Little Feather Wolf

Roast chook LFW stylee

2013-11-27T22:19:00.000+10:00

I usually do a large roast chicken every other week or so. We try and avoid all processed meats... can't remember the last time I brought any. Too full of crap. So doing a big roast chook makes for supper that night and then sarnies and/or salads the next day or two if having a lunchtime meat craving.

Sooo I have a bit of a fav way of doing a roast chicken and it goes along these lines:

Ingredients

1 large free-range chicken (anywhere between 1.7-2 kilos)
1 onion cut in half
5 tbsp of tomato sauce
Lots of chopped fresh herbs (I usually pick a big handful of basil, parsley - flat leaf and curly and sage from the garden), or can use mixed dry herbs
Small glass of red or white wine
1 or 2 tomatoes sliced
Knob of butter, plus a little extra
Celtic sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Recipe

First off, preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Wash your chicken and pat dry with paper towel and transfer to oven dish.

Stick the two onion halves up its bum with a knob of butter and some seasoning. Gently lift up the bird skin, careful not to tear it, and gently massage a little butter under the skin and into the flesh, leaving some little chunks there along the way.

Dollop most of the tomato sauce on top of the skin and spread evenly over the bird. Next sprinkle half of your herbs on top. Add your small glass of wine to the oven dish, and then cover with foil.

Cook for an hour and a half, basting every half an hour or so.

Remove the foil, add the remaining tomato sauce on to the skin and your thinly sliced tomatoes to cover. Drizzle with some olive oil and put back in the oven for a further half an hour.
Take out, check cooked and then sprinkle with remaining herbs before carving.

I always drizzle the juices from the dish over the meat. It's pretty yum and always lovely and moist. Nothing worse than a dry bird!

Tonight we had this with mini jacket potatoes and peas.

Do you have any fav ways and flavours for roasting a chicken? Love to hear!

Perfecto Pesto

2013-11-15T12:30:00.000+10:00

Got asked this morning, how I do this, so thought... geeeeez, I better remember now and would share with y'all.

Have recently started making up some yummy big batches of pesto as we've had an abundance of delicious basil growing in the garden. We all love it in this household. I've mixed up the recipe a bit and instead of pine nuts (which I LOVE) have been using cashews instead (which I also LOVE). Reason? The good old cashew is delicious and creamy and cheaper then a tiny pack of pines.

Also started adding some parsley to the concoction, which adds another flavour and is packed with goodness. I read somewhere the other week that parsley offers as good a punch of nutritional good stuff as kale. Go parsley! I usually use a combo of flat leaf and curly as we have both growing here.

So, it goes something like this:

Ingredients

1 & a half cups of fresh basil (completely stuff it in the cup... use LOTS)

Half a cup of parsley (same principle as above)

1 cup of cashews

2 small garlic cloves (some peeps might omit this, but we like a little)

Lots of shredded parmesan* cheese. Approx 70gms

* Try not to buy your parmasen already shredded...it usually has horrible preservatives added to keep it 'fresh'

About quarter of a cup of good quality, first cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil

Good quality sea salt to taste

Recipe

Stick your leaves, garlic, nuts and cheese in your food processor or good blender (if you like me don't have a food processor!) and blitz it up, gradually pouring in your oil with a pinch of salt to taste. From here I might add in a bit more oil, nuts, leaves..just taste and adjust to your liking.

If you have lots of basil and parsley, I'd recommend doubling the batch, which is what I did last Saturday, to be used throughout the week. We've had it on pasta, on sourdough, in cheese and salad sandwiches, with salad and straight on the spoon. Yes we love it :)

Enjoy and let me know how it turns out! Love to hear any other ways as well, that you make yours?

Pesto on sourdough. The Bear's lunch yesterday

Sweet and sour meatless Tuesday

2013-09-03T21:55:00.000+10:00

It’s been a little while. Sorry for the absence, we’ve been back in London. More on this later. Just wanted to share tonight’s dinner a la Wolf - Sweet and sour red pepper/capsicum, courgette/zucchini and feta with brown rice - and throw in the recipe, in case anyone fancies it.

It goes something like this and is adapted by moi, from an old English Good Food mag, that’s decades old:

Shopping list:

Visual ingredients list!

Home-grown parsley

Extra virgin olive oil

1 red onion roughly chopped

2 red peppers/capsicum, cut in to chunks

25g sultanas

3/4 tsp Celtic sea salt

1/4 tsp chilli powder (I usually add some chilli flakes too, cos I like a kick... but this one was for Essie too, so I bypassed the flakes this time)

3 garlic cloves crushed

3 courgettes/zucchini cut in to cubes

2tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 and a half tbsp of rice syrup (or could use raw honey)

Big handful of freshly chopped parsley

Packet of feta cheese, crumbled

Half teaspoon of Harissa paste at the end of cooking (optional and not for bubbas!)

What to do...

Heat your oil and add your onion, cook for 5 mins.

Add the red pepper and cook for another 5 mins.

Add your sultanas, Celtic salt, chilli powder, garlic and courgettes and cook for 10ish mins - keep an eye on it and make sure you give it a good stir every now and then to stop it from catching

Add the balsamic vinegar, rice syrup and 200ml of cold water to the pan and bring to the boil

Reduce the heat and simmer the mixture for 10 mins

Remove the pan from the heat and add the parsley and feta cheese

We then had ours with pre-soaked brown rice, but also yummy with couscous. PW and I then added a tinsy dollop of smoky Harissa paste and mixed it through. OMG! This is also yummy with aubergine/egg plant. Enjoy! x

Bear's 1st birthday party

2013-07-17T15:26:00.000+10:00

Did you know that we had a very huge and momentous occasion last week? I might have mentioned it a few (hundred) times. Baby bear turned ONE. What a fantabulous year we've had, watching our baby girl grow in to a gorgeous, fun, determined and spirited little munchkin and to celebrate we felt compelled to throw a party. Wooohoooo. I love a good party. Well, I love going to other peoples. I, in all of my years, had never ever thrown one. EEEK the pressure was on!

So, I tried to take heed from the likes of the Natural New Age Mum who wrote a really great blog on Tips for a Stress-Free kids party and another good article from the brilliant Mamacino on perfectionism. But did I take note? Well yes I did, but it didn't stop me stressing exactly. D'oh.

The biggest stressors for me. FOOD. What to have? NUMBERS. Maaaaan, so hard trying to keep these down. We did have a fair few that we wanted to invite and share the special day, but didn't want to overwhelm the birthday bear (or ourselves)... keeping it modest we still had 30 adults and 8 kids. In a very small way, lucky the London massive were missing, or we'd have had double the numbers. In all seriousness I would have taken the nervous breakdown in numbers to have them all here though. Decorations. THE CAKE! Oh and the invitation.

Invitation

Had planned to send an email invite on FB, but than the creative juices started flowing and Papa Wolf and I spent a week working out our design and compiling it. Ahhhhhh. Why do we do this to ourselves??! Still, we thought it would be a beautiful little keepsake for Essie.

Ze invitation

Venue

This was the easiest decision for us. Did think about doing it at the park, but opted for home instead. Home is where the heart is. And the toilet. And the changetable. Fridge and oven. You get the picture.

We have a lovely big undercover patio outside and large garden for the kids to play around in. We got a load of toys, picnic blankets, beach tent, and borrowed Essie's bestie girlfs ball pit and voila. Little Feather Wolf adventure playground complete.

Decorated outside patio, Essie (far right) and some of her little and big pals

Decorations

Next stop, the decos. The decorations were the most fun for me to do. I decided I wanted to make a personalised bday banner. So, off I went to the local budget crafty bits and bobs shop near where we live and spent at least an hour rummaging. It was me, the nana's and their granddaughters pouring over all the craft. Poor Essie, when she's bigger I'll be dragging her along, whether she likes it or not hehe.

