Cheat's Mediterranean Risotto

It is a really cold winter this year and I seem to be craving comfort foods hardcore, thankfully being vegan means that mean high fat comfort food is still readily available (HELLO HOT CHIPS!) unfortunately I really really want to try to eat high carb low fat plant based dinners so that means that when it comes to comfort food it means making the real deal that normally takes a little bit of time.
Monday night I was craving risotto more than I though humanly possible but CBF standing at the stove for a couple hours and cooking so I came up with this sneaky little recipe that took me about 1/2 to cook and most of that was leaving a pot on the stove cooking.
Here is one of my new favourites.......

So my cheat's Mediterranean Risotto is really just baked veggies with pearl barley instead of rice but hey it gave the desired effect and filled my risotto craving without standing around WIN!

• 1 Zucchini chopped
• 1/2 Eggplant chopped
• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 leek chopped
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic crushed
• 1/3 Cup Pearl Barley
• 1 Cup Salt Reduced Vegetable Stock
• 1 Bunch Broccolini
• 1 tsp Mediterranean spices

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Chop the Eggplant, Zucchini and Broccolini into cubes and place on a baking tray, drizzle the veggies with half the olive oil and Mediterranean spices then place in the oven for 15 minutes or until crispy.

3. In a large pan place the other half of the oil, the crushed garlic, chopped leek and chopped onion then allow to sweat down on a medium heat for around 5 minutes or until translucent.

4. Once the onions, garlic and leek have cooked down add the vegetable stock and 1/4 cup of water. 

5. Place the pearl barley into the pan, bring to the boil then reduce heat and leave to simmer for around 15 minutes.

6. Once the pearl barley has absorbed most of the vegetable stock turn the heat back up to high and stir continuously until the stock has completely cooked down.
7. Add the roasted vegetables to the barley mixture and toss to combine, then serve.

• Servings: 2
• Calories: 248
• Fat: 3 g 
• Carb: 51 g  
• Fiber: 11 g 
• Protein: 8 g 
• Sugar: 11 g
• Sodium: 562 mg 

Well there you have it, a cheats way at achieving a high carb low fat plant based comfort dish which doesn't take hours to make. 
Do you have any recipes I should try? Did you try this recipe? What did you think?

I AM VEGAN.

"The world owes you nothing. 

It was here first"

- Mark Twain

I have been willing myself to write this blog post for the last few months but just seem to have enough courage to put the words down and push publish. A lot of things have changed for me in the past few months.....
.......my manager just up and quit leaving me in the deep end. .......I found out a family friend's son who had a kidney transplant died recently after rejection which scared everyone. .......I also found out trying for children could put my kidney transplant in jeopardy which has been messing with my head.  .......I decided to become a vegan and spent the June living off hot chips and oreo's before getting organised and making the transition to plant based veganism.
So that brings you up to speed pretty quickly, I have spent the last few months really contemplating my life, who I wish to be and where I want to go from here which has meant that I have spent the last few months emotionally raw and not able to place my emotions onto my blog. It may have taken a couple of months but I am finally ready.....

Why Vegan I hear you ask....
//KIDNEY HEALTH// As someone living with a kidney transplant it is obvious that I want to ensure that I eat foods that will prolong my transplant. Animal products are tuff work for our kidneys to remove from our blood into our urine and when you only have one, that wasn't originally yours it has to work overtime to prevent build ups in your blood. Since removing animal products from my life I have had my levels checked and the creatine (junk in your blood) has decreased dramatically, I can't be happier.
//WEIGHT LOSS// Lets face it, shoveling mounds of processed foods into my body verses shoveling mounds of plant based foods will show a decrease in my weight which can only be looked at as a happy side effect of eating a plant based lifestyle so I will happily reap those benefits.
//ETHICAL// The average America (I am sure this is true for the average Australian too) consumes over 130 shellfish, 40 fish, 26 chickens, 1 turkey, 1/2 pig and 1/10th of a cow. If you think about that number it really is quite shocking number of creatures that have to die because meat supposedly tastes better or is more filling. I think that everyone has the right to their own opinion but personally I can't wrap my head around a animal dying so I can eat when they don't have too.
//ENVIRONMENTAL// It requires at least 7kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef, raising animals for food uses 30% of the earth's mass, more than 2/3rds of the land is used for growing fodder for livestock's, 18% of the greenhouse gases are caused by livestock, it requires 249 gallons of water for 4.15 pounds of potatoes versus 12,009 gallons for a pound of beef and finally if everyone in america went vegan we could feed 800 million people just with the grain that is currently fed to livestock.
//COOKING// I never really enjoyed cooking but since becoming vegan I have found a new love for cooking, a new love for vegetables, herbs and spices. I love creating amazing meals that even my still meat eating husband can't say no too. 

Those are just a few of the reason's I have become a plant based vegan, I don't expect to change someone's opinion on what to eat as it is a extremely personal, my husband still eats meat and that is his choice. I have struggled writing this post as I was concerned that people would be rude and expect that I am a judgmental-hate-spouting-negative-superiority-vegan that seems to be popular these days but I promise I am not, I am here to post what I think are delicious and fun recipes that just happen not to contain any animal products.
If you would like to look into veganism a little more I suggest the following links:
//YOUTUBE// Earthlings 101 Reasons To Go Vegan Gary Yourofsky's Best Speech You'll Ever Hear
If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls

//BLOGGERS// Oh She Glows Minimalist Baker Healthy Happy Life Connoisseurus Veg Running on Real food This Rawsome Vegan Life Hell Yeah It's Vegan MORE.
//BOOKS// Skinny Bitch Vegan with a Vengeance How It All Vegan 1000 Vegan Recipes
Of course there are thousands of youtube channels, bloggers and books dedicated to veganism, those are just a few of my favourites. 
Have you ever entertained the idea of going vegan or vegetarian? Do you have any suggestions on recipes?