Today's funny... one of them

Honestly, I make delicious food for my kids, they refuse to eat it, 

(DS1) "I'm not hungry"
(Me) "Do you want an apple"
"Yes"
"Then you've got enough room for this, eat it"
"Nooooo!" etc etc
 

Then we get in the car and I find my eldest eating cardboard.....

Been Busy

Played with the new toy. This baby filters 2000 litres of water. Used in the Australian and US army and fits into a sunglasses case. Nice!

Looked silly in a Sari, a delightful Indian lady helped me but she admitted she isn't the best person to do it :o\

Made the world's best cookies and had a picnic in a nice spot with the boys.

Hand made some gifts.

Measured almonds, measured almonds, measured almonds... measured almonds.

Contemplated the difference in quality between the imported and Aussie Quinoa...

Imported

Aussie

 ... and grizzled about it. (click to enlarge)

Been busy

x

A Healthy Chocolate Hit.. when you really need one!

Some friends and I were chatting at book group the other night. They're also trying to find delicious and extremely healthy recipes to substitute foods in their regular diet.

(figgyandsprout.com)

This simple and delish. Similar to the fudge pops that I make (down the page) for the kids. This smoothie/shake is perfect for when you really want something chocolatey without being naughty! It's rich, thick, smooth and dark. .

Raw Chocolate Milkshake

Water and soft flesh scooped from a drinking coconut
1 tablespoon of raw cocoa/cacao (more antioxidants than green tea!)      
1 heaped tablespoon of smooth raw/local peanut butter ( I use Dick Smith as it's delish and 100% Aussie)
1 level tablespoon of raw honey (or agave/pinch of stevia)
3 cups Almond cream

Stick the scooped out coconut flesh and a small amount of coconut water in the blender and wizz up until smooth. Then add the rest of the water and other ingredients and blend until smooth and incorporated.

Almond Cream

Make ahead of time.
2 cups of raw almonds soaked for a few hours pref 5hrs/overnight. Rinse a couple of times and then Pop in the blender with 3 cups of filtered water. Blend on high/ice crusher setting until the almond mealy bits are fine.
Strain and twist through muslin and use.

Retain almond meal for use in cakes/cookies/muffins etc. You could even get some more almond milk out of the remaining meal when blended up again with 2 cups of water.

Raw Cashew Dreamcake

I finally made it...

RAW

CASHEW (and raspberry)

DREAMCAKE

Quick, easy and almost guilt free!

Yes it's raw, yes it's a HUGE amount healthier than shop bought ... anything! I still don't we could get away with eating only this for dinner. We could try though :o)

Crop-portunity Awaits

As always, there's growing time, then opportunities seem to come in a glut.
In this instance there's an opportunity for a community garden/allotment nearby. It's a nice patch! I can't wait to make my hands grubby in it - I simply don't have the time.

So! If you're nearby and want to help start up some allotments, let me know. Co-opstop@hotmail.com

I miss growing things.. lots of things.. taking them from the dirt to the kitchen and making dinner. 

Super Food Treat for Kids (and You)

I've been nagged to put this recipe up (and the following not so super food cookie) so here it is.
My kids devour these little beauties, I thoroughly enjoy them too. No photos = too tasty to last that long!

FYI your body can break down coconut oil/fat and although it's classed as saturated fat, doesn't contribute to heart disease like other fats can when they are heated. A creamy ingredient not to be avoided.

Coco Fudge Pops

 Ingredients

1 drinking coconut

1 banana

1 tablespoon raw cocoa

4 fresh dates (or 1 T raw honey)

1 generous tablespoon of smooth raw/locally made peanut butter (I use OZEnuts).. or whatever

Method:
Crack open the top of the drinking coconut. Pour the water into a tall jug, scoop out the soft flesh and add to the jug also.
Add the banana, cocoa, dates/honey to the jug and puree with a stick blender. (Or whatever blender you have).
Add the peanut butter to taste at the end. Blend until smooth.

Pour into ice pop moulds and place in freezer over night.

Velvety and rich. So nice!


Here is the non-super food 5 star rated (by others!)  

Suzi's Best Ever Cookies

After making a dozen batches of these cookies, I've realised that there are a few essential ingredients. Substitutes just don't produce the same flavours. The different ingredients that you'll see are ones I buy through my co-op (or bought years ago and stored) and are regular items in my cupboard. Cheaper in bulk and more nutritious.

Ingredients:

Very soft  unsalted butter (US 3/4 cup plus 2 T spoons, the rest of us - 200g).

1/4 cup "raw" sugar

1 cup Rapadura sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain flour (organic/biodyn.unbleached flour - different from white "enriched" flour at the shop)

1tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups porridge oats 

1 cup chopped eating chocolate

1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts

Method:

Stick your oven at 180C.

Beat the sugars and butter until light. Then add both eggs and vanilla and whip fast for a minute or so until fluffy.

Add dry ingredients (sifting soda and salt). Add to wet ingredients. Mix then add oats, choc and nuts.

