bullet point ponderings

• Why hello there?! I trust all is well in your neck of the woods. Just me, checking in with my favorite bullet point ponders. 

•  I'm not sure whats going on with me at the mo. Social media. I'm a little bit over it. I finally took the first step, I got  rid of Facebook from my phone. I was getting a little bit ridiculous, checking it constantly and it was bringing out the worst in me. So both the hubster and I have taken FB off our phones..and he went one step further and got rid of instagram too. I still  dig instagram for now, so it stays. And I do still  check in with my favourite blogs too. Although our kids don't have phones yet I am trying SO hard to prevent them from getting trapped in the social media black hole. I would much rather they met or  talked to their friends in real life rather than these silly screens! You know....like WE all used to do once upon a time. 

• Anyhoo...I don't know what the answer is. We will probably all end up like these people from Wall-e

link

• SO I did something fun a couple weeks ago ....I got a nice long needle to the shoulder joint! I may have mentioned before that I have had this crappy painful shoulder since October last year. Well I saw an orthopedic surgeon about it and he diagnosed it as "adhesive capsulitis" or "frozen shoulder". He recommended another steroid injection but into a different spot. Man it was painful! But guess what!? Now my shoulder is mostly pain free! Now I just have to improve my range of movement and I'll be playing golf in no time...ha! Maybe. My lovely physio "invited me" to our work gym and gave me some exercises to improve my strength and range of movement. And guess what? I actually enjoyed it...so much so I'm thinking of joining one of the local gyms while our work one is getting remodeled. Time to get this fat butt into shape. I say that every year!

• On the mummy front the kids have finished their athletics season. The conclusion is long distance running is their strength. Throwing things like a discus and shot put....not so much! They do have the skinniest arms around! Anyway, its all good learning. 

• We have also been doing cooking lessons with mumma again. I honestly think the food tastes better when they help me. I take the time to teach...and we taste and take our time, and in the end the food is better. Case and point. A while ago I was teach miss joy to make the perfect steak. We like it medium rare... and this piece of rump steak was one of the best we had ever cooked! Perfectly pink in the middle. And I have found their taste buds are changing as they try new things. Win for all. 

{Delicious butter chicken and homemade naan bread}

 In other news....

{I went to the beach recently with the sole purpose
of eating this ploughmans meal for a picnic} 

{And of course to hang out with this lot}

{A day at the beach is never wasted}

{ I started a skin care regime for the first time in my life.
With the help of my beauty therapist I am trying to get rid
of my "pregnancy mask" using the Aspect range.
 Morning and night!} 

{ I tried my first ever spinach smoothie...
thankfully the banana and blue berries disguised the flavour}

• My birthday is coming up next month. Just saying. There may well be a giveaway...

• I'm thinking of doing what Katie from Mummy Adventures  does this year. She thinks up a number of  things to do before her next birthday that is about her age. Since I'm turning 33 I have to think up 33 things to do before my next birthday. I have an idea! Can you throw some suggestions my way in the comments section below. OOOhhh This could be fun or rather daunting! Making things...reading things....watching things...doing things....climbing things.....Help me out here! Ill take your  suggestions and come up with some of my own and we'll make a birthday thing out of it!

{ #nomakeupselfie}

My new toy

This Christmas I gave the hubster two options for my present: 1) a Juicer or 2) a Juicer. To which he replied “not another kitchen appliance!” Okaaaay! So I have a little addiction to collecting kitchen utensils and appliances, but in my defense I use them all! Weirdly though instead of breaking this bad boy out of its box as soon as I got it on Christmas day...I waited while I researched and contemplated what exactly to do with it. It’s a pretty big contraption that needed a space in my already full of crap kitchen. I also needed an abundance of fruit to juice.  Then out of the blue I was given a giant bag of unwanted home grown grapes from my parents  and in-laws. First juice in juicer....grape juice! Delicious! It was a good start.

{Breville juice fountain}

This week I was given a big bag of home grown apples and I bought some beetroot hoping to try a new mix. During my research I found that juicing is a good way of getting a good dose of vitamins  and a whole bunch of nutrients  but dietitians and nutritionists are skeptical of the fact that while the juice may be good the fiber that is left out from the juicing is a real shame....queue today’s experimental cooking!

{Zak Zak is absolutely obsessed with helping me juice. He keeps asking when we can do again.}

{Apple and beetroot juice}

My juicer can apparently take whole apples peel and pips in all, but I took the time to peel and cut out the flesh from each one and I did the same for the beetroot. After the juicing process the pulp I was left with was quite dry so what I did was, I added the gross frothy stuff that comes out and a little tap water to re-hydrate it and then I popped it in the microwave to cook for about 4 minutes. It looked just like actual apple sauce except with a few larger bits of pulp. I then used a hand blender and blitzed up the fruit pulp until it was smooth. 

{Re-hydrated and cooked apple and beetroot pulp from juicer}

 ~Apple and Beetroot Chocolate cake~

{super moist}

Righto ready for some cake!

I turned my juicing pulp into a chocolate cake...but a healthy- good for you- version!

I haven’t quite perfected the recipe yet but here's how I did it:

Beetroot and Apple Chocolate cake

200g butter melted

1 cup white sugar

1 and ½ cups beetroot and apple cooked pulp

1 Egg

1 cup self raising flour

½ dark cocoa

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.  Pour mix into a greased cake tin and cook until skewer comes out clean around 40 minutes on 180 degree oven.

When cool. Ice it with your favourite chocolate icing. 

The result a super moist cake.

The kids have almost finished the whole cake and because it has beetroot in it... I'm just stoked they are eating it! Especially since they didn't really like the juice I made them.

Next time I might try and see if the same works for carrot pulp from carrot juice.

{Not usually a cake eater!}