Strawberry muffins

Makes 10-12 muffins.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 x 250g punnet strawberries, washed, coarsely chopped
100g low-fat natural yoghurt
100g low-fat strawberry yoghurt
1/4 cup of margarine
1 egg, lightly whisked

Method:
Preheat oven to 200°C. Spray ten 1/3-cup capacity muffin pans with olive oil spray to lightly grease or line them with cup cake cases.
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and strawberry. Make a well in the centre.
Combine natural yoghurt, strawberry yoghurt, margarine and egg in a large jug. Pour into the centre of the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.
Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared pans. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean.
Turn onto a wire rack to cool.
Ready to enjoy!

 

Green shakes. Ideas and information

I have done a little research online for more useful information about green shakes and yummy recipes.

Here is what I've found, a few interesting links, I'd like to share. They are really helpful if you are not sure how to start making these smoothies and why they are SO HEALTHY for you.

This is the web site of Victoria Boutenko, who is one of the inventors of the green smoothies.
http://www.rawfamily.com/
And here are some of her recipes:
http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes
This is the link to the page, where you can have a look at Victoria Boutenko's book about healthy greens:
http://www.greenforlife.com/

And here is another wonderful web site which is loaded with nutrition information about greens in our diet.
http://www.squidoo.com/greensmoothies

Last but not least!
Here is a few links to videos with more information and recipes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUlJZD-RzEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5LUkeVA6s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3_wK92K9U&feature=related

"Late night cafe"

And here it is, my new painting "Late night cafe".

"The wind stopped blowing, the trees are standing still and quite,
the sun has gone to bed and the night vale has covered the streets....
This is night which makes us dream and think of light, which awakes our imagination and inspires us to create and listen to the silence.
Take a little walk outside and listen, look around.....
The late night cafe is still open to welcome visitors. Lets take a seat at the table, have a cup of coffee and dream......"

Stained glass birdy

This is a stained glass birdy me and Stacy have made yesterday. It'shines very bright and colourful on the window in the kids room.

 

To make this, you'll need a mosaic kit, I bought this one from the toy store.
It's easy enough to make, and very interesting for the little ones, also a perfect way to decorate kids bedroom window.

First you need to preheat the oven to 220C and prepare a flat baking tray. Line the baking tray with foil and place you wire mosaic frame onto the foil.

Carefully fill the sections with glass crystals.

And bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes OR UNTIL crystals are melted and looking like a glass.

Let it cool down and it's ready to shine!
Beautiful!

Pumpkin, zucchini and chicken frittata

If you like frittata, here is one more recipe of this yummy dish.

350g piece of pumpkin, cut in chunks
1 small size zucchini, thickly sliced
1/2 of 1 roasted or steamed chicken breast, cut into medium size pieces
6 eggs
1/2 cup of milk (skim milk if you want you frittatta to be low fat)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few thyme stems, leaves picked
Nutmeg

Roast pumpkin and zucchini until cooked.
Preheat the oven to 250C.
Spread pumpkin, zucchini and chicken pieces evenly around the medium size roasting dish.
Combine eggs and milk together in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme leaves and pour the mixture over the pumpkin, zucchini and chicken.
Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Bake in the oven until just cooked.

Tea topic

Not too long ago I went to my favourite tea shop again for more new flovours and tastes.
Here is what I got this time.

China
Green tea Jasmine with flowers

To my opinion this blend didn't have enough of Jasmine flavour. So I probably would not buy it again

"Pai mu tan"
Stockholm blend

   White tea with orange, rose petals, saflowers vanila, apricot and calendula flowers.
   Full of flavour! One of my favourite blends now.

"Cream"

Black tea with caramel and vanila. Very tasty! Goes perfectly with milk.

"Srawberry cream"

   Black tea with strawberry, caramel and vanila.
   Lovely sweet taste strawberry smell is a bit too strong so best if you don't leave it brewing fot too long.

Day at the beach

We were lucky to have one sunny day amongst all this rain last week and it happened to fall on one of our days off. So we all went to the beach. I had been looking forward to go to the beach for quite awhile, but since we were having all of this rain lately, we had to put it off many times.
And now I'm thinking how lucky that we made use out of that one sunny day, because it's raining again, and the weather forecasts aren't very promising.

