MUSHROOM & BROCCOLI SALAD

"A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier." Tom Stoppard

This has become a nice alternative to the usual side dish, and is a favourite for when we braai. Fresh, crunchy and healthy!

Mushroom and Broccoli Salad
The How To:
1) Steam (about 250g) broccoli for 3-5 minutes, must be cooked but still crunchy. This is the bottom layer of your salad.
2) Cut slices of raw mushrooms and place a layer of it on top of the broccoli.
3) Mix the sauce. I usually use what I have in my fridge and any of these combos work well: half a cup of greek or plain yogurt, 3 tablespoons of cream cheese or mayo, a teaspoon of honey or syrup, 2 chopped chives or spring onions, 1 sliced gherkin (optional), salt, pepper, paprika.
4) Add the sauce as the final layer. Finish off with a dash of paprika for presentation purposes. ;)

A MOUTHFUL OF YUMNESS: GREEN BEAN SALAD

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do." Walt Disney

 

Green Bean Salad

The How to:

1) Dice half an onion, and fry it in a teaspoon of butter until translucent. 

2) In the meantime, cut almonds into quarters, cut the ends off of the green beans and cut in half. Fry it with the onions for 3 minutes.

3) Serve (recommended) with fish. We ate it with fish cakes in the image below...mmm.

 

 

 

CAULIFLOWER RICE

"The first wealth is health" Ralph Waldo Emerson

Comfort food for me means: vleis, rys en aartapples (meat, rice and potatoes), but since Antonie and I are trying to eat less refined carbs, and less carbs in general, we have needed to start being more creative with our meals. Last week we ate baby marrow spaghetti, which we used as spaghetti in a chicken stir-fry (yum). And Monday night we tried out cauliflower rice. It's very easy to make, and tricks you- by making you think that there is actually rice on your plate. I think the below is the most simple way to make it - I will definitely try a few variations of this in the future (for example, use it in a stir-fry, make fried rice, add peas/sweetcorn to it...).

Simple Cauliflower Rice
How To:

1) Grate cauliflower in a microwavable dish

2) Microwave it for 3 minutes

3) Season it as desired (we used salt, pepper and paprika with a dollop of greek yogurt)

Crunchy&Crispy Chickpeas

 

These hadn't even cooled down yet before I started pecking at the chickpeas with my fingers and devouring them one by one. As I caressed my now slightly burnt fingers, Antonie called out that he could hear me crunching away (and he was far away in the study). I took him some and then, jointly, we munched away in one melodious crunch.

 

Ingredients:

- 1 tin chickpeas

- olive oil

- seasoning of choice

 

The How to:

1) Drain and wash chickpeas and dry with paper towel.

2) Thinly coat with olive oil.

3) Roast at 200°C for 30min (it should be golden brown and Crispy and Crunchy, if it is still soft, leave it for another 3 minutes and check it again).

4) Add seasoning of choice (we used salt and braai-salt).

 

Healthy, and so good when hot out the oven. Try not devour it on your own (they are beans after all).

 



 

WTS? = What to Snack?

For the past two weeks I have devoured the notion of ‘eat smaller portions and eat more often.’ This has led to my crave of a new hobby, which I dub as…wait for it…Snacking! Ok, not the epitome of new discovery I agree, but say it with enough oomph and volume and it nestles itself quite nicely into your memory cavity. The word cannot easily be said in gossip though. For instance, if trying to whisper to your neighbouring friend that you were “snacking on some carrots”, you soon realise that when the word escapes your mouth, it projects a sound which has a similar result to that of “psst”, as in, to alert another. And soon, unintentionally invited ears are tuned in as to what exactly you were supposedly sssnacking on!

This delicious pastime- Snacking (said with oomph)- has increased my craze of Tupperware. I now have divided tupperware and use all sorts of pinteresting methods to bring this new hobbie to life. Here are some of the aesthetically-pleasing, palate-satisfying creations thus far:

Plain yoghurt with a drizzle of honey. Muesli in a silicon cupcake holder. Half a granadilla and one date.

Carrots and green beans. Crackers to dip in peanut butter.

Apples wrapped with cured meat (I used choppa meat). With red tomatoes.

This combo is called Ants on a Log. Celery sticks smeared with peanut butter with raisins on top.

Cut veggies (carrots, green beans, cucumber and raw cauliflower) with traditional homemade hummus.

Fun to make and just as fun to Snack!

P.S. (which in this case stands for Post Snack) If you were one of those that could simply not resist uttering the word ‘snacking’ under your breath to yourself before the end of this post then I’m afraid that you have a serious case of what I myself have been diagnosed with…curiosity. It’s a disease worth learning more about…

The Hunger Games

Six. I have no issues with the number, six. As a matter of fact, in many cases I find it to be quite a bearer of joy. 6, from the end of the cricketer's bat breeds an explosion of sound that leaves the batter and fans in elation. Six, resembles half-a-dozen white-coated chocolate eggs during Easter time. 6, is also the amount of characters in my name, as well as beauty, flower, tennis and supper!

But lately, the number six has started to get on my nerves. 

I'm not referring to 3 sixes mysteriously placed in close proximity of each other which has some individuals in paranoia and deciphering every mayonnaise bottle's bar-code. No. Six, is currently the amount of superfluous weight* that keeps me from my ideal weight*. It is obviously due to the fact that those half-a-dozen white-coated chocolate eggs never see the view from the food cabinet before facing an artillery of 30-odd, hard, calcified, whitish chompers, with which they'll never stand a chance. 

You might say- "don't be so hard on yourself", but let me put it this way... 6 kg amounts to 12 blocks of butter.

This could have been put to much better use, for example, to make chocolate cake for one, or perhaps this outstanding butter statue of ET... 

or just to throw at those that say they are fat, when they're one stomach-gas expulsion away from disappearing entirely!

So, may this be a warning to my kg of 6. Let the hunger games begin, and may the odds be ever in my favour. 
                                             (right after decapitating this cupcake...)

*Because my husband is a genius, uh, I mean, Physics major (same thing), I thought I should add that when I speak about weight I am actually referring to mass (kg).