Did you have a good weekend? We spent our weekend close to home my favourite type of weekend.  

I went to the baby shower, played some fun games, ate lots too especially my cheese ball.

Then on Sunday I tidied up the veggie patch, it looks much better now, while the girls had fun paddling in the little pool.

Today it was back to the routine, a spot of baking chocolate slice and honey biscuits.

My goal for the week is to either make Christmas cards or sew presents. I want Christmas to be relaxing so I must get organised.  If I keep telling myself it should keep me motivated, I'm going to try my best.

♥

Honey Biscuits

125g butter

½ cup caster sugar

1¾ cup self-raising flour

1 egg

1 tablespoon of honey

vanilla

1. Beat butter and sugar to a cream.

2. Add the egg and beat well.  Add vanilla and one tablespoon of honey.

3. Gradually add sifted flour.

4. Mix into a stiff paste.

5. Take small pieces of mixture and roll into balls.

6. Place on greased trays.  Press out lightly with a floured fork.

7. Bake in a moderate oven until golden brown.

Honey Butter Icing

¾ cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon butter

Few drops of lemon juice ( I just used water)

1. Sift icing sugar into a bowl.

2. Add softened butter and honey and mix well.

3. Add lemon juice (or water) to make a smooth paste.

4. Use to join honey biscuits in pairs.

Stills

1. One very muddy dog digging for her ball.
2. Lots of fresh basil made into this pesto.  A great one for those with nut allergies.
3. Baking weekly lunch box treats.  This week I made honey biscuits and oat, date and honey muffins.
4. Yummy yarn I bought here just waiting for me to make into this for a wedding we'll be going to later in the year. Better start soon so it will be ready in time.
5. There has finally been some vegetable planting.  The weather has been much kinder lately, although still a bit rainy, good for the new seedlings.
6&7. Growth in the garden after all the rain.
8. A cake baked and ready for a belated birthday morning tea with family for Miss 9.

I'm joining in with Em again this week. Have you had a good week?♥

Orange and fig biscuits

It seems like simply ages since I've shared a recipe, so long ago that I can't even remember when or what it was now but I did some baking today and thought it would be a nice change to see a recipe here on this little blog. On Sunday we headed back to the library for our monthly visit.  I walked around to my usual sections, craft; crochet; photography; gardening; simple living and cooking. Always on the lookout for healthy cookbooks for lunch treats I found the perfect book called 'have your cake - no butter no white flour no added sugar' There are so many great recipes in this book I know I will be trying more before I have to return it to the library. This was the recipe that I tried today.

Orange and fig biscuits

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

1/3 cup dessicated coconut

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup rice bran oil (I used warmed coconut oil)

1/3 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange rind

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/3 cup chopped dried figs

Preheat oven to 170℃ fan forced.

Mix flour, coconut and oats together.  In a separate bowl mix together oil, honey, orange rind and orange juice, then stir the mixture into the dry ingredients.  Add chopped figs.

Leave to stand for 10 minutes then roll into balls.  Press your thumb gently into the centre of each ball.

Bake for 15 minutes.

And I just had to show you my proud gardener moment.  Tonight we had Zesty Broccoli and Tomato Pasta for dinner and I didn't have to buy any of the vegetables, all I did was head into the garden and picked it fresh.  My gardening efforts are a bit hit and miss but this time I had great success with the broccoli and I'm feeling a bit chuffed, I'm ready to get some more seedlings in now!

I hope your day has been a lovely one.

Sultana and sunflower cookies

Last week I shared with you a yummy biscuit recipe full of goodness and today I have another one for you.  The cupboard was bare again after the weekend, so I headed into the kitchen and made these simple biscuits to fill the tummies and lunch boxes of my family.

1 egg

1/2 cup rice bran oil (I used warmed coconut oil)

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

11/2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour

2 tablespoons water

3/4 cup sultanas

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 180℃ fan forced.

Mix egg, oil and honey together. Add coconut and flour and mix through. Add water.

Mix in sultanas and sunflower seeds.

Line two baking trays with baking paper. Shape mixture into small balls and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden.

Another  go to recipe for a lunch box treat, full of wholesome ingredients and no refined sugar, I always like a few of these so I can bake something quick and healthy.  I hope you enjoy trying these biscuits too. Have you tried any yummy lunch box recipes lately?

151-155/365 Life

Life lately over the past five days.  My biggest daughter had her wisdom teeth out so there has been lots of tablets, soft foods and ice packs.  A little bit of card making for my nephew that is turning double digits this week. Our little mandarin tree has produced quite a bit fruit this year.  We had to pick them as the crows were feasting on them.  Sundays are for relaxing with the newspaper and a lovely cup of tea. And as always Monday's are for baking.  Today on the menu was Honey Biscuits, Choc chip Banana Muffins  and also these yummy treats which I haven't yet made but will do soon. How have you been?

