eight

River turned eight while we were in Hope Vale.

Originally we planned to be in Mareeba, until Aunty Estelle's granddaughter, Hazel, heard River's birthday was coming up and asked, "Are we having the party here?"

And so we did. It made much more sense to celebrate with River's new friends and have lots of kids around rather than spend it just the four of us in a town we didn't know.

I made pizzas and two cakes: one chocolate, one banana.

Aunty Estelle's grand daughter Fenice made a big pot of spaghetti bolognaise. Aunty Estelle set the table with bbq shapes and bowls of jaffas and later served the cake with big scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Plus lemon cordial.

Not usual birthday fare you are used to seeing here but the love behind what our hosts provided was heartfelt and outweighed worrying about any processed food overload.

The kids played in the street while the pizza and pasta were cooking. Once it was ready Aunty Estelle dished out the pasta, some kids coming back for seconds.

No one sat still for very long, quickly gobbling up their food before running back to the street to play.

As the sun went down and the sky grew dark it was time for cake, I was glad I made two so there was enough to go round.

Once the cake was eaten most kids ran out into the night making their way home. Two of Aunty's grandchildren stayed for a sleepover much to River and Sol's delight, the games and laughing continued under the light of the back porch.

So now I have an eight year old. A funny, charismatic, entertaining, fiesty, musical, creative, loving, thoughtful eight year old son who I treasure and find joy in watching him grow and in nurturing him in every sense of the word.

We are back in Hope Vale this week (with no internet access) I will post more next week.

Happy wholefood days to you all.

If you have a children's birthday coming up take a look at this post for some wholefood menu ideas and a carrot cake recipe.

The photos in this post were taken by my husband Peter McConchie.

the generation gap: grandparents and sugar

I'm curious, does anyone out there have a wholefood grandmother or if you're really lucky two wholefood grandmother's in their family? Or a wholefood grandfather? I'd love to hear.

Both Pete's mum and my nan are of similar vintage, they are beautiful grandmothers we love them to bits and like many grandparents they have sweet teeth, that's right not just one tooth, a whole mouthful of them and take great delight in giving our children sweet 'treats' mainly in the form of chocolate AND/or ice cream. These great women grew up in times before fast food, before overly processed and packaged additive filled 'food', they were the days of backyard veggie gardens and chooks, cooking from scratch, and at times - going without.

Fast forward to the days of 'convenience' food and these beloved ladies are kicking up their sugar coated heels and relishing every moment of pouring ready made custard from the carton on to their heat'n'eat apple pie. My nan still loves to bake, cheesecake and pavlova being her signature desserts. And in some ways I can't blame them! They are living long lives defying nutritional odds, they've worked very hard, given a lot (and still do) so I say yes ladies put your feet up and have your pav and eat it too. Of course I can't help but think of the longevity and vitality that adopting even just a few wholefood ways would provide for them.

When it comes to sharing the sugar coated love with our boys, the sweet treats from their grandparents are well spaced as we only catch up once a month sometimes less because of the distance apart that we live. If we lived closer I fear I'd have to change the rules. I say fear because you and I both know there'd be tears and possibly not just from the children.

Grandparents are not the only ones though who take great delight in filling children with sugar and other processed junk 'food', other relatives and some friends do too.

I read with interest on the weekend an extract of Dara-Lynn Weiss' book The Heavy: A Mother's Battle Against Her Seven-Year-Old Daughter's Obesity. What stood out to me in Weiss' story is the way she stood up to social pressures on a daily basis to prevent her child being offered and encouraged to eat unhealthy or excess food. The stakes were higher for Weiss in navigating this because her daughter at age 7 was obese and had high blood pressure, she was very clear first with herself and then with those around her that she wanted to improve her daughters health and if that meant asking her daughter when she went to a friend's birthday party to choose between chocolate and cake then she would. It wasn't always easy but she did it with the best grace and good nature she could muster and her daughter is healthier for it.

