Gluten, gluten, oh how I love thee...

Hey y'all! I haven't really been up to date in blog land for a while. There's been a lack of motivation and busy-ness and all that jazz :)

Brain food: Laksa stir fry with lots of colours.

This is what my life tends to look like evenings after work. I've enrolled in college! Yay! Back to school again for Emma. I'm doing an Advanced Diploma of Nutrtional Medicine and so far it's pretty interesting. I'm doing 3 classes at the moment because I still need to work full time to pay rent and feed the cats and all. I haven't actually got up to the nutrition part yet. So far I've started Anatomy and Physiology 1 and Chemistry...I thought chemistry would be a lot more daunting but as it turns out the elements are the same in the garden as they are in our bodies so I already recognise a lot of the themes. I'm also doing a communication class to get it over and done with...already had a panic attack and burst into tears at the thought of doing roleplays so we'll see how it goes! I do that class in the evenings on Tuesdays on campus. The others I'm doing online which is nice...free textbooks and I can take a long as I need to.

Well that's that, other news is that I am (oh joy) gluten intolerant! Fun times lay ahead. It's not too bad. I am currently trial-and-erroring what gluten I can and can't handle...unfortunately oats, as in porridge, make me feel and look pregnant. I eat ate oats pretty much every day!! Oh well.

I decided I'd try some quinoa flakes instead of oats to make a porridge like meal for breakfast.

Following the directions on the packet, however, turns it into a textureless watery mess (though tasty). So I experimented a little bit and found that if I mixed equal parts of liquid and the flakes in a bowl and zapped it in the microwave for one minute it made an almost porridge texture (I eat mine really thick). So quinoa will do as a substitute - it's a bit expensive though. I might try rice flakes and see if they do the same thing. I'm also going to try rolled spelt and see if it upsets my stomach (I may also try rolled rye).

Apparently the gluten in each grain is slightly different and it all depends on your body as to whether you can handle it or not. Some things are easier to substitute than others (I've found a good bread mix to make in my breadmaker, and I've been eating gluten free pasta for ages).

Pastry was a hard thing...but I found a good recipe online that I liked the results of. You can find it here.



It rolled out nicely like a regular gluteny crust and baked up nice and soft like a proper shortcrust. (Rice flour based pastry goes rock solid). The strips I used in the lattice were a bit fragile but they did the job! It tasted good and texture was delicious, though a teensy bit dry. I didn't measure my margarine so that may have been the reason. I reccommend this recipe if you want to try your hand at a gluten free crust :)

When we cut the pie it fell apart a little...cutting it straight out of the fridge the next day had far better results :P oh well, was still delicious. It's just a raspberry and apple pie by the way, with a bit of homemde vanilla ice cream from the Veganomicon cookbook. I like that ice cream better than store bought soy stuff but it tastes  little tofu-y to someone not used to the taste. I'm wondering if steaming the tofu before making the ice cream would do anything?

It's good to be back in blog land. Unfortunately my unmotivation stretched into my half marathon training so I definately won't be running the whole thing in two weeks time. I'll run as far as I can though! I'll pick it up again for the Bridge to Brisbane methinks.

ABC of Me.(a survey)

I haven't done one of these since forever, so I thought why not? Found it at Tahini Too.


A is for age: I am 22 but my birthday is days away :)
B is for breakfast today: Cooked oat groats and brown rice heated up with some soy milk, raw almonds, banana, chia seeds and molasses.
C is for currently craving: Something chewy and gluteny. Like a huge bowl of pasta. Or a loaf of bread. (more on this later).
D is for dinner tonight: The quinoa puttanesca from Appetite for Reduction. I added some beans and a zucchini and used 1x400g can of tomatoes plus 4 large fresh ones (instead of 1x800g can). I also didn't use wine.

It's a terrible photo but it's the most delicious thing I've had for a wile. I love capers.

E is for favorite type of exercise: I'm getting into running at the moment. Though we had a larger weekend than normal and the motivation has fallen a little..
F is for an irrational fear: I have recurring nightmares about being trapped in a hospital when a ginormous tornado is coming. I'd MUCH rather a cyclone or hurricane. Or flood or earthquake. Did you know Arkansas was pronounced Are-can-saw? Learn something new everyday.
G is for gross food: Soggy sandwiches. Disgusting.
H is for hometown: Tauranga, NZ.
I is for something important: A positive attitude.
J is for current favorite jam: Homemade marmalade:

K is for kids: My cats are my kids. I get stressed out when others' children are being irritating (which is pretty much always) imagine if they were mine!
L is for current location: My loungeroom.
M is for the most recent way you spent money:

Shopping for various gluten free flours ^

And fruit and veg. Sweet potatoes were still only 49c/kg!

