Low-carb January - 26 days in

Recipe of the week...
... Low-carb cluckin' curry
with cauliflower rice

Ingredients:

For the curry – 300g meat-free chicken-style pieces, a stalk of broccoli, 100g green beans, ½ an onion, ½ a red chili pepper, 1 small root of ginger, 1 tablespoon curry paste, 200ml coconut milk, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

For the cauliflower rice – 250g cauliflower, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

Serves: 2 big platefuls.

Time taken: Half an hour prep and then 20 mins to cook.

Hi readers,

How are you all today? It’s Fridayyyyyy! That’s right, as I write, it’s a bright Friday afternoon in January. We’re within two hours of the weekend and it CANNOT come quickly enough.

Tonight – exciting! – I’m going on an 80s night dressed as Madonna. Think: black dress, bold makeup, big jewellery, even bigger hair. So, once this post goes live on ChefBeHere, I’ll be turning the curlers on and finding out my funkiest eye shadows… bring on the 80s tunes!

How about you, readers? Do you have plans for your Friday night?? I hope there are tipples and tunes on the horizon – time to let your hair down!

As we edge towards the weekend, readers, I’m now 26 days into low-carb January with five more days to go. The end is in sight! I’m beginning to get a little excited – anticipating a major treat day on the 1^st Feb with pizza, cereal, bananas, peanut M&Ms, and all the orange juice I can drink. I may explode on the day but it’s going to be GOOD.

As well as anticipating the carbs in store next Thursday, I’m also looking forward to easing off with the rules around what I eat. Although I intend to keep going somewhat in February, with a lower-carb diet that I’ve held up until 2018, it’s going to be a relief to relax the rules and enjoy a more flexible, spontaneous way of eating.

Just last night – lying awake for around 3 hours from 4.30m, when my housemate’s Tinder date staggered into my room looking for the bathroom – I found myself unable to sleep and endlessly going over low-carb meal plans in my head. Thinking days in advance!

And, really, I’d like to go back to thinking about more interesting things. Like whether or not the guy was wearing any clothes or I’d briefly had a naked man in my room. I wonder that now. And I wonder how I possibly passed 3 hours planning 5 days’ worth of food… maybe I did fall asleep?

Anyway, regardless, I have a low-carb recipe to share with you, readers! This may be one of my last, as we’re nearing the end of January now, so I hope you’ll enjoy. This recipe is based on one from the Diet Doctor website (see here), for a low-carb chicken curry with cauliflower rice.

I decided to give this recipe a go as I’d never tried cauliflower rice before – shock, horror! – and was intrigued. Also, I really fancied something resembled a proper meal, rather than just serving up a selection of low-carb things on a plate. So, I adapted the ingredient quantities a little, and replaced the chicken with Quorn, and a new recipe was born!

Fancy giving it a go? Here’s the recipe in just ten simple steps…

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Recipe: Low-carb cluckin’ curry with cauliflower rice

Ingredients:

For the curry – 300g frozen meat-free chicken-style pieces, a stalk of broccoli, 100g green beans, ½ an onion, ½ a red chili pepper, 1 small root of ginger, 1 tablespoon curry paste, 200ml coconut milk, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

For the cauliflower rice – 250g cauliflower, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

1.     Begin by getting all your ingredients out onto the side and pouring yourself a chilled drink. Stretch really tall, crack open a window, set some chilled music playing.

2.     Ready to go! To begin with, you need to do some veg prep. Chop the head of your broccoli into small florets (and save the stalk). Top and tail your green beans, then chop in half. Grate your cauliflower and the stalk of your broccoli.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Stick at it, readers. If – like me at the time of cooking – you’ve just done a body pump class and can barely feel your arms, I feel for you. Try using one arm to press the grater downwards into the chopping board, as the other arm grates, instead of your arms pushing towards each other. This helped me somewhat.

3.     Give your arms a rest now! Gently heat a knob of butter, in a wok or frying pan, then add your frozen chicken pieces and your broccoli.

4.     Leave these to heat through for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, while you – deseed and finely chop your half a chili, finely chop your half an onion, and grate then finely chop your small ginger root.