Parents of children with allergies are also navigating more challenging waters when faced with people who want to pressure their children into eating foods that are not compatible with their body. 'Go on just a little bit won't hurt'. A friend learned her child was allergic to orange juice and dairy, she took her child to her mother-in-laws to be minded for the day and explained the allergy diagnosis. Her mother-in-law replied that she didn't believe in allergies "you never heard of it in my day." Well no you didn't but that's a whole other post.

I am well underway with writing my first ebook and it relates to this post. I am working at filling it with useful information, tips and recipes to help you share the whole food love with your family. One of the chapters covers dealing with peer pressure from grandparents and other caregivers to feed your children junk. I would love to hear your experiences with this.

Do you have parents or grandparents who are not on the same page as you when it comes to sugary 'treats'? Have you had to set limits? Do you make allowances? Or do you have wholefood grandparents so it isn't an issue? Is converting your family from eating processed food to wholefood something that you are working at or have you already done so? Tell me tell me tell me do.

my (not so) wholefood superheroes

Six years ago today I gave birth to my very own little superhero, named River. He is fun and funny, thoughtful, curious, observant, insightful, musical, beach loving and life loving. Today we had a party to celebrate him. 

I remember taking River home from the hospital and being so enraptured with him (still am). After loving other people's babies all my life since I was a little girl, at age 31 I was thrilled to have a baby of my very own that I didn't have to give back to parents.

River's birth was also the birth of Pete and I as parents. Still so much to learn but I feel so blessed to be parenting with Pete and to have our beautiful boys.

Happy Birthday sweet River.

I had been wanting to start a birthday tradition that went beyond cake and presents. This year the idea came to me to make a birthday 'flag' (see below) I have sewn six hearts on this one, one for each of River's years and I plan to bring it out each birthday and add another heart or a star or some other symbol from that year, a drawing or treasure. And by the time he is a teenager perhaps me and my birthday flag will become embarrassing and I will love that part of the tradition and parenting too.

The cake. This year River requested a spiderman cake. Despite not watching commercial television and being part of a Steiner community from his birth, those 'outside' influences are creeping in. I was very happy to create his dream birthday cake, though it meant breaking the wholefood rules and using wait for it...red food coloring! Beetroot juice colouring would just not give this brilliant red result:

I cut the whites of the eyes out of paper, spun a licorice web and it was done. Simple but effective, yes? Beneath that scarlet red buttercream icing is a dense and decadent chocolate cake that Pete and I tussled over the timing of when it should be removed from the oven. No one likes a dry cake agreed. But my dear Pete, raw cake does not really make for good eating either. I'm happy to say that between us we got the timing right and the cake was fudgy in the centre without being raw.

The recipe comes from a friend's mum who makes the cake each year for her grandson's birthday. It is so simple and a winner every time. This is the recipe as I received it:

1 cup of drinking chocolate
1.5 cups of caster sugar
2 cups self raising flour
1.5 cups milk
2 eggs
125 grams butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all together.

I amended it because most drinking chocolate has sugar in it, the one I used is sweetened with stevia, so I reduced the sugar to half a cup (I used golden unrefined caster sugar). I added 2 tablespoons of cocoa and I also chopped up 100 grams of dark chocolate and through the chips into the mix. I wanted to make a bigger cake to I added another egg, 1 more cup of flour, took the butter up to 200g and added another half cup of milk. And then yes, mixed it all together. Poured into a greased and lined tin and baked at 180C for around 45 minutes.

We set the guest list at six children, one for each year and it was perfect. They played in the treehouse, played with musical instruments, enjoyed a treasure hunt and pinata, ate home made dips, spinach and ricotta pies, mini beef pies followed by cake and jelly orange quarters, washed down with homemade lemonade. Two hours of excitement and fun with his new school buddies. Part of me felt sad that his 'old' friends weren't there, his kinder buddies whose mums are my closest friends here on the Peninsula. But hey, he's growing up and I have to move with that.

And as the last 'lolly' bag (containing yoghurt frog, carob licorice and honey lollipop) was handed out and River's guests were all waved goodbye, the rain that had held off began to fall and I savoured the day as I washed dishes, picked up balloons and sorted gifts of magic kits, paints and games. Quiet fell on the house. River and Sol settled in to watch a movie and when I had happily restored our surrounds to order I sat down to a sweet moment of my first piece of birthday cake and a cup of tea with Pete feeling completely satisfied with the day. As evening neared River's words, "I never want this day to end" said it all. Blissfully he is six :)

happy (sugar less) birthday party

Happy Birthday Capricorns! My 5 year old arrived home last week from his friend’s birthday party with a box of lollies and a tummy ache. It isn’t the first time and probably won’t be the last time.

Children’s birthday parties don’t have to be sugar and fat fuelled to be fun.

I agree birthday parties are the time to enjoy celebration food, I don’t agree though that lollies, chips, chocolate, ice cream, cake, party-pies, sausage rolls and soft drink are all necessary at one party.

In my eyes, the 2012 children’s party menu includes real food options such as:

Homemade dips and rice crackers

Wraps with grated carrot and cheese cut into pinwheels

Sushi

Home made ‘sausage’ rolls (vegetarian filling reduces the amount of saturated fat)

Chicken sandwiches

For older children have the party at lunchtime and make your own pizzas or have a simple pasta dish, penne with pesto

Homemade fish and chips

Roasted vegie ‘chips’

Mini quiche

Zucchini slice

Fruit kebabs

Popcorn necklaces

The cake

If you want to have lollies at your child’s party the cake is the place to do it. Rather than having bowls of lollies, putting lollies on the cake means that each child gets a few lollies on their piece of cake instead of helping themselves to handfuls. Most children do not want to eat rich cakes with cream and icing.

A simple cupcake is a great option.

The icing on the cake

To avoid food colourings use vegetable juices such as beetroot or carrot juice to give you pink or orange icing, a few drops of liquid chlorophyll for green, tumeric for yellow.

Send them home happy and sugar less  

It is the being with their friends that children love and remember. Set a new trend in your group of friends and change the menu. As for the lolly bag? The best take home party gift I’ve heard of were A Peter Rabbit party where each child was given a seedling to take home and plant.

Our children's childhood is an opportunity to be creative, fuel their imaginations.

One of my favorite party tips I learnt when I first started planning my son’s birthday parties is to invite as many guests as years the child is turning. You really don’t have to invite the whole class, really you don’t!

Below is a carrot cake recipe I’ve made for birthdays both as a round cake and cupcakes.

The inspiration for this recipe came from Jude Blereau’s incredible carrot cake in her book, Wholefood. Jude’s recipe calls for pineapple, sultanas and walnuts, here I make a simpler version. It makes a beautiful birthday cake or any time that calls for cake. The icing is rich so it is optional, the cake is just as lovely with a light dusting of icing sugar and served with vanilla yoghurt.

Carrot cake

2 cups spelt flour (can be white or wholemeal or a mix of both)

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ cup of brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

½ cup coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp nutmeg

4 cups grated carrot

½ cup almond oil (if you don’t have almond oil you can use 125g butter melted)

2 large or 3 medium eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream cheese icing

250g cream cheese, room temperature

120g butter, softened

1 cup of icing sugar

juice of half a lemon

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Lightly grease a 24cm round cake tin (spring form or regular) and line the bottom with baking paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and spices.

Stir in the sugar and coconut.

Add the carrot, oil (or butter), eggs, maple syrup and vanilla and mix well.

Scrape the batter from the bowl into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until you can insert a skewer into the centre and it comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning out on to a wire rack.

Allow to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, beat together the cream cheese and butter with the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to achieve a smooth texture.

This makes enough icing to cut the cake into two layers if you wish and ice the middle.

Happy Birthday.