Recipe | Freekeh Greek Salad

Recently, I had freekeh pointed out to me in the health food isle (thank you, Adrienne) and couldn't stop pondering what it was like. To be honest it wasn't the most excited food I've ever tried but grain alternatives are always nice to discover. It has a texture very similar that of a brown rice-quinoa hybrid. As usual, my salad recipes are super easy to interchange with your favourite ingredients. I was aiming for a slightly Greek inspired dish but feel free to make this dish vegetarian or vegan if you like by omitting the fish and cheese. 

Ingredients

1 cup freekeh

4 small tomatoes, diced

1/2 cucumber, diced

400g rocket

1 capsicum, diced

2tbsp olives, halves

400g tin tuna in spring water, broken up into chunks

200g feta cheese, broken up into chunks

1 lime, juiced

sea salt and cracked pepper

Cook the freekeh according the instructions on the packet. Mine involved cooking 1 cup of freekeh in 2 cups of water covered for about 25 minutes, until all of the water had been absorbed. 

Meanwhile, place tomatoes, cucumber, rocket and  capsicum in a large bowl and toss together. Follow with olives, tuna and feta cheese. Toss salad again.

Add cooked freekeh, lime and seasoning. Combine ingredients and serve. 

I actually didn't eat any of this at the time of making it and put it into containers for my weeks lunches. It keeps really well in the fridge for 4-5 days after making. 

Happy eating!

Erin xx

Recipe | Sustainable Breakfast

It may not be entirely obvious but my diet is incredibly important to me; diet probably isn't the right word either. I like the food that I consume to be the best that it can and not in an overly snobbish way either. I don't see the point in consuming food if I'm not going to enjoy it and if my body isn't going to receive multiple benefits from it. Of course I consume junk food but in the smallest of amounts. A big portion of my days intake is breakfast and I like to stick to the age old phrase: 'eat breakfast like a king.' My dear friend Joanna and I like to joke that we'd rather marry breakfast than any man; we really are pretty obsessed. This is my current breakfast routine.

Ingredients

1 handful of low salt, gluten and wheat free corn flakes

1/2 cup pura veda (a natural blend of buckwheat, sunflower kernels, raisins, sesame seeds, millet, pumpkin seeds, linseed, poppy seeds, chia seeds and amaranth)

2 tbsp of puffed quinoa 

1 banana, sliced

4 - 5 fresh strawberries, sliced

2 tbsp no-fat natural yoghurt

1 tsp honey

This breakfast involves only the most basic of steps: put all the ingredients in a bowl (in that order), mix and enjoy. Feel free to decrease or increase the quantities but I find this to be a fairly large breakfast that gets me through (not hungry) until about 12.30pm when I usually have my lunch at work. I also like to have a glass of Berocca and a cup of green tea with this breakfast as well. For people that don't eat breakfast (I know you exist in the masses) this may seem huge and how could I possibly be that hungry when waking up? I'm not usually hungry but I know I will be if I don't give myself a good head start. These ingredients also offer me a huge amount of nutrition everyday before 7am. 

I highly recommend eating a healthy breakfast like this everyday as an inclusion in a balanced diet. Let me know if you have your own versions as I'm always looking for ways to add and improve on my current combination.

Erin xx