Random eats :)

The pecan crusted french toast from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. Delicious. Don't think I'll bother with the whole sticking the chopped nuts to the bread next time - too fiddly and they burnt before the bread cooked properly - but wow. I've never had french toast before this and we both reckon it may turn into a weekend breakfast staple. I'd reccomend going for two pieces of bread for each person (if using heavy wholegrain bread like I did) because we couldn't quite finish it.

Barley and Cashew nut casserole from Easy Vegan Cooking. The only thing I don't like about this book is the apparent lack of flavour - so I just add some to the recipes when I make them. This one I cooked the barley with some beef style stock and a bay leaf, and added garlic. This is one that's better the next day (though still quite delicious the first day!) Meals like this are so easy to make and eat and are also filling and healthy. Good good.

A lunch the other weekend. Went perfectly with a bit of light reading and whipper snippering (lol.)

Fresh rice paper rolls with cos lettuce, grated carrot and some mashed chickpeas mixed with vegan mayo. Dipping sauce was sweet chilli and soy sauce. Sounds a little odd but totally worked :)

Picnic food :)

A friend of ours made fairy bread1 She was in the photo but I wasn't sure how she'd feel about being on the net.

The weather turned out lovely for my birthday picnic yesterday. We thought it was going to rain a few times but the clouds passed and the sun came out. We sat under some bamboo.

I made mini quiches on Friday night to eat cold. I used the same recipe as I used last time. My family gave me this thing called a pie maker for my birthday - it's basically a sandwich press, but with a pie shape...it's awesome. As you can see, it makes quiches as well! I plan on making various small pies to freeze and take to work, to heat up like a regular 'four n twenties' type dealy.

They turned out brilliantly. This time I put a few blocks of frozen spinach in instead of zucchini.

We were terrorised by a water dragon...he liked Nadine best.

I made the Energising Protein Power Salad from Oh She Glows. So so good. I used pearl barley and black quinoa as my grains. I also added some baby spinach leaves for a bit of green, and some cherry tomatoes because I felt like it.

A friend brought some fairy bread and some egg mini quiches, which she and other friend ate, and other friend brought some tomato bruschetta with toasted olive bread and a green salad. We were too busy eating for me to take photos! I took these ones in the morning before we went.

It was a lovely lunch :) We walked around a bit of the gardens later, and ate cake once the rest of our meal went down.

Vegan Chilli

Who needs another freakin vegan chilli recipe when there are 2340873259872395715 billion out there on the web already? Every vegan cookbook I own has a chilli recipe in it. But if you're like me, and try a new recipe every time you make it, just in case there is an even better one, then why not post another recipe, I say! Ha. Especially since this one was pretty delicious.

This one makes a huge pot. Halving it would work fine.

Three-Bean Chilli (or, Another Vegan Chilli)

Serves 9

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 huge onion, sliced

200g carrots, diced

100g celery, diced

1.5 cups cooked kidney beans

1.5 cups cooked white (cannellini) beans

1.5 cups cooked black eye peas (or 1x400g can of each, or any kind of bean you like)

1 cup 'chicken' stock (I use Massel)

1 x 800g can tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp dried oregano

1/2 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp hot chilli powder (more or less to taste)

First, fry (in oil or water) onion and garlic until soft. Add to the pan the carrots and celery and cook them til soft.

Chuck in the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil. Once boiling turn down the heat and simmer until it's more 'saucy' and not watery. I think I did mine for about half an hour.

Serve on top of something - rice, quinoa, barley, pasta? Whatever you like! Easiest chilli ever. Actually they are all kind of easy.

This makes up for the expensive last post - About 70 cents per serve (not including the grain base if you use one, and there would be less serves if you didn't have a grain base.)

This was really pretty good for me just chucking things in the pot. I couldn't be bothered getting out a recipe book and I'm pretty sure chilli usually has cumin and oregano in it. Well it does now. The 1 tbsp of hot chilli was fine for us, but firey-toothed people may want to add more, (or less if you're chicken).

Charlee likes to sit in awkward places.

This is a very, very rare occurence. In fact they can barely stand being in the same room as each other. We don't mind fitting ourselves around the cat's comfort, especially if they BOTH want to sleep with us haha.

Ah, cats. Endless amusement you are. Except when you dig up my carrot and bean seeds. Gah.

Barley Risotto

Nadine made dinner last night - 'White Bean and Barley Risotto with Kale and Tempeh' from Vegan on the Cheap. (with button mushrooms)

This is one of the most delicious meal I've had from this book. I could eat it all day, for real. I was sad there was only 4 servings :( It was also quite expensive to make, which was annoying. Spinach/salad greens are costing a fortune at the supermarket now and it's driving me nuts. I need my green stuff! No, what I need is to get off my ass every Sunday and go to the freakin market.

Anyway, make this damn meal, it's amazing.

We used spinach instead of kale, black eye peas instead of white beans and dried basil instead of savory.

This could have been made cheaper by using frozen spinach, tofu instead of tempeh, and a cheaper brand (or bulk buy) barley. So in the end it cost around $4 per serve.

Bob loves to sleep on our rainbow doona cover :) I turned the light on and she disagreed so she hid her face!

We got a laundry hamper yesterdayand Charlee couldn't resist it!

A minute to relax - 2 recipes!

