Healthy chocolate crackles, with coconut oil

Phew, so I've fiiiinally put a new template in. 

Wow, it's like drawing blood, it takes me ages to find something that suits me, I don't go for bright ones, except on other people's blogs haha, I don't really want graphics, I want two columns, one of them being wider than average, I want a white background for posting, I want decent size headings on my sidebar and I 'spose I'm just extra fussy.

 No kidding, right?

This one's not perfect, the text is a bit light but overall it does not offend me, which is the main thing. 

We'll see how it goes.

Aaaanyway, gotta share a recipe.

Remember chocolate crackles? Oh yeah, mmm mmm mmmmm.

Well, the original recipe contains copha, correct? Or, if you're in New Zealand, it's kremelta.

What is copha/kremelta? 

According to Wiki', it's a form of vegetable fat shortening made from hydrogenated coconut oil.

And, it contains soy.

Both big no nos when it comes to me cooking for my family.
(The hydrogenated part of the coconut oil is what's bad, coconut oil itself is lovely stuff)

So I did some tweaking and here is my version.

Chocolate crackles, done my way.

4 cups of wholewheat puffed rice

 (just plain, puffed, wholewheat rice. Found this in my regular grocery store in the health food aisle)

3/4 cup of icing sugar

(this was cut down from 1 cup, next time I'll try 2/3 cup and use fine ground rapadura)

1 cup of desiccated coconut

5 tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder

250 grams of coconut oil, melted

(I like using coconut oil, you can read about coconut oil on the Weston A. Price foundation site)

Method

Mix all ingredients together and spoon into paper cupcake cases.

Refrigerate till hard.

Store in the fridge or freezer.

And oh my, they are GOOD!

Next time I'll spoon them into my silicone cupcake molds, which I can never get cupcakes out of but these little guys pop out of their papers once they're refrigerated, so I'll save the paper and dump them straight in a box from the silicone molds instead.

Wholegrain puffed rice gives this treat just a little more nutrition than usual, it's a couple of steps closer to a whole food than rice bubbles, that's for sure.

And one more tip, be careful adding extra rice if your mixture appears too 'wet'. I've made this twice now and the 'wetter' mix I had the first time gives a much more melt-in-the-mouth experience, such as that of traditional chocolate crackles.

The second batch I made drier and it's more chewy and also more prone to falling apart, which the first batch did not.

Enjoy!

Ok, wanna see my recipe for coconut oil chocolate? Just as yummy as these chocolate crackles but grain free, great if you're paleo, or primal.


There is a link to it it my side bar or you can find it here: Coconut oil chocolate.

Sugar - tell me it's not addictive

It's 10pm and I am dying to get up and raid the freezer for my homemade-with-coconut oil-and-really-dark-choc cookies.

I have discovered that when I have some sugar (or rapadura), I really, really, really, really, really want more.


But when I manage to abstain for 2-3 days, the insane must-have feeling dies right back and I can by-pass sugar no problem.


Until I decide to indulge again next time, and it starts again.

So instead of going to the freezer, I'll put this scrummy looking pic here and retire to bed.

Things are fermenting in my kitchen

My kitchen is an interesting place of late as there are quite a few living things in it.

Other than myself of course.

I received a sourdough culture from a friend in exchange for some of my excess kefir grains, and I now keep two starters going; one is rye, the other spelt.

Read about the benefits of sourdough here.

A batch of kefir is always fermenting on top of the fridge.

Kefir is something I've mentioned briefly before and now I make and consume it every day. If you're after some kefir grains for yourself, check out this international list of people willing to share their excess grains. Mine were sent over by a lovely lady in Geelong.

A batch of homemade granola with soaked oats, or muesli as we know it, is drying in my dehydrator after being soaked/fermented overnight. Soaking the oats and flour with some whey (I get mine from kefir) has the same effect as the sourdough process, it breaks down the phytic acid and makes some of the nutrients more accessible.

The dough for lavash crackers (I'll link the recipe when I remember where it came from) that I make with kefir instead of milk or water sat on the bench for 24 hours to do it's work. The kefir produces the same results as using whey. It's now in the fridge awaiting rolling out.......which is a bit of a job so it will sit there for at least another day or two.

And I picked these up at the market today, some cress and radish seeds for growing sprouts

Except that I'm running out of surfaces in the kitchen to keep all these 'pets'.

