Lasagne- My version!

So I was in the kitchen with my mum the other day when she was pulling out all the ingredients she needed to make a big, hearty lasagne, when she just stopped and sort of... took it all in.
She said to me; 'Steph, my lasagne would never have looked like this if it weren't for you!' She was holding some no-added-salt tinned tomatoes and a tin of lentils as well as a drained tin of chickpeas on the counter and some grated carrot and zucchini too.

It's comments like that, that really make me smile and feel like I am having a positive affect on people. It makes me realise that's what I want to do when I grow up- share my knowledge and ideas to help people lead a healthier and happier life! So thanks mum, it really means a lot :)

Also, the amazing smell and appearance of my mum's lasagne prompted a serious obligation to my yearning stomach to make a lasagne of my very own! It's also your lucky day because I'm sharing my favourite lasagne recipe with you- secret ingredients and all!

Steph's Packed Full o' Veggies Lasagne!
(serves 1)
Ingredients:
'Meat' sauce:
1/4 large brown onion, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 large carrot, grated
3 button mushrooms, chopped
4 cherry tomatoes chopped
1/4 tin lentils, drained and rinsed
1/4 tin mixed beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tin no-added-salt diced tomatoes
sprinkle of dried oregano and basil
'Lasagne' sheets:
2 x 0.5cm slices eggplant (doesn't really matter how thick- just not too thick)
1/2 zucchini sliced into thin rings
'Bechamel' sauce:
1 1/2tablespoons hommus
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon water

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Place a single serving bake dish to the side for later use.
2. Place the chopped onions, garlic and oil in a medium fry pan and heat on medium heat for around 5-10 mins until golden and translucent:

 3. Add in the grated carrot, mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for 2 mins to combine:

 4. Add in the beans, lentils, tinned tomato and about a cup of water and bring to a simmer:

 5. Meanwhile place the eggplant and zucchini in another pan (I used a griddle pan, but any will do) and heat on medium-high until brown on both sides and cooked through (around 5-10 mins)

 6. Whip up the cheese sauce by placing the hommus and nutritional yeast in a small bowl and stirring in the water until smooth:

 7. Now to construct the lasagne!
Start with some eggplant slices:

 Layer on some bean mixture:

 Top with some zucchini rounds (enough to cover):

 A bit of the hommus sauce (about 1/3-1/2 sauce)

 Top with the remaining bean mix:

 A teeny bit of hommus sauce:

 The remaining eggplant:

 And finish it off with the remaining 'cheesey' sauce:

 8. Now pop in the oven and bake for around 30 mins until the top is nice and golden:

 Of course you should probably wait for this to cool slightly before digging in (there's nothing worse than being famished, digging in, burning your tongue and not even being able to taste the marvelous dish you created anyway!)

If you're like me, you'll actually leave it out to cool entirely before popping it in the fridge so it's cold when you go to eat it for dinner! I also find that it's a bit more together? Easier to flip out and eat! I can taste all the different ingredients too a little better than when it's hot.

And that's my LASAGNE!

What was the secret ingredient?

LOVE...

And a whole lot of that hommus sauce :)

What about you?
Have you influenced your family in any way to make healthier choices?
Are you a fan of lasagne? I wasn't as a child but thankfully grew to love it! The cheese sauce always tasted weird to me...
Lasagne- hot or cold? Someone else must agree with me out there that it tastes better cold!

That's all from me today folks- make sure you have a lovely and [hopefully] relaxing Sunday, maybe make some lasagne! Smile lots and tell someone you love them- it just might make their entire day! Bye friends! :D

When food makes me smile :)

Hidy-ho folks and happy Friday!
Are you happy it's Friday? I'm pretty happy it's Friday and with happiness comes smiles- big fat smiles!
It's not only Fridays that make me smile though. There's something else that can break me down, tear me apart, rip away any disguise or poker face I'm trying to pull and initiate a big ol' cheesey grin that simply cannot be hidden. Any guesses? Any at all? No- you're all clueless?

It's food you guys! Gosh I'm good at cryptic clues that leave you scratching your head (the title or the entire genre of my blog were no give away at all ;)

Lately food has just been on the upper quartile of the awesome range lately, for whatever reason, and there ain't no complaints about it over here!

Firstly lets take a time warp back to yesterday, around 12:15pm, the sun is shining, the birds a-chriping, the stomach rumbling, the head full of magical images of different foods dancing and pirouetting through the fantasy land in my brain... Ok, I think I need to draw a line at the extent of the things I reveal about myself on here ;)

Aaaand back on track, please.
So, yesterday- I made a sandwich.
Rephrase; I made the sandwich. One of my all-time favourites (apart from that PB & banana toastie) and this may well have been the best version I've ever made of it.

There were ALL the veggies, they were all fresh and vibrant and perfectly ripe, and piled to the max!

The order of awesome fillings went like this:

1. Hommus
2. Spinach
3. Torn up veggie burger
4. Char-grilled pumpkin slices
5. Sliced tomato (biggest and juiciest tomato!!)
6. The rest of the veggie burger
7. The rest of the pumpkin
8. Grilled mushrooms slices
9. Grilled zucchini slices
10.  Char-grilled capsicum
11. And grilled eggplant slices

All topped off with another slice of home-made spelt bread spread with hommus and grilled in a sandwich press!

 Now let's take a minute to appreciate this epic-ness of a sanwich:

 Oh yes.
 Something else I've been super excited about, that tastes awesome and brings a smile to my face when I pop it in my mouth? (Phew that was a long sentence, my brain ran out of breath as I typed it!)

Nope, it wasn't the fried eggs, or the peas, or the steamed veg...

 It was these amazing guys that look worryingly like brains but taste so good!
ROASTED CHESTNUTS!!

 I picked up a big bag (like, BIG) when I was out grocery shopping last week and have been enjoying them all week- it was only yesterday that I managed to peel them all nicely for a good-ish picture! ;)

This dinner was quickly thrown together and scoffed before running out the door to go and wait on tables for 2 and a half hours (even though I wasn't even that hungry, I knew I had to eat something to keep that friendly waitress smile on my face ;))

 And lastly; this morning's breakfast:

 I was smiling pretty much the entire time I was drinking this smoothie for 2 main reasons:

1. I had just run a fast 7km and was extremely hungry from the early dinner I had last night that was long gone from my stomach's memory of food!
2. It tasted sooooo good!

Yes this is yet another one of an old favourite of mine and will probably remain a favourite of mine for years and years to come!
My thick chocolate green smoothie:

 This guy was slightly different as I needed a full-on breakfast smoothie, so into the blender went:
1 chopped, frozen banana
1/2 chopped frozen avocado
2 big handfuls spinach
3 scoops greek yoghurt
1 big scoop choc protein powder
a few big dashes of cinnamon
1 tabeslpoon crunchy peanut butter
1 handful rolled oats
1/2 cup almond milk

All whazzed up until smooth (and suuuuper thick!)

 Reason for the spoon above because when you get to the bottom of this smoothie, you can only get to all of it with a spoon.

 I can't get over how smooth, creamy and down-right tasty this smoothie is!
3 minutes later:

 Yup, I was hungry!
Enter spoon:

Well, I've babbled on for a lot longer than I intended! I guess I just have a lot of passion for the topics I write about (ie. FOOD!) :)

Your turn:
What would be in your ultimate grilled sandwich?
Have you ever tried chestnuts? Do you like them?
Do you have a pre-running/ workout snack if it's more of a speed/ shorter workout? I don't usually but sometimes I feel pretty faint at the end!

That's all from me today folks- have a fabulous Friday (almost weekend!) eat something amazing- go on do it! Tell someone you love them :) Bye!1 :D

Sun shenanigans and a recipe!

Morning sunshines!
Speaking of sunshines- you guys might have noticed I've had a few run-ins with the sun regarding morning sun positions for my breakfast photos. (See post) and sometimes I win (ie. the sun has decided to play nice and shine where I want to take a pic) and sometimes the sun just decides it doesn't like me.

Anywho- where I am going with this is today was one of those strange days where the sun decided that I deserved a good breakfast photo. In the most annoying way possible ;)

This was my sunny photo spot:

Hey, all I needed was to zoom in and hey presto!

A delicious creamy green smoothie bowl topped with mixed nut butter granola drenched in beautiful sunlight!

Of course in typical annoying brother form, as soon as I finished brekky (only what, 10 minutes?) this was the new scene:

There are worse things in life I suppose *sigh*
Ha-ha just kidding- there are seriously such greater problems in this world and I'm spending my mornings battling with the sun. Nice, Steph.

Now hows about a yummy recipe?
YUUUUSS!

The sun seems to be happy to shine at lunch time!

These pink things were delicious chickpea and mixed veggie patties- sooo good!

