Vegan Challenge

Recently I was challenged to go vegan for a month as part of a health experiment…. As a committed ‘meatarian’ I was worried about how to get enough protein, complexity and flavour in my food.
So to start, I did a bit of research to find out the best high protein vegan foods and aimed to eat a wide variety of unrefined grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, and vegetables everyday…
Key ingredients were:
• quinoa
• pumpkin seeds
• beans (kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, black-eyes, lima beans)
• tofu, tempeh
• nuts (peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cashews)
• seeds (hemp, flax, sunflower)
• vegetables (brocolli, spinach)
and surprisingly other things:
• bagels, spaghetti, wholewheat bread, and bulgar wheat (which also contain amounts of protein).

I also came up with some recipe ideas to kick-start my challenge and then kept a diary for 30 days.

Mon 20 July	Meatless Meatballs with Pasta and Red Sauce
Tues 21	Pumpkin, Orange and Ginger Soup
Wed 22	Baked potatoes with Baked Beans
Thurs 23	Breaded Tofu with Pesto-Roast Cauliflower Pasta
Fri 24	Roasted Portobello Mushrooms in home-made BBQ Sauce with Grated Beetroot and Salad in Burger Buns
Sat 25	Garden Salad with Toasted Seeds and Nuts
Sun 26	Roast Chicken (oops!) with Roast Vegebles and Yorkshire Pudding
Mon 27	Bubble and Squeak
Tues 28	Pasta and Mediterranean Tomato Sauce
Wed 29	Braised Florence Fennel with Tamari Lentils and Mashed Potato
Thurs 30	Vegetable Risotto with half Rice-half Lentils
Fri 31	Marinated and pan-fried Tofu served with Couscous and Orange Salad with steamed Bok Choy and soy and tahini dressing
Sat 1 Aug	Baked Potatoes and home-made Coleslaw
Sun 2	Garlic pittas with Hummus and Salad
Mon 3	Mexican Beans with steamed Rice
Tues 4	Marinated and pan-fried Tofu served with Stir-fry and Noodles
Wed 5	Pasta with roast Brussel Sprouts, toasted Walnuts and Olives
Thurs 6	Green Pea Risotto
Fri 7	Kumera and Garlic Soup, blanched Veggies with honey-roasted Carrots
Sat 8	Lentil Soup, Buckwheat Salad and Meditteranean Vegetables
Sun 9	Potato, Carrot and Celery Casserole with Dumplings
Mon 10	Tamarind and Chickpea Curry with Rice
Tues 11	Lentil and Tomato Pasta
Wed 12	Roast Veggies with Green Salad
Thurs 13	Tofu Stirfry with toasted Peanuts
Fri 14	Pasta and Tomato Sauce
Sat 15	Cauliflower Curry with Rice and Chutneys
Sun 16	Pasta with Pesto, with chunky Tomato and Red Pepper Sauce and fresh Rye Bread
Mon 17	Breaded Tofu with Pesto-Roast Cauliflower Pasta
Tues 18	Stir-fried Veggies and Mushroom Pasta

Please send me your ideas too… I would love to get them :o)

I also took some photos and have 2 or 3 really great recipes that I will share here... in a day or so :o) Happy eating... Deborah

Rising out of the mud

A crisp frost heralds another day that’s ‘one out of the box’ on the Coromandel. Perfect blue sky from corner to corner… driving to the new section I stop to admire the areas of cool blue frost contrasting with the warm yellowy green grass where the sun has already been.

Whilst Duncan and Louis were the only ones working on site, it was reasonably easy to keep the building site looking less like a building site and more like a garden: quite tidy and mud-free.

Now we have massive trucks coming with 'fill' leaving gouges big enough to plant potatoes in (the fill is to level off the ground behind the house), diggers on site carving up the driveway, bricklayers on site with endless plastic wrap flying around like streamers (from the pallets of bricks) and plumbers and electricians with their own ‘off-cuts’ and extras…

However, all this level of activity has also meant lots and lots of progress.

Here are a few recent photos:

We now have stairs... So our new building is starting to feel like a house 

The building is wrapped (my own Christo for all you modern art lovers out there) 

The bricklayers (or brickies as they call themselves) are on site

We have also started planting more things in the garden, not necessarily a compatible activity with the above! Three lemon trees (that furit at different times so we should have lemons most of the year), a giant bird of paradise (that the new owners of our old house were digging out), and Duncan has bought 3 fruit trees (one a greengage that was a present from my Mum).

This plant is too big for that wheelbarrow!

