So, week two is finished, and while I didn’t follow the maintenance plan again this week, I was fairly good with my nutrition. I must admit, I am struggling at times to overcome my desire to eat sweets, but I am trying. I don’t want food to be my enemy, I want to have a good relationship with it. So I’m focusing on finding healthy food to eat (which is not difficult), and get back into the kitchen.

Therefore, I bring you not one, but TWO recipes today. Both adapted from different food blogs, and I have credited them below. I have to say, they were both delicious!

Spiral Vegetable Tart

This tart was a vegan tart on the website The Colorful Kitchen, however I didn’t use vegan butter, so I can’t claim that it is. I also made my own pumpkin puree, rather than anything from a jar.

Ingredients

• 1/2 small Japanese pumpkin
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• pinch of salt
• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 medium carrot
• 3 red cabbage leaves
• handful of spinach
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 165C.
2. Scoop out seeds and pulp from pumpkin, wrap in foil and put in oven for one hour or until soft.
3. Remove pumpkin, and add meat to a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour puree into a bowl, set aside. Clean food processor.
4. Add spelt flour, butter, water and salt to food processor and blend until combined. If it needs a bit more help to come together, put into a bowl and use your hands to form a dough.
5. In a greased pie pan, press dough into pan using your fingers to even it out.
6. Spread 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree over the base of the crust.
7. Using a mandolin slicer or a vegetable peeler, slice thin strips of eggplant and carrot. Cut the cabbage leaves into roughly the same size as the strips.
8. Start with a few strips of carrots to create the centre, and then layer different strips of eggplant, cabbage, spinach and carrot until the tart is full.
9. Drizzle olive oil over the whole tart, and sprinkle salt and pepper over the tart.
10. Bake the tart in the oven for 45 minutes.
11. Serve warm, drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

 

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

I adapted this recipe from Adventures in Cooking, but only slightly. Thanks to my mini food processor, I had to do this in two batches. But even so, it worked out beautifully. When you blend everything together, make sure that all pieces of the avocado are blended until smooth.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup crushed 80% dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons full fat coconut milk
• 4 medium-sized avocados, skins and pits removed
• 1/2 cup agave
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Set aside, and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Add all ingredients to the food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Pour mousse into glass jars or ramekins and place in fridge to set (approximately 40 minutes).
4. Serve immediately, with fresh fruit.