Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy

I used to say that all the time... what does it mean though- lemon squeasy? I mean I get that it had to rhyme and all, but why couldn't it be elephant squeasy? I'm just saying, anyway this post is about mainly lunches or dinners you can make that require no brain power whatsoever.

Yes, even I, have one of those days!

But I don't want to reach into the freezer and pull out a pie or heat up a 2 minute rice dish- I still have values! I still want fresh, healthy and delicious! Just not the long thought process that can go with some of my recipes.

Here are some suggestions, but don't worry there will be a recipe at the end!

One of my favourites. Full of veggies wrap:

 Super simple- roast/ steam/ boil root veggies until really soft, mash, stir in steamed greens (broccoli, brussel sprouts, beans, peas, broad beans etc), optional- stir in a chopped up veggie burger. Place on wrap, wrap it up and toast it in a sandwich press. Too easy + delicious! :)

Next Up is another delicious veggie-filled meal. I call it my colourful bowl of yummies:

The bottom layer is just spinach, then there are peas and broad beans, next is steamed pumpkin, carrot, beetroot, parsnip, swede and sweet potato, topped off with lentils and a sun-dried tomato veggie sausage. Very filling indeed!

If I thought this was my colourful bowl of yummies- I was wrong:

This is a bunch of random veggies I through in the fry pan with some garlic and rice- really you can add whatever you like!

There were mixed beans, green beans, peas, corn, carrot, purple cabbage, tomato, broccoli, brussel sprouts, capsicum, mushroom, broad beans and spinach added at the end!

Thsi has got to be one of the best fork fulls of food I have ever had!

I love rainbows!
Last, but not least- yesterdays lunch, which was very filling indeed.
Steph's oven grilled brushetta:

I simply roasted some tomatoes and capsicum in the oven for about 25 minutes, sauteed some mushrooms, garlic and spinach together, added it to my chopped tomatoes and capsicum with some mixed beans and lentils, stirred, placed on a 100% rye flatbread (lightly spread with more garlic- like garlic bread!) and drizzled over with some basil pesto. I then baked in the oven for around 15 minutes. YUM!

So there are your easy lunches- but now be jealous because yesterday for brekky I had bright pink barley 'oatmeal': 

Tea time!
Here's what I did. I cooked up a batch of barley (you can see how here) drained the water, added some milk (1/2 cup to 1 cup, it depends how thick you want it) and thinly sliced banana, handful of berries and let it sit and thicken.
When it started to thicken I whisked and whisked until quite thick and added some chopped walnuts. (omeg-3's people!)

Then I made it look pretty with some of the banana I didn't use and some blueberries:

No I did not forget the nut butter- it's just hiding under all the fruit, getting warm and gooey!
Close-up time!

Admire the pinkness!
Also because I am a real life person, my breakfast didn't stay looking like this for long- I wanted every spoonful to have a bit of everything, so...

Perfect! I think I like this picture the best :D

I hope you have a brilliant day!

Colourful Pizza Parcels

Umm, it may have come to your attention that I have a slight obsession with pizza, I have only been blogging for a month and already you can find my different takes on pizza here and here and here!

I'm also one of those people who hates eating the same thing day after day- so each of those pizza recipes mentioned above are quite different, which brings me to today's pizza recipe...

These are my Colourful Pizza Parcels:

Hehe.
Ingredients:
100g pumpkin, chopped
100g beetroot, chopped
1 teaspoon of yeast + 1/4 cup lukewarm water
100g flour of choice (I used a wheat free bread mix) plus 1/4-1/2 cup more
1 tablespoon oil
choice of herbs (I used oregano and basil)
Vegan cheese:
1 tablespoon hommus
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
water to thin
Filling:(This is totally up to you but I'm going to write down what was in mine, feel free to have whatever filling you like)
100g mixed root veggie chopped quite small
Tomato, capsicum, mushrooms, pineapple, spinach
basil pesto

