Where to Watch Food Inc Documentary

An update on Food Inc Documentary further to my earlier post.

This documentary has now expired on SBS on demand. However, click on Food Inc to watch it for free.

Since my first viewing of this, I have changed to only purchasing meat for my family that is free range, pasture fed, organic  and/or RSPCA certified.

We have prioritised and reorganised the shopping budget to reflect this. And it means eating a little less meat, and an extra vegetarian meal during the week.

Also, a little less money on purchased “treats”.

I feel it is so important to eat more ethically sourced food.

Food Inc

Last night, I watched a documentary on SBS called “Food Inc”.

It is an American documentary about industrialised food in America.

“Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on America’s corporate controlled food industry, exposing the highly mechanised underbelly that has been hidden from consumers with the consent of the US government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. The US food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of farmers, the safety of workers and the environment. The program features interviews with experts Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma). (From the US) (Documentary) PG CC”

I highly recommend viewing it. It has some very important information in it. I have certainly learned a lot from it and have lots of issues to think about with regards to sourcing food for my family, and the choices which I make.

You can watch it for free on SBS On Demand. Be quick, because it is only available for the next 12 days.

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/13406275550/Food-Inc.?utm_source=Search&utm_term=Search%20for%20the%20title%20of%20a%20program

I am going back for a second viewing.

Real Tomatoes and a Simple Tomato Salad.

Real tomatoes are featuring here at home in a big way at the moment.
In my little raised garden bed, I have been growing a prolific cherry tomato plant which is producing about a handful of organic, sweet, warm tomatoes almost daily. They are obviously responding well to the homemade compost which we have used to build up the soil in the garden bed.

I have been known to eat a few before I have even brought them inside.

Also, we visited the local Farmer’s Markets on Sunday and brought home a couple of kilo of deep red, flavoursome tomatoes.

We have been enjoying them prepared as a simple tomato salad. The tomatoes are  sliced, sprinkled with torn, fresh basil leaves from the garden, and some olive oil drizzled over and some cracked pepper to finish.

Another favourite salad I have been making regularly is Greek Fetta Salad.

 

I like to use real Greek Fetta cheese, ripe tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumber and fresh parsley and mint.

What is your favourite way to enjoy fresh tomatoes?

Swimming

At the moment we are swimming almost every day.

We are fortunate to have discovered a wonderful pool which is set in the countryside, about 10 minutes drive from our home. It is open from sunrise until sunset, so during these summer holidays, we are enjoying evening family swims after dinner.

We have bought a family season pass, and are making the most of it. Our season pass entitles us to bring guests, so sometimes we bring a friend or two. Sometimes we are the only people there. Othertimes, there are other people, sometimes my daughter’s schoolfriends are there with their families. My daughter’s dance teacher is quite often there too!

My husband and I swim our 1km laps each visit to keep fit.

My daughter is practising her diving and her swimming, and next week will be commencing 2 weeks of daily swimming lessons each morning. She had these lessons when we first moved here 12 months ago. We discovered that her swimming teacher was the same swimming teacher who taught my husband how to swim when he was a child!

After our evening swim, we are usually met with the local wildlife. Usually a mob of kangaroos and a little joey in a pouch, some horses, a hare. Once we even saw an echidna, pretending very hard to look like a spiky bush.

Welcome to 2013!

Wishing you a happy new year!

At the moment I am doing some spinning of some beautiful 100% Australian Merino wool in a sky blue colour. I have already spun 2 skeins and had used them to begin a knitting project.

Yes I know that it was 40 degrees Celsius yesterday here in the Hunter Valley  ( that’s more than 100 degrees F), so not really spinning and knitting weather.  But I am really enjoying my spinning now that I have gained a little skill.

My knitting project with this handspun wool is a jumper for winter for myself . Being a very beginner knitter, I have only knitted scarves and washcloths before. So I am expecting this to be a challenge for me, combined with lots of unravelling and reknitting!

