Around here

Around here we are in Week 7 of Term 3 and the teenagers are wearing masks to school in Queensland.  I think we will be wearing masks here for a bit longer and I guess with the protest march on the Qld/NSW border last weekend we may see some cases in Queensland in the next few weeks.

New South Wales and Victoria are still in a world of trouble with New South Wales recording their highest daily figure yesterday of 919 cases with a 30 year old Mum of 3 passing away overnight.  Her husband is now in hospital with Covid and I can only pray that he makes it so those kids have one parent.  It's so heart breaking and I don't know how the NSW cases are going to end to be honest.  Victoria was given the virus by NSW people [I believe] heading there when they were supposed to be in lockdown.  Only a couple of weeks ago [7 weeks into NSW lockdown] two girls flew to Melbourne who had Covid.   I don't understand how "stay at home orders" means getting on a plane and flying interstate whether you have Covid or not.  Today, the 26th August, 2021 there are 1,029 cases.

Grade 12 mock exams start with the count down to the end of the year with the Senior exams starting on the 25th October, 2021.  I still can't believe I will have my oldest graduating High School in 12 weeks time as I can still remember walking him into school for his first day of Prep back in 2009.  That means next year I'll have one at University and one in Grade 11.  Both have great part time jobs and have a great social life as well so my Mothering days look a lot different these days to 10 years ago when we moved into this house in June 2011.

I am still loving making my sourdough bread and I can't believe how easy this recipe and process is compared to many others and in particular starting with a cold oven as well.  I also made some tomato sauce using the recipe from Additive Free Lifestyle.  The girls [sisters] have just created a Gluten Free 4 week online course which is the pilot course which I subscribed too.   I'm not gluten intolerant however having extra recipes up my sleeve which are healthy is always good and the girls recipes are amazing.

I have also experimented with making home made ginger beer using Rhonda's recipe from Down to Earth blog which I'll write about in another post.

This lovely Kookaburra has been hanging around our backyard this week.

Home made Tomato Sauce using this recipe.

Home made non-alcoholic ginger beer in the making.

Home made pizza for dinner.

Healthy Brain Balls using Dr Libby's recipe.  This batch is half the recipe.

I dried some of my home grown oregano which ended up being a huge effort for a tiny bit of dried oregano however I have been wanting to do this for some time.

Around here - Pizza

Over the years we have made many a home made pizza and tried different dough recipes.  We do have a favourite recipe however today I made "Sophia's Pizza Dough Recipe" and I think it's a good one.  Sophia just opened a beautiful Sourdough Bakery in the UK during a Pandemic and you can check out her IG account.  This is the link to her YouTube channel too which has lots of great Thermomix recipes.

Her tips are as follows:-

Oil your pizza tray with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and don't worry about the baking paper.

Heat your oven to 250 degrees and then when you put your pizza in turn it down to 230 degrees.

Brush the edges of your pizza with Extra Virgin Olive Oil before it goes in. 

Use "00" flour or "plain flour" vs we mostly have been using the bread flour however the pizza dough takes more bread like so today I just used the "00" flour.  My understanding of the "00" flour is it's a fine flour for pasta, pizza, focaccia and bread however plain flour will be fine.  The bread flour has more protein in it which is what we generally use however using the "00" flour was really nice and going forward I won't be using my normal bread flour for pizza dough.

This is the link to Sophia's Video which runs for 11.32 minutes.

Here is the Thermomix Recipe which makes 3 pizzas so if you have a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook you can use that and use warm water instead of cold water which is heated in the Thermomix.

INGREDIENTS

330gms tap water [cold tap]

1 Tablespoon of Yeast

500gms "00" Flour or Plain Flour

20gms Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Teaspoons of Sea Salt or Pink Salt

METHOD

Put 330gms water into the Thermomix Bowl

Add 1 Tablespoon of Yeast

Set to 2 Minutes / 37 degrees / Speed 2

Add 500gms plain flour

Add 20gms Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Add 2 Teaspoons of Sea Salt

Set to 2 minutes / Knead function

PROVE - Let it rise for 1 hour until it has doubled in size

DOUGH

Set oven to 250 degrees.

Flour the bench and get the dough out and divide into 3 pieces.

Oil your Pizza Trays and press out your pizza dough and place on tray.

