stills collection

(Linking up with Em at The Beetleshack)

1. Here I am with 3 of the reasons I love being in the Northern Rivers shire in New South Wales, our dear friend Ruth and her twin babes.

2. A magical breakfast spread - thankyou Ruth and Micheal! Recipe from this coming soon.

3. Hard view from Ruth's kitchen sink huh?

4. Mighty fine felafel lunch with Uncle Dave at Yami's in Brunswick Heads

5. If you're not quite sure what on earth to do with shitake mushrooms I have a delicious recipe I'll post for you as soon as travel time allows.

6. Sweet Sol just hangin' out at Uncle Dave's shop.

on the road again

Today we leave our home-away-from-home here in the Byron Shire and make our way north.

Having spent our winters here for the last eight years, the spectacular beauty of Byron Bay and surrounds, its beaches and hinterland, has become a familiar haven for us. In some ways I feel like as we travel beyond what we know, beyond our close friends, it sounds cliche to say but that is where our journey begins, beyond what we know.

Pete and I did a road trip to Cairns a couple years before River was born, but River and Sol haven't been past the Gold Coast. I'm looking forward to travelling to new places with them. And of course the sun and warmth will be a bonus, with the chill of Victoria's winter pushed to the back of mind. River and Sol are excited about sleeping in the tent, about campfires and fishing.

What they're not excited about is saying goodbye to Uncle Dave our friend who generously opens his home to us each year, and who this visit has sat through pages of doing Star Wars sticker books, taken the boys to movies, introduced them to Hello Dolly! and practiced doing circus tricks with them following our trip to Spaghetti Circus.

Remember that aunt or uncle who gave you their undivided attention when you were a child? Who let you choose the game/movie/book? Who was patient and funny? That is who Uncle Dave is for the boys and he will be missed by all of us but we'll be back in September.

Life on the road is a string of hellos and goodbyes, seeing old friends, making new ones and finding places to fall in love with.

I have to admit I was caught by surprise by a twang of homesickness yesterday. All of a sudden with three months of travel to go, the time away from home felt lengthy.

I've pushed through that feeling before when traveling and this time it is no different, except this time I am travelling with my little tribe and its true wherever they are tent, caravan, hotel is home.

So this post is just a little update that the regularity of my posts will vary from here on. I have plenty to post about but finding the time when there is no school day and when we are about to head into areas where wifi is not guaranteed will be a bit of a test.

If you are of the facebook or instagram world join me there @wholefoodmama. You can also sign up (top right) to have new posts delivered to your inbox if you like to do things that way. More soon!

What's happening with you? Are you travelling? Dreaming of travelling? I'd love to hear in the comments.

stills collection

1. Goodmorning Grandfather Sun. As much as I prefer not being woken up before dawn by Sol, I do love how excited children are each day to see the sun and begin the day.

2. You know I'm a fan of kids in the kitchen. Here is River chopping a vegetable he doesn't like to eat but I figure getting him to touch it is the first step towards him enjoying to eat it one day!

3. Those mushrooms ended up in this yummy stir-fry Uncle Dave cooked for us with soba noodles.

4. This little beauty arrived with another beauty, our friend Ruth :)

5. Our friend Cath came up from Melbourne to work on some photos with Pete for her new business which I am excited to share with you soon!

6. And then this arrived in the mail...an early 40th birthday present...a massage and aromatherapy facial. Such a beautiful gift. It was a heavenly 2 hours. Lucky me! A big mwah and thankyou to my dear thoughtful and generous friend.

weekend reading

It was an honour to be featured on Olga's blog this week in her Inspiring Peace series

And to have one of my recipes in Sonia's 10 nourishing soups post. Thanks for having me ladies!

When sugar isn't sweet - very interesting read about one mother's experience with her sugar sensitive child

Sourdough lovers how about a sourdough black forest cake? 

Pete Evans' recipe for cauliflower fried rice with chicken looks pretty good!

I've enjoyed discovering Holistic Bliss magazine this week

Georgia shares How to exercise and meditate everyday no matter how busy you are

We're off to downtown Lismore today. I've never been there before I'm looking forward to doing some exploring with River and Sol while Pete delivers some of his books to the uni.

Speaking of books, my ebook is coming along. Yes taking much longer than I anticipated but I'm getting there! And this week I was very happy to get a yes from the editor I had in mind to work on the book so I am extra inspired to get it finished!!

I hope you've got a great weekend ahead that of course involves some cooking and sharing of food with people you love. Happy weekending. X

thursday recipe: zucchini fritters + fruity salad

There's been a bit of a fritter frenzy around here. It all started with zucchini fritters, a few days later broccoli fritters and then last night after dinner Uncle Dave introduced River and Sol to a dessert indulgence of pineapple and banana fritters.

