Ikea, Nibbles and Butchers

I've been trying to bake 'healthier' sweet treats lately, since Tabitha is keen to scarf down anything in sight.  Pumpkin scones, apple cakes and I've been baking a date loaf quite a bit.  It's a pretty healthy option, since it only has a smidge of butter, and plenty of dates.  It keeps well, and even after it's past its prime, is nice toasted with butter.  Sometimes I include walnuts, sometimes not.

The recipe is from Ladies, A Plate.  Soak 125g chopped dates with a cup of boiling water and a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.  Let sit for 30 minutes, and then either blast in the food processor, or mash well with a fork.  Add 20g melted butter.

Meanwhile, measure out 280g plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and a pinch of salt.  Sift them together.

Beat an egg with 200g sugar until smooth - around 30 seconds in a standing mixer.  Add the dates/butter mixture to the sugar/egg mixture, then add the dry mixture, stirring to combine.  At this point, you can add a handful of chopped walnuts if you'd like.

Spread into a prepared loaf tin (i.e. greased and floured, lined at the base with baking paper) and bake at 170 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until just cooked.  I like to serve hot slices with plenty of butter.

As much as I love to bake, I do have a soft spot for some store-bought biscuits.  Some of them are quite delicious, and since Tabitha and I often have 'drop-in' visitors, I hate to be without something sweet to offer with tea and coffee.  I am rarely without a packed of Chocolate Hob Nobs in the house - buttery, rich, like an extra-buttery butternut snap dipped in chocolate - and I am newly enamored with Custard Cream biscuits, after I read that they are the most popular biscuit in the UK.  I grabbed a packet the next time I was at the supermarket, and fell in love with the vanilla-rich, custard flavour and the pretty swirl pattern on the top.

Generally, I don't buy 'homemade type' biscuits because I prefer to bake those styles, so I am more likely to buy things like the above, or even chocolate ripple biscuits, Scotch Fingers or Tic Tocs (which I think are actually kind of foul, but every few years I forget this, and buy a packet in a fit of nostalgia).

I also like to keep these in the house - thin, crispy and very spicy Ginger Thins:

I tried to take some photos of my pet lizard Atticus the other evening, but she kept scooting off.  I think she was cross because I'd been trimming her toenails!

Eventually, she settled down into my lap - here is a photo of her, and the mustard colour of my skirt brings out her yellow eyes and face so nicely.  She is a lovely lizard. Tabitha thinks so too - when I feed her, with Tabby on my hip, she grins and points at her, saying 'Lizzz!!'  Atticus is a girl, but has a boy's name, because you can't tell what sex bearded dragons are until they are around 6 months old, and I brought Atti home when she was just a tiny baby of a few weeks old.  In case you wonder, she eats fruit and vegetables most days (chopped up capsicum, apples and pears, carrot, bok choi, watermelon, all sorts of things) and woodroaches (a sort of harmless bug) every few days.  She is lazy, and likes me to hand-feed her the bugs one at a time with large tweezers!

One of my favourite things about my local butcher - apart from the very friendly young butchers - is the 'chicken nuggets' they sell.  They call them chicken nuggets, but what they really are is cold, palm-sized pieces of chicken, crumbed in a highly seasoned mixture and fried to golden perfection.  They are so good, I am not joking when I say that I find myself thinking about them almost every day.  I have to limit myself to buying just a few at a time, because I will eat them all, no matter how many I buy.  I have eaten 8 or more in one day before.  Dangerous - I call them my 'chicken crack'.  The butcher normally hands Tabitha one as we walk out, for her to nibble on in her pram on the walk home, and it keeps her perfectly happy while I finish my shopping.  They are also excellent in a sandwich with cheese and green tomato pickles.

Dinner last night included a great big pile of crispy roast potatoes and sweet potato, with plenty of salt, lemon and rosemary:

If there are roast potatoes, I am happy with nearly anything on the side.  Some barbecued chicken thighs (which come marinated, from my lovely butchers) often do the trick if the weather is nice.

