in my kitchen

When I started this blog I didn't want it to be 'just another recipe' site and as I haven't posted a recipe in quite a while I am living up to that aim!

Once I have my new camera I will get back to some recipe posting but for now I thought I'd share some  notes about dishes that my family have been enjoying. It is Springtime here but we are still waiting for warm weather so our meals have been more like winter fare...

- into an oven proof pot I place a whole chicken, chunks of potato, sweet potato, carrot and onion 1 litre of chicken stock and some dried herbs. Put the lid on and place in the oven at 180 degrees for 1-1.5 hours depending on the weight of your chicken (1 hour for every kilo is the rule of thumb) you could turn the oven down to 160 degrees and cook it slower. The end result is a delicious broth, moist tender meat and flavoursome vegetables. So easy and so delicious. It was Pete's idea to do this, it is similar but different to this by Michelle.

- leftover rice? I decided to use up some rice by gently frying chopped onion in butter adding the rice and over a medium heat, heating the rice through and then adding chopped preserved lemon and silverbeet (or spinach) you could add some chopped almonds too. This is heavenly served with fish which I am lucky enough to have in ready supply - king george whiting or flathead - thanks to my fisherman husband and eldest son.

- my favorite breakfast lately has been a very simple green smoothie made with one frozen banana, a handful of baby spinach leaves and about a cup of filtered water all blended until smooth. If you are new to green smoothies this may be a bit too plain, you can add a handful of berries, you could also replace the filtered water with coconut water or for a sweeter version freshly squeezed orange juice, better still thrown in the whole orange (peeled).

-Pete came home from the local market on the weekend with a jar of black olive tapenade after we enjoyed it spread simply on a piece of toast for an afternoon snack I decided to use the rest in a pasta dish. I cooked gluten free spirals and while that was happening I pan fried some red onion, broccoli florets, garlic, silverbeet and parsley and then once the pasta was cooked I added the vegetables and tapenade and dinner was ready.

-home made pasties were a hit with everyone, they take a bit of work but it is a labor of love knowing every ingredient that goes into them is wholesome and organic.

- I stumbled upon a super quick and nutritious snack for the boys one afternoon on the holidays when River told me for the 15th time in an hour that he was hungry (?!!) I looked in the cupboard and saw some rice noodles, boiled the kettle, chopped up an avocado, opened a tin of dolphin friendly tuna, poured boiling water over the noodles, cut a seaweed sheet into shreds with the scissors, drained the noodles and then assembled all in bowls, splashed over some ponzu sauce and there you have it an 'instant' winner.

I hope there are some little morsels of inspiration for you in that list.

On a side note, I am planning to buy my new camera on Saturday (fujifinepix S4900 for those interested!) so next week we will back on track with some visuals. I had the very annoying experience of being ripped off shopping online for a camera, I ordered and paid for the camera three weeks ago, the camera hasn't arrived and the website has disappeared without a trace. I am going to attempt to get my money back through my bank or theirs...buyers beware!

Happy cooking xx

friday back in the nest

It's been a week of feathering our nest here. Arriving home from our winter northern escape to a taste of Spring weather makes me feel happy and lucky!

On with today's list...

If green smoothies are your thing, meet the alkaline sisters

Do you think Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher sounds as crazy as I do?! I've never understood why vegetarians would want to eat faux meat.

I do love a good teatowel. And it's on sale.

Natalie's oat, apple and maple syrup slice was a lunchbox hit this week.

Going gluten free and need some inspiration? Visit Mamacino for a good dose of honesty and some delicious looking recipes.

I bought Lee's Super Charged Food for Kids this week and recommend it. Great info and tips for getting children to eat well, looking forward to trying out the recipes.

One for the romantics nothing to do with food, have you seen Jonas Peterson's wedding photography?! Dreamy.

Way off topic but very important and close to my heart, have you viewed the Culture is Life campaign that my husband Pete is working on with Indigenous Elders around Australia? Please share, raising awareness is the beginning of change.

And so our first week home comes to an end. I'm looking forward to the weekend as always. Any plans for father's day? Not many plans here. Pete is working photographing a wedding but we have a couple of small presents for him tucked away. Sol has been asking all week if we can bake a cake so I think I will pull out Jude's Wholefood Baking book and happily satisfy his wish.

Happy Father's day to all the dads. Have a beautiful weekend xx

monday musings: on what to eat

Deciding what to eat and what to feed your family for optimal nutrition AND pleasure is no easy feat in these modern times of fake food, misleading marketing and information overload.

Thanks to easy access to research and opinions that conflict and contradict one another we are all highly likely to make food choices we thought were nourishing, or follow a particular way of eating - paleo, vegan, no sugar, to name a few - only to discover a piece of information, or experience an adverse reaction to our chosen path that causes us to change our ways and beliefs.

A couple of ingredients I have gone down this path with are stevia and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. After doing a 3 month medically supervised detox - no wheat, dairy, sugar, salt, caffeine, dairy or alcohol - I jumped on the stevia train and tried to tell myself I liked it. I baked with the powdered version, in the end I had to admit to myself I didn't like the taste or texture it gave to cakes or biscuits. Similar experience with agave. My preferred sweeteners for baking now are maple syrup, honey and occasionally when I bake something that calls for sugar I use rapadura or coconut palm sugar.

We started using Bragg's Liquid Aminos after Dr. Gruba who we did the detox with recommended it as an alternative to salt. From the outset I wasn't mad about the flavour and the more I thought about it the more I thought about how highly processed it would have to be to go from a soy bean to a salty tasting liquid state! Not to mention the food miles coming from America and the plastic packaging. I started doing some research on the net and came across some highly emotive opinions about why not to eat Bragg's and some other more balanced voices too. In the end I decided to trust my instinct and have opted for decent sea salt used wisely is a much better choice.

As for deciding upon a 'style' of eating I've never been a fan of all or nothing approaches such as the quit sugar movement. I agree that over-eating refined white foods is not nourishing and can have a detrimental effect on long term health but I think that all or nothing diets such as the no sugar one, or no carbs, or no cooked food (100% raw) can come with a lot of hype that needs to be analysed. All or nothing diets can cause people to feel like failures if they can't stick with what they set out to do, this sense of failure can affect self-esteem and body image especially if weight loss was an initial goal. What I do think is good about the work that people such as Sarah Wilson and David Gillespie are doing is that they are raising awareness about things like hidden sugars and encouraging people to eat real food over processed food that is great! The highly emotive language that surrounds their message is a bit alienating to me.

Discovering and staying connected to what is nourishing, energising and satisfying for each of us, as unique beings is the aim. And the challenge.

What can we do to decide with confidence the best foods for ourselves and our family?

I've written some guidelines here based on my experience, research and dare I say good old-fashioned common sense! I hope they are useful. I am not a scientist, doctor or nutritionist if you are unwell please consult a qualified health practitioner, but even then listen to what they have to say with an open mind and if it doesn't feel right to you consult another and compare opinions. It can get confusing but just because someone has a qualification doesn't necessarily mean they are the practitioner for you. I would love for you to share your experiences and thoughts on this topic.

A guide for eating well

Trust Mother Nature: organically grown foods from the earth are real, your body will recognise this and soak up the nutrients.

Stick to what is local and seasonal. Consider those food miles.

Whatever you can afford to buy organic do.

If a particular way of eating is promising you the world - more energy, optimum health, ideal body weight, anti-aging and so on. Be curious AND skeptical. Look beyond the hype! Ask yourself is this way of eating sustainable for me and my family in the long term? Or is it more of a short term detox?

Read the fineprint on packaging always. Packaging can be decorated with many 'health' claims that are outweighed by the sugar, salt or trans fat content of a product. These 'health' foods can even be endorsed by high profile health organisations such as the Heart Foundation. Even if a food product claims to be healthy it is still important to always read the ingredients.

When researching, consider the source. Does the person writing or speaking have a vested interest in what they are promoting?

