A Great Meal Idea

As the recession continues to tighten its iron grip on my wallet, I have as of recent been looking at meals that: a) Don't cost the earth, b) Taste pretty darn good, and c) Contain no meat in them.

Now, point (c) is a remarkable one, considering that I'm a born and bred Cantabrian. Now, before all you devout Cantabs slate me as a heretic, let's be honest. Vege-based meals are not that bad, and besides -we DO need to be getting a regular intake of fruit and veges. Plus, the meat we usually buy probably isn't all that good for us anyway (but a healthier meat option does exist, which I'll allude to in a future post).

So I decided to have a crack at cooking up a culinary masterpiece - with all veges and no traces of meat. And thanks to Food in a Minute, this little beauty presented itself.

Chickpea and Pumpkin Casserole
Almost as simple as it is tasty, this is a pretty good meal to have in the absence of meat. Try it one night - you'll be surprised.

• dash of oil
  
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (half an onion will do just as well)
  
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 500-600g pumpkin
• 300g can Craig’s Chickpeas, drained
• 400g can Wattie's Savoury Tomatoes
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup vegetable stock or water (preferably use water, as stock contains nasties!)
  
• 2 cups broccoli florets (you can use frozens, but will need to soak them in hot water first)
  
• salt and pepper to taste (this is optional, and can be omitted)
  

The method they recommend for preparation and cooking is pretty simple too, although I offer my own slight modifications at the end. But for now...

Method
1. Heat a dash oil in a heat-proof casserole or lidded frying pan. Add the onion and cook for 3-5 minutes until soft.

2. Add the garlic and paprika and cook a further minute.

3. Dice the pumpkin and add to the pan with the drained Craig’s Chickpeas, Wattie’s Savoury Tomatoes, raisins and stock or water. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Add the broccoli to the casserole, cover and simmer for a further 5 minutes until the vegetables are all tender.

My Suggestion: This meal goes pretty good with rice. For two people, a cup of rice should suffice. I use a microwave Rice Cooker to do my rice, but stovetop works just as well too. Once you've done added the broccoli as per Step 4, you will most likely need to leave it in for more than five minutes. The reason for this is to allow your veges, particularly the pumpkin, to soften up and integrate well with the rest of the casserole. I usually allow roughly 15-20 minutes on a low setting for this to happen.

Then all you have to do is split the rice, and lay the casserole on the top. Simple. Delicious.

And the best part? For two people, you don't even have to serve the WHOLE lot! You can serve a quarter of the total casserole to each plate, which leaves half of it for the next night's dinner. Two meals for the price of one. All you have to do for the second night is another cup of rice, whilst reheating the casserole. Easy as that!

Welcome to Christian Health Freak

Hello there, and welcome to my newest blog spot, Christian Health Freak. While my other blog is a space for me to share my thoughts, feelings and musings about this thing called 'Life', this area is reserved for numerous writings about food, health and nutrition, whether posts are written by me or sourced from elsewhere (with references, of course).

The Reason Behind This Blog
I suppose, like nearly everything that goes on in the world, there is a beginning point to this blog. I mean, how and why on earth did I even bother to write this post, much less craft this blog? If you have the time, please feel free to read on...

For the week just been (beginning July 20), I had been crook for the weekend, which pretty much sidelined me for the entire week. Since I couldn't really go to University, I stayed at home, bored, unmotivated...you get the picture. During the time I spent trying to rest and recover, I had a lot of time to think about things. I decided to reflect on my own life, and my lifestyle choices.

Inspired by a much needed move I had to make in my life, I sought about looking at my own diet. The reasons for this are plethora, but the main underlying reason was simply this: I wasn't getting any younger. I'm still not. And, putting it frankly, I needed to watch what I ate. You can imagine that, as a uni student, I don't exercise much. While I could easily make the time to do even simplistic fitness routines, I don't. I lack any sort of motivation to do anything about my fitness levels.

But when you think about it, doing ANY form of fitness for ANY amount of time is utterly pointless UNLESS you have the diet to back it up. In other words, there is little point in me running 10km a day, for 5 days a week, only to come home and plough into a bag of sweets or a truckload of two-minute noodles (which I am quite prone to doing). It's not rocket science to see that, in eating copious amounts of crap food, I am reversing ALL of the time spent doing any of that running. What a waste!

So, I have decided to do something about it. I am going to, in small successive steps, change my diet for the good of my health and wellbeing.

But you may be wondering, Big deal! Why tell US about it? Another reason is that, because I have become quite passionate about healthy dieting and eating habits, I want to inform anyone who wishes to listen to what I am sharing. I am convinced that there are a lot of foodstuffs being purchased that we simply do not need in our diets. And I am quite convinced that the general public are not well informed about what is really in our foods. For example, does Coke Zero contribute to weight loss? Or does it actually make you put on weight? That will be the subject for a future post, but simply put: if I encounter something cool - or important - in my quest for a better, healthier diet, I will share it with all of you.

What To Expect
Having shared the purpose behind this blog, here is what you will expect to find in the posts that I write in the future.

I will seek to hunt out foods (and food combinations) that I have made my own in terms of my diet, foods that will genuinely give me what the human body needs in order to function properly.

I will also seek to decode and expose those funny little additives and the like, those things that seem all to common on the supermarket shelves. For example, ever notice that nearly every emulsifier on a packet of whatever is always written as a number? Did you know that a large bulk of those numbers are NOT good for you? If I find a number that positively SUCKS for your health and wellbeing, I will shed the spotlight on it. Most people simply do not take the time to research the ingredients that appear in most foods, but these days I seem to be doing a lot of self-guided research. If you don't feel like doing the hard-nose research, allow me to do that for you.

Also, if you yourself encounter anything adverse in your foods, and you'd like me to delve a little deeper, then feel free to leave a comment, outlining the questionable ingredient. You never know - it just might make it into a blog post. After all, your health is at stake!

But Just To Clarify...
I'm not a food scientist. Not by a long shot. Although I mentioned university, I actually study Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics, and prior to this, I earned a Theology degree from Laidlaw College (formerly Bible College of New Zealand) - hardly what I'd call the core prerequisites for being a Food Biologist!

Instead, I'm an average, everyday New Zealander, one of over six billion human beings. I'm just like you. I'm a guy whose concerned over the food that I eat, the amount of stuff that gets jammed into food these days. And I want to raise awareness to anyone who wishes to visit and read my posts.

There are a lot of conflicting messages and differing opinions about food today. This blog is dedicated to getting past the marketing hype and giving it to you straight. I don't have any pre-hidden agendas - except one: an agenda to be a healthier person. That's a pretty good agenda to have.

And so once again, welcome to Christian Health Freak!