More than just a rice cooker

I just have to have a bit of a rave. I am so loving the new rice cooker I bought a few months ago. In my endless quest to eat well with maximum effort, I am finding more and more I can cook in it!

As well as my winter main-stay breakfast of steel-cut oats, I discovered I can also cook the wonderful quinoa in the cooker. Then I experimented and came up with a wonderful meal base of quinoa+brown rice cooked together. And this past week - worked out I can do the same with a lentil+brown rice combo!

Very simply, I measure one cup of brown rice, one cup of quinoa or lentils and then add four cups of water, put the lid on and set to the rice setting. Once it is cooked, it clicks over to warm, so I don't even need to keep much of an eye on it. Out comes perfectly cooked grains/pulses and I can add fresh vegies etc to make a quick meal, either warm or cold. I can even reduce the washing up by just adding everything else into the removable bowl from the cooker.

I am going to experiment with all those other grains you hear are good for you.

I thought I would share the "recipe" I just made for dinner (plus two more meals for one).

• one batch of rice/lentil combo
• grated carrot
• grated cucumber
• advocado
• sun dried tomtoes
• walnuts
• goats cheese
• olives
• olive oil
• apple cider vinegar

Yum!!

My smoothie evolution

I first encountered Green Smoothies about six months ago. Up until then, I knew smoothies to be milk-based drinks, usually with banana or maybe strawberries, honey, yoghurt and that was about it!

But spinach???? Really???

I have come a long way since that first time I experimented by adding a few leaves into my fruit smoothie and was amazed I couldn't taste anything different. So I began adding more and more extra stuff, as I learned through blogs and websites of the endless possibilities.

Today, my smoothies are a densely-packed burst of nutrition at the start of the day, often sustaining me beyond lunchtime and are my go-to breakfast most days of the week.

I have been asked what recipes I use and, to be honest, I don't really! It is more of a process, drawing on a range of ingredients I keep at the ready. So, here is my "smoothie wardrobe":

In the freezer:
Fruit - mostly bought fresh and frozen by me, plus berries purchased already frozen - including: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, apricots ...

In the fridge:
baby spinach leaves, lettuce, organic yoghurt, flax seed oil, walnut or almond oil, green tea, juice, LSA and flaxseed meal

In the fruit bowl:
Bananas (when not affected by cyclones!), apples, pears, avocado, oranges, grapes, stone fruit and more!

In the cupboard:
walnuts, cashews, almonds, chia seeds, manuka honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, vanilla extract, raw cacoa

From these, I simply fill my blender to the top, add water (or green tea/juice) and whizz away!

I drink one 500ml glass for breakfast, mostly while I check my email and social media, sometimes as I drive to work. The other half either comes to work with me or goes into the fridge at home - it is the perfect afternoon hit of sweet energy and lasts several hours without drama. I have even frozen the second half and defrosted it successfully.

No two smoothies are ever the same but they always taste wonderful and give me a huge burst of energy. There is nothing like knowing you have achieved most of your recommended dietary intake at breakfast! The rest of the day is a bonus :)

Then, there are my lunches ...

Plan To Eat - what is your experience with the program?

Having a play with www.plantoeat.com and would love to here from others who use it.

We have done similar menu planning systems in the past and they did work well for us, but we moved onto different strategies. But as part of my effort to make lunches less of an after-thought, I am considering getting back into menu planning.

I am a little disappointed it can't (currently) import recipes directly from blogs, meaning I would need to input those manually. But I do like that it can sync with my Google Calendar, therefore my Outlook one (I have them auto sync) so I could see easily each day what to eat!

Our family lead busy lives and aren't always home when originally expected - I like that you can easily modify the servings.

Have you used Plan To Eat? Like it? Love it? Loathe it?