healthy(ish) apple crumble for one

You all probably know by now that I love, love, love dessert. My husband, however, does not. He's weird.

Anyhow, this means that whenever the mood strikes to make sweet treats, I end up eating them all myself. So when I'm feeling sensible, I opt for individual desserts, like this healthy(ish) apple crumble. This is a pretty simple, just-wing-it kind of recipe, but here it is in case you're a recipe follower:

Ingredients:
1 apple
1 Tablespoon flour (any kind you like)
1 Tablespoon sugar (I used rapadura)
1 Tablespoon rolled oats
1 Tablespoon butter
pinch cinnamon
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a ramekin.

Peel and dice your apple, then place in the ramekin. Combine the rest of the ingredients, cutting in the butter last until you have a mixture that resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apple. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy with a big scoop of ice cream!

anatomy of a rainy day

1) Endless cups of tea.   2) A basket full of toys.   4) Homemade chocolate cake. Just 'cause.   5) A stack of books.   6) Not pictured - the many, many episodes of Peppa Pig that Clementine watched.

Our winter has been a mild one. We've had hardly any rain, so most days we just rug up and go outside to play. Yesterday was the first day it was raining so hard that I wondered how I would survive the day inside with my rambunctious toddler. Between endless cups of tea and the baking of a chocolate cake (just because I felt like it), we played with new to us toys and read a pile of books. Thank goodness for our local library; we were at the doors when they opened and came home with a pram full of goodies. Of course, toys and books will only entertain so long, so it was a relief when the sun came out in the afternoon.

Today was much the same but we headed further afield to check out an indoor trampoline park. It wore Clementine out (success!) and was surprisingly fun for my husband and I. It brought me back to my gymnast days, and I flipped and flopped with glee. After an hour we were feeling so cheerful and energised, amazing what some bouncing can do for your mood!

If there are any North American/European moms reading, can you please tell me how you survive the winter months with a toddler???

simple

These days I'm craving and relishing simplicity. It might have something to do with the lingering cold I've had for the last 2 weeks, or it may be because my energy has been low, but whatever the reasons, I'm rolling with it. I've been meaning to give my blog a makeover for 6 months now, but I'm a procrastinator so I've only just gotten to it. I loved the pink, but it's nice to have a clean, fresh, simple look. I hope you like it too.

Over the last 5 weeks I've been doing this course through The Red Tent. It's been eye opening and full of practical advice. I've learned a lot! It's really changed my approach to feeding Clementine. I used to think that if I wanted her to be a good eater, I had to expose her to every food under the sun in her first years of life. She's never been a great eater and I've been stressing over it since she was 1 month old (seriously). I've been learning, however, that from a Chinese Medicine perspective, children need simple, warm food. I've been changing Clementine's diet to include less dairy and fruit, and more easy to digest, nourishing foods like chicken congee, home-made bone broths, steamed vegetables and oatmeal. She's been responding so well! My husband (ever skeptical of "alternative" methods like Chinese Medicine) was just saying that he can't believe how well Clementine has been eating lately. He's a total convert now. Mealtimes have become so much more simple and she's eating so much more. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

I hope you're all having a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

markets & meal planning

Back in the day, I used to be quite disciplined about meal planning. I would plan our dinners one or two weeks at a time, and my husband and I would do one big shop on a Sunday afternoon. Now that we live near a supermarket (and now that I'm significantly less organised than I used to be...), I find myself winging it every night. My current system goes something like this: it's 2pm, I start wondering what I should make for dinner tonight. I hem and haw, flip through cookbooks and peruse pinterest before finally choosing a recipe and heading to the grocery store. This "system" wastes so much time, energy and money each week and it's been my intention to do something about it for a while now. Just this weekend, I finally got around to it.

