Kid Friendly Vege Curry

This is a mild, vegetable  filled curry suitable for children.

I cook it in a slow cooker, but you could also cook in a saucepan.

It contains many health promoting ingredients such as tumeric (for anti inflammatory effects), garlic and onion (for fighting infections), coconut cream with it's lauric acic provides anti viral and anti bacterial properties, and plenty of  healthy vegetables.
We use home made stock in it for it's gut healing benefits.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine.

Kid Friendly Vege Curry

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons butter
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely grated
1 cm piece of ginger, finely grated
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 Tablespoon mild curry powder
200g sweet potato, peeled and cubed
200g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and cubed
400g can of coconut cream
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup stock
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
150g (half a head) cauliflower, broken into florets
salt and pepper to season

Directions

If cooking in slow cooker, turn to high and add the first 11 ingredients.
Let cook for about 2 hours (until sweet potato and pumpkin are soft).
Either blend the mixture with a stick blender or mash with a potato masher.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower, and cook either on high for another 2 hours or low for 4 - 5 hours.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.

If cooking in a saucepan, melt butter and gently fry onions for a few minutes.
Add garlic, ginger, tumeric, curry powder, sweet potato, pumpkin or butternut squash, coconut cream, stock, and tomato paste.
Gently simmer until sweet potato and pumpkin are soft (about 15 - 20 minutes).
Either blend the mixture with a stick blender or mash with a potato masher.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower, and simmer for another 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Sugar free Sorbet

Persimmons or otherwise known as Sharon fruit are at the end of their season here in New Zealand, but there are still a few around and I even spotted some discounted at our local supermarket.

Grab some while you can and pop them in your freezer, they make a terrific base for this delicious sorbet.

I'm hoping to save some till summer, but I seriously doubt they will last that long.


Persimmon and Orange Sorbet

Ingredients

2 Persimmon
1 Orange

1. Peel the persimmons with a vegetable peeler, roughly chop and freeze. 
Alternatively you can freeze the persimmons whole, then peel and chop while frozen but your hands will freeze too, and you will need a sharp vegetable peeler.

2. Juice your orange and freeze the juice into an ice cube tray (it will only fill 2 - 3 cubes).

3. Combine the frozen ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth (this may take a few minutes).
Either serve immediately or place sorbet back in freezer for an hour or two. It does tend to freeze solid if frozen for longer.

Variations

For a Mango and Persimmon Sorbet, peel and roughly dice 1 mango then freeze the flesh.
Add the frozen mango with the frozen persimmon, and omit the orange juice. Blend in food processor.

For a Pineapple and Persimmon Sorbet, peel and roughly chop about 100g of fresh pineapple, then freeze. Add the frozen pineapple to the frozen persimmon. Blend in food processor.

For a passion fruit and persimmon sorbet, add 1 passion fruit to the frozen persimmon. No need to freeze the passion fruit. Blend in food processor.

Tali thought my notes on raising an adventurous eater were great.......and devoured it

Whatever flips your pancake

Have you been religiously feeding your sourdough starter, but haven't quite found the time to make your bread?
And now you have sourdough starter coming out of your ears!
Don't throw it away, instead make pancakes.

SOURDOUGH PANCAKES

                        

                                               makes 4 pancakes (approx 12 - 15cm diameter)

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter

1 egg, beaten

coconut oil for frying

toppings of your choice, I've used Greek yogurt, papaya, and banana in this one.

1. Whisk the sourdough starter and egg together.

2. Heat about 1/2 Tablespoon of the coconut oil in a fry pan. When hot pour in 1/4 - 1/3 cup batter into the pan.
Let cook until the batter is no longer runny and the pancake is golden on the first side. 

Flip, and cook the other side.

3. Remove from fry pan, and cook the rest of the batter, adding a bit more coconut oil as needed.

4. Add your toppings and enjoy.


If you prefer Pikelets or American style Pancakes

makes 8 pancakes (approx 10cm diameter)

1.Add : 3 Tablespoons white spelt flour
             1 teaspoon baking soda
to the batter ingredients in the recipe above. Mix well.

