(NOT) Sausage Rolls recipe- my version

Hey Pals
For those of you asking- here is my version of the lentil "sausage rolls"

• 1 cup French (puy) lentils (or brown lentils)
• 3 cups vegetable broth or water- I used vegetarian "beef" stock cubes
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled & smashed
• 1 large granny smith apple, cored & diced- I used a Fiji apple
• 1/2 of an onion- diced
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 cups fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs (approx. 2 slices of bread)- 
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 3 packages of ready rolled puff pastry (thawed)
• 1 certified free-range egg (or 1 tbs cornflour/cornstarch)
• 2 tbs non-dairy or dairy milk
• cumin seeds and/or sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 420 degree Fahrenheit

Rinse the lentils and add to a medium saucepan with the broth or water, bay leaves and garlic. Bring to a gentle simmer and continue to cook for 25 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and lentils tender. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Take your diced apple and onion, and chop them as fine as possible. I just put it all on a cutting board and chop further with my knife. Put it all in a large bowl with the paprika, curry powder, breadcrumbs, balsamic vinegar, and cooled lentils. Mix it all with a fork- should be crumbly.

Whisk the egg(or cornstarch) and milk- set aside

Roll out the puff pastry- the tender flake stuff I used comes divided into two squares, work with one at a time. Flouring the surface is key otherwise it sticks. I divide each square in the box into 4 rectangles. You can make the sausage rolls as big or as small as you like, but I find that each rectangle of dough cuts up into 3-4 rolls.

Make sure to flour down the surface again or you will have a hard time lifting the rolls up to transfer to a cookie sheet.Arrange a strip of the lentil mixture down the middle of each sheet of pastry. I find it helps to put a bit of the egg mix down first to help it stick, also try pressing the lentil mix into a spoon before sliding that off onto the pastry. It will be crumbly.

Using a pastry brush, wash the egg/cornflour mixture down either side of the lentil filling. Carefully fold one edge over to seal the sausage roll; seal the edges including the ends and using the back of a fork press down gently to mark the edges. Brush the top of each sausage roll with a little more of the prepared wash and scatter over the cumin and/or sesame seeds.

Using a sharp knife carefully cut each sausage roll into sections and arrange on a lightly greased baking tray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes until pastry is golden and puffed.

Remove from oven and promptly enjoy with a delicious moutarde or catsoop

My recipe is adapted/copied and pasted from this original

http://www.veggienumnum.com/2011/05/not-sausage-rolls/

less than a week left

So chronicling my progress has been difficult as I was away for work, and then went to Fairmont with my family over easter weekend.

I had a bit of difficulties in Mexico adhering to all the rules as you cannot really just go and buy a salad most places. But I have still managed to not have any alcohol or coffee, which is pretty good. As well i have managed to maintain the rules about 85-90% of the time. We met up with some friends on Monday, and I definitely ate outside of the rules, as well as a late night snack I had yesterday.

I feel pretty good though. I have been on and off battling some stupid sickness for the last week +, but that is not too unusual for me. It seems with work I am always fighting off a cold of some sort.

I have also been enjoying drinking copious amounts of tea, and also did my second liver flush yesterday. I will have a kale salad for lunch, and maybe some GF pasta for dinner with sautéed veg. It is exciting that I will be packing my detox 4day lunch only once more and then i'm done! Just in time for my birthday too!

Day 4- Thursday March 29

Alright, so today was a bit of a fail.

I got in from work past midnight, so when I had to get up for my 8am dentist appointment I didn't leave enough time to eat anything other than a few spoonfuls of greek yogurt.

I still had my lemon water, but then I was out the door.

Then when I got back I had to leave right away to get to UBC for my academic advising appointment, so I only had time to make a green tea before I left. Unfortunately when I get home the fridge is usually bare of stuff for me to eat since Josh and I do not have the same tastes.

Once I got to UBC I was so hungry I started to feel sick, in order to not miss my appointment I went to tim hortons and grabbed a carrot bran muffin and a steeped tea. :( SAD

Then when I got home I ate a piece of toast with cheese, and tempeh bacon, and an egg on top DOUBLE SAD.

I felt so terrible about today's grand failures that I have made a super delicious giant Lacinato Kale salad for dinner.

I use this tasty recipe, but put sliced carrots, broccoli, snap peas, and sunflower seeds. I also subbed lemon juice in place of apple cider vinegar.

After dinner I did the liver flush that Joshi recommends once a week. It tastes ok, nothing too terrible, I wasn't exact on the amounts, but whatever. I picked up this EveryDay Liver Detox tea and am currently drinking a pot. It's actually not that bad, so I might make a point of drinking it once a night.

Other than being disappointed with myself for my poor lunch choice, I feel pretty good. I didn't have a headache today, but I also figure I got a bit of caffeine from my steeped tea this morning.

Tomorrow will be better!

Day 3- Wednesday March 28

Bad news, the fridge in my hotel room froze all my food. SAD. So I had to throw away all my vegetables, and last boiled egg.

Breakfast- lemon water, a GFmacrobar, and rice cakes with natural peanut butter

Green tea

Lunch- Carrot soup

Snacks- Yogurt(it survived the thawing) Edamame beans (bought at the airport)

Dinner- avocado sushi rolls (they were with white rice, but i'm limited at the airport with an empty lunch box. I also ate some soy sauce.)

