studiofood

Purple Carrots!

2012-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

I like to keep a huge box of ready-made salad in the fridge. This is because I am lazy, and I like the idea of cooking every day, but not the reality of it. The practicalities of this are fantastic - toss some in a box and add a tin of tuna for lunch. Grill a chicken breast and serve it on the side for dinner. Shove a handful in your mouth as a snack when you're hungry for dinner but it's only 4.30. (Um, that's me, like, every day. Settle down, metabolism. I eat like a teenage rugby player.)

I have made errors with this in the past. Add anything moist or with a high water content and you're likely to end up with a mess that smells like the bottom of your vegetable crisper when you haven't cleaned it out for a few weeks and you find unidentified mush in a plastic bag underneath the onions. Coleslaw tends to work well, but gets pretty boring. Here's one that lasted about 4 days without suffering too much. I added avocados when I served it, and whatever protein was convenient - canned chickpeas for lunch, usually, and some kind of cooked meat for dinner.

And... it involves purple carrots! They're so pretty! When you peel them they look kind of like beetroot, but the colour faded towards the centre until they were almost white.

Just chuck a bag of mixed green salad leaves in an airtight plastic container. Shred a couple of carrots in and add some snow peas or green beans. Voila! Salad for a week.

What's your best time-saving cooking tip?

Dinner for a Dollar

2012-01-30T00:27:00.000-08:00

I'm always psyched when I can get a good deal on groceries. Dinner tonight was too simple to deserve the tag of 'recipe', but I'll share anyway because it was cheap and delicious.

Woolworths had a packet of beef and lamb meatballs reduced to $3.47. A tin of Raguletto Garlic and Red Wine pasta sauce was half price at $1.07. I chucked both in the slow cooker while I was at work.

Served on top of some wholemeal pasta for the BF and spiralized zucchini noodles for me, it's a meal to serve four (or, like us, two people for two nights) for around $6 - that's $1.50 per serve!

How pretty are zucchini noodles?

And how delicious are meatballs? Good combo. :)

Spiralizing - The Magic of Zucchini Noodles

2012-01-25T15:04:00.000-08:00

Why the excitement?

Well, I've been lusting after this kitchen tool for some time. They're a great way to jazz up salads with long, gorgeous ribbons of vegetables - my side salad with dinner last night was some mized lettuce, zucchini and carrot ribbons, avocado and almonds.

Pretty, huh?

But the main reason I got excited is that I can now eat all my favourite pasta dishes without worrying about carbs or calories.

Zucchini 'Spaghetti'

1-2 zucchini per person

Use a spiralizer to make long strands of spaghetti (or a vegetable peeler to make ribbons) and serve raw or lightly pan-fried as a pasta substitute. You could also use carrots for this, which I imagine would be a good way of getting kids to eat their vegies as well!

Most of my favourite pasta sauces work just as well served on a big pile of zucchini 'spaghetti'. I'll definitely be making a nice thick bolognese sauce first, but after a quick web trawl, many other options turn up. Looks like pasta is back on my menu!

Raw Zucchini Noodles with Sundried Tomato Pesto

Zucchini Spaghetti with Meatballs

Zucchini Noodles with Chicken and Tangy Peanut Sauce

Zucchini Pasta with Arrabiata Chickpeas

Zucchini Noodles with Shrimp and Goats Cheese

What are your favourite pasta sauces?

Restaurant Review: Jamie's Italian

2012-01-25T01:05:00.000-08:00

When I heard that Jamie's Italian was opening in Australia, I was very excited. I love Jamie Oliver, and have always found his recipes to be easy to follow, usually healthy, and delicious. I met a friend today for lunch at the Sydney restaurant, located in Pitt St. Due to some epic bus issues, I was late, which she said was fine because she was settled in the bar sipping a ginger and lemongrass soda.

We were seated almost straight away, and ordered the vegetarian antipasti, which is $10 per head - serious value for money considering what you get. Thin flatbreads topped with pecorino and chilli jam, a crunchy salad of shredded carrot, daikon, and celeriac, some marinated chargrilled vegetables and olives, caponato on thin slices of sourdough bread and some amazing, melt-in-you-mouth bocconcini.

I was full after the starter!

But, the mains were worth a bit of a tight waistband afterwards - I had the fish baked in a paper bag (28.00), a beautiful piece of what I think was snapper on top of pine nut couscous, with a few clams and mussels popped in for good measure. Very nice, although the couscous went almost untouched, partly because I was so full and partly because it seemed a bit redundant. I felt the parcel would almost have been better without it.

My friend had the spaghetti bolognese (19.00), a fairly rich but delicious homestyle dish. Simple, but effective. The serving was very generous, and she had to leave some behind!

I hadn't read many favourable review of the desserts, so we skipped them and had affogatos (6.00) to finish off instead - a good choice as the vanilla bean icecream was delicious and the espresso was strong but not bitter.

Overall, it was a lovely experience. The waitstaff are professional and friendly, the food was excellent value for money, and despite the loud and tipsy women at the next table discussing in great detail how much sex their friend said she was having with her Brazilian boyfriend, the atmosphere was noisy but pleasant.

I fully intend to go back.

Poached Eggs in the Microwave

2012-01-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

Look, I consider myself a fairly good cook most of the time. So why on earth is it that I have never EVER been able to poach an egg?

I've tried all the tricks and methods, and every time all that happens is that I end up pouring eggy, vinegary water down the sink and regretting it when my kitchen stinks for two days afterwards. It's the smell of half-cooked egg and failure.

But I have rectified that problem. I can now proudly call myself a Poacher of Eggs. And all it took was for me to be without a stove for a while. After googling microwave recipes, I came across this little gem of a recipe. I've adapted it because I had no vinegar, and frankly, it worked fine without.

Poached Eggs in the Microwave
(Serves 1)

1 egg
1/3 cup water
1 ramekin
small piece of cling wrap

Put the water in the ramekin. Gently break the egg into it and pierce the yolk with a toothpick or needle. Place the cling wrap lightly over the top and microwave for 1 minute.

What's your best microwave shortcut?

Donna Hay Recipe Fail

2012-01-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried one of those recipes which just seemed to have something fundamentally wrong with it? Something left out, or missing, or just a bit strange?

I have tried two recipes this year that have been like that, both desserts, and both Donna Hay recipes. Perhaps she assumed some kind of knowledge that I didn't have, or implies steps but doesn't say them explicitly, but both recipes have been small fails. The first were pistachio meringues, which I don't have a picture of, but the recipe stated to put them on greaseproof paper but not to grease the paper. I thought this was strange, but followed the recipe. Sure enough, they stuck like a bitch. My boyfriend offered to spend an hour painstakingly scraping the paper off the bottom of each meringue so I could still serve them on Christmas Eve. I got over my panic by watching So You Think You Can Dance. Yeah, he's a champion.

This one was a recipe for a Mango and Banana Yoghurt Gelato. It said that after blending the mango, banana and yoghurt, I could freeze it overnight to serve. I though perhaps it would need blending many times during the freezing process to avoid ice crystals forming and to keep it soft, but AGAIN, I chose to follow the recipe and sure enough, it was frozen solid.

A thorough blend with some boiling water and it became more like a liquified soft serve. Too soft for what I had in mind.

It was salvaged by serving it as kind of a frozen mousse over some raspberry sorbet with fresh berries. Not bad, but not what I had in mind.

What's been your most recent recipe flop?

Homemade Tortillas and Slow Cooker BBQ Beef

2012-01-11T23:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm in a new house. :)

It is delightful - like a little tropical cabin by the sea. As a couple of small downsides - there is an outdoor shower, and there is no proper kitchen. From this moment onwards, for as long as we rent here, I will be cooking predominantly on the portable barbeque we have sitting on the deck, and the slow cooker. Or not cooking at all, so luckily I like salads!

Last night's dinner utilized both these appliances. I'll seperate the recipes, as they are easily served in various other ways, but we cooked the beef and sliced it thinly and rolled it in the tortillas. It was pretty good. And we ate it on the deck as the sun set and made friends with a possum. Loving life at the moment.

Homemade Wholemeal Tortillas
(Makes approx 10)

2 cups plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3-4 tbsp butter or margerine (I only had macadamia oil, for some strange reason. Worked fine.)
1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix the flours, baking powder and salt together. Rub in the margerine or oil until 'breadcrumbs' form. Gradually add the water and mix until a soft dough comes together. Pour some flour on a bench and knead until no longer sticky.

Pull the dough into 10 small balls. One at a time, use a floured rolling pin to roll them out as thinly as possible. Mine formed rounds that were about 20-30cm in diameter.

Preheat a frying pan or a flat-plate on the barbeque. Fry the tortillas for 30-45 seconds on each side - flip once small dark blisters start to appear on the cooking side. They should still be soft and pliable when you take them off the heat. Repeat, keeping the cooked ones covered with foil until ready to serve.