On the menu this week

It's been a busy couple of days in the kitchen making things to keep the hungry people of the house happy.  For dinner last night I made some roast vegetable soup,  I love soups especially as gets cooler and to go with it a

parmesan and rosemary damper.  I've now made bread for the second week in a row, not too bad. I just wish there wasn't all those dishes to do after cooking though.

There has been some baking for lunches orange and sultana cakes, and honey biscuits.  Just in case you need some lunch box inspiration here is the recipe for orange and sultana cakes for you.

125 g butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar or rapadura
1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
2 eggs
1 ½ cups of wholemeal self raising flour
¾ cup orange juice
½ cup sultanas

1. Preheat oven to 180℃/ 160℃ fan-forced. Line two 24 hole 1½ tablespoon capacity mini muffin pans with paper cases or one 12 hole regular muffin tin.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and orange rind until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just combined.  Stir in flour, orange juice and sultanas.  Spoon into prepared pan holes.
3. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of 1 comes out clean.  Stand in pan for 5 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

What have you been baking lately?
♥

Kale Pesto

I sat down last Sunday night to write up our weekly menu and thought about how to use up some of the kale growing in the garden. Not wanting it to go to waste I went searching for recipes to use up it.  Last week we used some of it in a milkshake using blueberries, honey, ice cream, kale and milk, yummo but with lots left I came across this recipe and knew I had to give it a try.  I changed mine a little I used macadamia nuts instead of pine nuts, added parmesan probably ½ a cup and a few more cloves of garlic which gives it a bit of bite. (probably will cut down on this next time)  It took no time to make, I kept the majority of it for dinner to toss into some pasta and with a little bit kept aside I spread it on some wholemeal toast for lunch.  

Here's the recipe just in case you might like to give it a try and  which you can adapt to your own taste quite easily.

3 cups chopped and stemmed kale
½ cup pine nuts
juice of ½ a lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
¼ cup grated parmigiano cheese
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to desired consistency

Put the garlic and nuts in first pulse till they are chopped up then add the other ingredients and blend until it gets to the consistency of pesto. Serve with pasta, fresh vegetables, biscuits or on toast.

I hope you enjoy it too, it will definitely be something I will try again.  My other favourite pesto can be found here, spinach and parsley pesto.

Have a great weekend everyone♥

Baking Day

The honey jumbles have been made, the lemon butter biscuits cooked and the dishes done, my weekly baking for the lunch boxes can be ticked off the list. And just a little bit of time left to do some crochet and relax before the school run.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday♥
P.S.  There's still time to enter my giveaway!

Food

Bok Choy

It was a much better sleep last night (thank you:), no wake up calls I'm happy to say. There were no late night meeting arrangements between the girls thankfully.  On the holidays I think a 'sleep over' might be in order for the two of them since they enjoy hanging out at all times of day!

Today was catch up day.  I headed out to do the shopping, after school reading, for this weeks menu ingredients.  We're having
* Organic Sausages with tomato and onion gravy and vegetables
* Soba noodles with broccoli, chick peas, peas and peanut sauce
* Roast vegetable pasta gratin
* Potato and bacon (nitrate free) soup with bread
* Honey lemon chicken
* Soft tacos

* Sneaky Vegetable Muffins
* Spiced Chocolate Anzac Biscuits

I was asked to share some salad recipes from our spread on Father's day so here are a couple for you.  My husband was the salad chooser and decided to have something a little different. The first was Rare Roast Beef with Moroccan Salad.
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
½ small red onion, finely chopped (he omitted this for me, I don't like raw onion much)
2 large tomatoes, deseeded, chopped
400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
200g sliced rare roast beef

1. Place lemon juice, oil and garlic in a screw-top jar.  Season with salt and pepper.  Secure lid.  Shake to combine.
2. Combine parsley, mint, onion, tomato and chickpeas in a bowl.  Add lemon juice mixture.  Toss to combine.  Serve with roast beef. (We had our beef and salad separate so people could choose what they wanted to eat)

And an all time favourite recipe, Egg Salad.  We doubled this and it still went quickly.
6 boiled eggs cut into quarters
⅔ cup of mayonnaise
3 tablespoons of cream
½ to 1 tablespoon of curry powder (we added much less it just depends on your taste)
Salt and pepper
parsley

1. Cut eggs into quarters and add to bowl.
2. Place the next 4 ingredients into a small bowl and mix.  Add to the eggs and combine.  Sprinkle with parsley.

Enjoy♥