Yet another recipe

I'm feeling the need to move my recipes to a new blog. They don't have much to do with what this blog is supposed to be about so i think i'll begin a blog specifically for my concoctions! Here's what i just made for lunch... It's always still a surprise to me that vegies can taste so good. I grew up on plain steamed or boiled vegetables accompanying meat of some kind, so it's a wonderful discovery to make that they can taste so delish. I'm enjoying the creative side of it too - i can pull just about anything out of my fridge or freezer and whip something up that i'll actually enjoy eating!

Cauliflower and haloumi

Ingredients:

about a cup of cauliflower chopped into fairly small florets

olive oil

haloumi cheese

vegetable stock, about 100mls

half a cup of frozen peas and corn

a handful of baby spinach

a diced garlic clove

Method:

Put a little olive oil in a pan on medium heat

Throw in some diced garlic

Slice up some haloumi cheese and push the garlic to the outer edge of the pan and cook the haloumi in the centre

Remove the haloumi when it’s golden brown

Add some cauliflower florets to the pan and stir through the garlic

Add some peas and corn (I used frozen)

Add some vegetable stock (liquid)

Add some baby spinach

Mix it up

Pop the lid on and turn down to simmer for around 10mins

Cut the haloumi into small chunks

Add back to mix and serve

yummmmmmmmmmmmm

Sprouting

I popped into Mrs Flannery's today and came out with a new toy...

I got inspired to buy it after having a delicious salad that Rach made last Friday, with sunflower sprouts.. they're so different to other sprouts and so yummy but when i found them in the refrigerated section at Mrs F's for $5 for 100gm i thought it could be too much of a luxury to buy them as often as i'd like... so i went to the mini greenhouse section and found one i can grow my own sprouts in. It's three tiered and looks like this:



So our unschooling activity will definitely be encompassing sprouts for the next few days!

I'm really into the food thing at the moment.

I also got all these yummy things to add to my slow cooker oats - i got some black dried apricots which are sulphate free, organic dried figs, organic dates and steel cut oats instead of rolled oats. I'm going to put these dried goods together with some other goodies in my fruit basket from my organic coop, so we are going to have a really yummy warm breakfast tomorrow.


I will update with satisfied smiles of the childers eating their porridge :)

I've also added another recipe to my Recipe Compilation post from a while back. I made a really delish dish yesterday with eggplant, whole tomatoes cut in half, garlic, stock and Maldon salt. So so yummy i think i'm going to make it again right now after thinking about it!

Is it the food?????

Now, next subject, what is with this wonderful buzzing flowing hyped up exciting and expectant energy flying about the place at the moment? It's LOVELY! Full moon coming? Blue moon month? Is it just me and Amy feeling it and basking in it? Does anyone have any other suggestions? :D

Until talking to Amy and finding out she was in the same boat with lovely jubbly feelings going on, I had been putting this wonderful feeling of wellbeing and increased energy down to a change in my eating habits!

For the past week and a half I've only been eating organic produce... and even if the feeling of wellbeing is not due to this, i know it's contributed!

I have never eaten just organic fruit and veg before and it has dawned on me how full of vitality i am since eating ALIVE and wholesome food. I LOVE my coop day (it's Thursday) and am thrilled as i pull out each item from my box of goodies.

Why am i so excited about fruit and veg?

• It's a community based coop business.. local farmers, local produce.
  
• Being local, it's fresh, fresh, fresh and delicious.
  
• I love getting a box for the whole week and having a huge cook up that night before i can even finish finding space in my fridge for everything.
• I love thinking about and planning what i can make with this and that... and how to stretch the things i love (like mushrooms) into days and days worth of cooking.
• I love getting things i wouldn't normally buy at a store - and the challenge it brings when preparing meals. We had lovely radish salads last week - something i've never made before, but hey i've never bought radishes before!
• Organic fruit and veg SMELLS so damn good, tastes good and it feels so nourishing!
• I am once again a happy vegetarian and what else WOULD excite me apart from fruit and veg? :)
  

So you know how they say that cars that run on premium fuels have better performance? This lil engine is humming away and instead of clocking up more k's as i move forward, i feel i'm turning back the dial!