All this is in the pursuit of good health and a whole foods diet. It keeps me on my toes sorting all this out but I realise people......women mostly no doubt......would have kept many of these balls in the air in times gone by. And that's without the benefit of washing machines and dishwashers and labour saving kitchen gadgets.

All of which I value highly and DO NOT want to give up. There's only so much going back in time I'm willing to do :)

Have read through the Weston A. Price Foundation website and see if you can add in a few new health giving foods to your diet this week.

I love market day

The real milk....

The fruit...

And vegies...

And more fruit...

Now, if I had a decent vegie garden, a few fruit trees, the odd vine and a cow, I could produce all this from our back yard. Well, with the cow's help of course.

But a fabulous farmer's market has to be the next best thing, right?

Right!

Another busy week

We've had a house guest for nearly a week much to the boy's delight, my sis-in-law has no kids of her own and is endlessly patient with my two. Despite the fact that she spent the week sleeping on the top bunk and being woken up early (by her standards, hehehe) by enthusiastically loud small children.

And, she spent a large amount of time with Master 4 putting together her Christmas gift to him, which is an Ant Mine.

Yes, it is sitting on what passes for my sewing table, the dining table and general crafting and crap-gathering table.
I'm finding the whole idea a bit icky, especially as the little buggers kept escaping through the breathing holes. Eewww, I really dislike ants inside!

Master 4 has also been creating his latest masterpiece...

A train, in case that's not immediately obvious. The poor kid is suffering a bit of a creative materials dearth, as most foods that come in boxes I no longer buy. Those boxes he used are from a bygone era, haha.

And Master 1 is having a current obsession with saws. The cutting wood kind. Not only does he want to use them, he enjoys using the word too. With many different inflections.

Saw. Saw? Saw! Saaaaawwwww!!!

In fact, I am ready to delete the word saw from the English lexicon.
Oh and he signs it too, just to make sure I know exactly what he's talking about.


One thing I am itching to do soon is a bit more fun baking, maybe some cupcakes? Problem is, I'm suffering a little bit of guilt now knowing exactly how not-good-for-you cupcakes in general are. Well I did know already, but now I know exactly and given the health issues of my extended family on one side, I'm trying to keep us on a very good path, food wise.

It's a bit of a balancing act, hey?

I did it! Aka, How to make butter the lazy way...

I've been meaning to try this for a while, seeing as I can get raw, organic milk and cream at my local farmer's market. I did try it once with raw goat's cream, but it did not work. The goat's cream was so thick I had to cut open the bottle and scrape it out, I probably should have spread it on bread just as it was.

Anyway, if you want to read about the benefits of raw milk check out this link and this one
and there is much more information out there on the subject.


So, How to?

Well, take your cream...

and pour it into your food processor.
I used the plastic whipping blade though I've heard the chopping blade is fine to use too.

Start to whip it.

Keep whipping it until it separates.
It will do this fairly suddenly....first it will look thick, then thick and yellowish and lumpyish, then it will separate.
Wa lah.

Pour off the buttermilk and keep it for baking.
Now put about 1/2 a cup of iced water in and process it again.
Tip out the water (discard it) and follow this step 2-3 more times until your water is fairly clear.
Scrape your butter into a bowl.

Mash it with a potato masher or work it with a fork until all the liquid is out. Just keep pouring the liquid off.

Tah dah!

Smear it on some crackers and enjoy, refrigerate the rest.
Mmm mmmm!

Remember to buy in bulk

Check out my jar of CHOCOLATE.

70% cocoa, delicious and healthy.
Haha, well, apparently a SMALL amount a day is healthy.

My plan is to only ever use the good stuff so my kids get used to eating that and will hopefully reject the crap stuff.

Is it wrong of me to request of family at Easter that they only give the kids dark chocolate? It doesn't need to be the highest quality, just not the sort with lots of extra sugar.....the sort which I used to LOVE (milky bar anyone?).

My smarties obsession maybe coming to an end too, as I move on to REAL chocolate. It's going hand in hand with my cupboards slowly emptying of anything with a complicated ingredients panel on it.

I'm trying to follow the "if my great grandmother wouldn't recognise it as food, don't eat it" way of eating. I also keep hearing "if it wasn't around 10 000 years ago don't eat it".

Did they have chocolate around that long ago? If not, I'm sticking with the grandmother eating idea.

Healthy foods and eating for health

I've been doing some interesting reading and research of late on eating and health, and I wanted to share a couple of sites.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop writes about -
Healthy cooking, Traditional food, Vibrant health - Busting "Politically Correct" Health and nutrition information.