I picked up some coloured and textured card and paper, ribbons, ladybird pegs, glue and I even found a little hole punch, that punched out baby bears. Next stop was Spotlight. How cool is that store??! Here I picked up a booklet of some gorgeous patterned paper - perfect for my banner, pink table cloths, balloons, more ribbon, 1st birthday candle. We decided we weren't going to do a theme as such, but had a bit of colourway going on - red, pinks and white with a burst of bright colours here and there.

Banner made. Next I cut out some simple number ones in pink and white card, which (Gran)pa Wolf stapled to the outside celing beams for me. Got some crape ribbon and made some of those old fashioned twists, which we draped from the poles outside. It was slowly starting to come together!

Lady bird pegs, bear hole punch, cut out number ones, birthday banner

Popped on over to Ikea (yeah right - takes about 40 minutes once in, just to find the exit without even browsing!!) and brought a stack of brightly coloured BPA free plastic plates, cups and cutlery - bonus being that I could stick them all in the dishwahers, woop woop. Thanks Sash for the idea.

Decos ready to be put out first thing on Sunday morning

Saturday afternoon I went and got 10 brightly coloured helium balloons which I tied to either end of the table, five each side and lastly we blew up Essie's birthday invite to poster size, framed and hung it outside.

birthday banner

patio party

Food

So next thing. FOOD. To make it nice and hard for ourselves, we decided that we wanted to, of course, home-make the food - avoid any ready made party food, have some healthy snacks and some yummy treats. We decided against doing a barbie - only so we could enjoy the day and not be glued to cooking. So, the cooking and prep all needed to be done beforehand. Here's what we made...

Gourmet Traveller's Lamb, harrisa and pine nut sausage rolls. I didn't make the puff pastry - but did find some made with butter - with a really short ingredients list, yay, so it avoided all the crap you get from the ones made with margarine.

My first ever carrot cake, made with sour cream. Recipe donated from one of my lovely mumma friends.

carrot cake

Delicious strawberry, passionfruit and whipped cream filled meringues (mini pavs!) made up by PW

strawberry and passionfruit pav

Roasted beetroot and hummus dip with: carrot, red pepper (capsicum) and celery sticks for dipping

Obligatory fruit salad bowl: melon - water and honey dew, grapes, papaya

feeling fruity

Then we enlisted the help of Essie's Auntie Shar, who's doing a patisserie course (how lucky are we to have one of these in our nest!) and she cooked up a total storm:

Open sandwiches with different toppings

open plan sarnies

Deconstructed cheesecake, with fresh strawberries (pictured below)

Heart shaped biccies

love heart biscuits

The most divine chocolate peanut butter cups (I think I devoured most of these!!)

choc peanut butter cups

Pea and ricotta dumplings (pictured below) made by Auntie Kat. These went in a flash.

Delicious mini quiches cooked up by KD.

Granny J's spinach and egg slice. Yummo.

Number 1 cup cakes (pictured below) baked by Sash.

some of the food, including Auntie Kat's dumplings, Auntie Shar's 'cheesecake' & Sash's cupcakes

Ok. As you can see, we prob went a bit overboard. We were very lucky to get help from our lovely family and friends. Big shout out to them. Was so scared of not having enough... however, it ALL got eaten... mostly on the day, with a bit to spare for playgroup on Monday. Happy full tummies all round.

Me... caught on camera eating all the peanut butter cups

THE cake

Geeeeez, that must have been the scariest thing to do. The birthday cake. We did have the chance to get one made but decided that for Essie's first taste of cake and for her very first birthday, this was something that WE had to do ourselves. WE - being mumma and Papa Wolf. What a team. Sooooo, what was it to be? You may have heard me mention a few zillion times about the lovely Jude Blereau. Wholefood goddess who's inspired sooooooo many of Essie's meals with her Wholefood for Children cookbook. Well she very thoughtfully brought a new cookbook out to coincide with Esme's first birthday: Wholefood Baking, which I quickly snapped up in the hope of finding something special in there for the bear and what-da-ya-know, we found it. Jude's Raspberry and white chocolate layer buttermilk cake, made with spelt flour.

To ease the stress somewhat we did a trial sponge bake off two weeks prior to the party and it went great. The only issue we had, was it took a little longer than Jude's instructions to cook. Why? Because ours was three times the size. We had a lot of mouths to feed! So, for time and stress-saving purposes the sponge baking was done in two parts over two consecutive weekends. Once cooked and cooled, we wrapped our layered buttermilk cake ever-so tightly in clingfilm, put in an airtight container and froze. This was then brought out to defrost the day (first thing in the morning) before the party. We whipped up the raspberry and then the white chocolate buttercream and then dressed it that night. Just about managed to fit it in the fridge - it was pretty bloody huge, ready for the morning.

It's suffice to say, Essie bear LOVED the cake. She had a huge piece, not to mention nicking a load of the fresh raspberries on the top, after she blew out her candle. That bear has a great appetite (don't know where she gets that from).

Blowing out the candle

Berry nicking!

Cutest raspberry thief ever

Cutting the cake

The moral of the story? Whatever you decide to do to celebrate your little bear's first birthday, try not to stress. Yeah right, I can talk. But really, NOTHING really matters, other than you and your precious bundle ENJOY yourselves.

Happy First Years. Lots of love, from LFW x

Day in the life & new recipe tries: silverbeet bake and nutty seedy slice

2013-06-04T23:06:00.002+10:00

Ok, so I'm getting a quiet moment now. Finally. Kitchen's clean, baby's asleep (since 7pm actually), mumma and papa bear fed and Masterchef half watched.

Been quite a day really, much like all the others. Lunch pulled together at 6am for me and Mr Wolf (left over roast pork sarnies with salad and wholegrain mustard). Washing (that's pretty much a staple) - today changed the beds. Made sure bubba bear fed: organic baby cereal with stewed dried apricot and apple, plus raw pear puréed for brekky. Sardine pâté and steamed broccoli for lunch. Mashed parsnip, carrot and egg yolk with fresh paw paw for supper. Riveting reading: The Gruffalo's Child (borrowed from the library), No Matter What & Puppy's Garden Game (an Essie FAV!), coffee with a girlfriend, quick dash to the supermarket, naps x2 - Essie, not me (unfortunately), a quick game of ball. Kitchen chaos as I cooked up a couple of new recipes, in between all of the above.

We'll start with something sweet...afterall, this was my order of doing things. Yesterday I discovered (thanks to another fav blogger of mine: Mamacino - check her out!) Marinya Cottage Kitchen and some of her lovely recipes. I've been wanting to pull together some sort of raw nutty slice or bliss type balls that I keep hearing about and M's Cottage Kitchen had just the thing. Not nutty, but seedy: raw choc-mint slice, plus I had some coconut cream that I needed to use up which was called for in this recipe (see link). Big win win for me.

I followed the recipe almost exactly by throwing together in short: dates, plus raisins (didn't have enough dates!), pumpkin seeds, cacao powder, coconut - oil and desiccated, vanilla bean, peppermint essence, honey and almonds - didn't have sunflower seeds. My version was also a lot more chunky and less blended. Next time, I would probably whiz it up a bit more.

The results... super special and healthy lunchbox treat. Sooo much nicer, if you have the time, than any store brought version. Know what Papa Wolf (and moi) will be having for morning tea tomorrow! Note to self: don't eat it all.

While pulling together my seedy slice, I also worked on my silverbeet bake, well I put the rice on! I know I'm a woman and I'm supposed to be great at multi-tasking... not me in the kitchen though. Maybe one day. So, once my sweet treat was sorted, it was on to the main course: Jude Blereau's chard, mushroom and rice bake. I didn't have chard and Jude said it was fine to use silverbeet. I pre-soaked my rice last night, to help make it more digestible and then it was a case of a bit of chopping: onions, garlic, mushrooms, my 'beet, sautéing it off and then mixing together with cheese: parmesan and ricotta, lightly beaten eggs, salt and pepper and baking in the oven, with sliced tomato and sprinkled pine nuts on top. Bloody yum!

