Spring on a Plate!

Spring Asparagus Salad and Wild Rice, with Lumpy Vegetable Mash
(gluten-free, lactose-free, diabetic-friendly)

At the moment I am completely obsessed with wild rice.  Wild rice is a species of rice different to the Asian rice that we normally eat.  It is characterised by it's stick-like appearance, and I believe when you cook it enough, it curls up.

Most people cook wild rice with equal parts brown rice, which i tend to also do.  The wild rice just adds a bit of extra texture and colour.

For this recipe you will need:
a bunch of fresh asparagus
1 can of legumes
1 lemon, to juice
Cracked pepper
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice
Braggs Amino Acids (a soy-sauce-like condiment made from amino acids; available from most good health food stores)
1 cup roughly chopped sweet potato
1 cup roughly chopped pumpkin
1 carrot
2 medium zucchinis
lots of mushies!!
cumin seed or powder


The Rice...
Start off by adding the cup of rice to boiling water.  I like my rice kind of el dente, but cook for as little or as long as you wish.
The Chunky Mash...
 Steam or microwave the sweet potato and pumpkin until very soft.  Mash until you get the consistency you wish.  Brown 1/2 of the onion and 1 clove of garlic in a fry pan using  a small amount of (good - see tips and tidbits) oil.  Season with cumin.  Add the carrot and zucchinis, which have been finely grated, to the onion and garlic.  Fry for a few minutes, until the carrot has gone soft, and then add all of these ingredients to the mashed pumpkin/sweet potato. Roughly stir it all in together, retaining a chunky consistency.
The Spring Asparagus Salad....
Brown the chopped onion in a small amount of oil, and then add 1 clove of finely chopped garlic and as many slices of mushrooms as you wish.  Season with a little bit of Braggs, or if you wish soy sauce, and the juice of the lemon.  Chop the asparagus sticks into approx 1cm pieces, and add into the frying pan.  This is when you also add the legumes of your choice. Cook until the asparagus is a little softer, but still has a crunch.  

Serve all together, as seen in the piccy above.  This meal could be served either hot, or cold, for a nice fresh variation!
Cold cooked rice is extremely good for you as it's starchy components have become gelatinous, and thus what is called 'resistant'.  This only happens when the rice is cooked, and then cooled down again.  Resistant starch has many health benefits as it has similar characteristics to fibre.   For instance, it is unable to be adequately digested (broken down) in the gut, which allows it to act as a; 'bulking' agent, a meal calorie-lowering agent, as well as a filler-upperer (i.e. increases satiety).

Hi ho, hi ho, off to work I go!
Have a great day!

 

Orange and Almond Moistness

(gluten free, dairy free, diabetic-friendly, high protein)

This is a recipe courtesy of my lovely, faboulous, amazing boyfriend (who is looking over my shoulder).  Cody is trained as a pastry chef, so we often clash heads when making baked goodies.  How do you make pastry without butter?? What do you mean you don't want sugar in your chocolate cake?! But he quickly learned.
This orange and almond cake is one recipe that he has been perfecting over the last few months.  I am pleased to say that it has been extremely modified since when he had to make it for a bakery, although I'm sure you would still find it extremely satisfying! Well there is something about ground almonds that makes me moist at least.

Ingredienti
450 grams of almond meal
5 eggs
3 oranges
1/2 cup chia seeds
1 lemon
1-2 pears
2 tbs flaxseed oil
1/2-1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
honey or xylitol ad lib.

Boil the oranges and lemon (unpeeled) for an hour in water that is almost covering them.  You may find that orange and almond cake is too bitter for you, especially this recipe as there is minimal sweetener.  If this is the case, after boiling the oranges and lemon for half an hour, empty the water out of the saucepan, and refill with fresh water.  Boil for another half an hour. 
Mix all the dry ingredients together, ensuring that the baking powder is thoroughly incorporated into the mixture.  Then blend the oranges and lemon until smooth.  Add, along with the eggs and flaxseed oil, to the dry ingredients.  Roughly grate the pears and also add.
Cook at 190 degrees for 40 minutes, or until browned on top.

 

 I love strawberry season!

Almonds are amazing.  It is funny because I don't really like them by themselves (I think they taste like bugs) but I absa-bloody-lutely love almond meal!  It has such great texture and flavour, has endless health benefits, and, as it is high in protein, it fills ya up to!  But that doesn't necessarily mean you stop eating these.....

Healthy for You and Your Home, Cleaning Tips!

Just in time for some spring cleaning, this is for all the people (like me) who hate cleaning and chemicals full stop. 

Over the weekend everyone in our busy little household had to get our shit together and actually do some cleaning, as we had a house inspection.  Now we are all quite slack with cleaning, letting things go a little bit, so over the weekend quite a significant bit of work was needed to get things looking up to scratch.
So we have had quite a few little accidents in the house of late, and in my attempt to not resort to chemicals (blah!) I did some experimenting.

Carpet Stains:
Ok so the few little accidents involved leaving blood and other things on the carpet, and left me to think that I would never be able to get it out! Then I came along this friendly little grime-buster!  Warm water, with a dash of white vinegar and (eco-friendly) dishwashing detergent.  Lightly scrub the carpet with a sponge or towel soaked in the recipe above.  Then pat down gently with a clean, damp cloth.  Leave to dry, and repeat if needed.
On the blood stains, I probably repeated this process about three of four days in a row.  The key really is persistence!
Make sure the room is well ventilated, otherwise manually dry the wet patch with a fan or hairdryer.

Mould in Silicone
Now I don't believe this is the most environmentally friendly way, but it is the only thing I found that works, and you don't have to scrub needlessly for hours!  Mix up a thick past of bi-carb soda and bleach.  Apply liberally to the silicone along the bottom of the shower, bath, sink etc.  Leave for as long as possible.  I left it on overnight, and the results were amazing!! I believe this could also work for other extremely resistant stains on grout, sink basins or whatever.

Weeding
In places were there is unwanted, stubborn grass, instead of getting some absurd weed killer out, spray on white vinegar.  If using the commercial variety as bought, you may need to spray it liberally over the unwanted grass several days in a row, as the vinegar is quite a low concentration (20%?).  However, (I haven't tried this) you can concentrate white vinegar by freezing half a bottle of it overnight. In the morning, tip the bottle upside down over another bottle, and as it defrosts, the vinegar will drip out first, as it has a higher freezing point than water.  After a couple of hours, remove the top bottle which should only be mostly ice-water, and you can use the concentrated source of vinegar that has dripped into the bottom bottle.
White vinegar is also very effective on all other weeds, however just remember, it is not selective and be careful when spraying it near plants that you would like to keep.

General Cleaning
White vinegar again. Use it in a spray bottle, and just wipe it away with a damp cloth.  For more stubborn areas such as soap scum, sprinkle a little bit of bi-carb soda over the area and spray vinegar over it.  It will cause a chemical reaction, and fizzle up, and as it does so, this is when you scrub away. White vinegar can be used for everything, as a glass cleaner instead of windex, an oven and stove top cleaner, floor cleaner, even a deodorizer for your toilet! I'm in love.

Paint Smell Removal
Another accident involved a fist and a wall (not anyone who lives in this house's fist).  So when patching the hole up we had to use paint that matched the rest of the wall.  Luckily the house we rent has some left over paint from when it was built, so it was just a matter of finding the right paint for the wall and slapping it on.  Unluckily the paint was not very friendly to the nose, and probably the environment, and our inspection was the next day!! So to get rid of the smell? I put a bucket of (you guessed it!) white vinegar in the room and left it there overnight.  It absorbed the smell.  Apparently what also works is halved onions and water in a bucket instead.  The next day, just ensuring that the house inspectors really didnt suspect a thing, I burned some lovely coconut incense (my favourite!). 

Using these products, I actually don't mind doing a bit of cleaning every now and again.
And just for your ease of mind, we passed our house inspection with flying colours! He didn't even feel like he had to come up the stairs to inspect the other two bedrooms!

Have a great day! 

