What to eat when you can't eat anything - Week 10

I've been going through a total health kick in the last couple of weeks. Discovering spinach based smoothies has really opened my eyes to the ease of cramming as many vitamins and minerals as possible into my day. My shopping basket is looking RIDICULOUS these days - it's about 60% fruit and vegetables with some beans, tofu, lentils and grains in there as well. I haven't gotten around to trying a mostly vegetable-based smoothie, but it's on my list of things to do really soon. I'm really looking forward to trying more recipes from Blender Girl's website. 

Breakfast

1. Breakfast this week has just been a variety of Smoothies, depending what berries or fruit I'm in the mood for. I've also varied the amounts of chia seeds, oat flakes, added cucumber sometimes, left out (forgot!) the banana another time. They're always great and incredibly refreshing, and the variations are infinite! 


Doesn't that look healthy and tasty! It's banana, blueberies, spinach and nectarine - just add protein or porridge or whatever you like plus the liquid of your choice.

Lunch

1. I tried moving away from bean burgers for a while with this tofu burger recipe. It tasted good, but not great - another dish that's good enough for my lunch, but not one I'd try to get people who eat meat to try! 

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/999957/super-healthy-tofu-burger

2. I had it with the healthy ketchup from Chocolate Covered Katie's website that I was dying to try. This was really good and so quick and easy to make! I added the garlic and left out the ginger. Also, I only roasted the tomatoes and onion for about 20 mins which was enough time to caramelise everything. I think it would be perfect with fries and/or my favourite bean burger recipe. http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/08/05/healthy-ketchup/

3. I also made a peanut-kale salad to accompany the tofu burgers. I thought this would be amazing as I love all the flavours in it, but it was a little too bitter for me. Possibly it was the kale's fault, or mine for leaving out the carrot. I'll try making it again before deleting the recipe from my laptop, but I'll use spinach next time

http://theeverydayveggie.com/peanut-kale-slaw/

Dinner

1. I found a vegan curry paste with no ginger in it in my local Asian shop (on Abbeygate Street, Galway) and made my first Panang fish curry with salmon, bok choy, fresh spinach, sweet potato, red onion, coconut milk, basil leaves and a dash of Braggs liquid Aminos (soy sauce alternative). I know, I know, why did I care if it was vegan if I was adding fish to it?! Because I can use the paste again to make a vegan curry for friends, that's why! It tasted really good, but I need to try it again without fish to see how the paste itself tastes. My apologies for not including amounts, but I always just wing it with Thai paste-based curries. I use about a tablespoon of paste per tin of coconut milk, and then see how much fish and vegetables I can fit into the pot. 

2. I haven't had any Quorn products since before I started my intolerance regime - I found it too easy to eat loads of Quorn-based dishes, which meant that I wasn't including enough veggies in my dinners. But I had a craving for comfort food that was a bit different so I tried this Chicken and Lentil Stew http://agoodappetite.blogspot.ie/2009/12/chicken-and-lentil-stew.html. I used Quorn chicken pieces and vegetable stock and replaced the carrots with courgettes and it came out really tasty. To me it tasted like the chicken stew my mother used to make, but since I haven't had chicken in about 15 years, I could be wrong. It was a success with my other half who still eats chicken though, so that has to mean something! 

Snack

1. Here's a great snack to make if you're using the oven for something: I made these Spiced Chickpeas before as a pre-dinner nibble for a vegan dinner party and they were gone in minutes. You can use whatever spices you like - I like a simple curry powder mix or a mexican spice mix. They takes only seconds to prepare (just drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas, toss in spices, and put in oven), and are great when you have the munchies in front of the tv: http://frugalveggiemama.blogspot.ie/2006/07/baked-chickpea-snack.html

2. Kale crisps are another great snack if you have kale that you don't know what to do with. These are so easy too, they just not as filling as the baked chickpeas, but they taste really good, and again the spice variations are endless: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/kale_chips.php