Sunday 1 November 2015

October half term eats

Half term means that it’s time to relax and re-stock my freezer.  I can spend days batch cooking whilst I catch up on TV programmes that I tend to miss when it’s crazy at work.  I tried a few recipes over my week off, but the two I’ve put in this post were the winners!  The curry is amazing and freezes well. It’s a bit like a korma dish and is extremely creamy, but without the cream and the fat.  The quinoa dish is really tasty too and a handy one for lunches as it makes a massive amount- I think I got about 5 lunches out of it.

Chicken and peanut butter curry

This recipe was in the Asda magazine and the cooking time given was an hour- half an hour easily does for this dish though. It freezes perfectly too and can serve up to six people.

Ingredients:
A drizzle of olive oil
500g diced chicken breast
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chilli flakes
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 peppers, deseeded and chopped
125g crunchy peanut butter (I didn’t quite had enough so had to use some smooth peanut butter as well, it worked just fine)50g tomato puree
¾ pint of chicken stock (1 stock cube)
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp of water

Method:
1.        Fry the chicken in a little of the olive oil until the meat is sealed. Put the meat and the juices in a bowl and set to one side.
2.       Fry your onion and garlic in a little more oil until he onion has softened. Then add all of your spices and give the mix a good stir.
3.       Throw in the peppers, 100ml of water (not the stock-this is an extra dash of water first) and allow the mix to start simmering. At this point, add the tomato puree and peanut butter, making sure you mix it in well.
4.       Throw the chicken into the pan along with the sweet potato and the stock.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Keep giving the curry a good stir now and then as the peanut butter can stick to the bottom of the pan.
5.       Check the chicken is cooked through, then stir in the cornflour and water mix to thicken the curry a little.

Serve with either brown rice or some cauliflower rice.

Peanut butter and chicken curry


 Quinoa with pine nuts and dried fruit
This recipe was in another magazine, though I have adapted it slightly. It’s a really good side dish with fish. I also like it for lunch and mix a tin of tuna in with it (season your tuna with a little salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice before you add it your quinoa mixture).

Ingredients:
250g quinoa
50g of pine nuts (though the recipe states walnuts as another option instead)
Raisins and apricots (the recipe says 75g raisins, I used a lot more that this and sprinkled in some apricots too- keep adding fruit until it looks like there’s enough to suit your taste in the quinoa)
Juice of 1 lemon 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Leaves from a bunch of fresh, flat-leaf parsley, roughly torn
Sea salt and black pepper

Method:
1.        Rinse your quinoa REALLY well and cook according to the packet instructions- this is usually a case of cover it with water, add a LITTLE salt, bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes until it is cooked.  You might need to add more water as it cooks, so keep an eye  on it as it is boiling.
2.       Fry the pine nuts in a hot frying pan (a dry pan, no oil needed) for a couple of minutes until browned.

3.       Tip the pine nuts and quinoa into a large bowl. Add your dried fruit, the lemon juice and the olive oil and give it all a good stir. Season with salt and pepper as needed.


Saturday 31 October 2015

Winter soups

The leaves are golden, it’s dark at 4.30pm and salads aren’t really hitting the spot anymore.  I’ve been eating gallons of soup over the last couple of weeks and decided to experiment with making roasted tomato soup in my soup maker. This type of soup is usually a big pain in the ass to make as you have to roast your tomatoes first and then remove the skins. I have been roasting the tomatoes to make them taste even sweeter, but have then bunged them straight into the soupmaker instead of faffing around removing the skins (which are the tastiest bit!)

This recipe makes about 6 servings and can be easily adapted to make roasted tomato and pepper soup.

Ingredients:
12 ripe tomatoes, halved. The riper the better, buy them early in the week to make the soup at the weekend. Vine tomatoes are amazing too!
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
400g tin of cooked lentils in water, drained
2 vegetable stock cubes prepeared to give you 1 and a ½ pints of stock
Salt, pepper and olive oil
A teaspoon of chilli powder (or more if you want your soup to have an extra kick)

Method:
1.        Preheat the oven to about 180°C. Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the top where the vine would
have been. Place them onto a baking tray, skin side up. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper.  Place in the over to roast for about 30 minutes, until they are softened. Don’t worry of the skins bur a little, the tomatoes will be extra tasty!
2.       When the tomatoes are done, pour the tray (and all of the juices from the tomatoes and olive oil) into your soupmaker. Chuck in the tin of tomatoes, chilli, lentils and stock. Select the smooth setting. If using a pan, I’d simmer all the ingredients together for half an hour and then blend.
3.       Serve immediately or freeze for lunches in the week.

