Like'n Bloglovin'

I'm not sure if you've heard the word on the street, but Google Reader is being retired as of the 1st of July 2013.

I have loved Google Reader for how easy it was to get updates on what's been going on in my blog world in one tidy place each day without needing to remember web addresses and go to each blog individually. But now it is time to find a replacement!

Bloglovin has seemingly taken the place of Reader quite nicely. The format is similar and you can even do a simple export/import into Bloglovin in about two minutes (it was so easy) and it even enables you to sort your blogs by categories, which is kind of cool. There's no way I am going to visit each and every blog I follow every day without an easy place to find them and see a summary of posts, and I think Bloglovin might be the solution, for now anyway!

So, want an easy way to keep up to date with any updates at meg-made......

If you have found a replacement that you think is better than Bloglovin, let me know too!!!

My thoughts exactly!

I came across this quote which perfectly summarises how I feel about the world!

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~ Virginia Woolf

Agreed.

Cleansing Pesto Fish with Courgette fritters

Pesto. Is. Amazing. It can transform a simple pasta into something delicious. It can give chicken a new lease on life. And it can provide nourishment and excitement to otherwise neglected taste-buds during a cleanse. 

I love making pesto from scratch because it is actually far more simple that you would imagine, and has such a burst of freshness that is hard to find in the store-bought kind. 

Making Pesto

To make a pesto suitable for the cleanse we completed, or for a paleo diet, there are only four ingredients needed. Into a blender combine 1 and a half bunches of fresh basil, 3 cloves of garlic, a handful of raw unsalted cashews and a splash of oil. Pulse until well chopped and the garlic is in tiny fragments. Continue adding as much oil as you would like until it has reached the desired consistency. For example, as I was using this pesto as a crumbing I needed it to be quite thick, however if you are using it for a pasta sauce, you would need to add more oil.  If you aren't on a restrictive diet at all, throw in a good chunk of fresh Parmesan cheese as well, but it actually was incredible without it, so don't fret if you can't include the cheese. 

Once you have made your pesto, you simply spoon it onto whichever white fish you have (I used Haddock for this meal, but have used Cod in the past) and press firmly onto the fish. 

Place the fish on an oven tray and it will need to bake for about 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven temperature. The pesto will help keep the fish extremely tender, so you won't need to worry as much about it being dry and rubbery (not that that ever happens of course...).

While the fish is cooking, I like to throw some tomatoes in the oven as well at the same time, as roast tomatoes go beautifully with baked fish. For this dinner I also made roasted sweet potato. I found that if you pre-cook the sweet potatoes in the microwave a bit first, they will crisp up far quicker and somehow taste a thousand times sweeter than if you were to simply roast them. 

Making courgette fritters (really, really simply)

Two ingredients - grated courgettes and ground almonds. One ingredient removed - water! It makes all the difference. Grate the courgettes (I used two for the two of us) and then squeeze out all the excess water. Once they are quite dry, add about half a cup of ground almonds, or really, any ground nut would work well, hazelnuts would be delicious! Mix together well and form into small rounds and carefully place in a pan with a little oil.

The secret to making fritters that doesn't have any binding ingredients (like egg and cheese), is that you leave them alone! The oil should be hot enough so that they are sizzling away, but not so hot that you are constantly needing to turn them. Pretend they are a good steak, you only want to turn it the one time. This will help it form a bit of a crust on the side being cooked and will help them stay together. They take about 10 minutes to cook. Drain them quickly on a piece of paper towel if there was a lot of oil in the pan, otherwise serve immediately.

As an aside, how good do these Courgette Fritters of Jamie Oliver's look?! Just a few more than two ingredients, but they look yummy too!!

