Spiced Lentil Burgers

I created this recipe as part of the 21 day kickstart DIY Wednesday Lunch.

The flavours may seem unusual for a burger but they really work so wonderfully together to create an amazingly tasty burger. 

Enjoy on a roll or with salad. 

You could also roll this mixture into bite size balls if you would rather.

ENJOY!

You'll need:

1/2 tin lentils, drained

1/2 onion, chopped

6 button mushrooms, chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1/2 teaspoon each paprika, cloves, allspice

100g soft tofu

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

In a frying pan combine the mushrooms and onion with the garlic, ginger, paprika, cloves & allspice. Water fry until the onion begins to soften. Add the lentils and continue to cook for 5 minutes until the vegetables have cooked down well. 

Transfer the lentil mixture to a mixing bowl and add the tofu. Mash together well.

Add the breadcrumbs and stir til everything is well combined and mixture clumps together.

Using wet hands shape into burgers & place on a lined baking tray.

Bake in a preheated 200C oven for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Serve warm or cold.

Balsamic Fried Salad

We've all heard of balsamic roasted veggies, but did you know that you can also use balsamic vinegar to fry veggies???

This way is much quicker and yet the flavour is still very rich and full. If you're a fan of balsamic roasted veggies you'll love this quick substitute.

In a frying pan combine 1 teaspoon molasses, 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar.

Swirl around the pan til molasses is runny & all liquid is warm.

Add a chopped zucchini, chopped large field mushroom, chopped 1/2 green capsicum.

Swirl pan around with the veggies so the liquid coats the vegetables.

Saute for 10 minutes until liquid is absorbed and vegetables are soft.

Serve on a plate over salad leaves, 1 shredded carrot, 1/2 cup red kidney beans and a chopped shallot. Top with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Cereal Bars

Sometimes cereal is popular when its first opened and then it seems to sit in the packet with no-one wanting to eat it!

Does that ever happen in your household?

Here's a great way to use up 'leftover' cereal!

I have used cheerios but other cereals would work equally as well.

You'll need:

          2 cups cheerios (or other cereal)

          3/4 cup craisins

          1/4 cup coconut oil

          2 Tablespoons peanut butter

In a bowl melt the coconut oil and peanut butter together in the microwave. Melt until completely soft and easily stirred. Time will vary depending on your microwave and the coconut oil used.

Stir in the cheerios and craisins. Mix well until all the cheerios have some of the oil mixture on them.

Press spoonfuls of the mixture into a muesli bar maker or a lined small baking tin.

Set in fridge.

If you have made these in a baking tin, you'll need to cut the mixture into bars or slices.

The oil/peanut butter mixture will settle on the bottom - but there is still enough on the top of the bars to hold them together.

The China Study

Book Review: The China Study

I was continually blown away whilst reading this book.

I can't hep but wonder why our school system is getting children and teenagers to read books like "The Hobbit" & "Ballroom Dancing" when books like this could educate the next generation to make healthy choices that will affect their life in such a positive way!

Its amazing to see how the author had traveled to underdeveloped countries with the intention of providing better health with "high quality animal products" believeing that nutrition problems were due to lack of protein. Yet when all the research was done the evidence shows that the real dangers to do with nutrition lie within animal protein.
And yet 1st world countries are still pushing Atkins-type diets of huge protein intake??? WHY????

Also its amazing the number of diseases that are often blamed on 'genes' but yet these studies have proved that perhaps what is being passed on is not 'bad genes' but 'bad lifestyle'.
Quote from page 190: "Genes do not act in isolation; they need a trigger for their effects to be produced."
Of course the book goes into much detail as to why this is the case.

Quote from The China Study website:
The findings? "People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease ... People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored," said Dr. Campbell.


Everything in this book is so researched & proven to be factual. The details of how the 'study' has been done are all given at the back of the book, so there is no secrets or misleading and sneaky ways of trying to distort the evidence, as is so often done when it comes to so-called 'scientific research' that surrounds nutrition.

Its quite scary to think of how much $$money$$ is being thrown into advertising and misleading information regarding our health & to promote products that are actually causing people more harm than good.
Not only are certain food industries responsible but also the medicine industry.
Our doctors are simply not being educated about what really improves health, but rather, how to mask problems with a pill.

Quote from page 321: "So why doesn't that medical system take nutrition seriously?
Four words: money, ego, power and control. While it is unfair to generalize about individual doctors, it is safe to say that the system they work in, the system that currently takes responsibility for promoting the health of Americans, is failing us. No one knows this better tan the tiny minority of doctors who treat their patients from a nutritional perspective."

