Waiting for Spring..................

Hey there! A little Spring teaser for you (aussies anyway!!) today.............

                                                                               

18 days to go.........

                                                                                 

And counting................

                                                                                 

Have a lovely day....I'm off to stoke up the fire.......grrrrrr.........

                                                                                   

.............................


                                    Janelle  xx                                                                        

Cream cheese frosting - the easy way.............

Hello and Welcome to a fresh new week!!
To start the week off I wanted to share a 'mini' recipe with you. And by mini I'm talking about icing. Scrumptious cream cheese frosting to be exact...mmmmm......mmmmm......

                                                                                 

                                                                                     
So, on the weekend my daughter and I baked a lemon cake. We have quite a few lemons laying about here at the moment so you may see a few lemony recipes popping up here. In the meantime Mr W.F had typically read the label wrong accidently purchased a tub of cream cheese instead of the sickly over-processed cheese spread that my five year old insists on eating. Of course we didn't want to waste this innocent tub of cream cheese so we decided to indulge and whip up a batch of cream cheese frosting to slap on the lemon cake........

                                                                                   

I didn't have an actual recipe anywhere of exact ingredients and amounts etc so I did what any cook would do and googled. Some recipes used butter, some only about 1/2 the tub of cheese (well that's just wasting!??!) and what I wanted was the easiest, most basic, less-ingredients-is-more way to go. I found it, wrote it down for future reference and then thought I'd share it on here as I think it's a good basic to have in one's recipe book. I did alter it just a little...it said to add lemon zest but as we were slapping this on an already lemon cake I didn't think it needed it. I also decided to throw in the vanilla even though the recipe didn't mention anything about vanilla....just call me a risk-taker living on the kitchen edge............

                                                                               

                                                                                   

                                                     Cream Cheese Frosting                                                  


 250gm tub cream cheese
4 tablespoons icing sugar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
(2 teaspoons lemon rind - optional)

Tip all ingredients in a bowl.
Beat for a few minutes with electric beaters.
Done.


                                                                                     

Spread. Swirl. Slice. And serve..........

                                                                                 

And eat................

                                                                                 

Simple. As.

Now go and have a wonderful week............

See you again soon..............


                                        Janelle  xx              

Banana Bread...............

Well hey there!! Ready for a little weekend baking??

                                                                                   

Okay then.............


                                                                                 

Today I wanted to share this yummy Banana Bread recipe with you...trust me...you need this recipe!! It is easy, relatively healthy and definitely tasty!! Also perfect for these cold wintery days we are experiencing in these parts lately (think warm...melted butter....hot cuppas....mmmmmm.....)

                                                                                   

So anyway...I found this recipe not so long ago in my ever-growing completely messy and verging on out of control recipe book. It was just a page I had, at some stage or another, ripped out of a mag (not too sure which one??) because it looked a good recipe to try. I apparently forgot about it until recently when I found it and gave it a test run. It passed all tests. Including three little judges. Since that first time I have changed it up quite a bit, added a few thing, replaced a few things, but it still works just as well. Promise!!
So......here we have it.........

                                                   
                                                                  Banana Bread                                                                     

                                                                                   

Method.............

1. Preheat oven to 160degrees

2. Sift the flour, bicarb and sugar together in a large bowl.

3. In another bowl place the bananas and give them a good mash. Then add in with them the eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, yoghurt and cooled butter. Give them all a stir together.

4. Now pour this banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir them all through until they're well combined.

5. Pour your bread mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin.

6. Bake approx 45-50 minutes...it may need a little longer...totally depends on the temp of your oven.

7. Once it's cooked and out of the oven allow it to sit in the tin for 5-10 minutes to cool down a little, then tip your loaf out onto a wire cooling rack.

8. Is absolutely delicious eaten when it's still warm. Butter slapped on top is of course optional... (actually we very rarely eat this with butter. I guess we treat it more as a dense cake? It really is just as yummy left alone and eaten just as is....)
                                                                                   

 

So off you pop to the kitchen and give this a whirl.........and let me know if you do.....I love to hear if people use my recipes...it makes me happy!!!

                                                                                   

                                                                   

Have a lovely weekend, whatever you're up to........

