Thursday 1 May 2014

Low fodmap Singapore noodles

As you can probably guess I have been spending a lot of time recently researching and playing around with low fodmap recipes, trying to get as much taste as I can without compromising my dietary needs.
A couple of weeks ago I discovered Singapore noodles were very easy to make using low fodmap options, and it has quickly become a favourite in this house … so here it is.

To make the low fodmap Singapore noodles you will need.

  • 300 grams of chicken ( I like to use tenderloins)
  • 300 grams prawns
  • A small red capsicum, finely sliced
  • 3 spring onions, greens only and finely sliced.
  • 250 grams Vermicelli rice noodles
  • 1 tablespoon chinese rice wine
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 3 teaspoons minced ginger
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock (I make it using 1 massel chicken stock cube containing no onion or garlic and 1 cup of boiling water)
  • 1 tablespoon curry powder
  • vegetable oli.


Start off marinating the chicken and prawns in 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of the ginger and the tablespoon of chinese rice wine.  Let marinate for at least 40 mins.

When you are ready to cook, boil some water and make up to stock, and soak the vermicelli rice noodle for 5 mins, drain the noodles and set aside.

Heat some oil in your wok and stir-fry the chicken and prawns, when cooked through remove from the wok and set aside.

Heat some more oil, add the curry powder, stir-fry for 30 seconds and then add the spring onion, capsicum and the remanding 1 teaspoon of ginger. Re-add the chicken and prawns along with the chicken stock and the rest of the soy sauce.  Add the noodles and toss until completely coated.


Kid noodles...
Tonight I made a kid friendly version as well seeing as the Singapore noodles are too spicy for our little ladies.  In a separate fry pan, I stir-fried some of the marinated chicken, added some spring onions, capsicum, frozen peas and corn, then added some noodles and 1/2 a cup of chicken stock….easy peesy and tasty!

Enjoy





Tuesday 29 April 2014

Low FODMAP Fajita seasoning.

I love mexican food, in fact I love it so much I would even go as far to say that it is my favourite cuisine.  Since going on my low fodmap diet about 4 months ago our weekly mexican nights became a thing of the past and I only cooked mexi after I had been extremely good and felt I deserved a naughty treat. You see all the packet mixes of seasoning all contained powdered onion and powdered garlic, two of the biggest no noes!  Then I got the bright idea to make my own seasoning, one that is friendly to my dietary needs, honestly I don't know why it had never occurred to me before to do this, not only was it super tasty, but it will work out so much cheaper!! I had to have a little play around with the spices as all home made mixes still used garlic and onion powder, but I think I came up with a winner.  Now I just need to create myself a tasty gluten free tortilla (I'm not overly keen on corn tortillas) and my Mexican loving life will be complete.

So here is my new Low FODMAP chicken fajitas.
Seasoning 

  • 1 tablespoon cornflour
  • 2 teaspoons chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 'Massel 7' chicken stock cube (these cubes are garlic and onion free stock cubes)
Cooking 
Cut up the greens of spring onion and a red capsicum, cover your chicken in the seasoning.
Heat up some garlic infused olive oil and fry off the spring onion and capsicum for a few minutes then remove from the pan.  Add some more garlic infused olive oil and fry the chicken, once cooked through re-add the spring onion and capsicum.  

The perfect filling for a wrap, especially when covered in lactose free cheese!!!

YUM YUM!

Tuesday 22 April 2014

What an easter!

What a busy easter we have had here, it was going to be a quiet one with just me and girls, but while hubby was on his R&R brake he got a bad cold and had an extra week off work.  It turned out he was still here for easter and was on the tail end of his man flu so well enough to enjoy some festivities with us.  We baked hot cross buns (read about it here), dyed eggs, had a beautiful good friday feast, a family trip to the zoo and of course the Easter Bunny left the girls a little easter egg hunt on sunday morning, complete with bunny paw prints and all!  
I also taught myself how to crochet over the easter period which has been so much fun, I can't wait to be able to share with you all some of the great things I will be making my family.
Now hubby has gone back to work and Easter is now just a memory I'll hopefully have some more time up my sleeve to blog more!

Friday 4 April 2014

Chicken & Corn Soup…Low FODMAP

We are a bunch of sickies here today with lovely snotty noses, when this happens in our house i always turn to making some chicken and corn soup, I know the girls will eat it and who doesn't love some warming soup when you have a cold???

