Yum Yum - Christmas baking!

Kids have been busy this week baking Christmas cookies!

Mixing...(with the pink hat of cooking power, of course)

Kneading...

Shaping...

Rolling...

Wombat Girl got tired of waiting for the rolling pin, so she made her own...

Cutting shapes

Baking...

Mmm - they smell good, don't they?

Whisking...

Meet "Fred" - he's a bit special.

Decorating...

Mmm...icing and sprinkles!

Mmm...chocolate!

Yum.

Yum!

Geez - baking and craft in the space of a week! They'll be giving me my "Mother of the Year Award soon! I think I've mentioned before I sometimes feel like a bit of a homeschool mother fraud - because I don't really do lots of crafty, cooky, vegetable garden, chooky things (just as well I have other redeeming features!). I aspire to - you all inspire me to, but I haven't really got around to it yet. But I'm working on it :-)

I've also been inspired to improve my (and therefore my family's) eating habits. Helena going vegan. Tracey going gluten free. Even though I'm highly unlikely to follow in your footsteps, it does give one pause for thought. What are we putting in our bodies and how much of an impact does it have? 

So as the kilos pile on ever so much easier these days (sigh), I don't plan on going on a diet any time soon, but I do want to eat more mindfully. I stumbled across Clean Eating magazine and it has inspired quite a few delicious dinners. This afternoon, as I sit tiredly after being up all night looking at the moon last night, the storm clouds gathering, it was nice to do some baking of my own. So I share with you Clean Eating's recipe for Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread - the healthy way! Please do take heed of the comments - I used the flaxseed oil as in the magazine and 25 minutes is waaayyy too short (I cooked mine for about 50 minutes - but my oven leaks heat like a sieve). I also added walnuts, because I'm creative in the kitchen like that.

Their attempt...

And mine! I obviously need a food stylist! But it tasted delicious!

Yum yum!