Dietary Changes

November last year when I was diagnosed with diabetes, my doctor simply said "You are right on the line, do NOT eat anything ever again with sugar". He also scooted around his desk in his chair, looked me up and down and said "and lose 10 maybe 15 kilos and you'll be fine. You can make this go away by doing these simple things". My doctor and I have a good relationship, he is honest and straight with me and I pay him for it. In case you think he was being rude by saying that about my weight , he wasn't, I can easily afford to lose 20-25 kilos and still not hit the ideal weight for my height so he was actually being rather kind.


So I left the surgery and with a couple of small exceptions I haven't had any sugary drinks or foods, except for the stuff that's found in fruit and veg. I now only drink herbal tea, the occasional regular tea with almond milk and water. I don't drink or eat anything with "fake" sugar because all it does is make you continue to want the sweet tasted in foods and drinks. Many of my recipes for sweet desserts are now made from raw food recipes so I am still getting "my fix" every now and then. Surprisingly it has not been that hard, maybe because I have HAD to give it up. If I simply wanted to for diet reasons I know I'd fail almost immediately. So I am counting this news as a blessing really; a necessary boycott of sugar.


Ideally I would like to give up wheat and bread but that seems to be harder for me. I am making a little bit of my own to ensure it has no sugar and I try and make it with rice flour, etc. I suppose every little bit helps.


I also no longer drink milk except for almond milk, but I haven't been able to give up cheese or some natural yoghurt (I am not even sure I want to) and as for eggs I get mine from my own free range chookens so I can live with that.


A couple of weeks later, after more tests, it was found another couple of organs were struggling so I was advised again to stay away from anything with FAT. I then made the decision to cut out meat to make life easier for my liver and gall bladder.

So people I am now a pescatarian which means I can still eat seafood but although I ate a bit of it at the beginning I don't eat too much of it now as my repertoire of vegetarian recipes has increased. I am happy to report that the pain in my gall bladder area has cleared up. I had thought once my liver and gall bladder were recovered I would return to having a bit of meat every now and then but, I have tried a small bit of meat on a couple of occasions over the last couple of months and found that it doesn't agree with me when I do. I end up in a bit of pain, bloated and nauseous. So I am not sure what will happen with regards to meat but for the moment I am doing OK without it and it's no real hardship. Now if you think you could never give up meat, think again, I was a huge meat eater so if I can anyone can. I just adored the taste of meat. The Fashionista has joined me, although occasionally she might have a bite of her sister's meat simply to see what it's like. Agent Smelly wanted to do it too but lasted 24 hours, although I have noticed recently that she often enjoys the non meat dishes more than the meat which surprises her. The Papa has been fully supportive and happy to have vegetarian meals and says not to make him meat especially as he likes the idea of eating less meat and is happy to go without it.


You can see the difference in my skin too, it was quite blotchy before the dietary changes and despite not exercising much due to my recovery from the op (like I really need an excuse not to exercise ...who am I kidding) I have still managed to drop 5 kilos. So I am heading towards to my target of 15 kilos minimum.  I would love to face my next operation having lost 10 kilos ... so wish me luck.

Agent Smelly in the Kitchen

Agent Smelly hasn't spent as much time in the kitchen as her older sister and it's because of this that I think her fractions are not so great. She doesn't always recognise what 1/4, etc is. She can match the correct cup to measure out the flour, etc but she doesn't pronounce or read them correctly. I just assumed she knew them but we hadn't actually gotten to the fraction book of her maths program til recently. Her sister basically flew through her fractions book quite confidently and often didn't even need to be explained how to work things out in the first place and I am quite sure that is from spending so much time baking whenever she could.

Don't you love our cookbook, i.e. the lap top!

Agent Smelly is more of an outdoors girl but recently has become more confident in getting in the kitchen and making things. She spent a couple of days over the school break following some recipes and reading out the measurements to me (just so I knew she knew how to say them), then one morning I wrote up all kinds of fractions on the whiteboard and we went through them all and by the end of our two week break she seems to have a very good understanding of what is what now.