I have just learnt how to increase stitches, so that is my new skill this week.

In my mind, I had an idea of a jumper that I would like to make. It has raglan sleeves, with ribbing at the wrists and bottom edge of the jumper, as well as a ribbed stand up section up covering the neck.  The rest will be knitted in stocking stitch, as I  prefer my knitted clothing in a plainer style. ( Plus my knitting skills are only very basic at the moment.)

Although I searched for a knitting pattern which corresponded to  what I had in mind, I didn’t find it. So I have drafted a pattern from my own measurements using tracing paper, and I am knitting the shapes to fit the paper pattern.

Which is probably a really silly thing to do for a beginner knitter. If (when!) I fail spectacularly, I anticipate lots of  unravelling my mistakes!

And starting again.

So it is probably just as well that I am starting this jumper in summer so that it will be ready by winter, as it will probably take me that long to spin all the wool and knit it.

Pre-Christmas Declutter Part 2

Yesterday my daughter and I decluttered her bedroom. Then we decluttered her bookshelf and cupboard in the family room and then we moved onto her bathroom.

All in all, it took about 2 hours. We worked in 30 min blocks. We decluttered for 20 mins, then had 10 mins of putting away and organising.

Then we had a 10 min break.

First of all, we put some music on…….

Then we got out the some baskets and labelled them “Donate” “Throw Away” ” Keep”.

My daughter stayed on task, and we actually enjoyed the process. As we progressed, she became in control of the process, and I was actually just an extra pair of hands.

Round 1 Sorting.

 

Sports equipment.

 

Treasure in her treasure chest.

Soft toys in a drawer under her bed.

 

Bookshelf/cupboard.

In the cupboard, she decided that she wanted 1 shelf for craft and stationery, 1 shelf for dolls/small toys and one shelf for magazines.

In the bookshelf, there was one shelf for her favourite fiction, one shelf for school books and non-fiction and  one shelf for board games.

 

Next was the bathroom and bathroom cupboard.

Items were grouped by function into baskets and containers. There were a lot of empty containers to be disposed of.

In the end, there were 3 garbage bags of rubbish or broken/used items.

There was a lot less items for donation that I had anticipated. I suppose this was because we have regularly decluttered over the last few years. We have a bagful of toys that were in good conditon for donation. There were 3 bags of unusable items and rubbish.

She was very happy with her efforts and the results. Everything has a home and she knows where everything is as she made the decisions herself.

 

Simple handmade gift cards

I made up a dozen or so of these gift cards.

I cut out the trees from gift wrapping, and then pasted on to some rectangles of plain white card.

The final step was to cut around the border with scissors with patterned blades and punch a hole through one corner for ribbon.

Voila!

They are now attached to presents under our Christmas tree.

Pre-Christmas Decluttering Part 1

Today my 9yo daughter and I will be decluttering her bedroom.

I mentioned this to her last night, and she surprised me with her response, ” Oh great, I have been wanting to do that.”

Christmas presents received this year will need new homes. So we need to make some space. Ever since she was little, we have always given pre-loved toys to the charity shop and talked about the children who will receive them, so she is always cheerful about donating to charity as she likes to give. Usually she comes with me into the charity shop to give the toys in person, so they don’t just “disappear”, rather they are handed over to a real person in a real shop for a real little girl to discover. Or her mummy.

Just in time for Christmas.

I will post Part 2 with pictures shortly.

 

Nude Ironing and a No Pants Day today.

It always pays to have your camera handy.

I walked past the room where I saw my husband dressed in socks and very little else, ironing his daughter’s school uniform this morning.

Of course, a quick flash of the camera took him unawares.

Then after he had dressed in his cycling gear of lycra cycling pants and he cycled on his bike as usual off to work.

He showered at work as usual, went to change into his work pants and shirt, but found that he had left his trouser pants at home.

No Pants.

At work.

Did I mention that he works with an all-women team?

I hereby declare that it is officially No Pants Day today.