We put so much soul and care into our home. I was thinking about this a lot lately and has been playing on my mind. How can we represent our home in a way that also shows people that it represents us as well? I guess talking about it is a way of sharing with people that our home is not just a clean home but a representation of Karen and myself and how we work together as a team. How yes we look after our home, but not just for the sake of looking after our home but for allowing our friends to also feel at home, to feel as though it is a safe place for them. Not every one has a safe space. But that is our motivation for making sure our house is clean every week. It not only brings joy and peace to us but we want to bring the same feeling to whoever walks through our front door.
If we cant first take care of the place that we live in then how are we then meant to care for our friends.
Just a little thought for the week, it’s kind of getting me in the mood to clean the house. And by the way, that photo of our couch with the cushions so perfectly placed on there. Totally a one-off thing for this photo or when someone comes over, if I can remember.
Going down the road towards zero waste is easier said then done for sure. I think that we all take advantage of the awesome and easy plastic containers, cups, cling wrap, veggies that have been pre portioned and packaged for us. We forget that we throw out so much of this afterwards and don’t realise where it ends up, and what and who it’s hurting.
I think we have always been “trying” to go zero waste. Much as we have “tried” to go vegan, but because of convenience its little by little, and to be honest, I like the easy things you can just chuck out sometimes you know? I’m just being real haha
But you know what! Once I use up all my 600 metres of cling wrap that I got on special from Aldi I’m never buying it again! See, even a small thing like that can go a long way. Like I have this challenge for myself that every time I go to woolies and need to buy something that requires a plastic packaging, I try and cut it out and go an alternative route. Like for instance. I need a bag of red kidney beans, but it comes in a plastic bag and obviously I’m not going to cut the bag open and chuck them in my glass jar. Because I may as well take the bag anyway. Instead, I jot down the dry foods that I need and I go to a bulk health food store where they have containers filled with nuts and lentils and spices, oh my! And if you forget a jar or a container then they sell them there. (I go to the one at rouse hill town centre called “source”)
Another thing I’m in the middle of doing and just finished in my pantry is getting rid of all my plastic Tupperware and changing it to glass jars and glass Tupperware. It was a long process but it was nice to ease into throwing my stuff out and then buying little by little knowing that each time is helping.
You may think doing little things aren’t a lot but it really is
Tip: I have multiple keep cups, and I always make sure I have one in the car and if I stop somewhere and feel like a coffee then I don’t need to have the cafes take away cup. Just another small thing that makes a big difference 🙂
If I’m being honest, when I made this batch of hummus, I hulled (which is taking off the skin of the chickpeas) the chickpeas by hand after I boiled them and it took me a solid hour doing so. You don’t necessarily have to hull them, but it does make a big difference. It’s a lot smoother and not gritty compared to leaving their skin on. But good news! I actually looked it up, (duh) and there are heaps of recourses and videos of quick and easy ways to take the chickpea skin off… aaaamazing. If only I did that up before wasting an hour. So yes, don’t do what I did… just google it.
what you will need
2 cups of chickpeas (not canned)
2 lemons
Garlic
Sea salt
Water
Peanut oil
Olive oil
A food processor
So with this recipe I want you to totally take control of what you want to do regarding the seasoning, and how much water, oil, garlic ect that you want to put in. I really want you to taste as you go because that’s basically what I do. I actually don’t have a full measurement recipe :). I just chuck things in little by little and taste as I blend until I’m super happy with it.
Quick tip: If you are going to put the hummus in jars or containers, try to sterilise them before hand, let it sit for 10 seconds with boiling water. This makes it last longer and prevents bacteria growth.
Method: do this first bit the day before!
Okay, so before you make your hummus soak your 2 cups of chickpeas in a bowl over night. Cover the chickpeas with water about an inch or two above them because they will expand. This is good because it will soften the chickpeas so boiling time shorter. You can boil them the night before if you like but I find it’s a lot nicer to work with freshly boiled chickpeas as they are softer to work with when making a nice smooth hummus.
Whenever you have time the next day, strain the chickpeas and chuck them in a pot with water again, an inch or two over the chickpeas and let them boil until the water is at the same level they are, and have softened. Then you can strain and rinse them. Usually it’s about 20-30 minutes. I fold my washing in that time or chuck on an episode of something haha. Or both.
This final bit is super easy, put them all into a food processor. I usually start with 1/2 a cup of water and a good dollop of oil to get it going. What you really want in a good hummus is a smooth texture and not too thick. So if you aren’t happy with it then add some more oil and a little bit more water (altogether I put in a cup of water) as you add the rest of the ingredients to your liking.
