Wow, what a disaster I had in the kitchen last night! It was just ‘one of those days’, where things didn’t come together too easily. I took ages to actually prepare any food, burnt myself a few times, broke my most valuable/expensive piece of cookware, then forgot to put the blender on while puréeing the soup and made a mess. I finally sat down to dinner at 11 and although the soup was lovely, I was glad the whole cooking ordeal was over! Does anyone ever have days like that in the kitchen? I tend to every now and then and it feels like such a relief to get it over and done with! Either way, this gorgeous soup was worth the fuss and mess and the toasted pumpkin cumin seeds were a good treat. I also loved the colour of it.

Today was a good day. I worked at the farmer’s markets selling organic produce (dips and muesli) and then spent my sunny afternoon studying with friends. I got a lot of reading done, although I worry about my ability to absorb information sometimes. I can spend 20 minutes or more reading one page over and over, simply because it’s not processing. I seem to eventually get it, though I wonder how much I’ve actually learned because sometimes when I reread things, I can’t remember the words! Right now, the thought of taking on 4 subjects for my first experience of university gives me butterflies. I really hope I can pull it off! 2 weeks until I find out, I guess.

One batch of this soup will feed 6 people.

INGREDIENTS

1.5kg of pumpkin, diced into 1cm cubes

2 large parsnips, diced

1 cup french green lentils

saffron strands (optional)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 litre salt-reduced chicken stock

1 cup boiling water

1 litre water (to add later)

pepper

pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin

1 tbs cumin

olive oil

METHOD

Pumpkin Seeds

Place seeds under the grill. Coat with cumin. Grill for a couple of minutes or until you hear a bit of pre popping noises.

Soup

Preheat oven to 180.

Put the pumpkin, parsnip, garlic, saffron, stock and water into a heavy baking dish.

Cook in the oven for 40 minutes, ensuring the stock doesn’t get all soaked up and dry.

Remove and put in a stockpot with the extra litre of water and lentils. Reboil.

Cook on a simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Season well.

Place in a blender for a short while to get a soup that is a nice mushy texture.

Serve and garnish with roast cumin pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of olive oil.

(Adapted from Low GI Cooking)

I had some mushrooms handy and wanted a flavoursome pasta sauce. I skipped the creamy sauce recipes I found; this recipe looked so simple and it was. A perfect combo of flavours too. I served it on spelt pasta and garnished it with some delicious parmesan. I have been craving cheese so much lately! I had toasted cheese on spelt bread for breakfast and this for dinner. I’ve also been gawking at the Camembert cheese in the fridge for 5 minutes at a time each time I open the fridge. This is a good recipe if you couldn’t be bothered with effort.

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

2 tbs olive oil

1 red onion, halved, thinly sliced

30g drained capers

200g cup mushrooms, thinly sliced

3/4 cup roughly chopped fresh continental parsley leaves

finely grated parmesan, to serve

pepper

wholemeal spelt pasta, cooked to packet directions and set aside

METHOD

Melt oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and capers, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the parsley, pepper and remove from heat.

Heat through pasta with hot water, drain and place in bowls.

Top with sauce.

Sprinkle with parmesan and serve.

(Adapted from Taste)

Today has slipped by quickly and I haven’t done as much reading or cleaning as I like but I plan to catch up on my book tonight over a cup of tea. I just got back from a weekend of camping. I am feeling really happy to have gotten away. I loved having dirty feet and it was great spending the weekend swimming, jumping off rocks and hanging by a fire, chatting and laughing. As was listening to the rain patter down on the tent as I fell asleep in my sleeping bag. On the way back, we stopped at a great pub in Lithgow for a chicken schnitzel and then before I knew it, I was home on the couch, listening to the storm and watching a movie. A perfect weekend.

