Coconut Bread

This recipe was one we enjoyed when I was a child. It's incredibly simple, only has four ingredients and always works. Miss Sunshine is in charge of a simple chocolate cake in our house. I'm thinking I should hand this one over to Miss Mischief.

Coconut Bread

1 cup self raising flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup sugar (I use about 3/4 cup)
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
Mix ingredients until completely combined.
Pour into a greased loaf tin.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool on a cake rack.

We serve this sliced and buttered. Although while it's warm it really doesn't need the butter at all.

No, I didn't forget the egg or the butter/oil. It doesn't have any.

From my Kitchen to yours ~ enjoy.

The Rain Came Down...

There was a song we sang in Sunday School about the wise man and the foolish man building their houses. Fortunately, there is rarely flooding in Our Town. Living in the hills means that unless you're at the bottom a valley or gully you have nothing to worry about.

I woke this morning thinking to walk, but the sound of pitter pattering on the roof had me snuggling back into warm blankets. It has been pouring and hailing this morning. There will be no gardening today, or walking. I think perhaps it might be a day to get the weights our ~ right next to a heater vent! And then I think 'Match Point' by Erynn Mangum will be my aim for the day. I giggled myself to sleep last night!

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Miss Sunshine and I have been successful. I took her to one of the big shopping centres just down the hill to search out a suitable graduation dress. Her primary school graduation night is just around the corner and one must be suitably attired....especially when she must give a speech before all those parents! After two hours of walking (and stopping to eat dinner!) we returned to a store we had noted earlier, and tried on The Dress. Oh the beaming shine of pure joy on her face. This was it. We came home and enjoyed a cup of tea to reward ourselves ~ hers green, mine fully loaded with caffeine!

Miss Mischief's disappointment at being left with 'the boys' was assuaged with the promise of preparing dinner. I had planned a simple meal for last night and she was able to take over beautifully. All of a sudden she was not left at home, but the one who would ensure family members were cared for. She even made coconut bread, the kitchen was cleaned up and I returned to home to a little girl who shone with pride in herself and her accomplishments.

Child's Play Chocolate Cake

Rel left me a comment yesterday telling me how much her 11yo daughter is enjoying baking Coconut Bread and eagerly looking for further baking excitement and challenge. My own 11yo daughter also bakes this recipe at any moment she can...much to the joy of her father! My 13yo is inclined towards making chocolate cakes. Not the biscuit-eating kind of child, she will always opt for this simple but completely delicious recipe to thrill her own heart...and that of her father (notice a theme going here?!).

Simplicity Chocolate Cake

1 cup self raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 tablespoons butter (about 60g), melted

1. Preheat oven to180C/350F.
2. Grease and line a 20cm ring tin with baking paper.
   
3. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and beat for three minutes, using either a hand held whisk or a hand mixer.
4. Pour into prepared ring tin and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Variation: Omit the cocoa and replace with grated rind of one orange. Juice the orange and replace the milk with the juice ~ top up to 1/2 up with milk if necessary.

You could line a muffin tray with patty pans and make this recipe into muffins. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

I have also made this recipe with gluten free flour with very pleasing results, particularly with the orange variation. They also freeze and thaw very nicely for lunch boxes.

Fresh and Bright When I'm Not Feeling It

I wasn't going to post today.  Over these holidays I've been curled in on myself, a bit like a millipede when they feel uncertain or under threat.  I have been still and quiet and reluctant to push myself out. It would be counterproductive to say more than that, I think.

My breakfast, this week, is the very antithesis of what I've been feeling.  Colourful, fresh, bright, enthusiastic, if food could be considered such.  I'm normally a toast girl.  I love toast.  It is my very favourite thing.  A piece of toast with raspberry jam and I'm good.  But I don't think my mind and the rest of my body quite agree.  If all I ate was good sourdough bread my mind would be so happy.  And my body would be very ... difficult.  Therefore, I have been trying to find a good alternative to toast that I'm happy to eat day in day out.  Because breakfast is the only meal I'm inclined to be staunchly dedicated to one thing.  Every other meal needs to be the height of variety.  Interesting, different, tasty.

On the bottom I have plain coconut yoghurt.  I was introduced to this at a food exhibition hubby and I flew to Sydney for (and that is a whole story in itself!!).  We tasted the CoYo brand, and it is amazing.  Their guava and plum yoghurt?  Oh. My. Goodness!  Delicious!  Their ice cream?  I could dive right in, and I don't adore ice cream.  Well of course, I can't get that brand in my little excuse for a Woolworths store, so I've had to experiment with what they have on the shelf here.  I tried the Nudie brand, and I wasn't thrilled.  It feel smooth-but-gritty (don't ask me how that's even possible), and the flavour was kind of watered down.  Then I tried Nakula.  It is pretty close to the CoYo, so I haven't gone any further.  And it's cheaper than the others, so that's a bonus.

Over the yoghurt is some organic berry cluster granola from Aldi, and then fresh strawberries on top of that.  I'm not a cereal lover, but I like it with the yoghurt and fruit as a crunchy texture in something otherwise smooth.  Also, I just felt like I needed to chew something, and yoghurt doesn't do that for you.

An interesting observation with the coconut yoghurt:  I prefer it to regular yoghurt.  If you're someone interested in plant-based food or you're intolerant to dairy, this is a magnificent alternative.

Foray into Fasting (Daniel Fast Menu Plan)

Image Credit

We've been going for nearly a week.  We're still alive and beginning to say things like "I really miss having a cup of tea"...or my more emphatic "I just want a cracker with butter on it!".  And what I wouldn't give to use eggs in my cooking...

We have been surprised at the things we miss most and the things we couldn't care less about.

As I mentioned a post or two back Dh and I have chosen - well, I chose and he agreed to go along with it - the Daniel Fast for our 21-day church-wide fast.  Our church encouraged us to choose anything that was meaningful to us, but my understanding is that a fast is to do with food.  Choosing to avoid other 'things' is abstinence rather than fasting.  So I chose the Daniel Fast.  We've eaten lots of fruit, lots more vegetables and dipped our toes back into the idea of legumes - something we tend to avoid a bit around here.  With Mr Busy's negative attitude to the texture of 'evil beanies' (as he used to call them) and the unpleasant physical side effects we just don't eat them much.  Basically, the Daniel Fast is plant based foods and water - no animal products.  I found lots of helpful information here and here.

Despite being faced with many times a day when we would love to just grab whatever we feel like eating, having to be intentional and considered about the whole thing is not all that bad either.  It reminds me to be intentional and considered about the things I'm praying about.  I've discovered I'm really bad at focused prayer.  I'm really good at the quick prayers.  You know, the ones where something pops into your mind and you just have a little moment with God and keep going with what you're doing?  Yeah.  I'm good at that stuff.  I'm not good at keeping my mind on more sustained stuff.  I confessed that to God this morning and now my prayer is becoming "help me to pray".

On the food front we're eating surprisingly well.  We've both been surprised at things we've enjoyed this week.  Mr Busy was away on school camp so the girls have done a bit of their own thing.  My brother and his girls had dinner with us on Monday - my girls made dinner for all of them while I made what Dh and I ate.  They've had some of our meals with some taken out and meat thrown in and sometimes they've had to make a salad to go with something I've dug out of the freezer and thrown into the oven.  It's worked OK, but maybe Mr Busy's return will force me to be a bit more organised.  The boy is an eater!

Below is our menu for the first week.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Toast Sliced banana	Quinoa salad	Chickpea & Veg Casserole
Tuesday	Toast Sliced banana	Leftovers	Nachos Salad
Wednesday	Porridge Sliced fruit	Citrus Walnut Salad	Vegetable Curry Brown rice
Thursday	Fruit salad	Leftovers	Roast Vegetable layer bake
Friday	Porridge Sliced fruit	Leftovers	Pasta with tomato & veg sauce
Saturday	Fruit salad	Salad in pita bread	Hungarian Casserole
Sunday	Toast w. tomato, mushroom, avocado	Salad in pita bread	Coconut Pumpkin Soup
Snacks	Fruit, mixed nuts, hommus/guacamole with carrots, popcorn

 

 A note on legumes -I tried cooking chickpeas and borlotti beans according to the directions in my 'Nourishing Traditions' book.  Perfect!  No unpleasant, smelly side effects.  I didn't cook my pulses for the 6 hours they said.  I think the chickpeas went for about 3-4 hours and the beans for 2-3 hours after an all-night soak.  It was worth the time and effort rather than opening a tin.

Lazy Day Dinner

Post-nap dinner:  Butter chicken sauce from a jar with a whole pile of veggies, served over rice and accompanied by roti bread.

I used what veggies I had: sweet potato, potato, carrots (all cut into chunks), broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms.  I augmented the jarred sauce with onions, garlic, garam marsala and a can of coconut milk to make the sauce go further.

Mr Busy got his braces tightened yesterday (the boy people didn't think the date of that one through very carefully!) so tonight it's post-braces-potato-and-leek-soup night.  Bread for the rest of us, just soup for Mr Busy.

Considering the approaching excesses of Christmas Eve afternoon tea and Christmas Day meals, the idea of a few veggie dinners is not such a bad idea.