221 – green smoothie success!

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

It’s been aaaaaaaaaaaaaages since I used my blender – something about a cold smoothie first thing in the morning has NOT appealed in this recent weather (oh my god the HAIL today – like freakin’ snow! Aucklanders went in to shock all over town and forgot to how to drive). Anyhoo, hot brekkies have had way more appeal – especially after boot camp in the freezing cold – and today was no exception.

However, part of me getting back on track is being prepared for stuff. A ‘treat’ I have been loving recently is the v good green stuff smoothie at Kokako. And as the GD pointed out the last time he brought me one to work – they are waaaaaay too expensive for what they are – so I hatched a plan.

This morning I made a smoothie to GO. I made it and put it in my little glass jar with the straw that I got from the warehouse for $2.50 and stashed it in my work fridge for morning tea – which is EXACTLY when I felt like it – win!

I tried a new combo;

one and half handfuls of spinach leaves
an inch thick round of pineapple with outside bits cut off, cubed
one cup coconut water (check the box – heaps have added sugar – I get the one that has the lowest sugar content and def no ADDED sugar)
one frozen banana
one tablespoon LSA
1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder

Whack it in and smash it all up together – I give it two blasts because the LSA can be a bit gritty. Water will suffice instead of the coconut water – it is sweet.

It was great! And the best bit is that Master 4 tasted it this morning and then this evening – after refusing a perfectly delicious gf pasta and meatballs – requested it for his dinner! I took out the coconut water and upped the greens and he could hardly tell the difference. That’s one way of getting spinach into a pre-schooler.

Monday is done. Thank the gods.

220 – Sunday prep

August 9, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Kia ora koutou and I hope you are all feeling fine on this here Monday eve,

Or have you got the Sunday horrors too? I get ’em every weekend now but I have many and varied ways in which I ‘deal’ with them. The best used to be to just day-drink. Ahhhh… just keep a nice slow beer buzz on all day. But, you know, parenting, and being old and shite means children to feed and hangovers that last for DAYS now. I’m nearly 40 you know. Fuck it.

Some of the things I do; I rush about madly trying to ‘get the most out of the weekend’ OR I lie around doing absolutely nothing until nagged sufficiently by children or the grumpy Dutchman. I try to organise ‘good for the gut’ food in advance for the week/I shave/dye/trim or wash any hair that catches my attention (no I don’t shave my legs in winter because cold and the GD complains but he puts up with it just fine – a hairy ankle isn’t going to put my man off his dinner). I read books (ha ha – I plan to read books but I have mentioned I have children haven’t I?). I clean things randomly – very randomly. I try to spend as much time with family where possible AND I try to catch up with friends. I try not to think about work until I really really have to. It’s quite a bit to fit in to two days.

It really makes you wonder why we work for FIVE days and only rest for TWO days. Surely we’ve got that ass about face?

This weekend in between family stuff I have been to the movies with a friend who wanted to escape me from Nana and work stress bless her – I highly recommend ‘Amy’ the doco about Amy Winehouse – it is a tear-jerker for sure – not a dry eye in the house. It’s probably very wrong, considering her struggles with addiction, but I did leave really wanting a glass of wine and a ciggie…. Lucky Nana didn’t have any.

This evening for dinner I made a yummy recipe that I like to make every now and then; Salmon Patties with (random) greens. It’s great because it makes a bunch of them and I can have them for lunch the next day. It’s not my recipe and I’ve added and taken out some stuff to suit my ouchy gut – a good one to play with.

You need

two 200gm cans of pink salmon
a couple of Kumara, peeled and cut in to cubes
2 tblsp of Capers (drained)
a handful of coriander chopped
spring onion chopped up (I think you are meant to use red onion but I can’t tolerate it)
1-2 eggs whisked
breadcrumbs (I use almond meal because gluten)
you could add peas/grated courgette – although courgette would make it wet so add more almond meal I reckon
salt and pepper
coconut oil

Steam and mash the kumara, wait to cool then add the salmon, capers, coriander, almond meal, egg, spring onion and any other veges you are adding.

Roll in to balls, then flatten in to patties, coat in almond meal/breadcrumbs and shallow fry in coconut oil until golden brown. They are GREAT with mayonnaise. You should get about 8. Serve with random steamed greens – we had beans and spinach and broccoli.

And two left to have with my lunch tomorrow – win!

