Junk

Lately I have been eating more junk. Veggie friendly junk, but junk nonetheless.

I think this is a trap that most, if not all, new veggies fall into. Its so much easier to grab some chips or dried fruit or lollies than have to mess things up in the kitchen if you're short of time. The other day we had a bake sale so I cooked scones, pasties and cookies for 5 hours straight. It was good because I got into the routine of preparing, baking and washing up (normally when I cook, I prepare, bake, then eat and do the washing up later... like, a day or two later!).

I made vegetarian pasties and they're delicious! So much that not all of them made it to the bake sale, some were sold even before I got to the bake sale (bless my mother in law), and then I ended up buying some at the bake sale! I've restocked my ingredients and am set to make more of these fabulous delights. Note: they're not vegan. Just vegetarian.

From taste.com.au:

Makes 12

Ingredients
1 small (about 150g) orange sweet potato (kumara), peeled, coarsely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled, finely chopped
1 desiree potato, peeled, finely chopped
1/2 cup (80g) frozen peas
125g can corn, rinsed, drained
1/2 cup (40g) coarsely grated cheddar
2 eggs, lightly whisked
3 sheets (25cm) ready-rolled frozen shortcrust pastry, just thawed
2 tsp sesame seeds

Method

Preheat oven to 240°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Cook sweet potato in a medium saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Use a fork to mash until smooth. Set aside to cool in bowl.

Cook carrot and potato in a medium saucepan of boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Add carrot mixture, peas, corn, cheese and 1 egg to sweet potato and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Use a 12cm-diameter pastry cutter to cut 12 discs from pastry sheets. Spoon vegetable mixture evenly among pastry discs. Brush edges of pastry lightly with remaining egg.

Fold pastries in half to enclose filling. Use fingertips to gently press together to seal. Place on the lined tray and lightly brush with remaining egg. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Once completely cooled, wrap in foil and place in lunch box.

Notes & tips

You can freeze these pasties at the end of step 5. Place in an airtight container in the freezer. To defrost, place individual pasties in the fridge for 4 hours. Continue from step 6 to serve.

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I kinda cheated a bit. Firstly, I only used one egg - the second egg for sticking the pastry together isn't needed - pastry sticks together fine if you squeeze it with your fingertips (or if you're having trouble, use a little water). Secondly, I don't own a pastry cutter - if you have a sheet of shortcrust pastry, just cut it into quarters. You'll end up with a blob of pastry on top, but if you curl it over, they look like cornish pasties - yum!

Happiness is Fresh Food

I made the most delicious burger for tonight's dinner. My husband (aka the world's biggest carnivore) bought schnitzel, so I cooked that up and made it into a burger for him. For me, I had something even better!

We had beautiful fresh hamburger rolls from the local bakery - you can't beat fresh baked bread. In my burger was cheese, cucumber, roma tomato, wholegrain mustard, pineapple rings, and sundried tomatoes. It was filling and my body just sang as I devoured the freshness. Pure heaven.

I've Cracked

My glorious string of meat free and caffeine free days has come to an end, but also begins again today. On Friday after having drinks at the golf club, we were invited to our friend's place for tea. We stopped by the local chinese shop on the way and got some spring rolls and fried rice (I was sneaky enough to order ahead and ask for vegetarian spring rolls, and meat free fried rice). But dinner was lasagna - it didn't have too much meat it in actually, but it was definitely there. By the time we sat down for tea, we were all hungry enough to just wolf it down so I didn't think about it too much.

And a few days with lots to do have resulted in me consuming caffeine in the form of iced coffee - because its milk, its filling and therefore an easy (but not healthy) breakfast on the run. We had to go to Adelaide for my husband to attend a training course for work, and then yesterday we spent the whole day at our new house moving rocks and building a garden bed - we worked non stop for the whole day (from about 9am to 5pm) so that meant no lunch, but one hell of a tea. Since we were both so tired, our chefs for the night were the cooks at the local take away. I had a cup of chips with gravy, and some wedges with sweet chilli sauce. Oh, and also, we had dinner at the pub with some friends and I've found the only veg option is usually one of the special (or just stuff from the salad bar) - I had some penne pasta with a beautiful roasted capsicum sauce. Delicious!

This whole vegetarian thing is kind of secret from everyone in the way that I don't mention it because I don't want to make a big deal about it or make people feel like I need special treatment.

But on the way to Adelaide we drove past a chicken place (lots of big sheds with way too many chickens inside), and a livestock exchange (take your pigs, sheep and cattle to be sold) and then once we got to Adelaide, we drove past an Ingham Chicken factory - just made me feel sick.

Soy Milk is Out

Another thing I bought yesterday was chocolate soy milk (I only drink flavoured milk, so I didn't think I'd like plain soy milk). But I don't like that either. It tastes alright at first, but then has a terrible aftertaste. So, that's soy milk out for me as well. I'll never be vegan!! Now, where's my cup of organic green tea...

Shopping Time

Today my mother in law and I drove 100km to get to our nearest major supermarket (we have a small one in our home town, but it just doesn't have much variety). Considering the size of the bigger one, I figured it would have a great range of veggie friendly foods and perhaps even some tofu, seitan or tempeh which I've never had but want to try.

I was very surprised to find they didn't have any! But, I was able to stock up on some bits and pieces that my little supermarket doesn't have - organic chickpeas, lentils, beans, pasta, cheaper nuts and dried fruit, flaxseed oil, and organic green tea.

I haven't had meat since... well, I'm not sure but it was sometime in the last fortnight! Now I'm trying to kick caffeine. I haven't had diet coke in about a week, but I had an iced coffee the other day. Next will be sugar - that will be a harder one to kick and I won't ever kick it completely, but I will cut down a lot.

On tonight's menu is cheese & tomato pizza - small pita bread with tomato paste spread on top, and grated cheese, cooked for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted. Yum!

The Nacho Burger

Yesterday I had a long and brain-frying day at work so by the time I got home, I wanted something easy and a bit of comfort food.

Enter: The Nacho Burger

I'd bought some fresh bread rolls the day before, and wanted to start using those before they lose their mouth watering freshness. I have been a nacho fan ever since I discovered the cheesy goodness in my teen years. The way I make them are dead easy, but also not healthy in any way, shape or form! I simply get some corn chips (usually doritos), a jar of salsa (again, doritos), and then just grate some cheese over the top. Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese has melted perfectly. So, that's what I did last night, but instead of eating it out of the baking dish, I piled it all into a bread roll - voila! The Nacho Burger!

Is a warm roasted veggie salad nirvana?

Oh my god - so many delicious flavours have just delighted me, filled my tummy, and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So easy to make (just required a bit of cooking time) and well, my tastebuds are still spinning with satisfaction.

The whole recipe is at taste.com.au and its called Warm Roasted Vegetable Salad. As usual, I had to modify it slightly for my personal taste, and the fact that I left my bok choy in the fridge at work... So, what made this delicious delight? Cocktail/mini potatoes, sweet potato, red capsicum, garlic, red onion, pine nuts, fresh oregano, wholegrain mustard, lemon juice and olive oil. No greens unfortunately, but I didn't really care once I took my first bite! Such a rollercoaster ride of flavours - in any one moment you can taste the tang of the mustard, the sourness of the lemon juice, the warming comforting feeling that roasted potato and sweet potato give, the contrast of the onion that reminds me of summer barbecues, the distinct nuttiness of the pine nuts, and the squishiness of the capsicum (ok, so I ran out of describing words...)!

No doubt this will become a regular feature on my menu - I was going to serve with a warmed bread roll, but this dish is a meal all on its own.