Tuesday Tip: How to use up excess produce

If you have a home garden, you know all too well that there are times when you have a glut of tomatoes or eggplants or something. Sure, you can eat them until the cows come home. There are many different ways to prepare vegetables, you can also preserve them and freeze them for later consumption.

But sometimes, there is just too much and you can't face the thought of another eggplant based dish. Or, you need just a little of something else, and you know it's in season right now, but don't want to pay supermarket prices for food that comes from who knows how far away.

Enter this awesome site: www.ripenear.me

Founded by two passionate foodies from Adelaide, I'll let them tell you how they came up with the idea and what the site is all about:

In winter of 2012 they noticed so many citrus trees scattered about the suburbs full of fruit that nobody was eating. And yet local stores were selling plenty of them - even some that were imported! It just didn't make sense. So, an idea was born: Why not have a site that allows foodies to connect with growers? Wouldn't it be cool if we could get all our fresh food from the local neighbourhood?... And so we started on our quest.

What a great idea! Around me, there are growers of chilli and basil, mangoes, figs and amaranth and even some eggs. I've got some of my own chilli and eggplants listed as growing, and I may even be able to offer some sweet potato if the harvest is as bountiful as I think it'll be.

You're welcome :)

* Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with this site although I am a member. I just think it's awesome sauce!!

Tuesday Tip: How to cut tomatoes without crushing them

In our house we have one good knife. The one knife we spent a stupid amount of money on and is never allowed in the dishwasher. Its the only kitchen item that gets washed and placed in its own drying space every single time it's used. It is kept sharp and well cared for so its an excellent kitchen knife and cuts nearly everything very well.

NEARLY everything. 

However, it is a straight edged knife so unless you're a chef with great knife skills, it's rubbish at cutting is tomatoes. And as you can see from previous posts I've been cutting a LOT of tomatoes. In fact cutting tomatoes with our nice sharp knife is almost dangerous since the smooth skin of tomatoes makes it so easy for the blade to slip and catch an unwary finger. Then if you manage to put enough pressure to pierce the tomato skin you're faced with the soft squishy insides which crush so easily. 

The solution, the least used knife in the house, The serrated bread knife (because our bread already comes sliced its rarely out of the knife block) The serrated edges are perfect for dicing soft tomatoes without crushing them. even if you're a complete knife knovice like me.  Perfect for making a nice chunky tomato sauce or perfectly forkable pieces in a salad. 

On a related note I've still got about 2 kg of tomatoes and more on the plant. I'm running out of ideas! HELP!

Recipe: Berry Blast Ice Pops

Fantastic to keep in the fridge during the hot summer days. My Little man would come home from daycare on hot days and would do anything for a berry ice pop. They also look so cool in their bands of yellow and red. Get creative and layer the colours for more interesting effects.

Ingredients (serves 5 | makes 5 ice pops)

• 1/2 cup Full Cream milk
• 1/4 cup Yogurt
• 1 Banana
• 1 handful mixed berries (blueberries/ raspberries/ black berries)

Method

1. Mix Milk and Yogurt and split in 2 cups
2. Add banana to one cup, Add Berries to the other cup and whip till smooth
3. Fill in Ice Pop mould half full with Banana and milk mixture, freeze for above an hour.
4. Fill the rest of the ice pop mould with berries and milk mixture, freeze overnight and enjoy whenever the kids want a nice healthy snack.

Product Review: Cocobella Kids

In our family hubby is the sugar nazi when it comes to what we can give the kids to eat and drink (he gives me the evil eye when I pop a jar of nutella in the shopping cart). He conscientiously reads nutrition labels and compares sugar content from everything from fruit juice to yogurt. So when I told him that I was going to get some samples of Cocobella kids coconut water to review, his first question was "How much sugar is in it?"

Turns out, there is very little sugar in these little packs. 6grams per 100ml compared to 10.8g from the "Nothing but apples" juice currently in our fridge.  So it passes Hubby's strict restrictions on sugar content. The benefits of coconut water/oil/pulp/essence is all the rage right now with health advocates recommending it for use in everything from eating to rubbing into face/hair/nails. I'm no nutritionist so I'll let them tell you all about the health benefits.

Personally I love coconut water simply for the refreshing taste and partially because the kids don't usually end up hijacking my drink after taking an initial sip. So I was a little dubious about how a coconut water drink would go down with little kids. This reluctance of little people to try straight up coconut water must have also occurred to the makers of Cocobella kids because they've mixed up their coconut water with fruit juice, Apple & Berry or Mango and Pineapple.

