Happy Saturday

Today I intended to get up when I woke up (ha!), eat half a grapefruit, do some more Bridge to Brisbane training, and come home and eat breakfast. However we went and drank too much wine last night so I stayed in bed and got up when I was ravenous, ate an entire can of baked beans on toast (yummmm - I heated them up in the microwave and mixed through some liquid aminos and nutritional yeast) and proceeded to sit on the couch for a few hours, with laundry and dishes washing thrown in between.

Anyway I decided enough time had passed since my feast of a breakfast to go for a run without getting cramps or spewing, and I was getting hungry again. So I ate my half a grapefruit:

Look how bright it is! This is a ruby red grapefruit. They were really cheap at the fruit shop (something like $3/kg) and are awesome to eat in the morning to get things going.

I went for my run (I can now go for 11 minutes [for my slow jogging that's 1.6km] without stopping. That's a pretty big acheivement for me haha, the girl who walked off the 200m track in a huff in grade 7), and realised I always pick silly times to do it. Midday probably isn't the best idea in the blazing sun. I hate putting sunscreen on my arms and legs (but I did don't worry!) because it takes forever to scrub off. I use Natural Instinct Sunscreen, and it's apparently 4 hours water resistant. I tell you, this stuff does NOT come off! Which is a good thing in the harsh Australian sun.

Thankfully it's warm enough to run without a jumper on now. Goodbye cold.

When I got home I tried to do some yoga but I had the shakes - obviously didn't eat enough before hand, or perhaps I should have put some gatorade in my water or something. Tomorrow I'll be sure to do that. So I had lunch. I didn't feel like the soup we drunkenly made last night (though it's pretty good!) So I threw together this:

1 small zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 1 silverbeet leaf, 100g tempeh and 1 serve of gluten free pasta shells. It's in a satay-esque sauce I made from 1 tbsp sunflower seed butter, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/8 tsp onion powder and 1/8 garlic powder (yeah I got lazy). Damn it was good.

I bought this sunflower seed butter for my sister and her boyfriend to use (he's allergic to nuts) but it's pretty revolting. In fact it's awful. By itself that is. It's sickly sweet and salty at the same time (but smells pretty good!) I've basically just been using it in stir fry sauces. I bought some gluten free pasta the other day because I like it. Why do gf pasta packets always have 6 bazillion languages on it?

I may or may not try to make a baguette to have with our soup for tea tonight. Hmm.

Brown 'Rice' Sushi and Zucchini Noodles with Almond-Coconut Sauce - Raw

On my birthday, I dragged Nadine to Mrs Flannery's and bought piles and piles of grains and dried beans. Yes, that is my idea of fun. One of the grains I got is whole oat groats - I've been wanting to make oat milk to see what it's like, and I just assume you make it the same way you do brown rice milk.

Anyway I got lots (I love bulk - so cheap!), and I always look at this recipe from Addicted to Veggies, just waiting for a time when I could be bothered making it. (I often keep recipes bookmarked for aaaggges before I finally get around to it). And, I took so long to make it because the idea of eating grains that weren't actually cooked seemed odd to me.

I had a day off work Monday (present to myself haha) so I decided to make it then!

Oooh and it turned out so so good. I put the oat groats in to soak on Sunday night so I could prep it all during the day. I really hate being rushed when sushi rolling is involved! I made half the recipe, in case I didn't like it and because I didn't have quite enough oats to make a full recipe and milk later on.

I had to make a few substitutions:

In the brown 'rice' seasoning - I used sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin seeds, and I used my mortar and pestle to grind everything. It took a little while but it's worth it.

And in the making of sushi rice I used soy sauce instead of coconut aminos or nama shoyu.

I could have just eaten the oats as they were then! Yum. They turn out quite chewy. It's very different, but also very good.

In my sushi filling I had avocado, carrot, red capsicum and garlic chives from my garden.

I had to make something to go on the side, so I had a look around and found this recipe for Spicy Thai Almond-Coconut Sauce. (Scroll down, I think it's the second recipe). So I made some zucchini noodles by peeling and peeling a zucchini until I couldn't peel any more (I want a spiraliser), tossed them with the sauce and some baby spinach, the rest of the zucchini cubed, and the leftover bits of red capsicum that didn't fit in the sushi. I also used lemon juice instead because I didn't want to buy a lime, but I sprinkled some lime zest I had frozen on top to make it limey. Yum. (Good thrifty tip I learned from Vegan on the Cheap).

Extremely good, except for one thing - I used coconut oil instead of coconut butter, not wanting to go and buy butter just for one recipe. I should have, well, not. Next time I make it, if I do, I'm going to skip the oil and used some dessicated coconut instead. It made me feel so sick! I woke up nauseous, went to work and had to come home because I still felt nauseous (I couldn't eat even half my breakfast and the mere thought of eating my morning tea at work made me want to be ill).

But on the motorway on my way home, when I saw one of those 'cage' trucks carrying cows off to whereever they go and burst into tears, I realised the nausea was probably a little more to do with certain lady troubles than just too much coconut oil!

Anyway, I'm glad I've finally had a go at raw 'cooking', especially since eating more raw foods was one of my resolutions! I've done pretty well this year so far. Why make a boring salad when you can make raw sushi out of oats!?

Anyway, I've just finished baking a trial batch of hot cross buns and, wow, they smell amazing. I made some last year which turned out kind of brick-like, so I hope these are nicer. If they worked I'll post my recipe, and make another batch for actual Easter that's coming up soon! I'm not religious, but I do enjoy making holiday food. Mince pies are on my list for Christmas this year, in lieu of my usual trifle! Actually that trifle is so delicious I may have to make both.

Tonight I'm cooking up a big pot of something spicy, and chickpea-y and oil-free to try and make the nausea go away. I've tried sleeping it off, drinking ginger tea and eating marmite toast but it's still there. Ah well. Hopefully I make it to work tomorrow, I don't have that many sick hours clocked up, and getting paid is kind of important to be able to eat.

Fettucine with Zucchini, lemon, tofu and almonds.

I borrowed this recipe from a lovely book my mum got me for Christmas (Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion). The original recipe is called 'Fettucine with Zucchini, Lemon, Ricotta and Fried Almonds' on page 716. I've just edited it to suit our vegan lifestyle :) Most recipes in the book are vegetarian, which is nice.

Ingredients:

Your choice of vegan margarine (I use Nuttelex Lite)

1/3 cup flaked almonds

Fettucine pasta (I used spinach)

2 large zucchini, diced

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 cup chicken style stock (I use Massel)

Juice and zest of one lemon

1/2 block of tofu, diced really tiny

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Method:

Put pasta on to cook.

Fry the tofu until crispy in some margarine. Remove from pan and  drain on paper towel. Using the same pan (you may need to put more margarine in) lightly fry the almonds until light brown. (I burnt mine by accident but it was still good). Remove from pan and drain with tofu.

Put the rest of the ingredients except the parsley and half of the lemon zest into the pan. Bring to a simmer and let cook until pasta is ready, or until zucchini is tender. Stir in the tofu, almonds, parsley and remaining lemon zest and heat for a minute before serving.

This is a light and summery meal that qould have been perfect to eat outside with candles or something. However, it is STILL raining, and we don't have anywhere to eat outside anyway :)

Obviously the tofu cubes replace the ricotta cheese. I was going to go all out and make up an actual tofu ricotta (I always use the recipe from Skinny Bitch) but I couldn't be bothered getting out my blender. It would be fantastic with it though :)