National Vegetarian Week

Growing up with vegetarian parents meant that the majority of my meals were vegetarian. I was very lucky however, as even though my mum gave up eating meat long before I was born, she continued to cook it for us (me and my brothers/rest of the family). I was always amazed that she could make a meat dish from start to finish without trying it, and it would taste amazing! She did the same thing while we stayed with her recently, cooked us a doggy bag full of chicken curry and freshly made chappatis to take home and eat for dinner after the long drive. It tasted delicious!

Recently, I’ve wanted to try and eat more vegetables, and with it being National Vegetarian Week this week, I thought I’d share one of my favourite recipes from when I was a child.

Indian food lends itself really well to being vegetarian. With a big majority of India’s population following a vegetarian diet (some excluding eggs too), it’s no surprise that they have become creative when it comes to making the humble vegetable taste amazing. How could they not given the magic spices that are added. Check out my mum’s spice box, she’s had this for the last 40 years and it’s always got the essentials in it. Turmeric, chilli powder, ground cumin/coriander (we buy this mixed together), salt, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida, for those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a pungent spice extracted from a plant of the giant fennel family. Often used to ensure that there are plenty of good gut bacteria in your dish to aid digestion. Also often used to create an oniony flavour, without adding onions. Use it sparingly though, it’s a really strong flavour!

Vegetables should make up half your plate of food on a regular basis, so I have to make sure that they are super tasty at the same time right?

With lots of exotic vegetables available now, one of my favourites growing up was the humble cauliflower. It was made once every couple of weeks on rotation while I was growing up, I think it’s still on my parents regular dinner rotation now! It takes minutes to cook, packs a load of flavour and is really packed full of nutrition. You might remember the famous line about “Aloo Gobi” from Bend it like Beckham, this is a Punjabi vegetarian specialty. Gujarati Indians on the other hand, have always done cauliflower and peas, this is my personal favourite.

Usually, if my mum made this for dinner, it would be one of two dishes, along side a dhal or a potato curry (Gujarati vegetarians-aka my parents especially, love a good carb on carb combo). Sometimes my mum would add chopped potatoes to the curry and then make a lentil dish as well as another vegetable dish too, you knew on those days when you walked in you were in for a feast for dinner!

I usually make this in my Instant Pot as it means the cooking time is super speedy and I can get on with other things while it cooks. But it can be done without a pressure cooker and doesn’t take too much longer. I hope you enjoy this curry as much as I do!

Serves: 2 as a main course

Time: 10-20 minutes depending on the cooking method

Ingredients

1. 300g cauliflower, cut into roughly 1 inch florets
2. 150g frozen peas
3. 1/2 green chilli, finely chopped (optional)
4. 1 tbsp sunflower oil (or flavourless oil of choice)
5. 1 tsp mustard speeds
6. 1 pinch asafoetida
7. 2 garlic cloves, crushed
8. 1/2 tsp turmeric
9. 1/2 tsp chilli powder
10. 1 tsp ground cumin
11. 1 tsp ground coriander
12. 1 tbsp lemon juice
13. 1 tablespoon passata
14. Salt to taste
15. 50ml-100ml water
16. Freshly chopped coriander (to garnish, optional)

Directions

• Push the saute button on your Instant Pot and add your oil and mustard seeds. Wait for the seeds to start sizzle and splatter a little and then add your pinch of asofetida.
• Give the whole lot a stir and then add your cauliflower and peas and stir through the mustard seeds for around 2 minutes
• Add your dry spices,garlic, chilli, salt and lemon juice and then add your water to the pot to deglaze any mustard seeds which may have stuck to the bottom.
• Stir in your passata, and then pop the lid onto your Instant Pot. Program the pot to manual, high pressure for 2 minutes. It should come to pressure relatively quickly as all the ingredients are already warm. Give it a quick release once it beeps.
• Give the whole thing a good stir, garnish with fresh coriander leaves if using and serve.

No Instant Pot? No problem, just follow the method in a pan with a lid and cover up and steam for 10 minutes rather than pressure cooking.

I’m sharing this recipe with #cookblogshare this week

 

Lunch prep

If you’ve been following my instagram stories, you’ll see I’ve been having the same thing for lunches for about 3 weeks straight now.

When I came back from my holidays I found it really difficult to get back on track like I did the previous holiday and even after Christmas. I was torn between wanting to eat everything but also wanting to make progress. My coach Daniel created me a great little progress chart from the measurements he’s been taking over the last couple of years, seeing those lines go down like that was such an eye opener. I had to see these lines go down more, it’s super motivating!

We had a chat and he gave me some great advise: “take a look in MyFitnessPal from when you were really making big progress, then you’ll be able to see what you were eating and how much, it should help get you back on track”. So off I went to do a little investigating. Turns out, I was eating protein and vegetables through these months, a lot of protein and vegetables.

The first week I was hell bent on having chicken breast and vegetables, and that I did, but I absolutely hated it! I want my food to taste amazing, and I want to want to eat. I don’t see food as fuel to get me through and so I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry on like that.

Previously, I was having spiced turkey mince with a side salad of some sort, it was tasty but there was quite a lot of prep to do considering it was two dishes. Salad goes off relatively quickly too so I’d have to prep that every other day. Plus it meant I had to take two separate Tupperware’s to work and heat one up and not the other, the thought of doing that now made me rethink my lunches.

I wanted to incorporate lots of vegetables into my turkey mince but without them compromising the flavour of the dish. Then I saw an advert for the new Birds Eye chickpea and spinach mix with cauliflower and lentils. It’s frozen and easily cooked off in the microwave for 5 mins. This isn’t an ad at all by the way but Birds Eye, if you’re reading, I wouldn’t mind doing a bit of recipe development for you with your new ranges if you fancy it! 🙂 Back to the mix, looking at the nutritional content, I thought I’d give it a go with my turkey. It’s safe to say 3 weeks later I haven’t looked back. While we were visiting my parents over the long weekend, I even got my mum to cook this recipe for me while we were out so I had my prepped lunches ready!

This recipe would work great with all kinds of vegetables, if you didn’t fancy the ones I used you could always cook of the turkey mince and add a whole load of roasted vegetables if you fancy, or a batch of cooked lentils/chickpeas on their own. I quite like the variety of all the different textures with this mix so I’m going to stick to it for now.

If you wanted to get fancy, and you didn’t have any calorie or dietary restrictions, you could also add a crumble of feta and some crispy croutons/crunchy almonds once you’ve heated it up to serve, I think this recipe would taste delicious as a warm salad.

It’s a super simple recipe and it all comes together in around 20 minutes, so there’s no excuse not to have a decent lunch everyday of the week if I prep well right? I split this recipe out into 5 portions, this works for my personal goals but might not work for you, when EmJay saw my portions he gave me a huge facepalm, but that’s fine as I’m doing what works for me remember. You need to do what works for you!

I hope you give this recipe a try and love it as much as I do! I use turkey breast mince as it’s low in fat and high in protein, you could also use any other mince you fancy depending on your tastes, it would also work well with vegetarian alternatives like quorn, crumbled tofu or even grated paneer!

Serves: 4 portions
Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp oil of your choice
2. 500g turkey breast mince
3. 100g onion, chopped finely
4. 100g mixed peppers, chopped finely
5. 4 garlic cloves, crushed/grated
6. ½ tsp red chilli powder
7. 1 tsp ground cumin
8. 1 tsp ground coriander
9. ½ tsp turmeric
10. ½ tsp garam masala
11. Vegetable/chicken stock cube
12. 450-500g vegetables of your choice (I use the birdseye frozen pack)
13. Lemon juice

Directions

• Heat up a pan on a medium heat and add your oil and turkey mince, break up the mince and brown off for 2-3 minutes before crumbling in your stock cube.
• If using the frozen veg pack, pop the contents into a bowl at this stage and microwave on a high heat for 5 minutes.
• Once the mince is all broken up, add the garlic, onions, peppers, turmeric, ground cumin and coriander and give the whole lot a good mix so that the spices are distributed evenly. Cover and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, add your vegetables, garam masala and chilli powder and give it a good mix. Check the seasoning at this point and add more salt or pepper if required.
• Cover and allow to cook for another 5 minutes and then garnish with fresh coriander and lemon juice if desired.
• Serve on its own or with some crumbled feta and chopped almonds.

I’m sharing this recipe with weekly link up #cookblogshare

Meal prepping – part 5

So, since the last meal prepping post, before we went away, I actually got to a number on the scales which I’ve been waiting on for AGES. While I was away, it did go back up, which was understandable. BUT, before we went, I’m pleased to say that I was 2cm down around my waist and these 2cm stayed off! These kind of non-scale victories are always a win for me. I even got to wear a bikini while I was away, I haven’t been able to do this for years and years without feeling like a bloated killer whale.

I’ve been trying super hard to get my 150g of protein into my 1400 calories since I got back and it’s been really tough, but I’m trying my best. I am still hungry, all the time, but that’s a natural feeling. If I want to lose weight, I have to be in a calorie deficit, that means, I’m going to be hungry.

The good news is, it’s meant I’ve been working hard to come up with meals with a really high protein content. One of the recipes I adapted, was a chicken pie from Marcus Wareing’s book, New Classics. Instead of using 2 sheets of pastry which the recipe states, I made the full filling and stuffed it into 1 sheet which I’d rolled out super thin. In turn, it meant each piece of this pie had a whopping 35g of protein which is a win to me. I even got to freeze some leftovers, so I know I have 2 pieces of pie, each with 35g of protein stashed away in the freezer for one of those days where I don’t want to cook.

Another thing I’ve been experimenting with is burgers. I love a good burger. There is something really comforting about a big portion of yummy seasoned meat sandwiched between soft bread with ketchup and mayonnaise… mmmm… Sorry, got a little distracted there in my burger day dream. I’ve got a great recipe for a turkey mince and halloumi burger in development at the moment, as soon as it’s ready I’ll share it with you all! So anyhoo, what goes best with burgers? A huge big heap of fries for me!

Who doesn’t love fries though?! If I could, I would eat them with every meal, chunky, skinny or matchstick, I’d have them all. With my love of fries and just the humble potato in general, I had to come up with a way to enjoy my fries in a healthier way. If there was a support group for potato lovers, I’d be there!

So, back to the chips, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to be able to enjoy my favourite snack without deep frying them to start. I also wanted to make sure they are packed with flavour, doing this, I’ve found even having just a few means my craving is banished and in turn I eat less, win win I say don’t you?

So I’ve come up with these fries, that are cooked with onions and peppers and coated with spray oil and concentrated liquid stock amongst a few other ingredients which add bags of flavour!

We usually enjoy these with everything from burgers to grilled chicken or fish, or if I’m alone, I’ll often have them alongside some cottage cheese to add protein and a huge side salad.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Serves: 2 hungry people as a side
Time: 30 minutes prep, plus cooking time

Ingredients

1. 4 medium-sized maris piper potatoes(chopped into roughly 1cm chips)
2. 1 large onion of your choice
3. 1 bell pepper/½ each of 2 different coloured bell peppers
4. 1 tbsp Concentrated liquid stock of choice/ 1 stock cube crumbled and mixed into the oil
5. 1 tsp Granulated garlic
6. A good grind of black pepper
7. 2 tbsp sunflower oil/a few sprays of your favourite oil

Directions

• Once the potatoes are chopped and peeled to your preference, soak them in cold water for 10 minutes and then rinse thoroughly to get rid of as much starch as possible, drain and dry them off in a clean tea towel or tissue
• Place in a single layer on a microwave proof plate, cover and cook on high for 5 minutes, uncover the chips and cook again for 5 minutes to ensure the moisture from steaming evaporates, allow the potatoes to cool
• Meanwhile, chop your onions and peppers into 1cm dice and keep aside until you are ready to cook
• Once everything is ready, heat up your oven 200°c (Fan).
• Put the potatoes, onions, peppers into a tray and add all your seasonings and sunflower oil
• Place your tray into your preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so to get everything nice and crispy.
• Serve on their own or with your choice of protein and vegetables.
  

I’ve linked up this post and recipe to #cookonceeatwice and #cookblogshare

Snack-cidents, all day everyday!

So if you’ve been following the meal prepping series, you’ll already know I feel like I’m eating a lot of chicken and turkey recently. Given that these are lean meats which are high in protein, it means I’m winning on all bases.

