Cholesterol Happy Brownies (Sp)

Matt got told a few months ago that his cholesterol levels were not good. Not good at all. 

Not only was this bad news for him, it was bad news for me. Firstly, you don't want high cholesterol. Secondly - I need to bake. 

I looked up what I could do to help him get his cholesterol in check. He started exercising at least five times a week. He reviewed what he was eating. We feel like we've got this stuff figured!

But baking? How could I still bake when Matt was fighting bad cholesterol?

Enter Flora Pro-Activ. The good news? I've switched it in instead of butter, so I can still bake, and Matt can still enjoy my baking! Hoorah!   

This is a super simple no-fail brownie recipe that I love. And because you've been so good dear reader, I am willing to share!

Lexi's No-Fail Double-Choc Double-Happiness Brownies

180g Flora Pro-Activ, melted

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 cups castor sugar (or brown, whatever takes your fancy)

a teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract

4 eggs, lightly beaten

100g sifted plain flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup of chocolate, chopped

small pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 160C. Line a brownie tray with baking paper. 

Mix Flora Pro-Activ and cocoa in a large bowl. Once combined add sugar, vanilla and eggs. Stir through remaining ingredients. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until quite firm, but moist (I like mine a bit gooey, so I take them out a little early - when the top is quite firm). Allow to cool in tin and cut into squares. Dust with a little icing sugar. Serve with a strong coffee. All will be well.

What is cholesterol? Even if you think 'Oh I am too young to have high cholesterol!' - you should get it checked. Click over to learn the difference between 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol.  

* This is a sponsored post. Very occasionally I will do sponsored posts - when they resonate with me, because maybe they'll resonate with you too. This is my honest opinion which is why I can blog openly about it.  I wanted to share. 

Making Nutella Ice Cream. It's Ah-MAZING!

This is the best ice cream you're ever going to make. Ever. 

I've been using the KitchenAid ice cream bowl attachment - and it's so ridiculously simple to use, I would be crazy to buy ice cream. Especially when it tastes this good. 

So I've been making Nutella Ice Cream for the kids, but secretly, I've had a few spoonfuls too. 

PottyMouthMama's World Famous Nutella Ice Cream AKA The Best Thing Going Pty Ltd:

Ingredients:

2 cups of pouring cream 
2 tablespoons of sugar (I use brown)
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract - or a vanilla pod if you have one fancy pants
1/2 cup of Nutella
handful of chopped chocolate

First things first: 

Pour the cream and sugar in together and whisk. Whisk it baby, until the sugar has dissolved. 

Then toss in all the other ingredients (except the chopped chocolate) and mix until combined. It is imperative at this point to have a taste. 

And then have another taste. 

And then throw it into your KitchenAid ice cream maker for 25 minutes. Once it's done churning it will be a beautiful thick consistency, and usually the mixer will make a slight clicking noise. 

At this point, I remove from the mixer, and stir through the chopped chocolate pieces. Honestly, these are like nuggets of gold. But not a deal breaker. You don't HAVE to have them. But my goodness, you'll be loved if you do.

Now transfer into an airtight container, and freeze. 

Once set, it's ready for serving. 

I would show you a bowl of the ice cream, however my children always lick their bowls clean, and that's not demonstrating much. So you'll just have to take my word for it. 

Take a look at the KitchenAid range here. 

Kid Snacks. It's A Smoothie. We Love Smoothies.

I've been messing about with smoothie recipes over the last couple of months to find what my smalls like, and what works best. I wouldn't call it a science, I'd call it - what's in the fridge, and what appeals to kids. I can recommend it for getting rid of some slightly overripe fruits, and sneaking a bit of extra nutrition into your kids day.

Take this one for example. Not groundbreaking, but really delicious - and the smalls woofed it down. Or is it wolfed it? Either way, they were into it. 