This was my first time having a cold while living a Low FODMAP life, so it was the first time I have make this soups using Low FODMAP friendly stock cubes and it turned out just fine.  The Massel stock cubes I used were found hanging out in the stock section at our local Coles and contain NO garlic and NO onion, making them much more foddy friendly than other stocks, and a much easier and quick option than making up your know stock.





                                                                               
This is an easy soup to make , all you need is
A cooked chicken breast that you can shred
4 cups of water and 4 chicken stock cubes making a litre of stock.
2 cans of creamed corn
The green ends of 2 spring onion finely chopped
An Egg
A teaspoon of minced ginger
Some rice vermicelli noodles

I like to cook my chicken breast in the oven on some grease proof paper and lightly sprayed with some cooking oil, once it is cooked and resting, I put the water and stock cubes into a large soup saucepan over a medium heat, once the cubes are dissolved I add the two cans of creamed corn and give it a good stir with a wooden spoon.  I now shred the chicken with two forks and put it and the spring onion to the soup. After another good stir, I add the ginger and lightly beat the egg, when putting the egg in I stir continuously until it is cooked through, so I don't end up with clumps.  Now with the rice vermicelli you don't really need a lot, I just like to brake off a hand full and throw it in.  One the noodles are all cooked through it all done and ready to serve.





Thursday 3 April 2014

A week of gratitude, day seven

Today i am grateful…

  1. For baby panadol bring my baby's temperature down.
  2. That miss 3 has worked out how to put her own slippers on
  3. For morning skypes with my husband xo


Wednesday 2 April 2014

A week of gratitude, day six

Today I am grateful…

  1. To have an amazing father that spent 4 hours here putting n my new lights.
  2. For the rain we are having that is turning my dry brown backyard green again.
  3. That i can go and have a HOT shower. 
Blessed.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

A week of Gratitude, day five


Today I am grateful…

  1. That on the four year anniversary of my first fur baby passing, that I have a beautiful family doggy in my life to love and cuddle.
  2. For Mariachi music making my babies happy and wiggle their boom booms.
  3. For a beautiful night allowing me to blog from my back porch.






Monday 31 March 2014

A week of gratitude, day four

Today I am grateful…

  1. That my girls were so well behaved at Ikea!
  2. For the bargain lights that i got from Ikea
  3. For my beautiful freshly organised pantry.

Sunday 30 March 2014

Week of Gratitude, Day Three

Today I am grateful…


  1. To have the love, support and encouragement of family and friends with my vision for my baking blog.
  2. That I got to play kick to kick with my dad in our backyard.
  3. For the funny text banter I had with my darling husband today 

Saturday 29 March 2014

A Week of Gratitude, Day Two

Today I am grateful….

  1. To have a strong friend in my life, her strength is beyond amazing. 
  2. That I live an a small community that puts on great fireworks just to bring the locals together.
  3. That Miss 3 didn't get too worked up about going in to her ballet class today, had a great time dancing once she was in there, and that she told me that she finally has a friend at ballet!

Friday 28 March 2014

A week of Gratitude, Day One

It's not that uncommon these days to hear people talking about the universe and showing gratitude, for many years now I have lived my life like this.  I believe I have a strong connection with the universe and have been able to manifest great things and opportunities into my life by believing, trusting and being thankful, but sometimes it is hard to be fully present in my gratitude.  Life gets busy and although I always have a sense of feeling grateful, it sometime is hard to focus on what exactly I am thankful for and why.  This is why I am consciously going to think about and write down three things I am grateful for everyday this coming week and then at least once a week there after. I will once again feel totally aware of everything I have and love and am grateful for, feel free to join me in this.

  1. I'm grateful to have such a helpful mum who can dash around the corner to entertain my girls while I clean vomit out of the car seat after a teething toddler choked on her silva and was sick on our way to Ikea. 
  2. I am grateful that said teething toddler is not in too much pain and can have restful sleep while cutting her toothy pegs. 
  3. I am grateful for the love fest the girls showed me before, when they took it in turns to shower me with big wet kisses, very blessed.

Thursday 27 March 2014

What a week!

My beautiful fresh wall
What a busy week we have had here! My lovely husbands was home on his R&R so we have been spending some nice quiet quality time as a family, we had movie nights, a family date at the chocolate
 shop and lot's of relaxing.  Once he headed back to work the real fun began, I have continued on my mission to do small make overs on the house, this week I was still focusing on study and did a feature wall all by myself, everything from masking it up to painting, and I am in love with it, so is Lala who keeps going up to it and hugging our new 'beautiful grey wall'.

