The wisdom of tweens…..

Having 3 of our 5 grandchildren here for the holidays and beyond – is a good thing at this time.
Today, arriving home at lunch time after a visit to hubby in hospital, I prepare lunch for them.  Eldest girl says “what are you going to eat Nanny?”  I said “Same as you only no bread”  She says “well then why don’t you make a sandwich out of the lettuce and put the roast pork and apple sauce in that”

I had completely forgotten about the most basic and simple thing I could do for a quick sambo!!

Remember I said we would use Australian SLANG – this is not a racist comment and the last time I will apologise for using Aussie slang. Just remember – if you are reading this in any other country than Australia;  sambo = sandwich.

Thank you darling girl.    Sometimes it’s easy to forget the ‘basic’ stuff and get caught up in the “I must prepare everything” mode.

The wisdom of tweens….

Outback delays….

So on my page – 12 months in the Outback I started with “our lives are never dull”.  How prophetic!!

On Easter Sunday my husband fell 4 metres (14 feet)   and badly broke his leg. I’ll spare you the details but include  photos at the end.  Look if you dare.
This means – at this point – that our plans will be delayed for a few weeks.  On the Tuesday after Easter, we were meant to pick up our “new” second hand van, but I had to put this on hold as well.
Hopefully he will live up to his  previous name – Wolverine – in relation to his healing powers, but I have now rechristened him “Colverine”
Hoping lots of bone broth and good stuff will help the process.  If you have any good healing food for broken bones – please share them with me.

Cheers

Oh and to top it off – I came out of the hospital with my 3 grandchildren that I am looking after for a few weeks – to find someone had reversed into our new car and smashed the lights and other dents.  😦

YAY! my babies have arrived. Meet Kefir and Kombucha

Today I received my starters from Dom and Sandra.  What these two don’t know about Kefir and Kombucha is not to be known (I reckon).Their site is SO informative and well written.  You can tell – whether it’s Dom or Sandra that writes it – they have an Aussie sense of humour.  I love it.

NOTE: Dairy is not recommended on AIP. This one is for my husband.

So excited to start this again.  I did have some milk grains once before and let them die (murderer!) when I stopped having dairy.  These ones I’m going to try coconut milk, but most of all – I’m looking forward to making ginger drinks and all sorts of fermented goodies.

This – of course will be a challenge on the road, but we are planning to stay in places long enough that I can put on a brew/batch/ferment and have it bottled and ready for the next few days/weeks before we leave again for the road.  Who knows – it could be my only source of sustenance way off the beaten track.

Quick Fish soup

I love this soup for breakfast.  It seems to refresh me and get me off to a good start.  We’ve always been ‘unusual’ eaters in our family.  Our girls were taking whole capsicums (before AIP of course) and rice cakes to school in the ’80’s and what was more unusal about that was many kids wanted to swap their standard Vegemite sambos for fresh homecooked food in a lunch box.

• 1 piece of white fish  5 x 10cm  (approx)
• 1 small piece of ginger mashed in the mortar – 1cm x 1cm
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Shallot – I didn’t have any this recipe so used a small brown onion
• 1/2 packet of horribly expensive kelp noodles (these cost me if I remember correctly about $11.00)
• 1 heaped tSpn coconut oil
• few sprigs of coriander to garnish
• 1 tSpn Squid brand fish sauce.  (This sauce has no preservatives and the  composition is as follows 77% anchovy, 20%salt and  3%sugar)
• 750ml or to desired strength – water
• 1/2 square of Nori seaweed – or any will do to your taste

Sautee the onion in the coconut oil.  When soft add ginger and garlic and lightly sautee for about 1 minute.
Add hot water (to make sure you don’t buckle your saucepan)
Chuck in the noodles and fish.  I just added mine frozen and cooked gently until done.

Serve in a large bowl and garnish with Nori and Cori(ander)

This recipe takes about 10 minutes all up.

The best looking compost bin in the world!

I reckon I should’ve made a soup out of this today. (not)

Stuffed baked pumpkin

A neighbour gave us this pumpkin so I decided I would cook it this way.  I’ve been doing this type of thing for many years – but not with totally AIP ingredients  previously.

• 1 smallish pumpkin (Jap/Kent)
• 1 medium onion
• 2 tSpn tumeric
• 2 tSpn garlic
• 1 tspn oregano dried
• 1/2 tSpn coconut aminos sauce
• 1/2 tSpn Herbamare (vege salt)
• 500 g beef mince
• 1/2 tBspn EVOO

Cut the top out of the pumpkin  (as per pics)
scoop out the seeds – or as many as you can, being careful not to break your most favourite knife in the process
mix all the ingredients together and stuff into the pumpkin
bake in a moderate oven (170 – 180 C) for around 1 hour.

