Peariac Puree and Red Bentil Burgers

Eveeeenig! It’s Friday folks! Are you feeling the Friday love??

Did anyone else catch Eminem on radio1 today? (I know, quite random) Gosh, the start of that interview..it sounded like poor old Fearne was trying to get blood out of a stone! I felt really, really sorry for her. He perked up a bit later in the interview, and did some great music…but his personality sure isn’t what makes me a fan!

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Wahey, I have done soo much cooking today! Oh my, it was bliss. I LOVE cooking, so much. It’s like therapy you know?? But before I got lost in the kitchen, I had a BEAUTIFUL Fuji apple – yes, the Fujis are back! I have missed them so, they truly are my favourite apple 😀 I also had my wheatgerm, and then went out on a 4mile run (sans dog). It was quite a nice one; 33minutes, first two miles were about 8.15 min/mile pace, last two back were more like 8.35 min/mile. It felt good 🙂

When I got in, I had a big EGM:

And then I took Poppy out for a 45minute walk. I was quite the multi-tasker – I was walking and reading trash Heat magazine at the same time; a pretty impressive talent I have there right? I should be on the final of Britain’s Got Talent tomorrow. Without doubt.

When we arrived back, I made dinner 🙂 Red Kidney Bean and Lentil ‘Burgers’, which I have aptly named Red Bentil Burgers. I’m just SO original 😛 If you wish to make your own Red Bentil Burgers, you will neeeeeed:

• 1/2 can of red kidney beans
• 50g ish lentils (dry weight)
• a small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I used 3, cos I am a crazy garlic maniac – you may want to use less!)
• a tbsp apple sauce
• a tbsp oatbran
• spices and seasonings (I used a cinnamon spice blend, as well as cinnamon and garlic salt)

Method:

Boil the lentils til they’re cooked, and drain if you need to.

Fry the onion and garlic for a minute or so, then add in your spices of choice:

Set aside.

Mash the r.k. beans, along with some garlic salt and cinnamon:

Then add in the apple sauce and onion, and mix in well.

Theeen, add in the cooked lentils and oatbran, and mix it all up.

Here’s the dirty bit – shape it into ‘burgers’! Aka blobs of mess; your hands will get dirty, it’s not pretty, it’s messy. But whatevers, that’s half the fun 😀

Chill in the fridge for as long as you want (I made these at like, 11.30am, and ate them later. I’d figure an hour would be alreet).

When it comes to cooking again, fry in a pan:

And cross your fingers they don’t fall apart!! Then, serve 🙂 Scroll down to my dinner to see them in all their glory…..

Superb job right!?

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My next mission was to make lunch, which consisted partly of – Pearic puree! You will need:

• a soft pear
• celeriac (I’ don’t know how much….a nice baby-fist sized chunk maybe? A bit smaller? I just eye balled :s)
• cinnamon and pepper
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Method:

Roast the celeriac til it’s soft (cut it into small chunks first)

Cut up the pear, add it to a blender with the celeriac, the cinnamon and the x.g.

Blend.

Serve!

I had mine with tempeh, cantaloupe melon, cooked beets (mixed with cinnamon and date syrup) and a tiny chunk of kabocha which looked lonely in the fridge :(.

I also had some Nature’s Path Cinnamon/Blueberry cereal and a few squares of chocolate; I totally feel like I haven’t had chocolate (real chocolate) in aggggeesss – I’ve missed it!

That was SUCH A GOOD LUNCH. Seriously. The Peariac Puree was sooo lovely; sweet, fresh, delicious. Make it!!!

So you’d think after all that cooking I’d be cooked out right? Wrong! After lunch, I made some blueberry muffins 😀 I followed the recipe, except for sugar, I used 1/4 cup golden natural caster sugar and a 1/4 cup soft brown sugar, and I ran out of maple syrup, so I topped it up with agave. Hardly things which make a big difference….anyway – the muffins:

YUM! Despite being totally totally stuffed from lunch, I still had one for my snack:

It was LOVELY! Crispy top, soft, juicy middle. Perfeq 🙂

Now then, y’all crazy folk already know what I had for dinner – my Red Bentil Burgers! With a side of (of course…) kabocha, parsnips, finely chopped and roasted fennel (note the finely chopped – otherwise it tastes too….fennel-y :s) and carrots. Oh, and I spread a bit of apple sauce over the burgers too:

Hooray! So how were the burgers? They were lovely! I really liked the apple flavour in them; they may not have held their burger shape well when they were cut into but tbh, it didn’t really matter…TASTE is what counts!

