2018: A Year In FoodIn 2018, my PureGym manager assigned me to keep a food & exercise blog so that he could track my meals. between January-August 2018, through developing healthy eating habits to satisfy all of my nutritional needs and a rigorous exercise programme, I lost the 21 kg that I had gained on anti-depressants. I wanted it to be somewhere more contained rather than being shoved down people's throats (literally) through Instagram / WhatsApp. Hence I have housed my culinary creations here. Being vegetarian and/or vegan always presents a challenge in terms of hitting the protein target. This was particularly the most interesting challenge for me. I made a conscious decision to stop food blogging in 2019 (due to time restraints). However, it is useful to have a year's diet documented as a reference and a source of inspiration! |
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Butternut squash and chickpea curry recipe - BBC Food https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/squash_curry_09269 Next week’s meals - I omitted the curry leaves! Coconut oil Cumin 2 large onions, finely chopped Garlic, grated Ground turmeric Ground coriander 2 packs of ready-chopped butternut squash and sweet potato cubes 2 packs of coconut cream 2 tins of chopped tomatoes 2 tins of chickpeas, dreained and rinsed 2 packs of green beans, chopped Note: the eggs in the 1st 2 images were from a separate meal. Falafel in a spinach, rochet, watercress and cucumber salad. The cheese and coleslaw are optional and used to give it a bit more of a calorific boost (as it’s quite lightweight) but these can easily be substituted with quorn, tofu, cabbage, cauliflower etc. The wraps are a combination of beetroot (pink) and multigrain (white). Black bean and avocado wraps, seasoned with thyme and flavoured with coconut. Various baked potato dishes. Dish 1: Broccoli and crumbled feta topped with chilli. Dish 2: Mushrooms, garlic and feta. Dish 3: Hummus, quorn and peas. Dinners: an adaptation on mum's courgette in rosemary sauce. I fried up the courgettes with white onions and added butter beans, chopped tomatoes 🍅 and quark cheese 🧀to thicken the sauce. Unfortunately ran out of rosemary but I added thyme and garlic and a bit of tamari and lemon juice. The plan is to have it with microwaved jackets. The side is a mixture of boiled cabbage & leaks, scrambled egg 🍳 whites, yum & yay 😊 mixed nuts 🥜 and seeds and cashew pieces. Lunches: Quorn ham style slices, cherry 🍒 tomatoes 🍅 peas and sweet corn 🌽 savoury mix mayonnaise and parsley in genius wraps. How will we keep up with this colourful cuisine at the weekend?  Claire Birdland gave me these hot peppers 🌶 last Thursday because they were too spicy 🔥💥rah! So I used them as a frying base combined them with 2 bags of quorn mince, 2 cartons of tomato 🍅 passata and the remaining 2 Heinz five beanz snap pots to make a hearty ❤ chilli. 45g protein per 1/4 serving. I'll find some rice to accompany it... I've loved black beans for ages so I was delighted to see them on the high protein list! Trick for cooking avocados: dunk in and simmer in the sauce before peeling, makes them break apart much more easily. 20sec in the microwave also helps. These black bean and avocado 🥑 sweet potato 🍠 wraps are slightly less protein (coming in at around 18g per wrap), but they should be tastier and more appetising than last week's offering. I used a base of spring onions and blocked the coconut 🌴 cream block in the soup 🍜 to thicken the sauce, plus a dollop of old all purpose seasoning ✨magic! Ok, why when I cook 4 bags of peas does a massive foam broth up? Is this normal? Peas are a great source of protein! I had 4 bags of peas in the freezer so I paired it with half a bag of kale, half a pot of Thai red curry paste and the last container of Linda McCartney scampi 🍤 style bites. 31g protein per serving, served with a side of Oomi protein noodles 🍝just what I needed after spin class 🚴 I added a splash of dark soy sauce, a flash of coconut 🌴 milk and a dash of ginger to add flavour 😋
Dinners cooked for the week! Mushrooms 🍄 edamame and pak choi in a miso, coconut 🌴 and ginger sauce. The plan is to serve on a bed of Oomi protein noodles 🍝 each serving 37.7g protein. Being good 😇  Lunches prepped for the week! I've packed 5 broccoli florets into these quinoa and chia seed wraps, mixed with red split lentils and peanut 🥜 butter. Each wrap contains 40g protein! Lunches wrapped for the week!!!! Each sandwich is made from Sainsbury's be good 😊 to yourself wraps and contains: 0.5 ball mozzarella, 1 tomato 🍅, a handful of fresh spinach leaves 🍃 a teaspoon of light green pesto and a knob of butter. 449 kcal per sandwich. Batch cook done ✅ inspired by a deliciously ella recipe, this 'Thai' coconut 🌴 and chickpea curry really packs a punch 🤛! 2 white onions and 2 aubergines 🍆 chopped and fried. 2 tins chickpeas (undrained). Added 0.5 jar Sainsbury's Red Thai curry paste, 200ml koko milk, 40ml Tamari soy sauce and finished with a dusting of ginger, seasoned to taste. 611kcal in total; it'll hopefully last 3 meals, so approx 200kcal per meal. 🤞 Lunch packed for the next 3 days! These wraps are made from sweet potato 🍠 and I've used minted beans, red onion and turmeric rolled up with spinach leaves 🍃 and falafel 🥙. Need to work on my clingfilm technique!
Today's cooking: tofu, mushrooms 🍄 esparagus, bean sprouts and avocado 🥑 in a sweet chilli and garlic sauce, and... more eggy courgetti. |
2018: A Year In FoodIn 2018, my PureGym manager assigned me to keep a food & exercise blog so that he could track my meals. between January-August 2018, through developing healthy eating habits to satisfy all of my nutritional needs and a rigorous exercise programme, I lost the 21 kg that I had gained on anti-depressants. Archives
January 2019
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