zoom zoom zoom....

Seb and Bel are now the proud owners of their very own running bikes. Wooo! We picked them up the other day from our surf shop around the corner "Live to Surf" and they have hardly been left untouched since. I think they are the coolest thing ever, they look really funky in a swedishy kind of way with their wooden frames and chunky tires and they are so much fun for the monkeys. Their lack of peddles means that the kiddies use their legs to run along on the bike, when they get a feel for it they start to power with their legs then lift'em up to speed along. The idea is that the kids develop a perfect sense of balance at their own pace and won't ever need stabilizers. Yesterday we took them down to the beach and Seb's got it nailed already! Poor Isobel is too little to actually sit on her bike and we were wondering if we should even get her one. I'm so happy we did, I don't think I've ever seen her so excited as she was when we put it together for her. She doesn't care one bit that she can't ride it, she's happy to just push it around (we all know how she loves to push things).

The bikes have been pretty much everywhere with us, they go upstairs, downstairs, around the coffee table, on the driveway, down to the beach and back. Now my house is more like a dirtbike track with little sandy tracks circling here there and everywhere.

Someone's pretty happy about his new bike.

Showing off the new wheels to the neighbours.

Ahhh, Miss Bel and Master Bodie.

He's holding her hand, awww! :)

How do you like your nuts?.....

......in a little bowl? Roasted and salted? Perhaps even sprinkled over a salad? Yes, that's how I used to eat them too but not anymore folks! Not now that I have discovered the wonder of eating nuts in cheesecake form! Yes....I said cheesecake.

Seriously, who knew that blending up a bunch of nuts could ever, in a million years, resemble a cheesecake.

Behold the evidence. Looks like cheesecake, tastes like cheesecake. Just none of that yucky artery clogging cheese stuff.

Blown away by my recent discovery of raw brownies, I started investigating a little more and came across this recipe for a raw raspberry cashew dreamcake. Once again, it's made with all kinds of good stuff, cashew nuts, lemon juice, raspberries and honey with a date and walnut crust. You whizz it all up in a blender, stick it in the freezer and hey presto, probably one of the prettiest things I've ever made (other than Miss Bel of course.)

I think I'm hooked on this raw food malarky!

In the words of Gordon Ramsey.....IT"S RAW!!!!

Raw Hazelnut Chai Brownies...oh yeah!!

Oh my Gosh! I'm so flippin excited about these brownies I can't even tell you!!! I know you're not going to believe me when I say this but.....wait for it......they're good for you!! Haha! And that's not all......they're ridiculously easy to make! RIDICULOUSLY! And you haven't even heard the best bit yet... they taste amazing. I know that right about now you're thinking I've gone crazy, a) for being so excited about a recipe (albeit a chocolate one) b) for being so bonkers and thinking a brownie can be good for you. Don't worry, I shall let you in on the secret :)

Let us begin.....

Firstly they are raw. No cooking required (yipee for me the terrible cook and yipeee for being all the better for you. )

They are made without the use of any flour or butter or milk or refined sugar. They are made up of fresh dates, coconut oil (google it it you want to find out how good it is for you) raw Cacao, maple syrup, hazelnuts, flax seed (ahem..need I say superfood?) and the contents of a couple of chai teabags. You wizz it all together, push the yummy chocolaty dough into a dish and pop it into the fridge for half an hour. That's it! The result, even if you're not a "raw food, veggie lovin health freak" is an undeniably great brownie (Neil said the best brownie he's ever tried.) they taste moist, rich and nutty with a little hint of deliciously spicy chai flavours. I highly recommend you try the recipe. Today.

To Make

2 cups (5 dl) fresh medjool dates, remove the seeds
4 tbsp coconut oil (room temperatur)
2 tbsp maple syrup
6 tbsp raw cacao powder, or ordinary cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla powder (not sugar) or 1 vanilla bean
3 chai tea bags, cut them open (we use Pukka or Yogi)
2 tbsp grounded flax seeds (you can buy grounded or use a coffee grinder)
two pinches of sea salt
1/2 cup (1,2 dl) hazelnut, roughly chopped (you can use any kind of nuts or seeds)

Put all ingredients, except the hazelnuts, in a high speed blender. Add the chopped hazelnuts and work the dough by hand. Take a brownie tin or a plate, cover it with plastic wrap and press down the dough to whatever thickness you prefer (ours are about 1/2 inch high). Rub a bit of coconut oil on your hands to prevent the dough from sticking on them. Put the cake in the fridge and let it set for a least half an hour.