One of Tabitha's current favourite lunches is spinach and cheese scrambled eggs. I'm thrilled, because it's such a nutritious meal - 2 eggs, 2 'cubes' of spinach (from the freezer boxes), a small handful of grated cheese, some pepper, a dash of milk.  It looks a little ghostly here, but it sure is yummy.  I can't believe how much of it she can eat!  If you served ham on the side, it would be Green Eggs and Ham.  I'm sure she'll like that in a couple more years.  Of course, you can also make Green Eggs and Ham with pesto scrambled eggs.  Yummy either way.

Yesterday, Tabitha had a good 3-hour nap, so I used the time to get organised.  Do you keep receipts?  I generally do, which means that once a year, I have to do a little clean out, going through them and throwing out ones no longer needed.  It's a pain of a job.  Here are the ones I threw out:

The small pile of ones I still need to hang on to:

And I finally took the time to open all the tiny envelopes, containing buttons, from clothes I've bought for Tabby and myself over the past few months.  I always hang on to spare buttons - although I rarely need them, I love having a big jar of buttons.  Some are so pretty, and I hope that Tabitha one day enjoys sorting through them.  I used to love sifting through button jars when I was small, sorting them into various categories.

This week, I took Tabitha to Ikea.  I had heard a rumour that they sell great play food, and I was not disappointed!  There are sets of fruit, vegetables, breakfast items and a cake-and-ice-cream set.  I bought the fruit, veg and breakfast ones.  Each set was less than $15, and the items are really gorgeous.  Sure, they aren't as incredible as the hand-made, wool felt food available on Etsy.com, but for a young toddler, I think they are a good option, since they are bound to get lost and/or chewed.  The Ikea sets are all machine washable too.

Here is the fruit - the banana even peels!

Here is the basket of veggies - the leaves of the lettuce ate attached with velcro, so you can pull them off just like a real lettuce:

The breakfast items come on a 'wooden' chopping board, and include 4 pancakes with jam splodges, a fried egg, some really adorable bacon, a couple of sausages, 2 slices of bread, some cheese, salami, lettuce and capsicum slices, along with a felt knife:

We also picked up some cheap-and-cheerful finger puppets, which will be useful for distracting Tabitha on the plane trip to QLD on Saturday:

We grabbed a stack of plates and bowls, too, since she is eating outside in the back yard more and more, now that the weather is warming up.  Less than $4 for all 10 pieces, BPA free:

Tabitha had a grand old time unpacking all her new Ikea items, and scattering them around the house:

Tabitha had a brilliant time at Ikea, exploring all the 'home scenes', climbing all over the sofas, and playing in the children's section.  She loved sitting on a toddler chair, just staring at all the other children, watching the world go on around her.  There was so much to see, do and touch, plenty of room to run around, and some tasty meatballs thrown in for good measure.  I think she preferred our trip to Ikea than any trip to an indoor play centre!

Sydney Trip

Last weekend, Tabitha and I made a three-day visit to Sydney.  Notice how I didn't use the word holiday?  That was intentional...

Because we only went for a few days, we had lots to cram in.  Friends and family in Sydney who had not yet even met Tabitha!  So the trip was action-packed.  We went pretty much straight from our early morning flight to Sydney, from the airport we hired a car and drove 40 minutes north for a baby shower (the main reason for our trip).  On the plane, I had to carry Tabitha and my outfits in a large carrier bag, wrapped in tissue, so they didn't wrinkle, as well as the wrapped gift, so that I didn't squash it's fancy bow.

Speaking of the gift - the baby shower was for the divine Miss Kitty Cat from Miss Kitty Cat Goes to Town.  Since I know that she is going to be a truly excellent mumma, and also I know that she appreciates handmade items, I decided to crochet her a blanket for her pram.  She has purchased a green Bugaboo Cameleon, so I did a green, pink and cream blanket.  The pattern is one I created myself a few years ago - I crocheted a large (single bed size) blanket while The Daddy and I were on our honeymoon driving around France, with the intention that it would be used one day for our first baby.

Anyway, I finished the blanket with a week spare before the baby shower - roughly 25 hours' work, and quite a few balls of really nice Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn.  I carefully washed it, and laid it out to dry, gently pulling it into shape to lie flat on a clean towel.  I closed the bedroom door, to keep the cats out of the room.

