How to build a renewable table

It’s time to spring into a new way of cooking. As much as I absolutely love constructing home-cooked meals, I know that not everyone, myself included, has hours to spend cooking up a feast in the kitchen every single day. Many of us lead very busy lives and have demanding tasks to attend to, often leaving the food we eat as the last priority.

While we all know that processed and take-away foods are something that shouldn’t be encouraged, especially for families, in the age of convenience, it can sometimes seem to be the only viable option. However, these foods are often made of unhealthy ingredients and can actually cost you more in the long-run.

It’s completely understandable why some people are under the impression that cooking healthy and nourishing home-cooked meals can leave you with little money or time to spare. When you look at your favourite TV chef, competitive cooking show or favourite cook on Instagram, the extraordinary meals that are created can seem out of bounds for us. They’re over-complicated, could never actually feed a whole family and are a bit too delicate for our likings. It’s time to get real; we need to cook meals that fill both our stomachs for a few hours and our fridges for a few meals.

It’s time to create dishes that last the distance in the kitchen; versatile dishes that can help save both money and time without compromising quality, health benefits or taste.

This is the perfect solution to our modern-day problem. While we lack the time, and quite frankly, the energy, we need to cook every day for hours, I’m going to show you how you can become one with your kitchen and cut your food bills in half. If you’re ready to create fresh, stress-free and nutrition-packed meals for you and the whole family, it’s important to find uncomplicated meals that are tasty, simple and use affordable and sustainable ingredients. This is the key to making your kitchen experience an effortless and more importantly, an enjoyable one.

By cooking in larger batches and creating a ‘base meal’, you can reclaim it to make delicious meals that can live on for another meal or four.  Don’t get me wrong, re-using food doesn’t have to mean eating soggy leftovers or re-heating the same, boring prepared meal for a week straight. You can actually create different meals out of your meals, to prevent you from total boredom, food wastage and time wastage too.

In order to do so, you need to be inspired by the idea of consuming and creating a home-cooked, nourishing meals. There’s nothing better than the feeling of a fresh, warm meal, especially when it’s infused with love. When you’re able to reuse your kitchen creations in a style of continuum cooking, you won’t need to spend hours every day slaving over a hot stove. Continuum cooking allows you to cook with love and of course, spend more time with your loved ones.

Chicken Schnitzel is definitely an old-school family favourite. They’re the perfect treat and loved by children and adults alike. However, traditional, take-away schnitzels can be mad with relatively unhealthy ingredients that can leave tummies tied up in knots. These versatile schnitzel recipes makes for the perfect weeknight meal, school lunch and Sunday dinner.

RECIPE A

Chicken schnitzels with parsnip mash and garden salad 

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Schnitzels 

• 6 chicken breasts, sliced in half widthways to form 12 pieces (4 for tonight’s dinner, 8 for the next recipes) 
• 1⁄2 cup arrowroot (or tapioca flour) 
• 3 eggs, whisked 
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup coconut flour 
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• Sea saltand pepper

Mash (There’s enough here allowing you to save half for Recipe C)

• 1 onion diced 
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 8 medium parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped 
• 1 tsp thyme 
• 1 tsp oregano
• Sea saltand pepper

Salad 
(There’s enough here to create Recipes B and C as well.) 

• 4 large handfuls rocket 
• 1 cup button mushrooms, halved 
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 
• 1⁄2 cup Kalamata olives 
• 1⁄2 avocado, diced 
• Small handful fresh basil leaves, torn 
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
• Sea saltand pepper

Schnitzels 

To make the crumb mixture, add the almond meal, coconut flour, paprika, sea salt and pepper to a shallow bowl, mixing to combine.

Place the eggs into a shallow bowl and whisk. Place the arrowroot flour in a separate shallow bowl.

Dip each piece of chicken into the arrowroot flour, then egg mixture, then the crumb mixture. Make sure that they are evenly coated.

Pre-heat a large fry pan on medium-high heat with 1 tbsp coconut oil. Cook each schnitzel for 4-5 minutes on each side, adding a fresh tbsp of oil each new round of schnitzels (cooking 4 at a time, depending on the size of your fry pan).

Set aside 8 of the schnitzels for Recipes B and C, first allowing to cool to room temperature then placing into a sealed container and refrigerating for up to 3 days.

Salad 

Place rocket, basil, mushrooms, tomatoes and olives in a bowl and combine.Separate half the mixture and set aside in a bowl, refrigerating until preparation of Recipes B and C (this will keep undressed in the refrigerator for up to 5 days).

With the remaining half, add avocado, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and mix well to combine.

 

Mash 


Sauté onion in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp water in a large pot for 3-4 minutes.

Place the chopped parsnips into the pot with enough boiling water to cover. Add herbs and seasoning. Stir to combine ingredients.

Bring to the boil and turn down to simmer, cooking for 25 minutes, or until parsnips are soft.

Turn off heat and carefully pour out the parsnip broth into a jar, leaving just a little bit of water in the bottom of the pot.

Add remaining olive oil to mixture. Using a stick blender, or transferring to a food processor, blend until pureed. Set aside.

The leftover broth can be stored in the fridge and used as a vegetable broth or you can drink it right away as a nourishing beverage.

To serve, place a piece of schnitzel on each of the 4 serving plates, with a generous scoop of mash and side salad.

 

RECIPE B

Chicken Schnitzel and broccoli salad 

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cooked chicken schnitzels 
• half of the leftover salad from Recipe A 
• 2 large handful chopped cos lettuce leaves (or our choice of lettuce) 
• 1 cup broccoli florets, washed 
• 1 cup cauliflower florets, washed 
• 1⁄2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped 

ACV Dressing 

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp garlic 
• 1⁄2 tsp ginger 
• Sea saltand pepper

METHOD

Place cauliflower into a pot of boiling water, cooking for 4-5 minutes. Add broccoli and cook for a further 3 minutes. Remove vegetables from pot and set aside.

In a large salad bowl, add cos lettuce, leftover salad from recipe A, broccoli and cauliflower, stirring to combine.

To make the dressing, add all dressing ingredients to small bowl and mix well with a spoon to combine.

Pour dressing over the salad and mix again so dressing coats the salad well.

Spoon salad into serving plates and sprinkle a quarter of the walnuts over each salad. Slice each chicken schnitzel in half and place on top of salad so each plate receives 2 half pieces.

Sprinkle with some extra sea salt and serve

 

RECIPE C 

Chicken schnitzel wrap with lemon and parsnip spread 

4 wraps

INGREDIENTS

• 4 chicken schnitzels, cut into thin diagonal strips 
• 4 gluten free wraps (see my recipe in the continuum cooking day section)
• 1 grated carrot 
• Juice of 1⁄2 lemon 
• Leftover mash from Recipe A 
• Leftover salad from recipe A 
• Sea saltand pepper

METHOD

Lay out the 4 wraps on your kitchen bench.

Spread a heaped spoonful of parsnip mash down the centre of each crepe.

Add all other ingredients evenly across the 4 crepes and season with sea salt and pepper. Squeeze a touch of lemon juice in each crepe.

Roll into cylinders, curling in the bottom edge so filling doesn’t fall out.

Cover in foil and store in the refrigerator until it’s time to take to work or school. Lasts in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.