Je Goûterai - I will taste
28.6.12 - 52 recipes done!
Next target, 104 recipes to reach by the end of the year!
I woke up this morning at 8:30, contacts still in, make-up smeared across my face and hair stinking of sick. It was not a good morning. I guzzled myself a couple of glasses of water, took out my lenses, texted people apologising for the previous night’s behaviour and went back to sleep for 3 hours.
On next waking up, I lied in bed for about an hour playing super Mario on my DS and hid under my covers from the world, it was time…. I needed to face the music and somehow stand up.
I made it. My feet touched the ground and I felt as if I had aged 50 years in seconds. I was hunched over, shuffling around to find my glasses and was shaking from the hangover. I needed to eat or there would be another repeat of last night’s awful end.
Holding myself onto the banister, I made my way down stairs to the kitchen. I usually have poached eggs when I’m hungover, fresh, healthy and filling. I had no eggs. I remembered I had bought myself an issue of Women’s Health the other day for something to read on the train back from London (will post about this trip soon!) and there was a section of Healthy-super-foods for breakfast, one of which was a refreshing looking smoothie. I never have them either so I decided to give it a try!
Serves one
250ml of semi-skimmed milk or soya milk (I had light soya c: )
1 banana chopped
2 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
2 tsp honey
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Stick in a blender (or a jug and use a hand blender) and blend.
Took all over 2 minutes and created a deeply rich, smooth drink. The bitter chocolate was hushed by the sweetness of the banana and the honey. Depending on what kind of honey you use, you can bring different dimensions of flavour to the smoothie too. (If you’re vegan you can replace the honey with something like Agave Syrup) And it was so healthy! You get a bit of fat from the milk but with tons of protein too, potassium from the banana and a naughty bit of chocolate heaven. It was a life saver. It completely settled my stomach, got rid of the shakes and I feel 100 times better. Now I’m hungry again so gonna have something solid to eat! haha
(Sorry there isn’t a photo…. I couldn’t function properly this morning let alone gather the energy to pick up my camera and take a decent picture.)
No. 72: Lemony Courgettes on Toast – 25.10.12
Since going on my One Day cookery course at River Cottage I have tried to carry on the skills I learnt there through the food I cook. I received a cook book of my choice at the end of the day and haven’t really cooked much from it! I’m also trying to get more vegetables into my diet and knew some of the best recipes where the veg is the star of the dish would be found in a River Cottage book. Courgettes are quite cheap and I had nearly all ingredients on hand so this was a perfect little dish for lunch :)
This recipe is taken from River Cottage Everyday
Serves 2
3-4 Courgettes (about 500g)
2 tbsp Rapeseed or Olive Oil
1 small garlic clove, crushed
¼ tsp Thyme leaves
grated zest of ½ a lemon
1 ½ tbsp Lemon juice
2 thick slices of bread
10 basil leaves, cut into thin strips
pinches of salt and pepper
to finish, Extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil for drizzling
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Heat the oil in a largish frying pan, slice the courgettes into thin discs then add to the pan with a large pinch of salt. Sauté over a medium to high heat for about 5 minutes until their moisture evaporates and they start to brown a little bit.
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Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook for another minute-ish until softer and coloured a little. Then, stir in the lemon zest and juice then season with salt and pepper.
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Toast the bread.
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Remove the courgettes from the heat and add the basil, then tip the mix over the bread along with any lemony juices and drizzle over a little oil.
Mmmmmmmm yummy! I wasn’t sure about this because courgettes are one of those vegetables that I’m trying to get into, finding new ways to eat and cook them. This was a really fresh, filling and involved some of my favourite ingredients, lemon and basil! And Garlic. Everyone loves garlic. If you don’t, please leave my blog. We can no longer be friends I’m afraid. But anyway, garlic works with almost anything, especially herbs such as thyme and basil. I love using it with lemon when cooking down leeks or flash frying some green beans or thinly sliced broccoli so when I saw all of these flavours used together in this dish, I knew it would be a winner with my taste buds. I would probably have added some more lemon juice so the bread could have soaked up more of the flavours.
Although I do feel like I’m staying in my comfort zone a little bit too much with the recipes I try. Hmmm!
These are some of the most perfect tomatoes I have ever had. They are from Asda’s Extra Special range which is a range of vegetables which are home grown in the UK and are named ‘Sweet Aromatico Cherry Tomatoes on the Vine’.
They had this gorgeously strong sent (which you expect from tomatoes on the vine) and they were equally as gorgeous on the taste buds. I was never ever a fan of raw tomatoes. Ever. These converted me. They are sweet, rich and just down right amazing. They were on offer for 2 for £3 on these and Extra Special Red Peppers and made Nigel Slater’s Peppers and Pasta recipe. They taste incredible baked with a basil dressing. They ooze and burst with sweetness. They are heavenly.
