Pizza with no set topping

Homemade Pizza with as many toppings

How's it going wisefoodies? Reena here :)

The one thing I reckon we would both agree on it that pizza is a food for all! I mean you can put whatever topping you like on it, to suit you and if your friend doesn't like it, then they can put whatever topping they like on theirs'. No complaints and everyone is happy :) 

However takeaway pizza can be full of fat, sugar and salt.... I know it tastes great, and the whole point of it is when your lazy and can't be bothered to cook, just order and get it home delivered. Even I get lazy at times, so when I feel like eating pizza, just buy the base :) and the toppings well probs going to be in your kitchen anyway :)

TIME: 25 minutes

CALORIES: 165

Ingredients:

1 pizza base (I bought mine at the supermarket, the brand 'Mission")

500ml of tomato paste

A bunch of spinach chopped finely

1 Capsicum chopped finely

1 red onion chopped finely

A handful of mushrooms chopped finely

1 large broccoli chopped finely 

2 slices of ham chopped finely

A handful of sun-dried tomatoes chopped finely

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Here's how to make:

1) Preheat oven at 150 degrees Celsius

2) Spray a pizza oven tray with Canola Oil (or any Oil you have)

3) Spread tomato paste on the pizza base

4) Add all the ingredients onto the pizza with cheese being the last ingredient

5) Put in the oven to bake for 10-15mins, depending on how you like the cheese (I like it golden)

If you don't like any ingredients I have mentioned just replace it with what you like :) it's that easy!

Sorry wise foodies, I ate it all before I could take another pic :)

Berry Bonanza Smoothie

Mixed Berry Smoothie

Hey guys :) Steph again!

Lately I've been trying to find alternatives to ice cream for dessert. As a lover of plain yoghurt (the natural kind without any added sugar or flavouring) I found that having this with a bowl of fruit such as sliced banana and strawberries is sooooooo good! But for my latest post i figured why not make it into a super smoothie? I know some of you might hate skim milk, I used to as well, but once you make a conscious decision to switch to this milk after a while it's all you can have! But guys, you just can't go wrong with this fruity goodness. It's such a perfect summery drink too. Which for this hot Aussie summer I know you wisefoodies will need!

TIME: 5 minutes
CALORIES: 200

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 cups mixed berries (I used frozen ones)
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 cup plain yoghurt

Here's how you make it:

1. Add all these ingredients together in a blender and blend! Voila!

Enjoy my wisefoodies :)

Teriyaki Chicken Hokkien Noodles

Teriyaki Chicken Hokkien Noodles

Hey Guys! Steph here :)

SO I have a love affair with hokkien noodles! It's one of my favourite asian dishes and a light teriyaki sauce really makes it something special! Not only is this super easy to make but its so healthy too. Have you guys been to Japan before? I've been lucky enough to go not once, but twice because I love it so much. And teriyaki chicken or sushi was always on my menu! If you haven't been before I highly recommend it!!

TIME: 10 minutes
CALORIES:  312

Here's what you'll need:

• 500g chicken fillet sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 4 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 2 stalks bok choy, cut into quarters
• Half a red capsicum
• 400g hokkien noodles

Here's how you make it:

1. Combine sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce and ginger in a bowl and add chicken. Allow to marinade.
2. Heat oil in a wok and cook chicken until brown. Add the hokkien noodles, bok choy and capsicum and mix well. And voila!

Enjoy!!

Super Breakfast Smoothie

Super Mango Smoothie

Hiii food frenzies, 

Who’s sick of having oats, toast or the same cereal every morning? 

Well there’s delicious fruit in this season, which you should really incorporate into your diet while you can, before they go out of season! 

Today’s weather was insaneeee! It topped over 45 degrees Celsius. In this weather, I don’t know about you, but I really wanted something light but filling and extremely cold. 

This breakfast smoothie can be modified to your desire, mangoes can be replaced by berries, almond meal can be replaced by LSA, and to keep full for longer you can also include 1 scoop of your protein. 

N.

Time: 5 mins 

Calories: 88

Ingredients

• 1/2 mango 
• 1 tablespoon Chia Seeds 
• 1 heaped teaspoon almond meal
• 1 glass of skim (light) milk 
• 2 tablespoons no fat plain yoghurt 

(honey or sugar if you really need it)

Method:

Scoop out the mango flesh and add all ingredients in the blender and blend. 

Mango flesh

Sweet Chilli Chicken Stir fry with Cashews

Stir fry

Hey guys! Steph here.

So it's been a few days since my last post. It's been a busy time! Who's been watching the Australian Open?
I can't get enough of it. In fact whenever its on every year I turn into a tennis fanatic and play heaps in the park behind my house.

Anywayyyy back to the topic, I've spent the past few days thinking about what I was going to cook next and was reading through our 'sensational stir-fries' recipe book, when I came across this delicious looking stir fry that I just HAD to try. I was actually really surprised by how it turned out. It was a great balance between sweet and sour! Not to mention healthy :)

TIME: 3 hours to marinate (if you can) + 10 minutes actual cooking
CALORIES: 363

NOTE: I like to serve this with white rice but of course you can substitute it with brown rice.

Here's what you need:

• 700g chicken breast fillets, sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup coriander leaves, chopped
• 2 red chillies
• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 3/4 cup raw cashews, roasted
• 1 cup broccoli or snow pea sprouts

Here's how you make it:

1. Combine chicken, coriander, chilli, sesame oil and garlic in large bowl. Cover and refrigerate 3 hours (or however long) or overnight.
2. To cook- heat peanut oil in wok; stir-fry chicken mixture until brown and cooked through.
3. Add vinegar, sauce and juice- stir fry until sauce boils.
4. Add broccoli and then serve with the cashews on top. And Voila!

Enjoy wisefoodies! :)

Tuna&Vegetable Wholemeal Pasta

Tuna&Vegetable Wholemeal Pasta 

Hey Wisefoodies :) Reena here :)

I don't know where to begin, all I can say, is when someone asks' me whats' one of my favorite foods, I always say PASTA!, you can't go wrong with pasta. In fact I have never tasted bad pasta..ever! I am a fan of the salad pastas and the cold ones, but my all time fav that I could eat without any hassles is the tomato based ones.

You maybe thinking that pasta has a lot of carbs- well it is defs a carb food however it can also be healthy for your body. The best thing I find with pasta is, you can add as much vegetables to it and it actually makes it taste better.

Time: 25 minutes
Calories: 361.3

Ingredients:

3 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 cobs polka dot corn, corn cut off the cob
2 zucchini, chopped
1 red capsicum, deseeded, chopped
350g San Remo dried wholemeal spirals
425g can tuna in springwater, drained, broken into large flakes
1/4 cup chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped broccoli
1/2 lemon, juiced
500ml of Tomato paste
Freshly ground pepper

Here's how to make:

Step 1 :Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the tomato paste, onion, corn, spinach, broccoli, carrot and capsicum and cook, stirring often, for 10-12 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Step 2 :Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water following packet instructions or until al dente. Drain well, reserving 1/3 cup (80ml) of the cooking liquid.
Step 3 :Add the vegetables, cooking liquid, tuna, parsley and lemon juice to the pasta. Toss well to combine. Season with pepper. Serve with mozzarella cheese.

Enjoy Wisefoodies :) 

Nothing beats homemade Pasta :)

Modified San Choy Bow

San Choy Bow 

Heyy All,

Running out of time to prepare food for the family? How about a meal where most of the ingredients are already in your pantry, only thing you have to buy is the seasoning?
This is a really quick and easy Asian meal, great for when you’re on the go or don’t have time to prepare a big meal. Only takes 20 mins to prepare and cook!!
I was actuallly first introduced this meal when I went travelling to China. Being curious of the food in a new country and also cautious I was suggested to start of with this simple meal, where all the ingredients are familiar. It tasted greaaaatt !!

