Vege tagine + spiced quinoa

For those of you who know me well, you'll agree it's a rare occassion for me to be found in the kitchen for any purpose other than for washing dishes (joy of joys). I'm not the master of spatulas, measuring cups or of wooden spoons (uness I'm winning one for the 'poorest efforts in the kitchen awards') mostly because Mr Elegantpaws does such a super job, that most of the time i'd really only get in the way.
I'm much better off lying on the couch with a glass of red watching something mindless on tv and offering supportive and encouraging comments such as, 'need any help dear?' 'oooh, that smells good' and 'when's it going to be ready i'm hungry' etc.

Anyway, since i've been on a gluten free diet, I have been keen to try and get a variety of grains into my diet so i'm not relying on rice and buckwheat. I have heard a lot about Quinoa (Keen-Waaa) so I hunted around for something easy I could make and I found this recipe:


Sweet potato, zucchini and chick pea tagine

It turned out really well much to my surprise, there weren't even any burnt bits in it from the bottom of the pan! It's pretty healthy with all the vegies and protein from the chickpeas. The quinoa is made in the same way as cous cous (I think..) and makes a good replacement in general.

I did add a couple of variations to the recipe:

- we didn't have any sweet potato so I used carrot
- I roasted some pumpkin and stirred it through the quinoa, making it super tasty and a dish you could probably eat on its own.  

It was quick and easy and I highly reccommend it for any of your friends who are vegetarian/vegan/gluten free/lactose free. Feel free to pass on the tasty food love!

xx

gluten free banana bread

I am a fairly ordinary cook. This is because my husband is great at it and enjoys it, so I get to sit on the couch with a glass of wine while he is in the kitchen cooking up a storm. I am left with a mountain of dishes at the end (mostly, because he likes to chop all his ingredients beforehand, putting them in every tiny glass bowl we have) but I don't mind because it means I don't have to do much in the way of cooking. Ever. This may backfire at some point....

Anyhoo. I am gluten intolerant and LOVE banana bread so I decided to venture into the kitchen for some baking after finding this awesome recipe online.

Some variations:

ditch the lemon and icing sugar topping, I make it without and it's great
I use 1 cup rice flour and 1 cup all purpose gluten free flour for some variety
I use brown sugar (it just calls for 'sugar' which is a little generic)
The recipe calls for one whole cup of butter, but I used half butter half vegetable oil
I add some cinnamon too.

It helps to buy some very ripe bananas and stick them in the freezer until you're ready to use them. But make sure you let them thaw out prior to using (yes, I was silly enough to try to mash frozen banana).

It was easy and fun to make and is DELICIOUS toasted with butter..... It actually tastes like real food which is nice for gluten intolerant people! Enjoy!