Forever changing dinners

Dinners frustrate me sometimes.

I feel like I've done a lot of eating during the day and oh, there it is again, a little whisper huge cry of hunger. I'm kind of like- come on body, I've been feeding you all day!

Then I remember I love cooking and food and eating in general and then I'm happy again. Welcome to my brain- at least you don't have to live with it! ;)

Now, there seems to be two types of dinners for me:
1. Dinners that take a long time to prepare and I can just zone out from the world and cook for an hour or two.
2. Dinners that involve quick cooking foods that can be made in a rush, yet still fill me up (generally involving veggies that can be eaten raw/ can be sauteed in a hot pan quickly.

I will admit that I'm not a big fan of the rushed/ having to be portable dinners as I believe dinner is a time that should be spent around a dinner table with family, eaten slowly and enjoyed. But then life happens and that just simply is not the case every night.

My go-to quick dinners include:

• Fried eggs, sauteed mushrooms/ capsicum/ eggplant/ zucchini, with toast that's usually topped with hommus/ avocado/ vegemite (and sometimes a combo of these)
• salads- spinach, tomato, carrot, capsicum, peas, beetroot, drained beans/ torn up veggie burger/ tofu
• Microwave rice cups with frozen peas, corn capsicum, beans, other veggies and salsa
• Omelettes
• toasted sandwiches (my favourite being a hommus, avocado and baked bean jaffle!)

My generally-take-longer-than-half an hour meals include:

• Anything with long, slow roasted veggies (Y.U.M)
• Barley salads (generally with roasted veggies)
• Baked sweet potatoes with a delicious topping of some kind
• Lasagne (wow, I haven't made lasagne in ages! I better remedy that!)
• PIZZA! (me loves pizza :D)

Friday night was one of those precious nights when I had no where to be. I had the whole weekend to do my homework and I had a few spare hours to create whatever I wanted for dinner. Some may see cooking dinner as a chore but it is definitely a treat for me (when it isn't rushed or hectic)

So I started off by making this:

Mmmm, love me some beetroot juice for dinner!
Ok, maybe not. Any who I steamed up 1/4 large beetroot for about 30 mins, whazzed it up in my mini food processor and then squeezed all the juice (and a bit of the actually beetroot) into a small bowl to make...

A pink beetroot pizza base!! Yay pizza!

To make follow the directions in the link above.
I topped my pizza off with some no-added-salt, 100% tomato paste, lots of vegan cheese, fresh basil leaves, sliced tomato and mushrooms, chopped capsicum and eggplant, sliced olives, sliced red onion and a little lot more vegan cheese (I was in a cheesy mood!)

Baked in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for around 25 mins (until base was hard and 'cheese' was golden)

Yum, yum. Although I couldn't enjoy it 100% as when I was rolling it out after resting for 45 mins my Dad goes 'So you made play dough for dinner?' Then I couldn't get the thought of eating play dough out of my head. Thanks Dad.

Who am I kidding, I probably enjoyed it more thinking it looked like play dough! ;)

I ate that baby at home, at a table, with plenty of time swirling around me, enjoying every second. Saturday night was a totally different experience, but that's a story for another day (ie. tomorrow or the next ;)

What about you?
Go-to quick-to-throw-together meal?
Favourite lengthy meal to create?
Favorutie pizza dough recipe? Mine will probably forever me my pumpkin base, although I love the play-doughy appearance of the beetroot base.

Bye for now folks! Remember to make today a fantastical day! :D