On Buying Locally

There is a little shop I like to stop at. It is in the middle of nowhere, on the road which if you follow it long enough, would eventually take you to Mt Aspiring. Holly calls this little shop "the farmers shop". It operates on an honesty box, selling organic free range eggs, vegetables, herbs and seeds. The kids get a real kick out of stopping there. All of us squishing in while we choose what to buy.

It is the truest form of buying locally produced goods. You can't really get more local than the farm gate now can you? 

Rosehip Syrup

Around the lake here, there are so many rosehip bushes, laid heavy with their deep red berries. So we decided to pick some for making herbal tea. My lovely new neighbor suggested trying to make some rosehip syrup... and so we did. I thought I would share with you just how we made it. It is beautiful, sweet, kind of like a fruity maple syrup. But best of all it is packed with vitamin C and my girls seem to love it.

Rosehip Syrup


Pick 350g of rosehips, break off any stalks, chop rosehips in a food processor to break them up.
Put rosehips into 500mls of boiling water, bring to the boil them remove from heat and stand for 15 minutes. 
Strain mixture through a tea towel to drain off the fluid but leaving the pulp behind. Keep the fluid. 
Return the pulp to the pan. Add a further 500mls of boiling water, bring to the boil again, then let stand for a further 15 minutes. 
Strain the second batch through the tea towel also. 
You can now discard the pulp.
Return the liquid to the heat. Add 250g of sugar and bring to the boil for a few minutes. 
Pour mixture into clean jam jars to the top. Put lid on and as the syrup cools it will cause the lid to air seal itself. 
Store in a cool dark place and refrigerate after opening. 


Makes a delicious drink, hot of cold. A yummy topping for porridge, ice cream or any other sweet treats!

4 Seasons

Summer

My sister and I took the little ones blueberry picking at a local farm. Blueberries are Isla's favorite food, so she could not believe her luck that she could just grab them in abundance off the tree. It did however mean that I had to keep a close eye on my picking container as she was forever trying to carry it off. 

The blueberries are so sweet at the moment, and just delicious. We have been eating so many that I think we may end up going back next week to pick more as I had been hoping to freeze some but I don't see that happening from this batch.

If you have a seasonal post, would love you to link up.

One Small Change- Wholefoods

One of my new years resolutions this year was to improve my family's diet. Namely, reducing the quantities of processed food we consume. I am not talking about 'junk food', we don't eat a lot of that. More the refined nature of our diet- white bread, white rice, pasta, pre-made sauces etc. Now, I am only a newbee on the wholefood scene and it is going to take me time to learn, time to find new ways of buying and cooking. But, my goal is that by the end of this year, my family will be eating a 90% wholefood diet. For those of you that don't know what I mean by the term wholefood, that is food in it's natural form or with as little processing as possible- think brown foods, legumes, fruit and vegetables.

So to get started I thought I would share with you a very yummy recipe I cooked which was a great hit with my family. It is adapted from a recipe in 'The Amrita Cookbook' produced by the Lotus Yoga Centre.

Curry Rice Loaf

Ingredients-
4 cups of cooked brown rice
1 cup of grated carrot
1 cup of brown bread crumbs
1 cup of milk
4 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 cup of chopped nuts
1 sauteed onion
1/2 cup of peanut butter
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of curry powder
1 tablespoon of wholemeal flour
warm water

Directions-
Mix flour and a little water to form a paste. Add all other ingredients and mix. Bake in an oiled loaf tin at 180 degrees Celsius for 1 hour. Serve with salad and homemade satay sauce- yum!

For more small changes, check out here.

Chocolate Chip and Chickpea Cookies

Since a few people asked about the recipe for the cookies I made yesterday, I thought I would post it for you. It is From the book 'Deceptively Delicious' by Jessica Seinfeld.

Chocolate Chip Chickpea cookies 
Ingredients-

• 1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup of Margarine
• 2 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
• 2 cups of chocolate chips
• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I left this out)

Directions-

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
• Beat sugar and margarine in electric mixer.
• Beat in egg whites and vanilla, then chickpeas and chocolate chips.
• Add flour, oats, baking soda and salt.
• Mix on low speed until thick dough forms.
• Drop tablespoons full onto baking tray then flatten with a fork.
• bake for 11-13 minutes until just set.
• place on rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Domestically Disabled

I have come to the conclusion that I suffer from a serous affliction.. I am domestically disabled. Sure, I can knit and sew. I can clean, and for the most part I keep a tidy house, mostly because of my dislike of clutter, which makes my house probably appear tidier than it really is. I hear you saying "that all sounds great, not at all like a domestically disabled person. What are you on about?" So, here it is, my dirty little secret- I am a terrible cook and I almost never bake. I do try but I think maybe it is something genetic, maybe I inherited a defective cooking gene. See my mother (and her mother before her) were terrible cooks too (sorry mum!). It is not like I don't try. Every so often, I forget I have this disability and think 'hay, I might bake something'.....

This happened yesterday. Now these were out of a box, one of those just add an egg and water. Not hard to stuff up, right? WRONG! If George Bush had found these cupcakes in Iraq, he would have declared that he had indeed found 'weapons of mass destruction'. They are like very small, horrible tasting rocks. The only reason we even bothered to ice them was because Holly really, really wanted to do the sprinkles bit. Poor child took one bite before quickly handing it back to me and shaking her head.

I will not be defeated though. 

Today, I bought a cookbook full of recipes that small children are meant to like. Lord knows I could do with the help, wish me luck!

The best bits

I think kids have the right idea, take the best bits in life and leave the bits you don't like so much. Holly is a great one for doing this. Take the above cupcake. She carefully nibbled off the icing (which lets face it really IS the best part of any cake), before carefully placing the rest of the cupcake back on the plate. 

It got me thinking about the best bits of my life and the bits I could discard. I would happy take the toddler laughs and kisses but discard the tantrums. I would happily take the baby smiles but leave the poopy nappies. I would take my home but leave the house cleaning. I would take the chocolate but leave behind the calories!

Holly can do it, so why not me? Alas, I think that is just one of the privileges of childhood. 

But if you could, what best bits would you take?

Baking day

Today the weather was cold and wet outside, crazy when it is meant to be the middle of summer! Decided it was a good day to teach Miss Holly how to bake. She is such a fabulous little helper, always lending a hand with house cleaning or hanging out the washing so I thought she would enjoy her first foray into the kitchen. For christmas, our family did a homemade present swap. I made cowboy cookie jars as my gifts and had one left spare so we used that today to bake our cookies. For anyone interested, you can get the recipefrom http://www.bakerella.com/mix-things-up/ , they make a fabulous gift idea.

Cowboy cookie jars we made up for christmas gifts

My little baker, standing on a chair to reach the counter top

Mixing the ingredients

She was meant to be helping roll them into balls but preferred to eat the ingredients!

The finished product- very yummy!