The Best Things in Life are Free: e books

from here

 As I have been working on-and-off teaching causally I have lately been looking for resoucres to read and activities to do that don't cost anything for the days that I am at home.  I have found some really amazing resoucres and thought that I would share them with you.  Some and pregnancy related but other might just give you the chance to did up something great that fits in easily with your life.

eBooks

The Book Depository

I have found that you can get free eBooks from numerous sources but as I do not have a Kindle or similar I have been unable to download them from Amazon.  Today while browsing The Book Depository, I noticed a free ebook tab.  They have over 11 000 titles to chose from.  Some are unpublished works (as in printed) but others are genuine classics, such as: Pride and Prejudice (Austen), King Lear (Shakespeare), Ethics (Aristotle) and Lady Windermere's Fan (Oscar Wilde).

All you have to do is click on the link and it automatically starts downloading the file as a PDF.  This is such a great resource for students and parents (as there are childrens classics as well: Pinocchio with colour illustrations)

I have purchased books from The Book Depository in the past because they have free shipping to Australia and seem to send out books much faster then when I have ordered them through a book shop (they usually say it will take about 6 weeks).  i have also found The Book Depository to be a great resource for checking if books are out of print (it will say so when you search the title).  I have saved many an hour trawling from book shop to book shop asking after particular things after a quick two minute search on this site.

Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up

Other sites that have free ebooks include:

Project Gutenburg

This site allows you to download to a device, read online or download as a text only document.  There are a lot of resources here for academic studies and it does include dissertations on different subjects such as the education of children.

Flowers Shown to the Children by C. E. Smith 

 

 

 

 

Free Australian e-books

This Australian based site has both local and international titles.  The site is a little hard to navigate through - it is pretty basic and sometimes not very clear - but it does have some great titles.  Books are grouped into sub-headings such as Romance Books and Religion Books.  However not all headings are links to download - some are links to other places where the books appear online.

I would recommended this website if you are looking for an original text (for example if you are studying Buddhism - there are links to sacred texts and readings on the web) or if you are interested in academic studies - there are links to most online libraries.  there is also a free audio books section.

Menu Plan

Here we go for the next two weeks:

Week 1

Friday
B - Oats with chia and yoghurt
L - Wontons
D - Birthday dinner for little sister - so... yucky Chinese - I like Chinese just not the restaurant we have to go to for every family birthday!

Saturday
B - Baked beans on toast
L - Salad with tuna
D - Leek Tart (Laura Calder recipe from French Food at Home)

Sunday
B - Avocado and tahini on toast (this is my new favourtie)
L - Vegetable Soup
D - Beef Bourguignon (a Guillaume Brahimi recipe via Food Safari)

Monday
B - Oatmeal with chia and yoghurt
L - Leftover veggie soup and toast
D - Chinese chicken wings/tofu and fried rice

Tuesday
B - Baked beans on toast
L - Leftover polenta bake
D - Thai fish cakes (Donna Hay recipe) with cucumber salad

Wednesday
B - Oatmeal with chia and yoghurt
L - Fish cake burger
D - Burritos

Thursday
B - Muesli and yoghurt
L - Miso soup and satay noodles
D - Polenta bake using leftovers from burritos

Week 2

Friday
B - Oatmeal with chia and yoghurt
L - Leftovers
D - Pasta with rocket pesto (based on an Annabel Langbein recipe)

Saturday
B - Tomato and fate pull-apart (from a recipe I tore out of a magazine about 10 years ago!)
L - Miso soup and brown rice
D - Spanakopita (from Food Safari)

Sunday
B - Arabic breakfast (previously my Lebanese breakfast but saw the original again the other day and mine is not really the same as the Jill Dupleix one)
L - leftovers
D - Massaman curry and rice

Monday
B - Avocado and tahini on toast
L - leftovers
D - Masala stuffed potatoes (Christine Mansfield recipe) and pear strudel

Tuesday
B - Oats with chia and yoghurt
L - Cheese and tomato toasties
D - Leftovers

Wednesday
B - Muesli with yoghurt
L - Sushi rice balls (with avocado, cucumber and pickled ginger)
D - Tuna and white bean toasts (another Jill Dupleix)

Thursday
B - peanut butter bread
L - shopping day - lunch out
D - leftovers/frozen meal

Recipe - Blueberry and Buttermilk Muffins

Here is a recipe that came about purely because I wanted to use up some buttermilk that I had left over from making creme fraiche.

I found it on the internet ages ago and wrote it into my cookery notebook so I sadly do not have the source any more but as I have made some changes I am going to claim credit!


Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar (original recipe is 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 orange zested and juiced
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bi-card soda)

Extras
1/4 cup poppy seeds
Nuts
Blueberries
Raspberries
Chocolate Chips

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2.  Line a muffin tray with papers or silicon muffin cases.  I just use a silicon tray because its easiest to wash.
3.  Beat sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla zest and orange juice in a jug, with a fork until well combined.
4.  Mix flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
5.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, one third at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Do not over mix (I still use the same fork).  Fold through any extras (I used blueberries).
6.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  I turn my tray after 6 minutes and change its shelf position as I do not have a fan-forced oven.

