I was reminded recently that having had weight loss surgery…
Bariatric Friendly Recipes From The Food Nest NZ!
I have a collaboration post for you today! Ashleigh blogs over on The Food Nest NZ and her Instagram is a must follow account for drool worthy food related pics! Go and check her blog out and you might find a guest post from me!
My name is Ashleigh, I’m 27, I live in Christchurch, NZ – and I am addicted to cooking!
How did I get here? Well I started sharing my food photos via Instagram in late 2014, after much persuasion from a friend who thought my cooking was worth sharing with the world! After about a year of posting my “foodgrams” anonymously – I then started my blog in December 2015, so I could post my recipes and the odd occasional rant, for everyone to see and hopefully enjoy.
I like to keep my cooking simple, affordable, and as healthy as possible. I live a gluten free lifestyle for health reasons (IBS means I can only absorb a tiny amount at a time, and sometimes it’s safer that I don’t at all) and I understand how hard it can be to eat what we love, without repercussions. However – not all my recipes are Gluten Free – my friends and family all maintain a normal diet – so I cater to them too!
In a nut shell – TheFoodNestNZ is all about trying to achieve the best food that can be made, on a minimal budget, that’s easy for anyone to make and everyone to enjoy.
Here are Ashleigh’s recipes!
Pork Meatballs with Bok Choy
Meatballs
500 grams of Pork Mince
1 Teaspoon of each of the following: Cumin, Ginger, Garlic, Chilli Powder, Paprika, fresh basil
Half an onion – finely diced
1 egg
Photo courtesy of The Food Nest NZ
In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients.
Roll into small to medium sized balls and pan fry until brown.
Place in the oven at 180 degrees to finish cooking them all the way through. If you are cooking these with a sauce you can elave them in the pan and cover in the sauce and simmer.
Melissa’s notes: I omitted the chilli from the meatballs since I can’t handle anything that’s too spicy. I did put a Thai Green Curry Sauce with the meatballs but it was really spicy so next time will make another one Ashleigh suggested with Coconut cream, lime juice, chilli and tomatoes which I will try next time but again omitting the chilli. My husband and I loved these meatbals and I will be making them again soon!
This was my attempt at the Pork Meatballs and Bok Choy!
Bok Choy
1 Bok Choy (or 2 baby Bok Choy)
Spring Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic
Fresh Ginger – Grated (However much you please)
Fresh Chives
Photo courtesy of The Food Nest NZ
Put all the ingredients in a pan and lightly saute. Place a lid on top for 5-6 minutes to create steam in the pan to cook everything all the way through.
Gluten Free Beef Olives
(The amounts in this recipe vary according to how many you are making)
Stuffing:
Blend Mushroom (I subsituted Courgette since I can’t stand mushrooms), onion, salami or bacon (I used bacon), chilli, garlic and basil together.
This was after I had blended all the bits together.
Place stuffing into beef schnitzel and oll. Use a toothpick at each end to hold them together. Lightly pan fry and then transfer in the oven to finish.
Photo courtesy of The Food Nest NZ
Melissa’s notes: I again omitted the chilli and got a basic pasta sauce to pour on top for when I transferred them to the oven. I then sprinkled some cheese and breadcrumbs (although normal breadcrumbs would not make them gluten free anymore!) on top and baked them for a while to make sure they were cooked through. The sauce made sure these weren’t dry and I was easily able to get them down. I cut the pieces of schnitzel in half and got four beef olives out of two pieces of schnitzel. These were really yummy too, so simple to make but really tasty and yummy!
This was my attempt at the Beef Olives!
Do you think you might give either of these recipes a go? What one will you try first? Comment below and let me know what you think of them, especially if you get around to making them I’d love to know if you will be adding these to your repertoire.
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Ooh, these look great! I’m one day from the end of liquid diet (3weeks post-op) and am surprised to find that I don’t mind cooking for my partner or him eating near me. I enjoy the smells and I’m as interested as ever in reading through recipes online – especially things that are small, delicious and full of protein. Will save these 2 up for when I can have them 🙂
I didn’t mind cooking for others soon after my surgery either. Less than two weeks after mine I made my husband a huge delicious looking birthday cake and didn’t have a bite. You must let me know what you think of these recipes when you’re able to eat stuff like this again!
I love that we did this and I am so glad you enjoyed the recipes xx
My husband is glad too! He loved both recipes and said it was nice to have something different. I’m one of those people that gets into the habit of cooking the same things over and over again so he loved being a taste tester too! Thanks for collab’ing with me it was awesome 😀
I’ll have to give you more recipes heh x
There’s at least two people in this house who would be very happy with that!
They look great! I’ll have to try both of them and see if mine look as good as yours 🙂
I’m sure yours will look amazing next to mine clever lady!
I wanted to comment this morning but it was so hard at work. I like how easy both recipes seem to be and with not much ingredients too. It sounds doable for someone like me. I would love the try the beef olives one day and I like how you made your spin on it. 🙂
You could do it Angela, I have faith in you!
Do it Angela! I bet you will rock it 🙂
They look so yummy!! I cannot have chilli either and do not like mushrooms…lol…am so going to try these recipes..thank you!!!