Lately I’ve been keeping a daily gratitude journal. It’s been interesting, given that I have a tendency to focus on the negative aspects of things, rather than positive. Setting 5 minutes aside to focus on one particular thing and all of the wonderful things about it has been great, so far. It really perks up my mood and helps me to appreciate my day that little bit more. I plan to do it each day for a month at this point but I don’t want to forget to take time to be thankful each day because it feels important to me at this point in my life. So much to be grateful for.

Today I felt like baking, so I threw this together with whatever was on hand in the kitchen. It is a super moist cake, that is PERFECT warmed up – would be great served with ice cream or custard.

Serves 10

INGREDIENTS

150g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten

2 ripe bananas, peeled, mashed

2 cups almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup water (or milk, if you prefer)

1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup blueberries (or berries of your choice)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease base and sides of a loaf pan and line with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until pale. Add egg in 2 batches, beating well after each addition.

Stir in banana. Sift almond and baking powder and spices over banana mixture. Add water. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

Fold in blueberries and coconut. Spoon into the pan and smooth out the top.

Bake for around an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.

Cool in the pan for a bit before tranferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut and serve!

It’s been a few days between posts… Tonight I had this grand idea in my head of having this big elaborate lasagna roll meal. When I boiled the pasta (with intent to lay it down, layer filling then roll it up), it didn’t quite turn out how I wanted. I just couldn’t get it to not stick together and the pasta got all torn up. So, instead, here is my first attempt at my own lasagna recipe. It turned out well – don’t let the photo turn you off the meal itself. It was pretty tasty and because I boiled the lasagna sheets, it only needed around 25 minutes in the oven.

Serves 4.

INGREDIENTS

200g gluten free lasagna pasta sheets, boiled until al dente

2 small red capsicums, cut into large pieces and roasted at 200 degrees for 20 minutes

125g english spinach

8 medium sized mushrooms

250g low fat ricotta cheese

125g low fat mozzarella cheese

1 can chopped tomatoes

large handful pitted kalamata olives

15g basil, chopped

1/2 tsp crushed chilli

2 tbs capers

METHOD

In a large saucepan, add the tomatoes, capers, olives, half the basil and chilli. Cook on medium heat for around 10 minutes. Set aside.

In a separate saucepan, cook mushrooms and spinach together for around 5 minutes. Set aside.

Layer your lasagne. My layers were as follows:

Pasta sheets, sauce, ricotta, capsicum, remaining basil, spinach & mushroom mix – repeat until ingredients have run out and place mozzarella all over the top!

Pop into the oven for 25 minutes on 180. Serve!

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

olive oil

2 small stalks celery, chopped

2 small carrots, diced

6 cups of chicken stock

300g noodles of your choice, cooked and drained

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

two large handfuls of parsley

1 tsp crushed chilli (optional)

METHOD

Heat  oil over medium heat, adding the celery and carrot. Season well and cook,  stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to get soft.

Pop in your stock and bring to a boil. Throw in the noodles, chicken and parsley and once heated through, serve!

Today was cruisy. I signed up to trial a gym out, so I spent an hour exercising and I’m pretty sore at the moment! It felt great and this afternoon, I managed to feel alert enough to read for a few hours without too much trouble concentrating. I watched some basketball tonight and because I’m working at 7am tomorrow and came home late, decided to cook something easy and low maintenance. I’ve been wanting a curry for a while  and I had some leftover chicken, so it seemed like a good opportunity to throw something quick together – no curry paste, long wait or effort required. While it’s not a very rich/thick sauce and requires pretty much no simmering time, it tastes great and isn’t too heavy on the belly. I intentionally left out onions and garlic, for those people out there with allergies, and the flavour was not compromised. Leave out the mushrooms if you’re on a low fodmap diet.

This serves 2.

INGREDIENTS

2 tbs olive oil

1/2 cup water

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp tumeric

1 tsp freshly grated ginger

1/2 tsp crushed chilli

250g chicken, cut into 3cm pieces

100g silverbeet (chard), chopped rougly

4 mushrooms, quartered

cooked brown basmati rice, to serve

METHOD

Heat olive in a non stick frying pan.

