What an interesting few weeks, Miss 3 contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. This is not a nice thing to get :( Poor girl started out sleepy, then woke to a high temp, vomiting. Then was fine for 24 hours and then she ended up with these horrible blister/rash things covering her body. This lasted about 2 weeks, and she was isolated the whole time. Nothing like cabin fever. After the rashes went a brown colour and started fading her skin started to peel, this was gross. Then we thought it was over and she was finally on the mend, in time for our QLD holiday and my Brother in law and his new wife's wedding. And Boy, where we excited, none of the other kids caught it. For a highly contagious disease we really did well. Then all her finger nails started falling off. This was even more gross than her skin peeling. She lost all finger nails and 5 of her 10 toe nails. Thankfully they have all grown back or are growing back with no complications.
But we did it, we made it to QLD, I survived the flight, despite my fear of flying without any hassels. Master 9, loved the landing apparently thumping to the ground is awesome. We did Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild. and loved it. I really do suggest if you get there to make sure you get the times for the characters public appearances at Movie world, the photo shop has this in the main square. We seen and had photos with Batman, Wonder woman, Scooby Doo, Daffy duck and Slyvester to name a few. I also recommend 2 days at each park minimum, and honestly we still didn't see or ride everything. We did the shows, the Stunt one at Movie World, this was nuts. the jumps, drifts and burnouts. We also did the Seal show and Dolphin show at Sea world. This was fantastic, everyone loved it.
For accommodation try Home Away website. Here you can rent a house/apartment for a period of time, it saved us money. It was cheaper than staying a caravan/cabin park and we got a full kitchen and bathroom as well as a full laundry. Whilst I had to do washing daily, it helped on the amount of luggage we took. Allowing us to bring extra bags home with stuff we had purchased and still come in under our luggage allowance. Plus we had the bonus of Pay TV and a Wii where we stayed which helped the kids zone out a bit after fulls days out.
The wedding was amazing and has given me some ideas for food I want to make. We where worried it would rain but the weather was perfect.
Now to saving money, something we have had to do since we came back with Christmas just around the corner. I thought Id share some money saving food tips. As food is an area where most can save money by making a few simple changes.
When baking I use powdered milk, and make up half a litre at a time or more if I am going to use a lot. Its cheaper than fresh milk and you really cant taste it in your cooking. If you have some left over you can add it to your fresh milk to stretch it and you can barely tell the difference. We aim for a minimum of 1/2 fresh and 1/2 powered. If I have to add anymore powered Milk I wont do it as it changes the taste too much.
To make powered milk, you add 1/4 cup of powdered/dehydrated Milk Powder to 1 cup of water.
My kids love meat on their sandwiches or in cold salad platters. I recently purchased a meat slicer. BEST EVER PURCHASE!!!!! I can make a stick of Mettwurst or block of boneless ham go further by cutting it on that then letting my hubby or kids cut it. Or even by buying the same amount. Plus it makes it easier for sandwiches if its all cut up ready to go.
I slice 1/2 a 700g block of ham, then using a V-slicer, I shred the rest to freeze and use in quiches, omelettes, pizza, Hawaiian hot dogs etc. This prevents and waste as you can get a huge amount of sliced ham from a block, that even with 6 of us eating it daily on sandwiches we still do not finish it all after a week.
Sandwich meat also lasts longer if you place it in a container with paper towel in the bottom
that you change every few days.
Next Cheese, I cut a kilogram block on my slicer, I can get more sandwiches out of a cut block than I can out of a processed slice packet and its Real cheese not processed.
Also hand grating (Maybe even using a food processor), gives you more grated cheese and spreads it further than buying a packet of grated cheese. Grated cheese also freezes really well and prevents it going mouldy.
Salad, recently I started making a large tossed salad in a glass bowl, placing paper towel on top and then placing it in a vegie bag (the ones you can put you fruit in at the store.) Replacing the paper towel every few days. I found this kept my salad fresh for almost 2 weeks. My family just took out serves as they wanted for sandwiches, salads, pick plates etc. It saved so much time in meal prep during the week and prevented waste. So now I just make a large salad at the start of the week. Sometimes add too it if needed.
And if I am really busy or not well, then dinner is pre-sliced cold meat, cheese and salad. Kids can help themselves. Fabulous for nights we have sports training.
What are some of your tips to save money in the kitchen?
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