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Posted with Blogsyvery easy chocolate balls
I love recipes that I can remember without having to look it up so I made up this one for chocolate bliss balls.
1 cup dates
1 cup oats
1 cup coconut
1 T coconut oil
1 T rice syryp
pinch salt
1 - 2 T water
Put everything except the water in the food processor and blend until a fine texture. Add enough water to allow the mixture to form a ball. You need to be able to roll it into balls but it shouldn't be sticky. If you add too much water you could add more oats to get the correct consistency.
Roll into balls and toss in coconut (or nuts, melted chocolate, cocoa). Refridgerate until firm, about an hour.
Some of mine are naked (not tossed in coconut) because my 3 year old doesn't like them rolled in anything. These are really yummy, not too sweet but very satisfying.
Jamie Oliver Comfort Food
Every year I buy my son Henry a Jamie Oliver cookbook for Christmas. He's 13 now, I'm not sure when I started this, I think I have more books than those in the photo, but can't find them right now. I don't think he has ever used any of them but that's okay, I use them a lot and he will always have them. Although when he finally does take them I will probably have to replace them for my own use.
I use the 30 Minute Meals book the most, I do like Jamie Olivers style and flavours, I may not make all the recipes in the 30 minute meal as most of them include a dessert and a couple of sides. When I first got this book I did do them all and it can be done in 30 minutes if you are prepared and move as quick as Jamie does. This isn't usually the case for me. But his recipes are always good to me, they work, I trust him and that's so important to me as I hate it when a recipe fails and food gets wasted.
This photo is from one of his first books. We see him everywhere these days, it's amazing really how prolific he has become.
What a great photo, looks so good. I won't have his new book, Comfort Food until Christmas day when henry unwraps it but that hasn't stopped me from cooking some of the recipes, this one, Insanity Burgers, is already a favourite and i'm making it tonight for the third time, with a mushroom in place of the meat for me (vegetarian). I made this the other night, Vege Chilli, really good.
Also,
I have started knitting this poncho for Rosa (2.5yrs) for next winter. Because I'm not a huge fan of summer, I like to keep some winter type activities going throughout the year.
I have been feeling inspired to revisit my childhood lately and read some novels from that wistful time of innocence. I'm currently reading, Over Sea Under Stone, by Susan Cooper and just loving the idea of slipping into that world of childhood adventure for a few hours, very therapuetic.
cookies, lemons and lasagne for plates
How adorable, Rosa is using a lasagna sheet for a plate for her jam toast. She is 18 months old and her whole world seems to be about food at the moment which is not surprising as my life seems to revolve around food most of the time!
Recently we were given a huge box of lemons and I had to use them up within a week or so. I gave some away to friends, juiced a lot of them and froze the juice in ice cube trays, made lemon curd of course and I preserved some also. I have never done this before but it was pretty cool, I used this recipe because it seemed very authentic and i wanted the whole thing to be a process over a period of days, I also love the idea of waiting 40 days to open them. I still have them on my kitchen bench so I can watch the process! I have a lot and I've never used them in cooking so it will be fun to work out what to use them in. (some may become gifts).
I also had a baking day and made three batches of cookies, Afghans, Shortbread and Chocolate Chip. All excellent recipes. I added lemon zest to my shortbread, 2 teaspoons and couldn't taste it at all so more is needed next time. My idea was to make them all really small so you could have a few different kinds with a coffee but they turned out much bigger that I thought, I need a very small cookie cutter.
a scarf for Mia
Mia is going overseas soon to Europe with her boyfriend Max so I am crocheting her a scarf. I am trying to be excited more than nervous for her and I think because I've had almost a year to get used to the idea of her being away I'm feeling okay about it. we were inspired to do the scarf after I learnt to crochet granny squares on Creative Bug, I love this site although it is overwhelming as I want to try my hand at everything!
Here's a recipe we've eating about once every couple of weeks (fish is expensive). It's so good, so simple to make and the flavours are lovely and mild. and really healthy too. It's from an excellent book by Hugh Fernly Wittingstall, Three Good Things. We have a ton of new favourites from this book. I am a very big fan of Hugh.
This washing has been bothering me. I'm so fed up with housework, in fact I hardly do it. If I start doing it and get agitated by it I just stop. A hint to do a lot less dishes, put all your extra plates cups glasses etc away (mine are in a box in the garage) and only have enough for each person in the kitchen. If they use their bowl and need it again they need to wash it. I also sweep though the house with a basket and collect all the "clutter" and pile it up on a table in the garage at the start or end of each day. Everyone knows where to look when they can't find something! My advise overall is to just let it go. Don't worry about it. Get a cleaner once a month.
From the heart
There's a lot of reasons why I haven't kept up with this blog. I have been busy having a baby and getting my head around the idea of having an 18 year old, a 12 year old and a one year old. That feels like a lot of parenting sometimes and it can be really hard to feel okay about how I'm doing. Everything seems okay today so far so that will be enough for now.
Another reason is I felt pretty weird about people I knew reading my blog. I don't mind people I don't know reading it. This worried me and so I put it aside. But I guess it says something about me and a certain fear of being myself, I've always felt this and I know everyone struggles with it to some extent. I'd like to try again and this time try and write without fear and know that it's all good when you genuinely express yourself fom the heart. And so here we go, with no rules this time. (well less anyway)
A carrot cake I made for my 18 year old who just had chicken pox. We are still waiting for the other two to get it.
It's a good recipe, really easy, but needs more spice and I like pineapple in my carrot cake but Mia didn't want it. Also I should have been less lazy and chopped the walnuts I added before I put them in. The cream cheese icing has vanilla in it but I wonder if some lemon would have been an improvement. Still a good one, recipe here.
Happy Mothers Day
My wonderful Grandma who raised 10 (ten!!!!!) children.
My beautiful mum.
My first Mothers Day with Mia sixteen years ago. Wow.