I don't often comment on my own food in a positive way. Usually I keep any complimentary opinions to myself at the dinner table, but my husband couldn't shut me up whilst eating this meal! I'm not sure if it was all that, or perhaps just so much better than the previous two dinners (funnily enough they aren't appearing on meg-made), but I could have eaten this for the entire cleanse. The flavour of the pesto was so fresh and vibrant. The sweet potatoes were crunchy on the outside and sweet and fluffy on the inside. The courgette fritters were crispy and the best way to eat courgettes. And the tomato, well unless you want to drench it in butter and cook it in a pan, it was as good as a tomato is going to get! Okay, I'll stop there. Try it for yourself and see!

Door jam cushion

As you  may have read, I really don't like noise! The trouble is, my dislike of noise is only getting stronger, because now it impacts the joy that is naptime and bedtime too! If I have battled for an hour with my 9 month old to get her to have a nap and then my husband the wind slams a door shut and wakes her up....oh boy do I see all shades of red!

There are battles to fight and battles to give in to, and I discovered long ago that trying to get my house to be a silent zone, is actually not a fight worth fighting for. I want my kids to always be able to sleep through anything, and I don't want anyone to ever feel like they can't laugh in my house, ever. But, doors slamming, well that's something that can be fixed (without nagging!).

I found this Tutorial on Pinterest and so made a few door jam cushions for some of the doors in our apartment that are opened and closed regularly.

It was possibly the easiest little project, took all of 5 minutes to do each one, and guess what, THEY WORK!!!! If only there were such simple solutions to all of the other little battles too!!

Shredded chicken tex-mex

If you have been following my blog for a little while now, you will know that I have discovered the joy of shredding beef! Whilst on the crazy cleanse week though, red meat was off the menu, but I thought, "Well then, that just means I'm going to have to shred some chicken then". I went about cooking the chicken before realising that I couldn't add any of the usual herbs and spices that I would normally add such as cumin, paprika and garlic salt. But, with 6 chicken breasts sealing in the pan, it was too late for regrets, it was a make it work moment. 

When the chicken was sealed I added half a bunch of chopped up fresh coriander and squeezed in half a lime. I then covered the chicken with boiling water, placed the lid on the pot and let it bubble away for a few hours. 

The chicken cooked far more quickly than does red meat, so it was tender and falling apart after only about 3 hours. 

Before serving I added the remaining fresh coriander, lime and seasoned with a little salt and pepper. The lime and coriander gave plenty of flavour whilst keeping the chicken tasting so fresh and zesty. 

I made guacamole, grilled some peppers and onion and served on a bed of fresh greens, creating my cleansing version of Tex-Mex, sans tortillas, cumin and shredded cheese sadly!. 

It was actually kind of delicious! 

For the next two lunches I had shredded chicken salads, and found that sun-dried tomatoes accompany these flavours beautifully.

Turkey meatballs with homemade salsa

I think these would taste pretty good when eating a normal, ordinary diet. Now imagine removing sugar, wheat, dairy and flavour. Under those conditions these taste like little drops of heaven, dipped in love. Okay, so that's how they tasted to me on day 3 of our cleanse anyway!

I wanted to make a snack that would keep us full through through the long afternoons but think equally these would be fantastic if they were a little larger and served with a passata and salad (or pasta, but I'm trying to remain low-carb). 

I have never cooked with ground turkey mince before, so read a few recipes to get ideas of quantities and the like. This is the one I liked the most: Everyday Paleo.

Homemade salsa

In a small pan, combine a large handful of small fresh tomatoes, 1 chopped capsicum (red pepper) and a small amount of chopped onion. Let it cook down until the tomatoes disintegrate and form a sauce. This will take about 30 minutes to cook, however you may like it to be thicker or thinner, so adjust accordingly. For such a simple salsa, this tastes really good! If we were able to add other seasoning I would add some chilli flakes and a dash of paprika too, but for the cleanse we could not, but the flavour didn't suffer because of it and it was delicious without. 

While this is bubbling away you can get to work on the meatballs. 