I had a very busy weekend (I did a painting for a silent auction for donation to the Premier's Flood Relief fund thing and it took AAAGGGES) so it was nice to come home from work this afternoon and actually do something I wanted to do. (Not that I didn't want to do the painting! I just didn't have any chores tonight :)) I tidied my garden! I cut back more lemongrass (the stuff just grows and grows!) some flowers I have that were taking over, and I pulled out my basil because the above little buggers had demolished it all. I rescued enough for a pesto though! I have one bean plant growing (Bob dug up the rest, naughty cat) and I fertilised everything with seaweed and the juice from my bokashi bucket.

On Sunday after we went to the beach we made a light lunch. It may no look very exciting but wow it was delicious. The recipe is adapted from 'Australian Good Food' magazine, Jan/Feb 2011.

Barley and Pea Salad

Makes 4 small serves

2 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

pinch of dried chilli flakes

Handful of mint, chopped

1 red onion, finely chopped

Rind and juice of a lemon

1 cup pearl barley

200g frozen peas

250g frozen broad beans

Mix all but the last 3 ingredients into a small bowl and set aside.

Cook barley as you usually do (I use 3 cups water per 1 cup barley, bring to boil and simmer for about 30 mins). In last few minutes add peas and broad beans. Wait for it to reboil and cook for a minute.

Drain barley mix and return to pot or put in a bowl. Stir through dressing and serve!

To make this go further you can add tofu or seitan or something.

On Sunday evening I decided to make something for work lunch/snacks. I've been wanting to make my own muesli bars for ages since store bought ones almost always contain honey or milk powder, or are coated in yoghurt or filled with sugar, or hideously expensive *breath*, and of course are all individually wrapped in plastic and cardboard and printed and etc. Useless wastes. So I came across this recipe that I used as a base for my own bars! Let me tell you, they are the best muesli bars I've ever had. I had one with toast for breakfast this morning and I wasn't starving like I usually am by morning tea.

Homemade Muesli Bars

Makes about 14 bars

1 cup rolled barley

1 cup rolled rye

1/4 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut

2 tbsp chia seeds (black or white)

2 tbsp sunflower seeds, lightly bashed in a mortar and pestle

1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds and brazil nuts)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

--

1/4 cup rice syrup*

1 tbsp molasses**

1/3 cup tahini

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

In a small saucepan, bring rice syrup and molasses to boil. Take off heat. Stir in tahini and vanilla.

Mix into dry ingredients.

Line a brownie pan with baking paper and turn the mixture into it. Get another piece of baking paper and press it all down flat.

Let cool and cut up into bars! I had mine in the fridge before I cut them up and they crumbled a bit. I'd cut it up at room temperature next time.

*Rice syrup is my new honey. I swear to god, it looks like honey, tastes like honey and is as sweet as honey. It even burned my throat a little when I ate a teaspoon, like honey. I don't think it has the same antibacterial properties as honey though ;) I bought this brand.

** I didn't have any maple syrup as stated in the original recipe so I used what I had on hand. Maple syrup would be better.

I've also been making yoghurt :) Proper yoghurt with probiotics and everything (except the dairy). I'll take a good photo of my next batch. The last one looked like vomit. As yoghurt tends to do. Haha. Another storebought vegan alternative that just doesn't cut it for me (SUGAR!!!). The cheap-cheap easiyo yoghut maker called for me at Woolworths!

Pumpkin, Potato and Kidney Bean Stew

I got this potato from the farmers markets. It was called a red-something...only $3 a kilo! I was hoping it would be red inside (I've seen purple ones in seed catalogues) but unfortunately it was white. It tasted like a regular potato but with an earthier skin (I never peel mine).

So I decided to put it in a stew - I adapted this recipe, and changed most of it to suit me, I think.

Pumpkin, Potato and Kidney Bean Stew

Serves 8 with grain base or 10 without

Ingredients

4 cups cooked kidney beans (about 2 cups dried)

1 cup stock (I used Massel Chicken Style)

Oil for frying

4 cups roughly diced onion

4 cups mixed diced: pumpkin, sweet potato, regular potato

1 cup chopped carrot (about 2 medium)

1 chopped jalapeno chili*

2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp smoked paprika

3 cups cooked tomatoes (about 1 800g can)

Method

1. Put some oil in a large stock pot and add onions, carrot, chilli and pumpkin/potatoes until onion starts to soften - about ten minutes.

2. Add beans to this mixture. Add sage, thyme, and paprika and then tomatoes and some of the stock. Add more later if it starts to dry out a little. Stir well and bring to a boil.

3. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until vegetables are tender.

*It could have done with 2 or more!

I served ours with a mixture of unpearled barley and brown rice. I did 2 parts rice to one part barley.

It also would have a little tastier with just sweet potato or pumpkin - or a few extra herbs. I also forgot to put pepper in.

Unpearled barley is whole barley. It takes a LONG time to cook (about 1.5 hours) but I think it's worth it. I cook in the same way as dried beans: Put barley and water to cover in saucepan, bring to boil. Turn off heat and let stand for a few hours (at least 1). Drain barley and put new water in. Bring to boil again then turn down and simmer until tender (this really does take about 1.5 hours - maybe 2!). I just like making life difficult for myself :) It took a few forkfuls to get used to - just remember to chew it well, and not breathe in the husk. We really like the taste and texture, actually. I love regular pearled barley but this adds a little more.

I'm actually trying to gain some weight (only 4-5kg or so) and I figure I should eat more carbs than I burn. Unpearled barley, brown rice, lots of bread etc. They are cheaper for me to buy than good fats such as avocado, peanut butter, other nuts. 1kg of this unpearled barley only cost me $2.60! I'll still be eating my nuts etc occasionally when I can afford it too though.