Yo! Yo! Yo! JIngling all the way with Gourmet Girlfriend

Generous of spirit and knowledge, Gourmet Girlfriend is one of those women you'd love to have as your neighbour.

I've been lucky enough to know Ruth for the last few years. She's always on, always full of energy, and always awesome. Ruth regularly shares wholesome, nutritious and delicious recipes on her blog - among my favourites are her gozleme (my favourite Sunday night quickie).

If I was getting Ruth a gift for Christmas, I'd get her: some new colourful clogs!

Let's get to what you really want to hear. Let's talk to Ruth.

What do you do on Christmas eve?

Mostly panic about getting the presents wrapped in time. 

Please tell me your favourite Christmas childhood memory.

I can't think of one stand out memory- because it feels like every one was a standout. Christmas time was always a delight in our house. A noisy kitchen filled with activity & delicious smells. My parents were always in great spirits and our house was always filled with extra people and a generally overwhelming feeling of love & joy. There was always plenty of food, loud music and favourite people- the triumvirate of all good celebrations. 

What did you leave out for Santa? 

We always left a really perfectly ripe stone suit or cherries & some home made Baileys Irish cream. 

What time do you get up on Christmas morning?

We are so lucky that our kids don't get up outrageously early- even on Christmas morning.  I think last year it was a very healthy 7am. 

Favourite part of Christmas?

Always it's the joy on the little kids faces when they see their Santa sacks which have gone from flat and sad looking nothingness on Christmas eve to an overflowing wilderness of surprises on Christmas morning. Just the BEST

What's on your wish list this year?

I have stopped wishing for things at Christmas.  I feel as if as I get older it is about being grateful of call the things I already have. 

What's one thing you'll be gifting/giving this year?

I will be using the Shout app to donate to a children's charity. 

Read more about Gourmet Girlfriend here. 
Follow Ruth on Instagram. 

pics are courtesy of Ruth, of her family decorating their Christmas tree. Cute. 

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. 

Thursday Afternoon Smoothie

Thursday afternoon and I completely hit the wall. 

Everyone thinks working four days is some plum gig. The reality is you wind up working longer hours to balance out that missing day.

And then there's the people who call and say: "Hey, I know it's your day off, but..."

I'd love to call them on a Sunday morning and say the same thing. 

Anyway, back to Thursday afternoon. I'm pooped. I need to power up. Matt's working in the evening, and I need some pep in my step pronto. 

I made myself a smoothie using the KitchenAid blender (best thing ever). I know it sounds lame, but I just didn't have the energy to do much prep, so this is how it played out:

1 cup frozen mixed berries
a big, generous handful of fresh mint. Because I love mint.
2 teaspoons of Vital Greens*
1 tablespoon chia seeds
2 cups water

Blitz in the KitchenAid blender, et voila. Instant power up gamers!

                                                               ***

Onto Vital Greens. I read about it first over at Checks & Spots. For anyone living a busy life, who might be worried about missing out on vital nutrients, Vital Greens is packed full of goodness to help you get that balance you yearn for. Well I yearn for it anyway. 


* 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.

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. 

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.

Helloooooooo Autumn!

Over the weekend Sydney showed weather extremities to the max. Saturday - bone chillingly cold, with horizontal sheets of rain slaying us. Sunday, nary a cloud in the sky, warm, and perfect for an explore around the harbour and an impromptu gelato.

Ok. Maybe not so impromptu. Truth be, most of the adventure hinged around the gelato - but there's a reason why.

It was my first time to Gelato Messina. Stop the press. Saddle up birds, because if you're going to break a diet, this is where you want to do it. 

Let's take a look at the orders:
Me: Salted Caramel + Bounty
Tiny: Chocolate (that had peanuts through it - yu-um)
The Doctor: Choc mint + choc chip
Matt: Salted Caramel + Italian Nougat

Holy toledo Batman. 

Well. Speaking of Batman, we did come across this car. How's that for every kid's fantasy? Well most kids. Well some kids. Well it was my dream ok?? How rad is that? 