PMM's Raspberry & Banana Ripple

1 cup of frozen raspberries
1 ripe banana (go for frozen, it makes smoothies creamier)
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon chia seeds (any colour)
1 tablespoon honey (not pictured)

Toss all ingredients into your blender, pulse for 1 minute or until smoothie is at a consistency that makes you happy, pour into two glasses. Straws. Smiles. BOOM! 

Another alternative to this? I love this one. It's fresh, and delicious.

PMM's Minty Raspberry Slushie

1 cup of frozen berries (choose whatever you like)
around 7-8 frozen cubes of natural apple juice*
a handful of mint leaves
1 tablespoon of chia
1 slurp of water 

I throw everything into the blender, the water helps loosen up the mixture so it's not so thick. Blitz for 1 minute and serve in two glasses, with a straw and a spoon. 

This is a good alternative to a normal smoothie, as my kids really like that it's more a slushie than a smoothie.

* by freezing apple juice (I put them into ice cube trays) means the smoothies take on a slushie consistency, which my kids are mad for. 



KitchenAid lent me some attachments to try out, and I've loved using them. This is not a sponsored post. The blender is so great, easy to use, and I wanted to share.  

No Dessert For Me

So I skipped Bikram last night. Which yes, I know, was incredibly naughty. Scandalous!

Something's got to give, and dinner didn't really satisfy, but instead of going for a chocolate fix after dinner, I made Matt and I a quick and healthy smoothie. 

It's filling, it gives us two serves of fruit, plus the added bonus of chia, the Omega-3 and protein from almond milk and it was sweet - satiating that thing in my brain saying: gimme, gimme!

This is what you need:

1 generous cup of frozen raspberries (or you could use fresh if you have them)
1 small ripe banana
1 cup of almond milk
2 tablespoons of chia

I tossed everything into the Kitchenaid blender - 30 seconds later - yeah baby, fresh, cold, tasty. 

And totally worth skipping Bikram for, right?!



* I am a massive fan of KitchenAid, and have been lent some of their products to try. They are ace. Totally ace. And the blender matches my pink KitchenAid mixer. It must be love.

I'm So Dog Tired. Please. Hold Me.

How did I end the weekend even more tired than when it began?

Friday night we went to The School. I got home late. 

Saturday night Matt got home from work looking sicker than any dog I've ever seen, and went straight to bed. I sat up by myself, and when I finally went to bed he woke up. It was one of *those* restless nights. Then Tiny came in. Then I took Tiny back to her bed. Then Matt tossed and turned. He was hotter than a volcano. In temperature. I lay awake. Then I finally fell asleep. Then Tiny came in. And so on and so forth. Repeat. 

I finally fell back into a deep sleep at 6:08am - when really, I could have just gotten up, but I was soooo doggone pooped. 

Then I ran around, and went to work. I didn't eat lunch, I just kept going and going. 

Man. Totes pooped. 

Two good things I did today? Made pikelets for my babes in the morning. And made Gourmet Girlfriend's haloumi and spinach gozleme for a crazy late lunch. 

What was good about your weekend? 

PS - I have a giveaway coming up this week! Stay tuned. 

Bliss Balls:: The Recipes I Used

During my cleanse I looked for recipes to comfort the sweet tooth within. What I found during my search was bliss balls. A little hit of sweet to satiate. 

These are super duper healthy and packed full of goodness. Plus they're ridiculously easy to make, I just make a batch, pop them in the fridge - and BOOM! Good to go. I'm still sugar free 10 days later. Go me! 

I found both these recipes over on The Rejuvenation Lounge. 

Cacao and Cashew Bliss Balls (pictured above)

Matt and Tiny REALLY loved these ones. I like them, but not as crazy excited about them as they were.

• 1/2 to 1 cup of cashews blended until smooth ( or you can cheat and buy cashew butter)
• 2 tablespoons of agave nectar or swap for honey or rice syrup (I used honey)
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 4 – 8 dates (add to suit your taste)
• 2 tablespoons organic cacao

I threw the cashews into the food processor first - blitzed them, rather than a butter, it was more like granules of cashew, then I added everything else and blitzed until a nice consistency. I then used a teaspoon and rolled into balls (like hi-bouncer size), and I put them on a lined baking tray and popped them in the fridge. 

