homemade cracker recipe

Tania’s Healthy Crackers

Makes around 100 small round crackers

Ingredients

·         250 grams wholemeal flour 

·         25 grams pumpkin seeds

·         25 grams flaxseed

·         25 grams sunflower seeds

·         15 grams sesame seeds

·         5 grams chia seeds

·         50 grams olive oil

·         5 grams fine sea salt

·         100 grams water

·         Add some garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, paprika.

Method

1.    Preheat oven to 180C; line two baking trays with baking paper.

2.    Weigh ingredients and add into a mixing bowl; mix to combine until it looks   likes dough.

3.    Knead a little to make sure all is mixed in well

4.    Halve dough; roll out each portion very thinly

5.    Use a small cookie cutter circle; place on prepared baking trays

6.    Bake 20-25 minutes or until slightly golden.

7.    Cool and store in air-tight container

Enjoy with your favourite dip, or toppings.

Based on a recipe I found here https://www.acanadianfoodie.com/2018/04/09/healthy-seed-crackers/

I am going to make some more of these as I have been enjoying them with my homemade hummus all week. Very tasty J

xTania

one cup tea loaf ~ no egg, sugar or butter

Hello friends,

Today I was searching out some wartime/ration recipes and stumbled across this recipe.  Except NOW for the life of me, I cant seem to find it.  So that means that I have to rely on my memory, hopefully it doesn't let me down...I love easy cheap recipes! 

The title of this post says no sugar because I didn't put any in although the recipe did say to add it. In my opinion the loaf tastes fine without it. If you like sweetness, by all means add sugar.

*If my memory serves me correct the recipe said you could add an egg and or milk if the mixture was too dry, but this wasn't a problem for me because I used a mug of tea rather than a standard cup. 

So here is the recipe;

One Cup Tea Loaf

1 cup of dried fruit (I used 1/4 cup each of out of date chopped apricots, chopped dates, currants, sultanas. I also added a bit of lemon rind)

1 cup of tea (I used a mug)

1 cup of sugar (I did not add sugar at all)

2 cups of SR Flour (I used 1/4 cup wholemeal and 1 3/4 cup white)

mixed spice

Soak dried fruit in the tea overnight. (I did this for a couple of hours).

Once the fruit has plumped up and the water cooled, add the flour (and sugar if you are using, I think it is not needed because of the sweetness of the fruit). Also add in a sprinkling of mixed spice.

Mix well and place in loaf tin.

Bake in 180C oven for 20-30 minutes or until ready when skewer comes out clean. 

Remove from oven and let sit in tin for ten minutes before turning out onto rack.

Serve sliced with butter...yummo!

Soaking dried fruit in tea.

 The finished loaf.

 Delicious with a spread of butter.

Enjoy!

xTania

sugarless date and coffee log ~ simple and extremely delicious!

Hello friends,

This recipe was given to me by my mum.  Now because this cake is so nice,  I felt you all would love to know about it. Our family favourite is sure to become a favourite of yours too J


Oh, and there is no sugar! That is good thing right?

  

Date and coffee log

Ingredients
2 cups of chopped pitted dates
1 cup of strong black coffee (I used 2 teaspoon of coffee)
1 heaped cup of SR flour
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Place dates in medium bowl and cover with hot coffee. Cover and let stand for three hours. Add SR flour and walnuts to the date mixture.  Stir until combined. Spoon into log tin and bake 30 minutes at 170C (150C fan forced) or until cooked. Leave in tin to cool.  Slice and serve with butter. YUM!

If you make this cake I would love to know what you think of it?

See you soon,

xTania

recipe for vegan stuffed zucchini boats and parmesan cheese

As promised, here is the recipe for the zucchini boats I posted about recently. This is a vegan recipe so if you want a different version just google zucchini boats, there are oodles of recipes for them. The original recipe can be found here.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini or one large
• ½ to 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 medium tomato, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mushrooms
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano (I may have added a lot more because I have homegrown dried oregano)
• 1 pinch of crushed chilly flakes (or to taste)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped vegan feta cheese 
• 1 slice of grain bread made into crumbs 
• Vegan Parmesan cheese

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the pulp and seeds, leaving some of the flesh behind in the shell. 
• Dice the scooped out zucchini into small pieces and place in a bowl with the onion, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, basil, oregano, crushed chilly flakes, breadcrumbs, olive oil and 1/2 cup of  vegan feta. Stir to combine.
• Divide the mixture evenly into the two zucchini halves and sprinkle the top with vegan Parmesan cheese.
• Place into a baking dish or on a tray. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes, or until the zucchini is soft.
• Bake uncovered for 5 minutes more or until it slightly browns.

I served the zucchini with sweet potato chips and salad. Serves 2-4 people.

And if you are interested, Vegan parmesan is made like so;

• 1 cup unsalted cashews (150 g)
• 4 tbsp brewer’s or nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

Grind all together in a Nutribullet or similar blender and use as you would parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

xTania

making greek yoghurt ~ reader request

I eat a lot of Greek yoghurt, so when I discovered an easy method to make it I was thrilled. 

I have tweaked the method to suit my own liking and this is what I am sharing with you today.

You will need one of these Easiyo's to make this yoghurt. They are very cheap to buy.  I found mine in the op shop.

Step 1: Fill up the kettle with water and boil.

Step 2: While the kettle is boiling, half fill litre container with cool water. I use filtered rain water.

Step 3: From the freezer I take out a packet with one tablespoon of saved frozen Greek yoghurt inside. You can either use a purchased packet of powdered yoghurt or use a tablespoon of purchased Greek yoghurt.

And add this to the water. This doesn't take long to thaw.

Step 4: From a bag of full cream powdered milk.

Take out one and half cups of the milk.

Step 5: Get a fork ready. 

Step 6: Add the one and half cups of powdered milk to the jar half filled with water and yoghurt added. Mix well with the fork.

Step 7: Top up the jar with water and continue to mix until powdered milk is well combined.

Step 8: By this time the kettle should have boiled. Add boiling water to the fill line shown in the Easiyo flask.

Now is the time I will explain about the glass jar I use. I just prefer glass to plastic for obvious reasons. 

The only thing is that the boiling water can be too hot when placing the jar into the flask. I have learned the hard way, trust me haha!

So if you choose to use a glass jar remember to let the hot water cool a bit.  I also warm the yoghurt mix slightly by adding a little bit of boiling water when I fill it. This way it is not too much of a shock when the cold glass meets the very hot water. Or you could just use the plastic container that comes with the Easiyo.

Step 9: I put the lid on and then place the container in the hot water inside the flask. Leave to sit overnight (I make mine at night). If you cant leave it overnight, let sit for at least eight hours.

Next morning your yoghurt should look like this.  Nice and thick!

Step 10: Remove one tablespoon and place into a snack bag and put in the freezer to use for the next batch. 

And there you have it.  Tania's method for Greek yoghurt, easy peasy! A while ago I worked out the cost for this and can not quite remember the total, but it is a lot less than a dollar a litre, so a great saving there. Tastes so much better than the store bought variety!

Do you make your own yoghurt?  If so, what method do you use?

~edited to add;  to make sure the yoghurt mix is blended really well, you can use a stick blender or give a good shake once the lid is on securely.  A good beating with a fork works for me but may not for others.

See you soon with an overdue update!

super easy apple slice

Hello dear friends,

I had a request from Linda for the recipe of the apple slice pictured in my last post.  It is really simple to do and tastes so good!

This recipe popped up on my facebook feed one day, and I thought, this looks good! Quick and easy suits me just fine.

The recipe stated to use green cooking apples, but I used ones we had picked from the side of the road, they were red and worked just fine.

Into a bowl throw 6 apples that have been peeled, cored, and roughly chopped.  Then add 2 cups of SR flour, and 1 cup of sugar to the apples. Stir to coat with a wooden spoon. Now add 2 eggs and 125gms of melted butter.  Mix well again with the wooden spoon and press into a lined slice tray.  Bake in a moderate oven until golden in colour for about an hour.

Nice on its own or as a dessert with cream, icecream or custard.

Enjoy!

Weekly Update - What a great week!

