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!

Grandmas are mummys with frosting!

Being in the kitchen with the kids is a great bonding experience. And more so for the grandparents who we don’t see as often as we’d like. I like to think of it as a productive use of time as well as the end result can be dinner on the table or snacks for the week prepared! Cooking with kids teaches them more than just cooking. Cooking for my mum was a fun and rewarding way of teaching her dyslectic teenage step son how read. Cooking can help learn planning, presentation, creativity, time management, being proud of your accomplishments, discipline, improvisation (a big one in my kitchen!), safety, sharing, and many other life lessons. It’s also a way to teach family history and heritage passing down recipes and experience that often come with entertaining stories.

My father being Hungarian born

Hot Cross Buns, made with love!

This year’s Hot Cross Buns were declared the best yet! I didn’t do anything different from last time except we all had a hand in some part of the making. Don’t they say, cooking with love provides food for the soul! I strongly believe that if you cook with love…it shows! This year’s hot cross buns were definitely made with love, so that must be the secret ingredient that made them end up tasting so good 🙂

Firstly my parents were in town visiting. My dad is a beautiful cook –