We are staying with our good friend Uncle Dave just near Byron Bay, David is vegetarian much to carnivore Sol's amazement, and I've been coming up with inventive ways to get Sol excited about vegetarian meals.

So far I've failed dismally (I don't think a cheese and avocado toasty on pumpkin and pepita bread counts as a vegetarian meal). River however is sold on vegetable fritters.

If you've never made fritters before they are very simple and lend themselves to an array of vegetables. I think the biggest selling point for kids who are not fans of vegetables is that they typically include cheese of some description. I am yet to meet a child who doesn't love cheese. That said, we try to go easy on dairy here because it doesn't seem to take much dairy and everyone is congested.

In this recipe I use labne cheese, which is made by straining yoghurt. I'm told it is easy to make but haven't gotten around to giving it a go yet, so I used locally made baraka labne.

As you can see in the photos Sol was helping me with the grating, his first time loose in the kitchen with a grater. I'd never thought of grating zucchini lengthways. Thankfully his knuckles remained intact. Even though it takes more time having kids help in the kitchen it is so important to get them involved in day to day cooking, not just licking the bowl when baking!

I served the patties with a fruity salad, I know adding apple and passionfruit to salad sounds weird but it worked!

I hope these fritters win some fans in your house.

Zucchini fritters

Ingredients

1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1/2 cup labne
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 egg, whisked
4-5 small zucchini
Ghee or oil of choice for frying

To make

Grate zucchini and place in colander.
Squeeze excess liquid from grated zucchini and place in mixing bowl.
Add in remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
Heat oil in pan to medium high heat. Drop a pinch of mixture into pan to see if oil is hot enough.
Using a measure of approximately 2 tablespoons to form one fritter, place fritters into oil, flatten out a little with spatula and cook until golden on each side.

For the fruity salad I used mixed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, green capsicum, beetroot, apple, passionfruit and chopped fresh parsley. I dressed it with lemon juice and olive oil.

If you want more zucchini fritter recipes go here. And for broccoli version go here. Enjoy!

stills collection

 

1. Hello Sydney! This is a little rewind of a few snaps from last month in Sydney.

2. Sol and Pete, bright lights, big city, dinner at Darling Harbour.

3. Home schooling cafe style. Ampersand on Crown cafe/bookstore Surry Hills.

4. Fast forward to this week, River on Belongil Beach, Byron Bay.

5. Happy Sol at Belongil.

6. Off to Spaghetti Circus with Uncle Dave.

7. Amazing show. And chandelier.

8. Members of the Performance Troupe strutting their stuff.

weekend reading

Have you read Nora Gedgaudas' top 10 nutritional mistakes?

Jodi's post will have your winter cold sorted

Lovely Jay shared some of her beautiful photos from our recent visit. How does she capture light that way?!!

For simple doable tips for living a greener, healthier life pop over to my friend Tess' blog: tiny green hands

If you are looking for a dose of grounded nutritional medicine read Jessie's guidelines for health and healing

Meet The Organic Sisters

Spinach crepes with apple and chickpeas sound weird and intriguing

And how about these tumeric and almond cookies?

The super delicious beetroot dip pictured above is one of my friend Robin's simple and divine wholefoodie creations (correct me in the comments Robin if I'm wrong with this 'recipe') - grated raw beetroot mixed into cream cheese with lemon juice and garlic. Perfect with crunchy celery.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. We're off to a Spaghetti Circus performance tomorrow - yay!

See you back here next week x

thursday recipe: cauliflower and mushroom soup (dairy free)

As regular readers know, my family and I are travelling up the east coast of Australia heading to Cape York. We are currently in Byron Bay staying with our dear friend David, who much to Sol's amazement, is vegetarian. "Oh come on mum, Uncle Dave has to eat more than just vegetables?!!" was Sol's comment. I am enjoying the creative challenge of coming up with vegetarian dinner ideas that appeal to my carnivorous child.

Winter is here and soup is perfect for the cool nights. Soup can also be a great way to feed your (reluctant) family a wider variety of veggies. Cauliflower and mushrooms are definitely not on my boys list of favorites but when Pete spotted that beautiful cauliflower in Dave's shop we decided on cauliflower soup for dinner.

This recipe is very quick and simple. My 7 year old who is always willing to at the very least taste foods made his way through a decent serve of this, he didn't love it but he gave it a good go and that is all I ask. Sol fell asleep before dinner, he has been on a very early cycle for some months now and it is very challenging!

I hope your family enjoys this soup. I served toasted sesame spelt bread with raw garlic butter alongside. Raw garlic is good preventative medicine.

