Lazy Sunday lunch

I had a new visitor in my garden today a robin I didn't want to fetch my phone for a quick picture cause then I'd loose out and I wouldn't be able to enjoy him...
It's a perfect winter day, beautiful sun shine, washing is done, the pool pump is almost putting me to sleep. The boys are watching some sport on TV. 
Today's lunch? Oh that was so easy, a family favorite - I made lentil pie 

My Lentil pie - for a lazy Sunday lunch 
two rolls of puff pastry - make your own if you feel domesticated, I seldom do :)
one tub of spring onion & chives cream cheese 
tin of lentils

fry a little onion and mushrooms in pot until soft, add grated carrot and let it cook for a few minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste and the cream cheese. Line the pie dish with one roll of pastry and pour the lentil mixture in; then cover with the other roll. Bake for + - forty minutes until golden in color @ 200 degrees

Enjoy, xoxo

Mango Yum

Mangoes will be gone soon - and before they dissapear and only come back at the end of the year again grab a few quickly and try this. It's yum, this was my sisters recipe (sure she won't mind me sharing)

1 cup natural yoghurt (preferably greek yoghrut)

1 cup fresh cream

2 large mangoes cut into slices

Brown sugar

Put slices of mango at the bottom of the dish. Beat the cream and add the yoghurt.

Pour over mango slices and sprinkle with brown sugar. Refrigerate.

Enjoy
xxxx

Crazy Craving

I call it a crazy craving, there is no other explanation for the last two days. At the beginning of 2012 I said that this year would be the year for me to go on a 'raw vegan diet'. I have done some research and reading and I found someone that does training / teaching on being raw. I attended two sessions on raw cooking. Very interesting!


Raw Vegans - start the day with green juices, eat loads of sprouts and all the vegetables are raw. Some of their food is dehydrated but mostly raw. The lady that does the training is 90% raw. It's about eating live foods, super foods and nothing else.


I learned a lot, really it was very interesting and it was good to see how some people live and eat. Being vegetarian does not mean you are doing everything the right way and that you have the answer on being healthy. You can be vegetarian and still be quite un healthy, which is sad. I don't think I am that bad, but I certainly need to do a lot more to live a healthier lifestyle. Slowly, slowly, one day at a time.


These raw people are a bit strange, healthy but strange, as much I enjoyed the workshops and the tasting and both lunches, your jaw gets tired of all the chewing, tasting the sweet raw vegan treats was the best part! But both days I arrived home with a headache, all that tasting and shots of green juice, all the chewing was too much for me it seems. Maybe it was all the new strong flavors, spices are stronger on raw food. Lunch was rather late past 14h30 .... and I arrived home to ruin the day with some medication for my migraine. The days in-between were spent reading about becoming raw and looking at green juice recipes, that alone is enough for another headache. I also avoided eating pasta, rice, bread and potatoes during that time. Bread did not work, I ate it! Oh yes and the small craving for a piece of chocolate or whole slab was avoided.


Guess what was the outcome?


Crazy Craving. After being vegetarian for almost five years I had this incredibly mad urge to eat what I think is one of the most unhealthy of all things. Cold meats. You know the alternative for those that don't eat pork or ham, I had this unexplained need for slices of shaved chicken. Was standing at woolies and found my hands shaking like a recovering alcoholic staring at the package on the shelve. It was terrible to have to shake that feeling away.


So I have decided that this raw thing will be just an alternative for once in a while, maybe one day a week. It's not for me I can't do it and my family will not eat any of that food for sure. That lifestyle is not for me, it's not just about the cold meat crazy craving it's everything....


I need to stay away from those raw people for a while. Go back to being a normal vegetarian, not that I ever left it, but my mind was so busy thinking about it that it felt like I had left it. I will take it one day at a time. Slowly, slowly improving .... and I will avoid the fridge section at woolies for now.


Tonight I'm rewarding myself with a small piece of my favorite chocolate, I am not vegan and certainly not raw, no guilty feelings :)

Hug a Vegetarian

Its time, I have to do this. 
We have been vegetarians for about five years, but not 100% vegetarians because we do sometimes (very rare occasion) eat fish if we go somewhere where there really isn't anything for us to eat. But this year I have decided that I will be a true vegetarian. No more fish! If I am in place that has nothing I can eat then I’m leaving.

Not vegan but vegetarian by choice - so here are my rules or what ever you want to call them for dining with a vegetarian - 

