Slightly Spiced Sweet Potato and Chickpea Quinoa

 17th January 2017

Remaining on the health kick this week also and exploring my new cookbook. I'm working my way through the "15 minute meals" which do take closer to 30 minutes...so who knows how long the 30 minutes - 1 hour will take when we get there!

To start, I fried some jumbo spring onions in some coconut oil. Small cubes of sweet potato and carrot was added to the pan and fried for 5 minutes, then went in the chickpeas and turmeric which was all fried for a little while longer.

Meanwhile the quinoa was added to a pan of boiling water with a stock cube and left to simmer until all the liquid was gone. Today I figured out that a 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water makes the best quinoa.

The creamed coconut was dissolved in a jug of boiling water, which was then stirred in with the veg and left to simmer.

Finally, the spring greens were added to the pan and cooked for a few minutes until soft. This was served out on top of the quinoa. It was a deliciously mild coconuty dinner that fed me for a few days. I might be back on board with quinoa!

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Later in the week I used up the remaining sweet potatoes by baking them and having them with soft cheese and veg. I'm enjoying being healthy again!

Spicy Cauliflower, Paneer and Pea Rotis

9th January 2017

I enjoyed rotis so much whilst in Barbados last summer, that I'm not sure why its taken this long to make my own. I used another recipe from my new book which was exciting and it was different yet just as nice as the Bajan rotis.

To start I fried a bunch of spring onions in coconut oil. Which was fine. And then I screwed up the recipe a little. I added the frozen peas to the pan (which I shouldn't have done) in a bid to save on the washing up. When these were thawed and cooked I tipped out the whole lot and attempted to mash them as per the recipe. I think the spring onions should have been kept separate.

The mashing failed somewhat, so I just stirred in the chilli, coriander and lemon juice in a separate bowl and put to one side.

More coconut oil was added to the pan along with small cauliflower florets, turmeric and curry powder. Next I threw in cubes of paneer cheese to fry until the veg was softened.

I warmed up the rotis in the microwave and then added the curried cheese and veg, topped with the pea and chilli mix and finally some freshly chopped mint and coriander. It was the perfect post-gym tea.

One Pot Spaghetti

4th January 2017

Happy New Year!! Its January and therefore its time for a health kick and therefore better cooking and more exercise. I've started the year with all the gym classes and I have a brand new pan and a brand new cook book for dinner inspiration: A Modern Way To Cook by Anna Jones. This first recipe is from page 1.

The first instruction was to put the spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, lemon zest and juice in a pan with a litre of water, some oil and salt. This was brought to the boil and left to simmer for a short time. I added some mushrooms also.

Once the pasta had begun to soften, I added handfuls of kale at a time and stirred it into the spaghetti pot. This was cooked with the lid off to allow the water to continue to boil off. 

This was absolutely easy peasy to do and was served out as soon as the water was pretty much all gone. I topped the pasta with some fresh basil. Despite being a recipe for 4-6, I ended up with 7 portions and will be eating spaghetti for a week! Delicious.