Thursday 21 July 2016

Foods of the week #1

I've been wanting to do a Weekly Meals post for months, but after seeing the backlash on youtubers' What I eat in a day videos I decided that just highlighting a few of my favourites that I've made recently would be the best option. I'm usually cooking for two, so these are foods that can be made in bulk or would serve you for the next day. It's also been VERY BLOODY HOT this week so my ingredients have been lighter and more green - which I'm v happy about - and I probably had a cider along with all of these too, because sun.

Hot, roast vegetable salad


Salads are amazing because they can contain almost anything and everything that needs to be used up in your fridge. The flavour combinations are infinite and they're a nice alternative to stodgy meals more suited to winter. However, I'm not one for a meal that doesn't leave me satisfied, and I know that's why many people would opt for a sandwich over a plate of "leaves". I get around this buy adding hot ingredients to my salads, in this case, a nice combination of roasted, garlicky veg and a dollop of houmous. 

Uncooked ingredients:

  • Spinach and iceberg lettuce as the greens
  • 1/2 bell pepper - could be chopped and roasted as well, but I wanted to dip it in the houmous and it added a nice crunch to the salad
  • 1/2 an avocado 
  • A handful of olives, chopped
  • Houmous
  • Feta, crumbled
  • Balsamic dressing
Cooked ingredients:

  • 1/2 a medium onion 
  • A handful or two of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • A handful of mushrooms, sliced
  • Olive oil
  • Salt/pepper/mixed herbs
  • One crushed garlic clove
The seasoned veg should be cooked at about 210 degrees celsius for 10-15 minutes, or whenever the tomatoes have softened and there's a nice amount of juice. Serve hot!

Mediterranean vegetable couscous with feta

 

I had some left over roasted tomatoes/onion/mushroom mix from the previous salad, so added it to a cheat bag of mediterranean veg I picked up from the Co Op for £1 (amazing), diced it all up into a tiny mix and roasted everything for another 10-15 minutes at 200C-ish. This time I added it to couscous. I love couscous because it's soso easy and takes on the taste of what you put it with, but a more nutritional option would be quinoa. I always end up making loads and this recipe was enough for 3 meals!


  • Mediterranean vegetables (courgette, onion, bell peppers, tomatoes)
  • I don't know how much couscous I put in but it didn't look like much and still almost overflowed my saucepan
  • Feta, crumbled
  • Black pepper to season
  • A blob of houmous 


10 minute tortilla chips


I love making these SO MUCH. They're perfect for when you have some houmous to use up and/or your tortilla wraps are a bit stale and you wouldn't use them for a sandwich. It's as simple as slicing them up into segments, adding some seasoning (or not) and popping them in the oven for no more than 10 minutes. I drizzled on a tiny amount of olive oil to get the paprika to stick then put them in a pre heated oven, around 200C, until crispy. Melting cheese on top is amazing too!
  • Any tortilla wrap - I'd usually go for wholemeal 
  • Optional olive oil and smoked paprika 
  • Optional grated cheese
  • A dip of your choice


Stuffed crust tortilla wrap pizza


So this idea came about when we had two wraps left but hardly any tomato puree. As there's almost nothing nicer than a cheese toasty in this world, except a cheese toasty that tastes like pizza, I made this pizza wrap double layered and filled with smoky cheesy goodness. I have another pizza wrap recipe here. The toppings could be anything your heart desires, but mine desired an Italian deli board.


  • 2 tortilla wraps
  • Tomato puree 
  • A handful of olives, chopped
  • A handful of spinach, torn
  • Marinated artichoke - I'd picked up a deli pot, most supermarkets do stuff like this now and would also have sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella which would be amazing 
  • Grated cheddar
  • Smoked paprika 
  • Mixed herbs
I spread a layer of grated cheese on the first wrap and sprinkled on some smoked paprika, then added the second layer with the rest of the ingredients on, then popped it into a pre heated oven for around 10 minutes at 200C. SO YUM.


So yes those were my favourite foods of the week. I hope this was vaguely interesting/saliva inducing. If you make any of these or want extra details on how to, tweet me! :) @pollyvdsz


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1 comment

  1. LOOOOVE! I've also done the tortilla chip style nacho things this past week and oh my gosh they are the best xx

    Yasmin
    yas-elle.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete

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