Squildy

Squ . il. dy /Skwilˌdɪ/ Abstract Noun 1. Seeing the brighter side 2. The belief that the universe is full of goodness, you just have to see it. No matter how shitty life can get, there is always something you can do to make it better - this is a collection of tried-and-tested remedies of the sort

[glamour]

Great people.

Via @amaheris on Instagram

[cambridgedom]

William and Kate: 2005 - 2015 (insp.)

[squildy2095]

The greats

[glamour]

Let loose, it’s the weekend!

Via @charmandchain on Instagram

[squildy2095]

Sampling What’s in Season – March

March is as good as gone and despite all this rainy, muggy weather we’ve had in Sydney there have been a few chillier days sneaking in. We’re heading into the middle of Autumn now meaning temperatures are going to slowly creep further south on thermometers. It’s almost time to start migrating your jeans and light jumpers out from the back of the wardrobe. Sigh. 

Some folks sweat lots and get frizzy hair it the hot, humid months. They’re the ones who actually look forward to the sign of colder months. Most people however, don’t want summer to ever end. It’s fresh berries, thongs and frozen cocktail weather, what’s not to like?! One good thing that almost everyone looks forward to though, is the food that comes into abundance in colder climates. Think hot roast dinners, soups, homemade pies and hot chocolates. Yum.

For this month’s seasonal recipe I made the most of a few standout seasonal ingredients, namely almonds, pumpkin, kale and leeks and whipped up a healthy, warm autumn tart!

P.s. my first attempt (last photo above) wasn’t exactly a success. The base was crumbly and slightly burnt and the filling was waaaayyyyy too garlicky! I made some adjustments, paid better attention and the result was nothing short of delicious, definitely worth it.

Check it out, it’s pretty delicious! 

Rosemary, Leek, Pumpkin and Kale Tart with an Almond Crust Adapted from Petite Kitchen

Ingredients:

Tart base

2 1/2 cups of ground almonds (Use almond meal here for faster results or if you have a bunch of almonds already at home, whizz them up gooood in your food processor)

1/4 cup olive oil

¼ cup good-quality unsalted butter (can use all oil if you like, but I’m a BIG fan of butter and sneak it in whenever I can)

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp tap water

Tart filling

1 whole medium sized butternut pumpkin, cut in to chunks, and cooked (roasted or steamed)

Leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary

½ a bunch of kale

2 cloves of garlic, each clove crushed and peeled

1 leek (white end only)

50g butter

a large and generous handful of grated parmesan

salt and pepper to taste 

Cooking:

Preheat the Oven to 180°C In a large bowl, combine the ground almond, oil, butter, salt, and water. Mix the mixture until thoroughly combined. Press the dough evenly in to a greased tart pan using your clean fingers.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until slightly browned (be careful not to over cook the crust, you don’t want to burn it. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.  

While the tart is cooling, prepare the filling. Sautee your leeks until slightly softened. In a food processor, add the pumpkin, garlic, rosemary, kale, softened leeks, butter and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whizz until pureed, check the seasonings and adjust if need be.

Spoon the filling in to the pastry tart, and smooth out evenly. Sprinkle with the grated parmesan. Put back in to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or until cheese browns on the top.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly, before removing from the pan. 

Happy tarting!

Speak soon

Xx

[squildy2095]

Sampling What’s in Season – February 

“Eating and cooking with seasonal ingredients is good for you” – we’ve all heard it before. Know why? Different fruit and veggies thrive in certain months or seasons throughout the year. And when fruit and veggies are thriving it means two things: they are in abundance and they have a higher nutritional value. We then have the opportunity to create and consume fresher, tastier meals while saving precious dollars. Thank you mother nature.

To help you capitalise on this wonderfully natural phenomenon, I’m going to give you what you need. At the beginning of every month, with my trusty ‘SBS 2014 Foodie Diary’ on hand, I’ll give you a nice little table of what fruit and veggies are in season for the month + a healthy seasonal recipe to get your kitchen-creative juices flowing.

