Getting Rid of Winter Surplus

Today the boys are at Kindy, and the twins are playing happily on a rug outside, so I thought I'd be crafty.

Here in sunny Queensland (Australia) Winter weather is leaving us and it's warming up. While I'm looking forward to the boys first experience at a Slip'n'Slide and reaping rewards from our veggie garden to use in delicious salads, I'm not looking forward to the heat. I know that last Summer, I got sick of storing things like split peas which I only use in soups, and porridge which I only like in Winter and threw them out.

This year, I was determined not to.

Lately the boys have been balancing anything and everything on their heads, from drink bottles to teddies. I remember when I was little, my Nanny had a few little square bean bags that my brothers and I loved. I told Andy about these just the other day, and then I had a brain wave.

Split Pea Bags

These are just little bags filled with the dried split peas that they can use to practice catching, throwing and of course, balancing.

What I Used. 

A4 sheets of felt
Scissors 
Sewing machine and cotton 
2/3 of a bag of dried green split peas 
A jug (I used a gravy boat) 
cookie cutters 







Method 

1) Cut the felt into quarters.

2) Get some cookie cutters, or play dough cutters and trace the shape onto a piece of felt and cut out. Sew onto one felt quarter. 

3) With the picture in the middle (so you cant see it) sew two pieces of felt along three sides leaving an opening at one end to fill the bag. 

4) Turn the bag the right way out and reinforce the bag by sewing along the three sides that you've already sewn. 

5) Fill the jug with peas, and pour into the bag. I filled mine up to about 3/4s full. 

6) Sew the end closed and turn and resew the line so it's extra strong. 

I'm intending on making more of these... but... my tiny machine broke! OH NO! *insert appropriate sad face*

EDIT: The boys loved playing with them when they got home from Kindy.




The next thing that I wanted to clear out was porridge. I had about 1/2 a bag of quick cook oats in the pantry that I really didn't want to waste. On one of my favourite recipe blogs The Southern Lady Cooks posted a recipe perfect for this task. Now, I'm not too keen on the name but I made some "Cow Pattie" Cookies - which I'm now calling "He-who-must-not-be-named" Cookies. Just popping off on a tangent here... but I've just finished the sixth book in the Harry Potter series and I'm a blubbering mess.


My recipe is as follows.

Ingredients 

1 cup white sugar
150g  butter
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 Tbls cocoa
1/4 cup Carnation Light and Creamy Evaporated Milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups Quick Cooking Oats, uncooked

Method 

1) In a saucepan, mix sugar, butter and milk. Bring to the boil and let boil for one minute. 
2) Take off the heat and mix in all other ingredients. 
3) Wait for the mixture to cool slightly and then form into round balls and flatten slightly. Place on waxed paper. 
4) Leave to cool.
This recipe makes about 21 Tablespoon sized biscuits.