Today I tried out a recipe. Well no, not a recipe, more a technique. I have mentioned my cutting back on wheat products to try and help my stomach (which incidentally is absolutely playing up to the max today and was yesterday post trip away with all kinds of naughty foods) and I wanted to try out using courgettes as a replacement for pasta. Not only wheat free but an absolute fraction of the calorie intake to boot. It's a technique which has been kicking about the internets for a while, and with the addition of a 40p peeler to our cooking arsenal I decided to give it a go. Mum had used half a squash in a random mish mash meal she cooked us yesterday and I was tasked with finishing off the other half today. So cooking my own meal felt like the perfect time to have a bash.
The technique is simple. Take yourself a courgette or two (I had one because of the addition of all the squash but if it had been a meal in it's own right I think I would have gone for two) and then just peel it into long strips, top to bottom using a vegetable peeler. Boom, courgette pasta. I read all over the place that stopping as you hit the seeded middle is best because the seeded part doesn't make for sturdy strips and that is just what I did. I just cut the seeded part into coins and added that to the pan as well. Then I put the strips into a colander with a pinch of salt and used a bowl to weight them down to try and get rid of any excess moisture. Whilst that was sorting itself out I just peeled the remaining butternut squash and roasted it with a red onion in some garlic oil.
After that was almost cooked (about 30 minutes) I cooked up the discs of courgette with some random mushrooms from a sort of taster pack in some oil and garlic, added some already cooked and diced chicken thighs and then a touch of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and salt and then added the drained strips for about two minutes. That amount of time keeps them just a little crunchy which is entirely to my taste. Al dente I suppose if you're being fancy. Anyways, that made for a very nice and filling sort of a meal. I didn't have any idea of what sauce I fancied hence the sort of lack of one. But the courgette strips are so lightly flavoured that they would literally go well in anything I think. Mine was a sort of savoury flavouring more than anything but I am no cook! It was still very nice though especially with the roasted veg. Simple and tasty, and a whole helluva lot less calories to boot! Definite success and something I am entirely planning on doing again.
As to the rest of the day, I skipped breakfast as per my plan. I find it hard being home and hungry on the morning but I know once I break myself out of the habit of eating it and once work starts again it will be a lot easier. I never used to bother with breakfast anyways so I'm fully expecting to jump back of the breakfast bandwagon without troubles. Yes it's supposed to be an important meal, but frankly it just seems like a waste of calories to me. Dinner was pea soup, a gluten free jaffa, an orange and a malteasers bunny. I had a banana and a couple of pickled onions whilst I was waiting for my tea as well a bit later. It's been a bit of a nibbly day today but I'm hoping the 200 calories I saved from breakfast should save it. I had a bit of chocolate as well..I've been craving it recently and I'm not sure why. I'll work on resisting it though.
I have done my exercising as well much as I didn't want to...I was trying to kid myself that I was fine food wise but then I remembered the bits and bobs I have been nibbling and hauled my arse onto the bike to the tune of X men First class which is turning out to be a pretty interesting film so far. I've decided to save the rest for tomorrow as incentive to leap onto the bike without moaning as well...fingers crossed that works.
We'll see though. My brain is very much in holiday mode currently with me not being at work. Back there on Sunday, boo and hiss. Then I have my birthday off and that's it. No more holidays planned for the moment and nothing to look forward to. I'm hoping that it will kick start my arse into planning properly on moving out and getting my own place..like I think I said though, first I need to pick a city.
Anyways, I'm going to go grab a couple of clementines and a brew and settle myself down for the night. My bedtime is entirely screwed up. OH WELL.
Tatty boo!
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