Can anything be guilt free?

So I had these piles of bananas sitting on my fruit bowl, waiting their turn to be binned. Since Russ and I are consciously staying away from treats since we've been doing too much "comfort" eating, I thought there had to be a way of turning those bananas into something healthy before they died...

Dear friends of ours visiting from NZ, walked through our door just as this throw together loaf came out of the oven with no eggs, no butter, no oil and I guess, NO GUILT! This guilt free loaf went really well with the fudge they arrived with and the lashings of margarine on the warm loaf, fresh out the oven ... dear, oh dear, what to do when one of the greatest pleasures in life is eating with friends!

I'll be off for another run tomorrow!

Banana Date Loaf

Delicious straight out of the oven and keeps for up to a week in an airtight container :-)

1 cup chopped, pitted dates

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup mashed, ripe banana

1 t baking soda

1 t nutmeg

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a loaf tin.

Sieve flour, baking soda and nutmeg into a large bowl. Sitr through the chopped dates and sugar.

Add the banana and water and stir until combined. Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and smooth surface with the back of the spoon.

Bake for 40 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes to cool before tunring onto a wire rack! YUM!

Time is Life...

"TIME IS LIFE. HOW YOU INVEST YOUR TIME IS HOW YOU INVEST YOUR LIFE" - Shelley Quinn.

Tonight I cross over from the glorious 20's - where one had no need to worry about what moisturiser you used on your skin - to 30, where apparently your hair starts drying out, the extra chocolate does make a difference to the muffin top over your jeans, and the world will take you seriously! (I had better dispose of the 4 boxes of chocolate I received to date for my birthday, tonight! - my head is already aching from the box of Lindt in front of me...) 30 must be the new 20 as I don't feel any different to when I did 10 years ago (apart from a bung shoulder and tendonitis in my wrists (I'll blame it all on 3 kids!!)

When arrangements were made to celebrate my mum and my birthday (I was born on her 25th birthday) with close family and friends, I thought I'd add a touch of class and bust out some delicate Martha Stewart cupcakes for my mum for the party, instead of the mandatory cake. It's been nearly 1o years of dabbling in cake decorating hobby - how hard could it be to go from cake decorating to cupcakes??? I ran here and there buying pretty little flower fondant cutters, and the cutest paper baking cups, awaiting the moment where I would place these little masterpieces on my bargain $7 cupcake stand...

...Long story short, my baking cups overflowed and my delicate mudcakes resembled something from a science experiment with vinegar and baking soda. These "rustic" looking mini mudcakes (Jamie Oliver style I'll convince myself) really looked like their name - mud - and ended up with a dollop of dark chocolate ganache and a roughly piped white chocolate flower - but they tasted good. Here is where I share with you 3 gems of wisdom I have learned this decade...

1. NEVER serve something that doesn't taste good - regardless of how it looks! If it's savoury and tastes bad, add sweet chilli sauce; if it's sweet - it'll probably never taste bad except for a dry lemon madeira cake!

2. Do your homework. Trial and error are the greatest wisdom in life, but not when guests are coming! If you've never cooked or baked it before, leave it for a Sunday afternoon when time is not of the essence!

2. Find what is easy for you and difficult for others - something you'd wake up to do, even if you didn't get paid for it (thanks for this one, Steph!). Once you've found it, go ahead and do it, and share some of it in the lives of others.

As promised in our last blog, I have included the famous recipe for CHICKPEA CURRY below. While everyone dug in at the weekend potluck, Russ dug in to more than a plate of food - and the rest of the weekend saw him leaning over the bucket next to the bed. Be sure to keep your potluck contribution of food cold or hot for a communal event to avoid food poisoning like Russ this past weekend!

Happy (and healthy) eating!
Christia

Chickpea Curry

(Serves 4)

1 medium onion
2 tablespoons oil (I use Rice Bran Oil)
4 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground ginger (powder)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
420g can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup coconut cream
2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 440g tin chickpeas)
400g potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Peel and cut the potatoes into 2 cm cubes and bring to the boil in a large pot of water. Reduce heat and simmer until soft.

While the potatoes are cooking, chop the onion finely. Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onion and garlic, stirring frequently, until the onion is beginning to brown. Stir in the curry powder, garam masala, ginger, and cumin seed. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant up to one minute longer .

Tip in the soup, coconut cream and drained chickpeas and leave the sauce to simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the salt and cooked potatoes.

Serve over basmati rice. It tastes even better the next day on toast!

Country Love

I'm a city slicker - I lived in the city of Bloemfontein in South Africa until I was 16 (all you South African's out there, DO NOT mock Bloemies - it's a great city in spite of its absence of scenery!), moved with my parents to Auckland, New Zealand in 1996 and lived there ever since ... until the day my husband and I decided to accept a job opportunity in Caboolture, outer northern Brisbane in January 2010.

My dad always joked that one day, I would end up with my Australian husband, Russell, in a little outback town covered in dust, standing on the edge of the road that runs through the one-horse town, with a snotty-nosed child on my hip, another bare-footed child clutching my leg, and the other kid holding my waist - all with a distant, lonely look on my face as I gazed into the Australian desert...
I was wondering whether my father's "prophecy" was coming true when this unheard-of place called Caboolture was to become my new home...

But what a pleasant surprise this has been. These "country" people know how to make you feel welcome. No tartan shirts in sight, or pregnant barefooted mums roaming the streets - just good, honest, salt of the earth, Aussies. The massive mall is swarming, more so than Auckland's Syliva Park and Newmarket's 277, but with a lot more, "hello, luv, haw are ya?". These people know what community is all about. For all of the convenience and vibe that us "uppity" city lovers crave, there's a lot to be said about the runner who slows down as he runs past, just for a quick chat, and the mum who gives you her phone number 10 minutes after meeting her for the first time. There are retired folk begging to babysit my 3 little gentlemen and dinner appointments galore - I'm feeling the country love everywhere!

I have hardly cooked a thing in the month we've been here. Apart from dinners and savouries sent home by lovely folk to help with the chaos of setting up house, it's too hot to even think about standing in the kitchen. I do miss the breeze of Brown's Bay and the cool of Mission Bay in the evening, and the absence of FLYING COCKROACHES! I toughened up enough to make - wait for it - Chickpea curry!!! This is one of LOVEIT! FOOD's signature dishes and I just needed to make it for the weekend potluck lunch. I know, curry in an Aussie summer, what was I thinking? Well, the well-adjusted Aussies wolfed it down with requests for the recipe. I have been hoping to leave the recipe under wraps until our book is published, but after a bit of arm twisting, I have decided I will give it to you all - NEXT MONTH! In the meantime, enjoy the FALAFEL recipe on our facebook page, since it's a great summer lunch or dinner treat - and you can't buy ready made chilled falafel mix in Australia!!!

I think I need to mention that we are living about 20 minutes south of Caboolture in North Lakes (still classified as Brisbane), with a Westfield about 3 minutes from home ;-) does this still count as country living??? Maybe this is the transition to the dusty outback town my dad still likes harping on about....

Happy eating!
Christia