I am sure using math books it would have taken her a lot longer to get the hang of it, mostly because it wasn't interesting, not because she struggles in math - quite the opposite. The other bonus is that she makes the most beautiful crepes now!


 

er that's Bliss Balls dear!

Earlier today I told the girls that I was going to make us some "nut free Bliss Balls".

The Fashionista looked at me in horror and said "really?"

Anyway to cut a long story short ... she thought that I had said that I was going to make "nut free Piss Balls" and was understandably a little horrified at the thought ...

 

Bliss with a B ... Balls

(Makes approx 30 balls)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 1/4 cup dried prunes
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp Acai Berry Powder (optional)
• 2 tsp cacao (or cocoa)
• approx 1/3 - 1/2 cup dessicated coconut for rolling the balls in.

Method:

1. Whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor until it becomes sticky (takes a while, so be patient) and is easy to form into balls.
2. Roll the balls (about the size of large marbles) in coconut, and then put into airtight container in fridge.
3. Hide them from the husband and kids who can't believe they are healthy!!!

You don't need to stick too carefully to the recipe. You can substitute dried fruits quite easily and also sometimes your dried fruit can be juicier than other times, so it can be a bit of a guessing game.

Smoothie Heaven

These are a couple of smoothies that we have tried so far this week. I received these recipes from the Nature's Nutrition Workshop  that I attended last week. We have been having one each afternoon (just before the afternoon munchies set in) and they have been lovely. I have to say the kids have been especially mad about them!

 

 

 

 

BERRY SMOOTHIE

 

Blend together the following ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen berries
• 1 banana
• 1 TBSP LSA (Blended Linseed, Sunflower Seeds and Almonds; good source of protein)
• 1 tsp Hawaiian Spirulina
• 1 cup water

 

"So yum. Can we have that one every day. And look it matches my outfit!" The Fashionista

 




TROPICAL SMOOTHIE

Blend together the following ingredients:

• 2 slices pineapple
• 1/2 paw paw (we substituted for 1/2 mango cause the Mama grabbed the wrong item at the grocers)
• 1 TBSP organic coconut oil
• 1 TBSP Pro Fibre (I used Spirulina instead on another day and it tasted the same; it, just went green)
• Juice of 1 orange
• 1/2 cup yoghurt or 1/2 avocado (we used raw almond milk as I was out of avocado and yoghurt and I used a bit more than 1/2 cup as the mixture was very thick)
• 1 cup ice (we didn't use ice as the pineapple and mango had been frozen so they didn't go off.)

"Tastes really lovely. Pineappley, (sic) like the beach." Agent Smelly

A Change in Dietary Habits?

I am not the best eater in the world, in fact far from it. If I had my way the only time I would eat salad would probably be in a burger. Whilst I make the kids eat fruit, sadly I do not practice what I preach. I eat vegetables, so the kids do, but give me meat, dairy and bread and I am one happy, if not overweight little duck. You get the picture.

Now that I am in my 40's heading swiftly towards 50 (sob, sob), I am noticing that parts of me are actually heading towards 60 and because I have young children I really do need to make changes towards my diet if I want to keep up with them, or perish the thought be around to see them grow up. I simply eat because I am hungry and will collapse if I don't but I must admit I don't give that much thought on what is going into my body. Food has so many medicinal qualities that it's time I looked at using them as they are supposed to be, as a healthy supplement which can benefit my body and mind rather than putting foods into it that could be causing damage.

Salads sampled at the workshop - 3 types, all delicious!

So yesterday I went off to a 3 hour Raw Energy Workshop at a company called Nature's Nutrition which included juicing, smoothies, wheatgrass, beans and sprouts and dehydrating, etc. 

