Hey lovely people! It’s the middle of the week already the weekend will soon be upon us again. I’m so looking forward to this weekend as it will be my last shift at work for two weeks. Two free weekends!!! It’s such a rare occasion for me. I cannot wait!!! 🙂
Lets get straight down to business…
Remember this?
This delicious mini Booja Booja Hazelnut Crunch Easter Egg was up for grabs for one lucky reader. That lucky reader is…
Drum roll please…🙂
Number 45 chosen by the random generator!!! That’s Lucy over at Porridge and Parsnips!
February 4, 2011 at 7:36 PM (Edit)
I love chocolate, it always makes the world seem like a better place when I’m in a grump!! 
sadly I’ve never tried Booja Booja chocolates, fingers crossed I win so I can see what I’ve been missing out on!!
Congrats Lucy! I’m sure you are going to lurrrrrrrrrve these little lovelies. Could you please drop me an email so I can organise the delivery asap.
I must apologise for my lack of technical finesse in the IT department. I still have no idea how to input the random generator result in to my blog posts…eugh! Any advice would be highly appreciated!
Thanks so much for everyone who has entered. It turns out that there are zillions of chocolate monsters out there. Why am I not surprised?!?!
More yummy food anyone? Yes please…
An early start at 6am again…boooo! A green smoothie was my choice of breakfast this morning. I threw in (literally as I was in a rush) a pear, pureed pumpkin, spinach, vanilla rice milk, ground flax, maca powder and xanthan gum.
I topped this green lovely with mixed seeds and, raw chocolate covered golgi berries chopped dates…yum!
I was super hungry when I woke up this morning. This has been happening a lot lately especially when I’ve done a lot of cardio in the gym the day before. I have a funny suspicion that it has something to do with the lack of or very small portions whole grains/carbs in some of my evening meals. I really must sort this as waking up to the sound of my stomach violently growling really isn’t a very nice experience.
After this I headed to the gym for a major cardio routine. I did 15 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the cross trainer, 30 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the stepper. Wow! The endorphins were flowing afterwards but I was a little light headed. Refueling was a must so I had a Trek Oat Crunch bar and a banana.
For lunch I had another simple salad consisting of spinach, watercress, rocket, red pepper, bean sprouts, mange tout, baby corn, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and my Creamy Avocado Dressing.
Later in the day I snacked on some delicious gala melon and blueberries and only one of the chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies that I baked on Sunday. There’s two in the pic, but I really didn’t need the extra one.
I do possess an ounce of self control after all. 😀
Dinner was a lovely Butternut Squash Coconut Curry. When there is coconut involved it has to be good right?
Ingredients
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1 onion
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2 clove of grated garlic
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1 inch of grated ginger
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half a butternut squash diced
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1 cup of a diced sweet potato (I used a Jamaican sweet pot)
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1 corgette
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1 red or green pepper
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1/2 cup of chestnut mushrooms
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1/4 cup of chopped okra
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broccoli florets
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1/2 cup of bean sprouts
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3/4 a can of coconut milk
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2 tsp of hot madras powder
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1 tsp of dried chilli flakes
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1 tsp of turmeric
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1 tsp of cumin
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1 tsp of ground coriander
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2 tbsp of ume plum seasoning (optional)
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vegetable stock if required
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seasonings
First of all fry off the onion in a little oil until softened and add the garlic and ginger. Cook for two minutes before adding the butternut squash and sweet potato and cook for a further 10 minutes, add a little stock or water if they begin to stick. Add the rest of the vegetables and sauté for at least 5 minutes before adding the coconut milk and spices. Allow the mixture to simmer for another 15 minutes until the squash and sweet potatoes are tender. Stir in the yoghurt and allow to simmer for another 5 minutes. The sauce should be lovely and creamy. If it has reduced too much add a little vegetable stock to loosen the sauce.
This doesn’t have to a veggie dish at all. My boyfriend ate his with chicken and rice.
A great way to cater for two different diets.
Lots of ingredients, lots of chopping, but definitely worth the wait.
What have you ate recently that that has taken lots of preparation but was so darn worth it? How do you cater for different diets in your home?
