Marigold Biscuits - Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Easy and Delicious

Marigold Biscuits

As a child my mother use to make calendula biscuits and there was something so enchanting about them, like they had come straight out of my favourite book, The Lord of The Rings.

As a horticulturalist I love combining gardening with cooking and these biscuits are so incredibly easy to make and marigolds are such a delight to grow, so I just love these biscuits. We always have marigolds on hand, of all different kinds, I just love their vibrant beauty and they are an important inclusion in our organic plantings for their ability to repel nematodes in the soil and many other garden pests.
Companion planting partners include eggplant, strawberry, leafy greens, tomatoes, potato, pumpkin, squash, chili's, capsicums but not too close to legume crops.
Marigolds grow easily with a nice compost rich soil, good drainage, plenty of sunshine and some regular liquid fertilizer like seasol. They grow very easy from seed and most nurseries have seedlings in punnets.

Ingredients

• 125 g butter
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar if you have sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 & 3/4 cup cup almond meal
• marigold petals, removed from flower, trim ends if needed, washed and let dry (about 4 flower heads)

Method

• Preheat oven to 160ç
• In a bowl combine the butter and sugar together, add in vanilla
• Mix in the almond meal and about half the marigold petals
• Roll the mixture into small balls - note - it should be fairly dry not too moist or the biscuits wil spread when you bake them, if it feels to moist add a little more almond meal
• Place the balls on a tray lined with baking paper, press each one down slightly and then press a few petals on top for a decorative look
• Bake the biscuits gently, they do not take that long so stay close by.
• Once they are gently browned on top and have a golden hue, around 12 minutes in my own take them out and let them cool on the tray or on a wire rack
• Enjoy!

Happy Cooking!
Bek XX

Eat beautiful - Live Well.
Recipe and photography (c) Rebecca Mugridge 2014

Bek's Sweet and Healthy Strawberry tart

I love strawberries. Always have, they are a burst of colour and healthy deliciousness. I have even worked as a strawberry planter and picker when I was young. They are also one of my absolute favourite plants to grow and fruit to cook with.
Wherever we live we always have hanging baskets and pots of strawberries growing, just as my mum did when I was a child. I am so delighted that picking fresh delicious, organic strawberries are as much a part of my two daughters childhoods as it was mine. I can still clearly remember my school friends always marveling at the growing jewels and especially at her alpine strawberries.

Recently I took part in a very exciting opportunity for me, a 6 part fresh local food column in a fantastic local magazine, WHY Fitness. WHY Bfresh with Rebecca Mugridge.

This delightful deliciousness was one of the recipes I created for them using local gourmet deli and store Bfresh's beautiful local strawberries.

Bek’s Sweet and Healthy Strawberry Tart

Ingredients

Pastry

·         2 cupsNutworks macadamia meal (this is a great local producer I like to support, you could also use almond meal)

·         2 cups rice flour

·         ½ cup coconut oil

·         1 free range egg

·         1 teaspoon pure vanilla paste

·         1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt

·         ½ cup Rapadura sugar (see notes)

Filling

·         ½ cup coconut oil

·         ½ cup Rapadura sugar

·         5 free range eggs

·         Finely grated rind of 1 orange

·         Juice of 2 oranges

·         1 tablespoon tapioca flour whisked in an equal amount of water

Topping

·         1 punnet fresh strawberries

·         1 packet Tortengus ( natural fruit glaze available from supermarkets)

·         250 mls fresh orange juice

·         Extra rapidura sugar

Method

·         Pre heat oven to 180’c

·         Grease 1 large or 6 small spring form tins.

·         In a large bowl combine the macadamia meal and rice flour for the base.

·         Add the vanilla paste and rub into the flour mixture the hard coconut oil until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

·         Mix in the rapadura sugar and the egg, gently mix it all together until it resembles a smooth dough. If needed you can add a little extra water.

·         Press pastry evenly into the prepared tins.

