Recipe

Vegetable Dahl

This was lunch today.

2 cups of red lentils
water to cover

Started that simmering. Then added:

1 large Sweetpotato, cut into 1cm cubes and 1 finely chopped onion

Made sure that it was well stirred, covered and left to cook for 10 mins - which was about as long as the lentils took to cook.

Cut in to it the stalks of a dozen spears of asparugus. Fresh from a local farm yesterday evening :-). Turned off heat and left to stand. This ends up like a slightly damp pilaff.

Cooked Spiced onions and carrots whilst that was standing

8 small onions (these are the last of the bag) shreded lengthwise.
1/2 cup oil

Put onions and oil together and set over a low heat. Saute'd for 5 mins and added 1 tsp dried ground cumin, and 1tsp mixed spice.

Sliced about 150g carrots in thin rounds. Added to the pan with the onions. Covered and cooked for about 5 mins.

Added 200ml soya milk and water 50/50. Stirred through and covered.

Served the dahl with the onions over. Very yummy and the children had seconds so would serve 4 easily, with some over for the fridge.

Recipe

This formed the basis of tea this evening. Mainly because I had things to use up, and a buttery soft avocado that would have gone too far if it hadn't been eaten today :-)

Green salad

1/2 cup Alfalfa and Brocolli Sprouts
1 large Avocado
1/4 Cucumber

Basil leaves, as many as you like.

Finely shread the cucumber (do this by cutting rounds and then fine slice them so that each piece has a double end of skin and holds its shape), and peel and slice the avocado. Put into a bowl with the sprouts. Use hands to smoosh all three ingredients together until some of the avocado is pulped but there are still some lumps.

Put a layer of whole basil leaves into the bottom of serving bowl, put serving of salad on top. Add a tiny drizzle of hemp oil and/or Balsamic vinegar if you wish :-)

This salad serves one as a main, or two to four as an accompaniment.

Reading

Don't estate agents websites make great fiction :-) Well, they are based in fact like all the best stories. And we can build our own stories around them. The gardens, the space, what we would do to that ghastly wallpaper.

What is it about wallpaper? Can anyone explain why whatever is in our price bracket has the sort of wallpaper that would be impossible to live with or even just paint over?

So to counteract the depression of receiving .pdf files from agents, rather than nice hard copies that are easier to look at (well, for starters they are in my hand, can't print anything as my printers having an off week!); I've been re-reading The Magicians Guild by Trudi Canavan. A bit of a romp through fantasy land, but a good read. Very much in the same style as Raymond Fiest or Janny Wurts. Definitely a recommendation :-)

Other reading: www.livingfoods.com along with Detox Your World, by Shazzie (and her Detox Delights book as well). More info on that one (as well as other required reading on the Raw factor) at her website www.shazzie.com

I'm aware that this blog is taking a slightly chattier turn than just reading or recipes. But normal service will be resumed asap. I'm starting to draft a 6 week vegan/veggie meal plan so some of that will be ending up here. But I'm off to peruse the online book stores and find some nice new reading matter :-)

Recipe

Posted this yesterday but blogger ate it!! Well - it was rather tasty, lol :-)

Sprout Salad

1 cup Mung bean sprouts
1 cup mixed Broccoli and Alfalfa sprouts
1/2 Avocado, mushed
3 Carrots, grated (I used a course Microplane)
1 small Cox Apple, grated

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and leave for 30 minutes. You can eat it straight away if you want to - but the 30 minute wait does make a difference :-)

To serve:- 1 head Chicory per person, 1 handful Rocket per person.

Put Rocket in a bowl, put serving of sprout salad on top. Use chicory leaves as spoons.

I also had a good half cupful of raw hummous (see below)

Salad served two adults and 3 children, and I had the leftovers with a couple of sheets of Seitan (the Wheaty brand) as a late night snack.

Recipe

Using up some veg from the bottom of the cupboard today to make a Soup.

3 large carrots, sliced
4 small onions, chopped

Place in a pan with 500ml water plus soya milk. I did 50/50 but according to preferance really. Bring to boil and simmer until tender.

Finely chop a dozen (or so) mushrooms and add to pan. Cover and turn off heat. Leave for circa 10mins when they will be cooked.

We had this as it was with some homemade wholemeal bread and raw hummus that I bought from a stall at Spittlefields market on Friday.

It fed me plus 3 children (of varying sizes) well with half left over, waiting in the fridge to become pasta sauce :-)

Reading

Got the most recent copy of Grand Designs magazine yesterday... I like drooling over other peoples houses, and at least with that particular magazine there is some hope of living somewhere like it one day. Sigh.

I've been plodling around the Muddlepuddle blogring as well :-) www.muddlepuddle.co.uk and follow the links from there.

Another blog that I've come to love is www.sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com Its great in itself, but the bloggers premise is to include a blog of the day. This often leads me off to interesting waters :-)

Got to go - need to make the toddler sleep...