miniature salmon patties

Salmon patties are a nostalgic food for most Australians. I remember my mum making them and now I'm all grown up and have my very own mother-in-law they are one of my mother-in-law's favorites to make and share with our family.

They are oh so simple to make and fantastic for smuggling in extra veggies, the variations are endless.

For those yet to enjoy the simple pleasure of this Aussie staple a salmon pattie is basically made with mashed potato and tinned salmon bound together with a beaten egg, rolled in flour or breadcrumbs and then fried in oil or butter. Last night I stumbled across a significant discovery in making them even more appealing to the little people at your dining table...make the patties miniature.

It seems so obvious that small people like small pieces of food but it is something I regularly overlook.
Last night I had River and Sol on kitchen duty with me and they were in charge of rolling the salmon patties, of course their small hands made small patties.

Whether it was that they had a hand in making them or it was the miniature size that appealed I can't be sure, either way they ate their dinner with gusto.

Here is the very basic recipe:

3 small or 2 medium potatoes
1 medium orange sweet potato (kumara)
1 210gram tin of pink salmon
1 egg beaten
flour of choice for dusting
2tbsp of oil or a knob of butter

Boil or steam potato and sweet potato until mashable.
Mash potato with a knob of butter (butter optional).
Flake the salmon using a fork and mix into potato.
Stir in the beaten egg.
Shape into patties of desired size.
Roll in flour until lightly coated.
Fry in oil or butter until golden (be sure to have enough oil in pan so they don't stick or burn. Once they are cooked you can place them on kitchen towel to absorb excess oil).

With a salad or some vegies on the side, dinner is ready!

As for the endless variations here is a start...for vegetarians use lentils in place of the salmon, grated zucchini, chopped herbs, chopped onion, chopped spring onion, chopped spinach or kale, corn, mashed pumpkin, grated carrot...and so on.

I hope that is a simple solution to dinner tonight and that they are a hit with your family xx

silent sunday

friday fun

(River age 3. Veggie gardener in the making)

At River's school 'friday fun' is their regular way to end the week. The last hour of the afternoon is dedicated to playing and some awards are given out for the table who has the most stars for the week. They all love it. Friday fun sounds like a good way to me to end the week.

Next week my plan is to magic up more time to write and put more posts up here. Fingers crossed everyone else is my house sticks to my plan :)

For now, here are some links to get you inspired about eating and living well:

If you only click on one of these links make it this one - The Top 10 Nutritional Mistakes listed on Nora Gedgaudas site are so compelling and accurate, reading them has made me rethink my daily coffee. Sigh.

Time to share some blog love...this is a beautiful post by Brenda @ Mira Narnie wrote at our table a wonderful reminder of the importance of making time to share food together and some good ideas for making meals time pleasant even with fussy eaters.

I always love finding other wholefood friends, visit Natalie's lovely blog the spaces between where she writes about slowing down, wholefoods and living a simple life where less is more.

I love babies and I am very excited for three friends who have welcomed new little babes into the world over the last few months. All three have totally gorgeous names: a boy called Dusty, a girl named Izzy and another girl whose name is Clover. While I was clicking around looking for gifts I came across The Mother's Wisdom Deck on a beautiful blog Mothering with Soul. I thought you would like it too.

If you are looking to start your Christmas gift shopping, visit Jay's online store where you'll find cute handmade headbands and great tops n skirts. Only trick will be buying for others and not yourself!

I was the last among my friends to get a mobile phone way back when, and recently I have been about the last among my friends to sign up to Facebook but I've done it mainly to bring more readers here. You can visit The Wholefood Mama Facebook page here and if you like it, feel free to Like it and share it with your friends.

Thanks for reading. I hope your Friday is fun and your weekend too x

food as medicine

Spring can be the season for sneezing, itchy eyes and runny noses. And in my case this year, a combination of sinus congestion and an earache. It has been years since I have had a series of minor colds but this year there have been a few. Perhaps three years of broken sleep is starting to catch up with me, added to that River starting school has seen all manner of new bugs coming home with him. 

A visit to my local Chinese medicine practitioner this week provided me with a couple of food as medicine recipes that I want to share. 