·         Bake blind for 10 minutes by covering with a layer of baking paper and spreading with a layer of rice or baking beans.

·         Then remove baking paper and rice and cook for few extra minutes until lightly golden brown.

·         Remove from oven.

·         Filling. Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan. Add in the finely grated orange rind, stir through and remove from heat.

·         Sift the sugar into coconut oil mixture, add in the eggs and whisk it all together.

·         Add in the tapioca flour and the orange juice, whisk.

·         Bring it to the boil and then remove from heat and pour into a shallow dish and refrigerate for around 10 minutes or until cool.

·         Pour the cooled egg mixture on top of the pastry bases; sprinkle each evenly with the extra rapadura sugar.

·         Cover all pastry edges with alfoil and put the tarts under a medium hot grill to caramelise, and they will visually firm up.

·         Remove from heat and allow to completely cool.

·         Combine 1 packet of the fruit glaze with 250 mls fresh orange juice in a medium saucepan.

·         Bring to the boil, stirring and then remove from heat.

·         Cut up the fresh strawberries and arrange them on top of the tart.

·         Cover with the fruit glaze.

·         Allow to set.

·         Serve.

Notes

·         Rapadura sugar is a much healthier, whole foods alternative to refined sugars. It isn’t processed under hot temperatures or spun so it retains its many mineral and vitamin qualities.

·         Macadamias are not just an exciting Australian native they are also full of health benefits and loaded with important nutrients including healthy proteins, minerals, vitamins, monounsaturated fats, dietary fibre and phytochemicals. They also have no trans fatty acids. Here on the Sunshine Coast we have locally processed macadamias and macadamia meal (much like almond meal) as used in this recipe here from Nutworks in Yandina.

·         Coconut oil is a great healthy alternative to butter with many health benefits.

·         The fruit glaze used here is a natural product made from seaweed.

·       Fab Slabs schopping boards  (pictured with the tarts) are a local Sunshine Coast ethical company making beautiful chopping boards from Camphor Laurel trees which are a pest species in this area.

Strawberries

Strawberries, as a garden plant, were said to be being taken from the forests to the gardens in France in the 1300’s and are even mentioned in ancient Roman literature. They have vast become a beloved fruit. 

At BFresh on the Sunshine Coast and when in season people can find a locally produced variety of strawberry that has been grown here for over 20 years, right here due to a special relationship between the grower and BFresh. These strawberries are all about taste, you know the ones, bright red and they taste and smell amazing, they are not ones that are bred to travel and store well, rather they are the kind you remember from your childhood.

Strawberries don’t just taste wonderful; they are a great source of vitamin C, flavanoids and anti oxidants. And as a snack they are guilt free with 1 cup of fresh strawberries being generally less than 50 calories!

Strawberries are also easy to grow and are beautiful looking plants; they make a gorgeous hanging basket.
They can be grown from seed or runners, I prefer to grow mine from runners, their natural way to reproduce. Give them plenty of sunshine, really good drainage ( they do not like soggy feet), if growing in pots, do not scrimp and buy only really good quality potting mix, in the ground a slightly acidic soil with composted material is best and a good thick layer of mulch makes strawberries happy. Companion plant with marigolds, borage, basil, spinach, silverbeet. Remove dead leaves, water in the morning if you can and keep a big watch out for aphids, easily removed with soapy water.

Recipe and photography © RebeccaMugridge2013

A Horticulturalist That Cooks

There are chef's that garden - I am a horticulturalist that cooks

From as early on as I can remember I was in the garden with my mum, my dad, even my grandfather.

My mum tells me I used to say I was a 'plant doctor' and carry a basket on my arm filled with scissors, sticky tape and homemade healing spray (water with lemon juice apparently) and trot around the garden like a doctor on their rounds (whether the plant was sick or not!)
At 16 I enrolled in my first year of study in Horticulture and fell in love with this field of study immediately.
Well actually maybe not the whole field as I never warmed to Horticultural machinery subjects, spark plugs and lawnmowers are not my friends but to be able to study and learn about plants was pure joy to me.
I knew then what it meant when people would say, "Find what you love to do and work becomes pleasure."

