Pesto love!... Again :)

You guys remember my recent PESTO-FESTO? Yeh...that was gooood!
I've had pesto on my mind ever since (seriously if I had to choose one sauce/ spread for the rest of my life.. I still couldn't- I love peanut butter too much... but if I could choose two, it would definitely be pesto and peanut butter :) so when I was doing my weekly grocery shop, into the trolley went another bunch of basil leaves!
This time? PIZZA!

Parsnip wholemeal spelt base pizza with pesto, vegan cheese and lots-a-veggies!

Ingredients:
60g parsnip- peeled and chopped
80g wholemeal spelt flour (I actually used a wholemeal spelt flour bread mix- any flour should work though)
dried oregano (to your liking)
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon dried yeast

Topping Ideas:
My pizza had:
Steamed veggies (pumpkin, sweet potato and beetroot)
no-added-salt tomato paste
some antipasto mix (olives, semi dried tomatoes and artichokes)
pineapple
mushrooms

Sauces:
Vegan cheese-
1 tablespoon hommus,
1/2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon water

What to do- mix together, then drizzle over pizza

Pesto-
1 handful of basil leaves
 1 handful of spinach
 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice
a small handful of pine nuts
a sprinkle of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon+ of olive oil

What to do- place in a small food processor and process until smooth (a couple of minutes)

Method:
1. Steam the parsnip for 30 minutes or until very soft

2. Mix the dried yeast with the luke warm water and leave to sit for 5 mins:

 3. Place the flour and oregano in a bowl and stir to combine:

4. Mash your parsnip, add to flour along with yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until starting to come together:

5. Lightly flour a clean surface and knead the dough for 10 mins: (keep adding flour if it sticks to the bench)

6. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with a clean tea towel, place somewhere warm to sit for 45 mins
7. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Make your pesto and vegan cheese (recipes above), chop and steam veggies(pumpkin, sweet potato and beetroot) for around 20 mins
Pesto:

 8. Once dough has rested for 45 mins, remove tea towel and punch down the dough, lightly knead 3-4 times on a floured surface, then roll out and move onto a pizza tray lined with baking paper.
9. Spoon on some tomato paste, and spinach:

10. Then start topping like a mad woman!

*Don't forget the pesto!
11. Place in the oven to cook for 20-30 mins, until base is crispy and cheese has gone nice and golden :)

12. Enjoy!

I like my pizzas with loads of topping and a bit doughy (I know lots of people like simple crispy based pizzas.. I don't get it!) so if you're like me- this is the pizza for you!

All my favourite foods seem to start with 'P'- Pesto, Peanut butter, Pasta, Pizza, Bananas( It's pretty much a combination of a normal p with an upside down p!)

Have a good Sunday everyone!

FOOD!-GLORIOUS-FOOD!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before (like a bajillion times!) but... I'm gonna say it again- I.LOVE.FOOD!
I love cooking food, I love eating food, I love coming up with new crazy ideas on how to create the food I love eating.
Only problem is- time! Time seems to have a way of flying by when you have school 5 days a week, play an instrument- about to start learning another one, do jazz and contemporary, are on the cross country team, have to coordinate a mural project for school, do a peer support program with the new year 7's, work through the Duke of Edinborough award (google it- it's a great program) and also keep up to date with homework/assignments/tests- where does cooking come into all that?
I will admit it's hard!
But planning is important- so is taste! I am not sacrificing taste for anything- so when I'm time short.. I simply resort to quick-to-prepare foods :)

Like the other night's dinner..

2 boiled eggs, some Vegemite on 100% rye toast and a sweet potato and pumpkin mash with mixed beans= Quick, easy, healthy and delicious!

Lunch at school...

Simple salad with raw veggies and some grilled one-minute-polenta mixed with sundried tomatoes.

On early cross country training mornings...

Creamy overnight oats ( muesli+mashed banana+nutbutter+cinnamon+chia seeds+splash of milk, left in fridge overnight)

One last thing... remember my latest WIAW? The fail that it was that ended up a What I Wish I Ate Wednesday ?
Well, today I actually ate what I wished I ate for lunch on Wednesday!

My take on Running with Spoons- Pumpkin chili mexican scramble!
In mine, I used both pumpkin and sweet potato and seasoned it with taco seasoning. I also used 2 whole eggs mixed with hommus:) Yum!

