It's probably a bad idea to spend so much time looking at pictures of food when I'm still stuck on a fluid only diet (which is better than the water only diet I was on previously)...but I was going through my bookmarks and I have so many things I want to make when I finally go home.
First off I'm going to make some mother fucking polenta. And I'm going to put that in a tray and let it set overnight so I can make slow-cooker coffee-braised pot roast and also this glorious thing and serve them both over home made seared firm polenta cos that stuff is the bomb.
Then I'm gonna make some healthy chicken quinoa parmesan. And some s'mores cookies. I think that will be plenty to be getting on with.
Roughly mash avocado in a bowl, mix in chopped tomatoes, garlic and pesto (add this to taste, not all pesto is created equally, half a tub is a rough guide).
Season with lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Bit of cumin or paprika makes a nice addition to this recipe.
The salmon is yet another bargain shelf purchase at £1.50 for two decent sized smoked fillets. In what I thought was a steamer bag. The bargain price catch was that I don't think it actually was a steamer bag after all, but it still didn't catch fire in the oven so I consider that a success.
The salads are a beetroot with greek yogurt and nigella seed salad with balsamic drizzle, and braised aubergine and garlic with lemon and pine nuts. Plus some cherry tomatoes, just because.
The bargain shelf at work strikes again. This week it was an enormous sirloin steak for better than half price. (Also 3 family sized tubs of reduced fat greek yogurt. That is a different matter entirely)
I roasted some veggies on the side. The recipe is super simple.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 cauliflower (in florets)
1 sweet potato (in chunks)
4-8 cloves of garlic (how much do you hate vampires?)
30g mature cheddar (grated)
fennel seeds
dried thyme
lemon juice
pine nuts
olive oil
Instructions:
All the ingredients apart from the pine nuts and the olive oil go in a baking tray. Drizzle a little olive oil on top and put it into a hot oven (180C) for half an hour. At the 15 minute mark, toast the pine nuts and then add that to the dish along with the cheese.
Hey presto, you got yourself some roasty veggie goodness.
The steak was seared in butter for a couple minutes on each side. I like it pretty much blue/super rare. For normal people and a nice thick steak I'd give it 3-4 mins or more like 5-6 per side if you like well done. All I added was salt and pepper and let it rest at the end while I cooked the spinach in the steak juice.
Black bean stir fry with chicken, veggies and noodles. Good food at the end of a very long day.
I used a packet sauce because I am lazy but here's my best tip for making great stir fried chicken:
To prepare the chicken, chop it into chunks and then add soy sauce, salt, pepper, 5 spice and a teaspoon of plain flour to coat. It helps to brown the chicken and thicken the sauce a bit too.
I added onions and thin slices of fresh ginger with the chicken, when they were browned I added aubergine (egg plant), and finally some chopped red pepper, spring onion and spinach with the black bean sauce.
I love Pancake Day and I was originally planning on making some kinda über healthy protein pancake concoction but then I thought "NO. I shall have PROPER PANCAKES". And so I did.
I always make dutch style pancakes, which is pretty much like everyone else in England. Nothing like the USA style, stacks of sweet cakey things. Even if those do look delicious, I've got no idea how to make them.
I made me a sweet pancake for breakfast with asian pear and natural yoghurt. I say this is part one because I am definitely having more pancakes for dinner!
Ingredients:
1 egg
100ml milk (any milk will do, or a milk water mix)
100g flour
pinch of salt
Instructions:
Weigh the flour out into a large bowl. If you don't have a hand blender, sift it to make your life easier. Crack the egg into a well in the middle.
Add the pinch of salt. Add a small amount of the milk and whisk in. A hand blender at this point will help you immensely but otherwise just add the milk slowly and whisk like crazy. Keep going until the whole lot is combined. You can choose to rest the batter in the fridge for a few hours for lighter pancakes, I didn't bother.
