Cauliflower Base Pizza

I had heard of this several times and wanted to try it but never got round to it (or had any cauliflowers!). I also was a bit skeptical as to whether Little Miss' dad would even give it a go but when meal planning this week I decided to bite the bullet and go for it! 

I used this recipe from detoxinista for the base: http://detoxinista.com/2014/02/vegan-cauliflower-pizza-crust/ 

I forgot to order ground almonds so put some nutritional yeast in instead. I'm not sure that they had the same effect but the cheesy taste was yummy! 

We topped our pizza with tomato purée, roasted courgette and aubergine, kale, silken tofu, cherry tomatoes and finally some grated vegan cheese. 

I must admit that I didn't leave myself enough time to make the base to the letter. The cauliflower was still warm when I pressed it into the baking tray and I'm pretty sure I did not get enough water out of it be ause it didn't stay together as well as I would have liked. However, it was very delicious! Little Miss is still being ridiculously fussy with food due to teething (bread and fruit is almost all she'll eat at the moment) however she was spooning this up so quickly! Despite being very healthy it did not taste too different from regular pizza. The consistency of ours was definitely different but as I said before I didn't do it completely right.

This is such a great way to get lots of veg into your little ones and not at all difficult to make (and not too time consuming if you plan it well unlike me). I was amazed by how much I liked it so even if you are having reservations I definitely think you should try it; I'm sure you'll be surprised!

This is our very unprofessional looking pizza!:

Enjoy!

JULES XOXO

Some recommended recipe books and websites

With our new meal planning resolution, it has encouraged me to look through my recipe books a lot more. There are a few places I have found quite a few recipes that we have tried and really enjoyed.

The first one is the Happy Herbivore Cookbook:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Happy-Herbivore-Cookbook-Lindsay-Nixon/dp/1935618121

We have tried several of these recipes including the Broccoli Pesto Pasta which went down really well. As the recipes are low-fat/fat free I often add a little walnut oil, flaxseeds or tahini etc to add some healthy fat to Little Miss' portion.

Another is Vegan with a Vengeance:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Vengeance-Delicious-Animal-free-Recipes/dp/1904943667/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392050578&sr=1-1&keywords=vegan+with+a+vengeance

We really like the spanish omelette and sweet potato crepes.

Another resource we have been pulling from a lot is the post punk kitchen website:

http://www.theppk.com/

Recipes we have tried recently include roasted red pepper mac and cheese, the beetroot burgers and the Ethiopian spicy tomato lentil stew which were all successes.

I hope you find these as useful and yummy as we do!

JULES XOXO

Our take on Moroccan pilaff

As you may have been able to see I am struggling to find the time to blog much at the moment. Little Miss is lots of fun at the moment so we are constantly on the go. We have got to the stage where she eats pretty much everything so dinners are just what us adults fancy. One of my New Years resolutions is to meal plan and to try at least one new recipe a week. So far we have had 2 weeks of meal planning. Not only has it really saved us money on our shopping (this weeks was half our average shop!!) but it also meant that we didn't have to rush out to buy some ingredients for a new recipe (or any recipe for that matter).

For today we had planned in a Moroccan pilaff. I never follow recipes to the letter and often like to add more veg or more variety of veg to dishes which is what I did to this one as it only had carrots. It also wanted almonds in but because Little Miss isn't at the whole nut stage I skipped that part.

Here is the recipe I used. It made enough for two large adult potions, a child portion and 2.5 lunch portions for tomorrow too.

Ingredients:

2 medium onions, chopped

4 medium carrots, chopped (circles/semi-circles)

1 medium courgette, chopped to same size as the carrots

1/3 butternut squash, peeled and chopped to the same size again

1.5 tsp cinnamon

Some olive oil for frying

300g long grain rice, rinsed

A couple of handfuls of raisins/sultanas

A couple of handfuls of dried apricots, cut in half

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

2. Fry the onions in the oil and cinnamon for a few minutes

3. Add the other vegetables and cook for a further 5 or so minutes

4. Add the rice, raisins and apricots and stir to coat in oil

5. Put everything into a casserole dish but only coming up halfway. I had to use two! It helps if the dish(es) have lids.

6. Pour on 1 litre 125 ml of boiling water (from the kettle) over the mixture.

7. Cover with the lid or some foil and cook in the oven for around 45 minutes when the water should be absorbed and the rice should be cooked.

And voila! There you go. For the adults we did find we wanted to add some salt at the table.

My boyfriend always thinks he doesn't like fruit in savoury dishes but he did really enjoy this and so did Little Miss. The rice was nice and sticky for her to pick up some with her fingers or to feed herself with a spoon.

JULES XOXO

Party food 2: Green Falafel

Our family have Middle Eastern roots so falafel aren't strangers at the dinner table but there are so many things you can do to make your falafel a bit out of the ordinary. These green falafel are not only really delicious but the addition of the greens also boost the vitamins and healthiness. They are also not deep fried so healthier than a lot of the falafel you can buy. This recipe was not my own but I did end up using curly kale instead of the collard greens which worked just as well (and we did make them with the greens another time). We made

Some for the party and some to keep but froze them all after frying to be defrosted and bake in the oven on the day as so much needed to be done. They were probably best fresh straight from the frying pan but also delicious after baked from frozen. A great thing for your freezer to cook after a busy day or to make for a sandwich in a lunchbox.

You can find the recipe here:http://minimalistbaker.com/better-than-restaurant-falafel-vegan-gluten-free/

JULES XOXO

Party food part 1: Mini Quiche

Over the next few posts I will (finally!) be showing you some of the recipes I used for Little Miss' 1st birthday party when she had her mini friends over to play. These include mini quiches, green falafel, spinach and bean triangles and the sugar free cakes I made too.