5.     Once your chicken pieces look as though they’ve thawed, add your green beans, chili, onion and ginger to the pan.

6.     Stir everything together and fry for 5 mins until your kitchen smells good and the onion in the pan is softening.

7.     Meanwhile, gently heat a knob of butter in a saucepan. Add your grated cauliflower and broccoli to the pan, and season to contents of both your frying pan and saucepan. Leave your cauliflower rice to fry for around 10 mins.

8.     Add your curry paste and coconut milk to the frying pan, stir everything together, and leave to simmer for around 10 mins. Both pans will need stirring occasionally.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Apply some common sense here – if you aren’t a fan of spicy foods just stick with a teaspoon of curry paste / or if you like your head blown off then go ahead and tip the whole jar in.

9.     Use your next ten minutes wisely. I’d set the table for dinner, find something good on the telly, and refresh your drink. Maybe heat dinner plates in the microwave, wipe round the kitchen, and make a start on your dishes.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Remember to keep an eye on your pans. Give them a stir every time you pass by – make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom or burning.

10.  Time to serve up your tea! Remove both pans from the heat, spoon cauliflower rice evenly between two dinner plates, and then ladle out the curry. By now your kitchen should smell fragrant and your food should be piping hot – tuck in!

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And that’s all there is to it, readers! What do you think? Would you give this recipe a try? I can promise you a colourful, flavoursome tea, with at least 3 of your 5-a-day in veg per serving. The recipe’s gluten-free and, if you switch the butter for vegetable oil and use Quorn vegan pieces, then it’s vegan too! Plus, you get a free workout grating all that cauliflower.

Am I selling it or am I selling it?? Honestly, readers, I enjoyed this recipe. I had fun in the kitchen and then tucked into a great tasting plateful of food. I was impressed with cauliflower rice – not the poor man’s substitute I’d been imagining! – and a tablespoon of curry paste is about as spicy as I can handle, so I did cry through my nose a little, but I wasn’t melting. Which is good.

Please let me know, readers, if you give this recipe a try – what do you think? Would you rate this, as curries go? How did you get on in the kitchen? Shout out with your feedback on the recipe – I’d love to hear!

And have a fantastic weekend, everyone.

Vogue safely,

Hayley

Autumn Series - Post #8 - Curry recipe and concluding the series

Recipe of the week...
... Tangy tomato, Pomegranate & Egg Curry
@chefbehere

Ingredients: 1 brown onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon curry powder, 80g baby leaf spinach, 1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes, 10g fresh coriander, 4 free-range eggs, 3 tomatoes, 1 vegetable stock cube, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses, 2 mini coriander naans, 100g basmati rice, olive oil, salt and pepper

Time taken: About half an hour

Serves: 2 super filing, super healthy, super tasty portions

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Hi readers,

Are you hanging in there?? It’s Fri-YAY! Well done for making it to the end of the week – high five! Especially if your week has been anything like mine… looooong and tiring. At the end of such a busy week at work it’s lovely to look ahead to the weekend and a glass of wine, seeing friends and family, and sending NO EMAILS whatsoever.

The weekend is an email-free zone
@hayleygeography

How are you doing, readers? Has it been a busy week? What are you looking forward to this weekend? I hope you have lots of funs plans lined up, and potentially some rainy day activities! Don’t let a gloomy weather forecast get you down when there are so many lovely shops and cafes and bars and restaurants to visit, and a wealth of fun films out at the cinemas to go see.

And if you want… as it is the weekend… you could just stay in bed! You heard it here first. Why not, readers? If you feel like getting stuck into a new book, or doing some baking or crafting maybe, or watching a TV series from start to finish, or moving all the furniture around for nooo reason. Then, I say do it. 

Seize the day
@whatsahyphen

 As is customary, let’s talk a little on the topic of food, readers. Following on from my last blog post, in which I tackled the second of three ways we can overcome an emotional eating habit loop, as suggested by Rachel at re:wellbeing…

1.     Address the cues

2.     Increase wellbeing

3.     Change the behaviour

… this past week, I’ve been thinking through Rachel’s ideas on ways we can change the behaviour. So, what do I mean by this? Well – say you’re having a bad time with life today and it’s happening, you feel yourself suddenly compelled to open the food cupboards and rifle through – it’s important to try and recognise as early as possible that these food cravings you’re feeling link with your emotions.