Optional: roll in coconut (I did. I love coconut.)

Tahini Bliss Balls 

These ones are my FAVOURITE!  These ones don't require a blender - you just need a knife and a chopping board, a bowl and a spoon. 

• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of tahini
• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
• 2 – 4 tablespoons of honey (depends on your taste)

Mix all the ingredients up, and as with the recipe above, I used a teaspoon and rolled the mixture into balls , and I put them on a lined baking tray and popped them in the fridge. 

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Have you made bliss balls before? Do you have a favourite recipe? Share? 

You can read more about the gentle cleanse here.

What Do You Collect?

I was quietly making Tiny some porridge yesterday when I realised I had a collection happening. Of spurtles. I just love me some spurtles. I've only got three, which is probably three more than you, dear reader, but I love them each - and they were each given to me by people I love. 

I even have a spurtle that has a groove in it - so when I am not stirring - it can hang out on the saucepan and not leave porridge sludge on the bench.

I have a deep and abiding love for spurtles. I love the name. I love making porridge with a good honest spurtle. I love spurtles. They are woodwork done good. Each an individual artwork unto themselves.

So 'fess up. What weird and wonderful do you collect? 

Would now be a good time to tell you I still have my wisdom teeth in a jar (I had them out over 12 years ago) - complete with sinew? It totally grosses the Doctor out. When would be a good time to toss them away?


No idea what a spurtle is? Read this. 

Image is of some ace spurtles I found at Woodworkers Guide. I know. I am such a nerd. 

What Do You Do?

What do you do when your day is in the poo? 

I found myself in this very quandary yesterday. This very same one. 

Inexplicably I found myself drawn to the kitchen. To make choc-caramel slice (Matt and the Doctor's favourite) and polka dot biscuits (Tiny's favourite). 

We also played a round of Bananagrams before Tiny had a hissy fit and announced that everyone was rude. I did some work. Some washing. And folded the washing. 

Life can be incredibly banal some days, but on the flip side, sometimes it's the banal that can be fulfilling (not the clothes folding though - oh man - someone save me!). 

How do you fend off bad days? 

Burning Sausages. And Other Number One Hits.

I was being some kind of gastronomic genius in the kitchen tonight, cooking Tuscan chicken for Matt and I (that I picked up from my butcher already marinated - hello - I outsource, what's it to you?), and the kids culinary favourite... Sausages.

Simple task. Yes?

Er. No.

I got involved in some shopping of the online kind (Australian retailer FYI). Can you see where this is going?  I checked the sausages a number of times to ensure they had the right sizzle factor. And indeed they did have the right sizzle factor - in fact they were just at the right time to take them off - but instead I thought "Hey - they'll be really good if I leave them for another two minutes." So I did.

Approximately seven minutes later Matt looked at the kitchen and went "Holy cow". Or something like that. It was filled with smoke and my perfectly sizzled sausages were transformed into perfectly cindered sausages. Just. Like. That.

The next 7.5 minutes involved me cutting off the charcoal pieces so that my children would actually eat something instead of the nothing they would have preferred.

The chicken on the other hand was a complete hit.

Tell me I am not alone in burning dinner. I informed Matt that if I didn't from time to time burn dinner, no one would appreciate when I didn't burn dinner.

True? False? Don't care?

PS - Did you know there's something called the Burnt Sausage Sea Cucumber? Nope, me neither. Until I googled images for burnt sausages. Here ends our lesson. Class dismissed.

Kids In The Kitchen With Tetsuya

Last week the Doctor and I went on a date. To Tetsuya's.

I know. Right?!

Electrolux invited us to enjoy a Kids in the Kitchen Masterclass with Tets. Who was I to decline?

