Just a  week or so ago I discovered there was going to be an Organic Expo in Sydney. It’s apparently the 6th year but I’d never heard of it before!! Luckily we had the Saturday free so I booked tickets for us to go, not really sure what to expect.

It was really good and much larger than I thought it would be. There were lots of stands about all things organic. And lots of food samples.  We discovered some delicious brown rice crackers and were impressed with these super sprouts. Kevin decided we should get the WHOLE set .

The girls enjoyed it too and were extra happy when they discovered the animals.

Before leaving we had an organic lunch from the cafe. I had a lovely vegetable pie. Delicious!

We’ll definitely try to get to return next year.

Today I went to a vegetarian cooking class run by Sustainable Illawarra. It was taught by Adam of “I Feel Good“. Surprisingly I was only one of two vegetarians. It was  such a great class and I came away with new knowledge and a new confidence. We made things for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

The class was held in the Council building so we had a great view over Wollongong from the kitchen.

The highlights for me were the hummus – I’ve never before found a good at-home recipe. But this was fantastic. It was served with the most delicious salad – which I will definitely be making next week.

I helped make a Thai curry – which was nice but I could taste the coriander and I’m not a real fan of that particular herb.

The Pad Thai was yummy though.

And, of course, with Adam being a chef everything was presented beautifully.

My other favourite of the day was the Vegan Banana Cake (in fact I have one in the oven RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately the one in class burnt (was one VERY hot oven) so the top was removed. I skipped the icing because it had passionfruit in it (which I don’t like) but honestly this cake was SOOOOO yummy it didn’t need it anyway. Hope mine turns out just as good.

So a truly fantastic class. I think Adam is running another one in May – check out the Sustainable Illawarra calender. And I will DEFINITELY be doing some more of his classes.

There is nothing better tasting and better for you than home grown sprouts. And you know the best part? It’s so easy!

Buy some sprouting seeds from your local organic or health food shop. Get a jar and mesh or cheese cloth and a big elastic band – I improvised but I believe you can buy sprouting jars. Place 1 -2 tablespoons in the jar.

Cover with water to start the sprouting process. Leave at least 12 hours or overnight.

The next day rinse and drain a couple of times and leave lying upside down on a 45 degree angle so they can drain and have air circulate around them.

Then continue rinsing and leaving on the 45 deg angle twice  daily. A day or so later they look like this – look how they’re already got little sprouty tails.

And by day 5 or 6 your jar should be full.

All ready to put on some salad or in a sandwich.

I then decant the jar into another container to put in the fridge and start the process all over again. By the time I’ve finished this lot the jar will be full again. So much tastier and cheaper than buying from the shops.

I love ANZAC biscuits (cookies for my US readers) all year round but if we’re home on ANZAC Day then it’s one day I definitely have to make them.

Ingredients

Well, I finally have my new food blog – Libby loves soup, salad and chocolate, all prettied up and ready to share with you.

I hope you’ll drop buy and check it out. And of course, if you want to read/see more please feel free to add it to your RSS feed. Also if you any suggestions for improvements or see any glaring errors please let me know. I’m quite excited about it and already it’s helping me to make better food choices .

Firstly – just a quick THANK YOU to all your wonderful comments on my blanket. I’m very pleased with it but it meant a lot to hear you all loved it too .

Todays post is about one of my very favourite things – TEA!!! However much as I love it I’m a pretty boring tea drinker – black, English Breakfast, and an occasional chai tea.

However I recently discovered this Scottish Breakfast (which is rather nice) and the Christmas Tea (which is rather different for me). The container with the orange scoop contains Chai Tea and my everyday tea is in the glass container (which is stored in a dark cupboard).

I like to buy Fairtrade where possible but on our cruise last year I discovered Daintree Tea – which obviously is from Australia.

I quickly finished off my holiday supplies and ordered more online – both looseleaf and bags (for travel). I recently spotted this tea in Woolworths but I bought a year or twos supply so I’m good for a while .

Now in addition to the tea we also have the things needed to make tea.

I use the little teatime rocks pot all the time – perfect for one cup of tea. The larger pots are used when more than one cup is being made. The ball-thing is used for chai tea (though we do make it in a pot as well). For many years I had tea bags – and occasionally still will but tea tastes a whole lot better when made in a pot – maybe it’s the ritual, maybe it’s the brewing time – I don’t know but I just LOVE making MANY pots of tea throughout the day.

Have you enjoyed a cup of tea today? What’s your favourite?

As you know I’m in love with green smoothies – and have one most days. I’ve even gotten Kevin onto them. Which means my blender gets quite the workout. I’ve been anxiously awaiting it’s demise so I could get a Vitamix Blender – after hearing all about them all over blogland. Guess what? The other day is started mucking up, so Kevin got online and ordered me a new blender. It came yesterday and I have to say this mornings smoothies was totally without lumps! Yay!

Yes, I know you don’t think it looks very nice but I tell you, they are DELICIOUS!!!

The blog I orginally found this recipe is no longer published and I’ve seen other almost identical recipes around so I’m not really sure who to credit. But it is delicious. Apparently it freezes well but we never have any leftovers .

Ingredients

3 medium potatoes
2 small carrots
1 small onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg
1 tbs oil
2 tbs chopped parsely
2 tbs wholemeal breadcrumbs
1/2 cup milk powder
15g butter, cubed
1/2 cup grated cheese

Method

1. Grate potatoes, onion and carrots, and combine with the crushed garlic.

2. Lightly beat the egg with the oil, and pour over the grated vegetables. Stir in the parsley, breadcrumbs and milk powder.

3. Spread into a greased 20cm pie dish and dot with the butter.

4. Bake in a moderate oven (180′C) for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Serve hot or cold. Freeze for up to 4 months.

Those who have been with me for a while might remember I’ve made a few attempts at breadmaking over the last two years. I’ve tried with the breadmaker, without the breadmaker and numerous recipes. Always I had mixed success.

My last venture involved following Rhonda’s recipe at Down to Earth and it was indeed a success. However, it was totally made by hand, which after a couple of days, was becoming a problem for my hands (which I suffer with in the warmer months). After a failure with the dough hook in the Kitchenaid mixer I asked Kevin to bring back home from work our breadmaker (which he said wasn’t being used). I used the breadmaker at one point but wasn’t quite happy with the loaf, esp. the size and shape. And so my latest, and greatest, venture was launched.

Assemble required ingredients (using recipe at Down to Earth)….make sure you get a VERY good quality flour…I use organic unbleached…

Get out the breadmaker….

Place everything in the mixer…and press the dough button….

When finished (about 1.5hours later)..put oven on to preheat….roll into log and place in bread pan…

Cover with napkin and set aside to rise…

Approx 30mins later it will look like this…

Now place in the oven and cook as directed…todays loaf had some friends…

Another 20mins later and you have a delicious loaf to cut and enjoy…

I’ve been making bread every other day for last 2 weeks. Today I tried half white and half wholemeal flour and it turned out great. I think we finally have a WINNER!!!!

Vanessa of Green Ness asked me a few questions about me being a vegetarian and rather just answering her I thought I might do a post about it as I don’t think I ever have for some odd reason.

So back to the beginning. It was early November 2004 and I commented, yet again, to Kevin that “if I had a personal chief I’d become a vegetarian”. This time his reply was “well, why don’t you just do it?” Shocked I said because it was too hard and I don’t want to have make two different meals every night. I was even more shocked when he said he’d eat whatever I made at home. WOW! Even I was impressed with my hubby. There were a few periods when I’m sure he regretted agreeing to eat vegetarian at home but I think he’s reasonably happy these days.

Now, the main reason I wanted to be vegetarian was that I don’t like the way food animals are treated.  If you’re in the dark and want to learn more go visit Animals Australia. When I made this decision there was very little in the range of free-range meat but these day I don’t feel the need to kill animals to meet my nutrient requirements and I don’t think I would like the taste now. I will buy free-range ham and meat for Kevin & Amy (but the meat has to be cooked outside as I can no longer stand the smell). I eat eggs from my own chickens and eat dairy (trying to get organic where possible). I know I probably shouldn’t have milk (diary cows aren’t treated the best either and I LOVE cows) but for now I buy organic.

Amy and Kevin will have meat when out and Christy is vegetarian – but only because she has such a limited diet – every couple of months she will eat a little bit of free-range ham. I don’t like them eating meat that isn’t free-range but they make their own decisions.

Now that I’ve been a vegetarian for over 5 years I have quite a large range of recipes to choose from so variety and choice isn’t the problem it was when I started. I do try to plan our meals for the week to make sure we’re having a good variety and not falling into the trap of pasta or rice every night. I also keep some meals  and things like falafels/veggie snitzels in the freezer for quick easy meals. Because a lot of meals are one dish type meals they really are easy to prepare (unlike meat and a variety of veg).

Please feel free to ask any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer.