mmm that's tasty!

Well the casserole was so delicious.

Everyone loved it and all bowls were empty with a minimum of fuss.

100% success rate!

Next time I'd probably chuck some mushrooms on as well (I didn't have any in the house!)

Squealy ate a huge bowl full, he is going off because we had to rewind the Old Tom video!

Slow Cooker Beef and Red Wine

Photo courtesy of taste.com

What do you do with stacks of left over red wine from Geek Night? Cook a stew of course!

Beef and Red Wine - Slow Cooked

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1kg chuck steak, diced
• 1/3 cup seasoned plain flour
• 1 tin of tomatoes, pureed
  
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup beef stock, Massel brand
  
• 2 large onions, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 400g chat potatoes, halved
• 2 sweet potatoes, diced
• green beans, chopped
  
• pepper, herbs to taste ( I added thyme and parsley)

1. Chuck the steak into the slow cooker and coat with flour.
2. Chuck in all other ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Will check in tomorrow. Hopefully it's a thumbs up from the tots.

K1

Squealy has taken to swimming like a duck to water. He sped through Transition and is now in K1 class. He loves swimming and has so much fun.


Today was abit touch and go as this is the first time he's been in the pool without Husband Deluxe. So he did spend abit of time 'exploring' hehehe

Fiji

This is going to be a super quick update as this was 2 1/2 weeks ago... wow! & I should really be writing my end of year reports.

So we arrived in Fiji at about 7pm (5pm Australian time) and by the time we got through Customs, collected our bags and landed at the resort it was 10pm!

The view from our window: The Warwick.

We stayed at The Warwick Resort and Spa and can not sing their praises high enough. All the staff were really friendly, great facilities including a fab gym! We paid for a Warwick Club room which included a room in an adults only section of the resort... woot. We went for the All Inclusive Package, so everything was included. All meals, drinks (except cocktails), all activities (except scuba) and some tours. To say we loved our stay at The Warwick would be an understatement. Highly recommended. While there we went on two tours one to Sigatoka and another to the waterfall near Suva which included a village tour and yes we did drink some Kava.

We then went by sea plane out to Malolo Island Resort. Hmm we kinda wanted to head straight back to the mainland and the heavenly Warwick :( So the facilities were basic, staff fairly unfriendly and we were only on a meals package. So everything had a cost attached (except Internet was free!) Anyway after mopping for awhile we got into it. Lots snorkeling out on the reefs surrounding Malolo. Husband Deluxe went for a sandbar tour and we both dived 'The Back Of Honeymoon'. Pity the reef was being munched by Crown of Thorns star fish and alot of the coral was dead!

So we will probably head back sometime soon, with the kids next time.

Fiji is truly family friendly and there were families everywhere!

The back of Honeymoon Island.

Ni Sa Bula!

Bula is spoken so regularly we got bored with it an asked around to get some other phrases.

Ni Sa Bula: More formal greeting.
Ni Sa Yandra: Good afternoon.
Vinaka Vakalevu: thank you very much.





Got some more written down in the diary but can't be bother walking to the Bure. Officially on Fiji time and can't upload any photos for you all. Oh well I promise to when were back home.

Fiji is great. Totally loving it. Lots of fun.