Snack- Garden salad

I am having a really hard time saying no to condiments. At home I am happy to make a vinaigrette with just oil and lemon juice, but on the road it is nearly impossible to adhere to the no vinegars/fermented sauces rule. So I have to make concessions.

I had a splitting headache all day, I assume it is caffeine/sugar withdrawal. I caved and got a steeped tea with one sugar from tim hortons. It helped so I didn't have to take anymore ibuprofen for my poor brain. I know the caffeine headaches disappear eventually though, so I won't make a habit of it.

Tuesday March 27 Day 2

I realise that I labeled Monday as being the 27th, but here is the 27th round two!!

Breakfast- I remembered to drink my hot lemon water today. I really try to drink it before I brush my teeth so it doesn't wear on my enamel.

Ate a small greek yogurt (it was peach/mango, but I already bought them and wasn't going to throw them away) and a banana.

I did a work out before I actually ate my breakfast, then drank lots of water and had a green tea.

Lunch- Rice pilaf and brussel sprouts/carrots again.

Snack- handful of sesame cashews

Dinner- 2 eggs (made into salad with celery)

Snack- veggies and hummus with rice crackers, and an orange (they had free oranges in the crew room! so I caved)

I feel ok, mostly just tired (but that's also due to a later shift schedule)

dr. joshi's holistic liver detox

Now I have never, ever pretended to be good at sticking with something. I already even had this conversation last time I tried to start up this blog. However, this time I am chronicling something that has an end in sight.

I will be attempting round three of Dr. Joshi's Holistic Liver Detox. Whereas I usually dislike the term "detox" as it seems to encourage people to drink lemonade and cayenne pepper(which is really closer to a fast), I like this detox as it really just alters my diet enough to encourage me to eat different vegetables- and no junk :(

I eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and for the purposes of the detox I won't be going out and getting special local salmon fish and chips anyways (Damn you Steveston!!). Some goat and bison dairy is also permitted, but I will just omit dairy altogether as that is one of my biggest vices. One of my goals is to stop having the inane desire to eat cheese at almost every meal, and instead reward myself with delicious farmer's market specialty cheese once in a while.

Anyway, this time around a good friend of mine approached me to do the detox with her, and as much and I love my initial detoxing partner, her and I just didn't stick with it. I am not pretending that it will be a magical dietary revelation for me. I would just like to lose a few pounds, and cut down on some of my food cravings.

Here is my first entry- I will not be updating this online everyday- but I will be writing it into my journal so each day gets covered.

Monday, March 27- DAY 1
Breakfast- Green tea, Greek Yogurt, 1 Banana

Snack- 2 rice cakes with 1 egg(salad mayo mustard celery), some veggies with hummous

Lunch- Lentil rice pilaf and Brussel Sprouts+ carrots
Green tea

Snack- Rice crackers and peanut butter

Dinner- Mulligatawny soup (I make a few modifications), and some veggie sticks

How I feel-

The first few days are always the most difficult, as my body has a hard time adapting to eating less snacks, and far less carbs. I make my egg salad with a bit of mayo and mustard, as I am not too sure how else to eat it. I really don’t like eating just plain boiled eggs. However I have found a recipe for egg salad using hummous, so I might try that at home. Other than that I feel pretty good, not going to bed too hungry- just a little peckish.

tsk tsk tsk

So, another fail grade for the blog upkeep. Oh well, what can I say? I have never been one to maintain any kind of hobby on a consistent basis.
Hugues, or oog, or oogie, or wegway or weggie(my favourite) is getting a lot larger now. She still has an incredible amount of jam for brains, and Josh and I are trying to fix this issue.

Hugues is learning the sits and lie downs etc... in our apartment, but when we take her outside it is like she has completely forgotten what "sit" means. However I read something in one of my books as to how to try and change this, so I suppose I will be trying it next time we go for a walk.

This past weekend we took Hugues to Josh's cabin out on Baynes lake( 25 minutes from Fernie). We had a great time. She enjoyed playing in the grass, ripping up clumps of it as if she had been transformed into a small bovine.
She also enjoyed playing games with Jacen, and "helping" Chris with the wheelbarrow.










We also ensured to have the appropriate Weggie sacrifice over the unlit firepit.

So, the weekend was a great success, and Hugues got lots and lots of socialisation and playtime with my friends.









Onto more socialialising, today Hugues got to meet a nice big malamute called Noa. Noa belongs to my best friend Anne's brother, Michael.
It was love at first sight, lots of fun playing, even more slobbers all over poor Weggie's face. Not that she wasn't encouraging it though.
They had a grand old time with another dog too, I think it's name was Darby or something similar.
Once Noa and Hugues got to the park by the Lougheed house they had about a half an hour of more playtime. Or rather, Hugues stuffed her head inside Noa's mouth and got slobbered on.
There was also this hilarious game play where Michael and Noa slowly jog across the field and Hugues tries to catch up with them.
Michael and Noa=1...Hugues =0

Playtime with Noa was a great success, and aside from the fact that she really really needed a bath afterwards, we all had a great time. I cannot wait for them to get to play with each other in Mike's backyard.


I still hate this blog format, and while it is une piece de merde, i will attempt to update more
*i promise*
haha