You might recall (it was a while ago; I Quit Sugar: Simplicious was a two-year project) I asked you all what you’d like to see featured in the new book I was writing. I took your very long list to heart and tried to incorporate as many of your requests as possible. I shared one of the reader requests a few weeks back, my Simplicious homemade bacon.
Today, three more recipes from your wish list that found their way into the book: Cheeseburger Dim Sims, a take on the Aussie Golden Gaytime, and a Bacon ‘n’ Egg Porridge (yes, savoury porridge!).
Cheeseburger Dim Sims, photo by Rob Palmer
Cheeseburger Dim Sims
So much potential wrongness, right? But, I tell you, this is close to my favourite recipe in the book.
The good news is that we’re opting for individual broccoli heads, rather than bulk packs of brocs (wrapped in plastic etc), and veggies like zucchinis that come as individual items.
“These findings really reflect the fact that some Australians are treating supermarkets like extensions of their own fridges,” said the study spokesperson who also pointed out shoppers are buying for two to three days’ worth of meals at a time. This is a good thing from a wastage POV.
But the report says we’re also buying up veggies pre-packaged in single-meal portions. AUSVEG suggest growers should be encouraged to do more of this kind of thing.
Um, noooooo!!!!!
Yep, making it easier for us all to eat more veggies is a great thing. Yep, shopping practices that see us purchase what we need as we need it,is an
These one-pan, two-minute mélanges are my standard lunch (or breakfast, or dinner) fare and I’ve included a big bunch of great combos in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious. I must admit I felt weird putting them into a recipe format because I mostly make them on a whim, using what I’ve got (and a few too many lax cooking techniques). But I’ve been asked so many times to formalise things. So….a simpliciously simple post on how I build my bowls. I’ve focused on the cooked ones here, but there are raw, summery ones in the book too.
1 serve = 1 cup leafy greens or ½ cup all other veg.
Sauté in oil or sweat in 2 frozen stock cubes or ferment in brine. At the office we all do this and share the one pan around, multi-using each others’ juices. At home I’ll work from the one pan all day, making best use of leftover flavours and fats in the pan.
Step 2: Add 1 serve of protein
It could be 2 eggs, a palm-sized portion of meat (mostly leftover or bulk-cooked, stored in freezer in 1/2 cup portions ready to tote to the office), or 1 cup properly-prepared legumes (I explain the best ways in the book and again I keep ziplock bags of the things in my freezer).
Decisions are hard. I struggle with them. So these words from writer and feminist Rita Mae Brown are sweet salve…
Image via gildedcoast.tumblr.com
“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.”
God. What a relief just to hear that.
I think the peacefulness that comes from JUST MAKING THE DAMN DECISION says to the world that you’re open to surrender. You care a little less. You trust everything will work out and, perhaps, that there is no “right” decision. Ever. Which then invites the world to move with us in this flow-y, loose, open, spacious, receptive way. Like attracts like. And all that jazz.
This brings peace, don’t you reckon? Just knowing you’re working with the flow of life is pacifying.
(And, besides, if you don’t quite believe that wrong decisions as such bring peace, perhaps focus on how
Some seriously inspiring Simplicious flow for a Tuesday! Elise at Healthy Family 5 is one of the ambassadors over at the I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program. As you might have guessed, there’s five in her family, which is why her latest feat is so inspiring. Check this shit out!
Elise posted this on Instagram.
She cooked 10 meals for five people from a $3 supermarket haul.
Elise says:
My local supermarket occasionally sell their “ugly” fruit and veggies for $3 a bag and I just happened to be there when this happened recently. So I challenged myself to make as many meals as I could based on that $3 bag.
So here’s the wrap up, 10 meals and vegetable stock from my $3 supermarket haul. Except for the purchase of chickpea flour for the socca, all meals were made modifying recipes to use items from my pantry and the $3 bag.
I take comfort in this from Friedrich Nietzsche: “Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.”
Image via indulgy.com
But, following the “I’m no Robinson Crusoe” relief that comes from absorbing Fred’s words, I immediately want to rise beyond it. I aspire beyond the suffering we’ve been delivered by virtue of merely being alive. Which, to my mind, is the point of suffering – to work beyond it.
