Spinach Rice Pie

This is a reworking of my Hunza Pie recipe from years ago, but I realised that I don't have the updated gluten-free version anywhere handy to share with friends, so here it is. This is a fabulous recipe for when you come home from the local farmers' markets with a bunch of the green leaves du jour and no idea what to do with them, since the "spinach" of the title is highly customisable. I usually start with a bunch of rainbow chard and add whatever else I have in the fridge or garden - kale, most Asian greens, mustard greens, etc. If you haven't made it to the farmers' markets lately or, like this week, you find all the local kale has gone to seed in the recent mini-heatwave, you can even make it with frozen spinach and grated zucchini to fill out the chard. Hunza Pie is traditionally made with brown rice, but I use white rice these days as brown does not agree with me.

Ingredients:

at least 2 tbsp butter2 red onions, sliced thinly
1/2-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 bunch silverbeet/rainbow chard, shredded
1 bunch other greens (or equivalent in frozen spinach/grated zucchini)
1 cup (dry weight) rice, cooked
1 cup grated cheese (opt)
6 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup cream or sour cream (or milk)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper

Melt one tbsp of butter in a large pan over a low heat and slowly caramelise the onions, stirring occasionally to stop them sticking. Add the balsamic vinegar after about 20 minutes and continue to gently cook down for another ten minutes or so. When the onions look and smell amazing, add the rest of the butter and start adding the greens (you may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your pan, adding more as the first wilts). While the greens are cooking down, heat the oven to 180C. When all of the greens have wilted and started to change colour, stir in the rice, and transfer the mixture to a pie dish (I used to add cheese to this, but these days I don't bother and it's still amazing. But if you want, you can add a cup of grated cheese at this point).

Whisk together the eggs and cream, sour cream or milk (I have no idea of quantities here as I usually eyeball it relative to the amount of filling). Add oregano and season with salt and pepper, pour over the filling. Bake for around 30 minutes or until top is golden and centre is firm.

Bliss balls

Produced a variation of my usual bliss ball recipe which was so delicious and rich and truffly I have to write down at least the ingredients, if not the proportions (which were of the "plonk things into the food processor til it looks right" variety). I usually use almond or hazelnut meal but I have run out, so used the seed mix instead, and I think I prefer the result.

dates (about half the volume of the recipe)
sultanas (about half as much as the dates, maybe a bit more)
coconut
pepita and sunflower seed mix
2 scoops peanut butter (about 2 tbsp)
1 heaped tbsp cocoa
more coconut for rolling

If you're more strictly paleo than me, tahini works fine instead of peanut butter. I'm glad the kids and my Beloved don't like these, they will all go in the freezer for me!

Black Bean Brownies (grain and processed sugar free)

I found a recipe for black bean brownies on the internet which I really liked, but foolishly did not bookmark it or save a copy, and then forgot where I'd found it, and forgot the recipe as well. So this is my attempt at figuring out a recipe for myself, which avoids most of the things which really mess with my health. These are moist and fudgy (at least if you don't overcook them) and delicious. I slice these about 1 inch square and freeze them, otherwise they would disappear extremely fast.

1 ½ cups cooked black beans
16 dates, soaked overnight and drained
2 eggs
4 tbsp cream
4 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
3 heaping tbsp hazelnut meal
3 tbsp cocoa
½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180C and line a small baking dish with baking paper. Combine in the food processor until smooth. Pour into tray and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes, slice then leave in tray to cool for a few minutes before turning out.

This recipe is veganisable if you sub maple syrup for the honey, coconut cream or nut milk for the cream, and 2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 5-6 tbsp warm water and left to gel for a few minutes for the eggs.

Fish Patties

I take it back, quinoa does not agree with me as much as I thought it did. I think I've been off grains and grain-like things long enough to really feel them if I indulge. Although it did give me the perfect opportunity to use the word "borborygmi", for which much can be forgiven. Might try that recipe with riced cauliflower for me next time instead.