Well. I have quite the wild night ahead of me now – dessert (a muffin? PEAR chocolate crunch pudding? Yogurt? Time will tell), and Jonathon Ross – apparently Eminem, Christina Aguilera and Andy Roddick (my sister’s dream husband) are all on tonight. Should be good! Though tomorrow night will be better – AT LAST, I’ll be going out for my birthday meal! It’s been a long time coming…but I’m so excited 😀

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Question: Do you count walking in your exercise tally? I used to never consider walking as exercise, purely cos my heart rate isn’t up particularly doing it. BUT, then I heard that you use the same amount of energy (for eg) walking 2miles as you would running 2miles. So…if I ran 4miles this morning, and walked for 45minutes (about 2miles-ish), would that mean I’d *technically* used up the same energy as I would have if I’d run 6miles? It’s very confusing….

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OH!! I almost forgot! Something incredible happened – I went outside, and lo and behold, there was an ANGEL in my yard:

Precious! 😀

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Yabba

Yeah. Yabba. It was a word that popped into my head before I’d thought of a title, so Yabba it is!

Anyway, how are you all?? I had my first free day today! It was INCREDIBLE. I slept in til….wait for it….8.33am! I cannot remember the last time I slept that late! I properly jumped out of bed when I did wake up – all I could think was ‘ohmygosh I’m late!!’ – it was a great feeling when I realised I wasn’t 🙂

As soon as I got downstairs, Poppy was going mad, so I ate an apple and 2tsp wheatgerm, and then took her out on a run (after a picture of course :P).

We did a total of 3miles – 2.4running at about 8.30min/mile pace and 0.6 walking. It was good fun!! She was hardly tired though…in fact, for the first mile she was keen as!  I wanted to explain to her all about pacing, but she was having none of it. People are so resistant to change sometimes. Hurrumph.

When we got back, I had a fabulous Epic GM, with some blubes:

And then it was time for some horseh-horseh action!! I had originally planned to go to a big county horse show today – hence why Horsey Humpday was postponed – but when I looked at the class list last night, the only good ones were at 8am 😦 I didn’t fancy a 6am start….so Chika got some action instead!!

Beautiful mare 🙂 Her neck (from the allergic reaction) still looks pretty rum though:

Alas. I’m going to have to dig out a different sort of healing cream methinks….ANYWAY. Chika and I went in the school quickly first, then hit the trails and were gone for about an hour. She was SO happy to be out!

Hehe, excuse the slight blur – some of those photos were taken at speed! We had fun though 🙂 There’s nothing in the world as nice as a hack out with your best friend, in the sun 😀

Oh, and randomly before I forget, here’s a token photo of Tig, purely for my sister:

There you go Hannah 😀

After I’d ridden, I set out on a mission: To Buy A Dog Bed.

It was quite the task. I went to SeaPets, and saw SO many cute bunnies:

It was tempting to buy one of those instead, but alas, I just got the stinky dog bed. So far though, no-one has actually used it….again, HURRUMPH.

While I was out, I had suuuch a yummy lunch! I’d made a packed lunch last night, in prep for the show, but obviously I didn’t go….so I just had it in the car park 😛 It was tres similar to yesterday’s lunch: Part 1, a big slice of the lovely bread, with a cranberry chutney, spinach and tempeh:

And part 2, a roasted veggie salad: finely chopped fennel, celeriac, parsnip, carrot and grapes, the rest of the tempeh that didn’t fit in the sandweeech, and salt and pepper:

Both amazing meals!! Celeriac + parsnip is a match made in heaven!!

Post lunch and dog-bed shopping, I ate a pear before my mum and I took Poppy out for a walk. She’d got the afternoon off from work cos she’d had a training day, so it was SO lovely to spend some time with her 😀

We speed walked/gossiped for one hour, so we probably did about 3miles again…Poppy was getting a bit tired on the way back thank goodness, so I think she’ll sleep well tonight!!

For dinner, I had planned on doing lentil burgers – but I totally ran out of time what with the long walk and the dog bed mission (it took longer than necessary – SeaPets is right by Tesco….I’m sure you can work out what happened!)! So I did the next best thing; lentils, mixed with chickpeas and cinnamon, nutmeg, garam masala, garlic, s+p, as well as parsnip, kabocha and celeriac:

(That’s a 2kg pack of lentils, bought for just £2.25!! SCORE)

Good times.

I don’t know about dessert…..last night it was muffin and yogurt MADNESS, but I’m running out of muffins so I really want to make them last :s

Talking of muffins, I have giant plans for a rhubarb baking extravaganza tomorrow! My gran gave us some rhubarb a while back, so provided it hasn’t rotted away or something, I should be able to whip up something tasty 🙂 I think that means Google and I have  discovery date tonight….

Question: Do you prefer websites, books, blogs or your own genius mind when it comes to recipes? I’m all about the blogs and websites myself 😀

Have a good evening!

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