St Paddy's Day Dinner - low FODMAP Guinness Stew

As part of our St Paddy's celebrations I wanted to make a special dinner, and made my first ever Guinness Stew.

I looked up several recipes and sort of adapted/mashed them together according to our needs as we are on a modified low FODMAP diet and due to my shoulder and hand issues I needed a slow cooker version and I didn't want to wind up with left over Guinness so wanted a recipe that would use the whole can.
As beer is low FODMAP due to the fermenting process I am assuming Guinness is too.
A couple of recipes suggested the stew is better the next day so I made it Friday to have on Saturday.  Hubby taste tested it on Friday night and said it was definitely far better on Sunday night, he said it was richer and more hearty than on Friday.  So this is a great make ahead meal which really helps with planning for a day that you know you won't be able to cook.

I managed to get 8 serves out of this recipe, we had a family meal and I put 4 single serves away for hubby.  Note he said it didn't do well being frozen and reheated.

So here is what my adapted recipe wound up being.

900grams of diced chuck steak
2 tables spoons of flour
A crack of salt and pepper added into the flour
1 can of Stout or Guinness
3 cups of Beef stock (either homemade or Massel stock cubes disolved in water)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 teaspoons of dried thyme
2-3 tablespoons (I spilt it into my pot) of parsley (fresh was out of stock when hubby did the shopping so I had to use dried)
2 large carrots cut into chunks
2 potatoes cut into chunks (I used 3 and it was too much potatoe)
2 celery stalks diced
The greens from 3 spring onions finely diced.

Put the potato and carrot into the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place flour and a crack of salt and pepper into a freezer bag, in batches put meat into the bag and shake, set aside on a plate ready to cook.
Once all meat is coated in a heavy pan in batches brown meat, transfer to the slow cooker.
Add spring onion greens and celery to the pan and saute a little.  Add to the slow cooker.
Add tomato paste, stock, stout, thyme and parsley.  Give a stir without disturbing the vegetables at the bottom.
Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 8 to 10 hours.
Cool and refrigerate to serve the next day.
My sauce did not thicken so for serving I decided I would put one family serve in a pot on the stove for 15 minutes to simmer off the excess and cook the dumplings in the sauce while doing it.

Serve with Mashed Potatoes or Rice and low FODMAP parsley dumplings.

Lucky Banner for St Patrick's Day - Scrapping Fun Kits DT

I wanted to create a banner for St Paddy's day from a cardboard box so I grabbed a empty wine box from a friend who has a wine with dinner to tear/cut up to make a cute banner and I was just going to cut the lettering from cardstock when I found this cute free printable Lucky Banner  I felt it was just what I needed for my lettering on the upcycled wine box banner I wanted to create.  I just tore the top flaps of the box and cut the long sides in half, trimming the shorter side to match the length of those.

Originally I wanted to stencil on the cardboard but due to time constraints I decided to go with simple layers using the papers and cut apart in the St Paddy's Kit from Scrapping Fun Kits.
I cut the dot paper into 4 and the shamrock paper into 3 so that I had one piece twice the size of the other 2.  Then I cut 2 of the tags and the pot of gold from the cut apart to use for layering.

I used Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue to adhere my layers to the wine box.

I started just by grabbing one letter at a time and creating layers behind the free printable flag.

This cute tag from the cut apart was a great way to add a layer to the L, it has a slight overhang at the top which I love.

U and Y were a very simple lot of layering with just a piece of each paper, I also cut a scrap out from behind the Y to use on the shamrock.

C I just used the dot paper and the fussy cut pot of gold from the cut apart.  How cute is that pot of gold?

K and the Shamrock have the rainbow label from the cut apart, I simply trimmed it slightly to the right of the rainbow so I would have the left over for another layer elsewhere.

I loved how they all looked together while I was waiting on the Helmar glue to dry before I add the ribbon.

I simply used my standard hole punch to pun 2 holes in each banner and then thread multiple strands of orange bakers twine through the holes.

Getting a photo of the  Banner in action on St Paddy's Day was difficult due to some strong wind we were having but one of the other Mum's got this great shot of it.

I love how this banner turned out, it certainly was a hit.

St Paddy's Day Fun in the park.

Last year Mr C was unable to attend his school's St Patrick's Day activities and asked if we could do something this year so I picked out a few simple things to do with the Mr C and Mr E this year.

While making plans and searching Pinterest for ideas I realised there may be other Homeschooling or Distance Ed families who would like to do something for St Patrick's Day and that it would be a great way for the kids to socialise with other kids who love St Paddy's activities.  So I decided to ask in a local Homeschooling group if anyone would like to meet us at the park for a simple Leprechaun Treasure Hunt and a few fun St Paddy's themed foods.  I was excited when a few families wanted to join us.
My dilemma was the lack of supplies available locally, it is usually pretty limited but this year was more limited then usual, Pinterest saved my day, I was limited on time for creating and suitable supplies but thanks to Pinterest I was able to find some quick and easy projects I could do or could adapt to suit my needs.

I downloaded this free and very cute Lucky Banner to make creating my banner a bit easier as my time available for die cutting was limited.

A post detailing how I created the rest of this banner will be up on Tuesday.

Mr E enjoyed painting sanitised toilet rolls for this cute Upcycled Shamrock Garland.









Mr C enjoyed painting a cheap container and adding a black ribbon and yellow cardstock buckle to hold chocolate coins for our Leprechaun Treasure Hunt.
For the clues I used this great Rainbow of Shamrocks set of clues.


