The Ration Challenge - Day Five

 

Day  Five - Breakfast - Boiled Rice and Dahl.

The second, larger bowl is the rice cooling down ready for my tea, this shows you nicely the size of the dishes I have been eating out of all week.  Usually I have been using the smaller of the two bowls for my meals and when I need a plate I always ... not just on this Challenge week week ... eat off what most people would call sandwich or side plates.

And this is the weight of dried rice I used for the two meals.  

I was feeling pretty full after breakfast just very thirsty, which I think is mainly caused by having so many salty meals, but I don't think I could eat rice without some salt on it.

After a doggy walk and arranging a family get together I set to on my lunch.

These are the ingredients for ...

Lidija's Bean and Lentil Burgers.

Although the mix was much sloppier than any I've used before I looked okay once dolloped into the pan.

While the burgers cooked away I made the wrap I wanted to put them on.  Another 50g of flour, this time with the addition of a teaspoon of Turmeric.

It looked and felt like I was playing with Playdough 🤣

I thought I had over cooked the burgers, but actually they tasted okay ... phew!!

The Turmeric wrap was a sight to behold.

And then once everything was cooked I assembled my wrap, first a layer of hummus and then two of the burgers broken into pieces.  I left the other two burgers to cool down before popping them into the fridge for another day.

Dinner - Lentil and Bean Burgers with Hummus on a Turmeric Wrap.

This was very tasty and also very filling.  I may even have been converted to wraps as they are not something I have ever really liked before, but maybe because that's the bought ones I have had in the past have been so stodgy and with not enough filling compared to the wrap part.

After an afternoon of blogging and doing lots of bitty bits I set too to make my tea.

I had seen onion rings done beautifully on the Facebook Group page and thought I would give it a go, as I had given my milk away I had to make the batter with just water and flour, and to be honest it didn't really work that way and didn't stick to the onion rings very well.

The centres of all the rings were gently sautéed along with some spices and then I tipped in half of one of my pots of dahl to make a quick curry sauce that I then tipped my last remaining chickpeas into.

Tea - Chickpea Curry with Rice and Onion Rings.

Although this looks okay, and indeed the onion rings were surprisingly tasty and very crispy which was good as I've not really had anything with a crispy texture up to now this week, the taste of the curry let it down, I should have just kept it simple and not tried to jazz up the dahl.

Just two more days to go for me ... but for some this goes on a lot longer!!

Thank you for all your sponsorship and support while I am doing this Challenge, together we are doing something wonderful.

My Fundraising Page

Sue xx

Having a Go at Lentil Pancakes

I decided I would have a try at the Lentil Flatbread recipe that I shared the other day via the YouTube link.  

I didn't want to use some of the Ration Challenge weeks limited supply of lentils if the finished result was going to be a flop, having the luxury of lots of time this year to practise things or work out an even better menu than last year is brilliant. 

So I weighed out 40g lentils ...

... after giving them a quick rinse I added 80mls/g water and left them to soak for about four hours.

Next I just tipped them into the small cup of my Nutribullet and whizzed them for a lot longer than you would think.  Three separate bursts of whizzing until there were no visible whole lentils or even large bits of lentils.

And then I sploshed the first bit into the lightly oiled frying pan.

The resulting flatbread/pancake even though very thin took a lot longer to cook in the already heated pan than I thought it would, and needed a bit of encouragement around the edges to not stick to the pan.  

With just a sprinkle of salt it was delicious. 

The second one was much bigger and fluffier as I was slightly heavy handed pouring it into the pan, it also was not as tasty and took ages to cook.

The third and final flatbread looked the part perfectly but tasted heavy and stodgy.

So I have learnt that yes, this simple little recipe works really well, but for ultimate tastiness the thinner pancake like flatbreads are the best.

I think I will be using perhaps 30g of my red lentils to replicate this during Challenge Week.

Thank you so much to everyone that has donated to my fundraising page up to now, every penny helps and some of you have been very generous with your pennies.

My fundraising page is here.

Thank you so much.

Sue xx

Crazy Days Challenge - Day 47 - Cooking the Books Challenge - MARGIE'S CHOICE

Margie's Choice:

Book 17 = Deliciously Ella Every Day by Ella Woodward (Mills)

Page 42 - Two Minute Toast, Two Ways

I decided to make the second way, which seemed the most sensible option as basically the first one might kill me, or at the very least make me seriously poorly ... I'm allergic to avocado!!

Well I definitely had the ingredients to this little recipe if you count my peanut butter instead of the specified Almond Butter as a 'right' ingredient.

Although my bread was on the thin side and not the sort of 'fancy toast' that this recipe should no doubt include.  I imagine it would be so much better on a couple of slices of crusty toasted sourdough, or a homemade loaf.

Anyway I cracked on and made it for breakfast.

I thought my small banana might be too small, but once mushed up and with the peanut butter added and then spread over my thin as thin could be toast it was actually a very generous amount.

