Brown Rice & Vegetable Rolls

A rediscovered recipe, scrawled on a piece of paper and found languishing between pages of a rarely-used recipe book, reminded me of a lovely version of sausage rolls that I haven't made for a good twenty years of so!  Instead of a meaty filling, these rolls are filled with healthy brown rice and lots of nutritious vegetables. They are most lovely, warm from the oven and with a dollop of fruity chutney on the side. 

Delicious!

Brown Rice & Vegetable Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked brown rice 

1/2 cup corn kernels

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup grated carrot

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1 capsicum, finely chopped

1 cup grated tasty cheese

1 Tablespoons fruit chutney

2 eggs, beaten

3 sheets puff pastry

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 210C.

2. Combine all ingredients, except pastry sheets, in a large bowl to make the filling.

3.  Spoon filling along  one edge of each puff pastry sheet.

4.  Roll up the filling inside the pastry and seal by pressing pastry ends together.

5.  Cut evenly into individual rolls.

6.  Glaze with a little egg or milk before baking. (You could sprinkle with sesame seeds too.)

7.  Bake for approximately 30mins or until pastry is golden.

8.  Serve with some extra fruit chutney.

Ingredients for a meat-free meal.

These rolls are a delicious alternative to everyday sausage rolls and have lots of extra goodness wrapped up in them from the brown rice and the vegetables. It certainly won't be another twenty years before I make them again!

Meg

Food Growing in our Garden

While I dream of an entire backyard devoted to growing food, in reality our main veg patch extends just down the length of our back ramp. While not the largest of patches, I still manage to home grow a variety of foods that we enjoy picking and eating. 

Little yellow globes of goodness.

These little cherry-like tomatoes are an heirloom variety, called 'Lemon Drop', that I've not grown before. I will be saving a few seeds though because I want to grow them again. They are delicious in salads and a lovely colour contrast to the usual red cherry toms.

Crisp & crunchy snow peas.

Snow peas are one of my favourite garden snacks. I can't walk past them without picking one to munch on! Besides walking around the garden and eating them, I've been harvesting small handfuls and adding them to stir fries. They've grown so well this season. 

A frilly fancy lettuce.

Lettuce has so far been a bit of a hit and miss affair this Autumn. I planted some which were bitter after a blast of heat earlier in the season. These frilly fancy lettuces are doing well though. The leaves are being used on sandwiches and in salads. 

A little purple eggplant.

I'm not a huge fan of eggplant so just planted one this season. These are a small variety and perhaps, once they get a bit bigger, will make their way onto a pizza somehow or maybe into a bake of some kind. There's no point in growing what you don't enjoy eating!

Bright green basil. 

Sweet basil is flourishing in the garden where it self seeds happily. The bees and I love it! There's been such an abundance that I've been able to give bunches away to friends who want to make pesto too. Here is a recipe for Macadamia Basil Pesto which is so delicious.

Tall spring onions.

Spring onion grows in our patch all year round. I cut some almost every day and use it in everything from our morning omelettes, salads, stir fries and I always garnish nachos with sour cream and chopped spring onion.

Leaves & stems of silverbeet.

Then there's  silverbeet. It's the most dependable veg in our patch, there's always an Autumn abundance of it and it's so nutritious. One of my favourite recipes in which to use our homegrown silverbeet is this Impossible Pie from Fiona over at Stay Home Instead. Perfect for lunches!

A garden volunteer.

This is the last pumpkin from those that grew on the volunteer vine that popped up in the garden. I picked it after I took this photo as it's time to pull the vine out now and make some more space for new plantings.  Of course, I will roast some of it as that is one of my most favourite things to eat in all the world!

What is your garden growing?

Meg

Lately

We are spending all our days at home now like so many others all around the world.  There is work and school to do from home throughout Monday to Friday. Our old wooden table is set with schoolbooks and our study is, for now, a makeshift office. Around and in between this different way of working and learning, there is much that is happily and reassuringly the same about home.