And the next recipe could be very easily served sliced as a roast alongside some potatoes and steamed vegetable, sliced and piled into a sandwich with coleslaw and mayonnaise, or as we did - wrapped in the tortillas with some sour cream and a lovely salad. Divine.

Slow Cooker BBQ Beef
(Serves 4-6)

1 x 1kg piece of beef (I used rump roast, but any inexpensive whole piece will do)
1/2 cup reduced salt and sugar barbeque sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp smoked paprika
a liberal quantity of freshly ground black pepper

Place the beef in the slow cooker. Mix together the sauce, garlic, paprika and pepper. Pour over beef. Cook on low for 7 hours.

Open up the slow cooker, remove the beef, and shake off any excess liquid. Keep the lid on the slow cooker to prevent the broth from cooling. Thinly slice or shred the beef, return to slow cooker and leave for another hour.

What's your favourite slow cooker recipe?

Protein Pancakes

2011-12-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

These are my new breakfast obsession.

Seeing as I have been working out at 5am recently, and then driving straight to work, I've been eating breakfast at my desk at work. Which, let's face it, can be slightly depressing.

So, to cheer myself up, I decided to make a more exciting meal for myself than my usual bircher muesli.

I made these on Sunday night, wrapped them individually in greaseproof paper, chucked them in a ziplock bag and popped them in the freezer.

At work, I throw them in the microwave for 90 seconds and then top them with sliced strawberries and vanilla yoghurt.

These aren't the fluffy pancakes I imagine you would get at an American diner - they're quite dense and very filling, but I quite like that. The slightly chewy mouth-feel is a reflection of their nutritional density - they are absolutely PACKED with fibre and protein.

Protein Pancakes
(Makes 8 - 2 per serve)

200g low fat cottage cheese
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
a few packets of stevia, to sweeten
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence

In a blender, place all ingredients. You may need to add a little milk or water to get the blender going, and the batter does also thicken once it stands a little while, so I would feel comfortable adding up to half a cup of liquid to this. Just do it a bit at a time, as you do want a thick batter.

Spray a frying pan with oil and dollop in 1/4 cup measures of batter. Fry until the bottom sets and is golden and then flip over and fry on the other side. Continue until all batter is used up.

If keeping in the freezer, wrap in greaseproof paper and place in a ziplock bag. Pop in the freezer and microwave to defrost when you're ready to eat them.

I'm keen to try these with some different toppings - maybe some cashew butter, applesauce, other fruit...

10 Things to Do With Ratatouille

2011-11-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

Ratatouille, as well as being the name of a very cute movie about a rat, is also an excellent vegetable dish, originally French but bastardised into many different forms, that can be adapted at least 10 ways that I can think of. It's good served with anything. LITERALLY anything. Well, maybe not icecream.

We had it this week with some simple pan-fried fish, but I've added a list of 10 Things to Do With Ratatouille, just because I like lists.

Ratatouille
(Serves 4 as a side)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large or 2 small onions, diced roughly
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large eggplant, diced into 1cm cubes
2 red capsicums, roughly chopped into large pieces
2 large zucchini, thickly sliced
1 x 400g tin whole Roma tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp tomato paste

In a large, heavy based saucepan, heat the oil over medium. Add the onion and garlic and turn the heat down slightly until they become fragrant and are starting to brown a little.
Tip in the eggplant, capsicum, and zucchini. Stir around until the vegetables are somewhat coated in the garlic-onion mixture.
Add the tomatoes, breaking up with the back of a wooden spoon, and water and tomato paste. Cover and leave to simmer on low for at least an hour, stirring every now and then.
Taste for seasoning. It should be thick, rich and the eggplant almost silky by this stage. It will easily take longer cooking, just add a little more liquid to stop it from burning and make sure the heat is kept low.
Serve with any of the options suggested below.

10 Things to Do with Ratatouille

1. Serve as I did this week, plopped into a shallow bowl with a gorgeous pan-fried fish fillet on top.
2. Serve on top of chunky pasta like rigatoni with shaved parmesan on top.
3. Serve as a side dish with a simple roasted chicken for a healthier version of a traditional roast.
4. Try it for breakfast - top a bowl of ratatouille with a poached egg with some toast on the side.
5. Use cold leftovers in a wrap, using mountain bread or a wholegrain tortilla with some crumbled feta.
6. When cooking, turn it into a complete vegan meal by adding a tin of chickpeas and some cubed pumpkin.
7. Use as a filling for lasagne or cannelloni.
8. Top a baked sweet potato with ratatouille and sprinkle with fresh basil.
9. Fill a baking dish with leftover ratatouille, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, cheddar and parmesan, and bake until bubbling.
10. My favourite - eat cold, out of the fridge, as a midnight snack. So good.

Where is the ratatouille on other blogs?

Karis' Kitchen has a baked version of ratatouille.
100 Miles has a traditional French recipe.
TasteFood has a ratatouille gratin.
Food Network turns ratatouille into a soup.
Cooking Channel glamourizes it into a tart.

Lazy Low-Carb Roast

2011-11-24T17:41:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the comfort of a roast dinner cannot be beaten. But there are two things I dislike about roasts. Firstly, roasting a whole piece of meat, or a whole chicken is just no good for me. Yeah, sure, I could take off the skin and only eat the white meat. But who does that? I immediately go for a drumstick. And then, while I'm 'carving' the chicken, I'm secretly stuffing my face with golden, crunchy pieces of chicken skin.

Whatever, don't act like you don't do it.

And secondly, the traditional vegetable accompaniments to a roast dinner, like potatoes, are just a little stodgy for me on an average weeknight.

So here's my compromise - it's light, healthy and very tasty, but still has the 'chuck in the oven and leave it for a bit' ease of the traditional roast.

Lazy Low-Carb Roast Chicken
(Serves 4-6)

6 chicken thighs
1 red onion, cut into wedges
2 red capsicums, sliced into thick chunks
4 zucchini, cut into thick chunks on the diagonal
10 baby yellow squash, halved
250g button mushrooms, hlaved if large
4 Roma tomatoes, halved
1 lemon, halved
1 tsp dried rosemary
salt and pepper
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Line two baking dishes with foil. Toss the onion, capsicum, zucchini, squash, mushrooms and tomatoes with a spray of oil, the juice of half a lemon, the rosemary and salt and pepper.

Arrange among baking dishes and place chicken thighs on top. Cut the remaining half a lemon into thin slices and place on top of the chicken so that they don't dry out during cooking.

Roast for 40 minutes until chicken is cooked and vegetables are tender. Or do what I did, and turn the heat down to low and leave in the oven while you drive to school to attend a student Drama and Music night and pray that it won't be ruined when you get home in two and a half hours. NB: it was not.

What's your favourite substitute for a traditional favourite?

Over-Plan

2011-11-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

I love planning. It's how I relax. Writing shopping lists, menu planning, doing budgets, writing down what workout I'm doing every day of the week in my diary...

How can this be relaxing? Well, I think it's because I feel like if I know what I'm doing with all those little things, day to day, I can just relax and know what's coming next. I'm not sure why it stresses me out so much to feel like things are not 100% under my control, but it does. So I avoid that feeling as much as possible.

I thought I'd share some of my planning on here, so that maybe somewhere in the blogosphere, someone equally uptight about routines and planning ahead can breathe a sigh of relief and know that they are not alone.

Workout Plan
Monday - weights (shoulders, biceps, triceps) and interval training
Tuesday - weights (lower body) and interval training
Wednesday - touch football (to be replaced by Pilates when the season finishes)
Thurday - weights (chest and back) and interval training
Friday - weights (lower body)
Saturday - Circuit class followed by Body Pump/Body Attack at the gym
Sunday - boot camp

Menu Plan
Breakfasts:
oats soaked overnight with chia seeds, almonds and blueberries
Lunches:
roasted vegetable and tofu salad (Monday to Friday)
vegetable omelettes (Sat-Sun)
Dinners:
wholemeal fettucine with prawns and tomato (Monday)
cranberry chicken with orange scented rice (Tuesday-Wednesday)
moroccan lamb filo tart (Thursday to Friday)
Snacks:
hardboiled eggs
fruit and yoghurt
carrot sticks
homemade oat-bran muffins

How do you organise your planning? How closely do you stick to it?

Lemon Prawn Linguine

2011-11-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

A simple weeknight dinner that feels pretty fancy!

Lemon and Prawn Linguine
(serves 2)

150g frozen prawns (or fresh, obviously)
100g wholemeal linguine
1 lemon
1 carrot, cut into thin batons
1 yellow capsicum, sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, crushed
salt and pepper
1/4 cup crumbled low fat fetta cheese

Cook the pasta according to packet directions.
Meanwhile, spray a large frying pan with oil and add the garlic. On medium, cook the garlic until fragrant.
While it is cooking, use a fine grater to grate the lemon zest into the pan. Stir briefly and add the prawns, carrot and capsicum.
Saute for a couple of minutes or until the prawns start to change colour.
Drain the pasta and add to the saucepan. Halve the lemon and add the juice to the same pan. Turn up the heat and cook on high for a couple of minutes, tossing until well combined.
Serve in bowls topped with the crumbled fetta.

