Rice and Pie

My one indulgence, besides an occasional cooking class, is a Monday evening session with my personal trainer. After working out, I'm way too tired to lift pans or stir anything in a pot, so no fancy cooking on Mondays. I promised yesterday to post pix of the rest of last night's dinner.

The rice is merely instant brown rice with lots of green onion and cilantro. I love anything green added to rice. I have some wakame I like pretty well, and I haven't used it in anything but soup yet, but I don't see why it can't go into rice. I'm trying to learn all I can about using sea vegetables. Nearly everyday another health benefit is reported.

The finale to last night's dinner was more pretty than tasty, unfortunately. I put a fresh strawberry filling into a toasted almond and oatmeal pie crust. I usually make a graham cracker crust for strawberry filling, but I wanted to be gluten free so I could eat it too. The reason it wasn't a great pie is because we all thought the crust tasted like peanut butter! So a banana or chocolate filling would have been the perfect choice. The crust is really good, though, and deserving of posting the recipe. I adapted this recipe from the Lake Austin Spa cookbook as well. I used oatmeal instead of 6 melba toast. I have had the melba toast crust and it is surprisingly good.

Pie Crust:
1/2 c. toasted almonds
1/2 c. oatmeal
2 T. sugar
1 T. melted margarine
Grind the almonds in a food processor; add in the oatmeal and sugar, and pulse a few times to blend. Add in the margarine and whirl until crumbly and well mixed. Press into a pie pan sprayed with cooking spray, and bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Using information from ingredient packages, I figured nutritional info for six servings of crust. Each serving = 96 calories, 5.75 g. fat, and 10 carbs.