I did however get bored of eating egg cups relatively quickly, and I’m now beginning to bore of the chicken and cottage cheese combo. It’s tough, I’m trying my best to stay on track!

Last week I really really wanted something sweet after I’d eaten my dinner, and I had around 200 calories from my daily allowance remaining after I’d eaten. It’s probably worth noting, this rarely ever happens, so I was excited at the thought of eating something sweet.

So, what to have?

I had some Greek yogurt in the fridge which I thought would be great mixed with a little vanilla flavoured sweetener but I wanted something with a little bite too. Seeing as I was along at home, I decided to make some granola. A little trial turned out super yum so I wanted to share it with you all as it would make a great addition to your usual cereal breakfasts! It was really quick and is also super adaptable to personal tastes too! Having looked at a few recipes online, I came up with the combination of butter, maple syrup, oats and nuts along with a handful or two of cornflakes. You can of course add dried fruit and any number of other seeds and grains to your liking. I prefer it simple and I’ve been serving it with slightly sweetened Greek yogurt or snacking on it by itself for a little sweet crunch with my cup of tea while I’m working!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! The recipe can be found here, it’s also super easy to scale up as required!

 

How is it almost 2018?!

I can’t believe we’re almost at the end of the year! Christmas is next week people! How are you all getting on with your present shopping? I’m one of those anal people who starts thinking about her Christmas shopping in September, just because that way I can spread the cost…

Every year at Christmas, we almost always have a double celebration, it’s EmJay’s birthday on Christmas Eve, so no matter what’s going on, we’ll always do a little something if he’s not rostered to work. This year, we’ve gotten super lucky, he’s OFF! This rarely happens, so we’ve been planning on hosting a Christmas Eve birthday party for friends and family for a while now.

We’ve got a total of 15 people coming over, that’s more than we’ve ever had at our place so far (eeks!). So, like any sane human, I’ve delegated a little of the cooking, and by delegated, I mean I luckily have family that are helping!

In typical Indian style, the night before Christmas, we’re having a curry night! So we’ll have lots of finger food throughout the day followed by samosas, spring rolls, some chilli paneer which are being homemade by my mum, as well as lots of other bits and pieces.

For main courses, my sister in law makes the best lamb curry so we’ve got her coming over to make that for us, my mother in law is making the vegetarian option of chick pea curry (chana masala) and finally, I’m making a chicken saag.

I first made saag with my mum while I was young, in Gujarati we call it bhaji.  It’s literal translation is ‘spinach’ and saag refers to a way it’s traditionally eaten in Punjabi homes. Loaded with ghee to make it super rich and creamy. I cooked my version in my Instant Pot and EmJay loved it so much he’s requested it as one of the dishes on his birthday. Who am I to say no huh?

You can make this vegetarian by using paneer or even vegan using some tofu and omitting the butter. It’s got a huge long list of ingredients, but please don’t be daunted. The method is simple and the flavour is absolutely amazing! I really hope you enjoy it as much as we do… You can find the recipe here.

 

Meal Prepping – Part 4

So I’ve been a little quiet as we went away to the Dominican Republic for a week. EmJay even treated us to the luxury of flying Business Class with BA, more about that on another post which is coming later this week.

Being mindful of what I eat is something that Daniel talks about all the time, one way to make sure I really understand what I’m eating (and how much) is to track it on an app (MyFitnessPal). Before I discovered tracking, I’d guestimate how much food I was eating, oh boy did I get it wrong! *face palm!* Actually getting a scale out and physically measuring everything I eat has really helped me making progress with my health and fitness journey in the last few months.  It may seem tedious (and it sometimes is VERY tedious for those who sit and eat with you!), but it really does open your eyes to what a regular portion is.  Give it a try the next time you buy a package which says ‘4 servings’ or ‘per 200g serving’, I can almost guarantee you are having too big a portion, I know I was all these years!

Before we went away, I did a batch of meat and fish marinating as I knew we’d have to come back and go straight back into our busy lives at work. 1 of the things I love to marinate in a huge batch is lamb mince. We usually buy the mince in packs of 3 as it’s always on offer. Now there’s 2 of us that live at our house, so buying more than 1kg of lamb mince seems a little excessive you may say, but actually, this then sets us both up for at least 4 different meals in the coming weeks.

