Nutrition has been in the news a lot recently thanks to a certain celebrity chef and his promotion of a paleo diet. I have read the conversations with interest and may have added in a bit of banter myself. In this space I would like to place the science aside (Not that it's not important, but because I don't think it belongs on this recipe sharing personal blog) and think about whether this type of diet fits into your lifestyle or makes sense to you. I guess the main gripe I have is that this celebrity chef is trying to tout it as the only acceptable diet for everyone and that the current dietary guidelines are flawed and should be changed.

I feel paleo diet can work for some people but it's definitely not a diet for everyone. As far as fad diets are concerned this one is probably not as harmful as say, the lemon detox diet. In fact I agree with many of the principles of eating whole unprocessed foods however eliminating food groups for no particular reason just doesn't sit well with me or most of my patients.

I am lucky that I work in a hospital in the sense that most of the people I see aren't on some bizarre restrictive diet. However I have come across some of the more extreme effects fad diets can have.

Recently I saw an elderly lady on a very restrictive diet which had led to her becoming very malnourished. When I spoke to her family about this they were very adamant to change her diet and felt I was certainly pushing her closer to death with my recommendations. No matter how much I listened, explained, demonstrated to them they were certain that they were right and I was wrong.

It makes me wonder if it's a waste of time for me to argue converse with the converted. If consequences of a poor diet were staring at people in the face and they choose to ignore it, what hope do I have when people are only faced with success stories? It disheartens me a little...


Something that does warm me up is weekend breakfast. Recently I've been trying my hand at baked oats, a winter version of my overnight oats. I like to have it when the top is crunchy but the bottom is still soft and creamy. It doesn't need added honey or sugar with the dried and fresh fruit adding sweetness. This recipe is not grain free or dairy free but still very wholesomely good for you. My apologies for the lack of measurements but you can't really go wrong with this one!  

Baked Pear Oats

  
Cooking Time: 15mins
Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

• Oats
• Milk (or other milk alternative)
• Chia seeds
• Nut butter 
• 1/2 pear, thinly sliced
• 1 date cut up into small chunks
• Sprinkle of pepita seeds
• Sprinkle of sultanas

 Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together in an ovenproof bowl. Make sure the milk only just covers the oats.
2. You can either leave it to soak for a few minutes while you get ready then put it in the oven or pop it straight into the oven at 170 degrees celcius. 
3. Remove the bowl from the oven with some oven mitts when the top is crunchy and lightly brown (roughly 15mins)
4. Enjoy!

So the last time I posted anything was in June.... 

Sorry! 

Work kind of got on top of me and I spent more time in the kitchen than posting things online. Also people at work now know about this blog and it's all a little embarrassing... Hello everyone from physio department!

I made this cake a few weeks ago for a colleague's farewell lunch and then again last Sunday for father's day. Since the cake was well received and I've had a few requests for the recipe I thought I'll post it up here.




Lemon Yoghurt Almond Cake  
Preparation Time: 20mins  
Cooking Time: 20mins
Adapted from: Everyday Cook

Ingredients

• 100g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 160g vanilla yoghurt
•  Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 100g wholemeal flour  or gluten free flour
• Syrup: 2tbs lemon juice, 50g caster sugar

 Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm tin with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
4. Add yoghurt and lemon zest and beat until combined.
5. Fold in the almond meal and flour until combined. 
6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Sprinkle almonds on top
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
8. While the cake is baking make the syrup. Heat lemon juice with caster sugar in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens into a syrup (2-3mins on medium heat)
9. Pour the hot lemon syrup over warm cake and then cool the cake in the pan.

The original recipe actually used pistachio meal but after shelling hundreds of pistachios until my fingers hurt, I felt almond would do just fine....
 
I've also tried this recipe using hazelnut meal with great success as seen below. If you are expecting a fluffy light cake, this is not it. This is a dense, rich, sticky cake where only a sliver is needed to satisfy that cake craving.  

First I have to apologise. For keeping this muesli bar recipe to myself for too long.

You see this is a fantastic recipe that I've been using to make delectable muesli bars to impress people and then promising them the recipe but never giving it....

It's super easy with very little prep time unless you're like me and picking specific seeds out of a seed mix packet.....

I've made 2 variations of these now. One that's shown below and another even nuttier and sweeter one for a hike I did. The recipes are fairly fail safe and even my first batch that I made with whatever I fancied thrown in turned out great!



