Yellow food is good

Currently enjoying lots of melted cheese on toast. So is La. Yum!

Fair trade ice creams

They're back! Lark's fabulous knitted ice cream rattles in 3 delicious flavours. Sure to get baby drooling and will cool off pretend playtime with the older kids! (My girls keep them in the pretend kitchen freezer for those really hot days...)

They are hand knitted by a women's fair trade collective in Bangladesh.

This one here is Vanilla and as it's yellow, it's 15% off until the end of January. Yummo!
Also available in Strawberry (pink) and Pistachio / Mint (green), available in the rattles and squeakers section... naturally.

11 more sleeps = pretend food is yummy!

Shop at our food section. Yep, we have one! Lots of tasty treats for everyone.
You will need to take 3 food products through checkout. Once I have your order, I will refund the cost of the cheapest food item to you. If you purchase 6, you'll get 2 items refunded, and so on.
Great play stuff for the kids kitchen or pretend picnics. (Trust me!)

A rainbow stack!

Original photo by I Am Mommy

For a special occasion or to cheer someone up!
Remember there are natural food dyes out there for you to use..... here's a set you can purchase in Australia on line by Hopper Smart Snacks at Healthy Kids.
Or make your own from food around the kitchen....... here's a list of natural food colouring alternatives over at Snippets of Life. The colours won't be as vibrant as the commercial variety, but probably a cheaper, fun option!

Countdown to Christmas.... 13 more sleeps!

Don't overlook Breakfast on Christmas morning!
If you don't already, make breaky a special meal too... it doesn't have to be big or elaborate, you'll be eating through the day no doubt, but it's a great way to start the day.

Some ideas:
Spice up muesli or porridge with chopped figs, dates, nuts and tangerine segments.
Serve smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on triangles of wholegrain toast.
Have pancakes with strawberries and brandied cream (a bit naughty, but hey once a year is really okay!)

Don't forget drinks:
Chai tea or the many exotic flavours of Green tea
Hot chocolate (or iced if it's a hot morning)
Fruit smoothies or juices

Sit outside or go to the local park with a blanket for a different view to the morning.
Then again, if you have kids, it may be easiest to have made up some muffins the night before and scoff them down between present / playing frenzies!

What ever you do, enjoy!

Happy Little Tummies yummy cakes

An old friend of ours has re-emerged into our lives and I found out that she makes these wonderful cakes!
Melanie makes and decorates cupcakes, birthday cakes and cakes for any occassion using certified organic ingredients, all-natural food colours and of course no preservatives or other chemicals. This means she can whip you up something that's GLUTEN FREE! (insert any other food sensitivity here)
Happy Little Tummies is based in Cheltenham, Victoria.
Looks like I won't need to bother making the birthday cakes anymore! Chai has her eye on this doll one already.....
at least I know the kids will be eating a good ol' "wholesome" cake and not running around like crazy scary monsters! You know what I'm talking about....

Who feels like take away tonight?

Papoose have added fast food to their felt range of play things.... and we love it!
Servings for one:

Hot dog $13.00

Fish & Chips $25.00
Sandwich $25.00

And to share with the whole family:

Pizza $49.00

All sets come in recycled hard paper boxes, for safe keeping, and are made by hand in Nepal under Fair Trade conditions. So really, it's Fair Trade food! Hooray!!

Welcome to new brand: Red Chalk

How fun are these??
Red Chalk is a Queensland based clothing label, imagined by graphics designer Kate Perry.
This Winter the collection of hoodies, jumpers, dresses, leggings, tracky pants and skirts are exploring the joys of food and why animals love what they eat!! (Well.... not too sure if oxes eat spinach, but the littlies won't know that!)
We've got hoodies in charcoal and red and crop jumpers in charcoal at the moment. More stuff coming in over the months ahead.
Proudly Australian made!

Eye Spy... a discovery!

As you probably already know, Mr bpab and myself have been doing a 30 day detox. We are in the middle of week 2 and things are looking pretty good!
We've discovered that when you are restricted to certain foods, you can really taste the sweetness or spice of foods. It's like we have a clean palette, as we have not been eating anything refined or artificially enhanced in any way. (Discovery #1!)