On the weekend, I grabbed a few gorgeously ripe, golden peaches from Harris Farm and whipped up a whole food Peach Crumble Cake for my man’s sister’s birthday.

Check it out, it’s pretty simple! 

Peach Crumble Cake Adapted from SBS 2014 Foodie Diary

Ingredients:

Cake

180g good quality butter softened

1/3 cup rice malt syrup

½ cup panela

2 eggs

250g spelt flour

¼ cup almond milk

3 ripe peaches (any variety)

Crumble

50g spelt flour

60g good quality butter

1/3 cup panela

½ cup flaked almonds

1tsp cinnamon

Cooking:

Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius. 

For the cake, cream butter, rice malt syrup and panela until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one by one, mixing well after each. Add spelt flour and almond milk and beat until combined. Spoon the mix in to the prepared tin and arrange the peaches on top of the cake.

For the crumble, combine spelt flour, butter, panela and cinnamon until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir through the flaked almonds then sprinkle the mixture over the cake.

Bake for 45-55mins, testing the cake with a skewer after 45 mins. Allow to cool before serving.

Happy eating and cooking!

Speak soon

Xx

[squildy2095]

My first Feb-Fast & 30-day plank challenge

This post is dedicated to my body.

Dear Body,

With Australia’s major summer festivities behind us it’s time to make it up to you. I’ve not been kind to you this last month, I’m sorry.  My wonderful vessel, you have heroically seen me through (among other debaucherous summer nights) a rather large Christmas, a 48-hour non-stop New Years celebration and a truly boozy Australia Day.  I thank you and I forgive you for the 3- week cold you put me through following New Years. I promise I’ll make it up to you starting three days ago.

I’m going to make it up to you with two significant gestures:

I will cease to feed you alcoholic beverages for 26 ½ days (aka participate in Feb-Fast). We’ve starting a week early so we can celebrate appropriately with our friend Johnny Broadfoot for his 30th birthday festivities on Feb 22nd.

 I will give you more and more strength everyday through participating in 30 Day Fitness Challenges’ ‘30 day Plank Challenge’.

Why Feb-Fast? Because we want to shed a few kilos, we could do with saving the extra cash and imagine 26 ½ days of NO hangovers! Need I say more? Yes, there will no doubt be some pesty peer-pressure-ers but we have to be strong together. 

Why the plank? Because it’s good for us. We’ll (hopefully) have better abs, a stronger core and in-turn a well-supported back to protect us from further expensive trips to the osteo. 

And don’t you forget about the other gestures I’ve already starting showing my respect for you with. I have already stopped making us inhale those smelly cigarettes for nearly a month now AND I’ve kept up our weekly yoga classes as well as our (almost) daily seaside walks.

Get excited. You’re welcome.

Sincerely, Matilda

Wish me luck people!

Speak soon

xx

[hannahvardit]

i love tea i love tea

[squildy2095]

I know the feeling

[squildy2095]

Meat-free Mondays take two – Petite Kitchen’s Braised Lentils

Finally some vego success! Meat-Free Monday’s you have to be my easiest resolution. Especially when Petite Kitchen exists. Eleanor [culinary goddess behind Petite Kitchen] creates and shares the most wonderful recipes on her blog, all of which exchange sugar and grains for whole, natural and unprocessed [and tasty] alternatives.

If you like good food, pretty photos of food and easy, healthy, DIY recipes, you need to visit Petite Kitchen. I’ve literally spent hours at a time reading through her posts and flagging recipes I want to make. It was essentially through this ‘procrastinator-y’ activity that I stumbled upon Eleanor’s mouth-watering Simple Braised Lentils in Rich Tomato and Preserved Lemon Sauce – a perfect Meat-Free Monday recipe!