Takes 15 minutes to whip up. Is yummy. Is healthy. Enough said.

What's your favourite 15 minute dinner?

Dukan Diet Muffins

2011-11-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

I'm not on the Dukan Diet, but the recipe for these muffins caught my eye when it was published in the weekend newspaper. Although it didn't include a nutritional breakdown, I did one myself and discovered that these are VERY high in protein, high in fibre, and only 105 calories for 2 muffins.

After making them, I can say that they are not nice warm out of the oven, but once they are refrigerated they settle and firm up a little bit, and taste less like whipped air and more like a muffin. They are very filling, and a great substitute for the $2.00 mini protein bars I am addicted to. If you were to do a cost breakdown of these I have a feeling that one serve (2 muffins) would be around fifty cents or less.

Dukan Diet Muffins (adapted from the recipe published in the Sunday Telegraph)
(Makes 8)

4 eggs, seperated
8 tbsp oat bran
4 tbsp fat free yoghurt
sweetener to taste (I used 1/3 cup Equal for baking, but stevia would work equally well)
zest of 1 lemon or 2 tsp cinnamon, to flavour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
Mix together egg yolks, oat bran, yoghurt, sweetener and flavouring. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
Spray cupcake liners with oil. Mix bran mixture gently into egg whites until well combined. Place mixture into cupcake liners evenly and bake for 20-25 minutes or until risen and lightly brown. Allow to cool completely before storing and serving.

I'm interested in playing with the flavouring of these - I'm thinking orange zest and cinnamon together would be a nice combination. I'm not sure if you could add nuts or dried fruit because of the light texture - I think they would sink to the bottom as they baked. Coconut might work, as would perhaps some flaked almonds. It will be worth experimenting, as these are by far the healthiest, lowest calorie baking recipe I've ever come across.

What's your healthiest baking recipe?

School Camp Food - Survival Amongst Refined Carbs

2011-11-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I was asked to supervise the Year 9 camp. 80 kids, five teachers, and a whole lot of noise.

It was actually really fun. We played Assasin, and Trivia, and Scavenger Hunts. The students were mostly delightful, and the place we stayed in was pretty decent. The best thing about it was the peacocks roaming all over the place.

The worst thing - by far - was the food. Here's what we had for dinner on the first night. Fatty mince pasta baked overcooked to the stage where my grandmother could have eaten it after she'd taken her dentures out; hot chips as the side vegetable; and a bread roll and butter.

No vegetables, no fibre, minimal protein - a whole bunch of fat and white carbs.

Lunches the next day were a ham and cheese sandwich, a vegemite sandwich, a piece of fruit and a piece of chocolate chip cake. I donated all my sandwiches to some ravenous teenage boys, thanked God that I remembered to pack protein bars, and shoved as many apples as would fit into my backpack.

All those refined carbs made me feel so bloated and sick and tired. I could NOT WAIT to get back to the real world and find some bloody salad.

So here's my lunches this week - full of vegetables, fibre, buckets of protein - and no fat and NO white carbs.

Cumin Roasted Carrot, Chickpea and Feta Salad
(Serves 4)

4 large carrots, cut into batons
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
200g mixed salad leaves
4 lebanese cucumbers, sliced into half-moons
1 yellow capsicum, thinly sliced
100g reduced fat feta, crumbled
1 lemon, quartered

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Mix the carrots, the olive oil, and cumin seeds in a roasting pan and season. Roast for 30 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. Remove and allow to cool.
Toss the chickpeas, carrots, salad leaves, cucumber, capsicum and fetta together. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Yellow Split Pea Terrine

2011-10-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

Finding healthy foods for lunch is not difficult, but sometimes finding healthy foods that fit into a strict budget is. This week has been a tight one, and the first thing I do when the bank funds drop dangerously low is to stop shopping. No, I don't mean I stop buying shoes, I mean I stop buying groceries. This week I bought some fresh salad ingredients, because I can't live without salad, milk, and some cheap, in season fruit, and that was it.

The rest of the ingredients for cooking meals had to come from the pantry and the freezer. Luckily, I always have a limitless (seemingly) supply of beans, legumes, and grains filling up my cupboards, and an equally endless supply of cookbooks with recipes to use them!

Here's my lunch for the week ahead. I had to buy the mushrooms for this recipe, but that's it. I'm taking it for work lunches with a slice of pumpernickle bread and a green salad.

Yellow Split Pea Terrine
(Serves 4)

1/2 cup yellow split peas
1 brown onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, grated
200g mushrooms, diced
1 tsp curry powder
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the split peas in boiling water until tender or according to packet directions. Place in a bowl and roughly mash with a fork. Season and set aside.
Spray a frying pan with oil and saute onion and garlic until fragrant. Add the grated carrot, mushrooms, curry powder and lemon juice. Saute until vegetables are tender. Season.
Stir in the mashed split peas. Pack tightly into a loaf tin, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Satay Tofu Skewers

2011-10-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

I promised to post this and here it is.

I seriously have a problem with peanut butter. I buy a jar, put it high up on the shelf out of my reach and then two days later, the peanut fairies have whisked it all away, and I am mysteriously a few kilos heavier, have some kind of sticky delicious product smeared around my mouth and an insatiable craving for a glass of milk.

But this recipe is worth all that. And actually, if you can restrain yourself from dipping into the jar while you cook, it's very healthy. But I can't, so it's not.

Satay Tofu Skewers
(Serves 2)

200g extra-firm tofu, cut into 6 blocks
80ml light coconut milk
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp natural crunchy peanut butter
1 minced garlic clove
pinch of chilli flakes

2 small heads broccoli, lightly steamed

Thread the tofu onto 6 wooden skewers. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a grill pan on high and spray with oil. Place the tofu skewers on the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until nicely charred and browning.
Meanwhile, place coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, chilli flakes and garlic in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and simmer gently until the peanut butter melts and the sauce begins to thicken a little bit. Steam the broccoli.
To serve, fill a bowl with steamed broccoli, top with three tofu skewers and drizzle with peanut sauce.

Links of the Week

2011-10-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

I've been incredibly slack about taking any photos of my foods this week.

My lunches have been Fruity Chicken Salads, and are very photogenic - I have just been too hungry to remember to take photos before I wolf it down.

Dinners? Lentil bolognese with wholemeal fettucine. Not photogenic at all. Anything made with lentils invariably looks like vomit in a bowl. Dahl, anyone? Delicious but fugly.

Last night, chicken satay skewers. Luckily for you they were awesome, and I'm making them again tonight. I promise I'll take a photo.

So in lieu of my own recipes, I'll post a few awesome ones I've come across in my blog-crawling this week.

Rosemary Red Bean Soup from An Edible Mosaic. I'm so glad this woman has a cookbook coming out. It will be on my Christmas list for sure. Mum, are you reading?

Balsamic Bruschetta Chicken from Budget Bytes. Even though the name of this blog irritates me (I'm an English teacher, I don't even like deliberate misspelling), this recipe looks like a great, high protein, post-gym dinner.

Sweet Chilli Lime Tofu with Spinach Quinoa from Food for Thought. How hardcore healthy does that sound??

Upside Down Pear Cakes with with Vanilla Honey and Cardamom Cream from Roost. Enough said.

What were your favourite links of the week?

Girl's Night In Picnic

2011-10-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I hosted a 'Girl's Night In' picnic for some friends and family to raise money for women's cancer.

It was at the beach, in the beautiful fading afternoon sunlight.

We had some delicious food! Here's what was on my menu:

Baked Lemon-Thyme and Chilli Ricotta
Grilled Eggplant
Rye Sourdough Baguette

Cumin and Sweet Potato Filo Rolls
Mini Pea, Mint and Fetta Frittatas
Roasted Paprika Chicken Pieces
Chickpea, Almond and Carrot Salad

My beautiful sister Annie brought some delicious cupcakes and her friend Antonia brought the world's best brownies, of which I ate 6. The first three were deliberate, but I'm not sure how the other three got in my mouth!

We made some decent money for an excellent cause as well as stuffing our faces, so it was totally worth it.

I had a great time, and I hope all the supportive ladies who came did too.

Thanks everyone!

Spice-Marinated Rack of Lamb

2011-10-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this is just what I whip up on your average weeknight. Domestic goddess much?

Not really. This is certainly the exception to the rule. Case in point - last night my dinner was some leftover chickpeas and a grated carrot. Mmmmm. Gourmet.

Remember the homemade yoghurt? I wanted to find ways to use up such a large amount of it, and after I picked up some lamb racks reduced significantly (because I'm not a billionaire and therefore can't ever afford full priced lamb racks) I made a yoghurt marinade for them. I roasted up some sweet potato chips and made a green salad and BAM! Dinner was served. It was awesome and delicious.

Spice Roasted Rack of Lamb
(Serves 2)

1 x 600g rack of lamb (mine had 5 cutlets on it and was French-trimmed)

2 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp salt

1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into thick julienne
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
cracked black pepper

tossed green salad, to serve

Stir together the yoghurt, spices, and lemon juice. Rub all over the lamb rack in a shallow bowl and leave to marinate for four or five hours. To be honest, mine only marinates for the hour and a half I was at the gym, and it was fine, but I imagine it would be even better if the flavours were allowed more time to develop.

Place in a foil lined baking tray and spray with oil. Place the rack of lamb on one side of the tray ad brush with any marinade that is left in the bowl. Toss the sweet potato with the paprika, oil and salt and place on the other side of the baking tray.

Roast at 190 degrees Celcius for 25-30 minutes or until the lamb is cooked to your liking.

Serve with a green salad and bask in the admiration of your family/boyfriend/cats.

What's your favourite gourmet weeknight meal?

Fitness Plans and New Motivation

2011-10-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you guys, but I can pretty much stick with the same workouts for a few weeks before I get bored.

Most recently I went through a phase of being obsessed with swimming laps at the beach. Then it got cloudy and I got bored with it.

Before that I was training for a half-marathon and running for 1-3 hours, three or four times a week. Then I hurt my back, and I had to stop.

Before that I was doing very heavy weights training mixed with a bit of cardio, 5-6 times a week. I got a killer set of abs. As soon as I stopped, they went away. So I got bored, and I stopped.

It's important to always change up your workouts to keep your body challenged, and to keep your mind focussed on actually growing. I don't mean growing in width, obviously, I mean growing in a positive way. My body has learnt, in the last two years:

That I can, and have, run 21km. And that it was really hard.
That I bulk up muscle relatively easily. And that I love it.
That exercise like Yoga and Pilates is actually really important to strecth out and allow yourself time to heal.
I have a tendency to go too hard, too soon and so far I have injured by neck, knee and back through exercise. So, maybe a good idea to calm down a bit sometimes.
That I can do 110kg on the leg press now. Not really a learning thing, just showing off.

In the interests of keeping things interesting, I thought I'd post some links to online workouts and fitness guides that I have used or intended to use. There's no point going to the gym and sitting around chatting while you aimlessly lift some 3kg dumbells. Having these as guidelines for when you're lacking motivation or you don't have enough knowledge about fitness to design your own workouts effectively (which, let's face it, is most of us) will keep you on track.

Cardio Workouts for Gym Machines at Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life are great if you're one of those people who lacks motivation at indoor cardio (my hand is right up in the air right now!)

BODYROCK.tv does great Boot Camp style workouts but are not for the fainthearted!

The Fitnessista is a personal trainer and also has some great healthy recipes on the site as well as workouts, including spin, treadmill and weights workouts.

Got any other online workout inspiration to share?

A Non-Recipe for Muesli

2011-10-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

I wake up in the mornings ravenous.

This might be because I am, apparently, a very 'wiggly' sleeper, and hence burn many calories while asleep. (How good would that be if it was true?)

Whatever the reason, breakfast is an exciting meal.

This is my current favourite. I make up a huge batch at the beginning of the week and then eat it every morning, with sliced strawberries and my homemade fat free yoghurt. It is endlessly adaptable, which is why I'm calling it a non-recipe, and you can pretty much roll however you want with this.

This Week's Muesli

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup processed wheat bran sticks or All Bran
1/4 cup goji berries (or cranberries, or dates, or raisins, or dried apples etc)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or chopped walnuts, or almonds, or cashews, or sesame seeds, or coconut etc)

Toss all ingredients together and place in an airtight container.

Anyone else want to share a favourite muesli combination?

Homemade Fat Free Yoghurt

2011-10-06T00:02:00.000-07:00

I became interested in this idea after reading a post on A Year of Slow Cooking and compared in my head the price of 2L of milk compared to what I would spend for 2L of the fat free flavoured yoghurt I eat a tub of a week. 2 litres of skim milk cost me $2.50, plus about 50c for the 1/2 cup of bought yogurt needed as the culture starter. A litre of the yoghurt I buy costs $4 on special, and is normally $5.49. Therefore I would save a minimum of $5 by making my own.

I was so in already. Plus, making my own fat free natural yoghurt would make me feel like some kind of superhuman combination of Martha Stewart and a thin, barefoot, flowing haired, hippie goddess.

Right. Bongos at the ready? Check. Martha-esque apron? Check. Let's go.

Hippie Martha Homemade Yoghurt

Get 2 litres of milk. I used skim, but I imagine full cream would yield a thicker yoghurt. I just didn't want a thicker stomach as a result of the excessive yoghurt eating that would follow this experiement.

Put the milk in the slow cooker and heat it on Low for 2 hours.

Turn off the slow cooker. Leave lid on. Let it sit for 3 hours.

After this time, remove 2 cups of the warm(ish) milk and whisk in 1/2 a cup of yoghurt. I used a non-fat natural yoghurt. Look for one with live cultures.

Return yoghurt-milk mixture to slow cooker and replace lid. Wrap in a bath towel (a clean one, not the one you use to clean up hair dye with - which is pretty much all towels at my house) and leave to sit for 8 hours.

When I took the lid off I was surprised at the consistency. It's more like the texture of homemade custard than yoghurt from the supermarket - it doesn't have that 'set' look about it. The flavour is excellent though. It's mellower and lacks that slightly tangy aftertaste I often find plain yoghurt to have.

I just ate some for afternoon tea with sliced papaya and kiwi fruit (thanks Mum, for providing me with expensive tropical fruits that I never buy for myself, I love coming to your house!) and am planning ways to use up this extraordinary amount of yogurt. So far...

Blend with berries and freeze to make frozen berry yoghurt
Use with spices to marinate tandoori chicken
Eat with muesli every morning
Use as a face mask mixed with honey and egg white (seriously, this is really good)\
Make some baked goods with it, I have a recipe for lemon yoghurt cake somewhere

Any other suggestions?

Making Something Out of Nothing

2011-09-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Set yourself a challenge. Challenge yourself not to shop for a while, and to make what you have out of what is in your pantry. How long do you think you could last?

I do this sporadically, to use up bits and pieces and try to save a bit of cash. It's a great way to exercise your creative cooking skills as well, as it's a bit like a MasterChef mystery box challenge.

This week I wanted to up up a few odds and ends that were in the fridge, but mainly half a packet of filo pastry from the freezer. I came up with these Spiced Potato Pastries, which turned out pretty great, actually, thanks for asking! (Unlike the photo. Very sorry about that.)

They're immensely cheap, vegan, and low in fat. I'm already invisaging a pumpkin version served with hummos to dip them in.

Spiced Potato Pastries
(Makes 3)

9 sheets filo pastry
1 large red-skinned potato, unpeeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1/2 red onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sea salt
oil spray

Steam the potato cubes until tender.
Meanwhile, saute garlic and onion in a little oil or butter until soft. Add spices and drained potato and stir until the potato is just starting to turn a light brown.
Stack 3 filo sheets, spraying in between each. Add a third of the potato mixture to one end, fold ends in and roll up (like a big spring roll). Place on baking sheet and spray with oil again Sprinkle some extra cumin seeds on top. Repeat to make three rolls in total.
Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for about 20 minutes or until browned and cooked through. I cooked mine on the top shelf and they browned too quickly, so place them in the middle or bottom of the oven.

I just realised the photo I took of these is not only the ugliest photo of all time but also makes my stove look really dirty. So I'm not posting it. Instead, I'll post a picture of what I was doing on Tuesday.

I had coffee on the beach, then I swam some laps, then I went home and drank some Hunter Valley wine.

Best.

Super Asian Salad

2011-09-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be honest. The sole reason I decided to make this salad was because of the name.

Super Asian Salad, read the heading in a cookbook I was reading at the library.
I chuckled to myself quietly. Super Asian. That made me picture an small Asian dude wearing a cape and saving the planet. Then I panicked because I got worried that I was being racist. Then I relaxed a bit because I'm not, I love all things Asian, and Asian food most of all. And what kind of weirdo would think derogatory things about a culture and then make their food? Not me. Therefore I am respectful of Asian culture. Oh good. I can still eat dumplings.

Anyway.

This salad is pretty rocking. It's ridiculously healthy, vegan, high protein, high in healthy fats and Omegas, low calorie, and seriously just awesome. Make it. Or Super Asian will fight you.

