Autumn Series - Post #4 - Mexican before it's Monday

Recipe of the week...
... Feta & Sweet Potato Taquitos

Ingredients: 1 tablespoon smoky chipotle paste, 1 little gem lettuce, 1 spring onion, 6 white tortilla wraps, 400g sweet potatoes, 100g feta cheese, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 2 tomatoes, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 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,

How are we all today? As I write, it’s late afternoon in Autumn. A sunny September day – a Sunday, no less – and all is well with me. I’ve had a wonderful weekend spent reading a good book (Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land), drinking cocktails and dancing with the girls. I’ve been on a walk in the country, watched When Harry Met Sally (for the first time – and I liked it) and I’ve baked buns to take into work with me tomorrow.

Pretty good weekend, I think? How about yours, readers, what wonderful times have you been having? Have you stretched your legs and cleared your head and danced around the room? I hope you have, readers. And if you haven’t yet – there’s still time! We have hours of the weekend left still – make the most and go crazy, Sunday evening style (ie. in PJs and slippers). Do it!

On the foody side of life, readers, I’ve been thinking these past few days about habits. I was talking with my Father Bear about this earlier on our country walk, about being stuck in a rut with food. But how is it that we get into the habit of eating habitually? A tongue twister, I know! But a curious question. As anyone that took psychology at school (hands in the air!) will know... habits develop when you repeat a behaviour in the same situation, and get a reward each time.

Then, over time, this continues and the behaviour gets to be more automatic and a habit forms. Like – without fail, I buy Belvita every time I see them on offer in a shop. This means I always will have plenty of breakfast biscuits in my drawer at work, I’m rewarded with breakfast on weekdays, and I never have to think about keeping this drawer stocked. Ta-da!

In some instances of habitual behaviour, it can be the case instead that the ‘reward’ = you stopping something bad from happening. Like – when we have leftover water in the jugs at work, which we didn’t drink the day before, I water the plants in the office with it. And then the plants (mostly) live. Like magic! I stop them (some of them, anyway) from dying. 

Can you think of examples of your own, readers? Instances where you perform a habitual behaviour effortlessly – it needs little / no conscious awareness on your part to make it happen – when you encounter a specific situation or a cue to trigger the behaviour in you.

According to the re:wellbeing program I’ve been working through, food habits can develop in childhood. “As a baby, you were given a bottle to comfort you. As a child you were likely given food as a reward for doing well, being good, or to console you when you were upset or something went wrong – do you remember a being allowed to buy sweets after a trip to the doctor’s office or a good exam result? We also learn to associate certain foods with special events and feelings, for example cakes are associated with celebrating a birthday and feeling a sense of fun and enjoyment.”

Then, it’s often quite simple to see how these associations can live on into adulthood. Research has shown that we might crave creamy foods when we’re in need of comfort – it’s mad to think, but the logic is that the creamy food’s simulating the milk we were given as children. Crazy, right? But, a real thing!

And a habit doesn’t have to just be an action, like buying Belvita or watering the plants, you can also develop habitual patterns of thinking. Say you treat yourself to dessert even though you hadn’t planned to – it tastes great but straight away you think to yourself ‘my diet is ruined’. And, then, it’s thoughts like these which can trigger habitual actions – like opening a tub of Ben & Jerrys! Why not – your diet’s ruined, right??

What a fucking nightmare. And, often, emotional eating (go see my last blog post) can be thought of as a habit because the eating is triggered by a cue – a situation or thought that evokes an emotion – which then causes you to eat food in order to deal. You see, readers?

Eating becomes automatic – often you’re done before you engage with what’s happening – and it can feel like you’re running on auto-pilot as you eat. In such times, eating is a direct response to an emotion that’s been thrown up by a specific situation or thought, and it leads to a reward, like a sugar rush or feeling like you’ve dealt with the emotion.

So, the habit goes on. This idea of emotional eating as habitual can explain why people continue to eat even if they feel bad about it… the eating is a habit triggered by a cue. Simple as that. Understandable and – in my mind – something to be overcome. You’re an adult now and habits can be broken, you can make up a new response to a cue.

Say you’re in a situation where you’ve eaten an unplanned dessert – think how lucky you are to be able to afford to eat dessert. To have been born in an area of the world where anyone can eat desserts. To be able to enjoy dessert at the end of the day, as a reward for everything you’ve accomplished today. Think how many desserts the Queen must have eaten by now – and she’s in champion health. Aren’t desserts wonderful.

