How to store fruit and vegetables without plastic

August 17, 2017 · 8 Comments

How to store fruit and vegetables without plastic

What’s wrong with plastic?

I know, it’s easy to grab fruit and veggies, put them in a plastic bag and fling them in the crisper when you get home.

But, if you are keen on doing your bit for the planet, searching out other options besides plastic is really worthwhile.

Hopefully you have somewhere you can source loose produce, which is always the best option. Get some reusable produce bags to take with you when shopping or use a basket or box. It really does become a habit, just like using your reusable shopping bags!

As well as being environmentally unfriendly, plastic bags don’t allow your produce to breath so it decays quicker and loses flavour. Slimy zucchini anyone? There are also some concerns about plastic leaching into our food and causing health issues.

Reducing food wastage is also a hot topic at the moment, so storing your food correctly and keeping it fresher for longer can help you significantly cut down how much you waste.

Convinced to make the switch?

First up, lets talk about things that go in the fridge and things that don’t.

Produce that like being at room temperature are tomato, potato, onion, garlic and most fruits. Pop them in a basket so there is a bit of airflow around them. Mushrooms store better in a paper bag or a dry cloth bag.

For the fruit and vegetables that are stored in the fridge and for anything you have cut, here are some ways you can do store them without plastic:

♥ Use a wet tea towel.

Okay, pretty basic right? Pop a damp tea towel over the fruit and vegetables in the crisper and tuck it in well. You usually need to wet it every couple of days. The only problem with this method is training everyone else in your house to put the tea towel back properly so it’s all tucked in around the produce!!

♥ Use a fabric bag

You can utilise reusable produce bags I mentioned for shopping and for storage. They are smaller and as they are quite lightweight you do have to keep wetting them more often. Obviously the mesh ones don’t work.

I prefer the organic cotton bags.

♥ Use The Swag

The Swag bags are pretty awesome! Made from 100% natural unbleached cotton, these award winning bags have a three layer design to keep your produce fresher for much longer. They come in different sizes or you can get a starter kit.

To use, simply wet the bags, pop your produce in and store anywhere in the fridge. When it gets a little dry, you can simple sprinkle a bit of water on top!

Find out more about The Swag here.

♥ Use the Greenleaf Bag

Created by Helen, a mum from Toowoomba, the Greenleaf Bags are a larger size bag than the reusable produce bags. They are made from unbleached, undyed 100% hemp which is a very sustainable and safe fabric. These bags need to be damp, so you wet them, wring out and put your veggies in. Repeat every few days as they dry out.

You can store several different types of vegetables in the one bag but softer leafy greens should be on their own. Simply throw into the wash after each use.

Find out more here.

♥ Use beeswax wraps

Beeswax wraps are great for wrapping around cut bits of fruit and veggies instead of cling wrap. You can also make little pockets with them to store smaller portions.

The Honey Bee beeswax wraps are a great quality brand and are hand made by a small business in Byron Bay. They are made from organic cotton and locally sourced organic beeswax which is naturally anti-bacterial. Beeswax wraps keep produce really fresh and are toxin free.

Check out Honey Bee Wraps and the vegan version here.

♥ Use food covers

These canvas food covers with a biodegradable lining work really well on things like pumpkin, pineapple, melons and coconuts once you have cut them.

I have been using these for years and they are incredibly durable and still in great condition. I just throw them into the washing machine.

Check them out here.

How do you store your fruit and veggies? Got any tips for us?

Easy Herb and Garlic Green Dip

November 1, 2016 · 4 Comments

My whole family loves a tasty dip.

It’s a great way to boost your vegetable intake – carrot sticks taste a whole lot yummier with something to dip them in.

This nut free dip is great in lunch boxes or for afternoon tea for the kids and even fancy enough to take to a barbecue. In fact, I always get asked for my recipe when I make this!

As well as serving the dip with plenty of fresh veggies, I also like to ‘upnourish’ as Kristin from Mamacino says, with extra vegetables and veggie powder added in.

