Day 320 in a Year of my Life

I created a delicious potato salad recipe full of goodness today.  Gluten free and sugar free.

I wanted a meatless lunch that still included some protein, so here is what I did.

Ingredients (this should make 6 serves):

• 3 medium potatoes washed and chopped into bite sized chunks, skin on
• 3 eggs 
• Half a brown onion chopped finely
• 1 avocado cubed
• 1/3 cup of pecans chopped and dry roasted in a saucepan
• 1/3 cup feta cheese crumbled
• Juice of 1/2 small lemon
• A handful of parsley finely chopped
• 1T butter
• 2T Sour cream (full cream)
• 1t Rapadura sugar (I will tell you about rapadura in a post next week)
• Salt n cracked pepper to taste

Method:

• Boil the potatoes and eggs together for about 10-15 mins until potatoes are cooked but still firm.
• When they're cooked, tip into a strainer over the sink, remove and shell the eggs and chop into chunks.
• In a good sized bowl, add finely chopped onion and the cubed avocado.
• Pour over lemon juice and stir through.
• Add crumbled feta cheese and stir through.
• Tip the hot, cooked potato on top, add the butter and stir through until the butter is melted and coats the potato.  This is where you have a taste and then add the salt (if you need it) n pepper and stir again.
• Add the egg and the roasted pecans and the sour cream.  Mix well.
• Stir through chopped parsley and then sprinkle the rapadura evenly over the top and stir through evenly.

If you don't care about the type of sugar you use, then you can replace rapadura with any sugar you prefer.  You need the sweetness to help balance out the sour acidity of the lemon and the savoury saltiness of the feta.

This makes enough for probably 6 people to have as a side with their meat and salad.  I ate a small bowl of it for lunch and there's enough left for us to have with dinner tonight.  There will probably be some left over from that too.

What I love about avocados is that they are not on the pesticide list, so we don't have to worry about harmful chemicals.  They are also rich in magnesium and potassium, as well as vitamins B6, C, E and K.

Here is the yummy berry smoothie that I made yesterday and finished off this morning.

I'm off to make another attempt at some Photo5 ideas.

Nite all.

Day 319 in a Year of my Life

I have had a very 'liquid' day today.

Warm lemon water to start the day.

A berry smoothie for breakfast ... blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, banana, organic full cream milk, honey, coconut oil and ice.

Soup for lunch ... zucchini, mushroom and cauliflower soup with a tablespoon of sour cream stirred through.

Dinner tonight consisted of sunflower and chia seed, gluten free toast with avocado and tomato and another with raw honey.  Leftover berry smoothie afterwards.

All nutritious and healthy and sugar free.

However, I DID have 2 glasses of wine tonight and they have gone straight to my head!

I took photos of my deliciously pink smoothie today, but I haven't looked at the photos yet .. perhaps I will share them tomorrow.

Today I'm grateful for kisses from SEB (Someone Else's Bird) who kisses my lips through the bars of the bird cage.  So cute.

Nite all.

Day 318 in a Year of my Life

Well, I thought I was going to get a whole day to study, hone my photoshop skills and get some shots done for the Canon Photo5 competition today.

Adoring Husband had to tow the camper van to Bundaberg for some final repairs (after the tornado damage) and it was expected to take all day.

So I had a leisurely morning at the Seat of Knowledge, cycled around town for a bit, went to the Post Office, pedalled to the other side of town to get some fresh seafood and dropped in briefly to visit a friend.

I arrived home at around 10.30am-ish and just as I settled in at my work area, AH phoned to say that he was on his way home.

I squeezed in a couple of photos (which were dismal failures) before he got home and then it was all over.

Ah well.

I made myself a delicious prawn salsa lunch using the leftover marinade from last night's dinner.

Refreshing and delicious.

Tonight, I experimented with a fish dish.  I used King Salmon, which is a white fish and created a coconut/turmeric/lemon sauce with almonds.  It was quite delicious too!  Even AH enjoyed it.

Tomorrow night will be vegetarian I think.  Maybe even soup!  The freezer is still well stocked with various soups.

I'm looking forward to a coconut/berry smoothie tomorrow morning.

Had enough of hearing about my food menu?? Fair enough.

