Wednesday 27 February 2013

What I ate Wednesday

This is my first ever What-I-Ate-Wednesday post.The concept comes from the blog Peas and Crayon linked below:

Inspired by other blogs who do it on a regular basis I want to expand my regular posts to include more than just recipes and I thought this was a great way to start.

So here it is:

 To start the day I needed a berocca to get me going. I don't have them everyday and I usually have the tablets ready to go but this morning I woke up super tired so needed a kick start.

I had a slice of homemade Sultana/Apple Bread that I made which uses a similar recipe base for my Healthy Banana Bread. I had it with a cup of tea and some Mixed Berry Chia Jam using the recipe from Powercakes blog which can be found here.

I had a much needed Chai latte to keep me going mid morning.

For lunch I had a salad made with spinach, pomegranate seeds, cherry tomatoes, sprouts, seeds and sweet-n-sour tofu that I will post the recipe for soon.


I had a Pink Lady apple in the afternoon for a snack along with multiple Vitawheat and cups of tea and a few rice crackers.

Dinner was one of my favourites - Pita Pizza. I made it with mushrooms, olives, artichokes and topped it all with Nutritional Yeast Cheese Sauce.


I finished the day with Mango/Banana Yonanas ice cream topped with coconut flakes, delicious!!!


Tuesday 26 February 2013

Sweet and Sour Calamari

I would love to say that I'm the type of person that loves all kinds of seafood but some like oysters and mussels I just don't enjoy. They have an 'ick' factor that I just can't get past. However I do very much enjoy squid/calamari when it is done right and when I don't have to prep the whole squid from scratch.

This recipe is really quick and simple and one that I've made again and again.



Sweet and Sour Calamari
Servings: 2, Serving size:1/2 Recipe, Calories: 232 Calories per serve

Ingredients:
300g Celery, chopped finely
1 Medium Onion, chopped finely
1 tsp Garlic
375g Calamari (In large pieces preferably not rings)
125 ml (1/2 Cup) of Stock, Fish or Vegetable
1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
2.5 Tbs Tomato Paste
1/4 Cup Water
2 Drops of Stevia or other sweetener (You could also substitute some honey)
Salt
Pepper
Oil Spray

1. Chop calamari into pieces around 4cm each:

2. Spray a large pan with oil and heat to medium.
3. Add garlic, onion and celery. Let it cook for around 5 minutes:
4. Add the calamari and stock and stir. Cover with a lid and let it cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Add the vinegar, tomato paste, water, stevia and salt and pepper.
6. Turn the heat to medium-low and let it cook for another 10 minutes until the calamari and celery are tender.
7. Serve up with either brown rice or as I did the other day some nice crusty sourdough rye bread, just make sure to add on the calories for these additions.

More recipes to come.

Are there any recipes you would like to see healthified?

Sunday 24 February 2013

Coconut Chia Pudding with Sour Cherries

There's nothing I like more since I switched to healthy eating as a lifestyle than breakfasts I can prepare ahead of time for the whole week. I'd read multiple recipes on overnight oats and had them before but wanted a recipe that used all chia seeds rather than oats to have more protein in my first meal.



I found Loving Earth Sour Cherries in the health food shop and thought I would try incorporating them into my breakfast. They are low in calorie and I read a recent article that said eating cherries is meant to assist you with a better sleep. Since I don't always have the greatest sleep anything that can give me a boost I'm on board with.

(Sorry for the not great photo, I promise I'm getting a better camera soon!)

Coconut Chia Pudding with Sour Cherries
Servings: 1, Serving size: all of it, Calories: 185 Calories per serve

Ingredients:
1 Tbs (15g) Chia Seeds
150g Chobani Non Fat Greek Yoghurt (or any greek yoghurt)
15g Sour Cherries
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2 drops Liquid Stevia
1/4 Cup Water1/2 Tbs Coconut Flakes


1. Combine chia seeds and yoghurt into a small container.
2. Add sour cherries, cinnamon, stevia and water.
3. Stir well making sure chia seeds are mixed thoroughly through. The texture may be a little watery but don't worry the chia seeds will soak up the extra moisture.
4. Add coconut flakes to the top.
5. Let sit overnight, wake up and enjoy.

