Sunday 26 April 2015

A Week of Grubby Knees

It has been a glorious week of sun, see....dlings and pollinating!



On Monday afternoon we received the call to say that our neighbours' pear tree's were in blossom.
This is a call that we await every year and immediate action is called for. Marcus rounded up the troops and took the girls over the road so that they could gather the necessary blossom samples. As is probably apparent from the photograph, we have one small espalier pear tree in our garden. This was given to us five years ago when our friends moved to France. For the first three years it flowered but didn't produce a single fruit. Ideally pear trees should be planted in pairs!
Two years ago Marcus had the bright idea that we should attempt to pollinate the flowers manually. We asked around to find out if there were any pear trees local to us and found a match. The first year produced 6, the second 12 and, if we are going to follow a pattern here, this year, we are hoping for 18 fabulous comice pears!
The girls wafted their blossom samples under the flowers on our tree; flitting backwards and forwards like bees or butterflies (buzzing was optional!) and now we wait.


With all the warmth and sunshine that we have been enjoying our Garden Room (just a posh name for the Lean To) is beginning to look like a tropical rain forest. We desperately  need to pot things up or get them into the ground at the allotment.


Our tomato sowing in early March resulted in just the one cherry tomato plant (we are still waiting for the rest to pop up in the lawn!) and about a hundred beef steak tomato plants. We have already potted up and given away some of these. Yet, still we have a seed tray, a good three quarters full, with a dense forest of tomato seedlings that we need to find homes for.


A family trip to the allotment this weekend offered up the opportunity to test  the new drain pipe and water butt system on our shed. It works (at least it does if you carry a watering can of water from the water trough and pour it into the drain pipe!). Unfortunately a design flaw, that was not spotted in the original plans, meant that the water butt could not be raised off the ground to enable tap access in the usual manner. Instead, we have had to dig down and now have a 2 ft deep hole, directly in front of the tap! It works though!



Sunday 19 April 2015

Date with Chocolate!

So here we are, several days into our new reduced sugar plan and it is going pretty well. I would like to stress the "reduced" at this point. As a mother of 3 girls, now aged 8 and 11 years old (yikes!), it would be near impossible and (dare I agree?) "unfair" for me to believe that we could eradicate sugar completely. Instead, we are aiming for a 5:2 ratio of good to bad.
For my part, I am busily creating healthy, low sugar treats for weekday snacks and deserts to fulfil the '5' bit. They then contribute to the '2' bit, by tucking into chocolate, cake and ice cream at the weekend!


Despite the controversy surrounding the use of fructose (largely instigated by the findings of Dr Robert Lustig and the food industries use of high fructose corn syrup) I  favour the use of  whole, blended fruit (both fresh and dried) as my alternative sweetener. Unlike fructose syrup, the fibre and vitamins in fruit are definitely beneficial to the body and I like the extra flavour that they impart.


My Chocolate Date Squares were created with Marcus in mind and were a resounding success. To date (nice play on words there!) he has been pretty tricky to win over to the low sugar camp but these were consumed with surprising enthusiasm and earned an easy  5/5 Clean Plates score 


They have a rich chocolate flavour and a satisfyingly soft, dense texture. I hesitate to call them brownies as that creates an expectation that they may not meet but as a chocolate square they certainly stand proud.


I ended up making these twice this week and they were even well received by all the children that came round to play after school.


Chocolate Date Squares (Clean Plates 5/5 - they even pass the Marcus Test!)

2 Apples
60g Dates
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
1 Tsp Espresso Coffee
1/4 Tsp Salt
5 Tsp Agave Nectar
120g Plain Flour
40g Ground Almonds
1 Tsp Baking Powder
50g Cocoa Powder
2 Eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 170C/Gas 3 and line small baking tin (20cm x 20cm) with parchment.
Pop the dates into a cup or small bowl and cover with boiling water to soften. 
Peel, core and slice the apples. Place in a small sauce pan, cover with water, bring to a gentle simmer and stew until soft.
In a food processor blend together the dates and apple with 6 teaspoons of the water that the dates have been soaking in.
Once smooth add the vanilla extract, coffee, olive oil, salt and Agave Nectar and continue to blend until you have a fairly loose puree. If the puree seems rather thick add a little more of the date water.
In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs before adding the apple and date puree. Stir until everything is well combined.
Fold in the flour, almonds, cocoa and baking powder until you have a thick, chocolatey paste.
Scrape it into the tin and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until firm.
Cut into squares and enjoy!  

Friday 17 April 2015

Naked Wine Drinking!

It is official - I am an Angel!  


