We have a logo!

My darling daughters (DDs) and I have decided to resurrect my sister's business: a farmers' market-style stall selling baked gluten-free goodies. Home educating my girls has given us the opportunity to practise fun alternatives to learning. Baking has proven a good one on many levels, and now it seems that building a business together could well provide a very valuable source of educational opportunities.

Today we started with step one: Identity. (Yes, I know other people would approach it differently, but I am, after all, a graphic designer by trade). We already had the name: Aunty Em's.

Today DD#1 created her first logo - for this business. Here it is. Don't ya love it?

[caption id="attachment_10" align="alignnone" width="300"] Aunty Em's - DD#1's first official logo (age 9!). So proud.[/caption]

 

Oh the depth of wickedness I have plumbed!

I have a very sweet tooth. It’s not a good thing, since sugar tends to make me squirly. (Although I am assured by my fans that it’s most amusing to watch!). I love chocolate. I loved fudge. I love condensed milk.

Fortunately, my allergies have been a strong deterrent. The sugar makes me squirly, as I’ve mentioned. Dairy does unkind things to my complexion, and the combination does both, with a side order of twitchy headache. It’s a good thing, because without symptoms I’d be gigantic. In fact, part of me is convinced that God got tired of trying to answer my prayer for will-power, so He gave me allergies instead. Effective.

Until today.

Dairy-free condensed milk. Toffee-like and delicious.That’s because a simple and poorly-intentioned Google search revealed the key to dairy-free desert nirvana: a simple recipe for making your own condensed milk! Oh wow. So I made some. Since I was experimenting with ingredients, I made less than the recipe suggested, but I will confess that as I write this, scarcely two hours since I started the experiment, there’s precious little of the gooey, toffee-coloured deliciousness left.

The original recipe can be found here, but this is what I did. (Heads up: this is an easy snack, but not a quick one).

Ingredients

• 1 litre dairy-free milk. I used soya milk, although I imagine rice or almond milk would work too.


• 1 cup granulated sugar -greatly reduced from the recipes I found online (can also use brown sugar). I totally used thick treacly sugar for this … *sigh* … Next time I might xylitol or even, if I’m feeling particularly adventurous, stevia.


• 1 tablespoon butter (Optional – to thicken the milk). I used margarine. I might omit this next time.

Thick and gooey and ickily sweet. Yumm.Method

1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, bring the milk and the sugar to a boil over medium heat.


2. Reduce the heat to low and simmer very gently for about two hours (yeah, I know..) until the volume is reduced by half. The mixture should be barely simmering and never bubbling at any point. Stir every 15 minutes or so to keep the milk from forming the “skin” on top. I forgot to stir and the milk burnt slightly and turn yellowish instead of remaining white. The original author said this but I did the same thing, so I’m leaving it in.


3. After 2 hours, stir in butter.


4. Remove the pot from heat and let the milk cool. The mixture will thicken further after it has cooled. Try HARD not to eat the fresh, hot condensed milk. It does scald, although the sheer bliss masks the symptoms for a bit.

لذيذ! (Delicious!)

I have no idea how to pronounce لذيذ but it is the Arabic translation of delicious (thanks, Google!). It’s appropriate for this post because it refers to the deliciousness of our Moroccan dinner this week. Enjoying cooking is a relatively new adventure for me, and thanks to the Internet, it’s possible – nay, easy! – to create virtually any concoction you can imagine. I had so much fun making delicious Moroccan Soup andHerby Flatbread. (Click on the links – they’re worth a look and there are loads of other yummy things there, too).



What made it even more entertaining was being assisted by DD#2 as she began the journey towards domestic mastery for herself. She’s so entertaining and uniquely, innocently wise. What a joy! We peeled and sliced and diced and chopped and mixed and stirred and then cleaned it all away. She also made me a miniature garden from roses and celery leaves, and populated it with a Lego village and Lego characters. Considering the available space in our cosy cottage kitchen, that is quite an achievement.



I so enjoyed the language style of the recipe writers: practical and unfussy and really doable. Of course, in true Me-style, I substituted what I needed with what I had. And garlic. In fact, I wrapped most of a bulb of garlic in foil, drizzled it in oil and herbs, and roasted it in the oven as an aperitif. *Sigh*. Perhaps next time DH will get some. I’m afraid this time (third night, third experiment, same outcome) I ate the lot. So much of hhmmm.



I managed to remember the camera before I had served the food, so here are some pics from the delicious event.

 

 

Gospel Gourmet.

Let me start by admitting that I’m exaggerating with the title here. This is neither Gospel, nor is it Gourmet. But it is food, and it was inspired by the Bible, so that’s got to count, right?  We’ll call it blogger’s license and leave it at that.