We wheel the barrow round to our new section

The bird of paradise in it's new home - let's hope it survives the bricklayers and scaffolding. I look forward to summer and how amazing it is going to look against the white painted brick...

Grand Designs

With Grand Designs coming to NZ to shoot an Aotearoa version of the “Build your own dream” plot line, a few friends and acquaintances have asked if the experience of building a home is really like Grand Designs, the TV show. We enjoy watching it ourselves… and of course the best telly is when things don’t necessarily go smoothly and when tempers flair onscreen.

Duncan and I are a fairly easy-going couple, but the process of self-building (costs and timeframes can flucuate and the upheaval of living in temporary accommodation) has been stressful…

Have we got very grumpy with each other? Yes, we have!

Have we had days were we wonder why we are doing this? Yes, we have!

Being at home with the latest ‘post-moving-house-flu’ I guess I have had more time to reflect on this… Why did we start building in the first place? What is it we hope to achieve by building?

Maybe it is timely to remind ourselves why we are doing this as we gird our loins for the final six-month push to get the house finished and get ourselves moved in (oh no, not another move… I can’t even contemplate that yet; it is too soon).

Well, we were quite happy living in the little house in the orchard… We hadn’t been very brave with our design, but we were warm and snug and reasonably debt-free… but…

we always had this dream of working with an architect and building something more contemporary that was better designed to meet our individual needs. Also, living on a lease-hold section on a community offered its own challenges and our family had changed too. Now we have a 5¾-year old and occasional visits from older children who are rapidly turning into adults and having their own lives/boyfriends/situations.

Building a new home on a free-hold section ticks many of these boxes and offers us more options to meet the future needs of the family, too.

The building becomes a reality as it slowly emerges from the ground…  and the dream feels closer… exciting times in the Hide-Bayne household…

here are some photos of the latest progress on site.

Front view facing north (to the midday sun in the Southern Hemisphere)

End view showing entry to Garage/workshop

10 Things I love about The Coromandel

• Living near the sea and being able to see the weather and tides

• The beach and beach combing

• The kai moana (seafood)

 

The relaxed lifestyle

• The native bush and birds and animals that live there

• The personal space

• The people

• The drive from Thames up to Coromandel along the Thames Coast Road
• The old baches 

• The small town feel of Coromandel Town

P.S. I took all these photos myself apart from the black and white one of Coromandel Town. I believe it was taken by Geoff Ball, so all credit to him for that one... 

Is it time to leave courgettes on people's doorsteps (and run away before they can say 'no')?

I swear I only took my eye off the courgette plant for a couple of days! Now, I have huge courgette beasts lumbering into my kitchen... how do I turn them into food?
I looked online and found a great article by one of my favourite food writers, Nigel Slater. Here is his take on what to do with an embarassment of courgettes:
(original article here)

1. Cut them thinly length-wise (or width-wise if yours are as big as mine!), grill them until nicely browned, then make a salad with grilled halloumi or fresh Feta cheese, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil.

2. Make a 'lasagne' with tomato sauce, grilled courgettes, ricotta. He suggests just layering these three ingredients and not using lasagne sheets or white sauce, but the choice is yours...

Courgette, tomato and ricotta bake. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin

3. Bake slices of courgette with cream and the herb dill in a shallow oven-proof dish... You could make this as a side dish to grilled fish or baked salmon.

Courgette, cream and dill bake. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin

4. Scoop your courgette flesh out using a spoon. Using the chopped flesh mix it with cold cooked rice and savoury beef mince. Repack it into the 'shell', grate some cheese on top and bake in the oven.

5. As above but use rice, fried onion, sultanas and herbs.

6. As above but use cherry tomatoes and basil. 

7. Grate your courgette and eat it raw in a salad (try it with lemon or lime juice and chopped mint).

8. Make a cake... see the below recipe. I have seen recommended recipes online also by Nigella Lawson, so I shall experiment and report back on my findings...

Happy cooking!

Courgette cake

Serves 6

200g butter

200g caster sugar

2 eggs

150g courgettes (about 2 small ones)

1 small apple

200g plain flour

a large pinch salt

½ tsp baking powder

pinch cinnamon

60g pecans

80g sultanas (half cup, packed)

1. Preheat oven at 180C/gas mark 4. 
2. Grease and line the base of a loaf tin measuring 20cm x 12cm x 9cm deep. 
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
4. Beat the eggs and mix them in, one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. 
5. Coarsely grate the courgettes and the apple. Squeeze them with your hands to remove any excess moisture, then add to the mixture. 
6. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon, and gently fold into the mixture. Stir in the nuts and fruit. 
7. Transfer to the lined loaf tin and bake for about an hour, or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin before turning out.