We enjoyed such a wonderful night learning from the master - two easy recipes - scrambled eggs with ricotta, creamed corn and truffles, and twice cooked chicken with bread sauce. So easy and accessible you can get the kidlets involved cooking dinner. Plus - those eggs, oh em gee peeps. Make them for Father's Day. I am telling you, they are a winner.

As well as enjoying the gentle company of Tetsuya, we learnt about the Electrolux Induction Cooktop. If you are in the market for a new kitchen - check it out. You will thank me. Yes. Yes you will.

There's no use crying over spilt milk, because if you're boiling milk on your Electrolux cooktop it won't bake it on to the stove. The heat is only retained where the saucepan has a magnetic field. Pretty cool if you ask me. Plus it distributes heat evenly which means perfectly cooked pancakes and scrambled eggs. This is clearly a big deal for me because we are a family that loves pancakes and scrambled eggs.

The Doctor got a behind-the-scenes tour of the restaurant with Rich (see bottom two pics by the Doctor). Rich is beyond genius and his passion, enthusiasm and knowledge just blows you out of the water. Not to mention his supersonic hearing abilities.  Big thanks to Electrolux for hosting such a wonderful evening. This was a date night to remember with my little man.

PS - Do not tell Tets that the Doctor's highlight was riding in the hire car. It filled him with such glee. Boys and cars baby, boys and cars.


Please note: This is not a sponsored post. Electrolux invited me for dinner. I loved it. I went. I wanted to share.

Really Rather Super

How cool is this video for Pottery Barn?

The simplicity. The palette. The print and pattern. The small people. And the illustration.

I think I've gone to heaven.

Ice-Cream Sunday

How was your weekend? 
What did you do? 
Did you do anything exciting? 


I made raspberry ice-cream with the Vitamix. It took me approximately three minutes. 
I will make a video and show you how, because my goodness, that was soooo good and made a pretty hideous Sunday turn the beat around. Ice-cream has a knack for that. 

PottyMouthMama: Reporting For Domestic Duty

This weekend was going to be all about me being a domestic goddess and surpassing my motherly duties. Ticking every box and getting a gold star. 


And do you think that happened?


Er. A little.


I had plans to tidy the whole house. To ditch all the junk hovering around our house. It's mounting. In piles. In bags. In boxes. And I can't seem to get on top of it. Well wait - I can get on top of it, I can lie on top of it, I just can't control it. 


I was going to get wildly domestic in the kitchen. I had grand aspirations.


Instead Saturday I had a wee hangover, and shuffled around the house like a hermit crab. What kind of young player am I? 


I did sort out some clothes. I did bake choc chip cookies. 


And tonight, Matt went out to do some painting, while I stayed at home - and thought - yes! I will make pasta. Then it all went to poo. I was rolling pasta, I had the water bubbling away - the pasta was rolling, rolling, too long to hold in both my hands - I felt like Big Anthony out of Strega Nona. Pasta everywhere. I finally got it into the pot and kept rolling out extra pasta - and then the pasta went bloaty and gluggy. Poor pasta.


So the smalls wound up with toast and baked beans for dinner. 


And then I hurried them through dinner, tucked them into bed and felt irate with myself for being such a grump. 

Sneaky McSneakerson: (Kale) Smoothie

On Saturday the smalls were given some chocolate by a well-meaning friend. We're by no means perfect and pure, but I have been trying to remove refined sugars, colours and so on from our pantry - not in a nutty way - just in a 'we don't need this crap in our diet' way -  and replace it with more and more wholefood. 


All afternoon the kids had been in a slow decline, naturally becoming tireder towards the end of the day. (Halleluljah!)


And then they ate the chocolate.


Literally within minutes Tiny was bouncing off the walls. She was back on. I felt so defeated. Deflated. Meanwhile, she was a helium balloon. Up, up and away.


Fast-forward to this afternoon when I thought, I am going to gazump those little kittehs, whip up a knock-out Vitamix smoothie that they love to love.


