Healthy snacks for kids - how to make fruit leather

Healthy snacks for children is something that has come up a few times lately on a forum I frequent. It seems to be an area that some parents and caregivers struggle with, trying to fill up little bellies with decent food, whilst staying within a given budget.

My kids eat A LOT. And often, it seems.

They are boys, not that that should make much difference, I'm sure there are boys that eat like birds but my two eat more like dinosaurs. Same manners sometimes, too.

So what do my kids snack on?

Here's a fairly comprehensive list:

fruit of all kinds

fruit leather, homemade

yoghurt

smoothies

milkshakes, homemade

rice crackers with butter or cheese

nuts

ham slices

leftover roast chicken

leftover cooked sausages

homemade cookies (one at a time)

homemade fruit sorbet

homemade slushies

organic corn chips

leftover soaked brown rice, with butter and salt

dried fruit

sourdough toast with avocado

My theory with snacks for my boys, is to try and make the snack like a mini meal.

I always include some protein and try and make the snack satisfying and filling so they won't be back in an hour for more. So I pick a few things off the above list, depending what I have around at a given time, and away we go.

Happy little snackers.

The next question people tend to ask is how do you make whatever-it-is?

So I'll start with the fruit leather.

Have you ever had a fruit roll-up from the store?

I have, it was something I indulged in when I was a teenager spending my own money, not something my mother would EVER have purchased and fed to her kids. Wise woman, I can appreciate that now.

You don't need me to tell you are full of sugar and you-don't-want-to-know what else.

But, they are a convenient food, or, a convenience food I 'spose. Right.

So make your own!

Cook up a some fruit, I haven't come across a combo that hasn't worked yet.

Skins and all.

Well, not banana, orange or kiwifruit peel, of course. Ripe fruit is best.

Feel free to add some veggies to the mix. I'm still experimenting with this, so far I've added carrots and tried a bit of spinach.

Don't add sugar, fruit shouldn't need it, even with a bit of veg mixed in.

Cook it down till it's fairly thick, you don't want it too runny.

Throw it in a blender, blend it till it's as smooth as you can get it.

Then, either spread it on your dehydrator trays, or on covered oven trays. You can use baking paper or silicone baking mats to cover your trays.

Below is the cooked fruit spread on the trays that go in my dehydrator and my, er, helper...

And some finished roll ups.

Dry it out on LOW heat until it's dry, not sticky, but still flexible.

Tear into pieces, roll them up, and store in a jar.

If you want to cook the fruit in your thermomix, which it is PERFECT for as it needs no water added and blends it absolutely sooooooth....

here is link to thermomix fruit roll-ups on the thermomix forum, a delicious place to hang out.

Another quick tip: scavenge/scrounge any fruit you can off neighbourhood trees, cut up and freeze any fruit you have that's getting too ripe to eat, save the leftover bits of fruit from the kids....a half eaten apple, chopped up fruit that comes home still in the lunch box but now looking inedible.....all of that.

Chop it up and freeze it in a box. Add to it whenever you have more 'bits'.

Then cook this up with whatever other fruit you like for your next lot of fruit leather.

Waste not, want not, right?

Making the most of summer mangoes

A local high end store that I occasionally frequent has been having great deals on tropical fruits. It is summer after all so these are in season, though they aren't usually grown at this end of the country.

These have been trucked down from Queensland, but I comfort myself with the thought that at least they are not imported.

I bought two trays of mangoes, so 24 altogether, and 6 rather giant pineapples.

There is no way the four of us can eat this much fresh fruit before it over ripens so I kicked the dehydrator into use and have stocked the freezer well too.

Mangoes freeze well and are great added in frozen form to smoothies, sorbets and ice-creams.

To freeze the mangoes, I peeled them with a veggie peeler, cut the cheeks off, laid them on a silicone baking mat, scored the last bits of flesh off from the sides, lumped that on the tray too and put the whole thing in the deep freeze.

Then I bagged them up once frozen.