Very helpful engine 'Lady'
I have also been sorting out the girls clothes, packing up what doesn't fit them, and working out what things we will need to get them to complete their winter wardrobes.  I find the clothes packing up process such a time consuming and tedious task, but it was well worth it when their draws are all beautifully organised again, and I got to post a whole heap of clothes off to friends so I know a lot of the good stuff is going to be much loved again.  We have also been busy creating a low key train costume for a Thomas the Tank party the girls are off to tomorrow, it's amazing want you can do with some paper plates, paint and a stapler, not prize winning costumes, but the girls are happy, and I'm sure the birthday boy will think they look great too.
Easter decorating

 Finally we have ended the week with decorating our yearly Easter tree, created from twigs from our backyard, a bucket and some beautiful egg decorations.
Through all this I have actually managed to fit in a bit of yoga and some low FODMAP cooking too, so look out for some new recipe posts next week, but for now I'm off o enjoy the last bit of this week by watching the footy and having a snag before the weekend party and ballet rush starts!  Go Bombers!

Very happy with our Easter tree this year!

Saturday 22 March 2014

Rainbow Bug Crayons

The other day Lala and I got creative and use some crayons that weren't being use and turned them into something fun. Check out my new craft blog I have was my sisters so see the whole story.

Thursday 20 March 2014

Daughter dates.

It has become a little tradition that every few weeks I take my girls out on a special mummy daughter date.  Sometimes it's with just one of the girls and sometimes it's with both, and it can be as simple as going to the Target and getting a baby cino afterwards or more exciting like going to the movies.  Either way, what really makes it special for them is that is just special mummy time, we don't have to rush around running other errands and we can all just enjoy the moments that we are having together. 

Last weeks daughter date saw the girls getting dressed up as Snow White, yes they each have a Snow White costume now thanks to hand-me-downs, and head off to the Snow White screening as part of the Disney Princess Film Festival.  What a great morning we had, there was free face painting, a Princess line up where all the little girls that were dress-up got to show of there beautiful costumes, and of course popcorn!  Miss 3 loved watching one of her favourite movies up on the big screen and Miss 1 really loved the snacks that I had packed, and I loved that it all only cost me $16.  Towards the end of the film they ate there packed sandwiches for lunch and then were happy to head straight home once it finished.  In all a successful daughter date, I will definitely be keeping my eye out again for more kiddy film festivals, it was a lot of fun for all!
all dressed up ready to, even I had Snow White colours on!
my two Snows in the princess lineup.




A Weighty Issue.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most people are aware that going up to someone you don't know or you are just acquaintances with and saying 'you're looking fat' or 'have you actually lost any weight yet' or 'well you don't look like you've lost weight', is not only politically incorrect, but also highly inappropriate and just down right RUDE! I really believe that everyone knows this, so why do so many not realise that telling someone they look too thin can by just as offence?
                                                                          
 I have always been on the smaller side of things, and was grateful that I could pretty much
Thailand 2008 with my bestie. Me on the right at
healthy and happy 53 kilograms. 
eat whatever I wanted to without it having any impact on my weight.  I could literally eat a family block of chocolate every night and still the scales would not hit over 53kgs.  I loved my body,  I had a tiny waist and big double D boobs and nice full cheeks.  I have always known that this isn't the norm, and that a lot of my girlfriends consisted me 'lucky'.  I was also very aware that I could lose weight extremely fast and it would be very easy for me to get under weight.  This first happened back in 2001 while at Uni,  I got quite sick with glandular fever which developed into pneumonia and therefore wasn't eating all that much and I dropped down to a small size 6 very quickly.  

Since then my weight has alway been about the same, like I said before just sitting at about 50kgs to 53kgs for years and years.  Then I went though my pregnancy with my first baby, who is 3 now.  Throughout the whole 35 weeks of this pregnancy (I gave birth to a tiny premmie) I put on a total of 8kgs, most of which I lost again within a few weeks after giving birth.  I then went on to breastfeed for almost 8 months, I stopped at 8 months because my weight had dropped right down to 46kgs! I had put on 8kgs, but then had lost 12kg, and nothing I did seemed to help me put any weight back on.  Stopping breastfeeding was emotionally hard on both myself and my baby, neither one of us was ready to stop, but it had come down to thinking I had no other choice if I wanted to start gaining weight again.   Well in the end it didn't work, I did not gain a single kilo until I fell pregnant again 4 months later.  

