Grow Vitamins at your Kitchen Door

Stecher-Traung Lithograph Corporation, 1939-45 

Herbert Bayer, 1943, NYC WPA War Services

James Montgomery Flagg, 1918, National War Garden Commission

Frederic G. Cooper, 1917, U.S. Food Administration

I love these vintage posters encouraging citizens to contribute to the WWI and WWII war efforts by growing their own backyard produce and not wasting food. At the time, food rationing was in effect, giving the extra incentive to give gardening a go. But the posters also have quite a positive vibe. More posters HERE.

And really, the messages in these posters are just as relevant today, just with different motivations... reducing fuel use and carbon emissions, access to ripe freshly-picked produce with the highest nutrient content, supporting your local economy and contributing to future food security.

'Urban gardens for healthy families - Grow vitamins at your kitchen door'
'Sow the seeds of sustainability - Grow your own or buy local'
'Every garden contributes to a greener world'

What do you think?!

Making healthy tasty

My good friend Lien mentioned something really important the other day. She told me that she didn't want her girls to grow up thinking that healthy food wasn't delicious. So true!

We're both keen for our kids to eat mainly fresh, wholesome food. But I think we're also both pretty good cooks and make some rather fine and tasty dishes! So I reckon we're doing okay in promoting good lifetime habits... and no doubt a love of food like ourselves!

Happily my kids think a plate of raw veggies, a bit of cheese and a gerkin is the perfect lunch. However, I do still get a never-ending stream of requests for icecream, lollies (especially at the supermarket checkout) and other sugary treats.

So I'm gradually building my repertoire of baked goodies that the kids love but are still up there on my good-for-you scale. Happy kids, happy mum!

Lien has shared her recipe for these dairy-free, sugar-free rhubarb muffins, which are absolutely delicious! I love the tartness of the rhubarb in these muffins but almost any fruit can be substituted depending on what is in season... try apple and cinnamon, pear and ginger, mashed banana or stonefruit. Lien's tip for light and fluffy muffins is to combine the wet and dry ingredients just before baking and not to over-mix the batter.

Lien's Honey & Rhubarb Muffins

230g wholemeal flour (spelt flour or wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
¾ cup light-flavoured oil
¾ cup milk
200g thinly sliced rhubarb

Preheat oven to 180C.
Sift flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients. Combine the wet and dry mixtures just before baking – do not over mix.
Spoon the mixture into greased muffin tins and bake for approximately 20 mins until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Toasted muesli :: a recipe

My family seems to have a genetic trait for loving breakfast cereal. It's great at anytime of the day as far as we're concerned! The kids often request cereal as afternoon snack (and I'm happy to join them!) and my Dad was always known to have a bowl before bed.

However, I've been re-assessing some of our food choices lately and I was slightly horrified when I realised that even the reasonably 'healthy' commercial breakfast cereal options have around 2 teaspoons of sugar in a standard serve. Eeep!

So I've had a bit of a crackdown on breakfast options. The choices in our household are now homemade toasted muesli (none of us have ever been especially keen on natural muesli), porridge sweetened with some mashed banana or grated apple & cinnamon, VitaBrits or toasted homemade bread with peanut butter or vegemite. (Other more decadent options such as pancakes or eggs & bacon may still occasionally happen on weekends but weekdays require something quick!)

I only made toasted muesli for the first time last year - for some reason I thought it would be tricky but it's actually super easy... and super yummy! I've experimented with a few different recipes and settled on a combination of ingredients that I really like and that is also low in sugar, which I now make once a week.

 Low-sugar Toasted Muesli

Mix together in a large bowl:
4 cups of organic rolled outs
1 heaped cup of seeds & chopped nuts (I generally use sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds and almonds)
1/2 cup of any mix of wholemeal flour, oat bran, wheat germ or quinoa flakes
1 heaped teaspoon of cinnamon

Then gently combine and warm until runny:
1/4 cup of oil (I use coconut oil or a mild-flavoured olive oil)
1/4 cup of brown rice syrup (rice syrup doesn't contain fructose - however you can substitute honey if you prefer your muesli sweeter)
2 teaspoons of honey

Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients and combine well.
Spread over a baking tray and bake in a slow oven (135C) for 40 minutes until lightly golden, turning it over every 10 minutes.