Any-who that's just a glimpse into how I cook/prepare on minimal time! Luckily it's the weekend, which equals time!
And time.. equals COOKIES! Chocolate-chip cookies!

Ingredients:
1 cup muesli
1 banana
chia gel- 1 tablespoon chia seeds mixed with 1 tablespoon milk (I used oat milk)
1 tablespoon nut butter ( I used peanut butter)
optional- 1/2 dried fig chopped

Choc chips:
 1 teaspoon coconut butter
1 teaspoon milk (I used oat milk)
1 teaspoon raw cacao powder
dash of cinnamon

Method:For choc chips
1. Place coconut butter and milk in small bowl and heat for 15-30 seconds, until warmed, stir to combine:

2. Stir in cacoa and cinnamon and drop onto a plate lined with baking paper with a spoon:

3. Place in freezer to set

For the cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, line a tray with baking paper
2.Mash banana in a bowl, add nutbutter and microwave for 15 seconds, stir to combine
3. Place muesli, chia gel, banana mixture, figs and set choc chips (you can roll them into balls) in a bowl and stir to combine- I used my hands :)
4. Roll into 4 balls (or 2 MEGA cookies!) and place on tray:

5. Bake for 10-15 mins, until golden and slightly hard:

6. ENJOY!
I had mine with a smoothie of frozen mango, frozen berries, spinach and oat milk:

Nothing like a plate full of cookies sitting on your lap in the morning!

yum.

It was a sad last bite!

I hope everyone has a fun weekend- enjoy the spare time!

WIAW #6-oops!

Hello, hello and welcome to another What I Ate Wednesday!
Usually I do a what Ive been eating recently post instead, but I managed to photograph what I ate Wednesday and figured it would make more sense to stick with the title!- written on Wednesday..
Written today:
It is now Thursday. I usually post my What I ate Wednesday on Thursday because then I have eaten everything on Wednesday. I managed to photograph everything I ate Wednesday- without the memory card in my camera- I had left it in the computer after I uploaded my breakfast picture before school!
Saddest part about that- I ate some really yummy stuff! Including a beautiful lasagne- which came with a recipe!
Well, everything happens for a reason- so instead I shall do a What I wish I ate Wednesday...

 

Lets begin with breakfast. Yummy, colourful and filling- just how I like it!

I made some berry oatbran:

 *Note the adorable gingerbread spoon thing!

It was just oatbran, chia seeds, mixed frozen berries and oat milk, heated and thickened on the stove.

Then- I found an almost empty jar of nut butter...

... And had an absolutely lovely breakfast! With a mug of soy milk and a banana :)

Topped off with a little coconut butter- for good measure!

YUM!

Sometimes, I really do think I go over board with my dipping addiction...

So this is the only actual photograph of What I Ate Wednesday
What I wish I ate for lunch:
Running with spoons:
 
Pumpkin Chili Mexican scramble
What I wish I ate as a snack:
Oh She glows:

Peanut butter balls
What I wish I ate for dinner..
Oh My Veggies:







Kale and Sweet potato quesadillas!
Sorry about the lack of true What I ate Wednesday- hopefully next week I'll remember the memory card!

PESTO-love ;)

HI! My name is Steph.. and I LOVE PESTO!
HI STEPH!
Hehe, ok, well I probably don't need to go to a support group, but the addiction is there!
I think it all started when I tried it at this Italian restaurant on a veggie pizza. It was swirled on top... and DELICIOUS! Ever since then... I put it on anything.

Unfortunately I didn't have any when I made this earlier this week:

A delicious stuffed to the brim mega mushroom!

Without my beloved pesto.. I settled for salsa instead- still good :) It was stuffed with quinoa, steamed veggies, sundried tomatoes, cranberries and pine nuts.
Yesterday I bought basil.
I made pesto.
And an out-of-this-world dinner!