The pineapple I skinned, cored and chopped into sections, then packed that into food safe plastic boxes and into the freezer. Frozen pineapple is a tasty treat on a hot day, I chop it {frozen) into smaller chunks and the kids eat it just like that. Or that can go in a smoothie also.

The dehydrating I wasn't so sure of, I haven't really perfected dehydrating fruit yet, I mostly use the machine for drying soaked nuts or making soaked granola.

AND, Ive just bought a new one! Woohoo!! A new dehydrator that is.

I'm still waiting for it to arrive though so had to use my old one.

My old one (a gift last Christmas but it has not lasted well) has no temperature control and it runs at about 63c, which is hotter than recommended for most, if not all, things.

The problem with using too hot a temperature is you can destroy nutrition in the food and in the case of fruit, you can crisp the outside before the inside is dry, so by the time the inside is dry, the outside is way over done.

And one tray is broken because a small child STOOD on it.

And another tray is rather cracked.

And the lid is nearly broken in half, due to cracks radiating almost to the center.

AND, perhaps worst of all, it is made with no' 6 plastic.

I think it is the high heat that has made it crack. Apart from that one tray of course.

So, my advice if you're in the market for a dehydrator, is DO NOT buy a cheap one, you will probably regret it.

Well, I got round the thought of laying wet fruit on nasty plastic by lining the trays with baking paper. The lesser of two evils in my mind.

No need to dip the fruits as they doesn't discolour like apples do.

Here is the mango...it was just a case of slicing it into even-ish sized strips and checking it every now and then.

You want to take it out when it's flexible but not sticky.

I won't dictate a time, because I leave the dehydrator lid partly off to try and off-set the too-high temperature. I found some bits were ready before others, so I took those out and cooled them on a tray. When it was all done and cool, I stored it in a recycled honey jar and I am currently keeping it in the fridge.

And this is the pineapple.

It is rather different than dried pineapple from the store, it is much thinner, but then that could be the way I sliced it.

It looks crispy, although it isn't, it is flexible, but dry and not sticky on the outside.

Very sweet and tasty, rather moreish in fact.

Now I need to find a way of storing it that doesn't require the fridge.

I'm concerned that it may go mouldy eventually, if left out, hence keeping it refrigerated.

Gotta look into that, because my deep freeze is packed and my new dehydrator is on it's way.

Squee!

Zero Food Waste Challenge: soaked granola

Over at Penniless Parenting, Penny has set a Zero Food Waste Challenge and has given out an invite to everyone to join in.

She recently made a good looking banana peel chutney....wow....that to me is the epitome of non-wastage of food.

It made me think about what I do with leftovers and the throw away bits, apart from feed them to my worm farm of course.

One thing I have figured out what to with is left-over breakfasts.

I don't give my kids processed breakfast cereals, I'm more of a give 'em eggs, fruit, nuts, smoothies, yoghurt type of gal.

BUT, they do like cereal, in a bowl, covered with milk (because I did used to give them this sometimes....the less sugared varieties...but you'd be darn surprised to find out how much sugar the less-sugared varieties actually contain, among other undesirable things. Or maybe not so surprised).

So now, when they want cereal, I've got them used to eating plain oats.

Well, soaked oats actually, as per Weston A. Price. Sometimes they eat them soaked and cold, sometimes they request porridge.

Now, I'm not such a fan of eating cold soaked oats, or porridge for that matter but the kids think they're just fine, and that's what matters at breakfast time here.

As for the leftovers, I'm loath to throw them out as I buy organic oats in bulk and organic raw milk, and those little suckers are just a wee bit exxcy. To make myself feel like I'm getting the most bang from my buck, I scrap any left over porridge and pour any left over oats-in-milk into small containers and stash them in the freezer.

Like this.

Looks good, right? Kinda like pre-digested, um, oats. Erk.

When I have a decent amount (or when I need to free up some freezer space or containers) I make this soaked granola. I won't write it out here, because CheeseSlave has written it up beautifully, instructions and all.

