Meat-free, Wheat-free Monday, A Stack of Flavor!

My lovely daughter Rose made this dish for us all, we loved it, full of fresh flavors, filling and it just looked amazing on the plate.

She peeled and grated about a kilo of Potatoes, added a cup of Gluten Free Flour, a couple of beaten Eggs, Spring Onions and Salt & Pepper. This mixture was fried in a non-stick pan to make Rosti style pancakes.

In the meantime, thinly sliced Eggplant was grilled, Tomatoes were sliced and oven-roasted and Red Onions were sliced and gently fried.

All of this was tossed together with baby spinach, seasoned and piled on top of the pancakes.

We ate and enjoyed every bit and I appreciated a night off!

Thanks Rosie! xxx

A Frosty, Fruity Breakfast...

I'm not usually much of a breakfast person even though I know how important it is, the one thing I can bring myself to tackle in the morning is a Fruit Smoothie.

 Now that bananas have come down in price, the berries are abundant both in the garden and the shops, it seems like a good time to start a healthy Smoothie habit!

I like my Smoothies made with frozen banana, raspberries, boysenberries, blueberries, strawberries and soy milk.

Meat-free Wheat-free Monday, A Berry Nice Pavlova!

This post is part of the Australian Pavlova Blog Hop, hosted by Jennifer of Delicieux

After much impatient watching and waiting we finally have berries from the garden ready to eat, not buckets of them. but certainly enough to decorate a birthday pavlova for my husband!

It was indeed a proud moment presenting this beauty, made with eggs from our charming chooks and berries from the backyard!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE! XXX

November Food Swap

The weather is finally warming up and I'm planting, planting, planting! There isn't actually all that much to eat from the garden at the moment which left me with a bit of a dilemma when it came to working out what to take to food swap this month, I had used a heap of eggs  making a lovely egg and bacon pie for Friday night dinner, I then put the few that I had left into a Vegetable Slice to take as a contribution to the Harvest Basket anniversary lunch which was on after the food swap, so eggs weren't an option.

 I ended up making some Rosemary and Capsicum Bread Sticks, I took some of a batch of Jam Drop bikkies and a couple of jars of Curried Cauliflower & Carrot Pickle, some Curly Kale and some Vietnamese Mint

I came home with, a jar of Apricot Chutney, 6 Lemons, 3 Pumpkin seedlings, an Angelica plant, 2 Lettuces, 3 baby Artichokes, some Cherry Tomato seedlings and 3 baby Beetroots.

Broadening My Horizons

I had myself convinced until recently that I didn't like Broad Beans, I think I had probably never tried them picked young and cooked the same day, I grew them anyway because other people like them and we've had a couple of meals with them as a vegetable with meat dishes. I wanted to try something different with them and liked the idea of Broad Bean Dip, this simple recipe was not only deliciously nutty but was an absolutely gorgeous bright green.

I picked a small colander full of beans, podded them and blanched them in boiling water for 3 minutes.

After slipping the beans out of their skins I processed them with a good squeeze of lemon juice, a clove of garlic (crushed) and some salt and white pepper, I added some olive oil until it was a good dipping consistency.

Although I do think they are a bit labor intensive with all that blanching and peeling, I have decided that I rather like Broad Beans!

Meat-free Wheat-free Monday, Falafel

Falafel has been a family favorite of ours since our children were very young, they still ask me to make it from time to time and although gluten-free wraps are a bit cardboardy (haven't found a brand yet that's much good) we still enjoy them.
I like the interactiveness of putting all the  components on the table and having people put together their own wraps.

I soak two and a half cups of chickpeas overnight in cold water, drain them the next day and process them into a paste with a teaspoon of ground Cumin and a teaspoon and a half of baking powder, I let this sit for half an hour at room temperature  before rolling into walnut sized balls, I let these sit for about 15 minutes before frying them in Canola Oil. The Falafel go on the table with a simple salad of Lettuce, Tomato and Cucumber, enough wraps for 2 each and a sauce made of Yoghurt with a crushed Garlic clove and a pinch of salt stirred in.

Meat-free, Wheat-free Monday, Cauliflower Pakoras

The weather is really starting to change and we're getting to the end of the cool weather vegies, our last couple of cauliflowers are ready to eat and I wanted to pick them before the slugs took over!

A Zucchini Curry was on the menu for our Monday vegie meal, I thought Cauliflower Pakoras would be a good accompaniment and a good use for the Cauliflowers, they're  always popular and so easy. I chopped the Cauliflower into florets and cooked them in boiling water until they were almost tender.

I then added a cup of Besan Flour (Chickpea Flour), to a large bowl, stirred in three quarters of a cup of water, about a teaspoon of Cumin seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar & pestle and half a teaspoon of salt.

I added the drained Cauliflower to this batter and mixed until it was well coated.

I fried the florets in Canola Oil until they were golden brown and served them with coriander leaves, the curry, rice and some yoghurt and mint raita.