And, what I love the most is that there's enough for lunch tomorrow. Now, that's my favourite kind of multi-tasking. Off to bed now. Goodnight! x

Coconut crazy

2013-05-28T21:41:00.004+10:00

I really thought I was the last to know, but just in case you were like me a couple of months ago, I wanted to spread the word on the wonders of coconut oil.

You like me, probably heard all about how saturated fats are bad for us for us. Yes, this is true but not all of them. The bad stuff that we should avoid is the man-made processed stuff (hydrogenated). Coconut oil however is made up of naturally occurring saturated fat, and apparently is really good for us and has some amazing health benefits.

Why's it so good?

Coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, which is deeply nourishing and the same type found in mumma's milk. Seeing as the latter's not always easy to comeby and not quite a tasty (unless you are a bubba), this is your next best bet. It has antiviral, antifungal and antimicrobial properties. It's also a rich source of medium-chain fatty acids, which means it's easily digested in the gut (doesn't need to be broken down) and is immediately burned by your liver for energy. So, not only a great food for our kids, but also for us big kids.

So, some of the health benefits I've been reading about that coconut oil boosts include and are not even limited too:

Supporting your immune system
Improving your heart health
Increasing your metabolism
Promoting a lean body and weight loss
Hair and skin care

What to choose?

So, next step is choosing the right one. When you start to look there are a few types and it can be a little confusing. From what I've read, what to look for is the unrefined, cold pressed stuff. Why? Well, the unrefined is minimally processed and made from the first pressing of raw fresh coconut, without the addition of any chemicals and so has the higher nutritional content. Cold pressed is better than expeller pressed which again retains the most nutrients by pressing the coconut and extracting the oil at low temperatures. You'll just lose a few more nutrients when it's expeller pressed, as temps get higher. Some say, it's not that huge a difference.

Cooking

Talking of high temps though, coconut oil is great for cooking - in fact the word on the street is that it's the only oil we should be cooking with! Why? It's the only oil stable enough to withstand the heat of cooking. Even extra virgin olive oil which was our preferred cooking oil, should only be used on salads, to add to your dips, or drizzle on steamed veg... basically on dishes that don't require heating. This is because the heat destroys the antioxidants and can actually oxidise the oil.

Consistency

You'll find that your coconut oil is either solid and pearly white, or transparent and oily and this can change throughout the day! It's all dependent on the room temperature. Coconut oil solidifies at temps below 26ish degrees celsius. So, if it's warmer than this, you can expect it to look like runny oil. If you have a preference for keeping it solid, you could always store it in the fridge. If you want it runny, you can spoon out what you want to use and place in a bowl, over some hot water. It doesn't take long to melt.

Other uses

As well as using internally, there are lots of other things you can use your coconut oil for... body moisturiser, leave in hair treatment - will make hair greasy, so you have to leave it on when at home and have no visitors, before washing off, nappy rash cream. Papa Wolf loves it for after shave! i.e. For soothing razor burn and moisturising skin. Some even use it along with some other ingredients as a deodorant and toothpaste. I've yet to try this!

Currently we're trying Flannerys own, Certified Organic Extra Virgin, cold pressed oil (pictured above), which was on special at $12.99 for 650mls. We have a jar in the kitchen for cooking and one in the bathroom for making us beautiful!

Anyway, if interested in this wonder oil, there's sooooooo much info on it on the net and is defo worth looking up.

Has anyone got a favourite brand of coco oil? And any cool things you're using it for? Love to hear.

Etsy in Springwood: Creative Markets

2013-05-27T18:08:00.000+10:00

Not sure if it's come through yet, but I love a good market. Yesterday we went along to the Creative Markets at Springwood. It's like a mini Etsy! Lots of really cool homemade goods - from baby clothes and soap to bread and jewellery and cushions and candles.

There were lots of highlights, and I wanted to buy everything, however I was a little restrained this time and just picked up a few bits:

Rosita's Creations

Rosita had some gorgeous handmade crochet pieces. My favs were these little booties, just $12. I've actually put an order in for a bespoke pair (hehe, sounds so flash), so will take a pic, once I have them. I also love her bobble beanie hats!

Fabrics 4 u 2 /Kazza blue

Papa Wolf went off with Essie and found this lovely fabric stall Fabrics 4 u 2, sporting some lovely hats. We picked this one! The hats are reversible, so we can go floral or spotty (as modelled below!) with our chosen bonnet. If you can't see what you like, they'll also make to order. $22 for our lovely bucket hat.

Knead Dough

Can't go to a market without buying something to eat! That's a rule. Yesterday we tried out Knead Dough's preservative free onion and parmesan cheese focaccia with fresh basil. 'The best foccachi I've ever had' quoted PW.

Roundup

For those who've been before, and those who haven't, the location is about to change to Springwood Road State School. You should find the info on their website. The Springwood Creative Markets are the last Sunday of every month and I can't wait for the next one!

* Also Creative Markets run another one, boutique stylee, at Mount Gravatt. Will have to try that one out out too. Wooohoooo, more markets here we come.

Home-made butter

2013-05-24T23:17:00.000+10:00

This week my greatest kitchen achievement was making BUTTER. I am so ruddy proud of myself, but really it's not hard at all and although I'd love to pretend it is and that I'm turning in to a super whiz in the kitchen, that would be a down right lie.

My first home-made butter (left) and buttermilk (right)

Cream

So, my reason for making butter? I had a carton of cream about to pass it's sell by date. Don't think it's probably that cost effective to make butter, not sure. Unless that is, you're lucky enough to have a Clara-belle (cow!) in the garden.

This is how bad I am in the kitchen, I didn't actually know that cream makes butter. D'oh. I thought it might make cheese. But, now I know: cream = butter and milk = cheese. I'm learning, wooohoooo.

About to go out of date cream!

Recipe

I looked up a lot of home-made butter recipes, many of which used a food processor... probably the easiest way. However, if you don't have one, like me, there are other alternatives, such as blender (check!) or electric hand-held beater (check!), or amazing arm strength/physical endurance (not check!) cos you can apparently put your cream in a jar and shake it for 15 minutes. Who has 15 minutes to spend shaking a jar? Not me. In the end I mostly followed The Cheerful Agrarian's simple and brilliant instruction.

I left the cream out of the fridge for about an hour before making my butter and I didn't completely finish the whipping procedure in the blender as it sort of stopped working. So I transferred the very whipped cream in to a bowl and finished it off with the electric beaters (maybe should have used these from the start). Was soooooooooo cool seeing the separation... that yellow 'cottage cheese' type butter and buttermilk separate. See The Cheerful Agrarian's piccies, I didn't get time to snap the process, was on borrowed time with the little bear due to wake up. Once I'd drained all the buttermilk (and saved for later use), I rinsed my butter and then wrapped it in some baking paper. Voila.

Sooooooo good! It tasted just like good butter.

Cauliflower, potato & broccoli soup (made to accompany lashings of butter on bread for tea!)

I went on to make a cauliflower, potato and broccoli soup, just so we could have bread with lashings of home-made butter to join it.

For the soup, I sautéed some leek and garlic, then added my cubed potato, cauliflower and broccoli for 5 mins, topped with a litre of 24 hour brewed chicken stock I started on Sunday night. Simmered for 20 mins, blended, and finally added a little cream. Before serving up, I grated a heap of vintage cheddar on top and cut some thick slices of walnut sourdough we'd brought, with lots of butter. Essie had the soup with us... not the bread and butter. Poor little thing missed out!

Buttermilk

What to do with the buttermilk?? Lots of choices, once I started looking... could have made pancakes or biscuits, but I decided to go all Nigella on that b'milk. I used it to marinade (along with some olive oil, garlic, cumin, maple syrup and seasoning) some chicken thighs following a Nigella recipe. Although, she used drumsticks. Papa Wolf then took over and rather than roasting as I'd intended to do in the evening, went all Deep South on me and coated the thighs in organic flour, celtic sea salt, freshly ground black and white pepper and paprika and shallow fried it. Accompanied with sweetcorn, drizzled in butter. Oooh maaaaaan. Grrreat.

