Stew time :)

Love the look of floating veggies in the cooker :)

Have not used my slow cooker for a while now as most of the foods don't end up failsafe. Amines come from food that takes a while to cook. Russell though wanted some stew the other night so we ended up using it. Boy was it a hit with the kids. I didn't get to enjoy it till the next night as I was off to work and the left overs were yummmy as well. lol

Cheers Damaris

Smoother butter...

Bimbi at work :)

So Russell has been wanting to find ways of having smoother butter that is easier to spread. I wish he would just do without it altogether but nooooo he just couldn't do that.

Anyway as it has to be failsafe as well he has found the receipe that is the easiest and the quickest way to make that is in our Bimbi off course :) The Thermomix comes sooooo in handy.

Butter and Canola Oil at the right consistency and there you have it :) It is really easy to do and keeps well in the fridge off course. :)

Cheers Damaris

Failsafe Easter goodies...

Comes out easily... Yeah, right... :(

Best turned out bunny egg...

Well we tried the new moulds that we got from Robin's Kitchen... Lady says... Yes off course it just slips out. I have some at home... Yeah, right... Not!!!

The marshmallow Easter bunnies as well as the Easter eggs didn't fare so well... Marshmallow is lovely though all the same. :) Russell has tried some Easter eggs with white chocolate first as the outside coating and then jelly in the middle with more white chocolate on the top.

We have realised that it is virtually impossible to make anything for Easter failsafe. So we have done what Sue Dengate has suggested and gone for white chocolate as that has allot less amines in it then other chocolate...

The boys will only have a couple each anyway. They are not much for sweets. Russell and I will skip it altogether. Not like that stuff is what Easter is all about anyway...

Cheers Damaris

Toffee :)

Russell experimented with a new recipe last weekend and this was just as good as the usual one that he uses... Loved the toffee... Or Caramel as the recipe called it... Easy to chop up when straight out of the fridge but very hard once it gets warm a little...

Yummmmm

Cheers Damaris

Custard Mess...

The possessed custard... lol

So we had a lovely Chicken Risotto for dinner. Even had three meals left over for Russell to take to work this week. So then Russell gets an idea... I will make custard... Sounded yummmm. He is great at making if from scratch and the way we do it, it is failsafe...

Anyway, I try hard to not be in the kitchen when he is preparing stuff as he is a little too messy for my liking. I like to clean up as I go, straight into the dishwasher. He doesn't... Need I say more.

So what happens... On this occasion I was in the kitchen turning the guinea fowl and ducks eggs in the incubator and this is what happened. Truly, I lie not!!!

Goes to put the milk in the jug, and splashes it everywhere...

Then realises he should have done the egg first, puts that in and splats it all over the place, more milk on the counter and his shirt...

He adds the sugar and again splats milk over the edge of the container...

He mixes the concoction and there is more and more splatter...

After it being in the microwave for a bit he takes it out and again twice more splatters it places, including his shirt again, this time burning himself on the hand, twice...

Joshua and I stand back and laugh. Our sides are just about hurting... Russell suggests that I can always finish up if I like and I politely say "Oh I couldn't, why mess with perfection..." lol

The end result was fabulous off course and he did clean up after himself as well which I do really appreciate... :)

Was so fun to watch though...

Cheers Damaris

New foods added to our diet...

Apples are back on the menu, as long as they are peeled. :)

Well this family being failsafe has not been without its challenges but these holidays we were able to try out some more foods and this is what we found:

Mangoes are fine for all of us to eat, no reactions

Watermelon is fine for all of us to eat, except Joshua

Timothy is fine with peeled Red Delicious Apples

No brand cheap bread from Woolies, Coles and Aldi are fine for us to eat. The vinegar in the bread (amines) is not reacting with us. :)

Joshua taught Timothy how to peel the apples. Was so cute to watch. I was willing but he wanted to do it so I let him... Timothy is very slow as his coordination is not there yet but as he really wants that apple he perseveres... :)

So now we have a few more things in our diet and has made it a little easier for Blue Care as well for when they have Timothy as they cater for his needs really well. :)

Cheers Damaris

And they came for dinner...

Adam eating Sorbet with Joshua being smart. :)

The Beautiful Anthea, Joshua and Adam...

Boys and their iPhone4 toys...

Yesterday we had the utter pleasure of Adam and Anthea's company. You will know Anthea as Adam's mum from a previous post when I went to visit her place...

This time it was time for them to come here and what a lovely time we had... They arrived just after 5pm with Wine and Oysters... Yum is all I can say on both counts. :) :) :)

Dinner was rather simple. We had Russell's yummy chips with Fleischleiberl (that would be Rissoles in English lol) with Pear Ketchup. Yummm. I even had the pleasure of hiding Brussell Sprouts, Leek and Celery in the Rissoles that no one knew about till I spilled the beans. Thanks to the Thermomix I was able to hide them really well... Adam didn't even notice and from the sounds of it he is not too keen on the old Brussell Sprouts. Desert was Pear Sorbet which Bimby put together for us in less than two minutes off course. Love watching Bimby do her thing. hehe

Adam off course had his tummy tickled and wet willies were made as well. Joshua mainly, climbed all over his back and blew raspberries... Loved watching it...

After dinner Uno had to be played off course. No meal at our house would be the same without it. :)

After the kids went off for bed, the adults got a chance to talk which was wonderful. We were all getting rather tired and seeing poor Adam still had around two hours of driving to do we called it a night at about 9pm.

Twas a wonderful time we had though... I hope they had just as good a time as us... :) :) :)

Till next time :)

Cheers Damaris

Love this book...

One of our favourite cookbooks these days is this one... Was written by Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from down south... We love to use it as it helps us with our Failsafe Diet and makes sure that we are on track. The two are very much linked together and very similar...

I am so glad that Russell found it in the Library. We have had it for a long time now, we keep borrowing it. Sometimes someone gets it as they reserve it but as soon as that time is up we get it out again. We love it... And to think when it was originally printed it was only $7.95...

With more Birthdays and Christmas coming up we are looking forward to utilising the book even more so that we stay failsafe but still have a ball food wise :)

Cheers Damaris

Failsafe Spring Rolls

Rice Paper in warm water, soaking...

Russell rolling...

More folding...

In the hot frypan...

We came across lovely sized Rice Paper last week in the shops and thought we would try something different. Our very own version, failsafe off course, Spring Rolls...

For the first lot we tried it with mince, last night with chicken that we minced in the Thermomix. Both turned out really well. We had to watch that the water that we soaked the paper in was not too hot or too cold. We ended up leaving the paper in the water for about 20 seconds and that seemed to just be enough to make it easy to use and not break. They are very fiddly things though I must say...

We also used up a leek each time, some garlic, cabbage and a little salt. The brown rice we had left over from a previous meal and just defrosted that from the freezer... So all in all a very inexpensive exercise. Russell did end up with a sore back both times though as he was doing the wrapping and he was leaning a little too much. It took all up about an hour each time. First time we cooked them in oil on the stove. Last night we put them onto Glad bake with oil spray and put them into the oven... The second one was far less oily and just as yummy as the first lot.

Will be making them again that is for sure. :) Was a good dinner to have with Pear Ketchup and the kids loved using their fingers as well. :) Win, win I reckon...

Cheers Damaris

Baking time...

Joshua's creation... :)

Joshua was making Anzac Biscuits couple of mornings ago and look what he did off his own bat... :) How cute are those bikkies. I got to have one of them. He had the other. :)

Cheers Damaris

A new challenge...

Our Salisylate challenge is about to start...

So we survived Amines... Now to the other nasty... Salisylates... Not looking forward to this at all I must say... Luckily for Russell, we start it tonight with dinner and he is off to Brisbane for the next few days for me to do it on my own. :(

We start with tonight's dinner and will pack as much of the nasties in as possible... There will be pumpkin soup with onion and carrot. There will be Sweet corn and for dessert we are giving the boys Rockmelon Sorbet... Yum and full of the stuff. :) We are going high levels of Salisylates as this way we get to see a definite reaction and if they do react we know to cut out all the food that is high in it. Then we try low and moderate level veggies and fruit.

Should be interesting to see how long it takes to show us any difference. I am hoping by tomorrow night and if they can at all hold out maybe till the day after??? Then Russell is home again and it is sooo much easier doing this with two adults not just one...

So there you have it. We have done amines and hope to have the other resolved sooner rather than later as well... Here is hoping. :)

Cheers Damaris

Baking day...

My bake off this morning. :)

Prawns with Shallots, cream, garlic, butter and a little salt... YUMMM

Today is the first time in a while that I have had the day at home during the week... Will happen again next week but has been rather tough the last couple of weeks. I so much rather enjoy having the day at home instead...

So today I needed to bake up a storm. I made bread to start with, then muffins for the boys morning tea and Anzac Biscuits. I bought some prawns yesterday while getting lovely fish and tried to copy a friend of mine's recipe... Turned out not bad at all. Felt a little bad for having it all to myself... only a little though. Kept some for Joshua or he would have gone nuts... :)

Glad to have the baking done, now off to do some sweeping and then some more decluttering. Love it that I have dedicated the month of June to do that as I have compiled a lovely list that I am enjoying ticking off as I get rid of things or rearrange to what our needs are. :)

Cheers Damaris

Busy, busy, busy week...

Russell's creation for dinner last night. Oh it was GOOOOOD...

This week has been full on... From vet appointments to shopping and going to Toowoomba for the Family Collective meeting to collecting a family portrait that we sat for for $10... Baking in between as well as seeing Timothy at High School so he could show me one of his current projects that he is doing in Music. Very impressive too by the way. :) Boy am I happy that it is Saturday today. Even got to sleep in. Russell got up and got the boys' breakfast and I got to have some time to myself. :)

So it was soooo nice to come home and not have to worry about making dinner last night. I could spend the time with the boys and do a little bit of 'surfin' the net'. Was wonderful...

Russell's creation this time was a Chicken Cottage Pie. I had some left over mashed potato from the morning as some of it went into lunch for Joshua. They were having tuckshop at school and seeing it is not failsafe, his teacher let me bring something in for him instead so he is included as well. :)

It was divine, not only because I didn't have to make it, which off course always helps but because I love Russell's creations. He uses whatever is on hand and makes the most amazing meals out of them. :)

Cheers Damaris

Our last meal... with amines for now that is...

Wrap it up and down the hatch... lol

Russell made Burritos for dinner last night. Had iceberg lettuce, cheese, mince with shallots. It was so easy to prepare and make but oh so yummm.

We are going back to failsafe from tomorrow. There is a heap of Banana and choc chip ice cream we have to consume first... Russell made that yesterday too. :)

Then, once we are on an even keel I want to try amines again but differently this time. I will weigh the amounts of amines consumed by each of us. I will also do one at a time and not three at once. This way we may be reacting to bananas and not the cheese or pure cocoa. That sort of thing. Keep an exact diary not just a meal plan of what we have. I want to do this once and once only and therefore might as well do it right. :)

Here is hoping...

Cheers Damaris

Not going too well...

Since last Sunday we have been trialling Amines and are not doing the best...

Timothy has become very teary and quick to explode again since about Tuesday. Much less calm altogether... We are also decreasing his night tablet at this point and are down to 1/2 tablet which is great...

Joshua took till yesterday to finally crack. He has been back chatting and not doing as asked basically... He was doing so well for the whole time that we were properly failsafe. Was soooo nice to see and I want that boy back. He says that he was happier too... He doesn't like the new him much either...

Russell doesn't seem to have reacted to amines at all. Unfortunately, the rest of the family do so he will have to have amines when he is not with us as I will not bring it into the house where the kids and I can see it but can't have it...

As for me. I don't feel well within myself at all. I have been off all Anti depressants since last Saturday which is also not helping things... Been cranky at Russell and the boys since yesterday and know that my cheating while outside the home Thursday and Friday has not helped that at all.

I am looking forward to our last Amines dinner tonight... Burritos. Then tomorrow we are going failsafe again. I realise that there are problems with amines and that is all that matters. I don't need to do this challenge for another week to realise that things are not changing... They are what they are... Shame as the boys were enjoying having bananas back in their lives. Especially as banana sorbet.

So here is to things settling down again... I can't wait... Another couple of weeks and things should be right again. I hope...

I am glad that I have been getting allot of support from a forum that I visit regularly. Have also joined a Celiac Yahoo group as I want to end up going Gluten free and Casein free as well but that is all still in the early stages of investigation really... Am glad that there are so many recipes around these days for a change over that will come... Long way from actually doing that... I need to get rid of a whole heap of flour and pasta for example, first...

So here is to having things settle down again. :)

Cheers Damaris

Solar update...

Very exciting news... On Wednesday we reached 100kWh put into the grid. Woohoo... Very excited about that. I usually use most of what we produce and only have about 1kWh go in a day, sometimes a bit more...

Can't wait for my next power bill. hehe

With our family going Failsafe we are cooking everything from scratch and that is certainly having me to use the oven more but must say that the Thermomix is doing a fantastic job... Wouldn't be without it. :)

Cheers Damaris

Chicken and Leek Pie anyone???

Chicken and Leek Pie. Yum is all I can say. :)

Love it when Russell makes dinner and comes up with beauties like this one. He took two recipes and combined them last Sunday night. Was a fabulous way to finish a wonderful Mother's Day.

Timothy as seems the usual now... injured himself. At least not like last year's Mother's Day where he actually broke his arm completely through. No this time he took a kebab skua and pierced his little finger. Blood pouring out everywhere... didn't stop for 1/2 hour. Nearly made us miss our movie "How to train a Dragon". Boy oh boy... Told him next year I am tying him to a chair all day with nothing within reach. lol

This pie that Russell made was completely failsafe as well... :) It was soooo yum. Shame he got the leftovers for work during the week. Never mind. I will just have to put my order in for another one. :) hehe

Cheers Damaris

What are you doing today???

Hope I have time to paint today. Missing it...

Yesterday I treated myself to a pedicure in town. Love it when I get a chance to do that. Today though I need to bake two loaves of bread, bake a heap of muffins with pear as well as carob and make yoghurt chicken for dinner.

Russell comes home tonight and I can't wait to see him. I like to have a nice meal ready for him for when he walks in the door. I know he appreciates it also so easy to do. :)

So today my day consists of using my Thermomix allot, hanging out washing and bringing in washing, folding and putting it away. I will also try and get some painting in there as well... Quick sweep of the floor and I am done for the week. :)

Cheers Damaris

Time for a new gardenbed...

Square foot garden bed...

Well the old plants have come out and the new seeds are going in this week...

I really don't like pulling out plants that are still producing but they were looking sad and the Chooks really loved getting the last of the tomatoes and zucchini... This lot of veggies will also be Failsafe which will help us even more. The last lot was not...

In this one there will be:

Shallots, Leek, Cabbage, Parsley and garlic... They will grow slowly over winter and be ready in spring. Can't wait. :)

Cheers Damaris

Sausages update...

Sausages in the pan... no spitting of fat, loved it. :)

My plate with pasta and white sauce (Bimbi made that in 7mins by herself...)

I can say without a doubt that they were the best I have tasted, EVER...

Because it was chicken breast, garlic, leek, salt and brown rice flour there was basically no fat in it apart from the casing... They were so dense and just soooo beautiful. We have five left so they will be a dinner for the boys and I next week when Russell is back at work. The rest are frozen. I can't wait to eat them either.

The boys just loved them as well. They were so dense that they couldn't even finish the two that each of them had... Going to try and not have store bought again I think... They are just too good when you know what is in them. :)

We are taking some with us camping tomorrow so it will be good to see how they turn out on the BBQ as well. :)

Cheers Damaris