A little bit of Indulgence

OK OK so I am only human and I do allow myself a cheat day every now and again... Apart from eating clean most days, particularly staying away from things like dairy and gluten, I sometimes do feel for indulging in things like pasta, with abit of cream ofcourse. :) 

You can cetainly use store bought spiral pasta or you can make your own at home. This recipe is literally put everything together and in 10 minutes and you have a fabulously plated meal ready for you and your loved ones. 

For this recipe you will need: -

(Serves 2) 

200g spiral pasta

1 TBLS olive oil

1 Brown onion finely chopped 

1 punnet of baby spinach 

1 punnet of button mushrooms finely sliced

1 cup of frozen baby peas

3 TBLS of double thick cream (I personally prefer using PURA as it uses vegetable gum instead of gelatine as a thickening agent) 

Crushed garlic (I used quite abit as I love garlic in pasta) 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Method: - 

Bring a pot of water with salt and a splash of olive oil to a boil, to cook the pasta. In a seperate pot (place over a medium heat) add olive oil, onions and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the spinach, mushrooms and frozen baby peas and let this cook until the peas are almost mushy. Season with salt and pepper and add the cream. Let this just start to simmer and then add the cooked pasta. The aroma that you experience while cooking this dish is unreal and you will liertally want to eat it straight out of the pot....Of course you can add more cream and make the dish more like an alfredo pasta but just remember to adjust with salt and pepper accordingly. You can also add some parmesan cheese when you serve up this dish, but I just wanted to throughly enjoy the cream for the moment..... :) Much love as always CC

 

Zucchini Pizza

I came across this idea the other day when I was trying to prepare a low carb meal for family members. I wanted to make pizza so I decided that a way to do this was through either using portabello mushrooms or zucchini as the "pizza base". I did make the "mushroom pizzas" on a seperate day however I completely forgot to take pics!!!! So apologies for that, but I will make it again soon as it was an absolute hit and really filling as well. 

For this recipe you will need: - 

(Serves 4) 

4 large zucchini (1 per person), cut length wise and the centre stems removed

Tomato paste 

Cherry tomato's 

Mozzarella cheese or cashew cheese (for the vegan option) 

Any veggies that you like, I used onion, olives, peppers 

2 cloves of garlic finely diced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 TBLS balsamic vinegar

2 TBLS olive oil

1 tsp Chilli flakes

Oregano to garnish 

Method: - 

Once you have cleaned your zucchini, place them into a ziploc bag. Add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chilli flakes,1 garlic clove (finely chopped), salt and pepper just to season and marinade this for a couple hours. If you planning ahead let it marinade overnight, it tastes even better. :) 

After you have marinated the zucchini for a couple hours, my suggestion is cook it in a preheated oven (180 degree celsius) for approx 10-15 minutes just until they are slightly soft. You still want it to have the crunch as it still needs to hold whatever else you use as toppings. Remove the zucchini and then top with tomato paste, veggies, chopped garlic clove and cheese. Garnish with a bit of oregano and pop into the oven or on top of the Barbeque until the cheese has melted. Serve hot and enjoy, kids will love this and so will your vegetarian and vegan friends and family. Much love as always CC :)