Bunless Lentil Burgers

Lentil Burger Recipe

You will need:

3 cups cooked or tinned lentils (red or brown)
1 large carrot, grated
1 small onion, finely chopped or grated
A few small gherkins, grated
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder/chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander (you can also use a handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped)
2 eggs
Olive oil for frying

How to make the burgers:

In a mixing bowl, place the lentils, carrots, gherkins and onion, and mix thoroughly. Add flour, salt and spices and mix until lentil mixture is well covered. Lightly beat the egg with a fork, and add to the lentil and flour mixture. Mix until the burger mixture esembles a thick batter, and add water or milk if it is too dry.

In a deep saucepan, add olive oil and allow to heat through. When the oil is hot, spoon the mixture into the pan and cook until the edges start to darken. Flip and cook the other side, and then place onto a dish and allow to drain.

For regular burgers, serve on a bun with your choice of burger fixings. For a low-carb version, omit the bun and serve with salad instead. As I am trying to cut out bread and avoid carbs as much as possible, I prefer the bunless option. The small bit of flour in the burgers is enough for it to count as carbs anyway!

This recipe makes quite a few burgers, but you can freeze them fairly easily to cook later. You may need to add water or a bit more flour to get the consistency right – each batch is different. Add spices and other ingredients to taste, but make sure that all ingredients are finely chopped.

Tonight is veg breyani with sambals and yogurt salad… can’t wait! Honestly though, by the end of this week I will be so spoiled and lazy that I may forget how to operate my oven. The best part is that I have been eating properly all week, with no junk, no toast and no cravings for bad stuff.

Since I am going to be forced back into a decent regime when I start boxing next week, it’s good to get a headstart on the healthy eating front. Visit Urban Khana to find out more about their awesome menus and how it works.

So last night I had my first meal from Urban Khana, and I was rather excited when my order arrived. The packaging is really clever – everything was in this nifty multi-level orange container thing, which was in a cooler bag. Monday’s meal was 2 veg curries with rice, dahl and a spicy carrot salad – it was enough for supper, and then more leftover for lunch today (bonus!). The one curry was a mild mushroom one, with the other being a more spiced bean curry – it went well with the dahl, and was hot enough to matter, without being too hot (because I’m a bit of a wuss like that, hehe).

All in all, I was super impressed – by the speedy delivery and service, to the presentation, generous portions and of course, the fact that it was a delicious home-cooked meal. Being a single type workaholic who lives alone means that I am often too tired or lazy too cook, so it really is a huge treat to look forward to healthy meals delivered. No more toast and junk!

Tonight is veg pasta, and desert too!

Check out Urban Khana and browse their menus to see what’s cooking. If you are tired of having to worry about making dinner after a long day, and want to enjoy the luxury of healthy, good food delivered each evening, then do yourself a favour and sign up for a week of yummy food. The prices are seriously good, and the awesomeness of not having to make dinner for an entire week will be worth it, I promise!

Here are some of the awesome salads I’ve made recently:

1. Cottage Cheese and Sprout Salad – mixed sprouts, cucumber, cottage cheese, carrot, pear and red pepper.
2. Spiced Chickpea Salad – oven-roasted spiced chickpeas, lettuce, feta, cucumber and red pepper.
3. Warm Mixed Mushroom Salad – exotic mushrooms, lettuce, feta, cucumber and avo.

Tonight I start a week of yummy home-cooked meals from UrbanKhana (super amped for that!) – looking forward to a week of healthy eating to kickstart a new month in a good way.

P.S. I’ve recently discovered a divine tea from Five Roses – orange flavoured, really subtle and soothing!

While I occasionally manage to get myself into gear to make dinner, over the past few months I am finding it harder and harder to make time to prepare a proper, healthy meal. More often than not, it’s just easier to call Butlers, or make toast or waste money on pre-made meals that usually end up not even tasting all that great. So when I first heard about UrbanKhana, I was immediately won over by the idea of having home-cooked meals delivered to me every day. Being vegetarian, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t have much in the way of options, but after scoping out the menu, I was happy to see some great options – and even desert!

Of course, with my ‘time warp’ and overall laziness and ability to lose track of weeks, it took me a while to actually sign up with them. I’m going to be giving them a try in the next week or so to see how it goes, and already I’m feeling rather stoked at the thought of not having to worry about dinner from Monday to Friday – that means I can focus my energy on the things that count, like getting my work done in time for Isidingo, and enjoying some couch-time, and wine and yummy food.

