Eggplant Bean Sauce on roasted potatoes

Our family LOVE having roast potatoes for dinner....
And we also love eggplant meals....
And we also love bean sauce!
So this dinner is always a winner.
It's a little bit fiddly with all the different parts but it's not difficult. And it's well worth the effort.

EGGPLANT BEAN SAUCE on ROASTED POTATOES

To serve 4:

Wrap 4 large potatoes in foil & bake in a 200C oven for one hour or until soft in the centre. While the potatoes are cooking prepare the eggplant & bean sauce.
 
Chop:
1 eggplant
1 onion

Put the eggplant and onion in a large frying pan and dry fry til the eggplant is tender.
You can add stock or water to stop the vegetables from sticking if needed.
Cook until the eggplant is soft

In a blender combine: 1 tin borlotti beans, drained
1 roasted red capsicum
1 teaspoon minced garlic
350grams passata
Blend til smooth.
 
Pour the blended bean mix over the cooked eggplant. 
Mix together and warm over medium heat until warmed through. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon Italian herbs and freshly chopped basil.

Serve over the cooked potatoes.

Want a quick alternative - make the eggplant bean sauce and serve it over brown rice or couscous.


Question of the day:
What is your favourite topping to serve over roasted potatoes?

Bubble & Squeak Patties

Bubble and Squeak...
A classic and a favourite for many!
And yet it is made in so many different ways. I have seen people make a whole fry pan and slice it up. I have seen many different vegetables added. I have seen them done with different types of potatoes and coated with different things too.
This is my version.

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK PATTIES 

You'll need:
6 medium sized potatoes (1kg)
2 cups frozen carrots, peas & corn
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2 teaspoon onion flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Fill a large pot with water and place the chopped potatoes and vegetables in. Bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are very soft.
Strain and return to the pot.
Mash, focusing on the potatoes so that the vegetables aren't too broken down.
Add the flour, onion flakes and pepper. Stir well.
With wet hands shape approx 1/2 cup mixture into patties and use your hands to round the edges.
Place on a lined baking sheet.
(If you have time to cool them first then they will hold together better - if not go ahead and bake them but they will be more crumbly.)


Bake in a preheated 200C oven for 30 minutes (gently flipping once) until golden and slightly crispy on the edges. 
If you want these more crispy you can dry fry them in a frying pan.



Makes 10 patties.

  We love taking these on a picnic! 

Question of the day:
What do you usually add to your "bubble and squeak"?

Christmas meal and using leftovers

Sorry I didn't post this sooner after Christmas. I have been enjoying spending time with my family whilst we are on a break from work and school! 

I guess I feel like this post isn't really about a traditional 'Christmas meal' as such, but more about using up leftovers - regardless of what they are left-over from! Its about finding different ways to use what you have, instead of just reheating it and eating it.... again!

And also to share a few salad recipes that I love, which are quick & easy to make when large family gatherings require a variety of dishes! 

Let me start by sharing a picture of our Christmas dinner table:

As I saw it all sitting there it truly felt wonderful! Such healthy food! I love being able to host eating occasions and Christmas is no exception to the rule!

A huge range of salads always makes me smile!

I have mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of this couscous salad from PCRM.
It's really delicious and seems to be like equally by omni's and herbies.
 
 





 


A garden salad never goes astray! I love to add fresh basil leaves from our garden and I love the added colour that a red onion gives. 

I really enjoy making a rice salad too. 
I'm a big brown rice fan so I enjoy turning it into a sweet salad.

Here's how:
Simply combine
2 packets microwave brown rice
2 chopped spring onions
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup seed mix (pumpkin & sunflowers seeds and pine nuts) 
2 teaspoons dried cumin
1 teaspoon  dried coriander
juice of one orange

Serve with the zest from the orange.
 

We made veggie kebabs for the BBQ which worked out way better than I was expecting! I enjoyed them even with the tomato!!! The veggies cooked really well and they were very tasty, even without oil or any dressing/marinade.
Corn pieces on the BBQ always work out exceptionally well too.





















