feta

Pea and Herb Spread for Meatless Monday!

| roeliaschoeman

Here’s another #MeatlessMonday recipe!  I am always looking for vegetarian options (no, I am not a vegetarian, but really enjoy veggie meals).  And to find some that doesn’t have spinach and aubergine and celery in (bleh!) can be challenging.  But we manage quite well on most days!  I really try to make an effort on Meatless Monday, for health reasons and purely out of habit!

So, here goes:

280g peas (I used frozen peas, and just poured some boiling water on, and leave to stand for a bit – then it retains the beautiful, fresh green colour!)

2 tbs plain fat free yogurt

A big handful of fresh herbs – used basil, thyme, rosemary and sage

75g chopped cucumber

A bit of fresh garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Mixed everything together with a handblender (or food processor)

Served on crackers (RyVita), topped with 60g of fat free feta.

Quick and easy!

20-february-2017-pea-and-herb-spread

Asparagus, couscous and feta salad

| roeliaschoeman

Especially for #WellnessWednesday!

Trying my best to get into this healthy living thing again!  Sigh… undoing the ‘damage’ of the past year is taking much longer than I thought.  And yes, patience is apparently a virtue.  And yes, apparantly you need to have more than just 1 healthy meal once in a while. #Denial #TheStuggleIsReal

Lunches are normally okay, and then I fall off the wagon a bit in the evening.  Is that what they call ‘balance’?  I tried, okay!  🙂  #OneMealAtATime  Will not give up!  🙂

entire-kitchen

I ALWAYS go for quick and easy – prepared a batch of couscous Monday morning – a little too much, it was in fact enough for 3/4 people, so we may have another couscous salad for lunch tomorrow 😉

Anyway!  Here we go – no ‘real’ instructions needed, salads are easy like that 🙂

Serves 1

90g couscous prepared + 40g crumbed fat free feta

90g (or a bit more – don’t let asparagus go to waste, it is expensive enough as it is!) steamed fresh asparagus

100g mixed variety tomatoes (love the beautiful colours of these ones I got from Woolies)

Lettuce to serve

Salt and Pepper

You can of course just mix everything together, but I like the look of a ‘layered’ salad – first lettuce, then tomatoes, then couscous and feta mix, and top with steamed asparagus. Season to taste – I just drizzled it with a bit of garlic-infused olive oil.

And voila!

2017-01-25-12-55-50

Sweet Potato Salad #MeatlessMonday

| roeliaschoeman

Although I really love Sweet Potato, I seldom managed to cook it without it being mushy.  And mushy is absolutely fine – but not in a salad!  Also, I’m so used to it being served with lots of sugar/honey/butter, etc.  So I was keen to try a ‘healthier’ option. So with this one I actually didn’t do too bad!

So here is a lovely Meatless Monday salad!  It is based on a recipe I saw in the Ideas Magazine a while ago, but I did tweak the quantities and ingredients a bit.

 

160g cooked sweet potato cubes (soft but not mushy!), kept aside to cool

50g grated carrots

2 – 3 sundried tomatoes, cut into strips

30g low fat feta, crumbed

1/4 red onion, chopped

Mix all these ingredients together

 

Dressing – mix 30ml low fat mayonaise, 30ml white wine vinegar, about 1 ml Worcestershire Sauce

 

To serve – lettuce and chopped fresh parsley

 

Putting it all together for serving:

Place sweet potato mix on a bed of lettuce, drizzle dressing over and top with some freshly chopped parsley

 

2016-11-14-sweet-potato-salad-2 2016-11-14-sweet-potato-salad

WL breakdown:  2 CC, 1 fat, 1 Prot, 1 Veg

 

 

 

Roasted Tomato Soup with Risoni

| roeliaschoeman

A lovely filling and tasty soup!  🙂  I added the risoni (pasta rice or orzo) to add a little more ‘body’ to the soup – you can have some chunky bread or toast with it, but it actually isn’t necessary, it is filling enough as is 🙂

10 ml olive oil

800g cherry/baby tomatoes

1 onion, quartered

Fresh thyme

400ml chicken stock (if vegetarian – use veggie stock)

200g cooked risoni (tip: cook in only for about 8 minutes, it tends to get soggy quite quickly!)

1/2 tsp Garlic and Herb Spice (I use Robertson’s Masterblends)

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

To serve:  low fat feta (about 30g per person if serving 2, 15g if serving 4 ‘starter’ portions)  and fresh parsley

Place tomatoes, onions and thyme sprigs on a baking sheet (with foil and non-stick cooking spray) and a drizzle of olive oil.  Roast in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 30 minutes (until tomatoes start to blister)

wp-1463629581780.jpg

Transfer to a pot (medium sized, stove top), and remove some of the thyme sprigs (it can get a little ‘tough’.  Add stock, spice mix, salt and pepper and simmer for about 15 minutes.  You can add more stock if you find it too thick.  Liquidise (I used a stickblender – liquidise the soup in the pot).  Stir in cooked pasta rice.  Simmer for another couple of minutes to make sure the pasta rice is the same temperature than the soup.  Dish up and serve with feta and fresh parsley (I actually wanted to use fresh basil, but we were all out!  The parsley was yummy as well.   And how ‘Italian’ does it look?  :):)

20160518_184637.jpg

Tip:  Hubby added blue cheese instead of low fat feta and said it worked well!  Also, if you prefer a more ‘meaty’ meal – serve with some fried bacon bits.

20160518_184656.jpg

Makes 2 large portions (that’s how we had it!) – or 4 ‘starter’ portions.

If serving 4:  1 CC, 1/2 Protein, 2 Veg, 1/2 fat

Creamy Pumpkin & Herb Pasta with Feta Crumble

| roeliaschoeman

The title of this dish is slightly deceiving because it contains NO cream!  But the pasta sauce has got a lovely ‘creamy’ texture indeed!

100g chopped onions – 1 Veg

10ml olive oil – 2 Fat

1/2 tsp garlic and herb paste

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

400g cooked pumpkin chunks (I bought a prepared pack and just popped it in the microwave for 4 minutes –  are per the instructions) – 4 Veg

10oml prepared chicken stock (or veggie stock)

Salt and pepper to taste

60g crumbed feta mixed with a sprinkling of dried sage and parsley – 2 Prot

Pasta serving according to your formula/daily allowance

2016-04-19-13.09.27.jpg.jpg

Fry onions in olive oil until soft.  Stir in garlic and herb paste and herbs and fry for a minute or so.  Add pumpkin chunks and chicken stock and cook until pumpkin is soft.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Liquidise if preferred or just mash with a fork.

Stir cooked pasta in (I used linguine) and simmer for a few minutes.

Dish up and serve with a crumbed feta mix.

Serves 2

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!  🙂

photogrid_1455619745407.jpg

 

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.

20160122_181951.jpg

Serves 1 – 2 Veg, 2 CC, 2 Protein

20160122_182042.jpg

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! 🙂

image

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

image

Watermelon, Feta and Rocket Stacks

| roeliaschoeman

I know I have’nt posted in a while!  Sharing some of my Xmas lunch recipes 🙂

This was the starter served, soooo easy – and it looks very pretty, if I do say so myself!  🙂

Slice watermelon in slices (about 3 – 4 cm thick)

Using a cookie cutter, cut out a shape/serving per person.

Dress with fresh rocket, feta and balsamic reduction

 

Watermelon:  about 100g per person

15g low fat feta per person

1/2 handful fresh rocket per person

serve with balsamic reduction and freshly ground black pepper

 

Fresh and easy!  Ideal for our hot South African summer!

 

photogrid_1451050196373.jpg