Stuffed Mushrooms

Like this pasta, my stuffed mushrooms are a quick, low fat, low calorie dinner.  They are a light meal yet filling at the same time.  Not the most attractive looking dish but they taste great and mushrooms are so good for us!  Mushrooms are nature's super food - high in antioxidants, nutrient rich, full of vitamins and minerals including vitamin D, and they are inexpensive! Perfect.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. In a little olive oil saute diced onion, sliced mushrooms, garlic, red capsicum, spinach leaves, chilli flakes and cracked black pepper.  Chopped bacon is a nice addition.  Once soft remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Whilst the onion mix is cooling prepare your mushrooms.  I use the flat BBQ mushrooms but you can use any large mushroom like Portobello.  Remove the stalk and peel.  Spray both sides lightly with olive oil spray and place on a tray lined with baking paper.

Once the onion mix has cooled combine with low fat ricotta cheese and fill your mushrooms. I use the ricotta you buy in the tub as I find it easier to work with in this recipe but fresh ricotta from the deli is fine too.

Adjust quantities to suit how many mushrooms you want to fill.  For these four medium mushrooms I used one small onion, about a cup of sliced mushrooms, a quarter of a capsicum, a large handful of spinach leaves and a generous tablespoon of ricotta.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the mushroom is soft and cooked and the mixture golden.

Enjoy with a crisp salad for a healthy, delicious meal!

Pea and Rocket Soup

This unusual soup is very easy, healthy and low calorie!  It is also very green but it tastes great! 

This is my first cookbook recipe post thus fulfilling one of the reasons I started this blog, as mentioned here.  It is from a book called "Bowl Food" by Murdoch Books. I seem to have a problem following recipes to the letter so as usual have changed a couple of things however with so few ingredients there's not much to change!

Pea and Rocket Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 bag rocket (approximately 100gr)
• 1 bag frozen peas (500gr)
• 3 cups (750ml) chicken stock (or vegetable)*
• Shaved Parmesan Cheese to serve

Method

1. Add oil and onion to a saucepan and cook for a couple of minutes until the onion is soft.
2. Add peas and rocket and cook for a minute or two until the rocket wilts a little bit.
3. Add hot stock and an extra cup of boiling water.  Bring to the boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Cool and then blend until smooth.
6. Return to the saucepan and reheat.
7. Serve with shaved parmesan and extra rocket leaves if desired.

* I use Massel brand stock which is all vegetable, has no animal content and is gluten free thus making this dish suitable for vegetarians and those with gluten intolerance. 

Chocolate Brownies

I made these brownies for a recent family catch-up.  The original recipe is from the Taste website but I have tweaked it a bit.

Some things to note:

• The mix looked unappetising as I was making it as the pictures show quite well!  Whilst this worried me slightly at the time it was not an indication of the end result.
• The recipe is gluten free but out of the 10 people who had it for dessert only 1 was gluten intolerant and everyone liked it.
• The gluten free flour could easily be replaced with normal flour.  
• I made these brownies a couple of hours in advance so quickly reheated individual slices in the microwave for 30 seconds or so before serving. 

Not looking very appetising at this stage

Still not pretty!

The finished product - much prettier and definitely delicious!

Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g milk chocolate
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup gluten-free plain flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C 
2. Line a square baking tin with non-stick baking paper so that the paper overlaps the sides.
3. Melt the butter, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan over low heat.  Stir constantly until melted and smooth. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool slightly.
4. Add eggs and vanilla extract to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Sift the flour and cocoa over the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Stir through the walnuts.
5. Pour the mixture into the baking tin.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just set.  
6. Cut into squares and serve with cream or ice cream and fruit.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

This delicious soup is adapted from a Donna Hay recipe and it is so easy!  The pumpkin roasts in its skin!!  This has been life altering for me as I hate cutting pumpkin!  The scars on my fingers attest to this!  Once the pumpkin is cooked you blend it with chicken stock.  That’s it - very simple.  I adapted this recipe to make it more low calorie but it is easy to find the original on the internet.  The original adds cream, honey and sour cream.  Delicious but not as diet friendly as this version.  I find a little swirl of skim milk is sufficient to thin the soup out and create a nice 'creamy' consistency.

Before ..

After ..

The finished soup reheating

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 halves butternut pumpkin
• 1 onion
• olive oil or olive oil spray
• sea salt, ground black pepper
• 3 - 4 cups chicken stock
• Skim milk or cream
• Curry Powder (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C
2. Scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin halves
3. Place the pumpkin and onion on a baking tray
4. Drizzle with oil or spray with olive oil spray (less calories!) and sprinkle with salt and pepper
5. Bake for about an hour or until the pumpkin is soft and starting to brown. Once it has cooled scoop the pumpkin out into a blender
6. Scoop the onion flesh away from its skin and add to the blender
7. Add chicken stock and blend until smooth and the consistency you like - (Sometimes I add some curry powder at this step for extra flavour)
8. Pour the mixture into a saucepan, add skim milk or cream if using and gently heat

** If you use gluten free stock this soup is suitable for people who are gluten intolerant