when the rain is so bad that you have to make do..

At the moment I have two big end-of-term assignments due so I am really trying my best not to procrastinate. But I need to keep up with my posts or I'll have to do them all at once! Today I had hardly any food available and it is pissing down! I mean really pissing down! So I was to wimpy to even walk to the dairy to get milk for muffins or porridge. But I had to use up a green pepper and a courgette any so I decided to get creative.

So here is my creation:

roast green vege pasta & spinach salad

so simple but magnificently rich

1/2 a pack of your fav pasta (a spinach pasta go great with this recipe)

1 zucchini, cut into bite-sized chunks

1 caramelised onion

1 green bell pepper, seeded & chopped into small chunks

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

dried rosemary/oregano/basil

spinach

Preheat oven to 220c. Chop your onion and caramelise while chopping zucchini, pepper, and garlic. Pour boiling water over the pepper. Toss the veggies and garlic together in a roasting pan. Add the onion and pepper. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper. Splash on some extra virgin olive oil. Chuck in a big spoon of the herbs and toss though veges. Roast for about 4o minutes or so. Stir a few times. Cook the pasta and toss a big spoon of pesto into the pasta with the roasted veges. I like to chuck in a handful of cheese, a dash of a sweet sauce (sweet chili, chutney), sprinkle some seeds, grate over some parmesan and toss the dish in the fridge for an hour to enhance the flavour and then toss in some fresh spinach.

Wednesday night = Pizza and cocoa-nut truffles

Today I cooked pizza for dinner. For my meat-loving boyfriend I made a chicken pizza because the chicken in fridge needed to be used (sadly, he wasn't too impressed as I had swirled a lavish amount of sweet chili sauce on which he reminded me he wasn't fond of... woops, bad girlfriend award. For myself I created a fish, spinach, and capsicum pizza. Sounds weird, but was tasty as bro.

This is my recipe:

margherita whatever
all of my favourite italian flavours: garlic, basil, tomato and mozzarella with anything you have in your kitchen

ingredients

flatbread (or any other prepared crust)

leftover chicken or frozen fish

1/4 cup of shredded Mozzarella

fresh spinach/basil/whatever herbs you have

fresh diced tomatoes/can crushed tomatoes

spices&herbs

olive oil

method

Preheat your oven to 220c. Spread flatbread with homemade pizza sauce (2tbsp per pizza). To make homemade pizza sauce mix together in a pot on medium to high heat, can crushed tomatoes, a thick tomato paste, any herbs/spices such as cajun and oregano. Put in blender when cooled down so that you can spread it on pizza base evenly. Add a bit of cornflour if needs thickening. Spread sauce onto pizza base or flatbread. Top with your desired toppings such as chicken/fish/veggies/ham, the mozza cheese, and spinach/herbs. Swirl your preferred sauces such as barbecue or sweet chilli. Preheat oven and tray with a little oil spread on it (this ensures crispy base). Bake for 15-25 minutes, until the bottom of the crust is brown and crispy and the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with fresh basil.

For dessert I made these wonderful cocoa truffles because I was craving my daily dose of chocolate. Much to my surprise Charlie, my boyfriend said they were really good with a food-orgasm sort of look in his eyes. He normally doesn't like the texture of crunchy with smooth and doesn't get very excited over chocolate.

maple cocoa-nut truffles

these easy to make chocolate delights were inspired by Marlie Centawar’s raw vegan cake pops, I changed them to make do with what I had as the ingredients she suggested were quite exotic and although the lollipop sticks are cute - I don’t have sticks lying around. I love how I named them after the first two main ingredients and then realised it incorporates the third! haha so cool! Makes approximately 8

truffles

1/4 cup finely chopped cashews (0r any nuts you have)

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tbsp almond meal (if you have)

1 tbsp table spread

preparation

Chop the nuts as finely as you can, preferably using a pestle and mortar or food processor. Mix with all the other ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Chill for approximately 30 minutes in the freezer. Shape the mixture into small round balls and chill in the freezer for another 20-30 minutes. 

coatings (choose your coatings)

cocoa powder

more finely chopped nuts

dark cocoa coating

Melt the 1 tbsp butter with 4 tbsp of chocolate chips in a pan on low heat. Using a sifter, sift 1 tbsp cocoa powder in a small mixing bowl and set aside. Once the cocoa butter is melted, mix in 1 tbsp maple syrup and the cacao powder. Whisk until the overall mixture is a smooth, liquid consistency. Dip the truffles in the chocolate and put in fridge to seal.

Here is Marlie Centawar's recipe so you can see the difference and if you have the resources make her cute vegan pops and tell me how they go :) I got the recipe from http://www.facebook.com/pages/NakedFood/192311837463391

Raw Vegan Cake Pops by Marlie Centawar

Luverly Vanilla Cake Pops
Yields: approximately 20 cake pops

Cake Pop Filling

1 cup cashews
1 cup coconut ground in a coffee grinder + 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/4 + 1 tbsp cup maple syrup
3 tsp lucuma powder
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:
To make the cake pop cake filling, process all of the above listed ingredients together in a food processor using an ‘s’ blade. Place the processed mixture in a medium-sized mixing bowl and chill for approximately 30 minutes in the fridge or freezer. Shape the mixture into small round balls and chill in the fridge or freezer for another 20-30 minutes. Pop in the cake pop sticks and chill for another few minutes.

Dark Cacao Coating
2/3 cup melted cacao butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cacao powder

Preparation:
To make the Dark Cacao Coating, melt the cacao butter in a medium-sized mixing bowl over a pot filled with warm water. Using a sifter, sift the cacao powder in a small mixing bowl and set aside. Once the cacao butter is melted, mix in the maple syrup, vanilla, cacao powder. Whisk until the overall mixture is a smooth, liquid consistency. Dip the cake pops in the chocolate and stick into foam board to dry. Dip cake pops in desired toppings (for this flavor, I used coconut sugar, walnuts, and powdered coconut).

welcome to procrastination cuisine

So, after hours and hours, no... days and weeks of putting off study, I have made a decision. No longer shall I procrastinate in vain! During my hours of food-based web research and washing roasting pans and muffin tins, I will document and maintain evidence. This way, if I fail to acquire a bachelor of arts I will at least have a food blog to show that I did something productive with my stolen time. Yes, I am a food-obsessed, university student. No matter how much I love anthropology, my major, I can't get food off the brain. 

1.	Procrastination Cuisine	3 up, 2 down
	S: (n) food purchased and/or prepared solely for the purpose of avoiding work that one is committed to have completed by a certain soon-approaching time. The term is often used in combination with Procrastiscribing: the act of defining on Urban Dictionary the type of procrastination one is currently exhibiting as a means of additional procrastination. Carleton Student #1: "You're going to Oasis /again/? I didn't know one man could be so hungry at two in the morning!" Carleton Student #2: "Nah, I'm not hungry; I'm just enjoying some Procrastination Cuisine instead of starting my Phil term paper due in six hours."

So, welcome to procrastination cuisine, my food baby.