Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #13 is...

Hi everyone, I hope you are all ready for a new Baking Challenge!

Before I tell you what the new challenge is I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered in challenge #12 - Smoothies and cold drinks. I had an amazing 10 entries!

If you haven’t voted for your favorite recipe yet, you can vote here.

Now I think you have waited long enough.

The theme for this fortnight will be..........

Salads!! 

Any kind of salad, sweet, sour, salty what ever you can come up with! 

The prize this week is the Australian Women’s Weekly recipe book called Kitchen Garden.

This book contains amazing recipes on salads and vegetables.

It also gives you tips on how to grow herbs and vegetables!

There are things on: Planning for Production 

Artichokes

Asian Greens

Asparagus

Beans 

Beetroot

Carrots 

Chillies 

Herbs 

Onions 

Rhubarb

Salad Greens 

Tomatoes 

Zucchini and Squash 

Preserving the Crop 

I decided to show you my everyday mixed salad with a slight twist:

You need:

Lettuce- as fresh as possible

Tomatoes - I like to use the small ones, but since we only have big ones in our garden at the moment I used big tomatoes here.

Cucumber 

Avocado 

Peas - If you can find sugar snap peas as they are very nice.

Onion 

Green Pepper - any colour you like.

Olives 

Feta cheese - (Optional) I don’t use it in everyday salad.

Black Pepper 

Salt 

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar or lemon juice

Method:

Chop everything up in a bowl. Starting with the lettuce, followed by the other ingredients and finish off with the onions on top.

Then to make the dressing. Mix the black pepper and salt in a grinder and sprinkle over the salad.

Then pour the olive oil and then the Balsamic vinegar over.

Mix with two forks.

You can enjoy the salad just like that with your meal or you can fry chicken strips and put that on top. It makes a wonderful lunch or a light supper.

I hope you like it!

Now it’s your turn to show me what you can come up with! I can’t wait to see!

If this is your first time here, this is how it works:

-You can link-up using your blog or if you don’t have a blog, e-mail your entry to me.

-Create a post on your blog with the recipe and at least one picture of the finished product.

or

e-mail the recipe, with at least one picture of the finished product and I will enter your recipe in the challenge (remember to come back and check out your entry).

-One recipe per person/blog please.

- All entries must be appropriate

-You are allowed to have help with your baking.

-Please use the blue frog below to enter. Be sure to add the link to your direct blog posting/recipe and not your whole blog as this makes it much easier to find your recipe. 

-Please comment on at least 3 other entries.

-Each recipe needs to be linked back to Heidi’s Crafts or has to have the button in the post.

-This is a fortnightly challenge, you have two weeks to enter.

-Entries need to be linked up by Monday the 13th of February  for this Salads challenge.

-After the challenge has closed, I will announce the entries in a separate posting and you will be able to vote for your favourite recipe.

-You are all allowed to advertise anywhere you like for people to vote for you, on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

-I will have a personalized blinkie, specially for the Winner. As well as the PRIZE!! I ship anywhere in the World!

-Age doesn’t matter, from little girls to grandmas are welcome to enter!

-The aim of the challenge is to encourage mothers and grandmas with their girls to enjoy making food in the kitchen, to share recipes, find new ones and have lots of fun together!

Baking Greetings

Voting For The Winner Of My Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #12 have started:

Hello everyone, I hope you all are well and had a good weekend. We spend the weekend watching the Australian Open For Tennis 2012. It was nerve reacking, but really good. We watched the longest Men Singles Championship  in the history of Australian Opens, nearly a 6 hour game! It was also little Michael’s 2nd birthday. (I will post more about that later)

Any way, it’s time to vote for the winner of my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #12, the theme was Smoothies and Cold drinks. I had a surprising nine entries of the most amazing drinks. They are:

Tane:

Who made a mouth-watering Blueberry Smoothie.

Perrin:

Who made a Creamy Strawberry and Cranberry Smoothie.

Grace (Who is 8 years old):

Made a Smooth, Cinnamon, Peanut-Butter and Banana smoothie.

Danika (Who is also 8 years old)

Made a yummy Grape and Yogurt smoothie.

Kelly-Anne:

Who made refreshing Ginger Beer.

Sarah:

Who made a lovely Berry Smoothie.

Beth (Who is 7 years old):

Made a delicious Mango Cooler.

Nancy:

Who made a beautiful Lemon Cordial.

Linnie (my mother!):

Who made an amazing Two Tone Berry Smoothie!

And Key:

Who made a finger-liking Mango Tango smoothie!

Wow! What amazing recipes! Thank you so much everyone who entered, it’s so good to see all of you entering after the holidays again, every single one of you made an amazing smoothie/drink. I would also like to say a special thank you and welcome to little Grace and Kay for entering for the first time!

Now ladies you all know what’s next. Go advertise, so people can vote for you!

To vote all you have to do is:

1 Go to the top of my blog,

2 Just under my blog header, on the right, is a voting poll with all the entries.

3 Next to each name is a little white circle

4 Click on the one next to the name of the entry you like best.

5 Then click on the button that says “vote”.

You have voted.

The Voting will close on Sunday the 5th of February at noon.

Good luck everyone!

Voting Greetings.

A Bright Smile!!

Yesterday afternoon, my mother took me out for lunch. Just the two of us. It was such a special time at such a special new Coffee Shop in Durbanville.

We had the most beautiful and delicious Cappuccino. 

And a breakfast quiche. It was wonderful to have such a special time with my mother, and I’m so thankful to have a mother like her.

After that, my dad and I had to go to the dentist for a follow-up on our braces :-( (We both have)

I really didn’t look forward to it, but when we got there the most exiting thing happened: 

They took my braces off!!!

After having them for 2 years and 10 months. 

I was really, really glad to have them off finally! I’m so happy and decided to share a before and after with you.

Before - Some of these teeth where still baby-teeth. 

In the long and painful process.....

After! 

Dr. Brian Faure and me. Dr. Brian was the first Dentist in South Africa who used the unique Damon brace treatment and he did my braces from the start. For two of the almost three years, we had to fly to his rooms in Pietermaritzburg, every three to six months, for my treatments.

The past year Dr. Bryan moved to Cape Town and Dr Aubrey Everson assisted him in doing a great job with my mouth.

I can’t belief it’s off, it feels like a dream and that I will wake up tomorrow morning with them back. Lol!

Thank you Daddy for all the sacrifices you did to give me this Lifetime Gift!! 

Thank you to Uncle Garth from Sevenpointfive who introduced my parents to the Dr. Faure’s method and insisted that they consider treatment - years ago!

Thank you Lord Jesus, for giving me the ability to endure the braces and being in ultimate control of the development of my mouth!

I hope you like it too!

Have a blessed weekend everyone 

Heidi-Mari

Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge # 12

Hello everyone and welcome to the first Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge for 2012! I hope you are all doing well.

The first challenge for 2012 will be 

Smoothies and cold drinks!!

Since it’s so hot in South Africa and you need something to cool you down, I thought I would make this fortnight’s challenge smoothies and cold drinks.

The prize for the challenge is a Food Lovers Smoothies and Juices recipe book! 

These stylish recipes will help feed your passion with a collection of delicious smoothies and juices that are easy to prepare and a feast for the eyes. Whether you are making a refreshing drink for a summer day, a tempting aperitif or an accompaniment to a light lunch, you will love these delicious and nutritious mixes.

My example is a pineapple, mango and carrot smoothie.

To make this smoothie the following:

Makes 2 

Preparation time: 10min plus 20 min standing time

2 large carrots, peeled 

1 1/4 cups/ 300ml cold water 

1 mango, peeled and chopped 

2/3 cup/150ml orange juice (I used pineapple pulp instead)

1 Grate the carrots and put into a bowl with the cold water. Cover and leave for 20 minutes. Or if you have a juicer you can juice the carrots.

2 Put the mango into the blender with the orange juice or pineapple pulp. Pulse until smooth.

3 Hold a sieve over the blender and strain the carrot juice into it, discarding the shredded carrots. Or add the carrot juice. Pulse again to combine.

4 Pour into two glasses and decorate with what ever you like. 

I just added a few strawberries.

I can’t wait to see what smoothies and cold drinks you can come up with! 

If this is your first time here, this is how it works:

-You can link-up using your blog or if you don’t have a blog, e-mail your entry to me.

-Create a post on your blog with the recipe and at least one picture of the finished product.

or

e-mail the recipe, with at least one picture of the finished product and I will enter your recipe in the challenge (remember to come back and check out your entry).

-One recipe per person/blog please.

-You are allowed to have help with your baking.

-Please use the blue frog below to enter. Be sure to add the link to your direct blog posting/recipe and not your whole blog as this makes it much easier to find your recipe. 

-Please comment on at least 3 other entries.

-Each recipe needs to be linked back to Heidi’s Crafts or has to have the button in the post.

-This is a fortnightly challenge, you have two weeks to enter.

-Entries need to be linked up by Monday the 31st of January  for this Smoothies and cold drinks challenge.

-After the challenge has closed, I will announce the entries in a separate posting and you will be able to vote for your favourite recipe.

-You are all allowed to advertise anywhere you like for people to vote for you, on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

-I will have a personalized blinkie, specially for the Winner. As well as the PRIZE!! I ship anywhere in the World!

-Age doesn’t matter, from little girls to grandmas are welcome to enter!

-The aim of the challenge is to encourage mothers and grandmas with their girls to enjoy making food in the kitchen, to share recipes, find new ones and have lots of fun together!

Baking Greetings.

I Serve An AWESOME God!!!!!!!!!

I serve an Awesome God! A God that can do ANYTHING........a God for whom NOTHING is impossible.......a God that cares, loves and knows your heart. He knows you better than you know yourself,  He knows what happened to you everyday of your life, He knows what will happen to you everyday of your remaining time on Earth. He is there when you need Him, all you have to do is ask. 

As some of you know, my mother fell pregnant January 2011. It was number nine and we where all SO happy. But then on the 11th of March when my mother was 12 weeks pregnant, we discovered the baby’s little heart stopped beating. It was SO painful for all of us! My mother lost one baby before CJ (my 17 year old big brother) and two babies before me, then after six children, she had this little one. Since I wasn’t even born before the previous miscarriage, I didn’t know what it was like to loose an unborn sibling. I was SO sad and prayed day and night for the Lord to give us another sibling before the 1st of October (that was the baby’s due date)

After many nights of crying myself to sleep (and waking up with sore eyes the next morning!) and a few talks (and cries) with my mother, life went on. My mother helped me lots! She told me God knew what He’s doing, He knows me and that it’s a stretching of my faith.

 She told me how other people may have been affected by it. (Appreciating their babies more, for example)

I made peace with God that He knew what He was doing. 

Still I kept thinking why everyone was having babies now! Many of my mother’s friends and some of my blog friends just had or was about to have babies.

One Wednesday morning in December (I think is was around the 7th) as I was taking to my parents coffee in bed, (CJ, who usually makes the coffee was on another movie shoot.) my mother had at smile on her face, but not just any smile, her eyes where extra sparkling as she sat up in bed. I asked her something about the little ones who slept  with them that night, but the smile only grew bigger and bigger. I looked at her and finally asked the question:

“Are you pregnant?”

She looked at me and.........nodded!!!! My mother said YES!! She is pregnant!!!!!!!! We are expecting another baby!! I cried-laughed giving her a huge hug. We are expecting another sibling in August 2012!!!!

THE LORD HAS ANSWERED OUR PRAYER! The Lord answered my prayer.

Never give up, never give in, never say it’s to big for God, never say God doesn’t understand! He DOES! But He knows whats best for you.

Stay strong in the tough times, don’t give in, don’t fall. Remember what He has done for you in the past, remember the promise He gave you for the future...have faith.

It may seem like God don’t know, but just have faith and wait on Him. I have been through it!

Thank you everyone who prayed for us during this time. Please will you continue praying for this tiny little baby to grow strong, be born on the right time, the right way and for his/her calling in live.

Have a blessed day 

Heidi-Mari soon to be a sister of 8 siblings!!