FoodieChat

The other day I had a temporary lapse of good judgement and poured tap water into a glass pyrex dish that had a roast in it cooking at 230 degrees. Wham! Explosion of glass shards covered in pig fat . Well apart from wasting a 2kg roast and having to clean up the mess, at least no glass went in legs. Hence I still craved pork. But 20minutes before guests arrive and no meat, quick dash to the nearest woollies and bought some pork scotch fillet. Here’s a great way to marinate them before grilling : press 2 – 3 cloves garlic in a garlic press to mince; add a generous tablespoon of harrissa, a few finely chopped thyme leaves, and fresh oregano, olive oil, sea salt and pepper. The aroma of the fresh herbs is amazing as it permeates the sweet pork. This quantity was for 4 large chops.  Here I served it Rockpool Bar and Grill style: with nothing else on the plate hahaha.

This recipe is from my friend Jo. It’s also something that can be prepared the night before for lunch. Take 1 cup of cooked spiralli pasta (I use wholemeal as it’s lower GI), a few halved cherry tomatoes, some sliced capsicum, and a few rocket leaves, and make a dressing of 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and 1.5 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.  Season to taste, and add a can of drained tuna in olive oil.  If you’re taking it to work, dress everything except the rocket, and place the rocket on the top of your lunchbox, and keep the tuna separate.  Low GI, high protein lunch – easy!

A seriously quick and easy (so quick that I didn’t have time to take a piccy) dinner is this roast vegetable frittata I made up from what was in my fridge and variation on a few recipes.  I made it low fat by substituting cream with skim milk; and using low fat mozzarella instead; and adding fresh herbs to compensate.

Ingredients (serves 4 for meal with salad)

• 1 eggplant, sliced into 5mm thick slices
• 2 zucchini, sliced lengthways into 5mm thick slices
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 5mm thick slices
• 300g sliced mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 6 free range eggs
• half cup of skim milk
• 1 cup grated (low fat) cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley and/or basil; or pesto

Method

1. Grease a grill pan with olive oil and grill eggplant, zucchini and sweet potato and set aside (sweet potato may need to be parboiled first if you’re time poor)
2. In a wok or frypan, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, and on a medium heat, saute garlic and onion, until onion is caramelised and softened.  Add mushrooms and cook until soft.
3. Line a square cake tin with baking paper; and layer eggplant, followed by zucchini, then sweet potato.
4. Pour mushroom/onion mixture on top.
5. Beat eggs and herbs in a bowl. Add milk
6. Slowly pour egg mixture onto vegetables, allowing to seep in between.
7. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 25 mins until set.
8. Slice into wedges and serve warm or cold – perfect for a picnic!

Ever since Boost came onto the scene, closely followed by Pulp and many others, Sydney became swept into healthy drink fever.  Smoothies are refreshing on a cool day, and also are a great meal replacement as they are so filling! But then I decided to delve into the nutritional information of these drinks after a tip off from a newspaper article and discovered these may contain as many calories as a high sugared soft drink!  And no wonder why.  They are made with fruit juice, fruit and frozen yoghurt or sorbet with no fresh milk in sight.  So that was the end of those drinks for me. Admittedly, some of these chains have introduced drinks with some milk component, but before that I already discovered my own trick of making a more nutritious and lower calorie version which is equally as delicious (and much cheaper!!). (more…)