Meatballs Ingredients

500g/1lb Ground turkey mince

1 Sweet potato/yam

1 zucchini/courgette

Eshallots/Spring onion

2 cloves Garlic

Approx 1/2 cup Almond meal 

1 egg

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Grate courgette and raw sweet potato. Squeeze out the excess liquid. 

2. Finely chop garlic and thinly slice the spring onions. I like to use some of the white end and some of the green ends. 

3. Combine all ingredients together aside from the almond meal, which you will be using as a balancing ingredient to get the right texture. 

4. Start adding almond meal in small amounts and mix through. Keep adding until the mixture is dry enough to form into balls. Depending on how much liquid you got from the vegetables and how large the egg is, the amount of almond meal you use could vary from 1/4 cup to 1 cup. 

5. Roll into balls and place on oven tray. Bake for 40 minutes on 180C/350F until lightly golden (and cooked through). 

Eat while hot and let them save you from the absence of flavour!!! These would be great with a barbecue sauce too!

Cleansing Breakfasts

I convinced my husband that doing a cleanse for a week would be a good idea, and sealed the deal by  promising to get up and make him breakfast each morning. I failed miserably, but did make 3/7 breakfasts for him! I, on the other hand ate like a queen, at a far more civilised hour of the morning!

Here are my favourite breakfasts from the week.

Six egg frittata

I decided that I wanted the frittata to be as filling and as fluffy as possible, so separated the eggs and whipped the whites and then folded them through the yolks. I added some fresh lean ham, flat leaf parsley, tomatoes and a dash of salt and pepper.

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms

They don't look pretty, but I promise they taste better than they look! Lightly fry the mushrooms first, and then add in beaten eggs with spring onion (eshallots in Australia). Scramble and lightly season to taste.

Simple scrambled eggs with tomato and mushroom

There's not much to this, cook your veggies and then scramble your eggs! But its filling and a tasty way to start the day. 

Poached eggs with avocado and roasted tomatoes

I love poached eggs and this week I actually managed to cook each one to perfection! I cheat and use Poach Pods but usually cook them for too long! My trick was to gently touch the yolk and be sure it has a little give, while the surrounding whites be cooked through and not transparent. While the eggs were poaching away, I had the tomatoes roasting in a super hot oven (220C/350F). The eggs and tomato pair beautifully with avocado and they are ripe and delicious in the UK at the moment, so we bought a tonne of them this week.

Grapes and berries

To break up the daily eggs a little, we also had some fresh (and frozen, frozen berries are far more economical) fruit and topped it with some nuts as well. I don't feel full at all after eating fruit though, and found myself looking for something to eat by 10am, so stuck to the eggs for the remaining mornings. 

For some other ideas on breakfasts that don't contain wheat, dairy, sugar or processed ingredients, see Marks Daily Apple. Not all the recipes will necessarily fit into a detox/cleanse but there is a lot of great information and recipes following the primal/paleo way of eating (which is very similar to the principles of our Grown not made cleanse.

Lots more cleansing recipes to come!

Cleanse wrap up

So, you may have heard, we did a cleanse! It was pretty big time in our lives, and whilst part of the goal was to shift our focus away from food a little, it had the opposite effect and left us thinking about food 24/7. I am glad we did it, but boy was I glad when it was over. It was a lot of effort. And for someone who loves baking, it was a really boring week!

Over the next week I will post about some of the meals we ate over the week, because despite my initial fear over what on earth I was going to be able to cook, we actually ate quite deliciously (if I do say so myself). But this deliciousness eventuated from a lot of effort and came at a cost, literally, it cost us around 200GBP ($300) for the week!

My experience was overall fairly positive. Days 1-3 were tiring from lots of cooking at the start, but days 4-7 were mostly just boring. My husband didn't have such a smooth ride though. Days 1-4 looked like this: enthusiastic, headaches, cravings, disbelief (the first time in two years at his work they celebrated a colleagues birthday with champagne and cake), watering eyes, more headaches and mouth ulcers. Things picked up on day 5 though and then the boredom and frustration kicked in. But, we both stuck to it and feel like we were rewarded for it (some more than others, poor Pete). By the end of the week we had both lost some weight, definitely lost a large amount of bloating, had better digestion and it really made us take stock of our old habits, and what needs reforming.

