Feeding the animals

As most of you will know, or will of figured out from the content of this blog, I am interested in food and nutrition. This year I have been doing some pretty detailed thinking about nutrition, where our food comes from and what we should be eating for optimum health. Kind of like - if we were animals in a zoo, what would the zoo keeper be feeding us to keep us all from dying. Because actually a lot of thought and research goes into what to feed animals in the zoo, yet a lot of us don't really think much about what goes into our bodies except for if it tastes good or not.

My thoughts, and bits and pieces of research are leading me down the path of exploring more wholefoods, cooking from scratch and trying to organic and locally sourced foods where possible. I'm not very good at it, and I'm taking small steps, but I certainly think a lot more when doing the grocery shopping, and our diet at home is definitely taking a more wholesome turn. My kitchen cupboards have a lot less processed junk, and a lot more raw ingredients these days. I plan on blogging a bit about these kinds of topics in the future.

I think a lot of people in New Zealand are beginning to think more this way also. With the cost of groceries rising fast it tends to force you to think carefully on what you're spending your money on. Often the most nutritious staples are the cheapest, like dried beans and pulses.

Thought/opinions? do you want to read my ramblings along these lines? My google analytics thingee tells me that people are actually reading this blog, so what do you guys wanna read about??

"Nourishing Traditions" Pancakes

Nourishing traditions is a cookbook/way of thinking book that I've recently acquired. It presents a new way of looking at nutrition and some bits of it are pretty radical. I'll write some more about it at a later stage, but for breakfast today I tried her recipe for pancakes.

Overnight I soaked 1 cup of wholemeal flour in 1 cup of kefir. Then in the morning added a beaten egg, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. I also added some defrosted frozen berries to the mix.
They took quite a long time to cook, but had a delicious, unusual flavour and were surprisingly fluffy.
Oh and that blob of yellow you see in the picture? thats my lemon curd !

candlelight

Despite my procrastination yesterday afternoon I managed to get dinner cooked and we had a nice evening. The boys even managed to refrain from TOO much surveying talk!
Tonight we went to our local coffee place to find they'd changed the look of it for evenings - usually in the evenings its quite brightly lit and bustling, however tonight they'd dimmed the lights and had candles everywhere, and it wasn't overly busy. It was very warm and cosy.

This is absolutely not what I should be doing!

Watching Oprah. I'm still battling a cold and trying to cook for a dinner party tonight at the same time. Today is a slight improvement from yesterday in that I actually put clothes on today, instead of staying in my PJ's. I have a long list of things I want to post about eventually but not today. Too many other things to do. Like watch Oprah...

Kefir

I need to give away some of my kefir grains, they've grown and I now have too many. If you don't know what I'm talking about just ignore - I will post more about this mysterious substance at a later date. Alternatively you could google it.
So anyway - if you live in NZ and want some kefir grains let me know!

Click here for a good introduction to kefir if you're interested.

how to make a sick girl happy

Big mug of tea, stack of DVD's and a pain au chocolat. "What??" I hear you say - "pain au chocolate's hardly a health food for restoring a cold-riddled body back to perfect health". Well, upon hearing I am on deaths door *cough*, a kind friend just dropped it off for me and let me tell you it is making me feel better already. YUM!

Vegan apple muffins

I have a friend who can't eat eggs or dairy so essentially for the purposes of baking, she is a vegan. I've been experimenting with a few recipes that she can eat in the last few months, with varying degrees of success. Here are the muffins I made yesterday (see Vanessa - you should've come over after all! - I have saved some in the freezer for you though). They have been pronouced as "normal tasting" by two independent reviewers.
I'm calling this recipe my own because although its loosely based on one I found on the internet, I've modified it so much that it I'm going to claim it. (Makes about 18 smallish muffins)

2 cups wholewheat flour
1 cup white flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2tsp cinnamon
2 cups grated apple

Mix the above ingredients together in a large bowl

In a separate bowl mix:

1/2 cup oil (could use sunflower, olive, canola)
1/2 cup honey (because she is not actually strictly vegan, I use honey. To make them properly vegan use maple syrup)
a large splash of vanilla
a large splash of apple cider vinegar
1 cup soy milk or rice milk (could replace with normal milk, or yog for the non-vegan, or apple juice/puree if allergic to soy)

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Put into greased muffin tins and cook at about 180 degrees celcius for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Todays attire

To make a change from blogging about food I'm going to show you what I'm wearing today. I've had this dress for a few weeks and been dying for a chance to wear it, today has been intermittently warm so I thought I could manage by wearing a long sleeved top underneath, and tights (although did need a coat over top when I went out). I caught the bus into town with my god-daughter to meet Phil for a coffee.

Excuse the bad picture, I'm still figuring out the self timer..

When life gives you lemons....

...make lemon curd!

As you can see our lemons are finally turning yellow:


So I picked the juiciest looking ones and made lemon curd from the destitute gourmet cookbook.

2 large juicy lemon (I used 4)
50g butter, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten (I used organic ones from the market)

Finely grate rind and squeeze juice. Put into a bowl on top of a pan of simmering water. Add butter and sugar. Once butter is melted and sugar dissolved stir in the eggs. Keep stirring until mixture thickens (10-15min). Cool and store in a jar in the 'fridge.

Im not sure what Im going to do with it yet, but it is so delicious. I've been eating the leftovers with a spoon!

Heres the finished product:

Fresh

...from yesterdays farmers market.

Warm Vege and Quinoa Salad
- Grill eggplant, pepper and mushrooms in olive oil
- Steam some brocolli
- Cook quinoa (presoaked)
- Toss all the above together with torn spinach, chopped tomato and fresh pesto.