• Ginger and cinnamon tea was the suggestion, especially good at the first sign of a cold. Just chop some fresh ginger add it to a teapot with boiling water and either a cinnamon quill or a teaspoon of cinnamon powder.

• Barley water, made by steeping a small handful of barley grains in a teapot with boiling water is good for drying up mucus.

• I couldn't resist a photo of that gorgeous garlic that Pete grew in our garden and harvested this week. We have been crushing cloves and spreading it on toast to keep our immune systems alert. My friend Bronwyn made up a remedy for my ear using the garlic in olive oil. I let it brew for a few hours and then put a couple of drops in my ear before bed. ** I don't recommend doing this unless you have seen a doctor who has confirmed your ear drum is not perforated. ** I will add the disclaimer here - I am not a natural medicine practitioner these remedies are based on my personal use. Please consult a health practitioner before trying them yourself.

• My aunty Karen put me on to the Australian Harvest organic horseradish vinegar with bio-grape (grape seed extract), fresh garlic, curcumax (tumeric extract) and spices. Made with apple cider vinegar and fresh horseradish the flavour is both sharp and sweet. I found it at my local health food store. The label on the bottle reads "The combination of these therapeutic herbs made in a beautiful tasting spicy herb vinegar helps to dry the sinuses and reduce inflammation helping you breathe freely". I have been drinking a teaspoon three times a day in some warm water, the taste is surprisingly delicious and it does feel very medicinal.

• I also picked up a container of local honey from the organic farm where we shop and I mix a teaspoon of honey with lemon juice, a splash of echinacea and boiling water for medicine tea.

I did have to see a general medicine doctor (GP) about my ear that after a week is still not better. He asked me if I usually get hayfever, I said I have had it in the past but not for a few years and it is usually mild. His immediate response was to ask me which brand of over the counter hayfever medicine do I usually use before looking in my ear telling me it is inflamed and writing me a prescription for antibiotics. Hmmm. If I were a hayfever sufferer I would consult a homeopath. I have resorted to the antibiotics and at day 3 they have had little effect.

Since moving out of the city, finding a GP who respects my natural medicine beliefs has not been an easy task. I can't remember where I read or heard this comment over the past week but it was one that I wholeheartedly agree with and a fact that I am bewildered by "isn't it interesting that so many pharmaceutical medicines are heavily subsidised while preventative health care such as massage and chiropractic are not?" 

So, I paid $5.80 for the antibiotics that haven't helped. Tomorrow I will pay $44 for a chiropractic treatment in hope of clearing my ear.

I am grateful for Western medicine. I do wish though that the approach to health care in Australia was more preventative and holistic.

How about you? Any good health remedies or practices you'd like to share?

roll up roll up

Last weekend we quietly celebrated Pete's birthday. When it comes to birthdays he is a very low fuss kind of guy. I on the other hand love celebrating birthdays as you can see here and here. For Pete's day of days we had a couple of friends over, ate nori rolls, of course made a cake and enjoyed the sunshine.

Making the nori rolls got me thinking. Do you like making your own? What do you fill them with?
If you have never rolled your own nori rolls before once you do you will be thinking "this is so easy! why haven't I ever done this?!" All the ingredients are so readily available, even if like me you are living out of the city and don't have access to Asian grocery stores you will find seaweed sheets, sushi vinegar and sushi mats in supermarkets and health food stores.

We like to make ours with brown rice and then the fillings vary according to what I have in the cupboard, fridge and garden. Jars filled with alfalfa and fenugreek seeds at various stages of sprouting are on high rotation on our benchtop right now so sprouts were in some, along with carrot, cucumber, tuna, smoked salmon, avocado, white onion in some, lettuce in others, a scrape of mayo here and there. I used sushi vinegar on the rice this time but sometimes I use a splash of apple cider vinegar in its place, the sushi vinegar is fairly sweet. Nori rolls are a great way of smuggling veggies into any fussy eaters in your life.

If you are in a grain free zone you can of course make them without rice and instead just roll the seaweed around salad and protein of your choice.