Marinated mince can be used to make all manner of dishes,  burgers, seekh kebabs or koftas come to mind. Another option is my super quick kofta curry if you’ve already made my onion tomato masala (recipe here).

This week, as we needed something quick and easy, I took out the mince the night before and when I got home, heated up a pan and then flash fried for a super quick meal. I served it piping hot with toasted pitta bread and a fresh crunchy salad. Sometimes we even have a dollop of hummus and some grilled halloumi cheese with it, it’s such a quick and easy weeknight meal whenever you fancy it.

I usually use minced lamb as we don’t eat beef at home, but this recipe can easily be used with beef, turkey and even pork mince. A little tip before you freeze, make some indentations in the meat while it’s flat in the bag you are storing in, this way, you can break off chunks easily if you only want to make 1 or two portions without having to defrost the whole lot!

I hope it’ll make your life a little easier getting this mince ready to cook and in your freezer… It certainly helps us to get meals on the table super quickly! You can find the recipe here.

 

 

 

 

 

*Disclaimer – Please be advised, I have made slow and steady changes to my diet and lifestyle under professional supervision, these posts are based on my personal experience and are in no way advising the reader to change their lifestyle without seeking advise from a Doctor or other trained professional.

 

 

 

Meal Prepping – Part 3

So as you know by now, I love getting prepared for the week ahead by pre-making different parts of my meals to make my life easier when I get home from work during the week.

Chicken is our go to protein of choice, we usually have around 6 chicken breasts delivered a week, often we’ll make lots of different things. Ranging from chicken curry with my onion tomato masala (recipe here) or some awesome popcorn chicken and chips if we’re in the mood (that’s a great recipe, you can find it here).

One thing I always like to prepare if we end up having extra chicken or fancy a quick snack is Mexican style chicken. Fajita seasonings always add so much flavour to chicken. As we prefer the breast piece which has a tendency for being dry. I’ve overcome this problems with two things:

1. Browning off the chicken on a high heat to start the cooking and then turning the heat down
2. Adding my veges to the chicken after I’ve started cooking it. (I always used to do veges first as it’s what I was taught to do!)

This Mexican style chicken cooks up in less than 30 minutes without the addition of the beans and rice, so it’s perfect for a quick lunch or dinner when served with tortillas and salad. It also makes for a great burrito filling once you’ve added the beans and rice and given it a bake through in the oven, I usually wrap up burrito fillings in individual portions so I can make a quick burrito with a fresh wrap for EmJay to take to work in a rush; but also for a quick dinner when I get home from the gym.

This one is super easy and really flavourful to make sure you don’t feel like you’re depriving yourself of something yummy while eating healthy. It would just as easily work meat free using quorn or even with some firm white fish fillets.

You can find the recipe here.

If you want to check out Meal Prepping Part 1 and 2 you can find them via the links below.
Meal Prepping Part 1
Meal Prepping Part 2 

 

*Disclaimer – Please be advised, I have made slow and steady changes to my diet and lifestyle under professional supervision, these posts are based on my personal experience and are in no way advising the reader to change their lifestyle without seeking advise from a Doctor or other trained professional.

Diwali – Festival of Lights

So this week we celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights which is then followed by Hindu new year. When I was younger I used to love this time of year. The main reason because, we got to take a day off school to dress up and spend the day playing with friends at the Temple while our parents socialised and wished everyone a Happy New Year.

I’m sure you would find 1000’s of different stories; I used to love hearing the many interpretations of the story every year with my childhood friends. The most basic story I was taught while studying at Gujarati school was that Lord Rama won a battle against the evil Ravana and rescues Princess Sita whom Ravana had kidnapped, with the help of his brother Laxshman and Lord Hanuman, on their return to the village, they were led home by Diwa’s (or candles) from the forest all the way home and were greeted with a big celebration.

Hindu festivals means there’s going to be food (YAY!). Diwali and New Year are the biggest days in the Hindu calendar, so just as many people start preparing for Christmas in the weeks (and months) ahead of the holidays, many Hindus across the globe will start their Diwali food prep a couple of weeks ahead of the festival. They like to be ready in preparation of the many visitors that will come over throughout the festive period (and often beyond that).

