Fresh Reviews and Giveaway: Simunovich Extra Virgin Olive Oils

If you follow my weekly menu plans, you'll know our family has been the happy testers of the Simunovich Estate range of olive oils over the past couple of weeks.

Olive oil seems to be the one fat everyone agrees is healthy, especially when it's consumed raw. Whew! It's nice not to have to debate over the potential merits and dangers of a food for once. We can get straight to the fun stuff - how it tastes.

Well, I'm happy to report the Simunovich Estate range of olive oils tastes pretty darn good.

I've got a special fondness for the Simunovich Estate anyway, because it's just down the road from my sister's little farmlet and I've previously talked about Simunovich Estates personal care range, Olive, which is just as delightful as its edible range.

Of its edible range, I've discovered that:

Lemon Infused Olive Oil and Frantoio Extra Virgin Olive Oil are both lovely on salads.

Natural Extra Virgin Oil has a mild flavour that's gorgeous in our family favourite breads: Potato Focaccia, Dinner Rolls and Mediterranean Scrolls.

Garlic Infused Olive Oil is beautiful drizzled on Cauliflower Popcorn and Sauteed Prawns.

Sauteed prawns drizzled in Simunovich Estate Garlic Infused Olive Oil.

If you need more inspiration for ways to use the lemon infused and garlic infused olive oils, check out these recipes from Sonoma.

You can order any of the Simunovich olive oils online. They come individually or in gift packs - one of which I'm giving away, so you'll want to keep reading to see how to enter the draw for that.

Giveaway time!

This week I'm running a giveaway on Facebook for the Simunovich Estate Red Box of specialty olive oils, containing 250ml bottles of Natural, Garlic Infused and Lemon Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oils.

The giveaway is open to New Zealand followers of Craving Fresh and will be drawn on Tuesday 18 June 2013 at 9am.

Pear, ginger and coconut oat muffin recipe (soaked)

This recipe is a gorgeous variation of my favourite soaked apple and cinnamon oat muffins. Pear and ginger go so well together, and the coconut in this recipe brings a subtle depth to the muffins that I enjoy.

These muffins don't hold together as well as plain flour muffins, but are yummier (in my opinion) and much healthier.

Ingredients

• 1c rolled oats
• 1/2c whole-wheat flour
• 1c sour dairy (eg. whey, kefir, yoghurt, buttermilk, or milk with 1T vinegar added)
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/4c unrefined sugar, eg. jaggery, mascovada, sucanat, rapadura
• 1/2c butter, softened
• 1t vanilla essence
• 1/2c desiccated coconut or coconut flour
• 1/4t salt
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 2t ground ginger
• 1 large pear, peeled and diced

Method

1. The night before you want to make your muffins, mix together 1c rolled oats, 1/2c whole-wheat flour and 1c sour dairy in a bowl. Cover and let stand overnight to soak and make the oats and flour more digestible. 

2. After the original three ingredients have soaked for at least 8 hours and you're ready to bake your muffins, preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F and line a 12-cup muffin tray with cupcake patties.

3. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients - 1 large egg, 1/4c unrefined sugar and 1/2c softened butter.

4. Combine well and then mix through the dry ingredients - 1/2c desiccated coconut, 1/4t salt, 1t baking powder, 1/2t baking soda and 2t ground ginger.

5. Peel and dice your pear and gently stir this into the batter.

6. Scoop mixture into prepared muffin tray, almost to the top of each cup. 

7. Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 16 - 18 minutes, or until the muffins are golden and spring back when lightly touched.

8. Serve fresh with butter. These muffins are best eaten within 48 hours, but can also be frozen to enjoy at a later date (if they last that long.)

~ Find more Craving Fresh recipes here ~

Weekly menu plan # 9 - Keeping it simple

Lily relishing our homemade almond butter.

A kiwi blog I'm loving at the moment is Petite Kitchen. It features lots of GAPS-friendly recipes and beautiful photos. I've made the Petite Kitchen Banana Breakfast Cookies two weeks in a row now, because Lily and I love them so much and they make breakfast really easy on busy mornings. The cookies even taste great frozen, so it's easy to keep them fresh until we're ready to eat them.

If you follow Craving Fresh on Facebook, you'll know that I made my first batch of almond butter this weekend. It's really yummy, but took lots of almonds to make one jar so isn't the most economical spread out there.

I used the almond butter in this week's batch of Banana Breakfast Cookies and in a Chocolate Dream Smoothie. Already the jar is half gone, so I'm thinking this isn't going to be a regular kitchen staple in our house.