This is how the workshop is described on their site:
"This is a great workshop and one that everyone should attend when thinking about making the change to include more "raw" in your diet.
Whats included

• Comprehensive pack including recipes
• juicing - what to juice, how to juice, why we juice
• Wheatgrass - taste a wheatgrass shot and learn how to grow wheatgrass
• Smoothies - the difference between smoothies and juicing, how to make a nutritious smoothie that can be a meal replacement
• Sprouting - what to sprout, how to sprout and what meals to include sprout in
• Taste fantastic raw energy salads with nutritious dressings, learn how to make your own hummus and pesto that is cost effective and preservative free
• Learn how to make nutritious juices, smoothies, delicious salads and dressings and more.
• Have you tried raw fish - you will in this workshop!
• Finally learn how to make your own tasty crackers and satisfy those sweet cravings, naturally with dehydrating "
 

Now this workshop lived up to the description perfectly! It is taken by the very lovely Debbie Buddle who is a Juice Therapist, Clinical Nutritionist and and Naturopathy Student. Debbie was very easy to understand and what I liked about her is that she does not make you feel like a dill for not knowing about this kind of stuff, despite being a vegetarian herself, she does not make you feel bad about it if you aren't and never at any stage of the workshop does she force her opinions onto you about becoming Raw, etc and I found that she was quite open-minded and not militant about it. She promotes good, healthy eating and changes and if she is anything to go by, then it must work.

First Debbie started by introducing us to Juicing. We got a run down on the equipment to choose and also the benefits of juicing and then she made a few varieties for us to taste. Seriously yum!

We had a brief introduction to growing wheatgrass and were able to sample a shot. I was amazed that despite it being green (did I mention I am not big on greens!) it was really rather nice and the benefits of the stuff blew me away!

We then moved onto smoothies. Did I mention that in the handout you receive when you arrive that the recipes for the things you try are in there for you to use later. We got to sample the smoothies ... of course.  At this stage I was wishing I hadn't had breakfast as I couldn't refuse a shot of any of these they were so yum.

We received an introduction to growing your own sprouts and the benefits of those. I am not much of a sprout eater I confess and my girls haven't taken to them to well either but Debbie managed to even make these quite tasty added to the salads (pics above) that she had prepared earlier.

A raw fish salad, humus, healthy nut bread (baked) and some pesto sauce.

She made some lovely fresh salad dressings, which didn't take long at all and would have to be so much healthier than all the ones that we have sitting around in the fridge at home full of preservatives.

Then she made some fresh preservative free humus (I am never going to buy pre-made humus ever again!!!!)  and some pesto sauce. She also served a raw fish (salmon) salad. So, so good, I am salivating just remembering how yummy they all were.

And then lastly she took out some raw food crackers from the dehydrator and some sweets made from raw foods. It's hard to believe they are simply dehydrated and not baked isn't it.

Best of all we all were handed plates and got to sample ALL of these foods!  I have got to say despite not being a lover of salad, vegetables, etc that there was not one food that I did not enjoy. It was so tasty and I could eat these foods ALL the time and not feel as though I was missing out on anything.

And do you know what, whilst I did not feel as though I had over eaten (don't get me wrong I felt quite full, just not stuffed or lethargic) I was still not hungry at dinner time! I wasn't tempted by any snacks in the afternoon and felt rather energetic all afternoon.

I would strongly recommend taking a course similar to this. Even if you change a few meals to this way of eating then it can only benefit you. I myself have laybyed (payment plan) a juicer so that my family and I can start to reap the benefits found in natural (and organic where possible) foods. Good one's are very expensive but really necessary if you want all the vitamins, etc that can be obtained from your produce.

Stay tuned and hopefully I will be able to share some recipes, etc that my family and I try as we try to improve our eating habits and introduce more smoothies, raw foods and further down the track when I get my juicer (big grin on my face right now!). By the way I have booked in for another one of Debbies classes (she offer's a 50% discount on your next workshop if you book and pay on the same day as your first one) and I just cannot wait.


(Sorry the pics don't do justice to the food served - I grabbed one of the kids camera's and the lens was greasy, which I only realised later when I downloaded all the pics and they were hazy.)

