I have no idea why i've only just realised...

that it is incredibly difficult to be and stay positive and insightful when you are stressed. Alas, i am back at Uni, 2nd week in and im feeling the stress and pressure build up already. It's not so much the workload at present (in saying that thought it is effing huge already, 'scuse the french) it is more so the prospect of what i know is coming up. Numerous assignments, plus reading fifty billion pages a week (and noting them at the same time) and then there's the Drug Calc's test in week 4 (in 2 weeks time!!!!) which we have to pass with 100% before we can move on and all the rest as well. Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I might take this chance to mention that i am no good at maths, never have been, never will be. Im more of a creative spirit, don't do numbers! So, i've been trying to brush up on the basics and then grapple the idea of the various formulas to work out how many mg of a certain drug i need to give to a patient if the tablet dose is 250mg and they only need 125mg etc etc you get the jist.

Needless to say, i've had a tension/stress headache since before i went to bed last night, it is now 7pm the following day and its STILL here and i'd love for it to p*ss off!

Oright, back to the books *sigh*

Oh, and just a little reminder why im doing this (for me and for you):

'Action is the foundational key to all success'
Pablo Picasso

I love cooking!

It's my 'thing'. I love everything about it... the choosing of recipes and meals, shopping for the ingredients, the produce, the preparation, the aromas, i just love it all the whole process! Nothing makes me happier than to use fresh, local ingredients to create healthy, wholesome meals for my family. The kitchen is definitely one of my favourite rooms in the house, when i am cooking i feel happy and positive, everything i am striving for in life. I am going to start adding a few photos of meals i've made every now and then and i'll hopefully be able to include the recipes too. Enjoy!

This was our dinner tonight, nothing out of the ordinary for us, we love salad and we love to share! Zucchini, Pumpkin & Bacon Slice with homemade Garlic Bread and a salad plate.

For the garlic bread, i used a brought french stick and filled it with a mix of butter, garlic, chives and continental parsley - delicious!

This is my basic Zucchini Slice recipe, i've just substituted some of the zucchini for pumpkin this time.

Zucchini Slice

Ingredients (serves 15)

• 5 eggs
• 150g (1 cup) self-raising flour, sifted
• 375g zucchini, grated
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 200g rindless bacon, chopped
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil

 Method:

• Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line a 30 x 20cm lamington pan.
• Beat the eggs in a large bowl until combined. Add the flour and beat until smooth, then add zucchini, onion, bacon, cheese and oil and stir to combine. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

This is a dessert i made a couple of weeks ago to take to a friends for dinner, alas me and one of my boys didn't make it due to him being sick but the tart made it and it was a massive hit!

  

Strawberry & White Chocolate Tart

Shortcrust pastry

Serves 10
Cooking Time Prep time 10 mins, cook 25 mins (plus chilling, resting)

250 gm	(1 2/3 cups) plain flour
190 gm	unsalted butter, coarsely chopped, chilled
1	egg yolk

1	Process flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor until fine crumbs form.
2	Add egg yolk and enough chilled water (about 3-4 tsp) and process until mixture just forms a dough (2-4 seconds).
3	Turn pastry onto a floured surface and lightly knead with the heel of your hand until the pastry comes together.
4	Form pastry into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled (2-3 hours).
5	Roll pastry, using a rolling pin, on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thick.
6	Brush excess flour from pastry with a pastry brush, then use pastry cutters to cut lining for individual cases or roll pastry backwards over rolling pin to lift pastry and line large tart case. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to rest.
7	Preheat oven to 200C. Blind bake pastry until golden (15-25 minutes), then cool on a wire rack.

Note Makes forty 4cm tartlets, six 12cm tartlets or a 25cm tart.

Tart Filling

1 block of good quality white chocolate (cadbury dream or whittakers is great)

1 tub of sour cream

Fresh strawberries or raspberries

Melt chocolate over water bath, stir in sour cream and whisk until smooth. Pour into cooled tart shell and refrigerate until firm (approximately 2hrs). Top with halved fresh strawberries or raspberries.

Enjoy! This is now one of my favourite desserts, it's so quick and easy and versatile!

Until next time...

 

Emotions.

Wonderful, sometimes embarrassing and frustrating but essential to our being. I've discovered this week that it is extremely hard to think and process information as well as make decisions when your emotional, whether you are frustrated, in despair, angry, upset or damn right furious, you just cannot think nor can you or should you try to or make decisions!

Once the storm blows over and you take a few breaths, calm down and can think clearly the situation never seems as bad as it did when you were in the thick of those raging emotions and let me tell you it is so much easier to see how everything WILL work out rather than crying, growling and waving your arms in the air saying (or writing) angrily 'that there is no way possible it can happen'.

In saying that, im feeling positively calm and only a little anxious and emotional about what this semester will bring, not only in terms of the workload at Uni but also the stress and coping and the fact that i most likely won't get as much time as i hoped to spend with my precious little men.

My biggest little man is off to school in July and in the perfect world it would have been lovely to spend as much time as possible with him over the next two terms but alas that more than likely won't be happening and we'll just have to 'suck it up' so to speak, stay positive and i will keep reminding myself that i am doing this for our future, to make those dreams come true.

'Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.'
 Ralph Waldo Emerson

'Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.'
 Ralph Vaull Starr


'Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.'
 John Homer Miller