We received a phone call earlier in the week from The Bay SES telling us that we won a porcelain doll in a raffle and that we could pick it up on Monday or they would call back later.

I knew that I didn't buy any tickets in a raffle and AH decided that they must have called the wrong number, so we didn't bother following it up ... not that they left a number to call anyway!

Well, tonight, they called back and I answered the phone.

Apparently AH DID buy some tickets in the SES raffle ('Oh yeah, I remember now' was his response) and now we are the proud owners of a porcelain doll.

Things happen in threes .. I hope we have another two wins ... like Lotto!  Or Keno!

Today I'm grateful for FROG (Fraser Region Organic Goodness) http://frogshop.com.au/
from where I will be ordering my fruit and veg among other organic goodies in the coming weeks.  What a great discovery!

Nite all.

Day 317 in a Year of my Life

Not a very eventful day for me today.

Adoring Husband played golf and I stayed at home intending to study and perhaps get one brief for the Canon competition complete.

Instead, I watched a movie, gave one of the dogs a haircut and a bath, did some washing and made a delicious marinade for the pork fillet that we had for dinner.

Before I knew it, AH was home and I hadn't done anything that I'd actually planned.

Just as I was about to start dinner, I heard a rumble in the distance, so I walked outside to investigate, and discovered a small storm creeping towards our town.

I decided to head down to the river, so AH dropped me off at my preferred spot, while he went to the supermarket.

The sky looked and sounded quite menacing for all of 30 minutes, and then fizzled into nothing.  Just a few spots of rain fell and then the clouds dispersed.

Still, it was nice to be out with the camera.  I haven't taken any photos since I returned from the Sunny Coast.  I guess I'm going through a small 'lost my mojo' patch.

Tomorrow, I am definitely going to concentrate on a couple of Photo5 briefs.  There are only 19 days left til the competition closes!

Tomorrow is also The Nikonian's 50th birthday ... Happy Birthday my lovely friend.  I know that you'll be surrounded by people who love you and care about you.  I hope it's the happiest of days!

Today, I'm grateful for berry season.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and mulberries.  I can't get enough of them and they are delicious!

Nite all.

Day 316 in a Year of my Life

Yay!!  My Canon Photo5 box arrived today!!

Absolutely no idea what I'm going to do for each of the briefs.  I really hoped that setting my eyes on the contents would send some magnificent imaginative and creative juices flowing from within!

But alas, I've got NUTHIN'.

I also had a lovely little shopping spree with the girls in Childers today.

As you know, I meet with the girls most Tuesday mornings for coffee and every once in a while, we'll do something different like go see a movie or, like today, go somewhere else for morning tea.

After our trip to the winery the other week, we decided to head back in that direction to check out a particular dress shop and shoe shop that looked promising and then have morning tea before returning home.

I'm happy to report that my shopping expedition was very successful.

Our choice of coffee shop was not so successful ... I take responsibility for that, because it was my suggestion *sad face*

Kape Centro in the main street of Childers, situated beside the Post Office.

I've been there, probably 10 times, since we moved to the area, and at first it was a pleasant experience.  The service was friendly and the food and coffee was lovely.

The last 3 visits have been most disappointing.  The staff are not at all friendly or welcoming, in fact, they seem to not want to be there.  It was mid morning and not busy at all, but the atmosphere was very unfriendly.

I don't think I'll go back.  There is another coffee shop at the other end of town, where I know the service is friendly and welcoming and the food and coffee, delicious, so that's where I'll take my custom in future.

So girls, I'm sorry for leading you up the garden path, but I hope you enjoyed my spending spree as much as I did *insert smiley face here*

Today I'm grateful for late night Big Bang Theory episodes that give me a good giggle before bed time.

Nite all.

Day 315 in a Year of my Life

What comes with new lifestyle/diet changes, is new food challenges.

I have two new food challenges in the pipeline.

After Adoring Husband did his research, we agreed on a certain brand of dehydrator, only to discover that they are no longer available in Australia!

So after discussions with the lady at Nature's Wonderland http://www.natureswonderland.com.au/shop/ , (What a great looking shop!  We hope to visit it in person one day) we decided on a different brand, and one that she highly recommended.  We ordered it over the phone and hope to receive it soon.

