Promises Promises....and Mince

Again, I say that I'm going to blog and forget about it. It seems like I'm so busy, but there’s not a lot of interesting stuff to blog about. I’m also lacking a full length mirror at the moment so I can’t even see my outfits before I go out, let alone outfit posts. In order to see most of my outfit before I go out, I must stand on the lid of my toilet and look in the bathroom medicine cabinet. No glamour around these parts. 

Since I last posted I’ve finished my first semester of uni and got somehow managed to wrangle two distinctions and two credits overall so I’m super happy with my current GPA of 5.5. I’ve also gone back home to Townsville for a trip to see the fam. It wasn’t that exciting and the lack of pics show it. It did, however, reaffirm why I left. The drama. Ugh. So then I returned and started my internship two days a week to try and knock some time off my prac times.

My brother has also decided he’s moving down. So he’ll be living with us, which means goodbye clothes room and hello reorganizing EVERYTHING in my room. It also means the rest of my furniture will be coming down finally…which includes my new mattress my mum got me. YAY. There are a couple of downsides to this whole bit. Not only do I lose my large walk in wardrobe, I also have now been told by my dad I need to get a part time job because he can’t afford to support me and my brother. Boo. I was quite enjoying being a lady of leisure. But as it turns out, the branch down here of my old work could use someone a couple of days a week for data entry type stuff so here I am.

Day one and I’ve already finished everything I needed to do nearly two hours before I think I’m allowed to go home. Joy. I do kind of feel guilty for sponging off my dad for a little while, but since I turned 18 and got full time jobs I have more than compensated my parents. Plus, my dad is just super stoked that I’ve finally decided to go to uni that he was willing to give me the semester to ease in. Best.Dad.Ever.

I have been productive in my time off from uni though. I have been super good and have been making healthy food for my little fat Puffington. I agree, he does need to stop eating people food and start eating food that’s good for him. But I just feel so bad for him. I wouldn’t want to eat tinned dog food either. He also has to start being walked. Which is another thing I feel guilty about. He’s the only dog I know that hates walkies. Absolutely HATES it. We get a quarter of the way around the block and he starts begging to be picked up. He would rather just chill at home and lie around the house. Hence why he’s now fat. But anywho. I have managed to concoct a recipe that he ate more than one night in a row. It’s healthy and delicious apparently. 

Winnie Mince
(makes 17 portions that are around double the size of a golf ball)

Ingredients:

½ kg beef mince

1 egg

½ cup rice

Chicken salt

Flour

One small/medium potato

Small portion of sweet potato

Mixed frozen vegetables (I used a broccoli, cauliflower, beans and carrot mix)

Drizzle of Olive oil

½ tsp Garlic

Squirt of tomato sauce

Method:

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add rice. Make sure you keep an eye on it if you don’t have nonstick pots like me.

Heat up a frying pan on the stove and drizzle olive oil in and add garlic.

Brown beef mince

Peel potato and sweet potato and cut up into pieces relative to the size of your frozen veggies. Put all veggies in a microwave container and cook. My microwave is a bit old so I put it on for five minutes.

Due to using regular mince from the shop, not lean mince there was a bit of oil in the pan. I would probably leave this next time but this time I moved all the meat to one side of the pan and tipped it so all the oil was on the other side. Then I just sprinkled some flour in, stirred it with a wooden spoon to thicken it then mixed it back into the mince. 

By this time the rice was done so I drained it and let it sit in the saucepan to cool.

Sprinkle a bit of chicken salt into mince just for a little extra flavor. I have a dog that’s very picky when it comes to bland things so this added a little extra. 

I then put all the veggies and the egg into my blender and whizzed it up until it was a puree. 

Add the rice to the mince and mix through

Then add the veggie puree and combine

I then added a bit of tomato sauce just because when I tasted it, it was still a little bland for what I thought my dog likes.

The mix is pretty much done. Now I just put it in a bowl and covered it with cling wrap and put in the fridge to cool. 

After a couple of hours it was just above room temperature so it was fine to put in the bags. 

Scoop a portion up and tie the bag up. Repeat for the rest of the mix and then put them in the freezer and you’re done.

For portions this size I microwave them from frozen every night. I zap them for about 1 minute. It depends on how good your microwave is.