Breakfast of Champions

Lately we have been enjoying a basic bowl of cooked whole grains for breakfast. Once a week I'll cook up a cup each of whole oats and brown rice, mix them together and it lasts us a few days. I'll generally use 2/3-1 cup of the cooked grain as a serving. In this bowl I;ve got oats and rice, raw almond milk, tahini, banana, chopped dried apricots, chia seeds and molasses. I usually heat up the grains and then pour cold milk on top.

It tastes good, has a good texture and is very filling without being too heavy. I like that in a breakfast.

Cheap, quick, easy

Black Beans and Rice

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large onion, diced small

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds, crushed

1 tsp ground coriander seed

1 can crushed or diced tomatoes

1 can black beans (1 1/2 cups cooked)

1 head brocolli, cut into florets

black pepper

2 cups uncooked brown rice

Lime to serve

Method:

Put rice onto cook. Meanwhile, fry onion and garlic in a little bit of oil until it starts to soften. Add cumin seeds to pan and cook until they become fragrant (don't burn!). Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until brocolli is tender/bright green.

When rice is cooked mix it altogether and serve with a wedge of lime :)

---

So good to make this on a work night. Onions and garlic are something I've always got, and there's always some kind of bean in the freezer ready to go. The recipe is easily adaptable too, make it Italian-y by using dried basil and oregano or thyme instead of cumin and coriander. Use whatever vegetable you have in the fridge! This only takes as long as the rice to cook, and if you're the type to have leftover rice in the fridge, even better!

We've been eating way too much white pasta this week so this meal was a nice healthy break for our digestive systems.

Sprout sprout sprout!

I love to sprout stuff. I've been sprouting stuff for ages, when I lived in a sharehouse I always had jars sprouting on the window sill and in the dish rack in everyones way. I stopped doing it for a while because I got lazy (it's not THAT much effort) and have just recently started again. The problem is I never know what to do with them, forget they're in the fridge and then they go bad! Sad sad times.

Then I found this recipe for Lentil sprout salad on Addicted to Veggies, and the dressing sounded so good, and I happened to have mung beans sprouting on the windowsill so I made it for lunch last weeked. Driiiibbble. I made the delicious delicious dressing as per the recipe (it is the shiz) and filled a bowl with mung bean sprouts, shredded red cabbage, avocado, shredded silverbeet leaves and yellow squash. Yum. I had the second half for lunch at work.

I had a fair bit more of the dressing left in the fridge and I didn't want that to go bad either (I really don't eat much salad, generally) so I made a salad to go on the side of tonights dinner. In it is: baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, radishes, avocado and rye sprouts. I've never sprouted rye before and man they are SO GOOD. I love the little tails :). Sproutpeople.org is a fantastic resource for how to's and supplies. I just use a large jar, the window sill and some sort of mesh.

Dinner was the Salsa rice from Vegan on the Cheap. There's nothing quite as satisfying as rice and beans. 

Tasty tasty

Been on a bit of a Veganomicon kick this week (spicy tempeh pasta) and the Asparagus and Lemongrass Risotto on page 198 was also freakin fantastic. It took forever to make (though I was making bread by hand at the same time so that may have held me up a tad) and I didn't have any basil or mint or peanut oil, ooor enough arborio rice but I don't know if I'll make risotto any other way again (jk). I used about 1 cup of arborio and half a cup of regular brown rice, skipped the basil/mint and did serve it with the suggested Tangerine Baked Tofu but used oranges and whiskey instead of tangerines and rum. Amazing. Served with lime zest, pan roasted cashew nuts and extra marinade from the tofu.

All the flavours worked really well together but I think next time I'll slice the tofu a little thinner and marinate for longer because it didn't pick up the flavour it could have.

Another one we've made is the 'Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelised onion and Sage Crumb Topping'  (phew long title!) on page 194. (I obviously didn't go further than the pasta and risotto chapter.) I used wholewheat spirals instead of the ziti and I'm pretty sure that's the only edit I made to it! I could eat the cashew ricotta with a spoon and the breadcrumbs on top were to die for (though I wish I'd used some wholemeal bread instead of the white baguette we got for 50c since it gave both of us a stomachache!) and the whole thing was quite moreish. It was better the next day for lunch too.

Now a non Vgeanomicon related thing - my breakfast for the past few days! I had a tiny bit of whole oat groats leftover in a jar that was annoying me by being there so I cooked it up in some soy milk with handful of chopped dates and chopped brazil nuts. I didn't measure the dry grain but I ended up with 2 cups of cooked oats. I divided it in two and stuck it in the fridge. In the morning I heated it up, added sliced strawberries (on special at Coles hooray!) some chia seeds and a drizzle of brown rice syrup. Yum. Filled me up for ages which is really good since I have to wait 4 hours since I eat breakfast before I get to eat again. I highly reccomend a whole grain for breakfast - brown rice, wheat, oats, spelt (omg yum), buckwheat, barley. Just cook it up the night before, or on Sunday cook enough for your whole work week, it should keep in the fridge.

