Flat bread with roast vegetables, goats cheese and balsamic vinegar.

When we were in Lewes the other weekend we went to Prezzo (the italian pizza chain) They had a flat bread salad 'pizza' which was light and tasty as a great summer alternative to the typical cheese laden pizza. I decided to try to replicate this culinary delight because who doesn't love bread with toppings? Very easy and very delicious. 

Flat bread with roast vegetables, goats cheese and balsamic vinegar

Ingredients:

1. 1 flatbread (I used Waitrose caramelised onion and goats cheese flatbread) 
2. 1/2 zucchini
3. 1 red capsicum
4. 20gm goats cheese 
5. Mushrooms 
6. Baby tomatoes
7. Fresh basil 
8. Rocket
9. Balsamic vinegar

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 200c. Finely slice zucchini and capsicum, layer on a tray and grill until half cooked (about 15mins) 
2. Whilst the zucchini and capsicum are pre cooking, slice mushrooms, baby tomatoes and goats cheese. 
3. Layer mushrooms, pre cooked zucchini and capscium, baby tomatoes and goats cheese over flat bread. (any any other toppings you want!) 
4. Bake for about 15mins until cheese is melted and veggies are cooked. 
5. Sprinkle fresh basil and rocket over the top and finish with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Sweet potato and veggie shepherds pie

I feel like I should come up with more imaginative names for these things rather than the ridiculously descriptive and often long things they end up with. But at least you know what you're getting in the recipe, I suppose. Also just noticed that this has really ended up being all about the food... and on that note another random recipe!

I love shepherds pie, it's good simple comfort food. Not such a big fan of the fat content in traditional shepherds pie and so I decided to change it up a bit. This is one of my vegetarian meals that can be easily modified to add some meat and therefore satisfy carnivorous other halves. Vegemite/ Marmite may seem like a weird addition to a mince mix but it's a good way of adding the extra taste as a vegetarian friendly alternative to beef stock.

Sweet potato and veggie shepherds pie. 
Makes 3 mini casserole dishes/ 4 ramekins

Ingredients

1. 1/2 cauliflower
2. 1 large carrot
3. 1 sweet potato
4. 50 gm cottage cheese
5. Paprika
6. Sea Salt
7. 1x zucchini 
8. 4x mushroom 
9. 1x onion
10. 150gm soy mince
11. 1tbsp vegemite/ marmite
12. 1 tbsp tomato salsa
13. 1/2 tsp dried basil 

Method

1. Chop cauliflower, carrot and sweet potato into small cubes and boil until mashable (about half an hour)
2. Mash with seasonings and cottage cheese. Put to one side
3. Preheat oven to 200c
4. Grate zucchini, finely chop mushrooms and onion. In a bowl mix chopped veggies, soy mince, vegemite, salsa and basil. 
5. Divide the soy mince mix between mini casserole dishes/ ramekins and cover with sweet potato mash. 
6. Bake in oven for approx. 30 mins or until cooked through.

If you want to go for the meat lovers option - Slice two uncooked sausages open and add the sausage meat to the soy mince mix. This does mean you have more meat mix so either spread the sweet potato mash more thinly or add an extra carrot.

Weight watchers points per mini casserole dish:
For veggie option - 3 points
For meat lovers - 5 points

Low fat pakoras with mint yoghurt sauce

Ah, Indian food. So delicious, so calorific (which is to be expected with cream and deep fried etc) This recipe was born out of the combination of workmate having Indian for lunch leaving the office smelling of butter chicken and having left over sweet potato/ carrot mash in the fridge.

I started not really knowing what I was making other than wanting to use leftovers and make something that had curry paste in it and ended up with surprisingly awesome pakoras and a recipe that I'm going to make next time I have a craving for Indian. 

Low fat pakoras

Ingredients

1. 1/4 cauliflower
2. 1 onion
3. 3x garlic cloves
4. 1/2 can chickpeas
5. 1 egg
6. 1 cup leftover sweet potato and carrot mash 
7. 2 tsp curry paste
8. Sea salt (I used a coriander, rose and lemon one from Pinch seasonings)
9. 1/4 tsp cumin
10. Dash of lemon juice 
11. 100gm gram flour 
12. 1 spray of Olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200c.
2. Blend first 10 ingredients together to create a paste. 
3. Remove from blender and mix in gram flour to create a dough like mix that just holds it's shape (it will still be very watery) 
4. Lightly oil an oven tray
5. Shape the pakora mix into balls and place on tray. (I made ten from the mix). 
6. Bake for approx. 20 mins until firm to touch.  Serve on salad greens with mint yoghurt sauce.

Weight watchers points for two- 3 points

Mint Yoghurt sauce

Ingredients 

1. 3 sprigs fresh mint
2. 1/4 cup low fat yoghurt 
3. Lemon juice and salt to taste

Method
Finely chop up mint. Mix with yoghurt. Add lemon juice and salt to taste. Leave to sit for at least ten minutes before eating.

Weight watchers points - 1 point for half the dressing

Veggie Mince Lasagne

For Christmas, I was given cute little mini casserole dishes which are perfect for single dish portions of pasta bakes, casseroles and lasagne.

Tonight, I had a craving for veggie lasagne, but didn't want anything too heavy so a little single dish veggie lasagne with cottage cheese was perfect and left me with another for lunch tomorrow. I find soya mince is a fantastic ingredient for things like this as it absorbs any extra liquid that may have come out of the veggies.

Double mix for a full casserole dish sized lasagne.

Veggie mince lasagne

Ingredients

1. 1 clove garlic
2. 1 carrot
3. ½ zucchini
4. ½ tin chopped tomatoes
5. 20gms (1/4 cup) soya mince
6. Basil and salt
7. 100 gms (½ cup) low fat cottage cheese
8. 20gm feta
9. 2 sheets whole wheat pasta

Method:

1. Finely chop garlic, grate carrot and zucchini. In small bowl mix veggies, tomatoes and soya mince together. Add a sprinkle of basil and salt.
2. Mix finely chopped spinach, cottage cheese and crumbled feta with a little salt to taste.
3. Layer veggie mince mix, single layer of whole wheat lasagne pasta sheets and cottage cheese mix. Repeat.
4. Bake at 200C until the pasta is cooked.

Makes two small single ramekins.  You can also bulk up the veggie mince mix with additional veggies such as mushroom, peppers or finely chopped broccoli.

Weight watchers points – 7 points total, 3.5 pts per ramekin