Marinated chicken, cooked chicken & corn on the cob

We weren't the only busy ones in the kitchen this week. Check out baby bear...

Sweet as and still nutricious

2013-05-20T18:08:00.000+10:00

Happy Monday y'all! LFW have been cooking up some sweet treats over the past week. Some for bubba bear, some for mamma and papa bear and some to share. It's gone something like this, plus a little organic info I've found out along the way:

Organic butter

Everyday zucchini bread (as reported last week). Buckwheat and coconut milk pancakes. Slight variation on last week's. Soooo delish - with natural yoghurt spread on and raw honey drizzled on top. Bubba bear had a couple of strips with organic butter on hers. Good fat apparently, such as butter, is an essential macronutrient for growing bubs. It can easily damage and stores any chemical or pesticide so it's one of the more important things to buy organic if you can. It's blooooooooooooody expensive. So, we mainly only use it for Essie. What's a bit of fat damage between parents!!

Sulphur free apricots

Finally managed to purchase some preservative free dried apricots as well. Been looking in our local supermarkets for weeks... a sure sign of the ones to avoid are any that are bright orange. Dried apricots should be dark, more brownish in colour than orange. To keep them orange they put in sulphur dioxide, a substance that can trigger asthma. I ended up buying some online from Daintree Organics. Dried apricots are really nutritious - rich in iron, potassium and betacarotene. It also has some laxative properties... which means you could try using a little dried apricot, instead of pear if your bubba (or anyone in the family) is in need of a poo! So, best make sure I don't overdo it, now I've found some.

Pesticide free apples

To kick start Essie's dried apricot experience I stewed a handful with some organic apple. Again, will only use organic apples for the bear, since finding out that your bog standard apple has more pesticide residue on it than any other fruit or vege... as many as 48 types apparently.

Other dried fruit dish I made up was a quinoa, apricot and banana concoction. Yummmmmmmmmmmy for big and small.

Essie also at last got to try a home-made custard. A baked coconut and banana one. Two for Essie, one for mamma and papa to share! Well, we had to 'taste' to make sure it was ok.

A brand new ingredient we also tried last week was raw cacao (bean like seed that cocoa and chocolate are made from). Cacao is according to some another superfood, jam packed with antioxidants. Papa Wolf put together a cacao milk for us! Be careful with this stuff though, I don't think you need much, I felt like I'd had a triple espresso after it. I think PW might have needed to hold back on the portion size when serving for moi.

Last but not least, PW whipped up Dan & Steph's frangipane tart last night, packed with pistachios and pomegranate on top. Quite enough sweet treats for us I think. That should most definitely keep us going until.... tonight!

Laadeeda loaf: Zucchini/Courgette bread

2013-05-16T13:56:00.000+10:00

This morning I whipped up my first ever 'bread'. A sweetish, are you ready for the list... zucchini/courgette, sultana, pumpkin seed, spelt flour (white and wholemeal) loaf. Another Jude Blereau, Wholefood for Children hit and it's super easy. Didn't even have to sieve the flour. Case of mixing it up with grated zucchini, sugar, sultanas, seeds, cinnamon, baking powder, dulse flakes (sea vege!), butter, egg, milk, dash of vanilla and baking in the oven for about an hour on 180 degrees. Am making my way through her whole book I tell ya.

Jude also has a brand new book out Wholefood Baking. If her Everyday zucchini bread is anything to go by, the new book is most probably a MUST!

By the way, don't get me wrong, it's not alwaaaaays like this. Last night Papa Wolf spent 58 seconds cooking dinner. It was 1030pm after catching up on emails and researching soap nuts (more on those later) and it was an egg done in the microwave. If that's not fast food, don't know what is.

Bon appetit

Piglet lowdown

2013-05-13T21:40:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since we discussed our weekly food menu, so in short, it's been something like this over the past couple of weeks...

Vege and coconut dahl. Lamb shanks cooked with apple. If you've never tried that combo, you must, it's sooooooooo good. First time I tried it, was a Gordon Ramsay recipe: roast leg of lamb though, not shank, cooked with apple, honey and cider.... OMG it's great, but this one I made was more Jude Blereau than Gordon and much more suitable for little bears (no booze and honey). Fresh whiting cooked in butter (papa bear made!) with my broccoli, cauliflower, caper and feta salad on the side. Slow cooked grass fed beef casserole. Cheese on toast with home-made, but brought from school fete, pineapple chutney. Two lunches in a row cos couldn't resist. Nigella's easy peasy mushroom, lemon and thyme linguine. I used fresh lemon thyme growing in the garden and I always throw in a ton more mushrooms. I love that fungi! Matar keema (super easy minced lamb curry). Tasmanian Rib Eye fillet from Super Butcher. Good prices if you buy in bulk and are in the area! Broccoli, potato and stilton soup, made with my first ever fresh vege stock. Mother's Day buckwheat and ricotta pancakes, with maple syrup (thanks Papa Wolf). Essie enjoyed a few cut off strips of this too, cept for she had hers with some organic butter. Essie's also been getting in to the whole egg thing a lot more. According to my friend Jude (I love Jude!), they're deeply nourishing and so I've been boiling an organic egg, depending on the size, we brought some large ones and mixing the egg yolk (discarding the whites, well I've been eating them!) with the likes of roasted sweet potato and a little coconut oil one day, the whiting, broccoli, potato and cauliflower mash up another and today combined with warmed beetroot, carrot and ginger. The little bear's also now tried and had sardines. Mixed up with a little yoghurt lemon, fish sauce and ghee, which lessens the crazy fish flavour and is delish. Turned in to finger food, when spread on wholemeal toast and cut in to soldiers. In fact we've been really going for the finger foods. Other feeding herself items include: steamed sugar snap peas and broccoli, cheese, banana and watermelon.

Let's hope this love affair of brocolli continues

Bear enjoying some buckwheat

Think this kinda sums things up. I'm not telling you all the ordinary things we've had, like eggs on toast, or left over soup for dinner tonight followed by a whole block of red Lindt. Whoopsie!

Beefy's, burritos, burgers and beaches

2013-05-05T19:38:00.001+10:00

No baby markets or fresh food markets this weekend. Nope, instead a quick, spur of the moment getaway to the Sunny Coast and some gorgeous family time. Here's what we got up to.

Hit the road and first stop, Beefy's. Angus Steak pie. Skin Thing. Essie's first pair of shipskin uggies. Mooloolaba. Newport Holiday Apartments. 14th floor. Lovely view, great location. The Twilight Market at the Wharf. Children's books, cards, grass fed beef burritos. Sunshine. Swings by the beach. Bacon & eggs. Concious Life Festival. Chocolate and coconut milkshake. New friends. Granny & Pa. Crumbed snapper and chips. Champagne (magnum!). Beach. KD! Rain. Toasted muesli, yoghurt & fruit salad. Packing. Burgers and pistachio, orange and poppy seed cake. Home sweet home.

8 foods we should always buy, apparently!

2013-05-01T22:51:00.000+10:00

I am feeling rather bloody proud of myself right now and it's kinda by accident. Apparently, according to Dr Alejandra Carrasco, who I found on Mind, Body and Soul's website, there are 8 foods that we should always buy and without even realising it, this household is doing just that. Read her interesting article here and see how we fare below.

1. Avocados

In our place, you will usually find avocados - you can't beat a good home made guacamole, although I'm ashamed to admit that I had to throw 2 away today. I went to do an avo concoction for Essie's lunch and they'd gone super soft and brown, d'oh. We hardly ever, ever waste food like that, but they were neglected, due to all of the other new foods we've been eating and trying this past week. Very upset.

2. Berries

We always have a box of blueberries in the freezer. These are mainly used for breakie - porridge and the odd smoothie. Sometimes as a solo fruit, other times with bananas. Whereas Essie has been eating her berries with apple and rice.