Say you’re hit by the thought ‘my diet is ruined’. Is it? Are you giving up on it right now? Are you about to throw it out the window? Really – after you’ve tried so hard? But, you’ve been enjoying it loads and feeling really good about yourself for eating well! You’re inspiring folk with tales of how well it’s working. A dessert won’t break a diet – you will, if you choose to.

Can you think of examples of your own, readers? If you keep enforcing a powerful response, one that you choose, and you’re of sound mind that this is the better response, then it could go on to become a habit of its own over time. Stick at it and you could soon have formed a new habit, one triggered by the same cue that you were responding to differently before.

ANYWAYS. I will leave it there with my food habit-related pondering, readers. I know it’s late on a Sunday and about time for brains to be turned off. But, interesting! I think so anyway. And now I have for you… a recipe! Hurray! Here’s a recipe I’d like to share with you to end this week on a foody high, readers, a Gousto recipe for Feta & Sweet Potato Taquitos, which you can rustle up in just 10 simple steps…

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Recipe: Feta & Sweet Potato Taquitos

1.     Set aside all your cares and concerns… now is the time for Mexican food. First, get your ingredients out on the counter, pour yourself a drink – you’ve earned one – and heat the oven to 220C.

2.     Begin by chopping the sweet potatoes (skins on) into small, bite-sized pieces. Then place the sweet potato on a baking try, drizzle with cooking oil, and sprinkle with ground coriander.

3.     Season your sweet potato generously with salt and pepper, give your potato chunks a good mix up until they’re well covered, then carefully transport into the oven to roast for 15 minutes.

4.     Meanwhile, as your sweet potato sizzles, prepare your salad ingredients. Cut the little gem lettuce in half lengthways, and finely slice. Chop the tomatoes into tiny, baby bite-sized pieces. Trim the spring onion and slice finely.

5.     Crumble the feta into small bite-sized bits and set a little aside for serving up. Once your sweet potato chunks are tender, remove them from the oven. Leave the oven turned on for now.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: If – like me – you’re not a fan of greasy foods, take a moment now to tip your sweet potato out on some kitchen roll and pat dry to remove any excess oil.

6.     Divide the sweet potatoes evenly between the tortillas, placing them on one side of the tortilla and leaving the other side empty for now. Crush the potato down gently with the back of a spoon, to help the contents of your taquito to stay together, and then crumble feta over the top.

7.     Roll each taquito tightly to form a cigar shape and place them snugly side by side on a baking try, with the seam face down. Pop in the oven to bake for ten minutes.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: When rolling wraps, I try to fold over the top and bottom of the tortilla first and then roll, so there are no escape routes for the contents of the taquito. But everyone has their own method – good luck however you roll!

8.     Meanwhile, mix the mayonnaise and chipotle paste with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the chopped tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and mix together – this is your spicy tomato sauce.

9.     Once your taquitos are starting to brown around the edges, safely take out of the oven and turn this off. Serve between two dinner plates and top your taquitos with spicy tomato sauce.

10.  Add some lettuce and spring onion salad, and crumble the remaining feta over the top – now get stuck in and enjoy your Mexican feast!

Ta-da! What a cracking plateful of food!

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In the words of Gousto…

“Taquitos are Mexican rolled tacos, filled with a plethora of delicious meats, cheeses and vegetables. They are usually deep-fried, but without Gousto makeover we have made these incredibly easy to cook, at a fraction of the calories. Ours are filled with sweet potato and feta, creating the perfect balance between salt, tang and sweetness.”

What do you think, readers? Are you tempted by these taquitos?? Might you get the ingredients in and give these a go sometime this week? I recommend you do! These taquitos are – obviously – super tasty to eat, readers. Also, easy to cook – it’s a really straightforward recipe – and you use your hands so it’s a fun one to take on.

I say go go go taquito! Please let me know, readers, if you give this recipe a try – wat do you think of taquitos? Do you like? Did it go well? Did you have fun in the kitchen? Fill me in, readers? I’m wishing you every success in the kitchen – I’m sure you’ll be fine – and I’m wishing you a week filled with fabulous foods, readers. Eat only the best! Have a wonderful week.

Feast safely,

Hayley

Couscous and contemplation

Recipe of the week...
... Roasted tomato and
giant couscous Greek salad

Ingredients: Cooking oil, 300g (or more, if you like) cherry / vine ripened tomatoes, 200g giant couscous, 1 lemon, 150g feta cheese, salt and pepper, and a large handful of fresh basil.

