This morning, I was thinking about what I fancied for breakfast and I kept thinking about nuts and yogurt.  Apparently the word ‘Muesli’ comes from ‘Mus’ which is Swiss German for ‘mixture’.  Some definitions refer to it meaning ‘mushy’ or ‘pottage’.  I concocted a delicious breakfast today which I am looking forward to having again as it was delicious and substantial enough to keep me full for hours, even though the portion size looked tiny.

Nut-Mus

Ingredients (serves 1)

100 g Natural Yogurt.  I used Yeo Valley Organic Natural yogurt with probiotics (2 WW points)
1 or 2 Medjool dates  (3 WW points for both)
2 Brazil nuts (1 WW point)
5 Macadamias (2 WW points)
10 g Pistachios (2 WW points)
6 almonds (2 WW points)
1 tbsp Buckwheat sprouts (1 WW point)
1 pear

Method

In a small blender, blitz yogurt with dates until smooth.
Chop nuts so they are as coarse or fine as you like them.

Place nuts in bowl and pour over the yogurt and date mix.
Top with 1 tbsp of buckwheat sprouts and a grated pear.

Next time I would probably use 1 date as I found it quite sweet.  The pear was very sweet too so perhaps if I had a less sweet piece of fruit I may need 2 dates.

This was delicious and very moreish.  It is high in points/calories but packed full of nutrients and it kept me full for about 5 hours.

I did have lots of chores to do today but it was too cold to venture outside but so sunny and warm (thanks to putting the heating on!) inside,  soI decided to cook instead.

For lunch I returned to Hugh’s Veg Everyday!.  I had some Turkish aubergines to use up.  They have been growing on my kitchen windowsill for months.  Well, actually they have sat there for months, producing tiny flies but not actually getting any bigger for ages.  According to the seed packet they should grow to 5 cm long but these were not even 2 cm.  They look so pretty I was reluctant to pick them but the flies had to go!

Inside they are more yellow than the purple ones.

So I picked them and cooked them along with a conventional purple aubergine and made a truly spectacular curry.  I strongly recommend you make this curry.  My faith in Hugh has been restored and I could eat this curry over and over again.

Aubergine and Green Bean Curry

Ingredients (curry serves 1 but sauce serves 4)

1 medium sized aubergine (or use one large if no Turkish are available)
6 Turkish aubergines (optional)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 can of cherry tomatoes (or use 300 ml passata)
200 ml coconut milk
Handful of green beans
Salt and pepper

For the curry paste

• 5 shallots, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 inch chunk of ginger, peeled and chopped
• 2 lemongrass stalks, tough outer layer removed and finely sliced
• 2 red chillies, deseeded and chopped
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric

Method

1. Put all the curry paste ingredients in the blender with 2 – 3 tbsp water and blend until you get a coarse paste.  I had to turn the blender off and scrape down a couple of times.
2. Halve the aubergine lengthways, cut each length in to 3 and then each long strip in to 3 (you will have 12 wedges of aubergine).
3. I did not precook the little Turkish aubergines.
4. Heat the coconut oil in a deep pan and brown the aubergines.  Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Add 1 more tbsp coconut oil and add half the curry paste ( I froze the other half for another time).
6. Heat for about a minute and then add the aubergines and stir so they are covered in the sauce.
7. Add the tomatoes and coconut milk and simmer for about 5 minutes.
8. Add the green beans and simmer covered, for about 10 minutes, until the beans are cooked.
9. Season with salt and pepper.

This curry is exceptionally good.  I like quite a lot of sauce so I used half the sauce recipe and half the curry ingredients but only 1 aubergine, whereas Hugh uses 5.  So basically, my version has a lot more sauce.

My chillies were rather hotter than I expected so I added some soured cream which was perfect with the curry.  This lunch was AWESOME 🙂

I estimate my points for this delicious curry were 14, which come from the oil and soured cream.

I mentioned a few days ago that I was going to do a detox.  Well, my detox kit arrived today so I am starting tomorrow.  The first 3 days are essentially a fast so I decided to leave the pickled herring, dill and quinoa salad I was planning for supper and tuck in to  the menfolk’s spinach trottole pasta with Seeds of Change mediterranean vegetable sauce and a pork sausage which came in at a whopping 21 points.  That has wiped out all my weekly extra points but I suspect I will not be needing those on the detox!.

Daily WW Points Totals

Breakfast = 13
Lunch = 14
Dinner = 21
Extras (milk in tea) = 2

Daily total = 48 *

* I am about to go to Rebecca’s for some red wine so it will go up a bit.