Ann Marie is the Cheeseslave
All about cheese, butter, bacon, raw milk and all those other things we're not supposed to eat.

And this list of Real Food Podcasts is on both the above sites.

My current favourite podcasts are from Underground Wellness.
And the host of Underground Wellness, Sean, can also been seen on You tube......and he's worth seeing, gals.....

Do you know bread is being fortified now with folate?

I know, I know, I can't seem to make myself stop going on about food and what's in it these days.

And I recently found out, through an innocuous tv show on food followed by a little research, that commercially made bread is being fortified with extra folate, as of September just gone. Here in Australia anyway; seems like NZ is managing to put it off for the moment pending further investigation.

Smart.

The risks of extra folate to the general, non-pregnant population appear to be unknown.

Hellooooo, is anyone actually out there, in decision-making-for-the-entire-population land???



So, get to making your own if you can....the recipe for this is here.

And it can be made with wheat flour just as easily as spelt, no adjustment required.

Do you know your food source?

When I was at the farmer's market this morning (after the baby market and before the supermarket....yep, and I wonder where my weekend went??) I quizzed the holder of each stall I went to about their growing/producing methods.


Results:

The delicious apples I buy are sprayed to control codling moth, as are most apples.
Ok, I will continue to peel them , much to my four year old's delight.
(There's now an apple seller who uses organic growing methods and does not spray, woohoo!)

The orange grower introduces beneficial bugs to control pests and does not spray.

The free range beef is completely grass and hay fed, no grain at all.

The coffee at the coffee stalls is fair trade, as is the hot chocolate.

The eggs are free range, they tell me they are as organic as they can be without actually having certification.

The raw milk, which is, ahem, for COSMETIC PURPOSES ONLY, has it's organic certification underway. And the kids love it, I mean, the kids love to BATHE in it. Right. Because you know it's illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption here in Australia.

The veggie guy says they are as natural and organic as they can be, without, once again, gaining their organic certification. And I enjoy seeing caterpillar chew holes on my beetroot leaves.

The tomatoes are sometimes sprayed, but not at the moment.
Need to bring a note pad next time so I can remember what they are sprayed with...

Strawberries are sprayed, lightly.
Ditto above.


Hmmmm, that's the guts of what I bought, I think. And it was very interesting morning, those that are making the effort to keep things as natural as possible are more than happy to wax lyrical about their product and methods.


Oooh, I feel so green and in touch haha, love it!

In defence of food - some healthy eating rules

I am reading a book at the moment.......if you can call propping my eyes open with matchsticks to get through a couple of pages when I've gone to bed way too late and am about to pass out from tiredness reading..........um, where was I? Oh yeah, my book, it's called In Defence Of Food, by Michael Pollan.

Now just typing that up, my pc gave the auto-correct red line....huh? Defence, or is it Defense? Right, dictionary out. Ah, Defense is the US spelling of Defence.

Ok, that out of the way, Michael Pollan writes about the Western diet and the way our Western diet has become less about actual food and more about science and food-like substances.

And we all know what problems the modern day Western diet can bring.

At one point in the book he sets out some guidelines that we would all do well to follow in regards to food.


Here's the first one: Don't eat anything your Great Grandmother wouldn't recognise as food.

(Mr Pollan's example was yogurt, back in the day that was a one ingredient food, milk. Now if you pick up a carton of perhaps fruit flavoured yogurt and read the ingredients yes it will contain milk, but may also contain gelatin, stabilisers, sugar or other sweeteners, flavours, colours, corn starch and others. Reading that list, would your Great Grandmother recognise it as yogurt?)


Next one: Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) Unfamiliar, B) Unpronounceable, C) More than 5 in number or that include D) High-Fructose corn syrup.

(Not necessarily harmful in and of themselves, but each one is a marker for foods that have been highly processed. For example a particular bread ingredients list reads: enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, water, whole wheat flour, rice flour, rice bran), high fructose corn syrup, whey, wheat gluten, yeast, cellulose, honey, calcium sulfate, soybean and/or cottonseed oil, salt, butter, dough conditioners, guar gum, calcium propionate, distilled vinegar, yeast nutrients, corn starch, natural flavour, colour, vitamin D, soy lecithin, soy flour. Whew! Would your Great Grandmother recognise that list as being bread? Uh, no.)


Then: Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

(Traditionally, processed foods are in the center aisles and fresh foods are set at the edges.)


And: Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.

