Peanut Butter Blondies (Healthy, Easy, Delicious, Bosh)

Getting a Spring Back in The Step

Easter’s around the corner chickens!

And with Easter comes the start of spring!

And with this changing of the seasons comes warmer weather!

I know, it’s beyond British to already be thinking about the possibility of sunshine but as I’ve spent the winter working in what can only be described as a spell of grey misery, I think it can be justified. We’re on the way up folks; yesterday it was only cloudy for 8 hours as opposed to the usual 8 hours and fifty minutes.

Baby Steps.

Feed Me Seymour Friday! (Travel edition)

TGIF

It's time for another 'what I eat in a day' post and this time I did something slightly different as I recorded the day that Tasha and I were making the 5 hour long voyage from deepest darkest Devon back to mahogany twinkled Essex. Oh so Mahogany twinkle.

Now, whilst visiting the parents in the West Country, there was at no point a shortage of food related highlights.

I could have shared the black bean chocolate orange brownies I made whilst we were down there (which even my 'more old fashioned than spam' Nanny liked).

I could have shared the trio of vegan apple crumbles that mum and me whipped up. Mum + Crumble = Mumble. Ironic as she's actually quite loud.

I could have shared the fantastic three course meal of complete food porn from the parent's local pub featuring seared scallops, mustard crumb coated sea bass and marmalade brioche bread and butter pudding.

But I haven't.

Instead I have chosen to share some things packed into ugly tupperware containers that were consumed in the car park of Reading service station...

You're welcome?

St Paddy’s Day Shamrock Shake

The Makeaway (kind of) Chronicles: Episode 2

Dis dhuit! (Hello in Irish/Gaelic) or for the more stereotypical among you, top o’ tha morning to ya!

Yep, today’s recipe is Irish themed in honour of St Patrick’s day this coming Thursday.

Am I Irish? No.

Do I have Irish Family? Not that I’m aware of.

Have I ever been to Ireland? Never.

Am I fond of Leprechauns? Not especially – bit violent for me.

So why am I celebrating this public holiday? 

Well my lucky charms (mmmmm lucky charms), I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but a lot of the people at the company I currently work for are none other than of Irish heritage, including the boss, the manager, the foreman, a lot of the yard workers… in fact the business is pretty much Irish dominated. Nothing wrong with that, although sometimes when the foreman gets angry and speaks really quickly, I’m reduced to having to rely on someone else to translate or just smiling, nodding and chiming in the occasional ‘hmm, yes I completely understand’. Lies.  

Feed Me Seymour Friday!

(On a Wednesday)

Ok so I realise that my timing may be a little off and I'm pretty sure that even a snail would be able to tell you that it isn't Friday yet but before you ask 'well why the hell are you posting a full day of eating post on a day that isn't Friday then?'  Please allow me to explain myself.

Because...

There we go, I'm glad you understand, I knew you would ;)

It's definitely cool seeing what you eat as regular parts of your diet - well maybe 'cool' is a bit of an overstatement but it definitely is eye opening. Now, as I'm only doing these type of posts once a week, anyone who reads them will probably not get an actual clear view of what I eat from a day to day basis; so to provide a more transparent view into my nomming habits I have been monitoring myself a little more closely lately and have spotted quite a few recurring patterns. Some of these things I already knew but I have to confess that there are some foods that I eat way more often then I thought I did.

The foods that tend to make more public appearances than Queen Elizabeth herself include: Oats (big surprise there), potatoes (mainly the sweet variety), spinach, legumes (I like to say this word fancily like a posh person would say 'eeww whacko' - think Nigel Thornberry) such as chickpeas and kidney beans, wholemeal bread/wraps/pitas/rolls, nuts and nut butters (all of the nut butter), eggs, fruit - mainly bananas, apples and pears, broccoli, cucumber, peppers and peas... Peas? Yes, oddly enough it turns out that I actually eat peas most days of the week - who would have thought?

Honestly, I know that you probably have better things to do with your time but if you can, just keep track of what you eat in a week, the results may surprise you.

Anyway, here is what I ate on one of the days last week - ooh and as a fun little game see how many of the above foods pop up. I should note that I also drink around 2 litres of water a day usually along with some hot beverages like green tea etc and I would like to mention that today was a rest day in terms of exercise or rather it was a 'I can't be bothered to get off the sofa and would rather stretch out over it like a complete slug all evening'... day. As a result I don't think I ate as much (calorie wise) as I would normally but who hey, if the appetite's not there, it's not there.

Happy munching. x

Breakfast 

Possible one of the weirdest meals I've ever had first thing in the morning. I would say don't jusdge me please but:

a) I don't care and

b) I'm sure nobody will because the Internet never judges anyone ever right? ;) 

Any who, yes that is a bowl of peas on the right, topped with black pepper because apparently I like to start the day giving myself a gentle kick in the throat. Next to the peas is one of my more regular staples - chocolate orange porridge (two portions worth of course) with cocoa powder, some orange extract and sweet freedom fruit syrup. Taste's just like Terry's - Bang.On.

Two of my baking favourites - especially the syrup, it's just... it's just freakin good stuff - like crack but less heady-messy.

Because I felt that I needed some more calories, I also munched on a small handful of walnuts. Some very good omegas there, plus I like to feel like a woodland squirrel in the early hours. In fact had it been warmer outside, I may have eaten these in the chestnut tree in the garden. 

Snack 1

A pretty basic bitch snack consisting of some black pepper ryvita crackers which were smeared with low fat cottage cheese and topped with cucumber, some celery sticks which were dipped into natural peanut butter (winning combo) and some big beastly strawberries. 

Lunch

I fancied something Mexican on this day it seems and so attempted to create a vegan burrito that could rival even Chipotle. It's not all visible but pictured above is a mixture of brown rice, avocado, leftover bean chili and spinach all on top of a wholemeal tortilla wrap. I also had a pear on the side because I'm all about that pear, about that pear. This lunch was set to be brillo-pads, however I overstuffed the tortilla and as a result it fell apart on the chopping board. Hence I ended up not with a burrito but...

This. Tip: when a burrito fails, throw it all into a bowl.box, add more chili on top and say its a burrito bowl and that's exactly what you were going for. 

Dinner

Dad was round for dinner today so Nan prepared one of her and Grandad's latest go-to meals. Rice with kidney beans and green beans in a mango, honey and lime sauce topped with Jamaican jerk spiced lean pork chops. Very, very tasty but by this point I was quite riced out. 

Snack 2 

The last thing I ate were two organic oat cakes by the brand Nairn's. These were the super seeded variety (sounds like something off of Pokemon) and contained flaxseed, chia and sunflower seeds. These are a very nice biscuit substitute for me at the moment and do a great job at satiating hunger due to all the protein and healthy fats from the seeds. There's also no added sugar which is a bonus as although they don't have a very strong flavour - I like them. I do have a soft spot for blank canvas type foods hence my love for things like oats and pasta - they're just so versatile. 

Anyway, that was everything I ate on this particular day.Take from it what you will or take nothing from it at all. As I said last time, I don't make these posts to tell anyone what to eat but rather just to share ideas...

...And clearly because I maybe have too much spare time on my hands...

...I should get a budgie. 

See you later. :)

Creamy Curried Coconut and Sweet Potato Soup

Errrm, Winter is over. WHY is it still cold?

Hello and a very merry March to you I do declare.

About bloody time as well! I know that it's leap year and therefore we had an extra day in February but I didn’t realise that meant that the world would literally stop turning and Father Time would effectively bugger off to Venus. Never in the History of the world has a month taken so long to pass.

Also speaking of Venus I would quickly like to mention that that is where I am going to move to if Donald Trump is voted America’s next President. Incinerating temperatures, a toxic atmosphere, sulphuric acid filled cloud formations and a bone-crushing atmospheric pressure comparable to walking under 3000 feet of water… It just makes much more sense.

Sorry, I don’t mean to be a moaning myrtle. Maybe it’s just me that thinks February has dragged but it’s true what they say; time most certainly does not fly when you’re not having fun and life has been by no means fun over the last couple of weeks. Amidst the numerous power cuts at work that cause me and my colleagues persistent displeasure (26 in one day ensures that the emotional response goes full circle from frustration to fury to dismay to hysterical laughter to not caring and back again) and the cold conditions (that resulted in me having to place a heater under my desk, between my legs and dangerously close to the crutch vicinity) you would think that at the end of a long day, getting home would be a godsend right?

Nope.  

Back at the bungalow you see, the corner of one of the wardrobes was recently invaded by a large patch of mouldy damp (who was most definitely not invited). This resulted in me and the grandparents having to spend some time spraying fungicide up the wall and applying multiple layers of anti-mould paint – activities of which I don’t really find an appealing way to spend time at the weekend.

It’s not all been doom and gloom however, as it was my friend Katy’s birthday last week and in celebration we went out clubbing and got down with our bad selves… it’s been a while. We did have a really great time but I knew I may be getting a bit passed the whole thing when I began throwing about phrases such as, ‘let’s paint the town red’ and ‘oooh, it’s a bit loud’. Combine these with a slut drop attempt that went down to floor and didn’t come back up and I can honestly say that for the first time in my life I felt a little like my mum (and as a 23 year old male, this isn’t really ideal).

So to quickly sum up:

I’ve been constantly cold, feeling a little bit old and to top it all off have had to wage war over mould.

What a lovely poem. I’m basically Sylvia Plath. Well not really…

Anyway, after all of these shenanigans I was in need of something warm and comforting (inside mah belleh) and so unsurprisingly soup was in order. This recipe has a similar taste to the creamy coconut pumpkin curry I made back in October during my pumpkin addiction phase and is smooth, thick, creamy and nutrient dense. It’s great to make as a big batch with leftovers being perfectly eligible for storage in the freezer for at least a month and up to a week in the fridge. This soup is very healthy but it doesn’t taste ‘skinny’ by any means and is sure to leave any taster very satisfied.

Warm up your stomachs and begin to defrost yourselves for spring, Easter is on the Horizon!

Mange tout!

(I know it’s a vegetable but it also sounds like a fancy French way of saying good bye so I just went with it)

 
Curried Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

2 large or 3 medium/small sweet potatoes,

1 can of butter beans or other white beans such as chick peas

½ can light (or full fat if you fancy) coconut milk

2 cups (500 ml) vegetable stock

1 onion - diced

1 garlic clove - diced also

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ginger

½ tsp garum masala

½ tsp cumin

Optional ingredients: 1 cup sweet corn and some milk of choice to alter consistency.

Instructions:

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into rough cubes (I use the word cube lightly here - my chopped potatoes usually resemble the kinds of shapes that Toddlers attempt to draw around age 3 - point being just chop the potatoes and don't worry about the shape too much).

Steam for 5-10 mins until fork tender.

Meanwhile add some coconut milk to a pan and fry the chopped onions and garlic along with spices for couple minutes until fragrant.

Add in the stock and the rest of the coconut milk and stir around before reducing heat to a simmer.

Once potatoes are done add them in to the rest of the ingredients along with the beans and the sweet corn (if using) and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes more.

Blend with and immersion blender or transfer to blender/food processor in batches to blend.

Thin with a milk of choice (I used some almond milk) until a desired consistency is reached. I like my soup thicker than Paris Hilton so I actually only used a little extra milk, however do what works best for you.

Soups up!