So... It's been nearly 6 months from my last post and I really don't have any excuses for that. When I was still studying I used to think that the reason working people end up eating take-aways, deliveries and ready made meals was because they were lazy and were not trying hard enough, but now, having worked for the past year my outlook has totally changed. Although I still managed to cook at home most days, to eat relatively healthy took a lot of planning and dedication. And batch cooking was my biggest friend - I prepared few dishes over the weekend and all my lunches and dinners for the week were sorted. Admittedly it all wasn't very exciting, because I ended up making the same soups and stews over and over again, but still it was better than throwing a ready made meal into an oven.
In addition to working, and summer being a relatively busy period, I moved to Dubai end of last month. So, another way of life to get used to and I have to admit that my meals during my first week here consisted mostly of oven grilled cheese sandwiches and ice-cream (very grown up, or what?). Now, after having settled in a bit, figuring out where to get the good groceries (good old Waitrose to the rescue) and getting my act together I've finally started to pay a bit more attention to my food.
I don't know whether I've mentioned it on this blog before, but although I love eating out, I am a big fan of brining my own lunch to work. Not only does it work out cheaper than buying something out every day, it also means that I have a lot better idea of what I'm actually putting into my body. If I was in London around this time of the year (let's just pretend it's a normal autumn and the city is not suffering from a heatwave), I'd probably start preparing some lovely stews and soups. Easy to prepare in batch, transport, warm up and relatively healthy to top it off. However, over here I've struggled a bit because it's still over +35C outside and I just can't imagine warming up something warm and filling for lunch. As I went a bit overboard when ordering some groceries online and have half a fridge full of courgettes I was looking for something easy to make out of those that I could take with me to work.
I came across this lovely recipe and just knew I had to give it a shot. I love courgettes and absolutely adore cheese. Add a bit of puff pastry and I knew I had found a winner. This one is super easy to make, makes a lovely packed lunch or even a great something to put together when having friends over. The topping is to die for and completed with a crispy puff pastry base. What else could you wish for?
Ingredients
Makes approx. 12 slices
- 500g courgette
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 150g Philadelphia cream cheese
- 100g grated cheese (I used 60g parmesan and 40g mature cheddar)
- 500g puff pastry
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200C.
To prepare the filling, cut the courgettes into thin slices either using a kitchen mandolin, spiralizer, vegetable peeler, cheese knife or a normal knife. Place the courgette slices into a bowl, pour over some olive oil and add the crushed garlic clove and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside for 10 minutes or so.
Roll out the puff pastry so it would cover the whole baking tray and then place it on the baking tray which has been lined with baking parchment. Cut a line with a knife 1-1,5 cm from the edge of the pastry. Now, to prepare the cheese filling, mix together the cream cheese and 50g of the grated cheese. Spread it evenly on the puff pastry, keeping inside the line you've made with the knife. Then, place the courgette slices on top and bake for 15 minutes. Take out the tray, sprinkle with rest of the 50g cheese and bake for another 15 minutes. Enjoy hot or cold!
Recipe from nami-nami.ee http://www.nami-nami.ee/retsept/11408/parmesani_suvikorvitsapirukas
