On my day off...

I decided to take a day off today. As I and Mr. Plushkin work through the weekend, we usually have one or two days off during the week. On my little day off to-do list was to feed the birds in the park.... tick.

Then, try to use as many tomatoes as I can as be bought 10 kg on special..... tick.

I roasted 2 kg to make a sauce for carries, used 1 kg to make a pasta sauce in the Thermomix and made one of these eggplant and chickpeas roasts..... Phew! I think we will have tomato based diet this month!

For this afternoon I have a clean up planned in my studio after a monster production line of happy monsters. 

Hope you are having a delightful day too!

xox

Creative Saturday: an eggplant, tomatoes and chickpeas bake

My Saturdays, unless I am at my day job doing the paperwork, it is another day at the studio - morning walk, cleaning, some crafting and cooking. I like finding new recipes and, by adding one new ingredient every month, I explore more and more yummy vegetarian dishes (we became vegetarian last Christmas, you can read more about our journey here).

 Last month I was cooking with kale - bakes, omelets...

This month I am trying to include chickpeas as I never cooked with them before. This recipe takes about an hour but it is worth the time spend on it! I done it in between tidying up my studio and didn't even notice how an hour went by!

I took 1 eggplant, 4 tomatoes (or use cherry tomatoes), one can of chickpeas, zest of one lemon, 2 cloves of garlic and handful of basil (mint will work as nicely).

Preheat the oven to 200C while cutting an eggplant in 2cm cubes. Place an oven dish with some olive oil to heat it before placing the eggplant cubes, it  helps to prevent the eggplant absorbing too much oil. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway. Then, add chopped tomatoes and roast for another 20 minutes, following by the drained chickpeas and garlic - roast for 10 more minutes. Finally, take the bake from the oven and mix in zest of one lemon. Leave to cool down a little and stir handful of shredded basil or mint. Done! Serve warm as a side dish (serves 3) or by itself (serves 2). 
This recipe adopted from "Hugh's Three Good Things", book by Hugh Fearnley.

Do you like chickpeas? 

What is your favourite recipe with them?

My favourite salad with Daikon

Back home, in summer, my mum use to make this quick and easy salad for us as a side dish at dinner time. It is very refreshing and light so it became one of my favourite lunch salads when I moved here.

The recipe is really super easy, just grade: 

one medium size Daikon 

one cucumber

Then, cut in 4/5 radishes, add a tablespoon of sour cream and season to taste! 

I love having a piece of crusty fresh bread with it. It's a lovely lunch for a busy crafter who tries her hardest not to skip lunches (that's my little goal this month). There is always half left in the fridge so I have it next day too. 

What is your favourite quick & easy salad?  

My favourite snack... Edamame

On a busy day when I skip lunch and have to keep myself going until the dinner time, Edamame is my favourite snack. I always have a few packs in my freezer and love that they are very easy to prepare, just boil for a few minutes and they are done! 
While browsing Pinterest the other day, I found a few recipes that looked very good and had Edamame in them. These are the ones I found very easy and interesting:

*Edamame dip with avocado

Picture & recipe via Scaling back blog

*Spinach and Edamame salad

Picture and recipe via Home Is Where The Cookies Are

What is your favourite healthy snack? 

My vegetarian journey, the beginning

It's been just over 5 months since I decided to embark on this journey - becoming a vegetarian (note: we still eat seafood). I've tried going vegetarian last year but maybe because I didn't have enough information or maybe my mind wasn't set for it and body not ready for a change, I failed.  This time, fifth month into it, I feel confident that I can do it and I've got full support of Mr. Plushkin who, to my surprise, fully embraced this lifestyle change with me.

The best thing that I've done before making this decision is researching and purchasing this great book "Transition to Vegetarianism" by Rudolph Ballentine. There are a lot of facts and figures to be taken in regarding the meat production, global food shortage and what actually goes into our food!  It's better for me, it's better for the planet and why not leave in a bit more sustainable way.... 
 I would like to mention that this post is not to convert anyone into changing their diet. I thought it will be nice to write about my vegetarian journey, share with you and maybe who've done it or going through the same, can relate to my experience.

The most common question people ask me is "Don't you crave meat?". I  say no, my mind is set on this and I am glad that my body responded in the positive way. There are no craving as I don't take this as a diet, it's a lifestyle change. I know that some people are worried about nutritional value of vegetarian food and, again, this book is great in explaining what needs to be included in your diet so you get all the vitamins and protein you need.

Please don't think it was a smooth sailing so far and I don't really advertise for everyone to do it. I know people get very defensive when I talk about my new lifestyle and sometimes they don't hold back their  opinion. However, so far, I only met a few people who refused to understand why I am doing this and I felt like I get bullied for going against the "norm".

The biggest challenge for me was cooking! I straggled with finding new recipes that I can make and like. That's why I bought this book "Vegetarian, 141 recipes celebrating fresh, seasonal ingredients"" by Alice Hart. The funny fact about me  - I cannot cook without a picture! I would be a horrible cook in the times when all cookbooks were just words. Thus, this book is perfect, there are so many pictures and, most importantly, this book also educates about nutritional value and so enjoyable to look through!
The other book that is still on my wish list is "River cottage, veg everyday". It's was such a great TV series that I cannot wait to get my mittens on this one! I already made a few dishes and absolutely loved the recipes. 


Second challenge for me was stay off pasta and don't eat seafood everyday just because it's easier. I explore and learn more about different vegetables everyday and recently found some great blogs that helped me:

My New Roots

Bittersweet 

Vegan Yum Yum

Green Kitchen Stories

Two Blue Lemons


One day, I would like to be vegan for a few months but, being Russian, I love my sour cream so that would be quite a challenge...

Thank you for reading! 


Are you a vegetarian/vegan? I would love to hear your experience and if you have any favourite cooking books/websites, please share.

Friday evening...

All ingredients are  in - yummy! 

Dinner is ready!

On this cold Sydney evening, I am:

*cooking black beans and sweet potato soup that is simmering on the stove right now. I found this fantastic recipe on My New Roots blog. 

I just love this blog and, as I am trying to cook more at home (which you probably noticed if you are following my Facebook page), this blog is a great source of healthy recipes! I already learned a lot as some words were not familiar to me at all;)

It's the first time I am making this type of soup but I couldn't help but adopt a few things to our taste. I added one not sweet potato and cooked beans in beef stock instead of water. It will make it a bit more "familiar" to Mr. Plushkin as I've never cooked sweet potato or beans before and wasn't sure wether he likes it or not. I hope he will:)

*Listening to Muse. Perfect music for winter weather if you ask me:)

*Reading blogs that I found through this article by Become.com website. Thank you Namita for the mention!

*Spending some time on Pinterest, my new addiction. Do you have a board or two? Please, leave a link. I am always looking for more lovely boards to follow! 

Happy Friday! 

Crafting and cooking

For the last few days, I managed to fit in only a few creative hours. Mainly, I was sightseeing and cooking with Grandma! It's very nice to have her around and learning new things from her that I didn't care about when I was younger like making pickled cabbage or dough for dumplings:) 

However, there were a few orders to finish and here is one of them, Easter rabbit in grey with Kokka fabric. 

For the rest of the week, after I am done with wholesale orders and made a few things for the shop, we are planning on more cooking and traveling around beautiful Sydney!

By the way, there is a great blog tour going on at the moment celebrating a new book "Countryside Softies" that was just realized.  The tour started over at Whip Up on 18th of April and travels through lovely blogs for you to discover until the final stop on 29th at Allsorts. Are you following?

Hope you had a great start of the week!