To make this meal more healthy I modified the usual San Choy Bow recipe by adding mushrooms, capsicums, coriander and tomatoes.

Hope you all enjoy

N. 

Time: 15 - 20 mins 

Serves: 4 

Calories: 421

Ingredients

Lettuce Leaves 

500gms chicken mince 

Lettuce 

San Choy Bow seasoning (found at local supermarket)

2 cloves Garlic 

1 hot Chilli (optional)

1/2 Capsicum 

cup of Mushroom 

4 x Spring onion 

cup of dicedTomatoes 

1 small diced onion 

cup of Chestnuts (optional)

bunch of Coriander 

Method 

1. Cook your diced onions until brown along with the crushed chili and garlic 
2. Add chicken mince and cook until brown
3. Add the san choy bow seasoning or sauce (depending on what you bought)
4. Add the sliced mushrooms, spring onion and small capsicum pieces to the mince 
5. Once cooked, take it off the heat 
6. Arrange your lettuce leaves like the picture shown
7. Add the mince on to the leaves 
8. Add freshly diced tomatoes, chestnuts and coriander on top 

(n.b. add vegetable amount to your desire)

Homemade Oatmeal,Raisin, Apple&Date Cookies

Freshly homemade oatmeal, raisin, apple and date cookies

Hey my dearest wisefoodies :) Reena here,

Just randomly today I woke up and I felt like cooking. But not like cooking a storm or a meal for the family, I just felt like cooking something fun! Remember back in the day, when you were a kid and didn't have to worry about what you ate, and how it would affect your body? I miss those days. It seems like in today's culture, looking skinny and bony is considered 'pretty' or 'hot', but I am not a person to deprive myself of all the wonderful food that's available out there and nor should you.

So my friend came over today, and we both decided why not re-live our childhood, and bake cookies :) and not have to feel guilty about eating them.
It was so fun, and the best thing about this recipe is that, most of the ingredients to make it, are probably already in your kitchen pantry :) Well... you can play with the ingredients to what you do have in the kitchen, and it will still taste great!

TIME: 20 minutes
CALORIES: 200

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/4 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup of melted low fat and unsalted butter
1 grated apple
1 handful of chopped dates
1 handful of raisins

Here's how to make:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2) In a bowl, sift the plain flour, add the oats, raw sugar and baking powder together and mix.
3) In a separate bowl, crack the egg (just in case it's a bad egg), add the butter, apple, dates and raisins and mix.
4) Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and fold the mixture with a spatula.
(if its, too dry, just add a few drops of milk until the mixture is moist)
5) Spray the baking tray lightly with Olive Oil.
6) Take spoonfuls of the mixture and place it in drops on the tray.
7) Bake for 10-15 minutes.

The smell of homemade cookies beats all! Enjoy wisefoodies :)

Freshly baked cookies straight out of the oven

Tomato Bruschetta with Toasted Baguette

Bruschetta on Baguette

Hey wisefoodies Steph here,

One of the best things about being Australian is the huge range of cuisines and foods we have available. I can't imagine not being able to have Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese or Italian whenever I wanted to! Today I was raiding the pantry, then the fridge, then back to the pantry again trying to find something to eat and came up with one of my favourite things to make for breakfast or lunch ever- Italian Bruschetta.

We always have tomatoes in the house and Dad always buys Baguette's for his lunch from our local Patisserie, so making this is always easy. It's really simple and super quick to make, and the Balsamic Vinegar makes it so tangy and OH so tasty!

TIME: 10 Minutes
CALORIES: 102

Here's what you need:

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves chopped finely
• Pinch salt
• Black pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 Baguette

Here's how you make it:

1. Mix garlic, olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt and pepper together in a bowl.
2. Meanwhile boil tomatoes for 1 minutes just to soften, then cut them up into small cubes then add to the mixture
3. Cut baguette into smaller pieces diagonally and grill them.
4. Spoon the bruschetta on to the baguette pieces. And Voila!

