10 Day Cleanse

Day 10 - 2 rasher bacon with 1 scrambled egg and mushrooms, winter salad, apple, salad, lamb and cooked vegetables, vegetable sticks and selection of cheeses.

OK - I've done it. No coffee for 10 days and plenty of water and feeling great! Can't wait to do this cleanse again soon! ... Michelle :-)

10 Day Cleanse

Day 9 - stewed fruit and yoghurt, salad roll, banana, grapes, grapefruit, salmon and salad.

Nearly done...can't wait for a coffee! Happy Days...M x

10 Day Cleanse

Day 8 - Muesli with fruit and milk, baked potato and cooked beans, salad, carrot soup, fish with yoghurt and salad.
Carving Coffee...but still no coffee yet, drinking lots of water and tea!
Two more days to go..
Michelle :-)

10 Day Cleanse

Day 7 - vegetable juice, cooked fruit with almonds and yoghurt, mushroom risotto, salad, pear, lamb stir-fry, celery sticks and a apple. More water please! Again still no coffee! 3 days to go! Cheers, Michelle :-)

10 day Cleanse

Day 6 - Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, orange juice, spiced pumpkin soup, wholewheat roll and butter, salad, hommus with celery and carrot sticks, steamed fish and cooked green vegetables. Lots and lots of water and i still haven't had a coffee !! Michelle :-)

10 Day Cleanse

Day 5 - Porridge, 1 slice wholewheat bread or toast with butter. Salad and a apple. Cooked vegetables with either chicken or meat. Plain day...headache has gone and remained strong still no coffee or alcohol for 5 days now! Yippee...half way through!

Mich xx

10 Day Cleanse

Happy Australia Day!

Today having a BBQ with family and I'm taking a Indian spiced iced tea with me. Use 2 x chai tea bags, 3 strips lemon rind, 1 cinnamon quill, 1 star anise to 1 Litre boiling water. Let brew for 1 hour before transferring to a water bottle and serve with lots of ice.

Day 4 - Fruit and natural yoghurt with chopped nuts. Baked potato with butter, coleslaw, a ripe pear, vegetable casserole with steamed broccoli and a orange.

I must admit i went a little out of routine today and had some BBQ prawns, lamb and barramundi which my brother brought to our BBQ and they were amazing and oh course a lamington!

Feeling good!

Mich xx

10 Day Cleanse

OK - Feeling not too bad apart from a headache and very hungry.

Day 3 - 2 slices wholewheat toast with butter, large fruit salad, salad, cooked green vegetables and wholewheat pasta with tomato sauce.

Mich xx

10 Day Cleanse

Day 2 - freshly juiced apple, carrot and mint, then rest of yesterdays soup, sweet potato salad and cooked cauliflower with cheese!

Going well so far, felt terrible yesterday afternoon and evening but today feeling good.

8 more days to go!

Mich x

10 Day Cleanse

Good Morning - i started a 10 day cleanse yesterday which means no coffee, alcohol and lots and lots of fruit and veg's.

Day 1 was a 1/4 watermelon, vegetable soup, brown rice and veg salad more soup and cooked vegetables and beans. Yummy! Mich x

Happy 2011

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope you have had or still continuing to have a enjoyable festive season. Over the holidays i was book writing and recipe testing in between spending time with family and friends. i am looking forward to this new year ahead and would like to thank everyone for their support and good wishes with our book adventure. Any new year resolutions ??? Anyone found a great recipe over the holidays ?? Have a great week everyone and blog soon. Michelle x

Book Update

Sorry we haven't blogged for awhile; Emma has been busy with her clinic work and i have been busy with my full-time job (Breville's Test Kitchen Manager and Cooking Specialist). So, I wanted to give you a update on the book. Emma has completed all her research notes and i have been madly recipe writing and testing. We sent out all the recipes recently to keen recipe testers and this was such a positive experience for us; we received constructive feedback and some twigging and retesting was required and now we are in the second round of recipe testing. So our aim is by end of December to have all recipes tested so that we can start approaching publishers early next year - Wish us luck! Cheers, Michelle

The way to a man's heart

OK i will admit that i have a fetish for second hand cook books and recently i was at a Antique Fair which is another passion of mine collecting "Shelley" art. Anyway, on my travels around the fair floor i discovered a seller with his mothers cook books and i couldn't resist but take one called "The way to a mans heart, The Settlement Cook Book" complied by Mrs. Simon Kander, printed in USA, 1940 and copyright The Settlement Cook book Co. Tested recipes from the Settlement Cooking Classes, The Milwaukee Public School Kitchens, The School of Trades for Girls and Experienced Housewives. In my opinion this book is completely practical with loads of helpful preparation tips and cooking techniques. I've enjoyed the past few weeks simply flicking through the pages and reading about how things were once done. In this particular book the seller's mother has circled her favourite recipes and made notes alongside a few which has given me insight into what this family was eating and what recipes worked. It has been used thoroughly and loved as i am noticing lots of food markings on the pages. As i left the seller's stand he said to me "i hope you enjoy this book and get many years out of it" and i said to him "Thank you and i'll let you know that you have given this book to a good home".

