Sourdough Pancakes

Four months ago I began my sourdough journey, my second one as my first failed miserably! To make traditional sourdough bread, pancakes, waffles etc you must have a starter. This may sound daunting but is very easy as it consists of just flour and water. The whole point of sourdough is that it is a naturally fermented food- no need for dried yeast, it captures the yeast in the atmosphere. So why bother going to so much trouble for our daily bread? Well it tastes delicious and once you have had it all supermarket bread will taste bland and disappointing. Not only does it taste super scrummy but it is also much better for you. The process of fermentation greatly enhances the nutrient content of grains – deactivating naturally occurring antinutrients (phytic acid found in all grains) while also increasing folate content and the availability of minerals. Sourdough in some form or another was how most breads were made before the availability of dried yeast.

My starter has been alive and kicking for a while now and I have started to branch out. My new favourite recipe is sourdough pancakes...these are seriously good. We have them with blueberry sauce or my favourite butter, honey and cinnamon. Below is the recipe adapted from the Nourished Kitchen blog. You will need a sourdough starter, making one is easy or I can give out some of mine which is a really good way to start.

Ingredients

2 cups sourdough starter
1 cup sifted flour (spelt, bread wholewheat etc.)
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
butter, coconut oil or ghee (for frying the pancakes)

Instructions

The night before:
Beat sourdough starter with flour, then place the batter into a mixing bowl, cover it and allow it to rest at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours.
Morning:
Punch down the sourdough if it has risen, then beat in the eggs, salt and baking soda. If your batter is too thick, thin it with a bit of milk, cream or water.
Warm a griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat, drop in enough butter to prevent the pancakes from sticking. When the butter melts, reduce the heat to medium-low, then spoon 1/4 cup of batter into the pan, or however big you like your pancakes. Cook each pancake until bubbles begin to rise to the surface - about 2 to 3 minutes, then flip and continue to cook a further 2 to 3 minutes. Continue working in batches, adding more butter as necessary, until the batter is exhausted. Serve straight away with your favourite topping. We love blueberry sauce and yoghurt.

Blueberry Sauce
Warm frozen blueberries with some honey to sweeten.

A delicious, healthy and satisfying breakfast that all the family will love.

Moving on...

As I write me and my 3 lovely boys are getting ready to move from the town I grew up in and the place where we started our own family across the border into Bedfordshire. Hertford has been a wonderful place to live and although I know I will blubber when we leave I can not wait to have our very own proper grown up house, with stairs and a garden (having lived in a gardenless flat most of my life I am almost bursting with excitement!). Going upstairs to bed will be pure delight. We are already having a taste of the good life as two very kind people have let us stay in their ever so beautiful house while we wait for ours to be ready, all I can say is that a dishwasher is lifechanging and a MUST for our new house. The new house needs top to toe redecoration and I am going to try and source the bulk of it second hand to keep costs down, otherwise we will be 60 and still living with a suspended perspex ceiling in the kitchen (why oh why). Already purchased is a beautiful bed frame which would of cost over £500 new and we got for the bargainous price of £122 and a gorgeous Laura Ashley 'little truck' bedding set again for a pittance the normal cost. I am loving Ebay right now.

My lovely boys...

Despite a near catastrophe involving water and lots of it, we have had an amazing few weeks.

Thank you Adrian and Stella for sharing your beautiful home with us. Goodbye to Hertford and hello to Biggleswade!!

Easter Traditions

As a relatively new wife and mother I have really enjoyed instigating family traditions at special times of the year, and being a Christian  I decided to go to town as much as my energy levels let me this Easter. When I look back on my childhood and reminisce the traditions of Christmas and holidays always stick out as special times. Being the over ambitious person I am I always plan more than what I can achieve and being as disorganised as I am I always leave it until the last minute (not recommended if you want an easy stress free life!). My eldest is now two so I figured it was a good time to start introducing our own little Easter family traditions. . .

It started with me blowing my lungs out and nearly throwing up whilst trying to blow out the middle of two eggs (I'm not good with raw eggs).  I then attempted to make my own dye using spinach, but 8 hours later the egg was the same colour it started, so I settled on painting them with food dye instead, but didnt factor on me and my 2 year old having purple hands for 2 days.

Next was the Easter tree, which was much less complicated than the eggs thankfully. I found a few sticks and tied them together and put little chocolate eggs on the tree. I had planned to hang my eggs on the tree but after the mammoth effort gone into creating them I wasnt about to dangle them from a stick.