I came across this delicious recipe for nori rolls with sticky brown rice and ginger plum sauce on a totally fabulous blog called The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen. Serious case of blog envy!

So if you've never rolled your own nori rolls go on its fun. Tell me how it goes. 
What are your favorite fillings?

friday links

Loquats are bursting forth from trees all around my neighbourhood. Pete has named them bush lollies enticing River and Sol with them for breakfast each morning. Not that they need much enticing, this fruit is so sweet and drip with sticky juice as we munch into them to start the day.

Here is the Friday list of books, blogs and stories that have caught my eye this week:

Some people either have more hours in their day, never sleep or are just supremely efficient, Melbourne chef, restauranteur and author Shannon Bennett is one of those people. Shannon has just released his fifth book, 28 days in Provence. Shannon took his wife and three children to stay in a farmhouse in Provence for a month with the mission to eat only non-processed food from local producers. Mission accomplished and another beautiful book produced. Just like that. Journalist Jane Holroyd writes in her review of this book, "...Bennett explains that the trip was inspired partly by a desire to save his children ''from the capitalist manipulation of food for profit''. He says he would become irritated by the year-round availability of produce in Melbourne. ''Even my parents were giving the kids strawberries from the Vic Market in July. Someone from Provence would never ever eat strawberries in winter. Why would you?'' Love your work Shannon!

And while we're talking cookbooks, Kris Carr's latest book Crazy Sexy Kitchen is on my wishlist too.

More on the French theme...if you love a produce market live vicariously through Michelle Shoeps, an Aussie food lover who blogs about eating organic ...Michelle was recently in Paris and snapped up these swoon worthy market images.

Thanks Luna for leaving your comments this week and leading me to the following two links...

This is such a beautiful life story of a man called Stamitis Moraitis, his veggie garden and new found health and vitality. It is worth clicking here just for the delightful photo of 96 year old Moratai.

All you crafty mamas who are sewing for Christmas consider stitching a toy and sending it along to Softies for Mirabel this is a cause close to my heart as I had the pleasure of working and volunteering with the formidable Mirabel team many years ago.

Well that is a bit of a mixed bag of things to read.
Life is rich. Enjoy how you spend it :)
Happy weekending x

mamabake

Imagine having a weeks worth of home-cooked, nutritious, made with love dinners prepared ahead of cranky, hungry children o'clock. Couple that with the fact you had fun making said dinners with your girlfriends while your children played together. This is happening in kitchens all around the world thanks to a couple of smart thinking Aussie mums.

If you are familiar with the fun loving, big batch cooking Mamabake ladies you will know what I'm talking about. As their tagline says Mamabake is - "liberating mothers across the world through group big batch baking."

It all started with a gift of lasagne from one mama to another. That gift equalled more than a nutritious meal that Michelle Shearer didn't have to cook, it equalled something that is gold to all mothers - TIME TO HERSELF. 

Michelle writes on the Mamabake blog about receiving the lasagne and gaining time to surf:

"That got me thinking about sharing the domestic burden and sharing chores.  But, we couldn’t share everything, that would be too huge.  But we could take on one chore and share that.  Cooking. And so MamaBake was born."

So how does Mamabake work?

A group (generally 4-6 mamas but can be any number) of mamas come together and each cook a big batch meal that is then divided up so that everyone leaves with enough of each meal to feed their family.

(note handstand extraordinaire in the background)

For the bargain price of $4.95 you can buy a Mamabake Big Batch recipe ebook that includes not only big batch dinner recipes but lunch box ideas too for a week's worth of not thinking about what to put in school lunches. Yay for that.

Check out their site here  or go on over and like them on facebook and you'll be rewarded with an entertaining and informative stream of Mamabake goodness. If you sign up to become a Mamabake member you have the chance to win a holiday for 4 to Bali.

All sounds good to me!

eat well now

Over the past few months I've been reading Kris Carr and Jessica Ainscough's blogs with interest. These green smoothie drinking, plant eating, life loving gals are inspiring people the world over to live well. Now! For those of you who don't know their stories, Kris is an American woman who was diagnosed with a rare, incurable (thankfully slow-growing) cancer and has gone on to write 5 books, make a film and write a blog about the path she has taken in confronting cancer. Jess is a 26 year old Australian woman who was diagnosed four years ago with a rare form of cancer in her arm and shoulder, the only option for survival offered to Jess was amputation. Jess declined having her arm amputated, said no thanks to chemo and set off on her own path of healing which she blogs about at the Wellness Warrior.