Super Asian Salad
(Serves 1)

2 cups baby Asian greens
1 head of bok choy or choy sum, thinly shredded
1 cucumber, sliced thinly
1 spring onion, finely sliced
4 Brazil nuts, roughly chopped
100g extra firm tofu, diced fairly small
1/2 ripe avocado, smooshed into a chunky mash with a squeeze of lime
1 tsp light soy sauce

Mix greens together. Sprinkle nuts and tofu over the top. Dollop the avocado on top and give it a quick mix around to coat the greens. Drizzle over soy sauce to serve.

I challenge you not to feel like a super-hero after eating this!

What I Ate Wednesday 15/09

2011-09-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

It's WIAW time again. Good eats today, man.

Breakfast - Zucchini Cake Oatmeal.

Lunch was an adaptation of the Wild Rice and Beetroot Salad in Appetite for Reduction. Basically, it's cooked wild rice, tinned whole beetroot, sesame seeds, orange wedges, and a balsamic dressing. I take a whole lettuce and some cucumbers to work and serve it on top of the torn lettuce and sliced cukes. It's good, but it would be better with feta or goats cheese.

Finally, dinner. Unpictured, because honestly, it was pretty ugly. I thought I'd try a slow cooker recipe, seeing as I had to leave the house at 6 to run to the footy fields to play Oztag by 7.30, and I could just let it cook from the afternoon right through till I got home for dinner at 8.45. It was essentially chicken, pineapple, capsicum, onions, and soy sauce. Although this sounds like an OK combination, I wished that I had grilled the chicken and served all the fresh ingredients in a salad. It was a slightly sweet, bland, dish and I probably won't make it again.

But there was some exciting snacks, including these.

Recipe tomorrow.

Spanakopita Story; or, Reflections on Filo Pastry

2011-09-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

I think everyone has a few good kitchen horror stories. One of mine just happens to involve filo pastry. It wasn't an explosive, hilarious kitchen disaster of the sort that makes a good dinner party anecdote a few months later when your eyebrows grow back and the cat stops being frightened when you touch a saucepan. It was more of a dry, disappointing, whimper of a disaster. Limp, sad, and floppy would be three appropriate adjectives, and they just describe me when I tasted it.

But, never one to be willing to admit defeat, I got back on the filo pastry horse last night. It only took me three years to recover.

Perhaps my maturity and newly developed patience in the kitchen made this a success. Perhaps it was the brand of filo pastry and a better recipe. Perhaps it was the humidity levels. Whatever it was, this was a resounding success, both with me and my healthy conscience, and the boyfriend and his desire to eat things that are surrounded by pastry.

A light, flaky filo pastry crust filled with spinach and fetta, boosted with protein from the egg whites and spiced up enough to flavour the outrageous amount of iron-rich vegetable filling - extremely healthy, relatively easy and best of all, this recipe has placed me well and truly back in the saddle with the filo pastry. I'm visualizing my future. I see strudel...

Clean Spanakopita
(Serves 4)

5 sheets filo pastry (I used the refrigerated dough that is kept near the fresh pasta in the supermarket)
3 x 250g packets frozen spinach
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
a pinch of ground nutmeg (seriously, just a pinch)
2 egg whites
1/2 cup low fat fetta, crumbled
salt and pepper
lemon wedges and a green salad, to serve

Microwave frozen spinach until no frozen pieces remain. Place into a colander and squeeze with your hands to remove as much moisture as possible. Set aside. Spray a frying pan with oil and saute onion and garlic until soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir in herbs, spinach, egg whites and fetta. Season.

Spray a rectangular baking dish with oil and lay out one sheet of filo , allowing it to hang over the sides slightly. Spray with oil and lay another sheet over. Spray and repeat again. Spoon filling into the middle and spread out.

Lay the fourth sheet over the top, spray with oil and lay the fifth and final one across the top. Fold or scrunch the loose sides in to enclose the filling.

Bake at 200 degrees Celcius, on the middle or lower shelf to prevent over-browning, for 30-35 minutes. Remove and allow to cool and settle a little at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Paprika-Roasted Chickpeas

2011-09-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

I've been having snacks almost around the clock the last few days. Like, at least once an hour. I ate four raw carrots yesterday. Four! I think my skin has a vaguely orange tinge now. At least I won't need to get a spray tan.

So why am I being such a little piggy (or rabbit, with all the carrots) at the moment?

I'm trying to quit smoking, and the unfortunate thing is that without cigarettes, my hands and mouth still want to do something. Although there's probably a whole bunch of ideas that come to mind as options (get your mind out of the gutter, readers), eating is my first inclination.

I made these little gems last night to satisfy my desire to eat constantly without ballooning up to the size of a mammoth. They're salty and crunchy, and more importantly, they're not carrots. I'm pretty sick of them - I've already had three today!

Paprika Roasted Chickpeas

2 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry
olive oil spray
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
1 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Spray a baking sheet with oil.

Toss chickpeas with spices and scatter over baking sheet. Try to make sure they are spread out in a single layer, or they won't dry out and get nice and crunchy.

Roast for 40-60 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes to ensure even browning. The timing is very uneven for these, I find, and it depends on the chickpeas - the brand, how big they are, whether they're dried or canned. They're ready when they rattle around and sound dry and hard.

Remove and allow to cool. Transfer to an airtight container.

The Cake Mix Cookie

2011-09-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Now here's the thing.

These are not healthy, beautiful or unusual.

Here's what they are. They are the easiest, cheapest cookie ever. You can have a tray full of these in the oven in literally two minutes. If you're hosting an afternoon tea and forgot to make anything; if you want to say thanks to someone (but you don't like them enough to actually bake them cookies from scratch, you ungrateful wretch); if you want to impress your boyfriend with your caring, housewifely skills but would rather spend your Sunday night watching Cougartown and painting your nails than slaving away in the kitchen - then these are the cookies for you.

Cake Mix Cookies
(Makes about 20)

These are pretty much endlessly adaptable depending on what mix you buy and what you choose to add in. I used a Home Brand butter cake mix and added chopped macadamias and white chocolate chips. I wouldn't go buying fancy cake mixture here, as the cheaper ones are going to taste pretty much the same. If you're keen to fancy it up, chuck in fancy additions like dried cranberries and walnuts, or dark chocolate chips and chopped pecans. It's limitless, really.

1 packet cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil

Mix the three ingredients together in a bowl. Add in any fruit/nuts/chocolate that you're using. It might look a little grainy, but don't stress, just give it a vigorous stir with a fork for a minute.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius and line two baking trays with baking paper and spray with oil. Use a tablespoon measure to dollop mixture onto baking trays, leaving some room for spreading. Press down lightly with a fork.

Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden. They will firm up as they cool, so don't overbake them. Remove and allow to cool, and transfer to an airtight jar.

Menu Planning 101

2011-09-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Why menu plan?

Entirely aside from the fact that I love putting things in lists, tables and dot points (and then sometimes colour-coordinating ideas with highlights and attaching sticky-notes), menu planning is great for both my health and my budget.

Here's how I do it.

Firstly, I look through my pantry to see what's hanging around to use up. If I'm in an especially nerdy mood, I might even make a pantry list, categorized into 'Baking', 'Condiments', 'Grains and Legumes', and 'Miscellaneous'. You may think I'm joking. I'm not.

Then I'll get out one of my ten billion cookbooks that I've hardly made anything from, and tell myself to choose two recipes to make from it for dinner. If I don't do this it is entirely possible that I will end up eating tofu stir-fry every single night. Actually, I did do that once. Not so bad.

The two recipes serve us (two people) for 4 nights. I only plan for the four nights because two of them will usually end up being my gigantic salad extraveganzas I make on the weekend while the BF is working. The other night might be out, or leftovers, or something from the freezer.

I write it out like this.

Breakfasts: chia-berry bircher muesli (uses oats, chia seeds, and frozen berries from pantry)
Lunch: chickpea and beetroot salad with avocado (uses dried chickpeas from pantry)
Snacks: hardboiled eggs, homemade zucchini muffins, carrot sticks, fruit and yoghurt (muffins use up pantry ingredients like flour, oats, protein powder, spices etc)
Dinners: (both recipes from Clean Eating)
Lemon Paprika Prawns with Zucchini and Couscous (uses up couscous from pantry)
Spanakopita Pie (doesn't use anything from the pantry, honestly, I just really want to make this)

Then I make a shopping list of anything we don't have for the week. I find by doing this I am able to save money by focussing on meals that I have some of the ingredients for in the pantry already, and having the menu plan and the shopping list ensures that my meals are always healthy and I don't make any silly choices (like getting a pizza midweek) because I ran out of food.

I'm interested... How do you plan your meals?

What I Ate Wednesday 7/9

2011-09-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

I love WIAW. Food porn abounds in the blogging community. Here's my little contribution.

Breakfast was muesli as always. It's always some variation on an oaty theme.

Today it's got sunflower seeds, yoghurt and fresh strawberries. I'm ploughing through at least 4 punnets a week at the moment.

