The Bieber has left the building.

On Thursday Nadine and I got rid of my hair!

'Twas too thick for the clippers at first...

But then it wasn't!

Thanks to everyone who kindly donated to the Leukaemia Foundation, I have managed so far to raise over $200!

Nadine will, however, quite miss watching the Bieb mow the lawn. Oh well, I'm sure it'll grow back quick smart :)



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 :)

Life Update + Deconstructed hummus pasta

I have been fairly lazy blog-wise lately. I've been busy setting up house, reorganising what I've done to set up house, working, running and crafting. This year is turning into The Year of Doing Things I Always Wanted to But Didn't Because I am Too Lazy or Otherwise Unmotivated. (breath).

I've signed up for my first 5k race of the year (I intend on doing more than one) - The RACQ International Women's Day Fun Run/Walk, and I've been running pretty much every second morning to get ready for it. I'm lucky to live in an area that is FULL OF HILLS which is excellent for running training. I also figure that if I run for 15 mins up and down (steep ish) hills, it'd be like running for half an hour on dead flat ground. =P I actually enjoy this whole running business now. I've managed to get up at five am to fit it in before work and I've found on those days that I do run I have a lot more energy at work. I of course practically fall asleep by 7pm that night but that's ok :)

I have 3 craft projects going on at once at the moment (including my curtains which I have only finished one of so far) and I'll be trying hard to update about them if any progress has been made every Wednesday.

My house is coming together and I just bought a lawn mower (just in time too, the lawn is getting loooonnngg). It is a battery powdered one and I may review it once I've used it.

Now onto some food that of which this blog is about.

Ever had the best intentions of making hummus to eat but finding that the food processor is dirty turns you off?

Deconstructed Hummus Pasta

One Giant Serve.

Ingredients:

Pasta for one

2/3 cups cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp tahini

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 clove garlic, grated/minced

1 wedge of lemon, squeezed

Black pepper

Cook pasta. Put the rest of ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. Add pasta to bowl and stir again. Enjoy!

I added about 5 cherry tomatoes that I found in the fridge to give it some colour. If I make it again I'd also probably add a little bit of water to thin the tahini a bit. It got quite thick :) 

This whole recipe provides you with 24% of your daily iron needs, 14g of protein, 13% calicum, 9% vitamin C, and only 21g sodium. (According to nutritiondata.com) I'm particularly impressed with the first three.

Or if you HAVE hummus, just cook some pasta and whack maybe half a cup of it on top. Yum.

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On other nonrelated news, this year I have signed up for the World's Greatest Shave for leukaemia! This is another thing I've been wanting to do forever.

I'll be shaving off what we like to refer to as 'The Bieber'. I'll miss him a little. :)

If you would like to sponsor me, please click here and follow the instructions :) Any amount is appreciated!

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 :)

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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.

You can't go wrong with pie

I came home from work on Thursday to find that Nadine had baked me a pie.

The Banana Toffee Pudding Pie (otherwise known as Banoffee) from Vegan Pie in the Sky as a matter of fact.

Could anything be more delicious?

WIP Wednesday!

I have sorta kinda maybe always wanted to do something like this but never bothered. Theresa over at the Tropical Vegan reminded me of it, and this time I actually have some works in progress! I'm hoping posting about them for give me the kick up the butt I need to finish some, and in turn more inspiration to start new ones too.

I am currently making some curtains for our bedroom. Some nice, bright, kind of ugly curtains to brighten up our doomy gloomy bedroom.

Doomy gloomy bedroom.

We went to Spotlight and spent friggin hours trying to find the perfect material. I found lots I liked but Nadine was 'meh' about everything, until we found this (kind of absurdly expensive) 70's retro style print. Burnt orange? Yes please! Will match our tablecloth :)

I am making simple tab curtains, but decided to make it hard for myself by turning them into blackout curtains. We are sooks and can't stand the slightest glint of light. We got the blackout stuff at Spotlight too, though I can't remember what it's actually called. You can get it in single thickness or triple though. We went for single because we are broke cheap.

So far I've made all the tabs for all 3 curtains (7 for each).

Just thought I'd take some crafty photos along the way.

I've also hemmed the top and bottom of one curtain and am currently attempting to join the blackout material to it somehow. I accidentally cut it too short for this one, but I shall remember it for next time!

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.