Chickpea bolognese pasta bake

I made this last week and it was really yummy. I was a bit impatient and – at the time – had cream but no cheese, so it ended up being a little different than I’d thought. Still delicious though – and I’m sure there are ways of substituting dairy ingredients if needed… if I hadn’t had the cream to pour over just before baking, it probably would’ve been just as nice.

Ingredients:

• oil
• onion
• garlic
• vegetables: carrot, cauliflower, bok choi, mushrooms
• 1x tin of chickpeas
• decent quantity of pasta
• jar of tomato paste and/or tin of diced tomatoes
• mixed herbs
• cream/ cheese/ substitute

Tools:

• flat-bottomed frying pan
• saucepan
• baking dish
• kitchen spoon
• cutlery and crockery

Method:

1. Choose and chop vegetables and onion into fairly small pieces
2. Heat oil in the frying pan to a medium heat and add onion, vegetables and garlic – cook until soft.
3. Drain chickpeas and (optional) if you have one on hand, you might pulse them in a blender for a few seconds until coarsely chopped (as suggested by the original recipe)
4. Add tomato paste/ diced tomatoes with mixed herbs as well as the chickpeas to the frying pan, bring to a simmer and cook for ten minutes or so.
5. While this is happening, cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente – it’ll soften more in the oven.
6. Drain the pasta and combine with the chickpea bolognese mixture and mix.
   NB. If you like, stop here and plate up your chickpea bolognese. If you have a hankering for a pasta bake, though, continue to the next step.
7. Tip the mixture into a baking dish and – if you have them on hand – top with cheese, or drizzle cream over the top.
8. Bake in the oven at 190*C for 25-30 minutes or until it’s cooked enough for you.

Cute procrastination…

Check out this website. A friend shared TinyKittens.com with me, and since then I’ve been checking in with them regularly. The kittens are so cute and the stories, while sometimes heartbreaking, are wonderful.

They have a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. It’s adorable! They’re a group in British Colombia, Canada, who are advocates for a “Trap-Neuter/Spay-Return/Adopt” model of care for feral cats. It’s an interesting idea. If you want to know more, check out the links. Also, if you’re relatively close to the location, there are kittens and cats who are ready for their forever homes. Check out their stories via the links.

I wish there was a Tiny Puppy livestream, haha. ❤

 

Other things I’ve been doing lately include the next phase of my project placement (moving from literature searches to analysis, yay!), reading (I’ll post reviews of my latest haul shortly), choir organising (LaTUCS is back for semester 2!), cooking (more recipe posts soon!) among other things. 😀

 

Mixed-bean stew with rice

Another recipe! This was supposed to be a mixed-bean goulash, a la Jack Monroe, but I didn’t have any tomatoes…and then accidentally left it to simmer a bit too long on the stove so too much water evaporated, so it didn’t end up exactly as intended. Still yummy in the end though.

Ingredients:

• 1x can of mixed beans
• 1/4x onion
• 1/2x carrot
• a few bok choy leaves
• 2x cauliflower florets
• corn kernels
• garlic
• ginger
• tsp of Vegemite
• soy sauce
• mixed herbs
• hot water (at least half a bean tin, if not more)
• stock cube
• tsp sugar
• Moroccan spice mix
• Rice

Tools:

• big frypan
• small saucepan
• kitchen spoon
• teaspoons

Method:

1. Chop vegetables and drain beans
2. Fry onion in oil with garlic, ginger and mixed herbs
3. Add other veg
4. Add Vegemite with water and stock cube (remember to add extra water if you’ve got lots of veg!) and stir.
5. Let simmer for fifteen minutes or so, stirring as needed so it doesn’t stick.
6. If you leave it too long and it does stick a bit, use a firm spatula and more water to rescue it, plus a bit of soy sauce if required to get rid of any burnt taste. 😉
7. Tip in the beans and stir to combine then heat for another ten minutes or so.
8. Cook the rice while the mixture has its last ten minutes.
9. Enjoy!

 

 

 

“Access to Fashion” Show

Hi all. My friend Carly Findlay is organising a fashion show as part of Melbourne Fashion Week in September. I love the idea! Disability is very underrepresented in fashion and in the media. From the ticket link:

“Access to Fashion – Disability on the Runway is a Melbourne Fashion Week event that endeavours to solve the pervasive issue of disability exclusion in the fashion industry. The event which will be comprised of a panel discussion and runway show featuring disabled models, and will emphasise the need for accessibility and authentic representation, and highlight change makers and activists within the disabled community.”

The event aims to “make a statement about disability access and inclusion” as well as showcasing “disability pride – disabled people coming together to celebrate themselves and each other”.