What a shame, since almond butter really is so delicious and helps solve the problem of getting stable protein into Lily's lunchbox at Playcentre, where peanuts are banned for being too allergenic but almonds are allowed.

Sunday
To do: Thaw vanilla poached apples and pumpkin soup.
Breakfast: Banana Breakfast Cookies (made night before)
Lunch: Out and about with the girls during our Open Home.
Dinner: Eat out for dinner

Monday
To do: Make dinner rolls. Make more yoghurt.
Breakfast: Vanilla poached apples (from freezer) and homemade yoghurt.
Lunchbox for Lily: Berry smoothie pudding. Honey bubble slice. Crackers and homemade almond butter. Homegrown cherry tomatoes.
Dinner: Pumpkin soup and dinner rolls.

Tuesday
To do: Cook cauliflower earlier in day. Thaw Honey mustard chicken casserole. Soak porridge.
Breakfast: Java cream with vanilla poached apples.
Lunchbox for Lily: Dinner roll with marmite, butter and cheese. Banana Breakfast Cookie. Sliced apple.
Dinner: Cauliflower crust Hawaiian pizza.

Wednesday
To do: Pick up raw milk. Make Soaked pear, ginger and coconut oat muffin.
Breakfast: Soaked apple cinnamon porridge.
Dinner: Honey mustard chicken casserole on rice (from freezer)

Thursday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on toast. Berry delight smoothie (make frozen puddings with leftovers)
Lunchbox for Lily: Soaked pear, ginger and coconut oat muffin, crackers and butter, homemade yoghurt and frozen berries.
Dinner: Dinner at friends' house.

Friday
Breakfast: Banana Breakfast Cookies
Lunchbox for Lily and Sophie: Soaked pear, ginger and coconut oat muffins,  Berry delight smoothie frozen puddings, popcorn.
Dinner: Garlic prawns (drizzled in Simunovich Garlic Infused Olive Oil) and garden salad.

Saturday
To do: Make coconut bread.
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on toast.
Lunch: Coconut Bread served with butter and homemade plum jam.
Dinner: Pumpkin Bake with Mozzarella Topping (using homegrown pumpkin, spinach, silverbeet and carrots, plus store-bought potatoes and cauliflower.

~ Peruse more Craving Fresh seasonal menu plans here. ~

Mini bathroom makeover

I have to agree with the wise words of my husband tonight. There are hard times in life and there are easy times. This is one of the hard times. Yet we are still so blessed by our loving God.

I'm clinging to that fact when it all feels too much, with Paul commuting to work in Auckland each week while I try to keep the girls fed and fulfilled, grow a healthy baby boy in my tum and get projects around the house finished off so we can show it in its best light at open homes.

All the while I try not to stress about the fact I don't know where we'll be living in three months when I'm going to give birth to this baby boy of mine. Or if I'll even be living in the same city as my husband at the time.

When it all feels too much, I turn to my home makeover projects to keep me sane. At least they're something I can do, to hopefully speed the process of selling our home and get our family living in the same city as Paul is working.

We've basically finished the bathroom now, although the scotias need another coat because two hasn't quite cut the mustard. It's finished enough that I can show you how it's looking at least.

The bathroom before its mini makeover was the least offensive room of the house, hence why we painted it last. (You can check out the girls' bedroom here, office here, master bedroom here and kichen/dining/loung here.)

The walls were already white, so the room wasn't as dark as other rooms around the house.

The paint was getting a bit chipped though, and the walls had never been properly finished - the joints between the different pieces of drywall were still showing.

That really bugged me, so for this makeover I got to learn how to plaster with compound tape to join those cracks up. Fiddly and time consuming, but it got a good result!

We painted the whole room in a white semi-gloss, even painting over the natural wood on the side of the bath, around the mirror and on the shelf above the toilet.

We also painted white over the green door and scotias. The one pop of colour we kept is around the window, which is now a vibrant blue to make me feel like I'm holidaying in Greece.

I'm especially loving the white weatherboards along the side of the bath - a look I've always loved. And I'm digging how clean, light and fresh everything feels now. I keep admiring how smooth the walls look, now that I've joined up those cracks.

It's the little things in life that keep me sane.

Before

All our painting tools at the ready to sand and plaster the walls.

After

Before

Check out the unjoined drywall above the shelf.

After

Smooth white walls.

Before

After

The shower curtain looks pink in this photo but it's actually white.