Pumpkin is cooked when you can stab it with your (unbroken) other favourite knife and it goes in to soft flesh all the way. Check the meat mix is done through as well.

Sometimes the mixture will overflow so leave a little space under the lid – or place the pumpkin on a tray lined with baking paper.

Meat n veg all in one.

Dont break yr fave knife as I did.

Hollow it out with that now almost unused ice cream scoop.

Put the lid back on!

The finished and delicious baked pumpkin.

Date Fig and Cacao nib squeezes (aptly named)

I made this up.  Probably someone somewhere at sometime has already done it , as I have seen date and fig concoctions in many blogs- but I have not copied any recipe with intent.  If I do copy or share a recipe – I will give credit where it is due.

• 1 cup dates
• 1 cup figs
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup cacao nibs (you might want to omit these if you have a problem with cacao as they are technically a seed)

In a food processor add roughly chopped dates,figs and cacao nibs.
(You may need to do this is batches, then add all ingredients to the processor after the intial ‘mulching’ is done.)
Add the coconut oil (and if doing batches – make sure not to add all the oil in the first batch – this is what keep it from sticking)
Add the coconut flour until a nice squeezable consistency is reached/  ie: the stuff should stick together and form a shape when squeezed together.  If not – add more coconut flour in small degrees.

Form in shape desired, place on tray and refrigerate.  You can then move to an airtight container in the fridge.  They do not stick together.

A sweet treat.

 

 

 

Lemon Olive Chicken

Again – no pic. cos this recipe was born before the blog….next time. Most of my recipes are for one person, if there’s any left over then that’s a bonus meal.  You may have to experiment with larger quantities if you want to make more. I remembered a recipe from the ’70’s that I loved, but hubby didn’t so I never made it again.  Should’ve – it’s awesome!

• 2 chicken thighs
• 12 green and 12 black (Kalamata) pitted olives
• 1/2 cup continental parsley
• 1 – 2 tBspns EVOO
• about 1/8 to 1/4 slice of a lemon  – be cautious with this as you will need to taste the raw mix  (come on! it’s only olives parsley and lemon) BECAUSE – the cooked lemon rind can be quite strong.  Err on the side of less. Cut the rind off the lemon, cut away the pith from the fruit and discard the pith.  Keep the fruit and the rind.

Place the thighs (I use thighs as I prefer the meat over breast meat which I find tends to be too dry for me) in a microwave safe  (best to use pyrex or glass) container that has a lid. Place all other ingredients in the food processor and whiz until the mixture is well mixed and small-ish in size.  Taste for the lemon factor but remember it will increase with cooking and rind can become very bitter if you use too much. Press down the olive mixture over the chicken, covering well and put on the lid. Microwave for about 3 – 4 minutes. (I have a 1200W Microwave) Make SURE the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Enjoy – especially the drizzled juice that develops.  (If I was fancy I’d call it a juz) I served mine with a beetroot and strawberry salad.

Note about food processors:  Use one that is NOT a blender.  It should be a food processor such as a Breville Kitchen Wiz and if you haven’t got one and you want to start making more and more of your own delicious food – get one.  Choose one with a powerful motor.  My Breville has been going strong since the early ’80’s and we paid around $150 for it then)

Beetroot and Strawberry Salad

Ok, OK – I’ll be sure to take photos of everything I eat from now on….

Cut the tops off one medium sized beetroot and wash well.
Slice or tear into salad sized bites.
Grate the raw peeled beet over the tops.
Add as many washed and sliced strawberries as you like.
Add 1/2 Lebanese cucumber
1/2 avo
chuck on a couple of black olives

Dress with a simple vinegarette.

YUM!

No no’s Chicken Curry

 Sorry no pics of this one – I made it before this blog was born…next time.

Basically it’s chicken and it’s yellow!!

I have been able to replicate the results on a number of occasions. Tastes for all the world like ‘traditional’ green chicken curry – but without the no no’

I work in grams/kilos as I am in Australia.

