Getting Back into the Swing of Things

My poor blog has been neglected yet again! Life has been very busy and to top it off my 3 year old has pretty much dropped his day sleep (sob, sob) and I am just finding I have less time for myself. I'm sure all mums know what I'm talking about. Speaking of 3 year olds, far out isn't 3 so much worse than 2 in terms of behaviour! Ethan has always been stubborn but he would generally do what I ask but not anymore and he's now deliberately nasty to his brother. He'll often say 'Dylan's not allowed to come out' and hits him and won't play with him at times. It's definitely a challenging age! Soon I'll have a 3 year old and a 2 year old - argh!

Anyhoo I wanted to share a website that's got some fantastic recipes. It's called Wholefood Simply and there's so many things I want to try. I made this Rocky Road Fudge awhile ago and it was delish and I have these White Ones setting in the fridge at the moment. Can't wait to see if they set like 'real' chocolate. I did these in my thermie and just had to keep using the turbo button and scraping down the bowl because it only makes a small amount.

I also have these Anti LCM Bars in the fridge too. The mix tasted superb and the boys each licked a spoon clean so already they're a hit.

I was on a roll this afternoon and made something totally bad for you - Rocky Road (the real stuff!). I got this recipe from a lady I work with and I don't think I'll ever use another one.

2 x 200g blocks cooking chocolate
Bag of raspberry lollies
Bag of clinkers
Marshmallows

Mix the filler ingredients together while melting the chocolate. Stir through the chocolate and put into your mould. I use a Tupperware Jel Ring for mine and then slice it up. It's sooooo good! I'm looking forward to making a White Christmas version next month in the Jel Ring. It'll look so pretty!

Here is my last Rocky Road attempt -

Nom nom nom!!! :)

Meanwhile....

Meanwhile somewhere Down South of WA life just got in the way of my blog. Sometimes I'm not sure where my days have gone!

To be honest not much has been happening here. I've been very on and off with the food thing. Sometimes it's just so overwhelming that it seems way too hard. All these new foods and recipes and trying to meal plan them was just doing my head in. I posted this quote from Jude Blereau awhile back on my Facebook page and I'd say this just about sums up how I'm looking at things now.

To ease back into this blogging lark I want to share some of my favourite go to Thermie recipes when I've got nothing really in the cupboards.

Pasta e Fagioli Quirky Cooking style! I use either Borlotti or Cannellini beans or both. Whatever I have available.

Zucchini Slice a la Retro Mummy. I add basil and mint to mine as suggested to me by a friend. So yummy!

and lastly the good old Creamy Tomato and Salami Fettuccine from the Everyday Cookbook.

Anyhoo until next time!

At Home Day

Today we stayed at home all day which is very unusual for us. I generally like to take the kids out in the morning to tire them out so they have a good sleep during the day. However, I had tons of cleaning to do and I'm also participating in a 'No Buy July' challenge (not going so well) so I figured the easiest way not to spend money is to stay home!

I made Cloud Dough for the kids this morning which is something I've been meaning to do for awhile now. It's basically a 8:1 ratio of plain flour and oil. I used 4 cups of flour and 1/2 a cup of baby oil. It make a feathery light dough which moulds when you press it but is also soft and 'cloudlike'. I posted a photo on my Facebook page this morning of the kids starting out with it which was something like this:

This is how it ended:

It was not pretty and I think for a total time of about 20 minutes amusement the mess was not worth it. I won't be doing this again for awhile.

I posted a pic on FB of some Coconut Banana Cookies I made which were gluten free. The recipe was from Strands of My Life which has lots of GF recipes. They were like a cakey type cookie which I enjoy. I think I might try and reduce the oil a little but next time though. Here's the recipe:

 Coconut Banana Cookies

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 banana
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon bicard soda
1 cup coconut

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare a cookie sheet with baking paper.
Whizz up dry ingredients (except coconut), oil, banana and sugar in a food processor (I used my trusty Thermie).
Add eggs and vanilla and mix.
Drop spoonfuls onto the paper and shape into circles.
Bake 10 mins until slightly golden then remove from oven and let firm up for about half an hour.

The mix is very wet. I made 6 huge cookies so you could easily get 12 normal sized ones from this. The verdict was positive. They were definitely sweet enough and I'll be making these again.

