Kale 'Chips'

Another Simple One
Preheat the oven to 180C. Chuck some kale on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with sea salt and a little balsamic vinegar. If you like, mince a couple of garlic cloves and throw those in too. Then MASSSAAAAGGGEEE. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven. Flip them over. Bake for another 5 minutes. Et voila!

Roasted Chickpeas

Simple!
All you need is cooked chickpeas, sea salt and a little olive oil. Massage into the legumes. Preheat oven to 200C, and bake for 25 minutes. Flip over halfway through, making sure not to char!

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients

1/2 cup uncooked puy lentils (or green lentils will work just as well)

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 medium white onion, diced small

1/2 red pepper, diced small

5-6 cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced (optional)

1 clove garlic, minced

1.5 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 can chopped tomatoes

1/8 cup tomato paste

1.5 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tbsp dijon mustard (or any yellow mustard)

Method

1. Bring the lentils to boiling point and then simmer for 20-30 minutes until soft. Rinse and drain.
2. In a soupy pot, heat up the oil and sauté the onion, pepper and mushrooms for about 7 minutes, until soft.
3. Add garlic and cook for another minute.
4. Chuck in the lentils, chili powder, oregano, and salt. Stir for a minute. Add chopped tomatoes and paste. Cook for 10 minutes.
5. Slop in the maple syrup and mustard. Leave for the flavours to infuse on the lowest heat setting for 5-10 minutes. 
6. 
   
   
    

No-Bake Maple Baked Beans

Ingredients:

{1 can} mixed beans, drained and rinsed
{1/2} red onion, diced
{1 and a half tbsp} blackstrap mollases
{1 tbsp} maple syrup
{1 tbsp} dijon mustard
{1 tbsp} apple cider vinegar
{1/3 cup} canned chopped tomatoes
{1/2 tsp} sea salt
{1/4 cup} dried cranberries
Maple syrup to drizzle on top, or maple butter, if you have any.

Adapted from Oh She Glows

Method:

Saucepan: add a little mild oil and brown off the red onions. Next, add all the ingredients, mix them up and cover. Cook on a low heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with buttered toast, a warm roll, or in my case, toasted Rye bread. Drizzle with a maple syrup.

Roast Garlic Houmous With Smoked Paprika

Recipe:

{1 can or carton} chickpeas, cooked
(1/4 cup) chick pea juice, reserved from the can/carton
{1 tsp} light tahini
The juice of half a lemon
{4 cloves} garlic (small-medium in size - not too large)
(2/3 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
(1/2 tsp) sea salt, or more to taste
(1/8-1/4 tsp) ground cumin
Freshly ground pepper

A Toast Note: serve with smoked paprika, drizzled olive oil and toasted sesame seeds - I forgot the last two, so yeah...soz.

Method:

Preheat oven to 150C. Cut the bottoms off the garlic cloves and wet the exposed garlic with a little oil. Wrap up in baking paper and roast in the oven for 30-45 minutes, checking regularly.

When the cloves are nice and brown, add all of the ingredients into the food processor, BUT ONLY HALF of the chickpea juice. Whizz 'er up. If you want a smoother houmous, add the rest of the chickpea juice. Adjust seasoning to taste. Blitz in the processor and set aside.

In a dry saucepan, gently toast sesame seeds. Serve the houmous, drizzle with a little olive oil, season with smoked paprika, and sprinkle with toasted sesame. (The olive oil and sesame seeds aren't in my pictures, sorry! Still yummy without, so those toppings are optional)

Dill Chick Peas and Sweet Agave Mustard Salad Dressing

This is great for lunch. Serve with houmous or eat in a wrap.

Ingredients:
{1 cup} cooked chickpeas
{1 tsp} olive oil
{1/4 cup} fresh dill, torn and stems removed
{1/4 tsp} sea salt, or to taste
{1/4 tsp} balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground pepper

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together...and it really is that simple.

For the Sweet Agave and Mustard Salad Dressing:
This recipe is a slight variation on the sweet mustard salad dressing recipe. All you have to do, is substitute the maple syrup for agave nectar. It creates a slightly lighter dressing.

In other news...
THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING!
Or so you might think, looking at my wholefood bulk order.

I also have a maple syrup substance abuse problem.

Don't judge me.

Red Lentil and Black Bean Leftover Salad

Hello. I'm here to report a catastrophe. During today's beautiful lunch salad, I managed to break my daisy salad bowl. Clumsy fingers. I'm infamous for crockery casualties. You name it, I've broken it. I have to keep slinking into charity shops to top up my cooking equipment. In my house, I am a legendary figure that inauspiciously appears in the kitchen area and makes plates and bowls disappear! Or...well...BREAK INTO A THOUSAND PIECES.

Here is my oh-so-lovely daisy bowl, minutes before the tragedy.

Oh, I can barely look!

In daisy-bowl's memory, I will write you the recipe for her very last salad.

Seeing as it's the end of the week, I was thinking how best to use up the leftovers in the fridge. And this is what I came up with:

(All quantities are approximate because I forgot to measure)

{1 cup} red split lentils, cooked and cool
{1 cup} black beans (tinned), drained and rinsed
{1/4} sweet red onion, roughly chopped
{1/4 cup} dried cranberries, plus more for decoration
{1/4 cup} dried raisins, plus more for decoration
{A couple of sprigs} fresh coriander, roughly chopped
{1 tbsp} red wine vinegar
{1 tbsp} grapeseed oil
{1/8 tsp} sea salt
Rocket and salad leaves

...I think that was it.

In a bowl, pour boiling water over the cranberries and raisins and leave to soak for a few minutes to soften them up. Meanwhile, chuck together the lentils, beans, onion, salad leaves, rocket, and coriander. Mix them all up! Drain off the cranberries and raisins, and add them with everything else. Pour over the red wine vinegar, grapeseed oil, and salt. Stir-stir-stir. Throw in a few more cranberries and raisins...because it looks pretty. Et voila! Simple.

R.I.P. Daisy.

Quinoa Salad With Black Beans and Mango

So, I didn't do any work today, or any exercise. Bad, bad. Here is a little something good that has come out of my laziness:

I'm afraid, due to copyright, I can't give you the recipe for this gem, but check it out for yourself in Veganomicon .

In other happy achievements, I had a successful charity shop trip:

Could this be the cutest pair of dungarees you've ever seen?

And I've started decorating my bulk bins .

I'm particularly fond of my sunflowers.