Method:
1. Steam your pumpkin and beetroot on medium heat for around 20 mins.
This is my beloved steamer in case you were wondering:

It's so old and it's probably my most used kitchen appliance. It was about 50 cents at my schools trash and treasure!
2. Meanwhile, mix yeast with lukewarm water and sit for 5-10 mins until frothy
3. Place flour and herbs in a bowl, stir
4. Once pumpkin and beetroot are done, mash pumpkin- leave to cool- place beetroot in a small food processor and process until its chopped up into tiny cubes
5. Add some of the yeast mixture and oil to the flour, stir with a wooden spoon until starting to come together- but still crumbly- split between two bowls
6. Add the mashed pumpkin to one, using your hands to combine everything, add extra flour until dough comes to pizza dough consistency (smooth and elastic)
7. Take handfuls of the beetroot cubes and squish in your hands so the juice drips into other bowl. Mix in extra yeast mixture if required.
8. Knead both doughs for 5-10 mins on a lightly floured surface. This is what mine looked like:

9. Wash, then grease with oil the two bowls. Place each dough in one and cover both with a tea towel, leave in a warm dark place for 30-40 mins. (I put mine in the oven- turned off!)
10. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.(we have two ovens, if you do not have two ovens, please don't place your dough there to rest!) In the meantime you can get your fillings ready. I steamed my mixed root veggies:

And chopped up all my other filling ingredients. I also made my vegan cheese at this point.
11. Once the dough has rested for 30-40 mins, lightly flour your bench again, punch the doughs down in their bowls, then knead them for about 2 mins.
12. Roll out one of the doughs, spread with pizza sauce (or basil pesto if you are strange like me and prefer pesto to sauce!) pile filling in the middle and drizzle cheese over generously. Bring the edges up to meet at the top, squeeze together and secure in place with a tooth pick. Place on a baking tray. Do the same with the second dough.
13. Place the pizza parcels in the oven and bake for around 15-20 mins (or more) until the pumpkin pizza base has browned and both feel hard and crispy on the outside:

14. Remove the toothpicks and walk around the house with your plate of colourful pizza parcels amazing everyone with your weird geniusness! I did!

How about some inside views?

Cheesy, doughy, veggie filled parcels of yumminess- hmm maybe I should change their name to that?
Next time I think I'll make mini versions and stuff them each with one different but crucial pizza topping :)

I hope you have a great day- you know making these will make it even greater!

Blueberry Microwave Muffin

I was always very skeptical of the idea of making 2 minute cakes/ cupcakes/ brownies in the microwave, because it always sounded too good to be true.

However, as usual my curiousity got the better of me (also my craving for a quick blueberry muffin helped as well) so I decided to create a blueberry microwave muffin!

Behold the two minute blueberry brekky muffin:

Topped with nut butter and berry ice cream (frozen berries+ frozen bananas) you know you want some ;)

Ingredients:
30g wholemeal spelt flour
30g brown rice flour (or just 60 g of any flour you like- I just did these two to play with textures)
30g rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon chia seeds + 1 tablespoon milk
2 1/2 - 4 tablespoons milk- depending on how dense you want it
Either- 1/2 a mashed banana, 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree, 1/4 cup of applesauce- your choice to make sure the finished product isn't too dry (I forgot to add this- it still tasted great, but I would recommend adding one of these)
Blueberries- as many as you want!

Method:
1. Do NOT preheat the oven to 180 :) instead combine your chia seed and milk in a small food processor and sit for 5-10 mins until gel consistency.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine
3. Whaz up your chia seed gel in the food processor (optional- you can just add it there and then without whazzing) then add to dry mix:

4. Add the rest of the milk and your choice of mashed banana/ pumpkin/ applesauce, until the mixture comes to a sort of thick pancake consistency (Add more milk if required... especially if using coconut flour!)
5. Add the blueberries!

