Attention to Detail

Lunch at the  newly renovated Cott Hotel with two sensible friends last week and the conversation turned to the movies. One of them gets free tickets to Luna Palace films and often asks me along. This is because I am a very agreeable movie date:

I scoff my choc bomb before the main feature comes on, or I eat nothing, so there’s no crunching of the end of the cone during awkward quiet bits. I don’t talk at all during the film, not even an ironic glance. Unlike one of the clever men I know I also don’t drink from a water bottle which then creates a little vacuum, making a popping noise as air is returned to the bottle once the drinking has finished (there was no easy way to write that bit).

Sensibly, we decided there were some people with acute attention to detail and others without and how one behaves in the movies is a pretty good yardstick.

The chatter moved seamlessly from movies to parking (aren’t we the fun girls?) and again bewilderment at some people’s lack of attention to detail.

When you’re headed to your car and you can see someone is waiting to pull into your spot, you skedaddle into your seat, put your seatbelt on as you’re pulling out and hot-foot it out of there ASAP so the person behind you doesn’t have to wait for too long, holding up traffic and getting annoyed. Although you will never see them again in your entire life, you don’t want them thinking ill of you.

So why when the situation is reversed, do you find yourself sitting there with your indicator on while the person in the car leaving ambles over, hops in their car does God knows what for two or three minutes then reverses out slowly, visibly surprised to see you waiting there for their spot. Then while they are half out of the spot, slowly put on seatbelt, make another call, chat to child in back seat for a while….This isn’t reserved to beach parking – there’s the shopping centre, the theatre parking, Napoleon Street…

Lets not even go there with the pick up lane at the kids’ schools and the mothers in front chatting from car window to car window when their little one has been belted in already for a full three minutes.

At least I can sit smugly in those queues knowing I am helping save the world in my Prius (let’s just forget the fact I am driving when I live less than one kilometre from the school gate).

Many of my sensible friends are celebrating this week: kids back to school, house staying cleaner, no longer haemorrhaging money on a daily basis. In my family we have two landmark years with one daughter in Year 1 and the other daughter in Year 12. In the middle a son in Year 10. We’re at the pointy end of the education system, but hysterically it’s both pointy ends. What fun.

Have you, like me, been wondering what to feed the kids for brekky? Sensible friend Jane suggested an easy breakfast that avoids the cereal trap (cereal is easy but as you know, nutritionally so poor there is no point in it at all): Good quality yoghurt – we use Mundella (because it’s good quality and locally grown and owned by dear friends), some nuts roughly chopped, and some fresh fruit. It’s SO simple and so healthy. Maybe some nice homemade or Gaby’s Muesli and maple syrup spooned on top.

Below is a recipe I have adapted for the Thermomix and altered so it is almost completely Superfoods (superfoods I tell you!). It was originally a Curtis Stone recipe from a friend who dropped a slice of it in yesterday.

Don’t be alarmed by the number of ingredients, you just throw in what you have in your pantry. If you’re not a thermomixer, it’s basically a cup of flour and a couple of cups of ‘bits’.

Superfood Slice

• 130g coconut flour/other flour
• 100g muesli
• 30g each of sunflower seeds, goji berries, shredded coconut, chia seeds, coconut sugar, dates.
• 50g coconut oil
• 50g sun warrior protein powder (or whichever brand you like)
• 20g maca powder
• 40g honey (I used the McCall’s honey from the Margaret River Farmers Market!)
• 20g molasses
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 or 2 eggs depending on how dry your mix is.

Throw it all in the bowl, mix it up speed 5, and press it into a brownie tin. Bake 180 for 20 minutes. For non-TMX’s just throw it all in a big bowl and mix it up.

This version happens to be gluten-free but I have also made a batch with normal wholemeal flour and it was fine. Don’t expect it to be more than luke-warmly received by the younger kids, its ‘healthy’ tasting: No it doesn’t taste nearly as good as a Tim Tam okay? You could try melting some chocolate and butter and spreading it on top to dress it up, or add 30g cacao powder to recipe to turn it into a chocolate slice.

Back to movies – you know who to ask if you want a movie date! It’s probably my most favourite thing to do. If you haven’t seen Silver Linings Playbook or Argo, do. Especially Argo.