Yummy yummy chocolate balls

One of the things I love about my Thermomix is it gives you the ability to whip up sweet treats really really quickly. I can, as I did this morning, whip up in a few minutes a wholesome sugar free treat for Lily's lunchbox that beats hands down any mass produced muesli or fruit bar.

We call them chocolate balls....and they are really good.



There's lots of recipes for these types of balls but most of them contain nuts, which for school lunch boxes is a big no-no. So I've played around with a few ingredients and found that a mix of dried apricots and millet is a fabulous substitute for milled almonds, and it has a similar texture.

First up throw in the TMX:
130g dried apricots (we use organic sulphur free ones)
20g of millet (you can substitute with the same amount of millet flour)

Grind for 10 seconds on speed 8.

Then add:
120g dates
20-25g raw cacao powder (I love the Loving Earth brand)
10-15g of coconut oil
35g shredded coconut
Splash of vanilla essence

Mix again for 30 seconds on speed 6.

It'll look a little something like this:




Roll into balls and pop in the fridge, keeping an eye on them to make sure this doesn't happen!




I use all organic ingredients where possible, and the majority of these items can be found in Safeway. If you don't have access to a good health food store that stocks preservative free dried fruit (and many don't!), Safeway does have an excellent range of organic dried fruits and nuts. You can also find coconut oil there in the Asian/Indian food section.

You can substitute the cacao powder with cocoa powder, but I much prefer cacao powder. Raw cacao powder isn't heat treated like cocoa is and retains all of its antioxidants. It's also a great source of magnesium.

I buy my raw cacao powder in 1kg bags from Loving Earth. I also prefer their coconut oil too.

If you do substitute with cocoa powder, I'd suggest an organic and fair-trade Dutch-processed cocoa powder, such as the Green and Blacks. Dutch-processed cocoa Is darker and less bitter and acidic than the stuff from the supermarket. It's a vastly superior taste.

I use cacao powder for raw foods such as these balls and my raw chocolate (yep, we make raw chocolate in the TMX!) and use the G&B cocoa powder for baked goods.

These are so super easy to make. I often get the kids to make them. There's a great maths lesson in weighing the ingredients into the TMX, selecting the right time and speed. And then they roll them together!

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today

Today I'm still living a crazy sort of limbo land in my own home existence. I'm not quite game to completely unpack as we still need the painter to go through and I don't want to have to move everything again! Hurry up painter!!

Today I've spent far more time at the local swimming centre than anyone should have to as a non-swimming attendant.

Today I was so proud of my rainbow girl as she pushed herself beyond what I thought was her limit.

Today I had to bribe one child to leave the swimming pool.

Today I was feeling the frustration of not being able to find anything to wear as the contents of my wardrobe are piled on Toby's bed with a blanket over the top (he doesn't sleep in it anyway).

Today my clothes are now all over the floor of Toby's room as he pushed them off so he could dive in them.

Today we stopped to make daisy chains on the way home from school.




Today I bought a new Blythe doll.

Today I knit about 4 rounds, that is all.

Tonight I just need chocolate and chai and bed.

childhood knit

Do you have fond memories of childhood woollies?
Were you dressed in mummy or granny made knits?

My mum is a fabulous knitter, and some of my favourite childhood memories are all tied up with some of the fabulous knits and outfits she'd dress us in. My absolute favourite was my velvet maroon knickerbockers and my cream and maroon fair isle jumper. I felt so special and flash when I wore that outfit.

This cardie is the only one of my kiddie knits I have. It was my brownie cardie, and would you believe I still have my brownie dress!!

I think this yellow cardie started my love for yellow yarn. In fact, the first actual person sized garment I knit was a humunguous cabled yellow cardie when i was 14.

I still have that cardie too.

So what was your favourite. Do you still have any of them?


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An old hat

Tonight I'm sitting in this weird space that used to be my lounge room but there's no flooring, and none of my belongings. The house has that empty echoey feel about it...it seems really big, although it's not. Our bedroom, also empty except our mattress, however, seems really small. Quite bizarre!