6. Lightly grease a big soup-like mug and pour mix in
Precooked:

7. Place in the microwave and cook on high for about 1 minute and 30 seconds, check with the clean skewer/ knife test, if not clean place back in microwave for an extra 30 seconds.
Post cooking:

Look how high it got!
8. Gently take cake out and place on wire rack:

9. Cut in half and fill with any filling you desire (the other half of banana, berries, chocolate, nut butter, coconut butter, muesli, jam....)
10. Place back in mug- this is when I started making my ice cream which involved me taking a chopped up frozen banana, a handful of frozen berries and whazzing them up in the food processor- too easy- and top with whatever you want- same suggestions as the filling :)
11. Grab a spoon/ fork/ shovel and enjoy!

Hmm, not quite there yet...

There we go, perfect :)

Mmm blueberry muffin...

And craving satisfied :)

Enjoy the rest of your day!

OIAJ

In case you were wondering, OIAJ stands for Oats In A Jar. Their popularity has been whizzing around the blog world and you will probably find some kind of recipe for it on most healthy food blogs.
I first saw it here and have made it ever since...
Here is the breakfast of awesomeness:

Hang on, the fruit was awesome, (that reddish/ pinkish thing is a pluot- a cross between a plum and an apricot!) but lets see the real hero:

I can do better than that!

Here we go :) All hail the almond butter!
The recipe is really simple, so I'm not going to set it out properly.
I simply cooked a serving about 1/3 cup of oat bran in a small saucepan over medium heat with half a cup of oat milk and some chia seeds and LSA mix and kept whisking until thick and creamy.
Then I layered a spoonful into a nearly empty jar of almond butter, followed by some raw fruity muesli, and did two more layers of that until I had my OIAJ :)

When eating (and this is very important) make sure you get a scoop of everything and run the spoon up the side of the jar to get the nut butter:

And that my friends is OIAJ, open to your creativity! (chocolate, berries, yoghurt....)

Now you probably want a real recipe. Well ok, lets see, how about dinner?

Meatless ball toasted sammich with wedges- dairy free, sugar free, wheat free... delicious:)
Ingredients:
Meatless balls:
70g pumpkin
10 slices of mushroom
65g of vegetarian mince
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Wedges:
1 medium potato cut into wedges
Oil to coat
herbs and spices of choice (I used oregano, basil and cumin seeds)
Other stuff:
2 thin slices of bread of choice
Spinach, tomato, cucumber
Salsa (healthier and less sugary than regular ketchup)
Hommus (optional- but never optional for me :)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Cover wedges in oil and herbs and place on tray in oven to bake for 45 minutes
2. Meanwhile chop pumpkin and steam/ boil until soft (15 minutes)
3. Saute mushrooms, 'mince' and garlic with some water in a small frypan until mushrooms have browned.
4. Once the pumpkin has cooked place all the meatless ball ingredients (including mustard)  in a small food processor and process until combined:

5. Shape into balls and place on a small baking tray.
6. Once the potatoes have 20 minutes left place your meatless balls into the oven
7. Prepare your sandwich - cutting veggies, smothering hommus on bread etc.
8. Once the 20 minutes is up, take wedges and meatless balls out of oven. Place wedges on paper towel to drain away excess oil.
Hello chippies:

Get ready to make your sandwich:

9. Place all your veggies on first, then top with meatless balls and drizzle over salsa, add the second piece of bread and toast in a sandwich press to your liking.
10. Add wedges to plate and enjoy:) No guilt required!

See you tomorrow for another kitchen experiment that went rather well!
;)

Stuffed!

