myreallifekitchen: February 2013

Monday, 25 February 2013

toasty.

breakfast was so good this morning i had to share it right away. simple and beautiful.

quinoa cooked in oat milk.

topped with

nuts - i used cashews, macadamias and almonds toasted in a pan with coconut oil, shredded coconut and cinnamon.

and fresh blueberries

try it.

Thursday, 21 February 2013

ok. so i know christmas was a while ago now but if i dont post these recipes i will totally forget all about them and never cook them again. and then i will be in trouble because according to the man pork crackling is THE. BEST. THING. EVER.

so here it goes.

christmas eve prawns>>>

home grown tomatoes. garlic. tomato paste. olive oil. sugar. salt. pepper. rice wine vinegar/white wine vinegar .. i forget which one??

cook this sauce and set aside.

salt and cracked pepper the prawns. cook in olive oil. slightly under-cook.

add sauce. some butter. and parsley.

christmas breakfast>>

wake up late.

open presents.

spend 3 hours completely entranced by my surprise ipad.

realise the time and eat what would now be classified as lunch.

(lunch was a bit of a non event from memory...cheese on toast i think??)

christmas(early)dinner>

my first attempt at crackle! and it worked, in some spots. well it was enough to satisfy the craving for crackle and did not allow for crackle overload!

pork- no bone. salted for 24 hours. then salted again before placing in the oven. some fresh thyme sat in the tray underneath the meat while it cooked- for a few long hours.

the meat was juicy and soft and quite simply delicious! definitely wont be waiting until next christmas to cook again!

Thursday, 14 February 2013

a tale of two... lovebowls

a recent trip to Japan has enlightened me. It has shown me the way to a simpler existence. Not through its high tech gadget obsessed midnight games room madness culture, but through its ability to make more with less. Don't get me wrong, there are many things that are OTT about the place. Or perhaps it was just my perception of the place being warped by what life wanted to shout out to me next. Nevertheless I have arrived home a simplified version of myself.

during my trip I demonstrated making more with less with my ability to consume rice three times a day for 14 days straight. (I would never even eat the same breakfast two days in a row at home!)We spent 14 days on the north island Hokkaido and were out snowboarding each day so nutrition was important. Ingredients however were limited. We had our staples- rice, milk, butter, apples, cabbage, bananas, eggs, jam and honey. And any additional things we could muster up from the convenience store of an evening was a treat but all in all it was simple ingredients with rice at its best.

breakfast:
rice with honey, butter and banana.
rice with milk and honey.
rice with milk and banana.
rice with milk and jam.
rice with scrambled egg.
rice with milk, egg, banana and honey.... Endless possibilities right? Dinner was quite the same minus the fruit and with added veggies and soy sauce.

you see, for someone who struggles to eat leftovers for lunch the next day and has a pantry filled with enough to feed me for a year this was a real food experience and it made me happy. I was happy eating consciously and slowly with chopsticks out of a small bowl that contained no more than 5 ingredients at a time. It was simple and it felt good.

I brought this feeling home with my two lovesbowls- thats all we need, one for him and one for her.

and if we have guests? Well lucky they came with hats!

stir fried (whatever i could find in fridge) with coconut rice

my plan since iv been back? To not unnecessarily complicate and over consume things. And this doesn't just apply to food and the kitchen. It simply means think less, buy less, do less. Be more.