Winter Sun. Whole foods.

It seems an eternity since I last blogged. I keep trying but the posts are half baked (which reminds me I have a slice in the oven and mustn't forget!).

I have been getting more exercise, having fun using body weight exercise to increase my strength and fitness, squats, pushups, crunches etc every second day to try to keep warm and keep the happy endorphins pulsing through to keep away the SAD I seem to be prone to in Winter. I have also been taking walks every day in the watery winter sunshine and so far so good!

 I notice that when I exercise more I start eating better and when I eat better I have more energy and exercise more, whole foods and raw foods are playing a bigger part in my diet these days and my energy levels are really good! I have bought some rapadura to use instead of sugar, bought some whole organic rye and celtic salt to try to make my cooking that little bit more nutritious rather than using all refined products. Resting on the bench is my first attempt at sprouted bread, something I had given up eating as it costs $6.50 a loaf but it seems it may be simple enough to make, there are recipes and variations everywhere but I have sprouted some rye, ground it up (in the Thermomix of course, but I believe any good food processor would do it) and mixed in some rapadura and yeast, left to prove and hopefully I can bake it and have a halfway convincing result!

I have made a whole rye loaf (not sprouted), milling the rye in the Thermomix and using the flour with a bit of vital wheat gluten, yeast and salt. I kneaded it a lot and left it to prove a long time (which seemed to produce a kind of alcohol but didn't affect the finished product) it made a dark, sour dense loaf which luckily was exactly what I wanted!

 450G rye (ground into flour in Thermomix)

50g vital wheat gluten

360g water

50g butter

5 g salt

40g rapadura

10g yeast

mixed for 20 seconds on speed 5 and then 1 minute 30 secs on interval, left to prove over night, kneaded by hand for 10 minutes and proved for another hour, baked at 220C (could be done with a stand mixer or food processor or by hand I guess!)

I also made a sort of cream cheese/marscapone  which I spread on the bread and had with red onion, delicious but gave me heart burn (better check on that slice!.. still good- the thermostat isn't the best on the oven so times vary wildly...).

The boys have started at another day care where they have their own lunches instead of having them provided which is working out much better- it turned out that Master 4 was only ever eating a tiny amount of vegetables at lunchtime and nothing else so it is much better for everyone (and our wallets- the new centre is much cheaper!) as he is helping choose what goes into his lunch box and consequently actually eating a lot of it. It is good practice for when he goes to to school next year and for me too as I will be getting repertoire of lunchbox friendly snacks! So far I have few favourites (or rather the boys do):

carrot and cheese sticks

raisins and wholemeal crackers,

fruit buns (homemade).

I will try to incorporate yoghurt and popcorn in next week. 
The slice (with ground almonds, ground oats and rapadura to give it some redeeming features) is out of the oven now, slightly unevenly cooked but one day I will get a new oven...