3. Cruciferous veges

Tonight we had a yummy cauliflower, brocolli, potato, spring onion, caper, basil and feta salad. I also made a cauliflower cheese for the bubba a few weeks ago and always try and steal a few teaspoons of that when I can.

4. Coconut oil

I really think we must have been one of the last to know about the benefits of coconut oil. Seriously a few weeks ago I had no clue how super this produce was/is. That was then and now, we've started using it loads and practically most days. Can most certainly tick this one on the list.

5. Fermented foods

Well this is a newy and funnily enough a couple of months ago Papa Wolf picked up a tub of kimchi from one of the local Asian stores in the city. This was my first time eating it and we just finished it off last week. Yummmmy rotten cabbage.

6. Leafy greens

I'm proud to say, and Popeye would be impressed, there's not a week goes by where we don't buy a big bag of spinach and devour it. Also picked up some kale on the weekend at the markets to try.

7. Eggs

We eat a lot of eggs in this house. As we all know I'm the recipe queen, however eggs or should I say omelette's are the only thing I can do freestylee and I really do whip up a mean one, almost pizza-esque. As a result we have eggy omelettes every week. I was particularly spoilt too this weekend, when Papa Wolf whipped up a a lime and coconut brûlée. Maaaaaan I love eggs.

8. Turmeric

Have been using Tumeric a lot more again lately, since my book love affair with Wholefood for Children. This week in my Baby Kichari.

8 out of 8, wooohooooo. Knowledge is power hey. What about you?

x

Fresh food markets - don't mind if we do

2013-04-27T21:00:00.000+10:00

Baby markets last weekend and fresh foodie one this. Since baby bear came along, we've been even more concious I guess of eating well. I've recently opened up to the world - a whole-lot-more-fully - of additives and preservatives that are currently in so many of our foods and maaaaaaan, it's freeeeeeaking me out. I'm trying not to get too overwhelmed, but it is hard not too. Especially once you start digging.

Anyone who is interested, there is soooooo much info out there. As a little start though, I came across a great read when looking in to vegemite this week (I'd heard the other week that it has some bad stuff in it and wanted to check!) - by A Little Delightful which you can see here. Bianca (of A Little Delightful) has some useful insight and facts in there, as well as some particular additives to especially avoid, plus a bit about her own family's journey.

Foodie market

As much as possible and especially where Essie is concerned we're trying to give her a whole food diet and no processed stuff. This week, we decided to try out the Saturday Rocklea Fresh Food markets and picked up our week (at least) of fresh fruit and veges. They have a whole host of fresh foods, as well as your greens, you can pick up meat, fish, bread, cakes, honey, herbs and flowers. Saw a guy selling some lovely extra virgin, unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil ($17 for a litre) and celtic salt, a musical instrument man, as well as a little live band and lots of yummy eat now food stalls for breakie, brunch or lunch depending what time you get there. Had heard some people say that the food isn't that good there, but we saw a really good bunch of stuff, for pretty good prices.

Tonight cooked up some yummy sweetcorn soup with the cobs we picked up there, after Granny bear suggested it yesterday.

Sweetcorn soup

For anyone interested it went something like this.

800mls of chicken stock (made up earlier this week)

Added to the stock and cooked up:

1 medium sweet potato cut very small until soft

2 spring onions

3 corn cobs - kernels shaved - only takes about 7ish mins to cook

Splash of full fat cream at the end

Quick blitz in the blender once above is cooked. If feeding to baby, would recommend transferring to the mouli, to seperate the sweetcorn skin... can get a bit stuck in the back of the throat. Serve as is, or I added some roast chicken that I'd cooked up and frozen from an earlier meal, to give Essie some protein as well. Mamma and papa bear had there's straight though with some freshly ground pepper. Yum. x

This week in food: get your soup on

2013-04-26T21:56:00.001+10:00

Been cooking up any yummy foods this week? A few new things on our menu included coconut vege soup, my Grandma's chicken soup - cooked with schmaltz an all (Grandma would have been proud although I left out the kneidlach this time, as I forgot to check for Matzah meal in the local grocery store), a tomato, carrot, celery, pumpkin and courgette pasta sauce and tonight I did a slow cooked chilli con carne, recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver's America cookbook, but slightly adapted. Bubba bear enjoyed all of the above apart from the chilli, which I didn't give her. Not sure she ready for the HOT stuff yet.

By the way, didn't cook up the dessert in the pic, that was papa Wolf (photo bombing the carne below) bringing us a Friday night surprise home. Glad I not the only one with a schwwweeeeeeeeet tooth around here.

Bargain hunter

2013-04-21T14:45:00.001+10:00

Zero to Five bargains.

Have to say, do LOVE a good bargain. Little bear outing this morning and we managed to pick some up at the Zero to Five markets. Was our first time and well worth a check out if you're near to one. Check out the dates and locations here (just scroll down the page link and you'll see).

It's basically a whole host of mummas selling their second-hand wares for prices starting from 50c a pop upwards. As well as clothes, you'll find toys, books, prams & nursery furniture. There's also some new stuff, including a few hand made pieces. You will have to have a rummage, people do still try and sell stuff with big stains on, so watch out, but there's also some great little pieces to pick-up.

Here are our little finds:

1. Fisher Price activity set

I had one of these when I was little and loved it. It's not the old skool version I had, but the newer one. They had it up for $10, but Papa Wolf got it for $7. Wooohooo.

2. Fisher Price Laugh N Learn Bear

Brand new and haggled for $7.

3. Clothes

Cute little second hand cardis and one pieces, $1 each

4. Hair clips

Essie's first little hair clips. These were hand-made by Vee's Clovee, $5 for the pair and I LOVE them

5. Sleeping bag

Second hand - 2 tog - Grobag, $11, got them down from $15

6. Books

Set of Doctor Seuss books, $10 - an old fav of Papa Wolf's

So there we have it. I think we did good, or should I say baby bear did. :)

Sweet & sour Saturday

2013-04-20T20:40:00.000+10:00

At our local grocery store this week, they had some lovely bunches of rhubarb which I picked up. A fruit... although actually I think it's a vege, that Essie hasn't yet tried. Had a little search on the net this arvo on the best way to cook it up for bubbas - rhubarb can be quite sour and tart and many recipes call for a fair amount of sugar, which I wanted to avoid. I thought by using another fruit, like sweet apples, would be a good way to combat this. After reading a few cooking suggestions online I came across The Veggie Mama for the first time - love her site and her stewed cinnamon, apple and rhubarb..Yummy! I didn't have any rapadura (unrefined) sugar though and so substituted this for some organic maple syrup. Essie LOVED it and I figured why do babies have all the fun, so before freezing the rest, I scooped up a couple of portions for mumma and papa too. Schwwweeeeet Saturday. x

LFW's mumma-to-be reading list

2013-04-18T23:23:00.001+10:00

One of my old besties Campus, asked the other day, for a friend of hers, any must read pre-bubba/pregnancy books. I've kept the reading list short cos you can totally be overwhelmed with info and if you don't feel like reading anything, don't bloody bother. But just in case, here's my little low-down in no particular order:

Kaz Cooke's Up the Duff

I loved Kaz Cooke's Up the Duff, as well as having some useful info, it will make you laugh out loud. This is 'The Real Guide to Pregnancy'. It features everything from weeing and bosoms to nausea and stretchmarks. You won't get inundated with too much blurb, that goes in one ear and mostly out the other (baby brain is real you know!). It has a great week by week guide, so you can read it as your preg/baby bump progresses. You'll be sharing your pregnancy with Hermonie - The Modern girl's diary. Hermoine is part Kaz, part other people, part me and probably part you to be. Good fun + informative read = winner!

