Movie time! Fructose-free Choc-Toffee Popcorn Clusters

I haven’t gone to the cinema much this year. I’m NOT going to count the time I took my toddler and newborn baby to see an excruciating Sunday morning Thomas the Tank Engine special. I’d thought it would be a movie-length special, but it turned out to be an hour and a half of ten minute back-to-back episodes, complete with opening songs and credits. It was like a toddler Netflix binge.

So, I was very excited when friends organised a cinema outing last night to see Gone Girl. To the LATE session no less! I was worried I’d fall asleep. I didn’t. I’m not a huge fan of cinema food though, especially the prices. I decided to be a dork and take my own movie-time treats from home.

Enter, fructose-free choc-toffee popcorn clusters! Continue reading →

The lazy parenting trick to getting toddlers excited about food

If ever you’ve looked at the kids section on Pinterest, you would have undoubtedly come across the elaborate ways that people present food to tempt their children. I’m talking things like peacocks made with grapes, giraffe sandwiches, and tiny sushi trucks. They are exquisite, creative, inventive, beautiful, and sometimes creepy.

But ain’t nobody got time for that. Continue reading →

The humble pepita – and what to do with it

If someone told me only a few months ago that I would eat pepitas every day, and worse, that I would LOVE them, I’d have told them they were dreaming. But I do love them!

They started off as a filler in my muesli, but I grew an odd affection for the crunchy little seed and their bright green pops of colour in my breakfast each morning. So I started putting them in other things. Sprinkling them in my salad and egg mountain bread wraps. Scattering them in salads. Baking them into quiches. I even started invigorating them! Now, I have started toasting them with tamari – a tasty, nutritious snack that takes ten minutes to make (instructions below) and is a refreshing change from trail mix. It’s the new ‘salted peanuts’, and the tamari lends the pepitas a lovely savoury, Vegemite-y flavour. Continue reading →