Now I am going to sit and watch the Gruen Transfer with a cup of hot red clover tea. Apparently it helps reduce hot flashes (cuz I get those! haha), healp relieve rheumatic or gout pain, contains vitamin E and can help sore throats. [source] Good o :)

Carribean Curry - Black eyed peas and sweet potato

I have been so broke this week because I spent all my money on Christmas presents (I got in early this year) and a few...quite a lot rather, new things for me! I shouldn't be allowed to spend money. But I now have enough vintage dresses to last me my whole life! Almost.

Anyway very very cheap meals have been on the menu. I don't really ever make expensive meals, this IS a cheap food blog for students such as myself after all, but you really can't get any cheaper than lentils and rice.  Last night I made a dal type thing which was quite yummy, though looked like vomit so I won't post the picture. Only thing is I keep forgetting to put carrot in my cooking, which is annoying because I have almost 2kg in the fridge going soft. I might just make a carrot cake.

Tonight I made this Carribean Curry with black eyed peas and plaintains from Post Punk Kitchen.

Black eyed peas are pretty much my new favourite legume. I don't know what a plaintain is, and I've never seen one so I used sweet potato which I think was suggested as an option. Though if I do see one I'll probably buy it - it does look rather intriguing.

Anyway! This recipe was pretty damn good - fluro yellow, from the curry powder I bought - but very delicious.

:)

Fruit of the month!

I always like to try a new fruit or vegetable every now and then, and now that I work at a fruit shop with a pretty good variety of exotics, I can just pick something up!

This one is called a Wax Jambu (or jambo as the sign at work spelled it ;)) and it is the fruit of a species of Lilly Pilly (Syzigium samarangense). This website has a little bit of information about it.

I have eaten other types of lilly pilly fruit in the past, and liked them, so I just had to buy these and try :) (For some reason the first search that came up was a vegan website lol).

The wax jambu is like eating a star fruit (or carambola) but without the acid. It's freakin delicious, and today if I get to work early I'm going to buy more. One for every day of the week!

The neighbours have lined their fence with small-leaved lilly pillys (second link) and they just went into flower, which means - fruit! Their trees happen to be dropping over MY fence therefore they are up for grabs. Unfortunately, I think the possums have gotten to the blossoms...they have stripped the other neighbours avocado tree of it's flowers, and the other neighbours mango tree of it's flowers (me = very sad) so it wouldn't surprise me if the lilly pilly flowers are gone too.

So worth the $8.99/kg price ticket. It's not that expensive - they barely weigh anything.

I knwo of a few quandong trees in a public space that I may be able to get fruit off, too...at least I'm sure I can gather the fruits that have fallen to the ground. Muaha.

I had this randomly delicious meal for lunch today. I wasn't expecting it to taste so good :) It's basically brown rice, Fry's Chicken Nuggets, and sautee'd kale, beetroot stems, sliced ginger and garlic with vegan butter and a blob of vegan tom yum soup paste. I drizzled soy sauce over the top, but may have put too much because it was a bit salty...I even managed to get in a bit of weights work while I was waiting for the rice to cook! Not much, but it was something. I've been quite slack lately. Usually only managing a couple of sun salutes in the mornings, which is better than nothing I suppose.  

Kebab sticks with peanut sauce

This is one of the best meals I have made lately. Basically kebab sticks with eggplant, button mushrooms, asparagus and tempeh. Serve it on top of rice with peanut sauce! We also drank a glass of rose wine with it too. Instead of actual tempeh, I bought this tofu-tempeh which was 80% tofu and 20% tempeh. We don't realllly like tempeh (hate it haha, It's revolting) so I thought this would be nice as a transition to help get used to it. It's not too tempeh-y but still has some of the health benefits that tofu alone doesn't have.

Lemon thyme polenta with roasted vegetables and brown rice pudding

So I noticed the other day that I wasn't being diligent with dead-heading my little viola flowers I grew from seed in a window-box...and a fair few of the flowers has gone to seed! I have never seen it before so I took a picture. I then picked this open seed pod and planted the seeds in a new pot...I hope they were ready. Judging by the fact that the pod has split open and the seeds are dry and hard, I guess they are ready :P I might put a little step by step how-to of germinating seeds soon...I think it's handy to know. And growing from seeds is so satisfying!

Nadine cooked last night and she whipped up this delicious recipe from Vegan Italiano (lots of nice warm-weather recipes in it). It's Lemon-thyme polenta with roasted vegetables. Amazing. Though the veges took a million years to roast (I think this is because we have a gas oven - I have always had issues with my gas ovens and roasting) the end result was yummy. It's basically polenta cooked with a squeeze of lemon and a spoon of thyme then spread out and set firm. Grill it on both sides til slightly browned and crispy. Serve the roasted veg on top! The veg were marinated in olive brine and balsamic vinegar. Mmm...

And for dessert tonight I made the Brown Rice Pudding from Organically Me. I thought I should make it before the weather got too hot...It was pretty damn good! The almonds provide a nice crunchy contrast to the chewiness of the brown rice. Mmm. I always forget the rice pudding gives me stomach cramps though! And I didn't have any garam masala so I just used allspice instead.

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.