For tomato and roasted pepper soup:
Same ingredients pretty much, but ditch the lentils and tinned tomatoes for 5 large peppers instead. Deseed and chop them, then place in the oven to roast in the same way as the tomatoes. Once done, place all of the ingredients into your soupmaker or pan and cook the soup as above.


The finished product- bring on winter!


It’s been half term this week!  Which means that as well as wedding planning, I’ve done plenty of cooking that I’ll tell you about next week.  I tried a new quinoa recipe but the absolute winner was definitely the chicken and peanut butter curry.  See you next week!

Sunday 18 October 2015

Where have I been?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog, and for a very lovely and wonderful reason. I got engaged!  I’m now a bride-to-be, wife-to-be, Bridezilla, etc! Since my last blog post, my boyfriend popped the question; I wrote a guest list; found a venue; found a wedding dress and booked my hen party!  So it’s no wonder really that I haven’t had much time for writing a food blog.

Mrs Clarke-to-be, slugging champagne because that's really healthy...


Work has taken over a little bit too, meaning that my running and gym visits have been sporadic and it’s been a while since I’ve done a huge cook-off or tried a new recipe.  Definitely though, clean and healthy eating will continue to be on the cards since a certain white dress I bought a few weeks ago is pretty much a perfect fit. Plus, I can’t bear the thought of piling on weight before my wedding and not being able to shift it. The best bet is to stick with my routine and eating habits so that I can maintain this weight rather than gain any or, for that matter, lose any either!

My lactose intolerance also got a bit of control a few weeks ago. I felt ill, bloated, wheezy, had indigestion and what I thought were palpitations. I realised that far from being lactose free, I had had quite a lot of late and immediately cut it out completely.  I gave up my daily Greek yoghurt, replaced butter/ margarine with free-from sunflower spread and made sure I had a supply of lactose free mini milk cartons (these ones) in my handbag.  Within three days of being lactose free, I was cured which was a huge relief!  I’m now making sure I absolutely steer clear of the stuff and that if I say have a pizza, that I remain lactose tee-total for the rest of the week!

Anyway, today was the first day in a while that I had time to cook something and then blog about it.  I made two batches of winter veg soup this morning using the random selection of veg my dad had brought me from his allotment.

Turnip and leek soup or turnip, leek and pea:
This was completely invented from scratch this morning. Whenever my dad brings me a load of random veg from the allotment, I make soup with it. In today’s delivery was a couple of turnips, leeks, an onion and carrots.  I threw the peas into the second batch just because I needed a bit more veg when my supplies were running low!

Ingredients
 Half an onion, diced.
3 leeks
1 turnip, finely sliced
2 carrots
1 and ½ pints of chicken or vegetable stock
Lactose free milk (or extra stock) if needed
Sea salt and black pepper

Method:
1.        Prepare your  veg, pop it into the soup maker with the stock and select the ‘smooth’ setting.  When it’s finished cooking, add sea salt/ pepper to taste. If it’s a little too thick for your liking, add a further splash of milk or extra stock and blend again. Serve or whack in the freezer for this week’s lunches! Alternatively, you can fry your veg in a large pan first, add your stock and simmer until the veg has softened, then blend.
2.       If you want to turn this recipe into a turnip, pea and leek soup, use the ingredients as above but also throw in about 200g of frozen peas.

With those grey skies, golden trees, chilly mornings and bloody Christmas stuff in every shop, it’s definitely soup weather.  I think my next post will be dedicated to another soup recipe and since the only veg I have left now is tomatoes and peppers, it’s time to make up a roasted tomato and pepper soup recipe I think!


See you next week!

Apologies for the lack of recipes- I can show you a picture of my engagement ring instead though!!

