My review of Weight Watchers food boxes

Last week I discovered a new program that I thought was a game changer and could be the answer to all life’s problems. I’ve always been keen to try loose a few kilos (who doesn’t!) and saw advertised the Weight Watchers Fresh Box  and gave it a go.

Heres my review from the point of view from a working mum who’s life gets a little cray cray around dinner time.

The Food-it comes in a lovely big box all delivered in 2 days to your door. The program is linked to Aussie Farmers Direct so the produce is super fresh and did last really well.

Bacon, capsicum, kale pasta with mushroom sauce.

 

 

The recipe cards, great coloured photos

 

The recipes- Easy to follow, clear and concise but have lots of preparation is required. The meals generally took 30-40 minutes or longer to make. The pasta dish was much quicker but the rest were quite time consuming.

To sum, the meals have been super delicious and full of flavour and surprisingly decent serving sizes! And I even ate Kale! It has definitely increased our vegetable intake and provided some inspiration for new meals to try. However a big down for me and my lifestyle is the time frame for preparation. I don’t have time to be rolling chicken and stuffing it on a normal night in my house. If you have a bit of time up your sleeve or are great at food preparation then go for it! If dinner time involves feeding the masses and town is limited this program is not the best option for you. I have definitely enjoyed the new meals and the healthy ideas though!

Chicken stuffed with baby spinach and sundried tomatoes

Long time!

 

Well it’s been a long time since I have posted anything. Mainly from laziness really but also poor time management. I’m getting my head around this working shenanigans And having three little ones. The littlest musketeer has been getting sick all the time.. The dreaded starting of child care and the beginning of winter- not a good combination! But he’ll survive. Everyone is happy and relatively healthy. As for working, it is good to use my brain and think about new things. In a new role which adds to the thinking quota. It has been challenging but in a good way.

The house organisation is ‘getting there’ I always feel like there is a constant mess, but I’m sure it’d be the same working or not! Mr Working Mum is enjoying his new role of child care and school drops which definitely helps. We are definitely lucky that has gone smoothly. Kudos to him!

Some things I have learnt or re-learnt..

-school lunches definitely need to be organised the night before.

-any big beauty regime is best done at night to allow for a quick shower in the morning! 😜

-prepared meals are a winner , reheat and eat or super fast meals to cook up. (A future post with ideas to come)but a staple is curry, beef or chicken with rice made on the weekend and just reheat.

-teach the kids the routine and everything goes much smoother. Most days.

 

 

 

It’s here!

Well the time has come. All Lunches are packed. Bags organised for three kids and myself, dinner ready for tomorrow night! Coffee mug ready, clothes laid out for 4 of us!

Loving my new lunch bag from Typo!

 

Now to just set the alarm and hope for a full nights sleep! Bring on the next challenge, the new chapter, new ideas, new stories. Thanks for reading and sharing ideas, the journey is really just beginning but I feel ready!

The Countdown

Less than a week to go. I have very mixed emotions about returning to work. Seeing my fellow staff, using my brain (or what’s left of it!).I think we’ve worked out the logistics of the drop off and pick for week 1. The littlest member of the family had his first day of child care yesterday. He wouldn’t eat and only slept a little but he survived and was smiling when I picked him up. So I’m putting it down to a win!

I have organised a Mumma Bake with my sister on Friday. Stay tuned for that one! I cleaned out my pantry yesterday, and have finally found the bottom of the laundry basket! Small achievements!

Todays job is to do actual ‘work’ work and clean out my wardrobe. Now to turn off the TV, make a coffee and get cracking!!

Rock Cakes

Perfect sunny day here. All ready for a long weekend. Catching up on some baking today. A quick easy go to for my faintly has always been the traditional Rock cake! Low in sugar and super delicious and the biggest criteria.. Fast! Find the Recipe here. My mum has been baking these for years and I kinda stole it from her! We are to the beach for some sand play and sunshine!

School Holiday fun

Its school holidays here at the moment which means my return is happening extremely soon! Two weeks to be exact! Feeling ok about it actually, just making sure I have everything in place for school and child care drop off and pick ups.