So for the cost of four gelatos and a drive to the harbour, we explored backstreets, behaved like tourists in our own town, decided which boat we wanted and guessed how many bedrooms were onboard (there's probably some lingo I am missing out on here) and fantasised about moving into one of those empty oversized harbourside apartments (squatting anyone??). It was the perfect way to spend Sunday afternoon. 

Oh Sydney you cheeky, cheeky minx, you've got me wrapped back around your finger. 

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! 

Something Sweet

Sometimes you need to be whisked off to another place. Even just for a few brief moments. Just for something sweet. Or something inspiring. Or perhaps both? I'll take you. Hold my hand, I promise it won't take long! Unless we get talking, then it could take longer. I do like to talk.

Last week we managed to pop into Calico + Ivy Balmain and say a brief hello to my sister on her first day. Apparently we arrived at just the right time, the lid was lifted on these incredible macarons - colours which remind me of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Sweet world! Their taste matched their look. Plus I am sure you could colour match those delicious morsels with many fabrics in the store.

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?

Let Me Re-Write That

Oh! My poor form, I neglected to include the awesome-ness that was lunch with my beautiful sisters.

What an ungrateful trollop.

My sisters organised a beautiful lunch yesterday. We enjoyed a beautiful chicken dumpling soup and a really yummy salad, topped off with a super y to the UM birthday cake!

I was spoilt. I was loved. I had a terrific day (until Tiny started being super, duper grumpy in the afternoon).

Thank you to my beautiful sisters for making my day special.

A Chef Named Sous

This afternoon the Doctor and I got to work in the kitchen. I am an avid fan of Angry Chicken (edit:: oops - Jo Price has corrected me - thank you! It was Soulemama, not Angry Chicken - my bad!), and when she mentioned ricotta gnocchi I listened. In fact, she mentioned it was so good they'd cooked it twice in one week. Sounds like a meal I must get my chompers around, pronto.

I have always been a little scared of making pasta. We were gifted a pasta maker machine thing for our engagement, which I was thrilled about, but totally intimidated by.

No more!

The Doctor and I mastered these beautiful parcels of floaty goodness in just minutes. MINUTES! (These coincidentally only require a bowl, some flour, some hands and a flat surface to roll baby.)

We were so pleased and proud of ourselves. PROUD OF OURSELVES! Matt dug them. Ricotta gnocchi with tomato pesto. Gobbled down in no time.Tiny snubbed them. And commenced a crying bout of approximately 15 minutes until peanut butter toast was delivered to her.

Regardless of Tiny's snub, the Doctor and I have declared Sunday to be 'Pasta Sunday'. Next week.. Something new to add to our past twirling repetoire.

If you'd like the recipe it's from Tessa Kiros' 'Apples for Jam'. Email me if you'd like a copy.

The Baby Straitjacket

Thanks for everyone's great advice and feedback regarding Baby Poocasso.

Today I've put Tiny down for a sleep with a nappy on. With knickers over the top. Wearing overalls.

If this fails, I will definitely try Anonymous' tip of putting the nappy on backwards. I like that idea. I probably should have tried that first. Tomorrow. And I will report back.

But thank you everyone, you've restored my sanity, above all.

And just while everyone is behaving badly, Le Bunbun deserves a special mention.

A couple of weeks ago he went for le snipsnip. We thought he'd come back a changed man-rabbit. Unfortunately his latest favourite thing is to lie on our bed. Last night I went to pick up my favourite bag - which coincidentally is called 'Keith' after Keith Richards. He'd nibbled through a strap.

Four lucky readers of PMM will have the chance to buy their very own rabbit paw necklace later in the week.

Because of the damage Le Bunbun inflicted on my bag, I'm oohing and aahing on this bag. Unfortunately (or maybe the bank is saying, luckily) it's sold out. Bah humbug. After The Apple (former designer at Mimco) have such a beautiful range of bags though, I'm sure I can seek out an alternative.

Making bills choc chips and these biscuits. They are a favourite. I dare you to not eat the whole lot. Tomorrow, recipes for rabbit.

