{Meal Plan Monday}

Well Meal Plan Mondays are back. Fortnightly, 'cause that's how I roll. For how long they'll be back I don't know, but on Friday I sat on my arse all day I had some spare time on my hands so put together this fortnights meals in advance. Oh I have been doing meal plans but nothing concrete and definitley not in advance like I once did. More like half weekly.

So with footy training in full swing and now basketball taking up my Monday evenings I need to be more prepared. Mondays need to be quick foods and preferrably meatless and Tuesdays and Thursdays are perfect slow cooker nights after footy training! This fortnight most of my recipes are from my trusty Taste iPhone app. Some are old favourites and some are new, yet to be tried recipes.

Oh and I still have that "no working oven" thing going on.

Week 1

Monday - {Meat Free Monday} Potato & Roasted Garlic Soup

Tuesday - {Slow Cooker} Mediterranean Style Lamb Shanks

Wednesday - Green Thai Chicken Curry

Thursday - {Slow Cooker} Chicken Cacciatore

Friday - {Family Fun Night} Clean Home Made Pizzas

Saturday - Rigatoni with Italian Sausage & Broccoli Last minute BBQ at Mum's house ;)

Sunday - {Slow Cooker} Beef & Red Wine Casserole with Cheesy Dumplings

Week 2

Monday - {Meat Free Monday} Gnocchi with Spicy Tomato & Feta Sauce

Tuesday - {Slow Cooker} Beef Curry with Rice and Pappadums

Wednesday - Kangaroo Fillet with Salad and Baked Potatoes

Thursday - {Slow Cooker} Whole Spiced Chicken with  Sweet Potato Chips & Salad

Friday - Fish coated in Dukkah with Avocado Salsa {unless we head out for Date Night!!}

Saturday - Thai Beef Salad with Nam Jim

Sunday - Spaghetti Bol


I'll post some of these recipes and link them back to here in the next few days so check back if you're interested in any of them. If there's one you'd like but I don't link it please let me know and I'll put it up.

Do you use a slow cooker during the cooler months?

You can also follow me on

facebook | www.facebook.com/TheAussieHausfrau

Twitter | @AussieHausfrau

Instagram | @aussie_hausfrau

If you've been following me on facebook you may or may not know that I have registered for a 220km bike ride  for the Perth Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2013. This is a cause close to my heart as I have lost some very special people to this horrible disease. As part of my entry I need to fund raise a minimum of $2500 to take part in the actual ride. I really hate asking for donations but I've been told that it's the only way! Do you have a spare $2? Every little bit helps. All money raised will go directly to support cancer patients and their families and all donations $2 and over are tax deductible. Thank you!!



Gulaschsuppe - A soup to warm your soul

Yesterday Mr Hausfrau announced that he would cook dinner.

After I finished my happy dance I told him that I was planning on making  beef and veg soup so he pulled out one of his old chef cook books and suggested this little beauty

Green Turtle Soup?? Eeeeewwwww!!

No not the turtle soup. The Gulyás leves. It's Gulaschsuppe, or Goulash Soup. A Hungarian soup. It's a delicious hearty soup that is perfect for crappy cooler weather.

The recipe translated for you. (and tweaked a little by the chef)

1kg beef, diced small
4 large potatoes, diced small
1 large onion, diced small
1 rep capsium, diced small (we used half a red and half a green 'cause that's all we had)
2lt beef stock (Veg stock would work too)
200ml red wine
A little extra wine (to deglaze, not to drink!)
2tbsp oil (veg, canola, whatever)
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic, crushed
2tbsp paprika (you can mix this up with sweet paprika or a spicy one)
1tsp marjoram
2tsp salt
2tsp cumin

What the chef did while I sat with a glass of wine and watched

1. Cook off the onions until they're "translucent" (His word not mine) - add the garlic just before the onions are ready. Remove and set aside.
2. Brown the meat.
3. Keeping the meat in the pot deglaze with that extra wine (if you haven't drunk it yet)
4. Return the onions to the pot and add all other ingredients.
5. Bring the soup to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 1 hour. Keep the lid on but with a slight gap.

