Anyone who has ever met me will tell you I'm a little extremist. It's true. I'll get an idea in my head or start a new project and focus fully on it, to the detriment of all other things much of the time. For example, every year for Lent I'll give something up. Not chocolate, but tea or potatoes or cheese. And then I'll spend forty days complaining about how much I need tea/potatoes/cheese and generally drive husband mad with it all.
I've just had another week where my food-related extremist compunctions have taken over. After a recent weekend in Scotland where we pretty much overdosed on wine, cheese and good quality meat, I decided to give my body a break by giving up meat for the week. You hear so often these days how you should try to avoid eating too much meat, both for the health of the planet and for your own health, and therefore over the last couple of years I've been exploring more meat free meals, but usually only once or twice a week. But on that train down from Scotland, woozy from yet another black pudding infused breakfast, I laid down the law and decided that I wouldn't eat any meat until Friday.
Husband wasn't exactly overjoyed. He was away on a work trip for a couple of days and therefore only had to contend with a couple of meat free meals. But he was more concerned about my reaction to the fast. And boy was he right.....
Lunchtimes were easy. Most weekends I whip up a stew or vegpot to take into work for lunch. So I pulled together a soy mince based chilli, with lots of fresh chillies and kidney beans to input flavour and fibre. Served with rice, it worked really well to keep me going each day, although I must admit that I was a little bored with it by the end of the week.
Dinners required a little bit more thought.
Day 1 - I went for an oldie but a goodie - aubergine curry spiced with lots of fennel seeds and nigella seeds. I bulked it out with some extra peppers and brown rice on the side, and kept the calories low by grilling, rather than frying, the aubergine. What really makes this curry is the tin of baby plum tomatoes that give it a light and fresh sweetness. Super tasty! I didn't miss the meat at all here because aubergine has a bit of a meaty texture if not overcooked. Any anyway, it was only the first night!
Husband also liked this one so point to me.
Day 2 - I was working from home during the day so had plenty of time to pick up some more fresh vegetables and go all out for myself. I grabbed a celeriac, which is a vegetable I don't have very much experience of and decided to make slow-cooked spiced celeriac - a recipe I'd found in Sainsbury's magazine a few months ago, and only made once before. Check it out here. Yet another use for the jar of nigella seeds sitting on my kitchen counter.
However a whole celeriac is just a little dull to eat for dinner. So I decided that I'd make this and eat around a quarter, saving the rest for another night. I turned this into a bit of a buddha bowl create, serving the slices of very slow roasted celeriac on top of a bed of spinach, chopped tomatoes, grated carrots, grilled onions, feta cheese and a seeded flatbread. A drizzle of tahini sauce on top made for a delicious meal that many people might just call a salad.
Day 3 - and things were beginning to grate on me. Wednesday's are my early morning gym day and I was totally knackered on the train home. I watched an episode of Great British Menu and the sight of the steaks on that show had me totally salivating. Just a couple more days to go I thought, and started thinking about dinner, which was to be tofu stirfry.
I never thought I would be one of these people who eats tofu. I can't even say whether or not I actually like it, because I don't think it has any flavour. But it is calorie light and filling, and you can always add flavour to things, so a couple of years ago I followed a friend's suggestion and bought my first tofoo, after checking out some of the pretty yummy looking recipes on their website.
So the tofu stirfry was pretty good. Noodles made of butternut squash, lots of variety from mushrooms, green beans, carrots and peppers, plus the tofu on the top, a healthy dose of chilli and a szechuan packet sauce. Not gonna lie - it did pretty well and only cost me a nifty 300 calories.
Day 4 - and I was grumpy as anything. I'd expected to feel lighter by this point, but actually the result of not eating any meat was that my meals were bigger portion sizes than usual to bulk up the calories. So I was feeling fuelled but not fulfilled. I hadn't salivated over the smell of a steak or the joy of biting into a piece of succulent chicken. I was close to the end but it was the hardest day to get through. Sheer willpower stopped my from picking up dinner from Nandos and if husband had suggested a restaurant trip, I wouldn't have said no.
Never mind, it was pasta night. I had found a neat little recipe for stuffed shells, although needless to say, I didn't follow it very thoroughly. However the end result was absolutely delicious! The aubergine gave it a really yummy flavour and the combo of feta cheese, manchego and Maltese gbejna that I put on top gave it a creamy saltiness that made me really happy!
Day 5 - now I'm ashamed to say that I had planned to finish my vegetarian week with a big juicy steak to celebrate my goodness. But I had work drinks so my first meat of the week ended up being a Mcdonalds that I ate on the train. Oh goodness. Which means I'm pretending Day 5 didn't happen and replaying it on Day 6.
Day 5.2 (6) - I woke up looking forward to that big steak I'd promised myself for dinner. But until then, I had to make up for the day before and returned to my vegetarian ways for lunch. I had one more trick up my sleeve - tandoori tofu on a bed of caramelised onions and red cabbage, in wholemeal wraps. And this was definitely a favourite and will be featuring again in the not far off future.
