Black Bean Patties (Vegan)

I'm on a Vegan bent at the moment and made these for dinner.  I made the mixture in the Thermie being careful not to over blend.  They could be done by hand but I made them after a busy day at work so was looking for the shortcuts. Very delicious. 

Ingredients

1.5 cups of black beans (I  made these from dry beans that had been soaked and cooked then frozen but canned could be used)
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 red capsicum
1 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce (of BBQ sauce)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon steak seasoning

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Cut the onion in half and roughly chop the capsicum.  Put in the thermie with the garlic cloves and pulse for a couple of seconds. (You want it chopped but not too mushy)

Add all the other ingredients and pulse till combined.  (Don't overmix)

Line a baking tray with baking paper and place patties onto the tray.   I didn't want to get my hands mucky so I used a 1/2 cup measure to plonk the patties onto the tray and the mixture made 7 patties.

Cook for around 30 minutes or until crispy on the edges.  

I had one on a heated pita bread with lettuce and tomato.  

Tomato Soup

Once again we have an abundance of cherry tomatoes that have popped up without us planting them. They self seed each year and not always where we want them but we put up with them to get these little beauties.  I'm about to make my favourite Cherry Tomato and Chili Jam blog post here and last weekend I made some roasted tomato soup.  I know it's not really soup weather here in QLD but I work in a really cold office and as I'm not a Coffee drinker, soup is a great thing to have for morning tea.

It's healthy gluten free, dairy free and nutritious so it ticks all the boxes.  I read a few different recipes but then just improvised.   
Here's what I did with around 30 grams of cherry and small roma tomatoes. I cut them in half, put them in two baking trays and drizzled them with olive oil.  I cut the top of a garlic bulb and put one in each tray.  I then baked them for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees.

I then transferred the tomatoes to the Thermomix.  I squeezed the garlic out of the cloves and then blended it all on speed 9 for a couple of minutes. At the end of the blending it looked like tomato puree and there were no skins to be seen.  I added about 2 cups of water and a couple of tablespoons of my vegetable stock - recipe here.  I then cooked it on 100 degrees for 15 mins and finished it off by blending it for another minute.I didn't add any cream as I'm dairy free so just ate as is, and it was delicious :-)

Paleo Bread (Gluten Free and Dairy Free)

Due to some Thyroid issues my diet is now supposed to be Gluten Free and Dairy Free.  I have good days and bad days with this but finding a good bread recipe will make it easier.

Today I used this recipe from the Thermomix Community but it was adapted from a non-Thermomix recipe and they provide the link if you don't have a Thermomix. It was super easy and tastes really good. The recipe has honey in but I don't like sweet bread so inside of 35 grams I just used 15 grams.  I haven't tried toasting it yet but it's not crumbly so should be fine.

No Such Thing as a Standard Egg??

When it comes to our chooks it seems like there is no such thing as a standard size egg.

Our baby chicks are laying little eggs and our big chooks have the whole size range covered.

That big one is 127grams!!!  Some poor chook must be a little sore tonight.  The one on the left (as you look at the pic) is a standard 60gram egg.

It's lucky we aren't a professional egg farm, our sorters would be having all kinds of problems.

Can't wait to see how many yokes are in that big one.  We often get 2 but I'm sure this will be more.  Stay tuned.

Rosemary Focaccia

The finished product. - simple ingredients, water, yeast, flour, salt and oil

 It helps when you have a Thermomix to need the dough

Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with Rosemary before putting in the oven

Yoghurt Cheese

Some people call this Quark and some call it Labna - I call it yoghurt cheese.  Super simple to make and a great replacement for cheese and dips.  These photos show you how to make it rather than how to eat it.  There are many ways to enjoy yoghurt cheese.   Add herbs or chilli or honey just depends on whether you want a sweet or savoury flavour.  Sometimes I don't add anything and just spread some on a rice cake for a really quick snack. 

 
I use a plastic strainer that fits nicely into a plastic jug.








I place a piece of muslin inside the strainer and then pour in a whole container of my favourite five:am plain yoghurt.




