Two Thumbs Up For Jamie Oliver's New Free Range Chicken Fillets!

At the introductory price of $6.00 a box I ordered three varieties, up first on tonight's menu was the Crunchy Garlic Chicken Fillets.

You get two to a box, remove the plastic and pop into the oven for 40 minutes and finish under the grill for a crunchy effect.  

The chicken was white throughout, tasty, tender and moist. 

I served ours on a bed of fresh baby spinach leaves topped with oven roasted gold button squash, eggplant, garlic cloves, and red capsicum.  Cooked with butter and sea salt and slow roasted on 160 for about 90 minutes.  

Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil and additional sea salt and serve.

Quick, easy and sensational...Loo's exact word...that's what he said, he said sensational!

Can't wait to try Jamie's Apple Crumble and Ricotta Cheesecake.  I keep opening the freezer and looking at them! Mmmm

XO

Sniffles, Sneezes, Coughs & Aches...Poor Baby :(

So baby isn't feeling well and it's not easy to watch and breaking your heart, what do you do, especially when they're only a few months old?  Here are a few things I've done to bring relief to our little ones:

1. Eucalyptus Oil drops on baby's singlet then add a onsie or jammies so baby's fingers never touch the undershirt and around the sleeping area and even on a toy that will stay close to baby, like a favorite teddy.  The oil will open up the sinuses making it easier for baby to breath and therefore sleep better.  Eucalyptus oil is a poison so you never want it near anything that baby will put in his/her mouth or get on their little fingers.

2. Sage tea! After brewing according to package Instructions, cool and fill bottle/sippy cup halfway with tea then add purified water so you have a half and half mixture.  Have baby drink everyday until symptoms cease.  If that proves a bit of a challenge, you breastfeeding moms can drink the tea yourselves.  The properties of the sage tea will be effective in your milk as well.

3. Safely elevate babies head while sleeping.

4. A cool bath will ease a child with fever but of course if child's fever isn't responsive to this method you may have to use infant/child aspirin and or see your physician.

5. Vicks vapor rub on the feet then covered in warm, cotton socks has stopped coughing several times in our family!

 6. Last but not least, a little inspiration from my mother-in-law: Onion next to the bed.  Yes, peeled and sliced or at least halved, in a bowl as close to the little person as possible.  Apparently the onion absorbs toxins from the air and reduces fever, coughing and other symptoms.  Mother-in-law is also fond of onions in the socks while sleeping but my little ones didn't go for that.

Anyway, all the best with your precious darlings  ;)

Ridiculously Easy Havarti Cheese & Oven Roasted Veggie Frittata

So, I like to get right into my recipes.  There I was without any chicken thawed out and dinner time approaching so what did I do?  I made a frittata!  What you will need are the following:

1 bag of carrots

1 zucchini

4 or 5 mushrooms

butter (I use natural * organic if possible)

sea salt

Moroccan spices (or whatever flavoring you prefer)

2 or 3 slices of Havarti cheese ( again, or whatever cheese you prefer)

1/4 cup milk 

 4 eggs

So first you want to peel and slice those carrots, peel and slice your zucchini, and slice your mushrooms.  Place them in your baking dish with a generous amount of butter, sprinkle with sea salt and spices, cover and place in the oven at about 180/350 for 30 to 45 minutes.  Depends on how thick your carrots are, we want them pleasantly tender.

Add a quarter cup of milk to 4 eggs and stir. 

 Top your veggies with cheese when they're out of the oven and cover with milk and egg combination.

Place, uncovered, back into oven at a lower temp, 160/300 should do, until cheese is melted and eggs are cooked.  Be careful not to burn this!  We want it nice and fluffy, not overdone.

I had chilled, sliced tomato on the side...delicious.

Look at that beautiful texture,,,mmm.

And that's it!  Super easy, quick and scrumptious!

Easy Peezy Homemade Oreo Cookie Ice Cream!

Here is everything you'll need:

An electric mixer

1 large bowl 

1 medium sized bowl

2 containers of heavy cream (also called thickened sometimes)

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk

2 tspns of vanilla 

1 box of Oreos

1 large container for storing in the freezer 

Here's my assistant pouring our thickened/heavy cream into our large bowl

I am mixing until the cream becomes nice and fluffy and, well, creamy!

Setting our cream aside we now want to combine the sweetened condensed milk and the vanilla in our second bowl.  

My assistant is doing the arduous work of breaking our cookies into nice bite sized pieces.

I placed the cookies in a tightly sealed sandwich bag and let him get his little orange hammer from his tool kit.

He's really enjoying his work, btw!

Some of the cookie pieces were very small and crumbly while others were a nice chunky size, I left them as they were and stirred them into our condensed milk bowl.

Then folding the cream into our cookie mixture nicely and thoroughly but not fast or rough.  You just want it combined evenly.

Pour into your container and pop into the freezer overnight!

The word all around was Mmmm, this is goood!

So, try your own variations, you can use cookies, m&m's, cacao for chocolate ice cream.  You now have the basic ingredients and you just play around with the flavoring!  

Homemade 3 Ingredient Pizza Dough For A No Sauce No Cheese Pizza!

This is a great breakfast to make when you have little helpers around.  That's the top of my little helper's curly head in the bottom right corner of the photo.  Anyhow, I found the recipe for this three ingredient pizza dough on the web but I can't remember where or I'd surely state the original blog but anyway, here is my version, step by step.

You'll need:

 A pizza platter

A rolling pin

1 cup of Self-Rising flour

1 cup of Plain yogurt

A pinch of salt

&

Your choice of toppings

Combine in a bowl until you've achieved a nice workable texture, adding more flour if mixture is too wet and salt to your liking.

I lightly sprayed olive oil then floured my pizza platter and rolled out the dough to the best of my ability then smoothed the rest with my fingers.

I lightly brushed the dough with olive oil then I got my toppings ready!

Sauteed lightly in olive oil, we are having mushrooms and spinach . . .

 And Avocado and eggs! A little salt and pepper and into the oven!

Simple

Easy

Delicious

I made a second without the eggs for the little curly helper of mine :-)

P.S.  Since making this pizza I no longer cook with olive oil, I use real butter for everything!  Also I would pre-bake the dough for about ten minutes before dressing if you like your crust crunchy!

Is There A Connection Between Vaccines & Autism.

Ok, so we know it's a very controversial topic; causes heated disputes, separates friends, causes parents who strongly favor immunization to harshly judge parents who don't and vice versa, but bottom line, we all want the best for our children, don't we? So keeping an open mind, consider the following videos discussing the potential connection between vaccines and autism.

Today's parents have some very heavy, very potentially scary decisions to make. Getting informed as best you can on any topic will make things a bit easier, so rather than making decisions based on peer pressure or emotionalism you actually have some information to weigh.  Have a listen...