Depending on how many you want to feed or whether you are going to freeze ahead, I’ll work on the larger recipe. In any case (halving everything works the same as doubling, tripling or more -everything)

1 kilo chicken thighs
2 medium onions sliced
4 x 5cm x .5 cm slices of fresh ginger peeled and mashed (in a mortar or however)
4 heaped tSpns of jar garlic (or I’d reckon 4-5 cloves)
4 tSpns cinnamon powder
4 tSpns tumeric powder
1 stick cinnamon bark
2 tSpns pink salt
6-8 curry leaves (sweet neem)
Squeeze ½ lemon juice.
1 x 400 ml coconut Cream
Splash coconut water
About 2tBspns coconut oil

.Slice onion and sauté in large deep sided pan until caramelised.
.Add spices,salt and garlic to pan and coat onion
.Add chicken and fry off until all chicken is coated in spices.
.Add a splash of coconut water, cover and simmer on low for about 20 minutes.
.Add coconut cream, simmer on low for another 10 minutes
.Squeeze in lemon juice

Serve over cauliflower rice or spaghetti squash.

(my husband who is a very plain eater (allergic to chilli and has no need for AIP anything) loves this recipe)

ENJOY

Quick Sweet Potato Chips in the Breville sandwich grill

 

Using a mandolin, slice the (peeled) sweet potato at the 1.5mm setting (ie very thin)
Oil the potatoes (I usually use coconut oil)

If you have a Breville or similar sandwich grill – use it on the lowest setting.  By that I’m talking about a FLAT one – not an actual shaped one for filling sandwiches.
If you don’t have one – you’re on your own.  I’ve tried doing these in the oven – they take hours.  In the sandwich press they take approximately 5 minutes per batch.
Watch carefully as they will burn very quickly.

PS My Breville is an older model so it doesn’t have flat both sides – but it still works well. Next one will be double flat sided.  In fact – this is where the dry fried onions came from for the banana onion fritters – I was trying to make onion chips – DER!!

Banana Onion fritters (yes you saw right – onion)

I made these today.  More of an accident than purposefully. VERY green bananas are used in place of plantains which are very hard to find in country NSW or country anywhere in Australia. Do not buy the bananas to use the next day – they’ll be yellow and banana-ish not green plantain-ish.

3 small GREEN bananas
1 small onion dry sauteed until brown and caramelised
1 small tub of applesauce (Aldi)
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1 tSpn cinnamon
1 gelatin egg

Mash the banana, add other ingredients mix well.
Gloop some into a frypan with your choice of oil.  I used coconut.
Fry until firm.

They have a somewhat rubbery texture and could be eaten either as a savoury base for a stew or as a dessert.  A bet each way!!  How good is that?

I have eaten both as a base for bacon at breakfast and/or drizzled with a very small amount of quality maple syrup and some coconut yoghurt.

Sauerkraut

 

There’s nothing like home made sauerkraut.  You can control the degree of fermentation simply by tasting. It’s only me that eats it in this home, so I work in small quantities. I’m not an expert – but I’ve been asked for my recipe – so here it is.

To start:  Make sure you have clean jars. Find jars that you can fit a glass into the top of comfortably.There should be a little air space between the jar and the glass. (You’ll see why in a minute) I don’t worry too much about “sterilising” but I do make sure the jars have been thoroughly washed and perhaps I will boil some water in the microwave in them for a few minutes before I bottle if I’m not sure about how ‘clean’ they might be.

1/2 head cabbage (finely shredded)
1 carrot (as above)
1 small cucumber (finely sliced)
about 1 tBspn good quality salt
1/2 tSpn powdered ginger
1/2 tSpn powdered garlic

Difference between shredding and slicing for me and in future recipes will be as follows;  shredding = long strings and slicing = short fibres
ie: if slicing a cucumber you cut it so you end up with rings. If you shred a cucumber you not only end up with a mess – but also long strings.

Place all ingredients into a container with enough room that you can either use your hands to massage the stuff for about 10-15 minutes or pound it with a blunt ended wooden rolling pin until ‘water’ is seen and the cabbage and other veges are soft and juicy. (You can even taste it to make sure it’s OK – it should be a little salty)

Pack tightly into the jars or jar (your choice of size).  Ensure the mix is pressed down firmly enough so that the ‘water’ is covering the mix.  If there is not enough ‘water’ to cover then add a little – but I have never had to do this.

Place the glass into the jar to help hold down the mix.  Fill the GLASS with water to add weight.

Wrap some cling wrap around the jar and the glass to make a loose seal between the jar and the glass.

Sit the concoction in a bowl or something to catch any spill or over fermentation.

Leave for a few days.  You will see the bubbles start to rise after a day or so.  I like to leave mine only about 3 days, then I taste and if I like it, I put on the lid and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Enjoy.

PS I find the fermentation works better at around 25 C too hot and you’ll have all the liquid come out of the mix and no sauerkraut.