(Discovery #2) How to cook with new grains (some I knew about already, but never had cause to use). And they are very yummy! Here are some of them below:

Clock wise from top left: Buckwheat, Bourghal, Barley, Soy Grits, Millet.

In the middle is Wholewheat Vegetable Alphabets (for soup!!)

(Discovery #3) Sea Vegetables! Well I did know about them and have had them time to time, but never have I cooked with them. We have 4 types in our pantry now! Here they are below:

Top: Kombu (dark sea kelp raked from the ocean floor)
Middle: Arame (A wide leaf kelp sliced into strands)
Bottom: Wakame (grows in temperate waters, raked from the ocean floor)
*Not pictured: Nori (flat sheets usually rolled to form casing for sushi)

In this last discovery, (sea vegetables) the 'book' told us to steam them. Works fine for nori as it's so thin..... but the others were tough as old boots! So we boiled them in water and they tenderised and were thus delicious (esp. with a (homemade) black bean sauce! Shhhh! Don't tell the detox book!

So that's pretty much my discovery x3 this week!
Thanks to Megan from The Byron Life for this weeks theme. Mmmmm Byron Bay.....
To play click on the Eye Spy picture on the left. It's fun!

Week 2 of the 30 day DETOX!

I've been meaning to write about our lovely month long detox all week!
Mr bpab and I are cleansing ourselves.... my mum was doing it and I loved the idea of having a book tell me what to eat, drink etc in an attempt to get me feeling and looking great! (She lasted 2 weeks on it as dad wanted to go out for dinner one night and that was it. On ya dad!) Anyway, so I stole the book off mum and here we are.... 1 week gone already!
We have been eating 3 meals a day and drinking water in between. The meals are vegetarian and focus on whole grains, tofu, steaming vegetables, salads, yogurt, spa dressings, fruit, herbal teas. All the meals so far have been sooo yummy and I haven't even been tempted to sneak a chocolate or biscuit!
We have not eaten anything processed (you make tomato sauce/ketchup), the only sweetener we've had is honey and fruit of course. No alcohol, chocolate (I thought I would die!) or coffee and no eggs or bread.
I've had some mild headaches now and again. I though it may be because of lack of sleep earlier on in the week. I was reminded that we've taken all sugar out of our diet, so I guess I have purged a bit!
If I feel a bit peckish between meals I drink water (because that's all we can have!) and magically I forget that I was wanting something to eat! So when 'they' tell you to drink some water first if you want something to eat, well you probably should. ('They' also go on to say that if you still feel hungry after the water, then you probably are hungry.)

Anyway, that's the low down. The 1st week was about preparing our body for detox and getting into eating a bit differently.
This 2nd week starts with more juices and liquid meals, as well as some grains etc.
See how we go....

Eye Spy.... my secret (food) shame!

Just Needs Salt picked this weeks this is and I've found it hard to think of what my true food 'shame' would be. But all things chocolate seem to make me perfectly happy, although it has to be good quality stuff these days..... well, the occasional Cadbury choc frog does get scoffed (especially when the kids are around...the scoff bit).
I'm not really ashamed of any of my food delights, but I'm sure after writing this I may well think of something and if I do.... I'll have to keep it to myself!! hahaha
Fast food chains do not get a second thought anymore and I've converted everyone around me, so eating daily desserts and treats are perfectly fine too!

So I'll leave you with my all time favourite indulgence, iced chocolates (esp. from those divine chocolate 'cafes', there's a plethora of them around Melbs these days):

This shot was taken after we went to the Royal Women's hospital for yet another check up, just before La was born. (That's my tummy.... and my finished glass of decadence)

Lark Made Pink!

Got new Lark yummy treats yesterday!
The girls were in heaven..... mainly about the sweet stuff, not so much about the good stuff.
Here are 3 Pink Lark rattles for you to drool over:

Cherry choc. cupcake

Watermelon

Strawberry sprinkles ice cream

These are all on sale this week.... 'cos they're PINK!

And if you are good and eat up all of these:

You can have all these:


(All Lark knitted rattles are made by hand by women in Bangladesh, under Fair Trade conditions! )