AVOCA”DO” THE RIGHT THING!

Karina’s Lean Avocado & Chicken Burgers!

This burger is great for your health. Get some into your belly and enjoy 🙂

Ingredients:

Mixture:

• 500 g lean chicken mince
• 1 very small pink or red onion, diced finely
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 200 g peeled sweet potato, grated finely
• 1/12 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons of fresh and roughly chopped parsley, stalks removed

Additional:

• Sweet chilli sauce to serve
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil, to line baking tray
• 1 handful of fresh rocket leaves to serve
• 4 crusty and fresh low GI rolls e.g. wholemeal, soy & linseed, or any Low GI bread rolls you like.
• 1 medium avocado to serve, sliced thinly.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200°C.

While your oven is preheating, place all your mixture ingredients into a large bowl, then mix well using a wooden spoon. Once your mixture is well combined, mould your mixture into four large patties, then set aside.

Line your baking tray using olive oil, ensuring your baking tray is cool to the touch and is not hot. Place your four large patties onto your lined baking tray, then place into your preheated oven and bake, for 35 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Once cooked, turn your oven to ‘off.’

Compiling the Beauty:

Lightly toast your fresh bread rolls, then cut each roll in half. Place a few rocket leaves on the base of your bread roll. Place one chicken patty on top of your rocket. Top with your avocado, a dollop of sweet chilli sauce, then close your burger with the crispy top.

Repeat with the other three burgers.

Serves 4

Enjoy!

Karina x

Copyright © 2015 by Karina Teuma

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Nice To ‘Meat’ You!

Karina’s Healthy Cooking Tip!

Normally, I would say, It’s nice to ‘meat’ you, however, not today. In fact, my latest tip is all about saying no to meat, every now and then, so that you can try to avoid ‘meat’ing with bad health issues down the track.

By saying no to meat every now and then, you are essentially improving your health, in many ways, including, but not limited to, the following:

• You are improving your heart health, by avoiding eating too much meat
• You may be able to control your weight easier, in conjunction with regular exercise
• You may reduce your likelihood of contacting some preventable diseases
• Eating fresh fruits and vegetables may make you appear younger, due to the quantities of antioxidants found in these foods
• Prepared in the most natural form, you will consume far less saturated fat eating fresh vegetables, than you would eating meat

So, until we ‘meat’ again, lets hope everyone incorporates more vegetables in their diets 🙂

Have fun in the kitchen!

Karina x

Copyright © 2015 by Karina Teuma

Feeling ‘Souper’ Excited!

Karina’s Super Healthy Chicken and Vegetable Soup with Buckwheat Noodles!

Ingredients:

– 300 g chicken thai fillet, fat removed, cubed small

– 3 cm x 3 cm cubed piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated

– 3 cloves of garlic, finely grated

– 1 pinch of black pepper

– 3 tablespoons of soy sauce

– 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil

– 100 g buckwheat noodles per person, cooked to packet directions

– 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce

– 1.5 litres of water

– 3 teaspoons of vegetables stock powder

– 3 shallots, roughly chopped

– 40 g kale, roughly chopped (including stems)

– 100 g red spinach (or green spinach), roughly chopped (including stems)

– 400 g sweet potato, peeled and cubed

– 1/2 teaspoon samba sakso (or red chilli paste)

– 1 x 400 g corn kernels

Method:

Using a medium sized pot, bring 1.5 litres of water to the boil, adding the stock powder to form a vegetable stock. Once water has been brought to the boil, add your garlic, chilli, ginger, sweet potato, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce and black pepper. Boil for 8 minutes, or until sweet potato is cooked.

Note: while your sweet potato is cooking, you can cook your buckwheat noodles as per packet directions. Aim for 100 g of buckwheat noodles per person. After buckwheat noodles have cooked, strain well, then place at bottom of serving bowls.

After your sweet potato has cooked, turn the heat down to a simmer, then add your corn, red spinach, kale, shallots and chicken to the pot. Put the lid on, then cook for 5 minutes.

Compiling the Beauty:

After 5 minutes are over, or when the chicken has cooked, turn the heat to off, then pour the hot and nourishing soup over your buckwheat noodles.

Savour your nourishing bowl of beautiful, healthy soup!

Serves 4

Enjoy!

Karina x

Copyright © 2015 by Karina Teuma

These aren’t ‘won-ton’ wontons!

Karina’s light and Spicy Chicken ‘wonton’ soup!

Ingredients:

For the Wonton filling:

– 150 g chicken thigh fillets, fat removed, cubed into tiny pieces

– 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated

– 1 large pinch of black pepper

– 1/2 a teaspoon of Mexican hot sauce

– 22 egg pastries

– 3 drops of sesame oil

To seal the Wontons:

– 1 small cup of cold water

For the Wonton Broth:

– 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

– 3 teaspoons of vegetable stock powder

– 1 pinch of black pepper

– 1.5 litres of water

– 1 teaspoon of Mexican hot sauce

– 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

– 150 g carrots, sliced thinly

– 1 shallot, sliced thinly

Method:

Clean your kitchen bench well, wipe dry, then lay your wonton wrappers across your kitchen bench.