An hour before my Caesar
weighting in at 58kgs 
This second pregnancy was tricky, I was trying so hard to stack on as much weight as I could, as I was thinking the more I had in stores the longer I may be able to breastfeed for, but because I had Gestational Diabetes in the first pregnancy I was also trying to be good and keep my sugar levels low.  It was like trying to push to negative magnets together, it was just never going to click .  I ended up putting on 12kgs which took me back up to the same weight I was at the end of my first pregnancy, I would have really likes to have gained more as I was pregnant for 4 weeks longer and this baby was double the size of my first, but my weight plateaued after I was diagnosed with GD again.

Feeling thin in Thailand 2013, 43kgs.
Once bubba was born I was determined to eat for Australia and not lose too much weight, this worked for a little while and I even gained a little bit early on, but then almost over night it all unraveled.  At 4 months post birth my weight dropped down to 48kgs, this got me worried, I started having anxiety attacks and I got extremely upset, all I could think about was having to stop feeding my baby earlier than I planned.  I was so down at one stage  I thought I may have had Post Natal Depression, my best friend even called my husband to see if he could fly home early from his swing.  He did and within 2 days of him being home he had dragged me off the GP.  She quickly settled my fears about PND and put it more down to anxiety and fear about my weight loss, she was fantastic and we chatted for a long time about action plans and what we would do, I really felt like she was working with me and on my team.  It was also the first time I mentioned to her that I was lactose intolerant.  She sent me to see a dietician, which was not a foreign to me after have GD twice, but the poor dietician couldn't tell anything I didn't already know or was doing, she was quite sorry and her only advice was to try and eat even more.  Over the next 3 months, my weight slowly dropped and dropped, eventually getting to 43kgs! This was right before we had a family holiday to Thailand to celebrate my sisters marriage, and there was no way known I was going to stop breastfeeding before this trip, boob is just so much easier than bottles when travelling, especially to a third world country.  This trip was the point that I started to get really down about my weight, I couldn't even fill out my new bikini top I had only bought 8 weeks prior just for this trip, and I can tell you I have never ever had this type of problem.  I hated looking at pictures as I could really see in my face how thin I had gotten.  Once home I had decided that after 8 months of feeding it was time to wean.  I was actually ok with this decision, I had reached the same point that I had first time round, and I guess I knew it was coming for a while and was ready.  The babes had a different idea and was having nothing to do with the weaning idea at all, I tried on and off for a good 2 months, before I gave in and just let her feed, after all she was starting to naturally cut down and my weight had not changed over that period. 

All while this was happening with my weight I was also dealing with tummy issues, bloating, pain and lets say not very nice trips to the toilet.  These tummy troubles peaked just after christmas last year and once again husbandito pushed me off to the GP.  This time she gave my the push I needed to really get serious about weaning, I got tough and within 5 days I had weaned bubba off the boob through the day! Plus all my test that were run came back completely normal, so I am perfectly healthy, and thanks to being a right shortarse I'm not consisted underweight, although quite close to it.  So in the end I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and since then I  have started a low FODMAP diet, you can read about my journey through this in other posts.  In the 6 weeks since I have actually started to very slowly put some weight on.  I have no idea how it all works, whether it's the cutting the breast feeding right down or whether it has to do with the new diet and my digestive system now working a bit better but it is working.

Now back to where I was going with this post…. I could not tell you how many times I have had random people, mainly shop assistants or golden oldies say things to me like "You're so thin", "do you eat", or from people I do know "You haven't put on ANY weight have you".  I usually try and be light hearted and say something like "well have you seen my huge baby, its hard work keeping her nice and
big", but sometimes I feel like I need to explain to them my whole story, so they stop judging me, and that is not like me at all, I'm not one who usually cares about what people think.  Somedays I feel like I have spent so much time and energy defending myself explaining that I do eat, I actually eat quite a lot. But I think what it really comes down to is that I'm not happy with how my body looks or feels for that matter, and that makes peoples thoughtless comments hurt all that more.  What I really need right now is to get my body love back, get my head out of caring what others think and say about my shape, I need to start embracing my small booty and wear clothes that fit and aren't loose!

This here is a promise! Love your body, its the only one you've got!!

Tuesday 18 March 2014

My Nook.

