Things I have Learnt (Part 1)

As a mum, I have learnt a whole lot - some interesting, some weird, some downright horrifying. Here is a list of some of the things I have learnt from being a mother of a new born and a toddler. If you don't have kids yet, there are things you can look forward to, if you do have kids, you may be able to relate.

• As long as there is a child about, your house will never be truly clean
• An infant can vomit more than a grown man, given the correct circumstances
• Some kids who will scream, spit and fight their way through every spoonful of a lovingly prepared gourmet meal will happily drink vast quantities of bathwater, including soap and their own urine.
• Kids can drink a surprising amount of aforementioned bathwater and suffer no ill effects.
• The best bath toys are empty shampoo bottles.
• Some days, you worry because your child has picked at this and nibbled at that but hardly eaten anything. Other days, you become genuinely concerned that he/she may explode if they were to consume another mouthful.
• Soggy nutrigrain cereal is almost indistinguishable from toddler poop.
• A large assortment of objects can pass through a toddler's digestive system without damaging the item or the child. These items include, but are not limited to: beach sand, glitter, coins (both real and play money), small toys, christmas beetles, tinsel and beads
• The first time your baby giggles will sound like angels singing
• You will never believe you could love anything or anyone as much as you love your baby, until you have another baby
• Leaving the house with children in tow often takes military level organisation.
• Your friends who don't have kids won’t understand your actions most of the time.
• A good night’s sleep is very very important.
• A mother's work is never done

Hoi Sin and sweet chili marinade

I made this up a few weeks ago in a search for something tasty to do with some chicken legs I had. And WOW! I must say, I was pretty impressed with the outcome. I didn't measure quanitites, but when I tried to reproduce it yesterday, it came out just as good. It was also quite tasty just brushed over some chicken thigh fillets while they grilled and as a stirfry sauce with some sliced pork loin and lots of veges.
Here it is: Just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Approximately equal quantities of Sweet Chilli Sauce, Hoi sin and Kajup Manis.
Honey
A small sprinkle each of ginger powder and chinese five spice powder.
A little garlic oil.


That's it! So simple and delicious. Adjust the quantities to taste. I am sure there would be other ways to use this sauce. Pehaps with some nice calamari or king prawns. Or as a dipping sauce for vegetarian rice paper rolls. Oooh, the possibilities are nearly endless,

New Years Resolutions

Every year I say I'm going to make a New Years resolution and stick to it. Every year, without fail, I fail. Usually before Valentines day. I get a summer cold, or something else comes up and there goes my resolve. This time, I'm hoping it is different. My approach is different and hopefully my outcome will be different too. In the past, I have made all-sweeping statements such as "I'm going to exercise more" or "I want to lose weight". This time, I'm am making a plan. I want to lose some weight, which is nothing new, but how I am going to go about it is new. I have a plan and I am making myself accountable. I also have 2 beautiful little people as motivation. My daughters deserve a healthy and energetic mum to play with them, run around and jump and go swimming and bike riding with them. My plan is multifaceted. I will be exercising more - swimming at least once a week and doing wiifit for at least 10 minutes every evening at least 4 days a week, smaller portion sizes with meals, not buying chips, biscuits, chocolate, lollies when I go shopping, not shopping when I'm hungry, having little, achievable goals and drinking more water. If I feel hungry, the first thing I do is drink a glass of water and wait a few minutes. Why? I have realised that a lot of the time when I think I feel hungry, I'm actually just thirsty. My silly brain confuses my body. I have started my Resolution a few days early, just to give myself a kick on. I figure, with my multipronged approach is going to make me less likely to fail. If I have a naughty day, food wise, I still have my exercise. If I don't feel up to exercising one day, I will be sure to eat well. I won't let little problems turn into complete failure. I will get down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I would really like to be down to the weight I was in my last year of highschool, but that is a long way off. Little steps.
Here we go!

Oat Lactation Cookies

Adapted from original recipe by Noel Trujillo on www.food.com

This recipe is not only delicious, but useful. The oats, linseed and brewers yeast are galactogogues - substances than increases breast milk production. Oats need to be real rolled oats – not the instant kind. Linseed is also known as flaxseed. Brewers yeast is also known as “nutritional yeast”. You can use as little as 2 tablespoons or up to 4 tablespoons full of yeast – the more yeast, greater the effect on your milk production, but it also is rather strongly flavoured. When I first made this recipe, I started with just 2 tablespoons of yeast. I quite liked the yeasty flavour so the next batch I made I put the full 4 tablespoons of yeast. Both the linseed and yeast can be found at most health food stores.

