Just a proud mummy moment that was long overdue.

A post that's a bit different today and I wanted to document it mostly for me, so on those days when I feel like shrinking into a hole I can look back at this and remember why it's worth it.

As I've mentioned before we have a peaceful/respectful parenting philosophy and of late things hadn't been that peaceful around here or at least all I'd been noticing was all the not so peaceful moments.
The kids have been fighting what felt like constantly , I had been a bit highly strung which isn't the norm for me, once fun outings had become chores and everyone had been blowing there top a little too often :( and when things seem to be constantly in chaos I won't lie sometimes you do question how and what your doing with your parenting.

Well this morning I got an absolutely beautiful reminder of why we do things as we do and boy did I need it.

The kids were having a crafty/arty morning which started with the boys using the chalks outside and Miss L doing cutting and pasting inside. Mr W did some of the most impressive creations I have ever seen him do. The first of a beach with a orange fish and then the veggie patch and another of what he tells me is "green man" who we have overlooking our garden and 2 figures now who is the sun god and the moon goddess. When did my biggest little guy get so imaginative and how did I miss this.

The boys came inside and joined Miss L and this is where the really special moment for me took place and it was something they discovered all on there own there was no input from me.
They were all crafting away and there is only one glue stick left and all they found was one pair of scissors and one tape dispenser.

As I stood in the kitchen quietly tidying up my heart swelled as I listened in to there dialogue. They spoke to each other in such a respectful way, saying please and thank you to each other as they shared the craft supplies with one another. Then Mr R had a revelation and exclaimed " this is so great sharing kids".

This beautiful moment re affirmed for me that indeed we are doing the right thing when it comes to our kids. Trying to parent with love and respect always and teaching them not by enforcing rules but by showing them with the way we behave ourselves.

I'm sure there has been many more of these moment but in my funk that I've been in of late I had missed them, I've been a bit hassled and frantic and stressed about other things and I must have missed a lot of these beautiful moments.

Thank goodness witnessed this one as its cleared the funk and again I'm reminded that I am raising some pretty amazing little people <3 and PB and I are great parents.

I am a great mum.

Artisan bread- last weeks tester.

As some of you would already know from the Facebook page the last 2 weeks I've been trialling Artisan bread or more specifically spelt artisan bread which I did use the Thermomix to mix but what appealed to me was 1. You can keep the dough in the fridge and pull out what you need when you need it and 2. It's no kneed the you let the dough do all the work with the long rise time.

You don't need a Thermomix at all to make this bread I just choose a TMX recipe well because I own one and it is quick and easy. You can find the recipe here
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/wholemeal-spelt-artisan-bread.html

For anyone without a tmx that might find that recipe hard to convert here's a non tmx version http://breadmakingblog.breadexperience.com/2009/08/artisan-free-form-loaf-boule.html

So with this bread you just mix all the ingredients together well no kneading at all and you leave it to rise for at least 2 hrs or up to 5 then put into the fridge and you can keep it in the fridge for however long you like and pull out what you need as you go. With the research I've done on it it seems too you don't need to wash out the dough bucket when you add a fresh batch to it all you have to do is mix it in.

The big plus for me is the fact you make it earlier and it won't over rise like other breads for me with 4 kids and a husband who works long hrs convenience is a big thing for me and just pulling what you need out of the fridge when you need it is great and leaves me no excuse not to make our own bread.

So how did we find the bread itself? Flavour wise it's delicious but its quite a stronger flavour which some may not like but we love the nutty, salty taste. Texture is lovely too quite fluffy and airy and a bit chewy which I also loved so overall here it got a bit A++.

Here's some photos below I was hoping to get one at each step but I always forget :D I'm too into the task at hand I forget the photo bit. The second picture is after the dough has risen a bit but it actually wasn't fully risen here it rises all the way to the top before it collapses.

My latest project: Bread!!!

Baking you own bread is so rewarding, it's amazing how a few simple ingredients come together and turn into this beautiful home cooked creation to warm the heart.

I've taken the plunge and cancelled my weekly bread order from the health food shop because I've decided we will make all our own bread.
I mean I have a Thermomix so I really don't have any excuse not too.

So even though I'm excited I'm new to this and thought I would share the journey with you and hopefully inspire some of you to give bread making a go.

Now I'd made the odd focaccia and rolls twice before with my Thermomix and that's it in the 4months I've had it and well it was always rushed and I didn't really give it much of a though. But I've recently discovered the love for it.

Plan is to start out basic and then get creative.

So far this week I've done a spelt and buckwheat loaf which...well...I mucked up being distracted with my 3 eager helpers I forgot to grind the buckwheat grains up before adding the other ingredients. So I was thinking oh no goodness knows how this will turn out but we were all pleasantly surprised when it turned out totally AWESOME!!! The buckwheat grains had softened so they only had a slight crunch which added a nice texture and the flavour was just lovely.
It had the buckwheat flavour still but more subtle.
Was a winner with our pumpkin, zucchini and leek soup we made to go with.