The past two weeks have seen me on a semi rampage, a de-clutter / re-vamp the house rampage.

It started with me sick and tried of having to rummage through my bathroom draws to find anything.  Now, I'm not what I would describe as a hoarder, but I will admit that I do have some issues with throwing out some stuff, usually random stuff like my almost empty makeup that I haven't touch in years! So I got tough with myself and filled up two grocery bags full of general bathroom 'crap', empty bottles, lotions that have been sitting there since we moved in and have never been touched, you all know what I'm talking about!  Once that was done, I started on the Kitchen draws, I could not believe that amount of generally useless stuff that had been shoved into the draws, especially that bottomless pit known as the 3rd draw down.  I emptied all four draws out completely and only put back in what we need and use, it was such a successful process that I even got to allocated the 3rd draw down to being a a draw dedicated to all my baking utensils.

Next I moved onto my desk….A task I have been wanting to tackle for a long time.  I have a tiny little desk in our study that is home to my laptop and my sewing machine, and whatever else the kids and I put on it.  For a while now I have been wanting another small desk so I have two sitting side by side, one for my blogging and running the house, the other for my sewing, but in the mean time I will have to make do with the one, so some serious organisation was in order! Not only did i see this little revamp as my chance to get organised but to also do something that has been on mind for a bit, adding another colour into my very red accessorised house!

I just didn't know what colour to do, enter the pinterest search for colour boards.  It needed to be something that went with the grey and red already all through my kitchen, dining and lounge, but also something bold and bright to reflect our family.  One colour keep catching my eye, a bright contrasting Tourquoise.  Ok colour nervously picked, now how the hell do i add it in?  Wall art?? Back to pinterest for some wall art pinsteration, after what seemed like hours I settled on a canvas DIY project that I could do with masking tape and some acrylic paints.  The next morning I packed the girls in the car and headed off to the town over to hit up the local el'cheapo shop, here we found the canvas I need for $11 and the perfect Turquoise colour for $2.95, I got 2 other colours for $2.95 as well, and then headed home to create some art.  Have a look here to see how I created my wall art.  Now for the organisation side of things.  While having a browse through Target I found some great desk accessories in a plain black fabric for only $12 each, I grabbed two organising trays and one 'magazine holder', then while having a poke around Typo I found a cute little owl pen holder in complimenting colours to my wall art and funky clear skull, both only $7 each.   Today I got to put to all together, art hung on the wall, fabrics and sewing gear in the trays and general papers and mags in the magazine holder.  I am so happy with how it has all turned out, and love my little nook that I have created myself, i'm hoping it inspires me to sew more beautiful buntings and blog on.




Next on my list of de-cluttering the house is the Pantry….I feel an Ikea trip coming!

Monday 17 March 2014

Foddy Finds of the Week…chapter two. Zucchini Frittata and Curry Rice Salad

This past week has been another great leap forward for this families low FODMAP lifestyle, with a few more meals added to the list, a list that I am very pleased to see growing!


This weeks low foddy tasty treats included a delish Zucchini Frittata and a Curry Rice Salad.

Lets start withe the Zucchini Frittata.  This is such an easy EASY dish to make, all you need is…

  • 1 large Zucchini, grated
  • Two large spring onions, sliced using only the green ends.
  • 6 Eggs
  • Bacon, diced and fried off
  • 2 tablespoons Self raising flour
  • 2 tablespoons lactose free milk
  • 1 hand full of lactose free cheese
  • half a tomato, diced into large pieces.
Now here is the really easy part, all you have to do is place all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk them together, pour into a pie dish that you have sprayed with some cooking spray, and bake in the oven on a moderate heat for roughly 30 mins, or until cooked through and golden.

We served this Frittata up with my next Foddy find of the week, Curry Rice Salad. What you need is...

  • 1 Cup of uncooked rice
  • Half a red capsicum, finely diced
  • 1 spring onion, sliced only using the green ends
  • Carrot, grated 
Dressing
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon caster sugar
Cook your rice in your preferred method a few hours before you are planning on serving up this dish, I personally love to use my tupperware rice cooker that is used in the microwave.  Once the rice has been cooled in the fridge mix in the Capsicum, spring onion and carrot, and make your dressing. The Dressing is made up by placing all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking them together or you could just as easily pop them all in a jar and give is a good shake. Pour the dressing over the rice and give it a good mix, making sure it is all covered.  And hey presto, it done.  

