Pesto pasta

Ingredients:

Pesto
1/2 cup basil leaves (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of rocket (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp salt

The rest
Penne pasta
1/2 cup marinated artichokes (roughly chopped)
1/3 cup Kalamata olives (pitted & halved)
1 cup button mushrooms (cubed)
1 tbp olive oil
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped) [optional if your little one doesn't like garlicky milk - like Lily)

Boil water and cook the pasta.

To make the pesto place all the ingredients in the blender and blend together until smooth. If it is too dry then add a little more lemon juice or olive oil.

Heat the olive oil over a medium/low heat. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir for 4 minutes. Throw in the artichokes and olives and mix together. Add the pasta and stir through several large tablespoons of the pesto.

Serve with a dollop of pesto on top.

Eat.

Penne, pumpkin muffin & chickpea lunch box

Today's lunch box contains penne with a tomato, garlic, basil & olive sauce, a pumpkin muffin, and some 'cheezy chickpeas'.

The pumpkin muffin recipe came from Vegan with a Vengeance and they are delicious. I would recommend using far less sugar than suggested in the recipe though. I cut it down a little and they were still sweeter than they needed to me.

The 'cheezy chickpeas' recipe came from Vegan Lunch Box. They are basically just chickpeas, nutritional yeast, sea salt & canola oil baked in the oven for 30 minutes, but they really are very yummy.

Pesto pasta lunch box

OK, so the pesto pasta is not the most photogenic thing that I have ever seen, but it was yummy. P made it with basil, tomatoes and chilli from our balcony, plus some store-bought rocket, garlic, walnuts and olive oil.

The rest of the lunch box consists of corn crackers, baba ghanoush, green grapes and an orange cupcake.

The orange cake was fairly yummy, but tasted slightly baking soda-y so I will have to play with the recipe. Once I have, I will post it here. Next time I am contemplating coating it in chocolate and making it into a birthday cake...

Pasta salad w/ cannellini beans

Last night I made one of my favourite summer meals - pasta salad - and it was made all the more exciting because we were able to use our own freshly ripened tomatoes, basil and chilli from our little balcony on the garden.



Ingredients
250g wholemeal penne
1 tin of organic cannellini beans (well washed)
3 fresh tomatoes (finely diced)
large handful of baby spinach (torn into small pieces)
large handful of rocket (torn into small pieces)
large handful of fresh basil (torn into small pieces)
juice of one large lemon
2 cloves garlic (finely diced)
1 fresh chilli (finely diced)
extra virgin olive oil



Cook the penne in boiling water until it is al dente. Drain and set aside to cool.

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and one of the cloves of garlic. Stir for about a minute and add the cannellini beans. Heat over medium/high for about 5 minutes. Take out of the pan and set aside to cool.

Combine 2/3 tablespoon of olive oil with the lemon juice, garlic and chilli in a small jar and shake to combine.

Combine all the ingredients in a large salad bowl.

Serve and eat.

p.s. I hope you like this little corner of our balcony. We are pretty happy with how our plants are coming along - particularly since we face West.

Lunchtime Pitta Pizza

Not sure of what to have for lunch today, I decided to make a quick pizza on pitta bread. Since it turned out to be quite yummy, I thought that I would share it with you.


Ingredients:
2 x pitta bread
2 large tablespoons of tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
2 small red chillies, diced
5 sprigs of spring onions, diced
150 grams of firm tofu, crumbled
teaspoon of Bragg's
teaspoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 tomato, sliced
A few slices of red capsicum
4 button mushrooms, sliced thinly
6 kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Preheat oven to about 180 degrees Celsius.

Fry half of the garlic, chili and spring onions in olive oil for about a minutes over medium heat before adding crumbled tofu. Let it brown and add Bragg's and nutritional yeast (optional, it would be yummy, but I had run out and didn't use it). Set aside.

Spread tomato paste evenly over the two pitta bread pieces. Top with remaining garlic, chili and spring onions - spread them around. Cover based with baby spinach, top with mushrooms, olives, tomato, and capsicum (I only used this on P's - I am not a capsicum fan). Sprinkle tofu mix on top and put into the oven for around 8 minutes.

Slice into quarters and serve.


Can I just add that the little one in my tummy appears to like the pizza very much. S/he is kicking up a storm right now...

Minestrone

This is one of my favourite recipes - particularly when it gets cold outside.



Ingredients
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion
4 large cloves of garlic
3 small red chillies
8-12 button mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
2 zucchinis
1/2 a head of broccoli
4 small/medium carrots
1/2 a bunch of celery
1/2 sweet potato
1 tin of mixed beans (or soaked dried beans)
1 tin of kidney beans (or soaked dried beans)
1 tin of tomatoes (blended)
1 litre of vegetable stock
1 litre of water

*You can also add potato or pasta to this recipe, but it makes it a little heavier.
*A blend of fresh basil and olive oil also makes a really yummy side dish to stir in at the end.





Heat a heavy-based stockpot on low-medium heat. Dice the onion and add to pot with the olive oil. Stir over the heat for 3-5 minutes so that it starts to go translucent. Dice the garlic and chillies and add to the pot and stir. Dice the mushrooms and add to the pot with the chilli powder and stir. Peel, wash and dice the sweet potato and steam separately. Wash and dice the remaining vegetables and add to the pot with a small amount of water. Stir and turn up the heat to medium.




Wash the tinned beans and add to the pot. Blend the tinned tomatoes and add to the pot. Stir together. Add in the steamed sweet potato and stir. Slowly add the vegetable stock and the remaining water. Cover and leave to simmer on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes.




Remove 3 cups of the soup (mostly the solids) and blend. Add the blended vegetables back into the soup and cover. Leave to simmer on low heat until ready to eat.