31. Healthy food, week 2

There has been A LOT of cooking going on in this house over the past week. Not so many pictures taken, but a lot of cooking! Healthy, homemade goodness - yumm!!

1. Mini Quiches

I made 9 phyllo mini quiches, based mostly on wererabbits' recipe.



For filling I used what I had on hand - onion, ham, spinach. If I'd have had mushrooms too, it would have made a GREAT addition, but these were lovely as is.
I had to persuade myself to step away from the mini quiches, because other wise I'd have eaten them all! I managed to freeze a bunch, some which were defrosted and heated up for brunch this weekend.
Yum!

2. Chickpea and Spinach Curry Based on a recipe from Cooking Light's Superfast Weeknight Dinners.
This "curry" was more of a delicately spiced dish rather than the robust flavours of what I think of as a curry. If I had have served it with rice, the flavours would have been lost. It made a delicious and light dinner. I loved it!
There were leftovers, too.



1/2 a red onion, mini chopped to a mush
1-2 tbsp mini chopped ginger root
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp Thai red curry paste
1 can chickpeas
1/2 can chopped tomatoes
most of an 8oz/225g bag of baby spinach
1/2 cup of water.

Saute onion and ginger mush.
Add sugar until caramelised.
Add curry paste until fragrant.
Add chickpeas and tomatoes. Cook for a while until flavours meld.
Add spinach and water, cook until wilted.

3. Chicken Satay Wraps Based on a recipe from Cooking Light's Superfast Weeknight Dinners.

When I tasted the satay chicken in the cooking pot, it seemed a little too rich, and I wished that I hadn't have added so much peanut butter, and the 2 tortillas didn't look like they'd fill me.
But after eating it, I found I was very wrong! It's richness carried the raw veg, it was very satisfying, and very delicious!!
It's a keeper!



About 4 cups broccoli-slaw veg, divided
2/3 cup light coconut milk
1 tbsp soy
1 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 huge chicken breast, cooked and shredded
6 mini wholegrain tortillas

Saute 2 cups of broccoli slaw veg until beginning to soften.
In a bowl, combine coconut milk, soy, vinegar, curry powder, cayenne and peanut butter. Pour over veg until warmed through (not boiling).
Add chicken, cook until hot (not boiling).
Put a handful of raw broccoli-slaw veg in tortilla, top with 1/2 cup chicken, roll, repeat with 2nd tortilla, enjoy.

4. Balsamic Sesame Chicken with brown rice and yummy veg. Using justbento's RECIPE

Unfortunately we wolfed down this delicious dinner before I got a chance to take any pictures, so here's a picture of my leftovers plate!



Plus brown rice,
plus broccoli slaw + diced yellow and green bell peppers + edememe + sweetcorn + drizzle of teriyaki sauce.


Other cooking done this week:
5. Chunky Vegetarian Chilli, again adapted from Cooking Light's Superfast Weeknight Dinners. Which was a little on the HOT side. I didn't have any sour cream, so I ended up taming the heat with a splash of milk and LOTS of shredded cheese.... It was also a little on the ugly side, too. Won't be making it again. What a disaster.....
6. Mini Burgers and Mini Meatballs, based on just bento's recipe. Went straight to freezer.
7. Repeat of last week's Pork with Curried Mango Sauce, plus potatoes, plus green beans.

31. Cook healthy dinners everyday

My first week of healthy dinners have been really tasty! No kitchen disasters, just lovely, healthy, homecooked-with-love dinners. Because I'm worth it! Just because I'm cooking for one through the week, doesn't mean I shouldn't look after myself! I know the veg is a little repetitive, but I really needed to go grocery shopping, and had to make do with what I had on hand!!
This week's highlights have included:
1. East Asian Pork Strips, noodles and veg (Red pepper, sweetcorn and edememe.)

This was totally yummy, 7.2 grams of fat per serving, (but I had more than one serving!!) Chopped onion, rye whiskey, pepper, pork loin, vinegar, soy, sugar, lots of fresh grated ginger, cornstarch, honey. Mmmmm!
Next time I'd change the cellophane noodles for more substantial noodles. (These noodles should stick to being in soup or spring rolls!!)