I feel like I am what i eat right now :D

Oh oh! I have congee in the slowcooker right now... having it for breakfast for the first time tomorrow and what a wonderful way to use up bits and bobs of vegies out of the fridge!

A new perspective on an old favourite

When we first moved to Brisbane, I was into yoga in a big way and going to yoga classes a couple of times a week at least... and we had this fabulous Ashtanga master teacher visit us from the US. He gave us the kick ass class of all times and we were all in some other realm by the end of his tutelage. He ended the class with instructions for us all to drink a LOT of water, and a quote - which was something along the lines of:

When you judge others, it's not them you define, but yourself.

I loved it!

My friend and I dutifully went to Coles after the class to get kick ass sized bottles of water to replace the sweat we'd dripped out and promptly forgot his quote, only remembering how much we loved whatever it was that this guru teacher had told us! (In truth we'd have loved anything that came out of his mouth, so magnificent was he!!) Neither of us were able to recall anything apart from it being about judging! It was torment trying to guess what it was that he'd left us with and we were playing around with all sorts of possibilities while going through the checkout, when who should we see.......

Our guru in all his glory was lining up at the checkout a couple down from us... buying water of course :) My friend and i exchanged glances and without a word we left our position in the queue and bolted over to him like excited school girls seeing their favourite movie star!

Breathlessly we excused ourselves and asked what his departing words had been and he gave it to us again... and the bold text above is the closest i came to remembering it word for word!

So in the years gone by, it's been something that has really guided me when i'm tempted to judge another for their beliefs, actions, thoughts, whatever.

However, in all the years it's been in my mind, i've been thinking of it with a limited approach.

I've viewed it as meaning that when I judge someone, I am defining myself as being judgmental, and nothing more.

Last night in the midst of a blissful meditative state i got something else out of it.

The quote popped into my mind for some reason, and i suddenly had a new view of the meaning of the quote.

Instead of it being about me being judgmental, i got that it meant that when i judge someone as being for example, angry, what i'm really doing is finding my own internal anger mirrored in them. So I'm defining myself in terms of what i notice in them. I am noticing some part of me that is also in them. Therein lies an opportunity for peace through further self awareness.

This notion of an opportunity for self awareness through noticing my projections onto others isn't something that's new to me, but it was a revelation in terms of finding it within the quote that that sexy yoga master gave us all those years back. :)

slow cooker porridge

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 7 hours
Ingredients:

* 2 cups soy milk
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 Tbsp. melted vegan butter
* 1/4 tsp. salt
* 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
* 1 cup regular oats
* 1 cup peeled, chopped apple

Preparation:
Oil inside of slow cooker. Combine all ingredients in the slow cooker and mix well. Cover and turn on LOW setting. Cook overnight or 7 hours. Stir well before serving. 8 servings

Bellydancing and bellywobbling

Well, today was our first official day of unschooling. The kids would normally go to daycare today but instead...... we went to bellydancing! Along with lots of other mums and their kids, so it was great fun for the kids AND the bellydancin' mamas.

I have to say that I was really quite surprised at how technical it is! It's a much more intricate art than I'd given it credit for, and between holding M in the sling, attending to TA and sorting out J and the squabbles he was in with other kids, I even got a work out!

It began with a warm up that felt something like giving our organs a massage, and then progressed to learning some steps which I am hopefully going to be able to remember in order to play around with at home in front of the mirror.


TA loved it and did the warm up with us and a few other steps but she was more interested in the money belts jingling and shimmying than doing any of the more technical steps :D

I chatted with the mums there and discovered that the Brisbane Unschooling group meets on a Tuesday!!! How lovely that it's one of the days where we have nothing on as yet!!! So that will be something I'll find out about at the next HMA meet, and we can start planning stuff with them hopefully. Apparently they go camping and do all sorts of fun stuff, so yipee, here we come!

