Something from the Garden

11 Comments

Posted on June 29, 2014

Back to one of my favourite topics – eating what is in season.

Last night we had salmon for dinner. While the salmon is not strictly local, it does come from Australian waters. It is farmed in the clear water of the Huon River estuary in southern Tasmania. The salmon could hardly be considered a budget meal as it costs about $10 for enough for 2 serves. We always barbeque the salmon and season it with a little salt and some lime juice to enhance the flavour.

I served it with pumpkin mash, stir-fried pak choy, balsamic roasted cherry tomatoes and avocado slices. I poured some of the balsamic/tomato juice over the salmon as a glaze to finish it off. All of these ingredients came from our garden so you can’t get much more seasonal or local than that. It also means that a meal of salmon is quite a reasonable price. What would you pay in a restaurant for a meal like this? $30 – $35 perhaps?

Not every meal contains as much of our own garden produce but I do try to include it as much as possible. Tonight we are having pizza which will be spread with mango chutney (made from the neighbour’s mangoes) instead of tomato paste and have balsamic roasted pumpkin as the main topping.

We have had a bumper harvest of pumpkins this year so I am constantly looking for creative ideas to use them. As well as the ubiquitous pumpkin soup, pumpkin mash and being used on pizza topping I have also made some pumpkin scones recently.

What do you have a glut of? Do you have any pumpkin suggestions?

Autumn Has Arrived

Foodie Friday – Kids in the Kitchen

5 Comments

Posted on April 12, 2014

I didn’t get back to post this last night. Miss O and Izz have been staying for a couple of days so the food focus has clearly been about them. They enjoyed shopping at Simply Good yesterday and discussing many of the different fruits, nuts and grains that we bought. Miss O was keen to practise her recently acquired spelling skills to read the names of the ingredients on the storage buckets and fill them up when we arrived home.

They picked pumpkins and tomatoes as well as collecting eggs. It is great to see them understanding where their food comes from. 4 year old Izz wanted an anatomy lesson on how the eggs get out of the chickens!!

Tomorrow we are going to a picnic with extended family so I made some choc fruit nut balls and Miss O helped by rolling the balls in the coconut.

Apologies for the brevity of this post but I have been working on our Ireland itinerary and looking at ferry timetables and rental car details.

Foodie Friday – Fit for the County Fair?

4 Comments

Posted on April 4, 2014

Just a reminder that real food comes from real dirt. We never actually set out to grow pumpkins – they come up self-sown in the compost and some are more successful than others. This is by far the largest I have ever grown. I picked it today and it weighs 8.7 kg or 19.2 pounds.

I placed a 2 litre ice-cream container beside it in the photo for comparison. This will make a lot of pumpkin soup!

Foodie Friday – Pantry Storage

8 Comments

Posted on March 28, 2014

Firstly, I apologise for the lack of posts this week. I have been busy with other things and have just not found the time to get my head together to write anything useful. I am also behind in responding to your comments but am about to rectify that once I finish this post. I will be busy this weekend but hopefully things will get back on track from Monday. I hope you have a great weekend.

I cook most of our food from scratch, so naturally I keep a store of the ingredients I use regularly. I do not store tonnes of food in case of an apocalyptic event, however, we do have enough so that I only shop for dry goods about every 3 – 4 months. I never run out of everything and I never feel the need to race off to the shops at the first hint of a severe weather event such as a cyclone or possible flooding. These are the 2 most likely scenarios where we live.

We eat a gluten-free diet so I have gradually eliminated all wheat-based products from the pantry.

