ramtops

We’re going to be away for a couple of days, so I’m Using Stuff Up. Aldi had some smoked salmon at half price last week, so I bought a pack. About 2/3rds went into a pasta dish, and the rest was still in the fridge. As was about half a bag of baby spinach.

I won’t tell you how to make an omelette – you’ll all have your own way, and anyway, I’m not very good at them :) But I made a 4-egg omelette, scattered the salmon, spinach and about a quarter of an Aldi goat’s cheese over the mix, folded it, and we scoffed it. And it was dead good.

About 410 calories, as far as I can tell.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

About half a punnet of chestnut mushrooms and some spinach needed eating up, so I deliberately made last night’s cabbage dish with only half a mozzarella ball, and saved the rest for today’s lunch.

Finely chopped the mushrooms and set them to cook down slowly in some olive oil. Put the wraps on individual plates, and scattered some raw spinach leaves on them. Chopped the mozzarella quite small. When the mushrooms were done, added salt and black pepper and the rest of the spinach, and stirred till it wilted. Then added the mozzarella.

Bunged the resultant gloopy mess onto the wraps – as always I’d made to much, so some of it oozed out, but that didn’t affect the fab flavour one iota!

About 360 calories, I reckon.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

We’re having a bit of a funny day today, food wise. A friend asked if we could hold a birthday party here for him tonight, and said he would order takeaway pizza. *Takeaway pizza*. I ask you. So I said we’d cook, and indeed I have – a vat of Madhur Jaffrey’s lemony chicken with coriander has been constructed, and Pete will make a big dish of dhal, later. Also two cakes baked this morning.

But the party won’t be kicking off until about 9 p.m.for various reasons, and I really can’t wait until then to eat my Indian Feeeeast, so I thought I’d made something a bit more substantial that our usual lunch, and grab a mug of soup later to keep me going.

So … to serve two.

Removed the green end bits from two nice fat leeks, and sliced the rest into rings. Set them to sauté down in some olive oil and a knob of butter. Put water on to boil for 150g of penne pasta. Added a couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped, to the leeks. Ventured out in the snow for some thyme, chopped and added that. When the pasta was done, added it to the leek mix, and hurled in half a tub of low fat creme fraiche. Quick, easy, tasty. Just under 400 calories a serving. Win.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

There was a pack of lamb Kofta in the fridge, leftover from the festive season (we’ve pretty much worked through it all now, thankfully).

Today’s lunch is home made lentil/tomato/veg soup, and a wrap done thus:

Place raw spinach leaves on wrap
Add 4 pieces of cooked Kofta
Dollop with a spoonful of mayo
Fold and consume.

572 cals, which is a bit of a hit for lunch, but it uses up food that needs using, and I’m not throwing away full fat mayo! – it’ll be replaced with lighter stuff when it’sgone.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

broad beans, originally uploaded by ramtops.

I shelled these last night, because I knew I wanted to cook them for lunch – I have taken up Morris Dancing (yes, really!), and practice is on Tuesdays, so I prefer to have my main meal at lunchtiime then.

So: chopped an onion, and put it in some olive oil to fry down. Put some pasta on to cook, and then added the beans about 7 minutes before the end.

Diced half a block of feta cheese, and tore some fresh basil into pieces (we keep a pot of basil on the kitchen windowsill – it is just the most gorgeous herb).

When the pasta/veg was cooked, hurled it in the onion pan with the cheese and basil, and added a little lemon juice, and some black pepper. Stirred it all round, ate from bowls.

Lovely summer lunch.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

We usually have crackers or bread for lunch, with cheese/cold meat/whatever, with the addition of soup in the colder weather. But occasionally, it’s nice to have something different.

As I said, last night’s red cabbage turned out to be lentils when we got the lid off – why do gremlins get into my freezer and relabel things? So I rummaged about and found a tub of aubergine and potato curry.

We tend to freeze Indian style food in small boxes, so we can have two different dishes with a meal – it just works better – so there’s generally a few different things in the freezer, and the aubergine and potato was what came out first.

Zapped the two tubs in the microwave, toasted a couple of wholemeal pitta breads. Delicious, and now the house smells like a takeaway :) And I’m off to find a bit of fruit for pudding – apple or pear?

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

lunch, originally uploaded by ramtops.

I need to be doing this now, so I’m trying to eat less carbs and fats. Cut into small pieces: 1 wholewheat multigrain bagel with a little Phildelphia cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, 1 slice home baked gammon, 3 radishes, 2 gherkins.

I find if I cut things small, I eat them much more slowly, and I feel more satisfied. In the mug is some home made soup – vegetables, passata and lentils.