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I have been lucky enough to have learnt a lot about Ayurvedic medicine through my work.  This age-old Indian practice are strong advocators of the healing power of mung (or moong) beans, mostly for fighting cancer and detoxifying.  These green legumes are extremely filling, nutritionally packed, and easy on the digestion.  However, people often dismiss them as they find them too bland.  What they don't realise is how versatile the mung bean really is, and how using a few simple herbs can turn a dish from drab to fab!



Preparing Mung Beans
Mung beans can be used whole, split, or sprouted.
I use whole mung beans in this recipe which can be purchased from any good natural food store or Indian grocer.

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Muesli bars - the quick go to snack for busy mothers who want to shut their kids up, for professional athletes to get some carbs, for tradeys between mouthfuls of curses.

Construed as 'healthy', commercial muesli bars are often filled with cheap grains, flavoured with fructose and bogged with vegetable oils.  Although there are more and more varieties popping up all over the planet, some of them better than others, nothing beats the home-made variety.  This recipe is how I like my muesli bars - full of protein (from nuts), diverse, and naturally flavoured using fruits and spices. 

I made over forty of these muesli bars last week, and they have all but pretty much disappeared.  They have been useful for a quick breakfast option, packed in lunches and eaten as a snack - morning, afternoon or midnight.

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This little number has been long anticipated around our house after the arrival of a 'surprise' ice-cream machine for Christmas.  Idea after idea for ice-cream designs floated around in our heads for weeks until it all kind of just fizzled out.
Until today.
Today was the day that heaven froze over.

Ice-cream is so simple and easy, it's ridiculous.  I have never been a big ice-cream eater as, frankly, I find dairy (and sugar) gives me the runs and makes me have weird dreams.

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This is a curry made completely from scratch using an assortment of aromatic spices.

Such things as herbs and spices, garlic and ginger, give dishes hearty, rich, flavours without using an overload of salt or salt-derived products (such as soy sauce, fish sauce etc etc.).  Also, by making your meals from scratch, rather than using products and sauces found on supermarket shelves, you can control what you are consuming.  A lot of people don't realise how heavily laden with salt, sugar and other crappy ingredients, these commercial products are.  They also don't realise how gosh-darn simple it is to make their own!

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This cheesecake really tapped into my bordering-on-insane creative streak.  It started off in my head as a cheesecake, as well as a chocolate cake, but then the chocolate cake kind of randomly evolved into the idea for a chocolate base.  And then there was no turning back.

I have always had the idea for an alternative filling for the traditional 'cheese'cake, but have never got around to putting it into practice.  Today, I rustled up all the ingredients, got the yoghurt separating, and tended to the fire, so there was no excuse.

This recipe does require at the very least a couple of free hours, and a touch of resourcefulness.  This recipe I am providing, although pretty damn close, is still an approximation of what I myself used.  Use this recipe, but not to exacts - if you feel it needs more of something, then bloody do it.  I always have to modify things before I am completely happy with the texture, the quantity, or the taste.  It's all about trial and error, and the only way things are going to work the first time round is to make use of those little gifts god gave to you known as intuition and taste.

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