Filled with confidence I decided to whip up some rolls tonight and went with a wheat/rye combo which was also very successful :D
The wheat/rye rolls where the bun for my yummy dinner of paprika sprinkled chicken and zucchini, red onion and rainbow tomato salsa with some organic fetta burger and homemade oven chips.

I never thought I'd get so much enjoyment from something so simple. I cannot wait to see what we make next.

Waiting with excitement for my babies.

Am I the only one who find waiting for seeds to germinate really exciting?

And then when/if they do its such an awesome feeling if you haven't grown from seed before you really should try it because its even more rewarding I find.

At the moment 90% of what in my veggie patch I grew from seed, which includes tomatoes, rainbow silverbeet, beans, corn, pumpkin, zucchini, beetroot and our onions which of course we already harvested well before the new year.

My kids are Turing out to be keen gardeners like PB and I and for them to watch the transformation is really cool, they find it super interesting and I think it really makes them understand the work involved in producing good food.

My goal for this year is to grow as much as I can and to make sure I continual plant so I have a constant supply.

Here's what I've got on the go at the mo and yes that tray on the left isn't very well labeled but that's how I roll... Who doesn't like a surprise haha.

I'm really looking forward to the beautiful purple cabbages in the bottom picture. They are just beautiful.

I'm back!!! And it feels good.

Hello! It's been a while huh? Sorry about that but I got lost for a little while and needed to rediscover myself and my passions and also remember why I started blogging in the first place. So here I am :)

A fair bit has changed since I last visited here, lots actually!! I'm not sure how to fit it all into one post!

Little miss H turned 1 in nov which also marked 12 month of beautiful breast feeding for us which is fabulous and we are still going now at almost 15mths.

Papa B started a new job

Mr W had his 5th birthday and is now a big kinder boy which he loves.

I turned 25!


Miss L turned 4 and her and Mr R have both started the kinder program at child care one day a week they love it.

We have done some reno's and made changes to our garden, expanding the veggie patch's.

I got a Thermomix!!!!

I unpublished the Facebook page which I think I'm ready to publish again, I realised I had really lost focus of what I was doing. In real life and on the blog.
I feel like I hadn't really been in my body for a while and didn't know what I wanted or where I was going when I realised I really should just be living in the now. So I took a break for certain things in my life until I had gotten back on track.

I'm looking forward to sharing 2013 with you as we progress on our journey to a more natural lifestyle.

I'm putting a lot of energy into expanding our edible garden and making sure we have a continuous supply I had put this gardening on hold for a while as we weren't sure on future plans to move to a bigger block and more rural location ect and I was feeling like it would be a waste to put in so much energy here only to move in 12 months time but a good friend of mine changed my perspective she said to LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT TO LIVE NOW!! Don't put thing on hold just encase you do this or that or the plan changes so that's how I'm going to try and live 2013.

My healthy "not sausage" rolls

We are 90% vegetarian in the LLL house, we do eat meat at other people houses and I still cant go past a nice piece of fish but I rarely buy and cook meat in the house. A sure favourite even amongst meat eaters is my "not sausage" rolls.
I do all sorts of variations on these just as you would if cooking the meat type of sausage roll, you can add whatever herbs and spices you like.

1 tin of brown lentils or you can used dried lentils I prefer tinned ones though I can never get my dried lentils as moist as the tinned ones and they can make the rolls a bit dry probably because I'm always to un-organised to remember to soak them 1st.
1 tin of crushed tomato's or if you have your own made up use that.
Herbs of choice, I just used dried mixed herb for these ones pictured because I am using my fresh herbs faster than they are growing at this time of year.
Garlic, lots of garlic.
onion, I usually like some fried off red onion but I didn't have any so I just used spring onions.

Paprika and a dash of wostershire sauce
I like to add some red capsicum too it adds some spice without being hot but I don't like the texture of it in there so I puree it in the food processor first.
Borgs, organic ready made puff pastry
Fresh made breads crumbs, approx 1/12 to 2 cups

Method
Get 2 frozen pasty sheets out to defrost.
If using dried lentils cook those first, once cooked add to bowl and let cool If you using tinned just chuck in the bowl and keep going.

Add chopped garlic, spices, herbs, onion, crushed tomato's, capsicum and any other desired things like wostershire sauce or balsamic vinegar. You could add curry powder too if you wish. 

Whiz up fresh bread in the food processor to make breadcrumbs then add to bowl as well then mix up with a spatula until well combined.

