When I say pie, I really mean stuffed bread.... but the two are close enough! These are great for school lunches and on the go meals- you don't have to worry about juice running down your hands, or having the filling falling out everywhere, which often happens with a typical sandwich, no? 

I served these with a dollop of yoghurt to complement the spiciness of the meat filling. They were great beside a fresh green salad- parcels of comfort! 

Ingredients:

1 quantity pita bread dough, from this recipe 
2 tbsp olive oil
375g minced beef
salt and pepper
2 large garlic cloves
1 cm fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tomatoes, peeled, and roughly chopped
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
Greek yoghurt, to serve (optional)


Directions:
Follow steps 1-5 on the pita dough recipe, omitting the cumin seeds. While it rises at step 4, start making the filling. 

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the beef, season with salt and pepper, and stir over medium-high heat until evenly browned. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Reduce heat to medium, and pour off any fat. 

Add the garlic and ginger and fry for 30 seconds. Add the onion and cook until soft, then add the beef, spices and tomatoes. Season well to taste!
 
Cover and cook for 10 minutes, until any extra liquid has evaporated. Then, transfer to a bowl to cool. Once cooled, stir the fresh coriander through.

Using the knocked back dough, cut it in half and shape one half into a log about 5cm (2 inch) in diameter. Then cut into 6 pieces and roll them into balls. Repeat this with the second half of the dough. 

On a clean, flat and lightly floured surface, roll out each ball one at a time into a circle about 10cm (4 inch) in diameter. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle, leaving 2.5cm (1 inch) border. Then lift the dough from three equidistant points up and over the filling, bring them together in the middle to form a triangular parcel, and then pinch together the seams. 

Repeat to shape and fill the rest of the dough.

Place the pies distanced apart on a tray lined with baking paper. Use two if needed. Let them rest in a warm place for 20 minutes, covered in a clean, dry tea towel. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 230ºC (210ºC Fan Forced/450º F)

Bake the pies for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. Best served warm with greek yoghurt. :)

Hey Guys! Hannah here! 
I posted a recipe for tandoori spiced chick peas a while ago and I thought it was time to make them again, but this time with a sweet rather than savory taste. 

I am a huge after-school-snack fan and I never know what to have when I get home. Usually I have an apple with a little peanut butter, but sometimes I want something more and these little guys do the trick. I’ve made roasted chickpeas before but I used tandoori spices to create a savory snack. This time I thought I should try a sweet version. The only sweet flavor in this recipe is honey, there is actually no refined sugar in the recipe! WOO! Roasted chickpeas taste delicious without any seasoning too, so if you wanted a neutral flavored healthy snack then make these. But, I feel like the flavor adds a mouth watering kick to the original taste. 

Let’s get to the recipe, shall we? To start off all you need is 1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans). Later on you add the flavor (: 

Bake the chick peas on a lined baking sheet for 45 minutes at 375˚F. 

Once the chickpeas are done with the first round of baking, pour them into a bowl and add 1 tablespoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. You can also add salt and 1/4 tsp nutmeg but I forgot to put salt on mine and I also did not have any nutmeg in my spice cabinet. I think the chick peas tasted fine without the salt too. 

Now, you have the option to eat them now or stick them back in the oven for another 12 minutes so the honey can caramelize. I chose to caramelize mine and they turned out fabulous! I recommend baking them for the second time or else they will be super sticky.

Nutritional Information: 1 serving (the whole recipe)

•146 calories •6.2g protein  •2.6g fat   •23.0g carbohydrates 

This is one of Hannah's favorite salads, and it didn't take me long to understand why. Its so simple, healthy, and it actually tastes amazing, despite the fact that there is hardly any cooking involved. It's a toss up of ingredients strong in flavour and they complement each other really well. 

It's difficult getting you hands on brussel sprouts here. I haven't eaten them in years! So, it was great to finally eat some again, thanks to Hannah. I don't know when I went from absolutely hating them, and the people who forced them down my throat, to craving a good handful of steamed brussels now and then. Before now, I'd never had them raw and to be honest, if it weren't so hard to find them, I'd make every salad with brussel sprouts instead of lettuce leaves. 

If you're looking for an interesting twist on a typical green salad at the table, I really recommend that you try this!

Ingredients:
- 1 cup brussel sprouts, roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup cranberries, roughly chopped
- 3 rashes of bacon, roughly chopped
- Toasted Sesame salad dressing

Directions:

In a dry pan, sprinkle in the chopped bacon and cook on low-medium heat until golden in colour. Transfer from the pan on a plate lined with paper towel, and soak up as much of the fat as possible. 

Place the chopped brussel sprouts, almonds and cranberries into a medium bowl. Toss and then add the bacon, toss again. 

Drizzle the dressing lightly over the salad and toss that through, too. 

Plate up and enjoy. It's that simple, yet a really tasty salad.

A spicy grain salad with a sweet element makes a really simple, enjoyable meal or side dish. I used to crave one like this from a deli called "On The Go" which used long grain rice and sweet currents seasoned with a moroccan spice of sorts. Using this idea I decided to throw together my own, substituting the rice for quinoa, and adding pumpkin, just because I love pumpkin.  The only difference, other than the pumpkin, was the consistency that the quinoa delivered. It's slightly more stodgy, although stodgy isn't quite the right word, than long grain rice. The pumpkin, too, became a little mushy after I'd worked the mix together, trying to balance flavours as I wasn't following a recipe at all. I really like it like this, but some people find it unappetizing. If you are one of those people, simply use rice instead! 

Quinoa is the new craze in terms of grains and healthy eating. It's higher in protein and lower in fat than most others. Its texture would make you think of it as something other than a grain- It almost seems more like legume of sorts. I love it, and I think that if you haven't tried it, you should! :)

Sweet and spicy is a well used combination of flavour, and I think that this salad really highlights this aspect. We ate this with cold rotisserie chicken we'd bought earlier that day, and it paired so well. The next day, we finished off the left-overs and as with most dishes like these, the flavours had intensified and it actually tasted better! 

Ingredients: serves 4
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- 250g pumpkin, fairly finely diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp curry paste
- 1/3 cup flaked almonds
- 1/3 cup golden raisins, or currents
- 1/4 cup mango chutney
- juice of half a lemon
- salt to taste

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 200ºC/ 390ºF and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Transfer diced pumpkin onto baking sheet and toss in oil and curry powder. Then, place in oven and cook for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, put 2 cups of water in a medium pot and bring to the boil. Add the quinoa and turn heat down to a simmer, place a lid on the pot, and let cook for about 10-13 minutes.

Once the pumpkin is cooked, set it aside to cool, and do the same with the quinoa. Once cooled, transfer both to a medium sized bowl, add the curry paste, almonds, raisins, chutney, lemon juice and salt. Stir gently to combine. Adjust seasoning to taste if needed. 

Serve with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.