Had some leftover Raspberries and Dark Chocolate Alpro Soya Yogurts……. Combining them was the best idea ever. Omnomnomnom! ^.^
No.19: Red Lentil, Chickpea and Chilli Soup – 15.2.12
This week is my Low Wheat Diet week, which was going so well until I found out couscous was a wheat based food…… I went to the shops to hunt for wheat free staple food but instead of picking up ‘wheat free’ pasta, I decided to buy an ingredient I had not tried before which was Red Lentils. The only thing I knew they were used in was to bulk up stews and soups so that’s where I started! This recipe was taken from the BBC GoodFood website, it’s low fat, filling and pretty simple!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/333614/red-lentil-chickpea-and-chilli-soup
Serves 4
2 tsp cumin seeds
large pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
140g red split lentils
850ml vegetable stock or water
1 x 400g can of tomatoes, chopped or whole
200g carton of Chickpeas or ½ a 400g can of them
a small bunch of coriander
4tbsp 0% Greek Yoghurt to serve or any cream based product you wish to use!
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Heat a large saucepan and dry fry the cumin seed and chilli flakes for 1 minute or until they start jumping about (this starts to release their spices and aromas). Add the oil, onion and fry for a further 5 minutes.
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Add the lentils, stock and tomatoes and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the lentils have softened.
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Whizz the soup with a stick blender or in a food processor until it is a rough purée. And if you’re a cheap student and have neither of these things like me, leave it. It’s perfectly fine without puréeing it! Pour it back into the pan, add the chickpeas and heat gently.
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Season well, stir in the coriander and finish with a dollop of your cream based topping!
I’m not a fan or spicy food so I left out the chilli and cumin, which I regret now because I promised myself with these new recipes that I would try more and more new things! However the soup was really nice! I didn’t have anything cream based so I crumbled some Rosary Goat’s Cheese on the top which is almost a mouse like cheese which tasted incredible. I loved that is was a tomato based soup and was a lot nicer than I expected it to be! It was really nice to get the odd chickpea whilst eating as well as it added an extra dimension of texture which was really nice. Today for my dinner, with my leftovers, I made a sweet potato bake which tasted delicious!
No. 18 Mustardy Baked Onions – 12.2.12
When I was younger I used to despise onions. If there were the slight trace of them in something I was eating, I would stop consuming it and instantly disliked it. Frozen Burgers I wouldn’t eat due to bits of their insides looking like there were onions in them. Even if I was enjoying something and was told there were onions in it, I would stop eating. As you can see, I used to be a very very fussy child. After trying Shallots in my food as advised by my twin sister that they were “onions for people who don’t like onions” I have slowly developed a love for them. My boyfriend, being obsessed with onions developed my love for red onions and now I adore them.
I had bought a Good Food magazine the other day and they had a low fat, healthy recipe for Bake Red Onions. I always try and keep a bag of them in my cupboard as there are always dishes were you can add an onion or 2 into it!
Serves 4
4 medium Red onions
4 small sprigs of rosemary
knob of butter
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp grainy mustard
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
PRE HEAT the oven to 180oC
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Slice the root of each onion to create a flat bottom and then peel them carefully the leave them whole.
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Cut a deep cross into the tops of each, add a sprig of rosemary, dot of butter and place on a roasting tray. Add a little of the balsamic vinegar to each onion, season and then wrap the tray in foil and bake for 30 minutes.
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Meanwhile, mix together the mustard and sugar and set aside
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After the half an hour is up, remove the foil from the tray and spoon a little of the sugar and mustard mixture on top of each onion. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes uncovered to caramelise.
These were total Melt-in-your-mouth bliss. They were so sweet and when cutting into them, well on the attempt to cut into them, they simply fell apart and were soft and looked so moist! They were delicious! I used Dijon mustard as I had none of the grainy type and learnt I don’t care too much for mustard. So in the future I might leave it out! I would defiantly give this a try if you are looking for new ways to use onions or even if you are trying to find a new side dish to accompany a Sunday Roast! Yum!
I’ve been diagnosed with IBS recently and my doctor wanted me to, each week, change someone about my diet and see the difference to my body and such. Last week was no milk week and this week is Low fat week! I wanted to try a larger variety of foods which I can eat within a low fat kind of meal so I looked into lentils and bought a pack of Puy Lentils. I made a lentil stew thing the other day with caramalised onions which I will post later tonight which was really yummy! :)
always make couscous with vegetable stock. YUM!
