The weekly lunches

I combined D's weekly lunch & dinner last night by making some Spicy Black Bean Burgers from The Vegan Table. These are quite tasty - even though I did go very easy on the chilli (I'm not a fan of hot food). I also didn't have any red capsicum, so substituted half a tomato instead. The mix is quite soft & can fall apart easily, so you'll need to be gentle. This is another recipe where you shouldn't skimp on the flour/polenta coating - it really makes them easier to handle.And my lunch this week? A quinoa stew - pretty much like this one, with carrots, celery, tomato, corn & chickpeas. I also used red quinoa - I much prefer it to the white variety - it has a nuttier flavour

Sunday Baking - Winter Vegetable & Rice Stew

All I had to do for Sunday baking this week was prepare my own lunch for the week. I wanted to use some of the vegetables from last week's delivery so I lined everything up on the bench & picked out:

• 3 small carrots
  
• 1 parsnip
  
• 150g beans
  
• 4 potatoes
  
• 1 onion

I chopped everything roughly, then threw it into a large stockpot with some olive oil & garlic & sauteed for a few minutes.

I had planned to add pearl barley to this, but realised too late that I didn't have any. So I used about 1 cup of basmati rice instead, along with a 400g can crushed tomatoes & 4 cups of tomato stock. Finally, I stirred in 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp hot paprika, 1 tsp bouquet garni mix, plus some salt & pepper. I covered this & simmered over a low heat for about 30 minutes, until the rice was cooked & the potatoes were tender.

This turned out quite tasty, it will definitely keep me going through the long winter afternoons at work!

Vegetable Medley with Quinoa

Yesterday I really needed to use up the last remaining vegetables in the fridge to make room for today's delivery. So I just chopped everything up - beans, carrots, onion & broccoli, then thought about what do with it all. I threw in a can of borlotti beans, a can of diced tomatoes & some herbs. I was going to serve this with pasta, but didn't think they would really go together, so I cooked up some red quinoa instead. When that was cooked, I stirred it through the vegetable mix.

The result? My Vegetable Medley with Quinoa - a perfectly serviceable meal, but not outstanding. D ate it all though, which is saying something, he doesn't normally finish my meals. Rather than an example of a recipe, this is more an example of this kind of meal - the kind thrown together after a long day at work using whatever is in the fridge - my favourite kind at the moment!

The vegetable box from Garden Organics came today, it contained:

• Chard/Spinach (can anybody confirm this from the photo?)
  
• Mixed salad greens
  
• Broccoli
  
• Parsnips
  
• Carrots
  
• Beetroot
  
• Zucchini
  
• Green Capsicum
  
• Brussel Sprouts
  
• Beans
  
• Jap Pumpkin
  
• Onions
  
• Potatoes

It's all so fresh and beautiful, I can't wait to dream up some new recipes. I'm particularly excited about the beetroot - I'll use that for either a beetroot dip (if I'm being healthy) or a beetroot chocolate cake (if I'm being naughty); and the brussel sprouts - D is English and HATES sprouts, so I'm looking forward to coming up with a way to serve these that he'll actually like :-)