Garden grazing

Finally! After a false call yesterday, the sun arrived. Blogging with a slightly pinker complexion, it is fair to say I am a rather modest lobster colour and got a bit over excited by this sudden heatwave. 

This is probably at fault from lazing in the garden all day from breakfast until I caught a glimpse of my reflection and saw an offensive shade of rouge red. In my breakfast bowl I had rice crispies AND crunchy nut cornflakes with strawberries, goji berries and milk.

Quick and easy to make with more time to pink, but still simply delicious and enjoyed on the garden bench.

Calories: 158

Following the success of the spinach smoothie, I was craving another green juice for lunch and this one was ten times more refreshing for today's summer day. The quenching of thirst in action.

I exchanged the berries for more green veg and even a green apple. I tried to distract myself from the greenness of this beverage by putting it in a tall fancy glass. Needless to say when I had a swig the colour (regardless of it being too green and looking too healthy) didn't matter. 

At least it matched the grass.

Wash spinach, cucumber and celery.

Blitz with sliced green apple and 1/2 frozen banana.

One glass filled to the brim with veggie goodness.

Gulped down with pepper and carrot sticks dipped into sun-dried tomato hummous and sweet onion rivita on the side.

Now to slam dunk my face into a bowl of natural yogurt. Too pink, too much garden grazing.

Calories: 317

There's an orange in my salmon

Salmon round two. This week there was an oriental twist with sweet and savory infusions from a little pre-marinade prep. It took 10 minutes maximum to prepare and most was done without supervision so if one wishes, multi-task away. 

Served with fragrant brown rice (trying to stick to wholemeal) that was perfumed with cinnamon and lemon juice stirred in with raisins and peas. 

For the marinade combine orange juice, soy sauce and minced ginger in a saucepan.

Reduce the marinade until there is 3/4 less liquid and marinade.

Cover brown rice, sultanas and cinnamon with water.

Boil until rice is tender and water is absorbed. Add more water if necessary.

Add peas in at the last couple of minutes.

The salmon was sweet and sticky and the rice was nice enough to eat on its own as a simple rice salad. We'll forget about the steamed spinach. Spinached out through binge eating it and especially not a fan of the steamed soggy variety.

I am now a lover of all things salmon and will never dismiss it as a boring mid week meal. All it needs is a little TLC. Or a simple marinade and rice side.

Calories: 625

Missing yolk

In the selection of trashy mags we have on offer, I see far too often the case of celebs swearing by egg whites. I  always assumed it was some sort of myth where everyone follows suit and more than likely with the case of celebrities, need a long over due visit to rehab. Not the case. It seems that egg whites are a lean protein and a fat burning food. And who said trashy magazines weren't educational?

Always curious to scrap the yolk, I scrambled my egg whites solo and was a little dubious when my scrambles had a snotty texture (if I ever gave you a reason not to try this, it was the previous comment.) 

Almost ready to retrieve the yolk from the heap of egg shells in the bin, I gave the whites one last chance to redeem their selves. One minute later and situations were looking, well... less snotty. I had fluffy light egg whites.

I blanched chopped broccoli and sprinkled with crushed almonds .

Chopped apple on the side.

Check out the apple cutting tool. Knives, say no more.

Calories: 127

Pink milk

Went to the effort to set an alarm this morning expecting to see sunshine and blue skies when I rose from my pit. Instead I was awoken by a rude knock at the door from Posty Pat and the same old rolling grey skies. Hard luck. Needed something for breakfast that spelled out summer, as my high expectations of good weather (fault of the weather man) was no where to be seen.

Lover of Kate's blender, I whizzed up this pretty as a picture pink milk to eat my cereal with. Cows milk and cereal is a faux pas of the past after enjoying this. Not too sure how I feel about getting up half an hour earlier just to get a dosage of pink milk. Maybe batch produce? Or maybe abandon this pink milk love affair while your ahead? Either way it's good and very pink.

Add strawberries, 1/2 frozen banana, ice cubes and milk to the blender.

Blitz.

Pour.

A palette of pink in your breakfast bowl. It was a bit too sweet at this time of morning so I added peanut butter with my Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, but this is probably just an excuse to eat peanut butter with anything edible.

Calories: 318

The spinach smoothie

A juice filled with spinach sounds too healthy. Illusive images of green slop were filtered into a quick Google search and I agreed it would be a crime to drink greens in your juices.

That is until I saw this purple chocolate spinach smoothie recipe. Purple is an averagely decent colour, everyone loves chocolate and spinach is my preferred leaf in a salad. What is there to lose?

Everything when you blend the ingredients and it looks like this! But to my shock and horror, something that looks surprisingly like dog doo tasted rather nice. I'm just a little curious as to why mine didn't turn out purple but I didn't question it too much as it was liquidized spinach after all.

Add 2 handfuls of spinach, 3 chopped dates, 1 frozen banana and water to a blender and blitz.

Add blueberries, ice cubes and 1/2 tsp of coco powder and blitz.

I sprinkled mine with goji berries, more blueberries and added a few springs of spinach. 

To say it was a smoothie, the idea of drinking it wasn't working in my favour so I served it in a bowl with a spoon and was easily won over by the green juice that was in my case, very brown (still not over the fact it wasn't purple.)

I ate every last bit and I'm officially a spinach smoothie convert. It was refreshing, healthy and didn't actually taste of spinach.

Proofs in the bowl.

Calories: 186

Detox day

I woke up this morning feeling like a shadow of my former self but probably twice the size. Lack of fruit and veggies has made me feel under the weather. Detox sprung to mind. Three days of cheatings and food binges has had a disastrous impact on the old gut.

My porridge infatuation flourished through this strawberry and peanut butter jelly combination.  

I took full advantage of the strawberry stocked fridge, a rare but necessary occurrence. Halved and mixed in with the oats whilst cooking, it added a natural sweetness to wean me off the sugars.

It was like a hot summer pudding on a cold and miserable nearly summer morning.

Calories: 364

Lunch was a simple fruit salad from Cafe Nero. Getting my fruits in by the bucket loads I forgot how much I enjoy a munching of pineapple and mango.

Slurped on a SKINNY latte with SUGAR FREE vanilla syrup and I was like a dog on heat shopping in Leeds.

Calories: 193

Ok, so this isn't actually detox material but giving a girl celery and carrot sticks after so many naughty treats is just cruel. Slow and steady wins the race and this prawn masala definitely won my appetite round.

Compliments to Kate for dishing up this curry packed full of veggies and spices.

Ate with naan bread and onion bajis because every curry deserves it.

 

Calories: 460