For those who’re keen to learn more about UrbanKhana, check out the website – it’s pretty simple to register, and menus run on a Mon-Fri basis. It costs just R225 for a full week, or R55 if you want to order for just a single day.

Not too bad for the luxury of having freshly made food brought to your doorstep hey? Rather impressive I reckon!

Slowly but surely, I’ve been trying to integrate healthier habits into my diet. Detox diets are kinda 90′s, and can also be a huge pain to implement, but I find that adding little ‘tricks’ over time is a much easier way to slowly work towards a healthy diet. Here are some of the detox tricks I’ve picked over the past few months:

1. Asian red tea – found at Wellness Warehouse or health shops, a cup of this before breakfast and 3 more in the day do a world of good for digestion, weight loss and stress control.

2. Green apples – eating an apple or three a day gives you more energy than coffee, and also gives you fibre and other good stuff.

3. Cucumber – this yummy stuff is loaded with nutrients, and is also great for slow release energy, making it great as an afternoon snack.

4. Slow-Mag – magnesium supplements are excellent to combat stress and fatigue, and taking a good supplement like Slow-Mag gives all the dosage you need.

5. Water – add a few drops of lemon juice or a slice of lemon for an added boost, and drink around 6 glasses a day for optimal results.

6. Lite alcoholic drinks – preventing hangovers and beer bellies, Woolies do a great range of lite wines, while other good ones include Savanna Lite and the yummy organic Darling Brew beer.

7. Fresh herbs – since I started growing rosemary on my kitchen windowsill, I’ve been using it in a lot of meals, and also in the bath for a bit of zen boosting.

8. Green tea – my favourite is the peppermint green tea, especially with a bit of lemon juice; much better than coffee too and gives more of a boost than Rooibos.

9. Raw carrots – when I slice up an apple, I usually cut up an unpeeled carrot or two too, somehow they go well with apple!

10. Power smoothies – broccoli and blueberry juice, vitamin C boosters, fruit and veggie juice and anything else you feel like… just remember that drinking more than a glass equates to a massive fruit salad, so watch the calorie intake!

My biggest challenge is avoiding bread, and while I have almost gotten past the yearning for pizza, I still have to make a bit of effort to plan a healthy meal. I also need to get my ass back to gym and go for a run, but when I’m stressed out, my energy levels are the first to go, making it hard to motivate myself and get the heart rate up.

Still, the way I see it, if I can start eating properly, than that’s the biggest part of the battle done – abs are made in the kitchen, after all and not the gym.

more awesome than you'd think

I am addicted to these things, seriously. I don’t know what it is about wasabi, but the stronger it is and the more my eyes water and my sinuses burn, the more I love it. Crazy, but that’s wasabi for you.

5 Reasons I Heart Wasabi Peanuts…

1. Nothing wakes you up like a wasabi blast to the brain
2. The combination of sweet peanut and strong wasabi is a winner
3. These babies have all but cured me of the sniffles I’ve had this week
4. They put me in my happy place, quickly and smoothly
5. They are super addictive and not completely unhealthy

I think the world needs more wasabi… popcorn, chips, pretzels, the works!

This weekend I had a good mix of family and me time, with visits from friends thrown in as well as a lovely day out today with my mom. She took me out for lunch and tea, and got me a present or two (another pair of sunglasses for my collection plus Oh So Heavenly Wish Upon a Star pillow mist). We also chose a present each for my sister and her housemate when we were at Wordsworth Books in Gardens Centre, where the most gorgeous boys work… probably half my age, but too cute for words, hehe.

It was rather good timing with the presents as it turns out, as this afternoon I was roused from the start of my nap by the door buzzer, only to find my sister and her housemate here in the city for the tattoo convention! This called for a round of my special tequila and juice cocktails, and gave me a chance to check out the book we had gotten for my sister… Tim Burton’s Melancholy Death of the Oyster Boy and Other Short Stories.

Tim Burton’s manic, fretful and oh so sad little characters

This book is so beautiful, I have to get myself a copy too! The characters are all tragic and hapless, and with adorable little limericks and Tim Burton’s dark and twisted outlook, the stories are utterly bewitching… epic stuff indeed. The housemate got an Afrikaans crossword puzzle book, which he was very cuffed with too.