Lunch today was fish patties. I had Mackerel and Sweet Potato Patties on the menu plan, except the elder daughter has an aversion to sweet potato. Also that recipe involves steaming the sweet potato first and my steamer saucepans were both occupied (ie. waiting to be washed up). So I went for my other recipe, which is one of the "Stick everything in the food processor and whizz" ilk and thus required me to do the extra washing up afterwards rather than before. This recipe works with pretty much any vege which you can grate or shred into it and is therefore a useful bottom-of-the-vege-crisper day staple.

2 onions, quartered
1 carrot, grated
2 large cauliflower florets
broccoli stem, grated
handful of cabbage
1 tin mackerel in oil, drained
1 tin sardines in oil, drained
3-4 tbsp quick oats
3-4 tbsp ground almonds (or use all almonds)
2 eggs

Chop all the veges finely then add the rest of the ingredients. Splodge dessert spoonfuls of mix into patties. I cook mine in my large sandwich press, which is pretty much the only use said sandwich press gets now we don't eat bread. This quantity made 20 small patties, of which the five of us polished off 14, served with a big salad. Be warned it will probably stink out the kitchen while cooking; at least it did according to my elder daughter, who pointedly wandered in and out holding her nose.

Quinoa Paella

I don't seem to react as badly to quinoa as I do to wheat or rice, and I like it a lot, so I still eat it occasionally. I've made this dish a few times and the previous incarnations (involving tomato) haven't been very popular with the kids, but this version I omitted the tomato and everybody ate it. Not necessarily with cries of enthusiasm, but so long as most of it went into them rather than into the chickens tomorrow morning I'm okay with that. I usually add prawns to this recipe but didn't have any this time; add them if you wish (I dislike 'em but the rest of the family are fans).

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2 cup chicken stock or water
knob of butter
2 small onions, diced
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded
150g diced ham
1 cooked sausage, diced
1 chorizo, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1/2 tsp chilli
1/2 red capsicum, diced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup cabbage, finely shredded
1/2 frozen spinach
chicken stock
1 tbsp paprika
salt and pepper

Cook the quinoa in stock or water until tender, using the absorption method. Meanwhile saute the onion in the butter, adding the meats and other vegetables when the onion is golden, then the garlic, chilli and other seasonings. Stir, adding tablespoonfuls of chicken stock occasionally if it's sticking to the pan. When everything is nicely browned and flavoursome stir in the drained quinoa and heat through, adding more stock if necessary.

Cheesy Mushroom Muffins and Beany Tomato Soup

There was a terrible crisis precipitated by the discovery that I was making tomato soup for (late) dinner tonight and there were no bread or bread products obtainable in our little country town at 7pm. To pacify the revolting horde (aka my husband) I whipped up some quick muffins instead. They were devoured to cries of acclamation, although since I didn't eat any I can't personally vouch for them.

300 grams of plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup grated cheese
250g mushrooms
2 eggs
1/2 cup of olive oil
2/3 cup of milk
salt, pepper
Preheat oven to 180C. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Whizz the mushrooms in the food processor until finely chopped. Stir mushrooms and cheese through flour. Beat liquid ingredients together then stir roughly through dry ingredients and spoon into muffin tins. Bake for 25 minutes.


May as well add my soup recipe as well.

2 onions, diced
1 carrot, diced (or grated if you want it to cook quicker)
1 stick celery, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp chilli
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 bottle passata
1 bottle water (add more if necessary, which it will be if you use lentils)
tin of butter beans (normally I make this with 1 cup red lentils but I was going for speed tonight so used a tin of beans instead)

Saute everything sauteable. Add everything else and cook until is tender. Smoosh. Serve.

Bibimbap

Or, Korean mixed rice with assorted vegetables and meat. New recipe tried on the guinea pigs family today for lunch - or in my case breakfast, since I've gone back to intermittent fasting until 12pm - and was a great hit with the four out of five of us who tried it. (For those keeping score at home, we have lost a housemate since the beginning of the year, but temporarily scored a teenager home for the holidays). This is one of those handy recipes served buffet-style, which in a house with kids is known as “Look, just eat the stuff you like and don't whinge about the stuff you don't, okay?”. At this time of year, it also usefully fits under “add extra protein to things by breaking a few eggs in somewhere”. Although I currently have two mums off the lay and a broody hen sitting on most of the output of the rest of the flock, so I'm having to *gasp* buy eggs occasionally. And it was handy because I had leftover rice from last night so didn't have to cook any.