Ingredients:

· 1 cup (about 125g) butter
· 3/4 cup caster sugar
· 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
· 4 tablespoons water
· 2 tablespoons ground linseed
· 2 eggs, lightly beaten
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 cups plain flour
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· ½ teaspoon salt
· 3 cups rolled oats
· 2-4 tablespoons brewer's yeast

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Mix the linseed and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat butter, sugars well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add linseed mix and vanilla, beat well.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8. Stir in oats
9. Roll into balls and squash into circles onto baking sheet.
10. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and firm around the edges
11. Let set for a couple minutes then remove from tray

It is recommended that you eat one of these cookies a day to boost and maintain breastmilk supply. I found them a really convenient snack to munch on while feeding my baby girl. They are relatively easy to throw together and won't take too much time away from your new bub. Something I have been doing is baking these as a gift to bring when visiting a mum with a new baby. They have always been well received. They were also very popular at ABA meetings.

Revelation

I have come to a revelation. I am not a housewife. While my kids still live at home I will never be a housewife. Why, you may ask? Because I am a mother. A stay-at-home mum, to be precise. My kids come first. Always. The house can fall down around me, the laundry can pile sky high and the dishwasher can never get emptied. As long as my kids are happy, healthy and cared for, the rest is completely irrelevant.
Now, if you will excused me. I have to go. AJ just woke from her nap and sounds hungry.

Spiced Banana Bar

This is one of my favourite cakes. It is really basic to throw together, has a great banana flavour, is incredibly moist, is really forgiving and takes well to variations. It also uses ingredients that most people have in their pantry so you don't need to make a trip to the shop before you make it. This makes it great for those unexpected visitors.


INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cup SR Flour
2/3 cup Castor sugar
60g butter
2 very ripe bananas, mashed well
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon spice - I use mostly ground cinnamon and a little nutmeg, but a little ground ginger is nice and so is all-spice, if you have it.


METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a loaf or bar tin with a little oil, melted butter or oil spray.
2. Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add banana and vanilla and beat to combine.
4. Add egg gradually, while beating.
5. Fold in sifted flour, spices and milk. Stir until just combined.
6. Pour mixture into baking tin and bake for 45min or until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.



So good. The last few times I have made this recipe, I haven't had real block butter, so I've just used 3 tablespoons of Western star spreadable butter and it worked just fine. I've also used a variety of sweet spices with great success.

Mass-produced Vs Home made

Today, I wanted to discuss with you the pros and cons of using mass-produced, premade, shop-purchased food products, as opposed to making everything from scratch. Personally, from a soley taste perspective, you really can't beat home made for most things. Pasta sauces from jars are ok. They will suffice if you are really stuck for something to eat. Same with frozen pizzas, store-bought chicken schnitzel, oven fries etc. They'll do. They are quick, easy and convienient and are usually not completely terrible-tasting. However, if you have the time and energy (or a little bit of forward thinking), home made will blow commecial products like these out of the water, in the taste department.
I have found that the closer to the end-product a mass-produced food is, the more likely it is going to taste bland or overly seasoned (read: salty) or like plastic. Complete frozen meals, such as a pasta and sauce meal, are usually not that great - you can occasionally find some that are ok, but these are few and far between. With jars of pasta sauce, for example, you are more likely to find a sauce that tastes decent. You can boil your own pasta, and add some extra herbs and spices to elevate the taste a bit. Home made, using premade tomato paste, canned tomatoes, minced garlic from a jar and dried herbs from a packet will make a very delicious sauce. Serve it over some cooked dried pasta and it should be great. There is no reason for this meal not to be amazing, even. However, if you can get some really good fresh ripe tomatoes in season, fresh herbs, fresh garlic the resulting sauce will be stellar! Fresh, well-made pasta with really good eggs, the great sauce and fresh parmesan cheese on top. Oh My!! You will think you've died and gone to heaven. There will be a celebration in your mouth and you will leave the dinner table with a quiet smile and an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction.
So why not have this amazing fresh food experience with every meal? Why? The answer is easy - this last option is just not practical for most people most of the time. Tomatoes are not great all year round and it is time consuming to prepare them - skin removal, and preservation, turning them into passata etc. Fresh herbs are relatively easy to grow, but if you never get time outside to plant those herbs, the fresh grown option from the market is often very expensive. Dried herbs are easy to store, last a decent while (though the quality will deteriorate with time) and are fairly inexpensive in a "bang for your buck" stand point. Garlic is great fresh, and when you need roasted garlic, slices or crispy strips of garlic for a dominant part of a dish (garlic prawns comes to mind) fresh is the only way to go, but if it is just going to be a flavour booster as part of a complex flavoured dish, minced in a jar is so easy, you are better able to get the quantities required (you've all seen the massive variation in size between individual garlic cloves) and you don't end up with sticky, smelly hands for about a week after the preparation. The happy medium option is the one I recommend to you - use some preprepared ingredients like canned tomatoes, but make the overall sauce all yourself. Pasta sauce freezes so well, and it is also relatively easy to preserve you own sauces in jars for later use (Post on canning/bottling sauces and jams to come in the next little while). When making sauce, make LOTS! It only takes a small amount of extra time, to dice 1 or 2 extra onions, and to peel an extra roasted capsicum. See my post on Making Extra. Make a bucket load of sauce, use it for your intended meal, and freeze the rest in appropriate portions. Then, next time you feel like pasta but are short on time or energy, you don't have to reach for a commercial, mass-produced, overpriced product - get your own beautiful sauce where you have controlled the salt content, not added ingredients that you don't care for and you know EXACTLY what has gone into it. Not only will the meal taste better, but there is also a bit of a sense of satisfaction at the end. You can say "I made this and it tastes good" and it doesn't matter than you didn't make it that day - you put in the extra effort and trust me, it will be worth it.

