Our House - Nightwolf's Den

My Declutter 365 journey – January check in

One of the things on my list of 100 things to do this year was to complete the Declutter 365 challenge. The first month is all about the kitchen and, I’ll be honest, is one of the areas I really struggle with. I love to cook but I HATE cleaning. So I’m undertaking this and am blogging as I go, accountability and all that.

To start I found a largish box that was still in good condition after Christmas and have designated that as our donation box. Something we don’t want/need but it’s still in good condition – into the donation box it goes. I’ve put it on the shelving in our hallway so it’s out of the way but still easily accessible.

I’ve also created a household notebook to house (haha) all our important stuff. I may create a separate post about this.

Onto the kitchen *sigh* Here’s some before pictures. Seriously it’s shocking. Christmas and all that, hot weather and honestly it’s the last thing I want to do of a night time. I hate it. I really want to have a clean kitchen. I need less ‘stuff’ in here and honestly just keep what I use frequently. No point asking anyone else in the household because I do the majority of the cooking. Anyhoo…

Seriously feral *sigh* these were taken in early January. I’ve managed to do counters, drawers, utensils, some of the kitchen cabinets, plastics and made a start on the pantry, fridge and freezer. I’m still working on some of the January bits and pieces even though we are now well into February.

Photos will be coming when I finish the January tasks.

Now just to get hubby & Miss K on board with keeping it clean haha

Food, Glorious Food

Here we are. Seven days into my 14 day challenge and I hope you are looking forward to checking out the recipes.

Bonus recipe – Honey soy meatballs. Wasn’t sure how this one would go but everyone loved it. It made enough for 2 adults, a 5yo and a 1yo plus leftovers (& a few sneaky ones snuck while mum was serving tea but shhh)

Day 1 – Honey chicken with rice. If you like Honey chicken from the takeaway you’ll love this one. Takes a bit of time but definitely worth the effort

Day 2 – Creamy bacon & basil bowtie pasta*. This one is a family favourite. Makes heaps.

Day 3 – Honey beef stir fry & noodles. Yummo. Love this one. Really nice with either steamed rice or noodles (we went with noodles)

Day 4 – Beef pies. New recipe for us. Had tried this recipe previously and it was ok, wanted to try something different. Added a couple of teaspoons of YIAH Veggie dip mix. Next time I’d add a little less. I decided to makes some wedges to go with it. You can grab the recipe (& what I’d change next time) here.

Day 5 – Moroccan style chicken roast with this stuffing and roast veggies. Wasn’t sure how this would go the first time I cooked it for one of the ThermoFun cook a longs but I was so pleasantly surprised. This is another family favourite I cook when we want something different from the usual roast chook. Always gives a moist roast, and if you put it in the oven for a bit, you get crispy skin.

Day 6 – Chicken mornay. Leftovers night! This is just a tuna mornay recipe made with leftover roast chicken. Seriously yum if you add a bit of grated cheese (& a little YIAH Herb & Garlic dip mix) Really nice the next day on toast with a little grated cheese on top.

Day 7 – Devil Sausages and mashed potato. Love this recipe. Love we end up with leftovers for lunch or another night. Bonus is we have enough leftover mash for tomorrow night’s meal.

*ThermomFun member recipe. If you have a thermo cooker I can highly recommend joining the ThermoFun site. A new recipe every week delivered to your inbox and access to a whole heap of helpful documents!

Updating our reno to-do list

Back in July 2013 I created a list of all the things I wanted to do around our home. Fast forward a couple of years and I thought I’d update the list.

Kids room

new curtains
polish floorboards
maybe some wall art

Our room

paint (gotta pick a colour first)
polish floorboards
eventually get built ins – the plan is next year (2016)

Hallway

skylight – still not sure about this
polish floorboards

Bathroom & toilet

tiling the toilet floor
maybe a new loo

Lounge/Dining

polish floorboards

Outside

new front fence
garden beds for the vegie garden
get gazebo up and set up for table etc – happening this summer!

I’ve also been pinning up a storm of inspiration. Feel free to check out my boards – Bedroom, Laundry, Kitchen, Lounge, Garden.

Things we’ve done

replaced our wood heater with a newer model
got a reverse cycle air conditioner (& kept the wood fire)
new kitchen
replaced the plumbing – kitchen, laundry, some under the house and some outside
new roof & guttering
Family photos up in the lounge & dining room
new bathroom
new front door & window
linen cupboard
landscaped front yard – new grass, new gardens, new paths
new curtains in the lounge & dining thanks to my mum
roller blinds in the kitchen
new couch and chairs
painted the lounge/dining room
built in cupboard in girls’ room
painted the girls’ room

The road to our new bathroom pt 3

Well there you go, I never got around to posting the final pictures of our new shiny bathroom. And it was finished over a year ago. So my bad.

Anywho here’s the before as a reminder for you all

020 021

Stunning wood panel hey! And now it looks like this …….