I do make a couple of changes though and over all, the recipe is very forgiving with exact quantities.

One change is the amount of sweetener.....1/4 cup honey or maple syrup PLUS 1/4 cup rapadura is rather sweet. But folks have different levels of enjoyment when it comes to sweetening, so go with what you prefer. I use the honey/maple syrup with maybe a tablespoon or so of rapadura, and really only because I enjoy the brown sugar taste of rapadura.

I don't usually have that much in the way of soaked seeds and nuts so I never put in two cups, I just up the amount of oats and maybe throw in some flax seeds.

Also, because of the fact I'm using un-measured left over amounts of oats (and milk, which is not in the recipe) mine is sometimes wetter so I'll stir in more coconut or oats. I did say the recipe is forgiving of changes, right?

Mmm mmmm, here it is, the picture courtesy of CheeseSlave:

It's good for snacking on, as well as dousing in milk and scooping up with a spoon.

Yum yum!

How to make oven fries

I have finally found a way to get my kids to eat potato.

Now, potato is not a must-have, it is very carb heavy and from testing when I had gestational diabetes, I know that eating it makes my blood sugar go up and stay up for too long. Or maybe that's just when I'm pregnant, I haven't actually checked it regularly since.

But, organic spuds are a beautiful, earthy thing to behold I find, and I don't mind my kids and hubby eating them once in a while. As long as they ARE organic and not laced with any nasty stuff.

So , frozen oven fries from the supermarket are O.U.T.

And this is what is in:

Home made oven fries

Scrub some (preferably organic) potatoes, leaving the skins on.

Any type of spud is fine, I have used kipfler recently and they worked well, much less insipid looking than your average white spud.

Slice them super thinly, the thinner you slice, the crispier they will become. I slice the spuds into thin sheets, then stack the sheets up a few at a time and chop them into matchsticks.

(You'll notice in my picture, they are not sliced that thinly. I have since learnt that thinner is better.)

Throw your spud matchsticks in an oven proof dish, and dribble on some olive oil.

Keep them to one layer, don't pile them on top of each other.

Grind salt and pepper over them and toss them round till coated.

You can also sprinkle over some paprika or another flavour instead.

(See, much too chunky here, thinner IS better, at least in this situation)

Heat your oven to 200c/400f and when it's hot, put your dish in and set the timer for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, toss them around a bit more and put them back in for about another 20 minutes.

Add some dip or sauce if you like and you're done.

Note: Today I discovered if you put them on a TRAY, instead of in a dish, they cook a lot faster, so be sure to adjust your cooking times to allow for thickness of spud and whatever you are cooking them on.

I whipped some of these up today when we had unexpected guests for the second showing of the Grand Final, as believe it or not, last week's Grand Final was a draw.

Quick (to prepare) and easy, kept everyone happy :)

Homemade birthday cakes

I don't claim to know how much a store-bought decorated cake costs as I have never bought one, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be much cheaper to make your own.

And most probably it will taste better and if you like, it could be better for you, too.

This year, my about-to-turn 5 year old requested a Batman ice cream cake.

Um, right.

That means I won't be using my best ever birthday cake cake recipe.

And I even resorted to the idea that I would source and buy the Batman decal for the top of said ice cream cake. Because my decorating skills......and time and patience....only stretch so far.

Except by the time I came to this realisation, it was Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

And I needed the cake for Monday of course.

So, a trip to the grocery store to buy 2 x 2 litre tubs of ice cream, a rummage through the cupboards to unearth some marshmallows (expired but hey, they worked) and the appropriate colours, hubby on the net finding the Batman insignia and wah lah!

I was ready to cake it up.

My idea was to squash the ice cream into the correct sized spring form tin....that's the circle tin with the removable base, and make some marshmallow fondant with which to decorate the top.

And, it worked, see?

The marshmallow fondant recipe is here.

I used yellow colour and tumeric for the yellow and I mixed cocoa and black colour for the black. Although to get it really black in a short space of time (it was nearly 10pm Sunday night) I painted black food colour directly on it.

