from somewhere in my imagination

Spinach & Pumpkin Cannelloni #AllBran

Earlier in the month Kellogg's released All Bran Fibre Toppers, along with a group of other bloggers I was invited to try out a box and see what recipes I could create with it...the carrot being an opportunity to win sponsorship for BlogHer '12, it's in New York and we all know how I feel about NYC!

We have spent the last few weeks testing Fibre Toppers out with some good result.

Our kidlets love yoghurt but we have a rule that they are not allowed to eat just yoghurt for breakfast, they have to have it with cereal...usually that cereal is muesli and we end up with half eaten bowls.  We all tried Fibre Toppers on yoghurt with 100% positive results, they are kind of light and crunchy and really are perfect with a bowl of fruit and yoghurt in the morning.  A 25g serve of fibre toppers also provides around a third of the reccomended daily adult intake of fibre.  Winner.

This was actually my dessert sometime last week, greek yoghurt teamed with cinnamon & vanilla stewed nectarines finished off with Fibre Toppers.

Next Lauren, Jess and I tried them sprinkled on a salad.  They are great for adding to a salad to add a crunchy element without the calories you would get from something like nuts. 

Chicken + Nectarines + Baby Spinach + Snow Peas finished with a serve of Fibre Toppers and splash of balsamic vinegar and dinner was served.

The Fibre Toppers are a little on the sweet side so they are better suited to savoury dishes with slightly sweet undertones...if that makes any sense at all?  For my 'main' dish I decided to incorporate the fibre toppers into a vegetarian cannelloni.  The result was delish, Sebastian gobbled it up without even commenting on the fact it was choc full of vegies.  Jasmine was a little suspicious (as is the nature of a two year old) but the rest of us cleared our plates.

Spinach & Pumpkin Cannelloni - Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients

500g Japanese pumpkin

250g Frozen spinach, thawed

250g Ricotta

1 Egg

1 Bunch Spring Onions, cleaned and chopped

1 packet 12 fresh Cannelloni sheets

700mL bottle tomato passata

1Tbs Olive Oil

1 Cup finely grated parmasen chees

1 Cup + 1/2 Cup All Bran Fibre Toppers

Method

Peel and dice the pumpkin into 1" dice, pop it into a baking tray with the olive oil and plenty of freshly ground pepper.  Roast at 180C until soft, check after 30 mins leaving a little longer to make sure it is nice and mushy if neccesary.

In a large bowl mix together the roasted pumpkin, spinach, spring onions and ricotta until well combined.  Add the egg and 1 cup of fibre toppers and mix until just incorporated.

Pour about 1/3 of the bottle of passata into the base of a large baking dish, spreading it out to cover.

Roll about 2 large tablespoons of the mixture into each of the cannelloni sheets and place them with the join facing down into the baking dish.  Repeat until all the sheets have been used.

Pour the remaining passata over the cannelloni and top with the parmasen cheese and Fibre Toppers.

Bake at 180C about 25-30mins until the top is golden and the sauce is bubbling.

Seriously Good.  Love that crunch factor that the Fibre Toppers give it...along with the knowledge there is some extra of that all important fibre in there for us!

There are plenty of other bloggers who have been posting their recipes using All Bran Fibre Toppers, check out the Twitter #AllBran hashtag for lots of great ideas!  One of my personal favourites would have to be Glow's Pistachio Dukkah Chicken Schnitzel...seriously genius (and I love that she spells schnitzel properly, winner)!

I've got plenty more ideas on how to incorporate the fibre toppers into our meals...but I'm going to have to tuck them away for another day...I somehow managed to spend about 4 hours on my feet in the kitchen today and, whilst I'm pretty organised for meals and lunchboxes this week, I'm pretty knackered!

Tatum xx

30-ish Years Later

Ever since J was born she has been a snotty, sinusey kinda kiddo.  She's the first one to have her nose start running whenever the weather gets a bit changeable and once it starts running it can be hard to stop.

She's always been quite a 'heavy breather' at night but about 6-9 months ago she started snoring...and I don't mean a little bit of snoring...I mean snoring like you might imagine a big hairy biker would snore.

Watching her sleeping at night, one of my favourite quiet things to do from time to time, it became evident that she was probably having apnoeas.  There is a history of it in Steven's family.  It happens to him as well, it's not uncommon for me to poke him when I reading when it has taken him to long to breath.  He needs to get that sorted out.

