Home made mayonnaise

Ingredients:

1 egg, room temperature
15 ml lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
15ml whey (optional)
Tiny pinch of salt
250ml macadamian nut oil
15 ml white wine vinegar (optional)

Method:

Beat egg, lemon juice, whey and mustard in blender on low for 30 seconds. Add oil slowly, in a steady stream, and watch it emulsify. If you did add the whey, leave the mayonnaise out at room temperature for 5 hours so that the whey is activated. The whey will make your mayonnaise last longer. I add 15ml vinegar when I transfer to a jar - just for added tang. Yum.

A note on whey: Whey is the clear liquid that you get if you strain yoghurt

Low sodium seed loaf

Ingredients: 
1 cup Bran
2 cups Wholewheat flour
1 cup white flour (preferably organic)
70g mixed seeds – pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and chia seeds, poppy seeds - any combination
10g Dry yeast
1 tbsp organic sugar syrup/honey
1 tbsp Molasses, or double the honey
Pinch of Salt
600ml Tepid water (Just warmer than room temp - about a third hot, and two-thirds cool)

Method: 

• Mix the water, yeast, molasses and honey together in a bowl/ small jug.
• Allow the yeast to begin fermentation (+/- 10-15 minutes)
• When the yeast is frothy it is ready to be added to the rest of the ingredients.

Ten of the best #2

Last week's post, Ten of the Best, got quite a lot of attention. A few of you referred to the fact that I would now do this weekly. All because I pointed out that Saturday morning was a good time to catch up on what you missed on social media, and I was being helpful by posting this all in one place. Please be aware that this is not a commitment to do this weekly. But you were so nice, I am doing it again, Just this week. Here's a round up of my favourites. Ten of them:

For those who missed last week - don't forget your back button in your browser. It'll bring you right back here so that you can keep scrolling through all the amazing stuff.


1. We start with something heavy. Let's just say it. SA is not having a good day. Or a good week. Our government's blatant disregard for the rule of law makes us wonder if we have anything left to be remotely proud of. This was a good article from the Daily Telegraph:

SA's long walk to decline

2. Make you want to drink more? Here's the good news - you can, red wine is good for us. Trust me to find the article on the food you know you really want to consume. Click the pic.

3. Yayyay for Taytay. Taylor Swift is my favourite artist. She's

Reducing the Sodium - Read the labels

My previous food blog explains that we eat too much salt, and how much is enough.

So, what do we do about it? Well, there are some foods that are just way too high in sodium, and we should just never eat. Ever. This goes for anything processed, packaged, and any stock powders, soup powders, pasta mixes, etc. Check out the sodium content on the left - it is standard beef stock from Woollies.

That is a massive 6770mg per 100g of sodium. Remember, we are targeting 100mg per 100g. So it is 67 times too much. Granted, you are not going to add 100g of stock powder to your stew. You are going to add 20mg (the serving size), and that has 1354mg of sodium. If you eat a sixth of the stew, that is 225mg, but still. That’s more than half of your meal allowance if you are trying to cut back to 1300mg per day. And that's just the sauce. There is more sodium in the meat, vegetables and other sides. I’d rather have little to no sodium in my stock powder, so that I can have a tiny bit on the potatoes, thank you. The good news is that you can get low sodium versions, or make your own. Far better.

Lamb Korma

This recipe uses a slow cooker. But if you don't have one, just make it on a low heat on the stove. It is so quick to prepare. And then you just leave it to stew. You could prep it in the morning, and come home to turn the heat off 4-6 hours later. We all love it (which cannot be said for all my favourite low salt recipes).

2 tablespoons butter
500g lamb – (more if the bones are in – which is fine)
1 onion - sliced
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 (2cm) piece fresh ginger root, grated, or cut into small pieces
6 cardamon pods, slightly crushed
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon ground cumin
200g plain yoghurt
Freshly ground black pepper
60ml cream
2 tablespoon flaked almonds1 tablespoon freshly chopped coriander 

Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Brown the lamb pieces until golden brown, about 5 minutes per batch. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat into the slow cooker.
Add onion slices to the pan; cook until softened. Stir in garlic, ginger, and for extra zing some fresh chilli. Transfer to slow cooker.
Heat the cardamon pods and crushed coriander seeds in the same pan. Stir in ground coriander, cloves, turmeric and cumin. Stir in the yoghurt. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to slow cooker and mix with lamb and onions. The lamb may not be completely covered, which is fine.Cover and cook on low heat for 4 to 6 hours, or until lamb is tender. Remove bones, if you want to.

Stir in cream and almonds. Serve with naan bread and fresh coriander.

You may also like Homemade beef burgers

More recipes

Ms Conception by Pamela Power

4 out of 5 stars

This story is so familiar and true to life. In a very good way. Those of us who have balanced a career, breastfeeding, young toddlers, all the while worrying about keeping our husbands moderately happy will relate.

I loved the unashamed South-African-ness of it. Too often, I read novels set in this country that are serious and worry too much about being on the right side of the political fence and portraying the correct picture of all the many issues that trouble our country (still). But reading, for me, is an escape, and it was a welcome change to read a story that could have been me, or my neighbor, but so much funnier. Pamela Power nailed the little things, and for me, that made this more absorbing. The relaxed, confident writing style also contributed to my enjoyment.

