Day 2 - Beans, beans the magical fruit!

Eating gluten free is expensive. Bread costs over $6 a loaf, flour is 3 times the price and you spend forever in the shops reading the labels of everything you buy! Since going gluten free the hardest meal I've found is breakfast. Being a vegetarian who doesn't like eggs means there aren't many options to have so I used to mainly eat toast or muesli. Now I've found myself just eating toast for breakfast which isn't very good for you nutritionally or for my (or Mum's) pocket. Last night I decided to make some baked beans for breakfast and they are so good! Here is the recipe if you're interested.

What you need:
 1 tbs of macadamia/rice bran/coconut oil (here is a tip - never use olive oil to cook, the heat changes the chemical composition of the oil and it becomes really unhealthy. Olive oil is brilliant to use but only when it stays cold)
1 large red onion finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic crushed (if you're not big on garlic, reduce to 1)
1 fresh red chili finely sliced
1 handful of fresh thyme and rosemary, leaves only
1 tsp of smoked paprika
2x 400g tins of any types of beans (butter/cannellini beans are best but I didn't have any around!)
1x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and the water from rinsing the can
2tsp of golden syrup (treacle is best but again, didn't have any)
A good shake of tamari (this is gluten free soy sauce, if you want just use soy sauce)

What you do:
1.  Heat oil in a heavy saucepan on medium/low
2. Add onion, garlic and chili. Cook for about 2 minutes or until soft
3. Add rosemary and thyme, then the paprika. Then add the golden syrup, tomatoes and water from rinsing the can. Add beans and tamari
4. Simmer for 10 minutes or until thick. Serve!

I caved in the morning and had some with a slice of toast but really, the beans are a pretty complete meal by themselves. Lots of protein, good carbs to start the day and it tastes amazing. I've learnt that the darker the bean (e.g kidney or black beans) the higher the antioxidants, so throw some of those in!

I'm thinking tomorrow morning I might bite the bullet and try a green smoothie which Klara had on her blog today. I really hate leafy greens so maybe this could be a way to get them into my diet!
I really enjoy facts so here is one for you: watermelon contains the same amount of iron as spinach!
If you'd like to read more about how awesome watermelon is for you, I found an article here http://news.softpedia.com/news/Watermelon-The-Iron-Fruit-30079.shtml