Until next time :)

Mummy Guilt

It's been a crappy couple of weeks, my kids have been sick constantly and so was Chris when he was home, I've been eating way too much, not drinking enough water and we've had lots of bills come in so I didn't get our organic fruit and veg box this fortnight and I was feeling pretty bad about it. Mummy guilt. We all suffer from it.

So I pulled myself together and remembered that you can only do the best you have with what you've got. So we went to the market today and got lots of fruit and veg and I'll just wash it all in a vinegar rinse before we use it. We're not going to be able to afford to buy organic produce all the time as much as I'd like to be able to especially as we're now tightening our belts (more on that in another post). There are loads of people worse off than us and that's something I have to remind myself from time to time.

As I was in between writing this, bathing the kids and making dinner I dropped the lid of one of my vintage canisters and it chipped - sob, sob, sob! Hopefully the other half can fix it for me when he gets home.

Lucky for me I baked some of these yummo Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies today (ignore the eating way too much bit I mentioned earlier) which I can have after dinner. The recipe is from The Buttercup Bake Shop Cook Book which I recently picked up secondhand for $2 - score!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I used raw)
1 large egg, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats
chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease 2 cookie trays.
In a medium bowl sift flour, bicarb and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer) cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in oats and choc chips.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets leaving a few cms between each one. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on trays for a minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely.

I reduced the sugar and also I should have had my oven at 170 as mine runs hot so I only baked them for about 8 minutes. They are delish and very very moreish.

That's enough moaning from me today. Until next time.....

Our New Addition

It's been awhile since I've blogged due to us using up all  of our internet download! Couldn't believe it since I don't think it's ever happened before. Very annoying having to wait for the month to tick over.

We have a lovely Community Garden about 15 minutes drive away and I often meet friends there for a coffee and playdate. It's great for the kiddos as they can see all the vegies growing and play in the playground there and there's also some rabbits and chooks. Oh and a worm farm which is most fascinating to toddlers! There's also a couple of scarecrows around and last time we went Ethan (formerly known as Master 2) decided that he wanted a scarecrow at home. Daddy was away at this point so I told him to wait until he came home then ask thinking he might forget about it. Nope not our Ethan! As soon as poor Daddy came home Ethan wanted to make a scarecrow and Chris (formerly known as Mr Steps) being Chris grabbed some of his old clothes and started him immediately. Warning photo overload about to begin.

Such a hard worker just like his dad. Except when toys need to be packed up.....



Ethan couldn't rest until he had put the hat on the scarecrow.



But Daddy's not satisfied and has to sew the body parts together with fishing line instead of just tying a rope round his middle.

Rawwwwrrrrrr!!!

I asked Ethan what the scarecrow's name was and he said 'scarecrow'. Hmmm sounds about as original as when he named our fish - Fishie.

Then the morning after Chris flew out to work again we went out the back to feed the fish and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw him as he'd been moved to right in front of our patio and I wasn't informed! Ethan thinks he walks around the garden and also told us he should sleep in our caravan because he's cold outside and sad. So cute!

Sick

I've been sick for the past couple of days which is really unusual for me. I have lots of recipes that I'd like to share which my bestie at work and I have found. She's a super healthy mum who has always cooked from scratch for her kids (who are now teenagers) and she's definitely an inspiration to me. Not only in the kitchen but in the parenting realm too. So there will be lots of that to come.

Anyway I thought I'd just share a few photos of what we've been up to lately.

Foot tracing with the kiddies. Kept them amused for a few minutes....

Having extras brekkys alone with these two as Daddy is away for an extra week this time :(

Lots of park visits which always go down well with my super active two.

I made this gorgeous beetroot bruschetta from the Vegie head website. Have look here.

For a bit of fun I did a food colouring bath tonight - a red one which we I photographed it came out looking a strange shade of wee colour. So I won't bore you with that lol!

It's been very chilly here so we've had the wood fire going constantly but unfortunately I almost ran out of wood as Mr Steps wasn't meant to be away so long so he hadn't left a whole heap. Luckily some gorgeous friends of ours stepped in and brought a ute load over for me. Love them. I'm also quite proud of myself for actually lighting the darn thing as it's always been the monkey on my back. Thanks to a tutorial from a girlfriend I've got it down pat now.

Now I've bored you enough with all those photos I'll say goodnight and hope I wake up brighter in the morning!