I was inspired by these cute Leprechaun Hat paper cups, however I couldn't get green paper cups so used recyclable green plastic cups.

I created a cut file of hollow squares to cut all the buckles for the cups, the container for the treasure hunt and our Pringles can Leprechaun attempt.  This saved me a lot of time.

I thought these Yarn Wrapped Leprechaun Hats would be a fun activity for the kids to do, however the kids wound up mainly playing on the park equipment so I have saved the supplies to make a banner with the boys next year.

Mr E loved helping make coloured green sugar for our marshmallow pops, you can get a recipe for Coloured Sugar from McCormick.

I made Rainbow Jelly and after that experience have sworn I will never do it again, but given how much Mr E loves it I might have to have one more try next year.









I also tried making Rainbow Water and Rainbow Bars, which were a hit though due to having to use pink marshmallows my rainbow bars weren't very rainbow.  And due to the warmth here at the moment the rainbow ice cubes were melting fast so once I finished pouring the water into a glass it was not rainbow water but a funny brown colour.

Other simple food ideas I did were:
Green pineapple juice.  Add a glass of green cordial to a bottle of pinapple juice, it tastes nice and is a fun shade of green, though I forgot to take it to the park.
Green marshmallow pops, I melted white chocolate and the boys had fun dipping white marshmallows into it and then into the green sugar Mr E made, they stood them a sheet of baking paper in a container to set in the fridge.
I used the left over green sugar that hadn't gone into the bowl for the marshmallow pops to coat some green grapes and created leprechaun grapes which were inspired by Leprechaun Candy though I was out of green jell chrystals so the sugar made a good substitute.
The last of the melted chocolate and the green sugar that had had the marshmallow pops dipped into it, I immediately mixed them together and set in the freezer to make green chocolate bark.

One of the other Mums (Amy) helped me set up on the day and brought some green cordial (a life saver when I forgot the juice), green chips, some green fruit and veggie sticks (Mr E loves capsicum so he  was really happy about that).  And another Mum brought chips, so we had a lovely table full of goodies to eat.





The boys had a lot of fun making new friends and eating fun food.

St Paddy's Card and Cute Paperclip - Scrapping Fun Kits Design Team

When I saw the cute pot of gold resin I just had to make it into a quick but very cute paperclip to highlight when St Paddy's is in my diary since I am organising a event for my local home schooling community.

I simply adhered it to a large paperclip with Glossy Accents and punched a circle from the shamrock paper to cover the back.  One of the Chiffon flowers would have been great on the back for a double  sided clip but I wanted to be able to use it in a scrapbooking layout recording our St Paddy's memories this year so I needed the back to be flat.

I used it to hold the vintage postcard over hubby's roster in my planner spread for a cute planner spread photo and then took the card out to make a card.

I decided to create a simple card using one of the vintage postcards in the St Paddy's kit.

I punched some white cardstock with a border punch.
Then I trimmed some of the green lace in half length ways so I could adhere some to each side of the vintage postcard.
I added one of those gorgeous filigree to the front and called this card done.

I love how quickly it came together.  I hope the friend I send it to enjoys it.

If you would love one of these St Paddy's Kits there are still a few left so head to the Subscription Tap and fill in the form, enter St Paddy's in the promo code box.

Cake - Scrapping Fun Kits Design Team

As I was creating my layout for the March White with 1 Challenge with the St Paddy's Kit and other kits I was inspired to scrap this photo of my son at my birthday a couple of years ago using the emerald green chiffon flower from the St Paddy's Kit and other goodies.

I love how that little scrap of the green felt trim added a little bit of texture to this cluster.

My trusty Helmar's Professional Acid Free Glue was perfect for adhering my embellishments down.

Cutting up the shamrock doily allowed me to use it on this layout to give a little more texture.









I love how this layout turned out.  The St Paddy's kit was perfect for recording this memory.  If you would like one of these fun kits there are still a couple left so head to the Subscription Tab and fill in the form.

Scrapping Fun Kits - White with 1 Guest DT - Ball

Today I have a  Guest Designer layout for the White with 1 March Challenge to share with you.

I put the green goodies from the upcoming St Paddy's kit and Autumn TN kit on my desk to inspire me.

I started my layout by mixing some blue and yellow distress inks to get a shade of green that would suit this month's colour and used packaging technique to add colour to my white cardstock.

Next I added a strip of washi to break up the page and get things started.  Then I started building my layers.  

I have a Process Video for you, so you can see how it came together.

The green paper from the upcoming Autumn TN kit was a perfect addition to my layers.  It has so much texture and dimension in it, I just love that paper.

The white flower from the School kit was perfect to combine with the tiny resin flower from the October 2017 kit, the Frame from the upcoming Autumn TN kit and this cute chiffon flower from a upcoming embellishment kit.

How gorgeous is that green lace and felt trim, just perfect for this challenge.

These chipboard letters from my stash were perfect for my title.

I love how this  layout turned out.  I enjoyed it so much that I kept out my St Paddy's kit and created another Green and white layout which I will share with you later in the month.

The prize from Scrapping Fun Kits this month is one of our sold our St Paddy's kits, if  the winner has already bought the kit I will exchange the kit for a shop credit.

I look forward to seeing what you create so please let me know if you enter.

I have 5 spaces left for the St Paddy's kit so if you would like to subscribe head to the Subscription Tab and fill in the form.