Prep the pancake fillings. I love fruit and yogurt, or brown sugar with lemon. Even banana and peanut butter. Today it was some asian pear which is possibly my favourite fruit ever and some natural yogurt and cinnamon. I didn't add any sweetener to mine but you might find you want to add a little brown sugar, honey or agave to taste. Banana would also work very well, we just didn't have any fresh ones today :( I just chopped the pear and was ready to go.
For really good pancakes, you need a really hot pan with a sloped lip for easy flipping. Best way of greasing the pan is to literally apply the end of the butter pat to it. Like literally unwrap the end and paint the butter on. Do it quickly and you get a nice thin and even layer. The more butter that ends up in the pan, the browner your pancakes will turn out. Get the balance right and you get a nice golden brown slightly crispy pancake that isn't too buttery. If I was going to improve the one I made it would be a slightly hotter pan and slightly more butter.
Pour in a small puddle into the centre of the pan about the size of a beer mat. Quickly tip the batter around the pan to coat the base evenly. After about 30 seconds give the pan a gentle shake. When the pancake unsticks from the bottom it should be ready to flip. Use a spatula or if you're feeling like a pancake boss throw it in the air. This is the best part of pancakes. Cook for another minute until browning on both sides (my pancake is just about the lower end of this, it's a bit anaemic looking!)
Be prepared for your first pancake to be a fail, it usually is (I have about 5 more pancakes worth of batter left over for tonight!)
This is a Skinny Taste recipe, and I've really fallen in love with this blog's crock pot recipes! It's pretty much exactly the resource I was hoping to find, a collection of healthy recipes for the crock pot.
This was so ridiculously easy and cheap to make. I couldn't get the supermarket to sell me a ham bone so I went to the butchers, and they sold me a giant hock for a measly £1! I salted it overnight to "ham it up" a bit and then all I had to do in the morning was toss it into the pot with some bay leaves, and the beans (I used pinto instead of black eye) I'd left soaking overnight.
I had no idea what I was expecting when I came home, but the dish looked practically finished already! It had gone a lovely golden brown and all I had to do was a little bit of sorting. Just getting rid of the skin and bones and gross bits (it was fun in an I'm WEIRD OKAY kinda way) and then returning it to the stove along with ALL THE VEGGIES!
And that was that. I now have an enormous amount of stew for next to no effort or money, a winner all round!
Pork in a lemon and herb crust with apple and parsnip mash
I discovered a really awesome butcher just down the road from me today. Managed to resist the temptation to buy 800 of their very tasty looking sausage rolls and scotch eggs, and went for some pork chops (I also got some loin for some pulled pork and a hock for the bargain price of £1)
Needed a big post gym lunch and this delivered.
Ingredients (serves 2):
For the chops
2 pork chops (or loin steaks are also good)
1 egg for brushing
4 heaped tbsp panko (breadcrumbs)
lemon juice (+zest if you have a fresh lemon)
mixed dried herbs (I used a UK blend)
pepper and salt
1/2 tbsp olive oil
For the veg
3 parsnips, scrubbed, topped and tailed
3 spring onions
1 tbsp quark or low fat greek yogurt
1 tsp garam masala
small handful of dried apple (about 30g)
about 1/2 cup sliced leeks
Instructions:
Chop the parsnips up into roughly equal chunks and boil for 8 minutes.
While the parsnips are boiling, prep the chops. Season each chop with pepper and salt and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Mix the panko on a plate with the herbs and the lemon zest. Brush each chop with a little egg and then coat with the breadcrumb mix and set aside.
Drain the parsnips when they're done, chop the apple and spring onions and add them to the parsnips along with the garam masala and quark/yoghurt. Mash to a desired consistency (don't go nuts though or you'll end up with gluey mash). Set aside with a lid on to keep warm.
Fry the chops in the pan on a high heat in the olive oil. About 4 mins each side will do.
Throw the leeks in the pan when the pork is about half done. You can also use any other nice leafy veg, or serve this dish with a side salad.
I removed the bone and fat from my chops right before I served them but this is completely optional!
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