Sunday 28 September 2014

Quick Meal: Rice, Veg and Bean Medley

So I'm not entirely sure what to call the meal I made this evening, but it was probably one of the best things I've ever made (if I do say so myself!) But I think you need to try it yourself to decide if you agree.






Does it photograph well?

I just made enough for myself, so you can double/triple the amount of ingredients to suit yourself. I wish I doubled mine so that I could have leftovers for lunch tomorrow - BOO HOO :(

Serves: 1

Time: 25 minutes approx.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup brown basmati rice
2 spring onions
1/2 red chilli
1 cup tofu
Coconut oil for frying veg
1/2 cup black beans
3 stems broccoli
Sesame oil for dressing

To make:

1. Get your rice cooking. It's such mixed opinions on whether you should rinse your rice before you use it, but personally I never do. This will take about 25 minutes and is how long the dish takes to make in total
2. Melt your coconut oil in a wok
3. Cut up your tofu into small strips and fry on high heat for a few minutes
4. Turn down the heat and add spring onions and chilli (both finely chopped)
5. Add black beans and broccoli after a few minutes
6. Once rice is cooked to your liking, drain it and add to the wok for a quick simmer
7. Serve immediately and top with sesame oil (I think lime juice would also be really nice with this)

Quick Dish: Fully Raw Zucchini Pasta/Courgetti

Call it what you want, but I think I can honestly say that this is my new favourite dish. Be it lunch or dinner, it can be adapted to suit you and the ingredients you have, as well as it being super quick and easy to make. I have even made this dish for my meat eating family and they loved it!



IDEA:

If you were making it for a dinner party, you could have a bowl of mushrooms and a bowl of meat separately and let people choose which one they want to go on the top!



I started the day with a smoothie bowl... As per. Followed by an 11am yoga class to get me going for the day. This beautiful bowl of Courgetti came next.











Now I know that it doesn't look all that appealing in presentation, but I tried my hardest (I laid out the mushrooms in a nice pattern!!!)



So, onto the recipe (inspired by the recipe on Deliciously Ella). For one serving you will need:



1 courgette

1 mushroom (thinly sliced)

Handful of green olives

Handful of cherry tomatoes

1/2 avocado

Slice of red onion

1/2 lime (juice only)

1/2 tbsp sesame oil



Instructions:



1. I always start by making the sauce. I mash up half an avocado in a bowl and mix the sesame oil and the lime juice in

2. Cut up the tomatoes, olives and onions into pieces as small as you want (I always make mine really small)

3. Add the chopped veg to the avocado sauce

4. If you have a spiralizer then use it for this step. If not, then just use a peeler to peel your courgette into thin strips, this is going to be your spaghetti (I am a student and so I always do the peeler option). I always throw the inner part of the courgette away as it doesn't make a good texture for this dish

5. Add your courgette strips to the sauce and mix it all together

6. Top with your sliced mushroom, some basil and black pepper

OPTIONAL (NOT RAW):
(if you fancy adding a bit of warmth to the dish, you can quickly stir fry the mushrooms in some coconut oil before adding them on top)

7. Enjoy!






Saturday 27 September 2014

First Post: Going Vegan

Having thought about it for about a year, I finally decided to go fully vegan. This was a tough decision as I knew that it would come with lots of difficulties, especially in regards to eating out and going to friends' for dinner etc. However, so far so good. I am only eating vegan and not living the full vegan lifestyle. But hey, one step at a time. I am purely doing this for the health benefits. This time last year I started my first year at university and I was able to cook whatever I wanted for myself. I had never properly cooked for myself at home and so this was such a great experience and it turned out that I absolutely loved to cook and I was actually pretty good at it!

My health kick started off with smoothies... In particular, smoothie bowls - YUM! I think that frozen fruit is the biggest essential in order to create the perfect smoothie - bananas and berries in particular and I like to use these over ice cubes.



This was my first ever smoothie bowl experience and let me tell you... I never looked back!

This bowl consists of:

1.5 cups almond milk
1 frozen banana
Handful of frozen berries

Topped with:
Coconut shavings
Shaved almonds
Cacao nibs
Linseed sprinkles
Almond butter

This is possibly the easiest breakfast to make and it is so filling as easy to adapt. I sometimes add 2 or 3 bananas and chop some up as toppings. Over this year I have also discovered maca powder, acai berry powder, goji berries and many other things which I now incorporate into my breakfast bowls!




The possibilities are endless!