Beef and Vegetable Stew

Last Monday night, I made my very first stew!
On Sunday we had our family meeting and as part of that we created a family meal plan. Janai chose stew forcing me out of my comfort zone and soon onto google to grab a recipe. I typed in beef stew and opened a few pages from Pinterest but didn't use one recipe directly. I just took tips from this one and that one to sort of create my own. And boy was it a winner..

So here is what I did..

Ingredients:
x1 halved then sliced onion
x3 diced carrots
x3 cubed potato
x1 big fat stalk of celery
x2 packets of 500g of diced beef
x2 ½ cups of plain flour
Pinch of salt and pepper
Canola spray
x2ltrs of Campbell's Real Beef Stock

Utensils:
pan
spatula
soup ladel
slow cooker
Bowl
x2 zip lock bags

Method:

1. Pour one cup of plain flour into one of your zip lock bags, add a pinch of salt and pepper then drop in 500g of your beef and shake well.
2. Spray your pan with oil and fry off the outside of your beef on a hot setting not worrying if the inside of you meat is cooked through.
3. Place cooked meat in a bowl and leave to the side and continue steps 1 and 2 with the remaining 500g of beef.
4. Pull out and plug in your slow cooker and pour in your Campbell's beef stock, Add vegetables and your meat. 
5. Stew this on high for 5-6 hours,
6. At five hours I mixed in another half a cup on flour just to thicken it all up. This is optional.

And there it is.
Here for you anytime you feel like a winter warmer.
Best served with rice!
Enjoy!

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Late (really late) Mothers Day Post

I woke up on Mothers Day feeling very appreciated. 

Although the girls set off the fire alarm (multiple times) I did not wake. When I'm asleep, I'm asleep and there is no waking me.. But I did wake up to purple (burned) pancakes and coffee which was so nice of them to do..  And with big smiles too..

The night before I was printing out pages for Jeanette. Janai, Hiram and Justine to complete to send to their Mum. I wanted my sister to feel loved and thought about and I had planned to send her flowers but when we tried to call her multiple times throughout the day, she wasn't answering which was such a shame. It left the kids feeling a bit flat.

But once Nevaeh returned from her fathers house, the mood lifted and we went down town to spend the kids allowances!

While we were down the street Jeanette used her pocket money to buy me a beautiful bunch of flowers and my favorite chocolate to say thank you from her and her siblings. It was honestly the sweetest thing ever. 

This photo was taken later that night and is the only family photo we have at present.

I'm hoping to get some professional photos done soon too..

Thank you all for a fabulous mothers/Aunty's day <3

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Mobile Phone Contract

This is the mobile phone contract that I used for Jeanette and Janai when they first moved in with me. 

1.       This is our cell phone.

2.      You may have the following social media apps: Facebook (when earned), Instagram and Twitter. Also I as your carer and Aunty will follow you on these social media sites.

3.      You will create new accounts and will only follow friends and family.

4.      I must know all login/passwords to phone, and social media sites.

5.       I will monitor our cell phone. I will be checking text messages, call logs, FaceTime logs, FB messages, twitter messages and Instagram DM often.

6.      Please do not post any personal information online; birthdate, address, status updates” home alone”, current locations and party invitations.

7.       Please do not post any photos or videos in swimsuits, cleavage, provocative dancing and singing.

8.      Please leave cell phone on the kitchen counter when doing homework, eating meals and family time.

9.      Please do not use your phone at all at school unless discussed and necessary.

10.   Please do not use cell phone during bed time.

11.    Please refrain from posting family holiday or family trips and outing photos until we arrive home safely.

12.   On social media sites, please do not follow or become friends with people you don’t know.

13.   When taking photos of friends and family members, please ask their permission before posting to social networks.

14.   Please write encouraging posts, positive posts, be kind, say nice things and talk about things that make you happy.

15.    Do not bully, slander, swear or share negative, nasty or trashy posts.

16.   End nasty conversations politely and let me know if you feel unsafe or attacked.

 Disobeying any of these guidelines will result in warnings and re-establishing these rules, loss of credit, bans from FB, Instagram or Twitter, Loss of WiFi and in more serious cases you may lose your phone.

Jeanette                              ____________________________

Janai                                     ____________________________

Aunty Melissa                    ____________________________

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