(Farmer's markets.)


Obviously there are exceptions, such as would our Great Grandmothers recognise the traditional cuisine from another country? Well, some no doubt would but many others I'm sure would not. And aforementioned cuisines may well come with some unpronounceable ingredients which are none-the-less natural, whole foods. So, you get the idea? This is the book...

And this is where you can get it...

Amazon.com: In Defense of Food.

Or you might be able to find it at your local library like I did. Although mine has a different cover and different spelling of Defense/Defence, in deference to being in Orstralia no doubt, hehehe...



And here's a health inducing picture to set you on your way...

Yikes, I better get to bed, it's late and I have my matchsticks ready.....

How to sterilize your toothbrush

Lets talk toothbrushes for a moment. Have you ever found yours in this position?

Hehe, no it's not mine, but I had to throw this picture up there. If I actually found mine in this position I would commit it to the big chrome bin with flip top lid, never to see the light of day again.

Actually, I might take it directly to the kerbside bin, as Mr 1 yr old has been known to go treasure hunting in aforementioned flip top chrome bin, and said brush may indeed see daylight again, as well as inside of Mr 1's mouth......

Ok, what I actually came here to say was:

A really simple way to sterilize the family's toothbrushes is to put them in the dishwasher. Yes, and then run the dishwasher, obviously.

Why sterilize them? Well when you think about it, what a perfect way to share coughs, colds and other lurgys round the family, let all the toothbrushes rub heads together in a mug, and spread the joy.

Must remember to do this......

Childhood vaccinations - a parent's decision

My youngest, at one year of age, is not vaccinated at all. AT ALL. Not even the Hep B at birth, which seems an odd one to being giving a newborn anyway, so we have refused that with both kids. The older one is partially vaccinated.

I know this is a sometimes controversial topic, but I feel in the end every parent must do what they think is right for their kids. In their wisdom though, the Australian Government makes it somewhat difficult if you decide to take the no vax route or even the delayed vax route.

For example, if your child is fully vaxed, you are eligible for the Maternity Immunisation Allowance, a payment in 2 parts equaling $245.50. If they are not vaccinated, no payment. Ok, no problem, I can certainly cope with that.

The child care rebate is also linked to vaccinations. If your child is not on a vaccination schedule of some sort, and you do not have an exemption, you are not eligible for the rebate, meaning you pay full fees to your daycare provider, instead of the Govt paying part of your fees in the form of the rebate. Now this is a bigger issue than the Maternity Immunisation payment, as daycare fees are just a little expensive.

To me, these two conditions are a way of subtly, or not so subtly really, steering people down the vaccination trail.


Hmmm, what am I trying to say here?

I suppose my point is I am somewhat annoyed that the Government links these payments to vaccinations as if they are rewards for doing the "correct" thing.

Parents are conditioned not to ask questions about vaccinations, they are just told it is a necessary part of childhood.

Someone is sticking a needle in your child and injecting them with a foreign substance. To me, this raises BIG questions. What is in the vaccination? Is it safe? Is it safe for EVERY CHILD? Is it a case of 'for the greater good'? I don't want my child to be potentially sacrificed for the 'greater good', no matter how great that good is.

We live in a modern world, where some of these diseases our children are vaccinated against are not really relevant to our life and our country. On the other hand, my local newspaper reported a recent increase in pertussis, or whooping cough as it is better known, and I know that can be a nasty one. Yes, I did think maybe I should bring my young one in for the shot, as special clinics are being set up round the area to give boosters and shots against pertussis. (The older is already vaxxed against this.)

And there was the incidence of a plane load of people being exposed to polio by an overseas visitor some time ago too. So yes, some of these diseases do rear their ugly heads from time to time.


However, things like measles and chickenpox. Things that were more common when I was a child. I was vaccinated against measles and mumps, yet I got sick with both. Not deathly sick, and it was touted that there was faulty batch of vaccination around at the time I had mine. And I certainly had chicken pox, as did nearly all kids back then, as a vaccine against it wasn't available. Pox party anyone?

Does it benefit our children to immunise them against these measles, mumps and chickenpox? This type of immunity can (supposedly) wane over time....is it not better to get sick with these diseases as a child, rather than an adult? The cases of kids getting REALLY unwell, and hospitalised, with measles, mumps and chicken pox are very very rare, yet they are the reasons our GPs give us for the need to have these vaccinations. I wonder which is rarer (is that even a word??), children permanently damaged by measles or children permanently damaged by a vaccine?