Hi! This is my first official recipe post!!! I’m a little bit nervous to be honest because I don’t think I’ve ever shared my cooking with anyone. It’s harder than I thought, writing everything down as I go, trying to get ratios right and how much of this and that to put in. And it actually took me all afternoon to cook this meal because I was trying to be a photographer at the same time. I was standing on stools, on the table, opening a curtain half way for extra lighting, take a photo, then closing the curtain and taking another photo, whilst cutting some more veggies, washing my hands, take another photo…..haha I thought it would never end! But cooking is what I am super passionate about and I’m super excited to share this with you guys.
This is what you will need. (Oh my goodness, It feels so weird typing that down when I’m so used to just reading and following a recipe from a book! Never thought I’d do this myself.)
Spinach – 3 stalks
Kale – 1 stalk
1/2 red onion
Goji berries
Flaked almonds
White vinegar – 3 Tbsp
1 Purple carrot (you can just use orange, they both taste the same)
a small bunch of Red radishes
10 Spud potatoes
3 Baby eggplants, or 1 normal eggplant. (feel free to use normal eggplant if you can’t find any baby ones at your grocer, once again, tastes very similar, but a baby eggplant is a little sweater)
Garlic (of course) one bulb
Cumin powder – 2 tsp
Curry powder – 2 tsp
Moroccan powder – 2 tsp
Nuttelex melted – 3 Tbsp (it’s a none dairy butter but feel free to use whatever you prefer)
Peanut oil 1/2 cup
Method
Preheat your oven on fan forced at 200 Celsius. Cut potatoes into small wedges and scatter onto a baking tray. Using a few cloves of the garlic roughly slice and do the same. Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Put aside.
Now on to my favourite element! The curry eggplants. In a small bowl whisk the oil, butter, and the spices. Season with salt and pepper.
Slice eggplants lengthways and salt to draw out moisture (takes out the slight bitter aftertaste eggplants have) Leave for a couple of minutes and then wipe moisture off with a paper towel. Lay eggplants in a baking tray and generously spoon the spice mix over them. Put both potatoes and the eggplants in the oven. Cook eggplants for 30minutes, leaving the potatoes in for about 10 minutes longer or until golden.
Salad
Pick spinach and kale off their stalks and put into a bowl. Thinly slice radishes, carrot, and red onion and place over the top of the greens. Generously season with salt, this will allow the onion and radish to weep and draw out their flavour. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Season with pepper, drizzle with olive oil, add the white vinegar and sprinkle over some flaked almonds and goji berries.
And you’re done! I hope that made sense and if you want to try it I hope it is easy for you to follow.
Enjoy this recipe, it’s one of my favourites to make. It doesn’t take too long, if you wanted, you could make a heap of it and would be still just as good the next day.
An insight to our life as an engaged couple, going into marriage and other big life changes, and striving to live what we define as a healthy lifestyle.
I will cover topics on health such as my own recipes, knowing how to get quality food products, going from plastics to zero waste, and tips on how to juggle a busy lifestyle but still be able to prepare and eat healthy food.
Our table represents a community and a safe spot. We live a healthy lifestyle and we want to share a healthy lifestyle.
Hi, I’m Nicole Fisher, I’m 23 and live in Sydney. So I’ve never written a blog before, or really know what a blog should sound like. So as much as I can, I’ll try to be myself and not make my writing boring. So here it goes…
My introduction to something I’ve never done or shared before. I will be doing a lot of research about all things food. So not only will I hopefully be learning a crap load, so will you. If you can put up with my side tracking thoughts which I’m hoping I can keep to a minimum.
I want to be able to share with you our eating lifestyle, and how we are creative in the way that we cook with vegetables. Yes, I said vegetables. If you haven’t guessed yet we are vegetarian. Hopefully slowly making our way to a full plant based diet, but for now, I can only think about eating a block of cheese… I will of course explain to you why I have made a choice to go veggo. But if I was to do that now it would kind of defeat the purpose of this post being an introduction.
It’s an effort to stick to a diet, but so easy to have fun with the colours of vegetables and how you can create great food in such simple ways! I’m hoping I can help you guys get motivated to try this. As I get motivated to do this.
I would also love to feature some of Karen’s writing in regards to her health story and choice to becoming a vegetarian. She’s also an alright cook so maybe I can convince her to get a recipe or two up on here.
Please feel free to give me feed back along the way. You can suggest any kind topics you would like me to talk about, whether it be about health, food (for one of my recipes) or lifestyle. Writing a blog will be challenging, especially thinking of what to talk about every week. But I would also love to write about stuff that you guys want to read, so yes, I’m looking forward to your suggestions. Don’t be shy!
So this is the end of my introduction. Thanks for sticking around to read it. I’m hoping I can put my thoughts and creativity onto computer better as I get used to writing again.
Me&You Health 