GENEROSITY

Gotta love it when lunch is a no brainer. A yummy chunky vegetable soup dropped off by my generous neighbour which I paired up with a delicious pumpkin cob from the Green Tangerine which I picked up earlier in the day.

How often do you share recipes and food swap with your neighbours?

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WINTER'S END

We didn't know what to do with this bouquet of purple kale. I spied a purple kale pesto in the making on Luisa Brimble's Instagram feed a few weeks back and I only remembered it after using up all of the kale this morning. This morning we ended up sauteeing it with some red onion and chilli and topping it with some poached eggs, all sitting on top of some buttered up toast. The perfect breakfast for the last weekend of winter. 

What is your favourite kale recipe? I always seem to pair it up with eggs!!!

SAUTEED KALE & RED CHILLI w POACHED EGGS

(Serves 2, approx 10 mins prep and 10 mins cooking)

6 - 7 stalks of kale

1 red onion

1 large red chilli

dollop of coconut oil

spash of olive oil

splash of soy sauce

4 eggs

1 lemon

bread for toasting

salt and pepper to taste

1. Fill a small pot half way with water and squeeze half a lemon into it and bring to the boil on a medium heat

2. Dollop some coconut oil into a medium sized frying pan and heat until the oil is hot

3. Thinly slice the kale, red onion and red chilli and toss into the frying pan, 

stir and coat the kale in the oil and splash with olive oil if it's a bit dry, 

turn the heat down to medium/low and splash some soy sauce over the mixture, 

stir around until the kale is sauteed and the onions are glassy and then remove from the heat

4. Stir the boiling water with a spoon and crack four eggs into the water, 

they are ready when egg whites are firm and the egg is kinda starting to float 

(usually only a couple of minutes)

5. Toast your bread and butter lavishly

6. Spoon the kale mixture over your toast and top with poached eggs 

and season with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

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WINTER BREAKFAST

The last weeks of Winter have been slow and drawn out with grey and wet weather, but it's ok because the brighter days of Spring are only a few sleeps away. My favourite part about winter is that it makes having a hot breakfast totally appropriate. Last night I spied a wintry breakfast here and today's inspired breakfast was a hit. Usually, the only porridge eaters in my home are the girls but today the boys were asking for a bowl of porridge too.

WINTRY BREAKFAST BOWL

Porridge

Banana

Chia Seeds

Peanut Butter

Coconut flakes

Milk

Honey

Coconut Oil

1. Make yourself a pot of porridge

2. Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a small fry pan on a medium high heat

3. Cut banana in half and then half again, length ways

4. Place banana's, sliced side down into the hot fry pan and fry until caramalised and golden on one side

5. Place porridge into bowl, top with a spoonful of peanut butter and honey and place caramalised banana on top and sprinkle with chia seeds and coconut flakes

6. Gently pour some warmed milk over the porridge.

Enjoy with sips of coffee or tea.

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ORANGES & EGGS

 

 

 

A bit of a wet and grey welcome to the weekend. No chance of a sleep in today as Matty is up north surfing for the weekend. So for me, an early breakfast by the window today and with some freshly squeezed orange juice made by my five year old son. He was pretty impressed with his slicing of the oranges, as was I. Today we have plans to bake in the morning and party in the afternoon.

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SUPER-DUPER MORNINGS

Lately I have been getting flutters in my stomach, the type of gentle butterflies which make you feel like something amazing is going to happen!!!

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HAPPY WEEKEND

It's grey outside and the fridge is bare, all I had to fill my tummy this morning was coffee. Usually there is a bit of a commotion in the kitchen as we get breakfast ready on a Saturday morning, but today it was just the hissing of the coffee machine. As I hit the espresso cup onto the chopping board to release the coffee I went starry eyed imagining that it was a little teeny tiny brownie, which would have been the perfect pal for my coffee. 

My son was playing in a minefield of lego, cars, teddies, texters and paper on the lounge room floor and in the midst of his creative mess, I couldn't help but place the ground coffee in a tiny dish and leave it on the table for my him to find, it was a bit mean-mum of me, but it turned out to become fantastic leverage into convincing him that we needed to leave the house today, to go out for brunch today.

What do you do with your left over coffee grind?

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DINNER FOR BREAKFAST

He had a ham and cheese croissant and I had left-over salad for breakfast. Last night for dinner this salad was accompanied by some free-range chicken thighs which were fried off in a pan with some coconut oil for some quick colouring and then baked in the oven for fifteen minutes to finish cooking right through. We had a squeeze of fresh locally grown lemons and sea salt to season the chicken after it came out of the oven.

The salad was adapted from Hetty McKinnon's cookbook, Community, salad recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen, and I was feeling inspired by the zataar roasted carrots with kale, freekeh and blood orange maple dressing. However there was no zataar or freekeh in my cupboards and our oranges had been eaten days ago, so i skipped the zataar and freekeh all together and replaced the blood oranges in the dressing with some little cumquats which we had in our fruit bowl. I also added some roasted canned chickpeas in place of the hazelnuts and some cauliflower which I threw ontop of the roasting carrots for the remaining ten minutes. To serve I pinched a tiny sprinkling of sesame and sunflower seeds over the carrots.

