Nailed It!

I love food. I eat it every day. But the cooking of the food? That's dangerous territory when I'm in charge.

Because I can't cook.  And I'm not exaggerating. I have set fire to the oven, the stove, even the microwave.

It mostly comes down to a reeeeally low attention span when it comes to hanging about in a kitchen while things heat up.


The NAILED IT half of this picture was my first attempt to fry an egg...two years ago. I sent this picture to my husband and he, of course, showed everyone and NOBODY believed it was real!

The thought of standing over the stove watching stuff simmer, or change colour and consistency, stirring stuff, incessantly, checking to see if it needs salt...
*My muse chimes in* "What's that? Oh, that's right!  I have that book to read! Or email to check! Or something that needs doing! I'm off!"

Over time I've discovered one thing that that keeps me from setting things on fire.

Reading WHILE I cook.

Here's me 'cooking' tomato soup...from a tin. And reading while stirring.  No fire!  

And here's me cooking an omelette. And, again, reading.  Notice, once more, the lack of flames.

The muse is distracted, I don't burn down the house. Win win!

Thankfully this is what it looks like when my husband cooks.

That would be curry laksa. A super fresh summery pasta.  And something else cookey and delicious.  I know, right?  The guy is a total keeper!

I say that without him I'd live on cheese on toast and coffee and I do not kid.  He's the kind of person who thinks "I feel like *insert fancy dinner idea here*" and then goes ahead and figures out how to make it.  No recipe.  Just using whatever ingredients he has on hand.  I look in a fridge full of food and only see the chocolate.

If you're a foodie, check out the Instagram pages of Love Cats Clare Connelly and Amy Andrews as they're full of rich, nutritious, mouth-watering, elegant home cooking.  And did you see Bron's post about her trip through Rome? Yum!

If you prefer pics of coffee with funny pictures found in the milky swirls, I'm your girl :). (See last month's post for proof :))

How about you - are you more of a cooker or an eater?

Healthy Dessert...made out of beans??

I’m the chief cook in our house, but not because I’m trying to uphold a gender stereotype. My husband is actually a fantastic cook, but nutrition/health is not something that really factors into his decision making process. While I love creamy risottos, rich sauces and cheesy polenta (oh, how I love it) it’s not something that I feel I should be eating all the time.

So, in order to keep us healthy, I do the majority of the cooking. However, there was a slight hiccup in that plan…my intense LOVE for sweet treats.

I’m a total sweet tooth at heart and that means we’ve had to find sweet recipes that have been ‘healthified’ so I don’t go absolutely crazy. The upside is, over time my sugar cravings have lessened and I still feel like I’m indulging in yummy desserts without having all the excess sugar that comes in conventional dessert recipes.

Bean brownies with choc chips and pecans - yum!

On that note, I recently made a funny discovery. It is possible to turn beans into brownies.

Yes, beans. Like the kind you would normally find in savory dishes.

This is the recipe that I used with a few, small tweaks.

How are they healthier than regular brownies?

Well, for starters there’s no flour. Which makes it an excellent option for those with gluten intolerance, but also I feel like the brownies themselves aren’t as processed because there’s no flour or refined sugar. I’ve made the recipe using black beans and red kidney beans.

I also use coconut sugar (which is an unrefined sugar) and there’s only 1/3 cup in the whole recipe. I do add a few semi-sweet dark choc chips to my version and so I sometimes use less than the 1/3 cup sugar to balance it out.

And, instead of regular cocoa, I use a raw cacao which is really rich in taste but is a processed without roasting the cocoa beans first. This means it retains the nutrients that are lost during the roasting process.

Try adding walnuts, pecans or cacao nibs for extra crunch.

Trust me, they super tasty. They even got the thumbs up from J who is probably the biggest critic of ‘healthy food’. That’s saying something.

Have you ever tried a healthified version of your favourite dessert? How did it turn out?

Vindaloo To Go

I thought I'd share a new favourite recipe!  I've been looking at vegetarian recipes and especially those with chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) because they're full of goodness and they come in convenient, easy to transport, tins!  After a bit of combing through recipes online and in books and then a little adapting I've come up with this chickpea and vegetable semi-vindaloo!

We're on the road at the moment and I've just made this in the caravan.  The great thing about vegetarian cooking is that the clean up is easier.

This is us on the banks of the Lake Cargelligo Weir

So here's the recipe for...

Chickpea and Vegetable Semi-Vindaloo

Ingredients 

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter
• 2 heaped dessert spoons of crushed ginger (or less if you don't want it too hot!)
• 1 heaped teaspoon of crushed garlic
• 3 tablespoons curry powder(again add a little less if you prefer)
• 1 x 140gm tin tomato paste
• 1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
• 1 cup vegetable broth – (a teaspoon of vegemite dissolved in warm water works here too)
• 1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 or 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 500gm diced pumpkin
• 2 x 400gm tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 250 gm mushrooms, diced
• Salt and pepper as needed

Prepared vegetables

 

Directions

1. Heat the vegetable oil/butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the ginger and garlic. Saute 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the curry powder and heat for about 1 minute
3. Add the vegetable broth/vegemite and stir until any lumps have gone
4. Add tomato paste and again stir until smooth
5. Stir in the coconut milk.
6. Add all the fresh vegetables, mushrooms and chickpeas and stir.
7. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender stirring occasionally.  (I like it when the pumpkin is slightly overcooked and it starting to become part of the sauce.)
8. Serve with rice or noodles or on its own as the fancy takes you!

Ready to serve

I'll have mine with noodles, thanks!

And a slice of freshly baked bread!

Got any favourite spicy dishes or meals cooked with chickpeas you'd like to share?