Life update

Hey Friends! 

I wanted to jump on here today and give you a life update. I know I've been awfully sporadic with Craving Fresh over the past few years, but I've had a couple of people in the past month tell me how special this space is, and that gave me the nudge I needed to get back on here. (Thank you Anna and Ruthie!)

Eating

The last time I posted, I was letting you know all about the carnivore diet. 

Living it up at Festival One

Well, I followed that strictly for five months and lost about 9kg all up, but then went to Festival One with my girls at the end of January and fell off the meat train. 

Since then, I've been eating a regular, nothing-fancy diet. My focus over the past few months has been on trying to keep the grocery budget down rather than trying to keep my waistline trim. However, I've noticed my weight start to creep up again in the intervening months and just this week was re-inspired to start eating a Trim Healthy Mama diet again. 

What inspired me was listening to Jamerrill Stewart's recent podcast with the THM sisters, and also watching several Jamerrill videos like this one, where she cooked lots of yummy looking THM foods for herself.

Writing

Now, the reason I haven't been blogging as much in recent years is because my writing focus has been of a different nature. 

I've been working on a couple of young adult novels. 

Reading my book, Ever Since that Day, at Piha

The first one, Ever Since that Day, published in December 2023, and since then I've been busy promoting it as well as working on my next (as yet unnamed) novel. Both of these books fall under the Christian contemporary New Zealand young adult romance categories. 

Quite the niche!

Being interviewed about Ever Since that Day on Life FM

I was blessed to be interviewed about Ever Since that Day on both Life FM and Radio Rhema earlier this year, which helped to get the word out, but I would love for my book to reach even more readers. Please do spread the word if you're able.

Homeschooling

Our homeschool life officially came to an end this year, when my youngest two children joined their older sister at school. As much as I loved homeschooling my children and am grateful I got to spend all that special time with them, I'm also enjoying the new era we're in where I'm not responsible for every aspect of their learning. 

It's quite liberating.

I do still get to see the children during school hours, as I'm the librarian at the school they're attending. That has helped with the transition from homeschool to school immensely – for me and the kids. 

They're all thriving at school and I know it's the right place for them to be. 

Cancer

Robed up for my most recent CT scan

After four years of clear CT scans, I think I'm starting to believe I'm cancer free. 

I saw my surgeon again today to get the results from my most recent CT – which was clear. He told me that I'll have one more scan in a year's time, and if that's also clear, he'll officially discharge me back to my GP. 

It's kind of surreal. 

My life has changed in monumental ways since getting diagnosed with Stage 3C melanoma back in 2020. I don't think you could see most of those changes from the outside, but my whole worldview has shifted. 

I prioritise my relationship with God so much more than I did before, especially by spending more time in his Word. He really brought me through that difficult time and made it a joyous one with his loving, peace-giving presence. I wouldn't want to go through cancer again, but I'm glad I did go through it. 

I'm grateful for every day of life because I so easily could have missed out on them. I'm especially grateful to be here for my family. My youngest was only six when I got diagnosed, and now he's ten. 

It's sobering to think about all the life-shaping seconds, minutes, hours and days he's had with me over these past four years that he might not have had if I hadn't survived. I hate the thought of any of my children growing up without me and am so glad they haven't had to. Now my goal is to be there for my grandchildren. 

Having cancer is also what motivated me to finally publish Ever Since that Day. I thought, if I do die, my children will at least have this special piece of me – something creative I made and shared with the world. 

Of course, now that I'm starting to believe I'm going to live, I'm just as motivated to keep writing because I've caught the author bug. Bringing a whole story into existence out of nothing has to be one of the most exciting and fulfilling careers ever. 

Garden

Weeding the paths around my raised beds

Yes, I'm still gardening – although the permaculture nature of my garden means it's really my garden doing all the work. Plants pop up from last year's dropped seeds, and I simply harvest them. 

It's quite wonderful. (Although I do still have to weed, so don't be fooled into thinking it's total paradise.)

This year, we ate passionfruit, pumpkins, tomatoes, broccoli and parsley – none of which I planted. They just appeared. 

Our first crop of Oratia apples

We're also finally seeing the literal fruits of all my labours planting fruit trees around the property when we first moved in eight years ago. We're at the point now where there is always some kind of fruit to be picked. At the moment, it's oranges, lemons, limes and mandarins. A couple of months ago, it was feijoas, apples, passionfruit, nashis, raspberries, figs and NZ cranberries. Before that it was strawberries, plums, nectarines, boysenberries and blueberries. 