I originally heard about this on a blog somewhere and noted down the name, then forgot where I'd seen the original. So this morning I googled for recipes and read about half a dozen to get the general idea, then put something together to fit what I had in the fridge and what I know my family eats. I gather this is one of those highly-customisable recipes where this is the general procedure in any case.

Meat

coconut oil

1 small onion, finely diced

250g mince

grated zucchini (yes, I have a lot of zucchini to use up)

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

slosh in a bit of fish sauce and soy sauce near the end, to taste

Vegetables

½ carrot, grated

½ red capsicum, thinly sliced

raw cabbage, shredded

cucumber, thinly sliced

more shredded cabbage, sauteed in coconut oil and a bit more fish sauce 

Or whatever you happen to have in the fridge. My kids like raw veg more than cooked so that's what I put out, but feel free to steam or saute anything if you prefer.

leftover rice, reheated

4 runny fried eggs

chopped peanuts (this didn't occur in any of the recipes I read but appears to be an indispensable accompaniment to any Eastern-inspired mince-and-salad combo as far as my family is concerned)

sweet chilli sauce (ditto)

The cooking of the mince I imagine is fairly obvious. Prepare the veges while the meat is doing its thing, then the assemblage is basically thus: put everything on table, serve yourself whatever you like into a bowl, put a fried egg on top, and gleefully mix it all up into a moosh. Except nobody had done the washing up this morning so there were no bowls, but it worked almost as well with plates. Which were almost licked clean. Will definitely make again.

Egg Curry

Oh dear, I have been ignoring you, haven't I?

Tonight's curry was so sublime I had to write down the recipe before I forget it. It was cribbed from this recipe although I'm too lazy to do it properly and didn't have some of the ingredients so had to make some substitutions. And I added cream and ground almonds because cream, and also because younger daughter does not eat hard boiled egg curry and this way at least the sauce would be proteinaceous (as it happens she didn't eat the sauce either, but still, four out of five in favour is pretty good).

knob of butter3 small onions, finely diced
1/2 medium zucchini, grated (stealth veges FTW!)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
heaped tsp ginger
slightly less heaped tsp chilli (or to taste)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tin tomatoes
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup ground almonds
8 hard-boiled eggs, halved length-ways

Saute the onions in the butter until golden, add spices and zucchini. Continue to gently saute until everything smells divine and the veges are well and truly soft because this is more or less all the cooking they'll get. Add the tomatoes and then attack everything with the stick blender til it's less chunky (if you are less lazy than me and can be arsed washing up the food processor afterwards do it in that, but then you might as well follow the original recipe, no?). Stir through the cream and ground almonds, bring to a very gentle simmer, plop in the eggs and warm through. Serve over rice for them wot eats it, or in my case, over stir-fried silverbeet and mustard greens from the garden. Nom.

I Aten't Dead

And I do still cook pretty much every day. I just haven't been inspired to find or create new recipes for a while so have not had much to blog about. But I discovered a recipe for Spinach and Lemon Quinoa Bake today which was extremely nommy, and since I tweaked it a bit I wanted to write down the modifications before I forgot.

We've acquired a vegan housemate in the last few months, and since I am possessed by a compulsion to feed people, we generally cook and eat vegan meals together 3-4 nights a week then do our own thing the rest of the time. I cook a lot of vegan food anyway, but I rarely modify very non-vegan recipes to make them vegan, since that generally involves substituting with fake dairy products and frankly, since none of the rest of us have a problem with dairy, I'd rather just not bother. But this one sounded yummy, plus it would be a variation on my popular silverbeet rice pie which our housemate (who is intolerant to rice as well) can eat. Since I'm still sticking with a lower-carb diet and have largely eliminated rice, quinoa is slightly lower in carbs and higher in protein than rice so is a better option for me too.

