Nacho Nacho Man!

...I want to be a Nacho man!
Especially after yesterdays lunch :)
But before that, get excited because look what I got.....

Yay! All my school stuff... joy :) I actually think I was more excited about the box:

Does anyone else love those little Styrofoam thingies?
Well that prompted me to cheer myself up by making a delightfully delicious lunch. I think I've been on a fast food kick lately... of course they are healthified, but you can't really taste the difference:

NACHOS!

When I was younger and I was at a restaurant the only two things I would order were margarita pizzas and nachos- without the guacamole and sour cream, with lots of cheese. I am so glad my taste buds grew up! :)
Nachos- Dairy, wheat and added sugar free:
Ingredients:
Veggie mash-
100g sweet potato cut into cubes
25g parsnip cut into cubes
'Meaty' Salsa-
125g tin mixed four beans
50g vegetarian mince (I used Quorn mince- you can omit this if you prefer/ want to make it vegan)
3 cherry tomatoes chopped
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
1-2 tablespoons of salsa
Guacamole-
1/2 an avocado scooped and chopped
1-2 tablespoons of corn kernels (I just used tinned corn)
A few strips of capsicum and chilli (to your liking)
Vegan cheese-
1-2 tablespoons hommus
1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast + water to thin
Corn chips-
2 small corn tortillas (gluten free)

Method:
1.boil/ steam veggies for veggie mash- 20 mins. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Meanwhile make guacamole by combining ingredients in a small food processor and wazzing up until it reaches your desired consistency- store in fridge.
3. Cut corn tortillas into triangles and arrange on baking tray:

Bake in the oven until crispy (maybe 10 mins) transfer to cooling rack.
4.Make the vegan cheese by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth and thin, set aside
5. Make salsa by adding all the ingredients apart from the salsa to a small fry pan, add 2 tbs water and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed (3-6 mins) on medium heat. Stir through salsa
6. Mash the soft veggies for the veggie mash.
7. Place corn chips on a plate, spoon over veggie mash, then spoon over salsa. Drizzle over the vegan cheese ( I mainly targeted the chips)
8. Heat in the microwave for 50 seconds until cheese resembles melted cheese:

9. Spoon over guacamole... ENJOY! :)

For your ultimate enjoyment, make sure you get a little bit of everything on your chip:)

Mmmm nachos...


 

 

A new take on sushi!

After my big burger lunch extravaganza, I thought dinner should feature my other favourite take-away type food. With a few alterations, just like the burger. :)

Pumpkin Quinoa Veggie Sushi Rolls:
Ingredients:
150g pumpkin
1/2 cup quinoa (1 1/2 cups water to cook in)
Fillings of choice (I used garlic tofu, carrot, capsicum and avocado)
2 sheets of sushi seaweed
Optional- steamed greens to place in center:)
Method:
1. Steam/ boil/ microwave pumpkin until soft. Mash until smooth. Leave to cool
2. Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve for 2 mins. Dry toast in a medium saucepan for another 2 mins. Add water, bring to the boil and then simmer until all the water is absorbed. Add to pumpkin mixture. Leave to cool.
3. Prepare your veggies by cutting them into long thin strips
4. Place your seaweed on a bamboo mat (I simple used a tea towel with glad wrap on top)
5. Place pumpkin mixture and veggies at the end closest to you, press down, then wet the closest part of seaweed to you that is not covered in filling, roll until the ends just meet the wet part. Pull mat back, wet the next part and roll again, until you have created a tight roll. Store in fridge for 10-15 mins.
6. With a sharp, wet knife cut the sushi into desired thickness and serve!
Here is my sushi from a birds eye view:

Here is a close-up... mmm sushi goodness

And here is the pumpkin I used... I'm sure some of you were wondering :)

Well, that was delicious... but not nearly as delicious as breakfast- I'm sure you can guess what it is, being my favourite breakfast and all :)

I am the type of person who hates having the same thing day after day- I always want to try new things, but this is the one meal I could eat daily and never tire of it!
Close-up goodness:

Ok, you can stop drooling over my breakfast now. Catch ya later! :)

A very YUMMY day!