Fast forward a couple of hours - I open the bedroom door to get some shoes.  ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!  I must have accidentally locked the cat (the younger, more destructive one) IN the room with the blanket!  He has eaten great holes in it.  It is beyond repair - as you know if you have crocheted, you cannot patch it or close big holes.  I was completely devastated - I called The Daddy, and I think he thought someone had died!

After a total meltdown and freakout for half an hour, I pulled myself together and thought about things logically.  Could I re-do the blanket in a week?  Yes, I thought, I can.  With roughly an hour per colour-stripe, that meant I would need to crochet for around three or so hours each day, leaving enough time to wash, dry and wrap the blanket in time to take it to Sydney for the baby shower.

I was able to salvage the first four stripes.  I carefully cut them away, pulled out the tiny pieces of wool, and started from there...

So, I did finish it in time.  I may have some mild carpal tunnel going on!  I washed it, laid it to dry (well away from the cats) and took it to get beautifully wrapped.

I chose some cute pink polka-dot paper, and a few nice pink and green ribbons:

Even the envelope for the card had green polka dots.  I was quite pleased!

Here is Tabitha's sweet little outfit, ready to take on the plane - because it was chilly in Sydney, she embraced layering:  cream wool tights, a pink cotton Petit Bateau dress, a cream cotton Bebe cardigan, and a pink wool frock coat from Zara.  She wore pink shoes.

Here is my sweet darling devouring a cupcake.  Sadly, I got well and truly covered in frosting at the baby shower!  I looked a real fright by the time we left - but Tabby had an absolute ball, 'helping' to unwrap presents, gorging herself on cupcakes, and generally getting up to mischief...

The food was, unsurprisingly, divine.  Two of Miss Kitty-Cat's dearest friends had done most of the food prep, and everything was delicious:

The cupcakes have little 'babies' stuck on top.  Tabitha carried her tiny 'baby' around all afternoon - in fact, it is still in my handbag!

Look at these gorgeous cat cookies!

The shower was such fun, and well worth the trip.  I managed to sit and enjoy a couple of Champagnes, and it was fantastic to watch Miss Kitty-Cat open all of those achingly sweet little gifts - tiny shoes, pretty dresses and the like.

The rest of the trip to Sydney was jam-packed but lots of fun.  I did not take my camera out for the rest of the trip, sadly - but we went to Avalon to visit my Godfather's parents, we went to the fish markets (Tabitha and I shared a delicious lobster for breakfast!), and my friend Amy and I took Tabitha to a Sushi Train restaurant.  Tabby thought this was beyond brilliant - her high chair sat right up at the bench beside us, so she could watch the train go around while she ate her sushi.  She insists on trying to eat sushi with chopsticks now, would you believe, so it can be a slow process...

Upon our return to Melbourne, I needed to do something grounding, so I made an enormous batch of savoury mince to freeze for lunchtime meals for Miss T.  I included loads and loads of finely chopped veggies - zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, squash and celery.

Now that Spring has started to make itself known, my garden is slowly coming back to life.  Fresh new growth on the rosemary bush, and new buds of mint, are appearing, so I used them and made a lamb shoulder with caper and mint gravy.

So I mentioned that Tabitha loves sushi - here she is absolutely freaking out with excitement because she has some tuna and avocado handroll in her little fist.  When we go near the sushi shop - any of the half-a-dozen we frequent - she starts wriggling and pointing madly, calling "Shoo-shoo!  Shoo-shoo!".  It really makes me giggle that a 15-month old baby can say 'sushi'.

Oh - and I bought this sweet little wooden pull-along mouse toy the other day.  I am in love with it - it's little bottom wiggles from side to side as it pulls along:

Whew.  Now that I have managed to recover from my Sydney trip, and am back in the swing of normal life, I have exactly 7 more days before we leave again, this time for a week in Palm Cove.  Thankfully, The Daddy is coming along, and we are also holidaying with my parents and sister, so it will actually be a proper 'holiday', with a cocktail by the pool and a few nice dinners out and all that.  Can't wait!