:)

My Girls

I never ever wanted to have chickens. Mr Steps wanted them in the last house we lived in but I always thought they would bring rats and to be honest, they sort of freaked me out a bit. However when we bought this house on half an acre it wasn't even up for discussion. The chooks were coming to stay!

Now that we've had them for six months or so I couldn't imagine not having them. They are so friendly and when we go in their pen they squat down for you to pat them. I've even held them a few times and they're not so scary! Oh and not to mention the delicious eggies we get from them everyday. We use ALOT of eggs in this house and I haven't had to buy any for months and I get to give some away to family and friends when we have extras.

We started off with 6 Isa Browns and 2 Silkies (which were meant to be pets for the boys) but the poor silkies got overtaken and pecked constantly by the bossy Isa's so we rehomed them to a friend of mine who has a chook refuge :) Now the Isa's rule the roost lol!

Our girls are very spoilt and get lots of yummy scraps. I was giving them everything (except meat) until I found out that there a few things that they shouldn't have.

Raw green potato & peel - this contains Solanine which is toxic
Avocado skin and pit - these contain low levels of toxicity - OOPS! I only have just found this one out....
Raw eggs - obviously
Dried beans - these contain hemaglutin which is toxic to birds
Sugary foods

I've also read that citrus peel is bad for them due to the amount of acidity in it but there is alot of debate over this so I'm not too sure if it's true or not. I don't give it to mine anyway just to be safe.

They pretty much will eat anything though as any chook owner will tell you. I've read that giving them natural yoghurt is fantastic for them so I'm going to try them with a bowl of that.

Here are my lovely ladies

And here is the food and water shelter the talented Mr Steps made for them recently which of course they have pooped all over straight away!

Love my girls!

Early Mornings and Lost Keys

Why do small children (particularly mine) insist on waking up before dawn? I'm not a late riser by any means but these 4 and 4.30am starts to the day are getting ridiculous. I thought that as the sun started to rise later then so would my children but it's seemed to have the opposite affect on them. Very frustrating when they get so grumpy mid morning because they are tired. It makes going out for the morning very trying.

Yesterday was a 4am wake up for Master 1 and I generally bring him into my bed around this time to feed him (yes I'm still breastfeeding my 14 month old) and he'll doze back off. Not this time! Pair that with him still waking up on average 3 times a night and gosh I was tired!

We were meant to be somewhere at 9am that day so after entertaining the kids for 4 1/2 LONG hours, at 8.30 we went to hop in the car but lo and behold - no keys! Now I often misplace my keys but I always find them in about 5 minutes. Not yesterday. Half an hour later I still hadn't found them so I called my friend I was meeting to let her know we wouldn't be there on time. Another half hour and I called it quits before I blew my top. Master 2 assured me he hadn't played with my keys since coming home the previous day and I (stupidly) believed him.

There was a plan B to getting into town and that was use Mr Steps car. Now Mr Steps is very particular about his car and doesn't like me to drive it at all. However he is away at the moment and I was desperate so off we went in Daddy's car much to the delight of Master 2 who told me several times that I was holding the steering wheel wrong and that I didn't hold it like Daddy does.

After a much needed coffee, cake and play date with my friend and her sons at the local Community Gardens I felt much better and we headed home after lunch and we all had a quick nap.

Later on that day I was packing some toys away when I discovered this:

:)

Friday

I feel like I haven't stopped all day long. Probably because Master 1 only slept for half an hour in the car today so I've had no Mummy time. We went to a play centre today with a friend and her son and stayed there all morning. I love those places and this one was not too big so we could sit and have a coffee and watch the kids until they needed us to climb through tunnels and up big foam mountains.

 

 

 

After we got home and Master 2 was asleep, Master 1 and I went out the front and I did some gardening while he played in the gorgeous sunshine. Winter are you ever coming? When we moved to this house we inherited about 50 odd rose bushes which we were originally going to pull out but I sort of fell in love with them and now they are staying. We have some really old varieties and some which smell gorgeous. This one looked and smelt beautiful today.

It will be time for their annual mega prune in a couple of months but I'm not game enough to do it myself yet so we are going to get someone in to do it for us. A lot of love and time has gone into these roses over the 25 odd years this house has been here so I don't want to be the one who mucks them up!

There was more playing out the back later on when Master 2 woke up. I'd opened Daddy's shed to get some chook food out and it was game on! Sheds are like Aladdin's Cave for my little boys. There's so much to get into - and onto in this case.