Use your favourite tomato base passata or sauce and top with ingredients.

Brush the edge of the pizza with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Don't put your sauce or ingredients on until the last minute when the oven is ready otherwise it might get a bit soggy.

When oven is ready turn down to 230 degrees and place pizza in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.

I must admit I thought this dough was really great.

Slow Cooker Beef Recipe & Flat Bread

The other day I was scrolling Instagram and there was a video for a slow cooker recipe.  I had all the ingredients and just needed to buy some beef and potatoes.  I put the slow cooker on around midday on high and about half an hour before I was serving I made some flat breads to go with it instead of having it with rice.   It was so delicious and warming on the first day of winter in Australia and the flat bread was great for mopping up all the sauce.

SLOW COOKER BEEF RECIPE

500gms diced beef [recipe called for double that however I just used half - you could use 1kgs]

3-4 carrots chopped into large size chunks

4 potatoes chopped into quarters [I used the little packet of Aldi Microwave potatoes for size]

2 large onions chopped

Peas & Beans [optional - to be put in at the end of cooking]

3 cups of beef stock

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

1 teaspoon of dried rosemary

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 cloves of garlic

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup of plain flour

Salt & Pepper to taste.

METHOD

Dice beef into large cubes if not already diced.

Place in pan with some olive oil to brown the beef and then put into slow cooker.

Using the same pan, place potatoes and carrots in the pan and brown, and then put them in the slow cooker.

Sprinkle the 1/4 cup of plain flour over the beef and vegetables in the slow cooker and stir until everything is covered.

Back to the stove top; add garlic and herbs and onion to the pan and cook for a few minutes.

Add the tomato paste and stir through, then pour in the beef stock and bring to the boil.

When reaching the boil place this into slow cooker.

Add the bay leaves and parsley [note I didn't use either of these].

About 15-20 minutes before you want to eat dinner, place some beans and peas into the slow cooker and stir through.  You could also add other greens at this stage like baby spinach for extra nutrition at this stage.

FLAT BREAD RECIPE

Here is a link to my flat bread post from 2017.  The ingredients for the flat bread is as follows:-

250gms Self Raising Flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt [recipe calls for 1 teaspoon however it's too salty for us so we use half]

1 teaspoon baking powder

250gms Natural Yoghurt - I used Greek Yoghurt

Around here

We have had some lovely rain over the last week and it's nice to be inside nice and cozy.  Over the past 7 days I participated in the Additive Free Lifestyle 7 day challenge again which was a great reminder of how far we have come and a reminder of why it's important for your health and well being.  I've had a big cook up to get organized for the week ahead.

One thing I need to do is get stuck into the veggie garden as I've neglected it while I sorted and de-cluttered my garage which took a very long time.  Selling things to make some money and donating lots of things to charity as well.  It was a huge job and I'm so glad it's done now that's for sure.

Here's a few photos from our week.

Muesli Slice for school lunch boxes.

Made a batch of mayo and coleslaw dressing using this recipe.

Made this slow cooker pork recipe from Additive Free Lifestyle blog.

Pork in the slow cooker smells amazing.

Made a batch of this stock paste from Additive Free Lifestyle blog.

Recycling my Aldi Maple Syrup bottle as it has a pourer on the lid and put my home made tomato sauce in it using this recipe from Additive Free Lifestyle blog.

Home made biscuits using this recipe.  I love this recipe because you can make jam drops or any type of topping on your biscuits or even freeze half the dough to cook later on.  These go straight into the freezer.

OMG this Sweet and Sour Chicken Meatball recipe is AMAZING.  I would just use chicken pieces next time as meatballs take time and then when I eat them I cut them in half anyway so you could use this recipe and put in chicken breast or thigh fillets or pork.  It was so quick and easy and the smell and flavour was incredible.

I don't buy any packet mixes any more however the one take away that is my favourite that we only have about 3 times a year is Panang Chicken.  This sachet is all herbs and spices and no additives or preservatives so it's a good one.  They have a variety of sachets however it's the Panang Chicken that I made and it was great.  These are from Woolworths and handy to have it in the cupboard knowing it's safe and has no nasties in it.

Around here

During the school holidays we went strawberry picking which was great and we especially love the strawberry ice cream we have while we are there.  It's not a big outing in that we are only there for about an hour and it's an hour's drive there and an hour's drive back.  I can say that the strawberries were delicious and I made a pavlova and decorated it with fresh strawberries for our family BBQ.

We also bought some party lights from Bunnings and put them up and they look great and now the outdoor entertainment area has a nice festive appeal.  These I bought plug into my outdoor power point however there are lots of different solar lights as well if you don't have access to power.

Tracey & Jo from Additive Free Lifestyle are currently running their "beginners guide to going additive free 7 day challenge" this week and even though I did this May last year it's a great reminder to keep going.  Food companies do get away with a lot of things and try and trick us into thinking things are healthy.  Have you read this blog post about "flavour vs natural flavour"? 

This is a link to my blog post when I did the 7 day challenge which has links to some podcasts.

Today's topic was on caramel and it's not good for you and it's in lots of things.  I went through the sauces I have in the cupboard and pulled these out to throw away which either has nasty preservatives or caramel.  To be honest I only the Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Oyster sauce.

I have been making my own Tomato Sauce, BBQ Sauce, Pizza Sauce and Sweet Chilli Sauce since May last year.  I believe Melrose brand has some better options and Ceres Organics.  It's just a matter of double checking labels which I normally do however as I make most of my sauces now there is less to read. 

If you get a chance to listen to the podcasts listed above in the blog post from last year they are worth your while.  Hope everyone has a good week.

I made some condensed milk this afternoon for the first time in my Thermomix which took less than 3 minutes to make and OMG it's delicious.  Tomorrow I'm going make this ice cream and I thought I would have a go at making condensed milk myself as it's so easy.  I have used brown sugar so that's why mine looks brown rather than cream as you get in the tins.  I also used salted butter as that's all I had on hand and it's fine.  The original recipe calls for unsalted butter and can be found on Sophia's Kitchen YouTube channel.

I also like to have the recipe on my blog so here it is:-

INGREDIENTS

50gms unsalted butter [I only had salted so used that]

125gms water

200gms brown sugar

110gms whole milk powder

METHOD

Place butter, water and brown sugar in Thermomix bowl and heat on Varoma temp for 2.5 minutes on speed 2.

Add the milk powder and blend for 30 seconds on speed 10.

Transfer into a sterilised jar and leave to cool before refrigerating.  You can keep it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.  So quick and simple.

Around here

Last May I undertook a 7 day challenge additive free challenge which opened my eyes to hidden preservatives and additives in our foods.  Here's another blog post on things I was making.  I have always made our food from scratch however there's making things from scratch and then there's making things from scratch.  I used to use some sachets for stir fries or devilled sausages etc. we used to have store bought mayonnaise, coleslaw dressing, tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, sweet chilli sauce.

I now make these ingredients from scratch, they don't take very long, they taste great and more importantly I get a kick out of doing it and I love making healthy choices for my family.

Food companies are clever and they know consumers are a little more savvy these days so putting things like "natural flavour" on the box we as consumers believe this is better for us because it's natural flavour as opposed to chemical flavours [listed as numbers on the packet].  I for one thought "natural flavour" was just that, natural and not chemical however if you read this latest blog post from Tracey & Jo from Additive Free Lifestyle about this subject you will be a little shocked.  

Home made tomato sauce.

Home made bread.

Home made crumpets.

What we perceive to be healthy and what is healthy can be two different things. I've copied this from a post from last year. Here is a quote about spinach wraps you buy in the shops.

 "You will notice that the reason they are green is from a combination of blue and yellow food colour and they use spinach ‘seasoning’ (no real spinach!)"

This is the ingredient list from the store bought spinach wraps [as per Additive Free Lifestyle blog] - Honestly what is all of this stuff.

Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and/or Palm Oil), contains 2% or less of each of the following: Seasoning (Spinach Powder, Onion Powder, Spice, Salt, Garlic Powder, Soybean Oil, Artificial Colors [FD&C Yellow #5 Lake and FD&C Blue #1 Lake], Natural and Artificial Flavor), Salt, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate and/or Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Sulfate), Distilled Monoglycerides, Enzymes, Wheat Starch, Calcium Carbonate, Antioxidants (Tocopherols, Ascorbic Acid), Vital Wheat Gluten, Cellulose Gum, Dough Conditioners (Fumaric Acid, Sodium Metabisulfite), Preservatives (Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid and/or Citric Acid).