Now, I'm not big on my kids eating food colouring, or marshmallows for that matter, but I was 99.99% sure they would not want to eat this topping.

It certainly tastes ok but it's just not their thing, so I was happy enough adding as much colour as I needed.

Phew, another birthday cake success.

Note to self: be more organised, remember your 1st post of 2010!!

Homemade chicken nuggets - yum yum yum!

Do your kids love chicken nuggets? Do YOU like them too? 

Well if you'd like to see what's in a McD's chicken nugget, have a look at this post on cheeseslave.com.

Not something you really want to feed your family is it, but there are times when you want something fast-foodish and tasty that you can whip up in an instant.

Try out this recipe, it's pretty simple though not quite instantaneous, but it can be frozen in advance.

Chicken nuggets

(or strips or bites or whatever you want to call them)

• Slice 3 chicken breast fillets into 1cm or 1/2 inch thick strips. Now you can either leave them long or cut them into shorter pieces, I tend to leave them long.

• Marinate them in yoghurt or kefir for a couple of hours. 

• Prepare a plate of breadcrumbs (homemade from the dry ends of the loaves work a treat).

• Add some salt and pepper to the crumbs, and a pinch of paprika. You could actually use any combination of spices you like. Mix.

• Roll each strip in the bread crumbs, then lay them out on a greased tray.

• Bake in a pre-heated oven at about 200c/400F for approximately 20 minutes.  

Dipping sauce

(I am not a fan of sweet sauces, but I imagine if you are, a sweet chilli sauce would work well with these.)

This is the sauce I made: 

• sour cream
• milk
• garlic
• spring onion
• salt and pepper

• Chop the garlic and spring onions very small - DON'T use too much garlic, raw garlic is pretty strong.

• Mix everything together with just enough milk to get the sauce to a consistency you like.

Notes: 

I bake these rather than fry them because if I do fry them I tend to leave the breadcrumb coating stuck to the bottom of the pan...

And the oil spits, which I really don't like.

You could probably use other cuts of chicken successfully.

You can dredge the strips in flour rather than crumbs, but my family prefer the crunch the crumbs give.

If you want to prep these in advance, freeze them individually on a tray while they're still uncooked.

Then bag them up in usable portions.

And if you can, use pastured chicken, like these happy gals below.

Happy eating!

Bake Your Own Bread

I've been making all our bread for a while now, but the latest,

and by faaaaaaar the easiest bread I have tried is Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day.

This is a no-knead bread, which is why it is so quick and easy.

You quickly mix the dough in one bowl, then keep it in the fridge, taking a chunk out and cooking it whenever you need some bread.

And just LOOK at the results...mmmmmmm...

It looks tasty,

It slices well,

(well, it would if you could wait until it cooled to start hacking it up...)

And the whole family liked it.

Ticks all boxes.

There are a few benefits to making your own bread, and cost savings is only one of them.

Although you can often get fairly cheap bread, sometimes day old at the store or corner bakery, you'll find it's nowhere near as fresh (obviously, right?), or healthy, as your own home made bread.

For example, if you live in Australia, nearly all bread you can buy in the store has been fortified with various things, the latest being folate. (See my rant on that here)

And the long-term effects of extra folate on people who do not need it.....meaning anyone who's NOT pregnant.....are unknown.

So, making your own makes sense all round.

Buy your flour in bulk, either in the store (though check if it's had folate added) or online to keep costs minimal.

To store it, a bayleaf in the bag will keep bugs away, but try and find a lidded container for storing large amounts. Sometimes you can scrounge these sort of containers from delis or bakeries, where they may have stored yoghurt, pickles, jams or something similar.

Ask around.

Try out some of the different types of flours available. I use spelt flour, spelt being an ancient grain, higher in protein and lower in gluten than wheat flour. You could also try kamut flour, or experiment with gluten free bread. Or buy and grind your wheat, maybe sprouting it first.

The possibilities are endless.

And it makes the house smell so good!

