Yesterday, when trying to figure out what to make for dinner, I remembered I had some puff pastry I needed to use. I’m not too crazy on eating pastry right now as I am trying to eat healthy, but I haven’t had pastry in months so I thought it would be okay. I didn’t really want to throw it away either.

So I started looking through a recipe book and came across a recipe for Pepper and Cheese Jalousie, which sounded (and looked) very yummy. The recipe in the book called for tinned peppers, but I try to cook using fresh ingredients where I can, and I ALWAYS have fresh peppers at home.

The dish turned out to be a success. Andrew loved it and so did I. The only problem is that we’re going to be eating leftovers tonight and that means breaking my diet two nights in a row. Uh-oh!

What you need
500g of puff pastry
4 tbsp of tomato puree (if you can, use the garlic kunserva)
100g of grated cheddar
100g of grated mozzarella
4 large peppers in different colours, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 egg to glaze
Flour for dusting

How you make it
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
Take just under half of the pastry and roll it out very thin, laying it into a rectangular baking tray. You can put some margerine or olive oil on the bottom to keep the pastry from sticking to it.
Cover the pastry in tomato puree and then add the cheddar on top of that.
Put in the chopped onion and peppers and add the mozzarella on top of that.

It looks something like this at this point.

Roll out the rest of the pastry into a large, thin rectangle. Fold it in half and perforate the crease with a sharp knife. Place it on the top and press the edges together, trimming off the excess. Make holes in the pastry with a fork.
Brush egg over the top of the pastry.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.

BONUS
Roll the excess pastry out into five or six circles (depending on how much you have left), put a dollop of Nutella in each one, roll them up like parcels. Bake for about 15 minutes, while your pie is in the oven.

I am on a diet. Yes. It’s true. I lost a bunch of weight back before I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease last October. Then I had to go on a course of corticosteroids (off which I am still weaning myself) which, among a plethora of other side effects, led me to put on about 10kg.

Now, I’ve never been small. I’ve got a large frame and I’m okay with that. I even like having curves to an extent. But now that I’m almost off the steroids I feel I need to start being healthy again and lose the excess weight.

Last Saturday I was surfing Facebook and came across the profile of a girl who was in my university course. She’s been on a healthy eating regime for a few months now, and has lost 14kg. She’s looking wonderful and also feeling wonderful about herself. I started reading her blog and decided, there and then, to follow suit. Pizza is lovely, but so is fitting into your favourite pair of jeans.

So I’ve been eating more consciously and healthily since Monday. I want to increase my intake of fruit and veg and limit my complex carbs.This means I’ve replaced most of my fatty snacks with apples and yoghurt and have stopped eating complex carbs at night.

That’s not to say I don’t crave a good plate of chips (I do! So much!) but I’m a woman of my word and I am sticking to this one.

It’s hard, though, to come up with ideas for complex carb free supper recipes for myself (but with which I can make some rice or potatoes for Andrew if he wants them). I’ve managed so far, but if you guys have any ideas I’d love to hear them.

Anyway, this is what we had for supper last night. Andrew had it with rice, but I had it as is and was perfectly satiated afterward.

How you make it
Marinate your beef in three tablespoons of teriyaki sauce and add two teaspoons of sesame seeds. Chop two large onions, a handful of mushrooms, fresh garlic, fresh asparagus, one carrot and a large green or red pepper.
Heat some olive oil in a wok and cook the onions and garlic a bit. Add some beef (I used minute steak, sliced into bite-sized pieces but I guess any cut will do). When it starts to brown, add the vegetables, a handful of peanuts and a splash of soy sauce. Sprinkle some dried ginger and stir-fry it until the beef is cooked. Add a bit of fresh coriander and mix through, then serve and enjoy.

Baked chicken breast with prosciutto crudo and feta

I had no idea what to make for dinner last night. I didn’t feel like making anything that required too much of my time and I had some chicken breast defrosting in the fridge. I didn’t want to make any Asian food as we’d eaten Chinese the night before and I didn’t really fancy pasta either.

So I rummaged around in my fridge and found some feta and prosciutto still unopened. And then I came up with this dish.

Andrew loved it. He said we should make it more often. I loved that preparation time was minimal and I could play around on my new laptop while it was in the oven. I also liked that it was not fried and that it was made from scratch. I try to avoid eating processed foods whenever I can. It was also pretty freakin’ delicious.

How you make it:

Turn your oven on to 195 Celcius and pour half a teaspoon of olive oil into a baking tray and spread it around so it covers the base.

Tenderise two pieces of chicken breast and lay them on the baking tray. Sprinkle fresh pepper and salt and garlic granules over them. Put two slices of prosciutto on each one and crumble feta cheese over them.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Serve with chips or mash and your favourite vegetables.

I came up with this dish one afternoon. I had the day off work and was thinking of making myself a slice of toast for lunch, when I decided I wanted something a bit more, well, substantial. It’s fast, pretty nutritious, and also very tasty.

How you make it:

Boil some brown rice (or heat up a microwaveable packet, if you want to make it even quicker). Meanwhile, heat up some olive oil (no more than a teaspoon) in a pan and fry an onion and the pancetta and peas. In a separate pan, heat some margarine (half a teaspoon) and throw in the rice and an egg, mixing constantly. Add the rice to the peas, pancetta and onions, mix well and add some soy sauce. Enjoy.

See, I warned you that there would be quite a few food posts on here, and here is the first one. This is something I came up with myself one evening, when my parents were coming over for dinner. It proved pretty popular, even with my 17-year-old sister, who’s pretty fussy about her food. It’s sort of like a pizza but ends up being eaten like a taco salad. I do apologise for the not-very-good quality of the photo. I took it with my mobile phone.

How you make it:

On a cold, flat surface sprinkled with flour, roll out a ball of puff pastry into a pizza-base shape and thickness. Lightly brush a beaten egg over it and pop it into a preheated oven at 190 Celcius for five to ten minutes, or until it’s slightly browned.

In a bowl, toss about 10 halved cherry tomatoes, one block of crumbled feta cheese, half a cup of chopped green olives, one or two cloves of minced garlic, fresh pepper and some fresh basil. Put the salad on the puff pastry base and put back into the oven for another three to five minutes.

Et voila. It makes a nice accompaniment to fresh fish or seafood, or as a shared starter.