Nourishing Nibbles in the Cape

Home Made Baking Powder Aluminum Free. Starch Free. GMO Free. Gluten Free. Today you get to play like a chemist and ‘make’ your own stash of home made BAKING POWDER! Ta daa… What is it, really? Baking powder is a leavening (raising) agent used in most baked goods. It lightens the texture and increases the volume in our cakes, muffins and even bread by releasing carbon dioxide bubbles into the wet batter. Its all very science, chemistry wot-not… yet totally necessary if you want your cupcakes light and fluffy. Why make your own? Why, you ask? Well here’s what in the shop-bought stuff… Commercially produced baking powder contains aluminum, yes #gaspshockhorror, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate or Sodium Aluminum Phosphate. This stuff has b een linked with the development of Alzheimer’s Disease and has no place being in my bon bons. It can also leave a slight metallic aftertaste in cakes with a delicate flavour (how lovely?). It can also contain gene...

Today is a special blog inspired by amazing and special women who always bring out the special in me… who wouldn't want that? And throw in a moreish recipe? Oh, my day is complete! I had three friends over on Thursday morning for a catch-up breakfast. The four of us shared some very special times together about a year ago. We embarked on a journey of self discovery via a life improvement coaching course. Three hours of intense physical, mental, emotional and spiritual delving, four days a week for 12 weeks! I literally cried myself into wonderfulness for three months solid! We unlocked limiting beliefs, addressed childhood blockages, let go of toxic feelings and focused on improving every aspect of our lives. Two key tools that I still practice today are daily gratitudes and meditation. In a (hyphenated) word, it was life-changing ! And needless to say, these ladies are super special to me, I mean, they’ve seen me do the ‘ugly’ cry… and they didn’t point a...

I've found the MOST amazing recipe, like ever! It's amazing for a few reasons - not limited to its deliciousness taste, the fact that there is no added sugar, its soft pillowy cloud-like texture, gluten free, dairy free, grain free (just about everything free)  to name a few exceptional reasons, but mostly because... [pause here for emphasis] ... it has only two ingredients. You heard me, Sunshine... Only. Two. Ingredients. (Gasp?!) I'll give you a moment to compose yourself while you let that little sentence sink in! I know, I couldn't believe it either. My super pal, Claire, sent it to a bunch of us to try it because she knows how hungry we all are, all the time. So I tried it out, skeptically I might add, and did it blow my socks off? Yessiree! Sadly, she couldn't remember where she found the recipe. I wanted to sing praise and thank that clever soul for creating such a simple and heavenly recipe for us, and then sharing i...

I’ve decided to share another Easy Peasy Child Friendly recipe today seeing as we are still in the thick of school holidays and we have a bit more time in the mornings to enjoy our breakfasts. However, this recipe is so quick and easy, and uses everyday pantry ingredients, that I have been known to whip these up on a school morning in no time, or even as an afternoon snack to cheer up my Little Buttercup after a hard day at playschool. (Confession time: I’ve even devoured these for supper one night on a slightly hormonal evening not too long ago - husband traveling, kids driving me mad, you understand, right?). And yet I feel rather virtuous when I serve these (yes even for supper) because they really are healthy - no jokes!  It’s all fibre and hardly any sugar at all, in fact you can omit the sugar altogether, if you are so inclined. And, (now we are   really   on a roll) you could even add some protein by topping with a sprinkle of flaked alm...

Its school holidays. And it’s raining… again! These two simple statements bring shivers of dread to mothers around the world… So what does any domesticated-wannabe-mummy-of-two do with her five year old? Well, I’ll tell you, she does stuff that she wants to do. That’s right. A very wise lady (Maureen, Petal, that’s you) gave me this advice just this weekend. She said, “…do stuff with your kids that you love to do… they will feel your passion and see your smile, its authentic...”. It makes sense, right? (But, hey, you’ve sometimes also got to do things that they like to do, like crawling into their man-made fort for a tea party with a grasshopper (one-legged) and the ever growing ant colony on the grass, which is now starting to make you itch. Or playing Teacher-Teacher, and you’re the one being sent to the naughty chair all the time.) Well, Maureen, I took this lovely piece of advice and gave it a bash. I knew straight-off that my best way of spending the day in...

  A Little Celebration for a Very Big Boy My little boy has just turned one years old (gasp! It still feels like yesterday when I brought him home all pink and chubby from the hospital, only two days old). And, being my second child, with time at a minimum, I organized a very small celebration for my favourite moms-in-crime and their four little ones to come and play (or in Junior’s case, four little rivals to smack and try bite if they touched his favourite toy car). The party, in the middle of a   Cape   winter downpour, was relaxed and chilled with lots of nibbling and giggling - a totally stress-free party. Stress-free because I knew I had chosen really easy, throw-together food… that was also allergy friendly. (I now stand up and declare…“Hi, my name is Caghrey, and I’m Wheat and Dairy Intolerant!” There, I said it, feeling good about it for a change, and rather chuffed for standing up and ‘owning it’. No more whining about what I   can’t   ...