NEW RECIPE - Honey Sesame Chicken with Rice

I'm obsessed with any form of sticky, honey, teriyaki style chicken. Generally, I just use the packet stuff you buy at the supermarket - because it's easy - but last night I decided to try and make my own. This recipe I found over on Chef-in-training was super quick and really tasty! I will totally make this again. Although, I would probably add stir-fry veggies (which I didn't have on hand) and sesame seeds - which the recipe calls for but didn't actually have in the cupboard!

Slow-cooker Honey Sesame Chicken with Rice

Ingredients:

-1kg boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used thighs, as it's what I had on hand and worked fine)

- 1 Cup Honey
- 1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
- 4 Tablespoons Diced Onions
- 4 Tablespoons Tomato Ketchup
- 2 Tablespoons Canola or Vegetable oil

- 2 cloves of garlic minced

- 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

- 4 teaspoons cornflour dissolved in 6 teaspoons of water
 - Sesame seeds

Method:

1. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.

2. Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, and place in the bottom of slow cooker.

3. In a small bowl, add honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes and stir until well combined. Pour over chicken.

4. Cook on low for 3-4 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through.

5. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce.

6. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened.

7. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving.

8. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

ENJOY!

Ella's 8 month update

Oh yes...it's that time again. These seem to come around far too quickly for my liking.

Ella is now 8 months old and we are pushing dangerously close to that one year milestone. I can't quite get my head around the fact that in four months I will have a one year old and I know I seem to repeat this over and over again but, where did my little baby go? Just thinking about it makes me want to burst into tears and sob into her little newborn baby onesie.

I am: 8 Months old

I weigh: 8.75ks (At my 7 month weigh in)

I am: 72cm long

75th percentile for weight and 98th percentile for height

I am: 

- Eating three meals a day

- On four bottles a day

- Sleeping 6.30pm to 7.30am

- Having 3 naps of 30 mins to an hour during the day

- Still not crawling, nor am I interested in crawling really. Although I am trying to get on my hands and knees. If I am really interested in going somewhere I will just roll there.

I love:

- Food, particularly mashed foods. 

- Most fruit and veggies, beef, chicken and pork, cheese, yoghurt, vegemite and cheese sandwiches, peanut butter, vegetable fritters, sweetcorn fritters, frittata, eggs, rice rusks, bolognaise and pasta, cous cous.

- When Mum sings to me.

- Animals, especially the cats, dogs and calves.

- Everyone!

- Going out and about.

- Swimming.

- My Mummy and Daddy.

I just can't love my post-baby body yet...

Recently, I have read a lot of great posts from fabulous Mummy bloggers who are celebrating their baby bodies and embracing their tiger stripes and battle scars as signs of what their bodies went through to produce their precious babies. 

I am in awe of these women. They are brave, honest and inspiring. 

My thoughts though? 

I'm not there yet. I'm just not ready. I'm not ready to love my battle scars and the after effects of what carrying my beautiful baby did to my body. I can live with it yes, but love it? No. 

Call me shallow, vain or superficial. I don't care. Because you know what I realised? I realised that it's ok too. I don't have to love my baby body just yet. I hope that in time I will but, right now, I look in the mirror and what I see just doesn't fill me with the warm fuzzies. 

When I look in the mirror I see a saggy tummy that is wrinkled with stretch marks from my belly button down to my c-section scar and to the tops of my thighs. I still yearn for my before pregnancy body. For the tummy that I thought wasn't flat, when in actual fact it pretty much was. For the boobs that were small but perky and are now flatter than ever. For the thighs that I once thought were massive but weren't really and are now marked with stripes. 

I regret the things I thought about my body before. I should have embraced my body. I should have loved it, not criticised it. We seem to go through a roller coaster of body image issues as women. Through the teenage years and young-adulthood with the body that we hated and criticised to the next phase of our lives as adults and Mothers who yearn for that body back. We face a different set of challenges - learning to love it for what it created not for what it looks like. 

As with everything, it takes time. It takes time to learn to love ourselves and how we look. I think it takes even more time to learn to accept and embrace the changes that we have no control over. In time it will happen, I know. When I look back on the body that created my babies - who will no longer be babies - I know that these scars will serve as a warm reminder of the precious gifts we were blessed with. 

But right now though? I need to stop being so hard on myself. Trying to force myself to love a body that I'm just not ready to love. To learn to stop torturing myself with what was. To stop comparing my body with those that haven't yet born children or those that have and are just blessed with bodies that bounce back. 

Love takes time. It's ok to not love those battle scars straight away but I hope in time that I will learn accept and embrace the sacrifices my body made to produce such a perfect, precious little human being. 

Want to read another great post on body image after babies? Charlene of Teacher by Trade - Mother by Nature wrote a great post about how she feels about her body. You can AND SHOULD read it here.

