Brown rice and Lentil salad

If you have been following my blog, you might have noticed I like to keep things simple.

I like to keep things quick and easy but only if they are going to taste yummy!

I was introduced to "Sun rice - Brown rice and lentils" (you can also get Brown rice and quinoa)
I find these great for a good salad base. They are full of fiber and essential vitamins and minerals.
Lentils are a great source of protein, especially for vegetarians or vegans.

I quickly made this recipe up as I was making it one night. Just using ingredients in the fridge and fresh herbs from the garden!

Brown rice and Lentil salad
Serves approx 4

Ingredients

3 cups brown rice and lentil mix ( if you don't have this available, any brown rice and lentils will be fine and mix them yourself, with most of the mix being brown rice)
  6 cups water
1 cup chopped salami
1 cup chopped black olives
1 cup chopped sundried tomatoes
fresh chopped herbs ( I used - Italian parsley, curly parsley and mint )
Salt and pepper to season

Method

Rinse rice with cold running water
Place the 6 cups water and rice in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Stir so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom
Reduce heat and simmer covered for approx 25 mins - stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat.
Transfer rice into a large serving bowl.
You can leave to cool in the fridge or rinse with cold water and drain if you are using it straight away.
Mix in remaining ingredients.

Enjoy!

Brit :)

In no way am I sponsored in this post
All opinions are my own :)

Honeyed Glazed Pumpkin

Hey Everyone! 

I love trying out new recipes with different vegetables to try mix things up a bit.

It can actually be so easy to enhance flavours of vegetables to make them not only taste amazing but so you can still get all the important nutrients from them.

It's well into spring here now (not that the weather is showing us that at the moment!) but we still had a couple of pumpkins to use up. 

I love pumpkin because it is so versatile. It can be sweet or savoury. Baked, roasted, boiled or steamed. You can eat it in pieces or it can make a really yummy puree. 

This recipe is inspired from a recipe I found in the My petite kitchen cookbook. She is a blogger from NZ who comes up with the most amazing nutritious, wholefood recipes! My copy of the book has post it notes in nearly every page for recipes that I want to try! Check out her blog here 

Honey Glazed Pumpkin

( Serves 3-4 side dishes )

Ingredients

1/4 pumpkin

1T Runny honey

Small handful of chopped coriander and Italian Parsley 

1/4 cup Chopped Olives( I wanted to use black olives but we only had stuffed green olives but they still tasted great!)

1T coconut oil melted

Salt and pepper

Method

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius 

Carefully slice the skin off the pumpkin. Using a sharp knife and a chopping board that is not wobbling around ( place a wet cloth underneath your board to help ).

Cut pumpkin into thin slices, roughly 10 - 5 mm thick.

Place pumpkin into a roasting dish.

Drizzle honey and coconut oil onto pumpkin.

 Season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until pumpkin is cooked right through.

Place into a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped herbs and olives.

Serve while still warm.

Even my cat was trying to get in on this!

Enjoy!

Brit xo

Healthy Nutty Date balls

Here is a great idea for an after dinner sweet treat! I like to have a hot drink after dinner, usually green tea or just plain hot milk.
These nutty date balls are so easy to make and you can make so many different flavours!

These are gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and contain NO processed sugars.

Recipe

1/2 cup chopped nuts. I used hazelnuts, cashews and almonds
1/2 cup chopped dates
1T cocao powder
1T  organic nut butter eg. almond or peanut
1-2 T coconut (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a kitchen wizz for 1-2 minutes depending on how powerful your kitchen wizz is.Or until smooth rolling consistency.
Roll your mixture into small balls
Sprinkle coconut on top

Enjoy!

Brit xx

Raw broccoli and salmon salad with Avocado dressing

This recipe was written in the NZ Herald back in April this year. If you are looking for a meal idea that is healthy and tastes great, you've found a winner! This recipe caters for everyone! Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free, Clean eaters! If you are vegetarian or vegan you can easily take out the salmon :)

This recipe is so easy and can be achieved in 3 steps!

You will Need:

1 Head of broccoli broken in to florets

1 red capsicum, roughly chopped

Handful fresh herbs of your choice (I used coriander, Italian parsley and Vietnamese mint)

200 g salmon (smoked if you wish, I prefer mine not to be smoked)

1 cup black pitted olives

1/2 cup seeds (toasted if you wish, I use pumpkin seeds and sunflower )

Dressing:

1 avocado

Juice of a lemon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup water

2 cloves garlic*

sea salt

pepper

* Note that the 2 cloves of garlic is quite strong, change this to 1 clove if you don't want it too garlic-y :)

What to do:

Dressing:
1. Blend up all ingredients together until smooth.

Salad:
2. In a food processor, Pulse the broccoli, capsicum and herbs until a rice like consistency.

3. Transfer to a large bowl and toss in dressing, salmon, olives and seeds!

Enjoy!

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do! Let me know what you think!

Brit xx