Lunch - always salad. But what kind of salad? That is the mystery. I've been tryng to broaden my salad repertoire, so this one is a recipe from Appetite for Reduction by the Mick Jagger of the vegan cookbook world, Isa Chandra Moscowitz. It's a quinoa, black bean and tomato salad with toasted cumin seeds. I only took a picture as I was tossing it in a bowl before packing it to take to work, but at work I've been serving it on top of a pile of greens.

Dinner was another recipe from a cookbook I ordered online called Pretty Delicious, which I read about in a Clean Eating magazine and ordered straight away based on the two or three sample recipes! Its a delicious turkey meatball soup. Big fan, big fan.

What did you eat?

2011-09-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

I cooked dinner for my gorgeous best friend the other night, before we went out to see a film. She's a fine food and wine lover, but also a personal trainer, and currently following a very strict natural bodybuilding diet. There's a very specific list of foods she can eat, but the list of foods she can't is a whole lot longer!

Essentially each meal is allowed 150g lean protein and unlimited low-carbohydrate vegetables (no root vegetables), and she is also allowed nuts. Any processed foods are not allowed.

Normally when we get together, we'd get stuck into a wheel of brie and a bottle of wine, but obviously that wasn't going to work out. This meal ended up being pretty delicious, and all the more special for the extra thought I put into it.

On our little antipasto platter we had some raw zucchini, which I sliced into 'chips' with my mandoline, mixed marinated olives, some homemade lemon-garlic marinated mushroom, and some gherkins (don't laugh, gherkins are awesome).

Our main dish I based loosely on that staple of a healthy girl's repertoire, Thai beef salad, because it's basis is low-carb salad vegetables and a bit of lean protein. I wanted to give it a bit of a Middle-Eastern twist, and this is what I came up with.

Spiced Beef Salad

(Serves 2 healthy young ladies)

300g porterhouse steak
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
1 small eggplant, thinly sliced into rounds
1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, cut into thin wedges
2 generous handfuls mixed lettuce
10 walnuts, coarsley chopped
torn flat-leaf parsley and lemon wedges or balsamic vinegar, to serve

Rub the spices into the beef and season. Heat an oiled grill plate and grill to desired done-ness. Cover and rest. Leave the grill pan on.

Meanwhile, grill the eggplant until lightly charred on both sides. Set aside to cool slightly.

Mix the eggplant with the tomatoes, lettuce and onions. Slice beef thinly and arrange on top. Sprinkle with walnuts.

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Yum.

And then we went to see The Help, which was lovely and involved a lot of quiet crying.

What do you make for friends with special diets?

Summery Lasagne with Courgettes and Eggplant

2011-08-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

I will never be one of those insane, crackhead people who puts tofu in things and then says, "you'll never know there's no meat in there!"

Yes, you will. Everybody will. Your boyfriend will look at you oddly as ask, with the tone of one talking to a mentally challenged toddler, "but, why would you not just put meat in it?" People around the dinner table will look at their plate and think, "how dare she invite us to dinner and then serve us bean curd?" Your family will roll their eyes subtley and wonder how they've managed to raise someone so... well... experimental with their food products.

It doesn't taste like beef. How could a slab of fermented soy ever taste like the hindquarters of a cow? But - and here's the important part - IT STILL TASTES GOOD. It's lasagne. How could it not?

I like the light texture of the sauce, and the neutrality of the tofu allows you to use some kicking flavours in the sauce, ramping up the garlic and the herbs. The flavours of the vegetables shine through.

Also? WAY cheaper and healthier than crappy minced beef.

So don't expect this to taste like beef lasagne. Just appreciate how awesome it is in its own right.

Summery Lasagne with Courgettes and Eggplant

(Serves 6)

1 brown onion, peeled and diced
2 tbsp crushed garlic (about 6 cloves)
1 tbsp dried Italian herb mix
2 x 400g tins diced tomatoes
1 x 350g block extra firm tofu, crumbled with your hands
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 small eggplant, diced
1 large zucchini, sliced diagonally into half-moons
6 x wholemeal lasagne sheets
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (or sliced black olives to scatter over the top to make it vegan)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius. Heat a deep frying pan over medium-high heat and spray with oil.
Saute onion until soft and lightly browning. Add garlic and tofu. Stir until becoming fragrant.
Add tomatoes, tomato past, herbs, eggplant and zucchini and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season well.
Layer the lasagne in a large rectangular baking dish - start with sauce, and finish with sauce. There should be 3 layers of lasagne sheets. Sprinkle cheese or olives on top.
Bake for 50 minutes. Allow to stand before slicing.

30 Second Salads

2011-08-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

I love a good salad for lunch. Last week I was super organised with my delicious salad featuring an citrus-baked tofu that I made on the weekend and set aside for my work lunches for the week.

However, sometimes I am less organised than that.

Like, "have to do my lunch shopping at 6am before I get on the bus on the way to work" kind of disorganised."

I bought three ingredients to make a simple, healthy lunch.

With this situation in mind, I thought I'd write a post today for anyone who finds themselves in the same situation. The M.O. for this salad is keep it as simple as possible with as little prep as possible. I always keep a bottle of balsamic vinegar in the fridge at work for splashing over salads, so here are some of my ideas for 30 Second Salads. Simply open bags/jars, dress and serve!

baby spinach + a can of white beans + a jar of grilled capsicum
a bag of coleslaw or asian greens mix + marinated tofu cubes + avocado
rocket leaves + a can of lentils + a tub of ricotta
a tub of tabbouleh + a tin of tuna
a punnet of cherry tomatoes + a tin of kidney beans + a tin of corn kernels
a bag of mixed baby spinach and rocket + a tin of salmon + a handful of pine nuts

What are your favourite super-quick work lunches?

My Muffin Top Is All That

2011-08-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

If the muffin world was like the world of beauty pageants, these muffins would be a triple threat - one of those celebrities who are multi-talented enough to be able to sing, dance and act.

They are wholegrain.
They are low fat and low sugar.
They have fruit in them.
They have vegetables in them.
They have added protein to keep you full.

What the what? as Liz Lemon would say on 30 Rock. How can these possibly be so delicious and simultaneously good for you? I don't believe you.

Well, Liz Lemon, believe it. They're not like the light, fluffy mountains of refined carohydrates you'd find at Starbucks - they're mildly sweet, dense and moist. They are, in fact, all that.

Zucchini Pear Spice Muffins

Makes 12

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup prepared low-carb protein shake (I used a Naytura soy vanilla one)
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup sugar (I used Equal for Baking to reduce calories)
1/2 cup applesauce
2 egg whites
1 small zucchini, grated, excess moisture squeezed out
1 small pear, chopped finely

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.
Mix together rolled oats and protein shake. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Stir in flour, baking powder and soda, mixed spice, salt and vanilla essence until still lumpy but combined.
Add sugar, applesauce, and egg whites to the bowl and stir well until uniform - it won't be smooth, just get rid of any clumps of flour.
Add zucchini and pear. Mix quickly.
Dollop mixture into 12 paper case-lined muffin tins. They don't rise a great deal so feel free to fill them close to the top.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the tops are browned and a knife comes out relatively clean.

These are great spread with low-fat ricotta as an afternoon treat. They are also great spread with tahini, cashew butter, or microwaved and served with a dollop of low-fat vanilla yoghurt as dessert.

Please don't ask how I figured all that out within 24 hours of baking them.

NOTE: apologies to anyone who is not a 30 Rock fan for all the references in this post. Make the muffins anyway. Also, get into 30 Rock. But make the muffins first.

What I Ate Wednesday

2011-08-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm jumping on the WIAW bandwagon. This is one of my favourite food-blogging traditions, because I have an unreasonable and, frankly, slightly odd obsession with what other people put in their mouths.

Awkward.

Wednesday was a good day, actually. I started work a bit later, so didn't have to leave the house until 8am. So I made a broccoli and cottage cheese omelette and read the paper for a leisurely 20 minutes instead of wolfing down oatmeal in 5 like I sometimes have to.

Lunch this week has been wicked. Let's call it the studiofood-super-salad, just because I like alliteration.

Mixed lettuce leaves + finely chopped raw broccoli + shredded carrot + chopped brazil nuts + spring onion + flat-leaf parsley + citrus-marinated baked tofu.

Awesome. And like a multivitamin in a bowl.

And finally, dinner. This was a recipe I'd been dying to try, and after winning a slow cooker in the 12WBT, I had to try it. Ever heard of 'dump' recipes? They go like this.

Salsa Chicken

1 jar salsa
500g chicken breasts.

Dump both ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook for 8 hours on low. Shred with 2 forks and serve.

Easily the more tender chicken I've ever had. This would be great in burritos or tacos, but I served mine with zucchini ribbons and a crunchy chopped salsa.

