Simplest Chickpea Curry

This is a recipe I make every week at least once. It's very basic, taking around 15 min, but is really hearty, healthy, and delicious...

Serves 2.

Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas (pref in brine)
- 1 can chopped tomatoes (I like the ones with capsicums)
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1/4 cup coconut cream (or whatever amount you prefer)
- optional: effort free veggies such as a handful of mushrooms, baby spinach or peas, none of which require chopping
- 1 tablespoon oil

Method
Briefly saute the curry powder in oil on medium heat for about 2 min. Add drained chickpeas and tomatoes and vegetables and simmer about 10 min. Add coconut cream, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with brown rice.

Easy Warmed Spring Salmon Salad

An easy and healthy spring salad....

For the salad: 
- Asparagus, freshly steamed
- Baby spinach leaves
- Baby potatoes, boiled with skins on, and left to cool a bit
- Kalamata olives
- Freshly cooked salmon (or smoked salmon,
- Few small pieces red onion (opt)
- Small handful capers (opt)


For the dressing:
- Juice 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper

Split Yellow Pea Dahl Curry

3 cups split peas, washed, drained
2 L veggie stock
1 tsp turmeric
4 slices ginger, unpeeled
1/2 tsp garam masala
Coconut oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp chilli powder

Combine split peas, stock in a large pot. Bring to the boil and remove surface scum. Add turmeric and ginger. Cover, but leave lid slightly open, turn heat to low, and simmer for 1.5 hours.

Remove ginger slices and add garam masala.

Heat oil in a small non stick pan. Add cumin seeds and garlic, and stir fry til lightly browned, then add the chilli powder.

Add entire mix to the split peas.

Serve on brown rice.

Notes: could try adding veg like pumpkin, carrot, potato.

White fish mornay

Serves 2
40 min prep time, 20 min cooking time. 1hr E-2-E

Ingredients

50 butter

1/4 onion finely diced

2 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 cup milk

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Bunch parsley

1/2 cup grated cheese, plus 1/4 cup more

300g white fish

1/ 4 cup dried bread crumbs

Method

Preheat oven to 190deg. Grease a baking dish. In a small pot melt butter, and saute onion. Blend in flour. Whisk in milk and bay leaf. Bring to the boil then remove from heat. Remove bay, add cheese, parsley, lemon, salt and pepper. Stir in fish.

Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle extra cheese and crumbs. Bake until top has browned (approx 20min).

Super Simple Seedy Salad

Try this, for a super simple salad!

Combine:
Mesclin leaves or mixed sprouts
Parsley, finely chopped (opt)
Small amount spring onion, sliced (opt)
Shaved carrot (use a potato peeler)
Tamari roasted seeds

Sprinkle over:
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Freshly cracked pepper

Cherry Almond Granola Bars

These cherry almond granola bars are delicious.....photo to come

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2c cup rolled oats
1/4 cup LSA
½ cup sliced almonds/walnuts
½ cup shredded coconut
¼ cup whole almonds, roasted
1 Tbsp Chia seeds
¼ cup dried cherries, diced
1/4 cup almond butter
50g butter
1/4 cup Honey
1 banana, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. On a large baking sheet, spread out your oats into an even, single layer. Toast for about 10 minutes, tossing slightly and rotating halfway through. Add your sliced nuts and coconut and toast for 3 additional minutes.

While you’re waiting, add your honey, banana, butter, and almond butter to a medium size pot and warm on low heat. Add your vanilla extract and whisk once more.

When the oat-coconut-nutty combo comes out of the oven, immediately transfer to the pot . Add your cinnamon and salt to the bowl and toss together. Fold in your whole almonds and cherry pieces. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl and fold together (a rubber spatula works best here) until everything is evenly coated.

Line a square pan (9″x 9″ or 8″x 8″ will work) with non-stick paper. Add the mixture to the pan and press down until evenly spread to all corners of the pan. It works best if you slightly dampen your fingers and work quickly to the edges.

Transfer the pan back to the oven and bake for 10–15 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges. You don’t want to wait until the bars are very browned or hardened as that will result in areally crunchy granola bar once they cool. 

Jo's Classic Spaghetti Bolognaise

This is the way i do spag bol, which means loads of veg, and lentils/beans, not just meat.....

Ingredients
- 1.5 cans lentils or beans (today I used brown and puy lentils)
- 400g mince
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced/finely chopped
- oil of your choice (today i used rice bran)
- 1 large carrot, grated
- other left over veg (eg: today I used 1 cup undressed slaw)
- 1 jar (approx 200g) tomato paste
- 1 can (approx 400g) mixed tomatoes (any type will do)
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp worcester sauce
- 25ml simon gault beef or chicken stock mixed with 1/2 cup water
- salt & pepper to taste
- wholemeal spaghetti
- grated parmesan or cheddar

In a really big pot, saute the onion in oil for about 5min until translucent. Add garlic and saute another 5 min. Add the mince and saute on medium heat until browned. Add everything else and simmer for about 1 hour (1 hour is not necessary, but the longer the better). About 15 min before serving, cook up some wholemeal spaghetti.
Serve with the grated cheese.

