gourmet gift boxes

Taste of Australia - one of our new gourmet gift boxes

we have sourced some lovely new Australian-made gourmet products and put together a few gourmet gift boxes which i think would be a nice gift for lots of occasions. a birthday, house-warming, thankyou, even someone new to the country.

i wanted to try my hand at some corporate gifts too, we are more than happy to put together a custom-made gift box of goodies - one or a hundred, or anywhere in between, please drop me an email info@giftboxology.com.au or give me a call 0449 188 949 - i would love to do my best to help.

jen

giftboxology news....organic sunflower seeds

Organic Sunflower Seeds

giftboxology hq has been overrun with Organic Sunflower Seeds in recent weeks, we've given away almost 10kgs of seeds to various promotional jaunts around town, including the following:

• Variety Club of Queensland - Old Bags Lunch (which is on today!)
• Heart Foundation Queensland 'Go Red for Women' lunch &
• Working Mums Masterclass next weekend in Sydney

we would love to hear from you if you have received some seeds and planted them.  we still have another 10kgs to give away in coming months...

Where Do giftboxology Donations Go To?

$1 from each gift box of giftboxology goodies is donated to charity, 50c to a children's charity and 50c to carbon offset, our most recent donation was made to:

• Starlight Children's Foundation and
• Carbon Neutral

Corporate Gift Needs

things have been flat out at the giftboxology hq this week, we are currently putting together an array of gift boxes for the corporate market. more news on this next week....

have a lovely weekend.

if you are in Brisbane tomorrow can i suggest heading down to Southbank for Brisbane French Festival 2010...i'm looking forward to trying some fantastic breads and cheeses!

a healthy winter recipe for the whole family

i found this recipe on the Sol Breads website recently and decided to give it a go yesterday, at the moment i'm searching for the elusive meal that my son will eat that is nutritious, his diet is limited to corn cakes, sultanas, apples, milk and juice icypoles.... he's not yet 2 but he knows the word 'cake', i thought if i told him it was meat cake he might give it a go.

its a recipe for Mini Meatloaf, aimed at kids but i'm eating it for lunch right now and its tasty. not only that, its simple. 

Mini Gluten Free Meatloaves
By Jaime Rose Fronzek

Ingredients *choose organic ingredients where you can

500g of lean beef mince
1 cup of gluten-free breadcrumbs (rice crumbs or made from day old gluten-free bread)
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1 small brown onion, finely diced
½ cup frozen peas & corn mix
3 tbsp tomato sauce
1 egg, lightly whisked
Olive oil spray

Method

1. Preheat oven to 210 degrees C. Lightly spray each cup of a 12 hole muffin pan.

2. Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix with your hands until well combined (get this kids to do this, it’s lots of fun and really squishy).

3. Divide the mixture between the 12 holes, pressing firmly into the pan and smoothing over the top with the back of a spoon.

4. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until tops are golden and the meatloaves are cooked through.

5. Serve with mashed potato, some steamed veges and tomato sauce.

Makes 12.

I just made ours in a loaf tin. 
 
Head over to Sol Breads for more great recipes & if you live in Brisbane or Gold Coast drop by Sol Breads, the best organic sourdough bread ever...

meat free mondays

whilst surfing the twitter comments this morning something posted by Ethikl caught my eye

Meatless Monday: Up to 100,000L of water is used to produce 1 kg of beef.  In comparison, 1,550L of water is needed to produce 1kg of rice

monday nights in the giftboxology household are usually marinated tofu, soba noodles and veg (usually organic). tonight we had this ... well a very loose adaption of this. 

do you meatfree days? anyone do meatfree to try to reduce the environment impact? 

i'll be back tomorrow (with a lovely meatloaf recipe courtesy of Sol Breads)

jen

friday ideas...Maggie Beer & Susannah Tucker

its a particularly happy friday today as i'm off to meet someone amazing tomorrow morning, breakfast actually (along with 49 other folk), to meet one of Australia's truly wonderful living treasures - MAGGIE BEER! i don't think i could be much more excited.  she is such an inspiration, not just with her passion for food but passion and enthusiasm for life. 

for you...

Susannah Tucker is a truly amazing photographer.  She is a creative genius.  Her photos are so dreamy and beautiful.  I've never seen pics that I've wanted to put up on my wall more than these beauties.

Anyway she is sadly leaving our shores to relocate to New Zealand, which means that she has got an unreal sale going on her madeit store at the moment, until 11 July.

Then after that you can purchase from her Etsy store.

Check out her work, you wont be disappointed.  I've never been serious about photography but I just adore her work.

for your family...

In keeping with the Maggie theme - how about a lovely warming recipe - some gnocchi. perfect to warm you up. 

How about a Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi with Tomato & Chilli Sugo

for your planet...

head over for a browse of Mother Nature Network - its American but it has some great ideas and inspiration.

have a lovely weekend.

the time bank - using your 'saved' time

this morning when i was driving down kingsford smith drive i noticed a big sign above the road which flashes various traffic messages, usually promoting the new tunnel and bridge, the sign was suggesting that you could 'save' 15mins by using the new bridge.

this got me thinking about 'saving time', you cant save time, its not like there is a big bank of time that you have saved up that you can pull out and use at a later date. 

the only time we have is now. no saved time. no spare time. no replacement time. just 'now' time.

use it wisely.

friday ideas...saving money

todays friday ideas has a thrifty theme. ever since the gfc hit being thrifty gained serious cred.  not only is being thrifty good for the environment, it is good for you and your family's bank balance. 

it's about reusing things that might have gone to landfill, saving money and reducing consumption.

for you and your family....

BORROW BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY

i know, its easy and lots of people do it but i am also surprised by the amount of people that don't use the library.  its free! they are constantly stocking the brand new latest releases and have a great array of books, cds and dvds.  i love browsing borders or dymocks as much as the next person but i try to limit the amount of books that i buy as it is expensive and if you dont live in a big house then storage can become a problem.

when i find a book or dvd that i want to read, i get on the libary website, search for the book and put a hold on it.  for a small fee of 80c i can place a hold on the book and have it delivered to the library of my choice.  the library sends me an email when my hold is ready for collection. simple.  its great for kids dvds too. 

if you aren't familiar with your local library then please check it out.  you will be most pleasantly surprised.