This green dip is also so much cheaper to make than buying a pre-made dip from the supermarket. Seriously how expensive and full of additives is dip these days! Even the ones in the gourmet delis are full of canola oil and will set you back the best part of $10!

Anyhow…. here is the recipe. Let me know if you make it and what you think!

Easy Herb and Garlic Green Dip

Vital Stats: gluten free, grain free, nut free, egg free, vegetarian

This is what you need:

500g cream cheese*

1-2 small garlic cloves

1/2 cup parsley

2 cups baby spinach

4 small green shallots, trimmed

1/2 teaspoon Herbamare or salt to taste

2 teaspoons Vital Veggie Power

cracked black pepper to taste

*make sure you buy a plain cream cheese, not the low-fat ones as they are full of weird additives

This is what you do:

Wash all your greens well. Chop the shallots into a few pieces.

In your food processor or thermomix, throw the garlic and greens and whizz up.

Scrape down and add the remaining ingredients.

Whizz until well combined.

I don’t mind mine a bit chunky but if you have fussy kids, keep blending!

This is a spreadable, thick dip. If you want something softer and dippier (yep that’s a word), add a tablespoon or so of yoghurt or sour cream.

Serve it with plenty of cut up veggies and some seed crackers.

It will last around three days in a well-sealed container in the fridge.

Hot tip: If you want to go really hard-core, have a crack at making your own raw cream cheese.

How to get your kids to eat more veges

October 5, 2015 · 8 Comments

How to get your kids to eat more veges

My mum dobbed me into my kids the other day when we were visiting.

Yes, my vege phobia as a child was uncovered!! I really only ate potato and a few salad veges. My poor mum!

This lasted right into my mid 20s until I decided to get over myself and eat some darn veges. However, I still do a bit of a dry retch at the thought of a big plate of boiled veges.

I tried lots of things and worked out how I liked my veges cooked and how I could add flavour to make them yum. Nowdays I love my veges – but please don’t make me ever eat mushrooms, peas or broccoli that has been steamed too long!

There is a lot of debate about whether you should hide vegetables or not hide, but I say, do whatever it takes to get the kids eating veges – their growing years are so important and good nutrition is vital. However, in saying that, don’t stress about it too much – fruit can also provide a lot of nutrients that are found in vegetables and kids won’t starve themselves!

My own kids went from babies who ate homemade pureed veges with relish (I mean the joy type relish not the yummy type) to toddlers who spat everything out to teenagers who still sometimes sigh at veges. It’s not the most fun bit of parenting, is it?

So here are my tips for jazzing up those veges and making them more appealing for kids (and big kids).

How to get kids to eat more veges:

♥ Add butter. Everything tastes better with butter (am I right??) Toss some steamed veges with a knob of butter and a good sprinkle of Herbamare. You can also use olive oil. I am also going to say… add bacon, cream and/or cheese.

♥ Add salad dressing. Obviously salad dressing on a salad is delish but I also love it on my steamed veges! Try this recipe. We all know a little raw honey on carrots is a winner too!

♥ Add a tasty sauce. Satay, soy sauce, white sauce, cheese sauce, hollandaise, garlic mayo or roasted tomato sauce. Mmmm!

♥ Wrap them in pastry. Try these Mini Meat Pies.

♥ Dip them. A yummy dip and raw or lightly steamed veges are a winner. Try my Easy Herb and Garlic Dip, hummus, salsa, tzatziki, nut or peanut butter. Alternatively, put the veges in the dip and serve with some good crackers or crusty sourdough bread. Here’s a great round-up of dip recipes.

♥ Crumb them (because everything tastes better crumbed!!). Get an egg and a touch of milk and whisk and then dip in some breadcrumbs or almond meal, fry with some coconut oil or fat and bake in the oven. Zucchini cut into chips, crumbed and oven baked is amazingly yum! Also try it with rounds of eggplant, topped with a tasty tomato sauce and mozzarella.

