Time Taken: Twenty minutes
Ingredients: Quorn lamb-style grills, microwaveable
wholegrain rice, oil, veg & a sauce!
Hello readers,
Happy one week anniversary of 2015!! We’re one week into the
New Year!
How’s tricks today? I hope you’re pausing to read this post,
at the end of a very successful and fulfilling day. Today, it’s been a really blustery
day up in Newcastle. The wind has been HOWLING. I kept contemplating going on a
jog but it never did happen. My reasoning: I’m not being blown away before I
make it to summer!
So, before the weather takes off throughout the day in wild
Northumbrian style, we keep getting these beautiful, freezing mornings here
with really clear skies. It’s really impressive to duck out of the door first
thing and be greeted with so many colours up above!
Here’s the sky yesterday morning…
… and here it is today.
But, for today, with the gale blowing outside, I decided
that today was not the day for ducking out of the door. That was not on the
agenda. So I’ve been working from home instead! And it’s actually been
productive! I’ve spent my day toiling away cropping a chapter of my
dissertation that I need to hand in tomorrow.
When I hashed together a first draft of this yesterday, it
was 7,175 words long. Yikes! Our chapters are only meant to be 2,000-2,500
words long, so this was not good news. But when I closed the laptop today,
after some skilful editing, it was down to 2,900 words. It’s still over, but
that’s ok for now, so I’m feeling pretty good about life.
And how did I celebrate my fantastical achievement? Well, as
I was wearing three layers of warm fleecy clothes and it was sub-zero and dark
outside, and as I’m attempting Dry January, I decided to stay in and cook a
cracking tea. This is the youth of today, people.
But, then again, you’re the person about to sit and read
about my tea, so I think we need uncool high fives all around, everyone!
Basically, I made an awesome rice dish. This was based upon
a similar one I made a few days ago. And I’m starting to think I’ve hit upon a
formula for a really cool new recipe, so you get the gossip!
This recipe came about because I decided to buy Quorn lamb-style
grills to try. I hadn’t tried these before but there was a big sale on Quorn
for all the January dieters, so you know.
I also decided to by wholegrain rice as part of my own
health kick. The only one they had was microwaveable rice. This is something
new to me, but I can report that it works!
Here’s how to make your very own Lambless Rice…
1. Source the two special ingredients I just mentioned.
These are key. Turn on your grill.
2. Take one of your Quorn lamb-style grills and brush either
side of it with a little oil, then place it under the grill.
3. Chop up some stir fry-type veg.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: I suggest any of the following… Carrot,
onion, pepper, mushrooms, baby corn, sugar snap peas, regular peas, bean
sprouts, water chestnuts, spinach, tomatoes… or anything else you like really!
4. Heat some oil in a frying pan.
5. Fry your veg for 5-10 minutes until they’re beginning to
soften and turn golden.
6. Split the rice in your packet into halves, and place half
in the microwave to warm for 2 minutes.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep the other half in the fridge to use
another day!
7. While the rice cooks, flip your lamb-style steak over
under the grill, so that the other half can grill for a while.
8. When your rice is ready, tip this into the frying pan
along with a cooking sauce of your choice.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: I’ve tried this once with pesto and once
with a Chinese sauce and both worked fine. I imagine you could use a tomato
sauce or a curry sauce, or even just soy sauce maybe, and all of those
hopefully turn out well. Just whatever’s in your cupboard and whatever you
fancy tonight!
9. Mix everything together and heat through for a couple of
minutes, while you warm a dinner plate in the microwave.
10. Finally, tip your rice creation out of the pan onto your
plate. Carefully remove your lab-style grill from inside the grill, to chop up
and arrange over your rice. Then tuck in to your tea!
Here’s how mine worked out the other day…
Lambless rice with mushroom and spinach, served in a pesto
sauce.
… and here’s how it came together today!
Lambless rice with mushroom, baby corn and tomato, served in
a black bean sauce.
I think these look like terrific platefuls of food! And they
certainly tasted terrific, too. For the first time in a while, I’ve been
impressed with Quorn. Like, I’m not the most astute of tasters (Diet Coke and
Coke – different or the same?), but I can definitely taste that they’ve tried
to do something different with the flavour here. It’s not Quorn chicken dyed a
different colour.
And I like the taste! Seven years a veggie and this is the
first time I’ve tried fake lamb. And I don’t half mind it! To be honest, I can’t
really imagine what lamb tastes like. I know I’ve eaten it long ago, but it’s
not a taste I can bring to mind. So, really, Quorn could have produced anything
here, but I intend to keep buying it! And serving it with rice, because this
recipe makes for a delightful tea. Whatever it is, it has to be better than
eating one of these guys, right?
On my orders, you have to go give Quorn’s fake lamb a try
and also go try wholegrain microwaveable rice, and try putting them together
for a taste sensation. Then send some words my way about what you think of
this! Love or hate? Any changes to make? Any FIERCE opinions regarding this
recipe? Don’t hold back, readers.
Stir fry safely,
Hayley
PS. This is some insider information just for those of you
out there who, like me, have moved mountains with a piece of work today. We are
the chosen few who deserve this knowledge…
Basically, I had my tea and I was shattered from uni work, yada
yada, and I felt I deserved something wicked sweet and non-diet-approved. Yes,
it was a moment of weakness. So I fell off the wagon and made a chocolate mug
cake. As I made it, I couldn’t find the vanilla extract. But I did find in the
cupboard some orange extract.
So I splashed some in my mug instead, stuck it all in the
microwave… and made a Terry’s Mug Cake!
No regrets. This was glorious. The best
invention I have EVER accidentally stumbled upon. In my life. It’s astoundingly
good. But you didn’t hear this from me. Go quickly.
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