Tag Archives: amandaabouttown

What do I wear to the Polo?

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

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What do I wear to the Polo?

It’s almost time for the annual sojourn to the BMW NZ Polo Open at the Auckland Polo Club in Clevedon. As a regular on the event circuit in my previous professional life, I attended many a day at the Polo and also helped judge the best dressed filly of the two-legged type.

However it was always more of a challenge than it should have been with much confusion over the dress code.. and one of the questions I was most often asked was ‘What do I wear to the Polo!?’ So here are a few tips:

1. There may be horses on the field, but you shouldn’t dress for a race day. No fascinators, heels or party dresses. Instead wear something chic and appropriate for a long, hot day in a sunny country field.

2. Summery dresses, elegant shorts or casual trousers. Whatever fashion option you go for, the key is to make sure the fabric is natural – and breathable – otherwise you’ll swelter in the steaming heat.

3. Footwear should also be ‘field friendly’ – so opt for glam flats or wedges (no stilettos!) The stomping of the divots is a long held tradition and as everyone heads out to stomp, all eyes are on your feet so opt for beautiful sandals or colourful wedges – no jandals!

4. Sunglasses, a good sunhat and some long sleeves to throw on for added sun protection as the day goes on are also essential.

The key to dressing for the Polo is to look elegant whilst still being somewhat practical about the function of what you’re wearing!

As far as the event itself, the best advice I can offer is to watch how many drinks you down! Most of the invitations will see you hosted in a marquee with the alcohol flowing and it’s very hard to keep on top of how many refills you’ve had over the course of a long and usually very hot afternoon. The heat, combined with the socialising also results in you downing far more alcohol than you had intended – so be warned!

Enjoy x

The joy of …. baking soda!

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

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While most of you will be familiar with baking soda as an indispensable addition to your pantry, I think it’s one of life’s little magic powders with so much more to do than assist with your baking. I’m a bit of a hippy at the end of the day. I grew up in a family of scientists including my father who was an industrial chemist. He spent his days working with big corporates as well as running his own business, working up chemical compositions for everything from household bleach to instant soup. As a result we were all very aware of the chemicals and poisons in everyday products – even back in the 70’s – and as such avoided them as much as possible.

Most of my friends have a ‘wonder product’ – it might be mascara, anti-wrinkle serum or magic hair product but for me it’s baking soda! Yes – good old baking soda – it costs a couple of dollars and I use it to wash my hair, as a deodorant, stain remover, household cleaner and more. The wonder of it is that it does all these things, without costing a penny by comparison with the lineup of products you’d otherwise use – but most importantly for me – without adding a toxic overload of chemicals to the household.

In the coming weeks I’ll share some of my recipes and tips for using it – so hopefully you can substitute baking soda for a chemical alternative you may be currently using.

Here’s a really simple way to use it as a deodorant:

Get a damp facecloth, sprinkle a teaspoon of baking soda onto the cloth and run under your arms. There – done! A chemical free, cheap alternative to supermarket products, that works just as well. As with anything new you want to put on your skin, always patch test the baking soda to ensure you won’t have a reaction to it though!

More baking soda recipes to come. …
x

Sneaky mummy and the chocolate chip cookies

20 Sunday Jan 2013

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For the first time ever I am faced this week with having to prepare a lunchbox for my little one to take to kindergarten. The challenge as always is how to get nutrition into her while providing enough incentive to eat it – the eternal conundrum! For a little girl who prefers white bread sandwiches and chocolate cupcakes, getting anything resembling whole grains into her is always difficult. However I’ve resorted to my usual trick of sneaking some extra nutrition into her old favourites – chocolate chip cookies – by using wholemeal flour and LSA along with the traditional ingredients.
Until now, the four year old has had a gentle schedule of afternoon kindi sessions for a couple of hours. However as from tomorrow it’s a longer day and I have to provide lunch. It’s a real lifestyle change – preparing a school lunch and I don’t know why but suddenly I feel like I have switched into the role of my mother – playing housewife and mum – more so than ever before. Anyway – the challenge now will be to fill her lunchbox with delicious and nutritious treats. These cookies are by no means a health food but they are a realistic way of creating something yummy that kids love and by substituting a few ingredients with a bit more nutrition, they are a healthier alternative to normal cookies. I reduce the sugar, replace white flour with wholemeal flour and add some LSA – for me it’s just about putting a little more goodness into her lunchbox.
The recipe I used is:
¾ cup of brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 egg
1.5 cups wholemeal flour
½ cup of LSA
1.5 cups of pure dark chocolate – the higher the cocoa content the better otherwise dark cooking chocolate drops are fine too.
Mix as you would with a normal cookie recipe. Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg, mix and then add dry ingredients and then the chocolate drops.
The recipe will be firm but if it seems too dry, add some milk. Press onto a baking tray and cook for 8 – 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Wholemeal four is a great source of vitamins and minerals – especially B vitamins – including Thiamine and niacin. The LSA provides soluble fiber with its mix of linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds ground into a fine meal. Sunflower seeds are an excellent source of vitamin E and linseeds are the richest known dietary source of phytoestrogens – otherwise known as lignans as well as omega 3 oils – the health benefits of which are well known.

WHile mum will focus on the nutritional benefits, the little ones just focus on the chocolate chips and sscoff them without realising there’s a few tricks hidden in them. A batch takes about five minutes to mix and no more than 15 minutes to bake – it’d take you longer than that to pop to the supermarket and pick up a premade packet of biscuits filled with twice the sugar and plenty of chemicals and preservatives.

Hope the little people in your life like these cookies as much as my four year old. My only problem is that I cant stop eating them either!

x

Sneaky mummy – sneaky lunch!

15 Tuesday Jan 2013

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I am always trying to be a sneaky mummy when it comes to squeezing as much nutrition as is possible into my four year old, however lately I’ve been trying to do the same for myself. I figure if you can put a few extra ingredients from nature’s medicine cabinet into your lunch – why wouldn’t you?

My favourite lunch this week is scrambled eggs with a healthy dose of herbs. The recipe is great for the kids too if they like eggs. It not only tastes great but it helps to boost my immune system, increase Vitamin A and C levels and more. For this lunch which takes about 3 minute to make, I add:

two eggs
fresh cut herbs from the garden
plus a little milk and salt to taste

Today I added:
Parsley – which boosts the immune system, is full of vitamin A, K and C,
Basil which is rich in carotenoids like beta-carotene, acts as a digestive and is full of eugenol which is great for bones and connective tissue as well as being anti bacterial
Oregano – high in iron and manganese, packed with antioxidants and tastes great too.

All you need to do is scramble your eggs, add whichever herbs you have growing fresh in your garden just as the eggs are about one minute off being cooked, in quantities that suit your taste – if you hate parsley leave it out and add something else.

That’s really the beauty of the recipe, it’s so simple, tastes great and can be ‘made to order’ depending on what is flourishing in your garden.
Enjoy!
x

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Dream Sweet ……

12 Saturday Jan 2013

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With the weather heating up it’s getting harder to sleep and I have been experimenting with a few different options to aid with a blissful slumber.  My favourite, along with crisp, fresh linen is a spritz of lavender linen water.  I have plenty of lavender growing in my garden, but for this recipe I use lavender essential oil from an organic health store to really give it a kick. 

Lavender is an amazing addition to nature’s medicine cabinet – offering a range of benefits including antifungal and antiseptic properties, improving blood circulation and digestion but it’s best known for its assistance in reducing stress and nervous tension and inducing sleep and this is where the linen water helps.

The trick is to make the bed and spritz throughout with lavender linen spray and then about five minutes before you head to bed, pop an additional couple of sprays around your pillow.

I have also found it works really well for my four year old – helping her to drop off a little more easily than usual.  All you need – to make one cup of linen water which lasts for ages – is:

1 cup of distilled or mineral water (I just boil tap water and leave to cool before mixing)

15 – 20 drops of essential lavender oil

..and 2 tablespoons of vodka

The vodka acts as an emulsifier – without it, the oil and water won’t mix, however, if you prefer not to use alcohol in the mix, then you can just use the oil and water but you’ll need to give it a really good shake prior to spraying. 

You can use cheap vodka but don’t ever buy cheap oils – otherwise you may end up with a synthetic version of the lavender oil which lack any wellbeing benefits and will likely smell cheap too.

The linen water can also be used as a spray prior to ironing, however you don’t want to risk any splodges of oil on your clothes so make sure the mist is very fine and the bottle has been shaken very well too.  I don’t iron because I use a clothes steamer – so I only use it on the bed linen!

It’s so simple – just mix the three ingredients up, pour into a spray bottle and shake well.  That’s it – and then you are on your way to a blissful slumber!

x

Sneaky mummy…

10 Thursday Jan 2013

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I have found one of the hardest things about being a mum is trying to get enough nutrition into a little person who recoils at the sight of fruit and vegetables. Whilst my four year old will consume an endless quantity of apples and carrots – that’s it and all other fruit and vegetables it seems are off the menu. As a result her diet has been less than varied and repeated attempts to get her to eat anything from oranges to spinach has failed – so I had to get sneaky!

Because the pace of life has generally moved at such a frantic pace for me over the past few yers – juggling being a full time mum to my little one and a writing job that’s kept me out late most nights as well as other projects, I needed a quick and easy solution which fast became a family favourite – ‘frozen juice pops’ – well that’s actually the name the four year old gave them but it’s stuck.

SO every day Felicity now scoffs mouthfuls of strawberries, oranges, blueberries, nectarines and even spinach and brocoli – and keeps coming back for more. It’s the simplest thing, really just frozen baby food and i’m sure you’ve all been whipping these up for years too – but if not here’s a quick recipe:

1 punnet strawberries

1 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup of cranberry juice

two handfuls of spinch leaves or two florets of brocoli

small nectarine

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend really well into fruit smoothie adding a little water to make sure it’s the consistency of a liquid as oppsed to fruit pulp, then pop into ice cube trays or iceblock moulds to freeze.

You can mix any fruit or veges into it. I always go for the sweetest seasonal produce to avoid the need to sweeten it up – however if the mix does need to be sweetened a little, I add 1/4 cup of lemonade to it at the end (after blending). I always test taste before freezing to make sure the vege content isn’t overwhelming the fruit flavours, if it is, add more furit to taste. It’s best to pour through a sieve before freezing to ensure there’s no lumpy surprises at the bottom too!

My daughter and all her little friends love them on a hot day. Usually we get the cry for ice blocks but instead of feeding themselves up on sugary treats that are often full of food colouring, they are loading up with nutrition and they can’t tell the difference because they are so yummy!

They also make a cheeky cocktail for mum and day at the end of a long summer’s day by popping a couple of fruit pop cubes into the blender with your favourite tipple – good with vodka and then add to soda or lemonade. Yummy with a kick of nutrition.

x

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