I ordered new labels for the kids clothes and drink bottles today. I ordered them from Stuck On You. I’m not into Iron on Labels so I paid a bit extra and got the stick on labels that work on anything. That way in the early morning when I realise the jumper the littlest member has on doesn’t have a name on it I can whip it on quickly! Lots of cute designs and colours to choose from.

One more thing ticked off my list!

Yesterday we had a family outing to the zoo. It’s such a lovely place to visit and the kids love it. We ventured down to the Children’s petting zoo which we hadn’t done in a long time. Some super cute little critters down there!

Today was a trip to the botanic gardens for some energy burning fun and nature play. Tree climbing, leaf boat making and running. Perfect. And yes, there’s coffee! I’m starting to think I need to change the title of my blog to Coffee and Kids.. it seems to be the regular theme!

The New Henley Square

It seems winter has hit already!! Not quite but it sure feels like that. Everyone has the sniffles and the coughs already. What is it going to be like when really hits? We needed some sunshine today so after the school drop we headed down to the beach for some fun in the sun. We stayed on the grass and played footy and I enjoyed a take away coffee! 

It’s the perfect spot for young kids and mums! Plenty of spots for a coffee and a bite to eat and so much space for the kids to run and climb on the new bench seats.So many Cafes to choose from for coffee including Cibo, Coffee Club and Cocolait. Some good restaurants and snack bars have popped up also.

The new water features were a good addition for the warmer days however today it was all about the birds having a bath!

So when you’re in need of some fresh air and the kids need a run around jump in the car, pack your ball and picnic rug and head down to the Square. There’s something about the beach that makes everyone feel better.

Tick tock

Time is drawing closer and closer. Meetings have taken place, child care visits have started and lists are getting made. The art of sorting out school drop off and pick ups has begun! How do people work full time? Hats off to those who do. I bought a lovely folder from Woolworths today to help the motivation! So bright and colourful! I have started brainstorming meals to have in the freezer and over the next couple of weeks I will get my bake on!!

Tonights meal is Chicken and Leek Pie. I have made extra filling and frozen it for a quick meal another day.

This is my all time favourite pie recipe and have made it literally over a hundred times! Find the recipe here.

Nutella Cheesecake

It was a great challenge to try a new recipe every day last week! I finished it off with a bang… Nutella Cheesecake!! Not the dinner inspiration I started out looking for but I saw it advertised on social media and wanted to try it for myself! I mean who doesn’t love Nutella. I personally could it eat it straight from the jar! I used the Nigella recipe. Find it here. Ridiculously easy to make and no baking requires so it was super fast! Mr 3 helped and was super excited to lick the Nutella spoon!

Nutella cheesecake

To summarise it was super easy and fast to make, but it needs berries and cream or something on top to break up the sweetness. It is super rich and sweet. Raspberries would be perfect.

 

Try it, time it, taste it, blog it Pt 2. Beef ragu.

The Challenge continues… read about it here! New recipe no 4 for the week was slightly clouded due to sick kids and no desire to go the shops. So it became a game of ‘what’s in the cupboard’? Still wanting to complete the challenge I found some beef steak in the freezer and went about investigating something new to cook. Enter good old Jamie Oliver and a few modifications and we have delicious Beef Ragu.

Find the original recipe here.

I had a few ingredients missing and added a few of my own.. So here’s my Recipe…

Easy Beef Ragu

1kg Beef Rump Steak chopped into small pieces (in thermie reverse sp 6 20 sec)

1 clove garlic

2 carrots

500 g of tomatoes chopped ( I had lots left from the inlaws!)

2 tblspn vegetable stock

500 ml water

2 cups of red wine

oregano

basil

bay leaf

Method

Blitz garlic and carrot Spd 5 for 10 sec.  (or grate carrot and chop garlic finely)

In a large pot brown garlic and carrot. Add the beef and fry till brown.

Add stock, water, tomatoes and red wine and bring to the boil.

Add the herbs and let it all simmer until most of the liquid evaporates. (approx. 40 mins on low)

Serve with your favourite pasta.

 

Letting it simmer slowly until liquid evaporates makes the flavours stronger!

To sum up for the challenge, it was delicious and the red wine in it gave it a lovely winter feel. It takes longer than a bolognaise to make so its not ideal for a work night but it could be done. While its simmering away im sure there’s many other things to get done! Bath the kids while its cooking then eat!