Sweet Potato Burgers

This is our new Vegetable Burger recipe. One of our daughters has a potato allergy which leads her eczema to flair up so we use sweet potato instead.

Sweet potato roasted and mashed
Red onion
Cannellini beans
Rice flour
Brown rice
Finely shredded vegetables
Sesame seeds

I coat these in Tapioca Flour and fry them in coconut oil.

Making Changes

Today I went and refilled my glass bottle at the health food store with Levander Grove Olive oil. It seems such a small thing but it felt ggod to make even a small change. Sometimes its so easy to get caught up in convenience, especially with a large family and a small budget. So we have laso been making our own dips which the kids love when they come home from school.
Avocado and Cream Cheese
Hommus
White bean and Herbs
The chicken patties have been a hit. They are a great size for the lunch box and snacks and mixed with lots of fine vegetables too.
Made little falafals which are great with a teaspoon of dip on top and some grated cheese too. I'm excited to have some new healthy recipes for the kids and us too!
I'm reading The River Cottage Vegetarian Cookbook at the moment and its got some lovely meals. It's inspiring me to use less meat and more vegetables, which with the help of Hugh should be a breeze!
Went to the markets and bought some somap from....another local olive grove...name escapes me. Thats not good marketing. Anyway, we love this soap. Lemon Myrtle essence again but without the slime. I think maybe a bar a week in a family of 6!
I ahve frozen some banans for the girls to make a super Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie after netball today. See how they like that.
Emx



View of Olive Grove from the window

Health food store

Our local health food store sells eggs from a local organic apple orchard and we can get our local olive oil from Levander Grove at half  price if we bring our own bottle. I can get a lot of things there so I am going to try and use it instead of the store. Some things I will have to get from the store like milk, cheese, nappies etc. However we can make small changes.

What's working:
Lights off
Cooking on the fire while its on
Compost
Op shopping
Less consumption

Changes in line with values
Health food store
Farmers Markets
Mindful consumption
OP shop/Mend Clothes
Vinegar/Lemon/Bicarbonate cleaning
Lemon juice
Grain free cooking
Less cooking
Nature time each day

Compost

Tody we made quite a few changes. We started a compost bin which now has worms, soil and scraps. It is the girls job to take out the scraps for the compost and the chicken. Poor solo Pecky really needs a friend. I bought some candles so we can focus on turning off some lights and helping the kids get into more of  natural rhythm. We cooked on the top of the fire tonight. 1 hour later and the potatoes still haven't boiled. It was fine to heat up dinner though. We set up the cottage a little bit more so we can go there after school and feel a bit more at home. I'm going to stock the fridge with raw food so we can graze without cooking while we re there. We timed our showers to 3 minutes and the kids shared.
Small simple changes.
I'm going to make some cordial now and knit.
Emx

Local Produce

There are two farmers markets on this Saturday so we will go to one and try and buy enough vegetables for a fortnight.  Is that viable? Will we have enough to last or will I be running back to the store? I have been watching low impact man and I think it's a really good idea to try to reduce in stages eg. shop local, reduce rubbish, save power, less tech. I loved the way they talked about questioning the way we live the second part of our life and values.

1. Use the wood stove to cook.
2. Think about what I'm cooking and when eg. double batch
3. TV only on at certain times and for limited time
4. Turn the lights off.
5. Paper?
6. Make own chutneys, jams
7. Reduce meat/buy grass fed
8. Eat seasonal produce
9. Create water run offs
10. Vegetable beds
11.Second hand clothes
12. Put a jumper on!

Marmalade

We have made our first batch of Marmalade. Ella helped and we are taking it up to her Granddad as it's his favourite. I normally buy some and bring it up but we decided this time to try it ourselves. It was a bit difficult because none of us like marmalade and didn't quite know how to try and taste test. It was quite bitter to start with so we added some honey and it rounded off the flavour. I hope he likes it. so nice to do something special with Ella and share the joy.
Emx

Local Support

We have thrown out all our crappy soap and have decide to support our local olive grove and buy their soap and olive oil for 3 months. Considering it is not something we can make ourselves at the moment, I think it will be good to help others that are making lifestyle changes too. When I walk into the bathroom , I get a nice waft of Lemon Myrtle from the soap....lovely.

We are using essential oils in the toilet and laundry and for cleaning at the end of the day. I am using lavender oil in a spray bottle and an eco cloth I have knitted from cotton yarn. Nice to know the girls can help with cleaning without worrying about chemicals. Maybe these small changes that we make will help make it second nature for them when they have their own homes.

Emx