N is for something you need: I don't really need anything. I do need to go for a run though.
O is for occupation: I am in between jobs - just resigned as a nursery hand and have a job to start next week as an office gopher/phone answerer/and data entry-er.
P is for pet peeve: I have so many it's hard to list them all. People eating with their mouth hanging open is a big one. Charlee's licking. People who talk loudly on mobiles on public transport. The neighbours who stare at me when I whipper snip. Plus many more.
Q is for a quote: Yesterday you said tomorrow.
R is for random fact about you: My big toes on both feet do not have joints. It creeps people out. Hahaha.
S is for favorite healthy snack: Hummus =D I make it every week.
T is for favorite treat: Home made biscuits or bread or ice cream.
U is for something that makes you unique: I have a scar on the top of my head that Nadine found when she shaved it. I don't know how I got it.
V is for favorite vegetable: Pretty sure I like them all. I go through phases.
W is for today’s workout: I'll get off my ass and go for a run in a minute, and then do some weights (since I'll no longer be lifting heavy things all day at work I'll have to keep on that!)
X is for X-rays you’ve had: Teeth/mouth and I've had an echo-cardiogram. That one was fun :)
Y is for yesterday’s highlight: My lunch:

Homemade gluten free wrap bread with lettuce, grated carrot and home grown sprouts on it with a vegie burger patty. My other ones had the baked falafel from Appetite for Reduction on it. Yum. 

Z is for your time zone: Australian Eastern Standard Time. I think.

Lunch: Quinoa Salad and Black Bean Dip

I love quinoa in a salad. And I almost can't wait to go to work tomorrow so I can eat this one!

I found this reicipe: Green Goddess Salad (from Healthy. Happy. Life.) on Pinterest and thought it'd be a perfect portable, filling but light lunch to take to work.

My greens were peas, brocolli and english spinach shredded. I also chucked in a tomato I found in the fridge. I used quinoa instead of cous cous because it's what I had in the cupboard. Next weeks lunches might have to feature whole wheat cous cous! I used a chopped ruby red grapefruit instead of orange (really good idea! I love grapefruit.) The dressing I chose was the tahini option (see recipe) but I skipped the maple syrup because I don't have any at the moment.

Nadine and I shared a small bowl of this when she got home today as an afternoon snack. AKndnnewkjt34$%@.

I'm really liking this whole taking cold salads to work for lunch instead of leftovers thing. I don't have to wait for microwaves, it's always tasty, and it changes up the routine a bit. I also get to try many more dishes too! And all of the salads I've made so far can be made ahead, therefore I can do like 3 days of lunches for us at once and all I have to do is get the container out of the fridge in the morning, no fart arsing around.

I also usually make some sort of bean based dip to take for morning teas to eat with carrot/celery/other vegetable sticks. This week I've made Monumental Black Bean Dip from Eating Bird Food.

I usually make a simple hummus but this week I felt like a change. When I made this I added a half cup of extra black beans because I found it a bit thin. Also straight after making it the flavours were pretty mild, but Nadine took it to work today and said it was really good :) So the flavours must soak in a bit more overnight.

Attractive, isn't it? Hehehe.

A little bit of a foodie update...

So I was craving dessert this week. I even bought ice cream.

I made an apple and pear tart/pie. I cooked up two medium apple and one medium pear (it was a different pear - got it from the farmer's market. Can't remember what it was called but it looked like an apple but pear shaped. It's skin was thick but cooked well) with some cinnamon, and put in my tart pan with a basic wholemeal pastry base. As you can see I went all out and made a proper lattice top! Pretty sure I did it the hard way. Is there an easy way?

It went perfectly with vanilla So Good ice cream and a bit of lindt 85% dark chocolate. I ate most of the rest cold for morning tea at work during the rest of the week.

Nadine hasn't been working much so she's been queen of the kitchen lately! This is a spinach and potato curry from appetite for reduction. Delicious. It is so fun to eat quinoa!

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Nadine has cooked a delicious looking dinner for me tonight! We are celebrating our third anniversary with Dvd's, a yummy dinner, and tomorrow we will spend the day bush walking and...car shopping. Guh!

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.

Cleaning out the Pantry

This week I have been so broke I am cleaning out my cupboards and my fridge and my freezer before I buy any more groceries. (My car was almost a year over due for a service and the bill showed it!!! Oh well, now it isn't going to explode.)

Anyway, the above picture is a salad I made on Sunday to take to work for lunches. I based it on something out of Concious Cooking. It's basically: quinoa, red onion, half a cucumber, 1 grated carrot, spinach leaves, orange and spring onions. The dressing is made from rice bran oil, orange juice and red wine vinegar. It was delicious. All the flavours worked very well together and I enjoyed my lunches immensely.

We are having more leftovers of this one tonight. It's also from Concious Cooking and I was a bit wary of it because I decided a little while ago that I did not like fennel (as in the fresh bulb, not the dried seed or herb). I bought it to juice fresh and it ruined the flavour of everything.  However, to my taste buds surprise, fennel tastes completely different when cooked! Thank god. The recipe is called 'Whole Wheat Penne with san Marzano tomatoes'. I just used a tin of Australian tomatoes, kalamata olives instead of stuffed green, red wine instead of white wine, and skipped the tarragon. It was a delicious meal and I am glad we have more to eat tonight. I'll be throwing in a can's worth of white beans to stretch it out a bit. (I cook dried beans and freeze them in zip lock bags in 1 1/2 cup amounts).

I think this weekend I'll be busting out a lentil and black eyed pea curry that'll feed an army.

Tomorrow we are having friends over so we're making nachos and having beer. Hopefully Nadine buys the beer! Apparently white beans and green peas make a good substitute guacamole (according to Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap) so I'll just buy 1 avo instead of two and try that! I'll let you know how it passes with the friends. There is also a recipe for vegan sour cream in that book, so I'm going to give that a go. I already make my own mayo, why not sour cream!?