I love it. The kids love it too.

Netball

In other news, I started coaching a netball team this year, and I also umpire a couple of netball games each week. Coaching netball is not something I would have signed up for before, but the Lord has been leading me into new areas and helping me to see that I do have the capacity for them. I'm enjoying the challenge of it. 

Te Reo Māori

For the past two years, I've been studying te Reo Māori and absolutely loving it. I didn't have much exposure to te Reo growing up, so I feel like I'm playing catch up now. I'm finding it incredibly valuable though, especially as it's helping me to understand and appreciate my Māori brothers and sisters more. 

At a te Reo Māori workshop

This week I've also been listening to J. Ruca's book, Huia Come Home, which is giving me a greater understanding of New Zealand's bi-cultural history. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about how we as a nation got to where we are today. 

I think that's all the major news I have to update you on. Thank you for taking the time to read this far, and especially thank you if you've prayed for me at any point since finding out about my cancer. Your prayers have definitely carried me through. 

God bless you!

Emma

My weight-loss results after three months on Carnivore/Ketovore

In a surprise twist for this garden-loving girl, I've been eating a meat-based diet since the end of September 2023.

Several people had mentioned how a Carnivore diet was helping them reduce inflammation, reverse auto-immune disorders, and lose weight. So in the September school holidays, I went down the rabbit hole of researching the diet for myself. I read several books on the topic, and also watched YouTube videos about the subject. Laura Spath's YouTube videos were particularly encouraging and motivating to me. I can really relate to her journey. 

Ultimately, I had two main reasons for wanting to try the Carnivore diet:

The first was to reduce inflammation. I had been getting frequent migraines, as well as neck and shoulder pain that was waking me up multiple times of night. Those problems have vastly reduced since going meat-based. 

The second reason was to lose weight. Despite trying to eat well most of the time, my weight kept increasing. I was getting quite despairing about it. In three months on the Carnivore diet, I've managed to lose 9 kg and feel so much better in my own skin. 

Initially I thought I'd try the Carnivore/Ketovore diet for just three months, but it's working so well, I'm going to keep eating this way for the foreseeable future. 

The main things I love about it are that it's so simple and satiating. I don't have to spend much time thinking about what I'm going to eat every day, and I don't get as hungry as I used to. Meat is so nutrient-dense, it leaves me full for hours. 

So what am I eating? 

I'm not strictly Carnivore/animal-based, but mostly. I do let myself have berries, avocados, and the occasional nectarine, as well as stevia/erythritol-sweetened keto desserts/hot chocolates. Apart from that, I eat:

• Beef - mostly steak (my wonderful husband cooks this for me on his charcoal BBQ)
• Lamb shoulders (and the marrow)
• Chicken - preferably skin-on
• Bone broth
• Pork rinds (chip substitute)
• Eggs
• Butter
• Cheese
• Greek yoghurt mixed with collagen powder, whey protein powder, and electrolytes
• Jelly (sweetened with stevia/erythritol)
• Salt - I liberally sprinkle salt on everything, to keep my electrolytes up

I thought I'd get bored eating this way, but I actually really enjoy it. When your food is so satisfying, it's hard to get tired of it. 

So that's been my experience of the Carnivore diet, which is not to be construed as medical advice. 

I'd love to hear any thoughts and questions you have about it. 

Low-carb layered strawberry, mascarpone & pistachio dessert

This stunning layered dessert was inspired by Eleanor Cripps' recipe. I took her clever concept and created a low-carb version to serve during the Christmas season. The result is a delightfully decadent explosion of textures and flavours that will wow even your carb-eating friends. 

Ingredients

Strawberry layer:

• 4 cups of strawberries, sliced
• 2Tbsp Natvia/Truvia (or other low-carb sweetener)

Mascarpone layer:

• 500g mascarpone
• 150mL cream
• 2Tbsp Natvia/Truvia (or other low-carb sweetener of your choice)
• 4Tbsp vanilla paste (or to taste)

• Pistachio layer:

• 1 cup ground pistachios (or 100g slivered almonds)

Method

1. Slice the strawberries, stir through the low-carb sweetener, and spread it out in the the bottom of a rectangular or oval glass dish. (I stirred the strawberries and sweetener together directly in the glass dish, to save on washing up.)
2. Mix together the mascarpone, cream, low-carb sweetener and vanilla paste until well-combined, and spread over the strawberry layer.
3. Grind up pistachios and sprinkle them over the mascarpone layer. For a more economical alternative, you can sprinkle a light dusting of slivered almonds over the top, instead of the pistachios. 