There were quite a few kebab sticks leftover.
So I just used a fork to remove the vegetable pieces and warmed them in the microwave. Added them to leftover garden salad along with some dressing I had made to be a 'leftovers lunch'.

 Another PCRM recipe that I regularly make is this three bean salad (I just use whatever canned beans I have on hand, picture shows butter beans and a four bean mix).

The leftovers from the bean salad turned into a pasta meal for our family.

I just boiled some pasta and added the salad along with 1/2 cup tomato paste.

Super simple meal but totally delicious!

I also made my carrot salad recipe, just with the added addition of a grated apple too. This salad is quite sweet which makes it great for getting children used to enjoying some salads.

Leftovers also make wonderful carrot cake simply by combining wholemeal self-raising flour, a flax egg and some soymilk to the salad!!! ;-)

I made 3 kilograms of spiced wedges!
Clearly I over-catered when it provided our family with a whole other meal. Though, I'm grateful for that really! We LOVE potato nachos!
Our toppings were the leftover carrot, peas and corn mix with refried beans and salsa!

Super easy and tasty meal :-)

This brings me to the last salad I'm sharing today.
Mexican salad. One of my favourites lately. 
Lettuce, red kidney beans, tomatoes, capsicum, corn, spring onion and avocado. Topped off with home-made tofu sour cream.

It makes a great fresh burrito filling!

Particularly nice on warm days when a heated filling isn't necessary.

I can't finish this post without mentioning dessert of course!
Chocolate coconut whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings.
Everyone loves this and its so super quick & easy to make.
A few cans of coconut cream left in the fridge overnight. Scoop out the top thickened layer being careful not to add the water below. Whip the cream using beaters. I add Your Inspiration at Home chocolate powder but cocoa powder works too.

I was so very very pleased with how well my trifle worked out.
I made a basic vanilla cake (like this cake minus the cocoa), whole and blended raspberries, made soymilk custard and assembled them in layers. Topped with fresh berries to make a delicious vegan trifle :-)
Everyone agreed it was super yummy!
 
And I don't think you need to know how to use up leftover dessert! You just EAT IT! ;-)

Question of the day:
Do you enjoy eating leftovers? Do you re-purpose them or just reheat and serve how it originally was? 

Potato Chop and Bake

I love a meal that is easy to prepare. 

This requires a bit of chopping but no 'cooking' other than putting it in the oven.

This can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge til its time to bake.

So tasty for something so easy :-)

 

POTATO CHOP AND BAKE

Serves 4

5 medium potatoes

1 can chickpeas

1 leek

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup mushrooms

1/3 cup nutritional yeast 

2 garlic cloves

2 cups plant milk

pepper

Chop the potatoes into 2cm cubes. Spread over the base of a large baking dish.

Drain the chickpeas and pour them over the potato cubes, followed by the chopped leek, chopped mushrooms and frozen peas.

 

Sprinkle the nutritional yeast evenly over the vegetables.

Combine the cloves (crushed) in a jar with the milk and pepper (as much as desired). Mix together.

Pour the milk mixture over the vegetables and nutritional yeast.

Cover with foil and place in a preheated 200C oven and bake for 50-60 minutes until potatoes are soft and milk is absorbed.

Serve

Question of the day:
Do you prefer meals that require lots of chopping, or lots of hands-on type cooking?

WIAW - Trade

I'm sure by now you know that on Wednesdays I have oats for breakfast, salad for lunch and soup for dinner! Today I also enjoyed snacking on these delicious pumpkin cookies from Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts:

Try them - you won't be disappointed!

So this week instead of showing you yet another What-I-Ate-Wednesday, I decided I would trade Wednesday for the weekend (same letter after all so I can still call it WIAW)!
That's because we went camping last weekend!
How is it that something so simple can be so fun & relaxing....???

I love going away camping (when its not too long).

I thought I'd share with you our camping stew.

This is such a great meal to prepare when you don't have your full kitchen available & especially in cooler months. 
Its very easy to transport the food needed for this stew too.
I pre-chopped all our vegetables at home before we left just to make it easier.