Getting Sentimental

 Yesterday, our dear old boy Tyson got his little fellas chopped off.  Tyson is a stray who found us almost four months ago, and just seemed to never leave.  We tried looking for his owners around the area, handed out leaflets and put up signs. Rang the local pound and asked vets.  No one knew who he was.  As our neighbourhood is a new residential area where there is still a lot of building going on we think that his previous owner was a tradey, and just never cared enough about him to try and find him.  I used to get so angry about it. But now I have come to accept that some people just dont give a shit about the beautiful animals they call 'pets'.  So he is staying with us now. 
Tyson is a pure staffy, and so often will get subjected to, and blamed, for being aggressive towards dogs.  Our dear old boy has scars on his ears where he has obviously been in a fight, and although not aggressive, he does get defensive if dogs are 'rude'.
At the beach probably just over a week ago this dog (he looked like a rottweiler cross) came up to us and Tyson (on a lead) growled at him to back off.  The dog left and come back over growling himself.  I had no idea where the owner was.  This dog came up to us probably three or four times, and I abandoned any efforts trying to get Tyson's focus on me as he was so agitated, so all I could do was hold Tyson's front up against my chest so that I could control him better. At one stage the dog  just came up and bit, grabbing Tyson by the leg.  Tyson latched onto the closest thing he could, the dog's lip, and maintained his grip.  Meanwhile the owner had obviously spotted us, and came over almost hysterical.  I was having a hard time holding onto Tyson as he is so strong, and I asked my sister, Lacey, to come help. She twisted Tsyon's ear (something that pack leaders do to maintain dominance) and Tyson let go of the dogs lip. As the lady walked away, however, all she could say was " F******* staffies".  My sister went off at her, as did another kind man who watched the whole thing happen.  She should be responsible for her dog.  Tyson was on a lead and I tried to control him as best as I could while her dog kept coming up and getting in my dog's space. Grr! it makes me angry.
So anyway, we decided to get him neutered as it is the safest thing to do, in terms of disease and living longer, cheaper (to register him) and to possibly quieten his defensiveness down a little bit. 

Tyson on the way home from the vet yesterday - very doped up the poor dear.

  

Tyson !

 

 This is Tandy, my refuge dog.  Her and I have been best of friends for almost three years now. 

 Princess Tandy

These are our horses (or ponies rather).  Popeye the grey one in the background (Popeye as he only has one eye), and Tom is in the front. I miss them so!

This is my sister, Lacey (on the right) and I. She got upset that I didnt put a photo of her up in the "my canvas" post. 
Same, same but oh so different!

 Lace and I again. I was dressed in a chicken suit to advocate for free range eggs at my uni. It was bloody hot.

Anyway enough procrastinating. I have to go to uni. blah! Like Miss Claire I am wearing a (op shop) frock on a Friday!! Yay!

Slice up Your Life!

Strawcocoberrynut Slice 
(vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and diabetic-friendly)

This was a little dessert that I whipped up on an unhappy day, in the hope of cheering up my suddenly-single sister. I can't, however, guarantee that it was the slice, rather than my wonderful company, that cleared away the tears.

For the base I used:
around a cup and a half of almond meal
3/4 cup of pureed prunes
cup of dessicated coconut
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Mix all the dry ingredients into the bowl, then add the pureed prunes.  Add the coconut oil ad lib until you reach your desired consistency.  Press into a shallow pan and cook in the oven until slightly hard. 

The topping included:
500g of strawberries
just a dash of prune juice (if you used tinned prunes for the base, if not put in some sort of juice of your preference)
dash of vanilla essence
1/2-3/4 cup dessicated coconut
150g of dairy-free 70-85% dark chocolate

 simmering the strawbs

Simmer the strawberries, vanilla essence and the juice on low heat over the stove top.  Stir continuously until syrupy consistency. Add the coconut to the mix.  Spoon, the mix onto your base.
Temper the dark chocolate over boiling water, and while hot spoon over the top of the strawberry topping.  Sprinkle a little bit more dessicated coconut over the top of the chocolate.
Refrigerate until dark chocolate is once again hard.

The slice once finished   (Sorry about the low quality pics!)

 Enjoy!

Variations:
You dont have to use strawberries.  Instead you could cherries, any sorts of berries, rhubarb, or anything that floats your boat! Or pitches your tent. Or boils your kettle. Or....haha just kidding.

Procrastinating on a Saturday Afternoon

I have been a little bit obsessed with looking at other peoples blogs in the last week or so (despite my growing mountain of assignments!) and have come across some really lovely and inspiring ones.  Some have made me want to take more photos of myself than normal, some have made me want to grate soap for laundry powder, and others have just made me even more driven to stick with my passions!

So anyway while I was procrastinating this afternoon I came across this adorable recipe for a Weet-Bix Cake.  It comes from one of my favourite blogs that i've seen so far by a lovely lady named Sherry, click here to check her out!