Here is a recipe to make your own spinach wraps using 6 ingredients real spinach, flour, baking powder, salt, butter, water and olive oil. These ingredients we all know what they are compared to the list on the packaged wraps above.  It's quite frightening and if you were buying wraps generally you would think spinach wraps are healthier than plain wraps so again our perception of healthy is buy the spinach ones when in fact they are probably all the same.  It's a bit of false sense of security about buying the healthy option for your family as we think we are doing the right thing.

In our pantry we have a lot of ingredients and not packets and I've made a lot of progress over the last year.

Tracey and Jo run Additive Free Workshops from time to time and they bought a packet of Anzac Biscuits from the bakery of a well know Australian Supermarket to take along to the workshops to show the ingredient label and explain all the items on it.  The other day she posted a pic of the biscuits on IG and they looked like she had just bought them that day.  She asked people how old did we think the biscuits were and she said she had bought them for their first workshop 3 years ago and they were still in the packet going strong, not mouldy, not off.  That is scary that a packet of bakery biscuits still hold their structure in the packet and haven't gone off in 3 years.  On occasions when I have run out of time I've actually bought these biscuits myself for afternoon tea for the kids after school.  I was shocked and will not be ever buying these if I run out of time.  I would have been shocked if she said 6 months however 3 years that is crazy...just like the burger at the fast food chain that doesn't go off for 20 years.

We have full control over what we put in our bodies and having knowledge about how to go Additive & Preservative free is easier than you think.  Next time you see even an organic product with "natural flavouring" think again.

This is another great resource that I got onto years ago "100 Days of Real Food" and Lisa's cookbooks are both great.  This is their story and oh so jealous of their mountain "tiny house" too.  This is their holiday home and what a location how beautiful.  I have two of her books here and here.  In her book she tells you how her family went additive and preservative free and committed to trying it for 100 days.  She and her husband were into healthy eating and exercise however when they started the 100 days of real food they realized how little they did know because of food packaging and what the marketers of food try to tell you.  I can highly recommend her books and also lots of articles on her blog as well.  I love the internet and the fact that we can get access to so much information from right here in our homes.  Have a good week and let me know if you have any great blogs or books you have come across that made you aware of these things.

  

Around here - Coronavirus Update

How has your week been going?  This weekend Queensland will be lifting certain restrictions however I am concerned that every man and his dog will be out on a picnic on the weekend and that there will be crowds everywhere.  I for one, am staying put this weekend that's for sure.

Last week I mentioned that I made Tomato Sauce and Sweet Chilli Sauce from Additive Free Lifestyle blog/book and this week I have made the Pizza Sauce and BBQ Sauce and I can highly recommend them all.  I haven't taken any photos of the jars yet which I will do tomorrow.  If you make these sauces you will never buy the store bought ones again and they only take 30-45 minutes to make.  The recipes have a Thermomix and Stove top version so there are no excuses I can highly recommend them as they have so much flavour.  For the Pizza Sauce I just used whatever veggies I had in the crisper so just use up whatever you have you'll still get the flavour with all the tomatoes.  I used half fresh tomatoes and half tins as I only had about 800gms of fresh tomatoes and wanted to make both the Pizza Sauce and the BBQ Sauce so I used a can of Aldi organic tomatoes in both recipes.

Since I haven't got any photos of my cooking here's a couple of photos of Sienna with our chicken since she can't hang out with her friends.

WEEKLY CORONAVIRUS UPDATE [I have included the last two weeks as I didn't do a post last week]

On Thursday the 2nd of April, 2020 I started posting these numbers so am updating them weekly on a Thursday.  So these figures are basically 3 weeks apart.  World numbers can be seen here.

WORLD WIDE
Wednesday 25-03-2020        World Wide Cases        417,348                Deaths    18,596
Thursday     02-04-2020        World Wide Cases        936,886                Deaths    47,264

Thursday     09-04-2020        World Wide Cases     1,513,243                Deaths    88,403

Thursday     16-04-2020        World Wide Cases     2,084,042                Deaths  134,669

Thursday     23-04-2020        World Wide Cases     2,663,064                Deaths  183,882

Thursday     30-04-2020        World Wide Cases     3,212,993                Deaths  227,784

AUSTRALIA
Wednesday 25-03-2020        Australian Cases               2,144                Deaths not sure didn't look
Thursday     02-04-2020        Australian Cases               5,124                Deaths          24

Thursday     09-04-2020        Australian Cases               6,052                Deaths          50

Thursday     16-04-2020        Australian Cases               6,462                Deaths          63 **

Thursday     23-04-2020        Australian Cases               6,649                Deaths          74 **

Thursday     30-04-2020        Australian Cases               6,752                Deaths          91 **

** 21 of these deaths are related to the Ruby Princess Cruise that docked in Sydney in March.
** Another death from the ship however the person had flown home to America and passed away overseas.