When cool stir through:
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
2/3 cup dried fruit (eg. sultanas, currants, figs, dates, cranberries, apricots)

Enjoy!

Slow Living :: February

My monthly update of the little ways that I am living more slowly, simply and sustainably.
More links to Slow Living updates over at Slow Living Essentials.

FEBRUARY

{nourish} Eating loads of fresh veggies from the garden. Also stealing just a little bit of honeycomb from the lids of our beehives - mmm! I'm also making a weekly batch of toasted muesli as I've realised how much sugar is in a serve of even the healthier breakfast cereal options from the supermarket (at least 2 teaspoons generally) - not how I want my kids starting the day! 

{prepare} My tomatoes are finally ripening - there's couple of kilo's that have been accumulating on the kitchen bench over the past week so it might be time to make some tomato sauce tomorrow.

{reduce} Snapping up some op shop bargains here and there...

{green} The hot weather this summer has been causing me to develop a bit of heat rash on my neck. After trying a few different commercial products, I've discovered that plain old coconut oil is wonderful for soothing the itchiness.

{grow} In the garden we're harvesting sweetcorn, tomatoes, cucumbers (what to do with them all?), rocket, spinach, basil, kale, zucchini's and nicola potatoes. I've also planted some more brassicas plus some spring onions and leeks - and this time I've netted that section of the garden to keep the pesky satin bowerbirds from scratching them up! I also need to get some carrot seeds sown asap!

{create} A couple of sewing projects have been started (more on these soon) and lots of browsing Ravelry for knitting inspiration. Sadly, I also unravelled the garter cardigan that I started last winter, as I realised halfway through that I didn't have enough yarn. I have a new project planned for this lovely cashmerino yarn though.

{discover} A GREAT discovery this month, which has significantly improved my life! A friend referred my to the website Simpleology after I was telling her about an interesting book I'd started reading, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity by David Allen. The gist of the book is how important it is to have a system for writing down everything that is swimming around in your head, not just appointments and deadlines but every little thing you need or want to get done (eg. turn the compost, finish sewing skirt), in order to be able to feel calm and relaxed (not something I'm very good at!). After using the Simpeology site (which is free) for a couple of weeks I really feel like it's making a difference to how I feel - I can actually relax more knowing that everything is listed somewhere and I don't have to worry about remembering anything. And each morning I can simply review which tasks I want to get done that day... it all feels rather strangely efficient!

{enhance} Still working on compiling information for the North East Local Produce Guide.

{enjoy} We went to see Cirque du Soliel this month - absolutely amazing! I've been also enjoying doing a bit of sewing and ordering some lovely yarns for the knitting projects I have planned. I also did my first fun run last weekend - 5km in just under half an hour - I'm quite proud of myself!

{breathe} Reading, gardening, going to the gym. Do need to make more effort to get to bed earlier though...

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Last year I planted two zucchini seeds... two zucchini plants sprouted... and for a good couple of months we were inundated with zucchini's. Nope, none of our friends needed any thank-you, they also had plenty coming from their gardens. Even if nothing else in their veg patch was doing too well, the zucchini's were thriving.

So this year, one seed, one plant and we're just starting to get a nice steady flow of the stripy green veg. Lovely. (Actually my inner nerd is telling me it's technically a fruit.)

Anyhow, the kids aren't rapt in them (and fair enough, neither was I as a kid) but luckily they're so easy to hide in all manner of things... bolognese sauce, fritters, frittata, soup and oh yes, chocolate muffins. Funnily enough they don't even question the little green flecks... clearly a minor detail.

What I'm looking for is chocolately goodness without too much sugar. Hence this is the recipe I've come up with. (Note, if you're a sweet tooth you might not find these sweet enough, but hey, my kids seem pretty happy with them!)