If you can, try and identify how you feel different leading up to an episode of emotional eating, versus a normal meal, and be on alert for these signs. So, say you’ve got this down to a tee, your spidey sense are tingling and you realise what’s about to happen… then what do you do?

What to do
@besser_nord_als_nie

What should you do to stop it? What do you do instead of eating? Sadly – according to Rachel and I think I agree – there’s no simple answer. It’s something you have to figure out for yourself. Which I know sounds RUBBISH. But, as Rachel points out, things are generally more effective when they come from you. If someone tells you what to do, you might go along with it, but if the feeling comes from your gut then you’re more likely to follow through.

Think of possible behaviours to replace eating. To be effective, replacement behaviours have to meet your needs, or solve an issue that’s causing you to feel emotional and want to eat. And different replacement behaviours might be more or less effective in different situations, depending on how well they meet your needs. Once you recognise the signs of an emotional eating episode coming on, then it’s up to you to decide which alternative action you should take instead of eating.

There's always another option
@johnvellema

What do you think, readers? Perhaps, have a go at making a plan. Get specific about each need you think you’re sometimes trying to fulfil by eating. Do you want comforting? Are you trying to release frustration? Do you wish you had company? Are you feeling down and in need of cheering up?

When making a plan to change your behaviour, it's important to link the new behaviour to the emotional need that you are trying to satisfy and/or the situation you might be in when you perform the behaviour. Perhaps use the following formats:

- IF I FEEL (emotion) THEN I WILL (new behaviour)

- or IF I ENCOUNTER (trigger) THEN I WILL (new behaviour)

Then, readers, act on your new plans. Remember to act with the intention that the behaviour will fulfil your needs – you have to believe in it, just going through the motions isn’t likely to be effective. Then, maybe evaluate your progress after a couple of weeks of trying the new behaviours. How’s it gone? What’s gone well so far? Try to recall some little (or big) victories and give yourself a pat for achieving these. If your plans worked then your challenge is to repeat them for another week. 

You can do it!
@j.oleskow

Remember, readers, don't be hard on yourself if you did end up eating. Maybe you’ve identified some plans that didn't work? Or were there any plans you didn’t stick to? If not, why not? If it came down to remembering your plans in time – how can you make sure that you don't forget to follow the plan? Or maybe you’ve identified a new cue that you weren't aware of before, but you see now it’s keeping you stuck in the emotional eating habit loop?

However you get along, readers, hopefully all this has been good food for thought for you. I hope you’ve been interested to read this series of blog posts on the emotional eating habit loop. I certainly have found it really interesting to think through and to write these posts! I feel like the program with Rachel at re:wellbeing has given me some fresh understanding of myself, my thought processes relating to food, and the factors influencing my eating behaviour during emotional times. I’m grateful to have given this a go and intend keep it up.

Always grateful
@wild_and_wandering_

I’ll come back to Rachel’s ideas, and a short bed time yoga practice encouraged as part of the re:wellbeing program, if ever I catch myself walking down a bad path with food. I’ve taken away from this experience a lot of insight into how an emotional eating habit loop can work and how it can be prevented. Also, the importance of looking after your own wellbeing. If ever I feel myself reaching for food to deal my emotions, I’ll hopefully remember that this too can be overcome.

And NOW I have our recipe of the week for you, readers. Here’s a cracking Gousto recipe, for a Tangy Tomato, Pomegranate & Egg Curry that you might enjoy over the weekend. Give it a go! Here’s the recipe, in just 10 simple steps…

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Recipe: Tangy Tomato, Pomegranate & Egg Curry

1.     Clear your mind and look forwards to the evening ahead – let’s make it a good one. Set some calming music playing quietly in the background, stretch your arms out – as high and as wide as they’ll possibly go! And further! – then gather your ingredients together on the kitchen counter.

2.     Set the kettle boiling and gently rest your eggs in a small saucepan along with a pinch of salt. Add your basmati rice to a second saucepan – make sure this one has a lid.