On Saturday afternoon I sat down with a cup of tea, notebook, pen, stack of my favourite cookbooks and my notes from Whole Food Kitchen. I started by assigning each night of the week a theme. I ended up with:

Monday: Mexican
Tuesday: Indian/Asian
Wednesday: Italian
Thursday: casserole/crockpot
Friday: pizza
Saturday & Sunday: wildcards

I then went through each of my cookbooks jotting down the recipes I use most often, and their corresponding page numbers. I kept in mind that it's winter, and stuck with meals appropriate for this time of year. When spring rolls around, I'm planning to change my nightly themes and compile a new list of favourite recipes. Armed with my new list, planning this week's dinner was a matter of simply filling in the blanks. The whole process took me around an hour, and it was actually quite enjoyable.

With this week's meal plan in mind, we moseyed over to our favourite farmer's market early on Sunday morning. While I bought our produce for the week, my husband took Clementine to a sunny patch of grass where she could run free. It was the perfect place to sit, drink coffee and eat breakfast while not having to worry about Clementine destroying anything (restaurants and cafes are pretty much out of the question at this point). She was super interested in the ponies who she kept calling woof, so we paid for her to have a ride. Much to my surprise, she got quite scared once the pony started walking. It was cute while it lasted though.

I'm feeling optimistic about this new approach to meal planning. My goal was to keep it simple, and I think I've done that. I'll keep you posted on my progress. In the meantime, my friend Stace has also written a post on meal planning, which you can read here.

clem eats

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen my new series of photos of Clementine eating (#clemeats). The girl is unstoppable. She smears, and paints, and wipes food through her hair when she's done. We have to give her 4 baths a day because a washcloth just won't cut it after a meal. Good thing she's cute!

my day on a plate

I've always been a bit nosy, and I just love getting peeks inside peoples' fridges or glimpses of their meals. So today, for my fellow nosy friends, I bring you my day on a plate. These meals and snacks are from a midweek day last week. I ate breakfast and lunch on my own and ate dinner with my husband.

A couple of other notes: When I see these photos I realise that I probably could have eaten more veggies that day, but oh well. I'm also showing you a day where I kept my sweet tooth in check, but I have to admit that it's a constant battle. And finally, I just thought I'd mention that while I'm normally a vegetarian, I have been eating fish since becoming a breastfeeding mum. So technically, I'm a pescatarian right now. My husband is an omnivore but most of the meals we eat at home are vegetarian. Really, this is a whole other post in and of itself but if you're interested to know more, I highly recommend the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Breakfast: Steel cut oats (soaked overnight) mixed with milk, some maple syrup and banana. Oatmeal is said to be good for breastfeeding mums so I eat a lot of the stuff!

Lunch: Quesadilla, black beans and avocado (also supposed to be good for milk supply). Hands down my favourite lunch, ever.

Dinner: Curried quinoa cakes with cilantro red pepper sauce (from the e-course Whole Food Kitchen) and salad. 

Morning snack: Natural yoghurt (I buy the Jalna biodynamic organic whole milk yoghurt) with pepitas and blueberries. 

Afternoon snack: Big green smoothie (spinach, orange, banana, blueberries, flaxseed oil, bee pollen, and chia seeds) in my favourite glass. 

What have you been eating lately?

nesting: for christmas

It's no surprise that this month is usually a hard one for me. I miss my family, and I long for the traditions that make me feel like Christmas is coming. Traditions that are so seasonally based that they just don't work here; it seems odd, but I really do miss the cold and all of the indoor activities that come with it (like baking, drinking egg nog, watching movies, and knitting). Other years I've just let myself wallow, but this time I decided to get in the spirit of things. Or at least try my best.

We opted not to get a Christmas tree (maybe next year) so I emptied a little red bookcase and used it as our Christmas corner. I hung a wreath over it, filled the shelves with gifts and decorated with red and green bits and pieces like this beautiful bird that my friend Katrina made. My mother in law also made the three of us beautiful stockings, using this tutorial from the purl bee.