2. Favourite Omlette

2/3 cup frozen hash browns, 1 egg, 2 egg whites, GENEROUS handful of sweetcorn, GENEROUS handful of edememe, finished off under the grill with a sprinkling of grated cheese.
What can I say, my new fave veg combination is sweetcorn and edememe!

3. Quinoa scramble

Thanks for the recipe, NotExactlyBento.com! Made with the ingredients I had on hand:
1 cup mini-chopped Trinity Veg (onion, carrots, celery,), generous handful sweetcorn, generous handful edememe, chopped garlic, 1 egg, 2 egg whites, 1 cup quinoa. (Because I didn't have any stock on hand, I gave the quinoa flavour with a sauce made from sake, soy, ginger, brown sugar.)
So, very, good!

4. Roast Pork with Curried Mango Sauce and Potato and Carrot Mash

This was a big cheat of a meal - I used a bottled sauce!
Roasted a centre cut pork loin roast in the oven with salt, pepper and a spritz of Light Olive Oil.
Meanwhile, boiled equal parts potatoes and carrots. Mashed them together with a little skim milk and a Laughing Cow Light cheese triangle.
Meanwhile, warm up Memories of Bengal Curried Mango Sauce, spoon over slices of pork.
Drool, drool!

Also eaten this week:
Mother In Law's Turkey Noodle Soup
Coconut chicken curry with rice made from Spicy Sweet Potato Soup / Curry Sauce
Steak-for-the-first-time-in-months and green beans

Try again with Yoga 30 day challenge

Hmmmmmm. Yoga 30 day challenge turned into yoga 4 day challenge.
I had an unscheduled mini food poisoning with a not-quite-cooked-enough chicken....
Then I had (sorry if TMI) the period from hell, stuck on the sofa with hot water bottles.....

Oh excuses, excuses. I know......
Will try again at a later date when I'm feeling a little more motivated.....

New Routines

So, I'm attempting to to incorporate healthy habits in to my daily routine. It looks like I'm trying to fit in a lot of different things at the same time, but really, each new habit is something that I already do, sometimes, but want to do more of.

So today I've started four new habits. In three weeks, they should stick and become second nature:

26. Dog walk every day for a month

I used to do this twice a day, morning and evening. Then it became once a day, morning. Then it became "Let the dog entertain herself now we have a back yard." I'm going to bump it back up to a good amount of exercise every morning.
We walk to the park, play fetch, walk home again.

31. Cook healthy dinners everyday.

I used to cook healthy dinners practically everyday. But then when the bf got transferred to a different city through the week and I started cooking only for myself, I stopped the menu planning, the grocery list making, and stopped cooking.
Now I've included "menu planning" on my weekly schedule, and have gone through my recipe books and magazines and made a list of healthy, low fat (less than 15g fat per serving) recipes to choose from.
I'll keep you updated with the recipes I make.

32. Drink 2 glasses of water a day

I know that you're supposed to drink 8 cups a day, or something like that, but I don't drink a single glass of water, ever, because I don't really like water. (Think morning sickness, with nothing in your stomach except a glass of water, sloshing around, making noises, and making you feel even more sick...) I survived for years on coffee and beer being the only 2 beverages that I drank. I never drink water. So two glasses is a good way to start.
I've scheduled one glass when I wake up in the morning, and one glass with my evening meal. I feel I have to schedule, or I'll be downing water just before going to bed, and then getting up through the night needing to pee...

33. Drink green tea every day for a month.

Another way to get me to drink more. Also, green tea has lots of antioxidants and other goodies. My quest for daily green tea has come a long way already. I used to drink it pretty often when I lived in Taiwan (usually iced). When I moved to Canada, I found it wasn't the same as green tea in Taiwan.
Then I smelled Jasmine green tea in a tea shop, and realised that that was what I'd been drinking in Taiwan.
Then I had to get used to drinking it hot, because it's too much hassle to have a pitcher of iced tea on hand.
Then I had to get used to drinking it without sugar, for the sake of my teeth, because it was standard in Taiwan to serve it pre-sweetened.
Now I plan on drinking a mug of this everyday with my lunch.

See you next week to let you know how it's going!