Chocolate milkshake in the thermomix, mmmm

Ok, you can actually make this in any old blender, but because my thermomix is my (other) baby, that's what I use.

The how to is pretty simple....

Throw the following things into your thermomix (or blender)

• milk

• rapadura to taste or a pinch of stevia or a little of both (rapadura gives a bit of a flavour that stevia does not) I try to steer away from refined sugar.

• cocoa powder - make sure you get one with no fillers

• A blob of avocado

• A raw egg yolk, free range

• Whiz it all up.

• Add a couple of ice cubes before you whiz it if you so desire

This is a great healthy treat for kids, and others, (especially if you can find organic raw milk), without having to resort to the store bought variety that costs more money and is full of icky ingredients to boot.

Adding the avocado makes it more like a thickshake,beautifully thick and creamy, but it adds no flavour.

Yum yum yum yum yum!

Edit: I also put in a wee bit of kefir. Good probiotics, and the cocoa disguises any sour taste.

Make the most of seasonal produce

I am LOVING my local farmers market at the moment, they are open every Sunday and I am there every Sunday. Even last Sunday when it rained nearly all the night before and continued till after lunch.

Though the market was pretty quiet that day....I am curious; where do regular market goers go if they don't make it to the market? The thought of having to buy my produce at the supermarket or run round the local (non-organic) fruit stores and butchers was enough to spur me on. The market always comes out on top for freshness, quality and price.

Strawberries are in season right now, and the strawb sellers at the market are always busy. The kids and I buy some fresh berries, then every week they've had them (counting four so far) I buy a 3-4 kilo box of seconds/water-damaged/jam making strawberries. The seller sells these in big commercial yoghurt tubs for very cheap; tall square white plastic tubs with fitting lids. (These are now holding all my bulk oats, flours and rapadura.)

At home I go through them, wash, pick out any icky ones, cut off stems and soft spots, chop and spread them on trays for freezing. Once frozen, I scoop them into freezer bags and then I can pull out frozen strawbs whenever I need them.



We don't eat jam, but these are great in smoothies, made into sorbet, pureed for home made icy poles and I'm planning on trying to make some sort of pie filling....maybe apple and strawberry?

So, visit your local farmers market, see what's in season and well priced, and put some of it up for winter. Or just for when that particular fruit is no longer in season.

Strawberries in winter for us, yum!

Hot weather - make your own icy poles

Well the recent bout of hot weather has seen me digging for the icy poles that are buried in the depths of my freezer.
Icy poles, or popsicles as I've known them in my previous life in NZ, give me a reason to be outside when it's too hot. The kids need to be outside and for my sanity, I need the kids to be outside. And, there's no way I'm letting them eat icy poles inside.

So we all head outside, the kids run round madly dripping everywhere while I languish in any small patch of shade I can find.

BUT, I don't want them ingesting large amounts of sugar, colourings and flavourings every day, nor do I want all the individual packaging that goes along with store bought icy poles.

Solution?

I made my own of course.

I used these molds
but mine are the same size and shape as the store bought variety.



You can also get rocket and star shapes if you want to get fancy, and I have since got some of the cheaper molds with built in straws as well.
They're smaller so better for my lil guy and deal a bit with the drip issue.

Now the possibilities are endless!

I've made blueberry ones



Milo ones



Coffee ones for my hubby

and lemon ones made with homemade lemonade syrup.

And orange ones, pureed oranges with extra oj for some liquid.

I also tried a chocolate one with the leftovers from the chocolate sorbet I made a few nights ago but ended up having to eat it out with a spoon as it doesn't freeze hard enough.

And I've got many combos of fruit floating round in my head to try out, what better way to sneak in a bit of extra healthy stuff to my little munchkins diets?

So while the molds were a wee bit excy at $15 they've paid for themselves in no time. Yay!

Homemade bagels - by thermomix or hand

Ever made your own bagels? Bagels are not that big here in Australia, at least not round my area anyway. You can get them here and there but if you want them, what better way to have them fresh than to make 'em yourself?

Here's how...