Then there was the food...yum yum to simnel cake is all I can say. I can't wait for next year to make it again even my husband who does not like marzipan was a fan. Me and my son had loads of fun making chocolate rice krispie nests. We would have made a lot more had Jonah not scoffed way too much of the mixture. We had planned on Easter biscuits but I had a realisation that the only people eating all this food was me, my husband and my 2 year old so I thought biscuits as well as choccie eggs, cake and chocolate nests was pushing it.

I laid an 'Easter table ' on saturday night, which was greeted with lots of 'wows' by my little boy Sunday moring. Off to church to celebrate Jesus' resurrection with our friends and we lots of fun listening to Jonah shouting 'He has risen' and throwing his arms in the air. Of course we had the obligatory egg hunt, which he loved and somehow I managed to take the full basket off him and swap it for just one little egg without him noticing (not sure I will manage that one next year). We made crosses and put them in the ground on a little hill in the garden to remind us what Easter is all about: Jesus and His great love for us.

And that is what all the hard work was for. We had lots of fun but underneath all that Im hoping Jonah will know that Easter is about whole lot more than just chocolate.

Birthing at Home

Our second precious little boy, Benjamin was born just over two months ago and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Back in my pre mummy days I could never of dreamed that child birth could be such a liberating and empowering experience. Before the birth of my first son, Jonah  I was pretty scared of labour. Fortunately I stumbled across hypnobirthing in my third trimester. Although we didn't have the time or finances to go on the course I followed the relaxation exercises and practised the breathing techniques as best as I could. Jonah surprised us and came 5 days early, but we were prepared thanks to the exercises we had done and I was excited to be finally meeting our baby. Jonah was born without too much fuss (albeit A LOT of noise!) in a local hospital. The birth was fine but I felt it could of been a lot better without the interference from the midwives, who were very keen on me birthing on my back and harrased me into very forceful pushing. Thanks to my stubborn nature I managed to ignore them for the most part but still felt it could of been better. As with most first time mums I struggled to feed Jonah and they immediately told me he had to have formula and being pretty out of it I went with it. It took me a good 4 months of struggle and hard work to get Jonah completely off formula and solely breastfeeding. I am now proud to say he had good old mamas milk until he was well over one, before he chose to wean himself.

Becoming pregnant again I was determined to do things my own way and to make sure I had the birth I wanted. Birthing my baby in my own home seemed to me the best way of ensuring this and just felt so right. Having heard so many good things about water births we decided to go for a home water birth. Again I practised all my relaxation and breathing techniques that had helped me so much first time round. Benjamin decided to make his grand entrance in to the world very promptly on his due date. My husband was amazing, taking total control in getting the pool sorted and creating the perfect setting for me to birth in. We worked together breathing through each contraction and after only a couple of hours my contractions suddenly changed and I knew baby would be born any minute. Without the interference I had last time I felt in total control and in tune with my body, it was quite incredible. At some deep level I knew I was working with my baby and the whole experince was very bonding for all three of us. Just as the midwife got to us I could feel baby's head emerge and told her that baby was about to come, which he did with one more big birth breath. Poor thing slipped under my legs and ended up bobbing in the water for a second while I scrambled to pick him up! I was so overcome with joy and disbelief that it had gone so well that it took me an hour to stop crying. Although the midwives that came were really helpful, we were pleased to be left on our own, which we were after a couple of hours. What a difference to the post natal experince I had in hospital. What a joy to be sitting on my own sofa, with my own cup of tea and my own three boys by my side.

Whenever I told people we were planning a home birth we undoubtedly got the usual exclamation of surprise and "your brave" response. Most times I shrugged this off and kept my confidence that I was doing the right thing for me and my baby, but I did have wobbles and thoughts of irresponsibility rang through my head especially as D day approached. But having now come out the other side I can honestly say the birth of my second child was one of the most empowering and awesome experiences I am sure I will ever have.

Home Made Laundry Detergent

It may seem like a big faf when you can pop down to the shops and buy some, but a little bit of time and effort will save you a lot of money and you can be safe in the knowledge no nasty chemicals are lurking in your laundry detergent. Out of everything that I have made (or attempted too) this has been the biggest money saver so far, as having a little boy in terry nappies and a big boy chucking lots of smelly clothes on the floor means lots of washing for mummy. The amount that you will get from the recipe below will make enough detergent for around 3 months and costs no more than a pound.