There was a camera at bellydancing thanks to Mel, so I'm sure there'll be photos up here shortly!

Another kewl thing that happened was that I spotted a copy of the Bhagavad Gita on K's bookshelf - this is something i have been looking out for for a while now... and she was happy to lend it to me so now i have some new reading material to devour... Thank you for getting it to me universe!

Now a cool Bellydancing video I found....

A new to-do

Most of the things I've been wanting to do are now in the works, so it's time for the next list!

• I need to get onto the organic coop - for $45 per week i get a box of fruit and veg that should sustain us all.
• I am going to cut out the small amount of meat I've occasionally been having, and go back to being vegetarian. As of yesterday!
• I am going to overhaul my medicine cabinet and make it a natural health cabinet.
• I am going to begin each day listening to sacred sounds
  
• I am going to write down the other things i had in mind for this list as i think of them cos right now i am BLANK! hehehe
  

Bread recipe

I brought our breadmaker out of retirement last night and gave it a clean this morning and found a recipe online which i altered a little to not include bread improver as i didn't have any in the cupboard. Bread improver also has some ingredients I was happy to avoid, but it's pretty vital in breadmaker breads because it makes them work!
I found out ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) can improve bread structure so i replaced a portion of the water the recipe called for with orange juice and hey presto it worked.

To make a 750gm loaf of wholemeal bread in a breadmaker

300ml water
55ml fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon margarine
350gm Self raising flour
250gm Wholemeal plain flour
1 tbsp Brown sugar
1.5 tsp Salt
2 tsp Dry yeast

Method
1.Pour water and OJ into the bread pan and add margarine. Combine self raising flour with wholemeal plain flour, brown sugar and salt and add to pan. Make a small well in the top and fill with the yeast.
2.Place the bread pan into the breadmaker and close the lid.
3. Start the Wholemeal bread cycle

Manifestin', Movin' and Shakin'

Although I've craved it all my life, I wasn't born into a village, so I'm building my own!

I've been manifesting away and a few of my goals for the year have begun to fall into place. While walking back from the shops tonight, i was watching my feet peeking out the bottom of my skirt with each step i took, and i was smiling at my feet and feeling so joyful about the path they're on. I'm loving being in my skin and all is well within. I can't ask for more than that! I've been doing lots of smiling at myself on the inside iykwim.

So, what's happened? Lots!

Following talking with Bruce Teakle the other night at the HMA meet, I've agreed to put together the monthly newsletter for the QLD branch of Maternity Coalition.

I've enrolled in my doula course and purchased the first two packages.

I've enrolled in a choir of mums where the kids come along and sing as well - this is held every Wednesday.

I've got a belly dancing class to go to every Friday where the kids are welcome to shake and wobble as well.

and then of course there's the fortnightly HMA meets where I will be a regular for a long time to come.

I feel like life is filling itself up and I'm not holding back at all!

My circle of likeminded women friends is growing and I am feeling richer for the new relationships and sense of community that goes with it. Truly feeling blessed.

The biggest decision I have reached is related to the kids and school.

J is due to start school next year, TA the year after. For some time I have been contemplating what to do with the kids and their education. There's some posts from when i first started my blog where I was at this same point, and recently i have found myself at it again.... wondering what I would do with the kids and school.

Today I made a decision.

I'm not going to be handing my children over to an educational institution for their 'learning' anymore. Instead I am going to learn stuff with them that they enjoy AND learn from in an interest-led, natural way.

I'm embarking on a home educating journey with my children!

This is slightly scary to me, cos i know it's a whole other level of commitment having my kids with me every hour of every day of the week, and having no family support or time out from them means there's days when i HANG for their daycare days to arrive... but i feel like with all the other wonderful things I'll be doing in my week with the kids, it's going to work out perfectly!

I had been thinking that i needed to get more organised to accomplish such a feat, but i am slowly coming around to the fact that unschooling is about not having so much structure and schooly type thinking. Time to shed my schooled brain and create an environment the kids will be comfortable being themselves in.

