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Sunday 26 July 2015

Healthy Eats for Teachers linky!





You may remember that I have been posting lately about how I prep my dinners for the week and some healthy recipes I prepare for my family.  I have been convinced by a couple of my good bloggy friends to make this a linky.  So if you have a healthy recipe you would love to share with other teacher bloggers please feel free to link up below, link to a blog post, pin or Instagram post.  

First I wanted to share what my weekly menu's look like and the prep I do to make sure I am organised and have minimum fuss during our weekly dinners.  I have included one take out night because heck, we all need a break!






Bonus- Muffin Quiches for breakfast and/or Lunch

Sunday Prep



I would like to claim the recipe for this but it is from one of my favourite food blogs Greek Food and Beyond.  The recipe is actually for Rabbit Stifado but I just replaced the rabbit with  1 kg of chuck steak for the slow cooker.  So for my Sunday prep, I cubed the steak, floured it and browned it off in my slow cooker, I then added the rest of the ingredients and put it all in the fridge ready to put on Monday morning.  I cooked it for 8 hours on low.
I will be serving these with lemon potatoes so I have peeled and sliced 4 potatoes and then stored them in water in a container.

Chicken Soup

Dice 3 medium carrots, 3-4 celery stalks, I had a small leek that was left in the fridge so I threw that in as well.  I had a rotisserie chicken that I shredded the breasts from and put that in as well. Add angel hair pasta and baby spinach leaves near the end, once cooked store in freezer.

Vegetables

Slice or dice whatever seasonal vegetables your family loves to eat, enough for 2 meals each.  I have trimmed beans, sliced 8 carrots, cut and trimmed broccoli.  Store in containers in the fridge, keep the carrots fresh by storing them in water.

Salad

I bag of mixed salad leaves, slice 1 lebenase cucumber, 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, half a spanish onion.  Cut and store in containers to use during the week

Fish

Crumb or flour fish, cover and leave in fridge 

Chicken Schnitzel

Crumb chicken breasts, cover  and store in fridge

Chorizo Pasta

Slice chorizo and store in the fridge in a container.  I used a commercial pasta sauce ( we picked up a sundried tomatoes and basil sauce) as well as baby spinach leaves

Muffin Quiches



Whisk eggs and slice all ingredients, add them to the eggs and then pour mixture into muffin tray, bake and let cool. Freeze excess and microwave for breakfasts through the week.


Each recipe is available here as a PDF (except for the Beef Stifado) by clicking on the link or by visiting my Healthy Eats for Teachers page above.  I will also be posting my favourite  recipe each week.  This weeks recipe is Easy Peasy Chicken Soup.



I love making soup because you can use up all those vegetables that are almost ready to be tossed.

Easy Peasy Chicken Soup (serves 4) 

3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks diced
1 leek halved, rinsed and sliced
(any other vegetables you have lurking in the fridge that you want to get rid of)
Baby spinach leaves
2 chicken breasts or a rotisserie chicken
4 slices of lean ham, diced
angel hair pasta
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 litre of chicken stock (store bought)
water to fill the pot
4 stalks thyme, parsley for serving

Slow cooker
Put all of the vegetables and garlic in the slow cooker, place chicken breasts on top, add ham, chicken stock and then fill with water till the chicken breasts are covered, add the thyme.  Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.  When cooked, shred the chicken breasts and return to the pot, add a handful of angel hair pasta and 2-3 handfuls of baby spinach (or any other green you like), serve with crusty bread and a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

You can make this on the stove top as well and just cook it until all the vegetables are soft, use a rotisserie chicken to add instead of cooking chicken breasts and again add the angel hair pasta and green leafy's at the end.  This is such a yummy, easy soup and the whole family loves it, I always make extra to take for lunch the next day.

Now it is your turn to share your favourite recipe by linking up below! Just use the button from the top of the post and link back to this post, as easy as chicken soup!







Tuesday 14 July 2015

2D Shapes

I have to be honest, this year has really slowed down my TpT production.  Being on 2 classes might seem like it is not extra work, but it certainly feels like it!  Now that I am on holidays I have found the time to finish off a couple of projects I have had on the back burner.

The first of them is this 2D Shape packet.


You will find posters to display in your classroom, no prep trace the shape sheets as well as no prep find and colour sheets.  Finally a Clip and Flip 2D shape self correcting cards, these can be used in centers for consolidation.

This packet allows students to learn about the attributes of a 2D shape, identify and recognise 2D shapes as well as incorporating some fine motor skills.

Just click on the pic to get your copy!


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Monday 13 July 2015

Holiday Randomness

Well friends I am in my second week of holidays and I have finally gotten out of my pyjamas :) No seriously I did get out of them a bit earlier last week.  I have not been as productive as I wanted to be although I have really invested A LOT of time with Pinterest.

Having said that this is what I have done so far on my hold, remember it is Winter here in Australia and I do not under any circumstances LOVE Winter, of course this is why I live in the most Southern state of our nation (Northern Hemisphere folks, please realise this is the state nearest to Antarctica).

