Photo Pegs

Hello Blog World,

Firstly WOW!!! I was top pick over at Creative Sketches for this card from this post.



Now I was only 1 of 2 entries but still pretty cool.  Check them out they have great sketches and deserve more entries! This week’s sketch is great and  I am going to try and do something with it on Sunday I think.

Now on to what else I have been making this week.

I was at the cheap shop last year, also known as the dollar store, when I was on holidays and came across these pegs.



They are about 4 inches tall and about an 1” wide and too cute to pass up at $3 each, so I bought 5!.

Well I finally got around to making them into something last week and this is what I came up with…




You place them upside down and they become photo, recipe or whatever you like holders.

I have one left and thinking of turning it into a magnet?? Not too sure yet.

Well it’s one day before the market, I have been slack and haven’t made too many more cards and I am off to help my sister in law today.  I will be back tomorrow or Sunday with how the market went, until then Happy Crafting

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Chicken Balls with Couscous Salad

 

Hello Blog World,

As you know I am on a healthy lifestyle challenge, trying to change my health, life and shape one day at a time.  It’s going ok so far. 

 

One recipe I have been making for a while now which is lovely and light especially as the weather warms up here in Australia is Chicken Balls with Couscous Salad.  It’s a bit higher in calories and fat than a normal garden salad but it still falls into a very acceptable level in my opinion of a healthy low fat, low calorie meal weighing in at 365 calories per serve with approx 9.6 grams of fat. Therefore, I will be sharing this recipe with you today.

 

Firstly gather your beautiful fresh ingredients

 

 

Mix them up

 

 

Ok I know, it doesn’t look too appetising yet. Once it’s all mixed form into balls, i make mine about 1  - 1/2” round.  I don’t like them too big.

 

 

Then cook them in non stick pan, with a little bit of spray cooking oil.

While they are cooking prepare the couscous salad, and serve these babies on top of that and I also add a dollop or 2 of my low fat tzatziki.

 

Close up

 

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Full Recipe & Directions for Chicken balls and Couscous Salad

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Ingredients

1 slice stale bread, torn into chunks
250g chicken mince
2 green onions (shallots), finely chopped
¼ cup chopped coriander (cilantro)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil (I use spray oil and only 1 tablespoon for the couscous)
lemon wedges, to serve (optional, I don’t really like lemon wedges so I omit this)
Couscous salad:
1 cup (250ml) boiling water
1 cup (200g) couscous
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
1 lebanese cucumber, quartered lengthways, sliced
2 green onions (shallots), finely sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted

Preparation method

Place bread in a small bowl and cover with water. Set aside to soak for 5 minutes, then drain and squeeze dry. Place in a large bowl with chicken mince, chopped green onion, half of coriander and egg. Mix thoroughly and season. Using wet hands, shape into about 16 small balls.

Heat half of oil in a large frying pan on medium. Cook meatballs in batches for 5-7 minutes, tossing frequently, until browned and cooked through. Set aside.

To make couscous salad:
Combine boiling water and remaining oil in a bowl. Stir in couscous, cover and set aside for 5 minutes. Fluff up with a fork to separate grains. Toss through remaining salad ingredients and remaining coriander.

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See pretty simple, yummy and healthy.  While the recipe itself does not give you the nutritional value there is a fabulous website out there I have found called Spark Recipes.  You don’t have to join to view or print recipes, but it is free and there is a recipe calculator, where you just add all your ingredients, enter the amount of servings and it calculates the nutritional value for you. You can even add your own ingredients if you can’t find what you are looking for! 

So I have used this calculator and the nutritional value for this meal (and I realise it’s only approximate but it shouldn’t be too far off ) is

Calories:364

Fat:9.6

Cholesterol:89

Protein:23.1

Carbs:45.8

Sugar:0.6

Sodium:124

So go make it, enjoy and gobble it up, I am off to do some housework and maybe some more cards.  Until then Happy Crafting.

 

 

 

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Red Rosettes

Hello Blog World,

Just a really quick post today, spent all day yesterday in the city at a Microsoft Excel course, which was great!! But my healthy lifestyle took another downwards step.  So I need to get off my butt and exercise (more on that next Monday)

Well I spent all weekend helping my sister in law prepare for the markets so didn’t get any cardmaking done but there was a small project I had been putting off and when I saw Ke'l’s scraps of red satin I knew I had to finish it.

Remember my first ever rosette from this post


Well when one of my work colleagues saw this she asked for one in red.  Well I hadn’t got around to it.  So when I saw the fabric I knew I could surprise her on Monday with it.

So Wah Lah
Second and third fabric rosette ring!




These came out much better and I just love the frayed fabric look.  There are 2 because after I made my friend’s my sister in law wanted one. 
Now I am off to aerobics to burn all of yesterday’s calories. Until then happy crafting.








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Healthy Lifestyle Challenge Week 3

Hello Blog World,

Week 2 was a lot easier than I thought, not to say there weren’t hard or tempting moments but I resisted and am feeling great and have even shed a few kilos to boot! Bring on week 3!!!!!!