Please excuse the terrible photo I'm desperate for a better camera but money doesn't allow just yet. Maybe after tax time.....

I made a curry for dinner and I thought I'd share the recipe. It's a Curtis Stone recipe from a Coles catalogue but I made a couple of changes as I'm not a huge fan of spicy food so I didn't want it too hot. Master 2 did tell me that 'it doesn't have a very nice taste Mummy' but I enjoyed it so I'll share. I think this would be great with chicken in it which I'll try next time.

Pumpkin Curry

1T coconut oil
500g pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2 cm cubes
1 onion, medium dice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1T curry powder
2T apple cider vinegar
400ml can coconut milk
400g can chickpeas, drained
1 cup vegetable stock
thickly shredded silverbeet

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil and heat for 1 minute. Add the pumpkin and onion and cook for 5-10 mins until pumpkin starts to caramelise and onion becomes translucent. Add garlic and cook for a further minute.

Stir in the curry powder and cook for a couple of mins. Add vinegar and stir and scrape the bottom of the pan. Add chickpeas, coconut milk and stock and stir until simmering. Reduce heat and let simmer gently for around 30 mins until mixture has thickened. Add silverbeet and cook until wilted. Enjoy!

I served ours with brown rice and natural yoghurt. I cheat and use a rice cooker. I have never, ever been able to cook rice on the stove. I also haven't been able to get brown rice to work in the cooker until tonight. I just added way more water than I usually would and it magically worked. Here is the finished product featured in another bad photo!

So that was my day for whoever is interested. I like the idea of this blog being a sort of diary I can look back at when the kiddos are older since I still haven't filled out their baby books or kept any sort of record of their milestones except for posting them on Facebook........

:)

Sick Day

Today I had a sick day. Not from work but from our kiddie activities. I had dragged myself out yesterday to Playgroup and felt worse for it so we stayed home today from our Rhyme Time and coffee/park date with friends. I actually felt a bit apprehensive about staying home as my boys are ACTIVE and we go out every morning until nap time and then we hang out at home in the afternoons. I thought they'd go a bit stir crazy at home but it hasn't been too bad. Luckily it's a beautiful day here after lots and lots of rain and cold weather so they were able to play outside. We played with some playdoh I made the other day. Sparkly black = awesome!

I got three loads of washing done while they played outside but then the inevitable happened - they wanted me and suddenly I had two new besties who wouldn't leave my side. I decided we'd bake this chocolate cake that I wanted to try which has raw caocao in it which I had just bought last week. Here is the original link.

Chia Seed Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

4 tablespoons Chia seeds soaked in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes
½ cup raw Caocao Powder

125 grams softened Butter

5 medium to large Eggs
1 cup Almond Meal
1 cup Rapadura (or sugar of choice)

Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon Bicarb

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C

2. Line a spring form cake tin with non stick baking paper

3. Soak chia seeds in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes, stirring regularly

4. In meantime place cocoa, eggs, almond meal, sugar, salt, bicarb and butter in a bowl. Whisk to combine well and break up any lumps (at least 1 minute)

5. Add chia seed jelly and whisk until well combined. Pour into lined cake tin

6. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes or until it bounces back when pressed in middle

7. Let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin. Finish cooling on a wire cooling rack

 

 

And here's the finished product:

 

 

Be warned it is not a very sweet cake. I think it could be made sweeter if you like by using raw sugar instead of rapadura as I did. The cake tastes way better than the mix did. I actually thought it was going to turn out gross after I tasted that but I was pleasantly surprised and the boys wolfed it down.

Oh and I didn't need to worry about them not being tired out at home either:

 

:)

Slack....

I've been very slack with blogging the past couple of weeks. Truth be told I used all our download (no idea how!) and even though we don't get charged for excess use our internet is slowed and it's just painful to use. My bad!

I've also not done a meal plan for this week and we've wasted quite a bit of food :( I started writing it down then kept forgetting. Time to recharge! Daddy has flown back out so I have 2 weeks to get sorted before he gets back. I'm also trying to get the house organised which is a very slow process. I have ALOT of stuff.....

Our littlest boy has been seeing a speech therapist for a little while now and one of the things she has told me to do is to go back to basics when I'm talking to him. So things like saying 'up' when he wants me to pick him up and 'down' when he gets down so he can copy the sounds. I'm finding this quite hard to do as my 2 1/2 year old is a brilliant talker and I basically have whole conversations with him all day so to then stop and go back to basics is proving difficult. The new plan after seeing our speechie today is to make bathtime the time where I do that and then hopefully it will filter into my everyday vocab. Here's hoping anyway!

So some things I am wanting to do is make up some baby wipes, start a 'Meatless Monday' in our home, make a housekeeping schedule and plan a night away for when Daddy gets home and blog more regularly!

:)

Mission Two - Reduce Food Waste

Every year Australians (homes and businesses) waste around 7.5 billion tonnes of food. How insane is that? When you think about all the people in our own country and around the world that don't have enough to eat then this figure is shameful.

I'll put my hand up to say that I am a food waster. Many times at the markets I'll buy fruit and vegies that we don't end up eating because I either buy too much or I don't have a meal to use them in or things are on special so I buy them for the sake of it. Now that I'm meal planning again I'm going to really try and only buy what I need for the week and bulk out all our meals with extra vegies and fruit. Tonight I'm sauteeing some kale that came in my organic produce last week otherwise I know I'll waste it.

Leftovers are another way that food is wasted and generally we do try and use these up but with my partner working FIFO sometimes things don't get eaten between the three of us. I'm going to start to freeze leftovers and that way they won't be thrown out and my partner will be able to grab stuff out for his lunches while he's home.

If you have canned,jarred or packet food that you know you aren't going to use then perhaps you could donate it to your local Foodbank or Women's Refuge or the like as my sister just did today. Great idea that I wouldn't have thought of.

So this week I will document everything that I throw away (or give to my chooks). Hopefully it won't be that much although I did throw away some baby zucchinis I found deteriorating in the crisper drawer this morning oh yes and some leftover cottage pie. Oh dear I haven't started well......

:)

Meal Plan 6th May - 12th May

Well it's not quite finished but I've done most of my meal plan for this week. I still need to add in one more dinner. The reason most of the lunch spaces are left blank is because I tend to give my boys a tasting plate for lunch. It generally has cheese, fruit, vegies maybe some ham if I have any and bread followed by a muffin or whatever I've baked. I find they eat more this way as they can pick and choose what they want.

We eat porridge ALOT as you can see. My boys love it and I know they'll be full afterwards. I stir raw hony and blueberries through it or some homemade jam or sultanas whatever we feel like on the day. I also cook it with a ton of cinnamon as we love it and it's so good for you. I've just bought some Mesquite powder last week which I've started adding to it too. It gives a lovely richness to the porridge.

Anyway here's the (un)finished product. A step up from no meal plan last week anyway :)

Things That Make Me Happy

I'm doing a random post today as I'm reorganising my house and coming across things that make me smile. Things that my other half calls junk...

Vintage glass makes me very very happy. Especially if it's coloured (this is an early Mother's Day present I just bought).

Vintage canisters make me happy too.

These things make me smile on a daily basis and that's really what's important isn't it? Having things in your home that you love and that make you happy.

:)

Mission One - Meal Planning

I must admit that I've fallen off the wagon these past few weeks in regards to eating well and I can definitely notice the difference in how I'm feeling at the moment. I feel a bit tired and run down and my skin is not happy so I'm determined to get back on and stay on! So I am starting weekly missions to help myself stay on track. You can come along for the ride if you like - the more the merrier!

I used to be fantabulous at meal planning. I would do it religiously every week and would know what we were having for dinner each night. I'm not sure what happened but sometime last year I stopped doing it and even though I keep thinking about doing it again I never have. Procrastinator that I am! Time to change.

I find that having a meal plan helps in so many ways. You can plan healthy and nutritious meals for your family, you know what you are buying at the supermarket therefore you save money on random purchases and also you reduce food waste. The key is also to stick to your shopping list which is also something I need to get better at (note to self - no more Hot Wheels cars!).

I personally find it easier to have my meal plan written out on paper and stuck somewhere in the kitchen rather than have it on the computer or an app on my phone. I found a weekly meal plan on Everything Mom which I like as it has space for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can find the free printable here. I've just saved it to my desktop so I can print it out each week.