What did you eat on Wednesday?

An Evening Run

2011-08-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I love my life.

My run last night was extraordinary - the wind was biting, the sun was setting and the waves were lapping on the shore.

Those 12km flew by.

The New Saturday Night

2011-08-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, my weekends were a time of wild and crazy lunacy. Chardonnay, a dinner out, some dancing and a few cocktails, then maybe a pizza slice at 3am while my bare feet became slowly blacker and blacker from the city streets, my high heels dangling from my fingertips as I looked, in vain, for a taxi.

Then, the next day, twelve pieces of toast with avocado and Vegemite as I struggled to recover from the hangover.

These days my weekends look a bit different. OK, a lot different. OK, OK, I might as well not even be the same person.

For one thing, I've picked up a temporary second job (because teaching high school English just didn't make me busy enough!) which involves hours of walking around and delivering things to people - I worked 5 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Plus I tutored for an hour on Sunday. And did the grocery shopping.

Also, I have a new exercise routine, thanks to Michelle Bridges and the 12WBT - Super Saturday Sessions! I typically exercise for between 2-3 hours on Saturday morning now - this week it was 20 minutes on the cross-trainer, followed by Body Pump, followed by Body Attack.

I was wasted. And not in the way I used to be on Saturday night.

By the time 7pm rolled around, the thought of doing anything more energetic than sitting and looking at the wall made me want to weep uncontrollably.

But I still felt like I deserved a treat. Right? Totally.

And so I spent the evening baking a tart, full of clean ingredients and as good for you as such an awesomely treat-y food can be, and listening to Pat Methany. It was awesome. And then I spent the remaining hours of the evening doing my best not to eat the entire tart.

Whether or not I succeeded will remain shrouded in mystery.

Chocolate Coconut Raspberry Tart

BASE
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp sugar substitute such as stevia
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp apple sauce

FILLING
200g frozen raspberries
1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut
3 egg whites
1 tsp sugar substitute
a pinch of salt

TOPPING
35g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), grated

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 20cm round cake tin. My Pyrex one has slightly slanted sides, which means it work perfectly for tarts as well. If you wanted to serve this whole at a dinner party or something you would need to buy a tart tin with a removable base so it looks prettier.

In a blender, blend the oats until a fine flour forms. Add cocoa, coconut and stevia. Pulse until combined. Add oil and applesauce and blend until a soft dough forms. Pat gently into the tin. I used a wet metal spoon to smooth it down. The layer will seem very thin, but it works out. Don't stress.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool while you make the filling.

Scatter raspberries evenly over tart base. Mix together egg whites, coconut and stevia. Dollop coconut mixture over, spreading out a little to cover evenly. Bake for a further 20-25 minutes or until the tart is a golden brown colour.

Place in fridge to chill for at least 2 hours. Just before serving, scatter with the grated chocolate. Slice into 12 pieces to serve. Each of these slices will have approximately 170 calories.

Well, it's been a while...

2011-08-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

I completely lost track of blogging. Like, for months.

Sorry.

I'm planning on sticking around this time. I've been inspired by some wonderful blogs I've been reading lately, that have the most beautiful recipes and a very entertaining writing style, in particular Clean Eating Chelsey and Oh She Glows. It's made me crave writing about food again myself.

It's not that I haven't been cooking - in fact I've been baking like a maniac on the weekends. It's what I do when I'm stressed, so the fact that I've been working two jobs at the moment has resulted in the profusion of jam slices, apple granola, oat breads and almond muesli bars piled up in the kitchen by Sunday evening.

Anyway, I'm going to get back to it. Promise. Photos and everything. In the meantime, here's the Jam Slice recipe.

Jam Slice
(Serves 12)

2 cups self raising flour
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 egg
about 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup jam of choice (I mixed together leftover strawberry and black cherry jam to use it up)

1 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg

Grease and line a square cake tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Rub butter into combined flour and sugar until it resembles coarse breacrumbs. Stir in egg and then gradually add water, a little at a time, until a dough forms that is about the consistency of scone dough - soft and slightly sticky.

Press into the tin. Spread jam across the top. Mix together the coconut, sugar and egg. Sprinkle over the top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the slice is set throughout and the coconut topping is golden brown. Slice into 12 squares when cool.

The $25 Food Project Finale: Recipes, Conclusions, and an Exit Interview

2010-09-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

The $25 Food Project Finale: Recipes, Conclusions, and an Exit Interview

Links of the Week

2010-09-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

There's been a few - some inspiring me with new ideas, some making me crave another studio that I could buy and play around with instead of just rent, some make me plan obsessively, and others are just a good read.

Check out these amazing studio apartments that are designed in some extremely clever ways. I have apartment-envy so badly right now.

Or what about getting into kangaroo? It's mostly only cooked very rare (which I hate), so I went in the opposite direction and got out the slow cooker to make this recipe.

I will be pulling a 12 hour day on Wednesday, marking School Certificate papers, and so clearly there will need to be some sugar involved in the afternoon. Perhaps some white chocolate and blueberry swirls?

Using the Net to Embrace Your Inner Tightwad

2010-09-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of trying to plan budget and health conscious weekly menus. In my imagination, I'd like them to serve a family of 4 for under $100 a week - three meals and snacks included. I don't know if this is achievable, but in the meantime I am conducting serious and avid research (read: spending hours searching for recipes but legitimizing it in my head). I'm compiling a list of resources here. Firstly, because otherwise I'll forget them. Secondly, because I'm all about sharing the love.

Dude, where's the stove has a good bank of cheap recipes that cost $1.00 or less per serve.
This is killer. I am so envious of menu-planning skills like this - a $45 emergency menu plan at the Hillbilly Housewife.
The One Dollar a Day Diet Project is a pretty radical idea, but offers some great budget suggestions.
For excellent, seasonal menu plans and a few bean-heavy recipes (my favourite kind), Cook for Good is useful.
The $5 Dinner site has a huge number of recipes - some wouldn't come to under $5 in my neck of the woods, but a whole bunch would!
Casual Kitchen's Laughably Cheap recipes are a great resource. And not all of them involve beans.
Everything about Cheap Healthy Good is wicked good, but the $25 Food Project was a particularly interesting article.
I've only just discovered stone soup, but it was love at first site. Love the minimalism, love the recipes, love the pictures. I pretty much want to get married to this blog. What? That's not weird.
I know WholeFoods Markets are a store in the US, but we don't have them in Australia. Luckily, we can still look at their budget-friendly recipes.
Seriously pretty pictures abound at the 5 second rule blog.
Vegetarian Paradise is an extraordinary resource, both for recipes and articles, but this one about Vegetarian Food Goes to Jail is particuarly interesting.

Pasta and Peas - the Sequel

2010-09-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

When I wrote my last post, it prompted me to start thinking about the way we eat, shop, cook and think about food in our society today, particularly compared to our grandparents' generation. The food Clara cooks on her YouTube video would never make it into a 'healthy' cookbook today - yet families grew, and in many cases, thrived, on the type of food she makes.

We have such an overwhelming barrage of information about food bombarding us these days, and it seems to change every five seconds. Eat carbs, but no fat. Eat protein, but no carbs. Watch fat, but don't worry about anything else. Don't eat meat. Don't eat butter. Wait - DO eat butter, not margerine, which is the devil's food. Don't eat eggs. Eat no more than 6 eggs a week.

Does anyone else feel like their brain is going to explode?

Here's my two philosophies about food that I intend to live by for the rest of my life. Unlike a fad diet, they are simple, eminently maintainable, and non-specific.

The first is to eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. What wonderful words of wisdom from Michael Pollan. His articles and books inspired me to relax about what I eat, and to stop thinking of my food as having positive or negative effects.

The second is to relish food. We are blessed to have the amazing quality of produce we have here, and I am personally extraordinarily lucky to have the financial ability to eat quality food, and the education and knowledge about what will nourish my body.

In the spirit of this, but also in the spirit of frugality, here is an updated version of Clara's Pasta and Peas. Canned peas are now more expensive than frozen, as well as having the added sodium and so on. I also wanted to update the flavours to be cleaner and fresher, particularly as summer is fast approaching. So here it is. The Sequel.

Pasta with Peas
Serves 4

400g spaghetti or fettucine
1 large red skinned potato, diced into 1cm cubes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large red chilli, minced finely
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
3 cups frozen peas
2 tbsp grated parmesan
a large handful of fresh herbs, torn (parsley, basil and mint are particularly good)

Cook spaghetti in a large pan of boiling water, adding potato for the last 7 minutes of cooking. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, place oil, chilli and garlic in a pan and heat over medium low heat until the garlic releases its fragrance. Do not have the heat up higher or the garlic's flavour will not be as mellow.

Pour in the peas and stir to coat in the garlicky oil for about 5 minutes, or until the peas are bright green and cooked. Pour the peas into the pasta, making sure you scrape all the oil in, and toss with the parmesan. Add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste, and scatter liberally with the fresh herbs when you have dished it out into bowls.