Hello dear friends,

This week I decided to switch off the computer for a few days and concentrate on getting back to my simple life. I find that I am spending way too much time looking at things I would like to do on my laptop instead of actually doing them. And as for facebook, I will say no more! 

While the internet is a great resource it is also a consumer of precious time. So for the majority of this week I have been doing some gentle living and enjoying the slower life. 

And I did notice that time. went. slower. 

No hustle or bustle, just going about my day without pressure...

I enjoyed getting out in the garden on the sunny cooler days. 

I mulched the plants and watered the barrels.   

The last time I watered the barrels I didn't have to water again for nine days!

The soil was still just damp when I topped them up again.

In the nine day period, there were quite a few very warm to hot days. 

As the plants get bigger I guess the water wont last as long. We will have to wait and see.

Tomatoes

Zucchini

Rhubarb

The lettuce and baby spinach are still doing well.  I must plant some more of these to have a supply all through summer.

The baby spinach is not so much baby...

They are huge!

The Tayberry had one flower appear. Not sure if this means anything... 

Sorry I couldn't get a better photo of the flower but the plant was moving around in the breeze ha ha!

I am picking mulberries.  

These are being put away in the freezer until I have enough for a crumble.  Yum, yum!

 

While out driving, we saw an opportunity to collect {free} more rocks to use in the  wicking barrels. We sought permission to be able to get some of the leftover rocks from a pile that had been dumped. After we were given the okay, we took the trailer and loaded the rocks up and brought them home. This will save us quite a bit of money as buying these can be expensive.

The heap.

What a workout! 

Of course us girls had to do all the work!?! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink! 

{Ha ha as for the hubby...He was just standing around taking photos!}

It was such dangerous work! We had to battle big spiders and a snake! Oh, and the strong wind that was blowing...

So now all we have to do is unload it...groan!

I spent time in the kitchen. 

Nothing new about this except I enjoyed my time cooking and baking this week. I didn't feel rushed because I had organised myself (not wasted time on the computer)by writing out a menu plan for a month and sticking to it for the week. 

I made Mexican Chicken Casserole using leftover roast chicken. It does not look very appetising but it was definitely enjoyed by those who ate it.  

I even received compliments! 

You can find the recipe here. 

Thanks Cath.

 This made enough for leftovers and a meal for hubby's work. I added fried rice to accompany it.

 I also cooked Beef Cannelloni for the first time.  This also went down a treat with the family, so will definitely make it again.

I baked a chocolate cake.

And 

Peanut butter and chocolate chip biscuits using Wendy's recipe.

I baked some and froze some for later.

My grandson stays over on Wednesday's so he can go to Scouts. I needed something for his school lunch so made some toasties.

Savoury Fingers 

{adapted from CWA Fingers and Forks cookery book}

Five or six slices of bread {also nice with a french stick}

Mix together

1 1/2 cup grated cheese

3 tspns Worcestershire sauce

3 tspns tomato sauce or relish

some chopped bacon

one beaten egg

Spread onto bread and grill until done.

I cut them up into fingers and put into the freezer for when my grandson needs them.

I made an old favourite

 

Banana Caramel Pie.

I dried breadcrumbs outside. 

And mushrooms and zucchini...

Here are the quandongs I dried a few weeks ago. 

These will be put into jars shortly. 

3.3kgs all up!

 A very pretty cactus flower.

 I was gifted a compost bin.

I do believe this sleepy lizard could soon be a mama...

 For those interested in the progress of the shed.

 It now has a cement floor!

They laid the concrete inside the shed the first day, and outside the next.

The work was started at 5.30am Monday and finished Tuesday afternoon.

This is the spot where the car hoist will go.

  I just had to include this photo of cuteness!

Our friend came around and she brought her "kids" for a ride.  These two are such characters. They had been naughty on this day, can you tell?

 Some gorgeous roses the same friend gave to me. 

So pretty...

I made time every day to sit outside with a cuppa and my favourite magazine.  I used to sit outside and read these books from cover to cover.  

How I have missed doing this...

Will I continue cutting my screen time down?  I think I will most of the time, there is too much living to do!

 What about you? Do you think you spend too much time on the internet and not living your life to the fullest?

Take care,