If you are wanting to do a cleanse, here are my tips for survival if you're a bit of a foodie:

1. Make the turkey meatballs that I will post later in the week, they will save you.

2. Allow dried fruits. Dried mango and sundried tomatoes feel like such a treat half way through.

3. Make pesto. One thing we disliked was the lack of sauces/marinades, so pesto helped a lot!

4. Have a bag of nuts with you, always.

5. Eat lots of protein, it will keep you full.

In an attempt to keep some of the principles of the week going, we are going to do a maintenance day once a week, which will be so much easier to stick to, especially because now I know which meals worked well and which not to waste an afternoon on! I did notice that my milk supply was starting to decrease, so I was pleased with our decision to only do a 7 day cleanse. 

I could ramble on and on about the week we've just had, but I will stop there and start posting some recipes!!

If you have any good tips that you want to share, please let me know. Who knows, we may do another one again, one day....

The cleanse is over!

We have survived our 7 day Grown not Made cleanse, and I woke up this morning so excited to FINALLY have a glass of milk!!!!! 

Survival guide and recipes to follow, but right now, I'm a-bakin! 

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums in the UK! 

A surprise Baby Sprinkle

A few weekends ago we went to visit my brother and his family in Jersey and I decided that I wanted to throw my sister-in-law a baby shower while we were there. Kara is pregnant with her third baby and has never had a baby shower before, due to moving around so much. Having two adorable children under 4 and doing everything that she does, I thought it would be nice to gather her friends around for the afternoon and treat her to a bit of fun, food and treats. I was looking through Pinterest for ideas and heard about a Baby Sprinkle, being a smaller Baby Shower, and thought that would be perfect! 

I designed the invites on Paperless Post and put together an intimate afternoon tea for all the women in Jersey who will be supporting Kara when this adorable baby arrives in a month. 

They aren't finding out the gender of the baby, so I made the theme coral, blue and gold.

I loved having the sprinkles carry through the theme as well. 

It was my first ever nappy cake, but I think it worked out pretty well and looked adorable, plus gave them another box of nappies for those early days!

I loved filling balloons with confetti (and am so frustrated that I didn't take a photo of them, they looked so cute), inserting ribbon bows into paper plates, and rolling 88 nappies to form the nappy cake. It was a lovely afternoon and Kara was properly spoiled by her generous friends. 

I am so excited to meet my new little nephew/niece in just a few weeks time!!

Five things about me!

It was brought to my attention by Liz that all the cool kids in the blogosphere are playing tag, and I want to play too! This version of tag however is tagging your friends after sharing five things about yourself that people may not know. I thought I would join in too, and had a hard time just choosing five things, but here goes:

One

I laugh silently. Or not at all. Have you seen the episode of Scrubs where JD is struggling with his girlfriend who never laughs but always says "that's so funny".... Well we cracked up watching that episode because it really takes a lot (of wine) to make me LOL! I am actually teaching myself to laugh loudly because its dawned on me that my baby girl wasn't laughing much either. She would smile like nothing else, but rarely would she laugh. I've noticed since laughing myself, she laughs a lot more too!

Two

I am easily convinced. I hate watching The Great Debate, I just end up agreeing with whoever had the last word! This doesn't bode well in discussions with my hubby, but so long as I am the last one to say their piece, i can usually convince myself that I was at least partially right!

Three

I love milk. Like a kitten chasing a leaky cow! I love it. And this week I have missed it more than anything else. Each day my husband has had a different craving, whereas mine has consistently been milk. A tall glass of milk, straight up....three times a day.