I don't have a lemon zester, so I did thinly slice some zest off and chuck it in, but mostly relied on lemon juice instead. The zest would definitely be better, so go with that if you have a better option for parting it from its lemon than picking it out of a cheese grater with a toothpick.

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa, cooked in 3 cups water
• olive oil, coconut oil
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 bunch silverbeet, shredded
• 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
• 2 tsp flaxseed meal + 4 tbsp water
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 300mL medium tofu, drained
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt, pepper
• 1 large tomato
• almond meal

Slowly saute the onion and garlic in a mix of olive and coconut oil until caramelised. Add the zest and shredded silverbeet and cook down, adding more olive oil if necessary. Meanwhile, combine the flaxseed meal and water and leave to sit til it coagulates a bit. Then combine tofu, flaxseed mixture, tahini, lemon juice and seasonings in the blender until smooth. Combine the tofu mixture with the silverbeet and the quinoa, and pour into a baking tray. Top with sliced tomatoes and a sprinkling of ground almonds. Bake at 180 for an hour, let sit for a few minutes, then serve.

Odds and Sods Muffins

These are adapted from a recipe by Alison Holst, which is my go-to recipe for sweet muffins. We make porridge for breakfast a couple of times a week,and the kids randomly eat or leave it depending on the phase of the moon, so there are always leftovers. Which is not a big deal, it's a few cents worth of ingredients and the pigs are always happy to take care of leftovers, but as of Wednesday this week we won't have pigs and anyway I don't like waste even if it is waste which is eventually recycled into bacon. Sometimes Dylan puts leftover porridge in bread, so I tried incorporating it into muffins. You can't tell it's there at all, but it makes them lovely and moist.

Ingredients:
1 quantity leftover porridge (can be anything up to about 1.5 cups)
2c plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2/3 cups brown sugar, sifted if you can be arsed
1 tsp cinnamon
currants (I add more or less depending on how much porridge there is)
choc chips (optional but OMG)
3/4 cup liquid
75mL bland-tasting oil
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Drain the porridge. Combine dry ingredients and stir well, then stir the porridge into it and break up any lumps. Whisk up the liquid ingredients, stir through the dry ingredients as briefly as possible, and lop into muffin trays and bake. My oven, which is non-fan forced and thus deeply idiosyncratic, cooks these best at around 200C provided I remember to swap shelves halfway so the bottoms don't burn, but if yours is fan-forced try 180C instead.

Without the choc chips these are really yummy with jam and butter or cream, like scones.

Chickpeas with Chorizo and Silverbeet

This was absolutely spectacular. I entrusted it to my husband, who does everything by the letter when following a recipe, except I hadn't written down anything except a list of ingredients when I first came up with the idea. This is one of those recipes where the flavour comes from very very slowly caramelising the onions with the chorizo and grated zucchini, which in this house is usually accomplished by me forgetting about it for half an hour but in this case was deliberate. Do not skip this step (although stirring it every so often is preferable to the buggering-off-and-reading-the-internet-and-coming-back-when-you-smell-burning technique *cough*).

olive oil

3 chorizo sausages, thinly sliced

3-4 onions, finely sliced

grated zucchini (optional, although not at this time of year in my garden)

garlic

at least 1/2 bottle passata

3 cups cooked chickpeas

½ cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced

herbs, paprika

balsamic vinegar

1 bunch silverbeet, shredded

Halve the onions and slice into half-moons. Thinly slice the chorizos and saute them both, together with the zucchini, if using, over a low heat until the vegetables are deliciously brown and melty. Add garlic, balsamic vinegar and herbs at some point in this step. When everything is caramelised, add the rest of the ingredients except the silverbeet and simmer until the sauce is at the thickness you prefer (ours ended up fairly stiff, which leads me to suspect that Mr Bat only put in half a bottle of passata, but to be honest I can't remember because I am a slack tart and blogging this about two weeks later). The silverbeet only needs to be folded in at the end and simmered until it's just wilting into the sauce. Try not to actually have a public orgasm while eating, it's that good.

