What's in a name?

Even at the best of times, naming is a contentious and emotional business.  Whether you're naming your baby, your boat, or your muesli, the process can breed nearly endless deliberation.

We have deliberated to the point of exhaustion here at My Sister's Pantry and to put bluntly, ethics won.

We are changing the name of our Paleo mueslis.  Why?  The short answer: We don't want to capitalise on a name in order to make money.  Will this decision affect sales?  Absolutely.  Our Paleo mueslis are our biggest sellers.

Here is the long answer:

We live in a culture of information overload and there is always someone who can make a compelling argument for or against just about anything.  The decisions you make about your health ultimately come down to you, which is why changing the name of our Paleo mueslis encourages free thinking.  They are and always will be Paleo friendly mueslis and those true to this way of eating will take the time to read the labels and select our mueslis based on that information.

The thing about Paleo is that it entirely comes down to you.  No two people are the same and even the Paleo diet shouldn’t look the same for everyone.  Since fads are temporary, those of you who are committed to Paleo for the long haul are clearly not participating in a fad, but rather in a way of living.  Sure, there will always be people who try Paleo for a few weeks or months and find it’s not for them, and that’s okay.  That's where our Paleo-friendly Honey Joy can still be eaten and enjoyed for the simple fact that it's good for you.

Many variants of the now modern Paleo diet have been developed and popularised over the decades under names such as the Caveman, Paleolithic and Primal diet.  Popular forms of the diet, for example, those advocated by celebrity Paleo bloggers, commonly diverge from this.  Recently there has been a significant movement towards 'Paleo 2.0' which rejects simply eating the foods of the paleolithic, in favor of eating whatever foods best reproduce the "evolutionary metabolic milieu".  A simple example is that while Paleo 1.0 would reject cream, Paleo 2.0 would tend to embrace it as an animal fat.

This is what gets up our goat.  Popping a 2.0 at the end of a name, to us, is marketing.  We don't want to be a part of it.  We don't name our gluten-free mueslis 'Gluten-free Muesli', so why should our Paleo range be any different?
All of our Babushkas Organic Mueslis & Toppers are healthy and our ethos is 'everything in moderation'.  This philosophy has seen us both lose weight and feel fighting fit.  No Fad Diet 2.0 in sight.

Reducing the high fat, high sugar foods and avoiding fast and junk foods will see you lose weight.  The fasting process, which the Paleo diet recommends, is said to stimulate the catabolic process so your stored fat reserves start to be broken down - although a similar effect is achieved with vigorous exercise.
Our concern with any diet is that excess of anything in your food plan is not good for you.  Neither is starving yourself.  This is our moral view.
 Eat our Paleo-friendly Babushka because you choose to commit to this diet, or eat it because you love the taste of honey joys.  Either way, know that we are committed to providing honestly clean products and this can only be done by being true to ourselves.

Who? What? Where? When?

If you follow us on Facebook (My Sister's Pantry), or Instagram (mysisterspantrysthgippy), you should know that we are going to the Choo Choo Market this Saturday, the 27th of June.

The Choo Choo Market is a unique crafty market, held inside the Shire Hall at Mirboo North. It's a once a year market, put together by the lovely people from Mirboo North Playgroup and Toy Library. This year their focus has been to gather as many different types of crafty, homemade goodies from around South Gippsland and beyond. We believe they've got a real array of special goodies, made by lots of talented people and when we were asked to be apart of it, we couldn't resist!

The Mirboo North Community Market is on the same day, in the park, in the middle of the main street. Fair to say, the little town of Mirboo North will be buzzing come this Saturday!

If you're planning on coming down for a visit, pop in and see us inside at the Choo Choo Market. Remember, we're indoors, at the Shire Hall (opposite the public toilets/carpark).

We will be limited for space, and will have a limited number of a goodies. So, we're popping this call out to see if anyone wants anything in particular from our goodies - www.mysisterspantry.com.au, please shoot us an email mysisterspantrysthgippy@outlook.com, or a Facebook message. We do not want to disappoint anyone, so please let us know if there's something you want, and we'll pop it aside for you.

Aaaaaaaaaaand. Yep, we'll be launching new goodies at the market! 