♥ Cut them smaller. A big hunk of broccoli can seem daunting to a little kid. Small pieces seem much more manageable and tasty. I often cut veges like carrot and zucchini with my mandolin on the larger setting. It also means they cook quicker.

♥ Cut them into different shapes. A carrot stick might be boring but what about a lovely thin carrot ribbon? Would heart shaped roasted potatoes taste better?

♥ Buy the best quality, freshest veges you can find. They taste better and sometimes the ones in the supermarket have lost their flavour!

♥ Put them on a stick. Seriously, who doesn’t love something on a skewer? Dice some veges (zucchini, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and red onion work well) and pop them on a soaked bamboo skewer. Throw onto the barbie or under the grill. You can add a tasty sauce or baste with salad dressing before cooking if you like.

♥ Try cooking them differently. My kids hate pumpkin but love pumpkin soup! We can get into a cooking rut sometimes, but mix it up and try a new method. Roast some cauliflower instead of steaming it, stir-fry brussel sprouts with olive oil and bacon, make sweet potato chips instead of mash, make crispy kale chips, steam veges very lightly instead of boiling – you get the drift.

♥ Add them into meals. A stirfry, casserole, macaroni cheese or biriyani all make veges taste better when there are other flavours going on. Cut the veges small.

♥ Try them raw. Lots of kids will happily munch on raw veges but hate cooked! Obvs don’t do that with potato.

♥ Put them on a pizza. No explanation necessary, because…. pizza!!! Pizza scrolls are also a winner. I love these animal face pizzas by Annabel Karmel.

♥ Puree them. Smart mums know that pureed veges can hide in all sorts of unusual places. What about spinach in pancakes, sweet potato in brownies, greens in sorbet, avocado in chocolate mousse, cauliflower in cheesecake, anything and everything in pasta sauce and soup!

♥ Get them involved. Helping prepare food gets kids taking ownership of what they eat. You can of course ham it up and tell them how amazing their yummy meal is. Little kids can wash lettuce and tear it into strips, older kids can chop!

♥ Eat your veges when you are pregnant! This pub med study shows that kids can get a taste for veges via the amniotic fluid. Fascinating!

♥ Use the Learning Bowl technique. Nutritionist, Mandy Dos Santos at Little People Nutrition says this is a great introduction to new foods for those kids that may have anxiety or sensory issues.

♥ Start from the source by getting a vege garden happening or just grow some cherry tomatoes in pots. Not only is it a lot of fun, but again, taking ownership of food is important for kids.

♥ Get the kids to select some veges at the farmers’ markets or supermarket. We need five small carrots, can you find a crazy looking potato for your dinner – that sort of thing!

♥ Add grated veges to everything. Muffins or cakes (try my Carrot Cake recipe and this Chocolate Zucchini Loaf), burgers, meatloaf, bolognese, chicken nuggets or a zucchini slice. Grated veges cook down well into foods. Peeled zucchini is especially easy to hide if your kids are super duper fussy!

♥ Try them powdered. Especially for the extra fussy child who likes to pick out every bit of vegetable, powdered veges work a treat. We love the Take a Broth Tasmania Vegetable Broth Powder. You can stir it into food just before serving or sprinkle it on popcorn or plain rice crackers.

♥ Keep putting the veges on the plate. Experts say it takes up to ten times for kids to be exposed to a new food before they will eat it.

♥ Put them in a smoothy or juice. Green smoothies are all the rage! Add a handful of spinach (which is tasteless in a smoothy) to some coconut water and a few pieces of fruit and blend. Sneak in a little carrot or cucumber into a freshly squeezed juice.

♥ Use some marketing skills. Veges are good for super strong muscles like Superman, this green drink is what Shrek drinks, this makes you grow, this makes you run fast and play. This isn’t broccoli, it’s dinosaur trees!

♥ Don’t forget brekky and snacks. Offer veges throughout the day, not just at dinner. Eggs cooked in capsicum rings and cut up carrot sticks with some peanut butter are yum.

