Week 4 – Plain Yoghurt – Jam & Coconut Muffins
I love using yoghurt in muffins as it adds moisture and the plain variety give a bit of tang. Here’s a recipe my son came up with based on a similar recipe we found in a book.
Jam & Coconut Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins
2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain yoghurt
60ml canola oil
1/4 cup (approx) jam – your choice of flavour, ours were homemade apricot
Preheat the oven to 180C and lightly grease a muffin tray. Mix the flour, castor sugar and coconut in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the egg with the canola oil and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and mix lightly until just combined. Spoon half the batter into the prepared muffin tray, then add 1 teaspoon jam to each muffin. Spoon in the remaining batter.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins spring back when lightly pressed. Remove the muffins from the oven and turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.
Pick any jam you have on hand. I made a large batch of apricot jam for Christmas and I don’t think I’m going to get through it all unless I bake with it. I might get around to making my old favourite Raspberry Slice sometime soon.
Week 4 – Plain Yoghurt – Frozen Yoghurt with Berries
I’ve never really used much plain or natural yoghurt, probably because I’m addicted to sugar and can’t imagine yoghurt without flavour, be that fruit or something else. But this week I tried a few things. Firstly adding frozen berries.
Frozen Yoghurt with Berries
250g plain fat-free yoghurt
1/4 cup icing sugar; sifted
1 1/2 cups frozen berries
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Crush frozen berries. In a small bowl stir through the sugar and vanilla into the yoghurt. Add berries and stir until well combined.
2. Spoon into ice block moulds.
Yield: 4-6 servings
Even my son who is not a fan of fruit and has unfortunately inherited my sweet tooth found these delicious, as did I! A winner for sure.
You can’t do it all
… at least not all at once.
Whoever said that women can have it all forgot to add the cavet “but not all at once”. I’m very grateful for all the ground that the women of the feminist movement broke before me, but with that has come some unrealistic expectations about what women are able to do simply because the opportunities are open to them.
I believe that we’re not meant to do everything at once. Rather than doing things concurrently, I think the only way to stay sane is to do them sequentially. My generation has been lucky that we’ve had plenty of job opportunities made available to us (even if pay is still not equal to men) and we don’t want to loose our access to them while taking time off to have babies. I’ve never been a career focused person so I don’t really appreciate what the pressure is like to not loose continuity in your career. But surely workplaces (and society in general) can give mums at least a bit of a break to just do the job of mothering rather than having their attentions constantly drawn back to where on the ladder they’ll be when they get back.
Now I’m not dissing anyone’s right to go to work when they want to, or need to as the case may be. My issue is with the idea that being JUST a mum is somehow not good enough, that you have earn money as well as do what you do for your family. There’s plenty of time to come back to the workforce once the children are old enough/mature enough to be independent. How about just letting mums get on with raising well adjusted, healthy, independent members of society and come back to the workforce later?
When couples 30-40 years ago first started out in their married lives they often started with not much and worked their way up to the comforts of life. Today, many couples believe that they have to start with the big TV, big car and big house, rather than work together and go on the journey that leads them to these things over time. Same for allowing women to go on the journey rather than the mad dash. If after 40 years you said you’d had a few ‘career changes’ (study, travel, work, babies, volunteering, work, etc.), would that be seen as such a bad thing, or could you also suggest that the person had lots of life experience?
I say take it easy, there’s plenty of time for everything and do each thing along your journey whole heartedly and with as much passion as you can manage. Don’t short change yourself by being half there for the kids and half there at work if you’re in a position where you can make that choice. The children just want time with their parents, not to see you rushing off to work to earn an extra few dollars to buy them another toy.
Not being an Alpha Mom
I loved the title of this Facebook group when I saw it this week – Not being an Alpha Mom. Who the hell created this mythical ideal of the ‘perfect mother‘ anyway? I’d suspect some commercial concern that tries to make mothers feel bad or inferior just so they can sell us stuff that we think we NEED in order to have a “perfect life“. Same with negative body images, affluenza and all other luxurious Western ailments… it’s only because we’re so well off as a community that we have the time to worry about this stuff. Perfect is an illusion, I’d rather strive for happy.
Week 1 – Cranberry Sauce – Muffins
Choc Cranberry Muffins
To see how else I could use the Cranberry Sauce I gave a muffin modification a go (with lots of delegating going to DS1). I’ve used The Pocket Muffin Book (available second hand from Amazon
Chocolate Cranberry Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup cocoa powder; sifted (that’s all I had left!)
3 tablespoons cranberry sauce; heaped
2 eggs
1 cup milk (if you’ve got buttermilk handy, use that)
1/4 cup canola oilPreheat the oven to 180C and lightly grease a muffin tray. Mix the flour, brown sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the eggs with the buttermilk, canola oil and cranberry sauce. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and mix lightly until just combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tray.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins spring back when lightly pressed. Remove the muffins from the oven and turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.
Yield: 12 muffins
Result: Yummo! Moist and not too sweet, light on the choc and just a hint of the cranberry.
Brighton-Le-Sands
A bit of everything at Brighton-Le-Sands
The city skyline in the background, a plane taking off from the airport, and folks taking an evening stroll at Brighton-Le-Sands baths.
Le Sands Restaurant
Week 1 – Cranberry Sauce – Pork Marinade
To kick off the year, I’m using Cranberry Sauce today as a marinade for pork. I got the inspiration from Diabetic Living magazine. I’m not a diabetic, but my mum has been buying this magazine for some time and it always has creative yet sensible recipes that are suitable for the diabetic lifestyle.
At the shops I found two options on the shelf – the Woolworths Select brand, and another I can’t remember the name of. The ingredient lists read exactly the same (for once): Water, Cranberries (34%), sucrose. They were both made in Australia from North American Cranberries. So the only thing to split them on this occasion was price.
If cranberry sauce ends up being something I’d use again in the future I’m sure I’d make my own. Here’s one recipe for Easy Cranberry sauce on Allrecipes.com.au and another from delicious magazine.
The recipe for the pork marinade is:
- 50g (1/4 cup) cranberry sauce
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed orange zest
- 60ml (1/4 cup) orange juice
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
Marinating Pork
As you’ll soon find out, I’ve modified this to suit what I have on hand. The only ingredient that was as given in the recipe was the cranberry sauce! My mustard was dijon, my orange juice wasn’t freshly squeezed, I didn’t have any zest and we had plenty of garlic last night, so I omitted this too.
Pork marinated in cranberry sauce, mustard, orange juice and olive oil.
Pork marinated in cranberry sauce, mustard, orange juice and olive oil.
Conclusion
Tasted good, a little sweetness went nicely with the pork. Served with grilled asparagus, zucchini and crispy potatoes.