I also grew up with my mum working as a professional cook and came from family of chefs and cooks and all these incredible women making amazing food all the time, so right from an early age I had a love and wonder around food and cooking.

I love that in my life now these two elements are a big part of me and of what I do and what I share with my own two girls. 

I believe that growing food is one of the most exciting things we can bring into our lives.

I often think that if you are going to be watering a garden you should have at least one thing edible or medicinal within it. People usually only grow veggies and herbs in backyard plot but these plants can be so striking and beautiful, they really can be grown on full display and landscaped with to make dazzling displays and patterns in even the showiest of gardens.

To me it is the whole journey that excites me so much about real food and back to basic's, the journey that starts with food growing and ends with a delicious meal.

Want some of my edible gardening tips?

Check out my gardening tips in the post by Natural New Age Mum on her fantastic blog,
Gardening with Kids

You can also read about my latest adventure - cooking at the Real Food Festival, in the feature on me in the Hinterland Times here:
HERE "Back to basic's - that's all it takes"

Happy cooking AND gardening

Bek XX

Making Healthy Eating An Experience

"Eating delicious meals made from fresh ingredients is one of the things that makes living a healthy lifestyle such an enjoyable, rewarding experience."
"The best chefs in the world will tell you - the meal is nothing without quality ingredients." Rebecca Mugridge in The Pram Diet book, Random House

Growing food, sourcing great ingredients, these are things we can do to make healthy eating a wondrous experience - not a daily task.

I love great ingredients and love to cook and create recipes like those in the Pram Diet book and on the Maleny IGA Local Product Local Recipe - recipe cards, I am so fortunate on the Sunshine Coast to have great conditions to grow beautiful organic vegetables at home with my girls and to be able to buy fantastic local products from my local Maleny Supa IGA including locally produced cheeses, yogurts, cream, sauces, pasta, bread, jams, chocolate, eggs, honey, lettuce, oils - more products than I can list.


I will be giving a talk and demonstration at the Mudjimba Community Centre on November 24th on growing organic food at home and composting - if you would like to come and hear me speak.

Rebecca x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beatiful Planet Eco Gardening Kits for Kids

As a horticulturalist and a mum I just love seeing kids in the garden, growing things, eating freshly picked veggies, smelling flowers, picking and cooking with herbs, discovering amazing insects, exploring and learning, unleashing their imagination in the natural world.

As parents we can help to inspire and nurture the love of the outdoors that children just overflow naturally with by giving them spaces in our own backyards or on our patios where they can grow things.

I have worked in the nursery industry for many years and one of the greatest joys is seeing children get excited about a gardening project.

The kits by Planet Eco  are amazing, they are beautifully presented and packaged and full of things for the children to get excited about. The fact that they are also environmentally friendly means they tick all the right boxes.
They would make an ideal Christmas Gift or Birthday Present.
I know they are going to be on our families Christmas shopping list!

This kits are so beautiful and give children a present that not only unleashes their imagination but gives them the opportunity to experience all the benefits of their own garden, to get excited about getting outside and seeing things grow.
Gardening has so many benefits to children including building a sense of accomplishment, responsibility and best of all a real sense of wonder as they nurture and then see their tiny seeds grow into plants and then into beautiful flowers, useful and fragrant herbs or delicious, healthy food they can eat!
The garden is a live science lesson as they learn about plants, what plants needs are, the insect world and how things grow and work together in the garden.

These would have to be the most beautiful and also practical children's gardening kits I have seen - I was very impressed.
And what better way to inspire a fussy eater to eat their vegetables - than to grow their very own!!

You can buy your very own Planet Eco Kits at http://planet-eco.com.au/

Kids and Healthy Food

Kids and healthy food are just meant to go together.

 Both my girls have grown up loving fresh fruit and vegetables and healthy homemade meals.
 They love healthy food and healthy snacks and while both have very different personalities and are 5 years apart in age both eat pretty much anything healthy food wise BUT I am the first to admit I myself was definately not always a healthy eating person and I was never a big fan of fruit and veges-instead I became one after having my first baby!
As I told in The Pram Diet book when I sarted on my healthy journey my daughter was my inspiration. My inspiration to find the healthy, energised version of me, to fall in love with healthy, real food.

Just like everyone, everwhere can too!

One of the greatest things we can pass on to our children is the tools to live a healthy, happy lifestyle and the best way of doing this is by actually living one ourselves!

So where do you start?

Start with you-be inspiration to your children.

As with a lot of things it is always important to start with changes you enjoy doing or feel the benefit from, changes that aren't overwhelming or extreme, changes you will keep doing. Start with small steps and let them become natural to you and then build on them and add more as it becomes a momentum that creates an exciting love of healthy living that flows through your whole life.  

For more ideas and easy to follw advice on starting a home edible garden, composting, finding motivation, creating a healthy kitchen and a healthier less stressful home environment, cooking healthy meals that the whole family will actually eat, getting healthy and losing weight on budget and lots of recipes check out my book 

 Becoming a healthier family doesn't have to be hard, expensive or UNFUN in fact it can be a great bonding experience and have fantastic long term health benefits.

One of the best ways that as a mother I know you can get children eating healthier is by actually involving them with food. Real food. Not a packet you open or something you zap or that is handed to you through a drive-through window.

Real exciting food experiences.

Things like:

• GROW some edibles at home. Kids just LOVE this! They get so much out of it; it provides you with beautiful fresh ingredients and kids can't wait to eat veges they themselves helped to grow-combine growing with some cooking together and they will never look back. Plus as a mum you will be far more inclined to cook with lots of vegetables and herbs when you have them right there, FREE in the garden. Beautiful as fresh as fresh can be, organic and so tasty.
  Both my girls have grown up with edible gardens and watching your toddler and kids eating fresh organic snow peas, tomatoes, strawberries, watermelon, beans, celery and other ingredients straight from the garden is just priceless.
• Take them to market. Take the kids and let them help pick the fresh fruit and vegetables. Let them smell, feel, experience. Even at the supermarket make your first stop the fruit and vegetable section. This should ideally be around 1/3 of your trolley. Get them involved and have a look around together at what looks good, whats on special, what meals could be made out what ingredients.
  If your a mum sometimes caught in that spot of an upset toddler where you might give them a little something to nibble on while you shop or once you get in the car to keep them occupied what about a stalk of celery? Leave the leafy top on to make it even more fun-or a punnet of tomatoes or strawberries that aren't sold by weight, much better than a biscuit.
• Find out what they like. There is not much joy to be had consistently putting fruit and vegetables in front of kids that they don't like or that is prepared or cooked in way they don't like. Why force apples if they love mandarins or pears? The same with veges is they hate boiled veg why not try them with a fresh, dressed salad, vegetable stir fry or raw crunchy finger food veges? 
• Appreciate quality ingredients and foods. Try not to be caught up in the too expensive fruit headspace and then turn a few isles and put chips, soft drink and party pies in the trolley-in the end what would you really prefer they were munching on?
• Get healthy takeaway. Think creatively. When heading to the beach or park on a hot day why not swap the icecreams with a fresh whole watermelon chopped up on the spot for the kids to tuck into? You could even but it in advance and chill it in the fridge.
  Make your own spinach and feta sausage rolls, pizza and party pies and use things like whole grain pastry.

Read my post on Healthy Lunch Box Ideas For Kids at SunnyCoastKids.com.au by

Clicking HERE


Rebecca xx