Pesto pasta with roasted tomato and pumpkin
Ingredients:
Pesto:
1 handful basil
1 handful spinach
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Rest of meal:
gluten free pasta (as much as you like)
1 tomato (or half a large tomato- like I used)
olive oil
pepper
1/4 cup red kidney beans rinsed
handful of peas
few chunks of pumpkin
extra spinach

Method:
For the pesto:
1.Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth (this may take several minutes)

For the meal:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a tray with baking paper
2. Chop tomato into quarters, place on tray, drizzle with some olive oil and crack over some pepper- roast for about 30-45 mins until slightly black and nice and soft
3. Place pasta in a saucepan with boiling water and cook as packet recommends (usually from 8-15 mins)
4. Steam pumpkin until tender (15 mins)
5. Add peas to the last 5 mins of steaming pumpkin
6. Drain pasta, place back in pot, add pesto, spinach, and beans and stir to combine on a low heat. Place on plate once warmed and spinach has wilted:

7. Top with peas, pumpkin and roasted tomato.
ENJOY! AND YOU WILL- SO, SO MUCH!
(sorry about all the capslock- I'M EXCITED!)

It's creamy and pesto-y and cheesey- without any cream or cheese! Thank you pesto!

 Have a great week everyone!
:D

What!?! No eggs?

Eggs-actly! Sorry- pardon the pun ;)
I'm not actually vegan... this may come as a shock as all of my recipes are vegan.
I'm actually a vegetarian, who doesn't eat dairy, processed/added sugar and avoids wheat occasionally, if you need a label!
So.. where am I going with this? I eat eggs. BUT- I love experimenting with substitutes to eggs, because I want my blog and it's contents to be accessible to as many people with a dietary restriction (or not) as possible!
I've done the impossible!
Not only have I created delicious, fudgy cookies without eggs, but I also created... wait for it.... CREPES! No eggs + No falling apart!
I guess I've been trying to do this for over a year now (sooo many pancake scrambles people) but today was the day when I did it!
VEGAN CREPES: (Don't like crepes? Those cookies I mentioned before will be featuring too!)

Ingredients:
chia gel- 1 tablespoon chia seeds mixed with 1 tablespoon milk ( I used oat)
1/2 a cup of wholemeal spelt flour
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1/4 banana
milk of choice ( I used oat milk)

Method:

1. Break apart the 1/4 banana and place in a small bowl, heat in the microwave for 20 seconds, then mash:

2. Place the wholemeal spelt flour and coconut flour in a bowl and stir to combine
3. Add the chia gel, banana and a splash of milk and whisk (It should be pretty hard to whisk)
4. Keep adding milk until you get a pouring cream consistency (I added quite a bit 1 cup+)

5. Heat a large frypan with a light spray of oil. Transfer crepe batter to a pouring jug:

6. Pour 1/4 mixture into pan and immediately start shaking pan back and forth until the batter is thin and not moving/ running any more. Wait for about 30 seconds, keep nudging sides up with a spatula, then shake the pan and hopefully the crepe will start moving about- then you can flip it!

*Now remember the golden rule in pancake/crepe making- the first one is always a dud, don't be disheartened if it doesn't work first try... mine didn't!)
This was my second attempt:

7. Leave on for another 30 seconds or so to brown up the other side, then place on some paper towel to drain away the oil
8. Continue with 3 more crepes (or however many you get from your mixture)..

 ..when you finish one, place filling in and roll up so it can melt while the others cook!
Coconut butter:

 Nut butter:

I also made a smoothie with my leftover banana. It was 3/4 of a banana, 1 handful frozen mango, 1 handful frozen berries, 2 handfuls of spinach and a splash of soy milk:

Once your finished making and rolling your crepes.. EAT!

Another sign it was a good day:

I couldn't resist:

 They were soo thin and scrumptious and tasted exactly how I remembered crepes tasting.. YUM!

WHO WANTS COOKIES?

Ingredients:
1 cup of muesli plus 2 tablespoons
1 dried fig chopped
1 banana
1 tablespoon nut butter
chia gel- 1 tablespoon chia seeds mixed with 1 tablespoon milk of choice

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a baking tray with baking paper
2. Chop banana and mash with a fork, then microwave with nut butter for 20 seconds, stir to combine:

3. Place muesli in a bowl with the dried fig (optional- brings such a good taste!) and banana mixture and chia seeds, stir to combine- it will be quite wet:

4. Form into balls and place on the baking tray:

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until slightly golden brown:

6. Top with anything you like (I went for coconut butter- you can't beat coconut butter)
7. EAT!

Maybe even with some grapes and soy milk :)

So soft and chewy- just the way I like it :)
But really, the star of the show was the crepes:

I mean egg-free- come on!
Have a great Mother's day tomorrow!
:D