No need to refrigerate (but you can if you like). Scoop dessert spoon sized balls of cookie dough onto a baking try (lined with baking paper), 2inches/5cms apart.

My oven is electric fan forced and takes 13 mins at this size and temp. If your cookies are smaller at about a 5cm in diameter blob of dough then they'll take 10mins. Just until they're a light golden brown.

Leave to cool completely. EAT.

Makes 2 dozen-ish.

Super food version has cacao nibs instead of chocolate

Doolally Sally? or Hippy Misgivings

I recently came upon this article (see below for excerpt). I was all for Sally Fallon's back to traditional simple food approach. I still want to be, but flip! So many points in the article just set my eyes rolling.

There were some things I really agreed with like MSG labelling (or lack of, including re-naming to hydrolyzed protein) and the goodness of bone broths. Also the over processing of cereals etc

I struggle with my hippy tendencies: 

• I love growing vegies as I think it's so much healthier without the pesticides, plus I enjoy the natural taste of old fashioned varieties.
• I want to buy land and grow vegie trees, start a permaculture school and weave my own jumpers.. possibly dye them with nettles (but it has to be done well and in a funky style inline with Espirit)
• I don't use fluoride toothpaste and believe that comfrey and arnica works to prevent and dispel bruises (just because I experimented with it on my own family and my Dr gave me some!).
• I like my kids to play in the trees and dirt rather than on plastic play equipment
  
  
  

   BUT.........

There's a certain kind of behaviour that sets my teeth on edge about "natural, herbal, hippy" folk and that's when they try to use facts to convince others of their views. They use a fact.. here Sally's used tests from the 1940s to back one of her claims and then has a 'feeling' at the end of another or a "nah nah nah nah naaaah, yeah, your putting toxins in because you just are." A bit harsh you say? Well that's how I feee-e-eeel about someone I respected having said so many looney, bendy, incredible things. I'm annoyed. Now I don't know what to think.

You'll see what I mean. I went straight to the rat trials as it looked interesting.  My response is below the article.

Dirty Secrets of the Food  Industry

By Sally Fallon This presentation was given at the annual conference of Consumer Health of Canada,

March, 2002.

The Rat Experiments

"Let me tell you about two studies which were not published. The first was described by Paul Stitt who wrote about an experiment conducted by a cereal company in which four sets of rats were given special diets. One group received plain whole wheat, water and synthetic vitamins and minerals. A second group received puffed wheat, water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given only water. A fourth set was given nothing but water and chemical nutrients. The rats that received the whole wheat lived over a year on this diet. The rats that got nothing but water and vitamins lived about two months. The animals on water alone lived about a month. But the company's own laboratory study showed that the rats given the vitamins, water and all the puffed wheat they wanted died within two weeks---they died before the rats that got no food at all. It wasn't a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock.

Results like these suggested that there was something actually very toxic in the puffed wheat itself! Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the pressure of the puffing process may produce chemical changes, which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance. (incredulous. *eye roll*)

Another unpublished experiment was carried out in the 1960s. Researchers at Ann Arbor University were given 18 laboratory rats. They were divided into three groups:

one group received corn flakes and water; a second group was given the cardboard box that the corn flakes came in and water; the control group received rat chow and water.

This experiment was actually designed as a joke, but the results were far from funny. The results were never published and similar studies have not been conducted."

_ _ _

Here's why Sally's rat trial point fell apart for me:

1. She talked about these studies not being published as if it was being kept a secret from the masses. Stuff like this is published all the time, proving links with cancer etc - people just don't care, or there isn't the right budget to put into marketing the results to make people notice enough to make a difference.
   There are so many health journals out there plus the kind like the Academy of Nutrition and dietetics etc who would have happily have published findings like that.
   
2. Since they were "done as a joke" is one HUGE bell clanging "Don't take me seriously" and clearly means that guidelines may not have been followed. The strict observation that goes into rat studies (and it's done for pretty much everything - even Stevia) is so much so, that when followed, some journal somewhere will publish it. Publishing means it's METHOD was credible. As I said before, there are a tonne of Natural/Alternative medicine journals that would have loved to publish findings as these, so not being published is another clanger that it must be taken with a large dose of salt.
   
3. The biggest clanger of all was the fact that Sally surmised from these unpublished "joke" studies that rats had died from a toxic substance within the puffed grain = "insulin shock". This condition is otherwise known as hypoglycemia. That's right folks! High insulin levels - raised due to the only food their eating to be high GI. NOTHING TOXIC in the manufacturing or protein structure, just high pressure and steam. That's it!

I had alot of respect for Sally as her theories about food were music to my 'sourdough healthy home food' sympathetic ears, but I was so blown away by the mindlessness of her rat study conclusions, that I've stopped soaking my grains while I think on it all a bit. It is really disappointing because now I'm wondering what other supposedly healthy habits I've been doing that are merely misguided opinion and not fact..

Puffed corn isn't a great snack owing to it's high GI-ness but better than lollies (and after some low GI food!)

Oh and if you have some published studies on why certain foods are better, then I'd love to see them.