Serve with nice crusty bread slathered with butter! (Note to self, an extra hour in the gym is needed this week) You could probably serve with sour cream too. We didn't, just a sprinkle of fresh chives and cracked pepper.

Not the best photo. Taken by my iPhone in bad light. I was too eager to eat it!

That's it! It serves 8! (Well it served 4 last night and again for lunch today with a little still left over that I'll be gobbling up again tomorrow!)

Mr Hausfrau said that if he was to do anything different next time he would add some tomato paste to make it more "tomato'y"

If you make it let me know.

You can also follow me on

facebook | www.facebook.com/TheAussieHausfrau

Twitter | @AussieHausfrau

Instagram | @aussie_hausfrau

If you've been following me on facebook you may or may not know that I have registered for a 220km bike ride  for the Perth Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2013. This is a cause close to my heart as I have lost some very special people to this horrible disease. As part of my entry I need to fund raise a minimum of $2500 to take part in the actual ride. I really hate asking for donations but I've been told that it's the only way! Do you have a spare $2? Every little bit helps. All money raised will go directly to support cancer patients and their families and all donations $2 and over are tax deductible. Thank you!!



ATTACK OF THE GREEN EYED MONSTER - or the lesser known title of "Why I'm likely to be bitchy to Mr Hausfrau in March"

By now you all know why I'm the Aussie "Hausfrau" don't you??

No?

Ok here's the low down!

Mr Hausfrau is German. I'm Australian born and bred. I'm married to him. I'm The Aussie Hausfrau.

haus·frau  

Noun A German housewife. A woman regarded as *overly efficient.

*I'm pretty sure they screwed up with point 2. I'm definitely NOT "overly efficient"

Get it now? Haus is German for House. Frau is German for Wife/Mrs/Woman

Hausfrau = House Wife 

Phew. I'm glad we have that sorted.

So if you follow me on Facebook you may remember a couple of weeks back I was "Sipping on French Champagne and celebrating Mr Hausfrau's awesome news"

Well the lucky bugger **won a trip to Germany through his work! Sans me!!! That part I can handle, you know, 'cause it's a "work trip" and I'm a supportive wife and all that crap. BUT while there he's taking an extra week or so off and will be off to visit MY Schwiegermutter (Mother in Law) and MY Schwiegerbruder and his family (Brother in Law) AND MY Schwiegervater and family (Father in Law) AND I'M AS JEALOUS AS ALL BUGGERY!!! 

IT'S NOT FAIR GOD DAMMIT!! 

*breathe*

(Yes yes, it's his family. I know. I know. But I love them like my own!)

We had plans of me meeting him over there once his "business trip" is finished but alas, it just ain't doable. Things don't line up with kids v's their Dad taking them v's school holidays v's my Mum being off work.

So off he flys in 4 weeks time off to the land of beer and pretzels. Without me. For two weeks. Without me. By himself. Without me.

I'm thinking many a fight will be picked in the lead up. By me. I'm good like that.

In the meantime I'm milking it. Most conversations start like this. "Hey honey, you know how you're going to Germany soon. Can you please (insert whatever I need/want here)"

I'm also making a list of everything I want need brought back.

1. Black Forest ham. The real Black Forest ham.
2. A million gazillion pretzels
3. German beer and wine. At least 2 cases of each.
4. Wurstsalat. Lots and lots of Wurstsalat.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.



On the positive side. Guess who gets full use of the remote control and the entire space of the king size bed for 2 weeks?? ME! It's going to be fanfeckingtastic.

Now, if I can just stop that green eyed monster from roaring so much!

Would you be jealous too??

More importantly - can you think of anything I can add to my list?

