Almond Berry Oatmeal

All you need to make a beautiful healthy breakfast

This is my weekday breakfast. It is kind of a ritual for me now. I put it on before I water my gardens and go for my walk. When I get back it is perfectly creamy and just the right temperature for eating. I adapted this from a Curves Complete recipe. I attend the local Curves gym after work four nights a week and follow their diet program for $20 a week. Bargain! I have lost 7kg in three months and still counting. Here is the link if you want more information http://www.curvescomplete.com/ or I will probably do a blog about it in the future.

Almond Berry Oatmeal

This recipe will serve 1 person. It is very good for you and the cinnamon in particular serves to boost your metabolism.

Ingredients

1/2 cup quick cooking oatmeal

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup berries of your choice ie. strawberries, mulberries, blueberries. (If I don't have fresh ones I use frozen ones which still works out fine)

1/2 cup almond milk (skim milk is fine also)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup water

Sugar or Stevia

For the first step, I place the oats and water into a deep microwave bowl. I use an old small mix-master bowl. The reason I say a deep bowl is that I have had it overflow and make an awful mess in the microwave.

Microwave on high for two minutes and then mix in a little of the milk and stir.

Next place your berries on the top, add the cinnamon and slivered almonds. I sometimes also add chia seeds of lsa (flaxseed mix) at this stage for extra fibre. Add the rest of the almond milk and stir, then microwave for further 3 minutes on high. Go for your morning walk.....

When you return you will have a berry-coloured bowl of almond oatmeal. Give it a stir and add milk according to how thick or runny you like it. I then add two teaspoons of stevia to sweeten. Heat for another 30 seconds if too cool.

Sit down with your coffee and enjoy!!

Cheers
Tanya

Mulberry Pancakes

Our enormous mulberry tree which survived the late frost

One of our favourite traditions at the farm is the annual mulberry picking. Last year my husband, Paul cut the tree right back after the frost so we did not get very many berries. But this year is a different story...we had plenty of rain all through winter and it was very mild with only a couple of smaller frosts.

On the weekend we managed to pick a large bucketful of mulberries. There are still tons more on the tree that are not yet ripe so I figure we will get another two weeks before they are gone for the year.

The shame with mulberries is they only fruit for two to three weeks and then they are gone. They also don't keep for long in the fridge if you pick them ripe, so they need to be cooked or eaten (no problems there) as soon as possible. I keep them in the fridge in a recycled strawberry or blueberry punnet to have with my oats for breakfast and the rest I stew up to make pies or our all time favourite family breakfast....

Mulberry pancakes

The first step to prepare the berries for stewing is to wash them in cold water to remove any dirt or pests. The next job is to remove the stems. If you pull the stem out you will end up with a pretty squished berry so I usually just cut the tips off with a sharp knife and place the ends in my compost. Your fingers will be very purple by the end of this process and people say you can remove the dye by rubbing your fingers with a green mulberry but I have found this doesn't work...and it's a waste of what will grow into another ripe mulberry! A liquid soap or hand sanitiser will do the job effectively.

For this batch of stewing I had the following ingredients:

3 cups mulberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

As the berries will release a lot of juice when cooking you don't need to add a lot of water but we like to pour the syrup over the top, so this quantity will allow for that.

Place your clean and de-stemmed mulberries in a saucepan over low heat and simmer covered for about 20 mins.

I like the berries to still hold their form and be firm in the stew but if you like your berries mushy you could stew for a further 10 mins. 

I then make a basic pancake dough with the following ingredients:

1 egg

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

pinch salt

1/2 cup milk

It is important that the dough be quite thick and well mixed because you don't want to squish the berries too much by over-stirring. You can then add about 3/4 cup of stewed mulberries (the rest we freeze for pies/cakes) or according to your taste, and stir in. Add more flour if the mixture is too runny, then cook in a butter-greased frypan over medium heat. This recipe served nine of us with two to three pikelet-sized pancakes each.

To top it off we serve the warm pancakes with ice cream, a few fresh berries and syrup drizzled over the top. Yum!! Any other suggestions for what to make with my frozen stewed mulberries?

After a full belly of pancakes, I then drove to the duckpond markets to buy fresh eggs (fixing the chooky pen is on my wishlist) and seedlings. I came home with two litres of worm fertiliser (hmmm worm farm for Christmas?) from the organic gardener and the above seedlings which include kale, beetroot, red onion, parsley, nasturtium, english spinach and an artichoke (wrong time of year for here I think?) just for fun. Now to finish those gardens.....

Cheers
Tanya

What is Mindfulness?

A glimpse of my property from the side of the road on an
early morning walk

Mindfulness is a word I keep hearing lately - in magazines, on the net and (which I thought strange at the time) at my doctors surgery. It's not a new word, nor is the practice of mindfulness a recent one. It has been instrumental in Buddhist and  Hindu teachings for generations, is taught in universities and practised by medical practitioners. By consciously seeking to improve my health and wellbeing I have now identified that what I have been doing actually has a name. So what is mindfulness exactly?

In simple terms (because I love simple), mindfulness is about slowing down, taking the time to live in the moment and making a conscious decision to appreciate the here and now. The crucial part of this definition for me, and for those I know who could benefit from this philosophy, is the 'conscious decision'. I have always been a firm believer in looking on the positive side of things and I often joke to my kids, especially when we are in the middle or aftermath of a crisis (like a flood) that we need to put our rose-coloured glasses on and look for those bright sides, or wake up and smell the roses as my nanna used to say. With a flood, for them it may be that they get new stuff or get to replace something that was broken anyway, or a couple of days off school. For me it may be that I get to have a clean and organised downstairs with less clutter once the hard work is all done.

Bright sides (and roses to smell) are not always obvious and sometimes you do have to look for them, to make that conscious decision. When we flood if I don't look ahead, past the clean up, and search for a meaning or reason to appreciate the here and now, I would go insane. It is okay to be cranky that your house is flooded but at the end of the day, being thankful for your wonderful family and everyone being safe is my 'appreciating the here and now'.

In my day to day life I work full time from 8.30am-5pm so I plan my mindful moments. In the mornings I go for a walk, listen to the birds sing and occasionally come across a kangaroo or two if I am lucky. I appreciate the early morning light shining through the leaves of the trees, and am mindful of the fact that I am so lucky to be up and about to witness it. Why would I want to sleep in?

These walks on the road and wanders through the garden not only help keep me fit, they also set me up for my day at work. Rather than just rushing out stressed like I used to with kids in tow and a messy kitchen left behind, I now leave with a sense of peace and accomplishment because I have made the conscious decision to appreciate the here and now.

The bridge over Six Mile Creek, which is the source of
our flooding, even looks good in the morning

After watering the garden, my fresh bread which I put on timer in the breadmaker overnight, is ready to slice. I inhale the wonderful aroma as I walk in the door and pull out my bowl of oatmeal that is still warm in the microwave. I then grab a cup of coffee and a slice of buttered toast, and read the daily news before I wake the hubby and kids....bliss.

There are many more examples of mindfulness I can think of such as my daily walk in my lunch break and my gym workout after work (which gives me time to process my day), but I am curious...what do you do that is mindful? Do you take the time to smell the roses? Have you heard of mindfulness before?

Jean Hailes for Womens Health, who have a free magazine for women, have a great article on mindfulness this month. Check it out here Jean Hailes Mindfulness. Subscribe to their magazine while you are there. They post it to you for nothing and it is very informative.

Cheers
Tanya