So this is mission number one - meal plan each and every week. I don't want any more wasted food in this house and I would love to stick to my grocery budget for once. I'll post my meal plans each week so you can see what we're doing over here and I'd love to hear what you'll be having too. Who's with me? :)

Pesticides

There are over 7000 registered pesticides for use in Australia - how scary is that? Many have not been tested for long term effects on health either which is even more scary.  It's virtually impossible to wash all of the pesticides off your fresh produce unfortunately so if you can make even a small change and buy just one item organic (mine is apples) that would make a big difference. Basically leafy greens, produce with edible skin and soft fleshed produce are the top of the list for buying organic as these soak up the pesticides more and have been found to have the most residue on them. If you simply can't afford to buy organic then perhaps you could try growing one or two items yourself a go. You don't even need to have a garden as many things can be grown in pots and there's lots of varieties of dwarf trees (we have a Pinkabelle apple tree). An added bonus is that gardening is a great activity for the kiddies to get involved in, they have so much fun 'helping'.

These are the worst offenders for pesticide residue:

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries 
Peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries
Carrots
Apples
Spinach
Nectarines
Capsicums
Lettuce, spinach 
Pears
Tomatoes
Grapes
Celery
Pears
Leafy herbs

Thick skinned produce and things like bananas where you have to peel the skin seem to be more resilient against the nasties.

Remember to wash all produce really well. Here is a fruit and veg wash that will help remove more of the residue from your produce than just water alone. .
Mix the juice of one lemon, 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, and one cup of tap water.

This mixture can be put into a spray bottle and sprayed onto fruit and vegetables before rinsing in water and preparing to be eaten.

I'm thinking of doing a weekly challenge for myself to make one small change in my home which will make a big difference. I'll keep you posted :)

Daddy's Home!

My partner works FIFO 2 weeks one and 1 off so when he's home I like to make sure that we at least do something fun as a family even if it's just taking the boys to the park. He misses out on so much during the year so I think it's really important we try and make the most of his time home especially while the boys are little and not at school. It's not always easy though as there's always so much he needs to catch up on around the house and he always has a project or ten on the go. Today however we packed up the kids and drove to a fair at a Primary School about 40 minutes away from us. It was another glorious Autumn day (Will the cold weather ever arrive?) so it was a great opportunity to get out of the house. Due to another 5.30am start both boys had a sleep in the car on the way there:

It was lovely to walk around and see all the of the bits and pieces the kids from each class had made. There was a secondhand clothes stall there too and I scored a gorgeous pair of Country Road cords which were like new for a dollar! Bargain of the day :) The local markets were on too so we popped in there afterwards and I bought some organic fruit and veg. We also got a couple of Frangipani trees which we are going to plant in a corner of the garden. When I say we I mean my partner as although I try, I don't have much of a green thumb. After that we took the boys to our local park for a play then it was off home for much needed naps.

I had some pears and a couple of bananas I needed to use up so I made some muffins up while the kids slept which turned out to be very yummy. This is a recipe from an old but fabulous blog - Super Organiser Mum and I just added cinnamon.

Banana and Pear Muffins

1 1/2 cups SR Flour

1/3 cup raw sugar

60g butter

1 large mashed banana

1 pear diced

1 egg, lightly whisked

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Rub together the flour, butter and sugar and cinnamon until the mix resembles breadcrumbs

Stir in mashed banana, pear, egg and milk to combine.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pans. Bake at 190 for 20 minutes.

I would normally substitute the SR flour for spelt flour and baking powder but I've run out unfortunately. I'll talk more about spelt later in another blog post.

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend as much as I am :)

Sugar and a Recipe!

I thought I'd talk about sugar today. I am the first to admit that I have a massive sweet tooth. I can't remember the last day I didn't eat something sweet..... I do prefer homemade sweets though so I try and have something in the house most of the time. I'll even admit that I got desperate the other night when I didn't have anything made up so I whipped up a batch of thermo caramel sauce and made a banana split!

When I bought my thermomix one of the things they sell you on is that you can make your own caster and icing sugars out of raw sugar and stop using white sugar because it's so highly refined it does nothing for you. So I stopped using white sugar and just bought raw but after doing a bit of research I found out raw sugar was still refined and not that much better for you nutritionally however is is less refined so I'm happy with that. I now use rapadura, raw honey, molasses, dates, maple syrup and I do still use raw sugar because everything else is so much more expensive! So what is the difference between all the sugars you can buy? Jo from Quirky Cooking has one of the best explanations I've seen on all the different types of sweeteners so I would encourage all of you to go and read about it here. Her blog is AMAZING and she has so many recipes that I want to try. She is one creative lady!
Obviously the best idea is to cut down on sugar as much as possible and I am really trying to do that but in the meantime I am trying to make healthier choices. The best sweeteners to use are the natural ones like dates, raw honey and pure maple syrup and I'm going to make an effort to try recipes with these in them (which I will share of course) but for now here is a fave thermo recipe of mine which uses rapadura.  I'm sure those with more kitchen ability than me can convert it from the thermomix to a standard recipe. It's not totally healthy as it's got the naughty white choc chips in it but they make it sooooo yum! This recipe is from DelighfulDen of www.forumthermomix.com.

