Making my way back slowly

I’m still here thank you for your patience. 

Over the past few months I’ve been on a journey to reclaim my health. 18 months ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Whats that I hear you say I said the same thing basically in a nut shell I live with constant nerve pain 24/7.

I have a great GP and specialist but I’m taken control to handle the pain with the help of a naturopath.

I went two weeks ago and had a blood test that showed some food intolerances.

  
So now I’m working on cutting these ingredients out.

No oats, wheat, corn, rye Brazil nuts, cow’s milk, whole eggs, mushrooms, yeast. 

So what will eat? Lots of fresh meats, fish, fruit & veg just what my mum and grandmother would eat and make for the family.

As I work through this I still get very tired and have to sleep a lot. I find it hard to go out and socialise. I’m so grateful for my small amazing group of friends. 

This is a recipe I found on Facebook.

http://www.sweetlittlebluebird.com/2013/03/tried-true-tuesday-crazy-cake-no-eggs.html?m=1

I made it but used spelt flour instead of white flour. Still very yummy.

This is mine not much left…

  
Until next time

Samxxx

Back to School baking

Quick and easy biscuits for back to school

I have been googling and searching for some quick and easy ideas to help save time and money as my boys are back to school this week.

I always struggle with what to put into the lunch box of teenager boys.

Today I came across this really easy recipe for

Peanut and choc chip freezer biscuits.

These are mine ready to go into the freezer.

I will pop them into freezer bags and pop them back in, in the morning so on Wednesday morning pop a few into the oven so the boys have fresh biscuits.

Do you have any recipes you can share, I’m still looking for some more to help fill my boys lunch boxes.

Love

Samxxx

Gluten Free Choc Chip biscuits + new GF website

I have been finding it very hard to stay Gluten Free. I have been making bad choices over the past few weeks and now starting to suffer for it.

Today in my inbox was an email from Springhill Farms, they are an Aussie company who make gluten free bread and mixes plus slices.

They had a link to one of their friends website so I had a look. It’s amazing with information on GF and answers to issues with cooking and baking GF.

This is the link to the website, I made the choc chip biscuits.
Decadent Alternative

Choc Chip

It doesn’t matter whether you call them biscuits or cookies this choc chip recipe is great. The recipe is similar to the original Decadent Alternatives Choc Chip the main difference is the combination of flours.

Ingredients

125 g Butter

100 g Castor sugar

100 g Brown sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 Egg

50 g Desiccated coconut

1 tsp Baking powder

200 g The Real Bread Mix

100 g Potato starch

250 g Dark chocolate chips

Method

Heat oven to 170o C (fan forced).

Thermomix

Apart from the chocolate chips & coconut place all ingredients in the TM bowl. Mix for 2 minutes on speed 4. Check that all ingredients have been incorporated. Add chocolate chips. Mix for 1 minute on Reverse + speed 1.

Electric mixer

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla extract and egg. Continue beating until these ingredients have been incorporated and the mixture is light and fluffy. Stop mixing and scrape down the bowl, beat again.

Mix together the coconut, baking powder, bread mix and potato starch. Add the combined flours to the creamed mixture. Mix until the dough is uniform. Add the chocolate chips and gently mix until they are incorporated into the dough.

The dough is easy to handle and can be rolled into balls between the hands. The size of the biscuits/cookies will depend on the amount of dough used. The choc chip pictured was ~ 25 g of dough and one batch will make approximately 36 (theoretically there should be more but some of the dough always seems to disappear).

Place balls of the dough onto 2 baking trays lined with baking paper. I place the balls in a 4,3,4,3,4 configuration.

Bake in the oven for approximately 13 minutes. The baking time will vary depending on your oven and how big the balls are. If your oven has a “hot” spot turn the trays halfway through baking.

Until next time have fun and enjoy the biscuits.

Sam xxx

Easy Thermo biscuits

Well what a week I’ve had. Went back to work earlier in the week that was a shock. Boys are still on holidays and keep complaining that there is nothing to eat, so tonight I made some really easy biscuits.

I found this recipe at Retro Mummy This is her recipe not mine. This recipe really goes a long way.

what you’ll need
1 cup sugar (I use raw)
500g butter at room temperature
1 can sweetened condensed milk
5 cups self raising flour (or more, I used about 5 1/2)

Place sugar in your TM bowl and process for 9-10 seconds on speed 9. Add in butter (cubed) and cream them together for about 30 seconds on speed 3 or 4. Now if it needs a bit longer just give it another 10-20 seconds because the softness of your butter will affect how long it takes to cream together. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and add in the condensed milk (yum, yum) and flour. Now process for about 40 seconds on speed 3. You can take off your lid to see that it’s coming together nicely. Now you want a nice soft dough but if you think your dough is just too soft just add another 1/4 cup flour (or even 1/2 cup if you need it). My first batch was too soft so I added a bit more.

Take a teaspoonful of mix and roll into a little ball, place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly with a fork or I just used my finger. Fill up the baking tray (or a few) and bake for 10 – 15 minutes in a 180 degree (celsius) oven. Now my new oven is hot hot hot so I had to watch these babies in the oven. In the end I lowered my temp to 170 but see how you go. Just watch them closely. Remove cookies with a fork (they’ll be a bit soft), cool on cooking rack and enjoy.

Now you can add lots of flavourings after you’ve mixed in your flour. Think choc chips, dried fruit, hundreds and thousands. Go crazy. And if you haven’t frozen cookie dough before it’s super easy. Just make a long sausage out of some dough, wrap in glad wrap or baking paper, twist ends and freeze. When you want to use it just slice it frozen and bake your cookies. Too easy.

I remembered to take some photos of what I was doing.

In the oven cooking and the end result. Just after I took the photo of them cooking one child smelt them and now half are gone. Luck I have some mix in the freezer.

Thanks
Sam xxx

Didn’t quite make it to work

Well I headed off yesterday to my new casual job got 20mins up the road got a call to say that I’m not needed till most likely Thursday, which is all good.

Master R is off to camp in the morning tomorrow and I have heaps to do like label every piece of clothing including socks and undies.

Today is my man’s day off so he decided to burn off at 7am and now mow the the back paddock.

It’s so warm and beautiful here is Sydney Australia praying winter is kind to us.

Did some baking the family is enjoying this simply living with freshly baked items every day. I has saved us so much money (things are a bit tight) hence God’s timing for the job offer.

Below another batch of Anzac biscuits and choc slice.

Update
Had another p/t job offer this afternoon they wanted me to stay today but explained my situation so I’m going in on Thursday for two days. Not sure what’s happening with the other one, but it’s nice br be wanted.

Until next time – take care
Sam