This week ACOD is on a school trip. I won’t lie, having two kids is most definitely easier than three and the house is much calmer and quieter. According to messages on the class WhatsApp, we should be really missing our youngest child as apparently other parets are bereft without their precious bambinos. Honestly, we’re delighted at having one less kid and COD admitted last night, he hadn’t actually thought about her all day. I hadn’t either. Another reason we are all quite pleased to be ACOD-free for a few days is we can eat potatoes. ACOD does not do potatoes. No form of potato. No crisps, no fries, no mash, nothing. It’s a real disappointment to her Irish father but also severely limits our evening carb choices. So this morning, I have a cottage pie on the stove bubbling away and ready for it’s topping of creamy, buttery mash. Oh, how we shall enjoy dinner tonight! To be fair, before she waltzed out of the door on Monday, ACOD did say ‘you’ll be pleased I’m gone, you can eat cottage pie’. Yes my love, we will. We may also have roasties tomorrow! I have no doubt ACOD hasn’t thought about home once – way too busy having fun.

This week is a big exam week for LOD. Week two of GCSE’s and so far we’ve had a really good one, a better than expected and a ‘they didn’t ask anything I revised’ one. We wait with baited breath to hear how the second Geography one went this morning and we have maths paper 1 tomorrow. LOD is working super hard and still has about 5 weeks to go. Having not grown up here and there are no national exams in SA until the final year of school at age 18, it is amazing how invested whole families get during the GCSE process. We’re all in it – making sure LOD has everything she needs, enough sleep, good food, enough (but not too much) dance and the occassional glimpse of fresh air. And cottage pie. She really loves cottage pie.

Green bread

So, I’ve taken to trying out viral recipes I see on Instagram and Facebook. I don’t do TikTok which is a good thing as there are enough recipes going round n the social channels I do engage with to keep me busy for a while. Green bread looked intriguing. Bread is not something I like to eat a lot of of – it’s a real once on the lips, lifetime on the hips food for me but this bread doesn’t use wheat (a good start) and is packed full of veggies so made me think it would work well for breakfast. The reason veggies for breakfast interests me is I like Jesse Inchauspe’s 10 Hacks to flatten your glucose curve from her book The Glucose Goddess. Her 10 hacks are:

1. Eat Foods in the Right Order: Consume fiber first, then protein and fats, and carbohydrates/sugars last.
2. Add a Green Starter: Begin meals with vegetables (fiber) to coat the small intestine and slow sugar absorption.
3. Stop Counting Calories: Focus on the food composition and its impact on glucose rather than just calorie numbers.
4. Flatten Your Breakfast Curve: Shift from sweet, processed breakfasts to savory, high-protein/fiber meals to avoid a morning glucose roller coaster.
5. All Sugars Are Equal: All sugary items (honey, sugar, agave) affect glucose similarly, so keep them minimal.
6. Use Muscles to Move Glucose: Exercise (walk, chores, squats) within 70 minutes after eating to utilize the glucose.
7. “Clothe” Your Carbs: Never eat carbs alone; pair them with protein, fat, or fiber to slow absorption.
8. Drink Vinegar Before Meals: Consume 1 tbsp of vinegar (apple cider/white) in a large glass of water 10–20 minutes before a high-carb meal.
9. Don’t Drink Your Sugar: Swap sugary drinks for water, tea, or coffee.
10. Pick Dessert Over a Sweet Snack: If eating something sweet, do it immediately after a meal rather than on an empty stomach

Green bread hits 2 and 4 and I do struggle with a plate of raw spinach or broccoli first thing in the morning. My best effort is marmite wholewheat toast perhaps with cheese so this recipe was full of renewed flat-glucose-curve-breakfast hope.

You can find the original recipe from Dominique Ludwig on Instagram (or in Prima magazine) but as usual, I made adjustments based on preferences and what was in the kitchen. Here’s my ingredient list:

100g broccoli
100g baby spinach
100g courgette
100g ground almonds
3 eggs
205g mixed seeds
2T white wine vinegar
1t salt
1t bicarbonate of soda
25g physillium husks

Method:

Blitz the veggies in the food prcessor until they are smoothish. Mix all ingredients together with the veggies. Line a loaf tin with baking paper, put in the mixture and bake at 180 degrees for 1hr.

Now, I won’t lie, this didn’t actually work. It looked baked and a skewer came out clean but the bread (or is it more cake with the addition of eggs?) was still really wet in places. I suspect the courgette was the culprit here. So, not a huge triumph. But all is not lost. I sliced it up into 13 or so thin slices (once cooled), popped them on an oven rack and dried them out in the oven at a low temp of about 150 for a good 90 minutes until nice and crispy. GAME FRIGGING CHANGER! These veggie, crackery, bread things are heavenly and I am finding with a good spread of hummus (look at me with my healthiness!) are delish! COD had one under a poached egg and that worked too. Next time, I think I will spread the mixture thinly on a baking tray and aim for crackers first time.

In other news:

• The kittens and dog have now met. Everyone is deeply unsure while also desperately wanting to play. It’s chaos. The kittens now mostly guard the staircase and Fly just stares. There is a fair amount of growling, hissing and spitting from the minibeasts.
• The minibeasts do continue to be a source of joy and ridiculousness. We have a small ‘party’ most mornings circa 4am which COD sleeps through but otherwise they are lovely and snuggly and provide much hilarity. As I type this, I have one curled up on my arm. The other is taunting the dog.
• I am still enjoying exploring the new world of not being employed fulltime. It’s great! Highly recommend. I am taking on some projects, getting invited to take part in great events and have even made my own website (thank you Claude and Loveable and a fabulous lady called Lea who actually showed me how to use them). It’s coming soon to an internet page near you…..
• Work took me to Berlin recently. First time in Germany. Quick trip but I did go for a wander around the Brandenburg Gate, Jewish Memorial and the Reichstag building.
• The veg is mostly in the ground now and doing nicely. I am maxing out on squashes this year with 10 gem plants and about the same of crown prince. My two lychee trees are still doing well and the avo tree is now about 5 feet tall. I have a tiny lemon and a tiny red grapefruit growing from seed so the experimenting with exotics is going well #thankyouclimatechange