This month I also managed to do some baking and sewing. My friend Katie and I made the Chocolate Banana Birthday Cake from My New Roots, which was delicious and well worth the effort. Right before Christmas I made up a double batch of my favourite olive oil granola, which, packed into jars and decorated with fabric scraps made a perfect homemade gift for family and friends. Lastly, I sewed up another doll (I know, enough with the dolls already!) which was sent to baby Tallow, in honour of her first Christmas.

Now that we're in these wonderfully lazy post-Christmas days, I can honestly say that I very much enjoyed this year. I had a wonderful BirthdayChristmas and I'm glad that I made the effort to celebrate properly.

nesting: the beginnings
nesting: summertime
nesting: from summer to autumn

today

Today we baked an olive oil cake, using this recipe. We dressed the baby up as a sailor and took too many photos of her. We went for a walk in the beautiful autumn sun. And I even got a nap. A day well spent.

This weekend I'm looking forward to Finders Keepers market and having the husband at home. What will you get up to?

guest post: easy recipes for new mums by kacie

Hello, This Little Port readers. I can't even tell you how truly thrilled I am for Gaby! Clementine is such a beautiful baby and I'm so excited, as I'm sure you are, to see Gaby thrive and grow in her new role as a Mama. As the mother of one little girl, and another set to arrive any day now, I am truly over the moon for her!

Gaby asked me if I would share a recipe that would be easy for a new mama to make, or for a friend to drop off for a newly expanded family. I know it's heading into winter over in Australia, so I'm including three of my favorite comfort food recipes that would be easy to make at home and drop off for a friend in need, and also easy for a new mom to whip up. Both the soup and the casserole can be easily doubled, with one batch to go in the freezer.

First up, this completely healthy and wonderfully comforting Butternut Squash Soup...

Next up is this gourmet version of Tuna Noodle Casserole, the ultimate comfort food...

 Finally, this is my recipe for Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins! They're so yummy and easy...

I hope this gives you (Gaby) some ideas for easy comfort food, and you (readers) some ideas for ways to support someone in need! 

Gaby, congratulations on the birth of your beautiful daughter. Whether you know it or not, you're already an amazing mom.

Love,

Kacie

* Thanks so much Kacie! If you don't already know Kacie's blog, A Collection of Passions, do yourself a favour and go check it out asap. She takes beautiful photos, features amazing recipes and has the cutest family that's set to expand any day now...  

smoothies 3 ways

It's not an over exaggeration to say that buying a vitamix has changed my life. I have used it at least twice a day, every day. I've made sauces, vegan cheese, pesto, peanut butter, almond milk, etc, but mostly, I've made smoothies. Today I bring you 3 of my favourites:

This is my staple; I make some kind of green smoothie every day. I make sure to always have a big bag of spinach or kale in the fridge, and then I just add whatever else I have kicking around. I always use a base of water, and usually throw in some chia seeds for extra creaminess/nutrition. For this particular green smoothie I blended up:

- a big bunch of kale
- half a frozen banana
- half an orange
- 1 date
- 1 small apple
- small handfull organic frozen blueberries
- small pear

Did you know that you can also make juice in a high powered blender? Revolutionary, I'm telling you. To make juice instead of a smoothie, you need to add water (otherwise it won't blend), and then you have to strain out the pulp. After blending up my ingredients here, I poured the contents into a nut milk bag over a big bowl. You squeeze gently using your hands, and then you can compost or toss the pulp and drink up the juice. Yum. Here I used:

- a cup or so of water
- 1 yellow carrot
- ginger
- half a passionfruit
- 2 small apples

Lastly, my dessert smoothie. I am a chocolate and peanut butter fiend, so this is just a glass full of my favourite things. I made this one slightly healthier with the ingredients listed below, but you could also use a spoon full of nutella instead of the cacao and honey and it's delicious. Perfect for an afternoon snack. The cast of characters:

