Your complete guide to a healthy Easter

March 16, 2016 · 8 Comments

Your complete guide to a healthy Easter

Easter is early this year!

One thing I have noticed you all chatting about is how overwhelming all the chocolate is at Easter time. Well-meaning friends and family love to spoil our kids and it can all get a little crazy. It’s worthwhile establishing some boundaries around this if you feel uncomfortable. One of our gorgeous mums made a cute graphic saying ‘thank you but no gifts for Easter’ and shared it amongst her family and friends. Great idea!

There is also a huge amount of horrible chocolate out there – full of nasty additives, palm oil and fillers and produced in an unethical way. My thoughts are always quality over quantity! Get some really good, quality chocolate and just have a little amount. The same goes for hot cross buns – make them yourself with high quality ingredients and you will be less inclined to eat dozens of yucky supermarket ones.

Here are my top picks for Easter this year…..

♥ Healthier Chocolate

If you are after healthier or allergy friendly Easter Eggs and chocolate, check out the range at Biome.

I always recommend you look out for chocolate that is fair trade and free of palm oil. Unfortunately, chocolate production comes with issues such as deforestation, environmental pollution, child slave labour and unethical payment of workers. It pays to know where your chocolate is coming from and how it is produced.

♥ Cute Ideas for Easter Baskets

♥ I love the chocolate gingerbread bunny biscuits from Gingerbread Folk. They are individually wrapped so perfect for the Easter Egg Hunt too.

♥ Add in a cute bunny toothbrush to help get rid of all that sugar off the teeth! Find them here.

♥ I always used to include a book at Easter time when my kids were small! Check out the beautiful selection of Easter themed books here.

Homemade Chocolate, Buns and Bums.

♥ Special Easter Baking Pack. Cyndi at Changing Habits has put together an Easter baking pack filled with organic, whole foods that you can use to create your own healthy Easter Treats. She has also thrown in some freebies!! Woohoo. Check it out here.

♥ The BEST healthy hot cross bun recipes to suit any diet can be found here.

♥ Dairy Free Chocolate Cream Easter Eggs from Lisa at Happy Tummies.

♥ Paleo Creme Eggs from Hold the Grain.

♥ Bunny Butt Pancakes from Edible Life in YYC. Use a healthy pancake recipe like one of these.

♥ Sugar Free Easter Chocolates from Becomingness.

I would love to know what ideas and recipes you have lined up for a healthy Easter! Share with us!

Raw Food 4 Kids

September 21, 2013 · 186 Comments

Natural new age mum, Sarah Nolan, has just released her first book, Raw Food 4 Kids!

I am really excited to feature it on the blog today and give you a chance to win a copy.

Let me start by saying this book is not just for kids and it’s not just for raw foodies. It’s pretty much for anyone who wants to eat well. As well as being a great introductory book for people exploring a raw diet, it’s also great for people just looking for some healthy meal ideas and snacks for the kids.

I love the way Sarah has set out the book – it’s a funky design, bright, colourful and easy to read. As well as over 100 recipes – all of which are raw, dairy-free, gluten-free and additive-free, Sarah also gives us a lot of tips and info on eating healthy.

I hadn’t even had a chance to open the book before my beautiful daughter raced off with it and made the Raw Chocolate! Yes, it was delicious! I am dying to make the Raw Cheese which is based on macadamia nuts but looks like real cheese. Some other recipes that caught my eye were Buckwheat Crunchies, Raw Pizza, Apple Goji Bars, Vegie Crackers and Chocolate Brownies.

Sarah has done a brilliant job with this book and she is going to be helping families everywhere to eat better. You can get it in print form or as an ebook.

You might be wondering……. What is RAW?

The raw food diet is where you eat food that has not been heated above 46° celsius. It includes fruit, veges, nuts, seeds, sprouts, superfoods, seaweed and cold pressed oils.

Sarah and her family have been eating this way for four years and after following her on Facebook and reading this book, she has convinced me to add lots more raw food into our family’s diet.

Why are the benefits of…… going RAW?

Well, lots and you will have to read the book! But, the one thing that really stood out for me was that eating more raw food alkalizes your body. Too much acidity in your body encourages decomposition, decay, disease and energy loss. You can start by adding one raw meal into your diet or eating raw snacks or eating raw food with every meal. It’s not hard!

But I don’t have…… a dehydrator!

It’s cool! If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can use your oven on a low setting with the door ajar. It won’t be necessarily ‘raw’ but they will still be a healthier option.

Want to check out a recipe?

Raw Pasta!

Ingredients:

• 4-5 tomatoes and 4-6 medium zucchinis

• 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes

• 1 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt

• 2 Tablespoons of nama shoyu
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon of dried basil
• 4 dates pitted
• 1 teaspoon of nutritional yeast
• 1 small clove of garlic
• 1/3 cup of cashews

Method:

To make the noodles cut one end off the zucchini and spiralise (or use a grater).

Place all pasta sauce ingredients into a high powered blender until the sauce is creamy!

Pour sauce on top of the noodles and stir through! It is so quick and easy and kids just love the spiral noodles!

Check out Sarah’s daughter Issy enjoying the raw pasta. Cute!

*************this giveaway is now closed! The winners were Peta and Bek ********************

Want to win a copy of Raw Food 4 Kids?

