What to eat when you can't eat anything - Week 7

I had a lot of bean, lentil and tofu based dishes this week! I'm trying not to rely on goat's cheese and eggs too much for my protein sources. It's not that I'm trying to lose weight on this intolerance regime - but I'm trying to be as healthy as possible (while still leaving room for dark chocolate and ready salted flavour crisps!). 

Breakfast

1. This week I tried a breakfast recipe I haven't used in months: Banana baked oatmeal. I tripled the recipe and cooked it in a loaf tin, so I had enough for three breakfasts and added the optional nuts and cinnamon. It's portable for breakfast on the go, and so filling! Once again Chocolate Covered Katie has come up with a winning recipe so simple that I wish I'd thought of it myself: 

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/03/22/banana-bread-baked-oatmeal/

(The photo below is from the website as I never think to take photographs until it's all gone)

Lunch

1. My new lunch attempt this week was Lentil and Red Pepper Dip which was very tasty and easy to make but not filling enough - an ongoing problem with my lunches. I thought the fact that it was full of lentils would make it really filling. but it was lighter than I expected. In future I think I'll make it when I also have hummus or something else equally filling in the house to supplement it. 

http://www.food.com/recipe/lentils-and-red-pepper-dip-322848

Dinner

1. At least once every couple of weeks I get a craving for some kind of coconut milk based curry dish - sometimes it's Thai curry, sometimes it's Indian curry. This week I finally got around to trying a recipe that I downloaded a couple of years ago. I never saved the link and couldn't find it online now, so my apologies to the creator. The only change I made was that I fried the spices for a minute or two before adding the coconut milk and the vegetables. It was really delicious, and not much work. (I used regular tofu as it's much healthier.)

Coconut milk tofu with cardamom

Serves 4 or 2 hungry people

-400 grams deep fried tofu (or regular tofu)
-2 small red bell peppers, or 1 large
-2 medium sized onions (yellow or red)
-1-2 tbls grated galangal (or ginger) I always use two tablespoons, but use one if you want to make a milder version
-1/2-2 red long chillies with their seeds removed and chopped, use just half a chilli if you want a milder version
- 1 can of coconut milk
-1 tsp coriander
-1 tsp curry powder
-1 tsp cardamom, add 1/2 tsp after tasting if needed
-3 tbls gluten-free soy sauce, or Bragg's Aminos
-1 tbls palm sugar (or maple syrup)
- 1 cinnamon stick, or 1 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 cup roasted peanuts (180C for 15mins in oven)
-oil for frying if you are not using deep-fried tofu

Chop the vegetables, grate the galangal and chop the chilli.

Fry the regular tofu in some hot oil in a wok or a pan. Add the coconut milk and let it boil with the tofu for 10-15 minutes, add the spices and the vegetables, let everything boil for another 10 minutes, add the peanuts, mix and serve the food with some jasmine rice.

2. I also made a dish that I used to make all the time - if you've been to dinner in my house it's quite likely that I made you this! It's a very simple lentil 'bolognaise'. I used to use grated carrot, but I've begun substituting with grated courgette. It doesn't look as good but it still tastes really good. 

Lentil bolognaise

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

½ red pepper finely chopped

1 courgette grated

¼ cup dried red lentils (rinsed in a colander or sieve)

½ tsp dried oregano

3/4 tsp dried basil

A good squeeze of tomato puree

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 tsp vegetable stock powder or ¼ vegetable stock cube, crumbled

Black pepper

Optional: fresh basil, olives, sundried tomatoes, capers.

• Heat oil on a medium heat in a large saucepan/wok. Add the onion and red pepper and fry for about 5 minutes until onion is soft and translucent
• Add garlic and fry for 1 minute
• Add the tomato puree, oregano and basil and stir well to coat the vegetables
• Add the lentils, courgette, tomatoes, pepper and stock and stir well
• Simmer with a lid on for about 20 – 30 minutes until the lentils and carrot are soft adding a little hot water if it starts to stick. Taste to see if you need to add more herbs or stock, remove the lid and simmer for another ten minutes or so until the sauce is reduced and the bolognaise is nice and thick. The lentils should be totally soft before you serve it. Serve with spaghetti.

 I used  nutritional yeast and Bragg's Aminos instead of stock to give it more depth of flavour and savouriness.  I didn't add exact quantities, and you don't need to worry about adding the fresh basil, olives and sundried tomatoes if you don't have them all. I just happened to have them all in my house and I'm so glad I did as it made it taste extra good :D

3. Before I started this intolerance regime I used to love Linda McCartney's Sweet Potato Nachos. The cookbook is available here. It's a great cookbook :) Another blogger has posted the recipe here: http://alifelesssweet.blogspot.ie/2009/11/meatless-monday-sweet-potato-nachos.html

My other half requested them at the weekend, so I made them for him in one dish with cheese and corn tortillas, and made my own in another dish with many, many substitutions. They didn't taste quite as nice but they were still pretty good. I cut up BFree wraps in tortilla chip sized pieces, brushed them with oil and put them in the oven for about 5 mins, then flipped them and baked for another 5 minutes. This made them crisp up, but I wish I'd added a little salt to them as they didn't have much flavour :( I also discovered the next day that they have corn starch and corn flour in them (corn is on my list of foods to avoid) so I was gutted that I'd broken my regime for something that wasn't even much of a treat :'( 

I also had to substitute the kidney beans for pinto beans and added a white sauce with added nutritional yeast instead of the cheese. 

4. My other half swears by Ainsley Harriott's Meals in Minutes cookbook, available here. I think he's made about 3/4 of the recipes in the book at this stage! His Speckled-Eye Squash Stew is a favourite of ours, especially with some added halloumi cheese and served with a little chutney on the side (both of which I've had to forego for the moment). Again, another blogger has posted the recipe here: http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4554 

Snack

1. When I was using the oven to make the baked oatmeal breakfast recipe I decided to make these Vegan Cheesy Goldfish Crackers from Katie as well. I used to love Cheesy Goldfish Crackers whenever I was over in the States so I thought these would be good. I was right. They're ADDICTIVE. They're especially good when they are still warm from the oven. They don't keep very well, (I thought they were a little dry the next day) but I still managed to polish off all that were left. I used a cleaned bottle cap from an empty wine bottle (not mine, unfortunately) which made them perfectly bite-size. I made about 65 crackers from the recipe.

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2013/04/07/healthy-white-cheddar-vegan-goldfish-crackers/

Happy eating!