Leftovers idea: heat the next day with a bit of chilli. Then serve in wholemeal wraps, toasted in the oven with sour cream, cheese, salsa, and coriander. Yum!

Coconut Turmeric Noodle Soup

This is a delicious, refreshing, and healthy autumy soup/laksa type dish. Limes seem to be cheap at the moment.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

350 grams of chicken, tofu, cashews, or other protein, finely sliced

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

1/2 a red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1/2 a can of coconut milk

3 cups of chicken stock

Juice of two limes

1 kaffir lime leaf, finely chopped (optional, if you don’t have access to any just add zest of one of the limes instead)

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

A few pieces pineapple (optional)

2 cakes of dried egg noodles, broken into pieces (get the authentic asian ones if you can rather than the ones in the 2 minute packs)

2 tablespoons of fresh coriander, chopped (optional)

2 spring onions, sliced

2 tablespoons of toasted coconut thread (optional for garnish)

Method:

In a deep frypan, heat the olive oil over a medium heat, add the garlic and saute for a minute. Turn the pan up to high, add the protein and brown quickly on both sides (about 2-3 minutes). Add the turmeric, chilli, coconut milk, chicken stock, fish sauce, lime juice and kaffir lime leaf. Turn the pan down to medium and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Add the pineapple and noodles, stir and simmer for another five minutes or until the noodles are soft. Add some boiling water if you feel you would like more liquid. Remove from the heat, stir in half the spring onion. Serve in bowls, garnish with the rest of the spring onion, the coriander and the coconut thread.

You could also add some extra veges towards the end of the cooking time such as brocolli, courgette.

Super Easy Healthy Noodle Soup

This is one of my go tos. Especially great after a long hike. Like today!

Serves 2

Ingredients
- 4 drumsticks
- 2pks udon noodles
- 1L chicken stock
- handful mushrooms (asian style is best)
- 2tsp grated ginger
- 1clove garlic
- 1tbsp soy sauce
- 1tbsp fish sauce
- handful spinach, silverbeet, or kale
- 1carrot, julienned
- seaweed

Method
Fry the garlic and ginger slightly. Add chicken stock and all other ingredients except for the greens and noodles and simmer until chicken is cooked. (35 min).

Add the greens and noodles about 10min before the end.

Enjoy. ;)

Spicy tomato onion scrambled eggs

As you may know, im a strong advocate for a good filling breakfast every day. And for me, since 2008, that means savoury (except for tge odd pancake interlude), so eggs, fish, avocado, beans, halloumi, tomatoes, mushrooms.....

Today i decided to do something slightly different with my eggs - scrambled with an indian twang, onions, tomatoes, and home grown parsley.....

Ingredients (serves 1)
- 1/4tsp garam masala
-1/4tsp each ground cumin and coriander
-1/4 onion, diced
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- a good bunch parsley, finely chopped
- half a fresh green chilli, diced
-2 eggs
- dash milk (opt)
-oil/butter
-salt

Method
Crack eggs into a bowl, and add a dash milk.
Saute the spices in a frying pan on  medium heat until you can smell the aroma. Add some oil and the onion, and saute 5-10 min until translucent. Add the tomatoes and parsley and cook another few minutes. Remove from heat and pour the entire mixture into the egg bowl. (So everything is in one bowl).
Mix everything together.

Heat some butter in the frying pan on low-med heat and pour the mixture back in. Stir every 30 seconds until cooked to desired texture. Serve on wholegrain toast.

Ab Fab Mushroom Lentil Canneloni

This is the most absolutely delicious vegetarian canneloni. It's based on a recipe I found online at ngsdinner blog, but modified a little... I think I'm going to try lasagne next time.

For Lentil and Mushroom FillingMakes 4-5 cups
1 cup dried lentils
2 carrots
1 onion, diced
5 sun dried tomatoes in oil
4 cloves of garlic
2 cups of mushrooms, diced
1/2 tsp Marmite
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 cup of red wine
1/2 cup tomato passata
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tsp Italian mixed herbs (or whatever herbs you have to hand)
Dash chilli sauce
Salt, pepper

Wash the lentils and cover with an about 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil with a pinch of salt, cover and lower the heat. Cook for 15min until most of the water is gone and the lentils are soft.

Saute onion for about 5 min until buttery. Add garlic and sun dried tomatoes. Grate the carrots and add to the pan. Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan. Add 1 tsp fennel seeds and 2 bay leaves along with any other herbs and spices. Stir and let all the water cook out of the veg. This will take about 10 min. When the water is almost gone add the Marmite and tomato paste. Mix in. Add the wine. Let the wine cook out. Add the tomato sauce and lentils (drain the lentils first if there is lots of water). Cook for about 10 min, check the taste, turn off and let cool.

