Raw Green Smoothie Bowl

Refreshing, filling, and beautiful to prepare; once you can get over the fluorescent green!

To make this breakfast, add to a blender:

• Five chunks of frozen spinach
• Half a frozen banana (note: it helps before you freeze banana to chop them into chunks to make it easier to blend)
• Splash of almond milk
• Cinnamon

To top:

• Green-tea infused chia seeds (mix chia seeds in cold green tea and leave over night). I also added some of this to the blender.
• Frozen pomegranate
• Cinnamon

Enjoy!

Seared Steak, New Potatoes and Fresh Watercress

Very simplistic to make but delicious as a non-vegetarian dinner.

How to put together:

1. Prepare fresh watercress salad by arranging on plate and drizzling with balsamic vinegar.
2. Prepare steaks by coating in pepper and a pinch of salt.
3. Wash and boil new potatoes until cooked, should take approx 25 minutes. Once cooked, roll them in a tiny amount of butter/olive oil if desired, followed by herbs (dried rosemary or fresh parsley).
4. Right before potatoes are finished cooking, sear steaks in pan with olive oil, more pepper, and some rosemary if you desire. Sear until cooked to your taste.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Coriander, Tuna, Roast Veg and Kidney Bean Bowl

How to prepare:

1. Rinse a can of red kidney beans and place in bowl.
2. On a baking tray, line chopped courgette, red pepper and onion, and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast on 180 C for 30 mins.
3. Once vegetables are cooled, add to bowl with kidney beans.
4. Combine in bowl a can of tuna, sprigs of coriander, baby tomatoes and celery.
5. Drizzle with dijon dressing and black pepper. Add a boiled egg if desired.
6. Note: you could also add other veges like green beans, spinach, etc to bulk it out!

Turmeric & Pesto Roasted Tofu Veg Salad

A delicious vegan lunch option. What you need to do:

1. Slice firm tofu into chunks, and teaspoon delicately with a small amount of pesto. Place in baking tray.
2. In a baking tray, line what veg you fancy; for this picture I used carrots, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, sweet potato, baby carrots and courgette. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with turmeric.
3. Bake vegetables and tofu at 180 degrees C for approximately 20-25 minutes.
4. Place on a plate with more raw veg, such as spinach and baby tomatoes. Add vinegar dressing as found earlier on in my blog, here.

Note: Could also be had as a warm dinner for those summer days!

Banana Berry Smoothie

You can buy affordable frozen fruit at the supermarket which is easy to store until you need it. If you use frozen fruit over fresh, look forward to a colder, almost milkshake sort of texture!

-Frozen/Fresh blueberries

-Frozen/Fresh strawberries

-Frozen/Fresh banana

-Natural low fat yoghurt

-Almond milk

-Pinch of cinnamon

-Optional: To bulk it out, throw in a hand full of oats

Tiger Prawn and Green Papaya Salad

Salad inspired from when I was in Lombok, Indonesia. I can’t claim to have made this salad myself, however, from my understanding, this is how you do it:

1. Peel and grate 1 green papaya. This will be the base of the salad.
2. Combine herbs with the green papaya in a bowl. These herbs include fresh Asian basil and coriander. A handful of each will do.
3. Add roasted peanuts, and some finely sliced shallots and garlic. For a ‘fresh’ element, add one chopped up spring onion and some fresh chilli.
4. Make the sauce separately. In order to do this, add 1/4 cup of fish sauce, 1/4 cup of white vinegar, 2 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a saucepan. Simmer and stir on medium heat. Add finely chopped 2 cloves of garlic, chilli, and 2 tbsp of lime juice. This makes one cup of sauce. (I cannot take credit for this dipping sauce recipe, this was sourced here).
5. The salad I had was made even better by lining the bottom of the bowl with lettuce leaves (this caught a lot of the sauce). Add some chopped baby tomatoes as well.
6. On top of the leaves, add your green papaya combination. Place pre-cooked king prawns on top. Cover with a few tablespoons of dipping sauce. Delicious!

I cannot wait to try this out for myself! In the mean time, I hope you find this as inspiration for a new salad choice!

 

Roasted Vege Couscous

Fill a baking tray full of roast veges, and have enough left over to save for future meals, plus the couscous is quick and easy! Goes down well if you’re having a potluck meal at a friend’s place.