A few weeks ago; just as we were embarking on our £80 feeds 5 Challenge, my friend Abby introduced me to a rather fabulous excuse to drink wine. Not that I really needed another one but "safety in numbers" as the saying goes!
She invited me to try a case of wine from the Norwich based company Naked Wines and to become a Wine Angel.
What can I say?
Firstly and of vital importance, the wines were delicious and of a much higher quality than I am usually drawn towards or able to afford. I have, in the past, tended more towards quantity rather than quality! Except of course with our Home Brew (quality all the away there folks!)
Secondly, by investing £20 a month into my wine account, I am contributing to what can best be described as, crowd funding, for independent wine producers. Just brilliant! Every glass of wine that I now drink is helping someone! Below is a lovely little flow diagram from the Naked Wines website showing how it works.

Naked Wines is a customer-funded wine business

Our customers, called Angels, fund talented, independent winemakers and get rewarded with delicious wines at wholesale prices in return.

What better way to spend the money that I have saved reducing our weekly food budget, than to invest it in wine? It may not be quite as commendable a spend as my friend Katherine, who donated the savings that she made to Comic Relief but it is still, ever so slightly, angelic.

Looking forward to that Friday feeling tonight when I can select a bottle from my well stocked wine rack - I believe a certain maturity has finally been achieved!




Saturday 11 April 2015

Easter Aftermath ..........Sugar Reduction!

more wholesome brown than chocolate
It is astounding how resilient children can be to chocolate induced sickness. Despite a restless Monday night in the Cross-Broome household and late night vows to not eat any more for a few days; my hardcore chocoholics bounced back within hours.
As early as 9.30 the next morning I had a request to "try a little bit of the posh ones" (apparently, the Harrods Chocolate Chicken and Bear that they had received for their birthday were calling to them from the sideboard).
Fortunately for the Chicken and Bear (they are currently still in possession of their heads and other limbs). I spent much of the night plotting a sugar reducing plan for the whole family. Brown week will now herald the start of, once again (we have been here before, last year!), reducing our refined sugar intake.



I created this recipe last year, it is a big favourite with the girls, particularly for breakfast, as the bars are both filling and tasty. Fab grab and run fuel for busy mornings. Like the Banana Ice lollies this is a great way of using up brown/black bananas.


A majority of the sweetness comes from the dates and bananas but the cinnamon and vanilla extract lend themselves to being useful sweetness enhancers, as well as being complimentary flavours.


I think that this actually tastes pretty good raw so a bit of bowl licking might be in order! You do need to be careful not to over cook it as dry edges and crispy top bits are not so tasty. I always smooth the top off so that it colours more evenly and try not to cook it for too long so that it remains moist.


Banana Bar Recipe (Clean Plates 4.5/5 - Still can't completely convince Marcus!)

2 Ripe Bananas
180g Dates
80ml Olive Oil
0.25 Tsp salt
0.5 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
50g Dessicated Coconut
50g Ground Almonds
180g Oats
50g Chopped Apricots

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line an 8 inch square cake tin.
In a food processor blend together bananas, dates, salt, cinnamon, vanilla and olive oil until smooth.
Add the coconut, almonds and oats to the mixture and blitz for a couple more minutes.
Stir in the chopped apricots and then scrape the mixture into the lined cake tin, smooth over the top and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until just browning on the top and edges.
Use a sharp knife to cut into 18 bars whilst still warm.

These are best eaten cold so we keep ours in the fridge.

With Easter well and truly out of the way I will be concentrating my efforts on reducing our refined sugar intake. I suspect that this will not fit very well with our £80 a week budget as both fresh and dried fruit is more expensive than sugar. With this in mind I am keeping my budget a little more open ended for next week and will reassess at the end of the week.     





Monday 6 April 2015

Junk Sculpting and the start of 'Brown' Week?

A Dragon and a Dragon Slaying Machine! 


That was the brief given to our party guests on Saturday. The results were pretty impressive for a group of seven and eight year old's, a couple of hours work and a pile of rubbish.
The days leading up to the party were particularly satisfying for my 'skip diving' tendencies and torture for Marcus. The girls were given permission (by me) to seek and gather all that they could in the way of street debris (hub caps, bolts, washing machine drums, bits of pipe and unidentifiable metal or plastic objects) to build into our own 'back garden dump'.    


As I look out onto the garden, I do wonder whether, 'mobility veichle' and 'armoured horse' might be more fitting descriptions for these completed works of art! There is, however, definitely something quirky and fun about their form that brings a smile to my face, especially when they are being ridden in or on! Who would have thought that some seed trays, bike wheels, mops and pipes could be so easily transformed?
 

The party and party treats, preceded the arrival of the 'Easter Bunny' on Sunday. He arrived heavily laden with yet more chocolate to add to the hoard that the girls have been building over the last few days. Despite massive chocolate consumption from all, both yesterday and today, we still seem to have more than enough to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner for the forthcoming week. As I start dreaming up recipes for chocolate soup and casserole, it looks like 'brown' week is definitely a possibility! Unless, that is, the groans from upstairs, about feeling 'a bit sick' become a reality and I spend the night providing comfort and sick bowls to the three of them.
I can almost hear them begging me for some purple sprouting or creamed suede!