LIFE UPDATE - Our exciting news?

No, I am not pregnant..before you ask!

You may have read in my last update that I have exciting news.

Well, today is the day I share it. It's probably not hugely exciting news for you but it is for us. It's exciting, scary, life-changing, nerve-wracking and insomnia inducing news.

As some of you may or may not know my Husband is a pilot. He's been training and hour accumulating ever since we first met, that's coming up 7 years (in December) of dedicated hard work. Finally, it's paying off. 

He's just got the call that will change his career and our lives for good. Up until now he's been teaching other people how to fly and training them through their flying licences.

Now though, he's landed his dream job as a commercial airline Pilot for New Zealand's leading airline, flying domestically. As you will know Pilot's move around... like a lot, they get based where they want you and we are definitely no exception.

We are currently based in a beautiful, rural town north of Auckland, New Zealand. Now though, with this exciting new career opportunity we are being moved to Christchurch on the South Island!

This is huge for me. I have never lived out of Auckland. I know, "what's the big deal?" you may ask "it's not like you're moving countries", but with both our families around us where we are now, including Ella's Grandparent's, it's going to be a huge adjustment not having family support so close by.

On the brighter side though, it is exciting, it's a big change and a new adventure. We are also hoping - with house prices down there being a lot more affordable then the extortionate prices of Auckland currently - we might be able to get onto the property ladder for the very first time! And the added bonus? Christchurch is a very beautiful part of the Country!

So, what's the plan?

Tom starts training on the 24th of August in Christchurch, followed by a further month of training back in Auckland. After that he's making the move to Christchurch. Ella and I are staying in Auckland and we will be following Tom down in late February/ early March.

Why, you may ask, are Ella and I not moving the same time as Tom does?

Basically, I haven't gotten my head wrapped around the whole idea of moving. We need to work out the logistics of this whole thing, for example, where we are going to live? are we going to rent or can we buy?

Also, there is a lot going on back here that makes me want to stay until the new year. Such as Ella's first birthday - rapidly approaching - this year, my brother-in-law and his fiance are getting married in February of next year and I am her Maid of Honour plus a lot of the family are coming from England for the wedding - all of whom Ella has never met before including her great-grandparents.

It just makes more sense. Tom will be incredibly busy during training and when he officially starts work he will be all over the place learning to fly different routes so he won't actually be around all that much. 

When he's completed his training and officially starts work we will have more of an idea as to what his rostered hours will be. From there he will fly back on his days off or Ella and I will fly down. After all we will need to have a good look around as to which areas we would like to live - or can afford to live - and to consider what options we have when it comes to buying or renting a house.

So, that's our news. I hope to continue blogging regularly but as I am going to pretty much on my own I may be pressed for time trying to look after Ella and keep my house in relative cleanliness and order - I can but try!

I will be posting more life updates in the near future so keep an eye out if you are interested in following us on this exciting new journey. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - where I post regularly. 

Thanks for reading!

 

#Thursdaythrowback - My wedding dress

#Thursdaythrowback

I can't believe this will have been almost four years ago (in December), time flies so quickly. Life goes by and things change - who would have thought back then we would have a daughter almost, exactly, three years later!

Photo credit Dan Mason Photography

I chose my dress from a wedding magazine, as soon as I saw it I fell in love with it and as soon as I tried it on I knew it was "the one". Bought from Alma J Bridal Boutique it was a gown from the Essence collection.

Photo courtesy of Dan Mason Photography

A sweetheart neckline, fitted waist, mermaid style and ivory silk dress with a train. It had buttons all the way down the back with a a champagne coloured belt and diamante detailing - it was literally perfect! I added a long ivory veil which I wore over my face. I felt amazing in it!

Photo courtesy of Dan Mason Photography

You read see our full wedding story here :-)

#Tuesdayten - 10 foods I could live off if calories or nutrition didn't matter...

As I mentioned in yesterdays post, #Tuesdayten is going to be a weekly feature on the blog. This is a blog link party hosted by bloggers The Golden spoons and The Lieber Family.

Each week a topic is chosen and the task is to write about that topic. Today's topic is... Ten foods you could live off if nutrition and calories didn't matter.

Oh how this is a fun topic to write about. No doubt I am going to make myself very hungry, by the end of this post, just thinking about it!

So, here goes...

In no particular order:

1. Pasta - I could literally eat pasta everyday. Spaghetti Bolognese, Lasagna, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Fettucine Alfredo and Carbonara the list goes on. This for me is major comfort. I fell in love with Italian and pasta when we went to Tuscany for our honeymoon - although I am yet to find pasta as good as the Italians make it over here!