Have a lovely evening everyone! 🙂
Ooh how exciting- congrats Lucy 🙂
I must say I have no idea how to do the random generator- I would be putting names in a hat and taking a pic of the one I pulled out!
It’s so confusing, it’s not a simple case of copying and pasting at all. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Baffled!
I just cook for me so no worries there! Loving the curry looks scrummy x x
The curry was lovely and creamy from the coconut milk. Yum! x
I sometimes use my dehydrator to make cookies, but it’s such a long process it’s almost not worth it…Almost!
Dehydrator? That does sound very technical!
The curry looks amazing. Believe it nor, I never used to like coconut, but I’m slowly becoming a convert.
When I cook for me and my boyfriend we usually have basically the same thing. He’s a cheese monster, so he usually grates a bucket full of mature chedder over his. Our snacks definitely vary a lot. He’s a complete chocolate face so I have to watch as he stuffs his face with Galaxy. I’ve learned not to care as long as I have my supply of 85% Lindt chocolate and a few Nakd bars handy!
It is hard cooking for 2 different diets, but it gets a lot easier once you get in to the swing of it and plan ahead I guess. My boyfriend loves his cheese too!
Oh damn… I wish i’d entered that giveaway!
and that curry looks mouthwateringly delish. I love butternut squash/coconut AND spicy food so must try this asap!
Butternut squash is so yummy and great in curries and stews. I like my spicy food too!
ahh your curry in a hurry looks so good! i havent had curry in a solid 6 years.. GAH!.
last week when i made that dinner from appetite for reduction.. that took some time! and running around the kitchen ahah- but it really was worth it! i gotta remind myself that when i want to have a lazy night.. its worth it!
They say patience is a virtue and the best things come to those who wait. I think I should pay attention to these sayings a little more.
I have a post scheduled for later today that is looking at making the same meal for two diets! Sometimes I think we must have a psychic link we often post things that are so similar!
Really? That’s freaky. I’m sure your post will be much more detailed and better, as I only showed a meat and not meat version of the same dish.
Eeek, I can’t believe I won, how exciting! I never normally win anything!! Thank you so much 🙂 Will email you now.
I love coconut based curries, yours looks great! My favourite is sweet potato and cauliflower, yum.
Congrats Lucy! That sweet potao and cauliflower curry sounds fab. Do you have a recipe? 🙂
I kind of just chuck whatever I have into a pot, but I think it started off being vaguely based around this recipe:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5233/cauliflower-curry
I use sweet potato instead of potato and sometimes dice it quite small so it cooks in the time, or if not I parboil the sweet potato for a little bit first so that it gets fully cooked without the cauliflower going mushy! I don’t always add the spinach, depends what I have in, sliced courgette is quite nice in it too. I’m hungry just thinking about it now! 🙂
Congrats Lucy!
I haven’t made anything time consuming recently-yes that’s sad….i’ll have more time now so i’ll get on that!
my fiance and I eat DRASTICALLY different so typically we both make our own meals and then a couple times a wk we cook together:)
OMG, curried butternut squash!! Sounds A-mazing!! I can almost smell it through the screen!! 🙂
I end up making two separate meals about half the time, but so worth it to make my hubby happy and have food that we both enjoy, plus I love cooking, so it’s all good.
wow i love the look of that curry – coconut does make anything tastier!
in my house i generally eat the same as my BF except he has more, and also he has carbs at night which i tend not to (just cos i’m never that hungry). not too complex! but i think if i was vegan or something it’d be a lot more work!
Ooh those truffles look amazing…! Need to try them…
But the smoothie, with the chocolate goji berries, is a very close second!
I once made a Gordon Ramsay pineapple pudding that took HOURS for when I had people round to do it but it was worth every minute… not sure I’d do it again though 🙂
I mean, when I had people round for dinner… that sounds very wrong!
Hey! Just found your blog – it’s so great! ALL your eats of the day look so yummy! I’ll deffo be back for more!
Hey! I just found your blog and it’s so great! ALL of your eats look yummy! I’ll be back for more!