I usually make 4-5 of these for the week and have them in my fridge ready to go for a quick breakfast. When I eat it I give it a good mix and sometimes add another drop of stevia but it depends how sweet you like your breakfast, the cherries are quite sour so sometimes some extra sweetness helps offset this. I also usually mix the coconut flakes through when I actually eat it.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Sweet Potato and Lentil Casserole

It was a surprisingly cold day yesterday after a string of very hot days. The change of weather really put me in the mood for something hearty. I had lentils and lots of vegetables in my fridge so I decided to put together this casserole which turned out very well.

Sweet Potato and Lentil Casserole
Servings: 4, Serving size: 2 Ladels / serve, Calories: 171 Calories per serve

Ingredients:
1 Onion chopped finely
375g Sweet Potato
300g Mushrooms chopped
100g Dry Green Lentils
2 x Stock Pots (Vegetable) - You could also use stock cubes
2 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Garlic
1L Boiled Water
Salt
Pepper
Oil Spray

1. Spray a pan with cooking spray and fry onion and garlic on medium-high until soft.
2. Add sweet potato and stir, let it cook for about 5 minutes
3. Add mushrooms to the pan with cumin, paprika, onion powder and pepper only. Do not add salt as salt makes lentils tough if cooked with it.
4. Add a dash of water if the pan starts to cook the vegetables too quickly.
5. Make up your stock by adding stock cubes to 1L of boiling water
6. Add dry lentils to pan and let toast in the pan for about 30 seconds. This gives them a nuttier flavour.
7. Add stock to pan.
8. Bring to the boil. Once boiled turn the heat down to low and let cook for 30-40 minutes until some of the stock has evaporated and the lentils are cooked.
9. Enjoy and add salt once served. I served mine with sprouted grain bread but it also worked well today for lunch with brown rice.



Sunday 17 February 2013

Banana Soft Serve with Cacao hot fudge sauce

I'm obsessed with banana ice cream. If you haven't heard of it before it is ice cream made out of bananas that have been chopped up and placed in the freezer and then blended with a food processor or hand stick blender. I've now taken this further and bought a Yonanas machine which makes it even better as it makes it smoother and you can add things like dates and nut butters.

I've made banana ice cream a few times before and it has always been delicious but this time I wanted to make a healthy chocolate sauce to go with it. I saw one on Powercakes blog which looked amazing and decided to adapt it.

I ended up making it twice with 2 different ingredients for the chocolate and both were good so I'll give you both recipes.

Hot Fudge sauce with Cacao
Servings: 1, Serving size: the whole batch, Calories: 40 Calories

Ingredients:
5g Raw Cacao Powder
1 Tbs Water
1-2 drops stevia

1. Combine the cacao, water and stevia in a microwave safe bowl or mug.
2. Heat for 30 secs, stir and enjoy on top of banana ice cream.
3. If the mixture isn't thick enough return to the microwave for 20 seconds.



Hot Fudge sauce with Chocolatte
Servings: 1, Serving size: the whole batch, Calories: 20 Calories

Ingredients:
5g Chocolatte (low calorie drinking chocolate)
1 Tbs Water

1. Combine the Chocolatte and water in a microwave safe bowl or mug.
2. Heat for 30 secs, stir and enjoy on top of banana ice cream. (or as I did in the picture banana and berry ice cream)
3. If the mixture isn't thick enough return to the microwave for 20 seconds.

To add some extra crunch and delicious flavour to your ice cream try adding some coconut flakes for garnish. Both are good, I preferred the chocolatte one as it is sweeter but I'm going to experiment more with the Cacao.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Microwave Nutrional Yeast Cheese Sauce for Pizza

I discovered nutrional yeast recently from reading many blogs talking about how it could be used as a healthy alternative to cheese. So when I was in the US recently I brought some home with me. You can also buy it in health stores here in Australia too.