After getting out of my pyjamas last Wednesday :) I got a bit of a prune on my hair.  I went from this


to this





I hosted a dinner for 12 at my house...ummm it was delicious!  On the menu was Drunken Teryaki Roast Lamb with roast vegetables and mini raspberry cheese cakes with raspberry sauce and berry sorbet and a few vino's to finish it off and perhaps to start it as well.



By the way if you are interested in getting your dinners organised or some new recipe's don't forget to check out my new page Healthy Eats for Teachers.  I will be adding some weekly menus and organisation when I head back to school next week.

I put up this little freebie for you all!  It is a 5 senses poem template we did in out last week of school. The one we did at school was not as cute as this because the idea quickly jumped in my head when I was trying to figure out what we could do in the last week.  Oh I also accidentally printed off 241 copies of the ugly 5 Senses template because I forgot to delete the 1 when I was printing from my computer.....there goes my photocopy budget for the next term.  Seriously....gone.
Just click on the pic below to get your FREE copy!




Had a lovely lunch with some of the gals from school, so nice to catch up without rushing past each other or moving along in the photocopy line (which you won't see me in next term).

Anyway I just thought I would catch you up with what has been happening (or not happening), the rest of the week will see us up at our Conservation Block clearing gorse!





Sunday 12 July 2015

Healthy Eats for Teachers- Chicken Cacciotore

Hi and welcome back for another round of Healthy Eats for Teachers.  Today's recipe is one that can be made in the slow cooker and can be part of your Sunday meal preparation time.  Chicken Cacciotore is an Italian dish but in our house it is called Chicken What's Your Story, I have no idea how it started but it did and it stuck.







Chicken What's Your Story or Chicken Cacciotore

Ingredients
1 kg of chicken thighs, cubed
1 brown onion, diced
1 red capsicum (pepper)
5 button mushrooms, quartered
2 tin of diced tomatoes
100 mls chicken stock
1/2 cup of red wine
2 garlic cloves crushed
black olives (pitted)
basil
oregano
thyme

*** This is a recipe where you could add a serve of my Italian Tomato Sauce instead of the onion, tinned tomatoes, garlic and herbs***


Brown the chicken in batches and add to the slow cooker, then brown onion and garlic, add to the slow cooker.  Add the tin of tomatoes, red wine, capsicum, mushrooms, chicken stock and herbs, season with salt and pepper.  Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours.  Add the black olives 20 minutes prior to serving.



Serve with pasta and green beans.  I also like to add baby spinach for a bit of colour and freshness, although that is not strictly part of a cacciotore.

Monday 6 July 2015

Healthy eats for Teachers- Greek lamb with potatoes

Like many teachers and working Mum's I aim to serve healthy, nutritious meals to my family on a regular basis.  Does this always happen? Ummmm, no....BUT I always plan to and that is important.

Seriously though, who has time for cooking dinner after a long day of teaching?  I know all I want to do is to put my feet up and have a liquid dinner (I'm not talking about protein shakes, ya know).  My family often has other ideas though so I need to make sure I am organised so that they won't be hungry, we won't be spending money on take away food and I won't be the size of a house by the end of term.

How do I do this? Lots of planning and preparation, to find out more about my planning and preparation visit my Healthy Eats for Teachers page by clicking on the tab above where you will find recipes and weekly meal plans for a family of four.

Here is one to take with you and try out for your self. This can be prepared in advance and frozen or cooked up straight away.




My family loves Greek food and Greek lemon potatoes are a favourite in our house.  This recipe combines lamb with Greek lemon potatoes, yum!





Greek lamb with potatoes. (serves 4)

I use lamb loin chops for this recipe but you could also use lamb cutlets or lamb forequarter chops.  I use enough for each person to have 3 loin chops each but you can adjust this to whatever your family needs are.  I have used 12 lamb loin chops in this recipe, if your using more you might need to increase the amounts in the marinade and use a larger pan when cooking.



Ingredients

12 lamb loin chops with the fat trimmed
olive oil
1 brown onion sliced (you could also put in some small whole onions or eschallots instead)
1 lemon zested and juiced
4-5 cloves of garlic minced.
1 Tbspn of dijon or whole seeded mustard (you could also do half of each)
1 Tbspn of fresh rosemary
1 Tbspn of oregano (fresh or dried)
1 Tbspn of thyme (fresh or dried)
ground black pepper to taste
Any starchy potato that is good for roasting ( I used Dutch Creams) in this recipe I used 4 large potatoes cut lengthways into wedges.
1/2 cup of chicken stock
Juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the onion, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, herbs and olive oil.  Pour them over the trimmed lamb chops, cover and leave in the fridge to marinade for 6-12 hours ( I did mine for 6) or at this stage you can put it all in a large ziplock bag and freeze.
When you are ready to cook add your potatoes to a large baking pan along with the stock, lemon juice and some salt and pepper, cook on 180 C for 20 minutes.  Arrange your lamb over the top of the potatoes and roast in the oven at 180 C for about 20 minutes. After 20 mins turn the lamb and roast for another 15 minutes. If you want your lamb and potatoes to be crunchy around the edges, blast the last 10 minutes at 200 C.

Divide the potatoes and lamb on the plates, scoop some of the divine sauce from the bottom of the pan and ladle over the lamb and potatoes. Serve with steamed green beans or broccoli.

Enjoy!