White Chocolate, Sesame and Sunflower Seed Biscuits

Ingredients:
125g Unsalted Butter
80g Rapadura Sugar
1 egg
200g Self Raising Wholemeal flour
20g Sesame Seeds
20g Sunflower seeds
100g White Chocolate bits

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 120 degrees fan forced. Line baking sheets with grease proof or baking paper.

Place softened butter and rapadura in themomix and cream together 20 seconds speed 4-5. Scrape down bowl and cream a further 5-10 seconds if needed. Add egg and mix 10 seconds speed 4.  Place all remaining ingredients into the rmomixand mix 20 seconds on reverse and speed 4.

Place tablespoon sized balls of mixture onto baking sheets and flatten with a dampened fork.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until they just begin to change colour. Cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to  wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Here are mine - sorry for the crappy picture but my camera is useless!

Yummo! I think it's time for a couple of these with a cuppa while the kiddos are asleep. Have a fantastic day :)

Green Smoothies

I first tried a green smoothie awhile ago after reading about how good they were for you  somewhere on the net. It was a very very green smoothie and didn't go down too well especially with Master 2. I decided to give them another go and made this one this morning (As you can see I had my little helper nearby) -

In it is a couple of handfuls of blueberries, a banana, a handful of baby spinach, a teaspoon of chia seeds, ice and milk which I blitzed for 30 seconds. It turned out like this -

It was a massive improvement on the first one I did and was heaps easier to drink although I could still taste the 'green' in it but I'm guessing you get used to it. I'm not sure I could do the ones with kale or the like in them.

Master 2 on the other hand loved it......Tee hee!

:)

Today

Where is Autumn? It has been such a lovely day again here in the West and we took full advantage of it. We had a very early 5.00am start which seems to be becoming the norm. For some reason the later the sun rises the earlier my boys get up. We started the day with a yummy juice which we used to do every morning but just recently I've fallen off the wagon. I'm determined to get back on again though! Today we just had apple, pear and orange:

I do all of my juicing in the thermomix. I basically chuck whatever fruit I want in with some ice cubes and water and then whizz on high for 30 seconds or so. I don't strain the juice as I'm used to the thickness with the peel in but you can easily strain it if you want. It's just a matter of personal taste. This was the end result:

Master 2 loves his morning juice and I just let Master 1 sip out of mine. Sunday is our cooked breakfast day so today we had yummy scrambled eggs for brekky using eggs from our girls and I also sauteed some mushrooms. We went to the markets after that and I bought a pomegranate tree seedling. I was so excited to see it as I love pomegranates so hopefully this little baby will take off!

We spent the afternoon outside enjoying the warm weather. The boys had lunch out there and then we played around with their water table and went on the swing and blew bubbles. Of course the day wouldn't be complete without Master 1 tripping over and cutting his lip resulting in a lot of blood everywhere!

 Tomorrow morning I'm going to try a green smoothie with the kids. The first time I did this it wasn't too successful so stay tuned!

:)

Chickpea Recipes

I made the yummiest dinner with chickpeas the other night  which I thought I'd share with you. Chickpeas (also known as Garbanzo beans) are so good for you they are full of fibre and folate and are a great source of protein. They also have heaps of calcium in them as well as iron, copper, zinc, manganese and magnesium. They are so tasty too what more could you want?

The recipe was a tear out from New Idea magazine which I found among my millions of recipes.

Chicken & Chickpeas With Curried Yoghurt

2 red capsicums
4 eggs
400g can chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
2 sticks celery, thinly sliced
400g cooked thickly shredded chicken (I just cooked up a large chicken breast)
Curried Yoghurt
1 cup Greek yoghurt
1 clove garlic, crushed (I didn't use this)
1 teaspoon curry powder
Cracked black pepper, to taste

To make curried yogurt, mix ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
Cut capsicums into quarters. Remove seeds and membranes. Place on an oven tray, skin-side up. Cook under a hot grill until skins blister and blacken. Place in a snap-lock bag. Seal. Stand for 5 minutes. Remove. Scrape away skins. Thickly slice capsicums.
Place eggs in a saucepan. Cover with cold water. Bring to boil. Gently boil for 8 minutes. Drain. Rinse under cold water. Peel skins. Cut eggs into quarters.
Combine capsicum, chickpeas, herbs and celery in a bowl. Toss up to combine. Divide among serving bowls. Top with eggs and chicken. Serve with yoghurt on the side.