These lentils are gorgeously simple to throw together and are über-tasty. I whipped them up for dinner last night with half a fresh roasted eggplant and was so impressed with myself. I highly recommend you make some for yourself and loved ones at home you’ll be the talk of the table!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter or olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

a large handful of fresh thyme, roughly chopped

1 tbsp preserved lemon, finely sliced

1 can of lentils, drained and rinsed

2 cans chopped tinned tomatoes

a large handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped

1 large eggplant, topped and tailed and cut in half lengthways

grated parmesan to serve

sea salt

pepper

Cook

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Place the eggplant halves flesh side up in a small roasting dish or tin. Sprinkle with a good lug of olive oil, salt and pepper and bake until flesh is soft.

Meanwhile, melt the butter or olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and thyme, then cook while stirring, until soft and slightly browned.

Add the preserved lemon, lentils, and tomatoes then bring to a soft simmer. Cook for a further twenty minutes, or until thick and pulpy.

Stir in the basil, then season generously with sea salt and pepper.

Serve with grated parmesan (I like a decent mound), a sprinkling of basil and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Serves 2

*gluten, grain, wheat, and meat free!

Eleanor’s take on cooking is inspiring and I have to share it with you: “When preparing food, it doesn't have to be difficult, stressful or hard. I believe it's all about using simple flavours and ingredients that work fantastically together.” Too right I say.

Speak soon

xx

[squildy2095]

Making myself accountable for my New Year’s Resolutions + my first vego meal attempt of the year…  

Happy New Year everyone and what a great year it’s shaping up to be. I know I’m a little late but it’s taken me a good week to recover from the debaucheries of New Year’s Eve and Day…

Not everyone is into the whole ‘making resolutions’ thing, myself included usually, but this year is different. I have a new career to find and build, a few self-improvements to make and Queen Procrastination over here is going to need some guidance.

In saying that, my big picture goal is to become the best version of myself. I basically want to be a happier, healthier and more successful me. Easier said than done I know. 

Given this is quite the vague goliath goal I came up a short list of 7 mini-goals to help me attain the big one:

Build and eat from my very own veggie garden at home

Quit smoking (so far so good – boom!)

Secure a casual job in the food industry – preferably at a delectable little deli somewhere close to home

Eat more fish and veggies – I’m starting Meat-Free Mondays and Fish Fridays

Complete another writing course

Go to yoga every week that the studio is open.

Expand and improve my blog

On my first Meat-Free Monday, I decided to tackle making fresh pea and mint croquettes (as seen in the 2014 SBS Foodie Diary). To sum the experience up for you, it took me a good 2 ½ hours to make them, my whole kitchen was a mess and they weren’t even that good. But, I’m not going to let my early failure dampen my determination! Onwards and upwards.

Speak soon

xx

[theavirginsbeauty]

[squildy2095]

Getting comfy with a cuppa an a good read - great times!

[peoplemag]

"I love getting older. It’s a part of life. If you’re not aging, you’re dead!"

- Cameron Diaz, who shares her knowledge on nutrition and fitness in The Body Book, in this week’s PEOPLE

[squildy2095]

My idol

[mickeykayyy]

[katbot]

“Start on January 1st with an empty jar. Throughout the year write the good things that happened to you on little pieces of paper. On December 31st, open the jar and read all the amazing things that happened to you that year.”

I’m reblogging this again, to remind people that reblogged this earlier in the year with the “I’M GOING TO DO THIS” comments. Now, here it is. I’m reminding you. You said you would do this. Now join me and start this Tuesday.

[squildy2095]

Keen to tackle this cute activity in 2014!

[squildy2095]

Killing time on a budget with kale 

Since leaving the 9-5 corporate world and becoming a freelance writer I’ve been blessed with lots of glorious free time. When I’m not working I like to enjoy amazing sleep-ins, sunny afternoons in the backyard with a good book, midday yoga classes and blogging down at El Beau Room with a generous glass of red or two among other things of course.  