Add the spices, chilli and ginger, along with 1/2 cup water.

Cook until aromatic, then add the chicken and mushrooms.

Cook for 5-6 minutes, adding water if necessary.

Add chopped spinach, then cook for another 4 minutes.

Serve atop brown rice, garnished with coriander.

I can’t get enough of seafood. I don’t have anything fancy up my sleeve but this really is a perfect  no fuss midweek meal – easy to whip up, healthy, light and fresh. Perfect for Summer and I’m a sucker for anything that tastes like lime. The carrot salad is delicious and could be used with a number of dishes, or as a sandwich filling. I served the salad and fish up with steamed bokchoy, brown rice and squash – you can do whatever you wish, I just thought of this as an idea, rather than a firm recipe.

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

2 x barramundi fillets (or fish of your choice)

1 cup cooked brown rice, to serve

vegetables of your choice, to serve

2/4 lime, to serve

Carrot & Parsley Salad

2 small carrots, grated

juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 bunch parsley, roughly chopped

4 tbs garlic infused olive oil

1 tsp cracked pepper

large pinch of cumin

METHOD

Place your fish under the grill, after slightly brushing it with olive oil. It should take around ten minutes to cook.

Meanwhile, mix the carrots and parsley. In another bowl, mix the remaining ingredients for the carrot salad and then stir through.

Throw your vegetables in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Drain.

When fish is cooked, serve up with carrot salad, vegetables and brown rice.

Enjoy!

I know this goes against the majority of people who suffer from the Monday Blues but I really love Mondays! A fresh week to play with and lots to look forward to. I guess every day can be looked at like that though…

These delicious cookies can be adjusted to suit a gluten free diet by using gluten free oats and if you don’t have raisins on hand, I would imagine they would work perfectly with other dried fruits, nuts and seeds. The original recipe that I used was for a chewy cookie but I left mine in a little longer because I like them crunchy! Take them out earlier if you don’t want crunch!

Makes about 20 cookies.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 free-range egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon gluten free baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (use gf oats if you’re on a GF diet)
3/4 cup raisins

 
METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C.

In a large bowl, beat together the, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir this into the wet ingredients. Mix in the oats and raisins.

Chill batter in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Line two trays with baking paper. Take 1 tbs of the batter in your hand, roll it up and place on sheet. Continue step until the rest of the batter is gone, making sure the cookies are 2 inches apart from each other.

Bake for roughly 12 minutes, or until golden at the edges but somewhat soft on the top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

(Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen)

I’ll be bringing some of these brownies with me. I made them last night and they are perfect! Moist, with somewhat of a crunchy top and rich in flavour.

This recipe gets you a big square, which I cut into about 12 or so pieces.

INGREDIENTS

200g unsalted butter, chopped

200g good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 free-range eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup gluten-free plain all-purpose flour

2 tbs cocoa powder

METHOD

Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a cake pan with non-stick baking paper.

Heat butter, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Set aside to cool slightly

Add eggs and vanilla to chocolate mixture. Mix well. Sift flour and cocoa over chocolate mixture. Stir to combine.

Pour brownie mixture into pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set. Ensure it is not burning around the edges. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.

Slice and serve!

I was in the mood to experiment recently and I was craving carrot cake. I looked at a range of  recipes for inspiration and then got going on my own. I felt really proud of this one and can’t wait to give it a go again. It’s my idea of what a carrot cake should be like. If you want to jazz it up a bit, feel free to throw some walnuts in and make some icing. I personally thought it was perfectly fine by itself!

Serves 10.

INGREDIENTS

olive oil, to grease

3 small carrots, grated

1 cup wholemeal spelt flour

2 tsp gluten free baking powder

1/2 cup plain all-purpose gluten free flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup honey

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD

Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease a 20cm round cake pan lightly with oil, and line with non-stick baking paper.

Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon into a large bowl.

Put the brown sugar, oil, honey, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Mix until combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to stir gently until just combined. Stir in the grated carrot.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Set aside for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool.