Rochelle Elliot's Blog: The World of WellyChelle, page 5

Choc-coco-nutty Cookies *Gluten Free

These are good.
They are soft and chewy and the addition of LSA (Linseed, Sesame and Almond) make them healthy.
It’s true. 
(Quite sort of true.)
They sort of taste like the old ”Summer Roll” chocolate bars you used to be able to get. 
Oh – and they are easy – peasy. As easy as listening to your favourite boy-band! I mean honestly chickens, it’s like New Kids on The Block wrote this song for these biscuits!

 

Ingredients

200gms melted butter

2/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup LSA (Linseed, Seseme, Almond mix)

2/3 cup rice flour

1/3 cup choc chips

1/3 cup desiccated coconut

 

Step 1 – We can have lots of fun…

Take your melted butter and sugars and whisk them together in a bowl. Add the egg and whisk again.

Step 2 – There’s so much we can do… 

Add the LSA, the rice flour, and the chocolate chips and coconut and mix until goopy and all combined.

Step three – It’s just you for me…

Dollop tablespoonfuls (or what ever size you prefer!) on to a baking paper lined oven tray. Allow room for spreading. 6 probably is ideal, but I managed to squeeze 8 in and just broken the joined up ones apart later.

Step four – I can give you more… 

You can hang with these dudes while you’re waiting!

 

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for approx 10 minutes until brown around the edges.

Leave to cool for a while and then transfer to a rack.

Step five – Don’t you know that the time has arrived… 
Eat them! 

That’s all there is to it!

PS - Don’t be scared by the list of ingredients. They are mostly easy to find in supermarkets this day, and if you can’t be bothered faffing about with the gluten free stuff, you can use normal every day plain flour and ground almond in place of the LSA. 

Tagged: almond, chocolate, coconut, Cookies, easy, new kids on the block, recipe

Love in my nutChelle

A Valentine’s Day Challenge!

Give me a glimpse of something or someone you love…. it can be words or pictures, a poem or a drawing,  a video, or maybe it’s a quote or a song! Love can be so many things and shown in so many ways… big or small, it all counts.

Head over to www.facebook.com/wellychelle and share your love…

You will go in the draw to win a PRINT copy of Lighthouse Love, as well as a beautiful 100% beeswax candle from Golden Hive and its wonderful owners Cherie and Laslo Kopilovic, and a cookie time cookie!

Have you got your copy of Lighthouse Love yet? 

Lucy leaves London, bidding farewell to her ballet career and failed romance.

Half way around the globe she lands in New Zealand, and begins her kiwi adventure in a pub on the Wellington Waterfront. It’s busy, so Lucy offers to share her table. There’s Georgie and her slimy boyfriend Felix. Fran and her husband Jamie.

And ther e is Ethan, who squeezes in beside her with a cider and a smile.

Ethan fills Lucy’s life with lust and laughter, and a trip to Pencarrow lighthouse might prove the potential for a happily ever after. But Ethan does not mention his dream job in Dubai, and Lucy is reluctant to bring up the mess she left in London. Neither wishes to sully the clear blue sky and the fresh sea breeze, with worries from the past or concerns about the future.

But when Ethan’s sexy-ex reveals his secret job plans, and Ethan discovers Lucy’s deception, it’s the perfect storm.

Strong winds and rough seas are forecast.  Can Lucy and Ethan fight through the storm and find some solid ground?

Lighthouse love is a whimsical tale of real love, the kind the that comes with sexy slappers, ex-husbands and more baggage than a cab load of Kardashian’s! 

Lighthouse Love is available on:

Amazon Kindle

Apple iBooks

Nook

Sony

Scribd

Kobo

Tagged: Chicklit, Fiction, love, Romance, Valentines Day, Women, writing

Lighthouse Love – Pencarrow, Wellington, New Zealand

For the longest time I’ve been waiting for the stars to align, for the weather gods to come on board and for there to be a day when I felt capable of the 2 hour walk out to Pencarrow Head (and the 2 hours back again,) to see the Lighthouses that my Nana often talked about visiting, and that inspired parts of my first novel, Lighthouse Love.

Today was that day. The only kicker was that it was Aidan’s first day back at work. So it was just the kids and I who packed our back packs with warm jerseys and windbreakers, big water bottles and lunches.

I had read that it can be particularly wild in a northerly, and with two kids in tow, I limited my expectations to hopefully getting halfway there, and anything else a bonus.

It turns out Ashtie-Smashtie had his energizer bunny batteries packed, and Isabelle only had a couple of moments of energy fade, but a few chocolate biscuits and a long lunch break was all it took to re-boot!

Checking out the South Island from the North Island… such an amazingly clear day!

We see a little lighthouse high on the hill!

First we walked around to the Lighthouse at the bottom.

Then we climbed the hill and had some lunch.

A good book can go anywhere!

Looking back towards Wellington City

This way to the lighthouse!

The weather was on our side. Yes, blustery and hat holding in many parts, but then we would turn into the next bay and find ourselves in a sheltered pocket without a breath of wind! Even up the narrow path to the Lighthouse we found a nice wee spot for lunch, tucked in to the hill with views of Wellington and Lake Kohangapiripiri.

I love this picture!

Up, Up we go!

Isabelle made it to the top…

I made it to the top…

The little lad and his banana made it to the top!

Back down we go. Ashtie sandwiched between Belles and I… providing excellent commentary about what he would do if there was an earthquake at that moment, and how dead you’d be if you fell down the hill. Gotta love that lad.

So many lovely people along the way too. Always a friendly wave from a mountain biker or a cheery hello from other walkers. And a super hero who rescued a flying hat from a gorse bush for Isabelle!

The kids couldn’t believe it on the walk home when the Police Ute pulled up beside us on the road and it was Constable Julie who they know from the “keeping ourselves safe” school program.  She even had lollipops that made the last leg of our trek back to the car just a little more bearable!

Walking home and still smiling.

still walking!

A ship – from Ashton’s height!

One last beach stop, to rest our tired feet.

We had a fantastic day. It’s definitely a push for the kids, 2 hours each way, but there is so much to look at – sheep, goats, planes, boats, and plenty of opportunities to stop on the beach and throw big stones into the sea and collect small and interesting pebbles and shells! So I found myself having to encourage them on far less than I do when I have to take them supermarket shopping with me!

And I even took a moment to leave a little love under the lighthouse for Lucy and Ethan…

For Ethan and Lucy…

Tagged: Lighthouse, New Zealand, Pencarrow Head, travel, Walking, Wellington

Find your way to the moon this Christmas.

Okay my lovely Christmas Chickens….

If Button’s can make it to the moon – I bet you can do something amazing too! 

I wanted to share some information about a wonderful woman who is helping out an independent Woman’s Refuge in Mangere, Auckland.

I have been part of a group over on the twitters, put together by an amazing woman, who you can find on twitter here:

https://twitter.com/GoodeyeMcWoowoowho

She has been putting together Christmas gifts and parcels for the women and their children who are currently in need of so much at Te Whare Marama. They often arrive at the refuge with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

As we trundle through the festive season, I really want to bring this refuge to your attention.  What really struck me from the stories of these amazing women who have some how managed, against the odds, to get themselves and their children to safety, is that when they were asked what they would like, it is the basics that I admit, it is sometimes easy to take for granted.

One woman wanted underwear. She hadn’t had any new bras or knickers for 4 years. That’s what she wanted. Something as simple as bras and undies.

I’ve been struck lately, especially in a political sense, how we’re often bombarded with messages that we shouldn’t rely on others. We are living in a society where some people frown on others for needing help. For needing to use a food bank, for needing to be on a benefit, for not having a job, for not being able to buy their kids shoes.

We take it for granted that these things are accessible and easy to do. We debate the amount of welfare we provide. We debate whether how to measure child poverty. Here. In New Zealand where we ship our beef and lamb and milk and cheese off to the other side of the world. And we think come on, this is New Zealand, for goodness sake. This can’t be right.

But the fact is, there are people in New Zealand struggling. There are kids in New Zealand who have Mums and Dads and Aunties and Uncles and Sisters and Brothers and Grannies and Grandads who love them and care for them and are doing everything in their power to give them the life they need, the life they deserve. They are not doing anything different to you and I. They are trying to get by.

But sometimes they can’t do it by themselves. And neither should they have to. 

Helping each other is part of what makes us human. It’s part of what makes us kind, and loving and caring members of society. It’s how we model to our children how they can be kind and loving and caring members of society.

So, all I ask is that you pop over to Jackie’s blog, and have a read through the posts.

http://goodeyemcwoowoo.wordpress.com/
Perhaps you might find there is something you can offer. Maybe you can send some tubes of toothpaste her way, or maybe you have an old laptop lying around that you don’t need anymore? Or you might be able to provide a pair of shoes or some blankets? Maybe you can send some money so they can buy food and nappies and pay their bills.

Let’s face it folks, if everyone does a little, then it ends up being a whole lot! 
Thanks Chickens. Have a happy day xxx 
Tagged: Christmas, Helping, New Zealand, Presents, Support, Women's Refuge

Our Christmas tree angel

I wonder how many more times the Angel will go on the Christmas tree using this method?

Belles is 9 now, next year it’s the little lads turn… She’ll be 11 next time and she might have to climb the tree!!

Lighthouse Love – now available in PRINT

Hello my lovely chickens… I have good news! 

My first novel, Lighthouse Love, is now available on CreateSpace. This is a print on demand arm of Amazon, and means if you’re not so keen on reading books on a screen, preferring to hold that baby in your hot wee hands… then NOW YOU CAN!

Head on over to http://www.facebook.com/wellychelle and pick up a discount code as well! 

https://www.createspace.com/4505834 - go here to buy Lighthouse Love in PRINT!

 

 

PS – if you would like your copy digital… you can still get that too!

http://www.amazon.com/Lighthouse-Love-ebook/dp/B00EPWDFDI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377496302&sr=1-1&keywords=lighthouse+love

A spot of rain and the morning school “run”

I’m feeling good. I’ve been running this morning. Given my heart a good work out.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

It’s raining for the first time in a week.

Ashtie had itchy eyes. Belles had a school trip to the beach (!?) that was on rain or shine, and I had no lunch box food in the house. Nothing. Not a dry crust or a wrinkly mandarin in sight.

“Fear not dear children!”  I proclaimed. We shall visit the supermarket and procure the lunch food.

Only by the time we’d brushed our teeth and fixed our hair and discussed the rules of using the twistable crayons and how fabulous Santa would look with a rainbow coloured moustache, we were cutting it fine time wise, but I could always drop the kids off at school and drop their lunch down after the bell had rung.

That’s when Belles read out the instructions on the news letter that said the bus would be leaving promptly at 9am.

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“Image courtesy of stockimages/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net”

“Get in the car,” I hollered, and that’s when I realised we had not packed anything in Belles bag for the trip. The only thing in there was a sun hat. I looked out of the window and saw the rain drops dripping from the guttering I hit Super Mammy mode.

You know what I’m talking about. It’s when the parental adrenaline kicks in and you can make decisions in a split second, you can run between filling drink bottles and throwing track-pants and warm jerseys into bags while assuring the small child with itchy eyes that you will fix them, and even faster if he gets in the car!

Seat belts buckled, four children with jackets in their bags (so they probably should have been wearing the jackets but you know, sometimes you loose a battle to win a war) and we were off. Down the hill like a race car driver.

That’s when I remembered my dream the night before about Nadine Chalmers-Ross from Breakfast on TV One, reporting me to the police for not giving way. In my dream I had painted her as a crusader of the road. She was going around making complaints about peoples driving and wanted me to pay $800 for my error.

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“Image courtesy of maen_cg / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”

In this dream Aidan was beside me, encouraging me to get away from Nadine and so I put my dream-foot down, and nearly took out a rather large pink pig as I skidded out of a side road on to a main street, and floored it so she couldn’t get my licence plate number.

Let me just clarify that I have never met Nadine Chalmers-Ross and I am sure she is not out to get me, nor do I think she goes around in her spare time looking for people not giving way. And lets face it. Dream Aidan was a very bad influence (probably too much Grand Theft Auto) and you should always be careful of wayward farm animals when trying to drive like you’re too fast and too furious.

Back to this morning. I made sure I gave way and kept to the speed limits, then I pulled up in front of school and in the usual style, but with a little more haste, we piled out of the car. I always imagine we look a bit like one of those clown cars as each child appears, and I stand at the boot handing out back packs and balls and jerseys and yelling out instructions;

“Put your jacket on, don’t forget to hand your money in to the office, tie your shoe lace, rub the jam off your forehead,” you know, just your average morning things.

Elliot’s and Graham’s arriving for school

Of course Ashtie of the itchy eyes was not very impressed at the speed of our morning transactions. He wanted his jacket on. He wanted it zipped up. He wanted the hood on. I had to shuffle him into his sisters arms (thank god she likes to look after people!) and told them I’d be back in 5.

“What if you don’t make it back before the bus Mum?” Isabelle called.

“I’ll be here,” I yelled, “I promise.”

You should have seen me. I was on fire. Even in my summer slip on shoes.