Pasta and Peas - Cooking from the Depression Era

2010-09-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

There are many wonderful things to learn from old people. There are also many wonderful things to learn from YouTube. They are not often one and the same, but in this case, 93-year old Clara has brought the two together.

She gets her grandson to film her giving cooking lessons in her kitchen (which looks charmingly like it has changed very little since the 1930's), and talks as she does so about growing up during the Depression. She is delightful to watch and an inspirational reminder of how priviledged this generation is.

The Depression Breakfast video is lovely - she makes sugar cookies, talks about how they made coffee on the stovetop, and shows some pictures of her mother and father. But the winner for me is the Pasta with Peas video. It made me smile, because Clara is awesome, but it also made me think about the priviledge I take for granted.

A tight week for me is one where I eat vegetarian because lentils are cheaper than chicken, not one where I have to fossick through my pantry to make something out of what is there. We can all learn something from the past, and in this case, not taking my lifestyle for granted is what I can take away from this.

More Great Depression Recipe Resources

Great Depression Recipe Blog

Buy Clara's Cookbook

Live Once, Juicy

Printable Great Depression Menu Planner

Poor Man's Cookies

Breakfast of Champions

2010-09-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

I’m an abnormally early riser, and at my best before midday. While perfectly happy to awake, breakfast and be out the door before the sun comes up, if I’m not fed properly and provided with a large and very strong pot of coffee, there’s no doubt that I’m a much grumpier (read: evil) and less productive (read: useless) person.

I make a huge frittata every Sunday afternoon and cut it into slices to store either in the fridge or the freezer. Come 5am, I put the kettle on to boil and pop a slab on a plate ready to eat while I watch the morning news.

There are two gigantic, colossal, cosmic reasons to love this. Firstly, it can take almost any combination of vegetables you can think to throw at it. Seasonally, a good winter combination is sweet potato, red onion and spinach. In summer, zucchini, fresh corn and cherry tomatoes are divine. In weeks where money is pinched a couple of cups of frozen vegetables like peas and broccoli work just fine.

The second is that you’re getting in at least 1 cup of vegetables and a good whack of protein before the day even starts. And once the cooking is done on Sunday, it’s easier to grab one of these out in the morning than it is to make a slice of toast.

1 onion chopped

3-4 cups vegetables, chopped (this week I used cauliflower, rocket and peas)

100g smoked ham, chopped

200g low fat fetta or ricotta, crumbled

12 eggs, beaten with ½ cup skim milk and some salt and pepper

Saute the onion in a frypan that has been sprayed with oil. Throw in the ham and vegetables and continue to sauté until the vegetables are just barely cooked. Mix the beaten eggs with the fetta.

Into a greased 20x30cm baking dish, pour the vegetables in and spread out evenly. Pour the egg mixture over the top and bake at 200C for 40 minutes or until firm and golden.

Serves 6

More Make-Ahead Breakfast Ideas

Raspberry Bannock Scones @ Words to Eat By

Spinach Frittata, Eggs in a Nest and Oven-Fried Red Potatoes @ Dude, Where's the Stove?

Sunshine Citrus Bread @ FatFree Vegan

English Muffin Strata with Ham and Cheese @ Cheap Healthy Good

Overnight Coffee Cake @ Hillbilly Housewife

Oatmeal Energy Bars with Cranberries, Almonds, and Chocolate @ Vegan Feast Kitchen

Brunch Obsession

2010-09-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Brunch is the best meal ever. I an never so relaxed as when it's 10am, I already have a leisurely pot of coffee floating around my system, and there is some delicious smelling substance wafting around the studio. It's better in summer, when I can open the door to let the slightly chilled morning air come through.

So, given that I am clearly so obsessed with the meal that doubles as breakfast AND lunch - the miracle that is brunch - I plan on cooking it tomorrow.

Cherries are on sale this week at the fruit market, and I have a huge bowl of them ready to go. (As a side-note, who was it that decided that strawberries were the 'sexy' fruit? Cherries are clearly the Sophia Loren of the fruit bowl, while strawberries would be the slightly washed out and vacant Jayne Mansfield.) I was a bit inspired by the Kitchn's Quick and Homey Oatmeal Raisin Muffins, which look gorgeous. While for me, muffins are a treat for breakfast, these are actually relatively healthy, bearing no similarity to the vast, cakey, pointless muffins sold so ubiquitously. They are also outrageously cheap to make, and luckily for me, I have everything I need in my pantry.

Links of the Week

2010-09-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

Uglyfood.com

Have you ever had to make a sandwich before? Challenging, isn't it? Well, not to worry, all those stressful hours putting slices of bread together can be banished forever! Enter... Candwich! It's a Sandwich in a can!

The New York Times
Vegan Three-Bean Salad

This looks like a deliciously upmarket version of the usual Three-Bean Salad. Note to self: Lunch next week.

Cheap Healthy Good
Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal

I can totally see myself craving this when I'm pregnant. Or drunk. Or now (and I'm neither).

Thankyou, peanutbutterboy, for the image.

The Kitchn
Arts and Crafts Kitchen

I want to marry this kitchen.

1-Ingredient Banana Icecream

2010-08-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

For a long time now I have been trying to get out of the habit of wanting something sweet after dinner. I know I can train my tastebuds to do it, but somehow they are not yet aware of that fact. They just keep wanting what they’re wanting. Which is icecream, usually.

Enter the magic that is... 1-ingredient Banana Icecream.

I’ve read about this recipe in various places, from simpler ideas to more complex recipes. What I’ve posted here is the ultimate in simplicity, as I think anyone’s imagination could change this around to be fancier – I’ve stirred some pitted cherries into my tub and refrozen it, but in summer I’d like to try this blended with a couple of mango cheeks or a packet of frozen berries.

Did I mention it’s about 50 calories per serve and fat-free? No? Well, it is.

And did I mention that this cost me 69c to make 12 servings (which equates to 5.75c per serve)? No? Well, it did.

1-Ingredient Banana Icecream

Serves 12

Freeze 6 overripe bananas in their skins. My bunch of slightly brownish bananas cost 69c from Harris Farm Markets, where they sell the slightly past-it fruit in the white buckets. I’m sure any local fruit market will do you a good deal.

Once frozen, peel, chop roughly and put in a blender. Blend thoroughly (mine took a little water to get it going) until smooth. Pour into a container and freeze. Before serving, take it out of the freezer and sit to soften slightly before scooping.

Breaking My Work-Lunch Rut

2010-08-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

Cooked food at lunch always makes me feel slightly sluggish, and certainly doesn’t prepare me with enough spring in my step or the psychological fortitude to face a class of belligerent Year 10 students on a Friday afternoon. A salad will usually provide me with enough energy to get through until my 4pm coffee. That said, I do get deathly bored of my usual lettuce/cucumber/tuna/avocado combination. Almost as bored as I get of hearing my students groan, "But Miss, Shakespeare is gay." So, pretty bored then.

This week I decided to make a change, prompted both by the wintery vegetables that are in season and their consequential cheapness. It’s light and crisp but has loads of protein and a little creaminess from the avocado. Using the Vietnamese dipping sauce usually served with fresh rice paper rolls makes for a flavourful and super-easy salad dressing. If you can’t stomach eating tofu straight from the packet (and I’m told this is how some insane people feel) it would be equally easy and gorgeous with some leftover cooked chicken.

VIETNAMESE TOFU, CABBAGE, CARROT AND SPROUT SALAD

Serves 1

A handful of bean sprouts

½ red capsicum

1 carrot

1 cup cabbage, shredded

½ avocado

½ packet firm tofu

2 tbsp nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce)

OPTIONAL: 1 tbsp chopped peanuts, handful of mint leaves

Put a layer of bean sprouts and a layer of cabbage in the bottom of the salad bowl or lunchbox.

Julienne the capsicum and carrot as finely as possible and add to bowl.

Dice avocado and add to bowl. When ready to serve add diced tofu and nuoc cham.

My Favourite Thing This Week

2010-08-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

I spend mornings on the bus trawling food blogs on my iPhone. I start out with the best of intentions, busily checking emails, making to-do lists and paying bills - but somehow I always end up, 10 minutes later, drooling over a picture of Pumpkin-Spice Cupcakes.

This is not always an unproductive habit! This morning I discovered a favourite blog that has been inactive for a while is up and running again, and the spice-rubbed roasted chicken that is on today's post made me recall the frozen chicken drumsticks I keep finding (again and again) when I move the bag of frozen peas in the freezer. I will do something with them TONIGHT, thus saving me money and a post-school visit to the supermarket, which is always filled with small children dripping with icecream and insolence, stocking up on Sour Gummi Worms in case their sugar levels drop, resulting in temporarily normal behaviour.