Welcome one and all! Here you will find a place for information and musings on nutrition, health, lifestyle, food, parenting and everything in between. It is my hope that this will be a place where you can turn for a bit of advice without fear of judgement. I am a fully qualified nutritional therapist and iridologist.

Life circumstances, for me, are such that I do not have the time to re-open my practice to clients. However, to keep my brain from going to mush, I am using this space to offer advice. Please feel free to share this space with your own friends!

A wise woman taught me long ago that continually giving without letting yourself receive in return is not conducive to the cyclical nature of energetic exchange. Now, I will not charge anyone a fee for asking questions, as that is not fair. In no way would you get the same attention as a full on face to face consultation. So this is what I ask of you in return - do something nice for someone in need. You can make a donation of your choosing or refer to the list below of causes that I wish to support. Help someone with their groceries. Smile at the homeless guy you would normally avoid eye contact with. Be creative. Tell me about it if you like, I always like to hear about kindness. Let's pay it forward!

Namaste,
Denise

Monday, September 7, 2015

Hide but don't seek!

I know my posts can revolve around feeding picky kids more often than not, but hey - you write what you know, right?  Lasagna has become one of my new favorite hiding grounds.  I would like to say I make it fairly often, but truth is it's a lot of work.  I can't eat wheat noodles (well, I can, but no one wants to be around for the aftermath of that experience) so I have to cook two separate kinds.  I've come to really like the wholegrain spelt Biona lasagna sheets, but whoa - they are a serious pain in the ass to deal with.  So, if like me you have had your non-wheat noodles turn into one big sticky gelatinous mound, here's what I do - first, I get a big pot of water in a full rolling boil.  Then I put no more than two of the lasagna noodles/sheets in at a time, letting them cook until they are al dente.  I have a bowl of cool water standing by.  When they're done, I fish the noodles out with tongs and put them into the cool water bath for a few minutes while I put the next noodles on.  The cooled noodles go onto a plate until I'm ready for them.  I don't shake them off, I purposely leave a bit of water on them to keep them from sticking to the plate/other noodles.  It takes a while and is definitely a lot more effort but it's well worth it in the end.  Especially if you're not a big fan of trying to un-do a Gordian knot of lasagna!

Here's where I take a shortcut to make up for all that noodle effort - while I'm cooking the beef I throw in chopped up leftover veggies.  Some of the ones I've thrown in?  Spinach, beetroot, kale, carrot, peppers (no hot ones), sweet potato, broccoli... the list is endless really, limited only by imagination and what's in the fridge.  Into an oiled baking dish I layer lasagna noodles, a small amount of ricotta cheese, the beef and veg mix, and tomato sauce.  The top layer of noodles gets the last of the sauce and a bit of cheese.  Into the oven until cheese is nice and browned and there ya go.

Warning - beetroot can make the noodles a bit pink.  I got called out on this last time but convinced the boys it was just the tomato sauce.





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