Sarah is kindly offering to giveaway TWO of her fabulous new cookbook to my readers.

How to enter:

♥ Be a blog subscriber (add your email to the box on the right)

♥ Be a The Raw Food Mum liker on Facebook (go here)

♥ Pop over the The Raw Food mum website and check out her recipes (go here). Comment on this blog post, telling us which one (specifically) you would like to make.

Terms:

The two winners will be chosen from those meeting the entry requirements, using a random number generator. Sorry, only available to those with an Australian address. The giveaway runs from now until Monday the 30th of September at midnite (AEST). The winners will be emailed (please make a note to check!) and announced on this blog post. Good luck!

Connect with Sarah – The Raw Food Mum

Website: www.therawfoodmum.com

Email: sarah@therawfoodmum.com

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Hosted by Three Lil Princesses

Kate’s Almond-Crusted Chicken Nuggets – Winner of the Great Homemade Chicken Nugget Competition!

November 22, 2012 · 13 Comments

After much cooking, sampling and deliberation, we are happy to announce the winner of the Great Homemade Chicken Nugget Competition!

It is Kate Lloyd with her winning recipe – Almond Crusted Chicken Nuggets! Congratulations Kate!

We just loved Kate’s recipe. Not only was it healthy and super easy and quick to make, it tasted amazing. Kids and adults all agreed on this one.

These homemade chicken nuggets are grain free, gluten free, dairy free and additive free.

Kate’s Almond-Crusted Chicken Nuggets

Okay, so this is what you need:

2 Lilydale free-range chicken breast fillets

3/4 cup organic ground almonds (or almond meal)

2 organic egg yolks (beaten)

3/4 teaspoon Herbamare (or other seasonings of your choice)

Coconut oil, for cooking

Okay, so this is how you do it:

1. Cut the chicken into nugget (or finger) pieces.

2. Combine the ground almonds with the salt and other seasonings of your choice.

3. Dip each piece of chicken into the egg yolks, then into the almond mix so they’re well coated.

4. Fry on medium heat in coconut oil until chicken is cooked through and the outsides are crispy and browned. 3-4 minutes on each side should be fine.

We think Kate’s secret ingredient is frying them in coconut oil as they did not taste as good in sunflower oil! Just a little tip if you want to make these at home!

Kate is lucky enough to win our major prize, kindly donated by Cut out the Crap, Superfoods for Kidz and Lilydale-Living Free Range.

We chose six finalist recipes out of all the entries to cook and sample We are sending the five runners up a little thank you gift as their recipes were so great!

So, congratulations to:

Jordie Goth

Alex Watkins

Leisa Seiler

Lou Dwan

Rebecca Allum

I will be putting some of these recipes up on the blog in the new year, so keep an eye out of them!

We also had a random draw for all the recipes, as a thank you for taking the time to enter. The prize is a $25 gift voucher from Organics on a Budget!

Congratulations to the winner – Sofia Christo!

So this is yet another recipe for you in our great Just Say NO to Nuggets campaign! It really is easy and tasty to make your own healthy nuggets at home! If you would like to try my other recipes, go here and have a browse. I am so excited that so many of you feel the same way as me about making healthy food for your family. Keep up the good work everyone – your kids will thank you for it one day!

Just say NO to Nuggets! 🙂

Make your own additive free taco seasoning !!

February 20, 2012 · 57 Comments

Make your own additive free taco seasoning!!

I did a quick look at the packet taco seasoning today at the supermarket and was sad to see that the first ingredient (that means it has the highest percentage) is either salt or sugar (white and refined).

Some of them have lots of artificial additives too. I think this recipe is just as tasty with a fraction of the salt and sugar (heck, you can even leave it out if you want!)

The kids always go back for seconds – that’s normally a good sign, right?

TACO SEASONING:

Vital stats: gluten free, dairy free, nut free, vegan, egg free

Okay, so this is what you need:

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)

1 teaspoon oregano flakes

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon rapadura or coconut sugar

1 teaspoon pink himalayan salt

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon onion powder or flakes

1 tablespoon garlic powder

I like to use organic spices and herbs for this – Simply Organic or Gourmet Organic are my favourite brands.

Okay, so this is how you do it:

Mix all the ingredients together. Easy huh?

If you have onion flakes you may want to grind to a powder. You can do this by hand with a mortar and pestle or with your food processor. If you are lucky enough to have a thermomix, then grind on speed 10 for 10 seconds.

That’s it. Now you can store the seasoning in an airtight container or use it straight away. You could make a double batch and have some for next time. You could make lots of batches and give it away as gifts !

How to use it:

♥ Make taco mince using 500g mince and one batch of this seasoning.

♥ Rub it into a shoulder of pork and throw into the slow cooker for a delicious Mexican Pulled Pork.

♥ Fry with some strips of chicken, onion and capsicum to make fajitas.

♥ Rub it on a whole chook or chicken pieces and make my Mexican Chicken.

♥ Sprinkle on baked potato wedges and serve with sour cream and guacamole.

♥ Add to mince and shape into hamburgers. Serve in a bun or soft tortillas.

♥ Toss through a drained can of chickpeas and some oil and roast in the oven until crispy.

♥ Liven up a beans and rice dish.

♥ Add to mayo or sour cream to make a tasty dressing.

What else do you use it for?