The reader is provided with 8 principles to follow for eating right.
These are:

             #1 - Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless food substances. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

            #2 - Vitamin supplements are not a panacea for good health.

            #3 - There are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants.

            #4 - Genes do not determine disease on their own. Genes function only by being activated, or expressed, and nutrition plays a critical role in determining which genes, good or bad, are expressed.

           #5 - Nutrition can substantially control the adverse effects of noxious chemicals.

           #6 - The same nutrition that prevents disease in its early stages (before diagnosis) can also halt or reverse disease in its later stages (after diagnosis).

           #7 - Nutrition that is truly beneficial for one chronic disease will support health across the board.

          #8 - Good nutrition creates health in all areas of our existence. All parts are interconnected.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book and reading it thoroughly!
Every person deserves to know the TRUTH about health and what we have been taught and made to believe about food. It is their choice how they respond to that information, but surely we have the right to be properly informed!

You can get the book here at fishpond. They offer free shipping - gotta love that ;-)

Click here for the official website

RATING: 5/5  Its a MUST READ for EVERYONE!

DIY Thursday

Who's joining in the 21 day kickstart?

Thursday evenings suggested meal is: Kickstart DIY: Green, grain and a bean

 

                                         Green: Silverbeet

                                         Grain: Quinoa

                                         Bean: Chickpeas

Here's the DIY adventure that I had:

Today at Coles I picked up this awesome McCormick recipe-creations spice pack for only $1.14! Of course that meant I had to incorporate that into my meal too.

This mixture of herbs & spices was just AMAZING! They really complimented each other & I will definitely be using these recipe-creations packs again.
This blend contains ground coriander seeds, coriander leaves, chili, garlic, paprika, and lemon pepper.
I used only a third of the pack and have stored the rest in a glass jar use at a later date.

To make my DIY meal I chopped a whole bunch of silverbeet, added water and placed in the microwave for 5 minutes. 
I boiled half a cup of quinoa in 1 cup of water for approx 15 minutes until the quinoa was cooked through.

I chopped a yellow capsicum & an onion. Placed them in a pan to water saute with the spices provided in the pack (except the coriander leaves).  I sauteed for 5 minutes til the onion was soft then added a drained tin of chickpeas and a teaspoon of lemon juice.

I assembled my collection of "green, grain & bean" on my plate and topped with the coriander leaves provided by the marvellous spice pack!

Result:
AmAzInGlY delicious meal that was quick & easy that will now become a regular!

Spring Cleaning

YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How excited am I that this blog was linked up to the organised housewife challenge!
Check it out! That's my alphabetical pantry you see there ;-)

How are you going with the 20 day challenge?

Did you follow todays plan?

Today is the first day since last Autumn that I've been able to hang washing on the line and actually have it dry!

I guess that's lucky since washing bed linen always takes up so much space!!! lol

 After all - is there anything so lovely as a clean fresh bed at night time?

I was debating if its time to put away the winter blanket yet.... but then I remembered its the cats favourite sleeping spot, so for now it stays!

My problem with clutter in the bedroom happens around my clothing :-/

I tend to throw items on this lovely wooden box & leave them there. Don't you think I have a nice shoe collection too?!!?
Sometimes the pile is clean clothes that are waiting to be put away, and sometimes its... well lets just say not-so-clean clothes!
Either way I think I'll officially add to my housewife New Habit list "To clear clothing pile each night". 

And I did just that this afternoon:

Clearly this took a bit of time because the sun went down quite significantly between the photos!!!
The pile of boxes on the left hand-side is from when we moved in :-/

Oh dear! I have added that to my weekend list!

Since I am still working during school hours, yet I want to make the most of the housewife challenge, I am keeping myself a list of tasks-to-do on the weekend that completely tackle all of the clutter and not just 'surface clutter' as I like to call it. Its all very well and good to clear desk tops & wash linen but these boxes are the type of things that I always overlook when I 'clean and tidy'. That's why they sit well hidden in the corner - so that most of the time they don't bother me! 

This week I also started following the PCRM's 21 day kickstart.

Of course I still had to grocery shop & write my meals down, but that's an easy week of meal planning since there was no thought involved!

The meals on the kickstart are so tasty & I have enjoyed following along the kickstart program for a number of years now!

They have a forum where you can get involved with questions/comments if you have any concerns.