Sunday 6 September 2015

It’s Autumn (kind of)

I love September!  Going back to work makes September almost feel like a new year. It’s time to start afresh and head back to my usual working hours after rejuvenating myself over the summer holidays.  As much as I love the time off, I also like being back into the routine of work and my days having some sort of structure too.  Back to school for me also signals the start of autumn- my favourite season of the year.  It’s already much darker in the mornings when I get up (because I can’t do my make-up at the window in daylight anymore...such girl problems) and I think it feels like there is a definite nip in the air too.  I just love it and can’t wait for the autumn skies, golden leaves and ‘I can wear my new coat’ weather to properly kick in. My dad’s allotment season is coming to an end too, meaning that there’s always a pile of veg for me on my doorstep to cook up or freeze for later use.

Some pretty impressive home-grown parsnips!


Autumn brings with it a change in our taste buds.  Salads don’t hit the spot this time of year and I crave warm food.  It’s also the time of year where it’s easy for me to pile on weight, so I make sure that I stick to healthy, clean eating but opt instead for soups and casseroles.  The freezer is piled to the brim with Hemsley & Hemsley soups and I’ve already made my first casserole of the season:

Black Bean and Parsnip Casserole (serves 4, approx 393 calories per serving)
I came across this recipe years ago in the Sainsbury’s magazine.  I have adapted it slightly and use healthier sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.

Ingredients:
A splash of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 carrots, sliced
500g sweet potatoes
500g parsnips
2 tablespoons of mild curry powder
1 litre of vegetable stock (about 2 stock cubes made according to instructions)
2x390g cartons of Sainsbury’s So Organic black beans (can’t find them anywhere else)
250g baby plum tomatoes

Method:
1.       Heat the oil in a large pan and gently fry the onions and garlic for 10 minutes.
2.      Add the carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes and fry until the vegetables are golden.
3.      Add the curry powder and stock to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes until the veg has softened.
4.      Throw in your black beans and plum tomatoes and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
5.      Serve with either a side of extra vegetables or some crusty, wholemeal baguette.  Leftovers can be frozen and this dish can be made in advance- I cooked it yesterday so it’s ready for dinner on Monday night!




Blueberry and Chia Jam

My dad delivered me a pile of blueberries a few weeks ago- a good half kilo of the things!  I love blueberries and they are considered a super-food packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants, so I happily snack on them as they are or add them to porridge.  They can be frozen too and I now have a good supply of them in the freezer.  The trick with freezing is to lay all the blueberries out on a baking tray, freeze them, then once they are frozen, they can be transferred into freezer bags. This stops the fruit from clumping together.  It’s easier as well to just grab a handful of them out of the freezer to add to porridge (they will defrost as soon as you throw them in) or to snack on- chewing on frozen blueberries is becoming a new habit and is way healthier than a Magnum!

I also used some of the blueberries to make the Hemsley & Hemsley Blueberry and Chia Jam.  This takes minutes to make and is a tasty, sugar-free treat for your toast in the morning.

Ingredients:
180g blueberries (defrosted if they have been frozen)
2 ½ tbsp of chia seeds (I use these ones from Holland and Barratt, they were included in the penny sale!)
1 tbsp of honey (adjust according to taste)
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
A squeeze of lemon juice
1 tbsp of warm water.

Method:
1.       Mash your blueberries in a bowl using a potato masher/ a fork.  You want them to be quite pulpy but it’s nice to have a few chunks of fruit leftover too, as you would find in regular jam.



2.      Mix in your chia seeds, the water, vanilla extract and lemon juice.  Throw in the honey at this point too but add this gradually and keep checking how sweet the mix is after each addition.  Obviously, you may need less honey if the blueberries are already quite sweet. I’ve never had to use more than a tablespoon and find that this amount sweetens the jam enough, but also leaves it a little tart too so that you can taste the fruit.
 3.  Put into a jar a dish with a lid and allow it a couple of hours in the fridge to set.
4.      Spread it on a whacking piece of toasted, wholemeal bloomer and enjoy. Peanut butter to go with it is optional, but I’m a total sucker for peanut butter and jam!

In other news this week, being back to school means that I am more efficient at making the most of my time over the weekend.  I’ve started back at yoga over the summer and have been booking myself in for the 10am class on a Saturday morning.  I’m an early riser on a Saturday too since Ste is up for work, I tend to be up with him at 8am.  I have a couple of hours to do my paperwork, clean or lounge around with a book (just finished the second Hunger Games book...amazing!) before heading off to yoga.  Then I have the afternoon to do whatever- though this Saturday afternoon was spent browsing for ingredients. Every Saturday, I try to cook a new recipe which I haven’t made before and after my new Gizzi Erskine book arrived,  I’ve been dying to try a few things from it.  

I was raving about my new book on Instagram the other week!
I love all of Gizzi’s books. Her recipes never fail, are pretty easy and also delicious.  She too believes in the ethos of keeping our appetites well fed, but with the best food to nourish your body and keep you looking and feeling fabulous.

We all know how in love I am with Thailand and Asian cooking (post here), so I knew that Gizzi’s recipe for pad Thai would have to be the first one to try. I learned how to cook this at a cooking school in Bangkok, but never really tried it at home.  

The end result was delicious and took me right back to munching street food on Khao San Road. I’m definitely going to dig out my old recipes from Thailand and have another go with them, as well as cooking plenty more from my new Gizzi book.


My first attempt at Pad Thai #nailedit

Happy eating!

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Faux carbs Part 2: Courgetti


I am a little bit obsessed with courgetti and whilst I’ve been on holiday, I’ve often found myself eating it for lunch and for dinner. Probably the main reason why I’ve been eating so much of the stuff lately too is down to my new kitchen  gadget, the Hemsley & Hemsley Spiralizer that puts my old one to shame.  I’ve been really impressed with this and have had loads of use out of it already.  A definite must if you’re a coeliac, trying to cut down on carbs or trying to get more veggies in your diet.  I bought mine from Selfridges for £29.95; Amazon also stock them too (link here).  






There’s loads of things you can do with them and the range of vegetables which you can spiralize is far greater than just me and my courgettes, so I do need to do a few more experiments with my bad boy spiralizer.

In the meantime though, let’s start with courgetti.  You will need:
3 courgettes (or just 2 larger ones)
Your spiralizer
Some oil to fry your courgettes in (I use this coconut oil)  

1.        Spiralize your courgettes.
2.       Heat the coconut oil in a pan.  Fry your courgettes on a high heat for just a couple of minutes.  Like with the cauliflower rice, you want to heat them through rather than make them go soft and mushy.
3.       Serve with a sauce of your choice! The heat from the sauce will also cook your courgette further too.

Some serving suggestions:
·         Stir through some home-made bolognaise sauce.
·         Serve with a basic tomato sauce recipe and perhaps some meatballs.

·         Mix  the courgetti with some pesto/ chopped tomatoes/ tomato puree, basil, cherry tomatoes that you can fry in the coconut oil before you throw your courgetti in. In fact, use any leftover vegetables you have!

Grab any leftovers from the fridge and your courgettes...
The end results...


Courgetti with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes

Courgetti with tomato puree, olives and basil






A huge lunch but it's only approximately 380 calories and will fill you for hours!





Sunday 23 August 2015

Faux carbs, part 1: Cauliflower Rice

I love carbs and don’t believe that a sensible, balanced diet would cut them out.  I certainly watch the amount of carbs that I eat (usually I have them for breakfast only, and only eat carbs for two out of my three meals a day) and have cut down massively on the amount I used to eat back when I was a stone heavier.  I’ve replaced carbs with protein and have also jumped on the bandwagon with ‘faux carbs’, as in, carb-like foods made with vegetables instead.  I’ve been tucking into courgetti and have recently fallen in love with cauliflower rice.  This dish is a little dry on its own as a side, but goes together really well with anything sauce based.  I’ve served it with Vietnamese curry (recipe here) and chilli.  Not only did it taste great, but it is also filling and a sneaky way to up your vegetable intake for the day.

