My Chia and Flaxseed sprinkle

There's a Chia and Flaxseed sprinkle I get from Goodies and Grains that I love, but it has sultanas in it. Seeing that I'm sugar free, I've made my own based on theirs, without the sultanas.
It's great for sprinkling on your breakfast, but my favourite way to have it is on yoghurt. You can use activated seeds and nuts, but if you don't have activated ones, try soaking this mixture overnight in a bowl in the fridge to get rid of the phytic acid. I also use Australian grown/organic ingredients when I can.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chia seeds (any colour)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup buckwheat
1/4 cup flaxseed
1/4 cup millet
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/2 cup almonds, chopped coarsely.

Mix altogether and store in an air tight container.

To be honest, I never measure the ingredients. I only did it this morning so I could write up the recipe. Just add the amount of each ingredient that you like.

Yum Yum, enjoy.

Garden update...200kg of produce and counting!

Three years ago I planted a vegie patch. The first year I got 104kg out of my garden and was pretty excited. Last year I got 120kg and was even more excited. Yesterday I picked the last of the tomatoes as well as some oranges and was extremely excited when I weighed the days takings and found that my garden has produced 200kg this year so far (and it's only the middle of September!). I have a set of kitchen scales and I weigh everything I pick so that I can keep a record of how economical my garden is.
I spent the weekend digging out unwanted flowering plants as well as the tomatoes and pumpkins that have died off. I went out and bought the following seedlings: rockmelon, watermelon, corriander, sweet basil, zucchini, tomatoes (4 varieties, one seedling of each...I do it each year), cherry tomato, peas and beans. I had some corn seeds that I got from the Adelaide Royal Show and some pumpkin seeds that I saved from the last pumpkin picked out of my garden. I don't usually have much luck growing things from seed, apart from parsley and lettuce that self seed in my garden, so will be looking out to see if the corn and pumpkin germinate. If not, it will be a quick trip down to the nursery to get seedlings. I also bought some manure and sugar cane mulch. I love the smell of fresh sugar cane mulch on the garden! I had a very busy day yesterday, with lots of soil preparation and planting. I didn't get to plant the rockmelon and watermelon as I have to remove the grass that has grown in the spot where I will put them. I will have to do it sometime in the next week.
Does it cost much to set up a garden? Yesterday the mulch, manure and seedlings (and Seasol spray) cost me about $130.00. Not bad considering how much I will get from it in regards to zucchinis and rockmelons, etc. It will pay for itself over the season.
My husband got me some editions of the Grass Roots Magazine from the library and I read an interesting article about how much food is NOT eaten from our vegie patches. The author started going out each day and picking produce from their garden and making a point of using it in a meal. It didn't matter if it was one spear of asparagus and a few leaves of lettuce, it still went towards a meal. I think I will give this a go, as I find there is so much in my garden that doesn't get used. My cos lettuce are huge, so I think I will pick some today and maybe make a Caesar salad for dinner. I also have a lot of spinach and silverbeet, so will pick a few leaves and make something with them (and pick the snails off them at the same time).
I am also excited that the asparagus that I planted last year has shown a new lease of life this year. After I planted it my husband and I moved it just as it was dying off at the end of the season as it was where my husband wants to plant a fig tree. After transplanting I cut it back to ground level. Recently we looked at it and declared it dead, as it certainly looked that way. A week later Spring started and new spears popped out from under the ground!

What, no potato? Substituting potato with home grown pumpkin in my Chicken and Leek Cobbler

I recently went to make a favourite dinner of mine...Chicken and Leek Cobbler...only to discover there were no potatoes in the pantry. However, I still had some of my home grown pumpkins that needed using up. So I had a go at substituting potato for pumpkin, with great results. Here is the recipe. 50g butter; 1kg free range chicken breast fillets, cut into strips; 1 large leek, trimmed and finely sliced (I used home grown leeks); 1 stick celery, finely sliced; 1 tablespoon plain flour; 1 cup chicken stock; 1 cup cream; 3 teaspoons Dijon mustard (although I actually used Beerenbergs Bavarian Mustard which is lovely). Topping - 400g potatoes or equivalent in pumpkin; 1 1/3 cups self raising flour; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 cup grated mature Cheddar; 100g cold butter, chopped; 1 egg yolk, lightly beatedn to glaze. Melt half the butter in a pan. Add the chicken and cook until golden. Remove from pan. Add remaining butter and cook the leek and celery until soft. Return the chicken to the pan. Sprinkle flour over chicken mixture and stir for 1 min. Remove from heat and stir in stock and cream. Mix well to avoid lumps. Return to heat and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins. Add mustard and season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer mixture to 1.25 - 1.5L casserole dish. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. To make the topping, steam or boil pumpkin until tender. Drain and mash until smooth. Place flour and salt in food processor and add cheese and butter. Process in short bursts until mixture is like breadcrumbs. Add this to pumpkin. If mixture is too sloppy, add more flour (pumpkin tends to be more moist than potato). I added rice flour which gave the end result a lovely texture. Bring together with your hands to form a dough. Roll dough onto floured board and roll out until 1cm thick. Use a scone cutter to cut circles into it.Keep rerolling pastry and cutting circles until all pastry is used up. Carefully lay the circles over the chicken and leek filling, overlapping the circles. Brush the dough circles with egg yolk with a little milk mixed in if needed. Bake about 30 mins or until dough is golden. Absolutely delicious! This recipe is adapted from Family Circles Step by Step Quiches, Pies and Tarts