Week 6 Unprocessed

A collection of my meals & kitchen experiments from week 6 unprocessed..... well, mostly unprocessed to be totally honest! Did you read my confession??
 
Just over halfway through now and just 4 weeks til I end this challenge. So I'm going to aim for a completely unprocessed week again coming up!

Soaked oats with strawberries and my nut-seed milo

Bulgar pilaf - recipe from the FOK cookbook.

Berry green smoothie

 Banana cake made from recipe in FOK cookbook

Sometimes we just need a big full plate to fill us up! This is water fried potato slices, with okara burgers (I added tofu too), polenta Crumbed Mushrooms and steamed veggies.

 Peanutty Noodles

Oats with blueberry 'yogurt'.

Steamed zucchini with home-made tomato sauce, herbs and nutritional yeast.

Mashed potato with adzuki beans & mushroom gravy.

Oats with banana and 'cherry and cocoa yogurt'. Hmmmmm, not as nice as I thought, will stick to my blueberry yogurt I think!

Pineapple-prune cake

Spelt spaghetti, mushrooms, capsicum & onion with home-made tomato sauce.

On the weekend I attempted home-made bread for the first time! Currant and cinnamon loaf. Was soooooooo delicious! I love the smell of fresh bread filling the home as it bakes!

Please ignor my awkward kneading face :-S

Leaving the dough to rise.

Seriously - is there anything as good as fresh crusty bread?!?

Fudgey Slice

To advent or not to advent is the question??

You see, technically my unprocessed challenge doesn't end til 16th December.....

What would you do?

Fudgey Okara Slice

This slice is so tasty! Very easy to make & is a great healthy treat.
You can use any form of plant-milk pulp that you like!

Grind one tablespoon flax seeds and add 4 tablespoons water and set aside in the fridge.


Combine in a bowl:
1 1/2 cups okara (or other plant milk pulp) This is about 2 batches! 
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir until all ingredients are well combined. 
Add the flax egg and stir well. 

You'll need 1/2-3/4 cups wholemeal flour.  This will depend on how moist your pulp is.
Add 1 teaspoon baking powder to the mixture,  add 1/4 cup of the flour at a time, and stir gently between each addition. You want the mixture to hold together but still be quite sticky and thick.

Pour mixture into a lined square baking tin.
Crush 1/3 cup macadamia nuts in a plastic zip lock bag. Shake macadamia crumbs over the slice & press in gently with your hands. 

Bake at 200C for 25 minutes until mixture is cooked through, you can test with a skewer.
Allow to cool before slicing.
Slice into squares and serve.

Peanutty Noodles

After a quick & easy dinner that is really tasty?

This takes less time than getting take-away - SERIOUSLY!

 

Really great for those nights when you open the pantry and think "We have NO food!"

You only need a few basic ingredients so you can't go wrong! 

Place a section of soba noodles in a bowl with boiling water & cover. You can leave them long or break them into short pieces - whatever you would rather! The soba noodles I buy come in a paper wrap with the set amount of one serve! What a great idea!

Leave the noodles to rehydrate and soften for 3-5 minutes. 
In the meantime, chop one spring onion into little pieces.
Drain the noodles and place back into the bowl.

Add 1 heaped Tablespoon natural peanut butter, 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar & 1 Tablespoon soysauce. Mix until the noodles are coated. You may need to add a Tablespoon or 2 of boiling water to allow the peanut butter to spread evenly - this will depend on if the peanut butter you use is moisten or not - this can depend on the weather too, so just see how you go & adjust the water as needed :-)
Stir in the spring onions, reserving some to serve on top!


Enjoy!

You can add other veggies if you like - grated carrot works well too :-)

Serves one.

One-Serve Pineapple Prune Cake

Sometimes we don't need to make a whole cake! Even feel like you want just a bite but not have to worry about the rest of the cake?!?
That is why I'm a big fan of these single serve, quick & easy cakes!

The combination of prune & pineapple might sound a big odd, but it really is an amazingly tasty mix. Its like a bit of tang with lots of sweetness!

I'm a BIG fan of this prune spread.
Its available in health food store. 
It is simply ground up prunes, so you could always make some at home.

Bonvit also make a date spread - but don't get me started on that...... mmmmmmmmmmm, I could eat it in spoonfuls. :D

These are great for adding to baked goods or for using as a healthy spread. 