So there it is. Another labour of love (almost) completed.

(Side note: If we were staying in this house and had the funds, I would love to rip out the whole bathroom and extend it into the hallway next door to make it big enough for a separate shower. But since we're not staying, at least I can feel good that it's looking fresh and tidy for whoever buys the house.)

Weekly menu plan # 8 - Lots to factor in

Banana Breakfast Cookies

With life being so busy at the moment, I don't always make everything I've planned to at the start of the week. If I've still got all the ingredients for a meal and do still want to make it, I just roll it over into the next week's menu plan.

For my readers this means you may see the same meal planned a couple of weeks in a row, but it's likely we're only getting around to eating it in the second week. Grain-free Raspberry Chocolate Muffins are the exception. We can't get enough of those. Every member of my family is in love with them. As well as being grain-free, they are nut-free, which means I can safely send them off to Kindy with Lily too. Bonus!

This week I've got to come up with extra uses for pumpkin, as I just harvested two more from my garden, and one of them has a bit of bug damage so will need to be used right away.

I'm also looking for recipes to showcase the Simunovich range of extra virgin olive oil, which they so kindly sent me to review. (A giveaway is also coming soon!)

And the final factor I'm thinking about with this menu plan is that Paul is going to be away most of the week, as he has started his new job in Auckland, so I'm mainly cooking for me and the girls.

Sunday
To do: Make yoghurt. Thaw lamb chops.
Breakfast: Banana breakfast cookies (made the night before)
Lunch: Eat at friends' house with girls during open home.
Dinner: Paul organising.

Monday
To do: Make Coconut Cocoa Date Balls, Grain-free Raspberry Chocolate Muffins
Breakfast: Chocolate breakfast smoothie
Lunch: Cauliflower popcorn
Dinner: Lamb chops, Homemade potato chips, celery sticks and Garlicky, minty, mushy pea dip (using Simunovich Garlic Infused Olive Oil)

Tuesday
To do:
Breakfast: Banana breakfast cookies (from freezer)
Lunchbox for Lily: Coconut Cocoa Date Balls, yoghurt with frozen berries, crackers with butter marmite and cheese.
Dinner: Zucchini Pumpkin Bake with Mozzarella Topping (use homegrown pumpkin and carrots, plus storebought potatoes and cauliflower).

Wednesday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on buttered toast.
Lunchboxes for Lily and Sophie: Grain-free Raspberry Chocolate Muffins, dried apple rings, crackers with butter and marmite.
Dinner: Honey mustard chicken casserole (from freezer)

Thursday
To do: Bake Grain-free chocolate brownies (with added raspberries) and Coconut Bread
Breakfast: Banana berry smoothie (make 2 small berry pudding with leftovers)
Lunchbox for Lily: Coconut Bread topped with butter and lime jam. Fruit and chopped vegetables.
Dinner: Asian Mince on Rice (from freezer)

Friday
To do: Thaw sausages for Saturday. Soak porridge for Saturday.
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on buttered toast.
Lunchboxes for Lily and Sophie: Coconut Cocoa Date Balls, Coconut Bread topped with butter and homemade plum jam, Berry Puddings (made with yesterday's leftover smoothie)
Morning tea for Playcentre Mums: Grain-free raspberry chocolate brownie, plus fruit, cheese and crackers from Supermarket.
Dinner: Roast lamb with Sweet Lemon Roasted Tomatoes with Pumpkin and Feta (using homegrown pumpkin and tomatoes, plus Simunovich Lemon Infused Olive Oil)

Saturday
Breakfast: Soaked apple porridge.
Lunch: Roast lamb sandwiches
Dinner: Classic Bratwurst Sausages with mashed potatoes and salad drizzled in Simunovich Lemon Infused Olive Oil.

~ Peruse more seasonal menu plans here. ~

Greencane Ecopaper giveaway winner!

Congratulations to Dasvid Harris! You have won the Greencane Ecopaper pack of kitchen towels, facial tissues and toilet paper.

 

For everyone else, I recommend checking out the Greencane toilet paper. It's wonderful stuff to use and fabulous for our planet, like all Greencane products.

All about two-year-old Sophie

My darling girl Sophie turned two this month, so I thought I would write a post about all her cute things before I forget them.

I'm glad I wrote a similar post about Lily at two because I just read it over and I had forgotten most of what she was saying then.

Like Lily at this age, Sophie is a verbal machine. The words and sentences are coming fast and furious, which makes life easier because she doesn't become so frustrated now that she can express herself more clearly.

