Unprocessed - Start of Week 3

Monday

Breakfast was oats with 'blueberry sauce' - made by blending frozen bluberries with a date and enough milk to combine. Definitely one of my favourites!

Lunch was the leftover half of my burger from last night with some home-made chips. 
I simply cut one potato (skin on) and covered with paprika and sage. Baked at 200C, spread out on a baking sheet for 40 minutes. 

For afternoon tea I had an orange and a handful of prunes and 5 brazeil nuts! Dinner was a stir fry with peanut sauce, served over brown rice.

Tonight's dessert was a total indulgence!
Microwave chocolate cake with creamed coconut milk (difference from the linked recipe is no chocolate bits in the centre and no sugar!).

How to make creamed coconut milk:


Place a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight (or longer).
When you are ready to use it, remove the top of the can and scoop out all the part that is 'set'.

Put into a bowl and add a teaspoon of vanilla and a tablespoon of sweetner of choice.
Whisk until light, fluffy and thick.

Tuesday

Breakfast was brown rice with raisins and cinnamon.

For lunch I made red lentil soup and had a bread roll with it.
In a pot combine 2 carrots, one potato, one onion & half cup red lentils. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Blend.
Delicious soup!

Dinner was another easy night. I am flat out this week organising my daughter's party that's coming up this weekend.
Gotta love an easy meal that taste good.
I chopped various veggies and sauteed with mixed beans and tomatoes. 

For dessert I had no pastry apple pie. I altered this recipe by using hazelnut in place of almond & rolled rye in place of oats, and omitting the raisins. Still delicious though! And topped with creamed coconut milk.

DID YOU KNOW?

A single serving of hazelnuts makes up nearly 20% of our recommended daily need of Vitamin E. Vitamin E doesn't occur naturally in our bodies. Vitamin E helps to fight free radicals that cause cancer.

Unprocessed Weekend #2

Saturday

Breakfast was waffles. Standard weekend breakfast for us is either pancakes or waffles.
Today's waffles were made with wholemeal flour and served with mango chunks, a sprinkling of coconut and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

For lunch I balsamic roasted an eggplant and a sweet potato.
I made them part of my bean salad, using balsamic as the dressing.

For dinner I enjoyed a quick and easy dish that I whizzed up in less than 20 mins. I got several veggies out of the fridge, chopped and sauteed and added red kidney beans and tomatoes. Add a bunch of fresh oregano and YUM!

Dessert.... of course. 2 medjool dates with cashew butter. 
One of those amazing combinations that is sooo simple but is just divinely tasty.
Bad photo :-( From my phone....

 

Sunday
Breakfast was in the car on the way to church!!! Aren't Sunday's for sleep-ins afterall?!?!? Home-made muesli it was. Got to love little containers and husband's who drive for their wife! :-)

Lunch was leftovers from last nights dinner & an orange.
I had a really busy Sunday..... selling our car, and preparing for our daughter's birthday party. I had to do our grocery shopping too that afternoon and as I was already exhausted I decided to do it before our evening meal because I knew I wouldn't feel up to it if I left it til after dinner!
It was the ~first time~ since I started my unprocessed challenge that I felt down. 
I just sooooooooo badly wanted to buy pre-made veggie burgers for dinner and be done with. Nothing bad, I didn't feel like chocolate or chips or anything majorly unhealthy like that, I just wanted convenience.
Which reminded me of the importance of staying well organised and also, of making sure there are quick & easy meals in my plan.
I did find a great little local bakery that makes bread on hand using natural ingredients! Much to my delight. So I did have a treat of 'fresh' non-grocery store bread!!!!!!
I didn't succumb to my store-bought burger desire though..... 
Instead I came home and lounged on the couch while my daughter and husband prepared lentil and mushroom burgers for me. Without breadcrumbs or sauce to hold them together, the did fall apart a little and become a bit more like sloppy joes, but they were so delicious with leaves and beetroot and a few left over balsamic roasted veggies from yesterday! :-)
 

Dessert was chocolate mousse.
Made by my ever useful mini food processor simply by combining a frozen banana, 2 dates, 2 Tablespoons cacao powder and enough milk to make it all really creamy.

Unprocessed - End of Week 2

Wednesday - 

Breakfast was soaked oats with a grated apple and raisins

 

Lunch was leftover cauliflower fried-rice with a sweet potato pattie & rockmelon

For dinner I enjoyed yet another Wednesday outing :-) ~Lucky me~
This evening I went to a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed a vegetarian bento box

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was my most enjoyable meal out in a long time! Everything was so deliciously tasty & it's nice to get a big meal.... and yet sooo affordable! Can you believe this whole platter was less than $20! :D

Thursday -

Breakfast was soaked oats with ground flax seeds, mashed pumpkin and raisins. 

I forgot to take a picture of lunch :-( I was out enjoying the beautiful sunshine with my packed salad with yet another leftover sweet potato pattie :-)


 
For dinner I sorted through out vegetable drawer in the fridge and pulled out everything that was green and threw together a simple stir-fry, served over brown rice.

Yes, I did have dessert ;-)
Will you be at all surprised if I mention it was banana soft-serve???

Sorry - awful picture.... Taken on my phone!

Friday - 

I woke up early this morning!!! I'm sure normal people do the washing or exercise when they wake up early..... but not me... I made cookies!!!!

I mashed 2 over-ripe bananas, added a cup of oats, a cup of chopped dried apple and a tablespoon of almond butter. Added enough oat bran to hold them together and baked at 180C for 17 minutes......

 

So I guess I should of really baked them for 12 instead :-/ 
Despite being ~slightly~ overcooked they were AmAzInGlY delicious :D
Very pleased with my morning creation.... and as such I spent most of the morning nibbling on quite a few of them :-/
I did have guests so I can honestly say that I didn't eat them all myself!!!!!

