I was on the lookout for something new to make for lunches this week and wanted to use some yummy new organic muesli that we had found in a slice but when we googled muesli slice we kept coming up with slices that were like muesli bars. Not really what I wanted. So we made our own.
It's deliciously moist and more like a cake than a muesli bar which is exactly what we wanted.
125gm butter melted
1/2 cup organic honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup wholemeal SR flour
2 cups Garmans Muesli
1 cup Aldi Organic Muesli ( it has choc chunks and raspberries in it )
2/3 cup sultanas
2 eggs
Melt the butter and honey together in the microwave.
Mix all the dry ingredients together
Add the honey and melted butter. Add the eggs.
Press into a slice tin and bake for 20 minutes until golden.
Leave to cool before slicing. I'm sure you can change your muesli to be whatever you like but these are the brands we like :)
Have you got any new yummy ideas for lunch boxes - this is the time of year my inspiration goes out the door....
Hello :) It's super cold here today - ok let me put some perspective around that we do live in queensland so it's about as cold as it gets- relatively mild I guess.
Yesterday I whipped up a big pot of soup ready for dinner last night. We had some conflicting commitments so it was rush out the door tag team everyone fend for yourself type thing in our house.
I love love love this soup recipe though. It's so simple and can be ready in 20 minutes so you can throw it on run away shower, change and be back to ladle it up.
You do need a food processor though to make the prep easy.
2 carrots
2 onions
1 parsnip
1 turnip or swede
4 stalks of celery
500gm diced chicken
2 litres of chicken stock
Dice the celery and the onion. Grate everything else. Place all the ingredients in a pot. Bring to the boil and then let simmer.
Serve with crusty bread rolls or toasted sandwiches.
I found this little graphic on pinterest today and of course pinned it :) How good is pinning? What on earth did we do before ? While we don't use chobani much in our house we do use alot of yoghurt. Simple conversions to help clean up/lighten up recipes. Got to love that!
This book caught my eye when I was wandering through DJs the other day. Its rare for a cook book to entice me as I tend to look online for recipes mostly these days. To begin with I didn't know what half the grains were that were listed on the front so that was enough to make me flick. I found myself saying oh yum yum oh that looks nice oh I'd make that to every second recipe in the book.
I liked the clear explanation at the start of each chapter about the grains and what they do and how they work.
So far we have made a number of the buckwheat recipes and I have a big container of the granola which uses rolled spelt and oats. So delicious.
The girls also made the yummy roasted beetroot, buckwheat and feta salad ( we switched out the goats cheese as I'm allergic). We can also recommend the carrot and quinoa cake.
Here is a peak inside ( images from amazon) ( both of these are on our to try list )
Chickpea Tomato and Quinoa Soup
Banana Honey and Walnut Bread - using quinoa flakes
I was with a friend who liked the look of it too and they were having a
special 25% off if you buy two or more books - so we both bought one and
I got it for $22. It's RRP is $29.95.
If you click the link above it'll take you to booko which does a price comparison if you'd like to nab yourself a copy.
I can HIGHLY recommend it - sorry my paleo loving friends :(
I spotted these on my blog reader and pinned them late one night last week. I am always on the look out for yummy breakfast recipes especially over the holidays. These are perfect because I can make them a little later in the morning and they will tide us over till late lunch. Holidays in our hosue are always filled with two girls asking on the hour what can we eat!
I don't know about your family but honestly mine drives me crazy with the what can we have to eat during holidays . I know of some families who pack lunch boxes and say that's it. I have seriously thought about it but to be honest I like a good snackage too!
Now that the umm christmas shortbread ( so not clean even though I made it myself - that makes it kind of clean right?) is gone, it's time to start searching up some new yummy healthy stuff to keep my two munching girls happy. On our to try list is
I am not ashamed to admit that I was slightly worried about my traditional Christmas baking and where it would sit with our clean eating. To be honest I'm sure Richard and the girls were too!
