Treat street- manuka & spelt doughnuts

As I've said in previous posts, my little son has quite the sweet tooth. I read a book recently (Pamela Druckerman's "French Children Don't Throw Food"- a fantastic exploration of the differences in child-rearing practices between American/Anglo and French families) and in it she explores several points relating to child nutrition. Childhood obesity rates in France are lower than all other OECD countries, and Druckerman speculates there are several reasons for this. Particularly, she says that she never sees French parents feeding their children as a form of entertainment, whereas, on visits to her native America, she has become aware that babies and toddlers in prams almost always tote a compensatory biscuit or juice box. I am so aware of this, here in Australia.

Druckerman also makes a point that French children don't grow up in a culture of forbidden food. Does removing the taboo and allure of sugar laden treats, and allowing children to enjoy small treats frequently, lead to better self-regulation in adults?

I love this theory. I want my children to grow up with a healthy attitude to food, and, to me, that doesn't mean prohibiting them from all things junk. To me, it just means substituting the best treats possible, where possible, and fostering their life in nature sweets, like strawberries and bananas (two of my son's favourites!).

With this in mind, I wanted to make a special treat for Jonno to enjoy that wouldn't fill his developing body with refined sugars and flours and fats. Enter this lovely little baked doughnut. I'll post the recipe later- but they had only organic spelt, manuka honey, milk, yeast, a little butter and a sprinkling of sugar to finish, and being baked they were so much less grease laden than their deep-fried counterparts.

Dried YUCK-ricots

Have a look at the difference in colour between organic dried apricots (brown) and commercially produced dried apricots (orange). It is quite remarkable.

The bright orange dried apricot (and any other dried fruit that retains its 'just picked' colour) has most likely been treated and preserved using sulphur dioxide (SO2 - check the label). It's purpose is to extend the shelf-life of the product and to make them more aesthetically appealing. The brown, organic dried "cotticots", as my husband grew up calling them, are still loaded with natural sugars so have a life-span of around 3 months. Like so many other things, aren't we better to resist the convenience of bulk buying and opt instead for smaller quantities of fresh produce?

I like to have these on hand when I go hypo. They work just as well as lollies for me without the colours, gelatine and additives. Ugh!

Thai tofu salad

My husband and I have been eating at this amazing Thai restaurant for over a decade, and back in the days we first discovered it, I was a card-toting member of the vegan club. Most of the time, I felt like the food I ordered in restaurants was a poor sustitute (Greek salad, hold the feta, dressing on the side ugh), but not with this glorious thai tofu salad. Everyone I have ever shared it with has been as besotted by it as I am. I have been toying with the recipe for years, and I think I am pretty close to getting it now..

Ingredients:

Dressing
1/2 cup fish sauce/vegetarian fish sauce
2 tablespoons soya sauce (gluten free fine)
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon finely grated palm sugar

Salad:
Organic firm tofu
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup torn mint leaves
1 cucumber, cubed
1/2 red onion, sliced into moon segments
Olive oil for frying

In a saucepan, fry triangle shaped pieces of tofu until crisp and golden. Remove from pan and combine with the remaining salad ingredients.

Mix the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Dress the salad and serve while tofu still warm.

This is fresh, summery and totally delicious (and virtuous to boot!).

Dandelion Chai Latte

I am slavishly devoted to coffee. It's goes beyond just a morning ritual for me, it's an all day love affair. So when I recently started to read up on the affects of caffeine on the central nervous system, I couldn't help but feel a bit ashamed of my reliance on this stimulant. So, I took the ill-advised step of going off it, cold turkey, for a day shy of a week.

Day one post-quitting, I was plagued with a headache bordering on a migraine, all day. But the next day, my body seemed to have adapted, but the ritual-seeker in me needed something new to hang my virtual hat on. Herbal tea is okay but there's not much funl in tea the way I make it (a tea philistine, I use bags.). So I turned to (I can't believe I am typing this) Dandelion Chai Latte. And I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased.

Has it filled the coffee void? God, no, don't be silly- could anything?! But it's great to be able to switch it up now and again and have this spice filled drink as a caffeine alternative. I adapted the recipe from Supercharged Foods to suit my tastes.

You need:

6 or so cardamon pods
1/2 tsp clove powder
1 star anise
1 cinnamon quil
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 Dandelion tea bags
1 tablespoon honey
500ml milk

Use a mortar and pestle, or the back of a teaspoon and a saucer, to crush the cardamom and star anise. They just need to be a little smashy to release their flavour.

Put all the herbs into a saucepan with the milk and honey and bring gently to the boil, add the dandelion teabags, then reduce heat and simmer, lid on, for a few minutes.

Strain.

I left it to cool, then mixed with plain milk and frothed to get a latte consistency.

Now... I rate the flavour highly, but this is a little too long and involved a process for me to make regularly, so on day two, I doubled the quantities and froze it in silicone pods for a quicker solution.

Chicken curry

Ingredients
3 free range chicken breasts
Onion
Garlic
Spinach leaves
1 zuchini chopped into rounds
1 carrot chopped into rounds
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
2 tablespoons each of cumin, turmeric and curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tin organic coconut cream
2 tablespoons tomato paste
The juice of one lemon
Scant handful of sultanas
Scant handful of almonds, plus extra to chop&top
Oil for frying.

