One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Saturday

It was so lovely to wake up from a good nights sleep after a long week. I started the morning with some yoghurt and nuts before going to the gym as I was doing a weights class and struggle if I don't have anything to eat beforehand.

As I've mentioned I try and eat cleanly all week with the exception of 1 treat meal a week. Some people call this a cheat meal, but psychologically I prefer the idea of treating myself for eating well rather than seeing it as cheating. I also plan this meal as part of my weekly food planning and chose something I really want so I have something to look forwards to. I tend to have this at the weekend and typically cook something. I try and still keep it as natural and unprocessed as possible but don't worry about sugar, refined carbs or fat. This week I'd decided to have it on Saturday lunch time as I had my friend and her girls coming to visit and she wanted to go to a nice bakery for lunch.
I find this meal important for three main reasons:

1. I love cooking and baking so the idea of never being able to eat some things and try some recipes is not one I'm willing to consider.
2. By having a treat meal I have something help me resist temptation during the week. If I fancy a bar of chocolate I ask myself if I'd rather have that or the treat meal I've planned and am looking forwards to.
3. From what I've read this shakes up your body and helps prevent your metabolism from becoming too sluggish.

Food and Drinks:

Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water. I then had a small amount of 0% Total Greek yoghurt with a few lightly roasted nuts

Morning snack: this was more breakfast than a snack as I had it when. Got back from the gym but I went for scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach and added some thyme and a splash of balsamic vinegar to the mushrooms for flavour before adding 1 egg and 2 egg whites.




Lunch: at the bakery I had a croissant filled with gruyere cheese and ham with grainy mustard and a side salad followed by a raspberry tart with a pot of tea and a small bar of dark chocolate with pink peppercorns (very unusual but quite tasty!).

Afternoon snack: as I had a big, late lunch I didn't have any snack.

Dinner: As I was home I wanted to cook something tasty but clean. I had some Tenderstem broccoli which needed using up so I decided to make a Thai green curry served with Tenderstem broccoli and asparagus dressed in a soy, chilli and lime dressing. The Thai curry was a recipe I picked up when I was on holiday in Kao Tao, Thailand. They used a bought curry paste so I did the same but do sometimes made my own and freeze it in small portions. You can find good recipes on google.








For pudding I had a foil baked orange



Water: 2 litres
Other drinks: 2 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk, 1 black decaf coffee, 1 regular tea
Organised for tomorrow: I am visiting my parents so packed my gym kit

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 30 mins
Exercise: 1 hr weights class - Body Pump

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: I then listened to some music whilst cooking and watched a TV programme I'd missed in the week and then went to bed early
Meditation: none
Bed time: 9.15pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 8 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

Clean living

As I've mentioned before as much as I love cake I do try and balance it with clean eating. Last week, more as an experiment than anything else, I tried to have a wheat free, diary free, sugar free week (Mon to Fri).

Here is one of the days food...

I started the day with an egg white 'omelette'. The only reason it was egg white was because I had so many left over from making pasteis de nata. It wasn't a true omelette as I much prefer egg poached to fried so I tried poaching the egg white. I had it with tomatoes and mushrooms which I fried in a little rapeseed oil, added a bit of thyme, a splash of red wine vinegar and some seasoning.



For a morning snack I had some roasted mixed nuts and seeds.

For lunch I had a fab veggie salad. I started by 'roasting' some peppers. I did this by charring them directly onto the gas. Remove the metal pan stand, turn the gas on and rest the pepper against the flame. Keep a careful eye on it and turn it every so often until it the skin is blistered and black in places. Put them into a bowl and cover tightly with cling film. This will help the skin come off. Leave them for about 10mins and then peel them. This is easiest under running water. Chop into chunks.




I also had chunks of cucumber, sliced of tomato with basil, sautéed onions and mushrooms and mixed lettuce with some sprouting seeds. You can sprout seeds yourself but I bought these from @wfm_kensington






My afternoon snack was coconut yoghurt also from @wfm_kensington which is dairy free and would make a fantastic ice cream.

For dinner I had chicken which I marinated in oil, mint, chilli, ginger, lime zest and line juice. I pan fried it and then whilst it was resting I quickly fried off some rice noodles that I had pre-soaked in water. This is a trick I learnt in Thailand which means there is no news to boil them. In a separate pan I fried some broccoli and finished it with soy sauce and a little sesame oil.





For dessert I made a chia pudding. Chia seeds originate from Mexico and are great as they can soak up ~10 times their weight in liquid. This means they are fab for thickening and can be used in smoothies as well.

I put about 2 dessertspoons of chia seeds in a blender with 1 dessertspoons of cacoa nibs. I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract, a handful of raw porridge oats, a handful of mixed roaste nuts and about a cup of almond milk. I blended it until it was quite smooth and poured it into a bowl and chilled it until it thickened slightly. Now I wouldn't serve it at a dinner party but considering it is a pudding with no sugar in it was really quite tasty!

Vegetable Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai green curry, especially a recipe I learnt when I was in Thailand (I really must write a post on it next time I make it) and at this time of year I eat soup for lunch most days. I had a small amount of coconut milk in the fridge so decided to combine the two and make a slightly more soupy vegetable curry.

I started by dicing the vegetables to a size easy to eat with a spoon, far smaller than I would for a true curry. I then heated the coconut milk with the water, added the green curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, sugar and soy followed by the veg and cooked until the veg were all fairly soft but still holding their shape. I finished by squeezing in lime juice and some sliced red chilli. You could also top with fresh coriander if you had some. I also normally add some torn kaffir leaves but forgot!

Here it is cooking in the pan


Recipe

Makes two generous bowls of soup and is easily doubled/halved etc. You can also substitute the veg for whatever you have in the fridge that you think would be tasty

1/2 tin coconut milk
2-3 tablespoons of green Thai curry paste to taste
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar (or natural sweetener)
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fresh ginger grated
1 courgette
1 red pepper
1 large carrot
2 onions
1/2 red chilli
Juice of 1/2 lime
3-4 torn kaffir leaves (if you remember!)
A bunch of torn coriander (if desired)


Dice all of the veg

Heat the coconut milk with the curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, ginger and sugar.

Add the veg and cook until it is soft but still holds its shape. Approx 20-30 mins

Add the lime and kaffir leaves. Serve topped with slices of red chilli and corriander