~Adventures in Homemade Goodies~

Homemade mustard?? Yep you betcha! Eggless Mayo??? That can last in the fridge for a couple months?? Mhmmm! The mayo is quick and easy, i know alot of you all once seeing the ingredients will be like WHAAAA???? But believe you me it tastes just like mayo and you can add all sorts of goodies to it! Lets start with the mustard recipe shall we.

~Homemade Mustard~

1/2 c of mustard powder

1/4 c of sugar

1/4 c of white vinegar

1 tsp of sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl or container, cover and store in a cool dark place. Taste after 2 weeks. If its still strong, leave it for a few more days. Once the msutard has mellowed, scrape from the container and place into a clean jar/bottle and refridgerate. This can last months when stored well.

I added garlic powder to mine and some paprika. My boys like that this mustard is spicey and sweet!

You can play with this recipe, as there are many ways to alter it and make it better.

When all mixed up this mustard is extremely strong smelling :)

Mayonnaise (Egg Free)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup of vinegar

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of mustard powder

Empty the can of milk into a mixing bowl, add the salt and dry mustard. Slowly start pouring in small amounts of the vinegar, whisk to combine. This does not take long before it starts to thicken. Once all the ingredients have been whisked together, taste it and adjust to taste. You can always add more vinegar, dry mustard or salt to your liking. I like to add some olive oil and a little lemon juice, its VERY tasty!

~Super Simple Delish Summer Corn Salsa~

This is one of the simplest salsa's ever! And it works right in to your "mexican" night menu!

The night i made this dish up my boys were craving Chipotle and i refused to give into the craving myself....(even though i REALLY really wanted it also!) So i dug around in my pantry and freezers and pulled out the last 2 cups of sweet frozen corn from our local farmers stand you all know how i love my locally grown produce! Some local chicken breasts, raided my spice rack! And found some yummy stuff in my veggie crisper draw! This is what i came up with :) Heres the recipe for just the corn the rest will come promise!!

1 Can of naturally sweet corn

1 Fresh tomato

hand full of fresh cilantro

1 hlf of a green pepper(capsicum for my aussie readers!)

a pinch of salt

8 garlic scapes (if you have these on hand!) or just 1 small clove of garlic minced

Drain the corn and empty into serving bowl, dice your tomato to you and your families liking same goes for the green pepper as well (i kept my around the same size as the corn kernels) Add them to the corn. Roughly chop the cilantro and add it to the bowl as well. Mince the garlic/scapes, combine and mix all the ingredients in the bowl now and sprinkle with sea salt and serve!

This is really refreshing you can have it in home made buritos, tacos, salad or just straight up on corn chips!

Lochlan attempting to eat his soft shell taco!

Nathan's Burito that he had a hard time folding lol :)

I had mine on a salad! MMM

Kevin's Burito was also jammed packed and hard to fold up LOL

Happy Friday my Gorgeous Friends! Hope EVERY singal one of you have a fab wkend!

~Trying to move on~

To the baby that I carried, But never seen your face, Or tell you how much I loved you, Or ever to hear your cries. You will never be forgotten. The excitement we had for your coming. When I realized I'd never hold you, The feeling I had was numbing. My angel baby is who you are. My angel baby you'll always be. Your loving memory will live in my heart. So you will always be right here with me.

Sweet Pea is what we called our little darling when we found out we were pregnant.

So here i am making my return, i wanted to thank all of you who have emailed me and checked in on me. I decided i wanted a tattoo to remember my angel baby by something i would always have and could never loose. I went to my tattoo artist with a couple of ideas having NO idea exactly what i wanted... And this is what he came up with! I absolutely LOVE it! Its everything i wanted and then some, he did a fantastic job and i couldnt imagine having anything different.

I am still dealing with it in my own way, i have good days and bad days but i am taking each day as they come.

I am still alive...

Just wanted you all to know that yes i am still alive....

I am not feeling up to blogging much lately...

Reason being? We lost the baby :(

I will post about what happened.... at a later date when i am able too.

Hope your all well.

I miss you all!

A Recipe and Exciting News!

Lets kick this post off with a promised recipe!

Simple Easy Tasty Pancake Batter!

YOU wont be disappointed!

2 cups of milk (i used the milk left from making my own butter!)

1/4 cup of sugar ( i used raw sugar)

2 eggs

3 Tsp of honey

1 tsp of oil

1Tsp of vanilla

2 and 1/3 cups of flour (i used hlf wheat hlf white)

1 1/1 Tsp of baking powder

Nothing to it toss the wet ingredients into a blender then add your dry ingredients! Turn it on for a few mins making sure everything mixes up nicely! Depending on your choice of batter (thick or runny!) whether or not you add a little more flour or a little more milk! We like our batter to be a little runny as i find this recipe does puff a little! Use a large spoon and drop desired amount on to your griddle or frying pan! I let the batter sit a min or so then add a few choc chips to mine for my guys!

Give it a go you can add all kids of goodies to your pancakes which im sure you all do! This recipe does not disappoint there is no weird baking powder after taste like some recipes give you! Plain or jazzed up! I keep the batter in my blend and keep it in the fridge for a few days and its still tasty when i get it out and cook it up!