Then finally, all over - I feel like my life was returned with the picanha steak that I grilled for my dinner. Served rare with some of that lovely leftover celeriac and a little tomato salsa - my salivating mouth hunger has finally been appeased.
Faithful reader, I'm sure you'll want to hear what I've achieved with this little endeavor. I can definitely say that I showed a great deal of self-control and wish I could say that I've learned to be a little less extreme and not take on a massive challenge like this in the middle of one of the busiest working weeks this year. I haven't. I'm really embracing this idea of eating less meat, so will continue to have meatless dinners at least once a week, as well as meatless lunches most days. I might give myself a break from any further challenges for the next wee while, because I am feeling a little broken. Was definitely worth it though.
Kisses!
Princess Malta
I've just had another week where my food-related extremist compunctions have taken over. After a recent weekend in Scotland where we pretty much overdosed on wine, cheese and good quality meat, I decided to give my body a break by giving up meat for the week. You hear so often these days how you should try to avoid eating too much meat, both for the health of the planet and for your own health, and therefore over the last couple of years I've been exploring more meat free meals, but usually only once or twice a week. But on that train down from Scotland, woozy from yet another black pudding infused breakfast, I laid down the law and decided that I wouldn't eat any meat until Friday.
 |
| Tasty sausages, black pud, tattie scones and cheese for dessert. No wonder I decided to have a healthy week! |
Lunchtimes were easy. Most weekends I whip up a stew or vegpot to take into work for lunch. So I pulled together a soy mince based chilli, with lots of fresh chillies and kidney beans to input flavour and fibre. Served with rice, it worked really well to keep me going each day, although I must admit that I was a little bored with it by the end of the week.
Dinners required a little bit more thought.
Day 1 - I went for an oldie but a goodie - aubergine curry spiced with lots of fennel seeds and nigella seeds. I bulked it out with some extra peppers and brown rice on the side, and kept the calories low by grilling, rather than frying, the aubergine. What really makes this curry is the tin of baby plum tomatoes that give it a light and fresh sweetness. Super tasty! I didn't miss the meat at all here because aubergine has a bit of a meaty texture if not overcooked. Any anyway, it was only the first night!
Husband also liked this one so point to me.
However a whole celeriac is just a little dull to eat for dinner. So I decided that I'd make this and eat around a quarter, saving the rest for another night. I turned this into a bit of a buddha bowl create, serving the slices of very slow roasted celeriac on top of a bed of spinach, chopped tomatoes, grated carrots, grilled onions, feta cheese and a seeded flatbread. A drizzle of tahini sauce on top made for a delicious meal that many people might just call a salad.Day 3 - and things were beginning to grate on me. Wednesday's are my early morning gym day and I was totally knackered on the train home. I watched an episode of Great British Menu and the sight of the steaks on that show had me totally salivating. Just a couple more days to go I thought, and started thinking about dinner, which was to be tofu stirfry.
I never thought I would be one of these people who eats tofu. I can't even say whether or not I actually like it, because I don't think it has any flavour. But it is calorie light and filling, and you can always add flavour to things, so a couple of years ago I followed a friend's suggestion and bought my first tofoo, after checking out some of the pretty yummy looking recipes on their website.
So the tofu stirfry was pretty good. Noodles made of butternut squash, lots of variety from mushrooms, green beans, carrots and peppers, plus the tofu on the top, a healthy dose of chilli and a szechuan packet sauce. Not gonna lie - it did pretty well and only cost me a nifty 300 calories.
Day 4 - and I was grumpy as anything. I'd expected to feel lighter by this point, but actually the result of not eating any meat was that my meals were bigger portion sizes than usual to bulk up the calories. So I was feeling fuelled but not fulfilled. I hadn't salivated over the smell of a steak or the joy of biting into a piece of succulent chicken. I was close to the end but it was the hardest day to get through. Sheer willpower stopped my from picking up dinner from Nandos and if husband had suggested a restaurant trip, I wouldn't have said no.
Never mind, it was pasta night. I had found a neat little recipe for stuffed shells, although needless to say, I didn't follow it very thoroughly. However the end result was absolutely delicious! The aubergine gave it a really yummy flavour and the combo of feta cheese, manchego and Maltese gbejna that I put on top gave it a creamy saltiness that made me really happy!
Day 5 - now I'm ashamed to say that I had planned to finish my vegetarian week with a big juicy steak to celebrate my goodness. But I had work drinks so my first meat of the week ended up being a Mcdonalds that I ate on the train. Oh goodness. Which means I'm pretending Day 5 didn't happen and replaying it on Day 6.Day 5.2 (6) - I woke up looking forward to that big steak I'd promised myself for dinner. But until then, I had to make up for the day before and returned to my vegetarian ways for lunch. I had one more trick up my sleeve - tandoori tofu on a bed of caramelised onions and red cabbage, in wholemeal wraps. And this was definitely a favourite and will be featuring again in the not far off future.
Then finally, all over - I feel like my life was returned with the picanha steak that I grilled for my dinner. Served rare with some of that lovely leftover celeriac and a little tomato salsa - my salivating mouth hunger has finally been appeased.
 |
| Picanha steak, served with veg |
Kisses!
Princess Malta
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