Simple healthy food that I obviously didn't feed to my son!
Today in the U.K. on BBC news they were talking about Crohns Disease. Great I thought, it's good to raise awareness about this terrible debilitating disease. Then I watched it!!! I am so angry about the lazy, sensationalist reporting. The rise in Crohns Disease in young people is down to them eating junk food?! Good sound bite but No, No, No!!! Experts still DO NOT KNOW what causes Crohns Disease, it may be hereditary or may be triggered by something, it is still NOT KNOWN!! Crohns was around long before junk food. Perhaps the rise in cases is due to better diagnosis?
My youngest son has Crohns Disease, and I can assure the BBC that he was not brought up on a diet of junk food, just healthy home cooked food and organic veg. He had appendicitis, which may have been the trigger for him going on to develop Crohns, but we just don't know. It is extremely insulting to Crohns sufferers to imply they brought it on themselves by eating junk food.
O.K. rant over and sorry for the excessive use of exclamation marks and capitals.
So on to the recipe. I found this easy recipe on Pinterest (from womensday.com), I just love Pinterest, I spend far too much time on there. I always cook too much rice, I am incapable of cooking small amounts, so this recipe is ideal for using up the leftovers. The recipe is in American cup measurements, which I found difficult to convert to oz, as they are by volume not weight and it varies for different food, but one cup of rice is about 5oz/ 140g. Add as much spinach as you wish, I used about 4 oz/120g. As you know I am not an 'exact' cook, I always play around with recipes to my own taste. This turned out lovely, so I wouldn't stress too much about weights and measures.
Heat oven to 350f, 180c 160c fan
Line a baking sheet
Heat 2 tsp oil in a skillet/frying pan
Add 1 cup/4 oz/120g frozen cut spinach (left to thaw) and 1 small onion chopped (I left out the garlic)
Cook until tender
Add 1 cup/5 oz/140g cooked rice, 1/4 cup/2 oz/55g of parmesan (or veggie equivalent) grated, 1 large egg and pepper.
Mix together and make into smallish balls. (makes about 8 - 10)
Place on baking sheet and cook for about 20 mins until firm.
I served mine with a homemade tomato and basil pasta sauce. Delicious
Chickpea xx