 Homemade pumpkin scones with jam & a dollop of thick cream.


  Fresh, spray-free fruit & veg in my custom-order box.

Crunchy cornflake crackles.

As always, there's much home cooking cooling on the kitchen bench. This nourishes us, sustains us and, in the case of these cornflake crackles, indulges us in a little childhood nostalgia when days did indeed seem more carefree than they do just now. While this refined-sugar free version of these honey joys, is far less sweet than those I remember from my girlhood days, they are every bit as yummy and the bottom still sticks to the patty paper case! 🙂

The first eggplant flower.

A delicate little snow pea flower too.

In the veggie patch, the seedlings I planted weeks ago are growing taller and leafier and the first flowers on the eggplant and snow peas have emerged. The buzz of honeybees, blue-banded bees and teddy bear bees, begins early in this north-facing part of our garden. Our own teeny-tiny little native bees are there among the flowers too but they are just quieter. I am harvesting homegrown lettuce, spring onion, herbs, mandarins and spinach and can't wait to pick the first snow peas to munch on!

A novel & one of those cornflake crackles.

Everyday, I find myself with a book (or three) in my lap which is not that unusual in less extraordinary times either. The pile of books I borrowed before the libraries closed is dwindling. Some of the novels have been ho-hum but I am very much enjoying In Love with George Eliot by Kathy O'Shaughnessy.  It's been quite fascinating to learn more about the life of Marian Evans, who wrote under the nom de plume of George Eliot. Perhaps, when there are no library books left on my bedside table, I will seek out one of George Eliot's Victorian novels to read. 

Little blue & cream drawstring bag.

While my bedside table is emptying of novels, my sewing table has a growing pile of old linens from which I am making little drawstring bags. These are my favoured project right now. Each finished bag is tucked into my present box for later gifting. They are perfect for holding a washcloth and bar of soap or a few packets of flower seeds and a card. While I am often 'distracted' by sewing up these bags, I have made some progress on a couple of unfinished garments too. (If I ever finish them, I'll show you! 😄)

Early morning light along the path.

Each and every day too, there are early morning and late afternoon walks, with each other and our lovely Sir Steve dog, along the winding paths of our leafy neighbourhood. The Autumn light at these times of day is gentle and soft. Quite a way along one path, nestled safely into the fork of a tall gum's branches, there is a precious koala. With a handpainted sign at the bottom of 'her' tree, letting us all know she's up there, this fluffy native has become quite a neighbourhood celebrity! Can you see her way up high in these branches?

A fluffy koala in a gum along a neighbourhood path.

Just as this koala is settled and snug in her tree, so too are we in our home. In these uncertain times, I would not want to be anywhere else. 

Meg

Some Small & Simple Savings

The savings we make here are not usually of the jaw-dropping kind. While hubby saved 15% off our car insurance renewal last week, with a phone call and a question, most savings here are of the small and simple kind. They are the little things that save a $ here or a $ there. 

$2 for three little plants purchased from a school market.

(One plant at a nursery would cost more than $2 so three is what I consider a bargain!)

Homegrown tiny tomatoes for salads.

(I'm growing these in pots and they are fruiting well.)

A stale bread roll made into breadcrumbs.

(I froze these for later use.)

I purchased an "odd bunch" of pears.

(These are sold more cheaply because they are not quite "perfect".)

Free entertainment for a boy who loves flags!

(Perfect for when it's too hot to kick the footy at the park.)

$2 birthday cards from Big W. 

(Given cards can cost upwards of $5each, I bought 5 and saved at least $15.)

I mended the pocket on my son's school shirt.

(This weekend, I have to mend his hat!!)

I added these half-price crackers to my stockpile.

(My son takes a little tub of these with cheese to school for a snack.)

While none of these little savings are particularly astounding, they all add up. What simple savings have you made lately?