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HOW TO MAKE SEWING DELICIOUS

My fool proof and easy breakfast for weekday mornings was inspired by one of my favourite local cafes who serve an amazing Breakfast Jar with layer upon layer of coconut yoghurt, muesli, chia seed pudding and fresh fruit. Today we enjoyed eating this while I attempted to stitch up the hem of a pant leg and rip in the crotch of my son's school pants. Needless to say, my sewing skills can be easily summarised by his last words before leaving the car today which were, "if anyone see's my undies when I sit on the floor today, it will be all your fault".  

WEEKDAY BREAKFAST BOWL

Natural or Greek or Coconut Yoghurt

Buckwheat puffs

Dried coconut

Maple Syrup

Fresh fruit

Method

Spoon yoghurt into a bowl.

Top with buckwheat puffs, dried coconut and fresh fruit.

Drizzle with maple syrup.

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MORNING ROUTINE

Roll out of bed to check on baby, snuggle back into bed with Matty, read emails, catch up on Instagram and Facebook on my iphone, roll out of bed to check on my son, make a coffee, get breakfast ready, take some photographs of breakfast, eat breakfast and fiddle around on my laptop and then rouse the rest of the family to start their day.

What is yours?

 

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Kodak Portra 400

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MY CHOOKIES EGGS

 

Although it was a bit of a stop-start kind of a feast due to our babes waking and fussing, the conversation, story-telling and laughter smoothly kept us connected as we seemingly took turns in leaving the table to tend to our babes who were playing on the floor around us. The food was an inspired mish mash of my favourite local cafe foods and it was lovely to enjoy the comfort foods at home with friends.

In the Pan: Sauteed kale, mushroom, onion with crumbled fetta and fresh lemon.

Accompaniments: Fresh berries, sourdough bread, avacado, fresh ham, Green Goddess dressing from Healthy Everyday by Pete Evans, fried shallots, gooey raspberry and white chocolate muffins plus chocolate and peanut butter muffins from Oomph Cafe, fresh berries, sauteed mushrooms and freshly laid eggs from my chookies which were softly poached and my gorgeous friend introduced me to the wonderful 'Duffin', a cross between a Donut and a Muffin.

Drinks: Fresh orange juice, tea, and fresh locally ground coffee.

Music: NYC SKA/JAZZ playlist on Spotify.

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Kodak Portra 400

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SUNDAY

Everyone looked fresh as they walked through the doors today. Something about a sunny and windy winters day that makes everyone look so crisp and bright eyed. Perhaps it's just the relief that naturally exudes when you find solace away from the wind and find yourself inside a warm and cosy space. I enjoyed watching them come in through the door. Today the boys kicked the footy out the front while Vinnie and I sat and watched and talked and laughed.

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4
Fuji 800z

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SUNDAY

Out of all of the days in the week, Sunday is my favourite. It’s the one day of the week that we are all definitely together. Matty usually works six days a week and Sunday is a nice reprieve to the daily grind for both of us. Early on this particular Sunday morning I curled back into our warm bed after feeding Vinnie and drifted back to sleep. It must have only been for ten or maybe fifteen minutes before she started to make some protesting cries from her bassinette. Sleep drowsy, I rolled around and took some deep breaths to re-energise myself before jumping back out of bed, but he beat me to her. With Vinnie in his arms, he leant down and planted a fuzzy warm kiss on my forehead and disappeared out of our room. I must have slept for an extra hour. In a foggy state I followed the smell of breakfast wafting in from outside. Matty was outside on our front deck cooking up our breakfast on the barbeque. I saw Vinnie playfully sitting in her bouncy chair snuggled up in a grey woollen blanket and there was Paddy crouching on the lounge and coiled up in a furry brown throw. He looked like a delicious cinnamon bun. 

The smell of breakfast materialised on a large white rectangular plate. Bacon, eggs, tomatoes, onions and grilled Turkish breads all lay out in the shadows of tall standing condiments; tomato sauce, barbeque sauce, Kewpie mayo and sweet chilli sauce. In our PJ’s we sat at the table and started the construction of our breakfast burgers. The boys like mayo and barbeque sauce splashed across their tower of bacon, eggs and cooked onion. I like plain old barbeque sauce, bacon and eggs with a sprinkling of tasty cheese.  Sometimes I add a squeeze of sweet chilli sauce, but not today.

Matty enjoys making his coffee at home and usually, we push the little black button on the yellow Bugatti to warm up while we tidy up after breakfast. At first, we disliked our coffee machine. It was the source of frustration and disappointment. Neither of us could get it right. We imagined dark brown honeycombed crema topped with silky milk, but our coffee always looked murky or the steamed milk was too bubbly and burnt. Since then, our skills have improved enough to enjoyably get us through the dark mid-week mornings. So when a dear friend of ours opened a café and creative space across the lake from us, our Bugatti was also given reprieve from the daily grind and lately we have been making our way over there to finish our Sunday breakfast and welcome in the new week with several of his amazing coffees.

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