Busy busy busy zucchini times....

It's been a very busy time lately. The Financial Crisis gave me a slap in the face when the project I am contracted too has been shelved, meaning I am suddenly jobless. I decided (after much discussion with the boy) that it was finally time to follow my dream of becoming a Nutritionist.
So I have enrolled in Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition) and am going to be a full-time student for the next 3 years. It's not going to be easy but I am feeling really optimistic about the future, even if I won't be able to feed my shopping needs :)

Besides all of these busy times I have been eating well, so here's a few photos of what has been fuelling my body lately.
Mushroom, broccoli, zucchini, brown rice, chickpea, and quinoa with 'popped' pepitas and toasted sesame seeds.

White miso soup with beans, carrot, sweet peas, zucchini, tofu and soba noodles.
Tomato, zucchini, onion and mushroom pizza's on organic base.
Can you see the common ingredient here? I just love zucchini.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Australia Day, Chinese New Year and the Triple J Hottest 100.

Chickpea & Radish Salad with Avocado Dressing

I bought some radishes.

Now what do I do with them? I took a bite out of a raw one and didn't particularly like it. I read that you can cook them in butter, which I didn't want to do but thought if I saute them lightly in some olive oil that should take the edge of them.



8 x radishes
1 x lebanese cucumber
1 x carrot
1/3 sml red onion
1 x tomato
1 x tin chickpeas
mixed lettuce leaves
1/3 avocado
juice of 1 lime
1/3 cup Evoo
salt & pepper

Method Madness
Make the dressing by putting the avocado, lime juice, salt, pepper and evoo in a shaker. Shake until the avocado 'dissolves'.
Thinly slice the radishes and saute. Very thinly slice the cucumber, onion and carrot. Rinse chickpeas. Finely chop tomato so it goes through the whole salad.
Mix all ingredients except mixed lettuce leaves together and leave to sit for 10 minutes so it infuses. Arrange lettuce in bowl and top with mixed ingredients.
Serve with a glass of chardonnay eating ourside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Green Tuxedo Pasta


Don't you think bow-tie pasta is cute :)
With these hot summer nights I don't generally feel like cooking, we went out for dinner last night and I made a plate of raw veggies with some beetroot dip the night before.
Tonight I really had to use these baby courgettes that were starting to look a little sad and a bag of spinach (there's always that rogue bag of spinach floating around the fridge).
So after a quick search through the cupboards I decided on a green veggies dressed up with bow-ties.

1 x brown onion
6 x baby courgettes
1 bag baby spinach
1/2 head of broccoli
1/2 cup fresh basil
2 x Tbs slivered almonds
2 cloves garlic
1/2 bag bow tie pasta
Pecorino Cheese (make sure it doesn't contain animal derived rennet)
Evoo, salt and pepper

Method in the Madness
Cook pasta according to packet instructions.
Finely chop onion and saute in evoo, slice broccoli into small florets and courgettes on the diagonal. Add to onion.
Finely chop spinach, garlic, basil and almonds to make a pesto. I think making the pesto by hand really makes a difference to the taste and reccommend it highly as seen here.
Drain pasta, reserving some of the liquid and add to saute pan, add pesto and stir. Add fresh grated pecorino, salt and pepper and toss.
I left mine to cool a bit so it was only warm when we ate it, it was really tasty and fairly healthy and there is enough left over for lunch tomorrow :)

As usual all ingredients, including the cheese and pasta, are all organic and try to be locally sourced.

Curry Rice Salad

I had some leftover cooked basmati rice so thought I would mix it with some chopped up spinach, tomato, cucumber, slivered almonds and avocado mixed with lime juice as dressing, left over night it infused beautifully for lunch the next day. After this success I decided with the rest of the left over rice I would make a curried rice salad. I thought I would again just wing it and see what happens.

Again it was another healthy, yummy, filling salad. I will definently make this again as it had a lovely balance, I suspect you could use any veggies on hand.

2 x cups cooked basmati rice
1 x cup chopped spinach
2 sml grated carrots
4 x spears asparagus
1 x Lebanese cucumber
4 Tbs pepitas
1/2 cup organic sultanas
Vegetarian sausages

Dressing
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp cumin
3 x tsp mango chutney (I used Mason FarmYard)

Method in the Madness
Mix ingredients for dressing together, making sure honey is dissolved. Put to the side.
Cook sausages, and add pepitas so they pop. In the last minute, add the chopped asparagus.
Finely chop spinach, grate carrots, cube cucumber and add to rice. Mix all ingredients together with dressing and leave to stand for 1/2 hour. Serve with Vegetarian sausages.

New Years Resolutions

I've been reading quite a few posts lately about New Years resolutions, so I thought I would throw my hat into the ring, make the declarations public, and maybe, just maybe I might actually follow through with them. Some may be considered goals rather than resolutions, but either way it's something to work towards.

• Boot Camp – starts 12 January 2009, signed up and paid for, 6am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 4 weeks, there is no getting out of it now.
• Start cycling with the Boy. I bought him a bike for Christmas; mine is booked in for a service. The only reason not to go at least once a week is laziness (jeepers I am in boot camp mode already!)
• Sort my wardrobe out. I have more clothes than a family of dressmakers. It is time to give the Boy some wardrobe space.
• Learn to use all of the 'fancy' features on my new Canon EOS 1000D.
• Get my Recreational Skipper’s Ticket so I can safely and legally skipper a boat.
• Last one is a “will try and do” – stop being so anal about house cleaning – it’s okay to leave the dishes til later (every now and again anyway) and the Boy's vacuuming is just fine.

Happy New Years to you all, what's your resolution to declare?

Oaty Banana and Almond Biscuits

It probably wasn't the best day for baking being 37 degrees out.
But when I weighed up the positives and negatives I decided to go ahead with it. After all I had quite a few good excuses, my 5 neices and nephews were coming to stay tomorrow night and I needed something for them to snack on, I had 4 overripe bananas begging not to go into the worm farm and I felt like baking something. I decided biscuits would be a good idea as they don't take very long to bake and therefore the oven wouldn't be on for so long.

I perused the net for some inspiration and found these biscuits on kidspot. They were close to what I wanted so I did the usual tweaks and ended up with this slightly healthier version.

4 x large ripe bananas
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 & half cups wholemeal flour (or spelt)
1 & half cups oats
1 x egg (I used egg replacement)
1/4 tsp fresh ground cinnamon
1/2 cup slivered almonds (extra for the top)
100g butter
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method in the Madness
Using beater, mix up banana, sugar, butter and egg replacement until fluffy. Add sifted flour, oats, almonds, cinnamon and baking soda and beat further.
Drop tablespoons of mixture onto trays lined with baking paper. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy. These are very sweet soft biscuits that kids will (hopefully) love.