Nutty Oat Muesli Bars
Makes: 16 bars
Preparation Time: 15min
Cooking Time: 20mins

Ingredients 

• 5 fresh dates 
• 1/3 cup dried apricots 
• ½ cup mixed nuts/seeds (I used pepita, sunflower, almonds) 
• 2 tbsp walnuts 
• 2 cups rolled oats 
• 1 tbsp sultanas 
• 1 tbs desiccated coconut 
• 2 tbs LSA 
• 3 ½ tbs natural nut butter (I used organic peanut butter) 
•  3 tbs honey 
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp brown sugar 
• 1 tbsp water 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius 
2. Line a rectangular baking tray with baking paper. This is a trick I learnt from Jamie Oliver: Scrunch up the baking paper into a ball and run it under water. Shake off the excess and it will be super easy to line any tray! 
3. Roughly chop up the dates, apricots, almonds and walnuts into smaller pieces. 
4. Combine the ingredients in step 3 with the oats, sultanas, coconut and LSA in a bowl and stir to mix. 
5. Mix the nut butter, honey, vanilla essence, brown sugar and water over the stove until melted and it forms a sticky syrup. 
6. Mix half of the syrup into the bowl of dry ingredients. 
7. Place the muesli mixture into the baking tray and spread it with a spoon to all the corners of the tray 
8. Pour the remaining syrup onto the muesli, making sure there's no more dry muesli mix. 
9. Cut another piece of baking paper around the same size as the tray and lay it over the tray. Press on the muesli mixture to compact it. 
10. Place the tray in the oven uncovered and bake for 20mins or until the top is golden brown and smelling delicious. 
11. Once the tray is removed from the oven, use the baking paper from step 9 to press the muesli again. 
12. Do not take the muesli out of the tin as it will crumble. 
13. Leave to cool in the tray and cut into slices once fully cooled. 

Per 45g bar: 793kJ, 5g protein, 9.8g fat, 1.6g saturated, 18.8g carbohydrates, 7mg sodium 


As you can see the bar is packed with quite a lot of energy compared to say a fruit or low fat yoghurt snack but this will definitely keep you full! This snack is high in protein and fibre and packs a good punch of unsaturated fats. If you use unsalted nuts and natural nut butters like me the sodium will be very low as well.


I also made a batch with some wheat flakes from cereal which added a good crunch to it as well. The batch I made for a hike kept me energised and going for several hours! I also pop these in a zip lock bag to take to work or crumble them to top my yoghurt for some different texture.

Ah weekends. Weekends are the only times when I have time to make a proper breakfast. These days it's been along the lines of oats, congee, cheesy melts and crepes. Oh crepes.

I had a big craving for these thin pancake like creations last weekend but it just wasn't meant to be. The first crepe place I went to had closed down and the second had run out of crepes. How can you run out of crepes!?

By Monday night my dreams of soft crepes filled with chocolate and banana had turned to searches on the Internet. When I saw this recipe I felt myself gasp at the simplicity of the recipe. I got to work right away.

Funny how my best dishes happen in the middle of the night?

When I first had this I immediately exclaimed "THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER MADE!" Yes in the middle of the night. Now that I have calmed down a bit it is definitely still one of the best.

These crepes are soft and delicate and have an unmistakable coconut aroma when cooking. The edges are slightly crispy and I don't know if it's the fat from the coconut in these, but they are so easy to unstick to the pan and flip! I have officially perfected the flip now! I have tried replacing the coconut milk with plain low fat milk and they stuck a little tighter to the non stick pan and were very difficult to flip.



Now lemon curd is one of my favourite things ever. There was a period last year where I was a little obsessed with lemon tarts. Okay maybe a lot obsessed; I made it my mission to find the perfect balance of sweet and tart curd. I trialled a few recipes myself but was never completely satisfied. This lemon curd however is the best yet and it doesn't even need butter!

My brother proclaims it the best thing I have ever made and has been begging me for three days to make a new batch. He licked the bowl of the last batch clean. That's how good it is. And it's so easy! Just put all the ingredients in the pot and mix over a flame.

You may find that the lemon curd may overpower the coconut taste a little and it's fine to have the coconut crepes simply with a bit of sugar and banana or with Nutella cream and strawberries. They also go great with some cream cheese and strawberries. Delicious any way!

Okay enough praise of this recipe! Here it is with a few minor alterations.

Coconut Crepes with Lemon Curd, Banana and Whipped Cream
Adapted from: Taste your Life 

Cooking and Prep Time: 20-30mins
Serves: Makes 12 crepes

• 1 cup cake flour (if you don't have cake flour use all purpose flour)
• ½ cup skim milk
• 350 ml coconut milk
• 2 large eggs 
   

• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• Juice and rind from 1 large lemon and 1 small lime