Four

I am quiet. Really really quiet. Growing up with a military Father, there were a lot of house rules and table manners to be observed. I distinctly remember getting in trouble for swallowing a glass of water too loudly at the dinner table. It is because of this that I walk on the balls of my feet only, can never be heard in a crowded room, know how to close my mouth around a Doritos chip so as to minimise the crunch and lay awake frustrated by the movie being watched by our neighbours upstairs. Is it also possible that this is the reason why I laugh silently too.... Is this my full circle moment?

Five

I wish I was a pastry chef! A friend in Oxford mistakenly told her friends that I was a pastry chef and ever since then I have regretted even more my career choices (accounting.....seriously) and have dreamed about life in a kitchen all day. I am so happy when I have my kitchenaid Blanche whirring away and my icing nozzles lined up ready to decorate and sprinkle with edible glitter. A lot of what I bake is just homely and simple, but I deal with even the most surprising situations best by beating butter and sugar until light and fluffy!

Here are some of my favourites from my old cooking blog:

Viennese Shortbread

Lavender slice

Melting moments (from meg-made)

And these are some from my personal photo album not on my blog!

Well there you have it, there are five things about me you may not know. So, Julie, Helena, Amber, Tam, or any of my lovely readers, you're it, I'd love to read your Five Things! Consider the world's biggest tag game continued!!

Lamp revamp

I love mood lighting. I have always liked having lamps in a room to create a warm and cosy ambience, perfect for cosying up with a loved one or loved book. My only problem, lamps are expensive, really expensive! Well, at least they are in London and whilst I could always get one sent over from the US, I worry that with the voltage difference, I would short fuse all of Hampstead.

Here's my Pinterest board of my favourite lamps that are all far more interesting and elegant than any I have ever owned, but at least I hope to one day!!

Without exercising one ounce of creativity or style, I bought a very boring lamp. Very boring. It served the purpose though and for a few weeks I was placated by its presence. 

And then I decided to try something, anything, to make it a little more interesting! Whilst I may not have transformed it into something worthy of my Pinterest board, it at least feels a bit more fun and different. With just one roll of washi tape and a strip of the same fabric that I covered the cushions with, I created the following lamp revamp:

Do you think it is a good revamp or should I just hoof it and save up for my favourite one:

Divine!

The grown not made cleanse is on!

I never thought I would see the day that my husband and I would choose not to eat sugar, dairy, wheat and all delicious things that come out of a bottle, but, having thought about doing a cleanse for some time now, we decided to go ahead and just do it. We are only on day 3 of 7, so I can't yet comment on how it went in full, but the first three days have been a challenge! I have struggled with having the time to cook and prepare enough food to keep us full, whilst my husband has been going through some actual detox symptoms, somewhat like a junkie in rehab, moments from going into the foetal position!!

When deciding what type of cleanse to do I needed to keep in mind that I couldn't let my body go through a detox as I am still breastfeeding. I also need to maintain an intake of approximately 1800 calories so I needed to watch my intake accordingly. There are so many different types of cleanses you can do, but was mostly inspired by my friend Amber who swears by a healthy living cleanse and by several of our friends who eat Paleo/Primal. I am following most of the same principles but am tailoring it to our needs, mostly with the goal of maintaining my milk supply too. 

What the forbidden fruits for the week consist of:

- Caffeine (I am about ten steps ahead on this one as I'm allergic to caffeine anyway, so don't consume it more than one or two cups of tea each week... but... if you are used to having a good cuppa each day, this one is going to hurt!)

- Sugar (this is a hard one so far, a piece of apple and a piece of fudge just aren't the same thing, not even close)

- Alcohol (So far so good, but that's because it's only Tuesday....come see us on Friday night and see how we're enjoying it!)

- Red meats or other fatty meats like sausages

- Packaged or processed foods (anything that has artificial anything in it is not permitted. Basically you don't want your body spending time having to break down complicated ingredients. If it hasn't been grown, then you can't eat it)

- Wheat or gluten (No bread, pasta, grains or wheat products, which for us means eating about a tonne of lettuce to feel the same satisfaction as one piece of buttery bread!)