It then needs something on the top to weigh it down.  This pushed all of the liquid out. The liquid is full of pro-biotic so good to put into food or a drink.

This one I left in the fridge for a few days but usually 24 hours is enough.

The strainer I use gives it a great pattern but I don't have a dish big enough to keep it in like this so I've squashed it into the glass container below.

Bliss Balls

I've been making a version of this for about the last 20 years.   For many many years it was a staple treat for the kids and a lot healthier for them than I ever led them to believe.
 
I don't follow a recipe so they are a bit different every time.

This is today's recipe.  I didn't actually measure anything so I'm going have a stab at the quantity.  Basically use just whizz it up till it all starts to stick together.  If it's too dry to stick together, just add more dates.

15 Medjool Dates (seed removed)
1 Cup Almonds
1/4 Cup Chia Seeds
1/2 Cup Shredded Coconut
1 teaspoon of vanilla paste
2 tablespoons Cacao Powder

I used the turbo button on the Thermomix until it's combined and sticking together. Then form into balls and rolled in Sesame Seeds.

I like to take a couple of these to work to have mid afternoon rather than visiting the chocolate box or the vending machine.  Two is plenty to cure a sweet craving.   

This is what I take if I haven't made bliss balls.  Ha Ha the lazy woman's bliss ball.   Still bliss to eat though!

Pumpkin and Ham Slice

Ready for the oven

This is my twist on the old Zucchini slice.  I had ham that needed to be used, an excess of pumpkin and eggs (one of the baby chicks laid for the first time today).


I cubed up some Cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese and grated in the Thermomix. The weight was 120 grams all up - mixed for about 5 seconds on speed 8.  Put the cheese aside in a bowl.

I then roughly chopped one carrot and about 200g pumpkin.  Put the carrot, pumpkin and an onion cut in half into the Thermomix.   I then chopped on speed 5 for about 6 seconds.

Ready to eat

Then I roughly chopped up a whole red capsicum and put this in to the Thermomix with the other vegetables and a few sages leaves I got from the garden. I chopped just for a 2 seconds on speed 4.

Then back in with the cheese, 6 eggs, 50 grams macadamia oil, 170g chopped ham a good pinch of salt and pepper and 150g of SR Flour.

Mixed it all together on reverse speed 5 for 10 seconds then poured into baking tray lined with baking paper.

Put into a 180 degree oven for 35 - 40 minutes.

Fighting Winter's Ill's

Garry has a fairly serious cold /flu (possibly even Man Flu) so I made him this smoothie for breakfast.   He doesn't even bother to ask what's in it anymore but it went something like this.


Almonds
Camu Camu Powder
Probiotic Powder
Vital Greens Powder
Coconut
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Vanilla Bean
Frozen Banana
Lots of Silver beet

Blitzed in the Thermomix for 2 minutes

Making Stock Powder

400G of Vegetables and Herbs

I've owned a Thermomix for about 6 months now and the first thing I made with it was Vegetable Stock.  This is so simple to make and it adds such great flavour to our meals. I make sure I always have a supply.

After 20 mins in the Thermomix

Pouring on to the dehydrator Tray

After making a couple of batches and freezing in ice cube trays I came up with the idea of drying it out in my dehydrator and turning it into a powder.  This is the only way I'll bother making it from now on, it's so much easier to have on hand in  powder form.  I just keep making up a new batch when I have vegetables that need using up and I keep adding to the same bottle of powder and give it a bit of a shake up so the old and the new mix together.

Into the Dehydrator

After 12 hours of drying and broken by hand

It looks kind of like a bottle of coloured sand.   I am lucky enough to have a Thermomix and a dehydrator but the stock could be made on the stove and then the paste dehydrated in the oven.  My appliances just make the job quicker.

My First Green Caravan Order

I've been running down my supplies for the last few weeks in readiness for my first Green Caravan Order.

Green Caravan is a Brisbane based food ordering group that supplies organic whole foods and luckily for me I can pick my order up and incur no delivery fee as the pick up point is only 5 minutes away. The empty jars make my ordering process very easy.

