Cooking dinner during the week can be a challenge. How do you feed your family a healthy meal in the short amount of time you have available to cook during the week?

I find the ready to cook range from Woolworths a godsend. They have a really great tasting cauliflower pizza base ready to be baked, all you need to do is add your favourite toppings! The cauliflower base is low gi/low carb which is a great start if you are watching your sugar levels or weight. It has a great taste which will even be a winner with the younger children and best of all you can buy a few and freeze them so you have them ready at any time. Below is a quick recipe which I like to use when making pizza’s using the cauliflower base.

Vegetarian Supreme Pizza

Ingredients – Pizza Sauce

1 x 750ml bottle Italian passata

1 x 400g diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt/pepper to taste

If you wish add 1/2 diced onion and 1 glove of garlic if wanted

Method

Place oil in the bottom of a heavy based pan, add oregano and if you wish onion and garlic. Lightly fry for a few seconds to allow oil to coat oregano or onion or garlic.
Add passatta and diced tomato. Stir and allow to boil
Once boiled reduce to simmer and simmer for half hour. If sauce thickens up too much add some water to thin out. Once cooked thoroughly (oil should come up to the surface) set aside

Pizza topping ingredients

1/2 cup fresh chopped tomatoes

1/2 large capsicum diced

1/4 cup sliced black olives

2 sliced plant based cheese or 1/2 cup grated plant based cheese

1/2 teaspoon oregano

Method

Place thawed pizza base in oven 180 degrees Celsius and bake for 5-10 mintues.
Remove from oven and top with pizza sauce, cheese, tomatoes, capsicum, olives and oregano
Return to oven and bake at 180 degrees Celsius until cheese is melted and toppings are cooked.
Serve with garlic gluten free bread.

Hope this recipe takes some of the stress out of preparing a weekly meal. I will put up a few more recipes soon to help you navigate weekday meals.

Thank you for reading my posts.

Vicky

Gluten & Dairy Free Lasagna Recipe!

Looking back at one of my favourite recipes to create! Lasgna! It’s always been a favourite of mine and what I love about it most is you can create whatever sauce or filling you want! There are even dessert versions of it!

This recipe is gluten free and dairy free. Since having to watch both I did miss out for a while! San Remo pasta have brought out a wonderful range of gluten free pasta so you don’t have to miss out. Along with Bio plant based cheese it’s great to be able to eat my favourite food again!

Check out my recipe below!

Prep Time : 1/2 hour

Sauce cooking time: 3-4 hours

Lasagna Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Serves: 4

Sauce Ingredients

2 bottles tomato passata 700g each bottle- I used the Mutti brand from Woolworths

800g can diced tomatoes – I used Woolworths brand Italian diced tomatoes

1/4 Olive oil – I used Woolworths Brand Olive oil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil (again with both dried herbs I used the Woolworths Home brand

Salt and pepper to taste

Please note you can add 1/2 diced onion and 1 teaspoon crushed garlic if you like. For me I can’t have those so I didn’t put them in.

Instructions

In a large heavy based pan, pour in olive oil, then passata, and diced tomatoes, add herbs, and salt and pepper. (If you are adding onion and garlic, fry these in the oil first for a minute and then add other ingredients) Fill one of the passata bottles 3/4 way with water and add to sauce. Stir all ingredients together.
Set heat on high and bring sauce to a boil. Once boiled, simmer on low heat for 3-4 hours. The longer you leave to simmer on low heat the better the sauce you will get. If you see the sauce thicken too much add a little bit of water and stir. Sauce should be a thick liquid consitency such as a pumpkin soup consistency.
Once cooked take off heat and set aside and get the rest of your lasagna ingredients ready.

Lasagna Filling Ingredients

500g beef mince (I prefer to use the grass fed mince from Woolworths, it has less fat content)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 cup of the prepared sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup grated mozzarella

400g mozzarella extra

200 g grated parmesan extra

again if you wish to use onion put in approx 1/4 finely diced onion and 1 teaspon garlic and fry with mince.

Instructions

Place olive oil in heavy based saucepan, turn on heat to medium, if adding onion and garlic, add in first and fry for 1 minute, add mince and fry until browned.
Add in herbs, salt and pepper, stir through
Add 1 cup of prepared sauce, stir through then add 1/4 cup each of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese, stir through and set heat to a low simmer, simmer for approx 15-20 minutes, Continue stirring occasionally, If mixture seems to dry out add a bit more sauce.
Once cooked, turn off heat and set aside for when you are ready to assemble lasagna.

Please see below for steps. I have added in this one fried eggplant but you can add other vegetables if you wish.

Assembling Lasanga

Have lasgana sheets ready
Cover the bottom of a glass or ceramic dish with sauce
Layer pasta sheets to cover bottom of dish
Top with spoonfuls of mince meat, add extra mozzarella and parmesan cheese, ladle tomato sauce on top to cover meat and cheese, add the next layer of pasta and continue until you reach the top of the dish. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and cover with alfoil.
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes. (check at the 30 minute mark if pasta is not yet cooked leave for a bit more.
Always make sure on the final layer that you cover the lasagna sheets completely with enough sauce so that the pasta doesn’t dry out when cooking.
Enjoy with some Italian bread and a nice bottle of wine!