Showing posts with label Tasty Thursday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tasty Thursday. Show all posts

Friday, July 4, 2014

Tasty Thursday - Enchiladas



Enchiladas

Ingredients

Olive oil
2 tins sugar beans
4-5 tomatoes (crushed/grated – i.e. put in food processor)
Rye
Ujmo
Hing
Urad
1 tsp ginger-garlic
½ tsp chilli powder (I use curry powder – Hot rather than plain chilli powder)
2 tsp chillies (or more if you want it hotter)
Salt
Sugar
2-3 tbs Butter
2 cups Milk (warmed)
2 tbs Flour
Black pepper
Dried Mixed herbs
Leftover Roti or tortillas
Cheese

Method

Open the tins and place into a pot to heat on low flame.
In another pot, heat some olive oil, then add the rye, ujmo and hing.
When the vagar is done (the spices have warmed and started to pop), add the tomatoes, urad, ginger-garlic, chilli powder, chillies, salt and sugar and stir to mix through.
Leave to cook on a low heat.
When cooked, add a few serving spoons of the tomato mixture to the beans and stir through, keeping the rest aside.
In another pot, add the butter and when melted add the flour.
Allow to cook slightly then add the milk.
Add salt and pepper and cook until thickened (stirring so it doesn’t go lumpy)
In a casserole, pour some of the white sauce to cover the bottom.
Arrange the roti in U shapes to fill the casserole
Spoon beans mixture into the U’s adding enough gravy to spill out
Fold the tops of each U down to make a burrito shape.
Layer tomato mixture on top of this and then add another layer white sauce.
Top with cheese ad decorate with mixed herbs and the chilli powder.
You can store this in the freezer to pull out on that rainy day when you don’t want to cook or pop it straight into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling.
Serve with a beautiful salad of your choice (I like either a fresh green salad or a tomato, feta and basil salad to go with this)


Thursday, July 21, 2011

Tasty Thursday - Easy to prepare

Yummy yummy.. its time for another Tasty Thursday. This weeks edition is focussed on low-prep, easy to prepare food that go easy on your tummy. As someone who works eight hours a day, the last thing I want to do on some days is go home and cook. This doesn't mean I don't want to EAT! and if I am eating I would generally prefer tasty food to plain old fill-your-stomach food.

Necessity often breeds invention and this has certainly been the case for me recently. Trying to get in balanced nutritious food while still keeping prep time to a minimum has become a daily battle. Being vegetarian means that I can't just pop a piece of meat/fish/chicken on the grill as a solution. So, here is another quick meal for the list. The potatoes provide the carbs, margerine and olive oil provide the fats and the cottage cheese is a protein and dairy. Serve with a green salad for the veg component and the stewed clementines as fruit. This was a hearty winters evening meal that satisfies and warms you to your bones. The warm cinnamon flavour of the dessert mellowed by the burst of fresh citrus was the perfect ending to a rough day.

Garlic Baked Potatoes
-Serves 2

4 medium thin skinned potatoes
1 bulb garlic / a scallion bulb
Olive oil
Low fat chunky cottage cheese (flavoured if desired)

Wash potatoes thoroughly
Pour approx a teaspoon of olive oil into your palm and coat each potato completely
Using a sharp knife, pierce the potatoes randomly ensuring that each side has a few cuts
Coat garlic with olive oil
Pour a little oil into a baking try for good measure
Arrange potatoes and garlic so that each potato rests near the garlic
Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 45 mins or until cooked through and skins are golden
Remove from oven, and cut open
add margerine and salt to taste (optional)
Squeeze roasted garlic onto potatoes (optional)
Top GENEROUSLY with chunky low fat cottage cheese
If you used the scallion bulb, chop finely as a topping for the cottage cheese (optional)
Enjoy

Caramel Stewed Clementines
half a cup brown sugar
1 cup water
2 seedless clementines (mandarins)
1 to 2 sticks of cassia bark (cinnamon)

place sugar in a non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of the water and cassia bark
cook on low to medium heat stirring all the while
when the sugar darkens to a rich colour, add peeled and segmented clementines
coat the clementines with the syrup as they cook
while cooking, add water a tablespoon at a time as the mixture thickens to keep it at the right consistency
gently turn the clementine segments regularly to ensure cooking on both sides but try to keep the juices from squeezing out completely
Add a little more water at the end to thin the syrup
Serve warm

The leftover syrup is a great topping for ice-cream

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tasty Thursday - Crumbed Schnitzels and Creamed Spinach and Feta Sauce

If you have been following the last few posts, you will know that I am on a very strict insulin controlling plan. Part of this plan is a diet that excludes carbs and sugars. No carbs and sugars, you say? How boring!  The food couldn't possibly be yummy without those food items. Surely not!