I made a couple of changes. I didn't cook the capsicum I just used it raw and I tossed the chicken and egg and salad together and added the dressing to the bowl. It was so good even my 2 year old loved it! This would make a great lunch too.

I also make Hommus quite a bit as an afternoon snack for us so I thought I'd share my recipe. I am not keen on tahini so I don't use it but you can easily add it in if you like.

Hommus My Way

1 can of chickpeas drained
1 clove garlic, crushed
Olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
Cracked pepper
Italian parsley (optional)

Add everything into the food processor (I use my thermomix) and whizz up. I slosh a bit of oil in then blend a little and add more if I need too. Some people like chunky hommus and others like smooth so the amount of oil you use will depend on your preference. Sometimes I'll add a handful of Italian parsley as well it's so yum it gives it a really fresh flavour.

I'dLet me know how you go if you try either of these and feel free to share any favourites of your own :)

Coconut Oil

Today I thought I'd talk about the benefits of coconut oil (which you can buy at the supermarket in the health food aisle) and why I love it so much. I've been using it for a few months now and because it's not cheap I tend to be quite selective about what I use it in. I made a recipe with it and had to use 1/3 cup in it which I won't be doing again! 

Coconut oil has been used forever in India and Sri Lanka and Thailand. It's used in Ayurveda which is the traditional Indian healing system. It's had a bad rap because it's mainly saturated fat but it's a natural plant based saturated fat not a man made one like margarine (hydrogenated fat) and it doesn't contain any transfatty acid. It has lauric acid in it which the body uses to fight bacteria and viruses. Here are some ways it can be used:

- In cooking - you can fry with it (it won't oxidise and go rancid), use it in baking basically replace any other fat with it

- Taking 3-4 tablespoons a day will increase milk supply for breastfeeding mums

- Use it on bruises to help them heal quicker

- It stops the itching from mozzie bites

- Massage it onto sunburned skin

- It's great for nappy rash and cradle cap

- Massage it into your scalp daily to reduce dandruff

- Use it to keep lice and their eggs away

- Its a fantastic massage oil and body moisturiser

- Use it in homemade body products. You can find a coconut oil deodorant recipe here.

- It boosts your immune system

- It aids in vitamin and nutrient absorption

- It helps treat dermatitis, eczema and psoriasis

- Massage it into your skin to prevent wrinkles

- It helps the digestive system and can prevent digestive problems such as IBS and bloating

- It increases metabolism

- There have also been reports of coconut oil helping people with  Diabetes and Alzheimer's and Dementia

This is just scratching the surface! Check out Hybrid Rasta Mama for 333 uses for this amazing stuff. Many people just take a tablespoon of it a day for general health. Here is a link to a zillion recipes using coconut oil to give you some ideas. Hopefully you'll give it a go in your home and I'd love to hear how you've used it.

Homemade Fun!

I got the idea for this blog post from my sister. She sent me a picture of homemade chalk and said I should put it on my blog so I thought I'd do a post of all different homemade stuff for kids.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Mix 1 cup of cornflour with 1 cup of water then divide into muffin tins and tint with food colouring. Apparently you can let this harden to a make chalk. Here's my version:

Homemade Puffy Paint

This recipe is from Get your mess on! and I found it via my love - Pinterest. The original post can be found here.

1 cup flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
food colouring

Mix all together and put in squeezie bottles.


Homemade Playdough

This is the Playgroup Australia recipe which I think everyone has on a magnet on their fridge. All of my friends who have made this have said how easy it is - why bother buying it!

1 cup salt
2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
food colouring

Mix altogether and store in the fridge (well I do). Mine has lasted for months now and is still good (apart from all the crap that's stuck in it!).


Homemade Finger Paints

I think we've all seen this one:

There's tons more stuff out there to make at home and it seriously only takes a little while and the kids can get involved too. I would love to hear of anything that you've made at home :)