1. Mix the lemon curd ingredients in a saucepan until well combined. 
2. Place the saucepan on low- medium heat and stir constantly for 5-8minutes. Mix quickly until the mixture starts to thicken and resemble lemon curd.  When it is done, pour into a covered bowl or jar and place in the fridge to cool
3. Mix together all of the ingredients for crepes until well combined.
4. Heat a non stick pan (I used a small 15cm diameter pan). Spray lightly with cooking oil. 
5. When the pan is hot place a tablespoon of the crepe mixture into the pan and swirl around to cover the base of the pan. There should be just enough mixture to make a thin layer of crepe. 
6. When the edges start to brown, run a spatula along the edge of the crepe to loosen it from the pan. If you're brave enough, slide the crepe to one side of the pan, fling pan upwards and flip! Cook until golden brown on both sides. 
7. Don't be discouraged if the first few crepes don't work out! This always happens! Some strange cooking phenomenon where the first crepes and pancakes turn out horribly.  
8. Cover crepes with foil if you're making a few to keep them warm. If you're not using all the batter cover and place in the fridge. Stir the mixture a few times if removing from the fridge. 
9. Whip up a little bit of thickened cream and slice a banana into thin discs. 
10. Place a spoonful of curd, followed by some whipped cream and bananas onto a crepe. Roll it up. 
11. Feel yourself sigh with content at the amazing crepes you've just made.   

Per coconut crepe: Energy: 408kJ, Protein: 3.1g, Fat total: 5.5g, Sat Fat: 4.4g, Carbohydrates: 8.7g, Sodium 23mg  
Per tablespoon curd: Energy: 393kJ, Protein: 3.0g, Fat total: 3.0g, Sat Fat: 1.0g, Carbohydrates: 13.3g, Sodium 26mg  


These are coconut crepes with nutella cream and strawberry filling. To make nutella cream simply whip nutella into thickened cream. So simple, so delicious!

So I promised a meatier dish and here it is!

Chicken and Chorizo Paella.

This has got to be my favourite one pan dish. It's super fragrant, delicious, full of vegetables and loved by everyone.

I have to say it probably isn't the most authentic paella but if you want to impress, this is an easy dish to win anyone over. Except my parents; they're not paprika fans....

I recently made it at my birthday party and it was enjoyed both fresh from the pan and reheated at 1am in the morning! 

When I say this is a 30minute dish.... it may be pushing it a bit. You know how Jamie Oliver has those 15min and 30min meals where you're suppose to have done half the prep? Well this is that kind of 30min dish. 

Don't be scared off by the long ingredients list, they're all simple things you can keep in your pantry or use for other things. 

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into a 1/2-inch dice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 link chorizo, cut into 2cm slices
• Half dozen prawns (reserve the heads)
• 1 onion,diced
• 1 medium sized carrot, diced
• 1 capsicum, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 and 1/2 cups arborio rice (Or if you can find the authentic bomba rice)
• 3 cups reduced salt chicken stock
• 1 tomato diced or half a can diced tomato
• 1 generous pinch saffron threads
• Handful mushrooms chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Set a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Toss the chicken with the olive oil and paprika. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through – about 5 minutes. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the sausage, onion, capsicum, and garlic to the pan. Cook until sausage has browned and vegetables have softened – about 5 minutes.
3. Add the rice, stock, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrot and saffron. Throw in the prawn heads too.
4. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid has absorbed and the rice is soft. Stir in the cooked chicken and prawns. 
5. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper (It doesn't really need salt in my opinion!). Let stand for another minute or two before serving.

  







I've added some wilted spinach leaves into the last one and used scallops instead of prawns. Adding the prawn heads to the dish really gives it a great seafood flavour but I guess scallops are a little bit more no fuss!

I think the great thing about this dish is how much vegetables you can put in it while still being able to satisfy meat hungry individuals. I used mostly vegetables that are firmer so they can keep their shape after cooking. After cooking for 20mins the vegetables soaked up all that meaty chorizo taste so my siblings didn't even blink an eye at the mushrooms (their least favourite vegetable!).

You can see from my photos that the things I've added can vary. Other vegetables that could be added include peas, pumpkin, corn, cauliflower, beans and rocket. This dish can handle anything your fridge has or doesnt have. I do feel the essentials are paprika, saffron, arborio rice, onion, garlic and stock. Everything else you can vary so whether you like your seafood, chicken or snails (apparently in an authentic paella!) paella it's up to you!    

What's your favourite one pan dish?

I had grand plans to post up a meaty dish but instead this dish took my fancy so meatier dish will have to wait.

This was something I came up with in less than 30mins. If I was smarter and didn't forget to cook pasta for a pasta dish... it probably would have taken a shorter amount of time...

I have recently worked with Australian Avocados and felt inspired to put avocados in everything... This was one of the successes. If you like guacamole dip then you will love this dish!