2. Heat about 1/2 Tablespoon of coconut oil in a fry pan. When pan is hot, add a large serving spoon of batter to the fry pan. Cook until golden on the first side, before flipping and cooking the other side.

ENJOY

Easy Peasy Sourdough Loaf

This is a very easy loaf of bread to make, although there are a few short steps involved.

It produces a really flavoursome, moist, and easy to slice loaf of bread.
Sourdough breads do have a slightly tart taste and will be heavier than store bought bread.

I use spelt flour although you could use wheat if you prefer.
Spelt flour doesn't like to be overworked, so just mix and knead until dough is even and stop at that (3 minutes at the most).

I cook my bread in my bread machine on the bake only setting, just because it saves me heating up my oven for 1 loaf of bread, but you could cook it in your oven if you prefer.

Whole grains contain a type of protein called lectins, which can irritate the gut wall and cause an immune response in sensitive individuals. This can cause skin rashes, joint pain, and chronic disorders such as leaky gut syndrome.
Sifting whole flour will remove some of the bran which contains the lectins, and fermenting will aid in breaking down lectins too.

Ingredients
250g (2 cups) whole spelt flour
1 cup water
1 cup sourdough starter
300g (2 1/2 cups) white spelt flour
1 egg, beaten

1. Sift the 250g of whole spelt flour into a non-metallic bowl.
Add the cup of water and the cup of sourdough starter.
Mix until combined, then cover with a tea towel and leave to ferment for 6 - 24 hours.

2. Then add the remaining 300g of white flour and the beaten egg.
Mix until combined, and knead for a few minutes.
Transfer your dough to either a loaf tin, or a bread machines pan. If your bread machine pan has a removable mixing blade then remove it so you don't have a big hole in your loaf of bread. It you can't remove it then turn the blade to face sideways across your loaf, so it makes the least damage as possible.
Cover your tin with cling film. If you are using a normal loaf tin it will be best to cover with oiled cling film so your dough doesn't stick to it if it rises up high enough to touch it.
Leave in a warm spot to rise for 3 or more hours.

3. Once risen for 3 or more hours, either bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes, or gently place your bread machine pan into your bread machine and use your bake only setting for 45 minutes.

Let's get started

To get your very own sourdough starter you have a few options.

A nice, healthy, bubbly sourdough starter

1. Find someone with one and ask for some. Check out fermenting pages in your local area if you don't know anyone personally with one.
They tend to be generous people who like to share the love.

2. Buy one. You can order a starter very easily online. Just follow the instructions and you will have your own sourdough starter.

3. Capture your own wild yeast.
This process takes  a week.
Combine 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup water in a non metallic bowl. Cover with a tea towel to keep insects out, then leave in a warm spot for 24 hours.
Every day add a few tablespoons of flour and a few tablespoons of water, mix well and replace the tea towel.
After a few days your starter will begin to form bubbles, after 7 days it will be ready for bread making.

4. Use Kombucha for a sourdough starter.
Kombucha is a fermented drink, full of natural yeasts and bacteria, perfect for inoculating a sourdough starter.
If you already brew your own kombucha, save the yeasty dregs from the bottom of your brew and use them.
If not, you can purchase bottled kombucha in health food shops, just ensure it's raw.
Combine 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup kombucha, stir well and cover with a tea towel to keep insects out. Leave somewhere warm for 24 hours.
After 24 hours the starter should be forming bubbles.
If not, don't give up. Feed it another 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup kombucha, mix well, cover and recheck in another 8 - 10 hours.
As soon as the starter is bubbling and frothy with a slight sour smell, you can start baking.

What flour to use

Rye is the most common sourdough starter.
It produces a dense loaf, that my children aren't so keen on.
We use spelt flour which is an ancient variety of wheat. It has a lower gluten and phytic acid content than regular wheat, and produces a delicious loaf of bread, although it will be heavier than a loaf made from wheat.
My starters are more active when using white flour, although some people do prefer whole flour.

Feeding your starter

I feed my starter once a day. The more you feed it, the more active it will be.

If you don't plan to use it in the next week then store it in the fridge, where it will keep for months. Just take it out, re feed it, and it will kick back into action.