A delicious meal that even the kids loved, and low FODMAP, so good for my belly too! Happy days!

Thursday 13 March 2014

Playroom Artpop

Most weeks here the girls and I have a little craft project that we undertake, so this week I picked out something that we could do that could be hang in the playroom seeing as I'm trying to add some more colour into our living areas at the moment.  I think it was a huge success and we all had a heap of fun doing it this afternoon!

So here is what we created, some bright and colourful pieces with the rules of our playroom on them. Love, Share, Laugh and Play.  They were quite cheap to make as I picked up the small canvases at a local Bargain shop for $2.95 each and we had the rest of the stuff we needed lying around the house. They were nice and quick for the girls to do too, which is great, as it always seems that thy get over painting quite fast, I often find the setting up process longer than the activity, who am I kidding that's like most things when it involves kids.  The longest part of this was the mummy prep work that I need to do beforehand.  I was lucky today and my mum had Lala, 3 for a few hours so I got all the preparation done while she was there and Deedee, 1 was having her nap.  Once everyone was home and awake we got painting or at least the girls did.






So here is what we used : 4 cheap small canvases, some painters tape, a sharpie, a little scalpel, paint brushes and pink, aqua and yellow paints. We choose these colours as there are the colour in the bunting hanging in the playroom.

I started off with covering most of the canvas with the tape, then I wrote out the words I had picked in a sharpie, I had a play around with how I was going to write them on a piece of paper first to see what thickness and style appealed to me.  Now was the trickiest part, I used a small scalpel, that I found in my husbands arts supplies, to carefully cut out the words, a few times I pressed a little too hard and nicked the canvas, this turned out to be not a big deal as the amount of paint the girls put on most certainly plugged up any slits.  Once all four words where cut out they were ready to be painted, the girls went to town on them, I just was on stand by to make sure the letters didn't roll up and paint get anywhere it wasn't meant to be.  After letting them dry somewhat it was time to slowly pull the painters tape off.  At some points this was tricky as the paint was on really thick and I had let it dry too much so I need to the scalpel to help separated the paint and tape, but it wasn't too bad at all.





 We are really happy with our little creations and can't wait to get them hung over the weekend!

Saturday 8 March 2014

Foddy Finds of the Week….Chapter One

This week I have had a few wins when it comes to Low FODMAP cooking, and the timing could not have been better.  I was starting to feel really disheartened by the whole thing and felt that I may be destined to never have tasty foods again.  Then these two chicken dishes landed on lap, and I will definitely be adding them into my dinner time repertoire!

While away in Perth my darling big sister gave me a cooking with kids books,  flicking through it this week to find easy bake things I could make with the girls I stumbled across some chicken kebabs.  I usually cook my kebabs with loads of onion, which is a huge no no now, so they hadn't even entered my mind as a possible dinner, but these ones had no onion (I guess thats what makes then kid friend too) and instead was made with grilled zucchini and red capsicum.  What made them even better was there were sitting on a bed of mash potato, and well who doesn't love some mash! Even more exciting was that I had chicken out defrosting so I didn't have to wait to try out these beauties.

Low FODMAP Chicken Kebabs on Mash

I started off by boiling my potatoes and char grilling some zucchini slices and red capsicum, I diced up my chicken into large squares and dusted mine with Cayenne pepper (I left the kids plain), once the zucchini and capsicum was cool I whacked all three ingredients on to small skewers that I pre soaked in water for about 30 minutes.  I then Placed all my Kebabs into a hot pan with some olive oil, rotating them so ensure even cooking.  When the Kebabs were just about ready my potatoes were done and ready to mash.  I make a lactose free mash, and never measure anything out.  I start to mash up the potato and then put a nice big dollop of Nettelex in (dairy free butter) and continue to mash, then some Zymil Lactose free milk and mash it up till light and fluffy.  By now my Kebabs were cooked and ready to serve on top of the mash with some fresh spinach picked right out of our veggie patch!  I might add here that I discovered my new favourite way to eat mash too, wrapped up in a fresh spinach leave…oh my it was heaven.  In all the verdict from great, they were a hit with all three of us, next time I plan on putting some lactose free cheese on the zucchini while it is grilling, we do it like this on the bbq and it is so tasty, and I'm thinking of adding some eggplant next time too.