Beef Spaghetti Tossed in a Guacamole Sauce

Serves: 1
Preparation and Cooking Time: <30mins

Ingredients: 

• Enough fettucine for one 
• 6 button mushrooms 
• 6 snow peas in pods
• 1/4 of a carrot
• Palm size piece of lean beef
• 1/2 a large avocado
• 1.5 tablespoon of salsa dip
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of honey wholegrain mustard
• Optional: jalapeno

Method: 

1. Bring some water to the boil and add fettucine (follow packet instructions to see how long you should cook it for. Don't overcook!)
2. Prepare the ingredients that need to be cooked: quarter the mushrooms and cut each snow pea into 3 segments. Slice the beef into thin strips
3. Scoop out 1/2 an avocado into a mixing bowl and mash it up so there aren't any big chunks.
4. Add the salsa dip, chopped coriander, lemon juice, wholegrain mustard and jalapeno to the mashed avocado and mix
5. Place the mushrooms, snow peas and beef into a non stick pan and stir fry for 5 minutes or until cooked. 
6. Hopefully your pasta is done by now so strain it and place the pasta into the mixing bowl with the guacamole sauce. Mix so that the sauce coats the pasta well.
7. Transfer the cooked mushrooms, snow peas and beef into the mixing bowl as well. 
8. Grate some carrot into that mixing bowl as well. 
9. Toss everything together in the mixing bowl with a fork and add salt and pepper to taste!
10. Transfer to a bowl and enjoy or if you're lazy like me and sitting at home by yourself it's totally acceptable to just eat from a stainless steel mixing bowl.... Don't judge me...  

Because there's elements of cooked and raw ingredients in this dish, it's only mildly warm when ready to eat. This means it's fantastic in summer!

What's also good is the abundance of good fat in this dish. Avocados are a great source of monounsaturated fat which actually helps lower LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and raise HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) in the blood. You can say monounsaturated fat is often misunderstood as a bad thing just because it's associated with the word fat! Fat soluble vitamins such as Vitamin E and K are also found in fat so avocados are a good source of these vitamins.

What's also suprising is that half an avocado actually has 5g of fibre (almost 17% of our recommended daily requirements for fibre!) despite it tasting soft and creamy!

Avocados have a million other health benefits but I think what everyone wants to know is that this dish rocks. It's creamy without the cream, tart and tangy from the lemon and salsa and keeps you feeling full for a long time! For those that have never used avocados I've included some tips on how to choose and ripen an avocado below:

Ripening and Storing Avocados
The best way to ripen avocados is in a brown paper bag with a banana or apple.  I normally buy 1-2 already ripe Hass avocados (they are purple-brown when ripe) and the rest I buy green unripe avocados to keep for longer in the fridge.

If you've got an avocado cut open, put a few drops of lemon juice or white vinegar on the flesh and wrap up to pop in the fridge. This stops it from browning.  

I know, I know.... Another meatless post!?

But veggies are awesome! 

Before you click the close button and think "Urgh Wendy's gone vegetarian; I guess we can't be friends anymore" hear me out!

This dish LOOKS like a meat dish! =D?


See!? Okay this may be a bad angle for meat imitation. But it COULD look like some chunks of meat!

It fooled my brother. Multiple times. Before he asked me "what kind of satay is this?? I can't find any meat!"

I know though, that there are people that hate deceiving dishes... it's like your eyes promising your tastebuds some meat and it never gets any... And I'm not going to be one of those people who say "It totally tastes like meat! You won't even miss it!" So if you need some meat you can always add some in. I think chicken will go nicely.

So what's with the infux of veggie dishes?

I hate cooking with meat. It just feels slimey, and smelly and HARD to do! Yeh you'll probably never hear "I just can't be bothered to cook meat" from a vegetarian....But I promise the next recipe post will be a meat dish! In the meantime if anyone wants to make me a nice piece of lean steak (or even better take me to have some!) I'm always up for it ;) Don't lose hope in me though! I will have a meatier post soon! 

I found this recipe from the dozen or so mini recipe books I got at the recent conference (I'm really working up a collection!) I actually picked up this booklet not knowing it was all vegetarian recipes until quite a few pages in. The dishes looked so good, I was salivating anyway.

The recipe book is produced by Sanitarium, a company owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church so all it's products are vegetarian, in accordance to its teachings. You can actually order the book online for free and it has amazing photos that will make you drool, vegetarian or not!

Onto the recipe! I couldn't help myself and did make a few changes though.  The ingredient list may seem long but don't be scared! There's no weird ingredients that you only use for this dish and leave rotting in your fridge. Also it's a pretty simple one saucepan dish.

Pumpkin Chickpea and Spinach Satay
Adapted from: Sanitarium Food for Health and Happiness Cookbook

Serves: 4-5
Preparation and cooking time: 30mins

Ingredients

• 2 tsp olive oil or peanut oil
• 1 brown onion
• 2 garlic cloves 
• Small piece of ginger the size of your pinky 
• 700g pumpkin
• 200ml Carnations light and creamy coconut flavour evaporated milk 
• 1/2 cup salt reduced vegetable stock 
• 2 cups cauliflower florets 
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/3 cup crunchy organic peanut butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce 
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 400g can chickpeas
• 1/4 cup chopped coriander 
• 60g baby spinach
• Boiled rice to serve  
• Chilli (optional)

 Method

1. Make some rice if you don't have any leftovers like me. 
2. Prep all the veggies: Dice the onion, pumpkin and carrot. Chop up the garlic, ginger and coriander finely. Cut the caulifower into small florets.  
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions for 2mins until soft. 
4. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli if you're using it and give it a stir to mix. 
5. Add in pumpkin followed by coconut flavoured evaporated milk and stock. 
6. Bring everything to the boil, cover and simmer for 5-8mins.
7. Add the cauliflower and carrots followed by the peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar and chickpeas. Stir to combine, cover and simmer until cauliflower is cooked (About another 5mins)
8. Turn off the heat and stir in coriander and spinach leaves.
9. Serve with rice.

