Vegetarian

Grilled Nectarines with Vanilla Yogurt

| roeliaschoeman

New month, new goals, new challenges!  My goal for this month – be less lazy and keep this blog updated!  😉

This is a yummy snack or even dessert idea!  Works great on a braai as well – or grilled in the oven if you don’t have a griddle pan.  To be honest, I prefer the ‘oven grilled’ option, not a fan of washing griddle pans!  LOL!!

Anyway!  Here we go!

 

240g sliced, firm nectarines (pineapple works great as well!)

5ml honey, mixed with 15ml boiling water

 

175ml plain, fat free yogurt

2 sachets Vanilla Canderel (or normal sweetener with a few drops of vanilla essence)

 

Heat griddle pan to medium heat, spray with non-stick spray when hot

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Place nectarine slices in the pan to ‘grill’, basting with honey mixture, turn after 2 minutes or when you see it starts to form the griddle lines and is nicely caramelised – not burnt!  Turn and turn off heat – leave on the oven to cool a bit.

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Serve with a big drollop of yogurt and Vanilla Canderel mixed together.

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Serves 2:  1 Fruit, 1/2 Misc, 1/2 Milk

Mini Mushroom “Pizzas”

| roeliaschoeman

I’ve been craving pizza – so I decided to make a healthier option 🙂  Lovely tomato, cheese garlic and herb goodness – the ‘legal’ way 😉

 

3 large ‘braai’/brown mushrooms

100g tomato and onion mix/Weigh-Less Chili Tomato Pasta Sauce (I added a bit of garlic and herb paste to jazz it up a bit)

30g cheddar cheese – grated finely, it goes further!

1.5 slice Albany Ultima, grated to make breadcrumbs

10g olives, deseeded and finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

A sprinkling of Mixed Herbs

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Remove the stems of the mushrooms

Place the mushrooms on a baking sheet, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray

Stuff mushrooms with tomato mix (tomato base, herbs, breadcrumbs, olives and seasoning mixed together)

Top with cheese and sprinkle with Mixed Herbs

Pop into a pre-heated oven and 180C for about 20 minutes.

 

Serves 1 – 1 Veg (mushrooms = free), 1 Fat, 1 Protein, 1 CC

Carrot and Chickpea Falafel

| roeliaschoeman

A lovely vegetarian option!  🙂

 

200g carrots, cooked and mashed (or you can add it raw, finely grated)

75g chickpeas, tinned/cooked

20g fresh Italian Parsley

1/3 tsp chopped garlic

1/4 chopped red onion

10ml olive oil (I used jalapeno infused olive oil)

1/3 tsp Woolies Moroccan Rub (or you can just add a bit of cumin, cayenne pepper and coriander)

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Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend together.

Form little balls (I just used my hands!)

Put on baking sheet covered with foil and sprayed with non-stick spray

Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C for about 15 minutes

Be careful when handling it, because there’s no binding agent (like eggs) it can break quite quickly.

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Serve with mint and yogurt dip!  (100ml plain fat free yogurt and a handful of chopped mint leaves)  I had it with a serve of toasted rye bread – very yummy if you mush everything together with the yogurt dip!

 

Mushroom and Chickpea Ragoût on Toast

| roeliaschoeman

Adapted from recipe seen on The First Mess

 

150g sliced mushrooms

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

50g leeks, chopped

5ml olive oil

1/2 tsp Worchestershire Sauce

1/2 tsp tomato paste

250ml chicken (or veggie) stock

75g chickpeas (cooked/tinned)

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Fry leeks in olive oil until soft, add a bit of chicken stock if needed.  Add mushrooms, fry for another few minutes and add rest of ingredients.  Simmer until most of the liquid has cooked away.  Serve with with warm rye bread toast.

 

Greek Marinated Mushrooms Kebabs

| roeliaschoeman

Always looking for a yummy veggie side dish 🙂  This is super easy and quite tasty!

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250g button mushrooms (whole)

25oml plain fat free yogurt

50g  each chopped parsley and chopped coriander

1 heaped teaspoon chopped garlic (or a little less to taste)

Salt and Pepper to taste
Place mushrooms in a Ziplock bag or marinating bowl.  Add rest of ingredients, close bag and shake bag to mix – leave to marinate for about 4 hours.  Thread mushrooms on skewers and grill until soft.

 

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Corn & Pea Salad with Feta

| roeliaschoeman

I love a good corn salad – maybe because I am kinda a ‘quanity over quality’ person! LOL!  Okay, not that I’m saying that I don’t value quality – and also I am NOT saying that corn is nothing more than a bowl full of empty quanity!  Hahaha!  So maybe I must just shut up now!  🙂

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200g frozen corn (I just poured boiling water over and leave it to stand for about 10 – 15 minutes, no cooking required)

70 g frozen peas (using the same ‘no-cook’ trick as above!)

1/4 chopped onion

1/4 chopped green pepper

30ml low fat mayo

15ml sweet chili sauce

20g chopped peppadews

Salt and Pepper to taste

30g low fat feta

Lettuce to serve

 

 

1 Serve – 2 CC, 1 Prot, 1 Fat, 2 Veg

 

Pimento Peppers stuffed with Herby Brown Rice and Feta

| roeliaschoeman

As South Africans we ‘braai’ a lot!  So that often leads to eating way too much meat – especially red meat!  So, one Friday evening when Hubby had to satisfy his craving for lamb riblets, I decided to improvise a bit!  Didn’t feel like meat, so I tried this dish – it will make a great braai side dish as well!

2 Pimento Peppers (you can use bell peppers or paprika peppers as well)

 

Garlic and Herb Brown Rice

140g cooked brown rice

5ml Basil-infused olive oil

50g chopped onions

Garlic and Herb Seasoning to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

 

60g low fat feta, crumbed

 

Prepare Peppers by making a slit on top and removing the pips and core.  Roast/braai on grill until the peppers start to blister.

 

Fry onions in olive oil until soft.  Stir in cooked brown rice and add Garlic and Herb Seasoning.  Season with salt and pepper.

 

When ready to serve, stuff peppers with brown rice and top with feta.

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Serves 1 – 2 Veg, 2 CC, 2 Protein

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When serving it as a side dish at a braai, you can omit the feta and have the peppers with your favourite braaied meat 🙂

Barley, Mushroom and Green Bean Salad

| roeliaschoeman

Yesterday’s lunch! The last of my pre-cooked batch of pearl barley used! Managed to get 3 full meals out of it, so planning does save you lots of time and effort! 🙂

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Adapted from “Closet Cooking”

100g cooked pearl barley

100g green fresh green beans (I just poured some boiling water on it, and left it to stand for about 10 minutes – no cooking needed)

150g mushrooms (I marinated a batch of mushrooms – ovenroasted it for about 30 minutes, put it in a glass bottle and poured some white vinegar (about 150ml) over it, leaving it to stand in the fridge for a couple of hours)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

A sprinkling of thyme and rosemary (I used dried herbs)

30g low fat feta

Salt and Pepper to taste

10ml white vinegar

5ml olive oil (lemon infused, but you can use normal olive oil with maybe a dash of lemon juice instead)

Lettuce to serve

 

This salad is very tasty if made in advance – to give the flavours of the olive oil, vinegar and marinated mushrooms to develop a bit.  So try to make it the night before.

Mix all the ingredients except the feta and lettuce together.  Once ready to serve, stir in the feta and serve on a bed of lettuce.

 

 

Mediterranean Barley Salad

| roeliaschoeman

This was yesterday’s lunch!  I’m sure you figured out that pearl barley is my newest obsession!  😉  I cooked a large batch a few days ago and froze it into portions – specifically to have it on hand to ‘experiment’ with.  That is my challenge for the week – to make 3 x brand new barley recipes!  Maybe you can try it – find a healthy ingredient that you don’t use THAT often, and see if you can get a few recipe ideas of how to cook/prepare it?

100g cooked barley
25g sliced red onion
50g cherry tomatoes, halved
150g chopped red, yellow and green pepper
30g low fat feta
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parley
8 pitted olives

Dressing: 25ml lemon juice & 25ml red wine vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together and serve!

Serves 1 – 2CC, 1 Protein, 1 Fat, 2.5 Veg

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Breakfast Barley

| roeliaschoeman

We often get stuck on what to have for breakfast that is a little ‘different’.  Somedays I really don’t feel like another bowl of brand name cereal or a slice of toast with whatever…. 🙂

Keep forgetting that we can actually use any grain as a breakfast option – quinoa, couscous, brown rice and BARLEY!  🙂  So this is my version of ‘comfort food’ for breakfast.  Will work great with brown rice as well 🙂

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75g cooked barley (I cooked a big batch last night, froze it into individual portions to be used in my meals during the next week or so, so look out for a few ‘barley’ recipes coming up!)

125ml fat free milk

20g raisins

1 cinnamon stick

5ml honey for serving

Gently simmer barley, raisins and cinnamon stick until barley is more ‘mushy’ and most of the milk is reduced/evaporated.

Serve with honey and enjoy!

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Serves 1:  1.5 CC, 1/2 milk, 1 Fruit

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