Natural muesli

As promised - here is my version of natural muesli (it's super simple, but incredibly tasty, especially served with mixed berries). 

Natural muesli - 10 serves 
Ingredients:
50g organic dried apple
45g organic dried blueberries
45g organic dried cranberries
50g organic sultanas
360g (4 cups) whole rolled oats

Method:
Add apple and blueberries to the thermomix - pulse on turbo 3-5 times. (Or, if not using a TM, chop to desired size.)
Add remaining ingredients and mix (reverse, sp 5, 5 seconds).

Serving size is approximately 50g. Store remaining muesli in an airtight container.

Thawing moments - a refined sugar free alternative to melting moments

Ingredients
Biscuit
60g rapadura 
60g cornflour
225g spelt flour
250g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
120g rapadura
100g unsalted butter
juice of a lemon

Or, for a caramely alternative, drop the rapadura to 70g, omit the lemon and add a tablespoon of maple syrup.

Method
Preheat oven to 180'C
Add rapadura to Thermomix/food processor and mill for 15 second on speed 9
Add other ingredients and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5
Knead on dough setting for 20 seconds 
Roll out into balls on a baking tray and press down with a fork dipped in spelt flour.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown - they will still be very soft to touch at this point but will harden as they cool
Allow to cool on tray for 5 minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack


Once completely cool, spread a spoonful of the icing onto the base of a biscuit and then place another biscuit on top.

Icing 
Place rapadura into a dry Thermomix jug/food processor bowl and mill for 30 seconds, speed 9. Add butter and cream on 10 seconds on speed 7, scrape down jug and repeat. Add lemon juice (or maple syrup) and mix 10 seconds on speed 4. 

Dinner meal plan - August - weeks 1 and 2

Fried rice from leftovers 
Preservative free sausages with sweet potato fries and veges
Mum's rissoles with cauli mash and greens
Quirky Jo's stroganoff with cabbage noodles
Skinnymixers all in one chicken dinner
Pizza
Pulled beef burgers 
Tacos
Lasagne and salad
Beef kebabs with wholemeal cous cous salad
Beef and broccoli stir fry

Real Food, Real Life

I've been thinking a lot lately about my real food philosophy and incorporating it into my everyday life. While JERF in June was a great way to kick start optimising our family's approach to eating more real food, I'm not kidding myself that processed and packaged food won't creep back into the mix.

I am far from perfect, and motivation and organisation waxes and wanes. But remembering to eat more real food and appreciate my body instead of trashing it with too many numbers and fake foods should be part of everyday life. I'm not going to say I'll never eat processed food because, for me, that's not sustainable. I'm not, however, going to let processed food creep in to the extent it was before.

It's all about Real Food in Real Life and that's why I'll be renaming my blog. Life can't be one big challenge, but it can be a series of everyday steps to increase real food and decrease processed food in our lives. 

I hope you'll keep following Real Food, Real Life and the journey we're on to improve our lifestyle. 

Meal plans #2 and #3 from JERF in June

In wrapping up JERF in June, I realised I'd been a bit remiss in not sharing the second and third fortnight meal plans with you all, so here are my main meals below for more meal inspiration. 

Dinner:

• pumpkin soup with spelt challah
• popcorn chicken, sweet potato chips and salad
• ricotta gnocchi (I replaced bakers flour with wholemeal) with bacon tomato sauce (a recipe I made up to use up our haul of cherry tomatoes, but essentially I fried up some diced bacon and garlic, added a heap of cherry tomatoes to roast and the a squeeze of half and lemon and a handful of torn basil leaves)
• burgers on lettuce buns (spelt challah buns for the kids) with homemade chips 
• slow cooker beef korma with steamed greens
• chicken kiev with salad
• pizza and salad
• grainfree lasagne (from Quirky Cooking Cookbook)
• beef and onion pie and salad (Save with Jamie)
• sausage casserole and greens
• roast chicken and veges with homemade gravy
• leftover chicken with nyonya sauce, brown rice and steamed greens
• stroganoff with cabbage noodles (Quirky Cooking Cookbook)
• silverside with mashed potatoes and vegetables
• nachos (from mountain bread) with mexican mince, homemade salsa and guacamole 
• goulash
• butter chicken

The end of June, the start of something new

Well, that's it. June is done. We've JERFed throughout June and we've made it to this point. I'm so proud of the efforts of everyone who has participated in JERF in June. Whether it's been sticking to a completely real food diet or just introducing more real foods into their family's meals. Well done everyone and thanks for joining in the ride. 

For me personally, JERF in June has been a challenge in more ways than one. First was making it through the cravings and sugar withdrawals in the first week, second was the sudden upswing in work that saw me working 10+ hour days, then the added interstate travel and finally the challenge of managing not only sticking to real food, but also blogging about it.

But, I made it through. And I'm happy to say that our family are much better for it. A and I are both, without a doubt feeling the positive effects of sticking to real food. 

We've both seen improvements in our digestive systems, my skin has cleared up and I've lost 2.5kgs, and we both have more energy day to day. The added bonus is that we've easily saved over $100 by taking our own snacks places, eating homemade and avoiding takeaway.

One of the things I noticed post week one was that my physical cravings for chocolate and junk had gone, but my mental cravings were still there. I am an emotional eater. Name an emotion and I'll eat for it. It has been a constant fight with myself this month to not eat my feelings. I think it will be a struggle that lasts a lot longer than this challenge. But by challenging myself I've been able to resist the urge to gorge myself on chocolate or placate myself with greasy food. This is a definite win for me.

So, June is over. What happens now? For us the JERF challenge continues and my family and I will continue to JERF in July. I'll also try to keep blogging (hopefully more voraciously now that the work crisis has been sorted) and sharing tips, ideas and recipes with you. 

What does post June look like for you in terms of JERF? I'd love it if some of my readers wanted to share your experiences with JERF in June and what happens now for you.

Thanks everyone. I look forward to continuing to JERF in July with you all. x

JERF peppermint chocolate

So, I may or may not been writing this post with my mouth stuffed full of the delicious peppermint chocolate I made today. Seriously, it is so tasty. So here's the recipe to try for yourself.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup almonds
6 tbs coconut oil
4 tbs raw cacao
4 tbs almond butter*
1-2 tbs honey or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint oil or essence
Pinch of Himalayan salt
Shredded coconut

*I made my own almond butter by whizzing up 225g of raw almonds with 1 tsp rapadura and a pinch of salt (Thermomix sp  9 for 5 minutes, stopping every 30 secs-1 minute to scrape down the sides), then adding macadamia oil (on sp 5) until it's the right consistency.

Method (thermie):
Chop almonds in the thermie  until you reach desired consistency (finely chopped, but not made into almond meal...), then empty into a dry bowl. Wipe out the jug with paper towel.

Heat up the coconut oil, cacao, almond butter, honey, vanilla, peppermint and salt - 50 degrees, 3 minutes, sp 3.

Add chopped almonds and shredded coconut and mix on reverse, sp 2 for 5-10 seconds.

Pour into a (baking paper) lined tray and pop into the freezer until set. Cut into desired size. Store in the fridge or freezer.


Method (non thermie):
Chop almonds in the food processor until you reach desired consistency (finely chopped, but not made into almond meal...).

Heat up the coconut oil, cacao, almond butter, honey, vanilla, peppermint and salt on low heat, stirring continuously until combined.
.

Add chopped almonds and shredded coconut and mix until combined.

Pour into a (baking paper) lined tray and pop into the freezer until set. Cut into desired size. Store in the fridge or freezer.