Serve chilled and enjoy! Merry Christmas!

$160 budget 7-day menu plan for a family of 5

With grocery prices on the rise, I thought I would try my hand at putting together a budget 7-day menu plan for a family of 5. I've based my prices off of Countdown this week, since those prices are consistent around New Zealand. I used pumpkin as key ingredient for the week's menu, so if you were able to get it cheaper somewhere other than Countdown, you could create more wiggle room in your budget for other items. 

I haven't tested this menu plan on my family, because of special dietary requirements we have, so I'm unsure how it would play out in reality, but I'm hoping it will be useful to you for ideas at the very least. 

Shopping list

Nature's Fresh toast bread 700g x2: $3.50 x2 = $7 (Countdown was sold out of cheaper bread)

Farmer Brown 20-pack eggs size 6: $10.50

Essentials crunchy peanut butter 375g: $2.70

Countdown whole chicken 1.9kg: $17.50

The Odd Bunch onions 1.5kg: $4.50

Pumpkin: $14ea

Fresh brushed Agria potatoes 1KG: $4.99

The Odd Bunch carrots 1.5kg: $4

Red cabbage half: $4.99

Royal Gala apples 2KG: $7

Countdown frozen peas 1kg: $3.30

McKenzies pearl barley 500g: $2.20

Countdown frozen mixed vegetables 1kg: $3

Countdown essential tortillas 15-pack: $4.50

Essentials coconut cream 400ml x2: $1.50 x2 = $3

Sun Valley brown lentils 500g: $3.20

Essentials long grain rice 1kg: $2.40

Select garam masala 29g: $2.50

Countdown diced tomatoes w/ Italian basil & oregano 400g: $1.30

Countdown rolled oats 750g: $3

Greggs ground cinnamon 30g: $3

Essentials mini dark chocolate chips 250g: $1.50

Countdown 390g sweetened condensed milk: $3

Countdown plain flour 1.5kg: $2.50

Tasti Yeast Active Dried 130g: $5.50

Chelsea white sugar: 1.5kg: $2.90

Hansells imitation vanilla essence 125ml: $1.99

Hansells baking powder 150g: $2.80

Countdown butter 500g: $4.90

Countdown NZ beef mince 500g: $8.90

Countdown tomato sauce 500ml: $2.80

Countdown garlic mayonnaise 250ml: $3.50

Golden Sun sliced gherkins 680g: $3

Countdown sunflower oil 500ml: $4

Pop N Good popping corn 500g: $3.30

TOTAL: $159.17

Menu plan

Monday

Breakfast: Fried eggs on toast with butter (1 egg and piece of toast per person)

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwiches, apples, carrot sticks, chocolate chunk oat cookies.

Dinner: Roast chicken (stuffed with 1 peeled onion), gravy (made with the chicken juices, flour and pea cooking water), roast pumpkin, 500g roast potatoes, cooked peas, and 1 sliced and cooked carrot.

Notes: 

1. Roast the pumpkin and serve 1/4 of it with this dinner. (Save one quarter of the roast pumpkin for the lentil curry, one quarter for the pumpkin soup, and one quarter to blend into 2 cups of pumpkin puree to make the pumpkin bread.)
2. Save half of the cooked chicken meat for future lunches
3. Throw the bones of the chicken carcass into a large pot covered with 5L water to make chicken stock for the chicken soup, pumpkin soup, and brown lentil curry dinners. You can add carrot and onion peels/ends to the pot too. Simmer for 6 hours, strain the liquid into ice cream containers and refrigerate until needed. 

Tuesday

Breakfast: Apple cinnamon porridge (quadruple the recipe and use sugar instead of maple syrup)

Lunch: Chicken tortilla wraps (1 per person) spread with mayonnaise and filled with leftover roast chicken, diced gherkin, grated cabbage, and grated carrot. Snacks of apple slices, stove-popped popcorn, and chocolate chunk oat cookies.

Dinner: Chicken barley soup - make with 1/2c barley, two diced onions, the bag of of frozen mixed vegetables, and 2L of the prepared chicken stock. If you have any herbs on hand, add these for extra flavour. You will have plenty of barley left over for soup in coming weeks. 