** 17 deaths are related to two nursing homes.
Most of the cases in Australia have been linked to people returning home from overseas.

It took two months to get to over 1 million cases and then only two weeks to get to the second million cases.

Stay safe and enjoy the down time with your family and get all those odd jobs done around the house you never had time for.

Around here - Term 2 - Week 1 in Queensland

Well it certainly makes a change with the kids in school at home without doing daily drop offs and pickups.   Due to their schedules, some days they go at different times in the morning and are collected at different times in the afternoon so it could be 2 trips to school or 3-4 trips to and from school depending on the day and I'm grateful we live 2 kms from the school.

Both kids have adjusted well to online school at home although some of the lessons that might be completed in a class at school can take 3 times as long, or half the time depending on the lesson so they have both been kept busy.  It's new for the teachers and the kids and everyone is doing their best under the circumstances.  With the new ATAR system for Queensland for year 12 this year the schools have been preparing for changes for a couple of years readjusting years 11 and 12 and even year 10 and yet due to the Coronavirus they had to adjust everything from scratch in a matter of a couple of weeks including at that stage, teaching normal lessons in school at the end of Term 1.  I take my hat off to everyone doing their best to both teachers and students.

I have loved the slow mornings without the ironing of uniforms and telling someone to hurry up and brush their teeth so we can get going to school.  Not having to make school lunches in the mornings at home they make their own lunch when they are hungry.  There are lots of perks for this online schooling at home and I"m grateful that they are teenagers managing their school work as it might be a different story if I had little ones at home.  I know the way I was taught at school how to add up by "carrying the 1" is very different to how my kids were taught in primary school, so again...we are in a pretty good place.  I would love to go on a local bush walk and get into nature however all good things come to those who wait and it's about saving lives not about me getting into nature.  Here's some photos of our week and I hope you are all enjoying the slow mornings as well.

I made Sweet Chilli Sauce yesterday from Additive Free Lifestyle blog.

Home made Sweet Chilli Sauce.  The top two jars will go into the fridge and the bottom 3 will go into the pantry.  The kids think it smells and tastes more "sweet and sour" however we all agree we love it.

Sienna made some Anzac biscuits this morning.

This photo is an old photo taken on Anzac Day 2017.

A photo of my front hallway with pretty light.  I took it out out of focus on purpose because there are a lot of things in the hallway that need to get put away.  A High Pressure Cleaner, a large bird cage, a chair, shopping bags to go in the car to name a few.

I made another half batch of this Tomato Sauce from Additive Free Lifestyle blog and haven't bought a bottle of tomato sauce from the shops in over a year.  You cannot beat the flavours in this recipe.

Our menu plan for the week.

The beautiful sunset earlier in the week.

Banana smoothie for breakfast.

I can highly recommend Tracey & Jo's Everyday Cookbook as a standard everyday recipe book for the family.  There are no fancy ingredients, and simple Thermomix instructions along with the stove top traditional method of cooking with each recipe.

Given we are all in ISO get someone to buy you this book online for Mother's Day as it's kid friendly as well with teenagers preparing dinner for the family.  There's a list of what's in the book in the above link.  Also all those store bought condiments you may buy like gravy mixes, KFC-ish spice mixes etc. tomato sauce, pizza sauce, mayo, etc. there are recipes for all of these in the cookbook and I can highly recommend it to any family.   Just a reminder Australia Post are running a bit slow at the moment and it took over 2 weeks to get a standard Easter Card from Melbourne so be patient during these times however you will love the book.  It's a good old fashioned family cookbook without the additives and preservatives that you would be buying from the supermarket.

I can highly recommend you read this post and listen to the 7 podcasts about these additives and preservatives and what they do to your health.