Savoury Pumpkin Loaf

This delicious recipe was adapted from one I found in a Woolworths catalogue. I simply substituted the white flour for oat flour and didn't add some of the unnecessary ingredients to make it more calorie friendly. 

Ingredients

650g diced pumpkin

1 onion

250g sliced mushrooms

¼ c cashews

3 eggs

½ c oat flour

½ cheese

1c spinach

Method

Roast pumpkin until softened. Fry onion and mushrooms. Toast cashews and chop finely. Combine pumpkin, onion, mushrooms, and cashews with the oat flour, eggs, cheese and spinach. Spoon into loaf pan and sprinkle with extra cheese. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

265 CALORIES PER SLICE – MAKES 6

Chocolate Protein Brownies

I love the fact I can eat brownies without feeling guilty! These had me really suspicious. The batter was ok, when they came out of the oven they were alright but the next day, they were delicious! I made 12 brownies and worked it out to be approximately 67 calories per slice.

Chocolate Protein Brownies

1 large overripe mashed banana
1/2 cup of oats blended into flour
3 tb cocoa
2 tb stevia
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup vanilla no fat yogurt (makes everything I bake so moist!)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Blend oats, cocoa, stevia and protein powder together and then add to a mixing bowl. Blend banana, eggs, almond milk and yogurt until smooth and add to the dry mixture. Stir until combined and pour into a baking tray. Bake for approximately 20 minutes but keep checking it as I think there would be a fine line between nice and rock hard. It will be cooked when you can skewer it and it comes out clean.

The next night I hadn't eaten very much so had lots of calories to make up and really felt like something sweet so I combined half a banana with half a scoop of protein powder and 2 tb almond milk and whipped it up until it was mousse consistency. I popped that in the freezer for about an hour, broke up one of the protein brownies and drizzled PB2 on top. Best. Dessert. Ever. Made me feel like I was eating healthy Cold Rock!

Mince Frittata

This recipe is so delicious! I love to break it up in a salad or eat it alone. The recipe has been altered from a recipe created by Nici who runs a fantastic 30 Day Paleo Challenge. It tastes like a spaghetti quiche (without the pasta or pastry!).

Mince Frittata

500g 5 star lean mince
1 large onion diced
1/2 Tb crushed garlic
1Tb each of paprika, coriander, chilli paste and oregano
1 diced capsicum
1c sliced mushrooms
1 tin of organic smashed tomatoes
4 whole eggs
8 egg whites
2-3 handfuls of spinach
Sprinkle of cheese

Brown mince, onion, garlic, paprika, coriander, chilli paste and oregano. Add tomatoes, capsicum and mushroom. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Whisk eggs and egg whites in a bowl. Spray a baking tray with non stick spray and add mince. Pour over eggs and combine. Add the spinach and combine (but leave most at the top because it looks pretty!). Sprinkle with cheese (optional) and bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius until firm.

When added to a salad its delicious! This one has lettuce, capsicum and cucumber. 

Delicious Cauliflower Pizza

Now before you look any further: please ignore the photo as I had just danced and decided I needed to eat/put on my pizza everything bar the kitchen sink. I, in no way condone this amount of cheese on your pizza haha! (lucky it was very low cal). I ended up scraping it all off and therefore proving the age old mantra: never cook or shop hungry! Today I sinned on both accounts. Once the cheese was removed this was an absolutely amazing dinner! Can't believe it was all veges and all healthy. Perfect for a low-carb day!

Cauliflower Pizza

1 1/2c cauliflower rice*
1 whole egg
1 tsp crushed garlic
A sprinkling of black cracked pepper
1 tb parmesan cheese

Toppings:
Anything you feel like! I had roast chicken, ham, mushroom and spinach.

* Cauliflower rice is simply my fancy way of saying blended up cauliflower so it basically looks like tiny bits of rice. If you are having a stir fry, sub rice for cauli rice and put it in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 8 minutes. Perfect way to make a high carb meal a low carb one with one measly ingredient!

Heat oven to 180 degrees. After blending your cauliflower, wrap up in a chux and squish the living day lights out of to remove all the water and caulijuices. Place in a bowl with the egg, garlic, pepper and parmesan and combine until it comes together kind of like a dough. Line a baking try with baking paper and spray the paper like crazy (I unfortunately did not spray enough and ended up with the photo below - warm pizza salad?). Pat the dough out into a thin, even layer and place in a hot oven for 25 minutes. Remove and add your sauce, toppings and cheese (once again, not as much as the photo!) and bake for a further 10 minutes or until you are happy with your pizza toppings. Spend the next 10 mins scrapping it off the paper and then forget about all the hassle as you try the first bite. I don't think I will ever dial Domino's again! (Not that you do when you eat clean anyway!)