198 – I’m not dead

July 18, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Yes, it’s been ten days since my last post – partly because I’ve been avoiding you and partly because it’s been school holidays and I just kinda let everything slide…

So, how to begin – to catch you up or just fill in the gaps? Well you don’t need the minutiae of my days and frankly they are only interesting to me and mine – you know what school holidays with bored kids are like – you swing from moments of hysterical joy (oh my god the zoo for the third time I’m SO EXCITED! We have zoo passes – they are seriously the best xmas gift ever) to moments of pure hell (OH MY GOD WHY ARE WE AT THE ZOO AGAIN?!). The kids are randomly best friends and mortal enemies and those of us that normally work but have the pleasure of being at home with our little cherubs begin to remember and appreciate why we work in the first place.

The middle of the year holidays are extra special in our house because of all the birthdays. Mine, my Stepdad’s, my Mums and my eldest son (Mum and T are on the same day). This means that the grumpy Dutchman is extra grumpy and stressed because of the gift buying, the family time is extra intense and at some point I have to plan and run a birthday event for the child. Also this time round the Aussie Dutchies are here so it’s been cool to meet my youngest niece and hang with them briefly. Suffice to say that though I don’t tend to feel ‘rested’ at the end of the winter break.

Anyway – why have I been avoiding you? Did you notice that? Well. You know how I’m a stubborn biatch and I have been struggling with the sugar and shite? But really proud that I had managed to not drink? Sooooooo. This is awkward.

I’m just gonna come out and say it. I had a glass of wine (or two) on my birthday. Because it was MY FUCKING BIRTHDAY damnit and I was feeling old. I know. I know. But the plan that I had to go to a beach with the GD and the dog to watch the sunset didn’t pan out because I spent so long on the motorway driving home from dropping the lads off to be babysat. And there is less sugar in red wine that birthday cake. And all sorts of other bloody justifications. And because wine is so damned good.

I spent all day thinking about it. Swinging wildly between NO because I didn’t want to break my record and YES because it’s MY BIRTHDAY. I chose yes.

It was very nice to be out with the GD on an actual date (thanks Mum) just hanging out with each-other. We managed to not talk about the kids for ages. I was managing to keep the GD interested in me and not the bookshelf behind me (only just). So I had a grown up glass of wine and it was lovely.

And then I woke up in the morning and felt terrible. Not only did I have a headache from the wine that I’m not used to but I just felt so disappointed that I had broken the record. That I had let it go after 7 months of abstaining. And how was I going to blog about it!? The horror. I whinged to the GD and my bff and both told me to pull my head in; reminded me that I’m not an alcoholic and that the not-drinking was self imposed (that I’d broken every other self-imposed rule) and that I was a grown up who could celebrate her birthday like a bloody grown up. That was me told. So I stayed in bed watching Grace and Frankie until lunchtime (the kids were at Mums after all) and tried to get over myself.

I still feel a wee bit disappointed. I won’t be able to proudly boast ‘not for the whole YEAR’ now and sit back all smug when people look AMAZED at my fortitude but I am learning to live with it. Ha ha what a dick.

The holidays have been great though for family time and outdoorsy pursuits. I had a good go at being sugar-free for the first week and was dealing with the headaches and loading up on lots of veges like a good girl but tbh we knew that was going to go out the window for my birthday didn’t we? Am back on that wagon now though. As of tomorrow. I promise. Obvs no more wine too. I managed to go to school and get some much-needed marking done in between hanging with lads, and I have been getting my 10 – 12,000 steps in most days.

I still don’t feel that prepared for school though. I have that sick feeling in my stomach thinking about it. But that’s normal right? The plan is to food shop tomorrow for all the good stuff. To plan my lessons for the first three days of the week and to pack my lunches so I’m prepared for the sugar cravings.

Well laid plans. Here are some holiday pics,

137 – Sunday

May 17, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

There’s no way to accurately describe the crazy humour and desperate sadness that is sitting with my Nana for 2 and a half hours as she asks the same three questions over and over again. As she obsesses over the other woman who is supposed to have moved in with my Grandad. As she mithers over her ‘lost’ rings. As she giggles when I say that I would visit every day but she wouldn’t remember anyway. As she reads the same card of information over and over and over again – making the same mistakes over the same words, asking the same questions at the same points and exclaiming ‘It says you’ll be here on Sunday Kathleen and look there you are!’. Madness.

I can’t write about it but I can say that for the first time in MONTHS I walked out of the hospital thinking about drinking a whole bottle of wine and maybe stealing one of the grumpy Dutchmans cigarettes.

Instead I did something totally not rock and roll. Food shopping.