For the Cannelloni
1 box cannelloni
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 ball of fresh mozzarella sliced (125g)
few sliced olives and herbs to top
Lentil and Mushroom filling

Pre heat oven to 200c (400f). Put half the tomato sauce in a big baking dish. Fill the uncooked cannelloni and pack tighly into the baking dish. Cover with the rest of the tomato sauce. Top with the mozzarella, olives and herbs. Cover with foil and back for 20min. Uncover and bake for 10min or until the cheese starts to brown.

My Journey to Strengthening

I promised myself that 2016 would see more about the 'lifestyle' part of my blog, rather than just the food, so here we are....

Over the last 5 years or so, I had started to observe a number of things about my body:

•           It was impossible for me to do a correct chaturanga despite doing yoga weekly for 12 years.
•           I was getting severe neck pain/dizziness after car and plane trips.
•           A steep mountain bike ride or hike, gave me stiff quads for days after, and groin pain.
•           I had terrible neck/shoulder posture
•           During an afternoon walk up a steep suburban hill, a friend told me that I was unfit, even though I had been doing regular exercise daily for years.
•           In doing ashtanga yoga pose Utthita Hasta Padangushthasana D (balance pose), I could not lift my leg higher than about 20cm off the ground.

I had always been an avid exerciser, having done aerobic exercise 3-4 times a week my whole adult life. So I was confused about why I seemed to be so much worse than everyone else despite being so fit. I even starting to give up on many of the exercise activities I loved.

I finally decided that something drastically needed to change. So in August last year, I set about building my overall body strength. I started spending 1 hour, 3 times per week, doing a full body strength training workout, which I developed at home using information on line. It involves 20 reps of about 25 different activities, using 1-2kg weights or my own body weight.

In the early stages, I was so shattered that I didn’t really have the energy to do other forms of exercise. I cut down on yoga. I stopped running. And although I kept biking, I restricted myself to flat/down-hill rides only. I continued with Zumba ;-)

After about 4 months I started to notice many positive changes:

•           Lifting my bike into the car, and carrying groceries became easier
•           Squatting to clean shower walls, and bending down to the dishwasher became easier.
•           My shoulders weren’t sagging as much when biking
•           Chaturanga was getting a tiny bit easier
•           My neck pain / dizziness has gone, and my neck didn’ t feel like it was going to fall off!
•           I could sit in the car and couch longer without pain
•           I could do ab work without straining my neck

After 6 months the changes have become more pronounced, and the exercises are becoming a little bit easier. This has enabled me to pick up light running again. I have become more conscious about how interconnected we are. For example that shoulder work requires strong abs, and that abs work requires a strong neck. And I’ve begun to notice more about how other people’s posture looks.

Over the next few months I plan to further strengthen so that I can do squats with more than just my body weight, and get to a point where I can do a chaturanga more confidently. From there I will look to maintain rather than further strengthen, which will give me more energy for my favourite exercises.

If only I had worked all this out years ago. But I guess some of you wise ones will tell me that life is full of eureka moments that take us from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, from where we can build to conscious competence and then unconscious competence!.... so I’m sure there are many more of these to come!

Here is a copy of the strengthening routine that I have been doing 3 times per week for the last 6 months. It involves 20 reps of about 25 different activities, using 1-2kg weights, or my own body weight. my-strengthening-workout

I would be interested in comments/thoughts/advice to aid my further development. x

My Strengthening Workout

Here is a copy of the strengthening routine that I have been doing 3 times per week for the last 6 months. It involves 20 reps of about 25 different activities, using 1-2kg weights or my own body weight. 

Mrs Venning’s Green Sauce

Last year when we were in Nelson, we went to our friend's place for dinner, and his mum cooked a delicious summer feast, one dish of which was roasted vegetables with green sauce. Here is the green sauce, and soon I'll post the veg. Thanks Mrs Venning!

Ingredients:

Large handful fresh basil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 anchovy fillets, drained (rinsed if canned in salt)

2 tsp mild ready-made mustard

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Put all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor blender and whiz until smooth. Keep the processor running and pour the oil through the tube in a steady flow. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Decant into a covered bottle or jar and put aside until needed. Keeps for a week in the refrigerator. 

Serving Suggestions:

Roast veg, or lamb cutlets. Delish!

Grape, rose and hibiscus sparkling summer punch

This is for you Aubs..... :)

I went to a pre-xmas get together on 19th dec, and wanted to take something a bit different, so concocted a lowish-sugar refreshing punch, which lots of people seemed to like.... so here it is for reference...

                                                  Photo courtesy of Aubrey.

Day 1
Make some rose and hibiscus tea
Add 1 cinnamon stick
A couple of cloves
A couple of all spices
Leave to cool down and infuse over night

Day 2
Combine:
2 parts soda water
1 part cold rose and hibiscus tea
1 part sparkling grape juice

Add
Freshly chopped strawberries
Chopped orange segments