Make your wonton filling by combining all the ingredients for the wonton filling together, in a small bowl, then mix well to combine. Scoop 1/2 a teaspoon of wonton mixture into each wonton, then lightly brush two sides of the wonton wrapper with water (it should be the two sides that form a triangle). Fold your wonton wrapper over, to form a sealed triangle shape. You can either have triangle wontons, or you can experiment with different shapes.

Make your wonton broth, by combining all the ingredients for the wonton broth, except the shallot. Bring this mixture to the boil, then add all your wontons, being careful to stir the broth well so that the wontons do not stick together. Boil the wontons in the wonton broth for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken cooks and the wontons are nice and plump. Once cooked, add your shallot, then turn the heat to ‘off.’

Compiling the Beauty:

Grab a large soup bowl, then pour your broth and wontons in this bowl.

Sit in a warm place to enjoy your comforting and spicy soup.

Enjoy!

Karina x

Copyright © 2015 by Karina Teuma

Having a ‘ball’ of a time!

Environmental Tip: Making Seedballs, thanks to http://www.milkwood.net !

On the 31/05/15, Milkwood held a free class on making seed balls and talking permaculture. I was engaged the whole time and even got to make my own seed balls, then take them home! What an awesome day!

All credit goes to http://www.milkwood.net for showing me how to make Seedballs, what they are and how good they are for the environment.

Seedballs are made from the below ingredients:

– 3 parts clay

– 1 part compost

– 1 part seeds (we used a combination of lettuce seeds and parsley seeds)

– Enough water (just to make it damp enough to roll into balls)

The method:

Mix three parts clay, with one part compost, then one part seeds (whichever vegetable seeds you like), then pour just enough water to make the mixture moist.

Using your hands, roll the mixture into tiny balls (about 1.5 cm in diameter).

Lay out to dry in a sheltered/shady position for approximately 2 days, then store with plenty of ventilation, until you’re ready to use them.

Using the Beauty:

Simply roll these little beauties into your veggie garden, on the ground wherever there is soil, or simply on the grass in your backyard. It really is this simple.

How these Beauties Work:

Once these beauties make contact with the soil, all they need is a heavy downpour of water, be this by the rain, or man-made rain i.e. the tap. The idea behind these Seedballs, is that the seeds within the Seedball, become protected right until they germinate. This means that birds will not be able to peck at these seeds, as the seeds become protected within this clay/compost/seed/water mixture, allowing the plant to fully develop and to become resilient to wildlife.

Now this, people, is such a clever idea! I’ve got a few at home ready to simply roll into my garden!

Now, you can say you have had a ‘ball’ of a time!

Have fun in the garden!

Karina x

‘Veg’-etating!

Eat Better, Environment, FAMILY, Food, Food Ritual, fresh, gardening, Healthy, Kids, vegetables, zerotohero

via ‘Veg’-etating!

‘Veg’-etating!

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

Why ‘veg’-etate, when you can start your own vegetable garden!

There are soo many benefits of having your own vegetable garden and even more benefits, if you start from seed!

Some benefits of growing your own vegetable garden, include:

– You save money by not having to buy your own vegetables

– You will improve your family’s health

– You will help the environment, by not having to drive to the grocery store to buy your vegetables

– Your food will taste better and be better for you, since it would be incredibly fresh

– You can trust where your food came from, since you grew it yourself

– Growing vegetables is much easier than it sounds and will give you great pride, joy and a strong sense of accomplishment!

By growing your own vegetable garden, you are teaching kids where food originates from. This is what this world needs: more children learning about good, natural and nutritious food. Besides, you’ll get to see how happy kids get, when one of their seeds they planted, turns into a vegetable! Once your kids grow into adults, then have kids of their own, they will then be able to pass down this sacred food ritual to their kids too. Now, this is what awesomeness is made from!

You don’t need heaps of land to grow a vegetable garden. All you need is a lovely garden bed in your backyard, which will maximise space, create depth and retain nutrients for your vegetables. Now, theres no point ‘vegetating,’ is there? Sorry, my ‘Dad jokes’ are terrible 🙂

One way to get kids to start gardening, would be to make your own garden bed and then have your kids help you plant seeds. If you don’t have a garden at all, fear not: you can make a garden bed for your balcony or porch! Let’s maximise space people and have fun at the same time 🙂

Now, let’s stop ‘veg-etating’ and start gardening!

You will be incredibly proud of what you have planted from seed!

Enjoy!

Karina x