To make enough rice to serve 2 people:
1 cauliflower (medium/ large sized...whatever you can find really.  I don’t know much about cauliflower sizes!!)
Sea salt
Ground turmeric (miracle spice apparently, is so good for you and I just use this Asda one if I can’t find any in Aldi)
Cumin seeds (these ones from Asda)
You’ll also need a  grater and a really good-quality, non-stick wok.

Method:
1.        Using the coarse side of your grater (to get chunkier pieces rather than finely grated), grate the cauliflower into a bowl.
2.       Season with the sea salt and then give it a generous sprinkling of turmeric and cumin seeds.  Stir it all together so that you are left with some pretty yellow-ish cauliflower!


3.       Heat the wok up to full heat. DO NOT ADD OIL.  Once the wok is hot, throw in your cauliflower and let it fry for a couple of minutes, turning it occasionally with a fish slice.  You only want to heat the cauliflower through rather than cooking it and making it go soft and watery.  Two minutes on this high heat will probably do the job perfectly.

4.       Serve with a curry of your choice and enjoy your faux-carbs!

Cauliflower rice looks so pretty on Instagram.  I'm @thegirlwiththelilytattoo if you'd like to follow!

Tuesday 4 August 2015

Broccoli, pea and basil soup

I put this recipe on my huge list of things to cook!  It’s from the Hemsley & Hemsley book, The Art of Eating Well and I adapted the measurements for it to be made in my soup-maker. 

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 sticks of celery, chopped
A pinch of dried oregano
80g fresh basil, roughly chopped
250g frozen peas
Broccoli- as much as is needed to make the above ingredients up to 1kg in weight
1 and ½ pints of vegetable stock
Sea salt and black pepper to season, if needed

Method:
1.        Prepare your onion, garlic, celery, oregano, basil and frozen peas. Weigh all of these ingredients together and then add as much broccoli is needed to make the weight up to 1kg.
2.       Put in the soup-maker with your stock and select the ‘smooth’ setting.
3.       Season (if needed) and serve or you could divide between containers so that the soup can be frozen and eaten at a later date!
The finished product in 'Exorcist Green'
I served this with a warmed, wholemeal pitta and was really impressed with the bright colour of the soup, which I’ve called ‘Exorcist green’ (it did remind me a little of the scene in the film where excessive amounts of pea soup were used). 

The photos of the finished product even got the seal of approval from the Hemsley sisters themselves!



So, this will be my last post before I jet off for a week of all-inclusive indulgence and though I plan on enjoying the food on holiday, there is no way I’ll turn it into a sugar/ junk food binge either.  The holiday clothes are bought and packed, plus my clothes from last year still fit perfectly!

There's no better feeling than when your holiday clothes fit perfectly!


It's just more proof that putting good stuff into your body, exercising and avoiding fad diets allow you to be the best shape you have ever been.  Adios!

10 Reasons why you should give a personal trainer a whirl...


It’s the summer holidays!! Meaning that I have less than a week until my friend’s wedding (bridesmaid duties, yay!) and less than a fortnight until I’ll be sunning myself on the beach in Fuerteventura.  I love my running but also wanted to work a bit more on toning too so, on a whim, I booked an hour long session with a personal trainer at my local gym.  The hour cost me £30 and was well worth the money- I’ve got plenty of new exercises to play around with and don’t feel like I need another session for some time whilst I master and enjoy this new programme.  So, today’s post is 10 reasons why you should try a personal trainer yourself:

