub ons

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I used a sticker sheet from some old Scenic Route alpha stickers and backed it with some new pattern paper

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and I experimented with a Jenni Bowlin rubon. Added some glimmer mist splats to the rub on
before I added it to my page

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Thursday, May 03, 2012

He Came To The World In The Usual Way

Denise’s challenge was fabulous
and with a new photo
of a new nephew
this page came together with a smile

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I found a dictionary page

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added some yellow

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and cut a quote with my silhouette cameo 

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Wednesday, May 02, 2012

I See The Dust Cloud Disappear Without A Trace

Stephanie’s challenge was right up my alley
And I enjoyed making this page

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I love the big @ stamp

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I love the Crafter’s Workshop splat stencil

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I loved lots about the May Cocoa Daisy kit

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Perfect for documenting this thought

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This little chicky had a birthday today too

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Joyful little mite she is

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Tuesday, May 01, 2012

I'll Be Backstage After The Show

Diana’s Get Inky challenge inspired me to create this page

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Layered up some chipboard flowers

 

stamped AND embossed with one of the gorgeous Cocoa Daisy stamp

 

and cracked out the red dymo tape

 

Lots of fun!

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