The Tuscan kale is still going nuts, and we have purple king beans just ready to pick. We’re still getting small but regular harvests of jalapenos, cos lettuce and cherry tomatoes; and we finally have flowers and fruit on the red passion fruit vine. We’ll get a few small figs but probably not many.

Last weekend we took advantage of the dark moon to pull out the rest of the broccoli ( which was getting pretty bug infested), and do some major pruning, mulching and feeding.

Today I planted beetroot, radish, baby cos lettuce & some rocket from our seed. The seed is from the astro rocket, which I think is the tastiest rocket we’ve grown. I’ll keep saving seed from it, as it’s really delicious. I also planted a few more ruby chard plants ( aka red veined silverbeet). The leaves are a bit more tender than regular silverbeet… they’re especially good in curries, I think.

Dinners:
Sunday- Choose your own adventure night
Monday- Roast veggie wraps ( our version of homemade falafel rolls with added veggies)
Tuesday- rice paper wraps
Wednesday- lentil patties with roast veg & salad
Thursday- Moosewood sweet potato & seitan ‘roti’ ( we use mountain bread & homemade seitan for this).
Friday- home-made pizza on Lebanese bread
Saturday – veggie curry, dal & rice

Breakfasts:
Smoothies, toast, hummus & tomato

Lunches:
Mon- Wed Moroccan spiced roast veg & tempeh salad for me, Chili con carne & rice for Mr B.

And also on the food front – I’ve downloaded a free app called myfitnesspal to track my food & exercise. It’s very easy to use, and I’ve been able to add my own food if whatever I’m eating isn’t in the database. It’s been very good motivation for keeping my booze consumption low (a glass of white wine is 175 cals!), and staying active.

MrB and I have both installed an app called ‘Expenditure’ to help us with budget tracking. Rather than fiddling with receipts, we can put expenses in our phones, and export to a spreadsheet ( we can also email the tallies). This should give us an idea of how much we’re spending, and alert us to any potential slow leaks.

And to this week’s menu plan.
Dinners:
Sat: roast veg and lentil salad and fresh bread
Sun: roast veggie wraps with hummus & falafel
Mon: lentil burgers, potato salad & green salad
Tues: blackbean tacos
Wed: chickpea and pumpkin curry
Thur: rice paper wraps
Fri: mushroom & zucchini and walnut risotto.

Lunches:
Kale/tofu ‘frittata’, leftovers

Breakfasts:
Smoothies, toast and hummus, toast and peanut butter

Snacks:
Almonds, veggie sticks, homemade snack bars (from freezer)

Weekend Prep: Sat- bake bread, soak and cook chickpeas & lentils, make chutney, roast veggies.
Sun- make hummus & lentil burgers, make kale frittata, prep potato salad, put black beans in fridge to thaw.

I am a bit daunted, so am pre- planning meals and snacks to help me get on track as painlessly as possible.

Dinners:
Saturday: roast veggie salad and fresh bread
Sunday: bean & veggie wraps (Sunday update: have swapped these meal, but wraps are prepped and in the fridge for tomorrow night)
Monday: veg curry, dal and rice
Tuesday: chickpea cutlets (from the freezer), roast veg, salad
Wednesday: veggie pie and salad
Thursday: stir fry
Friday: pumpkin & walnut risotto

Lunches:
Sunday: leftover paella
Mon- Wed: roast eggplant/cauliflower/quinoa/tofu salad
Thurs: leftover bean wraps or veggie pie
Fri: leftover veggie pie

Breakfasts: smoothie or toast with hummus and tomato

Snacks: almonds, carrot and celery sticks, kale chips.

Prep
Saturday: roasted veggies for salads, baked bread.
Sunday: Prep kale chips, bake with bean and veggie wraps, cook quinoa, chop, make hummus and mix salads for lunches.

Sunday update: kale chips too good! All are in my belly the rest is on track.

The garden is ticking along, despite getting a bit less love in my convalescence. We went to Ikea this morning and bought a chair sofabed (ie singlebed size). We bought a new futon earlier in month, so now we have sleepover accommodation for my niece and nephew, and we’re looking forward to some sleepovers these school holidays.

The chair was the final big purchase on our home furnishing list… Our next goals are to save enough to pay some extra on the mortgage again, and then replace the rotting wooden window frames in the main living area with ‘heritage’ style aluminum. And the next job after that will be replacing the built-in wardrobes in the bedroom.

I’m on leave til the 9th, and have some outings planned, but will mainly stay home and continue to de-clutter my study and bedroom, to get nice, clean productive spaces organised for the new work year. I’ll be busy (again), and have some work-related trips planned, so I will need a good home base so I don’t get frazzled (which, by extension, frazzles the generally easy-going MrB).

He has gifted me his old smartphone (work upgraded his), and I’ve installed the Home Routines app to help me keep on top of morning & evening household chores, and to remind me to pack my swimming bag so I can do my pre-work laps twice a week.

I don’t have any resolutions as such… Just want to maintain the balance I finally managed to establish mid last year, while extending myself just that little bit more at work. And get my learner’s permit and some driving lessons, so I can make 2012 the year of driving!

MrB and I wrapped all the presents today, and I made 2 cups of maple walnuts to go with the Christmas Pudding Vodka gifts. They were a little sticky (the humidity is pretty high), but they look very cute in recycled bottles, and they will taste good.

