Spiralised Sweet Potatoe & Cavolo Nero

I'm a recent convert to Cavolo Nero - as a child I hated my greens, so the gnarly, dark green-ness of this leaf caused me some trepidation. However, in the spirit of experimentation and because a bag of leaves were on spesh at the supermarket - I've been eating more of it. 

Tonight I have a headache and I need good, comfort food - pronto tonto! 

So I flung together a super quick one pot dish with spiralised sweet potatoe and starring the lovely greens. It was delicious. So I'm sharing it with you.

I added some left over salmon - but you can keep it veggie with some feta or griddled Haloumi - so good,

Ingredients - here's what I had - you can wing it with different seeds, greens etc. 

This served one hungry' poorly chicken.

1/2 good sized sweet patootie - spiralised (if you haven't got one you could create a fine julienne or use a potatoe peeler and peel the whole thing - you can chop your shavings in half length ways if you have the time... But I say get a spiraliser - they ROCK)!

Big handful of Cavolo Nero chopped

6 cured black olives halved

Small handful of cashews toasted

Handful pumpkin seeds toasted

Pesto & Greek yoghurt mixed (I mix 1 tspn pesto to 3 tspns Greek yoghurt) 

Smoked salmon slices

Coconut oil

I did it like a dude.

Melt a chunky spoon ful of coconut oil in a big, high sided pan. 

Add the sweet potatoe and cook gently in the meantime toast our nuts and seeds - keep an eye on them.

If the sweet potatoe sticks a little - just add some water from the kettle - just a smidge. You can do this more than once. 

After five mins add the greens and the olives and cook with the lid on until the greens are tender. 

About another five mins - this really depends on how you like your veggies cooked. I wanted my potatoe soft and my greens well cooked. 

Turn out your potatoe and greens mixture into a big plate and stir in the pesto and yoghurt mixture. 

Add the toasted nuts and seeds

Top with salmon.

Ay Voylar - thass frensh! 

You could add a hit of chilli or a squirt of lemon to lift this dish up to spectacleere - but I wasn't messing and sometimes too many ingredients can spoil your tea - so I took no chances. 

I didn't take a pic - but it looks like autumn on a plate. 

Narna Smoothie

Hello!

I have been struggling with the weather - like everyone else. It plays havoc with my eating habits. All I want is carbs and fat. Toast and butter with extra pnb. Pasta, slathered with thick cream sauce and cheese a lot of cheese. Cheese makes life sunnier. I believe this to be true.

None of this scoffing is doing my waistline any good - and it is also adding to my feelings of sluggish meh-ness. The woman with the massive arse - can't be. Arsed that is... oh keep up!

So this week - I have put in some serious effort to eat good things, yummy things, healthy things. 

This morning I managed a carb wonderment that is both delicious and nutritious. All hail me and the humble narna.

Here we go...

2 ripe bananas (super useful recipe if you are one of those pussies that won't eat properly ripe bananas)

10 pecans (more if you are not counting calories)

5 dates (omit if you are counting calories) - they are not essential but make the smoothie taste caramelly good.

500ml whole bean soy (You can use any type of non dairy milk - tbh you can use dairy if that is your thing - I am a woman of a certain age - so soy milk is a thing now). 

2 desert spoons of 0% Greek Yoghurt (again full fat if you wish - this is the only reduced anything product that I have any truck with).

Put the lot in a high speed blender and whiz until smooth and creamy.

This makes plenty - you could easily share this with your lovey dove. Or if yours is like mine and would prefer to eat his own shoe rather than drink a creamy breakfast bevvy - then you get to consume the lot all by your self! 

I haven't worked out the PP for this - I will return with the information directly. Enjoy x

Green Deal Muffins!

I've just made these little marvels. So lovely and easy peasy. I've been taking a look at The Leptin Diet - I won't bore you with the deets: if you want to find out about the hormone leptin and how important it is to your weight loss campaign then you can find oodles and poodles on line about it.

One of the five simple rules of the Leptin Diet is to eat a high protein brekky - in fact this turns up in lots of advice from trainers, dieticians and all manner of trained experts way WAY more fancy and clever and qualified than I. So I'm not going to witter on about it. I'm just going to share this brilliant little eggy bake.

We'll be having them for breakfast tomorrow - or possibly for lunch. I'm loving oats, almond milk and a teaspoon of pnb at the moment for my protein rich start up - with a fresh juice loaded with ginger against the ridiculous weather we're having.

ONWARDS.... to the pots and pans my dears.

Winter Supper - Fast & Tasty

Hello Chums!

I'm experimenting with my new toy & a quick blog with a couple of pics on the fly seemed like the perfect opportunity to test the handling of my upgraded tablet. I've swerved the iPad mini - despite its super cute size - and I've stepped away from the latest iPad Air - my chap has one winging its way but seriously - this new gem is such a world away from my ageing tech - it feels like I've entered an episode of Dr Who. One where the nanna's go first!

Fancy Salad Hides Bog Standard Spud

I am currently loving the huge sweet potatoes available at my local grocery shop. We scored Boris for a song this afternoon and shoved him in the oven after a light massage with hemp oil & seasalt. I also popped in a few red onions with the skin on - one got chopped up to go with the spud & the others will get whiz zoomed with chopped mushrooms & stock for soup tomorrow. (We are currently giving 5:2 a go chez nous - more of those recipes another time...) 

Sweet Potatoes will do quite quickly - I time them in 30 min intervals & prong them with a sharp knife to gauge their doneness. While he's getting all hot - fling together a salad with whatever you've got in the fridge. 

What you need is a combination of tastes & textures & colour. If you make a boring salad you ought to be shot. It isn't hard to make something delicious - especially if you keep some store cupboard staples. 