- Dairy (Okay, this one is the toughie for me, I love my dairy!! I've clung to the fake notion that you "have to drink milk to make milk" and love my tall glass of milk after most meals. When I saw that one glass of whole milk has 200 calories in it I nearly died!! I am consuming a third of my daily calories in milk alone! Yikes).

- Anything else that is essentially made and not grown

What does that leave us to eat (gasps my husband):

- Fruit (for someone who kind of still sees fruit as something I should eat and not something to enjoy, this has been an interesting change for me, because now I look forward to my piece of fruit after meals as my something sweet. It's no glass of milk, but it's fine for now!)

- Vegetables (as many as you want of every single type! vegetables are so great and the simple act of cooking them changes them completely, giving you such a breadth of opportunities. Take a red pepper, grill it, and all of a sudden, it tastes like candy!! Or so I try to convince myself)

- Lean proteins such as turkey, chicken, fish, eggs (We bought A LOT of eggs at the start of the week!)

- Nuts (and boy do they up the calorie intake in a hurry!!)

- Dried fruits (which includes raisins, dates, dried mango and the piece de resistance, sundried tomatoes!)

- For me, after day 3, I am bringing oats back in, primarily for milk supply purposes (Pete is not so lucky!)

We are only doing the cleanse for 7 days, and aren't doing any juice fasting or full-on detoxing like that. We are simply hoping to rid our bodies of these harmful foods in the hopes of feeling a little healthier and changing the way we relate to food a little. We noticed on Sunday just how much time we usually spend thinking about food and cooking/eating, and whilst we love that time, it probably needed to be reigned in a little. 

In an attempt to get ourselves excited for the week ahead we went to the local farmers market and bought all fresh and locally sourced produce. I do love seeing actual dirt on vegetables, proof that it has in fact come from the earth!! Wouldn't know what to do with a radish, but it looked so great we bought a bunch!

Wish us luck for the remaining four days, I will be posting all the yummy recipes that I've come up with over the week and will hopefully not go into the foetal position from my dairy withdrawal!!!

Comfort food - Apple and Cinnamon muffins

Over the past week I have been searching for comfort and quiet. I have been in awe of my friends' grace and inspired by their strength and have succeeded in my quest for food cuddles, in the form of these warm and comforting muffins. 

There is something so warm and homely about cinnamon, especially when coupled with apple.

I followed a recipe in Nigella Lawsons' Kitchen cookbook, but altered it a little, as I am allergic to yoghurt, and I also changed the quantities of a few things, but it really worked!

Ingredients

For the muffins:

3 eating apples

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

125g light brown sugar

125ml honey (half a cup)

125ml melted butter

2 eggs

40g unblanched almonds

35ml oat milk - or really any milk, I was just being resourceful with what was in the fridge!

For the topping:

4 tsp light brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

35g unblanched almonds

Method

1. Peel and chop the apples into small cubes and boil for 20 minutes in a saucepan, and then leave to cool. You don't absolutely have to do this step, but I feel like it makes the muffins taste a little like apple pie, and what's not to love about that!

2. Meanwhile, combine eggs, butter, sugar, milk and honey and whisk together until well combined. 

3. Add in all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon), but do not stir yet! 

4. Roughly cut the almonds, but there is no need for them to be grounded. 

5. Throw the almonds in and stir until just combined, do not mix for long. 

6. Add the apples and again only stir a little, the more you stir the denser the muffins will become. Spoon into muffin papers and fill 3/4 to the top. 

7. Make the topping by combining all three ingredients and sprinkle on top of each muffin. 

8. Bake on 180C/350F for 10-15 minutes, but keep checking them with a skewer to test if they are cooked through. 

9. Eat warm with a glass of something equally as delicious!! I made a pot of hot cinnamon milk with a dash of honey and it was everything!