Banana Protein Muffins!

I was my personal trainers number one, gold star pupil today. And not because she whipped my ass but because I made her a fresh batch of banana protein muffins! This is definitely one of those recipes where you just want to say "screw the oven, let me just eat the batter!"And I did haha! So delicious I just wanted to eat it with a big spoon however, the were just as good baked!

Banana Protein Muffins (I made 24 mini ones and 8 large ones)

2 and a half overripe bananas
4 egg whites
3/4c of vanilla yogurt (I used Yoplait For Me get could also use greek yogurt as well)
1/2c unsweetened almond milk
1 1/4c oats
2 scoops of vanilla protein powder (I use Body Science)
1 tsp. baking soda
A good sprinkle of cinnamon (went a little crazy as I am obsessed!)
1 tb honey (could also use stevia or another natural sweetener but I LOVE honey!)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place oats in a blender with the baking soda and blend until it is nearly a chunky flour (think the chunky bits in whole wheat flour). Remove and put into a bowl with the protein powder and cinnamon. To the blender add the banana, egg whites, yogurt, almond milk and honey and blend until smooth (I also thought it could be nice to keep the banana chunky but I didn't think of it until they were in the oven). Pour the banana mix into the dry ingredients and fold until combined (This is the part where you eat the entire bowl without it going anywhere near the oven :D). Pour into muffin tin and top with walnuts. For the mini ones I put a quarter of a walnut and for the large ones I put a whole walnut. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes for the mini ones or 25 minutes for the large muffins or until you can put a skewer in the middle and it comes out clean.

Note: As its made on yogurt, the muffins will not rise but they are still amazingly moist and fluffy.

Pulled Chicken Salsa

I love spicy mexican food! Enchiladas and tacos are a personal favourite so when craving a cheesy, oily delicious enchilada what does one do? Make a clean version of course!

Pulled Chicken Salsa

2 chicken breasts
1 red capsicum diced
1 large onion diced
1 zucchini diced
1 small can or corn
1 can of 4 bean mix
1 jar of salt reduced salsa
2 tbs chilli (I like it spicy!)
4 cups of chicken stock

Bring chicken stock to the boil, add the chicken to the pot and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 15mins or until white through. Remove the chicken and cool. Empty the pot of the chicken stock and turn to the heat to medium/high. Saute onion, capsicum and zucchini. Add corn and set aside. Pull/separate chicken into strings with a fork and add to the pot. Return to the heat and add the remaining salsa, beans and chilli. Simmer on low for an hour and ta da! Salsa!

My nan also had some lebanese bread she had left over so when I gave this to her for dinner I cut the bread into triangles, sprinkled with sea salt and put in a hot oven for 5mins (I was dancing at the time and forgot about them which then lead to burnt chips so make sure you keep an eye on them!) I served it up and she loved it! A great alternative to corn chips!

Quinoa Cakes

A prior rice/cous cous/noodle/pasta fiend I adore quinoa as a protein rich, low carb substitute! As you may have already picked up, I love meals I can pack in containers and put in my bag without risk of it spilling or spoiling! A typical day for me includes waking at around 5am, travelling 2 hours to my university, having class all day and then going to the gym or dance class. Therefore, I am taking basically all my meals with me when I leave in the morning and need something easy and travel-friendly! This was one of my very first clean recipes and I still love to make them on a regular basis.

Quinoa Cakes

1c uncooked quinoa
2c water
1/2 low fat cottage cheese (a staple in my fridge, YUM!)
1/2c grated carrot
1/2c grated zucchini
3 whole eggs
3 tbs whole wheat flour
1 onion diced
100g diced mushroom
1/2c low fat cheese

Boil water in a pot and add quinoa. Reduce the heat from high to medium and cover for 18 minutes. (Keep checking it, I ruined one of mums pots by getting distracted!) Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and be prepared to get your hands dirty! When combined heat a non stick fry pan to medium/high heat and scoop batter into the pan. I used a 1/2c to scoop it in as the mixture is quite running and then I patted it in the cake shape with a spatula. Cook for about 4-6 minutes each side or until golden brown.

Cinnamon Almonds aka. Little bites of heaven!