Next win of the week came about because I had accidentally taken out chicken mince to defrost instead of a chicken breast.  I have never cooked with chicken mince before and only bought to try out some chicken sausage roll things I saw a  few weeks back.  Anyway I had a light bulb moment and thought Chicken Meatballs.  Thank-god for google, within minutes I had a number of recipes to choose from, all of course not quite low FODMAP friendly, but I did find one that didn't need too much work to make it so. With a little tweaking it was a huge success and I can't wait to make them again for my Hubby when we gets home.

Low FODMAP Chicken Meatballs

Meatball Ingredients- 500grams chicken mince, 1/4 cup GF breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1
teaspoon dijon mustard, 1 egg.
To make them is pretty simple, you put all the ingredient in a bowl and mix it together, I used a wooden spoon to do this as chicken mince is pretty sticky and its hard to do it with your hands.  When you do have to use your hands to divide then into the balls, make sure you wet your hands first! Once you have made the meat balls set them aside in the fridge while you make the tomato sauce and start boiling the water for that pasta.
Tomato Sauce Ingredients- 1 tablespoon garlic infused oil, the green part of two large spring onion, some diced red capsicum, 2 large sprigs of thyme, 800 gram can of tomatoes.
Heat the garlic oil and then fry off the spring onion and capsicum after a few minutes add the can of tomatoes and the thyme and season with some salt and pepper to taste.
Now, fry off the meatballs in some garlic oil, making sure all sides are nice and golden, then pour the simmering tomato sauce over the top.  Let it simmer and cook through while your choice of pasta cooks, I used San Remo GF Fettuccine.  This was by far the best low FODMAP meal I have made, it really gave my hope for some more tasty dinners!

Happy low foddy cooking!


Motivation or lack there of….

Arrgghh the holiday hangover still continues……

Since returning home after having a full week off my full on low FODMAP diet (or low foddy as I've nicknamed it) and yoga regime, I have found it quite hard to get back on the bandwagon.  The diet side of things hasn't really been the issue, as I did try to stick to low foddy foods while away and have since stumbled across some great new recipe ideas for dinner.  It's been more about getting motivated to get the ol' yoga mats out once again.  Yesterday I managed to do the easy yoga dvd I have, as I thought I would have to ease myself back into it but I actually found it really really easy, which is fantastic news.  After this achievement I thought that I would feel much more motivated today, but no.  I had plan to have breakfast and get straight into it, but I started cleaning the house instead and then that turned into me completely de-clattering my bathroom.  Yes it really did need to be done and I do feel better about getting started on de-clattering the house as thats this months mission, but I also feel it was used as an excuse not to yogi it up!  Then on the way home from Lala's ballet class and dinner at my parents I thought, 'it's not that late, get the mat out once you get the girls to bed'….well instead I ended up eating popcorn and watching Peter Pan with my girl, yes beautiful special time with my precise babies, but once again an excuse not to yogi it up!!!

Alas tomorrow is a new day, and new days bring new thing, hopefully it brings my motivation back!

Thursday 6 March 2014

My guide to traveling with toddlers


Our family has just returned from a quick trip over to perth, well most of our family.  Perth is the gateway to my main man S's work, so instead of flying home with me and the girls he flew straight to site to start his swing.  Perth has become a perfect little get away destination for us, I must admit that I wasn't overly keen on going back to there for a holiday after our trip 18 months ago when I was 20 weeks pregnant.  Long story short, I felt like I just didn't click with Perth, I was left feeling underwhelmed.  I am happy to report that this break was much better, I think mainly because this time S hadn't just come straight off night shift, so was firing on all cylinders, and I wasn't a big ball of hormones!

Over the past three years we have been fortunate enough to collect some fantastic W.A friends, not only through S working FIFO, but also through two amazing online bub groups that i am part of.  My beautiful sister and bro inlaw moved to Kalgoorlie two years ago, which also adds to the fabulous W.A peeps in our life, but these two are so so fabulous that they drove 8 hours to hang out with us in Perth, well he was attending a high voltage course, but I'll still pretend it was all for us.  So this trip was full of catch ups, kid's playing together, drinks and laughs!

The biggest obstacle we had this trip was the time difference, three hours doesn't sound like much, but it can really knock around little people.  What got us through was being quite relaxed about things like, what time they napped, what time they wanted to eat, and what time they wanted to play.  By being relaxed about this stuff it kept the whole family happy!

So with further ado here is a quick look at my survival guide of traveling with toddlers!