Time taken: Just over an hour, start to finish, but not a lot of your time really. Kind of: five minutes and then a break. Then, ten minutes and then a break. Then, five more minutes. And that’s all.

Serves: Either x2 lunchtime portions or x4 accompaniments to whatever you’re having for tea (maybe this would go well with a quiche? Or with veggie burgers?)

Goood afternoon readers,

How are you all today, lovely people? Are you well? I hope you’re feeling good and patting yourself on the back after a full week at work. It’s becoming unusual, of late, to spend a full five days in the office. So well done for powering through the week! Are you off to a good start now with your long weekend?

That’s right, readers, everyone living in the UK is – once again – enjoying three-day Bank Holiday weekend. We’re spoiled with them, at the moment. Everyone gets Monday off work and we only have to manage four days in the office next week. Hurrayyy! This bank holiday is to celebrate May Day… which does not involve a sinking ship, and it doesn’t involve anyone dancing around a May pole anymore, as it did in the past.

We just spend three days setting up our gardens and caravan pitches, getting them ready for summer. And exiling our winter clothes to the loft or the top of the wardrobe. All the things we thought we were going to do with our Easter bank holiday, a week or two ago, but FAILED AT because we ate too much chocolate and just couldn’t move. The usual story.

To anyone in the UK, I wish you a wonderful long weekend! Hope you use this time wisely to see friends and family, and spend quality time with your loves ones. Generally – eat, drink and be merry, readers, in the best company you can find. To anyone not in the UK, sorry that I’m boasting again about all our time off work! I’m sure you’ll be having a fab weekend, too, and you’ll laugh another time when the tables turn and we’re working on your holiday.

For my weekend ahead, readers, I’ve made minimal plans. It’s been an eventful week for me with dental drama, and then nose drama, then the trains striking (mhmm – again), and with realisations from friends, plus I learned to parallel park a car.. all together it’s been a lot to handle. There’s been plenty going on with me this week, readers. Which is good!

It’s good. But it has also left me feeling a little worn out.. and contemplative. Like I can really relate with the end tooth on my lower right jaw, which I suppose – following the dental events of this week – must now find itself someplace it hadn’t expected to be. It hasn’t changed. No, the tooth’s stayed the same. But things have changed around it. And now, going forwards, it finds itself in a position where it’s the end tooth. And everything looks different for before, when faced with emptiness besides. Just staring down a black hole where you can’t see the bottom. Right at the edge.. looking down into darkness.

It’s possible – probable – that this is more how I feel, readers, than how my tooth feels (can teeth feel?). And this week I had a dream I sometimes dream where I’m pushing through the crowd at a house party looking for someone, but I can’t find them. Which makes me wonder what I’m looking for when I’m awake. But, my colleagues tell me this is just the feeling of being in your 20s, and nothing more.

I have one colleague who’s getting married today. She will be betrothed, voluntarily and maybe even permanently, to someone else today. That is really actually happening, possibly right now. And another colleague of mine turns 44 tomorrow, so he’ll become exactly double my age. But but but. My colleagues tell me that they remember, in their 20s, being unsure about whether it would all work out. Or how it ever could work out. And yet it did, it has, in the end.

With that in mind, I’m not too troubled by the road ahead. I’ll crawl or walk or run it, together with lots of friends and family, and the odds are in favour of things working out in the end. Plus, there’s bound to be decent food and good songs along the way. This last week, I’ve been scouting around for new music and I’ve been listening to the Hungry Yogis’ April playlist (which you can find here). I’m really enjoying, and very much recommend, the following five tracks…

1.     Gorillaz – The Apprentice 
A song to walk to. Strut along the pavement feeling ever so slightly badass. Likely, you’re listening to a cooler track than those other pedestrians are.

2.     Phantoms – Just A Feeling ft. VERITE 
A song to run to. A steady beat and kind of sexy. As YOUR body will be, by the end of the run, once you pound it into shape.

3.     Khaled – Keep Me 
A song to shower to. Not too many words for the water to drown out, and a mellow groove for you to shampoo in time with, as you sing along.

4.     Trevor Hall – Indigo 
A song to cook to. Swaying as you stir and humming along with the tune. Dance around your kitchen and enjoy yourself, even if folk are watching.