My Father's Eyes

Do I see these things because I know him, or can you tell just by looking? The picture on the right is of a gentle, wise and loving soul – my father.

What you cannot see from the picture, but I see clearly, every time I think of him, is his eyes. Blue, according to his passport, but often with shades of green that echo mine, and sometimes tinged with fathomless grey. Yet the gorgeous colour is the least important thing to me about his eyes.

My father saw me when I was a little girl. He used those green-gray pearly blues to really see me.  He was an involved dad. He didn’t just see me running in races, swimming in galas or playing in piano eisteddfods. He saw so much more. He saw that everything I did – from trying so hard to do better at sports, at which I was a dismal failure, to dancing in a lilac ballet tutu to being top of my class – was because I wanted him to be proud of me.

We spent many long moments  gazing into each other’s eyes.

Ten of the best

I am on Facebook a lot. Especially recently. When I am scrolling through my feed, I often don't have time to read articles properly, or my connection isn't fast enough to open video clips, or even lots of pictures. Then, when I do have time and speed, I've forgotten what it is I want to see. I know I should "share" to my timeline for later watching, but I don't want to do that - what if it's not great, and I've inflicted it on all my besties?

So, I thought, what about a  collection for when you are sitting in bed on a Saturday morning? Your husband has brought your favourite morning beverage, and the kids are not yet awake to claim their share of slow internet. I call that a happy Saturday.

This is my recent "best of"s - interesting articles, good songs, funny comics and clips that are worth sharing and keeping.

It isn't in any particular order.

And this post has nothing to do with the fact that this week I learned how to post a picture on my blog, so that if you "click on the picture" you go straight to the article. Flipping awesome, isn't it?

So here is the best of the social media feeds I've seen recently...all in one place.

It's a pleasure.

Bev's Best Books

I started this blog to have a place to post my reviews on the books I read, to write about things - running and healthy eating, and just life in general.

I am reading so much, that in order to try to find something you will like, you would need to trawl through my many and varied reviews, in a number of genres. Of course, I could gush over every single thing I read (in fact, members of my book club think I do that far too much) but that seems counter-productive – some have to be better than others, right?

So what I am going to do is post a regular summary page. It won’t go back too far – about three months at the most. I’ll limit the number I recommend at a time to no more than seven – the maximum number of books I could walk home from the library with as a girl, having stolen the whole family’s library cards (well, my mother's, my sister wouldn't let me).

I will sort by genre, and give a very quick summary of why you will like the book. If you are interested, click on the picture of the book to link through to my full review. (I know, I know, how clever am I? Don't tell my daughter how long it took me to get that right. Let's just say longer than it took to write this post. But the links work, I checked every one!) And don't forget to use the "back" button to come right back here when done. 

Oh, and no spoilers. Anywhere.

Chick Lit/ Women’s fiction – a huge genre, I know.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – this is an exceptional book, because it manages to be funny, shocking and clever, all at the same time. I looked for a quote to give you some of the essence:

“Bonnie and her mum are both members of Amnesty International," said Abigail.
"Of course they are," murmured Madeline. This must be how Jennifer Aniston feels, thought Madeline, whenever she hears about Angelina and Brad adopting another orphan or two.” 

A tale of murder and mystery set at a junior school, with heaps of laughter and craziness thrown in.  You can see their faces, hear their voices. It’s like they’re your neighbours. Oooh!

New favourite author – Belinda Bauer

Belinda Bauer is just fabulous (not just cos our names sound similar). She has written quite a few books, but I only discovered her recently. She grew up partly in SA, now lives in Wales. She never set out to be a crime writer, and was most surprised, when her publisher gave her a contract for a second book, the condition was to include a crime. (She wanted to write about an alien abduction.) Her books have murders, or crimes, she says, because those are the plots that best develop her characters, and she can explore all the relationships and human drama. It works. Think Jodi Piccoult with as much angst but more action.

Rubbernecker is about a doctor with a personality disorder, fascinated by death and it's  also about coma patients. It is (I know, because I talked to her when she was in SA recently) Belinda's favourite, and has been nominated for all sorts of awards.

The Shut Eye is my best - it's about a little boy who goes missing, the last trace of him being footprints in drying concrete. Go on, you know you want to.

5 reasons to run in winter

This morning was the third day. Of not running. I woke so early – it was still dark. I had to run. I didn’t want to. Not even flop, drop and hop worked for me today. (That is a routine I learned from a friend on Facebook, it’s brilliant) I had tea. I was reading. Not going to run. So I thought I’d post an encouragement to all of you struggling with the same thing. Five reasons we should run in winter.

We all eat too much in winter. How many different carbs did you have for dinner last night? How much red wine? And what about dessert? If you’re anything like me– the answers to those questions are five, too much and are you really asking that question, please don’t ask me that question. I rest my case - that’s exactly why we should be running – we ate too much last night.

On the way to school, me in my unattractive running gear, no make-up on and looking at the frost on the grass pavement, I moaned about the cold. One of my daughters commented: “So don’t run then. It’s way too cold. Why do you run when it’s cold?” I had to dig deep. Why would anyone run when it’s cold? I thought my answer was pure genius. “I run, I get cold, but then my bath…there is nothing like a warm bath after a run on a cold day. It’s divine.” She rolled her eyes and raised her eyebrows at the same time.