Tunisian Lentil Stew with creamy (and probably not very Tunisian) polenta

I had a recipe I was going to blog when Blogger was having its hissy fit the other week and unfortunately I neglected to write it down anywhere else. So this isn't it. It is, however, equally yummy, but slightly less kid-friendly since it only met with the approval of three out of four scroggins tonight.

It was initially going to be Tunisian Lentil Stew with couscous, but apparently I like having to make last-minute substitutions, because I neglected to check if I actually had any couscous until I was ready to serve dinner. So I picked polenta as a substitute, because we had rice last night, and a bag of polenta needing to be used up. I don't like polenta but according to the people who ate it, this was a nice iteration.

Tunisian Lentil Stew
3 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2 celery sticks, diced
1 carrot, diced
2-3 cups of diced pumpkin (I had Jarrahdale)
~1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tins diced tomato
1/4 cup currants
1 cup dry red lentils
1 heaped cup cooked chickpeas
1 heaped cup cooked kidney beans
1 cup frozen peas
stock

Creamy Polenta
3 cups water or stock
1 cup polenta
salt and pepper
1/4 c cream
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice

Serve with toasted pinenuts or slivered almonds.

Paprikash Pork Sausages and Beans

This was an unexpected success with all the smalls, although perhaps not all that unexpected because sausages and beans is one of those combinations which so far has never gone wrong. Paprikash purists will frown (and they have a point) because I wasn't working from the recipe and used a bottle of passata instead of just a bit of tomato paste for flavour as I had written, but it was still delicious.

• 4 onions
• 1 tray of pork chipolatas (or use better quality butcher sausages if you are less poverty-stricken)
• 2 carrots
• 3 sticks celery
• 1 large zucchini, grated
• 1/4 cabbage, shredded
• 1 tsp thyme
• 4 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika (at least - I just upended the jar and stirred in what fell out)
• 1 can of butter beans, drained
• passata
• loads of sour cream (embarrassingly, I had to buy this, because we forgot to put out some of ours to sour)

Slowly saute the vegetables for at least half an hour, preferably longer, stirring occasionally and tipping in a bit of liquid if it is sticking too badly. When everything is gorgeously caramelised, add the rest of the ingredients except the sour cream. Add a couple of cups of chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer, with the lid off, until the sausages are cooked and the sauce is reduced a bit. In the meantime, steam some potatoes and mash them with plenty of butter and a bit of milk, or prepare your preferred accompaniment. Eat, to the accompaniment of busily champing jaws if it is as popular in your house as it was in ours!

Chickpea, Tofu and Walnut Burgers

2 onions, quartered

6 mushrooms

1 tub of firm tofu

1 tbsp paprika

2 cans chickpeas OR 2 ½ cups cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 eggs

~1 cup wheatgerm

125g walnut crumbs

In a food processor, roughly chop the onions and mushrooms. Add tofu, paprika, chickpeas, Worcestershire sauce and process. Add the eggs and about half the wheatgerm with the engine running, and process until mixture has come together, but stop before it turns into a smooth paste. Scrape the mixture into a bowl, and stir in the walnut crumbs and enough of the wheatgerm to make the mixture thick but not dry. Cook for about eight minutes each side, or until brown.

I made ours in our two sandwich presses and they were perfect, holding together really well but still moist and flavourful inside. This might be a good one to feed to the kids' friends or family members who are a bit dubious about meatless cooking – with the paprika tinting it pink it looks remarkably like a real meat burger and the mushroom gives it a bit of a meaty texture. Everyone in our house devoured it, including Mr I-Don't-Liiiike-That, who had seconds (hence why the first thing I did after finishing my dinner was to write down this recipe so I can reproduce it!). 

I suspect that this recipe could be made vegan fairly easily, possibly with the addition of some soy flour. It's the tofu which makes the vegetarian versions stick together, since if I make it with just the eggs they fall apart. 

