Breakfast Rice Porridge

For various reasons, I've been experimenting lately with cutting down on my wheat, dairy and egg consumption which has left me in a bit of a pickle over breakfast. It's no secret that breakfast is my favourite meal of the day.  I'm an inconsistent eater and will often skate through a day on two big main meals (breakfast and an early dinner) and a few snacks and thanks to the gap between dinner and morning I often wake up hungry: a delicious and filling breakfast gives me something to get out of bed for and keeps me smiling well through the morning. Don't get me wrong, Marmite on toast has its place, but I'd much rather start the day with a stack of "paleo" banana pancakes or a classic bacon and egg combo and not  have to stop at 10 for morning tea to quiet a growling tum!
Enter porridge... now, I've personally never been a big fan of porridge but after talking to my mum about the ins and outs and alternatives to oats it dawned on me that I could turn one of my favourite desserts - hearty, creamy, old fashioned English rice pudding - into a wholesome and healthy breakfast that's both eggless and actually enjoyable.
Now, I know rice porridge is not news. I've encountered traditional rice porridge, or congee, in a few forms before, most notably in unfortunately bland airline-food form on a long-haul flight.  Traditionally, congee is made with white rice and slow cooked in water, served either sweet or savoury and as a side or main component to any meal, not just breakfast.  It's also just not for me, I guess a combination of its nutritional profile and texture just doesn't suit my increasingly fussy palette.  I wanted to try creating something closer to the rice pudding I grew up with, with the texture of wholegrains and a few nutritional additions to keep me satiated all morning.

Porridge ain't porridge without a square of chocolate :)

The resulting porridge is nutty and oaty in flavour, creamy and crunchy in texture and contains enough low GI carbs, healthy fats and proteins to keep you happy until lunch at the very least. It's also gluten free, dairy free and FODMAP friendly. This recipe serves 1 very hungry person, you can of course double, triple, or half the recipe as suits you.

Home Made Baked Beans!

As I wrote in my last post, I am so over prescriptivist diets (further rants to be had on this matter I'm sure!). My personal gastronomic belief system boils down to three core practices:

• read the science yourself 
• experiment with what works best for you 
• eat lots of vegetables in the mean time.   

So, today's recipe might not fit any of those fancy diets out there (oh god I sound out of touch) but I promise it is healthy, easy and inexpensive.  This is a simple recipe to ease me back into blogging but it beats regular old baked beans in both flavour and nutrition and is a great go-to for students. 

Ingredients
Half a chopped onion (50c)
1 can red kidney beans ($1.80)
1 can unflavoured chopped tomatoes (80c)
1 stock cube (20c) dissolved in two tablespoons of hot water
1 tsp paprika (20c)
1 tsp thyme (20c)
1/2 tsp mixed spice (10c)
1/2tsp dried coriander (10c)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 celsius. 
Put all the ingredients in a small baking tray (a slice tin works well) and stir it up.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until thick and bubbly, stirring occasionally to stop the edges browning.
Makes 4 serves.
Serve with seasonal veggies or a jacket potato.
Cost works out to just under $1 per serve.

I would not recommend putting the oven on just to cook one thing as it's an expensive way to cook!  Now is the time to put in your loaf of bread or pop in a potato to bake.

I'm baa-aack

Hey guys,

A lot has changed for me since my last post.  I've moved to a new city, started studying for my Master's and read a LOT of food research that has led to many changes in my dietary habits.  Now that I'm back on a student budget and food is on my brain more than ever before, I want to start writing on the topic again.  I don't want to make any promises about content or frequency of posts but stay tuned if you are interested in non-prescriptivist diets, low carb recipes and interesting food science facts.

xx Aimee

Kitchen 101: Homemade Bread

I feel a little like I'm giving away a family secret in writing this but to be honest I think everyone should know how to make their own bread.  It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it (even easier if you have a bread maker!) and while no written post is the same as being taught in person, I'm going to do my best to share the basics of bread making with you now.

I've thought a lot about how to go about this and I think the easiest way will be to share my basic recipe and get to important technical things as they come up.

I use just one recipe, which I alter if I want to make something a little healthier or more exciting.  The ingredients list is simple and short and of all the recipes I love, it's the only one I know off by heart.

Knowing how to make bread is awesome if you are doing a pantry challenge since the ingredients are fairly standard and you can use the dough for things like pizza bases and lunchbox bread rolls.

Pantry Challenge: Milo Slice

The great thing about "slice" is that unlike cake or biscuits, there isn't really a required recipe or a formula - as long as you've got a good balance between fat, flour and sugar you're good to go.  A slice is a great opportunity to use up random baking stuff from your pantry since it's pretty hard to go wrong.

Pictured: random baking stuff

This was based on a recipe for a Milo slice from Lift the Lid which I adapted and altered to use up a few things.  The trick with any slice recipe is, essentially, that no matter what flour, oats or dried fruits you add, you add enough liquid (melted margarine usually) that it holds together and that you don't dry it out by cooking it for too long.

Pantry Challenge: Peachy Baked Chicken

As promised, I'm using whatever I can find in the kitchen to make inventive meals this week.  Tonight's recipe is a baked chicken casserole.  I was going for apricot and ginger but for some reason I have about five cans of sliced peaches so I went in that direction instead!

Raiding the pantry and freezer can be an interesting task, but in amongst the dead celery and year-old frozen pie, I found a large tray of chicken legs, a tin of peaches, some fresh ginger and a half can of chopped tomatoes.  With those ingredients, this meal was a bit of a no-brainer and I'm kind of nervous about what the rest of the week holds - I'm pretty sure I just used up all the hidden gems but we'll see...!

I cooked this in the oven since I also wanted to do a bit of baking, it took about an hour and a half so I think it would make a great slow cooker meal.  There is enough sugar in the fruit to provide a glaze for the chicken (which is slow cooked and soft with a yummy crunchy skin) and there's enough sharpness from the ginger and depth from the worcester sauce that the dish isn't too sweet.

Challenge Time

When I was completing my employee development thingee earlier this year, we talked a lot about setting SMART goals - targets that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely mean not only are your goals achievable, but you'll know when you have achieved them.  Saying you want to "eat better", "drink less", "exercise more" is great, but how do you know that you've reached your target?  General, long-term goals are awesome as they give us a starting place and a direction, but it's important we set smaller goals to tick off to keep us motivated and to help us see we're still on track.  Personally, I enjoy setting goals that are either very short-term ("eat three vegetarian meals this week") or very small ("eat one piece of fruit a day")(seriously, that has been an achievement for me!).  There's no harm in starting out small and I know I'm more likely to achieve a small and measurable goal like going for a short walk every day.  In the vein of setting and achieving SMART goals, I have a couple of challenges lined up for myself for the coming few weeks.

First things first, I'm doing Dry July!  For those who have somehow never heard of it, Dry July is a pledge to abstain from alcohol for the whole month of July.  It's something I've been thinking about doing for a while and my goal is to learn more about my relationship with alcohol while of course improving my health.  Having a red wine now and then is meant to be good for heart health, but it's hard to argue that alcohol in general does more good than harm, so (and I know I'm hardly the poster girl for sobriety just yet!) I'd encourage anyone to give something like Dry July a go.  I drink a couple of glasses of wine most nights and I think on average I probably drink the equivalent of about 2-3 bottles of wine per week which is definitely more than recommended.  I'm one week in already and I'm feeling good, although I seem to be super hungry which is not surprising since I've cut out around 2000 calories a week from my diet - equivalent to going a whole day without eating!

Speaking of food,