I definitely recommend trying them!




 
Now for the one-serve cake!

You'll need:
2 heaped spoonfuls of pineapple (either fresh or canned)
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 Tablespoon prune spread
1/4 cup plant milk

If using fresh pineapple, chop into tiny pieces, or mash canned pineapple. Place all ingredients in a small bowl and mix until well combined. 
(You can adjust the amount of maple syrup to suit your own desired sweetness - I think its even sweet enough without any!)
Spray or line a ramekin and place the mixture in.
Microwave for 2 minutes (I use a 1100W microwave - adjust time as needed).

Gently press cake out of ramekin (it should fall out with a gentle up-side-down shake!!!) and serve :-)

If you're a fan of coconut cream - it truly makes for a perfect match!!!

A confession, a thought & WIAW

Confession:

So I'm still technically on my unprocessed challenge but over the weekend and the last few days I have struggled a little bit with snacking :-(
I had a few rice crackers for afternoon tea & some chocolate & some packet popcorn & a dollop of mayonniase with some tofu! 
I was feeling realllllllllllllly guilty about it!
I tried every way to comfort myself - it doesn't really matter, it was only a little bit, except for the mayonniase the other bits had less than 5 ingredients and that's one of Michael Pollan's food rules! Yet in my heart I know all of that is silly!

Yes, I had a few things that I shouldn't of had!
No, its not the end of the world!

Here's what my brain initially thought:
"You stupid girl, how could you do that? What about your challenge? You have no motivation whatsoever. You have stuffed it all up now & what's the point in going on? How is it that you can leave that chocolate bar in the pantry since Easter and now you have it? You have no self control - You're a failure!"

Here's what my logical brain thought:
"Sandy, don't let something so pitiful worry you! It's only a personal challenge that has been put on you by yourself and no one else! No-one is perfect & you have done soooo well to go 5 complete weeks without anything processed! Brush off the last few days & keep going! You are building healthy habits for life and that is what matters most!"

TODAY I CHOOSE TO GO WITH LOGICAL BRAIN THINKING!!!! ;-)

Thought:

Life would be so much easier if people didn't need to eat!

When I get hyper-think-on-ism this is a topic that often comes to mind. 

Why do we need food?

Yes, yes I know the simple answer is nourishment..... but in these times the fact that food is 'nourishment' is often forgotten! 
When was the last time you thought of food purely as 'nourishment' and not as anything else? I know for me, that fact rarely crosses my mind! Not for its taste, not as a treat or not as a social event! 
Food can often just become routine - "its lunch time now" and people can eat when they aren't really hungry, therefore not really needing nourishment. And then what about those times when we "just feel like something to eat"... are they really about nourishment?!?
Food is often the centre of social events - which I think automatically then connects our relationships to food too! Meaning that food becomes involved with our feelings!
And yet I think its not emotionally healthy to have a relationship with food itself but the fact is that we often do!
Think about the amount of people who use food as a crutch for them, and food becomes a comfort for them, either too much food or not enough.
The 'need' for food consumes so much of our time & energy. Not only for cooking and eating but grocery shopping and meal planning too.
Think about the emotions that are caused when people mention their meal preferences! ~vegan speaking~ I know just to mention that I choose not to eat meat because of the health benefits can cause people to instantly become defensive & its obviously setting off a certain feeling in them! And not even as far as that, when someone says "oh I don't like (fill in the blank)"  even that can be something that sparks emotions in people. Eg: "Oh that is sooooo tasty", "its my favourite", "how could you not like it?", "it doesn't even have a real flavour". I could go on but I'm sure you get my point!

I really do think life would be easier without the need to eat!

WIAW:

And yet despite my complaint over food - I LOVE cooking & blogging & sharing recipes! I join sooooooooo many other people in that fact I'm sure ;-)
What-I-Ate-Wednesday shows just want I mean! Look at all these bloggers taking pictures of the food they ate!!!! I love it! It truly makes me laugh that we can do it each week - and yet funnily enough, it really is a lot of fun!

Breakfast

After being super organisied last night I woke up to some soaked oats!
I love soaked oats! 
When they have been left overnight they are so moist & end up so much more delicious than just soaking in hot water in the morning!
I had soaked these in soymilk and with raisins.
In the morning I transferred them out of my rather wonderful leak-proof Tupperware container and into a bowl where I added a chopped banana! 