I chucked in the following for a delicious smoothie that the Doctor rated as the highlight of his day (high-five!). Just wait 'til you see what I snuck in there:


1 x banana
1 x cup mixed berries (frozen)
2 apples
1 tablespoon of honey
1 small handful of kale. YES KALE! 


Blitz. Serve to two small children - and they will never know the kale is in there. Scout's honour. 


I was so stoked to find kale at my fruit and veg today. The lady at the shop I think was a little bewildered by my excitement - I've been trawling all the local shops looking for it.  It's in season now folks, and is super duper good for you. Get into it! 

A Tiny Party

Yesterday we belatedly celebrated Tiny's birthday with a tiny party. A tiny Tiny party. Or is it a Tiny tiny party? Who knows. Either way, it was a party. For Tiny.

My sister kindly made the cutest teacups a la Tic Tocs - which were a huge hit with the tiny brigade, my mother-in-law made the most melt-in-your-mouth meringues, topped with fresh raspberries, and the birthday cake? Well I'll post a pic as soon as I have one. Promise.

I wound up finding pudding basins on Saturday morning, got them home, washed them - to discover they were microwave proof, but not oven-proof. Excuse me but WTF?! So it was back to the Dolly Varden drawing board.

I promise I will not talk Dolly Varden again after this post. I am probably making Dolly Vardens trend over on Twitter because I am banging on about them so much.

I had a hoot making this cake. The DV tin did not yield a long enough frock, so I baked an additional round cake and added a longer hem (ahem) on the bottom. Who do I think I am? Suzie Seamstress? Yes. Apparently. I then cut it down to fit with the frock, stuck them together with buttercream, and then got to decorating.

Tiny walked in halfway through and told me it looked ugly.

YES! High fives all 'round.

Then she came back later and was stoked. Phew.

She had such a brilliant time at her little party, played parcel the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, musical snatues (sic), and decorated cupcakes. Too cute.

At bed time she said: "Mama, that was the best party ever." And then didn't go to sleep for another 2 hours.

Fathers. Dads. Papas. The Old Man.

Happy Father's Day to my huge fatherly audience (that's you Matt and my Dad!).

What did you do to celebrate?

I was woken early by the Doctor wanting to give Matt his Father's Day present (a money box - cute). I rebuffed, pleading for an extra half hour sleep on a Sunday morning. Wish granted.*

Half an hour later, proceedings commenced from the comfort of bed.

And then I got up, made bills corn fritters (Dad, when you're back, I'll make them for you too), wolfed it down.

Later in the afternoon I flaked and slept for 3 hours. Sorry Matt. I did feel marginally better though.

What a beautiful sunny Spring day. What did you get up to?


* Tiny gave Matt a toy helicopter. That's all she wanted to give him. Cute.

I Ain't Strega Nona. Damn It.

Matt and I were given a pasta machine for our engagement. We've never used it. Given we just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, you do the math. It's been sitting in its box calling me ever since we unwrapped it.

Today I got brave and cracked it open. The Doctor and I got into a bit of pasta making. And a bit more pasta making. It was harder than I thought. No wonder I felt intimidated.

Eggs went everywhere. Flour went everywhere. The dough was so tough. Too tough to knead. But we persevered. Finally I retired the dough. The kids were having more fun feeding it through the machine. Over and over and over again. I felt a bit deflated until I told Tiny to stop adding more flour - and she responded with: "But I have to keep Mastercheffing!" Alrighty then.

Any Italian mamas got the key to being Strega Nona with Big Anthony as my side-kick?

Celebrating... Legumes! Celebrating... Pulses!

Being very budget-conscious, and particularly moreso now we've moved house, I'm looking at ways to economise. To tighten our belts.

I'm looking for inspirational (and cheap) recipes that are family friendly. Family friendly is key because I do not want to be whipping up 74 different meals each night.

On the weekend Matt and I bandied together to cook Tessa Kiros' Lentils & Rice. We really didn't need to do it together, and the only reason we did was I was about to walk about the door to go to the book shop once I had cooked the onions. Poor timing on my part. Thankfully my faithful sous chef stepped into his whites and cooked it for me.