Juju Sundin's Birth Skills

Next up is Juju Sundin's Birth Skills. I'm not sure if anything really prepares you for labour. It is one of those big unknowns really, until you're there doing it. We're all so different and it could pan out any way. The key I think is, try not to worry, be open and just go with it. Yeah yeah Little Feather Wolf, easy for you to say... so don't listen to me, I've only done it once, but maybe listen to Juju. I found this a really empowering book. From it you'll learn what happens to your body during labour (good to know what's going on), techniques to get you through and how to turn the frightenedness (it is a bit scary quite frankly) in to a positive action...'good pain'.. yes such a thing exists apparently, plus info for your birthing partner.. make them read it too.

Bruce Lanksky 100,000 Baby Names

Everyone needs a good baby name book. We had fun reading Bruce Lanksky's 100,000 Baby Names. This is a super fun activity, I think. With soooooooooo many names out there, where to start, where to start? A good name book can give you inspiration and it's fun reading all the meanings.

If you want something really cool though, check out the net.I mean, how original is Flompy G, Sharkman, Tulip Teeth and Blunt Gordon. Papa Wolf found these beauties when we were looking. Luckily for our little bean Esme, we chose Esme, although Tulip Teeth Feather Wolf does have a gorgeous ring to it, don't you think?

Tizzie Hall's Save our Sleep

Tizzie Hall's Save Our Sleep is a bit like Marmite (English Vegemite). LOVE it or HATE it. Although saying that, I'm a bit more down the middle - so there goes that theory - but I do veer towards a strong like. In the book you'll find sleep routines from birth to 2 years of age, for breast and bottlefeed bubbas, advice on weaning, case studies and answers to questions you may find yourself asking. A great little sleep and routine guide, we found, to the big wide world of unknowness you enter, at the beginning of (and whole of!) parenthood. Sure we can attribute Essie's super evening sleep routine, which is bed at 7pm everynight and has been since she was teeny weeny, to the tips we got from this book.

Selection of mama and bubba mags

If you don't feel like doing the whole book thing, you can always pick up some good mumma and bubba mags, put your feet up - good excuse too - and enjoy a light read. Might pick up some useful info too, not that you'll remember it. Keep some by the loo as well, you'll be spending a fair amount of time there over the next 9 months!

HAPPY READING CAMPERS x

Mumma's meeting

2013-04-18T12:01:00.000+10:00

Weekly mother's meeting at our place today and I've attempted to make a cake. This is the 2nd cake I've ever made completely on my own. It's not hard.. well, according to the recipe and hopefully it will be a success. The hardest bit was sieving the wholemeal flour.. it took ages, could have used plain as per the recipe, but the perils of being 'healthy'. I won't mention the butter and sugar added. Meanwhile, bubba awake and she can hardly be left for a second, due to her new found skill of climbing (so clever this kid!)... washing waiting to be hung up and mamma still in her PJs...did manage to clean the kitchen, although lunchtime now, so won't stay clean for long. Righto, must dash. Til later. Mwwwaah. x

Uno apple & sultana cake

Quick & easy Monday night eating

2013-04-15T21:57:00.001+10:00

Quick, easy, Monday night meal for mamma and papa, that's still delicious. Thaaaat's what I'm taaaalkkin bout....

Roasted aubergine (40ish mins on 200c), courgette with a splash of white wine vinegar and red pepper all drizzled in olive oil and a little salt (20ish mins, same temp). Meanwhile mix up some tahini paste, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt, ground cumin, fresh crushed garlic and a little hot water. Remove aubergine from oven and smear the tahini concoction all over it. Cook up some Risoni pasta (you know the pasta that looks like rice), once al dente combine the above. Delish!

Healthy cookbook cooking for kids

2013-04-13T12:40:00.000+10:00

It's been a pretty exciting week, foodwise, in the FW household if you're a baby bear. We've been cooking up a storm. Could be, due to feeling somewhat guilty, after our Easter break and Essie eating chicken, tomato and sweet potato every day and roast squash done 2 ways, plain and with spinach while away. Hard catering for babies when on holiday and if not wanting to feed them any processed food. So our first day in Hervey Bay, we dashed to the supermarket brought some bits and then came home and cooked them for that day and the week ahead. Since we started Essie on solids I've really tried to give her lots of variety. If she's anything like her mummy she won't be keen on eating the same things over and over. Variety's the spice of life hey? Meanwhile mumma and papa bear were Easter feeding on steak, scallops, prawns, fish... but bubba bear did get to try the later too... uncle Tony's freshly caught reef fish. We were all spoilt there and I was excited that Esme's first taste of the sea was caught freshly by Uncle T.

Uncle T prepping the fish and Essie and cousin Jess taking note

So, where was I... oh yes, Essie's food menu this week. Our aim really, I guess, is to work towards baby and adult all eating the same and although I've been known to snack on the odd single baby purée now they're around and in abundance we do like a bit more complexity in our food. So, first shared proper dish I cooked up last Friday was a Hungarian Goulash that went down well for lunch on Saturday. Recipe was from an old cook book, Conrad Gallagher's One Pot Wonders.

One Pot Wonders

This is sooooooooooooo my type of cooking. One pot, you stick everything in and cook with limited washing up. Ingredients: butter, beef topside, onions, paprika, flour, carrots, potatoes and parsley. It also called for stock which I didn't have apart from the ready made cubes which are heavy on the salt and crappy additives, so omitted this for thyme and bay leaf soaked in hot water. Not quite as nutritious and tasty, but you know, kinda creative I thought. I also left out the seasoning although I have read a small amount of good quality salt might be ok. Recipe also called for tomato purée which I didn't have to hand and so skinned and diced a tomato instead. Not quite as rich, but it worked. This was Es's first taste of paprika and I've been slowly introducing her to different herbs and flavours. So far, so good.

Hungarian goulash

Essie has had chicken done a number of ways now, poached, casseroled and Sunday she had her first family roast. Not only did I want to try another dish we could all eat,but I wanted the carcass as I bravely decided to make my first EVER stock. What's happening to me??? This baby girl just brings out the Nigella in me.

Since Essie was born mumma and papa bear have been quite concious I'd say... mumma maybe a bit more anxious too, about the delving in to solids. We are a family of foodies and I guess the thought of having a fussy eater fills us with nervousness. Am hoping that little bear will see what great piggies her parents are - and join in - and have the love for food we do. So, that's why I've very consciously been trying to, in the foods we give, make them tasty and not just sludgy lumps of blandness. Fresh veges and fruits were steamed at first to retain the lovely flavours and vitamins. Once the single tastes were accepted, we began mixing it up, combining veges and then proteins and then started adding stronger flavours with leeks, onions, herbs such as thyme, sage, parsley and bay leaves, and a little garlic now.

This whole cooking up a storm thing, I might add, does not come easy peasy to me. I'm not a natural cook. I'm not one of these wonder woman/men who can whip up yummy things from nothing. Usually I have to follow a recipe, pretty much to the T. And, I can find it all quite stressful. Simple is so the way to go for me. I am not in to showing off complexity - well, maybe I would be if I could!

Another one of the stresses I think is planning. The big old P. Planning what to make. Planning is sooooooooo boring, as if we don't have enough to do. So, to get lots of fresh ideas I did some research before the looming solids started, and spoke to friends to get some reccos on any good books and Annabel Karmel was suggested to check out. SO, I did some research and found one of her books, New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner. It seemed to have lots of great reviews and so we quickly picked one up off Amazon. If you're like me and are just starting out and have no clue, I'd really recommend this book. It's like an idiots guide, not that we're idiots of course. As if! It just spells it all out for you and I found it really supportive.

New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner

The book has some good info and advice on how to begin weaning, first foods to try with menu planners... which I LOVED. Hooray, you don't have to plan yourself. There in the book, you have the first three weeks mapped out which means you just concentrate on the feeding itself. You'll be starting off with one little taste a day in week one. Week two and three, Annabel suggests increasing to two little tastes a day and so on. After getting you through the first stages of weaning, she takes you on the second and then there's a chapter for nine to 12 months and up to toddler. So far, I'm about half way through the book and have used a fair few of her recipes from the super simple single purées to the more interesting combos. For example, braised beef with sweet potato, liver special, lovely lentils, trio of cauliflower, red pepper and sweetcorn etc. There's no great revolution here in recipes, but you've got lots of ideas in one simple book to get you going.