Meg

Out In My October Garden

Just a little over a week ago, our garden was as parched and listless as so many other gardens where we live. There'd been next to no rain over Winter and early Spring. The drought, that's had a firm grip on landscapes along our country's East, felt like it was beginning to bite in our pocket of suburbia. The view from my front verandah was hazy and dry, the grass underfoot brown and crunchy, the little creek bed empty and silent and the leaf drop from the trees was just incredible. Thankfully, storms have rolled through over the ridge here this week and brought with them replenishing rain. 

Homegrown Lebanese Cucumber.

In our garden now,  plants are beginning to bloom and starting to ripen. I'm most excited about the cucumbers. I'm growing salad veg, like lettuce and cherry tomatoes, in pots over the coming Summer as I expect it's going to be very hot and, despite this past week's rain,  very dry too. On a bit of a whim, I did plant a few cucumbers in the veg patch. Although they took quite a while to get growing, they've taken off now and the first little Lebanese cucumbers are forming. There is nothing like fresh, crunchy cucumbers straight from the garden! 

 One ripe and juicy strawberry with more yet to ripen.

A cluster of blueberries

 Little yellow tomatoes are starting to ripen.

Besides the cucumbers, there are strawberries, blueberries and little yellow cherry-like tomatoes deepening their colour as they ripen in their pots. Pick again lettuces and chives are growing together in pots too but up on our back verandah where I can move them out of scorching sun easily. Happily, and with abandon, flat-leaf Italian parsley and sweet basil have self-seeded too. Fresh herbs for free!

A fragrant Gardenia bloom beginning to open.

 The pretty pink flowers of Grevillea 'Dorothy Gordon'.

The deep blue centre of an African Daisy.

A pink gerbera beginning to bloom.

The first Gardenia bloom has begun to unfurl its creamy petals. The scent of these flowers is simply sublime. I can't wait to bring a little bunch of them inside when more open up. A new plant in the garden, an African Daisy (Osteospermum) which I grew from a cutting, has its first flower. I love its bright white petals and deep blue centre. So pretty! Another pretty plant blooming in my garden is a gerbera gifted to me by a friend. I love its light pink petals. The native grevillea, Dorothy Gordon, has burst into bloom in the back bottom corner of the garden. The birds are enjoying it very much.

 Supervisor extraordinaire! 

Someone else enjoying the garden is Sir Steve dog. He came out with me yesterday to 'supervise' the digging over of the soil where our poor avocado tree used to be. Needless to say, he did very little digging and opted to warm the soil with his tummy instead!

We've been fortunate to have rain here. There are many in Australia living through unprecedented and heartbreaking drought. I hope rain clouds gather above them soon and that nature brings the water they so desperately need. It makes such a difference.

Meg

This Autumn in the Garden

It was a long, dry and very hot Summer here but we've had rain. There is just nothing like heavy, soaking rain! Everything is lush and green again. I lost a few plants over this past Summer; even a tough and hardy salvia. My avocado tree didn't make it either but it was looking sickly even before the Summer began so we made the decision not to waste any more water trying to get it to "perk up".  I won't replant another avo but will reinvigorate the soil with our compost and worm tea and then try a second citrus tree in that same spot. While a few plants didn't survive the Summer and have been duly composted, there are some, like my pineapple sage, that are showing signs of new life after pruning and rain. 

New leaves on the pineapple sage.

The pots of Portulaca that I planted, to cheer up that oppressive Summer and thus myself, are blooming beautifully. I have not grown these before but I am loving their gorgeous colours. I have a creamy yellow, a sunny yellow and a deep pink one. 

Pretty Portulaca in a pot.

Our little native bees carried on with their work while we carried on with ours. They love the Portulaca flowers too!

A little native bee on a Portulaca flower.

Our hive of native bees withstood the Summer heat; its position under the shade of the back deck keeping the hive cooler. Native bee hives can perish in high temperatures.  The entrance to their hive has been a busy one at particular times of day and, as always, they remain fascinating to watch. I often get distracted from my gardening chores and find myself resting on my shovel watching them!

