Some Whole-Food Cooking

Well the rent inspection went very well after all my worrying and we are hopefully getting the fence repaired and the gutters cleaned.

With the warmer weather approaching I find I'm again preparing many more Vegetarian meals and various salads and being very inspired by Heather's Wholefoods Course.

We had pearl barley with a beef and mushroom stew one night and then the last cup of barley went into these burgers along with...

1 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans

1 cup of rolled oats

the cup of barley

2 duck eggs

a heaped teaspoon each of mixed herbs and ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon each of chilli flakes and sea salt

Blitz the lot together and shape into 8 large burgers, shallow fry. They freeze well uncooked so I popped 4 in the freezer and we made 2 meals of the others. I cut the big mixture into 8 even pieces before rolling them into pattie shapes...

On Tuesday I soaked a 350gm bag of red kidney beans I'd picked up for 50cents, cooked them for about 8 minutes in my trusty pressure cooker, they really swell up and will be frozen to add to 'everything', tonight I'm going to use some in a chilli dish...this is such a thrifty way to buy your beans.

I bought a couple of raw beetroots at the weekend to grate and make this salad or slaw. Grating beets is messy business so I covered the bench top with newspaper to catch the 'spray'! I also grated an apple and added chopped spring onions and mixed seeds. The dressing was the juice of one lemon with an equal amount of olive oil, a teaspoon of honey and salt and pepper...it was even better the second day and I think the colour is just beautiful...

Joe has been craving some more oatcakes lately so I got on with them yesterday, I cut these into squares the save having to keep rolling out the offcuts, it was quicker and probably better for the oatcakes...Joe enjoyed some with a chunk of feta cheese.

I made a very tasty potato bake for dinner yesterday, I par-boiled about 1 kilo of unpeeled potatoes and then thinly sliced them. Layered them in a lasagne type dish with thinly sliced onions, finely chopped mushrooms and a layer of boiled ham in the middle. Then I poured over 300gms cream mixed with 1/2 cup of milk, S and P and some sneaky oat bran, covered it with foil and baked it at 170C for an hour. I took it out and uncovered it, sprinkled on some cheese and let it brown for another 30 minutes or so.

Time then to cook the brown rice I'd soaked overnight, I added the mushrooms and some Bragg's seasoning once the rice was drained and now it's ready to become a salad or a side dish with a few suitable additives.

Yesterday I followed Rose's link to this wonderful foody blog, Can You Stay For Dinner and I loved Andy's salad suggestions that the link will take you to.

I went to watch Jess and Livvie at tee-ball practice yesterday after school, it was great fun with some of the parents playing too! Then they went off to Aikido which they started recently and love. Gordie and Livvie have a cold :( Hope they feel better very soon.

Bye bye for now,
Love, Sue
xx