Roast pumpkin with lentils and fetta

~1kg pumpkin, diced and roasted
mixed Puy and green lentils, cooked in stock until almost dry
3 onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika
celery
grated carrot and zucchini
bunch of chard
big wodge of home made fetta cheese
pine nuts
olive oil


While the lentils are cooking, saute onions in butter over a low heat until very soft and starting to caramelise. Add garlic and spices, saute celery, grated vegetables and chard. Combine roasted pumpkin and cooked lentils with onion mixture, and add some more stock if it looks too dry. Cook down until mixture comes together. Remove from heat, toss through fetta and pine nuts and a bit of olive oil (or serve separately in small bowls so you don't waste the fetta on ungrateful children!).

Lentil and Vegetable Stew

This was nom for dinner tonight and even Mr I-Don't-Liiiiike-That ate it, so it deserves to go on the blog for posterity.

Ingredients

4 small onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 1/2 cups dried mixed lentils (I used blue, brown and red)
3 cups diced pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato
1 bottle passata

1 cup kalamata olives

½ cup sun dried tomatoes

1 tsp each dried basil and oregano

½ – 1 tsp chilli (to taste, optional)
1-2 cups green beans, roughly chopped
shredded cabbage

tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Saute the onions til starting to turn translucent, then add the root vegetables and sweat for a while. Add the garlic, then after a few minutes, the lentils and enough water to cover everything generously. Put the lid on and simmer until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are part-cooked. Add the passata, olives and sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and chilli (if using), bring back to the boil and simmer until lentils are cooked. Check and add water occasionally to stop the lentils from sticking. About five minutes before serving, stir through the cabbage and green beans and balsamic vinegar.

Hey ho, another change

This blog has become pretty erratic. I blame the acquisition of a life. This cottage farming bizzo dramatically lessens the allotment of sitting-on-arse-blogging time, who knew?

Anyway, latest news on the farm front is that we have a house cow. The two pigs we acquired a couple of months ago are not immediately contributing to the food supply, but the cow is another matter! So in the immediate future, this blog will probably move towards chronicling my attempt to find more lower-carb vegetarian dairy recipes. Lower-carb meaning not containing pasta, potatoes, rice or flour, which is a big ask in itself, and vegetarian because the point is to replace other sources of protein with our own produce. Meeting both of these requirements is actually quite tricky, especially since it will be a while until we can start incorporating any cheeses which require ageing. But since we can now provide pretty much all of our own yoghurt, butter, cream, sour cream and milk as well as paneer, haloumi, mozzarella and ricotta, there are still quite a few options out there. I just need to find them (and remember to write them down here).

Housemate Dylan is the dairy queen, so I'm not going to be sharing much of the actual basic recipes for any of the above, more what I then do with them. And hopefully, it will be really cool to watch this blog become more of a chronicle of how much of our own produce we can live off, as the garden becomes more productive and we add more animals. I, for one, am really really looking forward to the day when our Saturday morning ritual of Eggs Benedict is made with our own butter, eggs and ham!

Meatballs in a Fruity Chickpea Sauce

This can be made with your mince of choice. Lamb is particularly nice with the Moroccan flavours of the fruity chickpea sauce, but this is my go-to recipe for all mincey creations like hamburgers or meatloaf, or with cooked chickpeas, lentils, beans or even tofu in any combination substituted to make a vegetarian version (although they don't hold together as well as the meat ones). I make a variation of this recipe at a minimum once a fortnight, and no one ever gets tired of it. Just scale up the amounts if you're making something more substantial (eg. after I'd made the meatballs to this recipe, I used nearly a kilo of mince to make a dozen hamburgers and just increased the amounts of the dry ingredients and added another onion and another egg).

Meatballs

• 1 onion, quartered
• 6 mushrooms, roughly broken up
• 4 heaps dessert spoons each ground almonds and wheatgerm
• 250g mince
• 1 egg

 Roughly whizz up the onions and mushrooms, then add the mince, ground almonds and wheatgerm and process until it starts coming together. Add the egg either when it starts coming together, or after a minute or so if it isn't combining properly. You want it to start folding over itself at the top and combining all the layers into a big sticky lump. When it's ready, wet your hands and roll small handfuls of the mix into balls. Refrigerate until the sauce is ready (or if you prefer to get rid of some of the fat, you can put them in the oven to par-cook and then drain before adding to the sauce).