Easy Fettuccine AlfredoRecipe courtesy of Lil-luna.com

2. Garlic bread or anything with garlic in it - Random I know but I. JUST. LOVE. GARLIC. I put garlic in everything and whenever I order steak I order garlic butter to go with it. Nothing beats buttery, garlicky, oozy garlic bread. Poor Hubby and my garlic breath.

3. Ribs - Are my current obsession - I go through phases of craving certain foods, even when I am not pregnant. You just can't beat sticky, saucy, ribs that are falling off the bone.

Slow-cooked sticky BBQ ribsPhoto and recipe courtesy of The Stay At Home Chef

4. Peanut Butter - As you may have noticed, the past couple of recipes I have posted have involved peanut butter - why? because I love the stuff. I could eat it straight from the jar by the spoonful it's just that good!

No-bake Peanut Butter slice

5. Donuts - The next few things were pregnancy cravings - big time! A lot of my friends can vouch for the fact that I ate donuts every day at one point- so bad! I just love them though, what I wouldn't give for a chocolate glazed donut right now.

6. Sausage rolls - Oh yea, that classic kids party food. I get so excited whenever I see these and I can't help but eat too many of them. Yet another, bad, pregnancy craving! I'm surprised Ella wasn't made out of donuts or sausage rolls really.

7. Cinnamon rolls - What's not to love? Bread, Cinnamon sugar and a white icing glaze. Even better served warm.

One-hour Cinnamon RollsRecipe courtesy of Lil-luna.com

8. Chicken Parmigiana - Another Italian dish I love. Breaded chicken, tomato and parmesan cheese - what more could you want? I normally add a cheese sauce on top too just for added liquid cheesy goodness.

Chicken ParmigianaRecipe courtesy of Lil-Luna.com

9. Pork pies - A British favourite, I discovered this deliciousness on a holiday to the UK to meet my Husband's family - who introduced me to it. Unfortunately, they are so hard to come by over here so I have to make sure I get my fix whenever we go back.

10. Devonshire Cream Tea - Another traditional British favourite, it has a different name depending on which part if the country you are in and there is debate over how you eat it. Basically, it's nice big, fluffy scones with clotted cream, jam and accompanied by a pot of Tea. Not that I drink tea, but you can't beat a big scone smothered in copious amounts of clotted cream and jam. Unfortunately, once again it's practically impossible to find a traditional cream tea in New Zealand - much to my dismay!

See, I told you - I knew my mouth would be watering by the end of this!

What are some foods you love and just couldn't live without?

This post is part of #Tuesdayten a blog link-up party
hosted by The Golden Spoons and The Lieber Family.

Monday minute - what we are getting up to this week

Just a bit of an update on what we are getting up to this week, I'm trying my damnedest to keep to some sort of blog schedule and blog regularly. 

So, each week I'll be doing Monday minute - a quick overview of what we will be getting up to during the week, Tuesday 10 - a link up to another blogger Mumma's page and Friday's I'll be trying a new a recipe and uploading it to the blog. The days in between will either by a day off for me or if something important comes to mind that I feel the need to blog about I will upload.

I'm not going to only be blogging those things each week - that would be bloody boring otherwise - but these days are the only days I have alliterative names for! So, anything else will be spontaneous titling. Haha

What are little Miss Ella and I getting up to this week?

Tuesday - Is a Mum's and Bub's movie session at our local cinema. We are going to see Inside Out with some of our Mum and baby friends, I am so freaking excited to watch this movie - the trailer for it looks so cool and I'm a big sucker for animated movies.

Wednesday - I am heading off to work for the day so one of Ella's Grandmother's will be looking after her. I'll probably use the opportunity to go to the supermarket and also to get a few cake decorating supplies!

Thursday - I need to get started on making Ella's baptism cake! I've already made the little fondant figurines to go on top I just need to make the actual cake itself. I will probably film a video on assembling the cake and post the recipes I use for the actual cake and the buttercream filling. A friend suggested I do a video on how I make these little figurines,  would that be of interest to anyone?

Friday - Is the same thing we do every week - swimming! It's Ella's second term for her swimming lessons and will be her first lesson in the "advanced water babies" group.

Saturday - Will be a lot of baptism prep - cake decorating and finger food making! My Sister is also coming up from Wellington to be apart of the baptismal ceremony, so we'll be catching up with her as well.

Sunday - Ella is being baptised at our local Catholic church followed by afternoon tea. This is what I will be making the cake for. I was baptised Catholic and went to Catholic schools throughout my schooling life so I want her to have the opportunity to have a faith if that's what she wants. I will probably to a blog post with photos and a run through of what we got up to during the day.

So, there you have it a brief overview of what we are getting up to this week - I will be blogging about some of what we do this week, so stay tuned for these posts or videos sometime soon!