1.        If you’re making any of my recipes and eating better, the next logical step on top of this is exercise!  A personal trainer asks what you’d like to achieve and then puts together a range of exercises for you. Even if you’re a beginner, they can advise you how to get started whether it be very light exercise or building on a higher level of fitness.
2.       They are a friendly face (not a crazed army sergeant-like figure) who will push you.  I run 12 miles a week and am fit, but my session left me out of breath and totally knackered- I was pushed to my limits with loads of encouragement too.
3.       They know their stuff.  I tend to spend about half an hour running on the treadmill but my personal trainer (ooohhhhh, how posh) gave me a range of exercises that kill two birds with one stone, meaning that as well as toning your muscles, they form your cardio exercise as well. The exercises- such as squats with weights, planks and press ups- actually get you out of breath as you do them, meaning you’re still burning fat and getting fitter as you tone.
4.       They will surprise you.  Apparently, all the sit ups I was doing were a waste of time. I’ve now got two new exercises which tone and define my abs (and arms at the same time!) in much less time than I was spending on sit ups and crunches.  A lot of the exercises we think are effective are, in actual fact, not so. A personal trainer can clarify this for you, meaning you can ditch the useless exercises in favour of more efficient ones.
5.       You will learn a lot from them in just one session- take a notebook and pen or jot down the exercises as you go on your mobile phone.
6.       No access to gym equipment?  No problem!  My personal trainer gave me exercises where with the majority of them, I could do them at home without any equipment and just my body weight to act as resistance.  This is definitely a winner if you don’t want to sign up at a gym and have to pay the monthly membership fees.
7.       When it comes to gym equipment, a personal trainer can show you how to use it properly and crucially, how much weight you should be lifting.   They are very aware of our female phobia that if we so much as touch some weights, we will turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger.  That’s really not the case and lifting a decent amount of weight (that your trainer will advise you on) is crucial to help you tone up.
8.       Personal trainers will correct your technique.  Turns out I’d been struggling more with press ups than I actually needed to because my technique was wrong.  A personal trainer will fine tune your technique so that you are performing the exercise correctly and also safely so that you avoid injury.  My trainer pointed out that my lower back sagged a little when I was doing press ups and warned me about this so that I could avoid a back injury-I wouldn’t have known otherwise!
9.       They give you a whole new routine to try, meaning if you’re stuck in a gym rut...
10.   Going to the gym becomes fun again!  I’ve quit with the million sit ups in favour of my usual run followed by my new exercises. They are more varied, effective and quicker! I’m well and truly hooked and going to the gym doesn’t feel like such a drag anymore.

Happy exercising!

Sunday 26 July 2015

Dreaming about India

This blog post is extremely late and reminiscing about India is the reason to blame.  But as it’s India, we’ll let it off.  On the Saturday when I should have written this post, I was on a train zooming down to London for a meet up with my India roomie who was visiting the UK again from Canada.  The last time I saw Erin was 2 years ago so it was nice to make the trip again for a reunion.  In fact, the last time I met up with my India travel buddies, I was almost a stone heavier and a sugar junkie.  Things are very different now.  On the train down to London, instead of having a coffee and a flap jack, I had a coffee and a Satsuma and read my Hemsley Hemsley ‘The Art of Eating Well’ book and made a list of all the recipes I want to try over the summer holidays- there’s quite a few...








Our India reunions have had a similar pattern- meet up and head straight to Brick Lane (a cool, quirky and funky area of London dedicated to Indian restaurants) for a curry lunch, followed by a stroll around the vintage market nearby and then onto Covent Garden before getting the train home.

The conversation never stops and we always enjoy reminiscing about India, covering everything from the beauty of the Taj Mahal, the chaos of Jaipur, our wonderful fellow travellers and the dreaded Delhi Belly.














When I eat Indian food, I always tend to order the same thing: chicken korma, a peshwari nann, sometimes rice, though I don’t tend to now, sticking with just the nann bread instead since it’s all I need.  When I was in real India though, the food there was a whole different ball game to British curry. Half of the stuff on the menu I hadn’t heard of as most of the curries served in an Indian restaurant over here are British curries rather than coming from India.  Whilst in India though, I ate a total of 26 curries over the 2 week tour, keeping a list in my diary of everything I had tried!  



I also went vegetarian too for the two weeks as I was worried about getting sick from eating the meat as often in India, chicken is served still a little pinky which I wouldn’t risk eating over here let alone anywhere else. Also going veggie was nice for a change, just because the choices for vegetarians on menus over there is so vast!  I did have Delhi Belly, but was the only member of the group who didn’t spew.  India also had a massive effect on me too as a person and it was probably the trip where I finally nailed it with regards to who I was and finally feeling comfortable with myself. It had such an effect on me, that I even have the Om symbol tattooed on my wrist, just because it is such a beautiful reminder of my time there and what led me to India in the first place. Ironically, two years previously when I was travelling to Thailand, I did a quick stopover in Mumbai and vowed never to go to India as I didn't think it would be somewhere I would want to travel to alone. What a massive change of heart!
My om symbol!  The little peace sign  next to it represents San Francisco.


So, this week’s recipe is dedicated to my time in India. It is a vegetarian chickpea and spinach curry which I serve with brown rice, though I am going to try making cauliflower rice at some point over the summer holidays!

Spinach and chickpea curry
Ingredients:
A splash of olive/ coconut oil
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp cardamom seeds
1 large onion (diced)
2-3 cloves of garlic (crushed
2 tins of chickpeas, drained
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
250g of spinach- though I just tend to shove the whole bag in because I love it that much!
1 pint of vegetable stock (you’ll need 2 stock cubes and will have a little leftover if you follow the packet instructions to make it)

Method:
1.        Heat the oil, add the spices and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes.
2.       Throw in your onion and garlic and continue to cook until the onion has softened.
3.       Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, spinach and stock.
4.       Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, longer if needed.
5.       Serve with rice...or a peshwari nann which I promise you will give you a nann bread orgasm.




Any leftovers can be frozen and reheated, this dish is also gluten/ lactose free and a little vegetarian number.  

When it comes to Indian desserts, I know nothing about how to cook them.  However, if you do go to Brick Lane or anywhere that has a curry mile, have a look for the little sweetie shops selling the treats below, they are just beautiful and to die for!






















Happy eating!!!!

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Healthier pizza, bread and another soup recipe

I tried two new recipes the other weekend that I’d been meaning to cook for ages- a healthier version of pizza and a butternut squash and lentil soup.  The pizza was an eat clean version because the base was a wholemeal bread base; the soup was an eat clean recipe too but I adapted it so that it could be made in my soup maker rather than standing over a pan of boiling vegetables!

Pizza base:
This is a basic bread recipe.  You can make 4 pizza bases from it or could pop it into a bread tin to make your own bread that is wholemeal and free from preservatives.


Ingredients :
1 sachet of Aldi yeast (approx 7gm)
500g wholemeal flour
5 tablespoons olive oil
240ml warm water
A sprinkle of sea salt.

Method:
1.        Place the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl, then make a well in the middle.
2.       Pour the olive oil into the warm water, then add this mixture into the centre of you well.
3.       Begin mixing with a spoon and as a dough forms, get your mits in and start kneading and stretching the dough.
4.       Allow the dough to sit for 15 minutes in a warm place, covered with a towel before giving it a final knead. 
5.       Cut into 4 portions and roll out into your pizza bases.
6.       Place on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper.  Brush tomato puree onto the dough and top with whatever you fancy.  Peppers, mushrooms and sweet corn that have been fried in olive oil for a couple of minutes are delicious, as is goat’s cheese and baby spinach.
7.       Bake in a preheated oven (200°C) for around 25 minutes.  Check under the pizzas with a knife/ fish slice to see if they are cooked.


Bread- prepare and bake the dough in the same way.  You could also add some dried fruit like cranberries or apricots, dark chocolate chips or something more savoury- chopped sun dried tomatoes with parmesan cheese is amazing!  Tap the base of your bread to check if it’s done- it will sound hollow when it’s cooked through.

I did cheat whilst experimenting with the fruit and bought a bread mix from Aldi!  Also good, but will post a full bread recipe another time in case you want a larger loaf than what you will get out of the pizza dough recipe.

Wholemeal bread with apricots




Butternut squash and lentil soup
Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 stick of celery, diced
200g carrots, sliced
300g butternut squash, sliced
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon chilli powder
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
1 and a half pints of chicken/ vegetable stock
200g of tinned lentils, drained and rinsed
Salt to season, if needed.

Method:
1.       Chop all of your ingredients, place into the soup maker with the stock and select the smooth setting.  Serve immediately or freeze for lunches.

2.       If cooking from scratch, fry all of the vegetables (you may need extra as the measurements about are so they can fit into the soup maker) in a little olive oil until soft, add the stock and simmer until the vegetable are cooked.  Add the lentils and cook for another 5 minutes.  Blend the soup and serve.