With keen bakers in the house and girls who like to help with the Tesco ordering we were developing a habit of having treat foods more often than qualified as 'treat'. Also I have been becoming more concerned about other 'bad' things we eat such as pesticides, hormones, sulphites, trans fats etc. I then spent some time one afternoon reading various articles on the effects of all these things and decided it was time to instigate a few changes.
The first thing I did was research where we could avail of an organic box scheme. I found that The Organic Supermarket in Dublin did just that and would deliver to anywhere in the country. We order both the family fruit and vegetable boxes and they send us a mixed box of mainly seasonal produce plus whatever else they have in stock. These are what arrived this week;
This also means we have to be more adventurous and use what comes, like we ended up putting fennel in with the cauliflower cheese and adding pomegranate to a salad Jamie Oliver style. We have also had to google a few things to find out how to prepare them. Last week we had a pattison squash, we definitely had to google that one, and Eoin and beth made a pattison squash and orange cake.
It had a good helping of icing and sprinkles but it still felt a bit more virtuous!
I had also found out from our friendly tesco delivery man that the day fresh bread he was delivering to me warm had actually come in frozen to store and just been reheated, so we are also now getting organic flour and making it here. One of Beth's chores is to make the bread each day and we have had some wonderful creations. This one she decided she would try to make green by adding wheatgrass;
We also got some spirulina powder but haven't figured out what to do with that yet!
We have four vegetarians, Beth, Eoin, Orla and Tiarnan, and I am constantly trying to make sure that they get enough protein and iron. One trick is to add eggs to mashed potato or to hide crushed seeds or nuts into bread or baking. I also think quinoa is valuable but I failed in my attempts to hide it in both the porridge and when cooking rice. One thing they can never refuse though is chocolate brownies so I decided to substitute it for the flour in an attempt to acquaint their palate with it!
First I cooked a little quinoa;
I then made my usual mixture being generous with some buttons taken from the halloween stash;
So far so good...
A bit paler than usual but that was disguised with a shake of icing sugar;
and everyone ate them despite lots of comments about texture and consistency!
This week I am experimenting with palm sugar, rice syrup, agave syrup and coconut oil. I think the guys are hoping that Mammy will get over this 'phase' but we'll see....
The first thing I did was research where we could avail of an organic box scheme. I found that The Organic Supermarket in Dublin did just that and would deliver to anywhere in the country. We order both the family fruit and vegetable boxes and they send us a mixed box of mainly seasonal produce plus whatever else they have in stock. These are what arrived this week;
This also means we have to be more adventurous and use what comes, like we ended up putting fennel in with the cauliflower cheese and adding pomegranate to a salad Jamie Oliver style. We have also had to google a few things to find out how to prepare them. Last week we had a pattison squash, we definitely had to google that one, and Eoin and beth made a pattison squash and orange cake.
It had a good helping of icing and sprinkles but it still felt a bit more virtuous!
I had also found out from our friendly tesco delivery man that the day fresh bread he was delivering to me warm had actually come in frozen to store and just been reheated, so we are also now getting organic flour and making it here. One of Beth's chores is to make the bread each day and we have had some wonderful creations. This one she decided she would try to make green by adding wheatgrass;
We also got some spirulina powder but haven't figured out what to do with that yet!
We have four vegetarians, Beth, Eoin, Orla and Tiarnan, and I am constantly trying to make sure that they get enough protein and iron. One trick is to add eggs to mashed potato or to hide crushed seeds or nuts into bread or baking. I also think quinoa is valuable but I failed in my attempts to hide it in both the porridge and when cooking rice. One thing they can never refuse though is chocolate brownies so I decided to substitute it for the flour in an attempt to acquaint their palate with it!
First I cooked a little quinoa;
I then made my usual mixture being generous with some buttons taken from the halloween stash;
So far so good...
A bit paler than usual but that was disguised with a shake of icing sugar;
and everyone ate them despite lots of comments about texture and consistency!
This week I am experimenting with palm sugar, rice syrup, agave syrup and coconut oil. I think the guys are hoping that Mammy will get over this 'phase' but we'll see....
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