Cause when I cook I don't always measure things I often find I need to make more breadcrumbs if the mix isn't forming shape well enough. It helps to keep it bonded together so I usually just whiz up 11/2 piece of bread till they crumb and add that mix and see if I need any more sort of thing depending on how wet the mix is.
Once you happy with your mix cut the pastry sheets in half leaving you with 4 rectangles and lay mix towards one side of the sheet but not too close to the edge makes rolling harder.
Form mix that you have laid out into a nice sausage I sort of do it as I go then roll your pastry over and seal on the edge with a fork and repeat for other sheets.

Brush with milk, sometimes I like to sprinkle seeds on top I usually use chia seeds but you could use poppy or sesame.
Pop in a moderate over for about 20 mins or until pastry has turned golden brown.

A much healthier version than your regular sausage rolls, great for parties, lunches, snacks.

I like them as much cold as I do hot. 

Healthy, yummy, no nasty ice cream?? Yes Please!!

I don't usually buy ice cream but I did the other day and realised its so hard to find an ice cream without lots of yucky additives in or "numbers" as lots of people refer to them, in Coles the other day I could not find one ice cream I would be happy eating or feeding to my kids so I asked around and found this rad idea.

Frozen Banana Ice Cream 

Yummy, simple, healthy and quick and easy.

All you need is some frozen bananas approx 1.5 bananas per person and a food processor or similar.
I cut the bananas into pieces and sliced down one side of the skin to peel off, popped in the food processor and whizzed up I also added some coconut sugar and some raw cacao. I would recommend using quite ripe bananas for this because depending on the ripeness once blended you can get a bit of that "greeny" taste so once there just a bit to ripe to eat alone is best I have found.

You will be amazed at the lovely consistency of the whizzed up frozen banana!!

I cant wait to try out some other flavour combos, like honey, vanilla, mixed berry. 

My yummy yummy bliss balls

One of my fave healthy snack at the moment has to be bliss balls, I am a bit of a sweet tooth and we do eat super healthy in our house but I admit I just have not been able to kick my lolly/chocolate/ice cream habit *blush* and a lot of them are filled with so many nasties not to mention soooo much sugar. So I had been looking up recipes for healthy bliss balls and there wasn't one recipe I was 100% happy with so I made my own up using bits and pieces from a few recipes. 

12-ish dates, I like organic medjool dates nice and juicy
1 Tbs organic unrefined coconut oil

Pepitas
Almonds

1Tbs Raw Cacao
Spirulina powder 1-2 Tsp (optional)
Dessicated coconut

Method

De-seed dates if using seeded ones and pop into food processor with coconut oil and give it a whiz until its quite well blended into a paste.
I then chuck in some almonds a small handful I guess and some pepitas again I just chuck some in about a small handful and give it another whiz until there chopped up nicely through the date mix.

Add you raw cacao and spirulina (optional) and whiz again, I like to whiz it up until it forms a ball.

Then roll into balls and roll in dessicated coconut and your done :) I like them chilled in the fridge though makes them a bit firmer. 

You can do so many variations, you could include sultanas, dried cranberries, chia seeds, oats, whatever nuts you like and you don't have to add spirulina but I like to for the extra goodness and you don't have to roll in the coconut but I think it looks nicer :) 

The kids love them, they fill my sweet addiction and there good for you. 

8 Proud, Glorious months of Breastfeeding!!

I am not shy to say I am proud and so I should be, the 23rd of July marked 8 awesome months of breastfeeding for me and my darling little H.

It gives me such joy know I am giving my gorgeous girl the best start in life I can. 

Even though we started out with a few problems we had to work through since 8 weeks it has been smooth sailing. 

There were times at night where she was waking 1-2hrly and I will not lie it wasn't what I would call fun but I was happy to wait it out I understood it was normal and she needed it even though it wasn't that nice for me, this was happening  up until about 2 weeks ago but I'm so happy I just waited it out because now she is happily going for 4-5hr blocks at a time overnight. and its so good to know she did it all in her own time no sleep training or horrible periods of crying necessary. 

Here's to many months more of beautiful breastfeeding.

I sure did eat my placenta!!!

Ahh my last lonley placenta capsules and to be honest I am quite sad about it, I wish they could last forever.

Yes folks that is right I consumed my placenta after H's birth, not only did I encapsulate like you see in the green cup here but I also had pieces raw right after the birth to help stem my bleeding that was looking to be on the high side and if you had asked me if I could of done this a year ago I would of probably said " ewww gross" or "why would you" but I kept an open mind and researched it and decided it was something for me and the ewww thought I would of had in the past was just a reflection of our society's misunderstanding of the magnificent organ that is the placenta.

There are many benefits of placenta consumption:
-it was made by you for you and contains your hormones
-boosts iron levels
-has been shown to boost milk production
-reduces  post-partum bleeding
-helps reduces the severity of the baby blues and reduces the risk of developing post-partum depression by quickly restoring depleted hormones
-can be great to take for when your cycle returns too and just for general periods of moodiness ect.

