Ham & Feta Pizza

Hello Blog World,

It’s nice to have my computer up and running again and I have just finished 30 minutes of high cardio aerobics so I am feeling great!

Today I am going to share with you another healthy recipe we often eat, it’s good for lunch or pair it with a salad and you have a nice dinner also and it fits right in with my healthier lifestyle challenge.

So today I present  HAM & FETA PIZZA

^{sorry yucky photo}

Gotta get those lovely ingredients together



Chop and mix them all in a bowl and refridgerate for 30 mins



Then bake – very simple and you end up with yummy pizzas that are healthy and my whole family loves them.  We have been having these for a good 7 years or more now so I can’t remember where I even got the recipe. It’s hand written in an old recipe book in my hand writing so goodness knows where I found it.

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Full Recipe for Ham & Feta Pizzas
You will need the following

• 4-6 Roma Tomatoes, finely chopped
• 100g crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
• 1 Red salad onion, finely chopped
• 100g shaved lean ham
• 2 tblsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregao
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 4 wholemeal pita breads (about 4” diameter)

Combine onions, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, oregano, pepper and half the cheese in a mixing bowl, stir well, cover and let sit in refridgerator for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 200d Celcius, spread tomato mixture evenly on pita bread on lined baking tray.  Sprinkle with ham and remaining cheese.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until hot.

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See  how simple are these?  Often I will make the mixture the night before and let it sit in the fridge all day, the flavours just seep through and it’s divine!

1 pita is 1 serving and here is the nutritional information if you are interested.

Calories
245.1
Total Fat
7.7 g
Saturated Fat
3.4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat
0.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat
1.6 g
Cholesterol
44.0 mg
Sodium
1,313.8 mg
Potassium
466.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate
23.2 g
Dietary Fiber
3.6 g
Protein
22.1 g

This is according to Spark Recipes where I enter all my recipes for nutritional breakdowns.

Now I am still hand appliqueing so no new crafts, but I should have my first panel finished today so I will give everyone a sneak peek and I might come back with some before my blogging days crafts as it’s always fun to look back and see how far I’ve come.

I also have my first year bloggingversary coming up next month, not sure what to do.  Any ideas people?? 

Everyone enjoy their day and if you make my pizzas let me know what you think.

Until then happy crafting.

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I PARTY HERE

A Jar of Nothing

Hello Blog World,

So my computer has been down the last couple of days, so no posts no surfing, no emails and no pinterest!!!!  It has been a bit frustrating to say the least.

Also with all this hand appliqueing I am doing for my quilt I have had no time for other crafts so today I will show you another Handmade Christmas Present I made for Christmas just gone.

Do you have one of those people in your life that when you ask them what they want for their birthday or Christmas they always say “NOTHING”?  Well I have two!!!

My husband and my sister in law (this just proves they’re related) So after another 12 months of hearing “NOTHING”  I remembered this cool idea I saw years ago.

It is the Jar of Nothing



Basically it’s an old empty jar or if you are like me and didn’t have jars you liked buy some cheap ones (I got mine at the reject shop for $2.50 each and they are about 5” round and tall, a good size I thought.) And all I did was glue a label onto it that I made with MS Word with the above saying, which you can change to suit your needs.

I then prettied it up with some ribbon and wrapped! How easy is that?





The purple one is my husband’s and the pink one is for my sister in law Kelly’s, when gluing Kel’s I mooshed a bit of the paper so ran a line of kindy glitz around the edge and blinged it up.  It actually looked really good, plus it matches the colours in her craft room, so now it sits proudly in there.
I did also get them proper presents this year but gave this to them first.  They both laughed and enjoyed it very much.

So if you are interested I have put the MS Word document here for you to download.  You can change it around to suit your needs and the font I used is called Shells if want to download it, you can go here.

If you make it let me know I would love to see other people’s take on it.

Now I have a little athletics carnival to go to for my beautiful daughter, and them home in time for dinner.  Quick update the healthy lifestyle is going much better and I have found some fab healthy recipes I will be trying out over the next couple of weeks.

Until Later Happy Crafting

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I often link up at these parties

Mini Chicken Bran Balls with Fettuccine & Minted Yogurt Sauce

Hello Blog World,

I am doing a lot of hand appliqueing this week so there won’t be too much other crafting done, but today I am sharing a recipe that we had the other night that was absolutely delicious.

One of my goals this year is to stay on my Healthy Lifestyle Challenge and so far it’s about half half, but this recipe definitely falls into healthy weighing in at a whoppnig 496 calories per serve and only 5.7 grams of fat!!

I present to you today Mini Chicken Bran Balls with Fettuccine and Minted Yogurt Sauce

_{(full recipe after the pretty pictures)}




So gather all your wonderful fresh ingredients



Combine chicken, onions, garlic, parsley, oats, sultanas and
one egg white in a bowl and mix well and then makes some balls






Dip them in some egg white and your crushed brand flakes and bake.
Prepare your pasta and sauce while balls are baking, then serve

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Full Recipe from CalorieKing.com.au
Ingredients:

• 400 g leanchicken mince
• 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 Tbsp parsley, freshed, chopped
• 2/3 cup oats, rolled
• 1/3 cup sultanas
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup flour, plain
• 2 Tbsp bran flakes
• 2 L water
• 250 g spinach fettuccine
• 200 g yogurt, plain, non-fat
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp mint, fresh, chopped

Directions:
Combine chicken, onions, garlic, parsley, oats, sultanas and one egg white in a bowl and mix well.

Shape into small balls about 3.5 cm in diameter. Roll eachball in flour and shake off the excess.  Dip in lightly beaten egg white and then bran flakes. Lightly spray with cooking oil and then bake on an oven tray lined with baking paper in a moderate oven 180*C for 15 minutes or until cooked.

