My pet hate is when people with a sniffle say they have the flu. A bad cold sucks, no doubt, but still a cold is a cold. You sneeze a bit, you blow your nose a lot,  and in a few days you’re back whooping it up and feeling dandy.

A cold and a flu are two very different beasts and my family is currently getting it’s arse kicked by the most evil flu I’ve seen in years. It’s been my birthday week and I have not had a drop to drink for over a week if that’s any indication of how ill I am. Not even a hot toddy has passed my lips.

I may as well be doing Dry July, except I’m positively never going to do that.

Here is what I have been doing –

Arguing over blankets on the couch

Ball ache (see H)

Cough vomit, when you cough so hard you follow through

Dreams of jumping a taxi to the airport and leaving sick kids to fend for themselves

Eggs congealed on a plate because after demanding eggs they realised they were too sick to eat

Faces so miserable they break your heart.

Grumpy, grumbling, grouchy

Heart ache (see B), Hell, seven circles of.

Irritability, them, you, the cat.

Just when you think they’re getting better someone vomits on the couch.

‘Kill me now’ is what you mutter when you have to drag your feverish butt out of the bed for the 100th time to tend to a sick child in the middle of the night.

Long nights that seem to never end, except suddenly it’s dawn and it ended before you got to rest for the next onslaught.

Misery

Neverending snot in a nose so blocked they can’t blow it so it runs down their face and makes them sad.

Oh god, make it stop.

Panadol, Nurofen, Little Coughs Syrup, Benadryl Expectorant – $50 thanks very much

Questionable TV parenting just to make it through the days

Reading in the lawn nest in the sunshine

So much soup

Terrible fevers alternating with sweats

Umpteen changes of pyjamas

Very sad little patients

Whinging on steroids

Xtra cuddles

Y is this happening to me?

Zillions of tissues

While the Nurofen was in full swing the kids wanted to do something but they were not really well enough to do anything good, so we baked.
We have barely eaten in a couple of days so I thought a healthy cake was a brilliant plan.  Cake is always a brilliant plan, no?

This Blueberry Zucchini and Coconut cake fit the bill perfectly.

Blueberry, Zucchini and Coconut Cake

What you will need : 

• 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup brown sugar
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• 2 large zucchinis, grated and the juice squeezed out
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1 teaspoon salt

 

What you will need to do :

Preheat oven to 180C.

Place your eggs, coconut oil, vanilla and sugar into a bowl and wiz with your mixer until nice and pale, smooth and fluffy.

Slowly add your flours, baking powder, salt, zest, zucchini and coconut, folding it in as you go.

Stir the berries through, and place into a large, lined, cake tin and pop into the oven for about 45 – 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine was a little soggy in the middle and I stuck it back in.

If it gets too brown on top cover it with some foil. Delicious straight from the oven with some vanilla yoghurt and strawberries, or a thick smear of butter.

I fed it to my patients for breakfast too.

 

Cook Once, Feed All is about making your life easier whilst preparing nutritious and quick food for your family. Hailed by Mouths of Mums as the ‘must have recipe book for all families’, this book is a collection of family friendly recipes, all accompanied by stories from my life.

 

To order your hardcopy of Cook Once, Feed All head to the Holsby Shop right now.

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