I've also arranged to go to kura kaupapa for the kids which someone in our whanau is running, so the kids will learn about Maori culture, the language and music etc with some of their cuzzies once a week. I'm stoked at how it's all falling into place!

Exciting times for which i am so grateful!

So our week will now look like this:

Monday - HMA fortnightly
Tuesday - free
Wednesday - Choir with lotsa kewl mamas and their kids
Thursday - free
Friday - bellydancing and Joyous Birth group meetings

I'm smiling all over....

A sense of something missing

On Sunday night I went to bed feeling very unsettled.

Jase and I had had an argument earlier that day and I was feeling hurt and couldn't find sleep.

I had spent the earlier part of the evening at the HMA variety night with the kids and we'd had a really lovely time.

I had asked Jase to come with us earlier on in the week and he'd been keen, but had changed his mind. That was fine by me, as I would rather go with the kids on my own and have a good time than go with him to have him wanting to leave shortly after arriving.

So Sunday night at HMA was lovely.

I spent some time talking to Bruce Teakle, who is a wonderful gentle man. He has been heavily involved with the Maternity Coalition since its inception and his passion for reform within Australia's maternity services is inspiring. It's always refreshing finding men who are as passionate about change as the women giving birth are, and I felt wonderful after talking to him.

We were tired when we got home from HMA, and went to bed earlyish, but after not being able to sleep a couple of hours later, I got back up and got online and watched some Deva Premal mantras on Youtube. Nothing like mantras to prepare for a restful sleep.. or so i thought.

I watched a beautiful interview with Miten and Deva Premal where Miten is singing to Deva and she joins in.

I saw what a beautifully gentle man he is and my heart panged for that same gentleness in my own relationship with Jase.

i hung my hat on a wishing tree
i asked for one wish
i could´ve had three
but i only asked for what i needed
i could´ve asked for money, riches and health
but all i really wanted was to find myself
unaccustomed as i was to seeking
and my heart whispered inside
and the moon rose and the angels sighed ( and said)
here comes your second chance
you´d better believe it
open up and receive it
here comes your second chance
take a deep breath
this is your second chance

make peace with your mother
and father, too
make peace with the stranger inside of you
and forgive yourself for the things you tried and failed to do
embrace your anger, your lust and your greed
that´s how we drop the things that we don´t need
pick up a musical instrument
or plant a seed
that was my heart whispering inside
"welcome" it said, "you´re home and dry"
( Chorus)

well the years went by and my wish came true and i find myself here with you
i had to climb that mountain
there was no way around it
and we all come and go like waves in the sea
each with our own responsibility
to leave this world more beautiful than
we found it
that´s your heart whispering inside
and you know your heart, it never lied
(chorus)
fly high
let the earth touch the sky...

Still not feeling ready for sleep, I starting watching homebirth videos on Youtube. The first one i watched was a lovely straightforward homebirth and I was swept along in the emotion of it right until the end when the baby is birthed and the father who is squatting behind the birthing mother supporting her bursts into tears.

It hit me so damn hard, seeing the emotion this man was showing, and I burst into tears.

Out of three births, Jase has never really shown emotion or shed a tear, and I realised just how much i am craving emotion in my husband... how much i want him to express and bare his vulnerabilities to me.

Then I remembered something a friend who is a sex therapist had been talking about on Saturday.

Basically he said that men are taught to not show or have emotions from a very early age, and this leads onto a range of behaviours that are symptomatic of an emotionally unexpressed person. This summed up my husband.

So last night we talked a bit about this expressing emotions stuff, and he agreed he doesn't have the means to express them.

Things are a lot clearer to me now and I'm understanding why he is the way he is and I'm finding compassion for that child in him who was never allowed to express his feelings.

Our next task is to find a way for him to develop the means to acknowledge and express his emotions in a way that is healthy, and thereby providing a better model to our son in particular.