It was tasty, and it definitely needed that little sprinkle of salt to bring out the flavours and also to take the edge off the sweetness.  Will I make it again ... in this format I don't think so.  I think I would rather just have slices of banana rather than it be all mushed up, it looks so much nicer and is a nicer texture to eat when sliced.

This is the final day of the Cooking the Books Challenge, thank you to all of you who took the time to give me the book and page numbers you wanted me to cook.  I'll be back tomorrow with a little round up and recap.


Sue xx

Crazy Days Challenge - Day 46 - Cooking the Books Challenge - CHRISSIE'S CHOICE

Chrissie's Choice:

Book 3 = A Girl Called Jack by Jack Monroe

Jacks third random pick this week but all from different books.

Page 3 had no recipe, so I went instead to Recipe 3 = Sunshine Bread

I sort of  had the ingredients for this one.  

Some self raising flour to top up my lack of plain flour and I had some chopped dates, that I chopped up a bit smaller to make up for my lack of sultanas.  My tin of pineapple pieces was twice as big as the one specified so I had to play a bit guessing how much of the liquid to use ... and finally my carrots had a bit of mould so I used the best bits of two of them, peeled and carefully checked over.

I followed all the instructions and ended up with a squidgy bread dough, it feels very strange kneading even lightly a bread dough with little bits of wet pineapple in it.

This amount of dough was supposed to make a one pound loaf but as you can see from this photo my ball of  dough even before the first 15 minute rising was already bigger than the tin.  So Alan who was passing said 'Why not make two one pound loaves then.'  

What a good idea. 😃

Sunshine Bread rising in the sunshine ... how very appropriate.  

I did cover it with a tea towel after this photo for the short second rise of 30 minutes.

Out of the oven bang on time and the little loaves looked and smelled wonderful.  The good thing about Jack's recipes is that they work every time.

We had a couple of slices each with lots of butter while it was still warm from the oven as suggested in the book, and then later we had a couple more toasted as it also suggests in the recipe.  Well it's important to do as you are told with something as yummy as this.  It is lovely tasting and a strange mixture of a bread and a cake.

I'll definintely be doing this one again.

Oh. and I remembered to re-label my now re-filled flour jar.

Come back tomorrow for the final day of Cooking the Books and  Margie's choice of Book 17, Page 42.

Sue xx

Crazy Days Challenge - Day 45 - Cooking the Books Challenge - MAEVE'S CHOICE

Maeve's Choice:

Book 10 = BISH BASH BOSH! - Henry Firth & Ian Theasby

Page 100 = Dough 3 Ways

The basic recipe for the dough doesn't call for many ingredients, and of course I didn't have the main one, Strong Bread Flour.  But I did have enough plain flour to give the recipe a fair shot.

Of the 'three ways' I decided to go down the pizza base route, to make it into a meal for our tea.

First rise going on under a tea towel on the work top while we went to pick up a prescription and have our daily exercise walk around town for a change while we waited for it to be prepared.  There were a lot of people around, so it was a very zig-zaggy walk.

When we got back I knocked back and then shaped the pizza bases.  I decided to do us one each and told Alan he could pick his own toppings from anything in the fridge.

I really did not expect him to add strawberries though!!

Alan's was a Tomato Based Mixed Salad, Mushroom and Strawberry Pizza ...

... topped with cheddar cheese.

While mine was a Green  Pesto based Red Onion and Applewood Smokey Cheese Pizza ... with no fruit except a few tomato slices!

I do have to admit that Alan's pizza looked amazing, and tasted brilliant too he said.  I expected the strawberries to cook down to a mush but they came out looking just the same as when they went in.

Mine was yummy too, but in a much more ordinary looking way.  It was a nice change to have a green pesto base instead of the usual tomatoey one.

The bread recipe made for a lovely base, nice and thick without being stodgy in any way, and I will definitely be doing this again.  We had a very successful evening meal ... and it was very filling, so perhaps I'll turn it into three bases next time, one each for us and one for the freezer.

Come back tomorrow for Chrissie's choice of Book 3, Page 3.

Sue xx

Crazy Days Challenge - Day 44 - Cooking the Books Challenge - HEATHER'S CHOICE

Heather's Choice:

Book 23 - VEGAN(ish) by Jack Monroe

Page 23 = Apricot and Sunflower Seed Granola

I almost had all the ingredients for todays recipe ... just not the required apricots, so I used up the last of my currants and sultanas, even picking out the ones in the fruit and nut mix to make it up to the required 200g.

I also didn't have quite enough oats, so I raided this bag of Muesli Mix.  Looking at the date on the bag I think I will make up a batch of basic muesli too, with the now sultana-less mixed nuts.  Might as well get things in use before they get too old.  🤣

It was a sticky, sticky mixture, but it tasted and smelt divine just as it was.

I left it in the oven for a couple of minutes too long so it is very dark and crunchy, but it is delicious  and will be so tasty with the vanilla yogurt that I have in the fridge.  So that's tomorrows breakfast sorted then, and a few more after that.

Tomorrow it is Maeve's choice of Book 10, Page 200 ... and there is a real surprise involved!!

Sue xx