Feed Me Seymour Friday! (This time on a Saturday)

Just another day of eating...

Breakfast – 6:45am

Things started off a little fishy on this particular day and it wasn’t due to the suspicious behaviour of next door’s cat who has started making regular break-ins to my room whenever I leave the window open. What do you want Oscar?! It can’t be any more attention; I have no more to give! Maybe he was after the first part of breakfast which consisted of some salmon and mushrooms on a whole-wheat English muffin accompanied by a trough of spinach. Yes, this is what the cat has probably been hankering after, he’d love this -my sister wouldn’t however; this is something she’d only eat if being force-fed in hell.

Part 2 of breakfast was a bit more exciting, actually who am I kidding it was a million more times exciting. Lately I’ve been on a bit of a carrot cake trip and by that I mean I just want it. Like, all the time. In reality, who really doesn’t want carrot cake all the time? Do you? Of course you do, we all do. Anyway, to satisfy this near homicidal need for the carroty goodness, I got to experimenting in the kitchen again and one of the many creations (both good and horrific) were these carrot cake breakfast bites. Consisting of carrots, oats, a couple of dates, a little desiccated coconut and some truvia, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger these little guys were the perfect sweet treat and more than acceptable as part of a balanced breakfast. I think this recipe needs a little perfecting before I post it fully but as all the kids are saying: Watch this place. Wait, no damn it, I mean sp…

Morning Snack – 11:00am

I was Ballsy enough to actually photograph my food at work for this post. Please enjoy the background of my desk, guest starring my keyboard. As you may or may not know, I usually have a pretty hefty mid-morning snack and today was no exception. Looking at this box of treats, you will spy some white grapes, a very undersized apple, some walnuts, a home-made cinnamon-sugar cake-cookie (which is actually sugar free) and what’s this? Ooooh, a mystery item in foil. This is intriguing, let’s find out what’s inside.

Tadah!

Well that was underwhelming wasn’t it? However, looks can be deceiving dear friends as this little Frisbee has been a consistent go to snack lately due to both its simplicity and taste factor. It’s basically two corn cakes sandwiched together with some chocolate PB2 and sliced banana. A bit of a basic bi*** snack I know but honestly it’s so good, not to mention versatile. You can use any nut butter and fruit combo for this and if you’re really feeling fancy, a dash of cinnamon usually never goes amiss but on this day something inside of me was screaming ‘Elvis!’ and the peanut butter/banana mix just seemed right.

Lunch – 2:00pm

Touching back on that ‘looks can be deceiving’ point we just went over, lunch was of those examples where food, even though tasting good and being full of nutritious, wholesome ingredients can sometimes resemble something that would more likely be found clogging up the u-bend of a kitchen sink. Yes, Lunch looked sad today. If you’re wondering what this strange creation is, the answer is a very hearty and delicious vegetable casserole with broccoli, asparagus, carrots, swede, leeks, onions, lentils and kidney beans accompanied by a side of mustard mash. Tasty, despite looking like it’s already been pre-digested.

Dinner – 6:15pm

Dinner was lovingly prepped by Nan (thank goodness for nans), and consisted of some basa fish, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans and sweet potato mash. The only thing I had to do when I got back from work was pop the fish in the microwave which truth be told, I didn’t think would be as much of an issue as it was. This seemingly simple task actually turned out to be quite the opposite, as radioactive, hot fish is quite spiteful and tends to both spit bits of itself all over the interior of the microwave whilst simultaneously stinking out the kitchen.

Quite rude really.

After ensuring that the kitchen smelt like Plymouth harbour I chilled for a few hours with my brother who was on a fleeting visit from Devon. We chatted about a manner of important topics such as who died on the Walking Dead and what epicness we think is going to take place on the upcoming season of Game of Thrones - very pressing matters indeed.

Post Workout snack – 9:30pm

By the time I actually got round to working out it was 8:45pm and let’s be real here, nobody needs weighted arm circles past 9 in the evening. On this day I think it was mostly upper body with some cardio thrown in for good measure which was just… splendid. The exercise did leave me peckish however and for the sake of being lazy time efficient, I opted for a humble bowl of cous cous with peas, flavoured with pepper and garlic powder. I also had another corn cake with some more chocolate PB2 on top because come the night time, my inventiveness switch goes into shut down. 