 

I love these warm out of the oven but they are also nice cooled.  As there are only two of us in our house, I wait for all of the muffins to cool and then put them in a large zip-lock bag in the freezer.  I zap them for about 30 seconds to reheat (ie. to eat them hot) but you can also let them defrost naturally in the fridge to have later in the day etc.

 

This is one of the only vintage recipe for muffins that I could find.  It is for honey muffins and it comes from The Australian Womens Weekly and it is titled Step-by-Step Cookery by Marguerite Patten in conjunction with Leila Howard. I cannot find a date of publication but judge it to be 60's by the prop-styling inside.

 

Inspiration for a Tuesday (as yesterday was public holiday!)

Amazing blueberry and buttermilk muffins

Lately I have been doing a lot of reading online.  I find this unusual for me, because usually once I start reading a good book I do not want to do anything until I have finished it (and get annoyed when I am interruppted).

Most of my online reading concerns food.  What a surprise!  But, it has mainly been about sugar.  Now that I am pregnant you think that I would want to eat the best possible foods that I could for the little one etc.  I would like to have that philospophy but I just don't seem to be able to pull it off.  While pregnant so far I have had McDonalds, too much cheese and chips, chocolate, not enough vegetables and too much tonic water.  The blogs that I have been reading are mostly about giving up sugar, not how wonderful it is.  I thought that I didn't eat that much sugar as it is, but I guess I do when you look at the above list.

Raspberry, Coconut and Lime Friands

Sarah Wilson's blog, which I think I have mentioned before is the place where she advocates a pretty-much paleo diet (for people with her health issues).  I love reading about all of the natural therapies and alternate treatments that she explores on her blog but I cannot agree with the non-vegetarian thing.  Normally blogs that feature meat recipes don't bother me.  I cook meat for my husband and handle it for the cat, and I am totally open to my child deciding what they would like to eat.  It seems that there is an attitude on there and more often in the comments section - that most people are vegetarian because it is a health choice.  For me, it is not a health choice but because I love animals too much. 

Anyway, Sarah's blog features her e-book How to Quit Sugar.  I haven't bought the book, mostly because of some delusion that I do not need help in identifying what foods have sugar in them, but also because ... well this sounds really childish.. I don't like her.  And I could be a bit cheap!  So here is a link to Sarah blog and some of the others that I have been reading that link to quitting sugar and generally being healthier. 

Sarah Wilson Blog
http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/



Scandi Foodie
A beautiful blog about food - mainly vegetarian/vegan
http://scandifoodie.blogspot.com.au/

Bread and Butter Pudding

Path to Wellness
A website dedicated to wellness written by a nutrionist
http://pathtowellness.com.au/category/blog/




Eat Your Freaking Vegetables
A personal blog by a nutrionist with lots of great recipes
http://eatyourfreakingvegetables.blogspot.com.au/


Crash Test Mummy
A blog with reviews about trying new things.  Find sugar-related posts under Sugar Crash.
http://www.crashtestmummy.com.au/

A recipe and a Day Out

I have just loaded all of my photos on to the computer and realise I have so much to blog about so this is a two-in-one.  First a recipe.  On my honeymoon in New Zealand I, and my husband, fell in love with creme fraiche.  Food in NZ is very good and feels cheaper than Australia (it prabobaly is) so we ate way too much creme friache in 10 days.

Imagine my delight when watching Annabel Langbein's show and she made it!  And it was easy - well it looked easy.  I have two of Annabel's cookbooks but the recipe was not in there so I found it on a NZ TV website.  Here is the link.

I have tried to make yoghurt before without my yoghurt maker and failed so I was a little apprehensive that it could be so easy - but like the rest of Annabel's recipes it was as easy as she says.  You only need two ingredients: cream and buttermilk.

Here are my pics from my attempt:

 

The Vodka bottle I have saved from awhile ago - don't stress I haven't been drinking.

 

This is what it looked like straight away and only a tiny bit thicker when I put it into the fridge but after 24 hours chilling it was much thicker - like the stuff you can buy in the shop (but with no gelatine - yea cows).  I have used it instead of cream on pikelets, in a risotto and in a delicious potato torte recipe from Laura Calder.  I think that the total cost of the creme fraiche (about 2 cups) was around $4 - and I had cream and so much buttermilk left over.  Considering last time I priced it was near $7 I am ecstatic with the result.  Thank you Annabel!

 

And I can't help but to add this photo from our honeymoon of the area where Annabel has her "cabin"

When I am not called into work I don't tend to leave the house.  Is that shocking?  I don't know - we have a big house and a garden so I am usually cleaning or gardening or reading etc.  So when my husband has a day off and I am not called in to work I plead with him to take us for a drive.  It is my job to see to the provisions (usually a thermos of tea and some sandwiches and tim-tams).  This time we went to Soldiers Beach with is quite a famous surfing beach in our area.  In the background is Norah Head Lighthouse - I think you can actually stay there. Here are some photos:

 

 This is a close a we are getting to an outfit post as I had no make-up on and didn't feel great.  I am wearing my everyday clothes apart from the jumper - which rather than being maternity is just a lrage size - and it is so lovely and warm.