What a great way to start the day!

Lunch

I had some leftover bulgar & chickpea pilaf with a green salad busy day at work meant I forgot to take a picture :-( But here's a picture of the pilaf from the other night!

In the afternoon I snacked on strawberries & these very convenient walnut stuffed dates that I picked up at our little grocer down the road from work!

Dinner

I made some Peanutty Noodles.
Quick, easy & delicious!

























And... whilst watching a movie tonight with my hubby nibbled on some dried fruit & popcorn :-)

Question of the day:

Do you ever beat yourself up about food? If so, do you forgive yourself easily or do you feel guilty about it for ages?

AIM OF THE WEEK:

STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP ABOUT FOOD!

(That goes for me too!)

Carrots, peas & corn, bean stew

Another really tasty stew that is super easy to prepare & can be made in under 30 minutes from beginning to end!

This is great for people who like to eat simple and basic meals, also good for those who aren't familiar with vegan meals as it can be a great way to show them eating vegan doesn't have to be difficult and can have many similar flavours to ones that they are already used to!

You'll need:

1x 400g can butter beans

1x 400g can whole peeled tomatoes 

            (or half a big can!)

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 carrot

1 corn cob

3/4 cup frozen peas

1 teaspoon each dried herbs: basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram

black pepper, to serve

Chop the onion and place in a frying pan with the peeled crushed garlic cloves. Water saute for 5 minutes until onion is soft.

Drain the beans & add them to the pan along with the chopped carrot, the peas and the kernels chopped off the corn cob.

Leave the veggies cooking in the pan for 5 minutes and then add the tomatoes and break the whole tomatoes up into pieces with your mixing spoon. Leave to cook for 10-15 minutes until tomatoes have broken apart and the sauce has thickened. 

Add the herbs towards the end and mix them around.

Serve in bowls and sprinkle with cracked black pepper.

This can be eaten by itself or served with a side salad or crusty bread, or even on top of pasta!

Kitchen Experiments

I have been doing more home cooking this past week. Here's some of the adventures that I had in my kitchen!

First time using the cooker pressure that I picked up "on special" ~woo-hoo~ just a few weeks ago. Beans in 15 minutes - definitely a winner!!!

Perfect beans - not mushy and fallen apart! I find that although the slow cooker is a great way to cook beans they often lose their shape. Very pleased with the result from the pressure cooker! And seriously.... 15 minutes!!!!!!!!

Sprouting

Whilst hunting in our Christmas storage to get some wrapping paper out, I couldn't resist getting this magnet out too! I'm not a fan of magnets on the fridge because I find they scratch the surface and make the fridge look older sooner..... but these are my only two exceptions to the rule!!!

Fresh batch of soymilk from my soymilk maker being turned into tofu.

After adding the coagulant the soymilk turns into a 'curds and whey'.

Scoop out the solids and put into a tofu press lined with cheescloth.

Gently press out the water and add a weight to set the tofu.

Just 10 minutes later - perfectly set tofu!

Super fresh and super tasty!

I was so impressed!

This is the first time I've ever made tofu from scratch and I will definitely be doing this again!

Next in line on the cooking list was a home-made pizza base.

This recipe is using chickpea flour, also known as besan flour.

Add 1 1/2 cups of chickpea flour, teaspoon mixed herbs, 7g yeast, and 1/2 cup warm water. Let sit for 1/2 hour.

The yeast makes the dough raise. 

Spread dough out in the shape of a pizza. 

I found the dough was still quite sticky and didn't hold its 'raise'. It was quite tricky to spread it also. But I got there in the end.

Bake for 15 minutes - could of done with slightly less time in the oven!

Making 'cheeze sauce' for the pizza. 

Mix 1/4 cup nutritional yeast with 1 tablespoon cornflour and 3/4 cup soymilk. Microwave for 1 minutes until the mixture thickens. Pour over your pizza and bake as usual.

Mmmmmmm vegan pizza!

The base held together well even with all the toppings on it! It was a little dry but still quite tasty.

Putting my new FOK cookbook to use baking banana bread!

Really delicious, super moist and surprisingly sweet despite having no sugar!

The only problem with so much cooking is all the washing up that it makes!!!! Washing up is my least favourite household chore!

But with delicious food like this..... it's oh so worth it!