Anyway, prompted by the trucker like snoring I got a referral to an Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) specialist with a suspicion that our little princess needed her adenoids removed to stop her snoring like anything but.

Knowing we were there about her snoring our ENT took one look at her (no open up and say ahh), asked 2 questions...is she a snotty kid? and does she have apnoeas?  Told me her tonsils were enormous so lets take care of them and her adenoids at the earliest convenience.

Turns out that our GP hadn't referred us to just any ENT, he'd referred us to a leader in the field.  He talked about some new method he uses and apologised that J would have to overnight due to her weight because if she weighed 15kg it would only be day surgery.

Day surgery?  Hello, when did a tonsillectomy become day surgery?

Nearly 30 years ago I had my tonsils removed.  That was me on my 'tonsil day'.  When I had my tonsils removed when I was 5, as for Steven when he wa 8, having your tonsils removed meant really having them removed. 

It meant at least 5 nights in hospital and a diet of jelly, ice cream and other soft foods until you had to eat that dry toast before you were allowed to go home.

Apparently in 2012 having your tonsils taken care of doesn't necessarily mean having them removed as such.

Today Jasmine's tonsillectomy was performed using radiofrequency Coblation.  Yep, I'd never heard of it before either.

Most of all what it means is that there has been no cutting and no blood.  She went into surgery around 8am, it's quite freaky holding your child in your arms while the anaesthetist knocks them out...and by 10.30am she was sitting up in bed scoffing vegemite toast.  I kid you not.

Every single person who saw her in that blue hat commented on how cute or adorable she was and most of them also mentioned her big blue eyes.  Little charmer.

We are spending the night in hospital tonight because J is a little lightweight at only 13.5kg and protocol says that she needs to be monitored overnight.  It's kind of funny because she has been an absolute trooper throughout the day...she complained she wanted to go home, wants to get rid of the 'thing' in/on her arm, ate lots and snuggled on the bed with me.

I had the pleasure of spending pretty much the entire day with my baby girl and that included her stroking my face as I lay with her while she fell asleep tonight.

It's only the second time one of the kids have been admitted to hospital and for that I feel very lucky.  The other time it was for Charlotte to have dental surgery.

I think it's fair to say I am truly amazed by how much the stock standard tonsillectomy has changed...the method, the management and recovery times.  Sure, our ENT is using a new method, it's not how most doctors do it but irrespective of that it is still only day surgery.

Does modern medicine amaze you as much as it does me?

Wish me a half decent night sleep...our room is surrounded my babies and I know I'll wake up to them crying...but I certainly feel for their mums more than I do myself because it's just been tonsils and adenoids for us.

Tatum xx

PS  I've been told that the comments on here can be a bit user unfriendly, if you have tried to comment but typepad hasn't let you could you do me a favour and let me know on facebook or by sending me an email...I've long suspected that the commenting was painful and want to fix it if it's broken :)

Rediscover

Each year now for about as long as I have been scrapbooking Ali Edwards has selected and lived her way through each year with a focus on One Little Word.  She has prompted many thousands around the world to follow suit and choose their annual word to live by.

For the last couple of years I have chosen a word.  Last year it was move forward.  I didn't write about it but when I look back I lived it.  2011 saw much forward momentum in my life.

2012 for me is all about rediscover.

I wasn't planning on choosing a word for myself this year but in amongst all my thoughts over the past few months it seems to have found me.  I think it popped into my head one day a few weeks ago when I was vacuuming, or something equally mundane.

There are so many things I am looking forward to rediscovering this year.

From a professional role to my favourite crafts. 

My home town.  T

he simple joy of living near my family and being able to see my mum or one of my sisters every.single.day. 

Strength and endurance. 

Fresh food, after so many years living in remote locations the availability, abundance and choice of fresh food is a constant source of inspiration. 

Old friends (and new).

Passion (and that probably doesn't mean what you think it does ;) ...passion in all I do is something that has always been important to me)

I want to spend 2012 with my eyes and mind wide open.

I have some big goals for the year.  I am still very much in the stage where I am trying to find acceptance within myself that I can actually achieve them.

2012, bring it on.

Have you chosen a word to live by for 2012?

Tatum xx