Wordless Wednesday

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Meat chickens

I killed our first Plymouth Rock rooster 16 June 2012. 

He hatched out 15 November 2011 and was so much smaller than the others that I expected him to die in the first few weeks.  He did not get feathers until very late in his life, weeks after the girls got feathers.  His brother is larger but it is raining hard so I plan to do him another day (or sell him as he is pure bred and a stunning looking bird). 

It is difficult killing something I hatched out, fed, watered, and looked after.  He was a beautiful looking animal with a calm temperament, had I entered him he could easily have won medals in poultry shows.  He lived a calm and happy life, and died an honourable quick death, not at all like the terrible and painful life and death of a commercial meat chicken.

At the age of 7 months he weighed 3.71kg live, when he was ready to go in the freezer he weighed 2.50kg.  That is a dressing percentage of just over 67%, not too bad for the first rooster I have processed in such a long long time.

Unfortunately I did not keep records on the food he ate to reach this size.  If I were to guestimate based on the feed that he has been consuming over the past few weeks I would say it cost about $19 to get this far (which works out to about $7.30 per kg of chicken).  The actual cost must be lower than that as he certainly did not eat this much when he was a week old.  Next time I plan to keep stats and keep the young chickens feed completely separate from all other poultry feed so I can work out accurately how much it costs to feed a chicken from hatching to eating size.

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Banana bread with Mr Thermie

I bought some almond milk as it sounded so delicious, in truth its the nastiest stuff Ive ever drunk. Who in their right mind drinks such a horrid concoction Id rather starve.

Got me thinking on needing to use this horrible yuck and thought it might go alright in some Banana bread.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup Rolled Oats
• 150ml Milk
• 150ml Almond milk (or 300ml normal milk if you too think almond milk is nasty)
• 3 overripe bananas, mashed
• 240g Self Raising Flour (You Can Use Wholemeal)
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/3 cup Soft Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Mixed spice
• 3 tablespoons Honey
• 1 Egg
• 100g of nuts I used almonds, cashews and macadamias

True Thermomix style (or is it Tracey Style?) chuck in all in the bowl in the order listed then mix on 6 for 30 sec. Use a lower speed if you want chunkier nuts but I have kids so wanted things well blended. Add the oats at the end and mix slowly if you want them whole.

If you dont have a Thermie well you miss out. No not really you may need to soak your oats, mash your banana by hand and chop your own nuts but then you should be right to mix in a bowl. Sweat and love makes a cake taste better right?

Pour into greased and lined loaf tin and bake for 45mins on low to moderate oven try around 180C

NB I forgot the weigh as I went so I will update the recipe with weights next time I make it.

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I ♥ Wednesday

Today I ? my biggest boy

Wednesday is going to be the one slow day of my week this year. So I have decided I am going to take a moment each week to stop and reflect on something I love.

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