Black cured olives chopped

A handful of baby plumb tomatoes halved

Six stalks of asparagus - cut off the tips & chop the stems small

1/4 large ripe avocado chopped chunky

2 sun dried tomatoes chopped

1/4 cucumber chopped into thick chunks & quartered

Spinach

Dates chopped (optional - some people don't do sweet with savoury - you're missing out btw)

Chunk of uncut bacon (from the butcher) sliced thickly & fried crispy - then cut into bits

Mix every thing together - except the spinach. Put the spinach into individual serving bowls & dress with a little hemp oil & lemon juice. In a separate bowl mix the rest of the ingredients & scatter over the spinach.

When the spuds are ready. Cut in half add butter if you like and fill one half with hummus & roasted onion* & the other with pesto & grated cheese.

*take the onion out of the oven & gently pull off the papery skin. Snip the last bit with kitchen scissors. & curing half, peel the leaves off & add to the hummus side of your sweet potato.

Pics taken hastily with the new tech. Not bad for a quick blog - on the go! 

Fancy Fishy Cakey Doo Dah!

Hello chums... I've had a few moments more than usual to fashion something fabulous for supper from the contents of my badly husbanded fridge. I used to love fish-cakes at school, one of the best days of any week would be made superb by the addition of fish-cakes for lunch or even better tea!

Your mum's fish cakes are always better than anyone else's - that is terrrue!

So I thought I'd have a go at making some. My only stipulation -is there shall be no spuds and no flour. Whenever I use plain flour in patty things - it ends up tasting a bit, well floury...

I just went with what I had in the cupboards - so if it feels a bit un-co. That's because it is.

No matter - soldier on my friends. To the recipe!




Ingredients List Starts Here:

1 leek (to be scrupulously honest it was 3/4 of a leek) - chopped finely
butter and oil (to cook leeks)
2 small salmon fillets - cooked and skinned and flaked
1 tin of tuna - well drained
A small handful of olives (cured black), chopped
2 x sun-dried tomatoes and a little oil, chopped
1 lime (zest of and juice of)
1/4 very ripe avocado (I'd say this is totally optional but did add some bindingness)

S&P

For making:

1 egg beaten
1/2 cup cous cous (or polenta whatever you've got)
2 - 4 dsrt spns oats (you can play with the mix and don't worry too much about the amounts)


Making:

Cook the leeks in a small amount of butter and oil until soft, but not taking on colour. Set these aside to cool a bit.

Whiz the cous cous and oats in a coffee grinder to make a finer flour. (You can bash in a pestle and mortar if you don't have a mini-whizzer).

In the meantime mix everything else together - and then add the leeks and the oil/butter from the pan. Mix well - you're going for a sticky mixture - not too wet, so make sure you drain the tuna well and keep an eye on the addition of the lime.

If it does feel a bit too wet - just add some of the cous cous/oats flour and mix it in.

Divide the mixture into 6 to 8. Wet you hands and roll each 1/8th into a ball.

Roll in the beaten egg and then roll in the flour mixture.

Pop on a plate and pat down into a fish cake shape.

Continue until you've made all of your fish cakes.

Put this lot in the fridge - this will help them keep their shape when you cook them, so an hour is good and longer is better.

When you are ready - heat some* oil in a deepish frying pan and cook the fish cakes for around 3 mins on each side, until they are crisp and golden. They should be warm and soft in the centre.

Serve:

I'd say 2 each for a light supper - but me and him are having all three so there!

I'm serving ours with shredded mange touts and blanched, spiralised courgette spaghetti with red, tomato pesto.

There may be some banana ice cream


*this really depends on your taste - I use Healthy Oil and or olive oil because that's what I like - but you can spray the pan, or use sunflower oil - chaque a son gōut! 

Bannana & Cherry Choc 'Icecream'

Oooh! Stop what your doing, chop up two large narnas & stick em in the freezer, pop to Tesco & buy frozen cherries 3 packs of frozen fruit for a fiver when I last looked! 

Then do this ...

Put bananas, two big handfuls of frozen cherries & 1 tablespoon cocoa powder* into a high speed blender - I use Froothie's Optimum - way cheaper than the American bad boys & just as effective!  (*raw, organic if you have - any old dark chocolate powder will do).

Switch on the blender @ low and slowly up the ante - use the tamper to smush the frozen fruit to the middle - eventually it will all start blending.

Don't over blend... 

Add smashed up bits of broken chocolate if you like. I don't like cold chocolate.

Serve immediately - tŵo piggy portions or three to four smaller ones.

You can add almond milk to the stuff stuck in the bottom & whizz - to make a cheeky milk shake too! 

Perfect, creamy, fruity & cool - if you don't add choccy powder it's practically guilt free! 

Tastes like heaven fell into your bowl!

No pic - scoffed it before I even gave a thought to sharing!

Oat Milk Smoothie

What a beautiful day! I yomped across the park to the supermarket to load up on veggies. I spotted a new product in the non-milk, milk section. It's called Oatly and it comes in organic and non-organic options. The organic option is just oats, water and a pinch of salt for £1.48 or 2 for £2.00. The jolly nice people at Oatly also informed me that the oats accounted for 10% of the ingredients.

I figure with just a pinch of salt - that would give me 90% water!

So I also thought I'd have a go and make my own. Turned out really well. I use Flahavan's organic oats - but I'm quite sure nothing horrid would happen to you if you went ahead and used regular old oats.

YOIKS! So sorry - posted this at stoopid O'clock and got the measurements wrong. I doubt it killed ya - and I also doubt you were making fake Oatly at 2am in the morning. I also forgot to mention I put a squeeze of maple syrup into mine... It's all sorted. Let's move on shall we?