Trust your intuition and judgement, if an ingredient, way of eating, or recommendation from a health practitioner either in the media or one you meet in person genuinely doesn't feel right for you then go with your gut feeling and check out other options.

Useful resources:

I am a fan of Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. Although, I have to say I don't think it is necessarily the best book for beginners to wholefoods because there is so much information it could easily be overwhelming.

I think that Jude Blereau brings a great voice of reason and wisdom to this topic, in particular I highly recommend two of her books Coming Home to Eat and Wholefood for Children.

A few blogs I love for their recipes and their grounded approach to this 'what to eat?' conundrum are:

Natalie's blog The Little Gnomes Home, visit her facebook page Digestible Kitchen.

Vanessa's blog Slow Heart Sing, Vanessa's facebook page is here.

Meg's blog My Wholefood Romance, facebook page here.

Nutritionist and chef extraordinaire Samantha Gowing's blog Bitter Sweet Sour.

Sonia at Natural New Age Mum, facebook here.

Kristin at Mamacino, facebook here.

**update: My clever friend Renee McCready is a natural medicine practitioner with a balanced approach and just happens to be an incredible creator of scrumptious raw food deliciousness minus the dogma! Find Renee's recipes on her facebook page or in her ebook.

Via Natalie I have found Emma The Nutrition Coach's blog to be really thought provoking, providing great detail and information. From what I understand from Emma's blog her focus is on an individual's metabolism and digestion taking into account hormonal balance and thyroid function, from what I've read this approach makes sense to me.

I'm sure I have left some other places I visit off this list, if I have let me know in the comments, leave a link to your site or favorites.

We all need help and support in making the best food choices for ourselves and our families and although information on the internet can be bewildering it is also a fantastic place for sharing great information and inspiration.

Thanks for reading xx

apologies for no photo today my camera has a grain of sand wedged in the lens and won't open and getting photos off my new phone is proving to be technologically challenging for me! photos again soon.

pasta is not a dirty word

Poor old pasta. In these gluten-free, carbohydrate phobic times, eating a bowl of pasta has become problematic. I've never been an all or nothing kind of person so have never cut carbs completely out of my diet or my family's but I do think that our modern diets are too heavy on carbs and too light on vegetables. And there's one thing for certain, many kids love carbs and loathe vegetables!

What to do?

Well, when River was about 3 years old I talked to my Chinese doctor about this very situation and her response was to vary the grains that the pasta is made of.

The majority of pasta you see on the supermarket shelf is made from wheat which more and more people are finding that they have a sensitivity to or realise that their diets are too heavily based on wheat like for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Wheat is a whole topic in itself but for starters go here .

We eat pasta about once a week or every ten days and avoid eating wheat, I buy gluten-free rice or corn pasta, spelt, amaranth or kamut pasta. The health food aisle in your supermarket stocks pasta that is made from grains other than wheat and your local health food store will most likely have an even wider range.

Now for the vegetables. Well, the good news is pasta sauce is a wonderland for concealing vegetables. If it isn't already, the grater should be your best friend. Grated carrot and zucchini are two of my favorites to include. That said, I don't really believe in hiding vegetables at every meal to get children to eat them.

Raising happy, healthy eaters begins with us the parents. Our attitude to good food, the example we set and having clear, consistent expectations are the foundations in my book. Speaking of books, for more tips on curing fussy eaters read 'French Kids Eat Everything' by Karen Le Billon.

There's no force feeding at our table but what we serve for dinner is dinner, there are no other options. When it comes to veggies most children go in and out of liking carrots, pumpkin, broccoli - insert vegetable name - one day and screwing their face up at the sight of them the next. The key is not to make a big deal out of it and not to give up putting vegetables on their plate. Yes it gets a bit boring having the same old 'eat your veggies' talk but it is our work, laying solid nutritional foundations for our children is an important job. Don't give up!

Back to the pasta. The dish pictured above is corn spaghetti (500g) tossed with roasted veggies, a whole jar of Meredith Dairy goat cheese (including the olive oil and herbs from the jar thrown in), semi dried tomatoes, fresh peas and roasted pine nuts. Roasted veggie pasta is one of my favorites, quick and easy.

