Sweet treats - Oatmeal cookies

I hosted coffee group at our pad a couple of weeks ago and one of the treats brought was these incredibly addictive cookies. I grabbed the recipe off the mama that made them and whipped up a batch over the weekend. Needless to say, they're almost gone! So easy to make, so yummy and so deserving of being shared with you all....

 

Oatmeal Cookies (makes about 20 - depending on how many you taste test....)

85gm unsalted butter

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds but walnuts or peanuts would be delish too)

1 & 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup dried fruit (I used raisins but next time I'm trying apricots & dark chocolate!)

Preheat oven to 180C. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, mix well.

Sift flour, soda and salt together. Stir into creamed mixture.

Add everything else and mix well.  

Using you hands make walnut sized balls of dough and place them on a lined or greased cookie tray. The dough balls can be varied in size for small cookies or great big ones.

Press down balls till they about 1-1.5 cm thick. Bake in oven for about 12-15 mins or until edges of cookies are light golden brown.  Let them cool and enjoy!

Sunshine on a dark day....

The weather here in Wellington is beautiful today, but (and I'm sure I'm speaking for thousands when I say this) the sun doesn't seem as bright nor does the gathering warmth of summer feel as comforting. And how could it after such an enormous tragedy?

Words can do no justice in a time like this but my heart and thoughts go out to the 29 miners that were lost in the Pike River Mine disaster yesterday and their families, friends and community. 

What a dark day for little ol' New Zealand.

Miss Bonnie x

Does the 6 month miracle really exist?

I'm not sure it does in our household. For those of you scratching your noggins wondering what the devil I'm on about, I'm talking about that "magical" moment when your wee one turns 6 months and all of a sudden things fall into place. He's sleeping through the night, feeding like clockwork, hoeing down on his solids and has two naps a day at exactly the same time for exactly 2 hours. Know what I'm getting at? Perhaps I've been reading the wrong baby books or perhaps I just expect too much but for the past few weeks, I feel as if I've been living with a newborn again.

Now our little guy is like any other 6 month old. He loves the simple things in life, like his jolly jumper....

 

and his spoon....

the sand between his toes....

and drinking out of cups that aren't his.

But just because he likes simple things doesn't mean he's a simple baby. Not in the slightest. He's never been a great day sleeper but for a while there he was easy and adaptable - he slept in his cot (in his own room, even!) for a good 7 hours a night, he chowed down on his solids and he was just, well, easy. But now, yeesh! This kid is giving me a run for my money. Or should I say a flat out sprint and here I am panting away, barely keeping up a jog. 

Now I'm not saying my Little Red is the devil's spawn - he's pretty freaking awesome most of the time - but give a Mum a break. For the past four weeks I'm pretty sure I've averaged 5 hours of sleep a night (and that's not consecutive) except for two nights last week when he tricked me into thinking he was back to his superb slumbering ways and I got five in a row - magic! So the night sleeping has shot out the door and following hot in it's footsteps is the daytime sleeping. I'm getting three twenty-thirty minute naps out of him a day. A day. There's a couple of Mums in my coffee group that have bubs that sleep four-ish hours during the day and then eleven straight hours at night! Oh how do I envy thee? Let me count the ways....

I've heard about the whole sleep promotes sleep idea and I definitely agree with it (a fellow Mum sent me a sleep quiz which I plan to thoroughly devour) - those two nights he slept straight through, he'd hunkered down with me and had a big two hour nap in the afternoon. And I know an early bedtime helps the cause too but really, these two things are a lot easier said than done. How do I get Little Red to nap longer than half an hour at a time? And how do I get him down to bed earlier to settle himself (he used to but now we have to rock him in our arms to sleep) without World War IV breaking out? I've tried almost every trick in the book, but obviously there's something I'm missing. Perhaps it's the non-solids eating (he was doing it and doing it good but now nothing, nadda, none.) The solids make a full belly which makes a sleepy baby which makes more sleep which means I get a happy, well rested baby instead of a needy, cranky baby, right? I just don't know.

So I'm sitting here wondering where the 6 month miracle is that I've heard so much about. Maybe I got my hopes up, maybe my expectations are too high, or maybe it's a false miracle. A mirage, a myth, a daydream that we Mums grasp onto when things are a bit crap. I know things will get better eventually, that this is probably just a phase, and I know I'm definitely not alone (I know other mamas going through exactly the same thing right now) and heavens that makes me feel better. But at 3am in the morning when it's dark and cold and I'm half asleep and the world feels like it's going to cave in, I wish on the nearest star for a little more sleepy feedy baby and a little less wakey cranky baby.

Yay for creating!!

I'm getting artistic - interweb style - so please bear with me while I pimp my blog, yippee!

Miss Bonnie x

The food conosseur - solids take 2

After a rather rocky start on the solids train a couple of weeks ago I made the executive decision to halt proceedings for a wee while. Not only was I getting frustrated, Little Red seemed to be going backwards rather than forwards and we were smack bam in the middle of moving house. I figured hey, it ain't going to hurt either of us if we take a step back and go back to solely boobie feeding - once we were settled in at the new place and all was peace, love and harmony again we'd have another shot.

The final box was unpacked last Thursday and the finishing touches put into Redford's bedroom (yes that's right! He now sleeps in his own room like a real big boy) so on Friday morning I thought OK, it feels good, let's do it. And away we went! A few days shy of hitting the 6 month mark (it's his half year birthday tomorrow - eek, my little man's growing up!) we hit solids with a vengeance. 

Day One started with mashed banana (unfortunately no photos, the camera was M.I.A) and then we moved onto a slice of apple later in the day....

 It ended up in the nose...

  then in the mouth "Hrm, I guess this is OK...."

 

  but in the end it was a lot more fun to play with.

Day Two was pureed pumpkin and kumara. Not as popular as the banana but it still went down alright. Most importantly though, this was the beginning of the spoon love affair.

Day Three was Only Organics Fruit Muesli which was by far the favourite. The spoon relationship is now in full swing. The Stars & Stripes look was unintentional but oh so patriotic.
 

  "It's OK for you to feed me with a spoon, Mum. As long as I get my own too."

 

  "Oh spoonie, I love you so!"

"We shall never be apart again."

So the solids have been a success thank goodness! As long as the button gets his special spoon - it must be this spoon, none other will suffice - everything is rainbows and lollipops. It's pretty cute really. Very cute, in fact. All these new tastes and textures to explore and what can I say? This time he's really taken it in his spoon obsessed stride.

Post Script: The Fruit Muesli which was the firm favourite has unfortunately been banished to the back of the cupboard for a while - gluten on a sensitive wee tum only two days into the journey made for many tears, a rock hard torso and a very red-faced attempt at pooping to no avail. My poor wee bean! So we'll be laying off wheat and gluten for a bit, fingers crossed I don't have an intolerant baby though, I myself have a very strong love affair with carbs!