♥ Eat dinner earlier. Most adults I know struggle to eat well when they are tired. Get in early and feed the kids a nice wholefoods dinner with veges before they start getting overtired. Just after school can be the ideal time for dinner.

♥ Make sure they are hungry. I know most kids graze, but I found it helpful to stop snacks at a set time to ensure the kids were hungry for dinner.

♥ Practice what you preach. There is no way kids are going to love vegetables if you are not eating them. Set a good example. If you want to ham it up a bit and exclaim with joy every time you eat veges, you can do that too!

♥ Try new vegetables all the time. Get the kids excited about purple carrots and qukes (mini cucumbers)!

♥ Make vege fritters or hashbrowns. Yum! Try these zucchini hashbrowns or make a smiley face vege fritter.

♥ Make it fun. If you have the time and can be bothered, making some fun things out of veges can work well – presentation is often half of the battle! Check out Pinterest for some cool ideas – not all of them are time consuming and fiddly. I am seriously in love with these Capsicum Frogs!

♥ Serve vegetables in something different. For toddlers, serve cut up veges in ice cube trays or mini-muffin tins. Older kids might like making a creation with food on one of those special Face Plates.

You can even make the veges the serving container like these cute cucumber dip cups or serve their sandwich in a rolled up lettuce leaf instead of bread.

♥ Don’t lose your cool. Yeah, I know how frustrating it is when you shop, prepare and cook and those little rugrats turn their nose up!! But, when you lose your cool, you are creating negative feelings and associations around food. Keep it positive and then if they won’t eat, be neutral. Don’t ever force, bribe, negotiate or threaten.

♥ I’ve always enforced the ‘you don’t have to like it, but you do have to try it’ rule. All of us have veges we hate and so will your kids – respect that but do make them at least try it before they decide they don’t like it.

♥ Persevere. Kids go through stages, so keep at it and don’t give up!

My kids are now in their late teens and love eating vegetables – cooking them for meals, making up salads for their lunches and just gnawing on carrots and celery. I think this has a lot to do with their long term familiarity with vegetables. They still hate pumpkin though!!

Need more help?

Food Critic Flower Essence Blend. Try this amazing flower essence blend by Megan at The Simplest Remedy. She shares some other great tips too.

Feeding Fussy Kids. Sydney naturopath and nutritionist, Julie Maree Wood shares her expert advice and recipes to get your kids eating nutritiously. I love this book!!

Deceptively Delicious. Jessica Seinfeld is a master at hiding vegetables in her kids’ favourite recipes.

Check out this blog post listing kids books all about vegetables.

Naturopath Iwa Brown from Magnolia Naturopathy also has some great tips for Feeding Fussy Kids.

I would love to hear your tips – do you have something else to add to my list??? Leave us a comment or some links to your favourite vegetable recipes!

Roasted Cauliflower

May 14, 2015 · 5 Comments

I love cauliflower!

It’s one of those really versatile veges that can be used in so many ways. My favourite way to do it though is roasted. The beautiful caramelization is just so tasty and it’s so easy to do.

I use olive oil as it takes a higher temperature than most other oils. Coconut oil is delicious but I find my kids aren’t fond of the flavour when it’s roasted. Duck fat or tallow would be amazing if you can get your hands on some great quality stuff. If you like some zing, add some chilli or spices to the mix!

Cauliflower has some amazing health benefits including:

* cancer fighting

* improving blood pressure and kidney function

* fighting inflammation in your body

* a digestive aid

* rich in vitamins and minerals

* good for brain health

* full of antioxidants

Roasted Cauliflower

Gluten free, grain free, dairy free, nut free, egg free, vegan, vegetarian, paleo

This is what you need:

1/2 head of organic cauliflower

3 tablespoons good Aussie olive oil

2-3 cloves organic garlic

Pink salt or celtic sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

This is how you do it:

Preheat the oven to 220ºc.

Cut the cauli into smaller florets.

Toss everything together in a bowl (I like to massage it all in with my hands).

Whack it into a roasting pan and cook the oven for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Hot Tips:

If you want to get extra fancy, sprinkle your roasted cauliflower with some fresh herbs, chilli, lemon juice and/or freshly grated parmesan cheese after it’s roasted.

Leftovers? It’s also delicious cold in a salad or whizz it up and add to hummus.

Healthy Macaroni Cheese with Veggies!

June 8, 2013 · 14 Comments

Macaroni Cheese is such a childhood comfort food and it tastes pretty good too!

I came up with this version which is a little more healthy and choc full of hidden vegetables. It tastes really good.

Healthy Macaroni Cheese with Veggies!

Vital Stats: gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, egg-free, nut-free

Okay so this is what you need:

1 litre organic milk

100g cornflour

100g organic butter

1 cup organic cheese, grated

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

500g gluten-free pasta shapes

3 handfuls of organic baby spinach

2 cups of lightly steamed organic vegetables, diced (I used carrot, broccoli, corn and zucchini)

Herbamare or salt and pepper to taste

Okay, so this is how you do it:

Preaht your oven to medium, about 180° celsius.

Put the pasta on to cook in a pot of boiling water and follow directions on the packet.

While that’s cooking, make your white sauce (if you have a thermomix, use the bechamel sauce instructions on page 58 of the EDC cookbook).

If you are making it the old-fashioned way, melt the butter, add the flour and stir until it’s well combined and coming away from the side of the saucepan. This ‘roux’ takes about one minute. Remove from the heat and add milk gradually. I like to use a whisk to get out any lumps. Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring or whisking all the time until it thickens. Add the grated cheese and whisk in. Cool down.

Puree the spinach in a blender or thermomix and add to your white sauce.

Drain the pasta well. Add the white sauce and the vegetables and combine thoroughly. Add seasonings to taste.

Put into a greased lasagne dish (or two) and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until the macaroni cheese is warmed through and the cheese on top is brown and melted.

Serve with salad on the side.

Notes:

This recipe makes a lot so feel free to halve it or to make it and use over two nights.

The photo doesn’t show it well, but it is a really nice light green colour.

If you would like to make this recipe dairy free, use this delicious dairy-free white sauce from Quirky Cooking.

Using nutritional yeast in place of the cheese gives it a lovely cheesey flavour and is dairy-free.

To save time, I used leftover steamed vegetables in this recipe. Make extra the night before.

Okay, so that’s my natural new age mum version of macaroni cheese! I hope you (and the kids) enjoy it.

How do you make macaroni cheese?

Healthy Kid’s Party Food

March 6, 2013 · 31 Comments

“When it comes to food at birthday parties, it’s my experience that children are very happy with whatever is served and usually eat it all, starting with the fruit plate! We have to let go of our old expectations and trust our children to appreciate what’s healthy, but fun, food” Mamacino

Have you ever come home from a party and your child is bouncing off the walls, sick and irritable? It’s more than likely all the additives and the sugar-high from ‘traditional’ party foods.

My conscience just won’t let me serve that stuff up to kids anymore. There are so many yummy, healthy things you can make instead. Sure have a treat or two in there if you like, but balance it out with loads of the good stuff.

Okay, so here is my tried and true formula for catering a healthy kid’s party.

KISS – Keep it Simple Sweetheart. Remember my last post.

I serve four different types of food, plus the cake. I put them onto eight smallish serving plates, so it looks impressive. I do a fruit, a vegetable, a savoury and a sweet, plus the cake.

1. Fruit

♥ Passionfruit cups. From Rebecca Mugridge’s new book Happy, Healthy Mums. This is a sneak peek, the book isn’t out yet! Sign up to Bek’s blog to stay updated. All you do is scoop the flesh out of the passionfruit, make a fruit salad, add the passionfruit back in and serve it with some toothpicks. All compostable!

♥ Fruit skewers like these by Hayley at Doing it for the Kids.

♥ Apple Snax. Use some lemon juice to stop the apple browning, top with homemade nut butter and some yummy toppings. You could even make it a fun party activity and let the kids make their own.

♥ Or just do a simple fruit platter like the one pictured up the top. Fruit in season is cheap and delicious!

2. Vegetables

♥ I am deadly serious. Serve up some cherry tomatoes, baby qukes, baby carrots, snow peas and strips of capsicum with my yummy dip. Serve the dip in half a capsicum for a bit of fun.

♥ Easy Green Herb and Garlic Dip

♥ Kale chips. You can try!

3. Savoury

♥ Zucchini slice. Serve it cut into squares with half a cherry tomato on top.

♥ Vegie Smuggler’s amazing Cheese Puffs. My kids love these and we have been making them with lots of different vegetables like carrot and broccoli. Yum.

♥ Chicken drumsticks or wings, baked with a sticky organic tamari and honey glaze. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and chopped spring onion.

♥ Chicken nuggets. No, not the ones from a packet! Try some of my homemade, super healthy recipes. Serve with some easy home-made tomato sauce.

♥ Salad wraps. Choose a good quality wrap like Sorj or Mountain bread, add some boiled egg, organic chicken or organic ham, loads of salad, roll up and slice into small rounds. They looks so pretty.

♥ Popcorn. Buy the organic variety and pop it yourself in a popcorn machine or in a pan with a little coconut oil. Top with a healthy salt or some Vital Veggie Power. Do not buy the microwave popcorn – it’s horrid stuff.

♥ Sushi and rice paper rolls. You can buy these if you choose carefully!

♥ Kids love meatballs! Try my lamb meatballs or make some chicken or beef ones with loads of vegetables. Bake in the oven to make it quicker.

♥ Cyndi O’Meara’s healthy, vegetarian sausage rolls have pretty much gained legend status. The kids will never know they are healthy. If you haven’t tried them, you must! Get the recipe.

Repeat after me…….. Just say no to the cheerio! 😉

4. Sweet

♥ Really Healthy Chocolate Crackles.

♥ Healthy Biscuits.

♥ Green Pikelets.

♥ Salted Caramel Popcorn

♥ Carrot, Pineapple and Zucchini Muffins.

♥ Thermomix Sorbet. If you are lucky enough to have thermomix, fresh fruit sorbet is pretty darn impressive. Use honey or rapadura sugar.

5. Cake

We talked cake the other day. Check out my six healthy birthday cake recipes here.

♥ If you have children with any allergy issues, check out this range of cute flags and cupcake wrappers from Happy Tummies to mark your goodies with.

♥ Too busy too cook? Add in a few healthy packet snacks. Check out this post to find the best.

♥ You can easily make many of these ideas ahead of time and freeze.

Okay, who’s still with me? Let’s talk drinks.

♥ Water. Get a huge container of water and ice and jazz it up.

♥ Raspberry Lemonade from Jo at Quirky Cooking. Super healthy and easy to make. Doesn’t it look the bomb!

♥ Make freshly squeezed juice, smoothies or milkshakes. Set up your juicer/blender/thermomix on a table and you can make them to order like a juice bar!

♥ Alisha from Naughty Naturopath Mum has little kids and she uses plain Cocobella coconut water in poppers at her parties. She also told me to google this crazy idea.

♥ Make a watermelon your drink dispenser! See how to do it at Brit + Co. Fill it with a healthy watermelon drink and just watch the kids go nuts for it!

I could go on, but I won’t! I hope this has given you some things to think about and try for your next kid’s party.

I will leave you with some awesome blog posts about healthy parties from Mamacino and The Wholefood Mama.

As always, I would so love to hear your ideas. Add a link or let me know your fabulous tips for healthy party food!

Click here to visit my Nutra Organics affiliate shop!

