weekend reading

Food blog love: My New Roots, 101 Cookbooks, Oh My Veggies

One for writers and bloggers, I discovered Jeff Goins site this week you might like it too, lots of great tips

3 benefits of a mentor (and how to get one)

Take a look at these 10 money tips for women on the moneysmart page and take a free money health check.

Your kids, too? Practical advice when kids have too much stuff

Natural New Age Mum has Christmas sorted for you. Click on over for festive wholefood recipes and a giveaway, you could win a Christmas cake bundle or Christmas biscuit bundle from Gluten Free Grain Free Co

Lucky me, I was taken to a belated birthday lunch yesterday at Jardin Tan. Such a treat.
Beautiful food, beautiful setting, precious friendship. Thanks Sal xxx

Wishing you all a happy weekend. We are looking forward to celebrating Sol turning 5 on Sunday, that's him in the pic at age two months. How time flies when you're raising kids!
Thanks for stopping by.

thursday recipe: bacon, cheese and veggie spelt muffins

  You 

probably won't want to hear this but this isn't the recipe I had planned for you today. No.

I had a beautiful broad bean, bacon and avocado salad for you (not that this recipe isn't yummy too!) but somehow 25 photos went between my camera card and my computer. 

Technology ate my recipe photos!

Anyway let's not dwell on that. I do have a recipe for you, one that I think your family will enjoy and it gives you a sneak peak into my e-book.

The world hardly needs another muffin recipe, save us from the muffins I know! But having said that this is my answer to River occasionally asking if he can have a bacon and cheese roll in his lunchbox like others kids buy from the bakery.

This way River gets the bacon and cheese so he's happy, I get to add in the veggies and use organic spelt flour instead of wheat flour and there are no preservatives or additives in there so I'm happy too.

(oh and sorry about the weird formatting that was playing up too! Must be time to step away from technology for a little while. Not too long, I'll be back tomorrow with weekend reading)

Do your children ask for processed foods in their lunch that other kids have? 

How do you handle it?

Bacon, cheese and veggie spelt muffins

Ingredients

2.5  cups white spelt flour

2 tsp aluminium free baking powder

3 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup almond oil

1 cup of grated carrot

generous handful baby spinach, finely cut

¾ cup chopped bacon

½ cup cheddar cheese

½ cup parmesan

1 cup milk of choice

extra bacon, chopped for top of muffins

To make

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F

- In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. 

- In a separate bowl combine eggs, oil and milk.

- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to combine, do not over mix.

- Scatter extra bacon over the top of each muffin.

- Bake for 20 minutes

hope for health

These beautiful Yolgnu ladies are seeking our support. 

Nourishing traditional bush foods have been replaced with shop food - white bread, margarine, tea, sugar and soft drinks - the result in Galwinku community and many other remote communities around Australia is that 1 in 2 adults have kidney disease and 1 in 3 adults have diabetes.

An encounter with good nutrition has inspired the Yolgnu ladies to make changes. They now have a solution and they need financial and/or social media networking support to make it happen.  

The ladies dream is to travel to Living Valley Springs Health Retreat for a 10 day program so they can learn how to get their health on track by improving their diet and then they want to share that knowledge with their community. 

This initiative is brilliant. It is empowering these women to take back their health care. Community led healing is what it's all about.

Regular readers here know that earlier this year my family and I spent time in Hope Vale a remote community four hours north of Cairns. This experience opened my eyes and my heart to both the harsh realities and the tremendous strength and resilience of the Guugu Yimithir people who opened their homes to us.

The food story is the same in Hope Vale as it is in so many communities. I left there feeling at a loss for how change could even begin. We have been home two months and I think about it most days. I met women in Hope Vale who want to do something about improving the nutritional value of the food people are eating. I started thinking about ways this could happen.

And then today I read about the Yolgnu ladies initiative on Chef Pete Evans facebook page. Perhaps this could be something other communities would like to do.

The ladies have 19 days to raise their funds before their crowd-funding appeal ends. 

If you can support them in any way financially $5, $10, $15 or hundreds or thousands it all adds up.

And if you can't offer money, then please share through your networks which only takes a few clicks and is equally valuable.

You can read more about this story on nutritional health guru Nora Gedgaudas' blog.

To learn more about the campaign and to donate go here.

These are mothers and grandmothers taking action to do something positive for themselves and their community. 

Go ladies go!

weekend reading

(I can't take credit for this beautiful image. It is a magnificent looking chia pudding from Brenda and Naomi's BreakThrough holistic weight loss program)

Green smoothie lovers, read this for some tips on making your smoothie the best it can be

I love Mamacino for her great sense of humour, her beautiful recipes and photography. In her spare time she's whipped up a new book to get Kids in the Kitchen. 

Do you hide veggies in your children's food? Me too. Georgia has written a fantastic post on the pros and cons of this age old practice.

I love Olga Dossa's philosophy for mothers to 'Love Yourself First'. Olga is hosting a one day workshop on January 2nd for mamas who want to start their year off loving themselves first!

Here's something we can all benefit from: a digestive morning drink and restorative yoga

And last one, you have until midnight if you want to sign up to Brenda Janscheck and Naomi Judge's fantastic 21 day holistic weight loss program that includes a 7 day cleanse, beautiful recipes, and detailed questionnaires to point you in the right direction to strengthen your digestion and balance your hormones. I'm taking part and think it is such a great program to recommend I've become an affiliate. It is very comprehensive and well worth the investment for the value you receive. For more info and to sign up take a look here.