Per serve: Energy: 1840kJ (440kcal), Carbohydrates 27g, Fibre 10g, Fat 26g, Saturated fat 6g, Protein 20g, Sodium 515mg, Potassium 1245mg, Calcium 115mg, Iron 3.6mg (These values are based on the original recipe and although not stated, I believe it is without rice)


The recipe book is at the back. My dish looks better right? =D 

 

 

I don't usually cook with coconut milk due to it's saturated fat content so to me using flavoured evaporated milk still gave it a nice coconut taste (Don't kill me if you think it doesn't taste 'authentic!') You could also use evaporated milk and add your own coconut flavouring. I had a look at some reduced fat coconut milk, which is where they use coconut extract and water, and some had less kilojoules per 100ml than the flavoured evaporated milk. However the saturated fat content was still higher.

Eg. per 100ml:
Carnations coconut flavoured evaporated milk: 1.1g sat fat
Amoy regular coconut milk: 21.6g sat fat
Amoy light coconut milk (44% less fat): 12g sat fat

How much fat you should have per day depends on your energy needs but I usually recommend 20-35% of your energy should be from fat in accordance with the NHMRC. Also <20g of saturated fat/day, as recommended by the National Heart Foundation Australia. You can see how easy this is to go over when having these products and we havent even gotten into coconut cream!  

Anyway back to the food! The original recipe actually asked for longer cooking times but I found my veggies got too soft and mushy especially when I stirred in the sticky peanut butter. So don't overcook!  My parents tried it without rice and weren't a big fan as it was too mushy but there won't be any problems if you don't overcook it =)

If you want to add meat, lightly stir fry it until cooked and put it aside then toss it back in with the cauliflower. 

As always this will be delicious: I guarantee it! (I should design a Wendy stamp of approval...) All that fibre and protein will keep you full and your body will thank you for feeding it vegetables!

I've got a little bit of leftover coconut flavoured evaporated milk so anyone have suggestions on what to make with it? 

Last week it was my mum's birthday. I have no idea how old she turned this year as she only let us put three candles on the cake.... Over the years I had run out of gift ideas so this year I decided taking the stress from cooking meals everyday off my mum for that one night was the best gift idea.

I'd set out a grand plan of roast chicken, pork belly, salads and vegetables in my head before my mum reminded me that she needed to take my siblings to piano classes at 6pm which left me only 2hrs to prepare everything!

I sent my mum off to get a massage to help her relax while I did some last minute ingredient shopping. I had this grill roasted corn salad in mind but Woolworths had run out of fresh corn that day (amongst a bunch of other things that I needed to make the birthday cake!) and I was running out of time! Instead I grabbed some canned corn and shortened my cooking time!  This salad is the result.

I managed to plate up this salad, beef, mushroom and onion stir fry, roast pumpkin and sweet potato and stir fry bok choy by dinner time. The chicken wasn't ready until an hour afterwards.... Everyone was starving so I didn't manage to take a picture of all the food but I did take a picture of this corn salad before it was gobbled up. Trust me it takes like 5 minutes! I only said 8 minutes to cover myself. And it's delicious. If there's any doubt I'm willing to hold live demos at my house where you can watch me whip it up in 5minutes then proceed to eat it and tell you it's delicious.

Adapted from: The Healthy Foodie 

Serves: 2-4
Preparation and cooking time: 5-8mins

Ingredients

• 1 can of corn
• 1/2 capsicum, chopped
• 1 cupgreen beans cut into 1" (2cm) pieces
• 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• The juice of 1 lime
• Fetta cheese, crumbled
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped
• 2 cups baby spinach and rocket
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Drain the can of corn
2. Place corn, capsicum and green beans in a pan and stir fry for 2 minutes (You can skip this step too since it's not really necessary to cook these ingredients anyway
3. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss before serving

Per serve (443g): Energy: 1787kJ (427kCal), Carbohydrates 66.5g, Fibre 11.2g, Fat 15.4g, Saturated fat 3.5g, Protein 16.8g, Sodium 532mg (These values are based on the original recipe from the link)

See easy right? This salad didn't store well overnight in the fridge (the beans went a bit brown) so eat it all up on the same day!



