Spelt Fruit Muffins - with a Twist

So, we're in HSC mode in our household at the moment and anyone who has been here will know just how stressful this period can be. Not only do they have exams they need to perform well in, the realisation that their school years have now come to an end smacks them well and truly in the face. Even for those who know exactly what they'll be doing once the exams are over, the transition into the next stage of their life can still prove daunting. I've been trying to keep healthy snacks in the house to ensure that a balanced diet is maintained during this time - feed the brain healthy and wholesome foods and avoid snacks with saturated fats and high calorie sugary foods, right?

I came across the recipe for Spelt Fruit Muffins while watching "Eat Yourself Sexy Australia" and thought it would be a great snack to make - full of wholesome foods and high in protein, so I searched the site and found the recipe. The trouble was, there were a couple of ingredients I felt uncomfortable using. It wasn't the tofu or spelt flour, it was the one cup of oil and 300g of raw sugar the recipe required. Yikes! That's a lot of oil and sugar! Picturing a cup of oil is enough to make me gag and to use that much in a "healthy" snack, just didn't sit right with me. The two alterations I made was to cut the sugar in half and to substitute the cup of oil for a cup of apple puree.

You'll be pleased to know that with those simple variations, the Spelt Fruit Muffins (there were 29 in the batch) turned out a treat and were gobbled up by all. Give them a go - just don't tell your family what's in them!

Tony Ryan Empowering Beauty Photography Workshop December 2011

If you’re a photographer and can be in the Sydney area on the 10^th or 11^th December 2011, then you may be interested to hear that Tony Ryan still has a couple of spots available in his upcoming workshops. These workshops are intimate and concentrate on the importance of building a rapport with your model in order to obtain beautiful and empowering portraits and fine art nude photographs. Don’t panic if you don’t know how to “drive” your camera, as Tony is more than happy to offer tips. The emphasis of the workshop, however, is the human aspect of portrait photography rather than getting the most from your camera.  Sure, anyone can replicate a pose or leave it up to the model to pose, these sorts of portraits tend to look vacant and shallow and perhaps even a little awkward. Tony explains, and shows examples, where richer and more poised portraits can be obtained through dialogue between photographer and model. Priced at $150.00, I feel the information you learn and the confidence you gain from this workshop is certainly great value for money. And it's a fun day to boot! For more information, visit Tony’s website here.

I'm Sorry, But What Season is This?

I'm a little confused. My calendar tells me that this is mid October, yet I'm still wearing winter woollies. Normally at this time of year, I would expect soaring blue skies and temperatures in the low to mid 20's. Yet today, like many days this week and last week and the week before, the temperature struggles to get to 20 degrees and it's bleak and dreary.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the mist and fog, but it does get a little tedious. I can really only recall a couple of fine Spring days so far this season, the rest really have been quite blergh. This afternoon I ventured out and about and went for a bit of a bush walk. There are only so many hours you can spend indoors.

I used the Lensbaby Composer with f5.6 aperture disk then converted to black and white in PS. The abstract colour images were various grasses and bushland, and the effect was achieved in-camera.

I hope that wherever you are in the world, your weather is a little brighter, sunnier and cheerier than the weather I'm currently experiencing.

 

   

   

   

   
 
   

   

   

   

 

And This is why I love Social Media

Chocolate coated jelly snakes. Yes, that’s right, you read correctly – chocolate coated jelly snakes is what social media is all about. And this is why:  I discovered the existence of these very yummy sweeties last week thanks to @ozdj over on twitter.  @ozdj tweeted that these sweets were one of his favourites, but I’d never heard of them before. Being the chocoholic that I am, I just had to know how I could get my hands on a packet of such an exotic sweet! A couple of tweets later, I had the information I needed. Not only did I now know of their existence, but also where I could buy them, I even received a link from @CathieTranent letting me know that I could also buy them online! Sweet! I thought I would share this with you seeing as this week is #chocolateweek according to a current twitter trend. Can you imagine life without chocolate coated jelly snakes? No, neither can I! Thank you twitter, I think life is complete.

Oh and, what do I think of chocolate coated jelly snakes? Very yummy indeed!

Are you on twitter? Do you interact with other tweeps? Go on, give it a go. You just never know what you’ll learn.