Eats Of The Week #3

I should probably mention I have uploaded so many posts today because I am moving a lot of it over to this new blog and re-writing some of it. Luckily, I didn't have too many to do.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled out 2 weeks ago and I was eating a lot of scrambled eggs, lots of avocado with very soft veggies, mashed banana, oatmeal and soups that week. I've got 2 more teeth to go, the actual process didn't hurt but I would take painkillers before the anaesthetic wears off. Here's a look into some of the things I made.

I made this incredible soup. I roasted 1kg of normal tomatoes, 1 onion and 2 bulbs of garlic (had tomato and garlic left over). I then added this, 3 cups of Massel vegetable stock, 2tsp garam masala, 2tbsp tomato paste and then added light coconut milk at the end (TLC brand, which is quite good!). Then blended it

I didn't have tin toil for the roasted garlic so I put the bulbs in muffin tins and drizzled some oil on the top.

I was really inspired to make more vegan meals and desserts after visiting Sadhana Kitchen in Enmore a few weeks ago and being blown away by the raw, vegan lasagne and hazlenut cheezecake. Both tasted better than regular lasagne and cheesecake and I already have a list of similar places I want to try.

I made some zucchini pasta with a creamy avocado sauce which was essentially 1/2 a mashed avocado, lemon juice and S&P with a side of pumpkin fries. I used 2 small zucchini and a grater. This was surprisingly filling and satisfying. I do love me some avocado though, especially as a butter substitute.

I also made possibly my favourite soup, ever. It's a simple, no frills, hearty chicken & vegetable soup, which I adapted using this recipe. 

I heated 1 tablespoon of oil and added 1 sliced leek and 2 cloves of smashed garlic and stirred it for a few minutes. Then added  2 small zucchini, 1 carrot, 2 sticks of celery and let stirred it. 

Then I added 1 1/4 cups soup mix, 2 chopped chicken breasts (around 600g), 5 cups salt reduced chicken stock (woolworths select brand), 2 cups massel vegetable stock and 1 cup water. Turned the heat to high and let that boil. 

After, I reduced the heat to low and let it simmer uncovered for 1hr. At the end of that hour, I added in another cup of water as the stock had reduced a little. Seasoned with S&P.

The chicken was incredibly tender and all the flavours worked so well together. It was exactly what I needed when I was sick. It's incredibly healthy, filling, tasty, versatile and makes around 6 serves so it's quite cheap as well. I would highly recommend trying it. 

Pumpkin Soup and Macaroon Balls

Had a bit of a cooking day today:

Easy Pumpkin Soup: 

1. Cut up a 1/4 Jap Pumpkin into small cubes, toss with 1tsp olive oil, salt, pepper and some curry powder and lay it flat and put it in the oven on 200 degrees celcius for 45 minutes

2. Sautee a small onion with 1tsp curry powder (or more), 1/4 tsp chili powder and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3. When pumpkin is done, put it with the onion and add 1 cup chicken stock and 1 cup veggie stock or 2 cups chicken/veggie stock. Then put enough hot water to cover the vegetables if needed.

4. Simmer for 10 minutes and then blend for a few minutes leaving some pumpkin so it's more chunky. Season with salt and pepper

This was really nice and quite filling

This is the pumpkin (roasted) and the onion and spices are down the bottom.

Finished:

Chocolate Chip Macaroon Balls

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius

2. Mix vanilla extract with 1 egg white until combined but dont overwisk.

3. Combine 1 cup dessicated coconut (I used shredded), 1/8 cup caster sugar, 1/2tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 cup chocolate chips. If you don't have chocolate chips, it would still work.

4. Scoop into 1 tablespoon balls (makes about 8 large ones) and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. Done

It is seriously delicious even if the mixture seems a little dodgy the egg really binds it well

Mixed the egg white with the coconut mixture

Form into balls:

Sorry I didn't get a good picture of the finished product but trust me they are really good! and they only took 15 minutes in total.