My newest book which I've mentioned before is Jude Blereau's Wholefood for Children.

Wholefood for Children

Have had a bit of a love hate relationship with this book so far. Honestly at first, I just noticed sooooooooooooooooooo many words. In fact a few friends did ask, 'Where are the pictures?' You don't actually even get in to recipes until something like page 84 and that's just starting with how to cook beans. However, after I got over my initial overwhelmedness with info, I'm really starting to love this book. The key is, well for me, to take it slowly and to keep referring back. It's a really great resource, packed with information... the starter tools on how we can feed our bubba's nutritious and delicious foods to help their little bodies develop healthily and happily. It was Jude who inspired me this week to make my first ever stock... chicken. I truly think this was a bloody good effort on my part, but actually when I got down to it and stopped stressing, thinking I don't have the time to be making stock, it was so easy and simple to do. In fact the hardest bit was transferring it in to my Wean Mesister pods to freeze. Note to self, next time don't use such a huge jug to pour.

Anyway I was inspired to make the stock after Jude pointed out that it's one of the most nourishing foods you can offer a child. Ok, that got me! It's easily digestible nutrient dense and a rich source of minerals. Plus, all I had to do was use the chicken carcass I'd made for dinner on Sunday, stick it in a large pan with water, carrots, celery, onion, thyme, bay leaves, parsley, sage and peppercorns and leave to simmer all day. I didn't actually do the recipe fully to the T, as I didn't have any apple cider vinegar, but I do now for next time, and I didn't have extra chicken wings as they'd sold out in our local supermarket, nor did I have any chicken feet.

chicken stock

Still, I thought I did a pretty good job. Realistically though I know not everyone is going to have time to be making up stocks so if you are buying ready made ones, there are some on the market that are salt reduced, so look out for those.

So as well as my chicken stock, other recipes I've tried out this week from My Wholefood for Children book is ghee, baby kichari, apple and blueberry rice and pear with vanilla extract. Each one easy to do... which is always a winner for me, as you know, and packed with goodness.

Your ghee is so simple to make and it's great for cooking and adds a lovely flavour to your food, I know this as I tried it out when making the kichari.

The making and filtering of my ghee

Baby kichari was Essie's first taste of quinoa - total superfood, which I soaked as instructed for 6 hours before hand... you don't need to do this, but apparently it releases even more of the good nutrients, cooked with split red lentils, pumpkin, carrot and then a pinch of ground ginger, cumin, coriander and tumeric in my new chicken stock. Recipe though did say vege stock, but sometimes I will go a little off piste when I have to (i.e when I haven't got what's needed!). This was yummy and I made a batch for the oldies as well... great hit with papa bear.

Baby and adult kichari in prep

Mouli'd bubba kichari purée

Apple and Blueberry rice again was another winner and Essie's first taste of rice, which happened to be brown.

Apple & blueberry purée (left) and rice in the making

It really has been a big week of new tries as bubba also got to try her first spagbol, courtesy of daddy, who does a killer bolognese, part beef, part pork, served with buckwheat pasta. Yummo!

Pasta (from right to left), apple & blueberry rice, baby and adult spagbol on the go

We on the other hand haven't probably eaten quite as well as Essie this week. Half and half. I'm not even going to tell you what we had for dinner! x

Starting solids? LFW Top 10 must have equipment

2013-04-11T23:13:00.000+10:00

Starting solids? Geeez at first it feels like a bit of a minefield. It's not though and here are Little Feather Wolf's TOP TEN, things you'll need to get started.

1. Saucepan with lid

At first you'll be cooking/steaming your carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, parsnips, apples, pears and peaches to make purées galore and will need a good old fashion saucepan.

Bog standard saucepan

2. Steamer

It was all about steaming veges and fruit in our household at first (this is one of the betterways to retain their goodness and vitamins if cooking). We didn't have a steamer, but just used our trusty colander above the saucepan, and enclosed the top with the saucepan lid. Easy and works perfectly!

Steamer, or if don't have... colander

3. Small blender or hand held one

A small or handheld blender for puréeing small-first-taste quantities. Also good for soft fruits. We were lent this baby blender by some lovely friends (thanks KD!).

Hand held or baby blender

4. Blender or food processor

Useful for puréeing bigger portions/larger batches for freezing. We have one of Breville's blenders, see below which we had already. It's a great for making adult smoothies as well as bubba purées now and is pretty powerful, with a BPA free jug.

Breville The Kinetix® Pro Blender

5. Mouli

Maybe not an essential if you have your small and large blender, but we also got and found useful our mouli. Moulis are great for puréeing potato as it can become sticky in a food processor because it breaks down the starch. The mouli creates, instead, the best creamiest mash ever. It's also good for separating tough fibres in the likes of dried apricots, sweetcorn or green beans which can be hard for babies to digest at first. I really like the one we have... it’s stainless steel, super easy to clean and has 3 different grates, so you can get different consistencies/textures of purée: fine, medium and coarse, great as baby develops.

Emmanuel Mouli from Kitchen Direct

6. Containers to store/freeze solids

See selection below.

Babble silicone ice tray

We started off with the Babble silicone tray for Essie's first tastes, which by the way was carrot. I was so nervous about preparing the first food in case it was too lumpy and worried about choking, it was more like stained carrot milk, hardly any carrot in there at all! This tray didn't have a lid, so we'd wrap the cooked purées tightly in cling film and once frozen transfer in to a zip lock freezer bag.

At the very beginning, babies only eat a teeny weeny amount, ie. one 'cube'. A tray like this is pretty redundant though fairly quickly as your baby starts to eat more. However I found it useful when I wanted to spruce up the single purées and mix and match them. Goodbye lonely broccoli make some room for your friends tomato and pumpkin. Vege medleys here we come.

Also thought this tray will be good with it's funky cube design, to fill with puréed fruit again, as Essie gets bigger to spruce up her water.

Heinz Press 'N' Pop freezer pods (30mls & 90mls)

Heinz Press 'N' Pop freezer pods (30mls & 90mls)
From a cube to a pod. Next stop for us was the Heinz Press 'N' Pop freezer pods, lent to us by friends. These held 30mls, which was more than our ice cube tray and so were a good progression. As the appetite grew, I started using two 30ml pods, either with the same contents, i.e. two chicken casserole, or I’d mix it up with one grilled red pepper/capsicum and one cauliflower cheese and another time one red pepper and one roasted pumpkin. You get the picture? Means it’s really easy to vary the tastes and flavours by doing lots of different combos.

I've also used the Heinz 90ml pods to serve food up in, but not yet that size portion to eat.

Wean Meister freezer pods

We purchased the Wean Meister freezer pods which are great for a bit later down the line. Each pod carries about 75mls and we use these most of the time now and have been since Es was about 8 months. These are silicone, BPA free and I love the fact it’s a tray and so you’re not juggling with multiple containers, they’re easy to clean (and dishwasher safe) and easy to remove the frozen food out.

Avent milk storage containers

I also use(d) the Avent milk storage containers. I didn't buy these specifically for food, I had them for storing breast milk, which I only actually used them for a few times. I find them useful for defrosting my frozen food in, could pop in one of the above frozen pods and leave them in the storage container to defrost with lid/and or in the microwave.

My selection of food storage containers

In summary you really don’t need as many containers as me although they've all been great. You could even get away with a good ice cube tray and keep adding an extra cube as bubba’s belly grows.

7. Zip Lock Freezer bags

Once your solids have frozen you can transfer them in to a zip lock, resealable, freezer bags. Make sure you get some with panels on the front for writing, so you can date and describe what foods going in it. Otherwise you’ll be overwhelmed with orange purées and who'll know if it's pumpkin or peach!

