Homemade Rice Bowl Recipe by Me :)

Hi guys, 

Back again with a cooking post! I am very excited about this one because I made it myself and it has taken a couple of failed attempts to get it right. It's a vegan rice bowl, but you can make it vegetarian by adding some scrambled eggs, for extra protein. It is great to take to work or school for a delicious and nutritious lunch or eat at home for dinner. You can experiment with different herbs and spices to make a combination that you like and even change the combination of fresh vegetables that you use to incorporate some that you prefer. (Personally, I don't like cucumber with rice because I think it goes soggy. :/) This dish serves two people, give or take. One person can eat it or it could be divided between three. It depends on how hungry you are! :D It only takes about twenty minutes to make (depending on how long your rice takes to cook) and it is very easy to prepare. :) Here goes. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients 

• Half a cup of rice (brown or white)

• Two tomatoes 

• One large pepper 

• One large avocado

• A few black olives (I usually put about 10 in mine)

• Salt 

• Pepper 

• Spices/Herbs of your choice. Think about using herbs and spices that you would put 1) in salad like parsley or coriander or even basil and 2) things that you would use to spice up rice like chilli or maybe a little soy sauce. I use a few chilli flakes and lots of coriander.

• (Vegan) Bouillon (If you aren't vegan, you can use chicken/beef stock. If you don't usually put bouillon in your rice, add some salt instead.)

• OPTIONAL: One egg and two tablespoons of milk to make scrambled eggs

Other Assorted Tools 

• One small saucepan 

• One strainer 

• A sharp knife 

• A large bowl for putting everything in.  

• Forks and spoons for stirring 

• OPTIONAL: A frying pan and mug for the egg

1) Put one teaspoon of bouillon and half a cup of rice in a saucepan and fill with boiling water. Cook at a high heat. 

2) While the rice is cooking, chop up the tomatoes, pepper and avocado and put them in the bowl. Add the olives. Don't stir everything until the rice is added at the end because it can get 'soggy.' *TIP* Cross-hatch the avocado while in the skin and then scoop out with a spoon for nicely sized pieces. 

3) OPTIONAL:  Break the egg into a mug or small bowl. Add two table spoons of milk. (Add some pepper and coriander  - or the spices/herbs of your choice) Scramble at a low heat. Add to the bowl.

*If you have time, you can wait until the rice is cooked before scrambling the egg. Put some oil and onion in the frying pan, add the rice and pour the egg on top. Fry at a low heat and then add to the bowl.*

4) Add the spices/herbs that you have chosen to the bowl. I've added two pinches of chilli flakes, coriander and lots of pepper. (I love pepper :))

5) Once the rice has cooked, strain it well and add it to the bowl. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top

6) Stir well! 

Enjoy! 

Clare :) 

Tanya Burr's Healthy Chocolate Brownies ... by Clare

Hello everyone,

Easter is finally upon us (yay!) which means that I can eat chocolate again (YAY!). And I was browsing the old videos of my favourite YouTubers when I came across this video by Tanya Burr where she makes brownies that are apparently 'healthy'. (Obviously, not as healthy as vegetables but healthier than the classic brownie in the supermarket.)

Normally, I don't like cooking videos because the skill of being able to cook and enjoy it has eluded me and graced other members of my family. But this one I was interested in because when I see online tutorials for anything and then attempt them, their finished product is so much different to my finished product. But this one I tried. I'll link her video because I changed three things about her recipe: I used LO Salt instead of Himalayan Salt, brown sugar instead of coconut sugar and half a cup instead of two. This was because I didn't have Himalayan Salt when I was making them and my family as a whole don't use a lot of sugar in our cooking, even if they say we should.

Tanya's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtwBjpFoZow
Apparently, the recipe is also available in her book which you can get here

Ingredients I used:
1. 300g of organic Green and Black's Dark Cooking Chocolate
2. Half a measuring cup of pure virgin coconut oil
3. One cup of FairTrade light brown sugar
4. Two cups of ground almonds
5. A pinch of salt
6. One capful of vanilla extract (a capful being the cap on the vanilla extract, not the measuring cup)
7. One teaspoon of baking powder
8. One mashed avocado (a soft, ripe avocado would make this easier. You can't taste it because it is a second substitute for butter.)
9. 3 eggs

Other stuff (because I always find this useful in recipes so that I can get it ready)
1. A large saucepan
2. A wooden spoon/spatula
3. Measuring cups of different sizes
4. Three spoons for scooping and stirring and mashing
5. Two bowls (one for eggs and one for avocado) OR One bowl (for avocado) and one mug (for eggs)
6. A baking tray (made for cooking brownies, NOT cakes)
7. A knife
8. Oven gloves

Instructions:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Pre-mash the avocado. The best way to do this is to cut it in half, take out the stone, scoop out of the flesh of the avocado and put it in a bowl. Use a knife and spoon to mash it and chop it as much as possible but don't worry about chunks because once it is stirred in and cooked, you can't taste it anyway.
• Pre-crack and beat the eggs, depending on your ability to do this. I am very bad at cracking eggs so I did it before starting.
• Use the spoon to put half of measuring cup of coconut oil in the saucepan
• Break up the chocolate in good sized chunks and add it in to the saucepan
• Melt the chocolate and oil together on a LOW HEAT and stir with the wooden spoon/ spatula so that it doesn't burn
• REMOVE FROM THE HEAT
• Add in the brown sugar and stir
• Add in the ground almonds, baking powder, vanilla extract, salt and avocado, stirring well after each ingredient to ensure the mixture is as smooth as possible (by this point it will not be completely smooth)
• Add in the beaten eggs and stir. (I found a folding motion to be the best way of doing this. It also means you can mash any stray chunks of avocado that are particularly and ominously large.)
• Pour into the baking tray and put it in the oven for 26 minutes.
• Leave ten minutes to cool and then chop them up into good sized brownies.

NOTE: they are very rich in consistency so keep them small.

My ingredients

And there you are! You wouldn't believe how much difficulty I had trying to put all of these pictures into this blog post. :/ It was a struggle.

Anyway,

Thanks for reading, 

Clare