I had a few entries this week for my link party and there are 2 fab recipes that I definitely want to try.

Check out
KB & Whitesnake’s Home – Salmon with Dill Buttery Sauce
and
Organised Living Solutions – Healthy Treats
and don’t forget
No Pain No Gain Tuesday from Natascha’s Blog – she has finished week 4 of her challenge and will post week 5 tomorrow, can’t wait to see what she’s accomplished.

Now to some motivational material before letting you in on my week!



The first photo is me on my wedding day, if I see this I know I CAN DO IT! I have been there before.

Monday
Had a really good weekend and a great weigh in this morning but that doesn’t mean I can slack off today.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – Carrot and Celery Sticks
• Healthy Lunch achieved – chicken and salad wrap
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Grilled Fish served on lemon rice (recipe to come)
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 35 minutes on treadmill
• No schedule aerobics today – It’s my day off!

NO LOWS!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday
Another great day today, it’s amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it, the important thing is to stay committed even if there are down days.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – oats made with water, no sweetener
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 2 cinnamon flavoured rice cakes
• Healthy Lunch achieved – tuna, garden salad and low fat tzatziki
• Healthy Dinner achieved – grilled steak served with baby spinach, rocket lettuce, roma tomatoes, low fat feta cheese and home made salsa.
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes on treadmill
• 40 minutes of aerobics

NO LOWS!!!!!!!

Wednesday
It was a good day today but I feel like struggled. It was hard and I lacked a bit of motivation I feel. But I still got through!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 2 cinnamon flavoured rice cakes (these are my new favourite snack)
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Ham and Low Fat Feta Mini pita pizza’s (recipe to come)
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes on treadmill
• 40 minutes of aerobics

Mixed Bag
I was feeling a bit hungry after aerobics today so I had another 2 rice cakes – honestly I shouldn’t beat my self up as these are very low calorie and low fat, so maybe this should still be a high?


Thursday
Today was a really hard day!! A funeral and just overall exhaustion, I can’t wait for my holiday coming up soon.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy Afternoon Tea – ¼ of Chicken and salad wrap.
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows

• Not so healthy dinner – 2 (COUNT THEM 2) Tuna and cheese (not even low fat cheese) grilled sandwiches
• No exercise
• 2 glasses of Bourbon with diet coke

Friday
After yesterday’s failure I have to get back on track!!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved - low fat yogurt
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Grilled Chicken, garden salad with low fat tzatziki.
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes of aerobics
• 30 minutes on treadmill

NO LOWS!!!

Saturday
So the weekend has come again, I have another weigh-in in 2 days, today was not so good!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Afternoon Tea – low fat yogurt
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Left over grilled chicken, with salad in a wrap
• over 2 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes on treadmill

Lows

• Not so healthy lunch – grilled fish (which is healthy) but I had it with a side of chips
• No Aerobics

Sunday
Today was a mixed day,  a few ups and a few downs.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Lunch achieved – tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy afternoon Tea  -  Low fat yogurt
• Healthy Dinner achieved – grilled steak, garden salad with low fat tzatziki
• Over 2 litres of water consumed
• 50 minutes on treadmill

Lows

• I was offered a mini cup cake and I took it!!!!
• No aerobics

So a few more lows than last week!!! I still haven’t measured myself (must do that this week).  I had my weigh in this morning and I haven’t lost any more weight, but all in all I have lost 5 kg’s since I started so I will not get discouraged by this!  This week will be good, I have a lot going on, advanced excel course today, midnight screening of twilight on Thursday night, Friday off work to help Kel with the markets and then the market's on Saturday.  Wont leave much time for crafting but there is always next week.

I have posted my link party again this week.  I had a total of 4 entries (one was mine so it doesn’t count really. So link up obviously I need the help!  Until then Happy Healthy Crafting.







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What a mess!!!! and another card…

Hello Blog World,

I didn’t get too much card making done yesterday as I headed over to my sister in laws place to help her prepare for her first market next weekend.  I got to do all the grunt work as I call it.  I spent all day, printing and cutting labels, size labels, price labels, care labels you get the picture.  While it’s not the most enjoyable thing to do it needed to be done and it leaves her more time to make the gorgeous merchandise!

But firstly check out her craft room!! She has been sewing up a storm for the last few weeks and has left her little room a bit neglected.



I thought mine was neglected!  Which it is, but I don’t have her excuse.

I did manage to get a card made yesterday morning before I left
I used this sketch from 365 cards and this colour inspiration from Cr84FN



Of Course I flipped this sketch on it’s side (sort of). I have a bad habit of doing that and I came up with this…







I know it really doesn’t look like the sketch too much, but believe me I had the sketch in front of me the whole time, it was definitely my inspiration.

I am back off to be a little helper bee today.  Now that all the grunt work is done I get to do some fun stuff and make, rosettes, hair clips and other fabric flowers.  I might be able to get another card in sometime today, or some Christmas tags I am thinking of making, who knows, the sky’s the limit!!!
Until then Happy Crafting






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