NOTE: You can also add finely chopped red onion if you wish. When serving I like to drizzle a bit of olive oil on the bread before I spoon the bruschetta on!

Ingredients for Bruschetta

Bruschetta and Baguette before serving

Bran, Apple, Banana and Date Muffins

Wholesome muffins are for All

Hey Wisefoodies :) how's it going??

I'm pretty sure it isn't just me who can only eat 3meals a day!  I need my snacks (like all the time!), and usually I love to to eat muffins, cookies and cakes... chocolate mmmm! And what I find after snacking on these is the feeling of bloat-ness, and just generally, I feel so unhealthy inside and regret eating so much of it.

One way to feel great about yourself, is to choose a healthy snack, whether is be fruit salad, or yogurt and muesli or carrots and celery sticks...but that just bores me! Now you can get different variations of a healthy muffin recipe, but this one is my own, and I simple love these muffins!

The best thing about these muffins, is that they keep you fuller for longer and can really be eaten at any time of the day, or even as a breakky meal when on the go :)

TIME: 35 minutes
CALORIES: 250

Ingredients Required:

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
2 tbsp raw sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tbsp virgin oil
1 1/2 cups milk
1 apple, grated
2 squashed banana
And a handful of crushed dates

Here's how to make:
1) Preheat oven to 190°C. Spray a 12 cup muffin tray with canola oil and set aside.
2) In a medium sized bowl, mix the self-raising flour, baking powder, wheat bran, raw sugar and cinnamon.
3) In a separate bowl, mix the egg, virgin oil, milk, apple, bananas and dates together.
4) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients using a spatula, fold together until all of the ingredients are just wet
5) Using a 1/4 cup measure per muffin, fill the muffin tray.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked.

Enjoy my wise foodies :)

Freshly baked out of the oven

Specially Marinated Grilled Lamb Chops



Grilled Lamb Chops

Heyy food lovers,

I'm just going to briefly introduce how my journey of healthy eating all began. The truth is my mum is my inspiration. She walks 6km to work most days in the morning and on top of that she goes to the gym during her lunch breaks. She reads books at night about healthy food and exercising, how to moviate yourself. By changing her dietary habits and slowly incorporating this in the way she cooks for the family she managed to lose 10kg in 3 months. That's where it all began, I decided to join my mum and eat healthy.

Well today surprisingly didn’t reach the forecasted temperature of 40 degrees. I thought it would be a lovely day for grilled juicy lamb chops.

This meal is for one of those days you feel like a big, hearty, warm meal.
There's always healthy ways to enjoy your favourite foods.

For a healthy lamb chop meal it is essential to trim all fat, and grill not pan fry to avoid excess fat and oils building up in the food.

The secret in this recipe is the marinade, which brings out beautiful, aromatic flavours. This is a great and tasty way to cook your source of protein.

This is best accompanied by a fresh salad or yogurt and mint sauce.

Nikki

Calorie Count: 1 x lamb chop (113gms) = 47 Calories

Marination time: 2hrs - 24 hours 
Cooking time: 40 mins

Marinade: 

2-3 cloves crushed garlic 

2 tablespoons Portuguese seasoning 

1 teaspoon lemon juice 

2 tablespoons rosemary (or mixed herbs)

1 teaspoon masala (optional)

Sprinkle chilli flakes (optional)

1 teaspoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon chilli sauce 

1 teaspoon light soy sauce  

Lamb Chops (600gms)

Method

1. Trim the fat off lamb chops 
2. Prepare the marinade and mix it well with lamb chops. Keep in fridge as long as possible. (usually overnight or atleast 2 hours)
3. Heat your grill to 180 degrees Celsius 
4. Use aluminum foil over you baking tray or grill (to avoid the lamb sticking to it.) 
5. Grill for 40 mins (keep changing sides)

Salad to go with the Lamb Chops