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1/2 tsp baking power
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
2 tblsp cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup coconut oil (or mild olive oil)
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 heaped cup of grated zucchini

Sift dry ingredients. Add to liquid ingredients and beat well. Stir in grated zucchini.
Pour into muffin pans (either use paper patty pans or simply grease well) and bake in a moderate oven for around 15 minutes.

Summer berry love

Sigh. Yesterday was the last day of the season at our local pick-your-own berries farm. I love berry season. From the beginning of December we start looking out for the 'open' signs with great anticipation... sometimes it's early in the month but some years the berries don't begin to ripen until just before Christmas. 

I love....

• The sheer idyllic-ness of wandering along the lush green rows, popping ripe sun-warmed raspberries and blueberries straight into my mouth
• That berries are super healthy - high in antioxidants and low in fructose 
• Gobbling handfuls of berries that are less than half the cost you would usually pay at the greengrocer or supermarket
• Accumulating a stash of frozen berries that will last us through the year - we mainly use them in smoothies and on my morning porridge (love my porridge - even in summer!)

We did go picking quite a few times this year... the kids are always keen at the start of the season but their enthusiasm waned somewhat... after a number of visits my 5 year old declared 'I hate berry picking, it's sooo boring'. Yep, I'm a mean mum!

Slow Living :: January

My monthly update of the little ways that I am living more slowly, simply and sustainably.

This idea is the inspiration of the lovely Christine over at Slow Living Essentials. Find out more on her original Slow Living Month by Month post.

At the start of this year I identified 4 areas of my life that I wanted to put more effort into: Grow, Create, Play, Breathe. Each of Christine's 9 categories fit into or overlap with mine, except perhaps Breathe - which is all about doing less, being mindful and looking after myself. Hence I'm going to include this as one of the categories as well.

JANUARY

{nourish} I've been making a big effort to cut out sugary snacks from my diet, eat more interesting and wholesome lunches (less sandwiches) and use some new ingredients. I've been trying recipes with quinoa (love this stuff!), I've swapped canola oil for coconut oil (see why here and here) and I'm trying out some low-sugar sweet treats. 

{prepare} We're lucky enough to live in a berry and cherry growing area, so for the past 6 weeks we've been visiting the pick-your-own orchards on a regular basis. I'm guessing we'd now have around 6 or 7kg of rasberries and blueberries in the freezer, a couple of kilos of pitted frozen cherries plus 10 jars of stewed cherries (one each month until the season starts again in December). I've also bottled around 10 litres of tomato passata and pasta sauce.

{reduce} As always, we've picked up a few secondhand bargains from op shops (kids clothes, shoes for hubby), garage sales (a fab Husky vest for hubby) and online trading sites (fencing wire).

{green} We received our electricity bill for the last quarter and were pleased to discover that our 2kw solar system has generated enough electricity to leave us with a $2 credit overall. Yay!

{grow} In the garden: Harvesting cucumbers, beans, basil, parsley, tomatoes (just!), kale, silverbeet and zucchini's. The sweetcorn is coming along nicely as are the potatoes. Just sown are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, kale, lettuce, beetroot, tat soi, coriander and spring onions. In the paddock: 6 new sheep! Me: I've enrolled in an online course - Cert IV in Web-based Technologies.

{create} My main creative pursuit this month was starting this blog! I've been really enjoying taking more photos of day to day life too. Some sewing and knitting projects in the pipeline but with school holidays going on there hasn't been time for these!

{discover} I've discovered Pinterest and I think I'm addicted! 

{enhance} As part of my Landcare work I've started compiling information for a North East Local Produce Guide - the guide has the aim of supporting local farmers as well as reducing 'food miles'/carbon emissions.

{enjoy} Loved our relaxing family holiday time camping at Lake Cullulleraine near Mildura (as we do every summer). Lots of kids craft activities going on during the holidays. A night out for dinner, just hubby and I, while the kids had a sleep-over at their cousins. The excitement of starting a new school and a new kinder!

{breathe} Enjoying reading books outside in the late afternoon, while guarding the veggie patch from the chooks. Having a  couple of weeks off work and enjoying time without any schedules or routines... and a few afternoon naps. Looking forward to going to the gym each day (my 'me' time).