- 1 frozen banana
- big scoop of peanut butter (I used peanut butter we made in the vitamix)
- 1 heaping teaspoon raw cacao
- 1 teaspoon honey (or maple syrup if you're vegan)
- a cup or so of milk (dairy, nut, soy etc)

Some other smoothie making tips... I always make sure to have at least a few frozen bananas in the freezer. Once a banana has some brown spots on the peel I peel it, break it in half and throw it in a freezer bag. Frozen bananas will make all your smoothies (especially the green ones) extra creamy and yummy. To wash your blender after, it's easiest to fill it up halfway with warm water, a splash of soap and then turn it on high for half a minute or so. What's your favourite kind of smoothie?

p.s. this isn't a sponsored post, I just love my vitamix

nesting: the beginnings

- Enjoying a hot drink with friends at the addison road markets chait tent.

- A baby project in progress. It will be a mobile with a moon in the middle.

- Beautiful, beautiful kale for our daily green smoothies.

- A yellow carrot! Made into a yummy juice that I'll blog about soon.

- This week's flowers; I love how they look like mini pom poms.

This weekend, at 35 weeks pregnant, the husband and I finally starting nesting. To be honest, I haven't felt the nesting urge kick in yet but I'm a procrastinator so I suppose that's hardly surprising. You'll probably find me at 40 weeks pregnant scrubbing the bathroom with a toothbrush. In the meantime, we decided we better get down to business, instinct or not.

Over the weekend we visited Bunnings, Target, the Bower and Woolworths. We bought cloth nappies and face cloths to use in labour, cozy flannel pyjamas to pack in the hospital bag, baby singlets and other bits and bobs for labour and birth.

At home, we took advantage of a council pickup and de-cluttered like crazy. Best feeling ever. I also cleared out our spare room - a task I'd been avoiding for months - and got it all ready for my mom to stay. Of course, there was also some sewing for baby. A sweet little project I'll hopefully be sharing here on Thursday. Right now we're waiting on a chest of drawers I ordered online to arrive; when it does all of the baby's things will be put away. This week I'll go to Ikea, pack the hospital bag, and write some more lists. Oh so many lists...

p.s. this is my 501st post, wow!

healthy(ish) oatmeal raisin cookies

This weekend I was craving some cookies, as much for the baking as the eating. Usually when I bake it is because I enjoy the process - spending time in the kitchen, getting my hands covered in flour and listening to good tunes while I'm at it. Getting a sweet treat at the end is really just a bonus.

I had my heart set on oatmeal raisin cookies, but since I've been trying my best to eat a whole foods diet I searched out a healthy(ish) recipe. I found this one, and it worked so well! I used a combination of wholemeal spelt flour and regular flour, and rapadura instead of sugar as the recipe calls for. The recipe says to use coconut oil in its solid form, but I live in Australia where coconut oil is NEVER in solid form and it worked out just fine. All in all, a total win. I hope you get to try them out!

cook-off

Autumn arrived right on cue on Friday with stormy weather and cooler temperatures, which was perfect timing for the cooking party my friend and I had planned. We wanted to try out some recipes from My New Roots and from the whole foods course we're doing; we settled on the life changing loaf of bread, crispy cornmeal sweet potato fries, and some roast chickpeas.

We'd never made any of these before, and to be totally honest, each of the above had some 'issues.' I think though, that when you're learning a new way of cooking, buying food, and eating it just takes some patience and trial and error. For example, the fries were yummy but would've been better if we'd followed the recipe more closely. And next time I attempt the loaf of bread (gluten free! flour free! yeast free!) I'll make sure I have the exact quantities of everything needed, let it sit for longer and enjoy it as toast, as Sarah suggests.

That said, it was a really enjoyable morning of pottering around, making, and taking photos of Katie's cute kitchen. We already have plans to do it again in a few weeks with different recipes. I'll let you know how we go!

What's been happening in your kitchen lately?