Gluten-free muesli (homemade)

Rainsins
Sultanas
Currants
Dried apricots

Walnuts
Almonds
Cashews

Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Sesame seeds
Chia seeds

Almond meal
Flaxseed meal
Psyllium husk
Sago
Quinoa flakes

Gluten-free flour (homemade)

Brown rice flour
Potato flour
Chickpea (besan) flour
Quinoa flour
Arrowroot

Kidney beans
Haricot beans
Red lentils
Brown lentils
Chickpeas

Arborio rice
Brown rice

Apple cider vinegar
White vinegar
Red wine vinegar
Balsamic vinegar

Tomato sauce (home-made)
Worcestershire sauce (home-made)
Tamari
Caramelised balsamic vinegar

Avocado oil
Coconut oil
Olive oil

Allspice
Chilli
Cinnamon
Coriander
Cumin
Curry powder
Ginger
Mixed spice
Paprika
Smoked paprika
Taco mix
Tumeric
Yellow mustard seeds

Beef stock powder
Vegie stock powder

Black pepper (peppercorns)
Cooking salt
Herb salt
Sea salt

Raw sugar
Brown sugar
Honey
Golden syrup
Treacle

Cocoa
Coconut

Skim milk powder

Baking powder
Bicarb soda

Black tea
Earl Grey tea
Coffee

Rice cakes
Rice crackers

Canned tuna
Canned tomatoes

Most of the dry goods are bought from bulk containers so I store them in glass or plastic jars in the pantry. I have some 10 litre plastic buckets which I keep excess of some items in. These are in a separate store cupboard.

I may have missed a couple of things but that is basically what we keep. Some of the items are left from before we changed our diets so are unlikely to be replaced. How does my list compare to what you have? Any thoughts, suggestions or questions?

Foodie Friday – No Recipe Needed

Two Heads Are Better Than One

2 Comments

Posted on March 18, 2014

So the saying goes………….. This is definitely true when it comes to decluttering. Trying to justify why you want to keep something to another person is more of a challenge than just doing it yourself.

When we had the kitchen renovated about 4 years ago we chose to have mostly drawers rather than cupboards and I am really pleased with that decision.

On Sunday I cleaned out 5 drawers plus 1 small cupboard in the kitchen. I actually removed the drawers from their runners, emptied the contents and completely cleaned the surrounding area as well as the drawer.

The large drawer below the microwave holds baking tins and trays. The Duke and I went through each item and have rehomed several trays and tins that are no longer used for one reason or another. Mostly it was because we simply no longer (or never did) bake those items. It meant that I was able to consolidate the extra tins that were in the top cupboard into the same drawer as the rest of the baking trays.

Here is the end result.

One of the other drawers that got the treatment was what some people would call a junk drawer but I refuse to give it that name as it is not junk. Everything in here has a use and is used regularly. I have decluttered it severa times over the past few years and each time I manage to reduce a bit more and I am pretty happy with it now. This time I have finally let go of the remnants of rolls of clingwrap and plastic for separating items in the freezer. I have not used either for many years so it was time to move them along.

What have you decluttered lately?

Foodie Friday – Keeping it Local

7 Comments

Posted on March 15, 2014

I am sure it is still Friday somewhere – my apologies for the lateness of this post – it is Saturday morning here.

How do we feed ourselves? Food prices keep increasing, labelling laws are ambiguous, processed foods contain unfamiliar additives and food allergies appear to be on the rise. Add to this, a desire to eat organically-grown food which I believe is better for my health and the health of the planet and it starts to feel a bit overwhelming. While we are at it, the wasteful packaging needs to be minimised as well as transport costs, both monetary and environmental. Don’t forget ‘food security’ – the latest catch-cry. This is the ability for us, as a nation, to feed ourselves in the event of natural disasters or major changes to the world order.

Have you thrown up your hands in despair? Fear not. You can begin to solve all of these issues with a single action – grow some of your own food.

The Duke and I have a somewhat neglected but productive garden which sometimes surprises us with its bounty. We both work full-time and have minimal time to spend on tending a garden. We try to grow some annual vegetables but the real secret is in growing trees and perennials. We have an avocado, peach, fig and several citrus trees. There are blueberry bushes as well as self sown cherry tomatoes and pumpkins. The clump of parsley has been in one spot for so long that it has a stalk that looks like the trunk of a tree.

It may seem obvious but it is also important to eat (or preserve) what you grow. Do not let the harvest go to waste.