I am very jealous though, the main reason they were down for the ink convention was to fetch a Dutch tattooist who will be coming back to Piketberg with them to do a private inking session in return for a Murg piece she’s after. They seldom end up paying for any of their ink, sigh.

Anyway at least I’ll get to see what they get next weekend, hopefully going up there to see kittens – other peeps are coming down from Durban, so it’s set to be a bit of a party which should be fun. The fact that it is post-payday makes it even more fun, cannot wait!

For the rest of this gorgeous day in the city, I am contemplating risking a bit of a run… back has been a bit iffy over the weekend, but it’s such a lovely evening and dying to get outside for a bit. Will take it slowly and power walk if it starts hurting, but just can’t waste ideal running weather like this can I?

Hope everyone has had a stupendous weekend too, and let’s hope this next week is a corker!

I am now beyond poor, lord knows how I will manage to eat this next week or so until payday, but the good news is that I have a fab new haircut. Far more important than food, and besides, on this diet I hardly need much anyway!

This week has been quite strange, but mostly rather good. My intentions for Kelp revival tonight have been thwarted by family obligations sadly, but next Friday is the end of the month and will have money again (and maybe if I’m really lucky, a new dress) so guess one more week of this recharge and whatnot can’t kill me. I’m looking forward to taking my hair out, and with my back feeling stronger and better every day (although damn thing still gives me issues when I least expect it), and my heath and zen levels also on the up, really feeling quite peachy.

Some other reasons to smile about today…

* I am loving, absolutely adoring my new hair-do. It’s short and shiny and back to its natural colour, can’t stop touching it! Much as I try and grow my hair, long hair just isn’t my thing – I get bored so easily, and a choppy bob always makes me feel so much lighter and cooler… hard to explain. Also, the back of the cut makes my spine tat look hot.

* Peppermint Rooibos is quite possibly the best invention ever. Refreshing, delicious, soothing and turns out peppermint has all these super powers too, from nausea to colic, anxiety and tummy issues. I guess this makes it good for hangovers – no more need for awful Coke Zero!

* I got some lavender essential oil the other day. I use it on my pillow at night, and wouldn’t you know it, I sleep like a log. On Wednesday night I was asleep almost the minute my head hit the pillow, my last thoughts were a pleasant waft of fragrance and the next thing my alarm was going off. Thursday night wasn’t bad too, hoping to see how it goes.

I was working quite a lot on Thursday and sneaking bits of Sleepless in Seattle in between, still have one or two things to wrap up this afternoon when I get home from work. After a good week of eating properly and no junk, I am having urges for avo toast… but that is not quite as bad as pizza or junk I guess, so perhaps it’s ok to indulge. I haven’t had a cheat day yet this week after all, and avo is good.

P.S. I read an interesting post on Thought Leader yesterday about women and food issues… some valid points, but my argument is that diets and calories aren’t always a bad thing. Do you think that we should eat whatever we want (in moderation of course) or do you think that it’s not such a bad thing to be careful about what you eat? ie. are shakes and protein bars really all that bad, and is it the slimmer people who advocate the ‘do what you want’ angle or what? Thoughts please!

I had a tough session at the chiropractor today, toughened me up on such a hectic level – seriously don’t think I will ever see pain the same way again. It was intense. Nevertheless, it left me feeling rather fretful and fragile. Not great for the diet, birthday cake and the most deeeevine Four Fields 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc was sadly a necessary treatment to recover.

Rain…

Leaving work this evening, a soft rain was falling. The smell of rain on hot tar is something that will always remind me of Zimbabwe, it is such an African thing – summer rain is my favourite type of rain, and walking in that soft drizzle I felt my spirits lifting and a sense of overwhelming love for this place I call home. Washing away the grime and heat from the past day or two, everything feels refreshed and brand new. I love it!

Re-gain…

Well, some gains and some losses. The good news is that it’s a bit of weight I’ve lost, and it’s an old favourite skirt I’ve gained. I got the skirt at Second Time Around many moons ago, it’s seen me through some crazy times, sad times, good times and mad times. It has a history, and being able to wear it again is awesome on many levels. Even better? I am seeing a slow but steady difference from diet alone, so once I get back into the swing of things at gym it can only get better. Yay.

Tomorrow is Friday, I will be going to gym and then doing as little as possible this weekend besides working on the book, maybe some gym and Dexter. At this point, rest and recovering is my main concern, plenty of time for Kelp 2010 when I am better.