While I intend to adhere 90% of the time to our philosophy of clean I wanted to try to come up with some healthy clean eating Christmas recipes. I was thrilled when a Product Talk by Nuffnang opportunity from Lucky came up as it gave me the chance to start playing with cleaning up some recipes for Christmas.
At Christmas time more than ever you want your recipes to work and what I like about Lucky is that they are the leading cooking nut brand in Australia and have been around for 50 years. Lucky almonds are Australian grown – in our very own almond orchards in the Sunraysia and Riverina districts. Can't really get much cleaner :)
This is a take on my favourite Banana Bread recipe I didn't think it could be improved upon but I love the addition of the Lucky Hazelnut Meal.
Banana Hazelnut Loaf
Makes one loaf
Ingredients
1/2 cup Lucky Almond meal
1/2 cup Lucky Hazelnut meal
1/4 cup shredded organic coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 small ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup Lucky Californian Walnuts
cinnamon
Method
Mix your nut meals, coconut and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. In
another bowl, mix the mashed bananas, eggs, oil, honey with a
fork until combined.
Add your wet to dry and mix until there is no dry - do not over mix.
Pour into a prepared loaf tin - flatten out and press the walnuts
into the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake in a moderate oven about 20 - 25 minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack and leave cool before slicing.
Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble is a new product that has just been launched and is a mix of Oven Roasted Almond Meal, Flaked and Slivered Almonds and Oats. ( nothing else - yay ) - available at Coles. With peaches being so beautiful at the moment I made this yummy peach crumble - rather than your traditional crumbles laden with butter and brown sugar this one uses no butter and no refined sugar.
So good. Perfect to take to a BBQ or just to have as a mid week treat because it takes literally 5 minutes to prepare.
Peach Crumbles
4 - 6 serves
Ingredients
4 fresh peaches halved with pits removed
100gm Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble
2 tablespoons of Macadamia Nut Oil
Lucky Almond Slivers
Organic Maple Syrup
Method
Place your peaches into a baking dish
Mix the Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble and oil together until it forms a crumble consistency. Add a little more oil if needed.
Spoon crumble over the peaches.
Sprinkle some Lucky almond slivers over the top.
Drizzle with maple syrup and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden
Serve with a dollop of yoghurt.
and finally- as I always say dark chocolate is good for you... and it is something we do indudge in - these little Almond clusters are divine. Just one after dinner cuts the I must eat a bar of chocolate craving that I used to get.
Almond Clusters
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate 200 gms
Lucky Slivered Almonds 110 gms
Dried Cranberries 100gms
Method
Melt the dark chocolate either over a double boiler or in the microwave at 70% power for two minutes.
Mix through the Lucky Slivered Almonds and cranberries.
Spoon into small patty tins ( I use the alfoil ones because I find
they retain their shape well and peel off easily- available at coles in the baking section ). Place in the fridge
to set.
Enjoy with your coffee whenever you need to.
Lucky also have a website with a whole slew of recipes - these ones are on my to try list
We have had a bit of a mutiny in our house when it comes to breakfast. Since I have started work again I am flat out getting myself out the door so Richard gets the girls happening - and on the days I don't work well honestly I stay in bed - so Richard is still in charge. The girls leave by 7.20 each day so it's kind of hectic.
AGGH How cute are these egg cups? I so have to get some cute ones - we have boring plastic ones that aren't even nice colours.
Before clean eating breakkie was usually a bowl of cereal which was simple but now we are more concious of what's in things most cereal doesn't cut it.
That being said
Carmen's Fruit Free muesli is yummy - Here is the list of what's in it
Wholegrain rolled oats, nuts 10% (almonds, hazelnuts, pecans), honey, sunflower seeds, sunflower oil, sesame seeds, cinnamon. ( YAY words I know! ) - Check out the details here
In comparison to say Special K which we used to eat most days
So the girls have been complaining there's nothing for breakfast. I have written a list that we have placed on the fridge now they can choose happily from the list and hopefully the call of there is nothing for breakfast will be banished.