Camping Stew
 
3 medium potatoes
1 zucchini
1 carrot
1 onion
1/2 chili
1 tin butter beans
1 large tin diced tomatoes
Sprinkling of italian herbs

Chop all vegetables.
Put all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to the boil. Simmer for 40 mins. 

Serve with fresh crusty bread.

 Sit in front of the fire and enjoy your steamy stew!

Now for camping breakfast:

Soaked oats! This was too easy.

We boiled water in our billy. Poured it over the oats and left their lids on for 5ish minutes. Then added apple sauce, raisins and cinnamon.

Delicious warm camping breakfast!

Is it just me or do the oats on the left remind you of the 3 bears??? ;-)

Question of the day:

Do you have certain meals that you always eat when you go camping?

Best Ever Shepherd's Pie

I love making a shepherds pie using lentils.
This has got to be the most tasty version that I've ever made yet!


Peel 3 large potatoes and place in a pot with water. Bring to the boil & simmer til very tender. Mash with plant milk of choice.

To prepare the lentil base-
Combine in a frying pan:
1 drained tin lentils
1/2 chopped red capsicum
1 small brown onion
4 cubes frozen spinach
6 chopped button mushrooms

Saute until the spinach has completely defrosted & the other vegetables are warmed through.

In a small measuring jug combine 1 Tablespoon cornflour with a quarter cup of cold water. Stir until cornflour is dissolved. 
Pour over the lentil mixture and stir well. Stir in 2 Tablespoons BBQ sauce. Add 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 1 teaspoon sage.
Mix in well amongst the vegetables. The mixture will thicken as it warms.

Place the lentil mixture down the bottom of a baking tray and press in gently.
Top with the potatoes and bake at 200C for 30 minutes until lightly golden brown on top.

 Serve and enjoy!

WIAW - Week 7 Unprocessed

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen last night preparing my meals for today.
I put them all in the fridge overnight to make my traveling day so much easier! 

Breakfast, lunch & dinner - all set!

Breakfast - mango soaked oats

Lunch - Salad with leftover chickpea and veg medley (recipe will be posted by the end of the week!)

And a treat at work that I like to call "spinach thing". I buy this from a pizza shop but its not really a pizza - just pizza dough wrapped around cooked spinach & onion & pepper. Soooooooooo tasty! 

Dinner - Slow cooker potato pizzas (recipe from John McDougall's lastest book - The-Starch-Solution).

What did you eat this Wednesday?
Join in the WIAW fun at the peas and crayons blog.

Week 6 Unprocessed

A collection of my meals & kitchen experiments from week 6 unprocessed..... well, mostly unprocessed to be totally honest! Did you read my confession??
 
Just over halfway through now and just 4 weeks til I end this challenge. So I'm going to aim for a completely unprocessed week again coming up!

Soaked oats with strawberries and my nut-seed milo

Bulgar pilaf - recipe from the FOK cookbook.

Berry green smoothie

 Banana cake made from recipe in FOK cookbook

Sometimes we just need a big full plate to fill us up! This is water fried potato slices, with okara burgers (I added tofu too), polenta Crumbed Mushrooms and steamed veggies.

 Peanutty Noodles

Oats with blueberry 'yogurt'.

Steamed zucchini with home-made tomato sauce, herbs and nutritional yeast.

Mashed potato with adzuki beans & mushroom gravy.

Oats with banana and 'cherry and cocoa yogurt'. Hmmmmm, not as nice as I thought, will stick to my blueberry yogurt I think!

Pineapple-prune cake

Spelt spaghetti, mushrooms, capsicum & onion with home-made tomato sauce.

On the weekend I attempted home-made bread for the first time! Currant and cinnamon loaf. Was soooooooo delicious! I love the smell of fresh bread filling the home as it bakes!

Please ignor my awkward kneading face :-S

Leaving the dough to rise.

Seriously - is there anything as good as fresh crusty bread?!?

Fudgey Slice

To advent or not to advent is the question??

You see, technically my unprocessed challenge doesn't end til 16th December.....

What would you do?