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! 

Unprocessed Weekend #1

Weekends usually have quite random for mealtimes for us!

I am not usually motivated to make anything special. And often our meals aren't at regular times.

 

Saturday's breakfast was had at 12 noon!
It was a chocolate smoothie made with blueberries, banana, spinach, and cocoa. So tasty!












Of course that meant I wasn't particularly hungry come 'lunchtime'! ;-)

At about 3pm I made myself a mini pineapple microwave cake. 
I mixed some spelt flour with some pineapple and maple syrup. 
Put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and then covered it with pure prune spread. 


So simple and so tasty!

For dinner we enjoyed a pizza and movie night :-)
I used the polenta base I had made earlier in the week. It kept well in the freezer. 
Topping was mushrooms, onion & capsicum with my pizza cheeze sauce on top.

Sunday
Breakfast was blueberry choc-oat pancakes. They are soooo tasty. I LOVE using oatbran in pancakes - makes them so delicious. I definitely recommend trying this recipe.

We went out for the day & had lunch at a cafe.
I ordered a chick-pea salad with sourdough....
And this is what I got?!?!?!?!?

I'm not quite sure how this is a chick-pea salad with sourdough... but I didn't dare complain since it took them 45 minutes to bring this out! I couldn't bare the thought of waiting another 45 minutes for what I actually ordered. It looked quite nice but it was so dry :-( I definitely WON'T be going back to that cafe.... ~ever~. None the less, I should just be grateful I got a vegan meal :-)

 

At 6pm I realised it was that time of day when I'm supposed to be sorting out dinner! Sometimes that really just feels overwhelming doesn't it?!?!?!? Am I the only one who feels like that? lol
I felt hungry and didn't want to be tempted to grab a ~packet~ of something to nibble on so I had a banana while I decided what to make for dinner.



Come to think of it - a banana is quite a funny looking thing isn't it!!!!???

I reckon if you'd never seen one before it could provide a little bit of a chuckle!



For dinner I ended up making a 'stew' type thing?!? I don't really know what to call it.
I just water sauteed 1 onion, 1 potato with a handful of button mushrooms and lentils. Added a tablespoon of salt free tomato paste. Topped with oregano.

Results = AMAZINGLY TASTY DINNER THAT WAS HASSLE FREE! Perfect for weekends!

Blueberry Choc-Oat Pancakes

My kind of breakfast! 

You'll need:

3/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup plant milk
1/4 cup frozen blueberries

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir until well combined. 

Make pancakes :-)

Serve with fresh blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup! Adds a nice touch of sweetness to your pancakes.

 Breakfast perfection!

Makes 6 pancakes.

Chocolate Popeye Ice-cream!!!

We all know how much Popeye loved his spinach! So if he ever did eat ice-cream, I'm sure he would of had it like this!!!

Ice-cream Popeye would love!

Combine:

 --> one chopped frozen banana
 --> 1 cup of frozen spinach leaves
 --> 1 Tablespoon cacao or cocoa powder
 --> 2-4 Tablespoons plant-milk    

Blend in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Blend really well so you don't get any large pieces of spinach.

The amount of milk you need will depend on your processor. Add it Tablespoon by Tablespoon til you find the amount you need - you want enough to combine and blend the ice-cream but not too much that it becomes runny.

Click here to find out all the amazing nutrients that spinach contains.
I guess Popeye was right.... spinach really does pack a powerful punch!