The antidote to haste, I’ve come to learn, is coming home to yourself, sitting with yourself, making friends with the true self within. Still and gentle. It’s the only trick in the book to expose the
Last night’s dinner with an egg stuck in the middle
But it’s necessary. And non negotiable. Food waste is the biggest pollution issue on the planet, surpassing industry and car emissions. And the biggest contributors to that wastage are consumers.
Anyone gagging to make a difference to where our planet is at can start by not wasting food. It really is that simple.
These are some of the things I do. Feel free to add to the list in the comments below and I’ll run a follow up post.
1. I don’t buy more until I’ve finished what I already have. I completely run out of yoghurt before I set out to buy another, that way I find myself using up the last of the sour cream or cheese in the interim.
2. I eat the WHOLE food. This means the apple with the core, and even the leaves from beetroot bunches (with oil, pepper and salt). Ditto the leaves from cauliflower and broccoli and daggy vegetables like swede, choko, and celeriac.
3. I don’t peel anything. When my veggies look lackluster, I make a big soup with lentils and bacon thrown in for flavour and protein.
4. I ignore “best before” labels.The use-by date tells you when a food must be eaten for health and safety reasons, whereas the best-before date gives a rough indication of when it’s best to eat. Many countries have actually removed the “best before” date because they cause totally unnecessary food tossing. I ignore them. You should, too.
Normal worry, of course, has always had an evolutionary purpose. In the face of danger, freaking out helps us fight or flight. But neuroticism – freaking out when there is no perceived threat – has made no sense. And this no-sense-ness has left those of us in the over-worriers camp feeling even more freaked.
This new theory argues neurotic people are more prone to think about what might happen. This “mind wandering” can lead to high levels of creativity. We over worriers have highly active imaginations, and tend to be more creative problem-solvers. Fretting about stuff that hasn’t happened tends to
This jerky recipe from I Quit Sugar: SIMPLICIOUS is seriously easy to make and will leave you feeling a little bit “frontier”. It’s great for lunchboxes. I fiddled around with this recipe to get a smoky-sweet vibe.
Ugly photo, pretty cool idea: My Beefin’ Good Jerky
The image above is a photo I took while developing the recipe, my old sewing sheers that have become my kitchen scissors padding things out. Yes, it may not be the prettiest thing I’ve made, but that’s not what this recipe is all about. Trust me, it tastes better than the real thing and beats paying a ton for store-bought stuff! My beef jerky costs just $8 for 700g. For the same amount, store-bought, you’re looking at $60. Yep.
Some meaty bits to know…
* I use mince to make this – cheap, accessible, easy to blend flavour in.
* Beef mince is best, ensure it’s lean in just this instance!
* Don’t worry if your oven doesn’t go as low as 70 C. That’s dandy, but note the different cooking time.
And while you’re at it…
You can also make the Good For Your Guts Garlic recipe (also from Simplicious, which you can find here or at all bookstores) while you’ve got the oven
I love seeing meals regenerated from leftovers, cupboard essentials or any scraggy-looking veggies. My new book I Quit Sugar: Simplicious is dedicated to the art of creating these kind of meals. I call it “perpetual cooking” (a meal should have no start and no end; it keeps going and going). My old mate Anthea Loucas and brilliantly talented editor of Gourmet Traveller magazine gets the gist. She made a torta out of her leftovers last night and shared it on Instagram.
Anthea’s own ‘Green Power’ torta.
She calls it The Green Power and it uses up hand-picked greens from the back of her fridge. I asked Anthea if she wouldn’t mind sharing her recipe with you folk. She kindly has.
Anthea’s Green Power Torta
1 kg silverbeet, mustard greens and rocket
3 potatoes
3 eggs
3 cloves garlic (crushed/chopped)
1 onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes
1 lemon rind
sprigs of dill, parsley, and thyme to taste
few grates of nutmeg
handful crumbed fetta
handful breadcrumbs
Blanch silver beet, mustard greens and rocket (any mix of each is fine), cool and squeeze out any moisture and chop finely [or use leftover cooked greens from last night’s dinner, or parcooked’n’frozen greens from your freezer – Sarah]. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water. Peel and mash, then set aside [or use leftover mash; see my post on the gut-giving benefits of cooked and cooled and cooked again potato – Sarah]. Cook onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add chilli and greens mixture. Toss. In a mixing bowl, add greens mixture, plus potatoes, eggs, lemon rind, herbs, nutmeg