Coconut Vegetable Biriyani

February 18, 2013 · 21 Comments

Hooray! I finally found the recipe (after I cleaned up my office) on a tiny scrap of paper, covered in spices.

I really had to make an effort to write this one down. I usually just go by feel with this and make it up as I go along.

Anyway, it’s one of our family’s favourite recipes. Even the kids love it.

We eat vegetarian every second night, so this is a quick and easy one to have in the repertoire.

It’s very adaptable – throw in whatever veges you have in the fridge. It also works well with any leftover meat added- lamb is particularly delicious. Canned chickpeas added at the end and heated will boost up your protein content too. You can also add currants or cashews at the last-minute for extra interest.

It makes quite a big serve – about six meals.

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free.

Coconut Vegetable Biriyani

Okay, so this is what you need:

1 large organic onion, diced

2 cloves organic garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons biriyani spice mix

2 teaspoons turmeric

3 cups bone broth or vegetable stock if you need it to be vego

1 1/2 cups organic basmati rice (rinsed)

6 cups assorted organic vegetables, diced (I use carrot, zucchini, capsicum, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, pumpkin and beans mainly)

1/2 can (200ml) coconut cream

2 handfuls of organic baby spinach, shredded

2 tablespoons Vital Veggie Power

*If you can’t find a biriyani spice mix, just a mixture of cumin, coriander, garam marsala and cinnamon to make up 2 tablespoons.

Okay, so this is how you do it:

Heat the coconut oil in a large, deep pan to a medium high heat. Add the onion, garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add the spices and gently stir until they release their gorgeous smell.

Chuck in the vegetables (not the spinach yet) and stir well, cooking for a minute or so. Add the well-drained rice and stir, making sure you combine well.

Now fling in the vegetable stock, stir well and cover. Turn the heat down to low-medium and leave it to cook for about 15 – 20 minutes (depending on the depth of your pan). Stir every now and again and check it. You may need to add more stock if it’s sticking on the bottom.

When the rice is cooked through and it’s quite a dry mix, chuck in your coconut cream, spinach and Vital Veggie Power. Stir well to combine. Serve.

You can sprinkle with fresh herbs like I did, but I was only getting fancy for the photo!

It is delicious the next day for lunch. Yum. Yum. Make sure you hide a bit for yourself.

Six Super Summer Salads

December 19, 2012 · 36 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I can get stuck in a salad rut! The normal lettuce, tomato, cucumber thing or my old favourites. Boring!

I have been on the hunt for some super-healthy but also super-yummy salad recipes now that the weather is far too hot to cook. This is what I have discovered.

Moorish Crunch Salad from Jamie Oliver

300 g carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick-sized batons

150 g radishes

2 crunchy apples

1 small handful raisins/sultanas

1 handful fresh Italian parsley

1 handful fresh mint, roughly chopped

4 T red wine vinegar

8 T olive oil

1 T tahini

2 T sesame seeds, toasted in the oven for about three minutes

Finely slice radishes. Quarter and core the apples and slice finely. Add all these to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, except for the sesame seeds. Toss together, and season to taste. Serve with sesame seeds sprinkled on top and eat straight away before the salad loses its crunch.

*NOTE: Jamie Oliver’s website was upgraded and this recipe no longer linked, so I found it elsewhere and posted it. 🙂

Crunchy Asian Cabbage Salad from Alexx Stuart – Real Food and Low Tox Living

Watermelon and Avocado Salad with Fetta from Top of the Apple

Vietnamese Rice Salad from Mamacino

Chakra Fruit Salad with Enlightened Tahini Sauce from My New Roots.

Roast Avocado and Couscous Salad from Stone Soup

Do you have a super salad recipe? Please share or link us up with your favourite one!

Fun and Healthy Edible Christmas Trees!

December 5, 2012 · 21 Comments

Fun and Healthy Edible Christmas Trees!

Christmas food can be fun and healthy.

There are some very clever people out there who come up with these mostly easy but incredibly cute ideas. I have put them all together in a blog post so you can see them too.