Thursday, February 17, 2011

Kit Rolling





Kit's rolling all over the shop. Enjoying it mostly. Getting a little frustrated that he can't roll back again, as am I when it happens in the middle of the night. He is loving exploring the world and giggling at lots of things, especially rasberries on his neck. He enjoys gazing at the trees in the back garden, listening to the rainforest music on the play gym, watching and laughing with his sister, greeting his daddy with a big smile after a day's work, kicking his legs in the bath and chewing his monkey.

No Fun February

After the gluttony of the christmas and holiday season, Silas and I usually decide to clean up our act a bit during February. We give up wheat, refined sugar, caffeine, alcohol and processed food. When we first did it we could only eat complex carbs, so no white rice or potatoes either. That was really quite hard. Silas is doing two weeks without dairy. I'm not going for that as I've got a real thing for milk and yoghurt and I'm breastfeeding a very hungry 4 month old. We are not so hard core this time round.

As usual the thought is much worse than the actual doing of it and we've had some delicious meals. I miss my cup of builders tea at the beginning of the day and in the afternoon. Sometimes lemon and ginger doesn't cut it. As we are allowed raw honey it means that there are a few sweet treats along the way as well. I've already posted about the Tahini Balls and here's a taster of our menu so far:-

Barbecue garlic prawns with green salad
Smoked Trout Kedgeree
Porcini Mushroom and Kale Risotto
Banana custard
Blueberry popsicles
Home made muesli with home made yoghurt
Asian blue eye cod and rice (Ta - Niall and Caz)
Home made macadamia pesto chicken with rosemary and garlic potatoes
Tahini Balls
Sardine and Borlotti Bean Soup
Rice Pudding
Chicken and Prawn Paella
Roast Chicken, Dutch Cream Potatoes and Carrots
Chick Pea Curry

Doesn't sound that bad - does it?

I've definitely lost weight - could be the breast feeding though. And I'm feeling healthier despite a fair bit of coldy fluyness about. Looking forward to a cool glass of wine though....

I've put the recipe for home made yoghurt below, its very simple and delicious and a money saver too, if you normally buy organic yoghurt.

Yoghurt

You will need a litre glass jar with a lid and a tea towel. We use the easyglo yoghurt making equipment but make our own in it.

1 tablespoon of yoghurt
1 litre of milk

Bring the litre of milk up to boiling point, but don't let it boil. Take it off the heat to cool down. Once you can put your finger in the milk and keep it there without getting burnt (not for faint hearted), mix the yoghurt with a bit of the milk in your jar and then add the rest of the milk. Put on lid tightly, wrap the tea towel around the jar and put it somewhere warm over night.

Voila! Yoghurt in the morning.

P.S. There are plenty of recipes that are more complicated or use thermometers but this works for me.

Spiced Peaches


Silas made some spiced peaches this week. The peaches came from lettuce deliver, a great organic food delivery service. They are family run and the service and produce is second to none. www.lettucedeliver.com.au/

Silas got the recipe from his brother, Jonathon, who in turn used an Elizabeth David recipe. I can't wait to to try them later in the autumn.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Tahini Balls

This recipe comes from the beautiful Nadine, who runs the She Births program for couples who want to birth on their own terms. It's a great course and really helped me have two amazing birthing experiences.

http://shebirths.com.au/

We are having a "no fun" February, which means no alcohol, sugar, caffeine, meat, wheat, processed foods, and for two of the four weeks no dairy. We've been doing it for years now, sometimes twice a year. It gets easier each time. Although I find the sugar the hardest thing to give up. So these tahini balls are the go for a little pick me up treat. Great as a snack for labour and breast feeding as well!

Ta, Nadine.

Tahini Balls

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup tahini
1/3 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup lightly toasted seeds
1 cup assorted dried fruit
1/3 cup dessicated coconut


Put all the ingrediants (APART from the coconut) into a bowl and mix well. Make into bite size balls and roll in coconut. Refrigerate until you want to eat them.

I have used all sorts of dried fruit, apricots, sultanas, goji berries, cranberries, dates etc. They all taste good.