this week in my wholefood kitchen

"I love chicken soup" came the cry from Sol this morning when I placed a bowl before him to eat for breakfast. He devoured every last drop and then announced with a mixture of pride and surprise "I love carrots now!" Ordinarily he would do his best to drink the broth and leave the carrot in the bowl. Not an easy task.

The chicken soup for breakfast was for River's benefit as he is fending off a change of season cold. I didn't manage to whip the camera out this morning to photograph the soup but as you can see there are a series of photos above that I am hoping will give you a couple of inspired ideas for simple yet delicious real food options to enjoy with your family.

My whole aim with keeping this blog is to celebrate wholefood and show that eating well is easy with a little planning. Posting recipes regularly though is not my strong point. It occurred to me though that even just a series of photos or a list of meal and snack ideas can be enough to help when inspiration is low.

Sunday night we were very lucky to have calamari, mashed potato and ratatouille. I say very lucky because the calamari was fresh, Pete caught it in the bay. I sliced it into strips rolled it in flour and cooked it in butter. Pete made the ratatouille with eggplants and onions from our local farm and tomatoes and herbs from our garden. The calamari, mash and ratatouille was a memorable combination. I didn't photograph that meal either but wanted to share the idea.

Now, on to the photos.

1. Rice noodle salad. This was a classic case of "I have no idea what we are going to have for dinner tonight but whatever we're having, I am making it with ingredients we have". And those ingredients were: rice paper noodles, avocado, cherry tomatoes, mixed lettuce leaves, carrots cut into small dice, basil from garden, tuna and olives. Dressed with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. The dressing might sound a little curious but as I said I was going with what was on hand and that was the combination I felt like, you could definitely be more adventurous.

2. Classic anzac biscuits. I made these as part of a meal hamper I put together for a school mama and her family, the mama has recently given birth to a beautiful little girl her third baby and I wholeheartedly believe in cooking for new mamas. In fact, any reason I can find to cook for people I'll take. New baby, moving house, sick children, sick dog. You get the picture. The joy for me yes is in the cooking but also the giving, I love giving presents and in this case it is more than the food it is the gift of time, the gift of not having to wash pots and pans. 

Speaking of giving, my friend Robin heard River was not well and messaged me offering to drop in carrots, celery, onions and thyme from her farm so I could make broth. I just love how we mamas find ways to support each other and how once we are on a wholefood path we connect with wholefood friends who know and value all the riches real food have to offer.

3. Spinach and fetta pie. Along with a garden salad, the pie was the main part of the new mama hamper. When I delivered it to my friend at school pick up she said, "It has been so nice today not having to think about what to cook for dinner." The thinking and deciding is often the hardest part!

4. This pretty as a flower squash arrived home with Pete from a friend's veggie garden. The basil leaves are from our garden and were waiting to be added to a salad.

5. We are about to harvest our remaining cherry tomatoes for this season. I love the process of growing vegetables of being as excited as a child, to see the tiny signs of first fruits appearing on the bush and then when the first fruit begin to ripen and then moving (hopefully) into an abundant crop where you can hardly bear to look at another tomato, and then tapering off to see the crop finish and savouring the last fruits as at the beginning of the cycle, as if they were gold. If you never grow food, you can never know the feeling of witnessing this cycle up close...back to the salad pictured...cherry tomatoes from our garden were halved and tossed into a bowl of mixed lettuce leaves, along with avocado, garlic chives, spring onions, red capsicum, green capsicum, and snow peas. It was a delicious salad that we enjoyed with organic beef schnitzel from Cherry Tree Organics.

The rest of the week will see more chicken soup, a spinach pie for us, whiting and salad and perhaps some dahl.

What's happening in your kitchen?