I plan to blog about all the DIY recipes that it encourages us to do. So stayed tuned for some tasty recipes!

Are you spring cleaning?

Do you like to spring clean your home or your body more?

Meal Planning Tips

Where do you stand regarding the whole meal planning issue?

Do you find it easier to meal plan? Does it help your week feel more organised?

Do you wish you could meal plan but it just doesn't seem to happen?

I have meal planned for a few years now. Though it has always seemed to be in a different way!

I am amazed by the people who say they can meal plan for a month in advance!!!! That just simply blows my mind!
To be honest I struggle with planning a whole week at once!!!

And besides, I like my fresh fruit & veg too much!

Here's what working for me currently:

I have recently decided to shop 2 times a week instead of once.

Sounds silly, but it actually SAVES us money! And it also makes each shop much quicker. I was finding that by the middle of the week we needed fresh bread & more vegetables and other random odds and ends which somehow didn't make it on the list the first time. This always meant that even if I intended to get just 3 things, I would always come out with another trolley load! Come on admit it..... that happens to us all hey ;-)

This helps us also if we have last minute plans for the weekends, extra leftovers that we weren't expecting to have or if we decided we feel like something special.

It has really helped us to reduce waste & feel a lot more organised when it comes to our pantry and fridge. 

An overloaded fridge at the start of the week can be so frustrating. Shopping twice a week stops the fridge being so full that you can't get to the things at the back of the shelves.

So I shop on Sunday & Thursday. Each of those days I sit down and plan what we'll have til the next shopping day - taking into account, what we already have as supplies, what we felt like during the last couple of days and what leftovers we have that need to be used up.

I always leave Sunday nights as 'free' meals to be filled in later with whatever we have on hand.

Here's our meal plan board:

Its a contact chalk board that we purchased from Myer.

Works a treat & so easy to use. It sits where visitors cannot easily see it and doesn't then look 'messy' in the kitchen (yes my writing on here is not so neat and its often written in code!). 

Because I eat different meals to my husband (mostly) we have a separate column for dinner each & there is also a column for my daughters lunch (she has the same dinner as me). I like to give her a variety of lunch box items so she isn't always having a sandwich (post on that coming soon).

I have a column for Fuhrman's gombbs to remind me of all the healthful food I should be eating each day. 

Its also nice to be able to at a glance note if either of us will be out for the evening meal. I am often home rather late on my travel-to-work day, so I often use Wednesday as leftovers day - alternatively I am catching up with friends and have a meal out with them. 

This is also a great way to be able to note food that is in the fridge that needs to be used up asap. I can just write a quick word in the gombbs column to remind me. I guess its more like a reminder column than anything else!!!!

I am finding that I only really need to 'plan' our evening meals as breakfast is easy enough & I usually just have salad for lunch, or any leftovers that need to be used up. I used to plan the other meals though.

I haven't always had this marvellous board (don't I have a clever hubby! <3)
I used a printed spreadsheet for ages, that I just printed multiple times and then would fill in each week.

So don't think you need anything special to make meal-planning work.

I always make a shopping list - ALWAYS!

Yes, I literally sit down with a pen and paper and go through catalogues! It doesn't really take that long and it saves me time in the grocery store.

I always check out the weekly specials at the grocery stores to work out what items I wish to purchase from which stores. 

This is another reason I find shopping twice a week works out better.

I used to get so annoyed that half the things we needed were on special at one store and half at another store & I did not like having to decide which to shop at!!!

Problem solved - on the weeks where they have equally inviting specials, I can do one shop at either!

It makes "cactus" hour so much easier!

There is nothing worse than getting to meal starting time and having no idea what you should make. It takes forever to decide and then it always seems that you don't really have 'all' the ingredients you need!

And correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that always the time when children are the most grizzly too?!?!?  ;-)

I have always involved my daughter in my cooking since she was quite young. I found that when she was younger this really helped me cope with cactus hour. She would nibble on chopped veggies (chick peas have always been a huge favourite!) & get odds and ends out of the cupboard for me. It has well and truly paid off now! She is an amazing little helper in the kitchen & finally I can say that she really is more help than hindrance!!! There are several things that she can even cook herself like pasta, pancakes & cookies. Not bad for a 7 year old! I wonder how many more years til I don't even need to cook at all ;-) 

Only joking, I LOVE cooking, and its soooooooo much more enjoyable with a plan to stick to! Even if that means I just write a few ingredients on the board so that I can experiment with a new recipe!