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Sunday 5 August 2012

My healthy "not sausage" rolls

We are 90% vegetarian in the LLL house, we do eat meat at other people houses and I still cant go past a nice piece of fish but I rarely buy and cook meat in the house. A sure favourite even amongst meat eaters is my "not sausage" rolls.
I do all sorts of variations on these just as you would if cooking the meat type of sausage roll, you can add whatever herbs and spices you like.


1 tin of brown lentils or you can used dried lentils I prefer tinned ones though I can never get my dried lentils as moist as the tinned ones and they can make the rolls a bit dry probably because I'm always to un-organised to remember to soak them 1st.
1 tin of crushed tomato's or if you have your own made up use that.
Herbs of choice, I just used dried mixed herb for these ones pictured because I am using my fresh herbs faster than they are growing at this time of year.
Garlic, lots of garlic.
onion, I usually like some fried off red onion but I didn't have any so I just used spring onions.
Paprika and a dash of wostershire sauce
I like to add some red capsicum too it adds some spice without being hot but I don't like the texture of it in there so I puree it in the food processor first.
Borgs, organic ready made puff pastry
Fresh made breads crumbs, approx 1/12 to 2 cups

Method
Get 2 frozen pasty sheets out to defrost.
If using dried lentils cook those first, once cooked add to bowl and let cool If you using tinned just chuck in the bowl and keep going.
Add chopped garlic, spices, herbs, onion, crushed tomato's, capsicum and any other desired things like wostershire sauce or balsamic vinegar. You could add curry powder too if you wish. 
Whiz up fresh bread in the food processor to make breadcrumbs then add to bowl as well then mix up with a spatula until well combined.
Cause when I cook I don't always measure things I often find I need to make more breadcrumbs if the mix isn't forming shape well enough. It helps to keep it bonded together so I usually just whiz up 11/2 piece of bread till they crumb and add that mix and see if I need any more sort of thing depending on how wet the mix is.
Once you happy with your mix cut the pastry sheets in half leaving you with 4 rectangles and lay mix towards one side of the sheet but not too close to the edge makes rolling harder.
Form mix that you have laid out into a nice sausage I sort of do it as I go then roll your pastry over and seal on the edge with a fork and repeat for other sheets.
Brush with milk, sometimes I like to sprinkle seeds on top I usually use chia seeds but you could use poppy or sesame.
Pop in a moderate over for about 20 mins or until pastry has turned golden brown.
A much healthier version than your regular sausage rolls, great for parties, lunches, snacks.
I like them as much cold as I do hot. 



Healthy, yummy, no nasty ice cream?? Yes Please!!

I don't usually buy ice cream but I did the other day and realised its so hard to find an ice cream without lots of yucky additives in or "numbers" as lots of people refer to them, in Coles the other day I could not find one ice cream I would be happy eating or feeding to my kids so I asked around and found this rad idea.

Frozen Banana Ice Cream 



Yummy, simple, healthy and quick and easy.

All you need is some frozen bananas approx 1.5 bananas per person and a food processor or similar.
I cut the bananas into pieces and sliced down one side of the skin to peel off, popped in the food processor and whizzed up I also added some coconut sugar and some raw cacao. I would recommend using quite ripe bananas for this because depending on the ripeness once blended you can get a bit of that "greeny" taste so once there just a bit to ripe to eat alone is best I have found.

You will be amazed at the lovely consistency of the whizzed up frozen banana!!
I cant wait to try out some other flavour combos, like honey, vanilla, mixed berry. 



My yummy yummy bliss balls


One of my fave healthy snack at the moment has to be bliss balls, I am a bit of a sweet tooth and we do eat super healthy in our house but I admit I just have not been able to kick my lolly/chocolate/ice cream habit *blush* and a lot of them are filled with so many nasties not to mention soooo much sugar. So I had been looking up recipes for healthy bliss balls and there wasn't one recipe I was 100% happy with so I made my own up using bits and pieces from a few recipes. 



12-ish dates, I like organic medjool dates nice and juicy
1 Tbs organic unrefined coconut oil
Pepitas
Almonds
1Tbs Raw Cacao
Spirulina powder 1-2 Tsp (optional)
Dessicated coconut

Method

De-seed dates if using seeded ones and pop into food processor with coconut oil and give it a whiz until its quite well blended into a paste.
I then chuck in some almonds a small handful I guess and some pepitas again I just chuck some in about a small handful and give it another whiz until there chopped up nicely through the date mix.
Add you raw cacao and spirulina (optional) and whiz again, I like to whiz it up until it forms a ball.
Then roll into balls and roll in dessicated coconut and your done :) I like them chilled in the fridge though makes them a bit firmer. 


You can do so many variations, you could include sultanas, dried cranberries, chia seeds, oats, whatever nuts you like and you don't have to add spirulina but I like to for the extra goodness and you don't have to roll in the coconut but I think it looks nicer :) 
The kids love them, they fill my sweet addiction and there good for you.