 

Isn't it so colourful? And I promise it's good for you ;)

I made this salad last night as part of dinner from bits and pieces I found in the fridge and pantry. It's not only vegetarian but vegan too!

Years ago, when I first started setting foot in a kitchen, I made mainly baked goods. To be more specific, those cake mixes you can buy at the supermarket. I started with these because I never had to worry about main meals (thanks mum!) and I thought they would be the easiest. Sadly I could not even make cake from the packet. I know......

Now I realise it's because I always over beat the batter and my mum would buy the cheapest cake mixes that always looked good when fresh out of the oven but were hard as a rock after a day. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I didn't just give up then and step away from the oven!

I persisted and eventually I was starting to search up easy recipes online I could use. I stuck firmly to the recipes I had, believing that if I even turned the oven one degrees more than specified, my cakes would be ruined! Baked goods are unpredictable that way; they never look like the ingredients they started as. And that makes baking so magical to me. Nevertheless, I bought many ingredients I had to throw out in the end as I had no other use for them.

It took me YEARS to feel comfortable enough to start omitting and replacing ingredients in recipes! First it was with savoury dishes then with the sweets and now I'm finally feeling a little bit more comfortable writing up my own recipes. This is where this recipe came in. I'd only heard about quinoa a year or so ago and I hadn't made anything with quinoa in it for a while (despite my last post also being a quinoa recipe!) so I decided to make a salad. I had a browse online for some recipes and found most recipes had ingredients I did not have. I had no salad greens, no lemon, no meat. Yeh my fridge was quite barren..... The idea of a quinoa salad was already in my mind and I knew I could not let it go so I did what I could with what little I had. And it turned out great!

Maybe you've never heard of quinoa, maybe you're ready to try your first quinoa recipe or maybe you've made quinoa a million times. Whatever your quinoa knowledge may be, go look in the fridge and pantry and put whatever looks good in this salad with some quinoa. The more colourful and vibrant it is the better!         

For those that still want a recipe as a guideline continue reading =)

 
Serves: 2 large serves
Preparation and Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Salad
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water or stock
Half a medium sweet potato
1 medium sized potato
1 small carrot
1/2 cup chickpeas
1 1/2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
Half a small avocado
Half an orange

Dressing
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon oil from sundried tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 170degrees celcius
2. Dice up sweet potato, potato and carrot and place them on a baking tray with foil. Give them a light spray with olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste. Put in the oven for 10-15mins or until light brown
3. Place 1 cup of quinoa in 3 cups of stock/water in a saucepan (I used vegetable stock as it gives the quinoa more flavour. Quinoa is very good at soaking up the flavour of stock!) Bring it to the boil then lower the heat so it just simmers for 15minutes or until the quinoa turns opaque and splits. Look at the picture. Most if not all the water should be absorbed. I don't think you can overcook quinoa anyway.... 
4. Dice half an avocado
5. Cut an orange in half and peel half then dice into segments. Cut the other half of the orange into segments and eat while waiting for the quinoa and roast veg to be ready!
6. Once the quinoa and vegetables are ready place them on a plate. Add the chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, avocado and orange.
7. Place the vinegar and oil in the salad and lightly toss the salad with a spoon. (You could toss in a bowl then place on a plate but I'm lazy and less washing up!) If you used stock for the quinoa there's not much need to add salt but flavour with salt and pepper as desired. 
8. Eat slowly. It's delicious, I promise!

I saw the recipe for quinoa corn fritters on one of my favourite blogs Apples Under My Bed and luckily I wasn't scared off by the long recipe! These are actually quite simple to make and make a delicious snack. My mum had bought several husks of corn and this recipe came at just the right time! I made very small modifications due more to the lack of ingredients in my fridge than anything else.

This is the 3rd quinoa recipe I have posted. See another Meatless Monday post and a dessert one too. Lets see who makes all 3 recipes in one day ;)?

Adapted from Apples Under My Bed

Serves: 5 fritters
Preparation and Cooking Time: 45min

Ingredients
1/4 cup dry Quinoa
1/2 cup water
1 large corn cob
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1.5 heaped tablespoons (38g) Wholemeal Plain Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
3 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
A pinch of Sea Salt and Freshly Cracked Pepper

Method

1. Rinse the dry quinoa under cold water and then put it in a pot with water. 
2. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the germ turns opaque and splits from the seed- see picture 
3. Shave the corn kernels from the corn cob. 
4. Place corn kernels in a pan with the crushed garlic on high heat and sauté for 2-3 minutes until it smells heavenly and a pretty yellow. 
5. Transfer corn to a large mixing bowl.
6. Add the 1/2 cup cooked quinoa, beaten egg, flour, baking powder, cumin, Worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl with the corn. Stir ingredients together until a wet mixture is formed (See picture below)
7. Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil over low-medium heat. 
8. Form small round balls by spooning up 1 tablespoon of mixture and roughly forming it in your hand. 
9. Put the balls on the pan and after 1minute push the pattie flat with the back of a spoon. The mixture is very wet but it will hold if you treat it with care! 
10. Cook for another 5minutes then flip to cook for another 5 minutes until it is nice and brown.
11. Serving suggestions: alongside poached eggs and bacon at breakfast, as part of a salad at lunch, as an appetiser with some sweet chilli dipping sauce or alongside grilled meat or chicken and a big salad at dinner.Or just eat them on their own ;) 

Per fritter: Energy: 551kJ, protein: 5g, Fat: 4.5g, Saturated fat: 0.8g, Carbohydrate: 15.9g, Sodium: 60mg 


This is what the mixture should look like. It looks pretty wet!

