Archives for May 2009

Salary sacrifice – not as good any more

May 29, 2009 by Jen

I salary sacrifice the contributions I make to superannuation every fortnight which means I pay it before tax and only get taxed on my pay after this contribution is taken out. Therefore I pay less tax. It’s also meant that this money didn’t show up on my assessable taxable income for my tax return. From next financial year it will.

I take it to mean this – and by gosh I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think I am – if I estimate my income at what I would earn if I didn’t salary sacrifice then it’s an enforced saving because I pay too much tax and don’t get as much child care benefit and so on because I’ve told the tax office I’m earning more than I do.

As of next financial year, my superannuation contributions will now be included so the I won’t effectively be over-estimating my income any more.

To put some numbers on it.

Say I tell the tax office I earn $30,000 per year. Out of that $30,000 I pay $5,000 in superannuation therefore making my assessble income $25,000 as far as my tax return is concerned. That means I get a nice tax cheque back.

With the new rules the the whole $30,000 is now assessable income because they’re counting the $5,000 superannuation contribution so I don’t get any, or much, of a nice tax return at all!

I knew in the back of my mind that the nice handouts we’ve been getting as part of this Stimulus package would have to be paid back and I guess this is how it will be happening – but twofold.

Sick mummy

May 28, 2009 by Jen

Last Saturday I woke up with a sore throat.

Saturday evening I stayed at home instead of going out (childfree) with friends because I thought I should rest.

Sunday afternoon I also stayed home instead of going out (non-childfree this time) because I thought I should rest as I still wasn’t feeling so well.

Monday morning I woke up and felt even worse so I stayed home from work. I spent most of the day in bed, or watching television but went to bed that night with an awful headache. So awful that I couldn’t even watch Desperate Housewives.

Tuesday morning I felt even worse so I went to the doctor who charged me $53 to tell me that I have a virus and a salt water gargle should help. I really only went to get a sick certificate because I knew I would have three or more days off from work and that’s what work requires for that amount of sick leave. Ok, so $53 for a sick certificate. At least it wasn’t the swine flu – because that was going through my head also.

Tuesday evening a lovely friend dropped some Panadeine Forte around because the paracetamol just weren’t doing the trick for the headache. In the meantime my appetite had disappeared and what I did eat I threw back up a couple of times – and no I’m not pregnant.

Wednesday mid-morning the headache finally left me and I started to feel marginally better but the fuzzy head remained.

During those three days I’m very glad that JJ was at school because otherwise he would have been occupied with his Playstation and DVDs for most of that time. It was all I could do to throw some lunch together and heat up some slow cooker leftovers I have in the freezer. On the Tuesday when I did wash some dishes I felt shaky and hot afterwards.

I could do some basic things like sprawl on the couch while he did his daily reading – so long as I could lie down it was half bearable. Luckily, apart from some meal preparation, he can be fairly self-sufficient these days because it’s hard work to look after a kid when you’re sick and need looking after yourself. I wanted someone to come in and just let me sit there while they did the running around. These are the times that I really miss not having that someone. There are other times also, but this is just one of those times.

Last year over Easter I woke up one morning and couldn’t stop vomiting and felt a lot worse than I did this week. About 10am (this is on the Good Friday) I knew that even preparing food for JJ would be a problem for me so I rang up a friend and she ended up having him for two nights. Bless her heart.

Today is my first day back at work for the week, and also my last day of work for the week and I have a LOT of work to do. I feel a bit guilty for not being there much this week but realise I couldn’t have functioned at work if I had gone in and Friday’s are my day off my paid job and I deserve that.

I don’t get sick like this very often and knowing that there is light at the end of tunnel makes it somewhat bearable. At least I’m not suffering from some terminal disease. I couldn’t imagine being sick all the time. I don’t want to even think about it because it makes me hope like hell nothing like that ever happens while JJ is dependent on me. Moving on then.

So, how do you cope when you’re feeling sick. You might be kidless, you might not. What’s your tips and tricks for getting through a nasty virus that knocks you out of action for a few days. Do you have any support? Does a friend come round with a casserole (this is something I could start doing for friends when they’re ill – must remember that).

My bean mix slow cooker recipe

May 27, 2009 by Jen

When I posted the slow cooker mushroom meatballs recipe I mentioned my bean mix recipe. As I was typing I wondered if anyone would want to know it and at least one person does so I’m sharing it. It’s also slow cooker week over at BlogHer so it’s kind of timely.

I used to do my bean mix in a saucepan on the stove top but because I do a large bean mix it nearly always burned on the bottom of the saucepan giving my kitchen that awful burning food smell and then I’d have to be careful to not mix up the good bits with the burned bits.

Using the slow cooker to do this, however, doesn’t give me those burned bits and I can cook that bit extra in one go, therefore saving me time. The slow cooker for me is ultimately about saving time.

Onto my bean mix recipe. It’s my own, adapted from vegetarian friends who have made me nachos in the past. You could also use this for tacos or anything Mexican that requires beans. I’ve got a 4.5 litre capacity slow cooker and this recipe pretty much fills it up.

Preparing the kidney beans

I buy a kilo pack of red kidney beans – I like the Siena ones as they tend to keep their red colour the best.

Soak half of them (500g) overnight in lots of water, drain, rinse and put them in a saucepan with new water to boil up. I boil them for around 40 minutes but it doesn’t hurt to do it longer so long as you have enough hot water. You could do this step in the slow cooker too I guess but I don’t.

Once they’re cooked, drain again, rinse and leave in the drainer.

