Watermelon Fruit Salad "cake"

Layer watermelon with your other favourite fruits.

We used:

Watermelon
Strawberry
Mango
Blueberry

You could  also add:

Apple
Peach
Nectarines
Plums
Rockman
Orange
Mandarin
Kiwi Fruit
Passion fruit
Cherries
Or any other fruit you can think of...

You could even add whipped cream or dipping chocolate you want it to be a bit more naughty.

We did this for my daughter's birthday. She was acting up just before her birthday, and I made the threat of no cake if she keeps playing up. Then she kept Playing up. Since I believe you can make empty treats when you're a parent, we chose not to have a birthday cake. Instead, we made an alternative... Here is the result:

FYI, I'm not a totally terrible parent. She did get a proper cake at her birthday party, which was on the weekend before her actual birthday. Needless to say, there was a massive sugar crash afterwards. 

We made the layered watermelon cake for her actual birthday, which fell on a school night. She actually loved it! 

 There were no more sugar crashes!

Since it was so successful, we did it again for our Sister's birthday. At the time she was on a very strict diet. She also loved it. She felt special we made the effort, and she could still enjoy a sweet fruity treat while keeping the calories low. 

Vegan Mushroom Burger

This recipe makes 2 burgers, but you could easily double the ingredients to make more.

To come up with a recipe, I researched what ingredients help bind. I have recently been turned off eggs, therefore I wanted to find an alternative binding ingredient. Technically, these are vegan burgers, but it does depend on what you put on the burger itself.

You can use a food processor to combine them more finely and turn the mixture into a more processed consistency. It's a personal choice for me not to do this in my recipe because I like the texture of bits of veg in my burger. It just makes them seem less like meat and more like a veggie burger.

The beetroot needs to be very finely grated to cook by frying. I use the fine side of my box grater, or you could use a microplane. Alternatively, you could cook the beetroots by boiling or in a microwave before using them in the recipe.

I used quick oats in this recipe, as they are already quite finely processed. You could use whole oats, but you may need to use a food processor to break them down a bit so their binding magic works better.

It's also important to let the mixture sit before baking or frying, so the mixture has more stickiness too it and binds better.


Ingredients

Olive oil
1 onion, diced finely
Salt & pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic, diced finely
250g Mushrooms, diced finely
1/2 beetroot, grated finely
1/4 cup quick oats

Method

Fry the onion, garlic, salt & pepper in olive oil until translucent & aromatic.
Add the mushrooms and fry until browned and softened.
Add the grated beetroot and fry until softened.
Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.
Add the oats and mix them together.
Let the mixture sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour.
Remove from fridge and use your hands to make the mixture into burger patties.
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for about 15-20 minutes.
Turn them over, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and bake for another 15-20 minutes.


Serve on a burger bun with fresh salad, like grated carrot, tomato, baby spinach leaves, red onions, and vegan mayo or cheese.