 
Sizzling away in the pan...

 
Tada done!!


Nutritionally speaking......
These fritters are a good snack and can be part of a great meal too! They're not too energy dense if you're only having 1-2 and have a good protein content, low saturated fat and low sodium (depending on how much salt you decide to add!) They're also going to be quite high in fibre from the corn and quinoa (although not calcuated) so will keep you full for longer than expected. Plus another fun way to cook quinoa right?  

I must admit my siblings did not enjoy this but I think it was because of the cumin and Worchestershire taste so feel free to substitute this for any other kind of flavouring. 

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Let me know how you cook quinoa or what vegetarian recipes you are trying this week.

Well it's more like what to eat when you have limited cooking facilities and limited food available as well!

I used to be able to travel to various locations for a week at a time for work. I would always have to be prepared to make very fast simple meals as I would often be tired from work and cooking facilities can vary. It actually became quite an exciting challenge to come up with what to cook every night! I know how daunting it is to cook a meal after a long day and how easy it is to just grab take away but trust me the following will work even for the most lazy, unmotivated and unskilled! I thought I'll share with everyone some of the tips for cooking meals that are both healthy, quick, simple and cheap (I once only spent $25 for a week's supply of food for myself).

Write a shopping list! Write what meals you plan to make! Think of ingredients you can use multiple times in different ways for different meals. This will ensure no food is wasted as well.


This is one of the shopping lists I made before going to the supermarket.
When I had access to a stove I made eggs every morning. This varied from a fried egg to scrambled eggs with tomato and spinach. I also had some toast with peanut butter.

One of the places I was at only provided a kettle and a microwave. This is where I had to get creative.... (PS we also had no cutlery at times...)

 
This is something a friend recommended. It's scrambled eggs cooked in the microwave! It's very very simple to make, seriously. Crack an egg into a bowl (Or takeaway container in my case), put a tablespoon of milk into it and then whisk it slightly. Put it in the microwave and watch the magic. You might want to take it out and give it a stir 30seconds in. I would also have the eggs with some instant oats that I heated up in the microwave or a piece of toast. Cereal also works well.

What's really important at breakfast time is having something with protein and fibre. These two things will keep you full and satisfied. In the breakfasts I had, the protein came from the eggs, porridge and the peanut butter. The sources of fibre were the bread, porridge and vegetables I added to the eggs.     

Lunch always had to be something simple and could easily pack into my bag. This usually meant sandwiches and salads.


One of the sandwiches I had. One of the weeks I survived on a tuna sandwich every single day because tuna was on sale.... I always made sure I loaded it with some vegetables such as red onion, spinach, tomato and mushrooms so I wasn't leaving the task of consuming 5 serves of vegetables all at dinner.


This is one of the salads I made. You might recognise this from a previous blog post! Yes I was still obsessed with fruit in salad at that time (and I've had more chances to experiment so look out for them in future posts). This one has some added shredded chicken from the night before and instead of a vinaigrette I just used some olive oil.

A snack after lunch was always fruit to ensure I got my serves of fruit as well.


One of the first days I really couldn't be bothered cooking and it was already an effort to go shopping so I made sure I bought a frozen meal for these kind of days. Instead of eating out of a plastic plate or bowl I made the effort to plate it up and it made all the difference. I often have one or two frozen meals stored in my freezer at home for really lazy days or when there is just nothing in the fridge. Frozen meals can be quite small sometimes so an extra salad or serve of vegetables on the side can bulk up the meal.

The second picture is of a very simple meat and veg meal. I bought a BBQ chicken and took off the drumstick, microwaved some frozen vegetables and had it with a piece of bread. No cooking required! I shredded the rest of the chicken for sandwiches and salads at lunch and to go with pasta for the next night's dinner.     

 
Pasta is my number one go to dinner on these work trips. I buy a can of low salt tomato based pasta sauce, add in some frozen and fresh vegetables, a source of protein and voila meal done!


How I cooked the above pasta dish on the left... As I said before, one of the facilities only had a kettle and microwave. I was determined to not just live on frozen meals for a week and took inspiration from a video I'd seen on cooking in a hotel room. I filled the kettle with water and added pasta and boiled it with the lid open so it will continue to boil. Lots of stirring in between and there you go cooked pasta! I put some pasta sauce on it, some already microwaved frozen vegetables and some shredded chicken and into the microwave it went. It wasn't as delicious as home made pasta sauce but it was still a comforting meal after a long day and that's all it needed to be.

