markets & meal planning

Back in the day, I used to be quite disciplined about meal planning. I would plan our dinners one or two weeks at a time, and my husband and I would do one big shop on a Sunday afternoon. Now that we live near a supermarket (and now that I'm significantly less organised than I used to be...), I find myself winging it every night. My current system goes something like this: it's 2pm, I start wondering what I should make for dinner tonight. I hem and haw, flip through cookbooks and peruse pinterest before finally choosing a recipe and heading to the grocery store. This "system" wastes so much time, energy and money each week and it's been my intention to do something about it for a while now. Just this weekend, I finally got around to it.

On Saturday afternoon I sat down with a cup of tea, notebook, pen, stack of my favourite cookbooks and my notes from Whole Food Kitchen. I started by assigning each night of the week a theme. I ended up with:

Monday: Mexican
Tuesday: Indian/Asian
Wednesday: Italian
Thursday: casserole/crockpot
Friday: pizza
Saturday & Sunday: wildcards

I then went through each of my cookbooks jotting down the recipes I use most often, and their corresponding page numbers. I kept in mind that it's winter, and stuck with meals appropriate for this time of year. When spring rolls around, I'm planning to change my nightly themes and compile a new list of favourite recipes. Armed with my new list, planning this week's dinner was a matter of simply filling in the blanks. The whole process took me around an hour, and it was actually quite enjoyable.

With this week's meal plan in mind, we moseyed over to our favourite farmer's market early on Sunday morning. While I bought our produce for the week, my husband took Clementine to a sunny patch of grass where she could run free. It was the perfect place to sit, drink coffee and eat breakfast while not having to worry about Clementine destroying anything (restaurants and cafes are pretty much out of the question at this point). She was super interested in the ponies who she kept calling woof, so we paid for her to have a ride. Much to my surprise, she got quite scared once the pony started walking. It was cute while it lasted though.

I'm feeling optimistic about this new approach to meal planning. My goal was to keep it simple, and I think I've done that. I'll keep you posted on my progress. In the meantime, my friend Stace has also written a post on meal planning, which you can read here.

the cold

The cold finally arrived this weekend, about a week after the official start of winter. We woke up under our cozy duvet and my husband said to me, "wow, you were cuddly last night." A sure sign of the weather; I usually want as much personal space as possible. After six years here, I'm becoming a total wuss. Once the temperature drops below 25 degrees, I start carrying a sweater with me, just in case. When I lived in Vancouver, anything above 20 degrees meant summer. It's amazing how you adapt.

We've had quite a nice long weekend. On Sunday the three of us drove up to the Central Coast for Mason's birthday party. On the way there we went to Bouddi National Park, where I did a maternity shoot for a beautiful couple. I've never been before, but oh my is it ever beautiful there! It was wild and windy, but we rugged up Clementine and she had a wonderful time playing on the sand and exploring the cliffs. Afterwards, she wore her party dress and enjoyed the ruckus that is a kids' birthday party. We ended the day at our friends' place back in Sydney, where the social butterfly entertained us all with her shenanigans. By the time I put her to sleep, I was exhausted but buzzing with nervous energy from our day. I forced myself to unplug, do a restorative yoga practice and drink tea while reading my latest book. Tonight I'm aiming for another early bedtime because the baby (I wonder how long I can keep calling her that?) keeps waking up between 4:00 and 5:00am, not my preferred time to start the day. Here's hoping it's just a phase.

I hope you're all enjoying the last of your weekends, long or otherwise.

this weekend

This weekend was for relaxing. For puttering and drinking tea. For framing our family photos (finally!) and making pancakes. For listening to podcasts and lying down. For having friends over to dinner and actually baking something. It was perfect.

What did you do this weekend?

a day in the mountains

 

I've written before about how the Blue Mountains are special to the husband and I; it's where we spent most of our time together when we were first dating and a place we continued to visit as often as possible once we were married. And then life happened - I started spending most of my weekends at yoga workshops and classes, which left very little time for rock climbing together.

We knew we wouldn't be able to climb this weekend, but we still decided to drive up and spend the day wandering. We started with a bushwalk that was meant to be short and easy, and ended up being straight down a ravine and then, of course, straight back up. Whew. Lugging around the belly is not easy, let me tell you! But I was glad for the exercise.

Next, we did some exploring. We stopped to take some bump shots, bush whacked a bit, took photos of the flora, and stopped at the three sisters. On a clear day, the mountains can always take my breath away. Once again, we talked about how much we'd like to live up there. I don't think it'll ever happen though; it's way too far from our jobs, and I would miss the beach tremendously.

 

Finally, we spent some time in our favourite towns: Katoomba, Blackheath and Leura. We had a terrible experience at the Bakehouse on Wentworth (don't go!) which nearly resulted in an angry, pregnant lady meltdown. Once we found a nicer place to eat though, I started to feel much better. A generous helping of scones definitely helped. By the time we got home I was so wiped from our outing that I slept better than I have in weeks! There's definitely something to be said for that fresh mountain air.

weekending

 

A typically Newtown building.

Photo shoot with Belinda, stay tuned...

The view in Manly. 

Organic blueberries - a major indulgence, given the price tag. 

And here begins the 3rd trimester. Holy crap.

raining

It rained and rained this long weekend, and even though it was still fairly warm, it reminded me of Vancouver. We mostly stayed at home, only venturing out to go for insanely delicious brunch. There was far too much time spent in bed, watching movies on the laptop (I enjoyed this one) and drinking hot chocolate. Of course, I couldn't let the rainy weekend go by without some baking so I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies as well. I do love a relaxing weekend spent at home.

red & green

I just realized while putting together photos for this post, that I unwittingly spent the weekend taking photos of red and green, wherever I found it. Must be my attempt at feeling festive during an Australian December. 

This weekend we stayed close to home, only leaving to go for swims. During one of those outings, husband's mum gave us this awesome advent calender. It really is the only sign of Christmas in our home, though I'm hoping to either put up some branches with decorations like this OR this fabric from Ikea. How are you celebrating the arrival of December?

this weekend

This weekend I:

• made scones and enjoyed them with lashings of jam and hot tea
• started reading Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering
• snapped some photos of my 14 week potbelly
• played around some more with my camera. note to self: noon in sydney is not a good time to take photos

what did you get up to?

outside / inside

This weekend. Outside: 

Inside:

Listening to new Cat Power. Love.

taking it easy

Photos taken at the market by husband. Shots set up by me, still working on manual. Still not quite happy but getting closer...

Husband and I have been taking it so easy lately. After being wiped out by a killer cold last week and still having to teach heaps of yoga classes, I needed to spend the weekend recovering. Other than teaching yoga, Saturday and Sunday were spent napping, reading good books, skyping, baking, and going for a wander at the markets. I picked up my favourite green drink from Common Ground, fresh pasta, veggies and devoured a yummy tofu burger for lunch.

This week I hope to slow down even more, bake some bread, nap some more. Yes, that sounds perfect. Hope you're having a wonderful start to your week!

sunday is my favourite

Sunday is my favourite day of the week. While midweek days off are nice, there's just something about a leisurely Sunday, where you have no plans whatsoever, that makes my heart sing. Slow bike rides, Addison Road Markets, fresh coconut, tree climbing and a treat from Gorman - my idea of a perfect Sunday.