But it can and it is. This recipe debunks two of the greatest misconceptions of following a diet plan.
Misconception 1 - Following a diet plan makes food tasteless
Misconception 2 - Diet plans are time consuming. It is impossible to whip up a quick tasty meal that still exists within the parameters of the plan.

To the first, I challenge you to try this out and let me know just how "tasteless" it is. And to the second, well, this particular meal took me under 30 mins from deciding what to eat to sitting down and eating it. If that isn't "fast food", I don't know what is.

This recipe balances high protein soy against vitamin rich spinach to produce a healthy low fat meal. And if you want dessert, how about a scoop of Huberto's sugar free ice cream or some delicious Vegan Mousse (recipe next week)?

Crumbed Schnitzels and Creamed Spinach and Feta Sauce

2 Fry's Vegetarian Golden Crumbed Schnitzel
1 Sachet McCains Creamed Spinach and Feta
1 teaspoon crushed ginger and garlic
1 teaspoon crushed chillies
1/4 cup low fat milk
Low fat Margerine
Salt to taste

Heat a non-stick frying pan
Remove frozen Schnitzel from packaging and very lightly smear with margerine on each side
When pan is hot, place schnitzel on pan and cook on both sides
Place cooked schnitzel on plate

While schnitzel is cooking, defrost the spinach mix
Decant into saucepan with milk, ginger-garlic, chillies and salt
Allow to heat through and cook until desired consistency is reached

Ladle sauce over schnitzel and serve.


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Baby Garden Pasta

Better late than never, right? Sorry guys for missing this weeks Tasty Thursday. On Thursday we had a group therapy session at work to help us transition to the new company branding. It was about 4 hours and we discussed things that we like and dislike about the company. At times it was fairly tension filled and I was exhausted by the end of it. And on Friday there was a baby shower for one of our co-workers. This was stressful for me. Just when I think I'm making progress, I discover that I have another stumbling block.

In this case, I just couldn't go to the baby shower. The thought of seeing all those baby clothes and all the excitement and happiness made me feel extremely anxious and I ended up not going. Part of the problem was that the lady in question was due in the first week in December and that was when my second lost baby would been born. It was good that I didn't have another big emotional storm, but I was still extremely uncomfortable.

****************TMI AHEAD*******************
The good news is I think I O'd this week. And hubby and I have been trying to BD regularly (after a long dry spell). I think we might have timed it correctly, so now its a question of whether I O'd on the correct side where my tube is still intact. I don't have confirmation of O yet, I'll probably only get that by Monday, but I feel like I O'd. My temps for the last 5 days have been 36.2, 36.2, 36.2, 36.3, 36.4 .. If it continues to go up then I will know that I have O'd. And then will be time for the 2WW during which I will be anxiously biting my nails until either AF comes or I have a confirmed pregnancy. And then the real worry begins.. LOL.. who wants to be me??
*********************END OF TMI*******************

This garden pasta is quick, easy and good for stress since it has lots of wonderful green veggies. Excellent for the health conscious or TTC'ing mommies :) Credit goes to our very own T'alicious for this wonderful recipe.



Baby Garden Pasta
Baby marrow
Baby corn
Sugar Snap peas (Mange Tout)
Tri-colour pasta
1 mini can of tomato paste
1 can Italian tomatoes - (Pomo D'Oro)
garlic, chilli
salt to taste

Boil Pasta in salted water until al dente


Slice veggies diagonally (very important to the flavour) and pan fry in a little Olive oil and salt


When veggies caramelise, add about 2 tablespoons of water to the mixture to keep all that smoky sweet flavour.



Cook tomatoes with garlic, chilli and salt


Mix vegetables into pasta

Add tomato



Serve with a tablespoon of sour cream on the side.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Juice

We all the know rule about nutrition, right? To get all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals our body needs to function optimally, we should be eating about 6-9 servings of fresh fruit and vegetables. As a vegetarian, I know I get a good portion of this, but what about all the non-vegetarians out there? And besides, if we have a bit extra, its not going to hurt us, right?