Cooking Outdoors

The girls just love BBQ sausages and onions and asked if I would make them for dinner tonight. As it was too hot inside the kitchen to cook, and The Papa was away at work, and I couldn't be bothered to get the BBQ going I suggested the girls cook the sausages on one of our portable burners.

Agent Smelly got sidetracked playing on The Papa's tablet, so The Fashionista cooked dinner all by herself.

She had so much fun that she even went and set up the dinner outside on the table and served us all.

I must remember to suggest they do this again whilst the weather is so nice. Maybe they could make pancakes out there, one morning for breakfast.

The Tala Icing Set

.

 

The Fashionista received a Tala icing set from her Grandma J for Christmas. It is in a tin box and has a retro look about it, which looked vaguely familiar.

 

 

I went to my pantry and voila ... there was my Nana Rose's Tala icing set. I can't locate a date on the box but from some online investigating, I think they were produced in the 50's. 

The difference between the two sets is that the modern set had an icing bag and two extra nozzles and the old set used a tin barrel (syringe) to hold the icing.

I hope my daughter has fun using hers. I can't bring myself to use my Nan's set ... I am far too sentimentally attached to it.I'd like to display it but don't want the lovely box to fade either ... how sad am I.

The Big Red Kitchen's Pancake Squares ... yum!

Whilst having a peek at Pinterest this morning I came across these gorgeous looking Pancakes Squares that I decided we just had to try. The girls "lurve" their pancake breakfasts and it's nice to do something a bit different.
 
 

 

Photo from Big Red Kitchen's website

 

 
This is essentially the recipe, copied from the Big Red Kitchen website, with a few metric conversions, but you can click here right here Big Red Kitchen to take you to the original recipe.
 
 
PANCAKE SQUARES

 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 T. melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt 

You can leave them plain or add fruit to them. We added two diced bananas to one dish and 1 1/2 cups blueberries to the other.
 
Method

1. Preheat oven to 175°C.
2. Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together milk, butter and egg.
4. Add sugar, then gradually beat the flour in.
5. Carefully stir in the baking powder and salt.
6. Gently fold in any additional ingredients like banana or blueberries now.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan. I used a oven-proof ceramic dish and placed some baking paper in it ... so easy to clean afterwards.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
9. Cut into squares. The Big Red Kitchen suggests cutting it into 4 - 6 pieces. We sliced ours into 9 pieces and thought they were pretty generous; although we did eat one of each type.

 

On the left are our banana squares and on the right are obviously the blueberry ones. How well did we do!

If I were to make these plain I would possibly look at doubling the sugar. We also found that drizzling these in a bit of maple syrup whilst they were still warm took these from yummy to uber yummy! We found both varieties delicious but, The Fashionista loved the blueberry ones best whilst Agent Smelly and I preferred the banana ones. I may try adding some apple, cinnamon and sultanas next time. The possibilities are endless.
 
Although I am not really much of a pancake person, that may surprise you, I really enjoyed these and they will certainly be on the menu again. Another reason to love this recipe is that you aren't stuck at the stove cooking pancakes whilst the family tucks into their breakfast! 
 
 
 
 
 

Cake Decorating and Mum's Tum.

At Girls Rally this week the girls decorated those pretty cupcakes (I blogged about it earlier in the week) well in order to complete their Cake Decorating badge they also are required to "Ice and decorate a cake with butter icing".

As I was really peckish today and simply felt like some cake I casually suggested that The Fashionista may want to complete her cake decorating badge ... evil Mama mind at word I know.

Of course she naively thought this a great idea, not realising what was the real purpose behind my suggestion.

She made quite a bit of butter icing and decorated it the shape of, do I really need to say it, a volcano. She told me she was a bit sick of flowers and girl stuff so wanted to try something different.

Hey it was a win, win situation. She gets her badge and I got a happy and content tummy!

Dad's Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

I recently saw a recipe on Pinterest that I simply knew we had to try, Dad's Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf. I made a couple of minor modifications, and it turned out to be absolutely delicious. It is not something I would make too often as I am sure I could feel my arteries clogging as we tucked into it!

Rather that follow Ashley's recipe you could simply make your own favoured meatloaf recipe and just add the cheese and bacon as per the directions in her recipe.

Dad's Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

Ingredients

• 500 gms beef mince (ground beef)
• 500 gms sausage meat
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic (I used fresh but Ashley suggested garlic salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, diced
• 6 slices bacon
• 225 gms (8 ounces) sliced cheese 
• 1 tablespoon tomato sauce

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F).
2. Combine mince and sausage meat, eggs and 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce in a large bowl. Mix well, then add bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, oregano, basil, pepper, and onion. Set mixture aside.
3. Line the bottom of a baking tray (approx 25 x 20cm) with the bacon. Place half of the meat mixture across the top of the bacon. I didn't end up completely filling the tray as I like my meatloaf to be a little higher than had I laid flat right across the tray. Lay enough cheese across the center of the meat but, not too much as it seeps out a bit as it melts and cooks. Cover the cheese with the second half of the meat mixture and mold the meat into a loaf shape. Pull the ends of the bacon up and around the loaf.
4. Spread 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce thinly across the loaf.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 60 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven. Then place some more cheese across the top and return the meat loaf to the oven and continue baking until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and allow the meat loaf to rest for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Tip: I should have flipped my meatloaf about half way or 2/3's through cooking as the bacon started to burn on the top. I did do it about 5 mins before the end of the 60 mins when I noticed that the bacon had really started to crisp and go a bit black in areas but next time will do it earlier.

Witty in the City's Man-Pleasing Chicken

I found this recipe on Pinterest and seriously you need to make this!  Thank you Witty in the City ... this will definitely go on the monthly menu plan.

Don't be deterred if you don't like the sound of all that mustard as it really doesn't taste "mustardy" at all. The Pig loved it and not only does he not like mustard but he didn't like the idea of maple syrup on chicken so was surprised when I told him afterwards ... note after he told me how much he enjoyed it! Also this fed the four of us perfectly, if you have an extra mouth or older children, I would increase the measurements a bit. In fact I will probably do that next time anyway as I had some requests for seconds.
You can link through to http://www.wittyinthecity.com/2011/08/man-pleasing-chicken/ for the recipe or if you are in New Zealand or Australia you may prefer to stay right here as I have converted the measurements and temperature.


Man Pleasing Chicken

Ingredients

• 700 gms chicken thighs (but don't see why you couldn't use breasts)
• 1/2 cup Dijon Mustard (I used Delmaines)
• 1/4 cup of Maple Syrup (I used Steeves Canadian Maple as we can't stand the imitation stuff)
• 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (I simply used some wine vinegar I already had in the pantry)
• Fresh rosemary

Method

1  Preheat oven to 230 degrees celcius
2  Line a baking dish with foil (a really good idea as it makes it so easy to clean - all the baked sticky syrup would be a pain to remove).

3.  Mix the mustard, maple syrup and wine vinegar together and pour over the chicken in the baking dish. Be sure to flip the chicken to make sure it's all coated.

4.  Pop in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes. Baste the tops again with more sauce halfway. I actually flipped mine and basted them a couple of times.
5.  Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.
6.  Plate the chicken, making sure to spoon some extra sauce over the top.
7.  Finish by sprinkling some fresh rosemary over the top

Enjoy!

White Chocolate & Vanilla Biscuits

The Fashionista was simply dying to make something from her Girls Rally magazine and asked if she could make some White Chocolate & Vanilla biscuits for home economics this week. It was their Grandma's birthday so I agreed, as I thought it would be nice to pop down with a fresh batch of those and the ANZAC cookies her little sister was whipping up.