Fathers' Day Lunch

Sorry to skip around a little - but I have to share the delicious lunch we had on Sunday.  The Daddy, Tabitha, myself, my parents, my sister and I all went to my Godfather's house, where we had lunch with him, his wife and son (my Godson/Tabby's Godfather).  My Godfather is a truly brilliant cook - experimental but always comforting, hearty and home-style food.  His mother is Italian, and also an excellent cook - I remember being highly impressed by her Bombe Alaska when I was a wee thing.

For the nine of us, he prepared a relaxed, long lunch, starting with a rustic guacamole served with crostini, raw fennel and carrots for dipping, followed by a roasted tomato and balsamic soup, with toasted, oiled bread, followed by grilled spatchcocked chooks with a steamed medley of vegetables, followed by some delicious summer fruits with a sort of 'sweet pesto' of mint and sugar.

Rough-chopped guac with fennel and carrots:

Roasted tomato and balsamic soup with grilled bread:

Giant bowl of grilled chicken:

This is how they come out of the oven - just spatchcocked and grilled:

Great big pile of steamed, buttered veggies - he says he put the potatoes in first, then after a while adds the baby carrots and green beans, then adds the cabbage, then lastly adds the peas on the top for the final few minutes:

For dessert, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, with a mortar and pestle-pounded sauce of fresh mint, olive oil and sugar:

Accompanied with a bottle of my current favourite Champagne, which is on sale for $59 at several of our local bottle shops - we stocked up a little on the weekend!

Tabitha plucked an apple out of my Godfather's fruit bowl, and sat on the couch, happily munching away:

Tabby and Q, just hanging out:

Tabitha also enjoyed chomping on the raw fennel - here she is clutching her apple in one hand, her fennel in the other:

A really lovely Fathers' Day, with great company, and lots of food - we did not need dinner that night!

Fast Food for Toddlers

No - not that sort of fast food!

The two problems with feeding a one-year-old, so far as I can see, are that a) they go from happy to starving in three minutes flat and b) once they are hungry, they are grumpy and don't want to play happily while you prepare their food.

I'm sure every mother knows that it is entirely possible to create a vegetable omelet with one hand, while balancing a wriggly toddler on the opposite hip.

Now that Tabitha only naps once a day (12pm for between 1.5-2 hours, normally, although right now it is 2:50pm and she's still asleep!), and is quite demanding of my attention when she is awake, I have to be more clever with my time management.  I try to do as much food prep as possible during her nap.  Some of the most useful things I do include:

• Cutting up a whole head of broccoli into florets, and storing them in a tupperware veggie keeper in the fridge.  I used to just cut up broccoli when I was about to cook it, and steam the whole lot in one go, but Tabitha loves broccoli, so being able to quickly pluck out a few florets to steam for her is very handy.
  
• I roast small pieces of potato, sweet potato and pumpkin around once a week - they re-heat easily, and a small handful of these (roasted with olive oil, rosemary and a little salt and lemon) is a yummy side of veggies for Tabitha.  I keep them for a few days in the fridge, re-heating small amounts as needed.
  
• Frozen corn and frozen peas are always on hand in my freezer - I used to buy canned corn, but not only do I find frozen corn to be of superior quality (and apparently nutritional value), I love the ease of being able to shake out a few tablespoons for Tabitha, instead of opening a whole can.
  
• Preparing meat / protein under time pressure can be difficult, and because toddlers (like us) only need a small portion (the size of their palm, roughly, of red meat), I find it much easier to divide meat and proteins up into single servings ahead of time, and freeze them.  For example, today I bought a large veal schnitzel, a thick eye fillet steak, and a really lovely locally made lasagne.  I cut the schnitzel into 4 pieces, cut the steak into 4 smaller 'mini steaks', and divided the lasagne into 6 serves.  I wrapped each serving in cling-film, and popped them all straight into the freezer.  It took less than 10 minutes, and now I have 14 Tabitha-sized serves of red meat ready to go.

Veal schnitzel portions - our local butcher crumbs them with fresh breadcrumbs and parsley:

Eye fillet portions - I got 4 thick-ish pieces out of the 3" high steak.  I then butterfly each one before cooking, so I can get it medium-rare in next to no time.