So... today started off grey and just on the brink of raining- so of course I was craving something cold for breakfast :)

Mmmm, banana mango ice cream smoothie! I swear, no one would think this is dairy free- IT IS SO CREAMY!
I think my recipe changes every time I make it, but here is the jist:
1 frozen banana
1 large frozen mango (or 2 smaller ones like I did this morning)
1-2 cups of milk (this really depends on what you want the consistency to be like, see I like mine where you need a spoon to eat it with- see the spoon in the background- so I put less milk in)
Optional- Chia seeds for added Omega-3's, and filling power
Waz all that up in a blender until smooth- enjoy and then drop by and thank me! hehe. So simple, but so much like ice cream :) Pretty good start to the morning I'd say!

Then lunch rolled round...

Meet my friend burger- he didn't last too long! Neither did those sweet potato fries :)
Everything in that image was made by me- nothing processed.. if you were wondering it was also vegan. It was also quite big:

So I had to make some adjustments in order to get my mouth around it! :) (who needs a top anyway. It's way too mainstream)
The bun is based on this recipe, but I halved the quantities, didn't add any agave syrup and needed to add more flour: (pre-cooked)

Unfortunately I didn't write down my recipe for the veggie burger, I usually tend not to as every time I make it, it is completely different, the list of stuff you can add to veggie patties is endless, so I hand the creativity over to you. Mine had beans, lentils, parsley, chilli, sundried tomatoes, hommus and salsa- your turn!

My burger had the lot; patty, vegies, bun, cheese... hang on a sec- CHEESE? Yep, well my kind of cheese.
Vegan Cheese:
1 tablespoon hommus
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2-1 tablespoon of water, to thin
Method:
Mix it all together and there you have it!

Method to put on burger:
Place cooked patty on bun then drizzle over cheese, bake in oven (180 degrees celsius) for a few minutes (or microwave for about 30 sec) until the vegan cheese actually looks like melted cheese:

 If you do make this and can get your mouth around the burger, send me a picture... please!
Happy Burger Monday everyone! (Yes I did just make that up!)

Breakfast Trio Cupcakes

I couldn't decide what to have for breakfast this morning, knowing full well that it was pancake Sunday, but in the mood for something a bit... fatter :) If I don't want pancakes, then I guess I'll have to have cupcakes!

Which brought me to another dilemma. What flavour? Pfft, small obstacle... I'll just make three different flavours:

Chocolate/ walnut/ berry breakfast cupcakes, with an almond butter and banana filling and a coconut flour and banana frosting on top :) In other words... Breakfast Trio Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
75g flour (I used 60g wholemeal spelt flour and 15g brown rice flour)
30g rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg (or egg replacer)
1/4 cup milk (I used oat milk)
Optional- 1tablespoon LSA mix and 1 tablespoon of chia seeds- for added nutrition
2 teaspoons cocoa
3-4 broken up walnuts
4-5 mixed frozen berries
Frosting:( I would recommend just using the almond butter icing, as the coconut one was a bit strange- and that's me talking!)

1 banana
1 tablespoon milk (I used oat milk)
1-2 tablespoons almond butter/ any nut butter

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Combine all the dry ingredients together (apart from cocoa and nuts)
3. Stir in the egg and milk
4. Split the batter equally between three small bowls and add the walnuts to one, cocoa to another and berries to the last one:

5. Spoon into a greased muffin tray or if you're cool like me, spoon into these:

6. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean (don't try this with the berry one- it will never come out clean!)
7. Place on wire rack to cool:

8. Meanwhile, make the icing: Place the banana and milk in a food processor and process until smooth
9. You can split the recipe here and make any icing creation you want (cocoa, berries.. placed in food processor) or just stir in some nut butter... so simple, yet so good!
10. Cut the cupcakes in half and spread with some icing, then spread some on top

11. Keep the leftover icing for dipping (not a suggestion... an order!) and enjoy your healthy brekky cupcakes!

If you want to see if the cupcakes came out cupcaky and fluffy... well:

They sure did!
My favourite was probably the walnut one... next time I might just make three walnut ones, but probably not because I probably will find so many more things I can fill my cupcakes with!

Did you all have a wonderful breakfast?

YUM!