Homemade whole wheat bagels.

Now of course I couldn't just follow the recipe to the letter, so I used spelt flour instead of wheat and I used my thermomix to do the hard work for me. And the spelt flour was white, as that's all I had to hand.

If you have a TM and want to mix these bagels in it, just measure everything in as per the recipe, mix on about 6 until it holds together (about 10-15 secs), then knead for 3 minutes.

Now, the only slightly awkward part of this process was the instruction to shape them to 'resemble a bagel'...



But they turned out very well, slightly wonky shapes not-withstanding, with that chewy and dense texture bagels are known for. Although I think I could have baked them for slightly longer than the 15 minutes set out in the recipe, maybe 20 would do it, just to give them a little more colour on the outside.



Yum, I'll make these again, now I need to find if they freeze well. They were so easy to make and cook, they'd be easy to make in bulk for use later.

I'll let you know what I find out...

Homemade spelt bread, thermomix or by hand

There's nothing much better than the smell of fresh bread and that's what we've been smelling round here lately as I've taken to making my own on a regular basis.

And it's soooo good! My mum used to make all the bread for a family of eight, so I don't know what's taken me so long to get round to the idea of making my own. I do have a bread machine, but I haven't used that in a long while, partly due to now having a thermomix. The thermomix doesn't actually cook the bread for you, but it certainly does all the rest of hard work. That said, it is pretty easy to make this bread by hand, but seeing as I have a thermomix, I'm gonna use it!

Actually, the reason I now like to make my own is because I have become so much more aware of exactly what is put into our food. And why spelt? I use spelt instead of wheat for it's nutritious benefits, as well as it's flavour and texture. Spelt can sometimes be found in supermarkets, however I buy it in 5kg bags over the net and it gets delivered, just what I like.

Spelt bread by hand

1 tablespoon dry yeast
2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons salt
5-6 cups spelt flour (any combo of brown or white)

• Mix yeast, water and honey in a large bowl and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.
• Stir in the butter, salt and 3 cups of flour.
• Add the remainng flour in small amounts until the dough becomes too stiff to stir, then turn out onto floured bench.
• Knead for about 6 minutes, but do not overwork the dough. Stop when it is smooth and elastic.
• Place in a bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size.
• Punch down the dough, and divide it between 2 smallish loaf pans.
• Cover and let it rise again.
• Heat oven to 175c (350f)
• Bake for 20 minutes or so, until it is brown on the top and smelling done. Mmm mmm!

Spelt bread in the thermomix
10 grams dry yeast
2 cups warm water
85 grams honey
75 grams butter
2 teaspoons salt
5-6 cups spelt flour (any combo of brown or white)

• Place chopped butter in TM bowl and melt on 90c, speed 3 for about 1 1/2 minutes.
• Add honey, warm water and yeast. Mix on speed 4 for 2 seconds then leave to sit for 5-10 minutes.
• Add salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds.
• Add 2 more cups of flour, mixing on speed 5 for 10 seconds after each addition.
• Knead in TM for 2 minutes
• Place in a bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size.
• Punch down the dough, and divide it between 2 smallish loaf pans.
• Cover and let it rise again.
• Heat oven to 175c (350f)
• Bake for 20 minutes or so, until it is brown on the top and smelling done.

See? Couldn't be easier.

Home made tortillas, by hand or thermomix

Tortillas are one of those things I used to buy and keep in the cupboard until needed. That should have been warning enough, and after reading the ingredients list I can see why they keep so well.......they are barely a food at all. Well, slight exaggeration perhaps but here is what is in the ones I used to buy:

Wheat flour

Water

Vegetable oil

Humectant

Salt

Emulsifiers

Raising agents

Dextrose

Preservatives

Colour

Food acid

Flour treatment agent

Antioxidants

And this is what is in the ones I made last night:


Tortillas

320grams plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
180 grams/mls warm water

Much better for you surely, without all the extras in the list above.
And they taste sooooo good, they are well worth the little bit of fiddle it takes to roll them out.