The placenta has very high levels of some vitamins and mineral, B6 being one of them which is the one which plays a major role in warding off PPD when ingested by the mother.


There are several ways for you to consume:

Raw- on its own straight after birth some women like to hold a piece in their cheek to stem bleeding, or some like to cut up into pill sized pieces and freeze then you just take it as you would a pill if you are worried about tasting it I suggest using something like OJ which is strong to hide the taste, or some women have like to have it as a placenta smoothie.

Tincture- is a rather subtle way to take it, and can be taken as needed not only for mum but for bub as well during times of stress like teething

Encapsulation- the process where you dehydrate your placenta in an oven on low or in a dehydrator for 8-12hrs, you then grind it up and put into capsules and take as you would any other capsule. This method is appealing to most because it is just like any other pill and the encapsulation process it rather easy to do yourself or for you caregivers/family to do.

Cooked in a meal- some people make placenta casserole or incorporate it into other cooked meaty meals.

Consuming fresh raw placenta will have the most nutrient value but any of the other ways still have huge benefits and is absolutely worth while.

My own experience was great and is something I would do again. I personally had some right after birth fresh and raw as pill sized pieces as did Pappa B which a lot of people would think was odd but I love that he did, he wanted to be a part of it all and I think its pretty cool how many men can say they have tried raw placenta!!!
 My midwife also cut up some more pill sized pieces and popped the in the freezer for me to take before the encapsulation process was complete and she also cut up the rest in slices and put in our oven on low which we then left for about 10hrs then I did the grinding and the actual encapsulating myself.

I can say from my experience it helped with my energy levels, reduced the duration and severity of the dreaded baby blues, helped with my milk production and my PP bleed was light after the initial bleed after the birth and another thing I noticed was with H she didn't get the hormone pimples all babies get after birth that badly only one or 2 at a time which was different to my other 3 little ones so I wonder if the hormones passed onto her through my breastmilk helped with that too.

You can see in the pic above that we also did placenta prints, we did both sides H's side and my side I love that we have this and I can show H her "tree of life" I will get them framed and hung when I get around to it.

So for anyone interested in learning more about this here are some links I found useful :
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures
http://codenamemama.com/2012/01/09/placenta-smoothie-recipes/
http://placentabenefits.info/medicinal.asp
http://2doulasonamission.com/benefits-of-placenta-medicine/

Ahhhh so neglected I'm sorry, so anyway here's Wordless Wednesday

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY :)

 Really this doesn't need a description does it?

Raw honey and lemon for hot drinks and Olive Leaf extract to help kick my cold.

Mmmm, my yummo signature green smoothie.

2 Bananas, raw honey, raw cacao, chia seeds, some greens this time I used spirulina but sometimes I use spinach and milk so so yummy, so so good for you.

I have started making water kefir which is a pro-biotic drink made from fermented grains, this was my first batch I have done many since and have finally perfected it I think. Blog post to come about this in the coming days.

Last but not least my crystals out ready for a cleanse in tonight's full moon, they certainly need it too!!!

There we go enjoy my first Wordless Wednesday its something I plan to do every week, we have had a lot going on lately so the poor blog has been neglected and am hoping to break that drought.

Enjoy.

April/May update from the LLL family

Well its been rather busy here this past month we have been gardening a lot fixing up the veggie patch a bit making more room and planting some winter crops and Little Miss H just started baby led weaning which is super rad fun! We have had Mr. R's 2nd birthday just last week and mothers day this weekend.  

We have expanded our veggie patch out both ends and removed a huge Agapanthus from one end which was the cause of our snail problems don't know why we didn't do it sooner Pappa B found a great old water tank at work which we have now added to the veggie garden and we will use for things like garlic/asparagus/potatoes ect.

The kids love helping out in the garden L especially does any time she can get out there with Pappa B or I she does.

You can see my wooden rooster wind chime here in this pic its my fave got it for a few bucks at a garage sale , the gate we use to grow our beans on, the besser block and the water tank were all freebies from work                                                                                                                

H has just started baby led weaning (BLW) the other week I was adamant she wouldn't be having anything more than breast milk till 6 mths but she had other ideas and started showing an interest around 5 mths so we thought why not seeing as we were doing BLW and not purees we though if she wasn't interested then she just wouldn't go for it. I was so surprised at how much she just loves it!

We started with some banana and avocado and in the last 2 weeks she has really just gone for it even trying a bit of lasagne from our plates I wasn't sure but she insisted yelling at us until we let her try it.   

I decided to get creative and get out my dyes and did a bit of tie dye and also tried my luck at some felt food which was to go with R's birthday presents and it was all going great until my machine decided to break.

R had his 2nd birthday mid week, he had a blast.

Playing with some of the felt fruit I got to make, so bummed my machine broke before I finished.

Mothers Day- I hope all the mums had a great day I sure did