I speed walked my way through those supermarket aisles like a pro. I focused on stuff in packets. Biscuits in packets. Fruit bars in packets. Yogurt in packets that don’t require spoons. Even apples in packets!

I am, on the whole, a caring person when it comes to the environment. I don’t buy individually wrapped cheese slices, I have reusable containers and I reuse zip lock bags. I never use gladwrap in my kids lunch boxes. But if there is ever a time when pre-packaged food comes into its own, this is it.

I hit a jog down the toiletries aisle and grabbed some eye drops, then scanned for a empty check out.

Back at the car, I protected myself from the rain under the cover of the back door of our station wagon, and went about throwing items into lunch boxes. Biscuits and buns were flying. I zipped those babies up and dived back into the drivers seat.

I drove past the bus, saw that no one was in it yet, and said a wee prayer of thanks to the angels who saved me the one spare car park outside school. I raced down and made it just as Belles and her class were lining up ready to board the bus. The smile on her face was classic. Relief and excitement.

“I told you I’d make it!” I laughed.

Over to Ashtie’s class I went. He was off to the hall to paint rocks. I pulled him to the side, and thus ensued a conversation about why I had eye drops not medicine (The supermarket doesn’t sell kids antihistamine) and anyway, could I hurry up.

“I’m faster than Lightening McQueen,” I joked. He laughed and called me silly

He rejoined his line and skipped off in the rain to paint rocks in the hall, while I skipped off happily home to have a cup of tea and give myself a pat on the back.

Now where did I put those packets of biscuits….

Tagged: lunch boxes, multi tasking, school run, school trips, stay at home mum

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22…

Just drove into town in the Welly sunshine, sunglasses on, Singing along with Taylor Swift.

I might not be 22 anymore, but I could totally be on XFactor. I sound amazing in my car.

Buy New Zealand Made – listen to Bikini Roulette

Okay, listen up chickens.
You should all get this album.
Not just because you’ll be supporting fabulous New Zealand artists – but because the songs are really cool and, ergo, if you listen to this album, you will be awesomely cool too.
I’m not an expert when it comes to music. I am most definitely not on any ‘cool’ list, nor do I expect to be any time soon. But what I do know is I like to listen to stuff that makes me feel good, or happy, or mellow, or dancing on table tops crazy.
This album rocks. It has all those elements, and I feel more hip and awesome just for having it on my play list.
I am especially enjoying ‘Making Plans for Yesterday’ and ‘When Eve Got Bored Of Apples.’
Have a listen and if you like what you hear, don’t delay. Get your credit card out, skip a couple of coffees this month and for as little as $10.00 you get some awesome tunes to listen to this summer while you laze around on your beanbag on your deck wearing over-sized sunglasses and reading trashy magazines, or while you drink your RTD’s and dance on your Mammy’s coffee table on New Year’s Eve while she’s out at the bowling club.
See – it’s making you cool already!!!
https://bikiniroulette.bandcamp.com/album/erotik-fiction
Tagged: Bikini Roulette, Erotik Fiction, Kiwi Music, New Zealand Music

Slow roasted crispy Tortilla

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful wife (me). She was making the dinner. Her husband was late home from work, so she left a few tortilla in the warm oven for him.

The husband arrived home and was very appreciative of the delicious dinner.

In the days that followed the wonderful wife (still me) was intrigued by the strong smell coming from the oven. Sort of like baking bread. Sort of like something smoldering.

She searched the bottom of the oven for signs of rogue oven fries that may have jumped the edge of the tray, only to meet their slow charcoal demise.

Alas, nothing was there. And still the odd smell wafted when ever the oven was turned on.

The wonderful wife (me again,)  made a tin of ginger crunch in the oven, and kept the pancakes warm on Sunday morning while the All Blacks beat England. She even preheated the oven for half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius  before concluding she couldn’t be bothered making scones and her sister offered to get some at the supermarket.

A week later, the wonderful wife had caringly (and a little speedily) smushed the bananas and added the milk and oil and flour and baking powder and sugar and egg and poured it creatively (splodges on the floor, oops!) in to a bundt cake pan. One of those wobbly silicone yokes that you must carry carefully to the oven and bend down low and slide carefully onto the shelf.

And when the wonderful wife got down low and slid the cake batter onto the shelf, she spied something on the top shelf. It was brown. Very brown. and sort of round.

What the hell is that?

The wonderful wife thought. And then she remembered. A week ago she’d left the tortilla in the warm oven…..

Tagged: burnt food, easy meals, tortillas