I realise now that I didn’t explain earlier that PB2 is powdered peanut butter (in case you weren’t aware). It has much less fat than regular peanut butter and although not quite as good in my opinion, it still hits all the right notes on my taste buds. It’s presence in my cupboard also helps make my regular natural peanut butter last longer than just one week, which is the longest it would probably survive considering that I try to put it on everything and even when nothing is available I’ll resort to the spoon/finger jar scooping method. Is there a possibility that this could become an addiction? Yes, yes there is. Am I concerned about this? No, no I am not.

All of the Nut Butter!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Ahem*

Happy eating!  

Chocolate Orange Black Bean Brownies (that actually taste good!)

A Weekend of Chocolate and Chimps

 

Hello Chums, Long time no see!

I hope you had a nice Easter last week and enjoyed the celebrations regardless of whether they were focused around Jesus, the Easter bunny or just simply eating as much chocolate as humanly possible. Each to their own. J

Sorry for disappearing for a bit but I’ve been attempting to transform into one of those social butterflies. It’s going well although I don’t think I’m quite at the desired level yet, maybe more of a social caterpillar i.e. sleeping in and sitting at the table in the pub that’s the furthest away from everyone else are still situations that I find very appealing and furthermore unlike a butterfly’s wings, my face is severely asymmetrical. Think Picasso’s style of painting and you’re on the right track.

However, despite this slow social metamorphosis I have been spending a lot more time with my friends lately and as a result have managed to cram in a few adventures. Take the Easter weekend for example; my good friends Amy and Katy and I took a two day road trip westwards into a land of roads that almost go vertically up over valley walls and villages so small that they can only possibly be inhabited by Playmobil figures. 

Ok, this may be a bit of an over exaggeration for the Wiltshire/Dorsett area but in terms of the hills and villages that we came across, the description is pretty apt.

What were we doing in this particularly scenic part of the country I hear you ask? Well, over the two days we visited both the insanely amazing Longleat Safari and Adventure Park and the thriving TV-famous Monkey World. I can confirm that both are unbelievably fun and contrary to belief you don’t have to accompanied by a young child in order to not look a little… let’s say odd. Actually, truth be told, that kind of thing doesn’t bother me too much anyway, I think odd is good so even if I did resemble a 5 foot 11 man-child with a hyperactivity disorder for the entire weekend, I really don't see a problem. How can you care when you’re surrounded by hoards of fluffy animals (that you can feed from your car!)? Squeeeee!

You may be wondering that it seems a specifically animal-themed way to spend the Easter holiday but actually it makes perfect sense. Let me break it down. Traditionally, Easter is about Jesus and Jesus is in the Bible and also in the Bible is Noah’s Ark, and on Noah’s Ark the animals went in two by two, and at Longleat it's pretty much like Noah's Arc pre-flood and at Monkey World, it's all about saving the animals.

*Takes a big calming breath to reduce over-excitement*

Therefore, this little trip actually made perfect sense. I do so hope you agree. It was also very educational and considering I have a degree in zoology, there are a surprising amount of things I didn’t actually know about all the creatures great and small.

Here are some valuable life lessons that  I will take to my grave:

• Wallabies are strong believers in the ‘stare you down/come at us bro’ approach to strangers. Classic gang mentality there, I mean, clearly from this photo it’s obvious they were on the verge of breaking out into a west-side story number on us with aggressive pointed toes and intimidating hip thrusts.
• Camels are sassy wobble humps.That’s a bit of a bold generalization but at least one camel fitted this description enough to leave a lasting impression.

Look at the way he’s working that corner away from the rest of the camels (who were on the other side of the road sheltering from the rain like sensible organisms). Nothing says sassy like saying ‘watch meehh cheeew mah straaaaaw’ to a bunch of strangers as they drive by. This guy (dubbed Bruce) took the cheek to an even further level by deciding to saunter across the road and block our path, presumably after one of the other camels told him to stop being a tart and called him back to the herd.

•  Sea lions get hangry… Oh so hangry.

All it takes is a few small pieces of hacked up fish to turn the most puppy-faced sea lion into something that makes the prospect of diving with sharks just that little bit easier, consisting of 60% mouth, 30% eyes and 10% ‘Give me the fish sue!’

• Wolves prove that it’s possible to look both murderous and beautiful at the same time (unlike Edward Cullen who just looked angsty and pale).

I would like to think that this is how I look first thing in the morning but I would also like to think that I am related to Michelle Obama and have the ability to dance like Michael Jackson.

These things are not true.

• This thing is unimpressed by general British Weather.

'Please end me'

Despite that fact that it did rain on and off over the course of our two days away, it still by no means dampened our spirits. These puns though…

Anyway, it comes as no surprise that over the course of the weekend the girls and I did a fair bit of snacking. Yep, as part a road trip snacking was mandatory (it’s actually a law I think… or should be at least) but just like I resisted the urge to smear the outside of Katy’s car with banana skins to further attract Longleat’s monkeys, as a group we managed to refrain from just eating fast food for the duration of the 48 hours away from home. How did we do this? Well, in all honesty it wasn’t too hard, we just packed a whole lot of food before leaving including: fruit, nakd bars, sandwiches, crackers, peanut butter, and some healthy baked goods that I had fun making the day before. Scrummy food + saving a little bit of money = all of the thumbs up. Also, this meant that come Saturday night, none of us felt guilty or too full for a treat of some hot and juicy burgers (I had one topped with chilli, we duelled and I won).

One of the baked goods that I brought along for the journey was the chocolate orange black bean brownies below. Honestly, these are one of my favourite things that I’ve made to date and despite the ingredients being completely unconventional, they taste amazing and as a result they unsurprisingly didn’t make it to the end of the trip.

I’ll be the first to say that I cannot take credit for these beauties. The recipe is based upon the black bean brownie recipe used by the queen of healthy baking - Chocolate covered Katie. They are dense, chewy, moist, gooey, rich, sweet and everything else you could want out of a life partner. What’s also great about these brownies is their versatility; simply swap out the orange extract for vanilla to achieve a more traditional brownie taste or use peppermint extract for some festive treats you’ll consider killing Santa over. High in Protein and much lower in unhealthy fats found in traditional brownies, these chocolate treats are full of wholesome ingredients that are great fuel for your body. They’re also vegan as well so that means that everyone can enjoy them. Brownies for everyone! Wooooo!

I’ve linked the original recipe to Katie’s blog below if you’d like to check it out (do, it’s incredible, you’ll love it, I promise this girl can bake anything) as well as links to Longleat and Monkey world’s websites in case you’re planning a little trip of your own any time soon.

Have a fantastic start to the week tomorrow and as the chimps at Monkey World would say:

Hoot! Agghhh! EeeeeAaaaaaa! Ooooooooooo! (I hope we talk again soon/get the hell away from my yoghurt pot – same difference).

Bye.

Chocolate Orange Black Bean Brownies

Makes: 8-12 brownies

Ingredients:

1 can of black beans (drained and thoroughly rinsed)

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup oats

1/3 cup truvia or granulated sweetener of choice e.g. xylitol, coconut sugar or even regular sugar

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce or apple baby puree

2 tsp orange extract

½ tsp baking powder
Optional - a tiny pinch of salt to bring out the sweetness even more

Optional add-ins – chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, orange peel, honestly anything mixed into a brownie tastes good! Except haddock, don’t mix in haddock.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (I used fan oven which gets slightly hotter than a conventional one but all appliances will vary).

Combine all of the ingredients (bar any add-ins) in a food processor and blend until well combined.

Stir in your extras (if using) and then spread out into a baking dish lined with baking paper or greased with oil/butter/cooking spray.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, remove and allow to cool (it will firm up some more as it cools and transform into a dense, chewy and fudgy treat from the angels).

Enjoy!

Original recipe: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/09/06/no-flour-black-bean-brownies/

Longleat Safari Park: http://www.longleat.co.uk/

Monkey World: http://www.monkeyworld.org/home.php

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!