                                                                                   

And Happy Baking!!!!!

                                                                           
                                            Janelle  xx                                                                                                      

Simple pleasures.................

Morning........

                                                                               

So...after a shocking very challenging morning with the a very stubborn  I-don't-want-to-go-to-school, I-don't-want-to-wear-this, we-are-running-very-late  child I allowed myself the simple pleasure of enjoying a few minutes to sit on the deck and breathe normally again    soak in the winter sunshine, slurp on a coffee and admire these fresh gorgeous yellow delicious-smelling lemons........

                                                                                 

Aaaahhhh..................

                                                                                 

Have a fab Thursday won't you?!!.............


                                             Janelle  xx


                                                                                                                                     

Black and White................

Hey there!! How about a little Black and White love today?? Yes???...........

                                                                                 

 I'm loooooving this good old fashioned combo at the moment....never really fails in my opinion. So with that thought in mind I seem to be decorating my house, and indeed myself, in these two lovelies lately.............

                                                                                 

                                                                               

 And have a few projects in mind too........I love a good project.....or 10............

                                                                                 

I'm off to check if a cake is cooked (Banana bread actually. And it's smelling delicious. Will be sharing the EASY recipe on here very soon.) It is a very drizzly grey winter's day here today....perfect for staying inside and getting things done......hopefully anyway..............

Have a lovely Wednesday!!...................


                                               Janelle  xx                                    

Lunch..........

Hello and welcome to a new week....on a Tuesday.....hhmmmm.....

So, today I have what could possibly be the most interesting, useful and entertaining blogpost you will see all year. Today I give you..........

My Lunch................

                                                                                   

Now remember when the whole social media 'thing' started going off in a big way everybody seemed to be taking snaps of every mundane thing they did throughout their day including detailed pictures of every morsel of food that passed through their mouths??!? Well that used to rather amuse and slightly annoy me...who on earth would be interested in seeing that? Go and get a life please...............

Oh..............

                                                                                   

Well I obviously did not realise back then how.much.fun this could be!!?!.............

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                             

Actually the main reason I thought to pop this on here, besides it looking so fresh and pretty, is that I am not a good lunch person. I don't feel like eating a huge meal in the middle of the day and, quite frankly, could not be bothered to rustle one up. So...I snack. Pretty much all day. I do really try to make these 'good' snacks but things can get a tad boring. So recently this..........

                                                                                   

......has been my favourite snack. It's super quick, super tasty and super healthy.......just look at all that yummy goodness..............

                                                                                 

I simply throw in a bowl some natural greek yoghurt, shake in some muesli (I love the macro muesli with no fruit...) then slice a kiwi fruit on top but obviously any type of fruit would be delicious. When I first started doing this I was adding a few drops of vanilla extract to the yoghurt because I figured it may be a bit on the tart side of things but it really isn't, especially with the sweetness of the fruit, and now I don't bother. You could also drizzle some honey over the top too if you fancy things a little sweeter..........

                                                                                   

                                                                                   

So there you have it.....my fave food of the day!! What's your preference for lunch? Light and easy? Or the whole three-course gourmet?? Do you like to take photos of your lunch and share it around the web??!!??

                                                                                 

It is fun!!!............

Have a lovely Tuesday folks...............

See you again soon.................


                                                 Janelle  xx
                                                                               

Friday rambling..........

Well hello and Happy Friday to you!!!

                                                                                 

Today I'm enjoying a new ($1 dollar from the supermarket...!!?!....) pretty plate, some creative inspiration and, of course, a good cuppa....in a polkadot cup no less.....

                                                                                 

You like?? And I am in love with all those fabulous stitched pictures....I think I need them in my life. I am so revved up to do a little stitching, have even set myself up and bought all the necessary materials, I'm just having a terrible time figuring out exactly WHAT it is I want to stitch!! I may have found my answer......

                                                                               

                                                                               

This little face is just gorgeous....love her.....and this soft pale watermelon may just be my fave colour.....for this week anyway..............

                                                                                 

Okay.....I am off to make my bed....it's white now you know....and I'm quite loving it........pics next week......

Enjoy a wonderful weekend won't you?!.....

                                                                                 

                                                                                   
                                                                                 
.........

                            Janelle  xx