Happy Cooking! Mich

Words and Picture by Michelle Thrift copyright 2010

Sustainable Seafood

As it is the Easter Weekend you may be planning on having seafood, something to consider if you haven't already is purchasing seafood from either fished or farmed sources that maintain or increase production in seafoods future without jeopardizing the ecosystems from which it was acquired. The sustainable seafood movement has gained momentum as more people become aware about both overfishing and environmentally-destructive fishing methods.

Australia's fishing fleet and aquaculture farms are moving towards low impact, responsible fishing to improve ocean health and provide for a sustainable seafood future. This weekend and in the future when purchasing seafood ask questions to your seller such as; is the fish caught locally?, is it fresh and in season?. Be an aware consumer buy Australian local seafood and avoid deepwater or long-lived species that are over-fished, such as orange roughy, sea perch, shark, tuna, redfish, scallops, warehou, gemish, swordfish. Try leather jacket, sand whiting, mullet, calamari, squid and ocean trout.

To find out more visit:

www.amcs.org.au

www.seafood.net.au

www.greenpeace.org.au

www.tarongafoundation.org.au

Happy Seafood Cooking and Happy Easter!

Mich xx

Words Information sourced from Wikipedia and Taronga Foundation.

Hot Cross Bun

Tradition says that these sweet spiced buns were once made from leftover leavened dough used to make the christian communion wafer to which they added dried fruit and marked with a cross as a symbol of the crucifixion and only eaten on Good Friday.


Now days Hot Cross Buns are a sweet, glazed bread like bun made in many different flavours such spice, spice and fruit or chocolate and sold in most supermarkets, cafes, bakeries all over the world leading up to Easter and over the Easter Weekend. They are a delicious treat served warmed and spread with butter and are best eaten with your loved ones and a cuppa tea!

I must admit that i have been sampling Hot Cross Buns allover Sydney these past few weeks and even today i had a bun for my morning tea which i thoroughly enjoyed. However to me the most pleasurable way to enjoy a Hot Cross Bun is to make a batch of buns from scratch to share with family and friends as they visit for Easter. Find a recipe your like then create it your own maybe by adding in a little extra spice or a little more chocolate and then once you have mastered the recipe have this as your family favourite tradition to make each Easter Holidays to share with everyone.

Happy Cooking and Happy Easter!

Mich xx

Easter Week

What does Easter mean to you ?

Are you celebrating for religious reasons or enjoying the abundance and overload of chocolate eggs in food stores and the buzz of the community around the holidays this week or all of the above ?

For me as a Catholic follower Easter is about the celebration of the Christian feast of the Three Sacred Days (holy days) culminating in the celebration of our Lord's rising from the dead and the holidays and oh course the food!

What are your plans this Easter ? Are you heading away, attending a mass, having a dinner party?.

I would love to hear your stories, send us a e-mail or post a comment. Mich xx

Michelle's Birthday

Thank you to everyone for all the beautiful birthday wishes. I have had a great birthday this year! A dinner party Saturday night then followed by relaxation treatment at the day spa on Sunday and yesterday i went to the Zoo and was glad to see the 12 day old elephant "Mr Shuffles" (picture left).
Enjoy Life!
Mich xx

'The Cook and The Chef'

My mum and dad gave me as a present the boxed set DVD's of 'The Cook and the Chef -Four Seasons'. These DVD's centre around produce from each season and feature Australian cook Maggie Beer and Executive Chef Simon Bryant. These two are very inspiring, making healthy fresh recipes from mainly using Australian organic local produce. I am currently finishing to watch Summer and now will start on Autumn for recipe ideas. Mich xx Words by Michelle Thrift copyright 2010

'Sex and the City'

OK - who can confess that they were hooked and watched TV series 'Sex and the City' and we can't forget the movie? Over the past couple of weekends i have pulled out my entire collection of S1-S6 and watched every episode of the four thirty something girls experiences of a city full of relationships in the 90's. To me i especially enjoyed following the four girls life journey's as i can relate to many subjects but i also had pleasure in watching the amount of cosmopolitans and martini's that were consumed during the series. Including but not limited too the amount of scenes that centre around food, whether it was eating at a fine dining restaurant or cooking a meal at home or baking muffins, or eating take-out around the TV, or having a picnic in the park, having a piece wedding cake, or a cupcake for afternoon tea, there sure was a lot of food filmed and it was so nice to see that food played such a role within the girls everyday lives. I sure would have loved to be one of the food stylist's for this gig !!

Mich xx

Words by Michelle Thrift copyright 2010

March Season of Autumn

What a special past 16 days we have had with Vancouver Winter Olympics. My brother's family live in Vancouver and have been lucky enough to attend some events - they even won tickets and touched a gold medal!..I spent most of my Sunday with an eye on ice figure skating - how graceful they glide along, i had such joy watching TV yesterday. Well, today is 1 March and for me this is one of my most favourite months of the year as it is both my sisters and mine birthday month. My sister turns 40 on 19 March and I am turning 33 on 22 March just 2 days apart, our preparations are underway for a month of celebrations...This morning i woke up early and went for a walk at drawn and realised that with the start of a new season; March- Autumn - we will be looking for figs, nashi, beans, celery, chestnuts, grapes, leeks, parsnips, pears, plums, sugar snap peas, pumpkins and fennel all at peak taste and quality and just waiting to be cooked with and eaten. Enjoy cooking good food tonight! Words by Michelle Thrift copyright 2010.