 A salvia popular with all kinds of bees.

We've also been watching all the different bees that have been attracted, like bees to a honeypot (Sorry...couldn't help putting that in!), to this vigorous flowering salvia. It's been very popular with our tiny native bees, visiting honeybees and even a single teddy bear bee. What surprised us though, as we've never observed it before, were the dozens and dozens of native blue-banded bees that have been foraging in its flowers. These native bees are solitary so seeing so many on the same plant at the same time sent me off to research why. It seems that, while they are solitary, they will build their little nests very close to one another, sometimes in the same spot, burrowing into clay beside one another. There's always something new to learn from observing the garden! 

I plan to take cuttings and plant more of this salvia around the garden. It grew vigorously during our hot, dry Summer so its hardy and it provided lots of flowers for lots of different bees to forage in. It's a great plant!

A honeybee clings to one of this salvia's many little flowers.

While most of the salvias did well in our garden, our veg patch produced next to nothing all Summer. That's because I didn't plant anything much in the heat and neglected it as I seemed to lose my enthusiasm when I found, all bar one, of the Lebanese Cucumbers I was looking forward to munching on had been munched on by something else first. A gardener's heartbreak!

Leftovers in our veg patch.

Yesterday, before the sun was too high in the sky, I cleared out what was left in the veg patch and was pleased to see that the rain has left the soil crumbly and moist. I will prepare our little patch, the same way I always do, and plant soon. Better late than never! I want to grow what is tried and true here. Some silverbeet, lettuce, Tuscan Kale, beetroot, perpetual spinach and leeks. I will start with seedlings and I will put in some sweet peas too. I always have to have flowers!

Yesterday too, I was reading (because when I'm not gardening, I am dreaming about gardening) about urban flower farming in this Planthunter article and then read Dahlias at Dusk, over on Kate's blog, Foxs Lane. Oh, my! I would love my own little urban flower farm and I've never grown Dahlias and now think I must one day.  I have also enjoyed reading what some of you are growing in your gardens and what your veg patch plans are. Inspiration everywhere! 

Better get on with the turning of garden dreams into reality! 

Meg

Zucchini Slice Muffins: Freeze For Later

Simple and nourishing, good 'ole Zucchini Slice is on the menu here regularly. It's usually baked in a tray but I make it into muffins because I freeze them individually. They are perfect for discovering in the freezer on busy nights when you've forgotten to defrost something for dinner. (Ahem! Yes, I do that more often now that I work outside of home a lot.)  A quick reheat and served with salad, they can be a saviour!

A quick and delicious meal for busy nights.

My Mum taught me to make Zucchini Slice and she never used a recipe. The recipe I use now for these muffins is based on the one from Stephanie Alexander in her cookbook, Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids. (Great for teaching children to cook!) I have fiddled very minimally with the recipe, namely changing from self-raising flour to spelt flour.  Here's how I make them in my kitchen:

Healthy ingredients for muffins.

Zucchini Slice Muffins

2 medium zucchini, finely grated

1/2 cup grated tasty cheese

1/2 cup corn kernels

1/2 cup chopped ham (*optional)

5 small or 3 large eggs

1/3 cup olive oil

150g white spelt flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

black pepper

tomatoes

1.  Put sifted spelt flour & baking powder, cheese, corn and ham (if using) in a large bowl.

2. Wring moisture out of grated zucchini by wrapping in a tea towel and squeezing over the sink.

3. Chop grated zucchini finely and add to other ingredients in the bowl.  Slice tomatoes.

4. Make well in centre of these dry ingredients.

5.  Whisk eggs and olive oil in jug or separate bowl.

6.  Add to ingredients in bowl and mix until just combined.

7. Put spoonfuls of mixture into muffin pan being careful not to overfill.

8. Place a slice of tomato on the top of each muffin.

8.  Bake in a 180C oven until risen and golden.

9. Eat when warm from the oven or freeze individually (and then thank your organised self when you 

   take them out of your freezer on nights when you've forgotten to defrost something for dinner!