Yesterday, I decided I was in a 'Lets find every veggie in the house and stuff it!' kind of mood.
Which is always a fun mood to be in :)
So for lunch I decided to stuff a capsicum:

Steph's veggiefilled cous cous stuffed cheezy capsicum:
Ingredients:
1 medium sized capsicum
100 g mixed root veggies, chopped (I used parsnip, suede, pumpkin and beetroot)
125g can mixed four beans
Handful of spinach
1/4 cup cous cous (1/4 cup water to cook in)
cheese topping:
1-2 tablespoons hommus +1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast+ water to thin

Method:
1. Preheat oven  to 180 degrees celsius
2. Steam/ boil root veggies for about 15 mins
3. Place capsicum on a baking tray and bake for around 15 mins (same as root veggies):

4. Place cous cous in a bowl, cover with 1/4 cup boiling water and place a plate on top. Leave for 5 mins then fluff with fork.
5. Once the root veggies and capsicum have had their 15 mins take out, leave capsicum aside
6. Make vegan cheese- stir hommus and nutritional yeast together with about a tablespoon of water
7. Put every other ingredient in a bowl and stir to combine, you can add some of the cheese (or any other sauce) to the mix now and stuff as much as you can into the capsicum (overflowing is fine:)
8. Drizzle over cheese and bake in the oven for 20-25 mins

So as I was waiting for my capsicum to cook, I wanted to stuff something else...

Hello little tomatoes:)
So I quickly sauteed 1 tablespoon of lentils+ 1/2 tablespoon pine nuts+ 1 teaspoon garlic + around 10 mushrooms, in a small frypan until golden and fragrant.
Precooking: 

Then I quickly whazzed everything up in a small food processor with some more nutritional yeast:

And stuffed my little tomatoes. Baking them in the oven for the capsicums final 10 mins.
Behold... my stuffed lunch:

Hang on, this looks much more impressive:

:)
For dinner, I did another stuffing. But this was one of those meals that looks totally ugly, but tasted out of this world- so don't get too grossed out:

That was a small oven roasted sweet potato (about 1 hour in a 180 degrees celsius oven) topped with falafel, chilli tofu, peas, broccoli, broad beans all mixed together with some salsa... yum :)

I stuffed something else for breakfast this morning, but your going to have to wait until tomorrow for that surprise!

What other veggies do you love to stuff?
I like stuffing halved avocados with guacamole, and scooping out the inside of halved watermelons, freezing it and creating a slushy to put back in the watermelon boat. I first got the idea for that here.


Have a great day! :)

A Day In The LIfe....

This post is just for some inspiration of what some well balanced and delicious meals look like- these are the meals I had yesterday- take your own spin on them and have fun!
Breakfast:
I always want a serving of fruit, some calcium from somewhere- using soy/oat milk and protein and healthy fat to keep me full until lunch.
Remember this guy:

 This definitely kept me full all the way until lunch, which featured another favourite of mine.
Mashed root veggies, mixed with peas, broad beans, broccoli and a torn up veggie burger, all encased in a toasted wrap :)

Delicious- with loads of yummy veggies tucked inside!
Dinner featured me experimenting again, as I wanted to create not only a wheat free pizza base (like this one) but also a gluten free one.
So this was my eggy pumpkin pizza base. Topped with lots more yummy veggies:

Ingredients:
135g pumpkin, chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup Brown rice flour
Any spices/ herbs you wish (I used basil, oregano and some garlic)

Method:
1. Steam/ boil the pumpkin until very soft (20 mins)
2. whisk the egg in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in flour and herbs/ spices
3. Once the pumpkin is done place it in bowl and whisk thoroughly until smooth( no need to mash the pumpkin prior to this as it will mash really easily when whisked)
4. Pour batter onto a large non stick fry pan on low heat and smooth out to your desired thickness.
5. Place lid on and wait around 5 mins (If you don't have a lid, you could try flipping it halfway through, but I was too scared!)
6. Plop onto plate and put any toppings you like on and then bake in the oven for about 15-20 mins (180 degrees Celsius)

So that was dinner which brings us all the way back to breakfast to complete the day in the life of Steph's tummy:

2 slices of wheat free bread, topped with almond butter, with some banana mango ice cream used for dipping and smothering :)
My tummy was very happy these last 24 hours!