In a tagine, heat the oil and add the onions, garlic and spices. Stir until combined. Dice the chicken and add to the pan. Fry until browned then add the tomato paste and coconut cream. Next come the veggies (minus the spinach) so add the carrots and zuchini, then the sultanas and almonds. Place the tagine lid on and cook for around twenty minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Remove lid, add lemon juice, spinach and cabbage and stir. Serve topped with chopped almonds and greek yoghurt.

Oh, and by the way....

I haven't had a single hypo since the other morning's 4-a.m-er. I attribute this to a much steadier range of BGLs, and the ease with which I can manage my diabetes when eating properly.

There's a seminar I'm going to next month about eating for life, focussing on auto-immune conditions- I'm so looking forward to it.

Olive, spinach and leek frittata

I made this frittata for our Sunday breakfast, but it was so substantial and flavoursome, that, with the addition of a bitter green salad or steamed broccolini, it would be great for lunch or dinner, too.

Ingredients
A handful of mixed, pitted olives
1 leek, the lower half finey sliced
1 cup of Organic spinach, washed and torn into approx 4cm pieces
6 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
Cheese to top (I used blue cheese)
Olive oil for frying

Method

Preheat oven to 200'c.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and add the leek. Saute until translucent. Add the spinach and wilt for a few minutes before including the olives. Stir to combine well then press these ingredients flat in the pan. Turn the heat to minimum.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Add to the frying pan and stir so that it doesn't stick. Cook for a minute, then cover with a lid (if oven proof) or alfoil and slip it into the oven.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the eggs are cooked firm. Remove from oven, add cheese if using and return to the oven for a few minutes to melt and brown.

Confession: while this is a delicious veggie brekkie, vegetarians we are not, so, we did serve it with a generous portion of crispy bacon... Locally cured and so tasty!

Lazy Brekkie

Free range eggs from happy little chooks. Free range ham from happy, oinking piggies. Organic spinach leaves and aged parmesan. Served with a peppery home-made hollandaise. Mmmm.

Eye Fillet with wilted cabbage and a blue cheese & balsamic dressing

I have just enjoyed a very, very delicious lunch. I love meals like this because there's about ten minutes of cooking time, hardly anything to wash up, and they are soo tasty. Earlier this week I diced, as best as I was able with a hand recoving from surgery, half a cabbage head, and stored it in the fridge. I love cabbage; it's a great way to bulk out so many meals, and having it prepped in tupperware took the faff out of including it in most meals.

Ingredients:
Eye fillet
Shredded cabbage
Walnuts
Fresh chopped parsley
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2cm wedge of blue cheese
Olive oil for frying.

Splash some oil into the pan and heat to moderate. Once it starts to smoke, add the steak and fry for 3 minutes either side. Add the diced cabbage and walnuts and half of the balsamic, place a lid on the pan and turn the heat as low as it goes. After three more minutes, turn the heat off and remove from a heat source. Leave covered until steak is cooked to your liking (this will vary greatly according to the meat and the heat etc- use the tongs to press the centre. If there's lots of softness then it's still rare- no give and it's getting to well done.).

Place the cabbage, walnuts and steak on a plate, and return the same pan with the residual juices to the heat source. Add the remaining vinegar and all the blue cheese and, over high heat, allow to thicken and reduce, stirring regularly. Top the steak with the sauce, and finish with parsley. Ohhhh, yeah!

One day in and already a mis-hap.

The night before last, I woke up feeling queasy at 4.21am. I was hypo, with a BGL of only 2.6, which is very low for me. I'd made a beautiful veggie curry for dinner - perfectly low carb and jam packed with cabbage, spinach, carrots, broccoli, and sweet potato, tomatoes and a heap of fragrant spices (garam masala, turmeric, cumin, caraway seeds) and coconut milk. It was too good to pause for a photo!

That rounded out a perfect day of eating. Or, at least, it should have. But about twenty minutes after dinner I heard it. My name. My name being chanted over and over and over again from inside the fridge.

We'd had friends over on Sunday night and Roch had made the most divine chocolate brownies I've ever tasted, and there were leftovers.... And so...gulp...I did not make a very good food choice. I ate one. A whole one, and it was just so scrummy.

But boy, did I pay for it later. Before bed, my BGL was a whopping 14.4 (I'm nursing at the moment and my endocrinologist has advised I can relax my usual 4.0 - 8.0 range to up to 10.0). I adjusted my insulin and with the dosage advised, but, nonetheless, my BGL came crashing down too low, too fast.

And thereinlies the rub for this diabetic. I generally find it easier to avoid sugary foods and carbs than I do to cope with hypos and adjust insulin for difficult ingredients. If I can't carb count it, I just need to avoid it. The after effects of a hypo are, for me, a bit like a hangover. Banging headache and lethargy chief amongst my complaints. And I can't begin to tell you how wrong it feels, as a grown up, to feast on crap lollies in the middle night hours. I know there are going to be up days and down days, but this was a very timely reminder as to why I have decided to really commit to the best diet and lifestyle I can, for me. And I'm so hopeful this blog keeps me on my (still fully nerve receptive) toes!