The lasagne I like to buy contains, in order, organic beef, gluten-free pasta, tomatoes, cheese, white sauce (milk, flour, butter, bay), Shiraz, onion, garlic and salt.  I choose this one because it contains plenty of beef for a nice hit of iron and protein, no nasty additives, and most importantly, it tastes and smells incredible - just like bolognaise you would make yourself, at home.  It's a nice easy 'cheat' meal, full of good things without having to make it from scratch yourself.  To serve, I heat it up and chop it, so that it can be eaten with a spoon or a fork, and I add some veggies (peas or corn stirred through, or else a side of broccoli or beans or something).

14 serves of meat ready for the freezer - schnitzels, steaks and lasagne:

• Other nice and quick proteins that I rely on are:  eggs (scrambled, fried or omelet), seafood (canned salmon, tuna or sardines, or simple salmon or white fish to pan-fry, as well as prawns, scallops and yabbies), poultry (roast chicken, pan-fried duck breasts or chicken thighs and breasts cooked in all sorts of ways) and also beans, pulses, natural yoghurt and cheese.  Between these, and red meat a few times a week, it is easy to offer a diet with plenty of variety.  Of course, you can stash fish portions, prawns and chicken pieces in the freezer.
  
• When time is critical, the simplest emergency meals for Tabitha seem to be either some eggs scrambled with cheese, peas and corn, a veggie-burger with cheese or a fried egg, or some microwaved lasagne.

While Tabitha normally eats dinner with The Daddy and I, or just myself, I tend to prepare a separate lunch for her - she has lunch at 11:30am, which is a bit early for me, so I just sit with her and pick at her meal (so she's not eating alone).  Some of the most common lunch time meals that I cook for Tabitha at the moment include:

• A jaffle on wholegrain bread with Gruyere, green tomato pickle, canned tuna (Sirena in oil) and a good amount of corn.
  
• Salmon and rice with some teriyaki sauce and green veggies.
  
• Beef stew from the freezer (beef with a few veggies, normally carrot, onion, potato tomato and celery) or other cooked-in-advance and frozen meals such as chicken provencale.
  
• A small veal schnitzel or piece of eye fillet (both very tender meats for her little molars) with some vegetables.
  
• Scrambled eggs or omelet with cheese, peas and corn, sometimes spinach, capsicum, mushrooms or some shredded meat from the fridge).
  
• Beef lasagne with veggies, or vegetable lasagne.
  
• A veggie burger (as I've mentioned here before, I use the incredible VBK Foods ones, which are 85 per cent vegetables, with wholemeal flour and rice bran oil - we love the sweet potato ones.  These are sold at our local farmers' market, but are also available at an increasing number of outlets) with some nice cheese or a fried egg.
  
• Leftover roast meat (such as lamb shoulder, pork, beef or chicken) served hot or cold with veggies.
  
• An avocado and cheese sandwich on wholegrain bread.
  
• Pasta (penne or spirals, wholemeal or not) with basil or coriander pesto.
  
• Some white fish, tossed in seasoned flour, pan-fried and served with lemon butter and veggies (normally asparagus or broccolini).
  
•  As a treat, I cook some Maggi-type noodles (plain, with no flavouring).  I add a beaten egg, and some peas and corn, while they cook.  I drain them, then stir through a little ketchup manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) or oyster sauce, sometimes some sweet chili sauce as well.  She really loves these, and it is super-cute watching her eat the noodles with her hands.  I must point out - you need to chop up the noodles, because long noodles are easy to choke on if they start to swallow one without chewing properly.
  
• If we have gone for a nice long walk before lunch (often we do a morning walk from 9:30-10:30am), I will often buy her a couple of sushi handrolls from the shops nearby.  Tuna and avocado handrolls are probably her favourite food at the moment - she recognises the sushi shop, and flaps around madly in her pram as we approach.  She points at all the handrolls and when I buy them, she gets mighty upset if I don't hand one over straight away!  Two handrolls - normally tuna/avocado and omelet/cucumber or vegetable - make a nice quick, easy 'treat' lunch.

I'd be thrilled to hear any other fast-food ideas...