We'll be there from 9am til 2pm. See you there?

The Sisters xx

Doin' what we do!

Little Sis here. 

I was recently asked, why do you do what you do? (referring to of course, My Sister's Pantry).

In a short answer; I'm a foodie. I love brekky the best and I love my sister.

Long answer; Making food for others has become a strong love of mine, probably beginning a few years back, once I really started to understand good food and how to use it! Ask my husband, he knows I love experimenting in the kitchen, and I have to admit there's been quite a few flops! But, over the years I've developed this relationship with cooking and look where it's got me!

I get so excited about breakfast. I think about it before I go to bed. I dream about it in my sleep and once I wake up, I seriously cannot wait to sink my teeth into something scrumptious and a hot cup of coffee. My muesli making days started around four years ago. I'd make my muesli for my family, pass it on to friends and get this buzz when someone else would eat it. I started experimenting and creating my own recipes.

I began making my own muesli because I really struggled to find my own "healthy and clean" ones. When I look back at what brands I use to eat I roll my eyes. I use to eat many of the ones you find in your local supermarket. Now that I understand food more and the way it's used, I now know so many of those muesli and brekky options are loaded with sugar and additives. Sugar, to make them "taste" better and additives to make them last longer. Yuck. Even those mueslis that say they don't use sugar in their recipes, but then fill most of their mix up with dried fruit were tricking me! Dried fruit has the water removed from the fruit, therefore concentrating the sugars. Not good. Unless you want to go and run a marathon straight after.

What I love most about the mueslis I've created is, they're so very versatile. I eat my muesli on average, twice a day. Either brekky, as a snack, brunch or dessert. I sometimes eat them on their own, or paired with natural yoghurt and fresh fruit. I sometimes whiz a couple of tablespoons in smoothies, or sprinkle over salads, or toast. And, I love mixing a little in with a warm bowl of porridge, and we even use them in our pancakes and home-made loaves and bread. 

The next part in this story is my sister. The one who's with me in all this. I'm doing this with her because we both have very strong loves for what we are doing and they're both based around the same kind of thing - looking after your body and what you have. My sister is an inspiration to me. She always has been. I've somewhat "followed' her in my life, because I really look up to her. We both use to work within the media. We're both creative, but in different ways. We're both mums and we both want to try and help people with what we are doing with our stories and with our goodies. I'm extremely proud of her and what she's come up with, with her body care range. I'm completely blown away with what she's made and I have to admit, my whole "beauty" regime has changed, because of her.

I begin my day with My Sister's Eyes serum. It immediately reduces the puffiness in my eyes. Then I spread some Face Serum over my skin for hydration. If I need an extra pick-me-up I scrub my face and body with the Mocha Mask. The smell alone wakes me up! But the coffee and cocoa mixed together infuses into my skin and gets my bloody flowing. I pop a bit of Deodorant under my arms, brush my teeth with the Tooth Powder and I'm set! I end the day cleaning my face with the Citrus Cleanser + Brown Body Scrub. The cleanser is good because it's rough and it really feels as though it cleans. Yet, the body scrub is more of gentle cleaner and it moisturises at the same time. I then moisturise my entire body and face with the Body Butter (I may also pop it on my lips and lick them too!!). I wake up in the morning and do it all over again. I feel so good knowing I'm popping all natural, edible things into my body. NO CHEMICALS whatsoever. I use to use Sukin a lot. It's all natural, right? I can't even pronounce some of their ingredients on the back of their labels. And they use a type of alcohol in most of their range. Why? Those type of things are known to cause irritation in skin and be the number one cause for dryness. So, it's tricking you to pop more on! All the products I use to use too, have ingredients in them to give them a long shelf life. It means they can batch up thousands of bottles, years before they're even used! My sister's stuff is fresh. If you wouldn't eat an apple that was injected with additives to make it last longer, why would you let your skin eat it?

I'm enjoying working alongside my sister. It's the one time I've got to choose my work-mate. We bounce ideas off each other all the time and have a lot of giggles along the way.

I'm really proud of how far we've come, in such little time. And I'm so excited about where the future is going to take us.

Stay tuned x

Little Sis x