Making the bean mix

Ingredients

500g dried red kidney beans (prepared as above)
1 onion – chopped
half red capsicum chopped (I do this because it’s the only way my son will eat capsicum)
4 or so small mushrooms chopped (you don’t have to do this but it doesn’t hurt)
3 x 410g cans of chopped tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic
teaspoon olive oil
small teaspoon of chilli paste (use fresh chillis if you want and adjust amounts according to how spicy you like food)
1tbspn Cumin powder or seeds
2 tbspns tomato paste (optional)

Method

Heat up the olive oil in a frypan and add the onions and capsicum and saute them until the onion is soft.

Add the garlic and mushrooms if you’re using mushrooms and cook for a minute.

Add the chilli and cumin and stir them in for a minute.

In the slow cooker add the beans and the canned tomatoes and the tomato paste if you’re using it (I’ve found with the Siena beans and the slow cooker I don’t really need tomato paste).

Then add the onions etc you’ve cooked in the frypan.

Mix everything up with a wooden spoon and cook for 2-4 hours on High, or 6-8 hours on Low. If it’s too watery from the tomatoes, just lift the lid off at the end so some of it can evaporate.

Now, you could eat it like this with your nachos or tacos but I like it all blended and doing that also hides the capsicum from those fussy eaters. If you want them blended just use a hand held blender, or put the mixture into a food processor.

This is enough for one huge meal or put it into containers to freeze.

Excuse me not taking any pictures here but I’ve been sick since Saturday so I left half my brain somewhere – probably the somewhere that didn’t tell met that I didn’t button up my cardigan properly this morning before I took my son to school.

Slow cooker meatballs

May 23, 2009 by Jen

I recently wrote about my slow cooker and the Margaret Fulton crock pot cookbook. Yesterday I cooked the mushroom meatballs from her crock pot recipe book and despite my trepidation they turned out quite well. I wasn’t sure about the canned mushrooms as they looked very unappetising.

Meatballs in the slow cooker (crock pot)

You can see in the photo that I’ve got my red kidney beans soaking so that I can make a bean mix that I use for nachos and/or tacos. Soaking half a kilo of red kidney beans will eventually give me enough bean mix for four-five lots of nachos for the two of us. Now that I have the slow cooker I cook the bean mix in it because it nearly always used to burn when I did it on the stove top but I don’t have that problem with the slow cooker. See why I love it?

Here’s Margaret Fulton’s mushroom meatballs recipe (with my adjustments in brackets):

Ingredients

500g (1lb) lean minced beef
250g (8oz) minced pork and veal (I used sausage mince)
1 egg
3 tablespoons chopped parsley (I used parsley and oregano as my parsley’s mostly gone to seed)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1.5 cups fresh breadcrumbs
(I added one small chopped onion to meatball mix)

Gravy

240g (8oz) can muchrooms in butter sauce (I think I’d prefer to make my own next time)
1 cup stock
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup dry sherry (I should get some cooking sherry but I read you can also use a bit of vanilla essence which is what I did. It smelt awful at first but worked out okay)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup sour cream

Method

Combine all ingredients for gravy except sour cream in crock pot; stir thoroughly.

Mix all ingredients for meat balls. Shape into walnut size and brown in frypan. Add meat balls to gravy mixture in crock pot, cover and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours, or High 2 to 4 hours.

Fifteen minutes before serving, stir in sour cream, reheat on High. Serve with noodles or boiled rice. We also ate with some steamed broccoli as it doesn’t seem right to have a meal without vegetables.

Serves 6.

It turned out quite well and will do us for a couple of meals and I’ll put the rest into the freezer for another meal.

Bit of a burp thrown in

May 22, 2009 by Jen

This morning we watched a funny video of a fairly well known internet dog. JJ thought it was hilarious and of course wanted to watch it again.

While he watched it again I filmed him (he said he’d do anything to watch it again). Please note my very tidy kitchen table! It’s Friday morning here and by Friday’s my kitchen table is a mess from all the stuff it collects during the week.

And I don’t know where he learned to burp like that.

Questions dear readers

May 19, 2009 by Jen

There’s some things I need advice and/or help on please.

Firstly I’m going to Queensland in July and have been looking around at airfares. Tiger Airways are cheap but their conditions say that they can give you four hours notice if they change a flight and you’re liable to pay the extra it would cost to get you there. So I’m thinking I’ll just pay the extra to start with and I might have a better chance to get there when I want. Anyone else flown with Tiger?

UPDATE: I’ve gone with the pay extra option. Talked to a travel agent and they advised me to only go with Tiger if I was desperate. I’m not desperate. I hate that they can change your plans and make you pay for it. That sucks.

Secondly, it’s my son’s birthday in about five weeks and he just wants a few friends round to our house like a big playdate. I’m thinking we need to organise some sort of activity. Does anyone have any ideas on what type of activity I might be able to organise that will occupy about five eight-year-old boys for a couple of hours? Maybe it will be an activity that happens outside the house. Keep in mind it could be raining so I have to allow for inclement weather.

Lastly, I started ‘my Blogging quest‘ a month ago and while a few people have done it, it seems to have died. I don’t know whether I should keep going with it. How do I get it a bit more noticed? Is it a crap idea? I’m feeling despondent about it people.

It’s been raining

May 17, 2009 by Jen

I don’t like to complain about the rain except for when it gets in the way of me getting wet or my clean clothes not being able to dry.

This morning I got some damp clothes off the line and lucky I did because it’s raining again now and it looks to be set in for the rest of the day.

We also did our first Scout bottle drive and it drizzled for a lot of it so those of us who didn’t have a rain jacket got a bit wet.

But I’m not complaining about the rain. We’re still on water restrictions here so any rain we get is welcomed.

There was a bit of a respite from the drizzle so I took some photos of raindrops. I love raindrops on leaves.

Oh, and raindrops on my bountiful crop of nearly ripe oranges.

Looks like this little creepy crawly is probably enjoying a leaf from my lemon tree.

The agave is always magnificent, raindrops or not.