This is a topic close to my heart. It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun, and tickets are cheap. Only $15 for a bit over two hours of fashion – there’ll be a parade, then some nibbles and a panel discussion. The event is accessible, with wheelchair access, Auslan or open captions and hearing loop. Buy your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/access-to-fashion-disability-on-the-runway-tickets-46837473143 

The Melbourne Fashion Week link to the event is here: https://mfw.melbourne.vic.gov.au/event/access-to-fashion/ 

It’ll be held at Library at The Dock, Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands VIC, Australia.

See more information about the event on the website, here:  http://disabilityontherunway.blogspot.com/ 

Contribute to the fundraiser to help make the event a success here:  https://www.gofundme.com/access-to-fashion (you can also contribute time, resources and sponsorship – see the main details link above!)

There’s a Facebook event too. See here.

It’s exciting!

Tomatoey Lentils and Veg with Rice

I made this last week but unfortunately didn’t written anything down until I wrote this post, not even a title or recipe link saved on my phone. So I’ve had to take a bit of a guess at things.

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Tomato paste
• Water/ vegetable stock
• Vegetables – e.g. bok choy, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, mushroom
• Rice
• Lentils
• Spicy sauce (optional – just something I had in the fridge, consists of a stir-fry sauce with chilli and garlic and mixed herbs)

Tools:

• frying pan
• saucepan
• kitchen spoon
• cutlery and crockery

Method:

1. Chop onion and vegetables
2. Put lentils in the saucepan on a low heat, in water. Add chilli sauce if desired and cook.
3. Fry onion and mushroom in the pan until onion is soft and mushrooms are starting to turn golden.
4. Add other vegetables and fry for a minute or two, then add mixed herbs and tomato paste with vegetable stock.
5. Let simmer until vegetables are done (sauce will reduce, so top up with extra water as needed.).
6. While vegetables are simmering, add noodles to a pot of boiling water and let cook.
7. When vegetables are almost ready, add lentils into the pan and stir to combine.
8. When noodles are finished, drain them and tip into the pan with the vegetables and lentils.
9. I “fry-steamed” a couple of Brussels sprouts to go with this, just because I felt like it. They take 8 or so minutes in a small frypan.
10. You’re ready to serve. This will make leftovers.

Flavoured Chops with Veggies and Noodles

Hi all. Here’s another recipe post.

The other night, I had chops, veg and noodles. I started out with a simple idea of dusting the chops with mixed herbs, then frying them with some garlic. A usual thing for me. But when it came time to cook, I didn’t want to have steamed veggies with it. So I did things a bit differently.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 small chops
• 1 clove garlic*
• 1 tsp dried ginger*
  NB. Or whatever variations of garlic and ginger you have.
• 2-3 tsp mixed herbs
• 1/4x onion
• different veggies – as you can see in the picture, I used carrot, cauliflower, corn and bok choi
• Water
• Tomato paste (to taste)
• 1x serving of noodles
• Cooking oil

Tools:

• 1x frying pan
• 1x small saucepan
• 1x kitchen spoon
• 2-3 teaspoons
• 1x tongs
• cutlery and crockery for plating & eating

Method:

1. Chop vegetables, onion.  and garlic clove.
2. Take chops out of its packaging and chop off excess fat
3. Fry the onion with garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes in oil.
4. While this occurs, scatter a teaspoon (roughly) of mixed herbs onto each chop and ensure both sides are coated.
5. Fry chops in oil with the garlic, ginger and onion.
6. When both sides are browned, turn heat to low and add chopped vegetables.
7. Give that another minute or two, then add water mixed with tomato paste. This shouldn’t cover the vegetables or meat but just create a nice sauce for them.
8. Cook noodles in boiling water. Once done, stir them through the frying pan mixture.
9. Plate up and eat.

Yum!

 

Life, and…

Hi all.

I’m writing this on Sunday evening after a nice weekend. Fun, but tiring.

I spent Sunday afternoon reading through a book called Space Opera. It is Eurovision in space, where the stakes are high and Earth’s hopes for their first (and possibly last!) entry rest on a couple of misfits.

Utter ridiculousness ensues, with the small semblance of plot finding time to make broad geopolitical commentary amidst heady descriptions and a dizzying pace.

I expected a light-hearted romp featuring a starry-eyed main star and got a tragicomedy drama with a bunch of cynics. Also, unexpectedly, quite a lot of feels.

Hoping that this week’s literature search for the project is a bit easier than last week’s.

I’m halfway through my second-last uni subject! Wow!

 

Meatloaf with mushroom sauce

This week has been busy! Yesterday was a real doozy. Something that keeps me grounded is my cooking.

On Monday evening, my partner came over and we made a meatloaf with mushroom sauce, steamed veg and noodles. It was really good.

Ingredients:

• 2x serves of mince (we used 1x roo mince and 1x Adani Kofte-flavoured mince) – about 200g?
• 1 egg
• breadcrumbs
• 2 tsp of Vegemite (or equivalent malt/ yeast spread)
• 4-6 button mushrooms
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4x onion
• vegetable stock
• cooking oil
• extra veg, for steaming
• noodles or another carb, to serve

Tools:

• 1x medium to large mixing bowl
• 2x kitchen spoon/ spatula/ stirrer
• 1x baking tray
• 1x steamer pot
• 1x saucepan

Method:

1. Mix mince, breadcrumbs, egg and 1 tsp Vegemite in the bowl.
   NB.   You can add extra flavourings (e.g. mixed herbs, garlic) and/or extra veg (e.g. carrots/ celery/ zucchini, chopped finely), but I had no carrots in the house, and as we were using already-flavoured mince, extras weren’t really needed.
   NB#2. The Vegemite tip came from my dad – it gives the meatloaf a really nice subtle “extra” flavour.
2. Drizzle a baking tray with oil, or cover it with baking paper. Shape the mince mixture into a rough log/ loaf and place onto the tray, then into the oven it goes. We put it in for 35 minutes.
3. Chop the veggies for steaming then place them in the steamer pot. They’ll take about 15 minutes to cook – remember to time it so that they’ll finish at the same time as the meatloaf.
4. Prepare the noodles for cooking and time this to the finishing time of the others.
5. The last task is to make the mushroom sauce/ gravy. You’ll want to chop up the mushrooms quite finely and dice the onion.
6. Put these into a pan over medium heat and let simmer for a few minutes, stirring, until the mushrooms start turning golden. Add either a tsp of Vegemite or a dash of soy sauce in at this point.
7. Keep stirring and add a bit of flour, then veggie stock, then flour, then stock. Do this until you’ve reached your desired consistency, depending on whether you’re making a sauce or a gravy.
8. When everything is ready, serve it up and dig in!

 

Spicy black bean and mushroom stew

Hi all. This was last night’s dinner – I was very pleased with it. It was a case of “a little of this, a little of that”, made using a few things I had in the fridge and pantry. It made two servings – so I’ll get to enjoy it again another day. Yay!

Ingredients:

• 1x can of black beans, drained
• 3x Brussel sprouts (1 large, 2 smaller)
• 1x large floret of cauliflower
• 2x choy sum leaves
• 6x button mushrooms, small to medium sizes
• 1/3x onion
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp ginger
• A generous amount of chilli (whatever suits your spice levels)
• A dash of pepper
• A sprinkling or two of mixed herbs (mixed herbs go with everything!)
• A glug of honey-soy sauce
• 1 – 1&1/4 cups of veggie stock
• Oil for frying
• Optional: a sprinkling of fish sauce and a dollop of oyster sauce (I used these because they were available – if you’re really vegetarian, sub in something else, even another glug of the honey-soy)
• Optional: a decent handful of peanuts
• Optional: a couple of dollops of cream or milk
• pasta (or another carb) to serve with the stew

Tools:

• 1x large flat-bottomed frying pan
• 1x kitchen spoon
• 3x teaspoons
• 1x strainer
• 1x small to medium-sized pot

Method:

Note: I tried to watch the clock with this so I could say how long everything took, but I got distracted by the cooking process, cleaning up as I went – and by listening to a podcast from Conversations, which is a regular mealtime activity if I’m by myself. All I know is that cooking took about half an hour all up.

1. De-shell peanuts, if required and set aside
2. Chop up mushrooms into very small pieces
3. Thinly slice the cauliflower and Brussels sprouts and roughly chop the choy sum
4. Chop onion roughly.
5. Fry onion in hot oil. After a minute or two, add garlic, ginger and chilli. Stir around to coat the mushrooms and make sure nothing is sticking. Give it a couple of minutes.
6. After that’s cooked for a bit, dump in the mushrooms and peanuts, if using. Mix around to coat and let them fry for a bit. Maybe five minutes?
7. Put on the pasta to cook according to packet instructions – if it finishes before the stew, just cover it and turn the heat off.
8. Next, tip in the drained black beans. Mix them around to allow them to soak up the flavours. Give it a couple of minutes.
9. Add the sauces and stir, then give it another five minutes or so.
10. Add the rest of the veg, with the cup of veggie stock. Stir it around and add some mixed herbs and pepper if desired. Cover and let it simmer away for another five minutes or so.
11. Take the lid off and stir the mixture around. You can add a few dollops of cream (or milk) here if desired – I had some in the fridge thanks to a dinner gathering I went to earlier in the week.
12. Let it simmer away for another few minutes until the veggies you added in Step 9 are soft and everything is combined nicely.
13. Serve it up and EAT!

Here is the process in pictures:

“What do I need right now?”

The following link landed in my inbox last night. I needed to hear it. So I’m passing it onto you, in the hope it helps someone else.

Simplify Self-Care 

Week 4 of the project, and I’ve rediscovered one of the more challenging aspects of literature searches: broad topics! Oh well. I’ll be working on that today, and other elements of life are going well.

Here, have a photo of a rainbow I took on the weekend.