Yesterday was a Kitchen Sunday.  It felt good to have a Kitchen Sunday again after so long away from them. 

I meal planned in the early morning.

I then grocery shopped.

I made gingerbread cookies for morning teas at work this week. 

I made a split green pea soup (2 portions frozen and 2 in the fridge.)

I made yogurt for lunches this week.

I then made dinner following a recipe from an 1984 recipe book called "New Dimensons Recipe Book - A Vegetarian Guide to Health Foods" by Dr David A Phillips.

The recipe I chose was called Protein-Carotene Loaf and it is supposed to be high in Vitamin A.   Every recipe in the book has a small blurb which explains the nutritional value of the recipe as a whole and what certain ingredients add.   Most of the recipes also offer alternatives to change the recipe and serving suggestions.

I called this recipe 'Surprise Carotene-Loaf' because I was entirely surprised by how fantastic it tasted.  It isn't a very cheap recipe because of the addition of pistachios - however, the recipe's nutritional blurb states that pistachios have high levels of Vitamin A which most other nuts don't, hence it's addition here.

The finished 'loaf'.  Still beautifully orange inside but browned ontop.

Of course, true to form I tweaked the recipe.   I substituted bok choy for the silverbeet because a bunch of the latter was going to cost me $6 when a bunch of bok choy was a quarter that price.  I added almond meal - because I had it in the cupboard and it was due to be used up soon.  I substituted parmesan for most of the cheddar the original recipe called for because I only had a teeny bit of cheddar and heaps of parmesan.   So below is my (total guesstimate of some ingredients) rendition of...

Surprise Carotene-Loaf 
(altered from a recipe by Dr David A Philllips in New Dimensions Recipe Book, 1984)

•  10 leaves buk choy
• 500g carrots, grated
• 4 eggs beaten
• 150g pistachio kernels
• 50g almond meal
• 50g grated mozerella cheese
• 100g grated parmesan cheese
• 100g mushrooms - stalks removed
• A 'generous sprinkling' of saltbush herb (an Aussie Native herb) or other herb of choice. 
• 10g sunflower seeds

1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius.
Trim the white stalks from the buk choy.  Steam leaves until tender then chop finely.
2) Use a food processor or coffee mill to mill the pistachios into a fine meal.
3) Add all ingredients except the sunflower seeds to a bowl.  Mix well.
4) Brush the inside of a loaf pan with vegetable oil.
5) Press the mixture into the loaf pan, ensuring there are no air pockets. 
6) Sprinkle the sunflower seeds across the top of the loaf and press in slightly.   It will look like the picture below!

7) Bake for 45min to 1hr.  (The recipe called for 45min but I found it required another 10min in).