Also, I made these banana, strawberry oatmeal squares and added some blueberries. I wouldn't recommend them because they tasted quite dry and although the outside was hard (tasted more stale than crispy the inside was soft) and leaving it longer in the oven didn't help either.

Carrot, Apple & Ginger Soup

I'm making this right now and I know it'll be fantastic and I know I said I liked soups with texture but I love the sound of this. This reminds me of something I read once, what's longer a microwave minute or a treadmill minute haha how about waiting for a delicious soup bubbling away.

Cut up 5 cups of carrots, 1 big apple, grate 2tbsp of ginger, mince 2 cloves of garlic. Cut up 1 onion and add to pot with 1 tbsp olive oil for 5 minutes. Then add ginger and garlic and let it cook for a few minutes then add the carrots and apple.

We freeze our ginger and it's fine and easier to grate.

Add 4 cups of vegetable stock (mine wasn't salt reduced) and let it cook for 20 minutes

Blend with an immersion blender, I didn't have nutmeg so I added a pinch of cinnamon.

4. Done

Found this to be delicious and warming from the ginger (good if you have a cold). It also makes a lot of servings and is quite cheap. This soup would be perfect on a chilly winter day or if you were sick.

Moroccan Sweet Potato, Carrot & Chickpea Soup

This Moroccan Sweet Potato, Carrot and Chickpea soup is crazy good. With 187 glowing reviews to boot.

Cut up 1 brown onion, 500g of carrots (I used 6 small/medium sized ones), 600g of sweet potato (2 medium sized ones).

Put in 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large saucepan on medium/ high heat. Keep stirring and after 3 minutes or so add in 2 teaspoons of cumin and 1/4tsp of chilli powder. Then stir for another minute. Then add the carrots/sweet potato and stir often for another 5 minutes.

Add 6 cups of salt reduced chicken stock. Let it simmer for 20 minutes (turn down to low/medium flame)

Add 300g of chickpeas (drained and rinsed) and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or until chickpeas are soft. 

Once it's cooled a bit, blend with a stick blender until smooth (it's probably best to blend it in batches as recommended)

Put the saucepan back on the stove to heat it up. Add salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. 

7. Done! 

To store: It should be fine in the fridge for 2 days and in the freezer for anything longer (it shouldn't affect the taste, I think all non dairy soups freeze well). Put into individual containers or into zip lock bags and when you want it, just defrost it and put it in the microwave.

I thought it was the perfect combination of sweet/salty/spicy and found it very filling. I also liked that it's full of vegetables, makes quite a lot (around 5 serves) and quite cheap. It should be fine with vegetable stock as well. 

La Zuppa & Quorn

Here are two reviews for products I've tried recently:

I've tried heaps of the La Zuppa soups in the cups (my favourite being the Moroccan Pumpkin one but the chicken and wild rice one is nice too) but they've got these new pouch ones now that serve 2. I tried the Tuscan Chicken and Vegetables one. 

Heat each bowl for 2 minutes. 

I like that they use real ingredients you can see and the ingredients are quite substantial (decent sized vegetables and chicken). No artificial colours/flavours/preservatives and incredibly healthy (all natural ingredients and most soups are under 200 calories/serve). It's probably the best 'homemade' style soup in the soup aisle of the supermarket although pitango is supposed to be quite good as well.

I did find it a little salty though and it is incredibly expensive (individual cups around $4 each). 

I would buy it again if it was on special and I really wanted soup but didn't want to make my own.

Quorn: Pepper and Herb sausages:

I didn't take a picture because all I did was cut it up into smaller pieces and put them in a pan with a bit of oil till they were brown. I think it would be nice as a vegetarian alternative at a sauce sizzle around bread with sauce. It would also taste delicious chopped up in fried rice. 

I wouldn't recommend microwaving them as they go quite hard and you dont get the crunch from the pan. Although the company website says not to freeze them as it might affect the taste, I put some in the freezer, defrosted them and it didn't affect the taste.

I found them really tasty with a consistency/texture and taste similar to a sausage. I thought it was better than most faux meat product as it had a lot of flavour, high protein and low calorie. I did find it was a little dry and needed a lot of tomato sauce.