Sounds perfect, yes? It totally is until one of your invoices is late being paid and you suddenly find yourself down to your last $6.75. Oops…I probably should have waited for the funds to hit my account before indulging in that delicious mani-pedi last week…

Despite being incredibly low on funds until tomorrow or Thursday I didn’t just want to sit around home all day so I devised a morning adventure. I threw on my walking gear and with my iPhone and earphones in hand I set off for a long walk from Manly to Curl Curl and back. This, by the way, is a beautiful walk if you’re ever in the area and are up for moving your butt! It’s about a 90-minute round-trip along Manly, Freshy and the tip of South Curly and includes flat parts, stairs, hills and a stunning boardwalk over the rocks.

My walk was a great start to the day but it left me terribly hungry. I started picturing what I had to work with at home for lunch. I decided on a boiled egg, a small can of Sirena tuna (in olive oil and chilli) and some braised kale (I used the vego option of Sarah Wilson’s recipe). Super-healthy and tasty lunch and all I had to pick-up were some pine nuts! Bargain. 

What are your go-to activities or recipes when you’re running low on funds? I quite regularly find myself in this situation so would love some ideas!

[gastrogirl]

My Blueprint Cleanse Experience!

Just in case this is not something people want to read on their dash, I’m going to put it under the cut. Hope you get some helpful information!

Read More

[squildy2095]

Loved reading this review. It's refreshing to hear a 'real' person's experience with one of these juice cleanses! I might even give one a whirl myself...maybe

[squildy2095]

The salad of dreams

Yesterday my bestie sent me a salad recipe she thought I’d like. She was right but until I woke up this morning I didn’t realise how much. I woke up with that salad on my mind. I had been dreaming of it. So what better to do with my free Friday afternoon than jump in the kitchen and make my dreams come true! 

The recipe is for a grilled chicken, spiced fig, rocket and (my favourite) buffalo mozzarella salad with a sticky red wine and balsamic reduction. Yes.

The recipe calls for chicken breasts but I switched them up for thighs because my man isn’t a [chicken] breast man. I imagine the salad is equally delicious either way though. I also love always smothering my meat in at least one exotic spice. My spice of choice today? Cumin.

Do your self a favour and get into it this weekend. 

Serves 4 (or halve everything for 2)

4 x chicken breasts, skin on

1 tbsp olive oil

2 balls buffalo mozzarella

(You can substitute bocconcini, but you’d be cutting out the magical part of the salad i.e. don’t do it unless you’re desperate)

4 slices good quality prosciutto

2 cups rocket leaves, washed and dried

Spiced figs

1 cup caster sugar

1 ½ cups dry red wine

½ cup balsamic vinegar

1 cinnamon quill

6 cardomom pods

6 whole black peppercorns

2 star anise

2 cm piece ginger, thinly sliced

4 lemon slices

8 fresh figs, washed and dried

For the figs, place all ingredients except figs in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then add figs and simmer for a further 3 minutes or until figs soften slightly. Remove figs with a slotted spoon and set aside. Simmer the remaining liquid for about 4-5 minutes until reduced to 1 cup. Remove from heat, return figs to the pan and allow to cool. (You can make the figs up to 2 days in advance).

Preheat oven to 180°C. Season chicken with a generous amount of salt, cracked pepper and cumin. 

Heat oil in an ovenproof pan (if you have one) over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, cook the chicken skin side down first) for about 4 minutes each side or until nice and golden. Transfer the chicken to the oven for about 5 minutes or until it’s cooked through. Once cooked through, remove it from the oven and let rest while you throw the rest of the salad together.

Remove figs from the sticky reduction and cut in half. Arrange figs, torn buffalo, prosciutto and rocket on a serving platter. Slice the chicken into strips and place on top of the salad. Drizzle with some of the spiced fig syrup, then season and tuck in!

Any other super salad suggestions for me to try?

[gastrogirl]

baked brie with blackberry compote.

[squildy2095]

Oh dear god!

[ma-demoiselle-cherie]

[squildy2095]

@joelbutler