When people visit our house we always get asked about our bottles and labels.  I love having the bottles out on the cupboard as I find ingredients don't get lost in the pantry and we actually use everything we buy.  Smoothie making in the morning always involves grabbing a few jars and we come up with a new flavour every day.   We got the bottles from the Japanese shop Dasio where everything costs $2.80 so an absolute bargain for glass jars.   I only recently bought the chalk labels and I love them and am constantly looking for things to label now.  I got the labels online at Label Kingdom.  

Oops didn't mean to make this blog an infomercial !  Just answering the questions I get asked a lot. You can be sure I won't be receiving any free goods because of this blog.  Have you noticed I only have 13 followers !!

When I Grow These

Thought I'd fire up the blog again as we have a plan to get back to the farm.  It will take a few years but there is a lot to plan and that will keep me focused.

I've just been washing this week's fruit and veg and thinking about how hard it would be to grow a week's worth of veggies.  We have the space but I know from my attempts before I need to do a lot of research on planting cycles so we consistently have food.   So exciting to imagine this one day.

A Raw Chocolate Tart

This is a super easy Raw Dessert.  Gluten free, dairy free and sugar free. This is the link to the recipe however I substituted Raspberries for Strawberries and Hazelnuts for Pecans.  It was delicious!

http://www.wholefoodsimply.com/to-live-for-chocolate-tart/

Raw Brownies

I've been following a blog called Fragrant Vanilla Cake.  This girl makes lots of yummy looking treats without using dairy or wheat and without cooking.

 

I gave the Brownies a try today and while it was quite a long process they are very delicious.

This is definitely a "sometimes" food as it's quite expensive to make given the amount of nuts involved.  The other challenge was cracking a coconut and getting all the flesh out to make the topping.

Lots of fun.

Chocolate Berry Chia Pudding

My first attempt at  Chia Pudding


1/2 Cup Cashews
1 Cup Water
3/4 Frozen Berries (or fresh)
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 Tablespoon Raw Cacao Powder
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

I whizzed all of this up in my handy Tribest Blender.

Then poured it over 4 tablespoons of White Chia Seeds (you could use black) I stirred for at least 3 minutes to ensure the Chia was mixed through all of the liquid.

I then poured into these 3 glasses and put in the fridge.  It was set within a couple of hours.

For the crunchy bit on the top I whizzed up some shredded coconut a piece of raw chocolate and some coconut palm sugar.

It tasted great !

Killing a Cold

I have a bit of a head cold so I'm blitzing it today with Raw Food and juice.

Apple, celery, kale, lemon and ginger in my trusty Tribest blender.

 

 

 

I had a fantastic day yesterday, I went to a Raw Food Cooking Class run by Rah from Sprouting Smiles.

It was very inspiring and the food we got to eat was amazing.   I'm buying a dehyrator and will start to make some of this healthy food for myself.


Raw Meet Balls with Tomato Sauce and Zucchinin and Raw Taco with Nut Cheese

 





Chia Pudding with Pineapple and Coconut Crunch

Home Made Chocolate

I used Cyndi O'Meara's recipe and added Craisins and Coconut.   It's dark chocolate and quite bitter but that's the way I like it.  You really only need a small piece at a time.

You can find Cyndi's Recipe here

Today's Green Smoothie

Green smoothie's have become a normal part of my life and a great way to start today.

Here is what went into today's


1 Whole apple (peeled and cored)
1/4 Banana
Handful Rocket
2 Cos Leaves
1 Teaspoon Green Powder
1 Teaspoon Probiotics
1 Teaspoon Collodial Minerals
Handful of Ice

All blended for about a minute.   It tasted great !

Loving my Spirooli

The Spirooli loaded and ready to go

I bought this last year when we had an abundance of zucchini in the garden.  Last week I bought some beautiful zucchini at the market so got it out again to make some zucchini pasta  Well it's not actually pasta, it's just zucchini, and I served it with other vegies and some pesto.  Healthy low carb and delicious. I got my Spirooli online at Raw Pleasure

In action
 

Dinner