Jess and Kris are inspirations not just to people with cancer. I am so captivated by Jess and Kris' stories because intrinsic in their message is one that is close to my own heart and that is to "Live Well NOW!" or as some put it "Prevention is Hot!" The health odds are stacked against the majority of people living in developed countries who 'get by' on processed food, and are immersed in pollution and stress. Modern living is toxic on many levels and it takes consciousness and commitment to swim in a different more vibrant stream.

The seeds for my own inspiration to live well and inspire others to do so were planted in me early. The biggest catalyst occurred when I was 21 and my mother died suddenly of an unexpected heart attack. My mum was 44 years young and had no obvious symptoms of heart disease. Her father died at the same age of a heart attack and my mum certainly was not on the prevention is hot train. No. In many ways my dear mum was reckless with her life and her health. Mum was a smoker, drinker, didn't exercise, skipped meals and had plenty of stress to tie all that together. Now that I am a mother I understand my own mum at a deeper level. I miss her greatly. I am grateful for the time I had with her and grateful that I have the awareness and courage to live my life differently. Mum's death elevated my desire to look after myself. In the sixteen years since my mum passed I have made peace with my body image issues that plagued me since early childhood, I found yoga and I have committed myself to a diet and lifestyle that nourishes me. Sure I stray from my path but overall I feel so fortunate that I am living the life I am.

Since having my own family and trading restaurant meals for ones I cook myself my writing focus has shifted. When I was living in Melbourne, reviewing restaurants and writing about mainstream food I was up with the latest cafe, which chef was at which restaurant, which flavours and ingredients were the ones on everyone's lips; one of my editors referred to me as 'newshound Nikki' if there were sheets of newspaper covering a shopfront I'd be tapping on the door to see what was happening, hunting out the next cafe story. I had fun and wouldn't change a minute of it (well maybe the inedible duck rillettes at restaurant unmentionable that just about put me off eating duck for life) but I am glad that I have grown and moved forward in my health and ultimately my happiness.

To deepen my commitment to this path I've been researching nutrition courses, deciding which one to  enrol in next year. I am hungry for knowledge and hungry to share what I know and believe in. I've been tap tap tapping away writing my first ebook that will hopefully be ready early next year to inspire you to take, or keep your family on the wellness path.

So, my Wholefood Mama friends don't wait to get sick to get well! If you aren't already living as though your life and your health are gifts to be cherished and nurtured I ask you why? You deserve to. And your family and friends deserve to have you for a very long, healthy and happy lifetime.

Now its over to you. What are your thoughts on committing to the wellness path? Challenges? Triumphs? Do tell. Oh and if any readers have studied nutrition and would recommend the course I'd love to hear that too. Thanks for reading. x

silent sunday

fabulous friday

It's been a long week here with River home all week sick and Pete away working. Despite this, I've feel exceptionally grateful for 'the everyday'. Allison Tait writes about 'the everyday' so eloquently in this post.

Now on with the links:

If you are feeling like the odd one out because you don't condone stuffing children with processed food
be inspired by Sally Kuzemchak's nutrition mission

More whole food inspiration from those Health Talkin' ladies. Watch them whip up beetroot, pepita, rosewater and pomegranate salad. 

Veggie gardeners how fabulous is Swap Shuffle Share?

A few lovely blogs I have recently signed up to follow...
The Owl Outside My Door
Maitland St Meals
This Brown Wren

Brighten up your day and read this story on The Design Files about my friend Melanie who is obsessed  in the best possible way with all things flowers. Mel has opened a new little shop in Melbourne selling her floral creations, she is pictured in this story looking gorgeous with her super sweet new baby boy called Dusty. God I love babies. And flowers. And before you ask, as much as Sol and River keep asking for a baby sister no I won't be having any more babies :)

Happy weekend everyone. Thanks for reading. Xx