But I know what you're thinking. Ugh, vegetables. How am I going to manage to eat that much fruit and vegetables? And the easy and tasty answer is "Don't eat it. Drink it!" If you prepare fresh juices and do not add any extra sugar or preservatives, it is as healthy as actually eating the fruit and vegetables.

Here are a few of my favourite juice recipes that are healthy an delicious. You never have to add any sugar since they are super sweet. Drink a cup or two of juice with your meals and you will not only eat less (it is filling!) but gain in the massive amount of nutrients. And if your body is getting more nutrients and you are eating less unhealthy food, a wonderful side effect is that you lose weight! The extra fibre will also keep your body working well and have you feeling great :)



Tropical Mix
1/4 pineapple
2 yellow apples
1 orange
1 banana
1 mango
a handful of strawberries

Zesty Carrot
4 carrots
2 green apples
1 thumb sized piece of ginger

Mixed Fruit
1/4 pineapple
2 apples
2 orange
1 guava
2 kiwi

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Honey Lemon Frosted Cupcakes


As promised, todays Tasty Thursday is about cupcakes. Specifically, ultra-soft delicious eggless cupcakes with a divine honey lemon frosting.

What I find interesting however, is that the day I decide to post a recipe about cupcakes, I come across this article in the U.K Version of The Guardian. It was published about two years ago, but I believe it is still relevent today. The title is "Do good feminists bake cupcakes?". In the article, the views of a few 20-something women who have taken to the domestic arts are juxtaposed against the views of modern day feminists. The discussion basically comes down to the following 2 arguments.

"... what makes this modern domesticity very different to the old-fashioned kind is that it is done out of choice, not out of duty or an attempt to impress men ... "

"... There are problems associated with domesticity because, in the past, there was the assumption that it was just 'what women did'..."

The core of feminism to me, is the ability to choose what is right for you and not be dependant on anyone else to make your decisions for you. I am a working woman, a wife and hopefully one day a mother. My husband is a working man, a husband and hopefully one day a father. We both share equally in the responsibilities of owning a home and living together. We are both breadwinners in our family, we share food preparation duties and we look after our doggies toegther. If feminism is about equality, then I am a feminist and so is my husband. But if I choose to bake and cook and knit (yes, I went through phase where I knitted myself some lovely scarves), and if that makes me happy, that doesnt change anything. Choosing domestic arts does not automatically make a woman not a feminist just like a man choosing woodwork and vintage cars does not make him a chauvenist.

So bake cupcakes if that takes your fancy. You dont need to be a 1950's housewife to do so :)


 Honey Lemon Frosted Cupcakes

For the cake
1 3/4 cup (200g) self raising flour
3 level tsp baking powder
3/4 cup (115g) sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil (I mixed sunflower and olive oil)
1 cup cold water
4 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (375F)
Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl


Add wet ingredients and whisk



Place paper cups into muffin tray and or individual cupcake molds



Fill mixture in cups





Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean



Wait 10 mins before removing from tins and placing on cooling wracks



(Makes 17 cupcakes)

For the Frosting
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbs honey
2 tbs lemon juice

Cream butter, honey and vanilla together
Add sugar half a cup at a time
Once all the sugar is added, continue to cream until it reached the right consistency
Add lemon juice and any colouring if you are using
Decorate cupcakes



 
(Depending on how much frosting you use, you will have plenty left over. I have frozen the leftovers for next time)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Sweetcorn Filled Gems


This weeks Tasty Thursday is a favourite in our house because of its simplicity and how easy it is to make. Its delicious, doesn't require much cooking skill and it is pretty easy on the tummy. Usually after a week of heavy, rich or spicy foods, hubby and I are looking for something that will soothe our tummies and give it a chance to settle.

Also, if we've been having those rich and spicy foods, chances are its been a hectic week where we haven't been doing the cooking ourselves and eating at home. This is a meal reserved for those times when we're too tired to cook but still want something nutricious and wholesome. And most of all quick!


Ingredients
4 Gem Squash
1 tin cream-style Sweetcorn
8 teaspoons butter (to taste and optional)
Grated Cheese
salt to taste
a sprinkle of cayenne pepper/ curry powder/ peri-peri/ paprika
a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs
----------------------
Cut the Gems in half

Place in a wide, shallow microwave dish with about half a cup of water
Microwave until seeds start to pull away from the sides and gem squash is cooked (usually about 8-10 mins)
Scoop out the seeds
(you can plant them, roast them or just throw them away)

Place a teaspoon of butter in the shells and grind over some salt
Fill the shells with sweetcorn, top with cheese and sprinkle over the paprika and herbs
Enjoy!


Friday, September 10, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Picnic Fare - Potato Salad

Continuing our series on picnic fare, todays Tasty Thursday is about that classic american dish .. Potato Salad. As lacto-vegetarians (means we have dairy but no eggs), generally store bought potato salad doesnt work for us since it contains mayo. However, we have found a pretty good substitute - Salad Cream. Here in South Africa, there is a brand called Trim which contains low oil and no eggs making it an extremely healthy choice. There is a light version as well, so if you're watching those calories, this is the way to go! This is an excellent side dish, a meal on it own or an additional relish in your burgers, hotdogs and braaied sausages.

Potato Salad
Potatoes (peeled and cubed)
Cross and Blackwell Trim Salad Cream
1/2 cup chopped herbs - Dill, Spring Onion, Chives
1/2 teaspoon curry powder 
Salt and Pepper to taste

Microwave potatoes until cooked through.
Allow to cool slightly.
While still slightly warm, pour the salad cream over (enough to cover thoroughly) and mix - doing this while the potatoes are still warm will allow you to mix the cream in easier
Add salt, pepper and curry powder and mix through
Toss in half the herbs and mix evenly
Decorate the top with remaining herbs

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Picnic Fare - Baked Bean Salad


Now that the weather is warming up, I thought it would be a good idea to do a series on quick easy picnic food for Tasty Thursdays.

What I love about picnic food, is that it is so versatile. The baked bean salad listed below can also be spread on a pizza base or even just a slice of bread topped with some cheese and oregano and baked for a quick delicious pizza. Grill some Italian or French bread rounds brushed with garlic and olive oil, top with the baked beans salad and a sprinkling of fresh herbs and you have some tasty (and classy) bruschetta to serve at brunch.  Spread a cracker with low fat cream cheese, drop of dollop of this mixture on top and you have a quick, healthy snack. Or you could serve it as an accompaniment or side dish when braaing (barbecuing). You could even use it as a type of relish inside a burger or hotdog. I could go on and on. Go crazy and let your creative juices flow to come up with other exciting ways to use this versatile salad.

Baked Bean Salad
1 tin Baked Beans in tomato sauce
1 Tomato (chopped)
1/4 - 1/2 an onion (optional)
1/2 cup chopped parsley, spring onions, coriander
1 tsp medium curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed ginger and garlic
1/2 tsp crushed green chillies (cayenne)
1 tsp dried mixed herbs

Method
Mix all ingredients into a large bowl and refrigerate until time to use.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Chocolate Orange cake



Today’s Tasty Thursday was inspired by the guys over at VegNews. It’s an awesome website if you’re cooking vegetarian. I took their recipe for Crème-filled Chocolate Orange Cupcakes and modified it to produce a Chocolate Orange cake with Orange Buttercream and poured fondant frosting. The fondant came courtesy of candy.about.com

We had a little surprise party for my Dads 60th birthday (early because their gift is a holiday in Cape Town for the week of their birthdays) and the cake was an absolute hit :)

For future reference though, I would adjust the recipe to have a little more liquid so that the cake becomes less dense. The chocolate and orange flavours complement each other quite nicely and the icing was delicious.

So without further ado ... the recipe :
Cake Ingredients
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup orange juice
½ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon orange zest

For the cake :
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
In a separate bowl, whisk together orange juice, canola oil, vanilla, and orange zest.
Mix wet and dry ingredients
Divide batter between 2 greased non-stick 20cm cake tins
Bake for approx 30-45 mins until toothpick comes out clean

For the buttercream
4 cups powdered sugar
½ cup melted butter at room temperature (i would adjust this to ¾ cup)
1 tablespoon orange zest
¼ cup orange juice

Beat powdered sugar, butter and orange zest together slowly adding in orange juice until the desired consistency is reached.

For the Fondant :
Follow the instructions here and leave to rest overnight.