So much better. Warmer in winter. No nasty breezes. Glorious white tiles on the walls. So much easier to clean. Less storage but less clutter. Mind you it doesn’t look this tidy at the moment LOL

In the Den Kitchen – Chocolate Cake

You can now find previous In the Den Kitchen posts here or on Pinterest. Clicking Recipes in the menu above will also take you to my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’m slowly reworking some older posts so they will show up there too.
Links to any Your Inspiration at Home (YIAH) products will take you to my YIAH page. You can shop in Australia, New Zealand, USA & Canada from my page. If you are interested in learning about YIAH jump over to my Facebook page.

Last week I mentioned I made chocolate cake. This is a recipe I’ve made for years and came from an Australian kids cookbook called Clarry’s Kitchen Capers (I think, it was in a blue plastic folder, designed for kids.) The recipe was called Mother’s Day Chocolate Cake. Anywho here is my Thermomix conversion

[yumprint-recipe id=’22’]To make it without a thermomix, chuck all the cake ingredients into a bowl, mix then pour into your cake tin 😉

In the Den Kitchen – First birthday edition

Miss A turned one (!!) last weekend so this week I thought I’d share some of the food I made for her party. We themed it around the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar so food choices were pretty easy (You can read more about the party over at From the Wolf’s Den)

Starting with the egg on the leaf I made Devilled Eggs using YIAH Bay of Bengal Curry dip mix

Then apples, pears, strawberries, grapes (instead of plums), oranges and watermelon on a fruit platter

And the Saturday foods….

chocolate cake and cupcakes (orange and banana) – I’ll be sharing the chocolate cake recipe next week. You can find the orange cake recipe here, I iced them using some YIAH Choc Orange chocolate powder and my banana cake recipe here

Ice cream cones. There’s a bit of a story here… we started off thinking we’d use ice cream lollies, then I found a recipe that was choc filled cones with a marshmallow on top but we couldn’t find mini ice cream cones, so, I trawled Pinterest and saw marshmallow cones. Perfect. Found a recipe for sherbet and a recipe for marshmallow. The sherbet tastes like Wizz Fizz and the marshmallow was soft and fluffy. I did learn a lesson from this adventure – make it on the day you want to serve it otherwise things go soft and the 100s and 1000s loose their colour.

Swiss cheese and salami, a glass full of lolly pops, mini savs for the sausage and mini cherry pies (which were made in paper gelato cups with a square of puff pastry filled with tinned cherry pie filling).

The green leaf was represented by a green salad. Cocoons were made by cutting puff pastry in half then cutting those haves into 2 triangles. Spoon a blob of nutella on the long end then roll up towards the point (like a croissant). Bake for 30 mins in a 180C oven. Butterflies were a last minute decision – fairy bread cut into butterfly shapes.

So there you have it. Food fit for a Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I’m konverted, I think

So. If you’ve been anywhere on the interwebs recently, you’ll probably read about or heard people talking about that book, or things that spark joy. No idea what I’m talking about (where have you been :p)? It’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

(From Amazon)

This #1 New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.
Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).
With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

Mum bought me the book & I’ve read it, twice and I have started to KonMarie my clothing. So far – 3 bags to donate (admittedly some of the clothing was the girls) and the way she suggests folding and storing your clothes seems to be working well for me. Lots f the book really resonates with me and how I’d like our house to be.
I’ll be interested to see how it goes in coming months and see if I personally can stay decluttered and organised. I’ll keep you updated.

Have you read the book? What do you think? Have you been Konverted?

In the Den Kitchen – Mars Bar Slice

So what do you do when you want something a little (hell who am I kidding – a LOT) sweet. Maybe something like Mars Bar Slice (YUMMO!) BUT, oh no, no Mars Bars in the house 🙁 and the shops are closed/you can’t be bothered going out 🙁 🙁 Well don’t despair! You can make Mars Bar Surprise Slice!!

This wonderful recipe I found one night while reading a great little book by the name of The $21 challenge. My whole family loves it and when my daughter asked me to make it for school the next day, just as she was going to bed I thought I’d see how well it converted to Thermo. So here it is – Thermo Mars Bar Surprise Slice (if you want the original non Thermomix recipe go here – page 6)

[yumprint-recipe id=’21’]

From the Den Kitchen–Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

This is a family favourite slice. I have fond memories of my Godmother or my Mum cooking it when we went away for family holidays.

[yumprint-recipe id=’20’]

In the Den Kitchen–Chinese Chicken & Corn soup

This recipe is a family favourite. I often remember having Chinese Chicken & Corn soup especially of a weekend. The recipe comes from the Women’s Weekly Chinese Cooking Class cookbook (I LOVE this recipe book – I cook so many recipes from it) but the recipe below is my modification to it.

It’s a winter warmer and so easy to use leftovers from a roast chicken or buy a roast chook from Coles or Woolies.

[yumprint-recipe id=’19’]