Up and down, right and wrong, night and day…

There are many cases in which opposites attract such as Ying and Yang.  When it comes to healthy eating my boyfriend and I are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  For instance:

• Alfie likes to eat very late at night and sleeping on a full stomach doesn’t sound appealing.
• Alfie is addicted to Haribos and eats them like they are going out of fashion.  I strongly believe in “everything in moderation”
• Alfie likes to eat a truck load of carbs, whereas I like to moderate and limit the amount I eat through out the day
• Alfie hates fish and sushi.  I love them both.

I think you can see that there is a common trend here.  Does anyone else have this problem?   I always find myself hiding vegetables in his food, but there are sometimes, just on the rare occasion when he may surprise me.  Such a moment happened last night when eating the Malaysian Chicken and Tofu Curry I had made (typically without the tofu for him).

He stabbed his fork into a green leafy vegetable and asked curiously, “What is this?”

When I told him it was pak choi he declared “I like it!”

Erm…did I hear right? Has the sun fallen out of the sky?  He actually likes a vegetable!

Tonight  he didn’t surprise me.  He doesn’t like pumpkin or sweet potato, which was going to be the topping to my everything but the kitchen sink Cottage Pie.  As you will see I came to a reasonable compromise…

Ingredients

• 1 pack of organic turkey mince
• 1 diced leek
• 1 white onion
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1/2 cup of chestnut mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of diced carrots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 red chilli
• 1 1/2 cups of red lentils
• 2 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp of ground coriander
• 1 tbsp of cumin
• chicken stock
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 cup of roasted pumpkin
• 1 cup of sweet potato
• 1 tbsp of soya milk
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup

For the filling:

In a saucepan cook the onion, turkey mince, garlic and chillis for 5 minutes.  Next add all of the vegetables and cook until tender.

Pour in enough chicken stock to cover the mixture.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, salt and pepper, spices and then stir in the pre-cooked red lentils.

Transfer the mixture into a deep cooking dish and leave to stand whilst making the mash.

For the mash:

In a food processor mix together the pumpkin, sweet potato, maple syrup, and soya milk to produce a fluffy, lump free mash! 😀

Spread the pumpkin and sweet potato mash on top of the pie filling.  I obviously had to do part traditional mash alongside my pumpkin and sweet potato mash.

Cook for approx. 30 minutes on gas mark 5.

And then EAT!!!

What is your favourite Autumn dish?

Don’t forget to check out my great Rude Health Giveaway…it ends tomorrow at midnight!