2oz (50g) natural soap - I use Dr. Bonners castille soap, which I get from Amazon
1/2 cup sodium carbonate (aka washing soda/soda crystals)
1/2 cup of borax substitute (borax is banned over here so we don't want that) again I get it from Amazon. Its also great for washing the bath and sink out
3 pints water
1 bucket hot water
container and lids ( I got people to save some old detergent bottles)

1. Grate the soap and place the shavings in a saucepan and add the tap water. Mix until the soap melts.
2. Toss in the sodium carbonate and borax substitute and stir.
3. Once the mixture has thickened a little bit, remove from hob and let it cool for a while.
4. Fill the bucket with a quarter of hot water, pour in the solution and mix. Once mixed pour in the rest.
5. Mix thoroughly then let it settle for around 24 hours.
6. Pour the detergent into containers, making sure they are covered when not in use.
It's as simple as that!

I always add 60 drops of lavender oil in  step 4. I might start experimenting with different smells too. Be warned your clothes will not have that strongly fragranced smell you get with brands like persil and ariel (due  to the synthetic fragrances they put in, which are not good for you). Now if I ever wear clothes washed with a fragranced detergent I find the smell really overpowering. If you have a little one, or a big one for that matter, who suffers with eczema switching to a fragrance free detergent will really help. It is very satisfying using something you have made from scratch and leaves lots more pennies for much more exciting things.

Toxic Beauty

As I get older I find myself asking more questions and accepting what people tell me less. Pregnancy opened the door to a whole new world to me and has made me even more conscious in my consumer choices. One of the first things I first discovered was the world of 'toxic beauty'. Having long relied upon make up to cover my outward imperfections I have been horrified to learn that I have, in effect been poisoning and polluting myself for years. Lots of people, me included, try hard to limit the amount of artificial chemicals and toxins in our bodies by choosing organic. But have you ever thought about what you are smothering all over your face and body every day? Nor had I until I read 'The Green Beauty Guide' by Julie Gabriel a well researched and informative book shedding light on the cosmetic industry. Did you know that there are more then 100,000 synthetic chemicals in use in every area of our lives and less than 5% have been tested for their long term impact on human health? It wasn't that long ago that proven toxins such as lead and mercury were considered safe...scary stuff.


Here is an overview of the most toxic chemicals found in most commercial and even some organic products.


1. Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLS) - Anything with -eth in it's name will almost certainly have the chemical 1,4 Dioxine in it, a by product made in a shortcut to turn the harsh '-eths' into a milder chemical. 1,4 Dioxine is considered a probable human carcinogenic.


2. Phthalates - Found in perfumes, hairspray, nail varnish and anything that is synthetically scented. They are known reproductive toxins, safe in minuscule amounts but scientists are concerned their combined effect will be harmful. They basically tip the hormonal scales, making men more like women and vice versa. Scarily it has been found that baby products contain the highest concentration of phthalates.


3. Aluminium - Found in all antiperspirants and is a known potent neurotoxin and there is evidence that aluminium from deodorants contribute to developing breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease.  


4. Synthetic Fragrances - Found in almost every cosmetic and laundry product you could get. There are more than 5,000 materials available for use in fragrances and only a small number have been tested for their safety. A typical perfume often contains between 50 and 100 natural and synthetic fragrances and while the natural ones may can cause allergies, eczema and irritations, the synthetic ones may be capable of causing cancer and disorders to the central nervous system as all they all get into our skin when we spray them or inhale them. 


5. Parabens - Parabens are preservatives used to give products an extended shelf life. The main area of concerns is it's link to breast cancer, as traces of paraben have been found in breast cancer tumors. They have also been shown to affect hormone levels and are chemicals easily absorbed into the skin. No one is sure of Parabens contribute to getting breast cancer but I think the fact they made it into the breast tissue in the first place and stay ther is pretty scary, especially seeing as no one if and what harm could be caused.

I could go on and on...if any one is  interested I do have a list of the top 100 toxic beauty ingredients that you really don't want to be buying.

I have changed the beauty and laundry products I buy and have even made a few for myself (my laundry detergent saves us around £10 a month, although the washing up liquid was a disaster), but even a few small changes like reading the ingredients list and being aware of what you are exposing yourself to is a good starting place.  

Eve has a lot to answer for ...

As you may have noticed my blogging has been non existent for a while now due to a horrible dose of morning sickness, which is while we are on the subject a completely useless term obviously thought of by a man, if you are like me and many other women you fill sick in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening and when you get up to go to the toilet for the tenth time you realise you feel sick in the night too. Sadly the computer has been a no go area for me as has all of my other lovely crafty habits, all replaced with lying on the sofa watching telly trying not to be sick or moan again about feeling sick. At least I have been cured of my inability to go to bed before midnight, if I'm still up at 10 pm it's a miracle. Thankfully the darkness is passing and I can see light at the end of the tunnel and I am now almost back to normal daily living and starting to get excited (or should that be scared) at the thought of number 2 ... as my husband says "in for a penny in for a pound!"