Eat while still warm. Yum!

mundane

Im eating my favourite breakfast as I type this, chopped up fresh fruit with organic yogurt, flaxseed oil and homemade muesli sprinkled on top. mmmmmmm... I usually have this, or a variation of it 3 or 4 times a week. The rest of the time I have porridge.

Last night we saw a movie at the Rialto - I'd never heard of it before so we took a gamble in going (especially given the title - 'A Feast of Love' - sounds awful doesn't it??) but it was very poignant with a well thought out plot and excellent character development. Don't take your mum though - too many sex scenes.

Best made plans....

I had big plans for our Saturday morning. The sun would shine, we would dress in cute, hippy clothes, take the bus to Lyttelton with our recycled cloth bags and spend the morning perusing the market, stocking up on fresh delicious local food and finish up lingering over coffee in one of the funky cafes. Then I would have a ton of cute photos to post on here about the wonderful morning we had.

It was pouring with rain this morning.

We were too wimpy to take the bus in this weather and we left our cloth bags at home, but we did actually make it to the market. Which, despite the rain, was still fantastic. Stalls and stalls of the most amazing food and produce (I need more superlatives to describe it). Armed with a mayan spice hot chocolate from the first stall we came to, we ran thru the rain and made our purchases before huddling in the car to finish our hot choc while eating the most tasty moroccan vege pastry.

Refuge in the car

Our bounty

Miss me??

I'm back! Inspired by several blogs I've been reading lately I've decided to start blogging more regularly. I'm hoping this will achieve several things:

• Improve my writing skills. Not that I'm an aspiring writer or anything, but I think the ability to express yourself through language is a valuable skill, and I've always enjoyed it.
• Inspire myself to do interesting things worth blogging about!
• To record and remember stuff. Life is short and I don't wanna forget the good stuff.

Lets see how it goes...

(In case you forgot what I look like)

The End

..for now. Because I'm so bad at updating this I've decided to let it become dormant for a while. I doubt anyone still reads it but if you do, there will be nothing new for a while. I'll let you know if I decide to become more regular but I doubt it'll be anytime soon. Lots of love, Jenn.

Easter Buns

Check out my handiwork! I'm calling them easter buns cos I forgot to put the crosses on. They are soooo good.
Happy Easter everyone!

one year on

Thought you might like to see a more recent pic of the Twins (the ones from the top picture of the post underneath)
This is Amelie and Juliette at just over 1 year old..

what is it with me and twins??

This photo was taken on 17 March 2007 - 7 week old Juliette and Amelie...



And this photo on 11 March 2008 - Rachel and Emma 12 weeks old

2 weeks on..

.. and I'm feeling a lot better, follow up appt with the surgeon today confirmed everything is healing nicely, but I'm forbidden from running or lifting weights for the next 2 weeks. Looks like me and the stationary bike at the gym are gonna get nicely acquainted. I'm allowed to chew soft stuff now, which I've kinda been doing anyway but its nice to get the official word. As I type I'm trying to eat a nashi pear cut up into little bits but I'm not having much success so may have to lay off the crunchy stuff for a while longer.

In other news we are looking for a place to rent. We are downsizing, and going to try living by ourself for a while which should be an adventure.

Ive discovered several new loves in the last few months:
-Skinny pants - they just look so classy, and I love how you're supposed to wear them with a baggy top - perfect for hiding fat tummies.
-Which brings me to my next new thing - www.stylebytes.net - a cool chick who takes a picture of what she wears every day.
-Getting the antipasto platter (or 'grazing platter', or 'platter to share') instead of a main at restaurants - so relaxing just casually nibbling and conversing rather than facing a big stodgy main.
-Fresh mint. Having it whizzed up with watermelon and pineapple, or chopped up on soup. mmmm..
-The new Survivor series. nothing like some good trashy reality TV.

Other exciting things, we have our first nephew (Tim and Celia had wee Thomas) but unfortunatly we are yet to meet him as he lives in London. waahhhhhh! no newborn cuddles for us. Ummm what else? Both our flatmates are recently engaged, so weddings are the talk du jour round here.

More Surgery (not for the faint-hearted!)

On Monday I had the rogue cyst removed from my jaw. It turned out to be somewhat bigger and harder to get to than they thought so the operation ended up being quite major. They cut thru the bone in my maxilla (see the wee skull diagram) and kinda pulled it down to get at the cyst and tooth (kind of in behind my left cheekbone), then stuck my face back on with plates and screws and stitches. I was in hospital for 2 nights, on morphine and all sorts of other things. I feel like I've been sleeping all week, and every day the swelling seems to get worse! Its all a bit gross, and Im not allowed to chew for 6 weeks until the bones fuse together. Trying to stay happy but feeling pretty grotty at the moment.

Mueller Hut Tramp

So after whinging in the car the whole way to the Mt Cook village about how hard it was gonna be, I actually made it up the 1000 vertical metres to the Mueller Hut without too many complaints! On Saturday morning we drove up to the Mt Cook village with Hamish and Ness, and set off up the hill to the Mueller Hut. Its 1000ish metres vertical climb but only 3 or 4kms in horizontal distance so you can imagine how steep it was! We had lots of stops to admire the view which was fantastic every step of the way. When we got to the hut we dumped our packs and rock-hopped the extra half hour or so up to Mt Olivier. Sitting in the sun on the top of the mountain while looking at Mt Cook and the Glaciers was absolutely magic. Other highlights were watching the sunset on Mt Cook, and looking out the window when waking up in the middle of night to see a sky full of stars.
Heres some photos: