When I started my blog over a year ago now I did not know the first thing about computers, let alone websites and social media.
I had not read blogs. I had not followed Facebook pages. I was still getting my head around email.
But I started and I am glad that I did.
However, it has not all been smooth sailing. Most days I am confronted with challenges, no doubt ones that other people work through with their eyes closed. But often these challenges take me the entire week to resolve.
My first priority is my family. I am a stay at home Mum with one child at school, one in my care full time, and one kicking away in my belly. My husband works long days and our extended family is interstate. I squeeze my computer time in around the kiddo’s sleeps.
I feel like a beginner, every single day. I feel like I have so much to learn, like I make countless mistakes. Like I have found myself in a foreign world and often I am not quite sure how well I fit.
But I keep going. I remain focussed on why I started. It was for no other reason than to share the simple things we enjoy in our home and to have a little space to ramble and connect with like minds.
I keep going because of the support and encouragement I receive from this community. I keep going because many of you believe that what I do is enough. That although I am not a professional, although I am time poor and although many paths on this journey leave me feeling lost, what I do and the aspects that I love doing are, for many of you, enough. You cannot begin to comprehend how much I appreciate this. How much it means. To know that I can just be me, a Mum in the kitchen muddling my way though. Just as many of us Mums muddle our way through the parenting game and hope at the end of each day that who we are and what we have done is enough.
I want to thank you for this. For your invaluable support. For taking the time to whip up a recipe, to read a post or to hit like on a Facebook status. To leave a message or a comment, to write to me with your beautiful letters and kind words. For buying my book, for sharing my book, for giving my book, for mentioning my site to another. For doing nothing more than enjoying this little space and making it all worthwhile.
Caramel Pudding
16 medjool dates, seeds removed
1/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon concentrated natural vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup coconut cream
1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional, I have made it without this and it is still divine!)
pinch of salt
Preheat your oven to 175°C or 350°F
Place the dates, coconut cream, coconut oil and vanilla into your processor, blend at high speed until the dates are broken down and the mixture is smooth. Add the coconut flour and salt, combine, add the eggs, combine.
Pour the mixture into your oven dish and smooth over the top. The base of mine measures 19cm x 13cm however you could easily go a little smaller or use individual ramekins and cut the cooking time back slightly. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Cool slightly, eat and enjoy!
We love this exactly as it is. However in the image above we have served the Caramel Pudding with coconut cream. I keep 270ml tins of coconut milk in the fridge. To make the coconut cream I removed a tin of full fat coconut milk from the fridge and tipped it upside down. I opened the bottom end of the tin with a can opener and drained off the liquid (you can keep this to use in smoothies). I beat the remaining thick component of the milk with 1/2 teaspoon concentrated natural vanilla extract and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup. You can also use honey, rice malt syrup, coconut sugar or a banana. You may want to increase the sweetener to 1 tablespoon. If you return the cream to the fridge it will continue to thicken.