Ok. I'm off for an early school pick up, dash to the dentist, then back for the school disco. As you do.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you back here next week with more wholefoodie posts and who knows what else! Thanks for taking the time to visit. x

thursday recipe: broad bean 'green' rice

Earlier this week, Pete, River and Sol went to visit an Iraqi family who are living in our neighbourhood on a temporary visa.

We heard about the family through a friend of a friend who told us how uncertain the family were feeling about whether they will be able to stay on and that the local church were supplying them with food. Pete thought that they might like some of the fish from his recent catch, he also wanted to extend a hand of friendship and to open River and Sol's awareness to the fact that there is not peace in every country as we know it in Australia and that for many different reasons some people leave their homeland. It is a lesson in compassion and gratitude, one that we want to continue reminding our boys of.

Many thoughts went through my mind as I prepared dinner while they were out. Like I'm sure many of you reading this practice being grateful for all the simple freedoms and pleasures in life I really do this every single day and think that it is an important teaching for our children, all the more powerful if we can actually introduce them to people who can share their stories.

I found some leftover basmati rice in the fridge, wasting food is never an option so I decided to make a 'green' rice to go with the fish we were having. I had broad beans from George one of our local farmers, and parsley and spring onion in the garden, garlic and lemon zest went in too. I would have loved to add preserved lemon if only we'd had some.

By the time my fellas drove in the driveway our dinner was just about ready. Sol set the table, while River brought in fire wood and emptied the compost (they are their regular jobs, not always done without some grumbling) and then we sat down to eat. Fresh whiting fillets caught by Pete, rolled  lightly in white spelt flour and pan fried in butter, green salad with sprouts sprouted on our kitchen bench and green rice made with leftovers.

Family life has its challenges. We all get tired, some days are long, some too short, the house gets messy, money comes and goes, and through it all I'm grateful for all the simple things.

Broad bean 'green' rice

Ingredients

2 cups cooked basmati rice (can be white or brown)
1 cup or more of broad beans, however many you like or have on hand. Slice each bean in half.
4 spring onions sliced
1/2 cup of chopped parsley (or any green herb you like)
2-4 cloves of crushed garlic depending on how much garlic you like
zest of 1 lemon, and/or if you have it some chopped preserved lemon
1 tsp coconut oil for frying

To make

- Heat a wok or frypan over medium heat and add coconut oil
- Gently fry garlic taking care not to burn
- Add in broad beans and cook for half a minute so they keep some of their crunch
- Add in rice and turn up the heat, stir-fry until the rice is heated through
- In the last couple of minutes of cooking add in the spring onion, parsley and lemon

Enjoy with fish, chicken or on its own!

weekend reading

Have you ever made salsa verde? I'm giving Jamie Oliver's version a go tonight to have with some fresh snapper

Say hello to Yellow Bench the sister blog of Stone Soup 

I came across Bake Mixes a new biz selling ready to go organic baking mixes

I do love an e-course. If you want to simplify your life check out a simple year

I rarely make dessert but River went to an overnight camp at school last night so I thought we'd have a sweet celebration. I'm going to have a go at making this lemon meringue pie recipe a little more wholefoodie, if it works out I'll share it with you soon.

It is my darling Nan's 85th birthday tomorrow, they really don't make 'em like her anymore. That's my nan in the picture with me on my wedding day in 2011. The resourcefulness and resilience of women of that generation amazes me! I am blessed to have her.

Wishing you all a happy, wholefoodie weekend. Nourish yourselves, you deserve it!

thursday recipe: carrot, poppyseed and orange muffins

I'm doing everything I can at the moment to get more vegetables into Sol (my youngest who is almost five), including putting them into cakes and muffins!

I know that this isn't the ideal way to consume vegetables but these muffins do make for a delicious snack with at least some vegetable goodness.

After I baked this batch I put them in the freezer to add to River and Sol's lunchbox during the week.

River who is not usually a fan of muffins came home from school and asked "Do you have anymore of those things you made with the poppy seeds?" and Sol happily ate his for morning tea too.

Based on this success I thought I'd give carrot and zucchini cake a go. So far that has failed to win fans in the way that these muffins have. Back to the kitchen.

Aside from standing on your head and singing a song about carrots, how are you enticing reluctant veggie eaters in your house?

Carrot, poppyseed and orange muffins

Ingredients

2 cups spelt flour (I used one cup white, one cup wholemeal because that's what I had)
2 teaspoons aluminium free baking powder
1/2 cup coconut or rapadura sugar
1 tbsp poppyseeds
1 cup grated carrot
2 eggs, whisked
1/2 cup oil (almond, macadamia or if you need nut free I have used olive oil. You could use coconut oil but I haven't tried it with that)
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
zest of one orange

To make

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl place spelt flour, baking powder, sugar and poppyseeds and stir to combine.
In a separate bowl mix whisked eggs, oil and orange juice.
Add liquids to dry ingredients along with the carrot and orange zest.
Stir to combine.
Spoon mixture into greased muffin tray and cook for 15-20 minutes or until brown and cooked through when tested with a metal skewer inserted into the centre.