Tuesday, May 12, 2020

2019 - May - Postcard recycling ideas


Recycling is always a good idea. 

A dear aqua lady friend (Sigi) has given me a stack of fabulous postcards and greeting cards.  In excellent condition and from all over the world.

So I looked at all these postcards and thought … what can one do with them?  Of course Google my bestest friend gave me most of the answers!

It truly is amazing what one can create … and most of these ideas are so easy, kids will love to create them.  Also most of these ideas will make great little homemade gifts!

Go dig in your drawers, your cupboards and have a blast with these recycling ideas! 















Last year I’ve had these ‘want to do more with my life’ feelings …. 

So I’ve done that earring / jam making session with the Kolping House group.  I’ve even talked to a neighbor (she’s a graphic designer/web designer) about making money via my website.  But we couldn’t find a solution there.

Then I started an Instagram account – and although I love seeing new products from different people all over the world, it’s not money-making.  Although the 1 weekend I had 600 followers!  600!!!!  I nearly fell off my chair!!!  And then a week later, I only had 300 …. ??????  So I’m now quite picky … I only follow Instagrammers that I’m interested in.  It’s still really interesting. 

Reading … if you like mystery detective books, the author ‘Lisa Gardner’ is BRILLIANT!!!!!  I mean, she is just GOOD!  She has a real easy way of writing … and her stories are so complex that you only find out the plot on the last 3-4 pages of the book!!!!  So far I’ve read 6 of her books!

Pizza …. Yes, we’re still on our pizzas!!!!  Last week I’ve again made a Pilchards pizza and my goodness, I cannot describe how amazing it was!!

When I make dinner, we usually eat 1/3 of the dinner, the rest I spoon into foil containers with lids, put a label on and freeze it.  It’s just soooo convenient!  Take out a frozen container out the morning and by the afternoon, it’s thawed.

Last night I’ve taken out a frozen Vienna Mac ‘n Cheese.  It wasn’t a big helping, so I was going to make a side dish with it … and thought, no – I’ll make a pizza base and put the mac n cheese on top.  Oh my goodness, once again a fabulous dinner!

Earlier the week I found a cup of dried red speckled beans in my cupboard.  So I decided to use it.  My goodness, I do believe one needs a pressure cooker for beans!  Although, yes, it did cook soft in the end!  So after I’ve just cooked the dried beans, I followed the ‘baked beans’ recipe on the back of the packet.  You add onion, spices, vinegar, tomato paste and bake it in the oven.  BUT they didn’t say with the lid on!  So lucky for me I rescued my ‘nearly burned in the pot’ baked beans.  It was soooo yummmmmy!!!!!

What was for dinner that night … I had 1 cup of this yummy baked beans and 4 healthy-looking gem squashes!  So I halved the squashes, boiled them till soft (I must really learn to remove the pips from the raw squash, not after it’s cooked) and then decided I’ll make a lasagna.

Made a white sauce, put some sauce on bottom of dish – then raw spinach lasagna sheets (not overlapping), then layer of the gem squash flesh, some grated cheddar cheese.  Another layer of lasagna sheets, bit of white sauce, layer of baked beans, grated cheese.  I repeated those layers twice, then I let the dish stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Baked it then at 180oC for 30 minutes.  OH MY WORD!!!!!  How on earth can something as simple as gem squash flesh, baked beans, cheese, white sauce and lasagna sheets be SO AMAZING!!!!!!!

Weetbix bars … I can’t remember where I’ve seen it, but that triggered my curiosity …. So I’ve been playing with this recipe – using Weetbix, flour, cacao, spices and little bit of water.  You bake it for 15 minutes.  It’s almost like a fudge.  Then instead of using cake flour, I used self-raising flour – and then the consistency changed to almost a brownie taste-alike.  

Weetbix slice recipe

  • 4 Weet-Bix, crushed
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa
  • 70g butter/margarine
  • 1/4 cup of water and bit more
  • Xtra coconut to sprinkle on
Icing:
  • icing sugar and milk
Method:
Melt margarine/butter and mix into crushed Weet-Bix.
Add remaining ingredients and press into a greased/lined tin. Sprinkle coconut on
Bake 15 minutes at 180ºC.  Let cool, cut into squares, keep in fridge.
Combine icing sugar with milk, adding just enough milk to create a thick paste. The slice may be iced while warm.
Notes
  • You can sprinkle coconut or 100s & 1000s on top for an extra delicious treat!
  • You could add cocoa powder to the icing to make chocolate icing.

Removing a frozen stew for dinner, I wanted to add a side dish …. I had ‘maize flour’ but instead of just making ‘stywe pap’, I made the ‘stywe pap, then I formed small round balls with it, placed it in a dish, spooned the thawed stew on top and baked it in the oven.  A whole new dinner was born.

Have a few leftover braai items?  We had 3 cooked chicken pieces, a 30 cm piece bbq boerewors … I cut it up, added it to rice and spices – baked it for 60 min in oven and that was our ‘risotto’ dinner with leftover bbq.

Okay, my website is updated (in about 5 minutes …. Can’t believe I used to pay someone loads of money to just update my website and now I do it myself!), my hubby is hungry (come to think of it, my tummy is grumbling too) – so let me go tackle the fresh chicken breasts … I think chicken schnitzel in the oven with some starch and veg ….


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