Cauliflower and mushroom soup

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower, chopped into small pieces

4 shallots or 1 medium size brown onion, finely diced

8-10 field mushrooms, chopped into small pieces

1 cup filtered water with 4 teaspoons organic stock powder or, 1 cup homemade stock 

1 cup of chopped fresh parsley

toasted sesame seeds for garnish

1 tablespoon butter or ghee

To make

Melt butter or ghee over medium heat in heavy based pot. 

Gently cook shallots or onion until transparent.

Add cauliflower, mushrooms and stock or water.

Bring to boil then reduce to simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables soft.

Puree to desired consistency.

Stir in parsley.

Serve and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

stills collection

1. Sol dragging seaweed along lighthouse beach at Port Macquarie while Pete and River fished. One of a string of beautiful sunsets we have witnessed on this trip.

2. Pete and River heading into the waves. Town beach Port Macquarie.

3. Three laughing buddhas, well that was what I asked them to pretend to be while I took their photo. If you are wondering how on earth Poe and Ilo have popped over to my blog, we were lucky enough to spend some real life time together on our way north. Thankyou Jay, Scott, Ilo and Poe for your warm and beautiful hospitality and to Bellingen for charming us.

4. Concerts were just one of the treasures of this visit.

5. A tired looking me with my little buddy Sol who wakes before six most mornings. We spent a beautiful day together just the two of us wandering around Brunswick Heads and Mullumbimby, while Pete, River and Uncle Dave travelled up the coast for a work day.

6. My self-directed, highly motivated, enthusiastic homeschool boy. Phew. Thankyou River for making my job easy.

Yes we are having a wonderful time.

weekend reading

We are in Byron Bay for the next few weeks, I'm looking forward to a haircut with Norico and lunch at Doma in Federal

River and Sol are looking forward to some Spaghetti Circus action

Recipe wise, Chickpea & chicken, coconut green curry sounds good to me

As does this slow cooked Moroccan lamb tagine

A great guide and list of recipes for starting a plant based diet with a family from Adele at Vegie Head

Thanks Kevin Murphy for supporting the Culture is Life campaign that my husband Pete is working on with Indigenous Elders around Australia to end Indigenous youth self-harm and suicide. If you'd like to support the campaign by purchasing some of Kevin's hair care products go here.

Pip Lincolne's A-Z of Blogging is a good read for bloggers

If you have your own business or are thinking of starting one I recommend signing up to Leonie Dawson's Business Goddess E-course ($79) the course includes Leonie's great resource 'The Magic Money Making Kit'. I am a member of Leonie's online Academy and I return regularly to this practical resource that is very user friendly and gets results. If you sign up via my link I get a commission.

Pete has taken Sol into Byron Bay and left River and I back at the house so that River can do his schoolwork (which is very keen to do. phew!) and so I can work on my ebook. So, I better get on with it! Happy wholefood weekend everyone.

wholefood step-by-step: # 20 buckwheat pancakes

Who doesn't love a pancake for breakfast?

For me, this buckwheat pancake mix is about as close as I get to 'convenience' food.

I love the nuttiness of the buckwheat flour. And I love that they contain no wheat despite buckwheat having the word wheat in it, in fact buckwheat is a seed related to the rhubarb family. So, if you'd like to reduce the amount of wheat in your family's diet for whatever reason these are a good alternative to wheat flour pancakes.

If you are in the habit of buying pancake mixes in plastic shaker bottles do read the ingredients. Most of these style of pancake mixes contain additives like these whitewings original pancake mix:

Wheat flour, sugar, wheat starch, skim milk powder, raising agents (sodium bicarbonate, 341,541), vegetable shortening (Vegetable oil, glucose syrup solids,milk protein, emulsifiers (soybean lecithin, 471,481), mineral salt (339), vegetable gum (466), antioxidant (306)), emulsifier (471 derived from soy), egg white, flavour, salt, vegetable gum (xanthan). Contains wheat, soy, milk and egg as indicated in bold type. Made on production line that also produces products containing tree nuts.

And while the additives aren't great for your health, the plastic shaker bottle won't do the health of the environment any favours either!

The Orgran mix pictured is very easy to turn into batter, I'm not too fussy with the measurements and just put in a couple of eggs and enough rice milk until I have a consistency I like.  The packet directions suggest 2-3 eggs and you use either milk or water, sometimes I also add ground cinnamon and a few tablespoons of natural yoghurt to the batter.

I like to slice apple or banana thinly, cook one side of the pancake and then while the pancake is in the pan, press the fruit slices into the uncooked side, the flip and cook. Banana with toasted walnuts and a splash of maple syrup or apple and cinnamon are my favorite toppings.

If you'd like to try wholefood mama Michelle's sprouted buckwheat pancakes go here.

Have you tried buckwheat pancakes? What are you favorite toppings?