2018: A Year In FoodIn 2018, my gym coach assigned me to keep a food blog so he could track my meals. Through developing healthy eating habits to satisfy all of my nutritional needs and a rigorous exercise programme, I lost the 21 kg between January-August 2018 I'd gained on anti-depressants. I wanted it to be somewhere more private rather than being shoved down people's throats (literally) through Instagram/WhatsApp. Hence I've posted my culinary creations here. Being vegetarian and/or vegan always presents a challenge in terms of hitting the protein target so this was particularly the most interesting challenge for me. I made a conscious decision to stop food blogging in 2019 (due to time restraints), but it's useful to have a year's diet documented as a reference and a source of inspiration! |
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Based on Deliciously Ella's "Sun-dried Tomato Pasta" recipe, with some slight adaptations. This pasta is perfect for a rainy, cold day. It's wonderfully hearty and wholesome, and so quick to throw together. The sauce is made from a mix of flavoursome sum-dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. You can add other veg to this too though. I stirred through some spinach at the end and threw in some sautéed mushrooms. I finished this with some roasted Yum & Yay mixed nuts and seeds, which adds more flavour and texture, while also making it look beautiful. I used Spelt pasta. 6 yellow peppers chopped and fried. 6 eggs boiled in with red lentils, drained, peeled and added to the peppers along with 1 pot of garlic and herb Quark cheese and 2 bags of watercress, spinach and rocket salad. Finished with thyme, garlic and salt to taste. Saturday- in food: sweet potato 🍠 portobello mushroom 🍄 carrot 🥕 batons, mozzarella cheese 🧀 and quorn egg bites drizzled with Nando's sauce and mayo maize  My lunch wraps for the week... got home late last night so needed to do a quick fix. It's basically a veggie fry up... in a Wrap 😝  Saturday morning muesli, raspberries, blueberries, yoghurt🍦 and milk 🍼 then...off to the gym!  Breakfasts: raspberries and banana 🍌 protein milk 🍼 smoothie overnight oats (mornflake) layered trifles topped with strawberries 🍓 and a drizzle of honey 🍯 rise and shine! 🌞🌇 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. Today's shopping trolley 🛒 Purple milk? Fruits 🍇 potatoes 🥔 one banana 🍌 what else You'll see what I'm about to do 😉 A weird smoothie  How will we keep up with this colourful cuisine at the weekend?  Dinner tonight: veg chilli topped with cottage cheese Lime 🍋 flavour, to accompany the chilli 🌶 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! Nice 👍 this was my dinner last night... I was a bit laaazzzy 😴bubble & squeak with baked beans snap pot and cottage cheese 🧀  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 😋
Oomi noodle 🍜 stir fry plus a side of egg 🍳 white and more scampi 🍤 style bites for added protein! 😉🤸♂  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. Lunch: Linda McCartney scampi 🍤 style bites, kale fried in chilli 🌶 and Tamari and Heinz 5 beanz snap pot. Fuelling up for the burpee challenge! I did the burpee challenge and it was bad, if not worse, than I thought it would be. Managed to do it in just under 10 mins.  |
Rory DuffyRory spent the first few years of his life in an ice cave, carving out his palace of wonder. He's a bit of a love doll, but he who melts the ice shall have their reward. Archives
January 2019
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