Now onto the exciting news!

So May 7th i turned 30........OH BOY! I had NOT been looking forward to this at all... Now leading up to my birthday we were extremely busy, April was Lochlan's Birthday... Then his big bash! Then it was my mother in laws birthday! Needless to say we have done a lot of celebrating in this time...After Lochlans party i was exhausted! Didn't matter what i did i couldn't get enough rest... We figured it was just all the celebrating! With 30 creeping up around the corner..... and the lack of a visit from mother nature....we decided to do a pregnancy test....expecting the usual....when im having "issues" it usually all starts with missed periods...In the last 6 years we have done plenty of pregnancy tests...all showing negative...and this is exactly what i expected this time...those of you who know me and my adventures in fertility issues know a couple years ago we were told from some of the biologic medicines i had taken for my Psoriasis had made me infertile....so missing a period or being "late" really didn't excite me at all.... so i sat by our window in the bedroom over looking the box like usual making sure they hadn't changed the signs or anything lol...grabbed the stick and went off about my business...told hubby "ok 3 mins tell me when its up" not sure exactly what i was doing....and then his like "ok its 3 mins babe" got up when to the bathroom picked it up glanced and about had a heart attack my throat felt like it was swelling up......my heart sped up.....i felt faint...i screamed a lil.... hubby was like whats wrong??? whats wrong??? my response "uh...um..i THINK im pregnant?!?!?!"......he was gob smacked...i ran in and grabbed the box and double checked...triple checked....gave him the box and the test and told him am i????? AM I??? Sure enough the pink line was there..... called my mum even tho it was 6am there in australia....and told her! Next i called my best friend Angie! We didn't tell EVERYONE till we had it confirmed seeing there was doubt in our minds that it was "REAL" but what a birthday present huh???

This is my "first" pregnancy photo lol 6 wks!

So onto my birthday celebrations! I was spoiled rotten! We celebrated the nite before at my fav restaurant "Carrabba's" with friends and family. And then friday morning we got up got Loche ready for school dropped him off and hubby took me to michigan! We went up and had a tour of the Mac store! That store is simply amazing! I was told we were going up there to get a cover for my birthday gift i had been given earlier! I Ipod Touch! So i picked out a hot pink cover! And was totally surprised when we left with a matching MacBook! *GASP*

After the Mac store we wondered around the mall and he bought me a bottle of Dolce&Gabbana perfume "The One"

Here is my other present he got me as well!

Hubby and i before we hit the Mac Store!

Yup this is meee! Lol this was taken before we headed to Carrabba's!

Hubby and I!

My fav 3 men in my life!

This was taken at Red Lobster after we returned from Michigan! After dinner we met Kev at the movies and watched Iron Man 2! What a birthday!

These are my beautiful mothers day flowers my hubby got me!

So yes these are some of the reasons i have been MIA :) that and we are still preparing to move back to australia! It has been something else i tell you we have some life changing things headed our way and we are trying our best to spend as much time as possible with friends and family while we are still here in the States!

Lochlan's Birthday Bash!

Remember all that planning for Lochlan's HUGE BIRTHDAY BASH?!?

It almost got rained out.... It was terrible all that morning it just rained and rained and then about 10am the rain stopped the sun came out and it was pretty nice the rain held off until 3:30 (hlf an hr b4 the party ended!)

Here was the high light of the party! And this was almost not going to be apart of the event cuz of that pesky rain i mentioned!

What does 150 plus sponge bob cup cakes look like u ask???... No i did NOT make these i am not super mum :) i had enough on my plate to do i was not adding baking to that long list!

This is the birthday boy blowing out his candles.....shortly after this photo he fell off the bench...BUT not to worry dad was quick on his heels and grabbed his arm b4 he hit the floor! Loche got up laughing all was good!

MHMMM...look at this boy....7! And he lives up to that shirt too! In all it was a fantastic event! Lots of compliments and questions about who planned and organized the event! That would be ME and my wonderful hubby! We had 150 plus RSVP's due to the rain not everyone showed up but there was 130 plus according to the rough head count :) I have to say a great big thank u to Nathans step dads sister Janet and her husband Bill who did face painting and air brush tattooing for the adults and kids lol!

Tasty Mouth Watering Lamb Chops

Hello, Hello my lovelies! I am trying to return to the wonderful world of blogging! I have missed you all dearly!

I have lots to tell you all BUT i am returning with a extremely tasty and SUPER easy marinade for lamb chops!

What you need;

9 lamb chops

4 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

3 Tablespoons of water

2 Tablespoons of Minced Garlic

2 teaspoons of dried rosemary

2 teaspoons of cumin

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

a pinch of salt

Combine all the above ingredients into a bowl and pour over the top of your lamb chops! I marinaded my chops over night.

Heat a pan nice and hot with some olive oil in it place each chop in one at a time u want to seal the chops to seal in all those delish juices! I cook my lamb chops to about medium well you want them to be pink in the middle you never want to over cook lamb you will loose all the lovely flavors!