Wednesday

Breakfast: Egg-in-a-hole (1 per person)

Lunch: Pumpkin bread spread with butter. (Use half the pumpkin bread for this lunch and save the other half for tomorrow). Stove-popped popcorn and apple slices as a snack. 

Dinner: Lentil pumpkin curry served on rice. Fry 1 tortilla per person in a little butter to make an imitation roti to go with the curry. Serve with a side of frozen peas. 

(To make the curry, saute two diced onions in 3 Tbsp oil on a medium heat until softened. Add 2 Tbsp garam masala to the pan and saute for 30 seconds, stirring to coat the onion in the spice mix. Rinse 1 cup of lentils and add them to the pan, stirring to coat them in the onion and spice mixture. Next, stir through the tin of diced tomatoes, 1/4 pumpkin (which was roasted on Monday night), and 3c of chicken stock. Simmer covered for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. 5 minutes before serving, stir through the tin of coconut cream and add salt and pepper to taste.)

Note: While the soup is cooking, bake pumpkin bread for tomorrow's lunches. 

Thursday

Breakfast: Toast

Lunch: The rest of the pumpkin bread spread with butter. Popcorn and carrot sticks as a snack. 

Dinner: Hamburgers on homemade bread rolls. Make the patties with the mince, onion, egg and bread crumbs made out of crusts. Top the burgers with gherkins, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, grated carrot, and grated cabbage. 

Friday

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on toast. 

Lunch: Leftovers or tortilla wraps filled with a cooked egg mixture made of boiled eggs mixed with mayonnaise and diced gherkins. Snacks of apples and popcorn

Dinner: Leftover lentil curry served on a fresh batch of rice. Serve with a side of green peas. 

Note: Start the overnight bread for tomorrow's dinner. 

Saturday

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal made with rolled oats, eggs, cinnamon and apple. Use water instead of milk. (This can be prepared the night before and individual servings reheated for breakfast.) 

Lunch: Potato hash browns made with the rest of the potatoes, as well as eggs, flour, diced onion. Cook in oil. Serve with a cole slaw made of grated carrot and the rest of the cabbage. 

Dinner: Pumpkin soup (use the remaining pumpkin, one onion, the chicken stock and the second can of coconut cream for this soup. Flavour with garam masala if you don't have cumin, coriander or curry powder). Serve with overnight bread. 

Sunday (leftovers day)

Breakfast: Leftover baked oatmeal. 

Lunch: Use up whatever is left in the fridge and pantry. 

Dinner: Leftover pumpkin soup. 

Gluten-free plum and almond slice

Now that one of my family members is gluten-free, I'm finding myself experimenting with gluten-free cooking that our whole family will enjoy. I don't want to be making two different kinds of everything. Ain't nobody got time for that. 

Often gluten-free baking can taste dry and chalky, but the almond flour and plums in this recipe give it the perfect moist and dense texture. 

Everybody in my family loves it; I hope you will too. 

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3/4 cup plain gluten-free flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup chocolate drops
• 2 red or purple-fleshed plums 

Method

1. Heat oven to 170 C fan bake, and line a pie dish with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. 
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. 
4. Fold in flour, baking powder, baking soda and chocolate drops. 
5. Spread mixture in prepared pie dish. 
6. Slice plums into 6 wedges each and arrange these in a pleasing design over the mixture. 
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the slice comes out clean. 
8. Cool in the tin then remove to slice. 

Delicious and Simple Crockpot Beef Curry Recipe

Today I'm going to share with you the best crockpot beef curry recipe I've ever come across. My friend, Anna, introduced it to me and I loved it so much, I've made it several times since. 

Every time I get to eat it, I sigh rapturously. 

The original recipe I've based it on is a stovetop recipe, but I like being able to prepare this in the morning and come back to a perfectly cooked dinner in the evening, so I've turned it into a sumptuous crockpot recipe. 

The recipe I'm sharing is the base recipe, but feel free to add in extra vegetables you may have on hand. In the photos below you will see I added a diced eggplant to the crockpot, to use it up. It absorbed the flavours of the curry wonderfully and was a great addition. Choko and zucchini can be used in a similar way. Anna often adds chickpeas to her curry, to help bulk it out if she's feeding a crowd. 