Assembly :
When the cake is completely cold, smother the top of one with buttercream and place the other on top. Cover the top and sides with more buttercream.
Melt the fondant in a saucepan until it reaches pouring consistency
Pour fondant over cake ensuring that it is evenly spread on the top and slides down the sides in dribbles.
Colour leftover buttercream with food colouring and decorate.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Vegetarian Omelette (No eggs)



This has been a crazy week. Monday was a public holiday and my cousin (who is more sister than cousin) came down from Johannesburg to spend the weekend with me. I was so excited to see her again and I made another batch of strawberry jam in anticipation of making scones with with her on saturday.. It was awesome... is there anything better than fresh warm scones, homemade jam and freshly whipped cream? Initially that was going to be this weeks tasty thursday, but they got eaten so fast and we were having so much making them that I forgot to take photos.. so maybe next time :P

The next morning, Sunday morning, I was awakened early by Blaze and Shadow. They were howling outside wanting to be allowed to be together again. We had to keep them apart when we werent there to supervise because we couldn't let Shadow interfere with Blazes eye while it was healing. After sorting them out, (we needed to fix Blaze's cone, he had broken it during the night) I was unable to go back to sleep, so I started making these delicious omelettes. Since we're vegetarian, we don't eat eggs, so this recipe has been in my family for a while.


Vegetable omelette
1 cup gram flour (chickpea flour)
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup grated cheese
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbs margerine/butter
1 cup milk
approx 1 cup water
1 tsp each crushed ginger, garlic, chillies
1/2 tsp salt + pepper
dried mixed herbs
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves and stems
1/4 cup spring onion
choice of filling - chopped :(choose at least 3)
1 onion, 1 tomato, 1 green/red/yellow pepper, soya hotdogs, jelapeno peppers, whatever u feel like adding


Method :
Microwave butter and milk until melted
mix in rest of the ingredients
add in water until dough is slightly runny



Heat non-stick skillet on medium heat
Pour a ladleful of batter onto skillet




Allow to cook until top is mostly formed and underneath is cooked (it should be a golden brown or slightly darker if you prefer)


Flip omelette over to allow other side to cook and brown



Cool on wire rack before stacking




Thursday, July 29, 2010

Tasty Thursday - Strawberry Jam

Welcome to the first edition of Tasty Thursday.
Yesterday I tried for the first time to make strawberry jam. Using Jamie Oliver's recipe for inspiration (as well as various other recipes culled from the internet) and spurred on by the strawberries that have been sitting in my fridge and were now begining to get mouldy, I was excited to get this new project underway. I saved all but three strawberries from the punnet.
I didn't do everything right. And I made mistakes along the way. But it was an interesting experience and one i will definitely be repeating with different fruit. (Mmm.. next time Orange Marmalade!)
One of the mistakes I made was that I cooled the jam before placing in the jar.


And another was that I probably should have let it boil abit longer since I wasn't using pectin. It was a little more syrupy than I wanted.

But the end result was still delicious and even though it probably wont last as long, I think it will be eaten long before it has a chance to go bad. I used no extra colourants and the photos aren't photoshopped.


The end result was quite pretty in fact :) And tastes divine!



Strawberry Jam Recipe
1 cup strawberries
(ranging from slightly overripe to slightly underripe)
1 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup lemon juice

Roughly chop up strawberries to uneven sizes and shapes leaning toward larger pieces
Using a whisk mash up the strawberries so that they're kinda mushy but still have large chunks visible
Place in a heavy bottomed pot making sure to scrape in every drop of juice, and turn the on stove to medium-low heat
Measure out the one cup sugar into the pot
Using the whisk, stir the mixture
Measure out the lemon juice and use it to rinse out the bowl used for the strawberries to get all the juice
Pour this mixture into the pot and stir until all the sugar has dissolved
Turn heat on high and bring to a boil stirring occassionally to ensure the jam doesnt burn
I did this for about 10-15 minutes (Next Time I will extend this to 30-45 mins)
Remove from heat and scrape off the foam that has formed on the top
Wash a glass jam jar and sterilise with boiling water
Empty jam into the jar until there is about an inch or so of space at the top
Seal and process if keeping for storage (boil in a large pot of water).

Since I only made the one jar, I did not do this last step. I sealed it, poured some boiling water over, allowed to cool and then placed in the fridge.The little left over there was (the jar I chose was just slightly not big enough), we ate on toast this morning for breakfast :)