Cookery Monday - Lentil & Pasta Soup

Mister Quinn has been begging me to do another pasta soup.  I had no recollection what recipe I had done before that he had loved so much so it was off to the internet in search of a pasta soup recipe.

I found a Jamie Oliver recipe that sounded good so off to work we went.

Ingredients at the ready

 Rosina thought the lentils looked rather fun to get stuck into.

 She also thought the parmesan cheese looked like it needed eating up!  lol

 First job was to chop up some celery and onion to add to the

lentils while they cooked to add flavour. The celery and onion will 

later be disregarded.  We chopped a little too small considering we

would need to pick them out after the lentils were cooked.  Lesson learned.

 Lentils ready to cook away with celery, onion, salt and 1 bay leaf.

 Next we measured out the pasta - Rosina thought that look tasty too!

Here's our lentils after they'd finished cooking.  We proceed to

drain all the water away and take out the extra ingredients.

 Now we were ready to start the soup.

 Caramelize an onion

Add a can of tomatoes

Stir in our lentils

And add 1 litre of water and let simmer

Next we cooked the pasta, which we added to our soup

after it had simmered away for about 10 minutes

 And here we are ready to eat, with a grating of parmesan cheese on top.

 As simple as that!

AND that all important verdict???

We made a few adaptations to the original (eg. we used red lentils and I think he used green, we used orzo pasta and he used normal sized pasta, he added chilli and we didn't) and our soup looks VERY different to Jamie's  -  he's a link to the original recipe - CLICK HERE

Pregnancy - 8 weeks - Journals

Time is moving on quickly and we find ourselves at 8 weeks into the pregnancy already!  :O)  I have been feeling so much better with this pregnancy than I have in quite probably any of my previous pregnancies, but certainly than those over the last 4 years.  This is such an answer to prayer - Alex and I took a time of fasting and prayed over my health, my emotional healing, our future babies, an easier 1st trimester should we blessed again and also that my S.P.D. would not bother me.  How gracious is our loving Heavenly Father to care so much about the little details in our lives.  :O)  

I already have a little 'baby pouch'!!  hehe  Happens quickly when you've had a few bubba's already - the muscles just give up it seems!  (or maybe it's just mine! :-/ )

Right from the beginning of my pregnancy days I have enjoyed journalling about my experience in each particular pregnancy, taken 'bump' pictures and kept a record of the quickly altering sizes of certain body parts!

It has been so much fun to look back on and has been helpful looking at notes from previous pregnancies on how I felt at a given time, what symptoms I had, how quickly my belly grew etc etc.

Here's a sampling of what my journals look like

This was my first attempt and contains my journal notes from my first 4 pregnancies,  Caden - Uzziah

This was an entry from my 1st pregnancy....  I cut and paste from a baby magazine 

This is my journal for Rosina:

This was my journal with Eman's pregnancy and miscarriage.

I copied down nearly all messages I received through the difficult

time of loosing him/her.  Thank you to those that contributed. :)

And here we are with our current pregnancy journal.  :O)

God willing I will get to fill this one!

15 Ways to Encourage Your Husband!

How to encourage our husbands and help keep our marriages alive!

1. Secret love notes hidden in his lunch box/bag.
2. When hubby works nr by, take him a surprise cup of coffee
3. If hubby goes on a trip, slip in a poem or letter in his luggage and add a photo
4. If hubby has to get up early...  get up with him
5. If you're going away, make up a fresh bed and leave a note on his pillow
6. As a special treat, fill your fridge with all your hubby's favourite things to eat
7. Spray some of your perfume on your love letters
8. Send hubby off to work with a surprise drawing from one of the children in his work bag/lunch box
9. Buy hubby a little present and tell him it is to thank Him for all the hard work He does to provide for the family
10. Plan a romantic evening - decorate bed with petals and light some candles
11. Greet hubby with a joyful smile and a cuddle when he returns from home
12. If you have young children, have them at the ready to welcome daddy home
13. Make his favourite 'special' meal that you would usually prepare for an occasion, but instead for just one random day 
14. Phone him during one of his work breaks... not to talk about your day, but to simply talk about his day so far
15. Make yourself look extra special for his return from work, perhaps slip on a pretty dress and freshen up your make up

Well I do hope there are some inspiring ideas there for you!  :O)   It is our privilege to encourage our men and I think if we can be creative with that then all the better.  Have fun and I'm sure you will be blessed as you bless your husband. 

A special thanks you to those of you that responded to last week's blog post and shared with me ideas of how you encourage your husbands.

If you have any extra ideas please do list in the comment box below!  

Thanks  :O)

Cookery Monday - Quiche

I wasn't well for this cookery Monday so, since hubby was off for the day he took 'Cookery Monday' for me!  :O)

On the menu was:

Broccoli and Black Bean Quiche


Since my hubby took this cookery session I asked him if he'd mind typing up the blog post for me as I wasn't involved at all.
He agreed, so the following is written by my Mr.   :O)

First off there is the flour, 8 oz (which turned out to be 9), pinch of sea salt (which Quinn told me was not very nice, and tasted like the sea) , 

4oz (now 4 1/2 oz due to increased flour) butter, and finally 2 oz (now 2 1/4 oz) of water.

pre heat oven...... "200 or 2000 Daddy?". "180 will be fine".

Stir mixture with a wooden spoon...... 

but we cheated. Good old kitchen Aid!

Time to work it.

"Push Charlie" said Quinn (sigh) 

"I should be doing this bit charlie, I'm the strongest"

Of course caden politely let his brothers do
the rolling out while he grated/ate the cheese.

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick
(that's 6mm for you modern people out there),
push into tray, and cut off excess.

now for the best bit....... fill lined pastry case (and table and floor) 

with dried beans.  Blind bake pastry for approx 20 mins

Mix together 225ml (8oz) of milk, and eggs

eggs

eggs. (3 altogether)

Next gather some fresh basil,

and parsley

and chop (not your fingers)

add 1 diced red onion, 1 cup of cooked
broccoli and half a can of black beans

Spread evenly in pastry case

pour in the milk and egg mixture

and let the cheese rain!

and while the quiche is baking.... play time

not sure how long later the quiche is done and we have to keep it in the
middle of the table, out of reach of little fingers.

The kitchen crew.

and here we have the fussy customers...

Who seem to like it...

6 thumbs up - gotta be good!

ALEX