The Christmas Pudding Vodka would have benefitted from an extra stage of filtering before it went into the final bottles (just for appearances) – I will certainly remember the extra step for next year. We’ve already given away one bottle and the recipients were *thrilled*. I’ll start hunting down little bottles & cheap vodka early in the year next year.

I found a little flip top bottle in St Vinnies yesterday, so have filled it with maple syrup, and made up a batch of bulk gluten free pancake mix for our neighbor, who has ceoliac disease. I was going to give her a boozy gift, but given she has a toddler, I thought a ‘just add water’ meal might be appreciated, too.

I’m just starting phase one of the ‘tofurky’ for my family Christmas lunch tomorrow. I’ve made a quinoa pilaf for the stuffing, I’ll stir in chopped coriander, nuts and dried fruit, tomorrow before I roast it.

The next step is blending a block of firm tofu with some veggie stock, nutritional yeast and smoked paprika, then letting it drain in a colander overnight. In the morning I’ll scoop out the centre, add the stuffing, and cover with the extra tofu. Then the whole lot needs to be carefully transferred to a baking tray. Or that’s the plan, anyway. I’ve already made a pomegranate molasses and walnut sauce for it… I may or may not add a glaze as well.

If all goes well, I’ll post a photo tomorrow!

When our top loader washing machine broke down in September, we replaced it with a 4.5 star front loader, that should use a lot less water than the old machine.

We just had our quarterly water bill, and I’m happy to say our average daily consumption is own to 317 litres a day. Sydney Water says the average consumption for a 2 person household with a garden is 378 a day. We were over 400 a day last summer, when we were sing tap water in the garden.

Interestingly, even though our consumption has dropped a lot, our bill is about the same.

We have two little zucchini growing on the compact plant in the front yard, & the blackjack plants are growing well, as are the chilli & eggplant seedlings.

A friend came by this morning with a small box of about a dozen stone fruit… She’s moving house this week, and won’t be able to deal with all of them. I’m considering trying out my low-sugar pectin & making a small batch of juice-sweetened jam this weekend…. But I may just bake a good old nectarine crumble.

In the new gaps, I planted watermelon ( a compact variety),tatsoi & beetroot seeds, all of which have germinated this week. I also planted some eggplant & eggplant, which is yet to show itself.

This weekend we went to the nursery to spend a gift voucher I got for my birthday. I bought to blueberry plants, some azalea food to keep them happy, an advanced eggplant seedling ( so we get at least one plant), some basil seedlings (as above), some zucchini seedlings (since my homegrown versions were not very successful last year), and a jalapeño (ditto).

Today we cleared the no-dig bed out back where the broad beans, coriander & Chinese celery were going wild, topped it up with humus, and planted out 2 of the zucchini & the chilli ( plus some coriander seeds). I popped some of the basil around assorted beds in front & back, and added the last of the zucchini & the advanced eggplant in the raised beds in the front yard. While I was working, I harvested more cavalo nero & broccoli. After a drenching of seaweed was applied to front & back yards, my work in the garden was done for the day.

All going well, the next few months will bring us harvests of: cherry tomatoes, cucumber, basil, chilli, ruby chard, rocket, parsley, Chinese celery, coriander, zucchini, eggplant, lettuce (in the shade), beetroot, pumpkin, peaches and watermelon (& maybe even some limes).

I’m still contemplating where to plant the purple king beans. I loved them over autumn, but I’m starting to seriously run out of space.

Domestic Infrastructure:   I started dealing with the boxes in my study, and spring cleaning…still plugging along with both. The main goal this month was purchase a water-efficient, energy-efficient front loader – done! We also got the pantry cupboard for the backroom AND the new rainwater tank. This month the plan is to purchase the dust & mould free (ie brand new) futon for the fold-out sofa bed,  & an armchair/single folding bed combo for my study, for kid sleepovers.

Household Economy: We did a little more advance Christmas shopping in October, and transferred  $5k onto the principle of the mortgage, as planned. This month’s goal is basically stay on budget – we have rates, home & contents insurance, a vet’s bill and my surgery to pay for before Christmas. I need to come up with a couple more homemade Xmas gift ideas, I think. I’m currently setting aside $50 from each pay, so MrB & I hae a bit of holiday playmoney.

Resource Consumption:    We’re still keeping peak electricity use down to an absolute minimum. The new rainwater tank & front loader should help us cut down our water usage considerably this summer. Mr B is tracking our solar production and gas, electricity & water usuage daily, so we’ll have good records.

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:   We planted out our herb hedge, which is growing well, as well as some summer veggies. The tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, rocket & ruby chard are all firing along. This month I’ll start some zucchini, capsicum , beans & eggplant.

Family and Community: We had a lovely lunch at home with members of the urban family, and I took my niece to visit my Dad in the country. This month I’m planning to babysit my niece & nephew, hang out with my goddaughter & her new baby, & generally enjoy a social time.

Outside Work: October’s  goal was complete all my paperwork, & get project number two moving again. Most of this is done. November will involve lots of organisation for the new year – most of it very enjoyable, so I’m looking forward to it.

Time and Happiness: I tried the local beauty college’s student clinic, and will go back this month. I also booked in for some long procrastinated surgery. This month’s goal is to maintain the better balance I have in my life at the moment by continuing regular exercise &  reduced booze consumption, and getting plenty of sleep.