Wild rice, mango and minted pea salad with guacamole hummus

No quantities with this one - just me experimenting in the kitchen with colour, taste and texture and it worked!


1 c wild rice cooked
frozen minted peas (defrost under warm water) try approx. 1/2 cup
frozen corn                        "
mango peeled and chopped - try approx. 1/2 a large one
red capsicum chopped
celery chopped
small handful of coriander chopped


Dressing stir through lime juice to taste and a generous amount of fresh ground pepper


Serve on a bed of your favourite greens - I used rocket/ arugula. Add a dollop of hummus to the centre of the bowl


Guacamole Hummus
I was unsatisfied with the batch of hummus I'd made and stirred through it 1/2 a mashed avocado, some pureed spinach, ground cumin and a shake of ground chilli

Zucchini and Black Bean Veggie Burgers

I found these on pinterest - quick/easy/healthy & held together well. And delicious.


Served on a burger bun with hummus, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beetroot - whatever trimmings you like! Grilled Portobello mushroom on burgers is always good too.

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  5 mins

Total time:  10 mins

Serves: 4 burgers

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup shredded Zucchini
• 1 cup Black Beans (rinsed and drained)
• 6 tablespoons Ground Flax
• ½ teaspoon Steak Seasoning (see below)

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl add all ingredients
2. Mash together with a fork
3. Let it sit to let the flax gel everything together
4. Grill until golden on each side (you may need to grease up the grill or the burgers to prevent sticking)
5. Serve up however you please, bun, condiments, go to town!
6. Enjoy!!

- See more at: http://www.girlmakesfood.com/zucchini-and-black-bean-vegan-veggie-burgers/#sthash.wZDiXEPD.dpuf

Homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon dehydrated onion
1/2 tablespoon dehydrated garlic
1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
1tablespoon dried rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons fennel seed

Directions:
Place in blender jar or pint sized mason jar, blend for several seconds till well ground.

Potato Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

Non vegan son visiting and he had a hankering for potato salad so ....


6 potatoes (thereabouts)
1/2 red pepper
1 stick celery
1 spring onion
3-4 stems lightly steamed asparagus
1/2 c chopped parsley
tempeh bacon (see below)


Lemon Tahini dressing
(This was started from a recipe in "Salad Samurai" by Terry Hope Romano - then tweaked it)
1/4 c tahini
1/8 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 clove garlic peeled
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c cold water


I added - 2tsp mustard, 1 tbs maple syrup, more lemon juice and more water. Kept adding and tasting til I felt it tasted right - (The original recipe tasted a little bitter)


Blend all together for wonderful creamy deliciousness!


Tempeh Bacon (from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's "The Vegan Table"
   1/2 block of tempeh
    1/8 cup tamari sauce
     1 tsp liquid smoke
     1.5 tbs maple syrup
    1/8 cup water
Oil for frying


Steam the tempeh for 10 minutes then allow to cool
combine the marinade ingredients.
Thinly slice the tempeh and place in the marinade and soak as long as you like
Heat pan and spray with oil, fry until crisp and turn. Drizzle on a bit of the marinade as you fry.
Set on plate with paper towel to cool.
Slice into small pieces and add to potato salad


I think the non-vegan son had 3 helpings of this - it definitely got the thumbs up.


Served with a simple green salad of spinach, tomato, cucumber and radish drizzled with a little flavoured vinegar.

Living below the line experience

Day 4 of my 5 day experience of living below the line
Live below the line


My daily diet has consisted of the following
Oats (50g) soaked in water & cooked the next day with a little cinnamon + 1 kiwifruit for breakfast


Dhal for lunch and dinner - made with 70 lentils, 160g canned tomatoes, 1/2 onion (chopped), 1/3 carrot (chopped) 1 tsp curry powder (divide the cooked result in half for each meal).


Brown rice 200g for the day shared between lunch and dinner


Cabbage approx. 200g per day with dinner.


Drinks - water hot or cold


Total calorie count approx. 1330 - so leaves me feeling a little hungry.


Total spent on food for the 5 days $10.58.


Total funds raised for Oxfam so far $489.00 :-)


Haven't checked my weight yet - will do that on Friday morning after my last day - I suspect I will have lost a little more.


So the diet is nutritious if boring. Probably long term I would experience some iron and vitamin deficiencies. But it definitely shows that whole foods plant based diets can be cheap

Chickpea and kale vege curry

desperately trying to finish everything fresh from my fridge that needs using. I made a huge batch of curry (leftovers to freeze & eat after below the line finished) had it with the rest of my quinoa/amaranth that I had cooked for the salad I made this morning for lunch

saute 1/2 to 1 onion in small amount of water to brown
add chopped portobello mushroom
2+ cloves garlic
1 red pepper
2 zucchini
1 head broccoli
1 chopped fresh tomato
1 dessertspoon curry (adjust this amount depending on taste and heat)
add 1 can of chickpeas
2 cans of tomatoes chopped in juice
1/4 cup red wine
1-2 tsp ground coriander
1-2 tsp ground cumin
stir in 1-2 cups chopped kale and cook until kale is tender.


mmm good!
just how many antioxidants can you fit into one meal????

Quinoa salad

Using up fresh veggies before starting my livebelowtheline project I made this salad to take to work

Cooked quinoa/amaranth blend
chopped fresh tomato
chopped cucumber
1/2 avocado
chopped olives
capers
chopped raw broccoli stem (peeled)
grated carrot
grated zucchini

stirred through some plum vinegar

delicious, tasty, crunchy and colourful

finished off the meal with 2 small oranges

Living below the line - vegan style

I signed up to "live below the line" to fundraised for Oxfam. This commits me to living on $2.25 per day for 5 days (spending on my food & drink).
you can follow my progress on
www.livebelowtheline.com/me/suigeneris

I am convinced that I can do this and in a healthy and nutritious way - eating healthy is not necessarily expensive. Here is a photo of the food I bought to live on for the next 5 days - cost me $10.58 at pak n save.