I also tried cooking lentils and pork fillets in the kettle but they didn't work out so well.....and never try to cook pork fillets in the microwave....

Lentils and any form of canned beans are very cheap to buy and easy to cook. They're a great substitute for meat or simply to add more bulk to a meal. You can never speak ill about beans (maybe the gas...)!

There were still some days when I did end up eating out and I didn't want these photos to sit in my phone neglected while my kettle of pasta got some screen time... You can always go back to my post on tips for eating out.

 
Looking at that salad is making me drool already....

I hope this post comes back on nights when you're feeling uninspired and unable to get off the couch. These meals are definitely cheaper than some take aways and this is more my definition of fast food. If you think about it, in the time you take to call up a pizza place and have it delivered, you could have had a nice home made meal! 


Feel free to share any quick meals, cooking tips and what you like to eat when you're in a rush in the comments below!

I used to hate blueberries. Something about the smell, the colour, the price! But then I don't know how or when, I started to fall in love with them! I'm still not a fan of fresh blueberries but I love them frozen and I make sure to have a packet in my freezer at all times. At only 184kJ/100g they are a great frozen sweet treat any time of day.

Two nights ago I picked up my box of frozen blueberries for a snack and discovered a recipe for blueberries and white chocolate muffins. It was VERY late in the evening but I had all the ingredients handy and decided to do some late night baking.

I made a few modifications with the recipe so here's a comparison of the original with my modified recipe.

Blueberries and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Original Recipe Serves: 6	Modified Recipe Serves: 14
1 cup blueberries 2 cups self raising flour ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar ½ cup white chocolate bits 1 egg, lightly beaten ¾ cup butter milk ½ cup vegetable oil	¾ cup blueberries 1 ½ cup wholemeal flour ½ cup self raising flour ¼ teaspoon baking powder ½ cup low GI sugar ¼ cup white chocolate bits 1 egg, lightly beaten ¾ cup low fat milk ½ cup canola oil ¼ cup low fat yoghurt

    
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl
3. Stir in egg, milk, yoghurt and oil 
4. Scoop batter into lined cupcake tray evenly
5. Push in a few blueberries and white chocolate into each cupcake 
6. Bake for 20-25mins  

Before they go into the oven!

 

 

These were beyond delicious. The only thing I would've done differently is to put MORE blueberries in! These are more dense than your ordinary cupcakes but they were very moist and soft and filling. So perfect.

Nutritionally Speaking....

Original Recipe (Per serve)	Modified Recipe (Per serve)
Energy 2320 kJ Protein 9.2 g Fat (total) 23.6 g Saturated fat 4.7 g Carbohydrate 74.8 g Sugars 36.7 g Sodium 410 mg	Energy 864 kJ Protein 4.2 g Fat (total) 9.2 g Saturated fat 1.4 g Carbohydrate 25.4 g Sugars 10.4 g Sodium 68 mg

As you can see I have significantly reduced the kilojoules! 864kJ is still a bit high for a snack but it's a big improvement on 2320kJ. An average person's kilojoule intake for the day is 8700kJ so just having one muffin from the original recipe would be 25% of your daily intake. Not such an innocent muffin now right? 


Some easy modifications to try when baking:

• Change the serving size. I prefer cupcakes over muffins because they're cuter and I only have cupcake tins at home ;). This way I ended up with over twice as many cupcakes than I would have! Good food should be shared so I passed some on to my neighbours, family and friends who dropped by. It's also quite impressive if they love it (and they will!) and you tell them you made them!
• Substitute white flour with wholemeal flour. This is really easy to do if you're baking a fruit cake or nut cake since there's already different textures in the batter. If you're not sure how much to substitute try 1/4 or 1/2 of the amount in the recipe and just experiment. 
• Choose Low GI Cane sugar, Natvia or Splenda instead of white sugar. These have lower GI or less kiljoules than white sugar. However read the packet for conversions of quantity. Usually sweeteners are several times sweeter than sugar so less may be needed.  With sugar it also helps to experiment with how much is really needed. As this cupcake already has blueberries and white chocolate I felt it would be quite sweet already so I cut 1/4 cup of sugar off and it was still quite sweet.
• Choose low fat ingredients. This includes using low fat milk, cream, yoghurt etc. Choose maragrine instead of butter. This can reduce the kilojoule content as well as the total and saturated fat.
• I've been exprimenting with adding yoghurt to my cakes and so far so good! Adding 1/4- 1 cup of yoghurt can make cakes more moist, dense and increase the protein content. Definitely will be experimenting more with yoghurt!     
  

 Let me know about any recipe modifications you've made and how it turned out!