Happy 4th of July, Americans!

I hope your celebrations are filled with family and the best kind of food - healthy stuff! Here's a suggestion for your breakfast table. This is a flag made from organic frozen raspberries, organic forzen blueberries, and organic co-yo for the white. For those of you not in the know-know, co-yo is what I call this heavenly creation - youghurt mixed with dessicated coconut. The coconut stops the yoghurt from spreading too far, and gives this a delicious texture and taste. 

Enjoy your Independence Day, folks. 

Play date Saturday

Happy weekend! We have a little friend over for Jonno this morning. It's unbearably hot despite the early hour, but we braved the park for as long as we could manage. Even the children, who are generally immune to the discomfort brought on by weather extremes, were flagging and complaining about being sticky and hot. So, home we came for some cooling fruit and water (okay, and air-conditioning!).

Later today, my mum arrives for a week's visit with us. I'm beyond excited, as is Jonno. He has been walking around all week exclaiming randomly, "yay! Nanny come sleep! I excited!". It is very dear.

My mum is an incredible cook. I didn't realise until I became a mum myself how difficult it is to produce any dinner each night, let alone dinners of the calibre she made, night after night after night. I am salivating at the prospect of a week of her meals!!

I hope you have something fun and exciting planned this weekend.

The littlest of lunches

Creamed banana and half a passionfruit from our friend's vine. This tastes like tropical islands and sunshine on a spoon.

Dried YUCK-ricots

Have a look at the difference in colour between organic dried apricots (brown) and commercially produced dried apricots (orange). It is quite remarkable.

The bright orange dried apricots (and any other dried fruit that retains its 'just picked' colour) has most likely been treated and preserved using sulphur dioxide (SO2 - check the label). Its purpose is to extend the shelf-life of the product and to make them more aesthetically appealing. The brown, organic dried "cotticots", as my husband grew up calling, them are still loaded with natural sugars so have a life-span of around 3 months. Like so many other things, aren't we better to resist the convenience of bulk buying and opt instead for smaller quantities of fresh produce?

My two year old son loves these, and calls them "sollies"- an abbreviation of special lollies. I still like to curb his enthusiasm though- if left to his own devices with an open jar, he would absolutely decimate the entire bunch in minutes.