So I thought I would experiment a little, and make it vegan friendly.
here goes...

Vegan Vita-Slice!
I used....
approx 7 crushed Vita Brits (they are Uncle Toby's version of Sanitarium's Weet Bix - and they only have two ingredients, wheat and salt, compared to Weet Bix which have added sugar and more salt.  Coles Brand also make a version which is surprisingly even better than Vita Brits in that it has less salt)
1 cup wholemeal SR flour
1 tbs cacao powder (unprocessed cocoa, it has a lot more antioxidants - you can easily access it from health food shops)
1 tbs vanilla bean paste (i love my vanilla)
1/4 cup dried sultanas (try to choose ones which are free of vegetable oil)
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup of prunes, pureed (this is used to substitute eggs)
around 1/2 cup of melted coconut oil, depending on the consistency of the mix (this is used to substitute butter, use actual coconut oil instead of the hydrogenated version 'copha') If you want to lower the fat content, moisten the mix more with some more prunes or soy (or rice/oat) milk - remember vita brits soak up a lot of moisture, but leave it if you want em crunchier!

So simple to make - just chuck it all in together and mix it around for a bit! I pressed it into a shallow tin and cooked it in a preheated fan forced at about 160degrees, for probably around 20minutes.  (I did get a little impatient in the end)


For my taste, the prunes and sultanas do make it sweet enough, but if you want an even sweeter snack add some honey or xylitol (zi-le-tol). (if so just be careful not to feed it to your beloved canine friends as xylitol may be toxic to them). Also, I apologise for may lack of icing - I'm not really an icing kinda girl.  Maybe its because I'm not the most patient person.

I'm so sorry Sherry if I didnt do any justice to your own amazing recipe!




I better get back to my assignments, hope everyone's having a lovely weekend!




My Canvas

Just another sunny winter day at uni...hence the grumbly face

Shirt: op shop

Indian Skirt: op shop

Socks: supermarket ;)

Old-Man Shoes: op shop

Sunnies: Cotton On

Necklace: present from Lacey 

 
Top: Vintage, 80s op shop 
Earrings: op shopped
Belt: had since I was like 9 

 This is one of my greatest friends (best friend in the room right now!). Her fashion sense and wardrobe is awe-inspiring.

 This is my lovely Nan and I, at my sister's and my birthday this year.

Nan is wearing a dress she bought online from America. She freaked out coz it took more than four days to arrive!

Rhi wears:
Top: its actually a 1950s? dress from a collectables store $75

Skirt: handmade by my clever mother and my beautiful friend, Spadge

 Lots of outfits!

 My mother and I, aaages ago

Crocheted top: one of my favourite finds ever, bought it about three or four years ago at a Vinnies store for $12

Its hard to tell when it would have been made

 My 90s pink hiking boots.  This was on a very cold winters morning (about five o'clock, and hungover!)

 This is a dress from one of my friends that I borrowed for a Mexican-themed night.  

Dress: borrowed, but from an op-shop

Hair piece: found while was out

Guitar: Johnny Cash's son's brother-in-laws cousins neice's guitar.

 This is the tattoo that my sister and I share (although slightly different)

 My rather hairy, at this stage, boyfriend, Cody

Singlet: Cotton On

Jeans: op-shopped, he originally refuse to wear them coz he thought they were girls.

still trying to get him to wear so-called 'old-man pants'

 Lee (far left) wears:

Dress: op-shop

Rhi wears:

Dress: from collectable shop, $65

Necklace: birthday present

Eva (middle) looks gorgeous as always

Nikki (far right) wears:

'Marilyn Manson' Dress: op-shop, beautiful criss-cross back

 My little Bro and I. I'm so proud of him :)

Hayden wears:

Shirt: Target

Pants: op-shop, $4

Vest and Tie: borrowed from my Grandad

Rhi wears:

Dress: op-shop, 1980s, $25, borrowed from Nikki!

And to finish it off, this is just a snap-shot of my Grandma's house. It is choc-a-bloc with all things second hand and vintage! I love going there and just looking.  Check out the retro chair I am sitting on. Love the colours!

I think my love for op-shopping and garage sales sprung from when my Grandma used to take us when we were just young, she always tells me that all that the shop-keepers used to tell her to keep me away as I would make them all broke with my amazing bartering skills!

Finally going to try get some sleep. Hope everyone else is all tucked in and tight!