3.     Add 250ml cold water to this saucepan, put on the lid and bring to the boil over a high heat. Cover the eggs in the first pan with boiled water and boil over a high heat. Once your rice pan is boiling, reduce the heat to very low and then leave both pans to cook for the next ten minutes.

4.     Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the brown onion. Heat a large non-stick frying pan or wok over a medium heat with a drizzle of cooking oil. Once hot, add the sliced onion with a pinch of salt and cook for ten minutes or until softened.

5.     While your onion sizzles, there’s time to get a little prep done. Set the kettle boiling again and chop the tomatoes roughly. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Add the vegetable stock cube, tomato paste, pomegranate molasses and 1 teaspoon sugar to a measuring jug. Dissolve in 250ml boiled water – this is your pomegranate stock.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep an eye on the contents of your two saucepans. Once ten minutes is up, drain the hot water from the egg pan and refill with cold tap water. Set aside to cool. In the second pan, once all the water has absorbed and the rice is cooked, remove from the heat and keep covered with the lid on the pan until serving. Turn both hobs off.

6.     Once the onion has softened in your frying pan, add the cumin seeds, curry powder, chilli flakes, and chopped garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Pop two dinner plates in the oven and heat the oven to 200C.

7.     Add the chopped tomatoes, pomegranate stock, and spinach to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 or so minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce has thickened to a curry-like consistency.

8.     Meanwhile, peel the cooled eggs and cut them in half. Chop the coriander finely including the stalks. Remove the lid from your rice pan and use a fork to fluff the rice and stir through the chopped coriander.

9.     Pop your mini coriander naans on a baking tray. Using oven gloves to protect your hands, carefully remove the two dinner plates from the oven and pop your naans in to warm for a few minutes.

10.  Serve the coriander rice between two dinner plates. Spoon your tomato and pomegranate curry out onto the plates and top each plateful of curry with some boiled egg. Serve with a mini coriander naan on the side – and tuck in to a fiery tea!

What a wonderful bowlful of grub 😀
@chefbehere

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In the words of Gousto…

“This curry combines boiled eggs with a sweet and sour sauce made with fresh tomatoes, baby leaf spinach and pomegranate molasses. Cumin seeds and curry powder bring an earthiness to the sauce, whilst chilli flakes add a subtle kick. Served with coriander rice and a mini naan to dip into the sauce!”

What do you think, readers? Are you open minded enough to give an egg curry a go? Does this look like the kind of food that just might rock your world?? Let me know what you think! There’s just one fiddly ingredient in this recipe – I’m looking at you… pomegranate molasses – and you only need spend half an hour of your evening in the kitchen.

Spend the rest having fun!
@mette_mie_

And, in my eyes, this is a pretty healthy curry. You have egg, you have spinach, you have rice… lots of healthy, energy-packed ingredients! Shout out, readers, what are you thinking? Would you take this recipe on? And – if you do give it a go – please let me know how you get on in the kitchen! Was the recipe straightforward to follow? Did you like the food?

Whether or not there’s a Tangy Tomato, Pomegranate & Egg Curry on the horizon… here’s wishing you all a wonderful weekend, readers. Have a cracking couple of days!

Fluff safely,

Hayley

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An informative footer

I’d like to note, the above is part of a series of posts that I’m currently having fun writing, while undertaking a fresh start with food. Food bloggers can’t admit they got bored with food, you say? Well, I beg to differ! In August 2017, I made two wonderful decisions; I signed up for Gousto – a food delivery company who send recipes and ingredients in the post – and I began a health & wellness program to transform my food habits, with Rachel of re:Wellbeing. In this blog post, and others like it, I share one of the wonderful recipe that I’m taking on, and an idea that I’m exploring as part of this fresh start.

If you would like to find out more about Gousto, please visit https://www.gousto.co.uk/

(I have a sneaky discount code! If you’re new to Gousto, then click HERE for 50% off your first 2 boxes and I’ll get a discount too for referring you… so errrrybody wins)

And, if you would like to learn more about re:Wellbeing, then visit https://www.rewellbeing.com/