Sophie's sayings

"Ware you?" = Where are you? Usually said when Mummy has gone out of sight somewhere in the house.

"What's that noisy?" = What's that noise?

"Nope." = No

"Yep." = Yes

"Baby brother" = All baby toys are now baby brother, since she found out Mummy is carrying a boy in her tummy.

"Baby Buzzy Bee," "Baby Bunny Rabbit"... = All soft toys and dolls are also "babies" to Sophie, who is absolutely obsessed with them.

"Chockit" = Chocolate.

"I take it oss." = I will take my own shoe off.

"I do it myselse." = I will do it myself.

"Lollipop" = Any lolly, not just the lollipop variety.

"I want Mummy!" = Either said when she's sad or just woken up, or when Daddy is trying to tuck her into bed.

"I want Daddy!" = Said when Mummy is trying to tuck her into bed.

"Tart's web" = Charlotte's Web, one of Sophie's favourite DVDs.

"Watch baby one" = Said when she wants to watch our "Love to Sing Baby" DVD.

"Dat one not working. Dat one working." If something is broken, Sophie will always point out the equivalent thing that is not broken.

"Read it!" = Said while throwing a book at my head.

"Theck you." = Thank you. Something Sophie says regular in a sweet little voice.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." = It's never just one "sorry," always three.

"Pease!" = Please, also said in a sweet little voice.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 18" = Sophie counting.

"Don't sing dat!" Said to Mummy when I hum or sing to myself.

"Here you go Yiyi" Said to Lily when she's being a kind, sharing girl - which is often."

"I come to." If we tell Sophie we're going somewhere, she always asks if she can come too. And then usually checks if Yiyi, Mummy and Daddy are coming too. And baby brother... And shigey (her blanky).


Sophie's doings

Sophie loves playing with Play Doh. She asks for it several times a day. When we go to Playcentre, Kindergarten or play group, she always bee-lines for the Play Doh table.

Sophie loves climbing. She has already chipped two of her teeth falling, because she has been an avid climber since it was physically possible for her to climb. Yesterday at Playcentre she climbed to the top of the Wendy house and then to the tippy top of the Geodome and back down several times. She could climb the rock climbing cube at Playcentre before Lily could. Climbing is her thing.

Sophie loves twinging. It's a spinning swing at Playcentre that you dangle from, only using your hands to hold on. Sophie closes her eyes, throws her head back and spins as fast as she can.

Sophie loves babies. She makes babies out of Play Doh and sand at the beach, cuddles babies to sleep at night, plays with toy babies at Playcentre, regularly upsets real babies at Playcentre with her overly affectionate cuddles and pats, draws pictures of babies and pretends all toys ever are babies.

Sophie loves biking. She has a little push bike (no pedals) that she zooms backwards and forwards around the house and to Playcentre on. Biking to Playcentre involves going down a steep hill, but Sophie shows no fear. She recently learnt how to peddle on one of the trikes at church.

Sophie loves water. I have to dress her in waterproof overalls and bring changes of clothes to Playcentre with us, because she always finds time to transport and tip water around the place and down her clothes. She is a little mermaid in the bath (like her big sister), and has taken to flipping over from tummy to back as fast as she can. She also likes to blow bubbles and lie on her back in the bath. She's usually more cautious when we go to the pools, but got more adventurous on our last visit there.

Sophie gets sick a lot. She was a refluxy baby and has never seemed to be as healthy as Lily. She usually has a runny nose, and has started to get ear infections recently too. Nothing seems to slow her down though.

Sophie loves drawing and painting. She is a prolific painter at Playcentre, and a prolific drawer at home. We have to restrict her materials to crayons and pencils though, because she tends to break felts or draw on walls, furniture and clothes with them.

Sophie loves stories. What child doesn't?

Often when Sophie sees words or letters on clothes or posters, she starts singing "ABCD..."

Sophie is really good at finding things. If we lose something, our best bet is to ask Sophie to find it. She recently found Paul's wallet and passport for him and she regularly finds Lily's dolls for her when they are lost. "I find it!" is her catch phrase.

Sophie loves puzzles, especially doing them with Mummy.

Sophie loves Duplo, especially building things out of it with Daddy.

Sophie loves airplanes, and will always hear them before anyone else. She loves watching them take off and land at Wellington Airport and always asks to see "anuder one."

Sophie is my little whirlwind of delight. Constantly into everything and keeping me on my toes. I love her dearly.