I feed my starter 3-4 Tablespoons white spelt flour and 3 - 4 Tablespoons water daily and mix well.
I tend to bake every 2nd day, so you may need to adjust this depending on how often you intend to bake.

Follow me to learn how to make a loaf of yummy sourdough bread.

The best thing since sliced bread

Our daily bread, the staff of life, bread has been around for 10,000 years so it's got to be OK for us, doesn't it?

Unfortunately the bread we have today is vastly different from the bread eaten 100 and even 50 years ago.
People used to consume a wider variety of grains, but we have narrowed our consumption so much that now 50% of our food comes from corn, rice, or wheat.
The wheat currently used is a much higher in a certain protein called glia-alpha 9 than 100 years ago, and scientists in the Netherlands think this maybe responsible for the dramatic rise in people developing celiac disease.
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20664999?dopt=Abstract

Our wheat is grown with an ever increasing cocktail of chemical pesticides and fungicides, and the majority of our bread is made by a process called the Chorleywood bread process.
This process was created in the UK in 1961, it shortened the amount of time to make a loaf of bread to just 3 1/2 hours from the start, to sliced, and packaged.
It requires the use of high speed mixers and chemical oxidents to produce plenty of cheap, soft, spongy and uniform packets of bread, and saved people lots of time.

It bypasses the old methods of bread making which slow and time consuming.
However our traditional methods of bread making have some distinct advantages.
All grains contain a substance called phytic acid.
Phytic acid binds with phosphorus and can block the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc.
A diet high in unfermented whole grains could lead to severe mineral deficiencies and also puts a huge strain on the digestive system.

An old traditional way of bread is sourdough bread.
Sourdough bread is prepared using a sourdough starter.
This starter acts as a natural yeast for the bread and ferments the dough, breaking down phytic acid and gluten, and increasing the nutritional content of the bread.
New research in Italy has shown that some people with celiac's disease can tolerate sourdough bread.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20975578

More and more people are discovering the benefits of sourdough bread, with it's distinct delicious taste, which is so much more satiable than the packets of cheap bread, or expensive air, stocked at your supermarket.

Follow me to learn more about how to make your own sourdough starter and bread.

What is a Weston Price diet?

Dr Weston Price was a dentist in the 1930's who travelled the world to study the diets of traditional and non-industrialized people.

He found that these people had superb health, and were free of chronic disease and dental decay.

When he compared these groups to nearby villages or tribes who were living on so called 'civilised diet' which involved refined grains, canned foods, pasteurized milk, and sugar, he found that these people had developed degenerative and infectious illnesses.

What does the the diet involve?

In a nutshell avoiding all processed foods.

No processed meats (including luncheon, salami, bacon)
No margarine, foods cooked in vegetable oils, or low fat products
No highly processed vegetable oils
No pasteurized, homogenized commercial milk
No bleached or fortified flour
No genetically modified foods
No commercial cereals
No refined sugar, including high fructose corn syrup
No fizzy drinks, fruit juices, rice or oat milk, MSG, artificial colours, flavours, or preservatives.

So what can we eat?

All nutrient dense, unprocessed foods which includes

Pasture raised meat, beef, lamb, game, chicken, turkey
Seafood from deep sea waters, fresh shellfish
Fresh eggs from free range hens
Fresh butter and cream, especially raw diary, yogurt, and cheese
Extra virgin olive oil, and coconut oil
Sourdough breads
Fresh fruit and vegetables, raw, cooked, and fermented
Meat stocks
Lacto-fermented drinks

The aim of this blog is to focus on the food we can eat.
To share recipes that we use and our children enjoy, and that I feel isn't too time consuming to prepare with a busy family life.

Welcome to That's yummy mummy

Welcome to my new blog.

I hope you will enjoy it.

That's yummy mummy is the place to visit if you are looking for healthy, nutritious, and delicious recipes for the whole family, as well as healthy living tips for busy mums and dads.

We strive to eat a low sugar, high fruit and vegetable diet which also contains healthy fats. Probably similar to the diet our great grandparents ate.
Our recipes are  particularly suited to families trying to heal food intolerance's and allergies, stop tooth decay, and ease conditions such as eczema. These are the reasons that started us on this journey several years ago.