All you have to do to enter is 'like' my Facebook page, and leave a comment on the Facebook post.. not here.
Winner will be drawn in two weeks time from now on Thursday the 8th Of May 2014, 4.30pm and announced over on my Facebook page. Good Luck :)
April 24, 2014
Give Away.. Win a Painting!!
I am having a give away over on my Tummy Ache Facebook page! If you enter you will be in the running to win your very own piece of original artwork created by me. This is a signed acrylic painting that measures 19 x 26cm titled "The Depths." Are you excited!? I am! I am excited to be hosting this give away, it's going to be a lot of fun.
All you have to do to enter is 'like' my Facebook page, and leave a comment on the Facebook post.. not here.
Winner will be drawn in two weeks time from now on Thursday the 8th Of May 2014, 4.30pm and announced over on my Facebook page. Good Luck :)
All you have to do to enter is 'like' my Facebook page, and leave a comment on the Facebook post.. not here.
Winner will be drawn in two weeks time from now on Thursday the 8th Of May 2014, 4.30pm and announced over on my Facebook page. Good Luck :)
April 21, 2014
Beauty in Nature for Inspiration
Recently we made a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne. Which are all Australian native and award winning for their landscape design.
I have been feeling uninspired lately and in a bit of a rut, and I always find it helps to just get out there and see new things to bring that inspiration back. This visit worked a treat. Just seeing the foliage and landscape shapes and colours was enough to bring back the awe I have for nature, and it sparked some inspiration and motivation up again in me.
Continuing with the inspiration from nature theme, I completed a mini painting loosely based on this image from David Attenborough's book Amazing Rare Things. I love the leaf shapes in the original illustration which was painted c1725. This painting I did was more of a study, or "sketch painting" as I like to call them. Something I start with no pressure on myself to complete something for sale or display, and just for the enjoyment of it. I was playing around with colour and texture. I upcycled a frame for it and it is now hanging in our downstairs toilet, which has green walls that the image looks quite good against.
I am still working on a piece that I will be giving away (!!) soon, but I hit a block with it. If you are the creative type, you will know what I mean! It needs something, but I'm not sure what. I will have to put my efforts into that very soon, sometimes if I just start to work on it the solution will come about naturally. Stay tuned for that one!
April 14, 2014
Food & Our Way of Eating
Hello!
Thought I'd make a post about what I generally do with a lot of my time. Spend it in the kitchen! I don't really like it, and resent it at times... but I do have a passion for learning about health, food and nutrition, and so that equates to a bit of time preparing food in the kitchen to put it all into practise. We try to eat organic to as much as we can afford (and organics are scarce in this country town) and as additive free as possible. We don't eat a lot of meat, as organic is expensive so I do try to make it stretch when I get it. I can get two nights meals out of 500g of mince. We drink almond milk instead of cows milk. I try to sneak as many veg into my girls' meals as I can. Last week I substituted a layer of pasta in our lasagne with cabbage leaves. I got away with it too! And the sauce was chock full of celery, carrots, mushrooms and zucchini. My girls aren't scared of anything green (who would be when your Mum serves you up green smoothies!?) and so I have also discovered a layer of spinach on their spelt based pizza's gets gobbled up too. We also try to be wheat free. I give veg as snacks while they're being hypnotised by the TV. I put spinach in their choc smoothies! We grow a veggie garden. They love it all. Well.. most of it ;) I just never give up with them. If they don't like something I keep serving it until they do like it!
Here are the cheeky chickens eating spelt pancakes with organic blueberries, coconut cream & maple syrup. This was a treat breakky! :)
Most of the time I use my trusty thermomix and Quirky Jo's website as my recipe book. She really has changed the way we eat. Thanks to my thermie I make a lot of things from scratch including sauces, ice creams, ground nuts & seeds for meals & flours and a range of homemade cakes, muffins, snacks and meals in a quarter of the time it would take me to do it without a thermomix. And let's be honest, I just wouldn't do most of that if I had to do it from scratch. As much as I love to eat additive free foods, I don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen. And if I have to make something that requires a bit of skill, it usually fails! But I am getting better! And whilst I don't really love all the work that preparing healthy food takes, there is a satisfaction that comes with sitting down to a homemade fancy and healthy meal that everyone loves. Makes me feel like I am looking after my family.
