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.

Dirty Mashed Potatoes

Inspired by the tales of vegan dirty rice from a friend

Potatoes cooked (in their skins) and mashed
Add 1 tsp of tahini and sufficiant plant milk to get the right consistency
Sauté onions & mushrooms and stir through
Defrost frozen peas & corn & stir through
Add a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast
Season generously with fresh ground pepper
Lightly season with salt (truffle salt is awesome if you can get it)

Serve with a side of your favourite greens or a green salad.
A dollop of salsa on the top wouldn't go amiss either

Tuscan rice stuffed pita bread

Somewhat concerned about the flatulence associated with beans, I decided to avoid them for dinner on the opening night of our small play. Inspired but the "shrapnel rice" recipe from the "Prevent & Reverse Heart disease cookbook" (& the contents of my fridge & pantry) this is what I came up with:

Brown rice cooked ( I cooked 1 cup of rice & used approx half for this recipe)
1/2 onion slowly caramelised in a hot pain with minimal water.
Soak 1 Tbs porcini mushrooms in boiling water and add to the onions cook 1-2 more minutes, add soaking water if more moisture needed  Add Tuscan seasoning to taste.
Grate 1 carrot & 1 courgette. (Used about half)
Handful of chopped black olives
Handful of capers
1-2 tbs chopped sundried tomatoes
1-2 tbs chopped walnuts
1 tsp chopped jalapeños
Stir all of the above into the cooked rice

I used some to stuff a toasted soy & linseed pita bread. Yum. Then I had some in a wholemeal tortilla which I first spread with hummus and topped with mixed greens. Also yum.

GOLDEN GRAVY

This is wonderful served over stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Servings: Makes about 2 cups

¼ cup brown rice flour (I used wholemeal flour)

1½ cups vegetable broth/stock

½ cup water

2 tablespoons tahini

3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Continue to whisk until mixture boils and is

smooth and thick. Season with freshly ground black pepper.


I had this over garlic mashed potatoes and a walnut & chickpea loaf with steamed brussel sprouts on the side. Comfort food for winter!


this was from https://www.drmcdougall.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Advanced_Study_Weekend_Recipes_2-14.pdf


I went to their amazing Advanced Study Weekend in Santa Rosa - inspiring speakers and fabulous food and this pdf is the recipes of what we had that weekend - all healthy, all vege, wonderful flavours & colours and the tables were groaning with this wonderful food.

White Bean & Kale Soup

4 cups vegetable stock
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 medium onion chopped
4 cups chopped kale (I used 1 bunch of cavalo nero)
2 cans cannellini beans
1 can chopped tomatoes in juice
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 cup chopped parsley (I used some dry - didn't have fresh on hand)
black pepper to taste


Heat 2 tbs vege stock in a large pot & sauté the garlic & onion until soft. Add Kale 3 cups of vege stock, 1 can beans, tomatoes, herbs & stock. simmer 5 minutes


In a blender or food processor blend the remaining stock & 1 can beans until smooth


Stir into soup and simmer 30 minutes.


adapted from Joel Fuhrman's book "The end of Dieting: How to live for life"


I am continuing my winter mission to try as many different soup recipes as possible - this was yummy.

Colourful pasta puttanesca

I have to confess I cheated and used a packet of Puttanesca sauce but here is a link to a recipe I have not tried just to give you the idea
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/Pastaputtanesca.htm


I had picked up some wonderful purple carrots from the supermarket and had some broccoli that needed using


2-3 handfuls of wholegrain penne pasta - boiled according to directions
1 head of broccoli chopped and steamed
1 purple carrot julienned and steamed with the broccoli
(I steamed these over the pasta and the pasta water started to turn purple)
several cherry tomatoes
nutritional yeast
salt & pepper to taste


Heat the puttanesca sauce and stir through the cooked pasta, top with the steamed veges, scatter through some cherry tomatoes and season with nutritional yeast, salt & pepper.


Really quick meal, wonderful punchy flavour, fabulous colours!