I have got to say that even though I am not a fan of white chocolate, and we found out later neither is my mother-in-law, we ALL (yes even the ma-in-law), absolutely loved these biscuits and just kept eating them. Which is lucky because there was no quantity on the recipe and so we ended up making a whopping 66 biscuits!

I really cannot recommend this recipe highly enough.

White Chocolate & Vanilla Biscuits

Makes; approx 5 doz

Ingredients

• 375g butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 Tbspn condensed milk
• 3 tspn vanilla essence
• 4 cups flour
• 3 tspn baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate buttons (chopped)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 165.C
2. Using an electric beater, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in condensed milk and vanilla essence.
4. Sift over flour and baking powder and mix well.
5. Mix in chopped chocolate buttons.
6. Spoon walnut sized balls onto a lined baking tray - flatten slightly with finger tips.
7. Bake for 10-12mins until firm and golden.

Recipe taken from Girls Rally Member Mag, No 2 - 2012

Caramel Biscuits

Today The Fashionista pulled out one of our "4 Ingredients" cook books and made some gluten free Caramel Biscuits. We have now also made these using regular self-raising flour. which worked well too. 

The Fashionista is becoming very confident in the kitchen and the only thing I had to explain to her to do was how to "cream" the butter and sugar.

"Caramel Biscuits"

Makes 24

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs. golden syrup
• 1 generous cup GF self raising flour

Method:

• Preheat oven t0 180'C
• Cream butter and sugar.
• Add syrup and beat until fluffy
• Mix in flour until texture is such that you are able to roll it into balls (about the size of a large marble/tom bowler).
• Place the balls on a paper line tray and allow for spreading (we did two tray loads). Press each gently with a fork and bake for 15 minutes.

Snickerdoodles with Agent Smelly

Today for home economics Agent Smelly wished to make "Snickerdoodles". I have been making these biscuits for the past 10 years now (although not as frequently as the family would like apparently!), and they are always such a hit.

What is it about breaking eggs that is so much fun that children basically fight to be the one to do it. Actually when I think about it I quite like breaking them too ... it's quite satisfying really.

Agent Smelly doesn't usually get as much time in the kitchen as her older sister, so today was all about her. The Fashionista was on another bench making our dessert for the evening, an apple crumble. This recipe has a few odd measurements so it was a great opportunity to work on some fractions. If something calls for a cup, I often give the girls a smaller sized one so they can work out how many times they will need to use it to make a whole cup. Both girls are pretty good with fractions and I am sure it is down to cooking and playing with measuring cups.

They are as delicious as they look. By the way they aren't burnt the darker colour on the outside is from the sugar and cinnamon the dough is rolled in before you bake them.

There are loads of different versions of the recipe but here's the one we use.

SNICKERDOODLES

Makes 4-5 doz depending on the size

Ingredients:
250gms butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups (350gms) flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Topping; mix together 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon (to be honest we often run out and end up making more topping but this is what the recipe recommends.)

1/ Heat oven to 200 deg C
2/ Mix together butter, sugar and eggs
3/ Blend in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt
4/ Shape dough into balls - we have found about the size of a tom bowler (one of those large marbles) works best
5/ Roll balls in the topping (which is easier when it's in a small bowl) and place them on ungreased baking sheets. Leave at least 4cm between the balls as they will spread.
6/ Bake for 8-10 mins. Again it will depend on how big you make your balls as to how long you will need to bake them for. Just make sure they are still light coloured (under all the cinammon) when you take them out. They will be very soft and so it's best to use an egg flip, etc to place them on a baking rack to cool or they will probably crumble.

Just thought I'd share this picture of The Fashionist who I had just advised how to rub the butter into the flour and sugar for her crumble. She was a little surprised by the feeling!

ANZAC Biscuits

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day here in New Zealand and Australia. ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance held every year, on the 25th April, to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli during WW1. These days it serves as a day to commemorate those who lost their lives, and also served and are still serving in military operations for their countries. There are dawn service's held all over both countries and they really are very special to attend.