As well as these we had houmous, cucumber, carrot, red pepper slices, mini breadsticks, mini rice cakes, melon, satsuma and dried apricots for the mini people as well as some naughty sugary cupcakes for the exhausted parents!

The feast for the little ones

Fuel for the parents (mint chocolate, caramel coconut, ginger & lemon and pistachio & rosewater)

Today's post will be about the mini quiches. The basis of the filling is tofu, non-dairy milk, nutmeg and turmeric. To this you can add the fillings you like. For me a quiche needs onion which I like to fry before it goes in the mixture. In ours we also put peas and curly kale. Previously, when we made a big quiche, we used red pepper and broccoli which resulted in a fantastic mixture of colours and tastes.

Any shortcrust savoury pastry recipe will work with this and I tried a few out. You could even buy ready made pastry if the thought of making your own scares you (but it really is not hard to do!).

Here is a pastry recipe that you could use:

225g plain flour

100g margarine

2.5 tablespoons of COLD water

(usually this would have salt added but I left this out for the sakes of the mini people)

Mix the flour an margarine together (really helps to have a machine) and then mix in the water so it comes together as a dough. If it doesn't come together, add a little more water. If it is really sticky (it should be more firm than sticky) then add a little more flour.

Grease a bun tin (what you would make fairy cakes in). Roll out the pastry on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin until it is a couple of mm thick. Cut out circles that will fit into the bun tin using pastry cutters and press into each depression. Put a little greaseproof paper onto the bottom of each one and then put a few baking beans onto this. Blind bake (i.e. without the filling) for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius.

While these are baking you can prepare your filling.

Essential Ingredients:

400g block of firm tofu

1/3 cup soya milk

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp turmeric

Pepper to taste (salt too if you want to)

What I used as well:

1/2 large red onion, chopped

Cup of frozen peas

2 cups of curly kale

Fry any vegetables which you think need it. I did this to the onion and lightly fried the kale also. I would be inclined to fry or even roast red pepper to release that lovely flavour even more.

In a food processor, blend all the essential ingredients together. This doesn't have to be completely smooth (I like it a bit chunky). Then add the vegetables and blitz for a few seconds (but still to leave plenty of chunks).

Fill the pre-baked pastry shells with the filling (to the top). I froze some at this point. Bake for around 20 minutes until they start to brown and are piping hot all the way through.

I do think a bit of red pepper in these ones would have made them more visually appealing but they went down a storm with both the children and the parents and can be eaten hot or cold. 

JULES XOXO

Stir-fry for mini vegans

I was hoping to have all the photos for my party finger food sorted by now as Little Miss has had her first birthday (!!!!! I can't actually believe she is one!) and was meant to have had two parties by now (one for her baby friends and one for the family) but both had to be postponed.  So although I have the recipes pretty much sorted I don't have the photos to go with them.

Anyway on with today's post! For dinner we are having stir-fry which is a favourite in our household but I hadn't yet bubbafied it for Little Miss. Usually when I am making stir-fry I use lashings of soy sauce and mirin (a rice wine) but due to the salt and alcohol in these I wanted to leave these out for LM. I remember another mum telling me that she used lemon and ginger as a sauce for her little one so I used this idea and it turned out delicious. Despite struggling with eating at the moment due to teething, LM enjoyed this a lot and ate more than I expected.

This is a very rough recipe and quantities and ingredients can be easily swapped. This made enough for LM and a small portion for me

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of sesame oil or stir-fry oil

Cube of frozen fresh ginger (I have found these and the garlic cubes invaluable for speedy cooking and you know it won't go off). Use fresh grated ginger if you have it though.

3 tablespoons of lemon juice (add more if you prefer)

3 handfuls of ripped greens (LM's dad was very surprised that there is a vegetable just called "greens"!)

Half a courgette, grated

A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

A portion of noodles (we used dried wheat noodles and boiled them in water before adding)

Method:

Heat the oil, ginger and lemon in a saucepan

Add all the vegetables and fry for a few minutes.

Add the noodles and cook until all the greens are soft.

And you're done! It's so simple, takes hardly any time and you can use lots of vegetables that are in your fridge. Using frozen fresh ginger and dried noodles means you can have the ingredients in almost always as long as you have some veg in the fridge.

JULES XOXO

Finally a bit of normality is being restored!

Well we have been living in our new place for 2 weeks now and it still looks like a Tasmanian devil has hit after eating a bucketload of sugar! I am really enjoying having a spacious kitchen. I now have a bread machine so I can easily make low salt and sugar bread which Little Miss seems to love!

I haven't properly finished any new recipes recently but I thought I share how we make our own organic almond milk at home.

We have been loving almond milk for a while now. It is great for hot drinks, cereals and cooking and also doesn't seem to put dairy-drinking guests off as much as soya milk can do. When looking at the ingredients I was a bit disappointed at how many ingredients other than almonds and water there were so we decided to try making our own.

This is our method:

Soak around a cupful of plain "raw" (I think almonds usually have a heat treatment) almonds in water overnight. This softens the almonds.

Drain the water and give the almonds a bit of a wash. 

Put the almonds in a blender with around 4 cups of water. Vanilla extract and/or dates could be added for a bit of sweetness but we usually have it plain.

Blend for a few minutes.

Next you need to strain it. We use cheese cloths which are basically fine muslin but you can get nut milk bags and I actually find a fine sieve gets rid of most of the almond bits. Make sure you squeeze the cloth or bag at the end to get out all the liquid you can.

And there you have it, almond milk! You can use the almondy stuff left over in things like curries or add it to porridge. I have also heard of a fudge that can be made but I haven't tried it yet!

Hope you enjoy,

JULES XOXO