There will be lots of experimenting with all the fruits and vegetables in our garden and hopefully we'll get to store some of the excess produce that we can't eat fresh.

The other challenge is cheese making.

Since I changed my eating habits, feta cheese, along with nuts, has become my new love (I was never a fan of it before this).

We purchased a cheese making kit.  It's specifically for feta cheese and the ingredients are organic and GMO free.

I think Adoring Husband is also excited about cheese making because he had the box opened and unpacked before I'd finished unpacking the groceries!

By the time I was ready to take a look, he had half of it stored in the fridge (I'm guessing the manual instructed him to do so) and the other half stored in another room.

I gathered all the bits and pieces back together to get this photo.

We acquired this little treasure from Nana's Pantry in The Bay.   I love that place and could spend hours of my time there.   Oh, if money were no object!

They have every type of grain, flour, nut, seed, herb, spice, oil, cereal, natural sugar, vinegar and anything gluten free that I could ever wish for!  The list goes on and on.

Once upon a time, we went there to stock up on gluten free chocolates and lollies, but now I browse the other end of the store instead!

Anyway, I can't wait to share the dehydrating and cheese making process with you!

I also hope that my Canon Photo5 box arrives tomorrow, so that I can start on the competition briefs.  Everyone I know has received their box already, so I'll be a bit behind the 8 ball.

Today, I'm grateful for the first ripe peach from our tree.  Fresh, sweet and juicy.  I wonder how they will taste dehydrated?

Nite all.

Day 314 in a Year of my Life

I made those delicious looking Quinoa Fritters for lunch today.  I LOVED them!

It took me about 80 minutes altogether, to make them, BUT I did make my own mayonnaise in the middle of the cooking process, which took a bit of extra time.  The dipping sauce called for half a cup of mayo and I only had the processed mayo which is full of sugar, so I made my own.

I also changed the recipe for both the fritters and the dipping sauce.

I'm not a fan of cooked avocado, so I replaced the avo with chicken and I put the avo in the dipping sauce instead.

So I will give you my adaptation of the recipe first and then add the link to the original recipe, so you can choose your preferred fritter.

Quinoa Chicken Fritters

Ingredients for fritters ...

• 1/2 cup of quinoa
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup cooked chicken (I had roasted a chook the night before and used the breast for this)
• 1/4 cup of feta cheese
• 1/4 cup of flour (I used GF SR flour, but I will try coconut flour & rice flour in the future)
• 4 spring onions, chopped finely
• 1/2 cup of chopped parsley
• 3/4 t salt (I used pink Himalayan salt)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• Healthy oil for frying - I used macadamia oil.
• Pepper to taste

Ingredients for sauce ...

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (my mayo was made with 1 whole egg, 1T lemon juice and a cup of oil)
• 1 tsp chilli sauce (I just chopped a whole chilli finely)
• 1/2 lime juiced
• 1/2 tsp agave syrup (I used pure maple syrup instead)
• 1/2 avocado mashed
• 1/8 cup of pure cream

DIRECTIONS:

Lightly brown the quinoa in a dry frypan over a medium heat.  Keep stirring around and it should take about 5 minutes.

Transfer to a pot with water (3/4 cup) and turn the heat to low.  Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until fluffy and the water is absorbed.

Use this time to make the dip.

Spoon the mayo into a bowl.  Add all of the other ingredients and stir until smooth and mixed well.  Check for seasoning - add salt n pepper to taste and then refrigerate.

Now for the fritters ...

Place cooked quinoa in a large mixing bowl.  Add flour, crumbled feta cheese, spring onions, parsley and salt.  Add a dash of pepper and mix well.

Now add 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk.

Mix very well until quinoa mix forms a doughy texture.  This is where I added the chicken, chopped quite finely.

Rolls spoonfuls of the mixture into bite-sized balls and then flatten slightly.  It should make about 20.  I made 18.

I shallow fried them in a combination of macadamia oil and butter until golden brown.

Serve with dipping sauce.

Here is the link to the original recipe ... http://www.honeygheeandme.com/2012/08/avocado-stuffed-quinoa-fritters.html

I ate 6 for lunch and was almost uncomfortably full.  Very satisfying.

Today, I'm grateful for fun challenges in the kitchen and a full satisfied belly.

Now I need a nanna nap!

Nite all.