So here's a sneak peak into my fridge.. I swear I didn't rearrange anything for this shot, this is just a general everyday shot of my fridge contents. It's very personal! We have soaked almonds at the top for making almond milk (Reason for soaking), there's bone broth in a glass that I make from our left over chicken carcasses, nuts, seeds, fruit & veg, a gluten & sugar free carrot cake in the middle made from our own home grown carrots.. organic milk for tea & coffee, tahini for calcium, whey that I extracted from yoghurt to make kvass (in next photo)... and a bit of scunge!! See told you I didn't do anything in there before I took the photo!
Thought I'd make a post about what I generally do with a lot of my time. Spend it in the kitchen! I don't really like it, and resent it at times... but I do have a passion for learning about health, food and nutrition, and so that equates to a bit of time preparing food in the kitchen to put it all into practise. We try to eat organic to as much as we can afford (and organics are scarce in this country town) and as additive free as possible. We don't eat a lot of meat, as organic is expensive so I do try to make it stretch when I get it. I can get two nights meals out of 500g of mince. We drink almond milk instead of cows milk. I try to sneak as many veg into my girls' meals as I can. Last week I substituted a layer of pasta in our lasagne with cabbage leaves. I got away with it too! And the sauce was chock full of celery, carrots, mushrooms and zucchini. My girls aren't scared of anything green (who would be when your Mum serves you up green smoothies!?) and so I have also discovered a layer of spinach on their spelt based pizza's gets gobbled up too. We also try to be wheat free. I give veg as snacks while they're being hypnotised by the TV. I put spinach in their choc smoothies! We grow a veggie garden. They love it all. Well.. most of it ;) I just never give up with them. If they don't like something I keep serving it until they do like it!
Here are the cheeky chickens eating spelt pancakes with organic blueberries, coconut cream & maple syrup. This was a treat breakky! :)
Most of the time I use my trusty thermomix and Quirky Jo's website as my recipe book. She really has changed the way we eat. Thanks to my thermie I make a lot of things from scratch including sauces, ice creams, ground nuts & seeds for meals & flours and a range of homemade cakes, muffins, snacks and meals in a quarter of the time it would take me to do it without a thermomix. And let's be honest, I just wouldn't do most of that if I had to do it from scratch. As much as I love to eat additive free foods, I don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen. And if I have to make something that requires a bit of skill, it usually fails! But I am getting better! And whilst I don't really love all the work that preparing healthy food takes, there is a satisfaction that comes with sitting down to a homemade fancy and healthy meal that everyone loves. Makes me feel like I am looking after my family.
So here's a sneak peak into my fridge.. I swear I didn't rearrange anything for this shot, this is just a general everyday shot of my fridge contents. It's very personal! We have soaked almonds at the top for making almond milk (Reason for soaking), there's bone broth in a glass that I make from our left over chicken carcasses, nuts, seeds, fruit & veg, a gluten & sugar free carrot cake in the middle made from our own home grown carrots.. organic milk for tea & coffee, tahini for calcium, whey that I extracted from yoghurt to make kvass (in next photo)... and a bit of scunge!! See told you I didn't do anything in there before I took the photo!
Here's my kvass. This is the first time I have made this. It's a fermented beetroot drink I made this morning which took me all of five minutes to make. If the kids like this I will have to make it more often. Lovely colour! It'll take two days to ferment apparently then it'll be ready for the fridge.
We've come a long way in the last few years with our diet and lifestyle changes. I felt overwhelmed with what I started to read about in the past but I have made changes slowly, and one by one. And little changes over the years all add up to a completely different way of life. Some of the changes we have made have been removing our microwave & swapping all our teflon cookware for stainless steel. We've ditched so called healthy vegetable oils with coconut oil, butter and ghee. We've also ditched white sugar, boxed cereals (regardless of whether they are 'healthy') & wheat. We've switched from normal salt to himalayan salt. We eat more fruit and veg. I've learnt a lot. And there's still so much more I want to do!
So there you have it, a little personal snippet into our lives, our tummies & something I am passionate about. Might have to go and eat now, I've made myself hungry...