Fruity Chickpea Sauce

• two onions, roughly diced
• 4 sticks celery, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp chili paste, or dried chili to taste
• 1 tsp each coriander and cumin, or use a Moroccan spice blend if you have one
• 2 cups diced pumpkin
• 2 cups diced carrot
• 1 turnip, grated (optional, but you can't tell it's in there and it bulks out the sauce)
• 1 tbsp currants
• two tins chickpeas (or two heaped cups of cooked chickpeas if you're more organised than me or at least don't switch around your weekly menu plan as much)
• two tins of diced tomatoes
• water

Saute the onions, add the celery, and then the garlic, chili and spices.Toss through the pumpkin, carrots and turnip (if using), then add the tins of tomato, currants, and enough water to cover. Put on a lid, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat a bit and simmer until the veges are soft but not disintegrating. Par-cook the meatballs while it's simmering, if you want to. When the pumpkin is just tender, put the meatballs on top of the sauce, put the lid back and simmer gently for about ten minutes until the meatballs are cooked through (depending on size). While the meatballs are cooking, make some instant couscous to serve it with. Nom.

Crockpot Baked Beans, refinements

About 500g (dry weight) navy beans, soaked and pre-cooked (for about half an hour), or any combination of cooked legumes (brown lentils and black beans in addition to navy beans is good!)
2 tins of tomatoes
3 tbsp each Worcestershire sauce*, golden syrup or honey, and apple cider vinegar
2 very large onions, finely diced
handful of diced bacon (use more if you have it, or leave it out)
3 heaping teaspoons (none of these anaemic measuring spoons, just splodge it in) of wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp paprika
water

I used to saute the onions and bacon, but now I can't be arsed, especially since I'm usually putting this in the crockpot at 11pm after forgetting about it until bedtime. It doesn't make a noticeable difference, but by all means saute away if you want to. Also, I used to only put in one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, but last time accidentally put in three and it was superb, so that's what I've included.

So, easy-as method: half fill the crockpot with beans or mixed legumes, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Add water until about an inch below the top of the crockpot (the top of the ingredients should be about two inches below, otherwise add more beans). Leave on Auto overnight. Provides breakfast for everyone on Sundays, and a couple of people most of the rest of the week.

* If like me you start making this at 11pm and realise you've run out, I've had success replacing the Worcestershire sauce with a mixture of Vegemite, fish sauce and Balsamic vinegar. 

Spanish Fish and Chickpea Stew

Fish stews of various description seem to be a big hit around here. I'm trying to serve fish once a week, but the budget doesn't run to serving a fillet on a plate each. So I've been trying various recipes to stretch out around 500g of fish and half that of prawns between seven people. This one was really, really yummy. I was originally planning to add either chorizo or diced bacon, but I forgot, and it was very nice without it. I also forgot to add the lemon juice and parsley of the original recipe I adapted.

These quantities provided four adult servings, four child servings, and enough for all the kids to get some for lunch tomorrow.

Spanish Fish and Chickpea Stew

olive oil and butter
3 onions, finely diced
1 chorizo sausage, finely diced or a handful of diced bacon
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp chilli spice mix (or to taste)
1 tsp turmeric
2 large carrots, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 green capsicum, diced
250g green beans, sliced
bay leaves
2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
500g cooked chickpeas
stock
250g cooked cocktail prawns
500g skinless fish fillets (I used barramundi)
handful flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice

Saute the onion in the oil and butter til translucent. Add garlic, chorizo or bacon (if using) and spices and cook for a minute or two. Stir through the vegetables and let them brown for a little while. Then add tomatoes, bay leaves, chickpeas, and enough stock to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the carrots are cooked. Lay the fish on top, cover the pan, and simmer for five minutes or so until the fish flakes. Add the prawns for the last minute or two to warm through. If you are less forgetful than me and actually check the recipe at this point, stir through the lemon juice and parsley before serving. Nom!