While the meatballs are cooking prepare the pasta. Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Gradually add pasta and gently boil until just cooked.

Prepare the yogurt sauce by combining the yogurt, juice, mint and pepper.

Drain and serve with meatballs and yogurt sauce.

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So that’s that, I have adapted this recipe from CalorieKing.com.au, this is a wonderful site with food diary, forums and chat for support and plenty of info packed articles. There is an American site too, just omit the .au.  Check it out if your keen or look me up here.

Now I am off to do some more hand appliqueing and then jumping on the treadmill.

Until then happy crafting.

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I Party HERE

The Score and other Thrifty Finds

Hello Blog World,

Not too much Crafting done on the weekend past.  I finished my baby card and finished cutting all my material out for my new quilt and even got 4 strips sewn together.  It’s not a big of fancy quilt so I am hoping to have it finished next weekend.

Saturday while I was supposed to be sewing my sis in law and I popped out to a fabric shop because I miscut some material and had to get a replacement (it was panic all stations there for a while) but then we decided to pop into a couple of thrift shops to see what we could find. 

Nothing too great but I did walk out with these bargains.



A great shadow box frame, with 2 vintage keys.  It’s really dirty and a yucky speckled egg colour but it's a decent size and I can fix the yukkiness and the keys are great and only $5



and these cute glass candle stick holders only $1 for the set.  These will be great for next Christmas when I make some more trees.

After this we went and had a yummy lunch and then went back to work cutting my material, thankfully I got it right the second time around.
After cutting I was a bit pooped to start sewing so I helped Kel organise some of her material stash and she is being very adamant this year that she isn’t going to keep every scrap, so her loss my gain!!

Check out the material stash I scored.





It’s all scraps but the pieces are big enough for flowers or another teacup, I know I will use them.

Here are my favourites.







So I hope everyone’s weekend was great, did anyone else out there score some thrifty finds?  If so I would love to see.

Until late happy crafting.

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I Party Here

Congratulations Card

Hello Blog World,

Just a quick post today to show you a card I have been working on for my dear friends in Melbourne who just had their first baby, a beautiful baby girl Serena.

I played around with the Mojo Monday Sketch



Played around with papers, even went into some new stuff (the crochet flower, purple card stock and butterflies) and came up with this.




I like it!  So I have used a bit of new stuff here as said an some old stuff and I think it came together nicely.

I am also entering in the following challenges

Mojo Monday 223
Dream Valley Challenges – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – Use something new challenge
& The Pink Elephant – Hearts Challenge

Also on a cool note, a couple of blogs I follow shared this wonderful site Tagxedo, it makes a word cloud out of a web address or any words you submit, and you can play around with colours and shapes. So I put in my web address and this is what it came up with.



I LOVE it!!!! It’s interesting to see what words it chews out, have a go and share I would love to see others.

I didn’t get the pantry done, I think that’s going to have to wait for my week off soon but I have got my material all cut out for my quilt so I am going to go do some more sewing.

Until later Happy Crafting

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Retro Ruffle Apron

Hello Blog World,

I am a messy crafter by nature, also a messy cook, messy cleaner etc… and the one thing I don’t have is an apron. How absurd!!!

Well I thought I would rectify that especially when I saw this

Source: joann.com via Michelle on Pinterest

So off I went to spotlight to find some material that would scream out at me, I originally had a shabby chic theme in mind, but I just couldn’t find anything that screamed buy me!!!

Then I saw these beauties in the quilting section


Now this surprised me that I liked these as this is normally not my thing, but when I put the 4 bolts together I just knew I had to have them.
Now my apron isn’t exactly like the one above. It is loosely based on it. But basically I have just drawn an apron shape, then added ruffles and ruffles and even more ruffles.



I was originally going to put a pocket on the front bib, but when I saw this retro birdie motif and in matching colours I knew it was PER-FECT!!



So wah lah my new apron completed! Now I wear it all the time when I craft, wash dishes and cook!! I will be making another one though, in shabby colours just need to find the perfect material first.

The weekend has finally arrived and I need to do some housework!!! Might even tackle the pantry?  But I do need to make a baby card first. I hope everyone has a great weekend and get’s lots of crafting done!

Until then happy crafting.

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I often link up at these parties

Craft Room Dreaming

Hello Blog World

Just a quick post today as I am back to aerobics this afternoon.
One of my goals this year is to organise. So I want to be prepared before tackling this instead of just cleaning on the fly and then finding out weeks or months later that it doesn’t work for me!

So I have been doing what I do best and surfing pinterest (I mean who doesn’t love that place) and I thought I would share some ideas I have found out there that I may want to implement into my craft room.

So here are my favourite craft rooms from Pinterest Land (click on the pics for more info)

Source: marigoldandsage.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

Just love this chair and the wrap desk!

Source: scrapbook.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

The rug, the wall colour, the chandelier and the wall organisation.  What’s not to like here?

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Kelly on Pinterest

This is very fun looking but also functional.  Love the bin and and table top!

Source: blogs.babble.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I just love all of this. I think I will be definitely doing something like this. I am on the lookout for an old hutch I can show some love to.

Source: lollyjaneboutique.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

And just because I am in love with the hutch idea here is another one!

Source: directionsnotincluded.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

And I think we have all seen this one floating around the net.  This would have to be my favourite!!  Again the wall colour, the shiny floor and just the storage space.  It’s incredible!

I am going to slowly tackle my room this year and by the end of this year my craft room dreams will become a reality.

Until then Happy Crafting

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I often link up with these parties