Now, tell me your favorites? Or have you given up grains? Tell me why and how that's going.

gluten free and organic: buyer beware

Thanks to those sneaky marketing people, feeding your family well can be tricky work. 'Gluten free' and 'organic' have become buzzwords to sell products, as much as they are also terms to describe food. Unfortunately if you don't read the fine print on every package you buy and instead rely on buying products labelled 'gluten free' or 'organic' because you have been led to believe they are healthier then you could be heading for trouble.

My darling husband Pete has fallen for this marketing tactic a number of times. It began with the organic cornflakes he bought for our boys. Pete was disappointed when I pointed out to him that they contained two forms of sugar and a high salt content. Actually disappointed is an understatement he was really annoyed feeling like he had been misled.

Another example was when I was out with a friend and she offered River and Sol sweet biscuits and while handing them to the boys my friend looked at me saying "is that ok? they're organic" as if somehow the organic part made them better for them than if they were a non-organic sweet biscuit. And yes I prefer all our food to be organic, even the treats but just because something is organic does not make it an everyday food or a healthy option.

The ingredients in macro brand gluten free choc chip shortbread include sugar in four different froms and a mysterious ingredient 'natural flavour'. Processed food is processed food, sure the ingredients in organic processed food are better quality than conventional and free from artificial colours and flavours but they can still be high in sugar and salt so keep this in mind.

Pete's latest gluten free purchase was Coles brand gluten free pancakes. Normally we buy Orgran buckwheat pancake mix that is also gluten free but Pete saw the gluten free label on the Coles ones and thought he'd give them a go for $2.50. Unlike the buckwheat ones, this packet contained sugar, skim milk powder and thickener.

So, if you are buying processed food even if it is organic or gluten free read the fine print.

If you have some favorite organic or gluten free brands that you'd like to share please do in the comments.

chocolate honey spice cake

Let's start the week with cake shall we? It had been a while since we'd done any baking but when Autumn's cooler weather arrived on the weekend River and Sol were asking "Can we bake a cake?" 

I didn't have a recipe in mind, I wanted to work with ingredients that were in the cupboard and this chocolate honey spice cake is what Sol and I came up with after I googled around for some ideas. While Sol and I measured ingredients, mixed and stirred the cake River opted to watch E.T. for the first time but was quick to appear when the bowl needing licking. How I remember crying my way through the end of that movie when I was 6.

I had to hold Sol back from eating the squares of butter as I cut them up, and felt continually nervous as I used the electric beater that he would attempt to dive his little fingers into the bowl to pinch another butter square. Ah, cooking with children it is messy and slow and satisfying.

Chocolate honey spice cake 

Ingredients

125g butter, diced

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup honey

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour (I used gluten free)

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon

Chocolate 'icing'

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp hot water

1/2 cup icing sugar

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 180C

Grease and line a small rectangular or round baking dish/cake tin (or you could make cupcakes).

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs one at a time, stir in vanilla.

Beat in honey until smooth.

Fold in flour, cocoa and cinnamon.

Stir in milk until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 20-30 minutes until edges are cooked and centre just springs back when you press on it. It is better to take it out a little early than overcook and have a dry cake.

For the icing

I began this mixture wanting to avoid using the icing sugar so I mixed the honey, cocoa and water together to make a sort of sauce but the cocoa was a bit overpowering so I decided to add some icing sugar just enough to keep the sauce consistency. It is quite sweet and not something I would make all the time but once every now and again is ok in my book.

You could add garam masala to the cake if you wanted to increase the spicyness.

A friend arrived just as this was coming out of the oven, with the help of my three chocolate cake lovers and our guest there wasn't much left by the time he departed. I managed to whisk a piece away into the fridge for River's lunch box. Chocolate cake isn't a usual addition to River's school lunch but in his words "mum, we're celebrating the start of term 2".

Do you have an alternative to making icing with icing sugar? I'd love to hear. Happy back to school for those returning today. And happy holidays to those just beginning, I am envious! x