Dinosaur Bags & Runch

The Doctor's dino infatuation is in full swing. He was telling me about his woes in life. Such as the fact that he didn't have a box to store his ever-growing collection of dinosaurs. I offered to make him a bag, which, if you're a long-time reader, you'll know - big mistake-io. Firstly, I am so slow at sewing, and he's already been asking why I haven't made it yet. Why haven't I made it yet? Because I am in the midst of stitching myself a badge that reads: Slow Stitcher. But I'm so slow I haven't even started on that yet. I have a backlog people.

So I'd better be popping Tiny into bed and get stitching because the small-big boy will be asking, no doubt, once again.

And here's where my lunch comes in. Fresh bread toasted with dijon (oh dijon how I love thee, let me count the ways!) and ham. Over-sized salad with Dutch carrots. I've only just cottoned on to how great the Dutchies are. Big carrots, we are O-V-E-R!

Tiny likes to runch with me. This year, we'll runch together. It's part of my 2010 plan. No more skipping lunch.

And now I'll just wait for my sisters to pay me out about the lunch post. Yep, you're right. I. Have. Nothing. To. Tell. You.

PS - Georgie Love has a super giveaway. Get over there!

PPS - I think the way I wrote my post about Where I'm At may have been a little inadvertently deceptive. I am back to goal weight, but it was starting to creep again, my muffin top was rising. Hence the huge salad above.

Att: Boozehounds Re: Tipples

Dear Boozehounds,

It has come to my attention that while I've been enjoying a quiet tipple or two, I've neglected to give you le scoop de la scoop.

Yesterday afternoon, while cruising the aisles of our local bottle-o, I discovered this beauty. Those labels, beguiling. Sublime vintage flower seed packets. I couldn't go past them. This label wooed me. You know dear reader, oh how I love a good vintage something or another - and this, this is divine to the power of divine.

And then I noticed it's name. The Four O'Clock Chardonnay. Oh how it mocks me!

For realz, check out this new organic wine. Ten points for beauty! And it's not a bad drop either (trust me, I have the almost empty bottle to prove it).

The Radioactive Child

I'm like some kind of baking zombie at the moment. I don't remember ever making quite so many cakes in such a short period of time. I'm pretending to loathe it, but really, it makes me happy making sweeties. So much icing sugar. So much...colour!

Today I'm whipping up a batch of little cupcakes for all the darlings (and would be thugs and fairies) at the Doctor's pre-school so they can woo him with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.

What to do with the leftover icing? I can't just eat it. Or can I?

PS - When should one expect the other mothers at pre-school to make some eye contact with me and say hi? I thought second term they might be able to. Apparently not.

Stamina

What happened to me? Once upon a time I used to go dancing on tables, night after night. Eat pizza lying on the couch with my best friend. Drink a cup of conversation for lunch. And be ready to do it all over again. Week after week after week. I like to think I was party personified.

But please note, all of the above is written in past tense.

I have to tell you - I am completely knackered. My back aches. My head is tired. I just want to curl up in bed. Is this normal after two birthdays in three days? Or am I just going soft? I'm not even thirty yet.

We spent yesterday morning at the aquarium, and then raced home so I could bake.

And bake I did. Oh and I haven't even told you about how I picked up a baking dish that had been in the oven for 20 minutes at 230 degrees. With. My. Bare. Hands. I didn't mean to bake my own damn hands. That's for shiz. Needless to say, I am sporting some very, very achey breaky sore hands today.

Please get out the world's smallest violin and play a little solo for me.

The worst thing is, I still am not even remotely organised for the par-tay on Saturday. I've barely done a scratch. Someone, send me Martha Stewart. Someone, send me my old stamina.

I've vaguely worked out the menu (thankfully the party is in the afternoon so I have a little more time up my sleeve).

In fact, gulp, I am madly looking for a tiger costume for the Doctor to wear, because his party theme is party animals. Talk about lastminute.com. Straitjacket? Sedatives? Gurney? All sounds good right about now.

Nevertheless, cake was consumed last night, and the Doctor decorated his own. A highlight of the day to be sure, to be sure.

PS - How cool is she? Going to any Sydney Writer's Festival events? Do tell!