Slice it up in pieces, sprinkle with cacao powder and garnish with whole hazelnuts.

Mmmmmmmm!

p.s This is not a Gordon Ramsey recipe.

Thinking outside the box....

I've been really wanting to buy Isobel a toy kitchen for sooo long. She loves to make imaginary food and feed us all and I know she'd love her own kitchen to play in. We were going to get her one for her birthday in February but we put it off because we were moving and didn't want another huge item to lug across the country. Now we're all settled and she's got this lovely big bedroom with very little stuff in it. I've been eyeing up a few kitchen's online but really couldn't justify spending a couple of hundred dollars on one right now. So, yesterday I set about making a temporary solution. It's not spangly and expensive, it doesn't have lots of buttons and cupboards, it's two cardboard boxes a couple of old blankies but it does the trick! I think it looks pretty sweet and so does Miss Bel who couldn't be happier with her new toy :)

This is what happened when I took my eyes off the kids for two minutes to make a sign for the wall of Bel's kitchen....And it wasn't just on his face. It was on his hands and even the souls of his feet. I had to follow the little blue footprints around the house with my mop. He said he wanted to be a cat (??)

Bel got a face tatoo too. Oh and no she doesn't usually suck a soother. She found it amongst my stash of baby stuff, she seemed to like it a bit too much and so it was swiftly disposed off.

I managed to get Bel cleaned up pretty quickly, Mr Stubborn on the other hand insisted on displaying his war paint all day.

Are you ready for lots of thumbs?

No sooner than Nana had "left the building" it felt like I was excitedly heading back up the windy little gravel road to Long Beach Airport once again. This time I was there to great Dan and MJ, aka Uncy Dan and Auntie Monkey. Woohoo Yiped-de-dee (picture me singing) "I'm so excited!"! After two weeks of glorious sunshine, they arrived along with the clouds which annoying stuck around for most of their trip, humpf. None the less we had a seriously action packed fun time and all soaked up the best that this little damp version of paradise has to offer! We surfed and kayaked and cycled and camped and fished ( I'm using the term "we" quite loosely here) and ate and drank and ate some more. I'm pretty sure that they enjoyed every minute except for maybe the nightly ritual of removing a days worth of crumbs and sand from their bed, (mattress on the floor + a two and three year old = partaaay!!) Anyway here are some highlights (for those of you that are on facebook I must apologize for my and Neil's repetitiveness, you must of seen these blasted photos a hundred times already. Sorry.)

I must butt in here to talk a little about Miss Bel's affection for Auntie Monkey. She LOVES her. Isobel is a very gregarious and afectionate little girl. She'll sometimes pretend to be shy for about five minutes or so but pretty much always ends up rather too freely dishing out kisses and cuddles, for example she more than once hugged and kissed people that came to view our old house when we were selling. But with Auntie Monkey it was a real errrrr..... what's the word? bond. From pretty much the moment MJ walked in Bel was by her side. Mj obviously had the magic touch and Bel would spend hours playing imaginary games taking Auntie Monkey to the shops and to the beach and making her endless imaginary cofffees. And in typical sweet MJ style she never once let on that she might be done with the games or perhaps not want to have to hold another imaginary lady, Isobel lapped up the attention and I think now Auntie Monkey will always hold a special place in her little heart :) Awww.

BAHAHAHA! Check me out in my kayaking get up!

I love this pic of the boys and their superb catch. It was quite a special day, Dan (who we all know has been into fish since he was practically just out of nappies) got his first ever Halibut and it was Neil's first real day of fishing and as it turns out....he really likes fishing! Result!

The night of the fishing trip we ate our Halibut with big smiles on our faces. I've never enjoyed eating a fish so much as that knowing that it was caught that very day by my husband and my brother, about as close to our home as you could get. Of course it helped that it tasted soooo good too.

We really did have fun. We really will miss them.

And so it was with an empty feeling in my heart but a freezer full of fish that I waved bye bye to Dan and MJ and headed back down the windy gravel road from long beach airport back to our little blue house by the sea. And then the sun came out.....

x