This whole semi-moving process really made me feel for my sister, the eternal transient, who has moved houses more often than anybody I know I suspect. She's old hat at it now and has it down to a fine art, which is no mean feat with four kids.

So anyway, while I rattle around our little echolalia, here's a couple of photos of an old hat I took up at the block.




It's nice to find something you've knit years ago, particularly on the heads on such cute little ones. I knit this hat way way way pre-kids, around the year 2000 I'd guess.




I remember working the crown using dpns. And I love how even my tension was for the colourwork, trust me,this has never been blocked!




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The design process

I'm still blogging from on the road, we'll be home tomorrow but the bad news is that our floors won't be finished... A hold up in supplies means they'll be laid on Monday.

Anyway, I thought I might spend some time in October blogging about my design process, as I had a few questions about that. Luckily, while up at the block I came up with a new design. Yippee!!!

I've been pondering a wee little boy's cardigan for awhile, I've been dreaming about a circular yoke with colourwork be it stripes, fair isle or something. But I just hadn't quite landed on it. Just waiting for the perfect inspiration. And then it struck.




I'm sort of cheating by showing you what it will look like when finished...sort of.
Luckily I'd taken away five balls of Skeinz vintage that the lovely Maree sent me last year. I've been wanting to use these for ages, waiting for the perfect project, the perfect inspiration.




With the idea bubbling and perfect stitch pattern found, I set about swatching to see if it would work. I swatched the stitch pattern in the colours I wanted, threw in an increase row to see how it would fare. Pleased with the result, I added the rib edging to mimic the neckband and buttonband.

All this gets carried out with my trusty visual diary in hand, notes being scrawled around my original sketch to remind of the best increase, any changes to the swatch I need to make, or just general thoughts about the emerging pattern.




I sat with this all day. Pinned it on the boy to contemplate it. I do so like it. I do so love this colour combination, it reminds me of something I would expect to see knit in Shetland yarns.

What I really love about this stitch pattern is it looks fancy, it looks complicated but it is deliciously simple!

I am so pleased I loaded Numbers onto my iPad before we left. I spent yesterday evening grading the whole size range into a spread sheet, which means all I need now to do is order some more yarn, knit the sample and convert the spread sheet into the written pattern.




How damn exciting is that!

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The bush block

As we've been forced out of our house, we decided to spend the last few days up at the family bush block near the Grampians.




The kids were absolutely stoked with this, as the bush block affords them a real sense of wild. They get up early and roam through the bush at will, often shoeless and by themselves. It gives them a wonderful experience of responsibility and independence that they wouldn't get elsewhere.




For Toby, sticks is where it's at. He spends the whole time here with one stick or another in his hand. For Lily, her freedom is epitomised by her Pa's Akubra which she dons almost as soon as she gets here.



We took our usual pilgrimage to the local fossicking site today's, a short track through the bush.

There were gates to open and close.




And being Spring, oh so many Wildflowers!




These are my favourite orchids.




The kids love the gem fields and fossick for what can seem like hours in search of that elusive smoky quartz.



This is a great spot for fossicking, as you always, and I mean always, find something! Perfect for the kids.




Even Blythe got into the act and had a bit of a search for some gems.




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The fairies at the bottom of the garden

Yesterday while we were busy packing and clearing most of our house out, the kidlets were busy in the garden. Down the bottom of the garden to be precise.

When I went to investigate this is what I found; three young ladies, Rapunzel, Alice and Snow White, asleep under some silverbeet leaves.





Our parsley patch had been turned into a fairy garden with little houses and seats.




It does seem, however, that the mermaids have moved in instead.




There was even a grand entrance, a runway or walkway, who knows. I think it makes it easier for the fairies to find. And a pond, complete with fish and even a lobster!




But most exciting of all is that, Lily tells me,this morning she found fairy footsteps out there!


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