Last year, we were fresh into our new house so I hadn’t quite settled and got everything ready by the time Diwali came round. This year, I’ve done a selection of bits. Infact, I did so many different options I even put together some little Diwali packs for my family and posted them out 🙂

I’ve done:
Airfryed Methi Puri (Indian savoury crackers infusd with fenugreek leaves)
Chocolate Barfi (A nutmeg and cardamom spiced milk powder fudge topped with chocolate)
Mawa Penda (Caramelised condensed milk and milk powder fudge infused with almonds)
White chocolate fudge
Shortbread oat biscuists
And last but not least, a not so traditional but equally delicious banana & nutella cake (recipe for that one here)

 

Today I wanted to share one of the easiest recipes I’ve made this Diwali and also one of the most popular sweets at our house, chocolate barfi (EmJay loves a good chocolate barfi!). I based the recipe on what my mum usually does, although her method is a little more laborious than mine, she heats up the mixture on a stove and stirs continuously for a long long time! Mine uses a little shortcut, and why not I say? I use condensed milk in the recipe which gives it the perfect sweetness without having to add any more sugar.

These make a delicious snack at any time of the day, we usually have them alongside a nice cup of masala tea!

I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as my family and I do, you can make your own chocolate barfi using this method here.

This recipe was also published on the Roots and Leisure website here.

Did someone say chocolate?

EmJay and myself had a super busy weekend this week just gone. Part of that involved our usual monthly (more like bi/tri-monthly) check of the cupboards to make sure we start to use things which are close to their use by date. This gives us a chance to plan the weeks meals with the bits and pieces we know we need to use up in the coming weeks.

This week EmJay took out a large packet of digestives which has a use by date of next month. We don’t really eat biscuits on a regular basis, and generally only buy them for when our parents are coming to visit (they like a cup of tea and biscuits!). So when I saw them and 2 big bars of chocolate that needed using up I immediately thought rocky road.

I haven’t made a good rocky road in a while and I HATE with a passion dried fruit and glacier cherries so I knew I wouldn’t add any of these but this is a brilliant super simple recipe to use up those excess biscuits and chocolate you make have lying around. It would probably also be a great one to make with kids, lots of breaking biscuits up and melted chocolate mixing is always a hit with my niece and nephew!

I had some mini marshmallows and some little snickers bites to use up too so it was the perfect mix of sweet, salty, chewy and chocolatey. I hope you try it and love it as much as my colleagues at work did!

You can find the recipe here.

 

Meal Prepping Part 2

Part 2 of my meal prepping takes me on to lunches. If you didn’t catch part 1 and why I wanted to write about meal prepping you can find that here.

The last few weeks, as previously mentioned, I’ve been trying to keep my day times filled with high protein meals so that I effectively ‘Save’ all my carbs for my evening meal. This has meant I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of a proper dinner while eating with EmJay.

I used to really struggle at lunch times, working in an office, I sit at a screen working away from around 8.30am and often forget to stand up, take a walk and generally refresh my mind. I decided to make sure I ALWAYS take a break away from the desk for at least half hour before I come back and heat up any food I’ve brought with me. During this time I usually just have a walk with some music. My Apple Watch gives me prompts on an hourly basis to stand up if I’ve been sitting for too long, this means if I’m not completely involved in something at my desk I can get up and take a walk for a cup of tea or water.

This weeks recipe is one I’ve had consistently for the last few weeks (and consistently have made progress on the weight front with too!). I make it with turkey breast mince, you could use chicken/turkey thigh or your favourite red meat mince if this is what you prefer. I often portion this out and have packs in the freezer for when I need a high protein snack/make a quick high protein meal by adding to a jacket potato or eating with pitta bread.

I’ve been serving with cauliflower and broccoli mash for the last few weeks so I get a portion of veges and not so many carbs to bulk out my meals and fill me up. Find the recipe for dry spiced mince here.

Do let me know if you make it!

 

 

*Disclaimer – Please be advised, I have made slow and steady changes to my diet and lifestyle under professional supervision, these posts are based on my personal experience and are in no way advising the reader to change their lifestyle without seeking advise from a Doctor or other trained professional.