Sort of recipes :)

If you know me, even in the slightest, you would know that I like things fairly... in order. I like to follow the rules/ regulations/ instructions/ anything, to a T and get kind of worried if I don't.

Except....

When I'm cooking.

When I'm cooking something for lunch/ dinner/ breakfast (baking is a different story- you must follow every instruction! Trust me!) and I have a recipe in front of me, I'll almost always use it as a rough guideline, examine the flavours and recreate my own version. Some times I don't even have a specific recipe in front of me, but I have several in my head so I mush them all together!

Either way, there is no measuring or weighing or trying to figure out what the heck a small- medium sized beetroot is. Nope. It's whatever starts to look good.

For example oats:

To make my oats you simply have to pour in some steel cut oats, add in a chopped banana, some chia seeds and lot's of almond milk and water and then let it bubble away for 15 or so mins before adding in some blueberries for the last 5 mins and more often than not most of the liquid is absorbed by then!

I know it's slap dash but it is the only area in my life where I'm not a total control freak with numbers and measurements buzzing around my brain. It's actually the only time in my life when my brain is just there. Not full of thoughts/ worries/ random. Running sort of shhh's my brain, but cooking actually ties it up to a chair and gags it. How's that for imagery? ;)

Any way what I'm trying to say is for some reason, even though I don't follow any type of recipe or measurements when I cook, everything I make usually turns out delicious (in my opinion!) and also in my opinion I think this is what separates someone from simply cooking to being a cook.

 So I have a recipe for you today!
A sort of recipe. A typical Steph-style recipe!
It involves this:

 A hunk of slightly stale home made spelt bread (any bread will work)

And one of these bad boys:

A huge portobello mushroom! (from the farmers market of course!)

Any guesses?

If you guessed a stuffed mushroom then you are cooorrrreeeccctt!

 Simply take a hunk of bread (maybe 2 slices of regular stale-ish bread) and tear it up into a food processor:

 Add a dash of cumin, sprinkle of dried oregano and dried basil, pinch of cayenne pepper and a dash of ground cinnamon along with some pine nuts and whazz until bread-crumby!

 In a separate bowl place 125g rinsed four beans + 2 scoops of rinsed lentils + 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, stir to combine:

Chop up some spinach and capsicum and add that and the bread crumb mixture to the beans and lentils:

 Along with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of water. Then remove the stem from the mushroom, roast in an oven at 180 degrees celsius for 15 mins and then bring out to stuff!

 I also roasted up this little guy to go with my stuffed mushroom. Look how cute and little this eggplant is!

 Start spooning the stuffing mixture into the 'shroom and press down to fit lots in! If you still have quite a bit leftover, you can stuff just about anything! (tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplants etc. ) I simply found some little button mushrooms!

 Roast at 180 degrees celsius for around 20-30 mins (depending on how crispy you want your filling)

 Ta-da!

 Spicy, comforting, full of punchy flavours and meaty mushroom- yum!

 Served with some steamed parsnip, beetroot and oven roasted eggplant and mini zucchinis.

Very filling indeed. I was stuffed! ;)

Your turn!

Do you follow recipes?

Do you simply throw lots of ingredients into a pot and hope for the best like me?

Do you like stuffed mushrooms? I've got to say, I used to hate them... now I think they're pretty darn good. I guess I hated them because I hated mushrooms in general. And stuffing. Ha.

See ya later friends! Have a very very good day! Do something unexpected! :D