Mixed veggie burgers

Ingredients
1/2 carrot, grated
1/4 medium beetroot, grated
1/4 zucchini, grated
small handful peas (fresh/ frozen)
1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons lentils, drained and rinsed
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Water

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a tray with baking paper
2. Place the veggies in a bowl

3. Whaz up the chickpeas, lentils and spices in a small food processor until quite smooth

4. Mix the bean mix with the veggie mix until combined

5. Form into patties and place on baking tray

6. Bake in oven for 25-30 mins until slightly golden on top

7. Leave to cool slightly and then eat!!

I enjoyed mine topped with a little salsa- ohh yehh.

And also the best thing in the world:

Oven roasted white sweet potato. I can't even look at this without almost crying with happiness. So much love.

I don't know if it's the crispy outside or the soft, sweet, fudgey inside... but oh my...

Never leave me!!

On that lovely (somewhat crazy) note I will leave you to your day- make it a good one! Eat something glorious and tell someone about how glorious it was... I do it everyday here on this blog! ;) Bye!! :D

WIAW #52 All the yummy foods!

Hello there me lovelies.
It's been a weird week of ups and downs and running thoughts and delicious noms and non-hunger and a whole heap more of crazy that I don't even end up showing you on this blog (yup, can you believe it?!) so am I not super glad it's Wednesday and I can chill out with a bunch of photos of my food from a single day of eating and talk about it? I am. I'm super glad. Mind, have a rest, heart and passion for food you can now take over!

Thanks, as always to the wonderful Peas and Crayons for creating this awesome link-up and the wonderful people who help out each week hosting! Healthy living blogger community- you rock!

Let's WIAW it up! (with some Tuesday eats ;)

Breakfast: 8:00am
Tuesday started out for me with a wake up at 6:30am (thanks internal body clock! I really shouldn't complain- not needing an alarm clock saves me from multiple heart attacks every day) where I had a bit of a lie in and then worked up a sweat (seriously- s.w.e.a.t) with 4 (yup 4) Purely Twins workouts (of different lengths) finishing at around 7:27am (exactly 7:27am- I checked my iPad :) and then cooling off with a bit of blog reading!

After successfully dripping sweat everywhere whilst lying in front of a fan with my legs up along my wall and my iPad held dangerously above my head, I skipped into the kitchen for a breakfast I knew would not disappoint!

 PB&BANANA TOASTIE!!

 It got really squished and flattened out quite a bit this time for some reason- but, oh my, was it good!

 A generous spreading of peanut butter on each of my slices of home made spelt bread, topped with a sliced banana and delightfully toasted in a sandwich press until crisp and golden on the outside and warm and gooey on the inside!

 Gaaaahhh!

 Also served with a side of starwberry yoghurt (fresh strawberries + a little bit of banana + 3 scoops greek yoghurt, whazzed in a mini food processor until smooth)

 Oh yeh.

 I also love eating my meals outside in the fresh air (who knows how many nice days are left before we head into the deep, dark depths of winter!) however this one always seems to come running when she smells the faintest scent of food!

Lunch: 12:30pm
Around 12 my stomach started to speak to me. Quite softly, but because I haven't been feeling any hunger at all over the past few days/ week, I took to this whisper and went about preparing an awesome lunch!
Assembling station:

 Yep- NACHOS!
And here's how I make my perfect nachos- step by step in pictures:

 Organic blue maize tortilla chips

 Steamed and mashed sweet potato

 Small amount of vegan cheese (heated in the microwave for 30 seconds)

 Taco 'mince' (mixed four beans, lentils, onion, mushrooms and spinach in a fry pan with some water and taco spice mix)

 Rest of vegan cheese

 Guacamole to finish! (mashed avocado with lime juice)

 Deeee-lish!

Perfect first bite!

Snack: 4:00pm
I always try to eat a little something between lunch and dinner to keep my metabolism roaring so I cut up a super hard and crunchy pear- my favourite!

Dinner: 6:45pm
I was feeling the pesto guys! You know I have a thing infatuation with pesto and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

 So I whipped some up, cooked some tri-coloured quinoa, steamed some pumpkin, parsnip, swede, carrot and beetroot, and heated up some frozen tempeh and cherry tomatoes in a fry pan until slightly charred.
Mixed altogether in a bowl:
Mmm
Finished the day off with a mug of soy milk and then relaaaxing!

And that's what I ate!

What about you?
Are you a workout in the morning kind of person, or some other time of day? I used to get a good workout in straight after school, or in the middle of the day on weekends but once I started working out in the morning- I'm hooked!
Do you like nachos? A childhood favurite that has remained with me my entire life!
Pesto- yay or nay?

That's it for today friends! Make sure you stop by Peas and Crayons to see what everyone else is nom-ing and maybe even gain some inspiration for your next meal while you're at it- I know I do! Have a great rest of your day. Bye! :D