LouLou's Recipe's

[lucylou]

I have been so inspired by other people's recipes that I thought I'd share some of my own along the way. Today for a wintry comfort food lunch I made...

CHEESE AND MUSHROOM TARTS

Pastry

Pulverise 2 Saladas from your allowance ( 4 little squares)
Moisten with water and press into two tart pans. Put them in the fridge for a while.

Filling

Ricotta (1/2 allowance)
Mozarella (1.2 allowance)
1 tbs onion (allowance)
Lots of mushroom (allowance)
1 slice tomato (allowance)
1/2 tsp mixed herbs (basil, rosemary)
fresh black pepper
Celtic sea salt
Balsmic vinegar

Chop the veggies finely and saute with a splash of balsamic and a couple of splashes of water. Meanwhile mix the ricotta with the finely chopped mozarella, herbs, salt and pepper.
When the veggies are well cooked mix them well with the cheese mixture. Get the tart bases out of the fridge and pile the filling into them.

Bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees.

Hard to believe I'm on a diet!

[lucylou]

I only eat cheese a couple of times a week but when I eat it I make the most of it! I tried the lemon cheesecake but because I don't use artificial sweeteners it was just a bit tart. So i got a very ripe Mexican mango and made this.

Mango Cheesecakes

Pastry

Pulverise 2 Saladas from your allowance ( 4 little squares) with a pinch of cinnamon. Moisten with water and press into two tart pans. Put them in the fridge for a while.

Filling

ripe mango (1/2 allowance)
ricotta (allowance)

Mash up the mango and mix with the ricotta. Spoon the filling into the pastry cases and bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees or until lightly browned on top. Leave to cool or put them in the fridge for a while.

I ate mine cold with the other half of my mango allowance as a sauce. Yum.

[lucylou]

I love Indian curries and one of my favourites is lamb saag. We can't have lamb so I thought I'd try beef and it turned out really well. I also love spinach and silverbeet so any recipe with those in them is a winner for me.

Ingredients

Beef (allowance)
Spinach or silverbeet (most of allowance)
1 Tbs onion (allowance)
Garam Masala (see Connie's recipe below)
Chilli flakes if you like it hotter.
1 tsp mayonnaise (optional)

Method

Braise the beef until it's brown, add the garam masala and onions and cook for a while longer. Stir in the spinach and add a bit of water so that it doesn't dry out. I cooked mine for over an hour and the meat was incredibly tender. Saag traditionally has yoghurt in it so you could add the mayonnaise at the end for a creamier result if you like.

This is Connie's Garam masala recipe. if you haven't cheked out her recipes then do yourself a favour, they're fabulous.

Garam Masala

Black pepper 20 grams
Cloves 10 grams
Cinnamon 20 grams
Brown cardamom 15 grams
Cumin seeds 10 grams
Bay leaves 10 grams
Coriander seeds

Mix and cook in a skillet over a dry heat until they emit a smokey aroma ( not burnt) and turn a darker shade of brown, then crush with a mortar and pestle, store in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

[lucylou]

This is so yummy, why wouldn't you want to have cake for breakfast. But of course if you want you can swap yur meals around and have cake for lunch or cake for dinner.

OK. So first you'll need to eat your veggies, I find steamed spinach/silverbeet with a bit of seasoning and balsamic is perfect. I eat a lot of these veggies and I've never had constipation yet on Cohens.

Right now for the Apple Cake. I took on board a tip from this forum about stewing up a whole heap of apples at the same time and measuring them equally into zip lock bags for later use. Store them in the fridge or freeze them depending on ow many you use. I stew mine with some whole cloves for that extra taste, don't forget to pick the cloves out before you eat the stewed apple though!

Ingredients

1 stewed apple
1 egg
2 crisp breads ( 4 little Salada squares)
A pinch of spice (cinnamon/ginger)

Method

Pulverise the crisp breads. (I use a Bamix Drymill which is absolutely perfect, I've had it for years and never used it, with Cohen's I use it twice a day sometimes.)
Mix all ingredients together with a fork until well beaten. Spoon into mini muffin pans ( I use the silicon ones, no need to oil them and the muffins pop right out).

Bake for about 15 minutes at 180-200 degrees C.

Yum. They are light and fluffy and just like an apple tea cake. i couldn't believe it the first time I ate them. Cake for Breakfast, Hooray

[lucylou]

...or if you like Roo Stew

I've been a bit wary of using roo because I've never cooked it before. However kangaroo is very low fat and good for the environment (no hard hooves destroying the land) so I thought I'd give it a go. it's also cheaper than the organic beef I buy and you know that roo hasn't been fed anything artificial nor fattened in feed lots so all in all I think it's a great meat.

I found some recipes on the net and adapted this one, it is delicious and the roo is very tender. It needs to cook for quite a while so I suggest doing a few batches at a time and baking them in individual ramekins.

Ingredients

Diced Kangaroo (allowance)
Diced Mushroom (most of allowance)
1 tbs onion (allowance)
1/4 tomato (allowance)
bay leaf
thyme or rosemary
garlic powder
balsamic vinegar
water
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fry the roo in a spray of oil until browned. Transfer into a ramekin. Cook onion and tomato in the pan the roo was in with a shake of garlic powder until onions are soft. Add mushrooms, herbs about 1/2 a cup of water and a splash of balsamic and cook for a couple of minutes. Pour the veggies over the roo in the ramekins and bake at 160 degrees C for an hour and a half. (yes I did mention it needs to bake for a while!)

I did four batches at once. I always do a big cook up on the weekend and then I don't have to worry about my meals for the rest of the week.

[lucylou]

Now that mangoes are back in season and coming down in price this is a great treat especially if you have a slightly over ripe mango. It's adapted from Ez's little mango cakes recipe.

Mango allowance
1 Salada allowance (2 little squares)
pinch of cinnamon

I have a Bamix and I use the drymill to pulverise the Salada. A stick/wand blender is the best thing to use for this recipe. Slice your mango, add the pulverised Salada and cinnamon and whizz together until well blended. Pour into a small ramekin and bake on about 200 degrees C until puffed up and golden on top. Eat hot/warm.
A real treat with yoghurt as your Meal 1 if you're into swapping your meals around it would be a great end of the day treat.

Yummmmmm!

[Hervey Bay Shrinker]

These receipes sound really interesting, I am going to try them, I will let you know what I think. I love experimenting too, it is fun to try to adapt different receipes isn't it? Thanks for your contribution Lucylou.

[Hervey Bay Shrinker]

I tried your apple cakes for breakfast - SENSATIONAL!! I really felt like I was eating something really substancial for breaky. I tried them without the apple also (just an egg and the salada, it was quite nice too, like a heavy bread really. Thanks for your tips.

[Hervey Bay Shrinker]

I made this for lunch today, just superb Lucylou- Thanks for the great ideas. I am still making the apple cakes for breakfast, they are soooo YUMMY!!!
Merryn (HBS)

[Hervey Bay Shrinker]

From the above post it was the cheese and mushroom tart.

[lucylou]

I made this for lunch today for both myself and the Hubby and it is truly delicious. I adapted it from a Christmas recipe in the newspaper. I know I'm on maintenance now but this is perfectly suited to the diet phase and to anyone eating Cohen's friendly food.

cooked prawns (allowance)
1/2 lime
1/2 mango allowance
1/2 onion allowance (use red/Spanish onion)
fresh coriander and salad greens from the rest of your veggie allowance, I used baby spinach,rocket and butter lettuce.

Peel the prawns, dice the mango and finely chop the onion, mix them all together, cover the bowl and leave it overnight. This allows the flavours to blend. NB when I make this again which I will I'm going to add a little fresh chilli at this stage.

The next day arrange your salad greens in a bowl, tip the prawn/mango/onion mix on top, drizzle on the juice from 1/2 a lime and sprinkle the fresh coriander on top of that.

Delicious and perfect for summer.

PS Thanks Merryn for your appreciation of my recipes. I know that other people's recipes made this diet a much happier experience for me so it's nice to be able to give something back.

[Edengirl]

...great recipes, will definitely be giving them all a try!

[Aslan]

These are brilliant lucylou - i will definately be trying them - applecakes sound devine

[sussi]

Hi Lucylou

I have been scanning this forum and about to start my program, these recipes are excellant. I love to cook but being a full time shift worker it is sometimes hard to be inventive and come up with someone new when you are in a rush to get to work. Haven't tried anything of them yet but someone who LOVES all types of food I know they are going to be great.

Thanks
Sussi