#11 A Simplicious Challenge: Four Muggin Variations

The Simplicious Challenge: I’m cooking all 306 recipes from Sarah Wilson’s book Simplicious, to see the impact it has on the way I buy, cook, consume and waste food. Read the first post here, if you missed it.

Thank-you for bearing with me on my tardy Simplicious post. September was quite frantic, and to be honest, October was even worse. I now have a one month ‘break’ before my final university subject over the summer – and then I’m free!

Last month, I made the last of the four delightful muggins from Simplicious. In fact, I’m starting to get down to the ‘lasts’ – I also made the last of the six toasties earlier this month. It’s hard to pick a favourite muggin – but I think I’d have to go with the chocolate, ginger and pear muggin. We don’t generally have dessert in our house, but if we do, it’s often a muggin! My husband also likes them now and again after a big bike ride.

The beauty of the muggins is that the ingredients are fairly interchangeable. Once I’d finished trying them all I started experimenting with some variations, using leftover bits and pieces that I had – which is exactly the point. Sarah’s muggins follow a fairly simple ‘formula’, so it’s easy to swap in different flavours using what you have. A tip to avoid the exploding muggin: I use a large ramekin (pictured); and I also measure the baking powder exactly, using a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon. I find that if I guestimate with a regular teaspoon, it erupts like a volcano in the microwave.

With Sarah’s (and her trusty EA Jo’s) permission, I’m sharing my four variations here, each with no added sweetener. Continue reading →

Another first world problem

Like many other people, I frequently find myself hugely conflicted: between the everyday going-ons of middle-class Australian life, and the deep pain and suffering experienced by so many around the world, but particularly at the moment, those refugees fleeing parts of the middle east. This is most apparent in my Facebook newsfeed, which is scattered with healthy recipes, Buzzfeed quizzes and updates from my friends’ lives – all vertically juxtaposed against images and stories of drowned children and families. Very few people who saw it were not affected by the devastating photo of 3 year old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned with his 5 year old brother, Galip, and their mother. As a mother of little boys, and just as a human being – I cried a lot. Continue reading →

A very sad Budget post…

I am not a politician (nor do I work for one), or a journalist, or a public servant. I’m not a member of a political party. Neither is my husband. We are fortunate that our jobs are unlikely to be affected by this Budget. I would be classed as a middle-class working woman, mother and Australian, and so it is in this sense that I give my thoughts on the 2014 Australian Budget. Continue reading →