1. Vegetarians eat a PLANT based diet.
2. We do not eat anything that has a face or a mother. NO chicken is not ok and NO fish is not ok either. If I have just said I’m vegetarian sea food is also a no no. 
3. Where do we get out protein? Do some research; use google if you have to, read the ingredients in the package of any food item you buy and you will see how many carbohydrates, fat and protein it contains. You don’t just find protein in meat, so relax and eat a peanut! We have plenty of protein. 
4. I am not vegetarian just because I feel sorry for animals being slaughtered. There could be lots of other very good reasons for not eating meat. So please don’t tell me that tomatoes also cry and bleed when they are being sliced, that's just corny.
5. Vegetarians are not spartans from some ancient BC civilization that only eat raw unwashed carrots.
6. "So what do you eat?" I hate that question, especially when people say: "you Portuguese and you don't eat chicken or prawns?" No Shit Sherlock! Do I have to eat something to be classified a certain nationality? I eat: chickpeas, lentils, lasagna, pies, tofu, potatoes, broccoli, quiche, soya, pizza, beans, aubergine, hamburgers, bobotie, sausages, olives, corn, stews, curries, pasta, roasts, wraps, tortillas, minestrone, salads, hummus, pesto, risotto, artichokes, mushrooms, beetroot...should I go on? So tell me what do YOU eat?
7. Learn a little bit of biology. I don't know what to do with people that claim to be intelligent human beings and think that a slice of cold meat (ham) is not meat. Or worse when ordering breakfast and the waiter says they can replace mutton sausage for bacon! Of course bacon comes from trees! Duh! And it really bugs me when someone tells me they have a friend who is vegetarian that eats white meat .....*strange conversation* 
8. If I am vegetarian for ethical and religious reasons, it is not ok to use a tiny bit of meat in the food. Seriously?! Would you offer or put some alcohol in your recovering alcoholic friends glass? Just one little tot? 
9. Don't try tempt a vegetarian to have a bit of meat. Stop convincing me of how delicious it is. I used to eat meat so I know what it tastes like. Really, as if I have a taste of your food and I will stumble back into meat eating. Please just stop telling me how nice it is. 
10. When I get sick - don't tell me it's because I don't eat properly and I am losing out on essential vitamins and protein found in meat and especially iron found in liver. You eat so well and you get just as sick or worse. So please just stop it! 
11. Don't tell me my food looks yuk and pull funny faces. Just because it is so common and so acceptable to eat beef it does not mean that it is not a gross site for another person and I don't go around pulling faces at other tables in restaurants. Some of you eat some really gross stuff but it's your food so behave when I'm eating mine.
12. When at a function go to your corner and binge on the sausage rolls, chicken wings and calamari rings. Stay away from the tiny vegetarian table with the carrot sticks and two pieces of margherita pizza, it's for us vegetarians. Ok?! It is really rude when you fill your plate with meat and still want our food leaving us to nibble on the parsley intended for decorations.
13. "I can't invite you over I don't know what to cook for vegetarians" phone perfect pizza they deliver or once again ... use google - http://quickvegetarianrecipes.com/ 
14. Finally, be nice to vegetarians, we care about our health and the state of the earth, we even care about wolves and meat eaters. 

That's all for today, don't know how I landed with 14 rules, it was not planned but these seem the most important. 
I'm going to eat a carrot stick now :)

Remembering

A lot of people have passed away and left us too early while some get to live a full and longer life.  Either way we are always saddened when we loose them and always wish they'd stayed a little longer...

We remember them all the time...in the morning when we wake and in the evening.
We remember them when we look up at the stars or stare at a sunset, when we hear a song, or on a special day.  We remember them when we smell or taste something familiar and delicious. 

This week I have remembered a special person, she is my gran.  She's rememberd for always being a friend to the youth and for her faith and her love for God.



Dec 2007 - Anerley



Vó Escorcio passed away at the age of 90 this past weekend.  There are certain things that have reminded me of her.  Someone that I grew up calling vó or vóvó Escorcio, she was my 'adopted' grandmother.  We were in the same church and choir since I was a teen, we sang the same voice!  We both loved 'Turn your eyes upon Jesus' sang by her son of course no one else...it was one of our favorites. 

She had lunch with us many many Sabbaths.  And while remembering her this week I have found some gifts in my house that she gave me and they have made me smile.  Simple things that she made or crocheted.  

I'm going to share one of those 'gifts' with you - a recipe.  She made this often when she came over for lunch.  Vó gave me the recipe twice over the phone and every time I made it, it came out wobbly, always a mess!  I teased her that she gave me the wrong quantities so that I would never get it right.

  

One year for my birthday and another lunch together she made the tart and wrote it out for me.  She calls it the 'impossible tart' because of the difficulty I always had in getting it right.  But the recipe name is 'coconut tart'.  Try it out it's absolutley delicious.



4 eggs, 2 table spoons of margarine, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of self raising flour,
3/4 cup of coconut, 500ml of milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.
Whisk everything together and pour in tart dish.
Bake at 170 for + - 45 minutes.  Bom Apetite!





Dec 2008

 Vó, so many people miss her already, she will never be forgotten, I know she is resting in the Lord waiting for him to wake her some day.  R.I.P. dear vó.

"I can lie down and sleep soundly becuase you, LORD, will keep me safe."  Psalm 4:8

Last few hours...

‎"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it." Mary Wilson Little

That was life for the past six weeks and I have reached my last few hours of ‘rest’ just as I started enjoying myself and doing nothing.  Back to work on Monday!  *sigh*

Doctor gave the go-ahead for everything including driving.  Yeah that's a plus for me.
Still a little sore and sensitive around the tummy but definitely feeling better.

Oh these last weeks were not all such a failure, managed to read four books and I'm on number five already.  Watched a million movies some really good ones. 

Started my fabric painting, a table cloth that has been in the cupboards for years.  All I have done is one corner, but it’s a start. 

Of all the canvas I had prepared I only worked on one.  Will have to concentrate harder from now on because as usual I have a million little projects to do before the end of the year. 

And then there’s the blog that also happened somewhere in the six weeks.  Not bad at all ! 

And today I spent the afternoon spoiling the boys with homemade cookies.  Made my famous ‘surprise cookies’ and a batch of ‘fudge biscuits’ these will not see the end of the weekend.  And there was still time for another family favorite that will last about a week – my granola. 

granola 

I can share one recipe today and I know you don’t have this one, it’s so easy, it’s child’s play and of course it’s yummy - The Surprise Cookies  

1 cup margarine, ½ cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 tea spoon vanilla essence, pinch of salt, slab of plain cadbury’s chocolate cut into small pieces, castor sugar for dusting

Beat sugar and margarine until creamy, add flour and remaining ingredients.  Make little balls and put one small piece of chocolate in the centre.  Roll in castor sugar.  Bake until golden. 

Enjoy  :)

xoxox