Some with and some without tomato.

I was so very glad to find my stash of Zucchini Slice Muffins in our freezer this past couple of weeks. With a trip to the hospital's allergy clinic, carpets being ripped up and floating floors put down (half my house is still in my lounge room) and a boy on crutches, I was beyond happy to find them there!

Do you have a recipe that you learned to cook when you were young and that you still make today?

Meg

Stuffed Sweet Potato Boats

On a quiet night, where it was just me for dinner, I made myself some scrumptious stuffed sweet potatoes. Piping hot, cheesy and full of nutritious veg, they were so delicious!

 Simple and scrumptious!

I 💗 the flavour of roasted sweet potato and it is the roasted skins of this very versatile veg that form the hull of these scrumptious "boats". I just tossed a few in the oven and baked them until they were cooked through. Once they were cool enough, I halved them, split them lengthwise and scooped out the tender orange sweet potato inside. 

Bake and halve sweet potatoes. 

After that, I deviated from the original recipe a bit. Feeling lazy, I voted (there was only me so it was unanimous) not to saute onion and broccoli for the filling but to instead use up the leftover steamed veg from the night before. So, into the mashed sweet potato from the hollowed out "boats" went leftover cauliflower, peas and beans, a big blob of sour cream and a grind of pepper. All mixed together and it was ready to go back into the roasted sweet potato skins.

Refill the hollowed out sweet potato skins with generous scoops of filling.

Generous scoops of this lovely creamy vegetable mix filled up the hollowed out skins. All that was needed then was some grated mozzarella cheese. Then, back into the oven long enough for mozzarella to become all melt-y and stretchy. Yum!

Top with grated mozzarella cheese.

So simple and yummy! Not only are they full of healthy veg, they are quick to make once the sweet potatoes are baked. You could very easily bake a few sweet potatoes, if your oven is on earlier in the day cooking other things, ready for a quick dinner that evening. Served just as they are, or with a side salad, these stuffed sweet potato boats are a great meat-free Monday (or any other day) meal, a yummy way to use up leftovers and a pretty healthy option too.

Of course, because I was the only one for dinner, I got to eat them all up but you might have to make extras though if you have to share. I think they'd disappear quickly from the dinner table. They are so scrumptious!

Meg

p.s. I used sweet potatoes I grew in the garden here. No sprays! 

Scrumptious Silverbeet Parcels

While the broccoli has amounted to not much at all, and the kale is being munched on enthusiastically by creatures unknown, the silverbeet is leafy and abundant as always. Until I started growing silverbeet myself, my only memory of it came from a Nana who would boil it 'til it was limp and a sludgy kind of greeny-grey. Ugh! Luckily, I now know that silverbeet does not need to be like that and it's become a firm favourite as an easy-to-grow and versatile veg. There's a lot of silverbeet ready in our garden now and so I've been picking it regularly and making some scrumptious savouries with it.  

Scrumptious Silverbeet Parcels

These flaky filo pastry parcels, filled with silverbeet, spring onion, feta and herbs, are a version of Hortopita.  Hortopita is a type of traditional Greek pie. I was inspired to make these parcels after seeing them featured on a cooking segment of Gardening Australia recently. Here is the video segment and the recipe is written out underneath. The only change I made was to use chopped spring onion, instead of brown onion, because that's what's growing in my veg patch right now. 

These Hortopita parcels were a great way to use the silverbeet from our veg patch. Here's how they came together in my kitchen:

 Washed  silverbeet fresh from the garden. 

Warmed & wilted silverbeet and herbs with spring onions and feta.

Buttered layers of filo pastry.

Folding triangles to encase the filling.

Golden and delicious parcels from the oven.

Piping hot, flaky and absolutely delicious. A scrumptious way to eat what we grow, to use what's abundant and in season in the veggie patch. 

What are you growing right now and what are you cooking with it?

Meg