Ok, here's how to:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, turn out and knead for 10 minutes.

Thermomixers: throw it all in the TM bowl, mix for 10 secs to combine, then knead for 3 minutes.

Rest the dough for 5 - 10 minutes.

Enlist a helper (not strictly necessary)

Divide dough into 12 pieces

Roll each piece flat into rounds, or any odd shape, as long as it's as thin as you can get it.

Fry in a hot frypan until the upper surface starts to pucker and puff a bit.

Flip over, cook briefly on other side.

You'll be able to tell when they're done by sight, and they should cook pretty fast.
If not, turn your pan up a wee bit.
I use a scanpan, which is non-stick, so I oil it up at the start and that's it.

Once cooked, I put a teatowel inside a large ziplock type bag and lay each tortilla as it is cooked onto the teatowel in a pile. I then seal the bag while the next one's cooking. This method keeps them soft and flexible.

Do try these, you won't regret it, the taste is fantastic, there is no throw-away plastic packaging, they're cheaper than store bought and my recurring theme, you know exactly what's in them.

Make your own lemonade syrup

I saw this recipe at Red Bird Crafts a few days ago and it looked so good I had to give it a go. It was very quick and easy and it tastes divine.

Usually I keep a bottle of lemon and barley cordial syrup in the cupboard, for 'emergencies' haha, but that will now be phased out and replaced with the recipe below.


Lemonade Syrup

2 cups of sugar
1 cup water
Thinly sliced rinds of 2 lemons ( I just used the zest, not the whole rind)
1/8 teaspoon of salt (I left this out)
Juice of 7 lemons

• Place all ingredients, except juice, into a pot.

• Simmer for 7 minutes.

• Cool and add the juice of 7 lemons.

• Strain and then add half of the rinds to the syrup for flavor and colour.

• Store in a jar and place in the refrigerator.

Pour a bit into a glass and add water, and ice if you prefer.
If you wanted it bubbly you could substitute soda water instead.

And of course it has no preservatives or any of the other wacky bits and bobs that seem to go into commercially prepared food these days.

Yes I did strain it, but yes, that is a lemon pip you see floating happily at the top there. My straining technique obviously needs work. And my syrup is a lot darker than Red Bird Crafts example, ahem, because I thought I'd set the timer and hadn't. So it appears that overcooking will not cause irreparable damage.

This really is delish, and Red Bird Crafts has some very workable craft ideas over there too, worth having a look-see.

How to make your own chicken stock

Chicken stock is an ingredient in many dishes and and is readily available in stores. But, it is really easy to make your own and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing exactly what's in it. You'll get a flavour you won't find in a packet or carton and it will cost you less, as you're using bones which are usually just thrown away. And boiling the bones gets you some extra minerals too.

How do you do it?

• Pile chicken bones in a largish pot.
• Add a peeled onion, a chopped carrot, and a stick of celery. (You can also add any odds and ends of veges you have around.)
  
• Add enough water to completely cover the chicken bones.
• Bring to the boil.
• Keep it at a slow boil/simmer for two or more hours, adding more water if the level gets too low.
• Drain the solids out and refrigerate or freeze.
  

I like to freeze the stock in muffin pans, so I have convenient amounts for adding to dishes. Once they are frozen, just pop them out and store them in a ziplock bag in the freezer.



This lot was actually made in my thermomix, and the reason it's pale is the thermomix recipe only calls for 60 minutes of cooking. So if you want a darker, richer flavour, cook for longer on the stovetop.

I use the chicken bones from the roast chickens that we buy once in a while. I now buy La Ionica chickens as I've found out pastured/free range chicken is healthier and this particular brand is hormone free and not chemically processed. Not terribly thrifty I know, but I feel better if I know I'm using every bit of it in this way.

You won't want to go back to using store bought stock, this tastes too good.

Make your own chocolate syrup

Yes, I went to the baby market and had a great time fossicking. Found some good bits and pieces too, I'll give you a run down tomorrow as long as I don't come down with swine flu from the experience, which my sis reminded me is rampant in Victoria. Come to think of it, the market was much less hectic and busy than usual, I wonder if that's why.

In the meantime, try this one out if you're a chocoholic. This chocolate syrup recipe works well for making chocolate milk, hot chocolate, for over icecream and I'm sure there are other uses as well.

Such as.....

Make a chocolate cake and leave it in the pan.
While still hot, take a skewer or toothpick and poke deep holes all over the surface.
Pour over chocolate syrup and leave it to soak in.
Eat, maybe with some vanilla icecream.


Gah, I'm drooling now, I haven't tried this but will sometime very soon. It will make a decadent dessert on a freezy cold Melbourne day.

Making this chocolate syrup is cheaper in the long run than buying it and of course, there is the benefit of knowing exactly what is in it.

Before I give you the recipe I just HAD to include this chokky pic. Someone's been enjoying themselves a little too much, but it wasn't me, boo!



If you want to see more, check out A dream in chocolate...

Chocolate Syrup

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
1 cup Sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon Vanilla

• Combine cocoa, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil.

• Allow it to boil for one minute.

• Remove from heat, cool and add vanilla.

• Store in the fridge.

Mmmm, I see a chocolate cake in my very near future...

Thermomix for a thriftier kitchen

Have you heard of thermomix? I made a brief reference to it in this post and you can check it out on my squidoo lens or just google it.



One of the benefits of having a thermomix is it is a time saving and money saving device. Now, I was given mine and I'm mighty glad I was as it is an expensive wee beastie.....nearly $2000 Australian.


But let me tell you a few benefits.

• It saves me loads of time when I cook or bake. It has built in scales for weighing and a built in element for cooking, so everything happens in the one unit, thus saving on dish washing, too.

• It cooks everything perfectly. Seriously, you CANNOT burn or otherwise wreck your cooking. Especially when cooking from the supplied recipe book.

• It is supremely easy to use. I can cook dinner one-handed with a cranky baby on my hip. I don't burn pots on the stove by not paying attention, I don't have to chop, stir or puree and it has a built in timer, so switches itself off when finished.

Those are the time saving factors.

If you count time as money, then you're already saving. But it does have distinct money saving attributes too.


You can...

• Make bread dough, very quickly. So buy your ingredients in bulk (cheaper) and make your own bread. Mmmmm, yummy!

• Make sorbet in 3 minutes. Hot day, the kids want to go out for an icypole/popsicle/flavoured ice? Stay home (save petrol and money) and make your own, any flavour you like, and know what's in it.

• Make your own sauces. Thermomix has failsafe recipes for bechamel, hollandaise and the like, so no more running to the store to buy the pre-packaged variety.

• Make your own custards and mayos. Fresh when you need them, no more expired containers lurking in the depths of the fridge, and, you know what's in them. (Meaning no artificial colours, flavours, thickeners or preservatives).

• Are you a juice drinker? Thermomix does that too, the healthy way. It completely pulverizes your fruits and veggies to an extremely smooth consistency, so you get the skin, the pulp, everything. No waste.

There are more things this wonder machine can do but you've probably heard about enough for now.

Want a demo?

Where to get one?

They are only available through tupperware style parties, you go to a demo and can order one from there. Very occasionally you see a current model on ebay, although they fetch nearly the same price as buying a new one. And you will sometimes see an older model thermomix on ebay. The older ones are cheaper, largely the same as the current model and parts are still available worldwide.


Ooh, I just found this budget busters section on the Thermomix Australia blog.


Bottom line, if you can get one of these, it's well worth it!

Are you a snickers bar fan?

Are you a snickers addict? Does that snickers craving creep up on you when you least expect it? Do you need a snickers every afternoon just so you can keep on going? Is your snickers addiction breaking your budget??

Well, I have the solution to your problem. Check out this link on YouTube and learn how to make your own.

Easy! So easy, you can do it blindfolded, as the guy in the clip apparently did.


Mmmm, snickers.....