3 FAB Recipes ...

Food !! Oh glorious food !!

As I mentioned at the beginning of last week – don’t worry I don’t blame you for forgetting, I blame my slackness with blogging this so late - I was inspired to cook & bake. So much so, that I created a different meal each night that week.

At the beginning of the week I made a brown rice salad which has become a favourite in our home … so simple and so yummy! I must thank my gorgeous friend Sonya for the recipe. The same day I tried a new recipe after spotting some banana’s in my fruit bowl which from my point of view needed to be cooked prior to eaten. It was a banana and berry bread … YUMMO !! Later in the week I made a linguine dish which was half a Donna Hay recipe and half my own.

Recipes with accompanying photos for you all to drool over … see below !

Brown Rice Salad

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice

6 spring onions

1 red capsicum

1/3 cup sultanas

60g roasted cashew nuts

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Dressing

1/4 cup sunflower oil

4 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 clove of crushed garlic

Cook rice. Rinse and drain well.

Chop all ingredients. Add spring onions to drained rice followed by all other ingredients.

Pour dressing over and toss.

Banana & Berry Bread

Ingredients

Melted butter, to grease

1 1/3 cups self-raising flour

1 cup plain flour

¼ cup desiccated coconut

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 eggs

450g mashed banana (approx. 4 bananas)

2/3 cup (160ml) canola oil

2 tsp vanilla essence

125g fresh raspberries I used mixed frozen berries

Method

Preheat oven to 150°C. Brush a 7cm-deep, 10 x 20cm (base measurement) loaf pan with melted butter. Line

the base and sides with non-stick baking paper.

Sift the combined flour into a large bowl. Add the sugar, coconut and cinnamon. Make a well in the centre. Add the eggs, banana, oil and vanilla. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in the raspberries. Pour into the prepared pan. Smooth the surface. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Set aside in pan for 20 minutes to cool before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Chilli Linguine with Summer Herbs, Spanish Onion & Grape Tomatoes

Ingredients

200g linguine

30g butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

¾ cup breadcrumbs

½ cup torn mint leaves

½ cup torn basil leaves

½ cup torn flatleaf parsley leaves

Olive oil

Sea salt & cracked pepper

¼ Spanish onion

Grape tomatoes (as many as your heart desires)

Chilli paste

Zest & juice of ½ a lime

Method

Cook pasta in a large saucepan for 10-12 mins or until al dente. Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in frying pan and add onion, tomatoes, a decent squeeze of chilli paste, zest and juice of lime and toss until onion is caramelised. Transfer mixture to a bowl.

In the same pan add butter, garlic & breadcrumbs (I found I needed to add more olive oil). Cook, stirring for 2 minutes or until the crumbs become golden.

Toss with torn herbs, onion mixture and linguine, add olive oil and another squeeze of lime juice.

Once you have made the linguine dish once or twice it becomes so easy. I used to make a similar dish minus the herbs & bread crumbs. It would have coriander, scallops & chorizo in it instead. As i’m not allowed scallops or chorizo at the moment, this is the next best thing.

Enjoy !!