As we continue working our way through the unit on Trust, we’re studying the life of Elijah and how he clearly modeled faith in God. Konos recommends using well-written biographies of the characters being studied to help children learn about them in a deeper and more permanent way than a single paragraph on Wikipedia might offer. I’ve struggled to find good biographies that I can read to my girls as Family Reading books. Granted, I’ve only looked in our local library, and that could be the reason behind the struggle. However, I love to write. The girls both would like to write to some degree some day, and certainly need all the practise they can get. So I considered, and decided that if we wrote our own biographies, we’d learn so much:

• Lots about the character in question.


• Lots about the process of writing a story.


• Lots about actually writing: grammar, spelling, sentence construction etc.

And I’d let them illustrate the books, of course, so there’s Art, too.

We’re starting with Elijah. Instead of a quick overview we’re studying his life in depth, making notes, creating spider diagrams … it’s fun! One of the stories we read this week was about Elijah staying with the widow who has only a small jar of oil and a handful of flour left before she and her son would expire. Elijah encouraged her to use that to make a cake – for him! And another for her and her son, of course. And he promised that the flour and oil wouldn’t run out, which it didn’t. I loved how Elijah trusted and obeyed God without question, and how the widow trusted and obeyed Elijah without question. In each case, they did not surrender their ability to reason, nor their autonomy and self-respect. They simply obeyed, and were immensely blessed for it!

Interestingly, we were in a similarly frugal state as I was reading that so I was inspired to try my hand at a similar kind of “cake” for the kids’ lunch. I cheated a it by adding a little milk, some water (there was a drought in the story, remember?), some herbs, salt, and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese on top. (Yes, I do see the irony of having Parmesan in the fridge when we’ve used up the bread, but there were Extenuating Circumstances). I am hopeless at pancakes so I crafted some herby crumpets and the girls loved them! They really enjoyed seeing what the food could have been like, as well as just really enjoying the taste, too.

It actually led me to another train of thought about Bible food, but I’ll cover that somewhere else, I think.

The recipe is here.

Cost-cutting cuisine

For as long as I can remember I have loved healthy food and been fanatical about nutrition. I think two key things contributed to this in my formative years. The first was that my brother has cystic fibrosis and so a lot of our early years revolved around what he could or couldn’t do or eat, where he could or couldn’t go, and so on. We knew a lot more about healthy nutrition at that age than any of our peers.

Secondly, our family has a colourful and diverse range of allergies and intolerances, so growing up involved a lot of careful juggling around what would fill us, taste good and not kill us! (That’s an exaggeration, you understand).

In my adult years I have become heavily dependent on truly brilliant supplementsthat keep us healthy and well (not just “not sick”). So much so, in fact, that I even share these great supplements with anyone who wants them, and after seeing the phenomenal turn around in our family’s health, that list includes pretty much most of the people we know.

Even so, however, good nutrition is about more than just popping pills. It’s also about what we do put into our bodies, and what we don’t. That’s why I try so hard to feed my family good, balanced, nutritious, low GI meals and healthy snacks as much as possible. We usually have masses of fruit in the house, and if there are biscuits I try to keep them low GI, gluten free, dairy free ones. Where possible I replace sugar with xylitol or honey.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like it would be a good idea to share some of my adventures here, on my blog. I am no Nigella, and not even much of a run-of-the-mill domestic goddess. Most of my meals fail on presentation, but at least they’re USUALLY delicious and almost always nutritious. Not to mention being super-affordable, which is key right now.

Here’s tonight’s offering:

Pasta with Lentil Mush (title needs work; suggestions welcome).

Slowly heat red lentils with salt and Italian herbs until very soft. Drain.
Cook gluten-free pasta to taste.
Roast some vegetables in the oven. Broccoli and courgettes work very well for this, as do carrots and beans.
Finely chop a large onion and braise until soft and transparent/golden, then add 2 chopped tomatoes, a coupe of peeled and chopped carrots, some ginger and some garlic (to taste).Add the lentils and mix well. Mix in the roasted veggies (try to get some of their “veggie juice”, too – yummy!).
When this mixture is thoroughly smooshy, add some good quality tomato sauce (rich in lycopene, an essential antioxidant).
You may want a little more tomato sauce for the colour.
Serve the lentil mixture on the pasta – hot!

We added Nando’s hot chilli sauce for the grown ups because a) Chillis are a good source of capsaicin, which is good for nasal and chest problems, and induces feelings of happiness as a result of the release of endorphines, and b) We love it! The girls had their’s neat.

Everyone said it tasted great. DH even had seconds … I don’t know if he actuallyrealised he was eating lentils!

I’d share a picture but we ate it all, sorry about that  .

The great thing about this meal is that it is full of goodness and low on cost. Seriously, we all have onions and lentils in the cupboard right? You can make anything with those two items alone. Kinda …

On a side note, don’t stint on tomato sauce. I know we’re all on budgets here, but a good tomato sauce is an awesome and worthwhile investment. The antioxidants are great for the whole family and many kids eat anything when it’s disguised in a tomato sauce super-hero cloak. The problem is that a cheap, synthetic tomato sauce is so bad for your family it would be better to feed the kids fries than to disguise broccoli in that swill.  I’m just saying.

Do you get your 14-a-day?

Did you know that people who get enough carotenoids in their diet every day are easy to spot. Their lives are characterised by:

• Reduced likelihood of cancer because of an increased protection from cell damage.


• Improved recovery time after illness.


• Far lower incidence of cataracts.


• Enhanced immunity which results in fewer illnesses and infections.


• Reduced LDL cholesterol means a lower incidence of heart disease.


• Improved recovery from heart-related complications if they occur.


• Average increase in lifespan.

Fantastic! Where can I get carotenoids?

Carotenoids are found in the yellow, red and orange foods in our diet, and in dark green leafy vegetables like Spinach. However, in order to get the quantity of good quality carotenoids from our diet alone, scientists tell us we’d have to be eating as many as 14 servings a day of these foods.

What can be done about that?
Supplementing our diets with good quality, high-potency wholefood sources of carotenoids is the only solution to achieve optimal health. GNLD’s Carotenoid Complex is a world-leader. In an independent study conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), supplementing an adult diet with GNLD’s patented Carotenoid Complex for just 20 days improved immunity by an average of 37%!
(Study conducted by US Dept. of Agriculture, reported in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 65 No.3 – Read it here.)

Furthermore, GNLD’s Carotenoid Complex has been shown to curb oxidation damage to cells by 44%.
(Study presented at experimental meeting of Biologists, Washington DC, 1996)

The USDA report also demonstrated a 20% boost in natural killer cells, your first line of defence against cancer, and a marked decrease in LDL cholesterol, leading to improved heart health.

What is oxidation damage and why should I be concerned?

In an article posted recently on WebMD, researcher Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston explained the process of oxidation. ”Oxidation is a very natural process that happens during normal cellular functions,” he said. However, this process has it’s flaws. While the body usuallymetabolises oxygen very efficiently, up to 2% of cells get damaged during the process and turn into free radicals. The term “free radical” describes a molecule that is missing a critical component. This sends it on a destructive rampage to pair with another molecule and find that component. Then any molecule that can potentially meet the need is targeted.

The problem with free radical damage is that cells aren’t simply killed in order to replace the missing molecule. If this were the case, the human body is highly adept at replacing damaged cells and could easily make a new one. The targeted cell is often injured, damaging the DNA, and creating a breeding ground for disease. When the cell is damaged in this way it becomes mutated, and grows – often quickly. As a result, the body’s immunity is compromised and the individual becomes much more susceptible to infection, illness, immune disorders and cancer.

Daily Cruciferous Plus: your first line of defence against cancer

Cruciferous vegetables (also known as Brassicaceae) include cauliflower, cress, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli and similar green leaf vegetables. They derive their name from the shape of their flowers, whose four petals form a cross, or crucifix. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that 3,3?-diindolylmethane in these vegetables is a strong protector against prostatecancer. Even though the American Cancer Society advises adults to eat at least one serving of antioxidant cruciferous vegetables every day, most of us only eat one serving a week, if that.

Active elements in cruciferous vegetables

• support healthy breast and prostate tissue;


• maintain health levels of hormones;


• support healthy tissue growth throughout the body (inhibiting the action of cancer cells).

Ick! Brussels Sprouts! How can I get enough cruciferous to protect me from cancer, without eating food I don’t like every day?

A balanced diet is vitally important, and the Vision Team actively support healthy eating. It is crucial that you do the best you can to ensure that you and your family eat a healthy, balanced diet, rich in whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables, and healthy oils. Even so, however, it can be difficult to include as much of the good stuff in your diet as you need.

This is why we supplement our diets, and when we’re considering how to improve our health with supplements, it stands to reason that only the very best will do. GNLD’s high-purity, high-potency Cruciferous Plus nutritional supplement supplies the complete antioxidant phytonutrients in one optimal serving of cruciferous vegetables, as well as related phytonutrients. GNLD products contain no artificial colors, flavours, preservatives, or sweeteners.

What a great way to protect your body AND your taste buds!

Get your Cruciferous Plus today from our store.