orange almond cake

Finally on the mend and back at work with only a lingering cough. Being sick is just the worst, and I was definitely very miserable.

Feeling better means I'm back in the kitchen but still feeling like something pretty simple and basic, I whipped up this orange almond cake. I can't take any credit for the recipe as I picked it up in a cookbook somewhere, the name and place evades me.

I found this cake to be just so moist and flavoursome, holding its form perfectly even with no flour. I shared with my family who was also surprised at the moistness of the cake.

I didn't have almond meal, but had plenty of almonds on hand, so I processed 200 g in the food processor until fine.

Ingredients

(serves 8-10)

2 oranges

1 1/2 c almond meal (or 200g almonds ground)

6 eggs, lightly whisked

1 tsp bi-carb soda

1/2 c raw sugar

Heat oven to 160 C and line a spring form cake dish with baking paper

Place oranges in a pot and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 45 minutes, drain and cool.

Place in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Fold in almond meal, eggs, sugar and bi-carb gently.

Pour mixture into the tin and place in oven to bake for 45-50 minutes (until firm).

Remove from oven and cool.

Serve and enjoy.

vegetable quiche

This is just a quick and easy recipe (bar the cooking time), that you can whip together in no time and leave in the oven to cook away.

I've used a variety of vegetables in this because it's so important to keep your diet varied with the vegetables and grains that you use. Each have a unique makeup of vitamins and minerals, so it really is vital that you vary what you eat so that you can get all the beneficial nutrition. If there is a vegie that you haven't heard of before, maybe consider trying it, if you're not sure ask around to see how others add it into their diet.

This recipe made enough to feed a family, but, with just the two of us at home we had a few leftovers. Making meals that are a little bigger is great for a quick lunch the next day or a meal stored in the freezer. This recipe is certainly no exception as it made the perfect healthy lunch for the next day, both cold and warmed up.

Ingredients

(makes 8-10 slices)

4 zucchinis, grated

2 potatoes, grated

3 carrots, grated

2 brown onions, grated

4 eggs, whisked

100g goats cheese, crumbled

¼ c nutritional yeast flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 150 C and grease a medium baking dish with olive oil.

Combine all ingredients well and press into dish.

Bake in oven for 1-1 ½ hours.

Remove from oven, cool for 5 minutes and serve.

red lentil burgers

Is life just busier? I feel the days are going faster than ever and any spare time that I have gets filled up pretty quickly. I don't mind though, I love fitting as much into life as possible that's just living, right?!

After a busy weekend and a full day at work I came home, chopped the fire wood, started the fire, then got started on these beauties.

Luckily there were heaps more burgers than I anticipated which means I can stock the freezer for a quick lunch option on work days. Sometimes with all the rushing, it's good to have a healthy back-up meal that you can defrost for a quick satisfying lunch or dinner and this is surely one.

Ingredients

(makes 20)

1 1/2 c split red lentils, soaked for 6-8 hours

1 c walnuts

2 carrots, grated

1 brown onion, grated

1 c besan flour

1 tsp bi-carb soda

1 tblsp savoury yeast flakes

2 eggs, lightly whisked

olive oil, for greasing

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 180 C and line a large baking tray with parchment paper then lightly grease with oil.

Bring lentils to boil in a heavy based saucepan.

Cook for 15-20 minutes until soft, then drain and set aside to cool.

Add walnuts to a food processor/blender and pulse until crumbled.

Mix walnuts, carrots and onion in a medium sized bowl.

Next add in the lentils and remainder of ingredients, mixing until well combined.

Using wet hands, scoop small handful sizes of the mixture then roll into a ball.

Place on tray and push down lightly to flatten out.

Repeat until all the mixture has been used.

Place tray in oven for 25 minutes, then flip the burgers and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Serve!

herbed chickpea salad

Absolutely love chickpeas and it has been too long between friends.

Like, seriously, way too long. I even expressed to Joel how excited I was to be having chickpeas for dinner. He sarcastically responded by saying, ‘that’s great honey’.

As you may have read in the last post, we did a whole lot of gardening on the weekend and I had to harvest all my herbs. I don’t really like using up all my crops as I feel safer with still some sitting there. It’s like, but what if I want some fresh mint later in the week? What will I do then! I even get a little precious and won’t use as much as I like, just so there is always something filling the pots. It makes me feel wealthy in a very green way.

Anyways, with the massive influx of herbs in my kitchen, I have been throwing them into everything. Handfuls of mint in some mineral water, chives in my cabbage wraps for lunch, parsley on EVERYTHING.

Chickpeas are so tasty and make an awesome protein packed ‘throw together’ salad-like meal. And best of all, they are inexpensive. Joel and I lived off legumes when we travelled Europe. They were the most filling, affordable meal addition for us vegetarians/pescatarians, on a very tight budget. 30 Euro cents (40c in Aus) would get you a 500g jar of pre-prepared beans, peas, lentils etc and would easily stretch 2 meals each.

You can get super creative with chickpea salads. I’ve just thrown in whatever I felt like when digging through the refrigerator, but any fresh vegetables will work.

Ingredients

(makes 4 serves)

1 ½ c dried chickpeas, soaked for 6-8 hours (or 2 drained and rinsed tins)

1 spanish red onion, finely diced

1 cucumber, diced

½ c of complimentary fresh herbs (mint, chives, parsley etc)

½ lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

If you are using dried chickpeas, place them in a pot of water and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Drain and set aside to cool.

Add all ingredients in a medium bowl and toss well to combine.

Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes - 1 hour for flavours to infuse.

Serve and enjoy.

vegan curried 'egg' salad cups

I love a good curried egg salad. It reminds me of staying at my Grandma’s house when we were younger ‘kidlets’ . My Grandparents are/were mad water skiers and we would spend hours on end out on their ski boat in the summertime. My attempts of water skiing were never a great success. You see, I wouldn't let go of the rope when I fell and would be dragged under the water to the point of nearly drowning. This made me develop a bit of a phobia. So, I spent most of the time clinging for my life on the donut and cruising on the kneeboard.

Grandma would always make up a massive eski full of sandwiches and come lunchtime we were always famished. With my brother and sister we would sit with our feet in the water enjoying a super satisfying lunch of curried egg sandwiches.

As well as the lunches on the boat, during the school term when we would stay with our Grandparents, Grandma would always be up first thing in the morning making our lunches. Adding lots of homemade goodies like biscuits, fruit cake, Grandad’s dehydrated bananas and of course homemade bread with fresh curried egg and lettuce. There’s nothing better than meals full of nostalgia so that’s what this one is.

Although veganised and totally adapted from the original, it still takes me back to the summer days on the ski boat as the texture and flavours are still all there.

Ingredients

(serves 2)

300g organic firm tofu (homemade or otherwise)

2-3 tsp mild/stong curry powder

1 tsp hemp seed oil (or oil of choosing – olive also works great)

1 tblsp nutritional yeast flakes

pinch of salt and pepper

iceberg lettuce leaves

snow pea sprouts (optional)

Crumble the tofu into a small bowl, using fingers.

Stir in all other ingredients until well combined.

Lay out a lettuce cup and fill with curried ‘egg’ and sprouts (as much or as little as you like).

Roll and munch down straight away.

If you want to make it a take-away option, pack the lettuce cups and curried egg in a separate containers and make the rolls later - perfect for a picnic.

spiced apple and pear roll-ups

I know, I know, I’ve been a little silent on here. But for good reason as we have been at the snow for the past week.

It was amazing; fresh powder, super drop offs and jumps, absolutely worth the aches and pains. On top of that, it was just so nice to have a holiday with Joel again, even if it wasn’t restful, it is just so nice to be active and creating new memories together.

 

Our time on the slopes was exceptional, however our car started playing up pretty early on in the week and we ended up losing all our radiator fluid in 20mins intervals. We took it to a mechanic who said that the job would take him 8-12 hours to pull the engine apart and find the root of the issue*. As we didn’t have time for this, we decided to keep chugging along with a massive drum of coolant and water in the back of the car for top-ups. Our major stress was always going to be the drive home.

We left the snow at 4pm and made it home by midnight – not a bad effort for a 6.5 hour drive, stopping every 10-20 mins.

*Not to mention the car had been in the shop for 2 months right before we left for the snow. Our timing belt went and we had to replace the engine.

I haven’t had time to really document a new recipe amidst the car issues, washing, unpacking, shopping and work. So I’ve decided to post this snack which I made before we left for the snow.

We had a heap of pears and apples to use up in the refrigerator and what better way to use them all up than making roll-ups. A healthy, easy-pack energy hit for the hill.

Ingredients

(makes 24)

5 large apples (mixed red & green)

5 large pears

1 tsp cinnamon

Roughly chop the apples and pears and place them in a heavy based saucepan with an inch of water.

Simmer until soft, remove from heat and cool.

Add cinnamon, and softened fruit to a blender and whiz until smooth.

Scoop out and spread evenly (1/2 cm thick) on dehydrator trays – approx. 4 trays.

If you don’t have heaps of Teleflex sheets (like me), line the trays with baking paper.

Dehydrate on 40 degrees for 15-20 hours.

While still warm, slice each sheet into 6 portions and roll tightly.

Store in an airtight container for a week or 2.

I was totally having too much fun to take many pictures, so there's a few iPhone shots.

Early morning drive down to the snow, 4am start.

First day up, just stunning.

Joel always looks confused when taking photos.

We had a blizzard day; the most dangerous drive ever. I was just like bumper cars, we luckily came away unscathed.

Yeah, snow!

walnut, chia and rhubarb cookies

I’ve been utilising the dehydrator a bit more lately, can you tell?

This time is a fruity healthy cookie cracker. Gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, vegan, no added sugar, low-gi, mostly raw.. they are the perfect on-the-go snack.

Joel says they are more like fruit crackers than cookies. But I think he had greasy, buttery cookies on his mind when I produced these for him to try.

His verdict: they are really tasty, but you spend the next couple of minutes picking chia seeds out of your teeth.

I know this would bother him, because, Joel is a minimal effort kind of guy when it comes to food. He won’t eat muesli because it takes too long to chew. Yep, he is a different sort.

These ‘cookies’ (and I use the term loosely) are an impromptu idea I had to use up a bunch of rhubarb that was sitting in the refrigerator.

What?! Use up rhubarb! Like it is some kind of space waster.

It is not like that at all. Honest.

I love rhubarb, but because we are leaving in a couple of days for the snow (for a week) and I couldn’t justify baking it into something that would not keep – or that doesn’t travel well.

Alas! Dehydration.

Ingredients

(makes 20+)

1/4 c chia seeds

1 1/2 c water

1 bunch rhubard, chopped into inch long lengths

1 tblsp water

1 c walnuts, soaked for 12 hours and drained

2 bananas, mashed

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix chia seeds and water and set aside for 20 mins so the seeds can activate.

Next, place rhubarb and water in a small pot and heat until the fruit is soft.

Remove from heat and cool.

Empty walnuts into a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.

Next add the bananas, cinnamon, vanilla and rhubarb to the walnut mixture and process until well combined.

Then, gently fold through the chia seeds.

Line dehydrating trays with parchment or teleflex sheets.

Place a cookie cutter on the tray and spoon in 2 tblsp sized portions - or whatever will fit.

Gently remove the cookie cutter and repeat until the mixture is all used up.

Dehydrate on 40 C for 20 hours.

fresh pea citrus salad

Fresh peas will forever take me back to my childhood.

My Grandfather has always had a vegetable garden, even now when he is in his mid-eighties he is growing turmeric, ginger, squash, kohlrabi, passion fruit, tomatoes.. and the list goes on.

When I was younger, I would always raid his fresh pea vine.

Seriously, whenever we visited I would strip the plant of all it's juicy peas and devour them on the spot. Slowly making my way along the fence that the vine grew, I was like a pacman.

Not much has changed since childhood though.

Because whenever I visit now, I ask Granddad to take me straight to his garden and show me what he's been growing - although, I don't eat anything without permission these days.

But, if I'm super lucky, he'll pack me up some of his treats and send me on my way.

Ingredients

(makes a side for 2)

1/2 c fresh peas, shelled

1/2 c snow peas, diagonally sliced

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 tsp lime rind, finely grated

5 basil leaves, finely sliced

2 tsp olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss well.

Serve.