Make extra

Just a brief post for today:
My next big tip for cooking is "make extra" - what do I mean by this and what is the point?
When you are making certain foods, it is often just as easy to make a little bit more - pasta sauces, casseroles, herb butters, garlic bread and things that freeze well are all relatively easy to make extras of. Just make a double or even triple batch of whatever, put the extra into containers, label and freeze. Complete meals can be frozen eg. Lasagna; or parts of meals such as pasta sauce, where all you have to do is defrost and heat the sauce and boil some pasta - dinner takes 7 minutes to make. And if you have a frozen garlic bread that you can chuck in the oven, even better!
Other good examples of partial meals are:
- Taco/burrito meat - that can be used as intended or to make beef nachos
- Bolognaise sauce - used for pasta or pasta bake when topped with cheese
- Seasoned beef and mushrooms in gravy - to make into pie

Random Musings

Firstly, I apologise for the distinct lack of postings I have made. Life has been rather chaotic, of late. My husband and I just bought a house and we will be moving in a week! (Excuse me a moment while I hyperventilate). Today, I would like to share with you a few pearls of (what I believe to be) culinary wisdom.


1. Most things are better with bacon. Take a toasted cheese sandwich, for example. Pretty good, but nothing special. A cheese and bacon toasted sandwich, on the other hand, is a little bit of heaven.


2. Those things that are not better with bacon, can often be made better with whipped cream. Preferably chantilly cream.


3. If you can find a healthier version of something, use it... As long as it doesn't significantly alter the integrity or original intention of the dish. If the original intention of your dish is to give your "favourite" neighbour a heart attack so he doesn't keep leaving his gate open and letting it bang really loudly in the wind and waking your teething baby that you've only just got down for a nap after being awake with her screaming half the night, the go for the full fat sour cream instead of the light stuff. Also don't skimp on the butter and bacon grease. If you are making a cake for your real favourite neighbour, who suffers from diabetes, don't hessitate to use 100%fruit spread instead of sugary jam. Whole wheat pasta is also an acceptable substitute for regular white pasta. Using equal, instead of sugar when the recipe calls for creaming butter and sugar is NOT an acceptable substitute.


4. Don't mess with it. When you find something that works and works well, don't discard it with the hopes that you will find something better. Chances are you will not find something better. It's ok to experiment. In fact, I whole-heartedly encourage it, but if you find something you really love, stick with it.


5. Try and eat a variety of colours. And I don't mean eat a bag of Skittles every day! Colours are natural indicators of vitamins. If you have just meat and potatoes on your plate, you are really missing out in the colour and vitamin department. Even if you don't like veges, start of with something simple - zap some frozen peas or corn (or both) in the microwave before serving your meal. If you don't like the taste, a litle butter and black pepper, or some sauce or gravy could help you along.


6. If you make something that tastes crappy, don't make it again, but also don't get too dispondant. Get back on that horse. Try again. Practice doesn't make perfect (there ain't no such thing), but it ain't gonna hurt either.
That's all from me.
Happy cooking

Beef Chow Mein

This recipe is highly adaptable. You can add more or less meat, noodles or veges depending on your preferences. You can add more curry powder if you like more zing or more kajup manis if you prefer a sweeter mix. This mix can also be cooled and used as a filling for spring rolls - just wrap in wonton wrappers and bake or deep fry.


Ingredients:
Assorted vegetables sliced thinly or diced -I used cabbage, mushrooms, red capsicum, spring onions and carrots.
500g Beef mince
1 pouch of long life thin hokkien noodles
4 teaspoons curry powder
5 teaspoons hoi sin sauce
6-7 tablespoons Indonesian sweet soy (kajup manis)
Oil or oil spray



Method
1. Heat large deep fry pan. Add a small amount of oil and stir fry the veges for 5minutes.
2. Remove the vegetables from the pan
3. Add another dash of oil and brown the mince, making sure to break it up.


4. Add the curry powder and stir to toast the spices and season the meat. Cook for 1-2minutes
5. Add both sauces, the drained noodles and return the vegetable to the pan


6. Stir to ensure all ingredients are well combined and heated through.
Serving numbers depend on how many veges you use





>< You may notice there is not carrot in the pan, but there is carrot in the bowl - this is because my husband hates carrot, and is colour blind so can't tell the difference between carrot and capsicum when I cut them up the same shape. I left the carrot out for the portion I made him, then added the carrot later for my portion><