I did have breakfast before I had the grand test-taste tho ;-)
Breakfast was brown rice with raisins and cinnamon and an orange.
I have definitely been enjoying raisins this week! They are just so tasty and sweet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all my morning snacking I didn't really feel like lunch! Surprise, surprise....
So at about 2 o'clock I made myself a 'chocolate' green smoothie. Sooooooooooo tasty.....
 

 

For dinner I decided to make some tofu.
I sliced the tofu and fried it in a mixture of soysauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar and a touch of molasses.








I then added a tablespoon of natural peanut butter to the mixture. Using the moisture that was already there to make it 'saucy'.

It was sooooooooo delicious!
I was so pleased that something I could prepare so quickly and easily was so delicious. I will definitely make this again.


Served over mashed potato with steamed veggies.

 

WIAW - Unprocessed Tuesday Week 2

I decided to post Tuesday's meals this week for what-i-ate-wednesday! Why post Tuesday instead of Wednesday you may ask?!? Well because Wednesday's meals always seem so boring being my work day! 

Today I experimented a bit, so I thought it would be more fun to share today!
Possibly Wednesday will be full of today's leftovers anyway ;-)


Breakfast -->
Banana Oat Pancakes
Same as my blueberry-choc-oat-pancakes, just omit the blueberries and add one over-ripe mashed banana.

Lunch -->
I experimented with making my own tortillas! :-/
Let's just say... next time I'll stick to store bought ones!
It was a lot of fun but they just weren't so great to roll up into a salad wrap. 
That said, they were still very tasty.
They worked out way better as 'dipping bread' for this pumpkin cheeze-sauce than for wraps!

Dinner -->
More experimenting :-) I love having fun in the kitchen.
What is that quote Nigella Lawson says at the start of her series Kitchen - "If I'm in the kitchen, I'm happy". Well personally, I couldn't agree more.

For this evening's meal I made Cauliflower fried-rice with sweet potato and chick pea burgers.

The cauliflower fried rice but a bit of an experiment but it was soooooo amazingly tasty that I'm going to make it again and then share the recipe soon! 
I did go back for seconds ;-)

The sweet potato and chick pea burgers were really simple. Just steam a small sweet potato and then toss it in a food processor with a drained can of chickpeas, chopped spring onions and enough besan flour to hold the mixture together. Then bake for 30 mins until golden brown. ~Really tasty~

Dessert -->
As always.... banana ice-cream! This time with cherries and cocoa too :-)
mmmmmm black forest flavour soft-serve! Soooooo good!

To see some of my experimenting with the tortillas continue scrolling below!

Letting the dough sit

Rolling out the tortillas - bit sticky :-/

Much better rolling out with flour instead of paper!

Dry-fry the tortilla

Yay a puffed one!!!!!!!
Lucky number 3 ;-)

And making the sweet potato burgers....

Cauliflower Fried Rice

This dish is soooo tasty! Great as a side dish or a main.

It can be made really quickly and you can add any vegetables you like! Great way for using up leftovers.

My only piece of advice.... don't skip on the rice wine vinegar - it adds an amazing flavour!

 

You'll need:

1 head cauliflower

1 small brown onion

1 corn cob

1 small green capsicum

1 carrot 

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

2 Tablespoons Tamari (or soy sauce) 

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Chop the onion. Water saute with the garlic and ginger.

Chop the corn off the cob and add it to the pan along with the chopped green capsicum and the carrot, chopped julienne.

While the veggies are in the pan, break the cauliflower into pieces and put into a food processor and process until well broken down and resembles 'rice'.

Add the cauliflower to the frying pan and mix everything well. Continue to fry, stirring frequently until the cauliflower is lightly browned. This will take about 5-7 minutes.

Add the Tamari and rice wine vinegar and mix well.

Serve :-)

Reheats really well too, either in the microwave or in a frying pan :-)

Zucchini Pasta with Pumpkin 'Cheeze' Sauce

This meal is so simply and yet really tasty.
Other than cooking the pumpkin it can be prepared in 5 minutes!

You can serve this over regular pasta if you would rather.
But for today's recipe I served it over steamed spiralized zucchini.

 

To make the pumpkin sauce you'll need:


1/8 pumpkin, boiled and mashed to become 1 1/2 cups mashed pumpkin
3/4 cup soymilk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon cornflour
 crack of pepper (optional)






In a pot combine the soymilk, nutritional yeast and cornflour. Whisk until cornflour and nutritional yeast have dissolved. You must whisk these in while the milk is still cold otherwise they won't dissolve properly.



 



Bring to a boil & add the mashed pumpkin. Simmer for 3 minutes, whisking continuously. 
The sauce will begin to thicken, but will still be pourable.





Pour over your desired 'pasta'.
Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper.

Week 2 Unprocessed - Monday

I am finding that my meals are quite basic. Its lovely to start to feel like meals are easy and not difficult to prepare! I'm yet to tackle anything major like home-made pasta or bread! Give me time though! I'm still dealing with the back-to-school rush at the moment!!!!!!

Breakfast was oats soaked in boiling water for 5 mins, topped with strawberries and blueberries.

For lunch I had mixed green salad leaves with leftovers from last night.

Afternoon tea was a handful of cashews and 2 slices of rockmelon! I'm sure you know what that looks like! ;-)
I made a batch of home-made soymilk & used the Okara to make coconut cookies. This recipe is delicious! I love making these cookies for my daughters lunchbox treat.


Dinner was my Zucchini Pasta with Pumpkin 'Cheeze' Sauce.

For dessert I had my standard banana ice-cream..... but with a bit of a twist.
Simply blend a frozen banana with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter & enough soymilk to blend. So good!