A day of food and a recipe

I haven't blogged about a whole day of food in aaaaages and today has been the first day in a while that I actually took photos of everything I had. I will even spoil you with the recipe for my dinner :-)

My first eat of the day was overnight oats. Overnight oats are all over the healthy-eating blogging world and it seems as though everyone has their own way of doing it - and I guess that's the beauty of the meal as you can really experiment and make it your own. Get  started by being inspired by some of the blogs like I was (here, here and here)

Last night I mixed up some oats, a similar volume of soya milk and a couple of teaspoons of ground flax seeds, then this morning I stirred through some frozen mango, fresh blueberries and a teaspoon of chia seeds and left it mingle for about half an hour before tucking in. It satisfies that need for a comforting texture in the morning and supplies you with all your macro nutrients, but as it isn't warm it keeps you cool and refreshed at the same time. Please try it, you won't regret it...and see how great it looks in the jar!

My lunch was a failed vegetable omelet vegetable and egg scramble which I made by sauteing dried mushrooms, a few cherry tomatoes and cavalo nero then mixing in a couple of eggs. Topped off with some avocado, it hit the spot before I had errands to run in town.

 Tonight I wanted to take the time to cook myself a proper dinner, inspired by a recipe in one of my favourite recipe book (River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall....have I mentioned it before?!) I adapted it to create Spiced Aubergine and Chickpea Salad, and here's what I did

Spiced Aubergine and Chickpea Salad (for 1)

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Medium aubergine (eggplant) - Chop into 1 inch cubes
Half a tin of chickpeas - Drained. If using dry chickpeas, soak 50g and boil for an hour to make up the right quantity
1 Small corn cob - Or half a large one
1/4 Tsp ground coriander
1/4 Tsp cumin seed
1/4 Tsp chili powder
1 Clove of garlic - sliced
1/4 Lemon - you need the juice and the zest
Small handful of fresh coriander - chopped

• Preheat the oven to 200C, and whilst it's warming up also put in the baking tray you are going to used with the oil drizzled in it.
• Meanwhile, toss the aubergine in the ground coriander cumin seeds and chili powder and add to the baking tray when the oil in the tray is very hot.
• Bake the aubergine for 30 minutes, stirring half way.
• Meanwhile, wrap the corn cob in some foil and put this in the oven too. You can add butter here or any seasoning you like but I just love it as it is. About 30 minutes should see it cooked through perfectly - tender but not chewy)
• When the aubergine has been baking for 30 minutes then stir in the chickpeas and garlic and return it to the oven for another 10 minutes.
• Toss the fresh coriander, lemon zest and juice through the baked aubergine mixture and serve on top of a bed of salad leaves.
• You can have the corn cob as it is on the side, but I chose to chop off the kernels and toss it through the salad.
• Season, if that's your thing, then serve.

I am submitting this post to Healthy Vegan Fridays hosted by Shelby at Everyday Vegan Girl , Gabby at The Veggie Nook  and Carrie at Carrie On Vegan 

Phew, that's a lot of food for one blog. Hope it hasn't left you too hungry! Next time I post I will probably give an exercise update!

Hannah xx

Wardrobe Detoxification and Delicious Dumplings!

Today I have learned something. Humans have far too much stuff. And I have far too many clothes.

I thought that I had unpacked most of my belongings into my brother's old room at my mum's house. And that was enough 'stuff'. I thought I had everything in there that I could possibly need. It turned out my dad had the attic filled with bags and boxes of my clothes too, so today's mission has been to attempt re-homing a load of stuff that probably has all of 3% chance of me ever wearing/using again. I have taken a full rubbish bag of clothes to the recycling (something which I also did when emptying my cupboards 2 weeks ago when I was packing to leave university). And yet there is still SO MUCH STUFF!!!

There is a lot of stuff from my junk food days that are a size or two too big for me, but they are wearable, so I ought to hang onto them as I'd rather not waste them if I could wear them in future if the occaision arises and alter them if necessary. This is something I'm reluctant to do though as I like the size that I have worked hard to wear, but I guess I can always cut the labels out!

I'm going to attempt flogging some dresses on ebay too, to free up a little space, but I think the key thing here is to swear to myself that I am not buying myself any new clothes for a long time. I thought I needed new stuff for my holiday next monday...apparently not!

So to tenuously link this back to this blog's theme of health, I suppose you could call today's events detoxifying???

This morning's smoothie followed the usual formula, with strawberries, blueberries and extra spinach. Instead of green sludge, I thought I'd show the components today! The vanilla yoghurt I used made it extra sweet and creamy, though I only bought it because it was discounted. It also has added sugar, not my tummy's best friend, so I'll be back to plain yoghurt tomorrow *sigh*

Today's lunch was a regular staple as I needed a quick fix in between sorting all these clothes. Cottage cheese and toasted walnuts in a pitta bread which is a delicious combination and a superb meat-free protein fix, accompanied with some raw and cooked veggies.

I also tried this recipe of oat and chickpea dumplings in passata, as cited by Cathy at PlanetVeggie. I can confidently say that this is the best thing that I have cooked with beans in a long time! Whenever I have attempted similar recipes for bean burgers etc. they have never worked for me and fallen apart in the pan. However, it wouldn't've been a normal dinner without drama: just as I thought how perfectly things were going for a change as I panfried the dumplings, the smoke alarm went off! Ultimately though, I loved how simple this recipe was, and that it was free from egg, parmesan, and bread crumbs which are typically used to bind these sorts of things. The cumin and coriander flavours came through perfectly, and served on some steamed kale made this an extremely satisfying dinner. I wanted to show how moist and fresh they looked inside, which is why I've uploaded the second pic.

I have made enough to enjoy cold for lunch tomorrow...any thoughts on how I could tart them up?

No workouts today. Besides busily sorting out all the clothes, the weather has been absolutely terrible! Although it has brightened up now and I'm tempted to go and run off the dumplings!

Thanks for reading, back tomorrow!