Muesli with yoghurt
Porridge with honey
Fresh fruit and yoghurt
Toast with peanut butter or almond butter and banana
Toast with avocado and tomato
Fruit smoothie ( takes seconds to throw in the processor - banana or berries, milk, protein powder (optional) splash of honey dollop of yoghurt
Boiled egg and toast
Scrambled eggs
Poached eggs
Fried eggs in toast - cut a hole out of the bread - circle - crack an egg into the middle of it and pan fry
Omelette with tomato and mushrooms
French toast - slice of bread dipped in beaten egg - fried with some cooked banana and a splash of organic maple syrup
Have you got any awesome breakkie ideas to share that I can add to my list ?
This is our last post in our Happy Lunch series - I do hope you have enjoyed it and have lots of great ideas - No doubt at the start of next year we will revisit this topic :)
Tonight Richard and I took advantage of the children being off on camp and had a week night date night. We headed to Life Changing Events doco Forks over Knives. It's not really Richard's thing he leaves it to me to get all the food sorted and then happily enough eats what I give him, but I really wanted him to have some buy in on it to. So it was great that he got to come and see and he enjoyed it :)
The documentary is really eye opening. I am sure it is available in your DVD store. Life Changing Events run these nights in conjunction with organic food growers on the Gold Coast. They also have yummy organic meals - tonight we had Japanese Pancake and Mushroom with Leek Ragout - so good. We finished with a dessert each as well - totally fabulous.
The panel after the movie was pretty heated - each of the panelists had their own very strong views as did some audience members. I loved having the chance to meet Dr Libby - The Real Food Chef. FreeLea - aka Banana Girl was also on the panel and while I personally don't subscribe to her way of eating it was certainly interesting to hear her take on things. The message was quite clear from all four panelists - find what works for you - no one way will fit all people. Discussions included increasing plant food, vegetarianism, vegan-ism and raw food vs cooked food. It really reaffirmed that I feel comfortable with where we are on our clean eating journey.
Here is the DVD trailer - well worth a watch if you get the chance to get the DVD out.
When we embarked upon the clean eating lifestyle I have to admit bread and baking threw me. I just could not get my head around it. Baking is a big deal in our house and I wanted to still be able to bake while maintaining clean eating.
I have read lots of discussions against grains and heard a number of speakers talk on the topic too. For our family we still include grains in moderation and they have to be wholegrains.
So what does that really mean? Does it work to grab any loaf of bread from a bakery or from woolies shelves if it's brown? I had a chat to a number of bakers as well and no not all bread is created equal and neither is all flour. The few things they told me was rather eye opening. I strongly suggest you have a little read of the labels on your breads.
Of course you can get organic bread from a couple of different bakeries and also from farmers markets - they usually cost about $7 a loaf. There is also Ezekial Bread available around the traps as well. I am not a huge fan of it and the girls won't touch it. I mostly was reaching for the Burgen brand breads - they put out a heap of different ones - Wholemeal and seeds - sounded good the ingredient list is okayish -- creeping up there but mostly I can understand what's in it.
I dabbled with the idea of making my own in a bread maker. A friend recommended that I buy a bread mix for a bread maker- I researched those and found that the Laucke brand was readily available and sounded quite good. A look at the ingredient list though and I was back to square one. As soon as I see numbers I have to put it back.
Mel suggested that I try Artisans Bread in 5 minutes a day. I watched the video and bought the book for it on my ipad. It looked easy enough and fitted beautifully with clean eating. My only concern was how difficult would it be - would it really work and my usual I have the dodgiest oven in the world. Then I was still lost in translating the whole flour issue.
I asked a nutritionist at a seminar I was at for gym and they recommended hands down spelt flour.I had been using spelt flour in some other recipes and they had been working.
