Sweet Potato Waffles

So, sweet but savory and full of yummy deliciousness. Sweet potato waffles… mmmm. The new year needed a new breakfast sandwich. Non negotiable.

The new year is a time for a fresh start, big dreams and a new story to be written. One of my new 2018 goals is to create weekly opportunities for meaningful time as a family.  We’re now at the end of January when most people fall off the band wagon with goals, but I’m just getting started! This family time goal might sound a bit wafty to some but as a family of two working parents, weekends full of chores, grocery shopping, birthday parties and more work with a second job, I have found that we have just been dragging ourselves sleep deprived and overworked from one year to the next, and [blink] — rinse and repeat.

We can’t wish for more time, time is finite. We can however control what we do with our time and whether we are really present and mindful, or just ‘there’ in body with mobile phone attached to our hand. It’s all about the BIG rocks, right? (Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People!) Work will always be there, but the kids won’t. I read somewhere that there are only 936 weekends between the time your child is born and the time they leave for college (or Uni in Australia!). According to my rough calculations, we are already down 376 weekends, and the last 260 weekends will be teenage years spent probably wishing not to not be seen in the same room as their parents, so that leaves 300 weekends left to make dreams, memories …. AND WAFFLES that we will all look back on fondly — kids included!

Almond Pancakes with caramelised banana and walnuts

I’ve found a healthy breakfast that keeps me full until lunchtime. Now that’s an achievement! I’m constantly eating and since I was pregnant with twins, I can’t leave home even now without a container of nuts, an apple or a date bar in my handbag (actually normally its all 3!). I worked with a good friend once in a hotel banqueting team who introduced me to the concept of ‘elevenses‘. This would normally involved a cup of tea and something sweet to get us through until a late lunch break … timing it just right so that the client lunch buffet had just been cleared and we could eat the leftover client food rather than the staff canteen food! Working in a hotel there was never a shortage of sweet treats to go with a cuppa and my ever expanding waistline showed it. After making Almond Pancakes the other morning, I was pleased to notice I skipped my usual constant all day snacking, made it right over elevenses and was good until lunch without even thinking about food. These pancakes could even be a post-workout treat!

Baked Eggs in Prosciutto Filled Portobello Mushrooms

Friday mornings are our special breakfast treat day as a family. We all sleep in a bit (hopefully kids included!) then climb into our big bed and have family cuddles, before venturing to the kitchen to bake/cook/create some sort of brunch extravaganza treat. Mr. Kurth is often instrumental in the execution of weekend breakfast and the kids are all hands on deck to help the food arrive faster. I’m normally in the background making a big pot of tea while offering unhelpful suggestions on how to change a recipe to my liking or offering superfoods ideas to add to make something more nutritious! Oh and I set the table.

Chocolate Banana Protein Pancakes

Quick snack idea needed. Kids are hungry. Bananas are sitting in the fruit bowl getting browner by the minute. Everyone has turning their nose up at the soft brown fruit for one day too long. “Eww squishy mummy”! Any of this sound familiar?

Enter Chocolate Banana Protein Pancake experiment! Now, I’ve seen all those recipes for 2 ingredient breakfast what-evers and 3 ingredient miracle cakes, and don’t get me wrong they are all great ideas and perfect if you only have a few ingredients on hand (or you are stuck on a desert island with little more than a banana tree and a chicken laying eggs). I’ve tried a few of them and I inevitably end up adding a handful of other ingredients to make the recipe actually tasty or palatable enough for one patient husband and two trusting children to try. Our 2 ingredient breakfast banana pancakes normally turn into 12 ingredient pancakes by the time I add

Sprouted Buckwheat Granola

In the last week I have heard a few friends saying:

1. I have a packet of Buckwheat I don’t know what to do with…
2. I have a dehydrator I have hardly used…
3. I want to make more raw food but don’t know where to start…

Well, in this house we fit into all 3 categories! So I came across a Sprouted Buckwheat Granola recipe and it seemed like a good idea since we are on the sprouting bandwagon at the moment. Alfalfa sprouts – tick. Zesty mixed sprouts – tick. Sprouted Buckwheat for granola – tick!

Sweet Potato Hash

I can’t say I’ve joined the Paleo craze, but I am definitely interested in it. Well parts of it. Actually I read an article a little while ago about becoming Pegan. It kind of makes more sense to me than anything else – eat low GI, eat good fats, increase fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds in your diet and treat grains, dairy and meat as a treat. Click here to read more…

I pretend to be pegan but truth be told I just try to eat a balanced healthy diet…with a few treats of course! I choose to eat food with high nutritional content when I can and follow a few simple nutrition rules I’ve learnt along the way. I try to ensure I eat vegetables or green things with every meal and include superfoods when I can. I strive to not eat too much bread, but when I do it’s homemade with very few ingredients or packed full of seeds and nuts. I swap cows milk for coconut or almond milk where possible and palatable and decrease sugar or substitute for natural sugars if I can. And I carry healthy snacks like raw almonds with me in my handbag so I don’t reach for something I’ll regret. Lastly, cheese on toast is not my go-to late lunch of choice! These are lessons I can teach and share with my children.

We visited a The Paleo Cafe in Townsville when back home for Christmas. They had an amazing looking cookbook for sale that had some great looking recipes that looked super easy and super tasty. I spent the entire meal with my head in the cookbook ignoring my darling husband and letting the kids play in the kids corner! One thing that caught my eye was sweet potato hash that appeared there and other paleo restaurants we’ve been to. What’s better than sweet potato hash? Sweet potato hash with soft poached eggs on top! The soft centred poached eggs oozing out into the sweet potato that helps soak up the yolks and mop up every last delicious mouthful. It’s my new favourite breakfast and if I have an extra few minutes in the morning, you will find me holding the box grater going for gold with my sweet potato! Here is the recipe if you want to try it too…