  •  Make sure you have the right entertainment for your kids! We have flown a few times with the girls now and the one thing that I think we did wrong was not having headphones that fit there little heads properly!  This time we got some kids headphones, it made watching some airline TV much easier for all involved! Team this with some brand new books and colouring books and we were on a winner to keep them entertained!



  • If they fall asleep on the way out for dinner, see if the the restaurant has couches you can be seated at.  We were so lucky that the place we went to eat out at with some friends was extremely funky and had lots of different seating, we got a couch and Miss Deedee got to nap on while we chatted and ordered drinks and food. 








  • Let them play in the sand in their good party dresses.  I'm not the biggest clean freak out there, but I am very anal when it comes to the girls clothes, I freak at the slightest mark, but I took a deep breath and let them play in the sand after dinner one night, it saved tears and and we ended up having some great photos with the sunsetting, and really sand isn't that dirty at all!






  • Take a walk after dinner and paddle in the water together.  This was heaven for us, not living anywhere near the beach and S and I loving the beach it was great to be able to stole down and breath in some sea air.  Lala was in her element and utilised any opportunity to get in the water! 








  • Ice-cream ANYTIME.  We never have ice-cream in this household unless I have made it myself with lactose free cream (I'm intolerant) and hardly any sugar. So Ice-cream on this trip was definitely a big treat.  The girls only got some a couple of times but loved every minute of it when they did, and never could finish what we did let them have anyway.  I love that something so simple is so special to them.




  • Let them nap on their Aunty.  This was special for both the girls and my sister, living miles away from each other, I think it is so nice that they still all have a strong bond and love each other so deeply. Thank god for Skype I say!!! 







  • Introduce the baby that is scared of the beach to a small kiddies beach first!!  We totally did this the wrong way away, Deedee heard the crashing waves and freaked right out! I mean really freaked out, she cried and screamed for a the whole 30 mins we managed to stay at the beach.  She was even getting upset when I went near the water without her.  On day 3 we found a beautiful kids beach at Hilary's about 15 minutes up the road from where we were staying.  Once we got there and set up, S sat with Deedee at the waters edge and dug a little hole that filled with water for her play in, this was the best move we made, within 15 minutes she was comfortable enough to venture into the water, and there she stayed for most of the day, loving every second!

  • Don't be afraid to use technology when your out!  On our last night we had dinner just our family, this was one of the only times the whole trip we were just the four of us.  S and I had really spent no time  just us so we did something we have never done before, we took the iPad out to dinner with us and set the girls up with a movie so we could enjoy our seafood dinner and a nice convo without hearing "I'm done, we go home now?" or "we go beach now?".  Not something I will do again in hurry as I like the girls to learn to sit and chat with us while we eat out, but nothing wrong with at all when you need so quiet time!









Tuesday 4 March 2014

Holiday Hangover!

Why is it that my house looks like a bomb has exploded in it and we have only been back from our holiday for 19 hours???
Oh that right because unpacking is the WORST!!!  As my best girlfriend just said it's the 'holiday hangover', and that pretty much sums up how I feel….HUNGOVER! Shame I didn't get to drink and dance the night away though.

The house seem to have every bodies clothes, shoes, and stuff everywhere and I can't even blame the kids, they have actually been fantastic through it all, maybe that has to do with the jet lag they have from the 3 hour time difference.  Yep only 3 hours different but that can make a huge impact on little bodies.  

Ok I better get back to it…
Looking forward to letting you all know about our mini holiday and about flying solo with 2 toddlers!



Monday 24 February 2014

DIY Neverland Party

Mission accomplished, Lala had a wonderful time at her Neverland themed 3rd birthday party, and hopefully all the other fairies and pirates did too.

I love throwing a little kids party and I am particularly proud of this one, because between my creative Hubby and I we pretty much did it all ourselves.  I made costumes for the whole family, he drew maps and built and painted signs, we cut and hung leaves to create pixie hollow, we even transformed the girls play tent into teepee.  Then of course there was the Tinkerbell cake that was the inspiration for the whole party, it was actually much easier than I imagined and can go down as one of the easier cakes I have done.  I think all the kids enjoyed themselves, we had a quick treasure hunt were they run around our backyard searching for little pouches filled with pirate booty (chocolate coins), and we had fun watching them play fairies and pirates.  One thing I did learn and was that 3 year old are in no way ready to play pass the parcel, but did expect that might have been the case, you live and learn!

So here is a look at what the day was like for us.

Enjoy.
Click here to read about the tinker bell cake.