Bribing myself...

Hey!
So, I'm currently in the drafting phase of a report for work and it's the same thing every time. I have all these things that I want to write, but I'm not quite sure how to write them, so I sit and frown very hard at the computer for a few hours and write about 3 paragraphs, then I nuance them, and then I reward myself with a mars bar... Even though I promised myself I wouldn't eat it until I finished the chapter, because bribing myself is how I used to get things done.
Unfortunately, I feel a little bit like I've learned how to trick myself and this isn't really working anymore. It's the same with uni assignments and housework. There's always something better to do, some form of procrastination to be had, something bright and shiny to distract myself with!
Other successful online forms of distraction are (in no particular order):

• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Online surveys
• Realestate.com.au (and dreaming of where I will live in Melbourne)
• YouTube
• IGN
• Zynga (I am AWESOME at Chefville)
• Comparing prices at discount websites
• Trying to find party supply websites I can order things from in case I end up starting an events business (like www.lark.com.au and www.minqnadmode.com.au)
• Various news sites
• I google authors and celebrities and tv shows I like
• Sometimes I write blog posts (exhibit A)...

Anyway, I've just bribed myself with the thought of "if I go home now, then I will work doubly hard tomorrow". Let's just see how well that pans out tomorrow...
Ciao!

Ah-mazing Rocky Road

Hey!

So another quick recipe is my "famous" rocky road. I make this every time there's a fundraiser at work and there's never any left (which is a little bit sad).



Rocky road deliciousness!

Ingredients:

3 x 200g Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate

1 x bag of lolly raspberries

1 x large bag of maltesers

1 x bag of marshmallows

Method:

Chop marshmallows and raspberries into smaller chunks.

Break up all the chocolate and add to either a non-stick saucepan or, if you prefer, a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir until all melted.

Add raspberries and maltesers and stir through. You will notice that the maltesers will lose most of their chocolate, that's ok. Remove chocolate from heat.

Add marshmallows and stir quickly, otherwise they will melt.

Pour into a large slice tray, silicon works best as its easier to remove, and place in fridge overnight (minimum 5 hours).

Before chopping into pieces, it's best to remove from the fridge 30-60 minutes beforehand to slightly soften the chocolate.

Baking or cooking chocolate is not recommended for this. Cadbury chocolate is easy to melt and won't separate, so you won't need butter or vegetable shortening.

Also, feel free to get creative as all the ingredients are interchangeable. Because this recipe is quite sweet, I probably wouldn't recommend anything syrupy, but apart from that, go forth and conquer!

Enjoy!

Easy Mars Bar Slice

Hey!

So this week at work we're doing a fundraiser for my boss who is doing the Vinnie's CEO Sleepout to raise money for homeless Australians (www.ceosleepout.org.au). It's a great cause and as such I baked a whole heap of stuff last night for today's morning tea trolley. One thing I made was Mars Bar slice. Super easy!

Ingredients:

150g Mars Bar

80g butter

3 cups Rice Bubbles

300g chocolate (I use Cadbury because its easy to melt and you don't need additional butter)

Method:

Melt Mars Bars and butter in saucepan. Don't worry if the nougat doesn't completely melt, it's not supposed to. You can do this in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water too if you want.

Pour over the rice bubbles and stir through. Smush into a well greased tray and pat down well.

Break chocolate up and put in saucepan (or glass bowl over boiling water) and stir until melted.

Pour over rice bubbles and put into fridge overnight (four hours minimum).

Yum!

Catch up

So, I know it's been a while. There were a few things that kicked me off my A-game, but I feel like I'm ready to go again, so here I am! Rather than bore you with all the mundane details, the highlights were:
* Had streptococcal
* Got a new job
* I got given an iPad mini for Christmas (thanks Boyface!)
* Made lots of New Year's resolutions
* Moved house (no more share-house!)
* Won Big Day Out tickets
* Had a family wedding
* Went to Soundwave
* Got bronchitis
Not that the illnesses were highlights, more just the start and end of this whole "break". So now you know the goss, let's move on!

So, while I haven't been blogging as such, I did join Pinterest last year, and am pretty much addicted. If you want to examine my New Year's resolutions and track my progress, find out what bands I have seen live (a lot apparently) or picture my dream house, just click here: Meegsie's Pinterest boards. Or alternatively if you want to follow me, just look me up, my username is @meeghanw.

In other news, Boyface and I had Catface neutered. She was kind of sooky for about a week, but is since back to her old tricks, like jumping on me at 4:00 am to play fetch, attacking our ankles as we walk past, waking me up at 2:30 am by tapping me on the face... you know, cat stuff. Anyway, just before we moved house, ninja kitty decided to chase a moth or something around the house, and ended up perched on an open cupboard door in the gap between it and the ceiling. I have no idea how she got up there, but here she is... crazy cat!

I guess that will teach us not to leave cupboard doors open...

