I bet few of you knew of this. I didn’t know until today, when I came across a post on Instagram about it.

Basically, this initiative wants to reincorporate traditional cooking in our pre-packaged food lifes.

Nowadays, if you walk into a supermarket, you would see A LOT of packages and labels saying “ready to eat”, “microwable”, “grab’n'go” … and if you dare to read the label, you must likely will give up after trying to read the first ingredients. Chemicals, colorants, artificial sweeteners … our bodies really don’t need that.

Our bodies need wholesome and natural food, not processed “food”. This industry is growing and growing everyday and they take advantage of our busy lifes to make pre-packaged food appealing by simply writing something like this: “ready in 5 minutes” . Really, who wouldn’t want that after a long day at work, university …? But the biggest secret here is that you can have that without all the chemicals and conservants. How?

• Preparing food in bulk and freezing or portioning the prepped food if you’re consuming it in the near future.
• The key here is planification.
• Maybe you’ve heard or see this quote before: If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.

We need to take some time to really think about our health and bodies, because if we don’t, we’ll need to find time to illness in the future. Being ill is no joke, and even if you don’t end up having a stroke, or being diabetic, you could most certainly use a reboot in your diet, don’t you?

So today, I invite you to really think about what’s on your fridge, your shopping cart or your table.

And finally, if you want to know more about this initiative, go here and take a look

I started cooking when I was five. My mother bought me my first cooking set, a toy one of course, and I would play masak masak (literally translated cooking cooking) with my neighbour’s daughter, while mother was at work. We would make meals out of leaves, weeds and mud (or whatever we could forage from our front yards) for Barbie and her friends.

However, I learned most of my cooking skills from helping out the ladies in my family – mother, grandma and my aunts, in the kitchen, and by watching Jamie on tele.

Short for time, I made an egg linguine in two cheese and shredded chicken for dinner tonight to celebrate #FRD2013, recipe bellow.

I hope you had a fabulous #FRD2013, and its never too late to get involve http://www.foodrevolutionday.com/about-the-day.html

Egg linguine in two cheese with twists

Egg linguine dry or fresh (got mine from the super market) enough for two

4 egg yolks

50g feta

1/2 cup grated cheddar

100g shredded chicken

salt and pepper to taste

Add linguine to boiling water with a pinch of salt. Let cook, then drain into a big glass bowl. Leave pasta sitting in colander. Meanwhile, let the pasta water sit in glass bowl for two minutes, pour water in sink, then dry bowl using paper towel.

Put pasta in the bowl along with egg yolks and cheese. Mix through thoroughly. Add chicken, salt and pepper and mix though everything again. Remember that this needs to be done swiftly.

The heat from the glass bowl acts as a catalyst that holds the ingredients together. I use this method to make my carbonara, instead of using cream.

Took me 10 minutes to make this.

Bon Appetito!

As the team from FRD2013 says on their website: “It’s a chance for people to come together within their homes, schools, workplaces and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources”.

I`m not much of a cook. I can honestly say that I sometimes get wrong even an omlette or french fries. But…I love to eat. And had the opportunity to travel a lot and to share my life with someone who loves to cook.

Today, on the second Food Revolution Day, I want to share with you some of the amazing things that my wife, Raluca, cooks each day. If you need recipes, contact her. If you need an amateur food critic, contact me:).

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Jamie Oliver wants people to gather and share their culinary knowledge, cook together, eat and discuss the centrality of food in life.

So why does he want a Food Revolution Day? Well, he’s been on a mission, trying to change the way people relate to food, for years now. On the holiday’s website he explains; “Cooking skills used to be passed down from generation to generation, but now millions of people lack even the most basic cooking skills. We need to get back to basics; to cook and eat local produce; to share cooking skills and food knowledge; to join forces with communities and get as many people involved as possible. Food Revolution Day is our opportunity to get the world to focus on the importance of good food and essential cooking skills”. You can visit the website here; http://foodrevolutionday.com/

Read the full article on TED; http://blog.ted.com/2013/05/16/jamie-oliver-gears-up-for-food-revolution-day-on-may-17/

Do you ever have a day when you just shouldn’t have got out of bed?  We had one yesterday – no, that’s not me and my doppelganger good-cop mum sidekick but the entire family.  From the moment the boys barrelled into the study/playroom at 5.50am the day was doomed.  I was faffing already, getting lost in reading other blogs (a brave, beautifully written post from Lisey Bendy’s blog to be precise check it out here www.shittytittiebangbang.com) and trying and failing to galvanize myself into writing action.  So having achieved nothing by the time they came in put me in a grump which, as it turned out, matched the one Sam had woken up with and as it happened Andrew.  Humph.  The sort of day where we need a bigger house in order for us all to be grumpy in our own little corner.  Except life of course isn’t like that and the day had to be faced.

Edward decided to well and truly face it when he leapt off the chest of drawers onto Sam’s bed, kneecapping his big brother with a salad server (previously pilfered from the kitchen) and breaking a precious new Lego Chima model in the process.  Oh the pitiful sobbing from the victim, the defensive yelling and flailing of arms and legs as the offender was put into time-out (never one to down without a fight is Edward), the tears and snot and dribble from both.

This set the tone – before breakfast.  For the rest of the day I felt like my witty aside of ‘ha, ha, UN peacekeepers have nothing on me!’ should have been stapled on a large board to my forehead.  Navigating a day like that is walking the parenting minefield.  I didn’t know which innocent instruction would set off the next homegrown greanade (it turned out to be ‘please bring your water bottle through’, who’d have known?).  I staggered into The Source holding up two fingers.  Luckily being such a good customer I jump the queue now so energy levels were promptly pumped up.  Just writing that makes me wonder if it is my good custom that pushes me up the orders or my sons’ custom of rolling about on the floor and demanding water from the fun little tap on the counter that encourages the baristas to feel the need for speed. Hmm.

I did read recently that the results of a major study into bullying have shown that children mollycoddled by their parents are 10% more likely to be bullied than those allowed to find their own boundaries and learn conflict resolution by themselves.  Glad to see my parenting technique of ‘leave them to it, they have to learn the hard way’ gets the thumbs up from the professionals!  There are simply only so many times one can say ‘stop it’ in one day, we just happen to reach that threshold surprisingly early sometimes.  For the article click here http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/kid-gloves/story-e6frg8h6-1226636971204.

Today everything is different!  I was left in peace until almost 7am, quite a record.  Andrew was impressed that I had turned stripping beds into something fun when I gave the boys two minutes to do it themselves before I did it for them.  He obviously hasn’t realised I am training them to be decent houseguests in order to secure sleepovers!!

There was great excitement this morning when our Easter parcel from my Mum arrived – only two months late!  Sam’s question ‘Where has it been until now?’ met with William’s reply ‘There are people who have to taste every single thing in every single parcel before we can have them.’  Now there’s a reality TV show in the making.

With her permission I would like to share a short story about my friend ‘Agatha’s’ son’s reply to a question posed by his teacher which is still causing her to seriously consider changing her name to Agatha and moving school possibly even city pronto.

Teacher ‘ Let’s think about Balmoral Beach.  It is a natural landscape but now has lots of man-made features.  Can everyone think of a man-made feature at Balmoral and share it with the class.

Girl 1: The path along the front.

Boy 1: The rotunda.

Girl 2: The benches.

‘Agatha’s’ son: Balmoral Cellars…

I’m laughing even as I type.  She should be proud I say, I wish it had been my son’s answer!

Today is Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day http://foodrevolutionday.com/.  It has had no publicity here that I have seen but I’m always one to try and impose some culinary experience on the boys so tonight we are making pizzas with some lovely friends.  That is four mums and ten children.  I imagine I’ll be calling Jamie all the names under the sun this evening before taking to the drink!  In the meantime I had better go and make the dough…

This week I’ve been

Reading ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King – a present to celebrate my first commission from my gorgeous boys, loving it (perhaps I should have read it earlier?)

Reading ‘An Omelette and a Glass of Wine’ by Elizabeth David – I’ve just discover ED, such poetic descriptions of food.  No wonder she was such a revolutionary.

Reading ‘Mrs Queen Takes the Train’ by William Kuhn.  Gently enjoyable, taking a while to get going (I’ll avoid a British Rail joke here!) though.

Cooking for my lovely preggy friend Rebecca.  Curry, soup, pasta sauce.  I still remember fondly the gorgeous parsnip soup my lovely sister-in-law Lucy filled my freezer up with before William’s arrival.

Celebrating having lost 1.5 kilos, better stay off the wine (you were right Mum!).

WHAT IS FOOD REVOLUTION DAY?

Food Revolution Day on 17 May is a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. It’s a chance for people to come together within their homes, schools, workplaces and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources. Food Revolution Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good food and better food education for everyone by focusing on three simple actions – cook it, share it, live it. The first Food Revolution Day took place on 19 May 2012 with more than 1,000 events in 664 cities across 62 countries.

Food revolution day today, hosted by my bestest delish chef, Jamie Oliver, weird us Aussies are celebrating FRD before the Oliver is even out of bed, how cool is that.

Take a look at this vid of Jamie talking about food revolution day, and on Utube you can see more videos, just click on the Utube icon in the bottom right hand corner.

Today I’ll be cooking some salmon fishcakes from Jamie Olivers Ministry of food with the tomato and basil sauce, and some scones for afternoon tea, yum. I always cook from scratch and it’s not hard, it’s been a long time learning and has taken me years to build a base knowledge. It has been such an achievement though when people say they love what I have cooked and that I’m a good cook, it’s something you don’t learn at school unfortunately and unless you’re taught by you’re family, how do you learn?

Well I couldn’t have become a ‘good cook’ without the use of recipe books which I now have quite a collection. The newest addition as I’ve mentioned is Gwyneth Paltrows book, “It’s all good”, so here’s some info about it and some of the things I have tried cooking so far.

I have been eating healthier and healthier for months now, I have always thought I ate really well but I am definitely eating better now. Less salt, less chocolate, cake I struggle with, portion size is smaller, coconut oil instead of other oils, green smoothies, juicing and no meat. Its been great and I am feeling much better, and have reduced my body fat and weight, thanks I think mostly to the no meat part. However there is always room for improvement health wise and I have wondered about gluten free cooking, vegan cooking and superfoods, so when I saw this book, I bought it.

Gwneth fell ill a few years ago and ended up having a lot of tests and was told to eliminate a lot of food like gluten, dairy, alcohol and meat which she did but found tough to do all the time. So she worked with a cook friend called Julia Turshen to create a cook book with tasty recipes which could be part of an elimination diet, or gluten free or vegan, which is cool because you can pick and choose what you want from it.

Gwyneth has had a bit of a back lash in the press about the book, due to the price of the ingredients. This is a shame because some of the pantry ingredients are expensive or hard to find but they are things which will last for ages and the are used with cheaper bulk ingredients like fruit and veg. Also, cheap food isn’t exactly a healthy option is it? Big burgers, chips, large portions of rubbish aren’t doing anyone any good so why expect healthy to be cheap?

Just because Gwyneth says to use gluten free flour, doesn’t mean you have to. I have been tested I’m not gluten intolerant so I’ll use my existing flour which I already have.

Over the last two days I have been cooking some of the recipes, 1 because they look great, 2 because I really felt like them as I am a bit under the weather, so healthy is good right! Also I used sweet potatoes in 2 of them, just because they appealed, oh and they are good at lowering cholesterol too.

So a few days ago I went shopping and stocked up on sweet potatoes and looked for chipotle sauce, which I couldn’t find and gradually I began to feel more ill (it’s just a cold!) as time went on. An afternoon sleep later and some tablets and I was throwing the spuds in a pot with onion garlic, stock and I substituted chipotle sauce with jalepeno peppers I had in the fridge, some tabasco and a pinch of cayenne pepper, some smoked paprika would have been good here as she mentioned a smoky taste but I was feeling awful by now so that was it.

After 30 mins of cooking and 3-4 mins on the magimix I had a velvety warming spicy soup and boy did it feel good on my sore throat. I will try it with the correct sauce next time and there will be a next time as it was really great.

Next on the list was a red smoothie, which appealed to me because of the use of goji berries which I bought last week, I just felt like it. She said to soak them overnight in the fridge, which I did and they came out this morning nice and plump.

I added them to my cheap and cheerful blender (you don’t need an expensive blender for some things), added the water too as I guessed it would have tons of flavour, unsweetened almond milk (yum!) frozen raspberries, Manuka honey and coconut oil (not sure why?) Again this was seriously improvised, I didn’t have goats milk as well as almond milk, I end up throwing tons of stuff away if I get too many things. Anyway it was delicious and I learnt something new, I had never used goji berries before.

I tested avo, with real mayo, not vegenaise (I couldn’t find any and I’m not vegan so, who cares) on toast, with black pepper and a squeeze of lemon, yep, everyone knows this is a winner here in Australia, can’t go wrong!

And now I have just made sweet potato spice muffins which called for gluten free flour which I found to be more expensive and again I’m not gluten intolerant so I’m using plain flour which I already have.

I roasted the potato, let it cool  removed the skin and mashed it. Then you have to addd 1/2 cup Virgin olive oil, 1/2unsweetened almond milk, 3/4 cup maple syrup! Well, not convinced. I get oil, like when you use it in carrot cake but extra virgin, kinda expensive, so I mixed it with vege and felt yak because is not so healthy, it felt weird adding so much fat to such good potato. Thats a lot of maple syrup there, my just under half full bottle, has now gone, yep this is not so cheap. Anyway, I pushed on and realised what you’re missing out, which is butter, eggs and sugar, so it kinda made sense.

Anyway, I’ve just taken them out the oven, they look good, but……I had a sneaky taste and they taste oily (maybe because I used vege oil?) and taste like a health food shop smells! So I think I’ll be going back to Jamie oliver butternut squash muffins and adding sweet potato instead next time.

So it’s hit and miss, like most cook books to be honest, well except Jamie at home which I have cooked almost everything in and it’s all been terrific.

One thing I do like about Gwyneths book it how it’s styled, the pictures of her and her kids and friend the cook. Some of the shots look like they have come out of a toast catalogue and some remind me of being home in Wales cooking on the beach with friends.

I will cook some more from it and mix it up with what I like and my style, somewhere between Gwyneth and Jamie Oliver, but not Nigella butter and cream Lawson (I do love her cooking though for naughty days).

So happy cooking today, over the weekend and keep healthy everyone xxx

Squeak is our duck! My son has raised her from a 3 day old duckling almost 3 years ago to a beautiful white duck, who provides love, entertainment and eggs! Today whilst feeding the chooks I noticed a little hidey-hole which she has made hers! No wonder I couldn’t find any eggs! So here is a beautiful recipe which takes 4 duck eggs – my Ode to Squeak!

Supplies:

250 g butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 duck eggs

¾ cup wholemeal self-raising flour

¾ cup wholemeal plain flour

1 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves

Method:

Beat butter, essence and sugar together until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time with a beat in between. For this recipe I’m using an electric mixer. Now add one of the flours and beat, but when you add the next one remove beaters and just hand mix. Add the spice and hand mix until it’s all together nicely! Place in cupcake/muffin tins and bake at 180 degrees celcius for around 25 minutes. They’re done when you touch the top and it springs back and your kitchen smells like Christmas! Don’t worry, you haven’t missed church, it only smells like Christmas because the spices are just like gingerbread houses!

Top the cakes with a little dust of icing sugar, or melt hot butter and paint it on. They’re also nice topped with lemon cream cheese frosting!

Supplies:

125 g butter

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

250 g brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self-raising flour

Method:

Combine the butter and sugar until pasty, then add the vanilla paste, egg and combine. Then add the flours add stir until fully folded in, sticky and it smells lovely! Tablespoon fulls go on lined baking trays then pop them in the oven at 180 degrees celcius for 12 – 15 minutes. Smell your kitchen! The smell of sweet brown sugar and vanilla paste goodness! That’s the smell of love!

Jamie Oliver, who won the TED Prize in 2010, has declared May 17 as Food Revolution Day. [ted_talkteaser id=765]His vision: that people gather in homes, schools, workplaces and social spaces to share their culinary knowledge, cook together and simply enjoy each other’s company as they chow down and discuss the centrality of food in life. Anyone is invited to host a Food Revolution Day activity — Oliver recommends organizing a potluck dinner, leading a farmers market tour, planting a community garden or throwing a street party. There’s a downloadable activity guide for those interested in hosting an event, and a search engine for those interested in joining one in their area. Anyone is also welcome to get involved by sharing a treasured recipe.

Why Food Revolution Day? Because Oliver has been on a many-year mission to change the way people relate to food. As he explains on the holiday’s website, “Cooking skills used to be passed down from generation to generation, but now millions of people lack even the most basic cooking skills. We need to get back to basics: to cook and eat fresh local produce; to share cooking skills and food knowledge; to join forces within communities and get as many people involved as possible. Food Revolution Day is our opportunity to get the world to focus on the importance of good food and essential cooking skills.”

In an unexpected TED Prize synergy, Oliver has teamed up with fellow prize-winner JR, who launched the global art initiative Inside Out, to get the word out about Food Revolution Day. Oliver visited JR’s studio and shared a snapshot of himself holding his portrait on Instagram. He also posted an image of JR pasting the poster in Times Square, along with thousands of other portraits.

“Me laid out!! My TED brother @jr pasting the paper & glue in Time Square NYC for his incredible ‘Inside Out project,’” Oliver wrote. “FOOD REVOLUTION DAY is coming this Friday thank you. @jr Can’t wait to do a massive wall for the #insideoutproject.”

Oliver is planning on doing an Inside Out group action, around his message of getting people to eat healthier. Stay tuned for more information.

Are you or someone you know interested in launching a worldwide project on the scale of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? Nominations for the 2014 TED Prize are open, from now until June 16 »

Oliver with his Inside Out poster.

JR pastes Oliver’s image in Times Square.

]]> http://celebritytweetupdates.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/jamie-oliver-247/ Thu, 16 May 2013 19:36:45 +0000 LUKE WILLIAMS http://celebritytweetupdates.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/jamie-oliver-247/