Christmas Crafts - Hand print wreath

I love Christmas. It really is my favourite time of the year.

I just love decorating the house. I love the evenings, when we light the fairy lights on the tree... I could look at them twinkling for hours....

Over the weekend, we got our Christmas tree and decorations out of storage, so that we have them ready for December 1st, when we always put up our tree.

We have also started our Christmas crafts now, as there are quite a few decorations that I would like to make, and so I want Madeleine to start making them now so that we can enjoy them for all of December.

Today's craft was a lot of fun. We made this cute little wreath using Madeleine's hand prints.

I just made lots of prints of her hands.Then I cut them out and then glued them to a paper plate that I cut the centre out of.

Once we'd glued all the hands on, Madeleine decorated her wreath with some stars.

This was such a simple craft, and it looks great hanging on our wall.

Time saver Tuesdays - Flavoured Oil

This is one of my favourite tips.

Keep the oil that you get in sundried tomatoes, roasted capsicums or eggplant - anything that's preserved in oil to use later on in sauces etc.

There is so much flavour in the oil, so why waste it?

I store mine in a jar in the fridge and add to it as we have more. You need to keep it in the fridge, so no nasties grow!

I use this oil sometimes when I am making bolognese or risotto. You could even use it in a salad dressing.

Use it wherever you would use ordinary oil, but want a bit of extra flavour.

The Simple Things.... Pesto Chicken Lasagne

This lasagne is SO yummy! It's great with a fresh green salad.

I love its simplicity. You see, we love lasagne in this house, but I'm not keen on all the washing up! I have a dishwasher, which makes life easy, but sometimes I just don't feel like making bolognese and bechamel as well...

So, this super easy lasagne is just right for those times when you want lasagne but without all the work and the pesto gives this lasagne such a lovely flavour.

To make it you will need...

2 cups of tomato passata
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 small carrot, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
500g chicken mince
1/2 cup water
3 tbs basil pesto (I use the Coles brand from a jar)
1 packet of fresh lasagne sheets
Small tub (250g) of ricotta cheese
Up to 1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese


Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and spread half a cup of passata over the bottom of your dish.

Heat your oil then add onion, carrot, zucchini and garlic and cook, stiring for a few minutes until the vegies have softened.

Add the mince, stiring to break up any lumps and cook until it changes colour, then reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining passata and water. Simmer, uncovered - stiring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Then remove from the heat and stir in the pesto.

Place a single layer of lasagne sheets over the base of your dish and then top with a third of the sauce. Repeat two more layers finishing with pasta sheets on the top layer.

Whisk ricotta and enough milk together in a bowl until you have the consistency of a traditional bechamel sauce. The amount of milk you will need will depend on the ricotta you use. I buy the extra light version and so less milk is needed.

Spoon the ricotta and milk mixture over the lasagne sheets and smooth over. Then sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked through and the cheese is golden.

Stand 10 minutes before cutting into pieces. Serve with a green salad.

** This lasagne serves 6

Time Saver Tuesdays

I thought I might start posting some hints and tips each week, that might save you some time or money - or even both! Who knows?

I thought I'd post these each Tuesday for you...

To kick off this week, I'm sharing a tip I learned from my grandmother to keep tomato paste fresh in the jar, so you don't get that awful mould forming on the top.....

It's such a simple tip, and works well.

Just store the jar in your fridge... UPSIDE DOWN!

No yucky mould forms on the top!

I buy always buy large jar (in the cheapest brand available) and store it this way in my fridge and it seems to last much much longer than if it was stored the right way up.

Just be careful to screw the lid on tightly, as you can sometimes get a messy leak...