Almonds, almond butter, almond milk, almond body wash! I am crazy about almonds and love to add them to just about anything! For those who also follow my Instagram you will know I am without peanut butter for the month leading up to my dancing competitions due to my unhealthy addiction (a jar a week easily!). In saying this I have adopted a new love of cinnamon. I currently cant get enough of it and put it in milk, in my overnight oats (recipe to come!), on sweet potato (especially delicious on clean sweet potato chips!) and I thought why not put it with one of my other loves as well, almonds!

A great friend of mine and fellow clean sister, Natasha (as seen in the picture before a night out! She's so beautiful and makes me look so short haha) , would always come to uni eating these delicious cocoa almonds and I thought one day I will make them! That day recently came however, cinnamon was my powder of choice!

Cinnamon Almonds

100g raw, natural almonds
1 egg white
1 tbs natural honey
2 tbs cinnamon
6 packets of a natural sweetener (I used stevia)

Roast almonds on a baking tray for 5 minutes at 180 degrees. Remove and allow to cool.

Whisk egg and honey in a bowl. Combine cinnamon and the sweetener to a zip lock bag and shake. Put the almonds into the egg mix and stir to cover all almonds with egg whites. Remove from the bowl and put into the zip lock bag with a fork so no excess egg whites go into the cinnamon mixture (they will go gluggy if there is too much egg white).

Shake vigorously so the almonds are covered and pour onto a baking tray, spreading them out in a single layer. Bake in the oven for a further 15-20 mins or until crunchy (my mum prefers them crunchier than I do so its a good excuse to try as you go so you know how you like them!).

I wish I knew how to say delicious in more languages than english just for this recipe! So easy to chuck them in a zip lock bag and put them in your bag for uni or the gym. Instant energy hit of good fats! I will definitely be trying the cocoa almonds next!

Zucchini Slice

I was always the kid who hated zucchinis! Then one day I woke up with the idea to make this slice and now I couldn't live without it! I love to take this for lunch as its great cold or warmed up. Its one of those recipes thats better the day after so I always make it in bulk and keep it in the fridge or freezer. This recipe has lots of great veges and protein and its my go to meal when I'm feeling low on energy! Photo isn't the best one as I had about 2 seconds to take it before running out the door!

Ingredients (usually makes lunch 8-10 serves)

4 large zucchinis grated
2-3 large carrots grated
2 onions diced
1 c of frozen pea and corn mix
500g mushrooms diced
200g ham chopped
A sprinkle of low fat cheese for the top (optional)
4 whole eggs
1/2c wholemeal flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Saute onions and mushrooms.
Whisk eggs and combine with grated zucchini and carrots.
Combine zucchini mix with the onions, mushrooms, ham and frozen veges.
Sift flour into mixture and combine
Pour mixture into a large baking tray and sprinkle with cheese
Bake for 40 mins or until the slice is firm and golden brown
Cool and try not to eat the whole slice in one sitting!

"Breakfast" Frittatas

These are amazing! Versatile, easy and fantastic to make the night before and take for breakfast when you're on the run! I make them as my "what's in the fridge that I can throw together so I can have an extra 15 minutes sleep in the morning" breakfast. These are so versatile you can eat them hot or cold, for breakfast, lunch or dinner and with salad or steamed veges! One of those simple recipes that makes so much sense but you just don't think to make! After telling my friends at uni about this recipe, they now make these a staple in their diets! Healthy, quick, cheap and we can eat them in lectures without the risk of loud, crunchy chip packets!


Ingredients (makes 12 muffins)

12 slices of ham for the bases
4 whole eggs and 6 egg whites
1/2 capsicum diced
1 onion diced
100g diced mushroom
Cracked pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius
Saute the capsicum, onion and mushroom until soft.
In a large muffin tin, push the ham slices into the holes like a patty cake liner.
Whisk eggs.
Scoop about a tablespoon of the vege mix into the ham bases and cover with egg.
Crack pepper over the top.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins or until egg is cooked. (They cook from the outside in so they are cooked when there is no raw egg still in the middle of the frittata)
Cool and enjoy!

Some other ideas are to add corn, spinach, turkey mince or anything you have in the fridge!

Me? A blogger?

I'm taking the plunge! I have been toying with the idea of food blogging for a while now but I love to cook and I'm dedicated to eating clean so why not! I'll be posting clean recipes and hopefully most of them will work as well for you as they do for me! I'm not one to measure but I will try my best and post as many photos as possible so you can all see the recipe at each stage.