So far I'd only used it to make salad dressing but when I had a pizza craving on the way home I had a brain wave to use nutrional yeast instead. I was initially going to just sprinkle the flakes on top until I came across two 'cheese sauce' recipes using the yeast. The original recipes are here and here. I had no corn starch on hand and didn't want to mess up a saucepan with it and also only wanted to make a small low calorie amount so I made a few adjustments and the results were pure delicious!

Microwave Nutrional Yeast Cheese Sauce
Servings: 1, Serving size: the whole batch, Calories: 40 Calories

Ingredients:
5g Nutritional Yeast
5g Wholemeal Flour
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Water (approx 1/4 cup)
Salt
Pepper

1. Add yeast, flour, mustard and salt and pepper to a cup or small microwave safe bowl.
2. Add water to mixture, around a 1/4 cup but just enough to cover the ingredients.
3. Mix together well with a fork to get rid of any lumps.
4. Microwave for 1 minute (may need to adjust depending on your microwave).
5. When the sauce comes out it should be nice and thick, give it a stir when it comes out if it isn't thick enough it needs a bit more time in the microwave.
6. Drizzle over the top of your pizza.

Here was my veggie topped pizza with the sauce:

Yumm! It felt so naughty but was vegie packed and protein packed thanks to the nutritional yeast. The whole pizza was 315 calories.




Sunday 10 February 2013

Fresh Corn Fritters with Quinoa Flour with Quick Tzatziki

Apologies for the lack of recipes and posts of late, I've been slack with trying new recipes but I'm on a new health kick so I should now be on a roll and have at least 1 new recipe a week.

I bought Quinoa flour a whilst ago but hadn't thought what to do with it. The market had a sale on fresh corn on Saturday so I bought some not knowing what to do with it but then had a brainwave today and decided to make corn fritters. I've made fritters before but only ever with canned corn which you could still use for this recipe but believe me fresh tastes so much better if you can get it and the quinoa flour gave these a beautiful nuttiness to them. I served it with a very quick tzatziki that I made up a recipe for which complimented it very well.





Fresh Corn Fritters with Quinoa Flour
Servings: 2, Serving size: 3 fritters or 3/4 cup batter, Calories: 195 Calories per serve

Ingredients:
250g Corn Kernels (2 Fresh Corn Cobs with kernels chopped off)
40g Quinoa Flour
1 Egg White
1 tsp Garlic
1/4 Cup Water
Salt
Pepper

1. Cut corn kernels from corn cobs and place in a bowl.
2. Add the quinoa flour, egg white, garlic, salt and pepper and mix together.
3. Add the water and mix thoroughly ensuring the flour is well mixed in. The batter will not be very thick as it just coats the corn, it should look something like this:

3. Heat a non-stick fry pan to medium high and spray lightly with oil.
4. Add 1/4 cup of the mixture at a time to form 6 fritters. Make sure to flatten them, you may end up with a few loose corn kernels but leave them in the pan as they end up toasty and delicious.
5. Fry each fritter until golden brown on each side be careful when you turn them over.



Quick Tzatziki
Servings: 2, Serving size: 1.2 mixture, Calories: 30 Calories per serve

Ingredients:
70g Low Fat Greek Yoghurt (I'm obsessed with Chobani)
1/4 Zucchini (90g)
1 tsp Garlic
1/4 Lemon
Salt
Pepper

1. Grate the zucchini.
2. Juice the lemon.
2. Mix together yoghurt, zucchini, garlic, lemon and salt and pepper.
3. Adjust the garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

I served the fritters with roasted broccoli which I made from a recipe I adjusted from Edible Perspective, I changed the recipe to use coconut oil, garlic and lemon juice to roast the broccoli in and it worked out really well.

Total calories for the meal: 274 per serve ( 3 fritters, 1/2 Tzatziki and 100g Roasted broccoli)