5.     John Mayer – Love on the Weekend 
A song to soundtrack your long weekend. This John Mayer track is what the long weekend sounds like to me. Pretty chilled out.

Definitely give these songs a listen, readers. Plus, in the spirit of decent food, I’ve been dabbling with a new recipe today, which I highly advise you try. This recipe came about following a family meal out to a snazzy restaurant, over Easter weekend, where I ordered a roasted butternut squash which came topped with giant couscous… giant couscous! Totally new to me, I had never ever heard of this before being a thing.

Was spreading word of the revelatory giant couscous, while down south last weekend, and my bestie Floss was all like… this has so been a thing forrrever, Hayley. Even my mum uses it. So, apparently, in London they’ve known for ages. They’ve had it all along, but have they told anyone up north? What do we think, is this a thing up north, readers?? Giant couscous?

Did anyone else up here know? Up in this place where the people relish relish and speak more in sounds than words, where grey skies loom and passion for the game outweighs skill on the pitch, with hills taller than its buildings and with plenty of grit, just never in icy road conditions… I’ll stop!! But were we told?

Who knows. But Google’s in on the game. I had a quick search and found a simple recipe online for a roasted tomato and giant couscous Greek salad (you can read the original here). I threw this together today, for a healthy Saturday lunch to enjoy after a late morning run, and it tastes really good. Here’s the recipe in just 10 simple steps…

1.     Heat the oven to 180C, open a window and pour yourself a refreshing drink.

2.     Halve your tomatoes and spread these about on a baking tray. Drizzle with cooking oil, and season with salt and pepper.

3.     Carefully transport your tomatoes into the oven, to roast for the next 25 minutes.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: While they do, you can take a break for about a quarter of an hour. I used this time to arrange some fresh flowers, a bunch of yellow spray carnations, into assorted little make-do vases to sit around the house and brighten the place up.

4.     Then, when your tomatoes have ten minutes to go, set the kettle boiling and measure 200g couscous into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt.

5.     Fill the bowl to the brim with boiling water, then cover with a plate and leave the couscous for 5 minutes to cook.

6.     Once your couscous is cooked, drain, tip it into a large mixing bowl and mix with the juice of your lemon and a glug of cooking oil.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Giant couscous is cooked when each grain has grown to about the size of a bb pellet or a Solero shot (remember those!).

7.     Then, safely take your tomatoes out of the oven and turn this off. Tip them out into a bowl or onto a plate, so they can cool away from the hot baking tray.

8.     Leave both your bowl of tomatoes and your big bowl of couscous to cool to room temperature. This might take half an hour or so – plenty of time to tackle some chores, or roll out your yoga mat.

9.     Once everything has cooled, tip your tomatoes into the bowl of couscous along with a large handful of basil leaves – which you can use your hands to tear up as you add to the bowl – and the feta cheese – crumble this into the bowl with your fingertips.

10.  Finally, give everything a good stir together and you’re ready to go! Serve up, tuck in or Tupperware for another day.

Food and flowers 😊

What do you think, readers? Does this sound do-able? You might struggle to locate giant couscous in a small shop (I got mine via an online food order from a large supermarket), but once you manage to find some then all the other ingredients are straightforward to source, and the steps of the recipe are easy to follow.

And, to me, this food tastes great! It looks good on the plate, with different colours mixing together, like something you might order in a restaurant. And its strong taste packs a punch with fresh cheese and tomato flavours… this dish makes for a cracking lunch to visualise while you’re out pounding the pavement on a run! The textures are all quite soft (which is perfect for me after dental drama this week), but if you wanted more to chew on then you could throw in some nuts or seeds, perhaps, for added crunch?

Readers, I hope you give this recipe a go. I do. As the food is a treat to eat! And, if you have a try, please let me know how you get on in the kitchen. Did you follow the steps okay? Did it turn out well? What did you think of the taste?? Or, if you’re looking at this recipe, readers, thinking not in a million years… then shout out – what is it that puts you off? Not sold on the concept of giant couscous? Or does this just not look like something you’d eat?

Let rip with your thoughts on the recipe, readers, and perhaps you can suggest more giant couscous recipes for me to try? I’m well stocked and looking to experiment with this grain, so please do share if you have a favourite recipe you can recommend! I hope to hear from you soon, readers, and hope you have a truly wonderful time this weekend.

Chef safely,

Hayley

 

... and some wonderful food!