Depends who you talk to I suppose.

I've had people tell me I'm endangering THEIR child by not having mine vaccinated. Hang on, if yours is vaccinated, then where's the danger if mine gets sick? If the vaccination works, your child won't be in any danger at all, right?


Urrgg.

This is on my mind today beacuse I went to the GP to get the exemption form for my one year old signed. I knew she'd try and talk me round and true to form, she did. You really need to be in the right mood to get this form signed, there are times when you just don't want to deal with an ear bashing. "This is the decision we've made, can you just sign the darn form please?!

Thank you".

Steam vaporizer - good for congestion?

My one year old has a cold. Snot, conjunctivitis, chesty cough, snot, oh and a new molar. And snot, did I mention snot? Right, you get the picture. This is a different cold to the one he gave me recently, from which I am still recovering.....my sense of taste and smell are slowly coming back after nearly 2 weeks hiatus.

So after having to resettle him about nine times overnight, I'm thinking a steam vaporizer might be a worthwhile investment. I checked out two of the popular models on my trusty review site to see what other people are saying, the Vicks Warm Steam Vaporizer and the TAAV Vaporaire. I'm unsure though, wouldn't pumping out steam create a damp problem in the room? Or do you just air it out well during the day? Would it make the room too hot? The bub is still in mine and hubby's room, so three people plus steam? Hmm.



Well, at the chemist I managed to get to they only had the Euky Bear vaporizer. After inquiring about the Vicks model I was told they no longer carry it because of so many complaints that it 'sounded like a steam train'. The Euky Bear vaporizer gets the best feedback, so that's all they carry. It's the most expensive too. Oh well.

As for a damp problem, I certainly wouldn't run it for nights on end. The smaller the room, the more condensation accumulates....in my four year old's room, I have to lay an old towel along the window sill, or the condensation runs down the window, over the ledge and soaks the carpet.

In mine and hubby's room where baby is, I just leave the door a little ajar and air out well during the day.

No, it doesn't seem to raise the temperature in the room.

It does keep the air from drying out and the eucalyptus adds a lovely smell to the air, but hubby hates the smell so no more adding eucalyptus to the water. I wouldn't actually buy the eucalyptus that comes with the machine again, it's quite expensive and the machine doesn't NEED it, and I'm sure you could get it unbranded but cheaper if you really wanted it.

I paid about $70 for the machine and about $12 for the eucalyptus.

Yes, expensive.

However it is quiet, it is very safe....bub can't access the water or burn himself if he happens across it, it works well and has a 2 year warranty.

I'm happy with it.

Ack, got the sickees here

Blerk.

This is me right now.



I'm doing lots of this...

And have too much of this...

And way too many of these...

I'm taking this...

And these...

And all I want to do is this...

As I said, BLERK. I'll try not to send it your way.

Speaking of kids parties...

H will be 4 at the end of this month and has requested a party at a particular play centre. I've been there once before as H was invited to a party there by a friend of his. All ok, except for the menu. It consists of....

• Baby frankfurts/cocktail franks (cheerios we call them in NZ....you know, small red sausages, full of nitrates?)
• French fries (think loads of fat and salt, tasted like beef fat when I tried one)
• Fairy bread (hi GI white bread, with margarine and coloured sprinkles)
• Cheezels/chips
• A token fruit platter (very ordinary and as such, untouched by the kids)
• "Bottomless" cordial
  

Also the option of adding chicken nuggets, party pies or sausage rolls.

This does not impress me in the slightest, yet food is not allowed to be brought into the centre, apart from a birthday cake. I asked if there were healthier options and was told not at this time.

What don't I like? I try to limit additives, preservatives and colours in my kids food, and this lot hits pay dirt. I realise it's a party but still, I don't like serving my kids this much crap, and it certainly goes against the grain to be serving it to other people's kids too.

However, there was a clause which said ' no food to be brought in...except for allergy sufferers'.
Now, my oldest is sensitive to wheat, not allergic, just sensitive, so we limit it which is fairly easy. I spoke to a staff member about that and it sounds like I will be able to bring some food...my idea is to sub homemade cupcakes for fairy bread, juice for the cordial and....not sure what else, maybe I can pump up the fruit platter a bit more with more kid friendly fruit.


Is it unrealistic to expect a few "ever so slightly healthy" things on the menu in this sort of venue? I would be willing to pay more, depending on what they can provide.

Hmmm, need to think more on this.