Thai Green Cauliflower Soup

A pile of filled tupperware makes me happy.

"The diet starts Monday.."

But the meal prep begins Sunday night!

So, we all know of my vegetable woes.  I don't like them, as a group. I particularly hate cauliflower. It's a terrible substitute for rice and for mashed potatoes. It's just not starchy carby delicious and that's ok. It is its own thing.

Cauliflower can shine on its own without being something else. My boyfriend and I were on holiday in Croatia last year and found a little place with the most delicious food. Their fish was a revelation, but in particular the soup was the best soup I've ever had. It was like a veggie Thai green curry, and the thing that surprised me the most was that it had cauliflower in it. Delicious, healthy and silky-smooth with lovely background spice. 

Blending that veg up in a soup transforms it and it becomes magic.

Gold star for cauliflower.

Green Soup

Healthy eating is really hard and I totally fell off the wagon big style. Like, from Christmas. It’s now summer. That’s not good. So this seems as good a time as any to try to get back on it while getting the blog back up to regular updates!

I have been trying to think of ways to get more vegetables into my diet because I am quite immature in my vegetable tastes. I will happily eat sweetcorn and peas and carrots, but I really struggle with things like aubergine and spinach and cucumber. And I just point blank refuse to eat a green shake.

But I have an ace up my sleeve. Soup! I really like soup. It’s quick to make, you can throw a whole host of veggies in it and the best part is you can hide the veggies by blitzing the whole thing up to make a smooth and creamy lunch.

I find it easiest to make changes for my lunches. Gone are the sandwiches and crackers, behold the era of soup! For this soup, I knew I wanted to have the main part be broccoli, and the rest I just kind of threw in based on what I like and what was in the cupboard.

Leek, Chorizo and Sweetcorn Frittata

I don’t mean to brag, but I sometimes go to the gym. And my sessions are late in the evening, so it can be around 8pm before I’m getting home. And by that stage I’m utterly  STARVING. So I need something quick and filling. I’m often looking out for recipes that take no time to prepare from scratch, because I’m not a fan of ready meals and I don’t really like reheating leftovers.

Enter the frittata. I have so far avoided them because I really hate omelettes and for some reason I assumed that frittatas were the same. But I was wrong – they’re so much better!

Imagine an eggy, cheesy, golden and crispy dinner, filled with your favourite meat and veggies, that’s ready in less than 20 minutes? Imagine no more! Here it is! I had mine with a slice of buttered sourdough, but it would also be good with some wheaten bread, or a crisp salad. It's also crazy versatile, next time I might add in a little tuna with the sweetcorn and some red onion, and I think ham, broccoli and peas could also be a total winner. Hello winter warmer!

Butterbean, Pasta and Pesto Salad

What are Mondays for, if not starting off with good intentions?

I’m not a big salad fan, but I do like butterbeans, pesto and pasta a great deal. So I decided to whip something up that would be a bit more interesting (and better for me) than a ham sandwich lunch.

This is really simple to make, and can easily be made out of leftover pasta if you happen to have made too much (which always, constantly happens to me). I am using my homemade pesto, but feel free to use any that you like. It takes 2 seconds to whip up, makes about 4 portions, and makes meal prep reeeeeally easy.

Feel free to play around with the flavours, or leave out the pepperoni to keep veggie. Speaking of veggies, I have a fairly limited repertoire of ones I actually like, so I’m happy with what I’ve put in, but feel free to go wild and add tomatoes or carrots or whatever you crazy salad-lovers fancy.

Tomato Soup

So, for a brief and annoying time, I was sans camera. Therefore, the next few posts will be illustrated courtesy of my trusty phone. Which isn’t quite as fabulous as my NEW RED DSLR but did the job in the few weeks I had to go without.

Aaaaanyway. I was on my hols recently (when am I not?!) and in one brunch place they kind of just forced tomato soup on us. Now, I’m not a tomato fan normally. I can tolerate them sieved, or on a pizza, but that’s about it. I have some strange and specific food hang ups. You will for instance never see  mushrooms on this blog. I’ve *never* cooked with them, those slimy little gits. Ditto olives. Ditto raisins.

So, it was to my utter shock and bewilderment that this tomato soup which was foisted upon me was tasty.. Nay, delicious!

Of course, I immediately had to try to make my own as soon as I got home. As with most of my experiments, this is a first go. It is pretty damn delicious for a first go, sweet and tart and herby and delicious. Also, it allowed me to exclaim one of my favourite Friends quotes over and over while cooking: "You're burning your tomatoes." "You're one to talk."

I think next time I might play around with ingredients and make it slightly more creamy. But that will be another day! For now, tomato soup, I approve.

Salami Croque Monsieur

I love France. I love the weather, the fashion, the people , and most importantly the food. French people get food. They make flavourful food, and spent the time enjoying it. I may have caused a few French strokes with my bastardised version of their classic ham and grilled cheese sandwich.

I love a traditional croque monsieur, with ham and whacking slices of freshly made bread. But, needs must, and sometimes you want an indulgent sandwich with just the ingredients in the cupboard and fridge. 

Truth be told, I was pretty keen to make my own bread, but I didn’t have time. So I substituted in the thick granary bread, and decided to spice things up Italy style, with some strongly spiced sliced meats instead of the ham. You would be perfectly welcome to slice up some sourdough and use ham instead of pepperoni/salami.

I had mine with soup. And I was so happy.