A year's worth of cleaning product for $7.50

I saved $1900 in a single year with this recipe for a great all purpose spray cleaner! It is suitable for all kitchen surfaces, tiles, bathrooms, toilets, even stainless steel kitchen appliances and cooktops. The only thing I'm not sure it's suitable for is marble benchtops. Here's how you make it:

In an empty 600ml spray bottle, combine one tablespoon of full strength eucalyptus oil and one tablespoon of sugar soap. Fill the bottle with water, turn gently to mix, then simply spray and wipe as needed.

The eucalyptus oil cuts through all grease and is also a cockroach deterrent and an anti-bacterial agent. In the bathroom, I spray all bath/shower surfaces and then scrub with a clean, wet broom. As a floor cleaner, I spray it on the really dirty bits, then use a steam mop over the top.

Before I started using this, I used to spend $4.00 per 500ml bottle of Ajax Kitchen Cleaner, $6.00 per 500ml bottle of Ajax Bathroom Cleaner and $8.00 for a 250ml bottle of special cleaner for the stainless steel cooktop and oven. I was replenishing all these every two months. That's $18 every second month or $1944 per year!

By comparison, I have calculated that my recipe costs $0.79c per 750ml bottle, and I make a new batch about once a month. That's a grand total of $7.50 a year. What a saving!

Pepper your pumpkin and store it for weeks

To stop pumpkin from going mouldy and growing fur, simply scoop all the seeds out, along with any loose bits, then sprinkle black pepper all over the cut flesh and the pumpkin will last for weeks in the fridge. Every time you cut a piece of pumpkin off, just add more pepper over the sliced area.

Keep avocado from turning brown

Mash ripe avocado flesh with 10ml of milk. i.e. if you mashed eight avocados use 80ml of milk. Mash them as required and store them in an old dip container. It doesn't alter the taste and it stays green for days!

OR

Wrap a cut avocado in aluminium foil and then wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the fridge.

Salmon Salad with Tarragon & Caper Dressing

Server 4 for lunch

100g green beans
1 x 400g tinned salmon
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
4 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
1 cos (romaine) lettuce, torn into pieces

Dressing:
1 Tbsp capers, finely chopped
1 Tbsp tarragon, finely chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil

Bring a small saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Blanch beans for 5 minutes. Drain and cool under cold running water.
In a small bowl mix all dressing ingredients and season to taste.
Drain salmon and place in a salad bowl with beans, tomatoes, spring onions and lettuce. Pour dressing over salad, toss well and serve immediately.

Source: the CSIRO total wellbeing diet

Minestone Soup

I've got some Italian Style Soup Mix that I need to use up so I'm going to try this out:
http://www.mckenziesfoods.com.au/recipe/9/Minestrone_Soup

Prep time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 90 mins

1 cup McKenzie's Italian Style Soup Mix
Salt & Pepper to taste
Freshly grated parmesan for serving
4 tablespoons parsley finely chopped
10-12 cups water
1 cup small pasta
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
500g bacon bones or 1 x small smoked ham hock
800g tinned crushed tomatoes
200g tomato paste
2 cups cabbage finely shredded
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 large onion finely diced
2 celery sticks finely diced
2 carrots finely diced

Combine all ingredients except pasta, parsley and parmesan in a large pot. Cover and simmer for 1 to 1 and a half hours or until beans are tender. Add the pasta and simmer for a further 15 mintues. Add more water if necessary.
Discard bones, if ham hock is used remove from soup - remove skin and finely dice the ham and add back to soup. Season to taste with McKenzie's Natural Sea Salt andMcKenzie's Whole Black Peppercorns.
Serve soup in large bowls with grated parmesan and parsley sprinkled over the top and fresh crusty bread.
Vegetarian Option: Do not use bacon bones or ham hock and add 2 vegetable stock cubes.

Serves 6

Frozen food storage times

Bread: 2 months
Ice cream: 2 months
Pork: 3 months
Fish: 4 months
Fruit & Vegies:  6 months
Poultry: 6 months
Lamb: 6 months
Beef: 6 months

Foods that won't freeze well:
greasy foods
anything with egg whites, custard or cream
soft cheeses
mayonnaise
cooked potatoes

Salmon Poached in Thai Coconut Broth

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time:15 minutes 

Total time: 30 minutes 

Serves: 2

1 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Thai green curry paste
270ml Light coconut milk
1 cup Chicken stock
1 packet John West Chilled Atlantic Salmon portions
100g Fresh baby corn, chopped
1 Carrot, cut into julienne strips
100g Snow peas, sliced
1 tbsp Fresh coriander, chopped
200g Rice or udon noodles, cooked
Fresh coriander, to serve

Heat oil in a medium frying pan and cook curry paste for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add coconut milk and stock and heat until simmering.
Add John West Atlantic Salmon Portions, baby corn, carrot strips, snow peas and chopped coriander. Cover and cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes or until salmon is cooked through.
Place cooked noodles into serving bowls and top with salmon and broth. Serve garnished with fresh coriander

TIP: John West Chilled Atlantic Salmon can be pan-fried and served with noodles and broth

30 Oct 10 Special K
I made this tonight and it was delicious. Fresh baby corn was super expensive so I substituted pak choy and decided to pan fry the salmon to get a lovely crispy skin. I served it with fresh udon noodles and placed the salmon on top of the noodles and vegetables, pouring the sauce over the top. I paired it with a lovely Sauvingnon Blanc.

Chicken, Bacon & Eggplant Pesto Penne

penne pasta

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp chilli
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 small jar eggplant pesto
500g chicken thighs, cubed
3 rashers bacon, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
parmesan cheese to serve

Cook penne pasta according to packet directions
Heat oil in a large frypan and fry bacon, brown chicken then add tomatoes, pesto and salt & pepper to taste.
Drain pasta and add to frypan and mix well.
Serve with parmesan cheese.

Serves 3-4

Source: Special-K

31May10 Special-K: I made this up tonight with things I had on hand and it was delicious, I will definitely make this again.

Lamb Shank Pie

I love lamb shanks but was getting bored with the standard shank on mash with misc veg and thought I'd give a Lamb Shank Pie a try. I Googled it and found this - "Lamb Shank Pie" so I'm going to give it a try tonight.

Bircher muesli

⅓ cup rolled oats
1 cup skim milk
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
½-1 sachet PureVia or 1/2 - 1 tsp sugar
½ apple, grated
2 tablespoons sultanas
1 tablespoon sliced almonds

Soak the oats and sultanas in the milk overnight in the fridge. In the morning
mix through the PureVia, the yoghurt and grated apple and sprinkle the almonds
over the top.