Unfortunately dearest Tessa doesn't really clarify whether she's using tinned lentils or dried lentils. It wasn't 'til the end of the recipe - when I came home - when all cooking was done, that I realised she must have used the dry lentils and therefore absorbed much more water. Using tinned resulted in claggy rice and lentils. A (now) delicacy in our house. Delicacy being used very, very loosely.

So today I jumped straight back in and made Tessa's Lentil Soup. It's packed with loads of vegies (carrots, celery, capsicum, onions, cabbage, English Spinach, passata.. Oh yes! YES! Served with a generous slurp of olive oil, it was pretty darn good.

Have you got any favourite lentils, pulses or legumes recipes to share?

The Big Surprise!

One of the highlights of my Sunday was discovering that my husband of almost five years can cook crepes. And I mean he can really cook crepes. Paper thin delicious, amazing, buttery, incredible crepes.

This is huge! HUGE! Matt always claims he can cook, but in the years we've been together he's only demonstrated:

- toasted sandwiches

- pizzas

- Spinach pie (with my direction)

- microwave fish (which made me dry wretch when I was pregnant with the Doctor - sorry Matt, it's true)

Paper-thin pancakes can mean only one thing.

Now every Sunday Matt is chef-ing it with his pancakes. I've put in a request for Bills hotcakes next week!

Thigh Slap!

This is my post to alleviate my guilt factor turned up to ten.

If I've not replied to your comment, I promise I have good intentions, but with parenting, wifeing, working, houseworking, and thigh slapping, I hardly have any time to floss my teeth let alone reply to all emails. But if you have your email as the reply thing, then I can easily flick you an email and you won't feel unloved. I do read and enjoy every single comment (unless you're calling me an ugly old troll and then I just hit delete because I HAVE THE POWER!). My inbox it runneth over. I am doing my best to clear the backlog but sometimes my best is not good enough! (which movie, which movie??)

Secondly, ricotta gnocchi recipe. I was meant to email it, I never did. I am sorry! Here it is. Print it, roll around on it, do anything you want to it. It's out there and I've done it. Sorry it wasn't sooner!

Ricotta Gnocchi

500g good quality ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
100g plain (all-purpose) flour
1 quantity tomato pesto (will type up in a minute too!)
butter & grated parmesan cheese to serve

If you are serving these with tomato pesto, make sure it is ready before you cook the gnocchi.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Mix together the ricotta, parmesan, flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. With lightly floured hands, roll out the dough into thin sausages (about 1.5cm thick). Try to avoid adding extra flour or your gnocchi will be tough. Cut with a sharp knife into little dumplings about 2cm long.

Drop the gnocchi into the boiling water and cook for about 45 seconds until they float to the surface. As they bob up, lift them out with a slotted spoon and put them into warm serving bowls. If you need to, stir a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water through the pesto to give a good coating consistency, and spoon a dollop over each serve. Add a little butter and grated parmesan and serve at once.

Serves 4.

Tomato Pesto

100ml olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled
400g tinned diced tomatoes
25g basil leaves, torn
3 tablespoons pine nuts
30g parmesane cheese, grated

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a saucepan with one of the garlic cloves. When it sizzles, add the tomato and season with salt. Simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes until the tomato thickens and becomes smooth, curhsing it up with a wooden spoon from time to time.

Finely chop the other garlic clove and put it in a small processor or blender with the basil leaves and pine nuts. Pulse until finely chopped. Add the remaining olive oil and the parmesan and pulse just long enough to combine. Stire into the tomato sauce and heat for about 20-30 seconds. Fish out the whole garlic clove before serving.
Note: if you are making the tomato pesto in advance, keep the pesto separate and add to the heated tomato sauce just before serving.

Serves 4.
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Both recipes are from Tessa Kiros' 'Apples for Jam'.

That is all on my guilt list. For now.