For today's Home Economics class, we decided to make some ANZAC Bickies*. The story goes, that during WW1, the wives, (and mothers and girlfriends) of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers made these biscuits to send off to their men overseas. Because it took so long for the food to get there the food had to remain edible, even after two months (those old naval vessels were very slow!) and they wanted them to be reasonably nutritional, thus the ANZAC biscuit. These are now sold commercially throughout Aussie and NZ but the homemade ones are so, so, so, so much better!

There are many different versions of the recipe but, essentially they are made with sugar, flour, coconut, rolled oats and golden syrup. Here's the recipe The Fashionista used today.

ANZAC Biscuits

Dry Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 cups coconut
2 cups rolled oats
3 Tspns baking powder
Melted Ingredients
4 Tbspns water
225 grams butter
2 Tbspns golden syrup

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the middle and stir in the melted ingredients. Mix well. Roll mixture into balls (you can make about 30 regular sized ones), and place on a greased tray and gently press flat. Bake in a moderate oven, 180C for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Wait until they cool a bit before eating them as they are still very crumbly, till they cool and harden a bit. 

The Fashionista also threw a handful of peanuts into the mixture before she rolled her last 12 bickies and they were really scrummy too. You can even add some pumpkin or sunflower seeds to the mix if you wish also.

* Bickies is a shortened version of the word biscuits that is commonly used in Aussie and NZ. i.e. "would you like a bickie with your cuppa?"  Biscuits are the same as a cookie in the US. In our homes we grew up with bickie barrels, not cookie jars.

St Patricks Day 2012

As a bit of fun, I decided surprise the girls with shamrock pancakes for a St Patricks day breakfast.

I simply added some green food colouring to my favourite pancake batter recipe,  put the batter into a squeezy bottle (like a sauce bottle), drew three hearts joined together added a stem, and then filled the hearts in with more batter.

Voila ... a shamrock, to be sure, to be sure!

I served their pancakes, with lime milk in some green tea sets.

After breakfast both girls could be heard giggling in their rooms, whilst they ransacked their wardrobes, in an endeavour to find some "green" clothing to wear for the day.

PS - The Pig came out a bit later (he'd had a late finish at work the night before) and wanted to know why I had made "Alien" pancakes ... men!

Perfect Pita's

Today I made Pita's for the very first time. I have no idea why I have been putting it off. It simply sounded like it could be difficult ... well how wrong was I!

PITA BREAD RECIPE 

(recipe and picture taken from Pinterest)

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3- 3 ½ cups flour (I substituted one cup with wholemeal and that worked out fine)

Preheat oven to 220'C (or 425F)

BY HAND METHOD:

Dissolve the yeast in the water for about 5 minutes in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add salt and 1 ½ cups flour and with the dough hook, beat to make a batter. Add additional flour until a rough, shaggy mass is formed. Knead 8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more flour if it is too sticky.

BREADMAKER METHOD:

Dissolve the yeast in the water for about 5 minutes in the breadmaker tin. Add the salt and all the flour and then set to your dough mix.

THEN FOR BOTH METHODS:

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into six pieces for large pitas or ten for smaller. You could make all sorts of sizes to suit different snacks and meals. 8 suited us, as that meant 2 each.

Form the dough into balls and then flatten with a rolling pin into a thickness of about 6-7 mm discs. Try and keep an even thickness as this is what helps them ‘puff’.

Let rest on the floured surface 30-40 minutes until slightly puffed.

With a large spatula, flip the rounds of dough upside down on to a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden.

 

Apparently, we scoffed ours all up so I can't comment from personal experience, these store for up to two days well wrapped or frozen for three weeks. Good to know but, fresh from the oven ... oh my, oh my.

 

I'll leave you with a picture of one of my pita's that was a bit misshapen and overcooked from the second batch (I have now learnt that 10 mins is the max with my oven!), so here's what I did ... this from the person who tells the children not to play with their food ... we all laughed though, especially when I made his mouth snap open and shut ...