Author Rebecca Mugridge: Hinkler Central

Recently I was invited back to beautiful Bundaberg.

Bundy, as the local's affectionately call it will always be close to my heart.
I turned 21 in Bundy, had one of the most enjoyable jobs of my life in Bundy, managing the Bunnings Warehouse plant nursery section, even had a stint with my own gardening show on community radio and created a garden club for Bunnings, and designed and wrote it's monthly newsletter along with all it's events.

I have my very own Bundy Belle, my oldest, Lily who was born there.
I wrote my first book In Bundy and was shown so much support there from the local newspaper and it's journalists, the council and the mum's there who read my book.
I found myself dazzled to be on the front page of a newspaper there and filmed, twice on A Current Affair
and sign my first ever book deal, with Random House and officially become an author.

My Bundy Belle - Lily

I will never forget opening that box of books that came, what a moment.
A huge moment for me in my life as I have been writing stories since I can remember and had my first ever story published, in a newspaper, in year 1, yes I was a 'square' as they called it back then - I still proudly have the school certificate for that, as you do!

I found myself in Bundy, walking along the sunkissed shoreline in Burnett Heads breathing in the salty breeze with my girl and our pram each day.

I didn't just lose a lot of weight after having Lily in Bundy, I found my healthy self and there is a huge difference. I not only made peace with body there, I for the first time became in tune with it.
I was very fit, strong and so healthy and stayed that way for 5 years before being blessed with my second bundle of joy and moving to the Sunshine Coast.

So I was delighted when asked by Move it to come up to Bundy as part of their 3 month healthy living campaign and teach a cooking class and be in a community pram walk.

We stayed at the lovely Park Lane Motel which I would highly recommend to anyone, it was very

comfortable, we had our own mini kitchen facilities which was great, it had an excellent sized bathroom, a very cute pool, which the girls swam in even though they were cold!

And it's position was perfect!

You could walk easily into town, which we did one night to hear the rainbow lorikeets in the trees, it was surrounded by eateries and the beautiful riverside park and Alexander zoo was

directly behind it, literally just a short stroll so perfect if you have kids with you, each day we walked over so
they run around and burn of all that amazing energy kids have so they weren't stir crazy in the hotel room!
They were very impressed with the park and of course the quoll's and emu's!

Kitchen Confidence owner and celebrated chef Wayne Bryans

My cooking demo was held at the gorgeous and very funky cooking school ,Kitchen Confidence

If you live in or around Bundaberg, I highly recommend checking this cooking school out!!

With Crystal from Move It Bundaberg and all the fresh ingredients as supplied by Hinkler Centra

Me and Sonia aka the famour Natural New Age Mum

What a fantastic group of women it was and it was including one of my absolute highlights of my trip the incredible woman that is Sonia aka Natural New Age Mum, put the kettle on and take a second for yourself
to go check out her page and blog!

As a big fan, how excited was I to have NNAM eating my food!

What did we cook? Using fantastic ingredients sponsored by Hinkler Central we made:

Pink Lemonade

Haloumi & Spelt Sourdough Croutons Salad

It was a very hands on cooking class with everyone getting involved, whirring up the juicer, frying the cheese or the croutons, chopping ingredients, mixing and making the rolls!

And Spinach, Kale and Feta rolls

Spinach, Kale and Feta Sausage Rolls

Ingredients

3 2 cups fresh silverbeet or spinach, finely chopped and firmly packed in (or 1 pkt frozen spinach, thawed and drained well)

1 cup fresh kale, washed and finely chopped

· 1 pkt feta cheese

· ¾ cup grated cheese

· 2 sheets puff pastry ( I use butter puff pastry or wholegrain when I can find it and sometimes gluten free puff pastry)

Method

· Pre heat oven to approximately 180`c

· Combine spinach, kale, feta and grated cheese together

Semi defrost pastry sheets

· Cut each pastry sheets in half to make two long rectangles

Line each one down one side with a long strip of the mixture

· Pinch the two sides of pastry together right along both sides to make it an enclosed ‘parcel’ or roll over on to itself to make a roll shape.

Chop up into desired sizing rolls

· Brush top of pastry with milk

· Bake them in the oven on baking paper until golden and pastry is visibly cooked

· Serve hot with fresh salad

Notes

· For a more ‘adult’ version you can add lightly sautéed onion, chilli or spring onion.

Perfect for school lunch boxes

Freeze rolls before cooking for ready to go meals and lunches

Toddler Tips

· Make them half the size again so they are handy toddler sized sausage rolls.

· Serve with a toddler friendly salad of things like cheese cubes, avocado cubes, cherry tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, capsicum slices and carrot sticks.

The following day we topped off the visit (and walked off the food) with a big community pram walk along the foreshore from Nielsons beach to Kelly's beach.
I got to meet so many lovely ladies during this walk too including the fantastic group from Baby Bods - Personal Training and Stroller Fitness and even had the absolute delight of an attendee and just beautiful woman from the previous day's cooking class finding me half way en route and bringing me a beautiful thank you card and a jar of her incredible home-made mango chutney!
Talk about making your day.

If you haven't ever had the chance of visiting Bundy maybe you should put it on the to do list

Happy Cooking - Bek XX