One other awesome thing which happened was that I won this awesome Christmas gift basket from a website which I am totally addicted to. The website is called Minq + Mode and it's run by a lady named Monique. The website is currently under renovation, but you can buy all her eco-friendly stationery from the Etsy shop, and she has a blog as well, both of which you can access from her website, even while under construction. Anyway, her goods are amazing AND environmentally friendly. Plus she does custom order stuff, like bunting, if you contact her by email.

Anyway, before I start ranting too much about other blogs I can't stop reading, I'm going to go. Hopefully nothing else will happen and I'll be back within the week! Maybe even with a new recipe!

Ciao! Meegsie x

Glitter nail polish - as an adult

So, I have this crazy obsession with nail polish. I must admit, my favourite brand is OPI and I currently have over 30 colours (which trust me, is very few).
Because the bottles are over $20 each here in Australia I try not to buy too many as I know what I can be like.
My friends and I have discovered this amazing website in the US where the bottles are about $7.00 each, so we order crazy amounts (my first order was 16 bottles) and then we pay split the postage per bottle. Unfortunately we end up waiting 2-3 months for the order to arrive, and inevitably there are some missing and then it's the annoying flurry of emails back and forth trying to figure out where the bottles are, or who is lying bout either sending or receiving.
Anyway, I fell in LOVE with the Muppets range, which pretty much consist or ridiculously bright colours and lots of glitter, so I ordered five bottles from the range.
One colour in particular was so amazing, it's called Gone Gonzo. I didn't take a photo of it on, but you can see it here. The colour is amazing, it's this really fine blue glitter with little silver glitter hexagons in it. Super bright and fun, just my cup of tea.
So I wore this colour for a little over a week. That's pretty much the life-span of all my nail polishes, even with the two layers of base coat, 3 layers of colour and two layers of top coat. However instead of chipping like the majority of my manicures would do by this stage, it hadn't done anything. AWESOME! I thought.
So tonight I decided it was time for a change, so I got out my nail polish remover and the cotton wool pads and off I went, however as much as I love the nail polish colour and concept, I was not very impressed with the removal of it.
Glitter nail polish as an adult is not fun to remove. Every single piece of glitter was glued to my nail and it took me 20 minutes just to do one hand. At which point I gave up and started peeling it off the other hand.
So from now on, I think I will be sticking to block colours, maybe with some sparkle and teeny bits of glitter. Which is such a shame as I really loved the glitter polish on...
Or, I could just forget the whole awful removal side of it, and wear it again in 6 months time :)
Have a good night, I'm off to paint my nails!

Chicken Macaroni Cheese

Ingredients:
2 cups dried macaroni
50g butter
1/4 cup plain flour
2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup pure cream (thickened cream will do)
2 1/2 cups shredded BBQ chicken
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup grated cheese
1/3 cup breadcrumbs


Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Cook pasta.
Melt butter in a medium to large saucepan. Add butter and stir.
Gradually add combined sock and cream, bring to boil then reduce heat 
to medium.
Add chicken, peas, half the cheese.
Cook for 10 minutes. Season, add pasta and stir through.
Transfer to baking dish. Top with breadcrumbs and cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.


Enjoy!

What to do with lamb shanks?

I recently acquired a slow cooker and it is fabulous. I especially like that I can throw a whole bunch of stuff in it in the morning, and when I get home dinner is cooked.
However, there are not a lot of mornings where I am up early enough to actually be prepared and make dinner, and so after the first use it sat in the cupboard for a month.
The other problem with it was that although I own two slow cooker recipe books, I don't have the majority of the ingredients they require sitting in my cupboard. While I love to cook, I don't keep a lot of char siu sauce, smoked paprika, peanut oil, red wine vinegar or garam masala lying around the house. I do have things that stay in the cupboard for a long time, but will eventually get used.

I also have groceries delivered to my house and decided a few weeks ago to try out lamb shanks. I've never cooked them before, and as such went looking for a recipe. Same problem as the slow cooker and I didn't want to go shopping.
So, this morning I decided to get all proactive and use them both in my own recipe, and as a result we are having lamb shanks for dinner! YAY!

Slow cooked lamb shanks

Ingredients:
4 lamb shanks

4 potatoes peeled and diced

3 carrots peeled and chopped

1 brown onion peeled and chopped

2 cups frozen peas and corn
1 leek chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup cream

2 1/2 cups water

3-4 teaspoons of Gravox powder

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot English mustard

salt and pepper to season

Method:

This is the best part. Put the lamb, potatoes, carrot, onion, leek, peas and corn into the slow cooker.

Mix everything else together in a large bowl and then pour into the slow cooker making sure there aren't whole items outside of the liquid.

Pending on the time frame, put on high for 6-7 hours, or put in low for 8+ hours.
About an hour before you eat, turn the lid sideways (**if you have an OVAL slow cooker) and sit on top of the cooker, this will reduce the liquid in the bottom, but keep the food moist.

Enjoy!