Keep your eyes open for food producing plants in your neighbourhood that are not being harvested. Don’t be afraid to ask if you may have some. There are many reasons that people do not harvest – lack of time, knowledge or health are but a few.

The last few weeks we have had access to the following (either fresh or frozen) from our own property or nearby – corn, blueberries, avocadoes, mangoes, figs, lemons, beans, pumpkins, and pineapples. At times I have felt overwhelmed by the excess on the kitchen bench but I have endeavoured to make sure it was used or stored for later use.

Last weekend I kept track of what we ate.

SATURDAY

Breakfast – buckwheat blueberry pancakes

Lunch – platter of cheese, cherry tomatoes, avocado, dried figs and mango chutney

Dinner – Salmon with mango salsa and vegetables – everything came from the garden except the salmon and onion which I used in the salsa.

SUNDAY

Breakfast – mango and pineapple smoothie

Lunch – Pumpkin soup

Dinner – grilled chicken with cherry tomatoes and mango/avocado salad

We certainly will never be completely self-sufficient but being able to produce at least some of the food that we eat goes a long way to addressing the myriad of issues that I identified in the first paragraph. Eating local food also gives you an appreciation for what is in season in your area. I really look forward to the new crop of things such as figs which have a short season. We eat them constantly while in season then it is but a distant memory until next year.

You do not need a huge amount of space and even though you could not grow some of the thing that we do in your climate, the reverse is also true. What do you grow?

Living Life & Thank You

2 Comments

Posted on March 14, 2014

I had dreamed of getting a blog post written last night but life got in the way. As you all know, I try to make sure that meal preparation is done ahead of time because of the late hour that we arrive home. I did quite a bit on the weekend so it has been a very simple matter of heating and eating the past couple of nights. Last night I cooked a pot of rice and made Mexican Bean Pie ready for our dinner tonight. I will just need to cook the vegetables when I get in this evening. The pie is my own invention and has 2 ingredients – refried beans and rice. Mix quantities of each together, spread into a pie plate or shallow casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. I heat it in the microwave then finish the topping under the griller. I use a gluten-free version of topping using almond meal, flaxseed meal, and spices. The choice is yours.

Tonight will be a new ‘Foodie Friday’ post in which I will focus on growing at least some of your own food and the benefits it provides.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to those of you who commented on my previous post about reaching a milestone of 3 years of blogging. Your thoughtful and positive feedback is so valuable. Although I said that this blog is essentially my diary, it gives me great joy to realise that you are out there reading and see value in what I write. I hope that will continue and I will not let you down

Thanks, once again and I look forward to many more posts and comments.

Foodie Friday – A Shopping List

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Posted on March 7, 2014

Shopping lists are an essential ingredient if you are to have an organised approach to planning and preparing nutritious meals for your family. They were around long before the days of personal organisers, smartphones and endless ‘to do’ lists. My mother has always written her list on the back of a used envelope and I tend to use some sort of scrap or excess paper.

I imagine that the process of writing a list goes back to when shopping day was a major expedition, perhaps by horse and buggy, and it was vital to buy everything that was required for a month or longer. No popping into the supermarket after work to pick up something for dinner and ending up with $50 worth of impulse buys.

Each week I buy fresh fruit and vegetables for the week plus a few basic items that I need from the supermarket. Although I write a list every week, it really comes into its own when I shop for pantry staples at Simply Good. I try to do this about every 3 – 5 months as it is a 90km round trip. I am not using a horse and buggy but I do have a regard for both the environmental impact of driving that distance as well as my time and energy.

Last Saturday was a big shopping day so we set out early. Our first stop was Simply Good, followed by Aldi, fruit and vegetable stall, the local butcher and finally the Co-op. I checked the pantry and refrigerator before writing a comprehensive list to ensure that nothing was forgotten. The list does vary from time to time but this will give you a broad idea of the sorts of ingredients I buy.

As you can see, most of what we eat is whole foods cooked from scratch so I am buying ingredients – not meals. We eat a gluten-free diet and some of the items reflect this choice.