Home Alone Cooking Day 8: Roasted Aubergine

Posted on June 14, 2016 by lindaharley

This was a way of using up the aubergine and remainder of the can of black beans from earlier in the week.

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There was nothing complicated in the prep, but it did take a bit of time.

First stage was to oven bake some thin aubergine slices.  Recipe says “thin slices, a couple of millimeters” and the picture seems to suggest lengthwise cuts. And I could have used a mandolin. But I quite enjoyed the meditation like state produced by slicing my rounds by hand, taking my time.

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These (there were a lot of them) were put on an olive oil slicked tray, with more oil drizzled on top (how to do this? I don’t know! Should I have spritzed?  I felt some slices got lots more oil than others)

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The recipe called for sauteed spinach with garlic.  I had no spinach, but I did have pak choi.

The recipe also called for brown rice cooked from scratch for 40 mins.  I had none of that either, but I did have a ready cook rice sachet or brown basmati and quinoa.

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In the recipe, the final stage was to dry roast off “a good handful” of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  I did this stage first, before adding any of the softer ingredients, and also to stop the rest getting cold while i did my dry roasting.

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So, to assembly – rice stuff stirred with tahini and tamari.  Pak choi and bean garlic stir fry. Sort of roasted aubergine slices. And a sprinkle of roasted seeds.

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Honestly? It felt a bit knit-your-own-lentil worthy and heavy. I love aubergine, but I’m not sure this used them to their best advantage.

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Home Alone Cooking 7: 5:2 noodles

Posted on June 14, 2016 by lindaharley

I used to be very good at following the 5:2 way of eating, but have got out of the habit lately. However, the mental attitude of KNOWING that I can get through a day on less than 500 calories makes it pretty easy.  I tend to base low-cal meals around fish and veg, and whilst they are not to everyone’s taste, I don’t mind these konjac slim noodles, which are around 10 cals for a whole packet.

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I had the rest of my smoked salmon to finish, and there was still plenty of veg in the drawer, include these cute mini-peppers.

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I rinsed and dry fried the noodles, and set them to one side,

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while I sauteed the veggies in lemon juice and tamari, with a splash of water.  To be honest, I didn’t cook them for long enough, as they were still very crunchy in the finished dish.

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I stirred the noodles back in, and added the smoked salmon in shreds, as well as more lemon juice. I get through a lot of lemons!

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Result – a big satisfying bowl for around 150 calories.

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Home Alone Cooking 6: Black Beans

Posted on June 12, 2016 by lindaharley

Sunday.  I decided to take Max for a good long run before it got too hot.  As it turned out, we were 1km into our run when the heavens opened and it poured.  So I was in need of something tasty on my return.

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The TV had been showing footage of the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations and patron’s lunch, part of which was a picnic hamper packed with foodie goodies sourced from all over the UK.

I was inspired by their smoked salmon starter, and decided to make my own version, using the half price organic cold smoked stuff I’d bought in Dobbies yesterday.

2 small slices, chopped finely with a knife and fork (use the back of the fork to mush it a bit more)

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Add a good heaped teaspoon of Skyr, or other thick natural yoghurt.

Squeeze in half a lemon, and add some fresh black pepper.

Arrange attractively, using red peppers out of a jar, capers, and tortilla chips.

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For dinner, it was back to Ella, and what she claimed was the Best Sweet Potato.

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One of the issues I’d had with Click-and-collect-ing is that you can’t choose the size of your veg.  I’d been hoping for some chunky sweet potatoes suitable for baking, but instead my bag contained long thin ones, more suited to making wedges.  So that’s what I did.

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The filling was half a can of black beans, sauteed with mushrooms.  The recipe said 7 mushrooms, or 150 g.  I’m glad it added the grams, as my mushrooms, having been unable to select myself (see above) were on the large side, and in fact 3 of them took me to 150g.

To the pan, I added a teaspoon of jarred chillies. and 3 chopped cloves of garlic.  The recipe said to saute these in “lots of olive oil”. Lots?  How much is lots?  Is that 3 tablespoons or half a bottle?  Actually, I find you don’t need much oil when cooking mushrooms, as they release their own liquid.

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A dressing was also required – 2 teaspoons tahini, the juice of a lime (size unspecified), a teaspoon of honey, and pepper and salt.

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I missed when reading the ingredients that there was an avocado as well, so my version omitted it.

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It was a very edible meal.  But just too….earthy.  There was no contrast or light and shade in the flavours.  The sweet potato is earthy, the beans are earthy, mushrooms are earthy, the tahini dressing is…yes you’ve guessed it, earthy.  Even the lime juice wasn’t enough to lift it. And a cookery book that claims to be “no sugar” but merrily adds honey to recipes is failing my nutritional awareness hurdles.

 

 

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Home Alone Cooking 5: Mac’n’cheese

Posted on June 11, 2016 by lindaharley

A bit of a departure from the healthy Gok and Ella show tonight, but teh cheese drawer really needed a bit of a tidy, and I’ve been craving macaroni cheese for ages.

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Now, whilst it wasn’t totally wheat and gluten free, because of the flour in the sauce, I did try out a rice and quinoa fusilli.

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I made the sauce with some very mature cheddar, and some Stilton.

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I also added some steamed green beans and broccoli.

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The pasta looked rather pale and white, and tool 13 minutes to cook.

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But the end result was really satisfying – a good tasty sauce with the healthful oomph of green veg, and the pasta was very acceptable.  100g of it is a whopping 370 cals, though, and 75g carbohydrate.

 

 

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Home Alone Cooking 4: Vegan Carbonara

Posted on June 10, 2016 by lindaharley

One of my main quibbles with Deliciously Ella is that it gives no idea on cooking and preparation times, or level of difficulty.  I’d been going to do this vegan version of a carbonara last night, until I discovered that I had to soak the cashew nuts for 3-4 hours first.

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So I popped them in a bowl overnight.

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The other main ingredient in the sauce is butternut squash.  Again I ran into problems with the quantities, given as   1/3 of a squash.  But how big of a squash? 200g it helpfully added – which is actually remarkably little actual squash.

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I was worried that my little stick blender would have difficulties in combining all the ingredients.  I didn’t have nutritional yeast, so I added a spoonful of Marmite.  And 3 teaspoons of tamari seemed like a lot of saltiness on top.

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Plus cayenne pepper?  I rarely use it these days in cooking – I did add some to petroleum jelly to make a deterrent paste for the dogs….

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But the stick blender coped well, the soaked nuts were easy to pulpify, and I soon ended with a rather tasty gloop.

I cooked some buckwheat noodles, and added some frozen peas 2 minutes before the end of cooking.

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In a frying pan I sauteed mushrooms and garlic, and added spinach to wilt down.

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Everything was combined together – the mushroom-garlic-spinach, the noodles-and-peas, and the cashew-squash sauce.  Once again, I felt this was a massive portion for one person, and I’ve kept some back for lunch tomorrow.

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I made the full 4 person version of the sauce, and put the leftovers in tubs to freeze.

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The end result was, well, delicious!  I’d never have thought about making a sauce this way, but it was rich and unctuous, with a real umami hit from the marmite and tamari. And look at the veg count snuck in there – peas, spinach, mushroom, squash.

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My Fitness Pal estimates the calories at 550, with a whopping 90 carbs (mostly the noodles, it has to be said), and a low-ish 23 g protein from the nuts.

I’ve been eating Ella’s recipes for a few days now, and I do have to admit I crave sugar much less.  My body seems to be performing well on the good fuel I’m giving it, and I’m excited to try more ideas.

 

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Home Alone Cooking Day 3: Full of beans

Posted on June 10, 2016 by lindaharley

The pomegranate seeds were next of the items to need using up, and I was intrigued at the idea of combining them with beans and pesto.

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It was a very simple and quick recipe, though I did cheat a little and use a ready made jigger of pesto.

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But…….a whole can of beans for one person? There are no calorie counts or nutritional info given in the book, and while it’s USP is it’s “healthiness”, I’d like to know this.  Another niggle is that some of the quantities given are imprecise – a handful of pumpkin seeds, for example.

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The combination of crunchy seeds, bursts of pomegranate, soft beans and rich pesto was really good, and I could see myself making this again.  I will plug the ingredients into My Fitness Pal to get a feel for how calorific it is, but the measurement of seeds would need to be more precise.

Using a full can of beans – it’s approximately 600 calories, 60g of carbohydrate (the beans and pomegranate), 25g fat (pesto and seeds), and 25g protein (the beans and seeds).  The book is gluten free and the recipes have no added sugar.

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Home Alone Cooking Day 2: So. Much. Kale.

Posted on June 8, 2016 by lindaharley

My Click and Collect groceries are here!

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I got lots of frozen seafood, including salmon, prawns and scallops.

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Store cupboard protein – puy lentils, cashews and pine nuts.

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Fresh fruit – limes, lemons and pomegranate arils.

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And fresh vegetables.  Lots and lots of veg.  Too much, really!

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The nice C&C man pointed out that the kale was short dated, so I’ll work on using that one up first.  I’d been planning a laksa tonight, but instead went for Ella’s Green Goddess Bowl, which has “a good handful of kale” as one of the ingredients.

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The combination was really good – slightly crunchy steamed veg, with soft quinoa, but teh dressing was just fabulous – tahini, lemon juice and garlic.  I’ll definitely make that again!

I’ll also make her kale and cannelini bean stew, to which I’ll add those leftover carrot strips,  and put individual portions in the freezer.  Dammit, need sticky labels!

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For lunch today I had some of the leftover carrot and courgette salad, which is very filling.  There’s even some left for tomorrow.  I accompanied that with some pumpkin seed ryvita and sweet chilli feta.