Coles small and large Snap Seal Resealable Bags

8. Bib

Invest in a good food catching bib. I think they’re great. Ok, they won’t completely stop you having to clean (can you tell I’m no domestic goodness!!), but every little bit helps right? And, means a little less food on the floor, plus you can recycle the spillage. Another mouthful for bubba! Mine were from Big W, they’re silicone and easy to clean.

Catchy food bib

9. Spoons

You’ll need a few good weaning spoons. I picked up a set of 4 when I was back home in England. They’ll be shallow with a soft tip, so nice and gentle on baby’s gums.

Shallow, soft tip, weaning spoon

10. Sippy cup

We started Essie on solids at 6 months and had read that this can be a good time to introduce using a cup as well (although some babies aren’t interested yet!). So along with the introduction to solids, Essie had her first tiny taste of water. From then on and with every meal I’ll always offer a little water in her sippy cup. Got to get her used to the good stuff!

Sippy water cup

I know I said Top 10, but one little extra must have: invest in some good hand cream. You’ll be doing soooooo much washing up from now on in...
Really is, apart from the washing up, a really brilliant and exciting time. Enjoy enjoy enjoy. X

Easter bites

2013-04-03T21:16:00.002+10:00

Long time, no speak. Hope you had fantabulous Easters. We did, thank you. In an eggshell, this was ours...

1000 kms driving. Traffic jams. Caravan with my name written all over it. Mooloolaba. Great time with great Grandies. Zucchini slice. McDonalds cheeseburger & choc milkshake. Shouldn't admit that. Not proud moment. Hervey Bay. Great Auntie Hil & Uncle Tony. Yay. Steak & salad. Hervey Bay Easter Fair. Churros. Ice cream. Hide and seek: Essie seek, Bella (the cat) hide. Swimming. Uncle Tony's famous home cooked pizzas. Oven died. BBQ'd apple pie! Early morning beach. Seagull spotting. King prawns & vinegar. Afternoon beach walk. Mama & papa dinner date night. LOVE. Forgot wallet. Whoops. Day trip to Woodgate. Cappuccino & chai lattes. Woodgate fair. Fish & chips & steak sandwiches, picnic table, beachfront. Ice cream. Cousins. Scallop pasta. More ice cream. Swimming. Early morning breakie on beach. Paddle. Quick sunbake by pool. Lillianas on the Bay. Swings - beachfront park. Freshly caught seafood by Uncle T and Essie's first time eating fish. Hit! Hil's famous pavlova. Packup + Pav for breakfast. Whoops. Long drive home. Home sweet home.

How did you spend yours?

x

Rear facing rules

2013-03-28T21:15:00.000+10:00

Car seat conundrums! Anyone else had any? Myself and papa bear had been researching for two solid months trying to look for the bestest and safest seat for baby bear. To be honest, car seats have been in my thoughts since carrying Essie as a little bean in my belly. We started off though with a capsule, lent to us by some lovely friends who'd had a little boy just short of a year earlier. This rear facing baby capsule kept us going until now.. eight and a half months. The intention was to move seats at around six months..usually how long these capsules last, but it's taken forever to choose and luckily we had nine kilos to reach (500gs to go!) before the capsule was no good. The good news... we found our new seat. The better news... we're really happy so far.

After lots of digging on the net, we decided that we wanted to stay rear facing for as long as possible, which is apparently something like five times more safe than forward facing. This is where the first problemo started. Here in Australia the rules are that we only have to keep our babies rear facing until six months old. There are different lobbies trying to get the government to change this to 12 months, but as of yet it's not come in to fruition So, as a reflection we couldn't find any seats that rear faced beyond approximately 12 months of age. In the UK they recommend keeping babies rear facing until 18 months, the US have recently increased to two years old, whereas some European countries and Sweden recommend rear facing until at least four years of age.

At first we did try and work with what we had available here and brought a seat, but we didn't feel comfortable and so ended up returning it. Round two and our next purchase, after hours more research, was the Britax Max-Way. This is an extended rear facing car seat which we imported from a retailer in Sweden, www.carseat.se. It was a bit scary buying something so important online and without being able to test it out in our car, but we had such brilliant advice given to us by CarSeat's founder, Håkan Svensson - who gets hundreds of emails everyday from parents. Håkan's a busy man and am sure was very pleased the day we brought our seat and my line of questions stopped. Håkan's advice and fantastic knowledge, plus further reading from other parents like us in multiple forums, helped us to make the final decision and buy our seat.

So the reasons we choose and so far love the Max-Way:

It rear faces until 25 kilos, which means Essie will be able to use it until approximately five years of age or 115ish cms tall.
It's compact, doesn't take up too much room - so great for small cars. We have a Suzuki Grand Vitara which is a small 4WD, but it fits perfectly.
It has built in head support with an integrated harness, so you don't have to rethread the straps manually as your bubba grows
Seat cover is so easy to remove and clean. I know this, as I spilt some food on it, the day it arrived... d'oh, but whipped it off in a flash and was just as easy to put back on.
It has an upright and a semi recline position. We did however buy an additional wedge which allows an even greater recline angle. I wanted this, just to avoid any head slumps when sleep travelling
It's simple and not too heavily padded, so hopefully less overheating, but still comfortable
So easy to put the bubba in and take her out
Anchors down securely in the car and feels sturdy, with hardly any movement at all
It passed the Swedish Plus Test, up to 25kg earning the mark Test Plus Gold. This is considered one of the most rigorous safety tests in the world. Apparently only three seats have passed this, in this weight category.

Here's some piccies...

Max-Way with head rest fully extended

Clever little holes to place straps in, to keep them out of the way when you put baby in the seat

Close-up of strap 'pocket'

Max-Way with head rest on lowest setting

Clips to keep seat cover in place

Swedish Test Plus Gold

Yesterday was the first road test and it was ace. We have a big road trip coming up, so will report back how it goes when we're back. So far though, so bloody good!

2013-03-27T14:58:00.000+10:00

The verdict: Little bit iffy at first, some funny faces pulled, but almost polished it off (good sign I'd say), with one teeny teaspoon left for me.

First beetroot, ginger and carrot purée with coconut oil (see last post): 7 out of 10. Not bad for the first taste. Only another 15 taste tries before we're on to a definite winner.

:) :/ :)

Little Feather Wolf

Roast chook LFW stylee

Ingredients

Recipe

Perfecto Pesto

Ingredients

Recipe

Sweet and sour meatless Tuesday

Shopping list:

What to do...

Bear's 1st birthday party

Invitation

Venue

Decorations

Food

Menu

THE cake

Day in the life & new recipe tries: silverbeet bake and nutty seedy slice

Coconut crazy

What to choose?

Cooking

Consistency

Other uses

Etsy in Springwood: Creative Markets

Rosita's Creations

Knead Dough

Roundup

Home-made butter

Cream

Recipe

Cauliflower, potato & broccoli soup (made to accompany lashings of butter on bread for tea!)

Buttermilk

Sweet as and still nutricious

Organic butter

Sulphur free apricots

Pesticide free apples

Laadeeda loaf: Zucchini/Courgette bread

Piglet lowdown

Beefy's, burritos, burgers and beaches

8 foods we should always buy, apparently!

1. Avocados

2. Berries

3. Cruciferous veges

4. Coconut oil

5. Fermented foods

6. Leafy greens

7. Eggs

8. Turmeric

Fresh food markets - don't mind if we do

Foodie market

Sweetcorn soup

This week in food: get your soup on

Bargain hunter

1. Fisher Price activity set

2. Fisher Price Laugh N Learn Bear

3. Clothes

4. Hair clips

5. Sleeping bag

6. Books

Sweet & sour Saturday

LFW's mumma-to-be reading list

Mumma's meeting

Quick & easy Monday night eating

Healthy cookbook cooking for kids

Starting solids? LFW Top 10 must have equipment

1. Saucepan with lid

2. Steamer

3. Small blender or hand held one

4. Blender or food processor

5. Mouli

6. Containers to store/freeze solids

7. Zip Lock Freezer bags

8. Bib

9. Spoons

10. Sippy cup

Easter bites

Rear facing rules