Off to the Gold Coast for a week...be back soon...

Seedy Potato and Beetroot Salad

Beetroot - Neutral thermal nature; sweet flavour; strengthens the heart, sedates the spirit, improves circulation, purifies the blood, benefits the liver, moistens the intestines and promotes menstruation (P. Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods, 3rd Edn).

I am not so sure about the promotion of menstruation...but the rest sounds pretty good to me.

And so the following salad was born.

6 x baby beetroots
1.5 cups chopped sweet potato
1 x corn cob
quarter cup mixed seeds (I used sunflower & pepitas)
2 x Tbs sunflower mayonnaise

Scrub beets without damaging skin, boil for 25 - 30 minutes. Once cooked peel with gloves on, the skin should come away easily.
Peel and chop potato into bite sized pieces, cook til tender but retaining it's shape.
Cook corn still in it's husk for 2 minutes in microwave. Leave to cool and then cut off kernals with a knife.
Dry fry seeds in frypan until they are tanned and 'pop'.
Mix beetroot, sweet potato, corn and three quarters of the seeds together with the sunflower mayo and serve with the rest of the seeds sprinkled on top.

Got the thumbs up from the boy, served with a tomato, avocado and mushroom, red wine vinegar, evoo salad. Go on give it a try.

Cane Toads. Not a Nice Post.

I might say I dislike cockroaches, or can't stand spiders, but I HATE cane toads, they are such a destructive force taking over our beautiful country, killing our native wildlife.
I have been to Queensland many times, and seen the disgusting aliens all over a school oval that had their sprinklers on at dusk.
They haven't invaded WA yet, but they are close, please if you have a moment, take a look at this web site and sign the petiton, donate some money or supplies, or even buy some wine!

More info

"Just One More" Ginger Cookies

I made these today after finding this recipe which sold me as it didn't require much butter.
I altered a few things as below -
1 cup of wholemeal plain flour rather than half and half
I left out the cloves and nutmeg as I didn't have any
1 tripled the glace ginger to 3 tablespoons
I cooked for 25 minutes to make them a bit crisper.

They are really delicious and actually not to bad for you at apparently 1.5g fat per biscuit.

Quick Idea.
I recently bought some rice called Sun Rice Medley which is dried mushrooms with wild rice. It is really tasty, however, there were extra ingredients in the packet including flavouring and anti-caking agent. So this got me thinking...why not just mix chopped dried mushrooms with my favorite rice - short grain brown.
Cook it via the absorbtion method and you have yourself some very tasty mushroomy rice!!

Once upon a time, on a beautiful summers night...

A giant zucchini was picked from my sisters garden and handed over with pride, she's had quite the abundance and therefore if you pay her a visit you will come away with a zucchini in hand. I am a huge fan of zucchini and decided it was time for me to finally make these zucchini and haloumi fritters.

I won't bother with the recipe as you can follow the link, a lot of the comments at the bottom of the page state they had problems keeping the fritters together. I did for a few until I realised the oil just wasn't hot enough, once it was at the correct temperature they worked great. It was also easier to finely dice the onion rather than grate it as it's too messy.

I paired it with a salad of tomato, cherry tomato, lebanese cucumber, mushrooms, spring onion, basil, balsamic, vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper.

The fritters were a bit naughty since they contained cheese and they were fried, but they were ohhh so delicious and tasted wonderful the next day in a fresh turkish bread roll.

In between breaks.

Days turn into night, nights turn into days
Holidays are days and days
Sneaky wines and favours for family
Times to remember and to embrace
To relax and relaxing right back.


A new rose to smell, it was heavenly.

Not Mexican Hamburgers???



Rather than make enchiladas I decided to make a variation on quesadilla's which turned out like a Mexican hamburger. Was a yummy, quick, easy midweek meal, the boy cooked a steak outside to put in his I used textured vegetable protein.

1 x Old El Paso Enchilada Pack
1 x packet TVP
1 x sml onion
1 x tomato
shredded lettuce
grated vego cheese
sliced pickles

Chop and saute onion, add TVP and all of the sauce from the enchilada pack. Seperate corn tortillas and top with TVP mixture, grated cheese and tomato. Toast in dry fry pan until crisp on each side. Take off heat and add lettuce and pickles. Best eaten with a knife and fork as it may get messy. Not the healthiest meal, but certainly better than a take-away burger.

Nourishing Lentil Stew

I went out for dinner and many drinks on my last day of work, then got up at 5:30am and went to boot camp. I worked hard but felt pretty poorly when I returned home. I laid on the couch willing my self to feel better. Then the answer popped into my head! Delicious, nutritious, wholesome food to nourish my body was to be the vital step in my recovery.

A quick search for provisions found, dried french lentils, carrot, stringless beans and tinned tomatoes. The choice was obvious.


1.5 cups of french puy lentils
1 cup stringless beans
1 x carrot
1 x lge brown onion
1 x clove garlic
1 x tin crushed tomatoes
half tsp each of cumin, chilli, thyme and rosemary
2 bay leaves
big handful of fresh basil
salt, pepper, evoo and a few cups of water
Couscous to serve

Chop onions and garlic and saute in evoo. Add dried spices and saute for a minute. Add lentils, water, chopped carrots, beans (and any other veggies in your fridge), tinned tomatoes, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Leave simmering on the stove for as long as possible, I left for 3 hours and kept adding extra water to cook the lentils further. Make up some couscous to serve and enjoy curled up on the couch.

So easy and perhaps more of a winter food, but it really did the trick to get me through the day.