So when the samples arrived I gathered up my focus group. 4 kids aged between 3 to 4. Friends of my little man who had come over for a playdate. They were each allowed to pick which flavour they wanted (which they did based on their favorite colour rather than the actual ingredients). By coincidence 2 picked the red (Apple berry) and 2 picked the yellow (Mango Pineapple).  My little man who picked the yellow decided after 2 sips that he wanted the red one and some exchanges had to be negotiated after that he decided that the Apple & Berry flavour was the only way to go.  In fact all the kids eventually swapped to the Apple and Berry after taste testing each others packs.

It looks like Cocobella has surprisingly managed to work their coconut water to fit a kids palate with the addition of tried and true fruity flavours to produce a refreshing low sugar option for snack times and lunch boxes. My little man refers to these little boxes as coconut juice boxes and raids the fridge for them just like he does for straight up juice or yakult he still prefers the Apple and Berry flavour but will just as easily have a Mango and Pineapple one if it's all he can find in the fridge.

I'll be perfectly honest and say that two or more of these juice boxes have found their way into mummy and daddy's work lunch boxes as well to er... keep the sandwiches cool... yeah thats the reason... ok so maybe we find them pretty yummy as well. Why should the kids have all the fun! In our house at least the adults prefer the Mango Pineapple flavour, which works out well with the kids' preferences of Apple Berry.

The ecomum in me automatically raged at the use of single serve juice boxes (we never buy these usually), However it has been somewhat satiated by reading on the box that the package was fully recyclable. And that the juice were packed at the source which reduced the amount of transportation of materials.

In summary, the kids enjoyed them (especially chilled on a hot day) and maybe for once mum and dad can hijack the kids drinks instead of the other way around.

Tuesday tip - don't cook occasionally

That's right, you heard me - don't cook. It's a terrible thing, but people need to eat ALL the time. Especially small children; mine are particularly fond of declaring "I'm hungry" approximately 3.141592653 seconds after I've cleared away the last meal.

In our household we have a veg*n, a die hard carnivore, a picky toddler and a nursling, as well as two hounds. That makes for a lot of meals. Although we try to eat in themes - for example, on Mexican night there is a mince option and a bean option, it still makes for a lot of leftovers.

Now I'm frugal and I hate waste. So once a week or so, we schedule a hunt and gather night.

What that means is that we don't cook anything new, and instead we scavenge around the fridge and the freezer for leftovers and make up a meal. First in gets first dibs (unless one of you is pregnant or PMSing, that's always trumps!).

By not cooking and scheduling in a night where you forage in a modern manner, those leftovers get eaten and there is much less waste come bin day. Wins all around (except for the hounds who then have to eat proper dog food because there isn't any human food for them to beg for). Ha!

Read more about how I meal plan here.

How does your Garden Grow: HELP my tomatoes are taking over!

Inspired by this gardening series from Withafork.blogspot.com I've decided to provide my own little sneak peek into my adventures into veggie growing.


Remember my Egg Shell seedlings? That seems like such a long time ago but since then the combination of bright sunny days inter-spaced with heavy rain has resulted in the tomatoes totally taking over my little veggie patch.

It has even swallowed up a healthy brown onion plant which survives only because it's leaves are tall enough to grow above the tomato plants. All other seedlings (carrots and zucchini) planted in that garden bed were completely consumed.

At least we're have a bounty of Tomatoes!

I wonder if Ms Fork will swap me some eggplants. Since I can't seem to get those to grow no matter how hard I try.

What should I do with all of them? Any ideas?

Tuesday Tip: Save our knees

Today's tip comes from very extensive experience. Many many sleepless nights of experience. Forget saving our sleep.... that is an impossible dream... but at least we can save our knees.

Getting a baby to sleep is exercise. Serious exercise. It works out your arms, core, thighs and legs. Hours of bouncing and swaying and rocking it can be hard on the joints. Personally I found that my knees fared the worst (those are the days I feel way too old to be a mum). However put my in a situation where the baby is almost asleep and my legs are burning and shivering from the effort and I'd rather my legs fall off than stop bouncing.

I also have 2 little ones who don't seem to like rocking motions and prefer to be bounced up and down so the rocking chair we got doesn't do the trick of getting them to sleep.

But we can save our knees.... with an EXERCISE BALL! Yep. This handy little air filled ball is great for bouncing on and getting the little one off to dream land. And you can also get some incidental core exercise in at the same time without serious overexertion. Just remember to keep your back straight and and use the ball to do your bouncing for ya. Far less energy and probably better for your back and knees than the awful posture carrying a wriggling baby naturally puts you in.