Living on the edge. Didn’t quite scratch the itch I gotta say. But I have managed to ease the sunday horrors a wee bit and prepped for the week ahead. I have roasted a variety of veges (courgettes, kumara, beans, capsicum etc). I am about to go boil some eggs and I have tins of salmon and avocado on hand to go with the veges. I am determined not to be caught short this week, especially as I am anticipating major sugar withdrawal combined with busy-ness for the week ahead.

The GD had a veeerrrrrryyy late night/early morning so I am guessing all three dutchmen might be in bed early tonight. Peace and quiet for Mamabear. Win.

109 – Procrastinate, Procrastinate, Procrastinate

April 19, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Yes. I am blogging instead of writing lessons for tomorrow and planning my week. Why? Fuck knows! It would make sense for me to be doing the work that needs to be done but I just can’t seem to commit to something so sensible. As a consequence I have done anything but prepare for work tomorrow. I visited Nana and Mum yesterday, I folded the entire pile of washing that covered the laundry couch and overflowed in to the basket, I have been to be ‘scanned’ as a volunteer for my friend who is training to be a Sonographer – she asked me yesterday during Boot-camp and I thought of all the work I had to do and said ‘Sure!’. Check out my super healthy Liver – clearly the four months of no drinking or anything else fun has had some good side effects! (at least she told me it looked good who knows!)

I have cleaned the fridge (this is major procrastination behaviour) and I have re-stocked the food supplies. Food shopping with two small boys is usually a struggle but today they outdid themselves. The GD had to work – at least that’s what he said he was doing…. Anyway, I had to brave the food shop with the kids by myself and we had to get everything – a real ‘from the bottom up’ shop so it was massive.

Everywhere I turned was either a current student ‘Hi Miss Becker!’ or a former student working the aisles or checkout and it was like the mini Dutchmen knew they had an extra special audience. If they weren’t singing at the top of their lungs, crying or weaving in and out of the trolley traffic at speed, they nagged me for anything and everything they saw. ‘Mum can we have cheerios? Can we have roast chicken? Can we have doughnuts? WHY can’t we have doughnuts? Can we have Red Bull? BUT DAD LETS US HAVE RED BULL!’ and so on. (I suspect they were lying about dad letting them have Red Bull – he knows I would kill him if they were any more ‘awake’). Master 7 helped me find stuff in between tormenting his brother, and on one of his trips off to find bread, I turned around just in time to stop Master 4 putting something in his mouth; ‘WHAT is that? Don’t put it in your mouth!’ ‘But Mum it’s chewing gum – look I found it there! It still smells YUMMY!’ He had pried it off from under the handle of the trolley and was really disappointed that I wouldn’t let him eat it.

I had a few moment of peace when they wandered off to look at the cards and I kept shopping. But then they didn’t come back, and I kept shopping. And kept shopping until over the loudspeaker I hear ‘Could the mother of two little lost boys please come to the Customer service desk, Could KATHLEEN please come to the customer service desk to collect your children’. Remember how the place was full of my students? Yeah.

They were fairly well-behaved while we got the rest of the items on the list. I told Master 7 he was a very good boy for going to the customer service desk, that it was the best and most safe thing he could have done and he walked a little taller and prouder – I think he was more worried than he let on actually. They taste tested some fried ‘ducklings’ (Master 4 can’t say Dumplings apparently) and we finally got in to the checkout.

Where my eldest child proceeded to tell me in great detail and with considerable volume about the card they had seen in the birthday card section; ‘There was this card Mum, that had a woman on it and she wasn’t wearing a bra, and there was a trampoline, and two dogs were jumping off the trampoline – that was so funny, and….’ Wait a minute child what? Apparently I had heard correctly, there was a birthday card with a ‘ladies boobies’ on it but the best thing was the dogs.

From the moment they walked in to the stupidmarket and announced that ‘Bananas make me vomit’ to the moment that Master 4 leaped in the air and delivered ‘the people’s elbow’ to Master 7 (while I was packing groceries and being ignored in my endeavours to get them off the floor) they drew an audience. Walking contraception.

Now we have a full cupboards and I can make stuff for the week. As I am ‘re-setting’ I am hoping to have no excuses for convenience food – and I can boil eggs and make falafels etc tonight once the lads are in bed.

I am going to sign off now and will try and get some of this school planning done – have a good week – if you’re a parent I imagine your joy at having the kids back at school is equal to if not greater than my dread of tomorrow morning! Ha ha.