Vesna on June 25th, 2009

Simple vegetarian recipes: Sataras

Sataraš (pronounced sah-tah-rush) is a quick and simple vegetarian recipe very popular in South-Eastern Europe.  It is easy to make and usually prepared during the summer and early autumn days when there are plenty of capsicums (peppers) and ripe tomatoes in the garden.

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Vesna on June 19th, 2009

Food Additives

Born in Europe, my husband and I were brought up without the fast food chains, on homemade and often home grown food.  I watched my grandma and mum cooking and that experience definitely influenced my love of homemade food.  Feeding our kids nowadays has so many challenges:  food specifically marketed towards children is mostly over processed, laced with numerous, potentially dangerous and unnecessary food additives and has little nutritional value.

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Vesna on June 5th, 2009


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World Environment Day 2009

Today is World Environment Day. This year’s theme for the WED is ‘Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change’.

To celebrate the WED our kids planted the seeds of a beautiful native weeping red bottlebrush tree.  The seeds pack is a promotion of the Melbourne tram company.  See the pictures below:

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Vesna on May 28th, 2009

Simple sustainable living

In the Part I on Simple sustainable living in the city I was writing about the reasons to make your life greener.  Part II has some simple green ideas to start your sustainable living.  Part III is about us:  what have we done and what are we doing to live sustainably in the city.

What does sustainable city living mean for us

We are an ordinary, average family of 4 living in a big city.  We aren’t striving to be self-sufficient: it’s hardly possible to be in an urban jungle.  We are just trying to live more sustainable life, implementing green changes one step at a time.  We aren’t perfect and don’t do everything right all the time every time, but trying our best.  And hope to get greener as we go, because we believe sustainable living is a journey, not a destination.

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Vesna on May 19th, 2009

sustainable city living

In the Part I on Simple sustainable living in the city I was writing about the reasons to make your life greener.  Part II has some simple green ideas to start your sustainable living.

Where to start to make your life more sustainable?

Sustainable living doesn’t mean giving up all the luxuries of the modern era and changing the lifestyle completely.  It’s rather adapting it to green living.   So, you would like to give a sustainable living a go, but, where to start?

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Vesna on May 12th, 2009

Sustainable living

The big city has its challenges when we talk about simple, sustainable living.  Nevertheless it is possible to live a greener, more conscious life in an urban jungle.  With just a few easy steps everyone can do their bit towards a greener, more sustainable future. And every little step counts.

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Handmade Mother's day card

I write this post from a perspective of a mother: what I think is a thoughtful mother’s day present that many other mothers would like too.

My favourites aren’t really material things and wouldn’t cost a cent: kisses and hugs, a flower from the garden, a Happy Mother’s Day written on a notebook paper and a pretend coffee and a playdough cake.

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Vesna on April 22nd, 2009

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During the holidays, as many parents know, kids expect you to entertain them from morning till dawn.  Unless the day is action packed, it’s a “boring” day and “I don’t have anything to do” day.

On one of those days, we made a batch of homemade playdough (play dough).  In summer, we tend to spend more time outside and kids didn’t play with it for a while.  Not only  did the playdough keep them occupied for hours - to mum and dad’s delight, but also there is an educational element to it: development of fine motor skills, blending colours, exploring senses like touch and feel, to name a few.

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A lot in this post!

We are big fans of u-pick or pick your own fruit and  berries.  U-pick means you go to the farms and pick the fruit yourself.  It is good in many ways:

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Vesna on April 2nd, 2009

Easter egg

Easter is just around the corner and it’s time to start some planning (I should say it’s the last minute to do so).  If you are celebrating Easter, think about how to green your Easter celebrations this year. Read the rest of this entry »

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