Top tip: Add sides (such as lightly grilled halloumi in this case, or green beans)

 Ingredients 

– Couscous

– Stock cube (vege but it doesn’t really matter)

– Any type of veges you want to roast! Recommended:

-Garlic

-Onion

-Courgette

-Eggplant

-Capsicum (Pepper)

-Baby Tomatoes

-Salt & Pepper

-Olive Oil

Method

1. Line a baking tray with tinfoil/baking parchment (not needed if tray is non-stick).

2. Chop up veges into chunks, put them in tray. Drizzle with olive oil and briefly mix. Cover with pinch of salt and pepper.

3. Place in the oven for about 25 minutes on 180 C. When veges look tender, remove.

4. Cover portion of couscous with boiling water, add a quarter a cube of stock, mix, and then cover with a tea towel/paper napkin for about 5 minutes.

5. When cous is done, spoon the veges on top, making sure to include some of the roasted juices in the tray. If you’re making one large portion you could combine the vegetables and the couscous in one bowel.

6. Enjoy!

 

Green Apple, Spinach & Cucumber Morning Smoothie

The perfect refreshing morning smoothie! In a blender, combine a green apple, a few slices of cucumber, and a couple of handfuls of spinach, and a small chunk of ginger. Add some water, blend and enjoy!

Comforting Shepherd’s Pie

What you need:

-Minced lamb (or beef if you prefer cottage pie)

-1 onion

-2 gloves of garlic

-Frozen peas

-Tomato puree

-1 carrot

-Dry basil

For the top:

-4 or 5 large potatoes

-2 carrots (optional)

-Salt & Pepper

Method:

1. Peel potatoes (and carrot if desired). In a pot of boiling water, boil cut up potatoes and carrots. Once soft enough, drain and mash. Add dash of milk or butter if desired. Add salt and pepper.
2. In pan, gently fry chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Then, add diced carrot and frozen peas.
3. Add lamb mince and gently cook through. Squeeze in tomato puree, dried basil, salt and pepper. Mix and simmer.
4. In a cooking dish, line the bottom with the meat mixture. Cover with mashed potato/carrot.
5. Cook in the oven for approx. 25 minutes until the top of the potato is crispy.
6. Enjoy!

 

 

Basic Lentil Curry

Not the legitimate way of making dahl, but here is an easy and quick alternative!

What you need:

• Cup of red/orange lentils
• Vegetable stock
• Water
• Onions
• Garlic
• Ginger (optional)
• Carrots (optional)
• Curry powder
• Cumin
• Chilli powder/flakes

Method:

1. In pan, lightly fry chopped up onions and garlic. Add a few shakes of cumin.
2. Add half a teaspoon of grated/chopped fresh ginger.
3. Add a cup and a half to two cups of boiling water combined with vegetable stock. More water means meal may be more soupy, less water creates more of a thick curry.
4. Add chopped carrots.
5. Add lentils.
6. Sprinkle in a teaspoon and a half of curry powder and chilli.
7. Leave to simmer and remember to stir regularly so that the lentils don’t burn!
8. Serve with brown rice/vegetables.
9. Enjoy!

Crispy Spinach ‘Chips’

Remember when kale became the new craze and kale chips were made in abundance? Well, if you want to try something different, why not make spinach chips!

Simply line a baking tray with tinfoil, scatter with baby spinach leaves, sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes on 180 degrees C. Optional: to make them tastier, drizzle very lightly with olive oil.

Enjoy!

Tuna & Onion Stuffed Bell Peppers

Use any colour bell pepper; though I find green goes better with tuna as they’re less sweet!

Ingredients:

• Enough couscous/pearl barley to fit a pepper or two

• Bell pepper (or two)- any colour

• One onion

• Garlic

• Tuna

• Vegetable stock

Method:

 1. Cook the couscous or barley through (cook in stock for however long it says on packet), using vegetable stock.

2. Cut the top off of the bell pepper and cut out the inside seeds

3. In a pan, cook onion and garlic, then add to a bowl of tuna

4. Mix in couscous/barley to tuna mixture and add ground pepper

5. Spoon the mixture into the hollowed out bell pepper

6. Drizzle a teaspoon of left over vege stock over the filling to stop it going dry, then place the top of the pepper back in position

7. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 25-30 minutes