The beach we went to is located at Bribie Island which is not too far from where we are.
We already have been there once before, but yesterday we went to the different part of the island, which is located on the side of the bay on the entrance of Bribie Island just over the bridge.

It's the scenic part of the island. Walking along the coast you can observe an astonishing view of the majestic Glasshouse mountains. Comparing to the other side where the beaches lay along the ocean cost, this side is much more romantic. The walk along the beach is just beautiful. Quite and gentle waves hit the coast and disappear into the sparkly surface of the bay. The shady parkland right next to the beach allows you to hide away from the hot blazing sun.
There were so many butterflies flittering above the water and among the trees! That was quite amazing.
And I have never seen so many pelicans ever before! They were flying in the flock circling the bay and time to time landing on the water.

I think the best time to come and spend time over there would be the dusk. Very romantic.

"Hire a boat" place on the beach

Magnificent Glass House mountains outlook

Boats, boats, boats....

Romantic walk along the beach....

The sky was beautiful colour on the day, the colour of steel

Fishing is very popular here

White, white sand

Amazing to watch pelicans fly by in a flock

Bridge from the land to the island

Sunshine at the Sunshine Coast

Green shakes. New ideas

Well, it has been now over 2 weeks since we have started having these green shakes. I make them once or twice every day, and whole family loves them. Kids drink them too, and Stacy gets excited when she sees them. Quite exciting for me too, seeing my kids enjoying them so much and knowing that they haven't got any sugar in them, just fruit and heaps of greeny goodness!

We all sure feel ourselves better after having them too, I don't feel too tired if I haven't had enough sleep. These smoothies are full of nutrients, vitamins and energy!

Great for everybody.

I have done a bit more research about them and here is the link to an article I saw in the internet about the drinks. I have read it and recommend you to read it too. It's really interesting:

Lettuce drink to health

I have tried to experiment a bit more with my green shakes, but so far I have been making similar recipes. I've tried adding celery to my drinks, lettuce, cabbage, kiwis, cucumbers, bok choy and broccoli.

This one I made today: a half of broccoli, 2 celery sticks, a bunch of spinach, a bunch of parsley, 1 pear. Blend all together, add water if desired.

I can't get over how easy it is to drink them! And even easier to make them, doesn't take long. Lets fill up our bodies with healthiness!

Celebration!

Both my kids run away to play in the playroom on their own. I was going to read them "Winnie the Pooh" book, but Stacy said "No" to my plans, she had her own idea of what she wanted to do. So here I am spending a bit of time on my blog.

Today I have finished my new painting! Hurray!!! It is the reason for a celebration!!!

I believe, we should always celebrate our achievements, even if they are only small ones. For me completing another painting is a big deal. I don't have a lot of spare time at day time so painting one picture sometimes takes weeks or even months. In this case it took me months, I don't even remember when I started, but now it's done! And after celebration I can move onto the next one.

“It is important that you recognize your progress and take pride in your accomplishments. Share your achievements with others. Brag a little. The recognition and support of those around you is nurturing”

- Rosemarie Rossetti.

Starting something new is always exciting, continuing and working on the project and keeping yourself motivated and inspired is harder, but finishing the work is fun! So we always should celebrate our work, and keep inspiration coming back to us.

P.S I'll be posting photos of my painting some time soon, as soon as my internet speeds up (I've been having some problems with the internet lately).

Time in our garden

All that rain we have been having lately is being really good for our garden. So I thank the God for this rain. Even though, we're having to spend most of the time at home. Still it is the reason to be thankful for. The climate in Queensland is tropical and can be very hot in summer, sometime it can go weeks without rain, so I'm gald our plants we have planted out are getting enough drink while they can.

In the beginning of the week we had a couple of sunny day, so I took a few pictures of our garden and the new plants which we have planted out recently, during the rainy days



Peach tree - a new addition in our garden

 

One more climbing plant to our collection



Red naked ladies, just came through

 

Lovely sunshine!



Wildlife on the branches of hibiscus







Fuchsia flower



Just love rosemary!