Collage

We've been working on a series of collages at the moment. Little B is fascinated by layering, pasting and sticking to create pictures.

 He loves to use sticks, leaves and petals that are constantly falling off our Camellia trees at the moment. But we also picked up some old magazines from my MIL and he has been using them to make pictures of fireworks, people and scenes from Paddington Bear LOL.

At preschool, they made paper mache easter baskets out of patty pans and tissue paper towards the end of term. And Little B loved that it was so similar to how we made paper lanterns last year for Winter Solstice. He also doesnt contain his love of craft to the provided art supplies provided at preschool he's out in their garden using branches, leaves and rocks to create.

Over at Soulemama today, she is showcasing Amelia Critchlow's experimental art course. And I just love the idea of experimental art with young children. It's so exciting for them to explore the world through different products, mediums and items. It's also a way to bring nature and the seasons into the house.

Little B started today collaging but after a trip to the fruit & veg shop, we found autumn leaves on the ground, and then progressed to painting with the autumn leaves all afternoon. He is right into experimenting at the moment especially with his "craft" as he calls it - and I hope this love of art doesnt fade with age.

this saturday i'm grateful for the sun & the wind

 End of Term 1, it's nearly Easter and school holidays have begun. So this Saturday I'm grateful for:

* the sun & the wind - drying my flannelette sheets for the colder weather this week

* girly chitchats & play dates - nothing better than having a girly chit chat with friends as the kids play together

* little local cinemas - this week I snuck off to the movies while Little B was at preschool. We have a tiny cute independent cinema in the main street and it's a great place to visit :-)

Visit Maxabella loves for more weekend gratefulness...

 

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Inspired by soulemama

 

 

Elimination Diet Update

Well the last month has brought more surprises than most. I abandoned my elimination diet with my allergists approval when my weight bottomed out at 45kg (the lightest I've ever been during this illness). I am however still dairy free as I can really feel the benefits.

But my mold battle took a turn for the worse so my neurologist has put me onto an anti-inflammation diet. Quite simply, I am now basically vegan with a certain amount of fish each week. The key thing is to avoid all dairy, meat, saturated fats and eat lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, fish and most of all omega 3's. I'm taking lots of flax seed oil as well as the fish as omega 3's reduce the inflammation response in your body.


I have to count my saturated fat intake each day and cannot exceed 10g. This is surprisingly easy once you take out dairy and meat. Having been vegetarian before Little B was born, it's not such a stretch to return to this way of eating and I've already been off dairy for 6 weeks so that's only annoying in the sense that I need to adapt recipes. I'm only sad that all my gorgeous vegetarian cookbooks had to be thrown out because of the house. Yay for the internet and family have said I can have a veggie cookbook birthday LOL.
 
Now here's the irony. Though it's early days, I'm gaining weight consistently day to day. Which could just be an anomaly or because my weight was so low. I'm keeping positive and think it might on the up and up. Only time will tell if this helps all my other problems but I have all my fingers and toes crossed :-)

Time for dinner

 Good morning hot lunches

Tricia at Little Eco Footprints wrote a post yesterday which really resonated with me. How do you make as much of your own food from scratch but not a) fall in a heap, b) get resentful & give up or c) resort to a paper plate mentality LOL.

There are times I feel like I spend half my life in the kitchen cooking. Probably because I do :-) Do I have days where I resent this? Actually no....tired - yes, resentful - no. The 2 key reasons are I like cooking and secondly because I'm really committed to our food choices and lifestyle. I prefer to view this positively, because I could just as easily say I have no choice. As the parent of a multiple food allergy child, I cant go out and buy many things off the shelf anyways, so why make it into a forced negative idea??

So what do I do to make life easier? I cook in bulk if I can for some things. For example, I use the slow cooker overnight to cook 4-5 days of hot lunches. I also use the slow cooker twice a week for dinners. That means come dinner time, I just need to add some rice.

If I cook soup, I make enough for dinner but also for a lunch or as the base for veggie sausage rolls. When I make said sausage rolls, it makes enough for Little B for about 6 weeks. Make two batches of muffins at once and freeze half. Always make sure your dinner makes 1 more meal and freeze.

Try to get a repertoire of tasty quick meals. Nothing too fiddly or time consuming during the week - I find this makes me cranky. We do a lot of vegetarian meals but also some meat. Things like stirfries, pumpkin & chickpea patties, lamb stews etc. My main priorities in a meal is it must be nourishing, tasty and chockful of veggies / beans / legumes.

Future sausage rolls

Make cooking fun - listen to your favourite music, involve the family. Little B loves to do playdough or colour at the table and sing along with me while I cook or do the dishes. We also use this time to listen to children's audiobooks (current faves are The Magic Faraway Tree & More of Paddington Bear). I leave weekends to try out recipes, make more fiddly meals and stock up our pantry by making jam.

One night a week is leftover / freezer / premade meal night. For us it is Wednesday. I love Wednesday as its the middle of the week and it breaks up the cooking. Mr B & I have leftovers and Little B has lentil sausage rolls or veggie bean pattie burgers. All meals on this night are home-made.

Also I cant say enough - meal plan. I have a 2 week rotation of meals. I just follow these 14 days straight but you could have the 14 and pick from them willy nilly. I prefer more structure as it means I dont have to think about dinner too much and it makes food shopping and stockpiling easier. Plus it means the rhythm of the kitchen and cooking just flows for me.

I change the meal plan around a bit according to the season, the weather and food availability. But cooking a lot of vegetarian meals makes this really easy.

Now I'm currently a SAHM but I'm also studying on campus at night, spending the other half of my life at doctors and hospitals, juggling a 4 year old and helping out in Mr B's business. Up until last year, I worked outside of the home in a stressful job and still did this much cooking. I believe it can be done by anyone...you just need to find the groove or pattern that works for you and your family.

this saturday i'm grateful for inspiration

 What can I say...I love Peppermint Magazine. It appeals to me in so many ways - being eco-conscious, being crafty, being inspired. So today I am grateful for

* the Autumn volume of Peppermint Magazine - so many ideas, so fun to read

* gorgeous new fabrics that inspire me - check out www.voodoorabbit.com.au if you'd like to checkout some alternative out there fabrics

* new blog suggestions - I love checking out new blogs and getting all excited about new ideas, new things, new places, new people....lots of things to cheer me up

Scoot on over to Maxabella loves for more inspiration :-)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Inspired by soulemama