Roast Squash & Goats Cheese Quinoa Pizza - A Pizza Not Just for Weekends

Big big fan of pizza,who isn't?, well except my daughter (THE fussiest toddler on the planet) But it's usually keep for weekends as I'm thinking of the fat, calories and carbs!!! But then the other day I was reading my new Donna Hay book, Fresh and Light, where a quinoa crust tart was featured, so I got to googling quinoa pizza. I was thinking, if a tart base can be made from quinoa, then surely a pizza base can be fashioned in relatively the same manner.

I stumbled across a website called Simply Quinoa, and I was blown away by the variety of recipes on the website, all of which contain quinoa. If you are a fan of quinoa or looking for some ideas to replace your carbs with quinoa, then I suggest you check out the website. I'm highly impressed!!!

It's from Simply Quinoa that I got the recipe for my pizza base. I did use red quinoa (though apparently white quinoa is better), as this was all I had in the house at the time, but it worked out brillantly. I've used gluten free pizza bases in the past, and most are disgusting. I was very skeptical of the result in using quinoa would have on the finished product, but I needn't have worried. I kept saying to my husband 'wow,wow, I can't believe it' as I was eating the pizza. What's more,Alan (fearer of all that is alternative and healthy) agreed it was pretty tasty.

So here is the recipe as taken from Simply Quinoa for the basic base Simply Quinoa's Ultimate-quinoa-pizza-crust/

Serves 2 (or Serena)

Ingredients

For the Pizza crust

• 3/4 cup of quinoa, soaked for 6-8 hours
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

For the pizza topping

• 1 tbsp of passata
• Roasted cubes of butternut squash
• 50g soft goats cheese
• 1 tbsp grated mozzarella
•  1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp  black pepper
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and lay oiled baking paper on a baking tray.
2. Rinse the quinoa and put in a blender along with the other ingredients. I used my Nutri Ninja, making it the work of mere moments. The mixture is like a pancake batter.
3. Pour the batter out onto the baking paper trying to keep a circle shape.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn it over and bake for a further 15 minutes.
5. Spread the tomato sauce over the base and scatter the toppings over the sauce. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the pizza is ready. Then enjoy.

You can use any ingredients once your pizza base is made, everyone has their one favorite pizza toppings. 

I'm even thinking that this crust would also work as well sweet as it does savory, so watch out for my quinoa apple tart or a nutella smore pizza!!!!

Indonesian Style Roast Pork

As much as I love a Sunday roast, sometimes I like to do something a little less traditional with my Sunday dinner. I bought a pork loin for my Sunday dinner and thought I would try something a little different with it than roast potatoes & apple sauce (not that there is any thing wrong with roast potatoes and apple sauce). I love Asian flavours, so I decided to try to recreate the flavours of the food we had whilst in Indonesia...( I'm always cooking Thai, so I thought Indonesian might be some fun).

 I loved my time in Indonesia, especially the food. Here's my slow baked Indonesian Pork Loin, that requires very little effort at all, once the marinade is made. You could then serve this with potatoes, but I decided on a Pea and Raisin Pilaf Rice. I think when I make this again, I will cover the meat in foil (To prevent the marinade from turning too dark and burning), until the final 30 minutes, and also perhaps serve it with a satay noodle side.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg of basted Pork Loin
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of smooth peanut butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp of Chinese 5 spice
• 2 tbsp of water
• 1 onion

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
2. Combine all the ingredients (except for the pork of course) in a blender and blitz to a sauce consistency.
3. Pour the sauce over the pork and allow to marinade for a few hours at least, ideally over night.
4. Cover the pork with tin foil and bake in the oven for 3 hours, remove the foil for the final 30 minutes and turn up the oven to 200 degrees.
5. Allow to rest for 30 minutes before serving.

Tomato Baked Orzo

I've taken a time out from the blog for last two months, a little maternity break, as we welcomed a new addition to our family on Sept 2nd. We now have a gorgeous baby boy called Fionn!! I took the break as time is precious with a newborn, plus I also have my little two year old angel Aoife to consider. So whilst getting used to the lack of sleep and the little time to prepare meals, I had made a decision not to let the blog, diet, exercise;or lack thereof all 3, bother me. Instead I've been getting to know my new little man and sleeping when he's sleeping (only when Aoife is sleeping too which is not too often). So basically, I have my hands full.

Fionn is six weeks old already, so hard to believe. We have been living in our own little bubble since his arrival. He's getting so big and alert and already outgrown 2 sizes in baby wear. The six week milestone is a big one for him, he can now focus on us and he's smiling a lot, which melts my heart!!!

But the six week milestone is also important for me. It marks the beginning of me getting back on track, with diet, exercise, and a few sneaky blog posts (when time allows).

I mentioned diet!!! I'm on a mission to loose the baby weight, or at least most of it in time for Christmas.  This will involve, a lot of exercise, mainly walking with the double buggy and my Kayla Itsines 12 Week BBG.

As today is a Monday, I have decided to start the week with a meat free Monday recipe. I'm making enough for 2-3 meals. It's all about batch cooking these days for us. I'm easing myself into the diet so the first recipe is a pasta style dish.

Orzo pasta is a Greek pasta, which resembled rice, but tastes like pasta. If you can get wholemeal, please do, though it is difficult to find. This dish is packed full of flavour, veggies and herbs. It's all made in one pan, making it a true one pot wonder. By baking the dish in the oven, it intensifies the flavours.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 500g passata
• 150g orzo pasta
• 1 tsp Italian herbs
• 1/2 diced red onion
• 1/4 red pepper, diced
• 1/4 yellow pepper, diced
• 1/4 green pepper, diced
• 5-6 mushrooms, diced
• 2 tbsp of chopped mixed herbs (flat leaf parsley, basil, & mint for example)
• 6-7 olives
• 2 tomatoes, sliced thinly
• 100ml of stock
• Salk & Pepper
• 2 tbsp of olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. In an oven proof dish, add the oil and onions and saute for a minute.
3. Add the dried herbs, peppers, mushrooms and orzo.
4. Saute for a few minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients, except for the tomato slices.
5. Place the tomato slices on top of the stew like mixture and place the dish into the oven for 40-50 minutes until, all the liquid has been absorbed. 

Tip: I'm serving mine with a green salad, but to make the dish even tastier, you could add slices of mozzarella on the top of the dish before placing it into the oven.

Parsley, Lemon, Caper & Garlic Seabass

Here's a gem of a recipe for a marinade that transforms a beautiful piece of fish into a tangy flavoursome dinner. This recipe is great as the ingredients for the marinade are very healthy, but also very tasty.

The weather for us here in the South of Ireland isn't quite there for us yet this summer in terms of BBQ time, but when the sun does start to emerge, this is a wonderful recipe for all BBQ fish dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp of flat leaf parsley
• 2 tsp of capers
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 seabass, gutted and scaled
• Salt and pepper

To serve

• Extra chopped flat leaf parsley
• lemon wedges

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a mini blender, add the juice of a lemon, the flat leaf parsley, capers, oil, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and pulse for a few seconds.
3. Cut 3 incisions in  each fillet on the fish. Cut the 2nd lemon into thin slices and place each lemon slice into the  the cut incisions on the fish, and divide the remaining slices into the cavity of the fish.
4. Rub the parsley marinade into both the outside and the inside cavity of the fish. 
5. All to marinade for 10 minutes. 
6. Bake the fish on a baking tray for 15 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
7. Serve with a scattering of chopped herbs and lemon wedges.

Asparagus, Feta & Serrano Pizza - A Shortcut to a Deluxe Pizza

Friday nights in our house is nearly always Pizza Night. But after a long week at work, sometimes making my own pizza dough is too laborious even for me. 

Thankfully there are some good quality shop bought pizza dough out there now which take all the hard work out of home made pizzas. Tonight was such a night when the efforts of homemade pizza dough was beyond me. Luckily I had a Jus-Rol pizza dough hidden in the fridge for such a dilemma. 

Ingredients

• 1 good quality ready made pizza dough
• 2 tbsp of tomato sauce
• 4 asparagus spears, ends removed
• 50g of fresh mozzarella 
• 50g of feta cheese
• 3 tbsp of carmelised onion relish
• Pepper
• 3 slices of Serrano ham
• 2 fresh basil leaves
• 1 wedge of lemon
• Balsamic glaze

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Lay the pizza dough on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.
3. Spread the tomato sauce over the pizza dough.
4. Scatter the cheeses over the pizza and lay the asparagus spears over the cheese.
5. Dot the relish in between the spears of asparagus and liberally grind black pepper over the pizza.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
7. Divide the Serrano ham over the cooked pizza and scatter with some freshly torn basil.
8. Serve with the lemon wedge and drizzle over the balsamic glaze.

Moroccan Lamb, Potato & Aubergine Stew

Although I've never been to Morocco, I adore Moroccan cuisine. My first taste of Morocco was in a small little family run restaurant in the heart of Paris; and I've been hooked ever since. I love slow cooked meats, and I love one pot wonders even more!!! This dish actually tastes better if made a day ahead of needing it. Moroccan dining is my way of eating, its about being social and sharing; lots of accompaniments and everyone just digging in. Super casual. it's not fussy nor posh.

I entered a Lamb Tagine recipe in a Kerrygold Recipe Book competition a few years back and my recipe was selected to be published in the recipe book. This Lamb, Potato and Aubergine stew is a twist on my traditional Tagine recipe Serena's Moroccan Lamb Tagine

This recipe is perfect to feed a crowd and can be easily doubled or trebled, and just supply more pittas and yogurt for scooping up the yummy sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs diced lamb
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp of maldon sea salt
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground Cinnamon
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 1 diced onion
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 carrots thickly sliced on diagonal
• 3 potatoes,peeled and quartered
• 1 aubergine, diced
• 2 tbsp runny honey

Cous cous to Serve

• 100g cous cous
• 1 tsp of turmeric
• Generous handful chopped Coriander/flat leaf parsley
• 50g of flaked almonds
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• 1 250g tub Greek yogurt (to serve)
• 4 mini pitta breads (to serve)

Method

1. Combine all the spices, garlic and onion and rub into the meat
2. Leave to marinate, preferably overnight, although an hour should be sufficient.
3. In a lidded oven proof casserole dish, add the olive oil on a medium heat. Brown the meat, in batches if necessary.

4. Add all the meat back into the casserole dish, adding the carrots, tinned tomatoes, potato & aubergine.
5. Bring up to the boil and put lid on the dish and put in a preheated oven for 1.5 hours at 180 degrees.
6. Meanwhile, put cous cous in a bowl, add the olive oil and the turmeric and mix well; season with salt and pepper and pour over 180mls of boiling water. Cover for ten mins.
7. Fluff with a fork, adding half the chopped coriander or flat leaf parsley.
8. Put the flaked almonds on a baking tray and toast in the oven, keeping an eye on them as they can burn in matter of seconds. Once toasted add to the cous cous.
10. Remove the casserole dish from the oven and add the runny honey.
11. Return the dish (uncovered) to the oven for a final 20 mins to brown.
12. Put the pittas in the oven to warm through.
13. Remove the dish from the oven and present to the table in the dish adding the chopped coriander/flat leaf parsley.
14. Put the cous cous, yogurt and pittas in bowls on the table and let your guests help themselves, Moroccan style! Enjoy.

Extremely Versatile Quinoa Stuffed Beef Tomatoes

Healthy doesn't have to be boring, and these tasty stuffed tomatoes are extremely healthy and super fun. The recipe is here is extremely versatile, you can replace the quinoa with cous cous, bulgar wheat, rice, or even orzo. You can also inter change the vegetables also, customizing your stuffed tomatoes to your own person taste. You may even go so far as to stuff some peppers instead of using tomatoes altogether. So every single element of this dish can be replaced. Even the cheddar cheese can be replaced with either, feta, goats cheese and even haloumi. So there you have it, the most inter-changeable recipe I have ever written!!!!

These tomatoes are the perfect lunch time dish. I chose quinoa over cous cous and all the other grains, because it is a high protein ingredient with a low GI; meaning this should keep you fuller for longer. The tomatoes are not however just for lunch, these would be the perfect accompaniment to a main course fish dish at a dinner party. You could even have them prepped ahead, and just bang them in the oven for 15 minutes before serving the main. They look very impressive, yet secretly easy peasy to make. Here's how:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of quinoa 
• 1 1/2 cup of water
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• 3 mushrooms, cubed
• 1/2 courgette, cubed
• 1 small can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 of a red onion, diced
• 6 mint leaves, shredded
• 1/2 tsp of cumin powder
• Salt & pepper to season
• 2 tbsp of grated cheddar
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 beef tomatoes

Method

1. Add the quinoa to pan on a medium heat, add the water and cook for 12 minutes.
2. Drain the quinoa and set aside.
3. Add a wok to a medium heat, add the onion, tomato paste and cumin powder. Cook out for 5 minutes.
4. Then add the mushrooms, courgettes and chickpeas, and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Add the quinoa and the seasoning and mix really well, heating everything through.
6. Finally add the mint and mix through.
7. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 
8. Slice the top off the tomatoes, and cut out a hollow hole in the tomato.
9. Spoon the quinoa mixture into the tomato and sprinkle each tomato with 1 tbsp of cheese.
10. Place the tomatoes in an oven proof dish, replace the lid on the tomato, and add half a cup of water to the dish. (This prevents the tomato from sticking to the dish and keeps the finished product moist)
11. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. 
12. Serve with a simple green salad.

(Tip: Other ingredients which would work well are chopped almonds, sultanas, corriander, apricots, grated carrot, grated cucumber. The list is endless. Feel free to experiment)

Super Healthy Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna is one of my ultimate comfort foods. It's delicious, though not always waist line friendly. I would never have lasagna mid week, always keeping it as a weekend cheat meal. However, I have come up with a way for me to have lasagna mid week and staying very healthy.

My roast vegetable lasagna will have even the hardiest of carnivores looking for seconds, making this the perfect meat free Monday dinner. Whats also great about this recipe is that you can swap the vegetables in this recipe for many other types of vegetables, e.g spinach, aubergines, beef tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli etc. Also this recipe has my basic tomato and white sauce recipes, that can be used in so many other recipes.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 lasagna sheets
• 1/2 cup of low fat grated cheese

Tomato sauce

• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 onion, sliced 
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 tsp of fresh thyme leaves

Roast Vegetables

• 1 red pepper, cut into chunks
• 1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 5-6 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 courgette, sliced
• Spray Olive oil
• 3-4 twigs of fresh thyme

Low fat Bechamel Sauce

• 25g of plain flour
• 25g of low fat butter spread
• Skimmed Milk
• Nutmeg

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Lay the chopped vegetables on lined baking trays and scatter the thyme leaves around the trays and spray with low cal olive oil spray
   
3. Roast the vegetables for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, get a saucepan or wok on a medium heat, use some spray oil again on the wok/saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and fry for a minute, then add the tomatoes, and thyme and cook to reduce the liquid by half. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir it though. Set aside once cooked.
5. In a small saucepan, on a medium heat, add the low fat spread.
6. Whisk in the flour until all the butter is absorbed, to make a roux.
7. Add the milk a bit at a time, whisking constantly, until a white creamy sauce is made. When you are happy with the consistency, grate in a small amount of fresh nutmeg.
   
8. When the vegetables are soft and cooked, add them to the tomato sauce and mix through.
9. Get a oven proof lasagna dish and put half the tomato vegetable mixture in the bottom of the dish, spreading it evenly.
10. Top with 2 sheets of lasagna pasta. Top the pasta sheets with the remaining tomato sauce mixture.
11. Top the sauce with the last 2 pasta sheets. Spread the bechamel sauce over the top pasta sheets and scatter the cheese all over.
12. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
13. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting, as if you cut a lasagna straight from the oven, it will fall apart when you try to take out the portions.