Birthday Week!

Hello one and all!

This week has been craz-ay! It was my birthday on Tuesday and I celebrated it with le famille!

A lot of people don't know this but I am actually part Filipino part Palestinian. Wild mix I know! So this why my little shin-dig was a mix of Filipino and Arab.

The first dish is the national dish of the Philippines 'Pansit'. It is noodles with chicken, carrot, beans, shallots and sweet peas. This is one of my favs and is always on the table at special occasions.

The second is sweet. This is called 'Kanafeh'. This is a real delight if made well. The original is much more orange in colour and a lot thinner.

With kanafeh there are 2 main types. The first image is called 'na'meh' which translate to soft/smooth, the second is 'khishneh' which is rough. Both are filled with a special cheese called Nabulsi cheese which sadly you can't get in Australia. BUT never fear for those who want to give this baby a go there are alternatives such as, haloumi cheese, mozzarella and a'kaway. You could use a mixture of all three to give it extra taste.

Then of course we had the good old chocolate cake that I made last minute as my brother doesn't eat traditional Arabic sweets.

So there it is! Dishes of the week! I'll post up a recipe for one of them tomorrow. If there are any requests don't be shy to send them my way!

Birthday hugs!

"The way I see it, you should live everyday like its your birthday". -Paris Hilton

Recipe of the Week

Here again!

I've decided that Sunday will be the day where I will choose a couple of recipes that I've used during the week that I love. Of course this doesn't mean that I won't add more according to everyone's requests.

Lets get started. This week I made an Arabic dish called "Fatet Lahmeh". The recipe I used is from the Manal Al-Alem cookbook 2010.

Thankfully this book has English translations to all the recipes in the book.  
So here it goes:

Ingredients:
1-1.5kg diced lamb
1 tsp salt
1 onion quartered
2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole black peppers
3 cups short grain rice
10-12 cloves minced finely
2 tbs ghee
3 rounds of Arabic/pita bread cut into 2cm squares
1/2 cup of vinegar.

Method:
1. Place lamb into either a pressure cooker or pot with onion, cinnamon, pepper and salt. Cook until tender.
2. Once meat it cooked drain it out and keep the water for later.
3. Cook the rice (however you usually cook it)
4. Heat up some vegetable oil and deep fry the bread. Set aside.
5. Place ghee and garlic into a saucepan and saute on high until the garlic turns golden.
6. Pour the vinegar into the garlic and bring to a light boil for 1 min.

How to assemble the dish:
1. Place fried bread at the bottom of a deep dish
2. Spoon half the garlic and vinegar mixture onto the bread. At this point you will also need to wet the bread with some of water that the lamb was cooked it. Just enough to wet the bread or else they bread will go completely soggy. You want there to be a bit of crunch!
3. Evenly spread rice over the top of the bread.
4. Place meat on top of rice in an evenly fashion.
5. Drizzle the remainder of the garlic and vinegar mixture over the meat.

Next recipe is a sweet one. These Arabic butter biscuits (from what I'm told) originated from Jordan.
These would have to be the most EASIEST bikkies you'll ever come across. These are also I sometimes treat as you will find out soon.

Ingredients:
2 cups ghee
2 cups icing sugar
3.5 cups plain flour
nuts of your choice

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to about 160 C fan forced (180 C gas)
2. Using an electric mixer, mix the ghee and icing sugar until well combined with a smooth texture.
3. Add in the flour and mix on medium until well combined.
4. The consistency should be that of dough. 
5. Take small amounts of the dough and shape them however you like.
6. Add either almonds, pine nuts or pistachios to the the shape for decoration. Or you can leave it plain.
7. Bake for around 15 min. 
Here are some examples of how 'Gharaybeh" can be shaped:

Baking tip!
 You don't want them to go brown! These bikkies are meant to be pale in colour. once you notice them starting to crack from the tops they should be about right to come out.


   

Here are what mine looked like:

I hope someone gives these recipes a go and let me know how you went!

Tasty hugs!

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.” 
― Julia Child

Weekly review

Heyho!

With my blog my aim is to review a range of different products such as: Clothes, beauty products, everything related to children and last but not least food!

So this weeks review will be on: Mádara decoface tinting fluid in the colour Sun flower.

I was so excited to receive this product! When I was reading the description I wanted to fall in love with it. So when it came into the mail you can imagine my excitement.

The box says that it tints, illuminates and lightly moisturises the skin. Tints yes, everything else. Dom Dom!

• A light alternative to foundation. Ting!
• Evens out skin tone. Dom Dom!
• Disguises imperfections and fine lines. Double Dom Dom!
• Smells like the cleaver plant. TING!!

If you like the smell of crushed up plants then this is the product for you. The scent is so strong at first I thought I was putting Alfalfa sprouts on my face. Although I must admit that this past month my face has been terrible.

I recommend using this product when your face is practically flawless, as I found that if there are any dry patches on your skin i'll highlight them with out saying sorry.

So with that said I'll keep using it as my face hopefully gets better. I'll probably do another review on it in another month or so to see if I've changed my mind about it.

Made in Latvia
Certified organic

Next I've got some things for my son.

I've always been quite keen on giving my son healthy snacks, so when I found these in my local Woolworths (health food aisle) and Big W (chips and snacks aisle) I was eager to try them. Introducing Healtheries Kidscare Rice Wheels.

These come in a few flavours. I've only every gotten the cheese and burger flavour, it also comes in roast chicken. Each rice wheel is bite size, so they're perfect for little mouths!

On the pack it says they're:

• Gluten free
• 70% less fat than potato chips
• No artificial flavours (find that hard to believe)
• No MSG

I absolutely LOVE these! My son loves the crunch and they taste just like naughty burger rings! I will definitely be re-purchasing these when I run out. 

Last but not least KIDS FASHION!

OK, so I'm obsessed with all sorts things but Fashion is definitely my numero uno! 

I got this shirt for my son this week from Myer. This shirt is by Pure Baby Organic Clothing Company.
The shirt retails for $44.95 but OMG this is the softest shirt you will ever touch! I love putting my little monkey it shirts like this even in the warmer months as you can easily roll up the sleeves or wear a plain cotton Tee under it and keep it unbuttoned.

The shirt also comes with an option of taking the little hoodie off to give it a more formal look.

Since the weather is getting warm I'll be pairing this up with some cute GAP denim shorts and either pairs of converse shoes.

Shirt: Myer
Shorts: GAP
Shoes: Converse DFO

Hope you all found this weeks reviews beneficial. I'd love some feedback on how my posts are going.

Hugs!

"Say what is true, although it may be bitter and displeasing to people." - Baihaqi

Totally Baked

Saturday upload fail OOPS! But I promise today I'm making up for it!

Tah-Daaaaaah! So here we have butter cake with fondant and stencil work..
I've been into baking for a very long time but it's only since last year where I really got into the whole idea of fondant and properly decorating the cakes I make. I used mini stencils, these to be exact:

I also used a stencil to create the quilted effect and another to create the floral print

I was given these as gifts so unfortunately I can't tell you how much each item costs.

For the fondant I had some left over Satin Ice from a wedding cake a made at the start of the year. That was $39.99 from a shop here in Sydney called Glasshouse Cakes and Supplies in Revesby 
or visit their website, they've got a lot of really cool stuff for cake decorating and they make cakes too!
http://www.glasshousecakes.com.au/. 

I hope you all like this blog post. I'll be posting another 2 today, because I'm doing a weekly stash blog on all the things I bought this week and loved. I'll also be posting up the recipes of the week! Stay tuned, don't go away, i'll be right back after this short break!

Sweet hugs!

"Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me."- Audrey Hepburn

Get Stuffed Friday!

It started with...

And ended with...

And this...

I haven't eaten this much for months!

Today's feast consisted of an Arab dish called "Fatet Lahmeh". There isn't a western equivalent that I know of. The dish has 3 main components: Meat, rice and fried Lebanese/Arabic bread.

Desert was made by my dear husband. In Arabic these are called "Ghraybeh" or in English Butter biscuits. They're not quite like short-bread but it come close. Some people like them with Pistachios on the top but I prefer them without as I'm not much of a nut person.

Lastly which just pushed it over board was mango and vanilla ice-cream. I can't tell you all enough how much I LOVE mango Weis Bars! So when I can't get to the shops and have me some Weis, this is the closest thing I have. Mangoes are certainly coming back into season which excites my taste buds to bits!

In tomorrows post I'll put up the recipes for both the "Fatet Lahmeh" and Arabic butter bikkies!

Hope you've all had a great week!

Fat Hugs!

“The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.” 
― Julia Child

Spring Clean

Messy Business

Heyho!

Although today is only Thursday and I intend on uploading some pictures of things I buy throughout the week and give a small review on things that I have tried within that week. BUT I just had to jump on here and give a quick review on a product that I bought about 2 weeks ago.

Thankfully I have been blessed with my mum's genes of being practically hairless, however I feel that maintenance is very important for our own self-esteem.

Introducing the New! Delightful Gel Wax from Veet.

When I first saw this on the shelf in my local Priceline I was really eager to try it out since I've only ever used the original 'honey' wax from Veet which I LOOOVE!

I picked the one that smelt like Lotus flower for normal skin. It also come in Almond oil for sensitive skin which is a blue tub.

On the get-go the product says that it is 1. High effective results 2. Pleasant gel texture 3. Easy to use. The wax comes with a spatula for applying the product and cloth stips to remove the hair.

So I went on my merry way and followed the user instructions for optimal results and started to wax my legs. At first I was quite impressed it removed all the hair that had wax on it. However after a few more goes at it on a different part of my leg...Oh goodness! I can't tell you how I managed to get wax in my hair, on my arms and God knows where else!

I found that the wax seeps through the fabric strip which results in sticky fingers. I also found that following the direction on how to use the spatula also played a part in the messy-ness.

All-in-all I don't recommend this product to someone who's trying this type of wax for the first time. Even though it smells nice and removes the smallest hairs, it's not the easiest wax to use. So sadly I don't think i'll be repurchasing this particular wax.

Hope your all hanging in there, Friday is just around the corner!

Sticky hugs!

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"

Leftover Wednesday

Heyho!

I hope everyone is have a good middle of the week! I had every intention on putting up a blog post yesterday, but here in the tantrum household, Tuesdays are one of my busiest days of the week.

At my house Tuesday is swimming lesson day at the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre, grocery day, errands day and cook a huge dinner day. With the type of work my husband does he has Tuesdays off, I take full advantage of him and get him to push the pram around the shops while I dash about getting things done for the week.

Along with him having a day off, I like to cook him something special for dinner so yesterday I roasted a chicken (free range of course) with lots of pumpkin and sweet potato. Along with some YUMMY apple crumble for desert! If anyone would like my recipe for crispy skin lemon and herb roast chicken let me know!

Leftover Wednesday

Ah Wednesday, how I really dislike you. For me Wednesday equals cleaning the house of all the mess that was made on Tuesday. Boys will be boys, playing wildly with every toy in the house. It also means deep cleaning the floors from the dirt and dust that accumulated from Saturday which is also dreaded cleaning day.

Leftovers is always a plus because this means that I don't have to think of lunch ideas for myself and little monkey! HOWEVER Wednesday also means cooking dinner for my husband to take to work with him on Thursday.

If you haven't already noticed my week isn't like a 'normal' week where work is from Monday to Friday. No, my husband works on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. With that being said I do however have two 'weekends' but not one after another. Which is very frustrating for me...But never the less at least I have those days to spend with Mr. Hubby and he gets to spend all day with little monkey.

That's it for me today. A very long winded post but I promise at the end of the week it'll be a lot more exciting so watch this space glamour mums!

Destroyed roast chicken

Leftover hugs!

My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance. —Erma Bombeck