You can also follow me on

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Twitter | @AussieHausfrau

Instagram | @aussie_hausfrau

**As much as I'm super jealous I am also super duper proud of my spunky man. He won this trip because his car dealership was the 3rd best (for his brand) in the whole wide space of Australia for 2012!! Please also know that this is all written in jest. I'm not a cold hearted biatch and Mr Hausfrau read all this before it was published. Tongue in cheek people, tongue in cheek ;)

If you've been following me on facebook you may or may not know that I have registered for a 220km bike ride  for the Perth Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2013. This is a cause close to my heart as I have lost some very special people to this horrible disease. As part of my entry I need to fund raise a minimum of $2500 to take part in the actual ride. I really hate asking for donations but I've been told that it's the only way! Do you have a spare $2? Every little bit helps. All money raised will go directly to support cancer patients and their families and all donations $2 and over are tax deductible. Thank you!!

Linking up with Jess from Essentially Jess for #IBOT

The Illusional Shirt. {is that even a word? Meh' - it is now}

Occasionally I get into a rhythm with my Hausfrau duties and I actually get stuff done. 

Sometimes it doesn't last for long.

They say "it takes 21 days to form a habit" well I must only make it to 20 days with some things.

But not with ironing. I obviously made it past 21 days. (except for my ironing hiatus because of my back incident)

Mr Hausfrau needs 6 business shirts a week. I wash them all on Saturday when he gets home from work. I iron 1 on Sunday for Monday if there are none ironed and then Monday I iron at least 5 of them.

I like to watch TV while I iron.

Anyhoo I'm totally moving away from my reason for this post.

Mr Hausfrau has 1 shirt in particular that I like to leave until the end 'cause I hate ironing it.

Yes he has shirts with cufflink cuffs. You know, those ones that need to fold the cuff over that are a pain in the butt to iron.

But not this one. This one makes me need to sit down and rest once I've finished with the sucker.

Here is the offending shirt. A red and white striped Ralph Lauren business shirt.

"What could possibly be wrong with it?" I hear you ask. 

"It's a nice shirt" I hear you say. 

Yes it is. Might I add he looks mighty fine wearing it too!

Well here within lies my problem.

It's an "illusional shirt". What's a illusional shirt you may wonder?

Well you know those crazy illusion pictures that pop up from time to time on the internet?

This one is doing the rounds on facebook at the moment.

do you see squares or circles?

Well the damn shirt hurts my eyes. As I'm ironing it the red lines slightly change colour and all the white and red stripes move. Move I tells ya!

Like this. If it were red and white.

Do they move? Are they straight?

Here's a close up of the stupid shirt although I'm sure on the computer screen they won't move for you. Apparently you need to use an iron on it for it to work!

It does my freaking head in!

Just in case you aren't dizzy enough already here are some more illusions for you to ponder.

What do you see? Are you sure?

I'm off to lay down and rest my eyes. No not really. I'm off to pour another wine.

Did you know that apparently the whole "it takes 21 days to form a habit" saying is a myth? No neither did I! But apparently it's true. Apparently it's 66 days. I read about it here.

Are you a Sex and the City fan?  Do you remember episode 2 in series 5 called "Unoriginal Sin"? It's the one where Miranda's baby, Brady, is baptised. Ok so if you're not a fan catch up. In this episode Carrie is stuck for something to write about for her column and wonders if she should write about "Randal the Sandal Guy" that she dated 6 years ago 'cause she had nothing to write about and was "scraping the bottom of the barrel"? Well this was me today as I pondered if this story was interesting enough to post. I mean, really, an illusional shirt! Who the heck writes about an illusional shirt! Me obviously. I'm not even on painkillers for my back any more! But you're here now and if you've come this far you've obviously read it! You can't unread it. I just hoped you liked it.

All those crazy pictures that probably hurt your eyes too so you probably can't even read this, I got from here.

Except the crazy shirt one. The crazy shirt ones are all mine.

You can also follow me on

facebook | www.facebook.com/TheAussieHausfrau

Twitter | @AussieHausfrau

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