                    

  
While trying to think up an imaginative and creative title for this post, one word just wouldn't budge from my brain. YUM!
On my ever growing list of things to create, healthy pretzels have always been there. I woke up a bit earlier than usual yesterday and decided to take advantage of this.
May I present to you... A stroke of genius...pretzel style:

P.S. It is completely vegan, all natural sugar and wheat free :)
Steph's Breakfast Pretzel for One:

Ingredients:
120 g flour (gluten free/ all purpose etc. I used approximately 62g of wholemeal spelt and 58g brown rice flour)
10 g oat bran (or just crush up your own oats in the food processor)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk of choice (I used oat milk) plus extra to brush on
1 tablespoon oil
Optional (for added nutrients) 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon of LSA mix
Banana glaze:
1/2 banana
2 tablespoons milk (again I used oat milk)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
3. Stir in the wet ingredients, until you have to use your hands- shape into a ball:

What my pretzel looked like at this point.
4. Roll out a long snake on top of some baking paper, long enough to form a medium sized pretzel.
5. Make the shape of a pretzel, then brush on some milk to act as glue in the places the pretzel meets and brush a coat all over pretzel to stop it from drying out:

6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until slightly golden
7. Make the glaze by combining banana and milk in a small blender/ food processor and blending. Spread immediately onto warm pretzel:

8.(Optional) Drizzle with almond butter (or any nut butter/ spread you want)
9. Your welcome.

My pretzel was glazed in the banana glaze, then drizzled heavily with almond butter, with the leftover banana glaze for dipping and a fruit salad on the side. Boy was I full for hours after that!
The pretzel itself isn't exactly like the typical pretzel you can buy, but this one just reminded me of eating a big chewy cookie... YUM!

Childhood Memories

        

         As a kid (no... I'm a teenager now!) my favourite lunch ever was a baked bean and cheese toastie. :) Yesterday, that's what I wanted....
'But you don't eat cheese or wheat?!?' my confused logically self told me. Luckily for me I also have a creative, 'No obstacles are gonna block my way!' part of me aswell. I was going to have a baked bean and cheese toastie no matter what!


...And here it is:

I present to you my Home made, pumpkin, hommus baked bean toastie (what a name!)

Ingredients: (serves 1)
100 g pumpkin, chopped
5-6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
90g butter beans
1-2 Tablespoons hommus (I chose two :)- the hommus gives the beans that cheesy kind of flavour.
Optional- two slices of bread if you want to make a toastie (I used home made, wheat free bread)

Method:
1. Steam/ boil the pumkin for about 20 minutes, then make into mash!
2. Add the tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of water to a small saucepan, cook on medium until you can squish the tomatoes.
3. Add the mashed pumpkin to the tomatoes and stir for about 2 minutes
4. Add the beans and hommus and stir for another 2 minutes (add more water if required)
       These are what my baked beans looked like:

5.  (Optional step if you want to make a toastie)  Spread your beans onto a slice of bread, top with the other slice and place in a sandwich grill until lightly golden (do not press down too much as the inside will squish out!)

I paired my delicious sandwich with a side of mashed root veggies. Really, the sandwich is so filling, you don't need a side!

Enjoy your healthier version of baked beans on toast!

It's time to Stephify!

Yesterday for lunch I had scrambled eggs on toast. Haha, yeah right... what I really did was take that idea and make it awesome:
I present to you scrambled eggs with toast... Stephified:

The thing on the left was an original recipe of mine for oven baked quinoa polenta flat bread: (smothered in hommus :)

Ingredients for flatbread
1/4 cup quinoa (3/4 cup to cook it in)
30g 1 minute polenta (120 mls of water to cook it in)
2 tbs brown rice flour
your choice of favourite herbs/ spices (creative time!)
Method:
1.Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Rinse the quinoa in a fine sieve for 2 minutes, place in a sauce pan over medium heat and dry toast for another 2 mins.
2. Add the 3/4 cup of water, bring to bowl, simmer for 15 mins (or until all the water has been absorbed) stirring occasionally and then leave to cool.
3. Bring the 120mls of water to the boil in a small saucepan
4. Add the polenta and stir constantly with a whisk until the polenta is thick
5. In a bowl mix the polenta, quinoa and brown rice flour and any seasoning together until combined
6. flatten on a sheet of baking paper, place on a tray in the oven and bake for 10-15 mins until edges are crispy. Cool on wire rack, then eat!

The scramble was super easy and can be changed in any way you want. I simply sauteed some shredded veggies in a fry pan with some garlic and oil for a few minutes and scrambled an egg in a smaller saucepan and then mixed them. Too easy and too pretty. I like it when my foods make rainbows! :)

So there you have it; A more healthier, prettier and veggier filled scrambled eggs on toast!