Satay lentils and veg

So you know I love basically anything peanuty right? Except for peanut butter on toast. Because peanuts do not belong on bread! I’m weird, I know.

We realised recently that lentils were escaping our diet, in the rush from here there and everywhere. So I decided to branch out in lentil land and try some new things… this is a sort of satay/curry/dahl mix. It’s great…Actually I think next time I would keep the satay dahl as one dish and stir fry some veg on the side as a second dish. But husband-of-mine liked it just like this and I have to say, it was very tasty 🙂 I just prefer crunchy vegetables! But the satay dahl is a grand idea 🙂

1 cup red lentils, rinsed, picked, and boiled according to instructions

1 cup chopped veg as you wish – I used zucchini, snow peas, capsicum and broccoli.

 

1/4 cup 100% peanut butter

1/2 cup coconut cream

1/4 cup water

2 Tablespoons tamari

2 garlic cloves

1 chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

pinch of cumin

pinch of tumeric

Juice of 1 lime (and zest of 1/2 lime if you enjoy)

 

Blend the sauce ingredients up in a mini blender.

Lightly stir fry the vegetables, add the sauce and lentils and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Serve with rice 🙂

 

EASY, fast and tasty!

Brown rice and mushroom balls

 

Brown rice and mushroom balls

 

I apologise for the iPhone, dimly lit photo. My lovely cousin was running in the Commonwealth Games (and came 3rd!) and I was super distracted by getting our little food party out in front of the TV in time to watch her run. So the photos fell to the bottom of the priority pile.
As it turns out, while Jess was running, we were munching down a delicious feast of new creations. These are brown rice balls with mushroom and natural peanut butter. You can mix these up as much as you like – the possibilities are endless, but thees are delicious as is.  Enjoy!

 

2 cups brown rice (cooked).

1 brown onion, diced

5 mushrooms, diced finely

1-2 Tblspn natural peanut butter

1 Tblspn tamari (GF soy sauce)

2 Tblspn tapioca flour

1 clove garlic, diced

1 shake of dried chilli flakes

1/2 tsp salt

 

Fry onion and garlic together with the mushrooms until reduced and cooked well. Add in tamari, chilli and peanut butter with seasoning. Add in rice, turn off the heat, and stir through tapioca flour (to help bind).

Roll into balls. Heat a small saucepan with enough coconut oil to either deep fry, or shallow fry 1/2 of the ball. When oil is very hot, place 4 balls in at a time for a minute or so each side, then turn over to cook the other side. Allow balls to drain on paper towel.

 

Serve with peanut dipping sauce.

Chocolate peanut butter pops

 

Today I wanted to do a little treat for the boys. We don’t give them rice bubbles for breakfasts because we like to make breakfasts sugar-free but I have a huge box of them in the cupboard left over from a birthday party snack. That, and the failure of homemade peanut butter that the kids won’t eat!

These are awesome little balls for a treat:

 

1 cup rice bubbles (I think you could use amaranth or corn puffs etc that are sugar free, on reflection too)

1/2 cup of oats

1/2 cup ground peanuts (whizzed in a food processor until paste like)

1/4 cup rice syrup

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 T raw cacao

 

The best thing about these is how child friendly it is to make. No heating, no ovens, nothing tricky about them. I have been missing cooking with the kids since we went all healthy 🙂 . This has made me realise I need to be creative in the ways we do food and still involve them even though we’re not doing buttery sugary cooking anymore!

*naww* how cute is he! Mix mix mix, then roll them up into balls and pop them in the fridge for a sweet, nutty, crunchy treat! Bet they won’t last a day 🙂