The master recipe for wholegrain artisan bread is online a quick google will reveal it so its no secret. I'll pop it here so I can show you which products I ended up using as this is in what I call American ingredients and what worked for me.
5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ------ I used Spelt Flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour ----- I used Wholemeal Plain Flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 tablespoon Kosher salt---- I used Himalayan Pink Salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten ------ I used Gluten Flour
4 cups lukewarm water
The recipe and details of what to do is found here but in short you make this up and this is the base for all sorts of wholegrain breads. Watch the artisans at work - honestly it is as simple as they make it look.
I really recommend buying the book after you have mastered this and know that this works for you. As an ebook it's $14.99.
There are so many great recipes in there -including a sandwich one with honey in it that I'll be using for staple bread for the girls. There is also a Gluten Free section for those who need it (obviously this recipe isn't gluten free). While I dont have to deal wth gluten free unless my godson is here the premise is the same. simple 5 minutes a day.
Now a little breakdown of the types of flour I used and where I got them from
Spelt - I choose Organic Spelt flour and i have used it in anumber of different recipes. You can get it from woolies - in their macro range, from a health food store or you can buy it at the markets from a few stall holders - Gold Coast Turf Club Marjets for example have it as do Bangalow.
I personally choose organic for flour but you don't have to. Any spelt will be fine it will also be whole grain. You can read up on what spelt is here.
So far I have substituted spelt for anytime I have needed flour - pancakes, scones, pikelets - it all works. You can read the difference between spelt and wholemeal over here.
Wholemeal Plain Flour - I have been using Wholemeal Atta flour by Arta - say that fast LOL. It's readily available at woolies and is by Masterchef Jimmy - the girls love that he makes flour now. You can read up about it on the Arta website. I don't know for sure that there is anything better about this flour in comparison to say homebrand wholemeal flour but I like what I read about it and I have had successful recipes so that's all that matters to me at the moment.
Gluten Flour is trickier to get but you don't need much - I have had to buy it at Health food stores. I'm yet to see it in the supermarket. There are lots of brands if possible choose an organic one.
I have been using my $14.99 pizza stone to bake my freestanding loaves on. My oven doesn't retain heat very well - sigh one day I'd love a whole new kitchen - ANYHOW one thing they recommend is to get a thermometer to check your oven temp. Its on my to do list. You set it to 450 which in other speak is 230 so it's a hot oven. I didn't preheat mine enough I don't think to start and it still worked.
I just made my first batch of master dough in a HUGE ceramic basin with cling wrap over the top but I have now invested in a plastic tub from BIG W
I bought the 8.5 litre as that was all they had but I think the next size down 5.5 litre would be perfect. The master dough keeps for 14 days and makes 4 loaves.
In terms of making a traditional sandwich loaf style of bread I was on the lookout for a Pullman loaf tin as recommended by Artisans but I'm yet to find it. You can see all about it here.
It's 28 x 13 x7 from Barrel and Crate (though there are very very similar ones in Big W for half the price - don't tell Richard.
There you have it - that culminates in nearly two months of research for me. I know obsessive much? But really I wanted the answers. Using these recipes and this style of baking is really simple it takes no time at all and now that I have the flour thing solved I'm excited to try a few other styles of bread too. I usually just add whatever seeds I have on hand to the top of the master recipe- pepitas, sesame, poppy sunflower. So if you don't want to invest in the book - use their guide from the video and their blog and add some seeds and you are all set too. I should also mention they have an original book which is not using whole grain flours if that is what you would like to try too and a pizza and flat bread book as well.
I'd love to know if you make your own bread and what you use or if you give this a try and have success.
Welcome to my blog, I am so happy you came to visit. I share the stories of my life creating, documenting and loving as a Mumma to twin girls. I am navigating a clean eating lifestyle as I run towards being a breast cancer survivor.