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Home Alone Cooking Day 1: swordfish and carrot courgette

Posted on June 7, 2016 by lindaharley

Well, darling husband is away for a few days, so I get to cook all the foods that I really love, which he’s not so keen on.  I’ve had enormous joy poring over 2 cookbooks in particular: Gok’s Wok, and Deliciously Ella, and most of my meals over the next wee while will come from there.

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 Ingredients:Having selected a few recipes, I made a shopping list, and decided to go for a Tesco Click and Collect job.  Time with the dogs is precious, with R away, and I’d rather not spend an hour or 2 in the supermarket. But I couldn’t get a delivery slot till tomorrow, so tonight I was going for something I could make with my store cupboard ingredients.

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These include soba noodles, vermicelli rice noodles, black beans, tahini, tamari, and quinoa.

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As I was going to have the oven on, I decided to also make banana breakfast bars.

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I had some carrots and courgettes in the fridge, though admittedly they weren’t the freshest. And while I was in a peeling and shaving mode. I finished off the carrots so that I have some on hand for future meals.

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I was surprised at the amount of oats in the breakfast bars  – I added a few extra pumpkin seeds and flaxseed. And I couldn’t find a brownie tin so I used a silicon muffin pan.

The salad was pretty simple -oil and vinegar and a few crunchy seeds.  I decided to add a swordfish steak (bake from frozen) for protein.

The result was…OK.  The salad was rather chewy and crunchy.  I’ll use the leftovers for lunches this week.

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The breakfast bars were also very chewy, but the honey and vanilla make them rather moreish.

I look forward to tomorrow, and the grocery delivery!

 

 

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ABC salad

Posted on June 24, 2015 by lindaharley

A simple summer supper dish for one. Low calorie, with fresh bright tastes.

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Ingredients (per serving):

1 cooked beetroot (not the pickled ones….)
1/4 cucumber, or a couple of mini ones
2-3 artichoke hearts, either tinned, or the anti-pasta ones in oil
capers
creme fraiche or greek yoghurt
couple of walnuts

Slice the beetroot into circles and arrange on a plate. Cut the cucumber into sticks, and place between the cucumber. Blob the creme fraiche or yoghurt in the centre of the plate. Cut the artichokes into bite sized quarter, and add to the plate. Dot with capers, and crumble the walnuts.

Enjoy!

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Simply Crispy

Posted on January 17, 2015 by lindaharley

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“Are you for real?”

“Has the world gone mad?”

“Whatever will they think of next!”

These were just a few of the comments that greeted the opening of the world’s first crisp sandwich shop in Belfast.

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The idea itself had started as a spoof on the Ulster Fry website, but a pop-up cafe on Bedford Street decided that this was daft enough to work, and set about making it a reality.  It helps to remember that a valid reason for doing anything in Norn Irn is “for the crack”.

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When I arrived on Friday lunchtime, the queue was out the door. Granted, not as bad as it was on Monday’s opening day, and the wait was not unreasonable, about 10 minutes. To pass the time we looked at the photos decorating the walls. There was one of a teacher from Grange Hill, under Cliff Richard. There was one from Roy Walker saying “Your food’s good, but it’s nat right!”. And there were 3 clocks showing the time in Belfast, Derry, and Londonderry.

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First, choose your bread: a Belfast bap is the most popular choice, but it is a mahoosive sized roll with a crusty top. The dials on my internal carb-counter were already spinning out of control, so I applied the “less is more” mantra and rejected the extra thick softee white bread in favour of a Knutty Crust. From the available 20 or so varieties, I opted for by far the most popular crisps, local heroes Tayto Cheese’n’onion. These are a crisp of legendary significance, the banners greeting you as you arrive at Belfast’s George Best City Airport are decorated in its signature colours, with safety advice dispensed from Mr Tayto himself. Ex-pats weep at the memory of those yellow bags.

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I added a slice of ham, just as a nod to the need for some protein. The meal deal additions of chips (fries) and soup brought it to £4, with an extra 50p for the ham. A slice of cheese can be added instead.

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A bag of crisps is tipped onto the buttered bread.  The squishing action is all important when producing the resultant sandwich, I imagine the staff have to go through a rigorous training procedure in order to get the amount of force just right.

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Places at tables were at a premium, but we did manage to elbow the photographers and journos out of the way to secure some space and settle down to enjoy the experience. That first bite, soft bread gently caressing crunchy crisps, the overpowering flavours of the latter matched by the blandness of the former – it really is a winning combination. I could say something about “mouthfeel” but you’d only accuse me of being all poncey.

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The chips were not really necessary,and the soup wasn’t that exciting. So next time (and there WILL be a next time) I’ll just have the sandwich.

I also enjoyed  the Led Zeppelin playing in the background, which helped with the nostalgic feel, and memories of school packed lunches….
Has the world gone mad? Quite possibly. But maybe what the world needs is a bit more madness like this. It’s impossible to have lunch here without a smile on your face.

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