5 Minute Spanish Rice

I am gradually perfecting mid-week meal cooking to a quick 5 minute job that I can walk away from and only come back when the timer buzzes to say it is ready.  Here is my 5 minute prep spanish rice. When I say Spanish, I mean it is sort of my take on a paella, you could add chicken if you are into that.  This recipe is also preservative free, artificial additive free and sugar free.

Ingredients:

1/2 Butternut pumpkin
1 Chorizo sausage
2 teaspoons of paprika
2 teaspoons of cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 veg or chicken stock cube (or equivalent)
3 cups of water
1 brown or red onion
1.5 cups of basmati rice
1 spring onion (optional)
parsley to garnish
1/2 cup of peas
Broccolini to serve on the side


Method;

Step 1: Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius, cut up pumpkin, chorizo and onion, place on tray and bake for 20 minutes.

Step 2: While this is happening, add the rice, stock, paprika, cumin, turmeric and water to your rice cooker and turn it on.

Step 3: Add Broccolini and peas to the steamer that sits on top of your rice cooker, this will cook while the rice cooks.

Step 4: When the rice cooker is done, the veg in the oven will be done, mix it all together, garnish with parsley and spring onion.  I served my brocccolini on the side because it is easier to eat. Done!

This whole dish takes about 15-20 minutes to cook by itself once you have added everything to the rice cooker and oven, easy!

Shopping on $50 per week

This will be a major focus of this blog, as I am to spend $50 per week on my family's food.  I know that many people are spending much less, but I also know that others are spending much more.  If you are interested in cutting back and getting the best value from your money this is for you.

More to come as track this journey.

Recipe for Easy Sweet Potato and Cous Cous Salad

A quick and easy mid-week dinner that I whipped up last night. See recipe below.

Ingredients

1/2 sweet potato (or pumpkin)

1 tablespoon of oil (I used rice bran)

1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning

1/2 brown or red onion

1 cup of cous cous

1/2 lemon zest and juice

50g of Fetta

10 sultanas

2 stalks of parsley

1 head of broccoli (or 1 bunch of broccolini)

Method

Preheat oven to 220 degree Celsius

Dice sweet potato and onion into 1cm square pieces

Mix with rice bran oil on a baking tray with baking paper on the bottom

Sprinkle cajun seasoning over the top

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until brown

Measure out 1 cup of cous cous and place in large bowl

Add 1 cup of boiling water and sultanas and let stand for 5 minutes

Crumble in fetta, add chopped parsley, sweet potato and cooked onion. Add lemon zest and juice.

Boil water and simmer broccoli for 5 minutes or until cooked through.

Bang it all together in a bowl and serve.

I should explain, my new clean eating plan

As i am starting to post my recipes i thought it would be good to clarify my goal for this blog.
I have felt recently that I really want to feed my family good food and so aim to grow all of my fruit and vegetables myself.  I have also noticed that to avoid added ingredients that I don't want my family to eat, most recipes that I had been using in the past need some adjustment, so to clarify, this is what this blog with provide

1. The story of my garden, the development to the point in which it provides my family with all of the fruit and vegetables we need.  The end goal being that I will not need to purchase any fruit and veg from shops or markets.

2.  Recipes that I have adapted to include no added sugar and no artificial ingredients.  These will be healthy and delicious.

3.  The journey to shop smarter and to save money where I can.  This is about using my money in the most efficient way, this is not necessarily buying the cheapest things but the best value.

4.  The development of the front of my garden to be supportive of soil, animal and environmental health.  This will be a beautiful mix of Australian native plants and beautiful deciduous trees.

5.  The journey to reduce waste, become more self sustaining and to produce rather than just consume.

Just a little summary, mainly to clarify in my own mind what this is all about.  Bye Bye.

Easy Apple and Pear Crumble - Clean eating, no additives, no added sugar!

Cooked a yummy apple and pear crumble last night because I wanted to use up a few of my apples.

Also, no added sugar and no colours or preservatives, all natural.

Here's the recipe and steps

Ingredients

3 apples

1 pear

50g butter

3 tablespoons of plain flour

muesli (or oats

cinnamon

Dash of water

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Slice the apples and pears and place in baking dish.

Cut butter into cubes and rub into flour

Place flour/butter mixture on top of apples

Place muesli on top and sprinkle with cinnamon

Bake in oven for 20 minutes

I served mine with some plain Greek yoghurt.  This recipe has no added sugar, no additives in any of the ingredients.

Easy Lazy Frittata Recipe

Check out my recipe for an easy frittata

Ingredients:

8 free range eggs

100mls of cream (optional)

1/2 butternut pumpkin

1/2 brown or red onion

1-2Tbsp of oil (I use rice bran)

100g of cheddar cheese (or fetta if you have it)

Greens (broccolini and snow peas in my case)

Method

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius

Dice pumpkin and onion and place on baking tray or in the dish you will bake the Frittata in for 15-20 minutes

Break eggs into a dish and beat together with cream

Add eggs to pumpkin and onion in a deep baking dish

Sprinkle cheese on top

Reduce oven to 180 degrees Celcius, bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until cheese browns.

Blanche greens for 5 minutes or until cooked through.

Done!

Diced pumpkin and brown onion

 Broccolini ready to be blanched.

8 beautiful free range eggs from my lovely chooks.

Tasty cheese grated ready to be sprinkled on top.

Best Australian Native for Clay Soils

I thought I would share my findings with regards to the best plant I have found so far for clay soils.  I now have 2 of these, its  a bottle brush, Callistemon King's Park Special developed in Western Australia.

Thank you to a good friend and cousins who both bought me a bottle brush to put in my new front yard.  They are absolutely thriving, covered in new growth and in a few short months they are twice the size as when I planted them.  I will take an updated photo of them soon to give you an update, but for now, a great plant for clay soils.