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp ground coriander
• 1/2 - 1 tsp chilli powder
• 500g stewing meat (eg. chuck steak or blade steak), diced into 1.5cm pieces. 
• 1 tsp salt
• 400g tin diced tomatoes
• 400ml tin coconut cream

Method

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat and cook the onion until soft. 
2. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilli powder. Stir until heated.
3. Increase the heat to high and add the diced beef. Cook, stirring until the meat is slightly browned and well coated in the spices. 
4. Add the salt and diced tomatoes, and then stir, scraping the bottom of the pan so that the tomato juices deglaze it. 
5. Transfer the contents of the pan to a crockpot set to low. 
6. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, depending on the power of your particular crockpot. 
7. Five minutes before serving, stir in the coconut cream. 
8. Serve this beef curry on the rice of your choice. 

Serves 6 (and you're likely to have leftovers)

Frugal Dinner - Chicken Barley Soup

In August I posted a frugal Red Lentil Curry recipe for you and promised that I would post more frugal dinner recipes in the future. Well, for dinner tonight we are having Chicken Barley Soup, and I actually remembered to take photos of the process for you so I could post this excellent frugal dinner option. 

Sometimes cheaper dinner recipes are not so healthy, but this one is highly nourishing, flavourful and easy to make. It's also very adaptable to whatever vegetables you have in the house or garden. My whole family loves it. 

It doesn't actually contain any meat, but gets its chicken flavour from homemade chicken stock. You can, of course, add chicken meat if you want to, but that does increase the cost of this dinner, and I find the barley has such a pleasant chew to it that I don't miss the chicken at all. 

Just make sure to get your barley soaking early in the day, to give it time to swell up before you cook the soup.

I've included a cost breakdown at the bottom of this post, so scroll to the end if you're interested to find out exactly how frugal this dinner is.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup barley, soaked in three cups of water for several hours
• 1Tbsp cooking oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cups chopped mixed vegetables, eg frozen mixed vegetables, or a mix of carrots, peas, beans, corn, celery, or zucchini (grated)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• A teaspoon of dried herbs of your choice, eg tarragon, oregano, sage, or coriander. (Fresh herbs are also great.)
• 2 Litres chicken stock (see how I make chicken stock out of scraps here) (I make big pots of chicken stock and freeze it in ice cream containers to use for soup.)

Method

1. Sauté the diced onion in 1Tbsp cooking oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat until slightly softened. (Alternatively, you can scrape the chicken fat off the homemade chicken stock and use that instead of cooking oil for an even cheaper option.)
2. Stir through the rest of the vegetables. 
3.  Sprinkle over the salt, pepper and herbs of your choice. (I used several coriander stalks from my garden, dicing them up finely. I had already pulled the leaves off the coriander stalks for a salad.) 
4. Cook the vegetables for a few minutes, stirring every now and then until coated in the herbs and slightly softened. 
5. Pour over the chicken stock.
6. Rinse the pre-soaked barley in a sieve under cold water and add it to the saucepan. Stir well to prevent the barley from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.
7. Place the lid on the saucepan and bring the soup to a boil before stirring once more and turning down the heat to low. 
8. Simmer the soup for at least an hour, or until all the barley has cooked through and softened to a chewable consistency. Stir the soup every 15 minutes or so while it's cooking, and add more chicken stock or water if necessary, as the liquid will reduce while the soup cooks. 
9. Once the barley is cooked through, check the soup for seasoning and add more salt and pepper as needed.
10. Serve with toast strips (toastie soldiers) spread with butter. Optional.

Serves 6 or more, and you're likely to have leftovers.

Cost breakdown

These are based on Countdown prices, as those are the same anywhere in New Zealand. You could definitely get cheaper prices by shopping at PAKnSAVE, a fruit & vegetable store or a vegetable co-op.

• Rice bran oil: $2.30 for 400ml, so $0.10 for 1Tbsp. (Free if you scrape the fat off the chicken stock.)
• Onion: $0.75 cents, if buying individually; cheaper if bought in an Odd Bunch bag)
• Frozen mixed vegetables: $2.80 for a 1KG bag, so around $1.40 for two cups' worth
• Celery: $4.99 for a whole celery, so roughly $1.50 for three stalks
• Herbs: $2 for a 10g pack, so roughly $0.20 for 1 teaspoon
• Salt & pepper: A few cents - so let's round up to $0.10
• Chicken stock: Free! Make it out of chicken bones and vegetable scraps. (Otherwise $7 for 2 Litres.)
• Barley: $2.20 for a 500g bag, so less than $0.50 for this soup

TOTAL: $4.55 if you use homemade chicken stock, which is $0.76 a serve (and those would be huge servings). Otherwise $11.55 if you use store-bought chicken stock, which equates to $1.93 a serve.