Sorry I haven’t chatted to you all for a while.  I have had one of those weeks.  I have been phenomenally busy at work as I have had to submit a paper I have been working on for 2 months which is always a little stressful!  I worked from home for most of the week because I was too busy to manage to faff about on our (currently) unreliable trains for 3 – 4 hours a day.  The little fella has been on half term so I have seen more of him than usual which is a blessing.  But as I was so busy, he was out and about having little adventures of his own – thanks to Judy and Becky for taking him out for whole days so I could work.

So how is the fructose free life going?  Very well thank you.  This is a classic time for me to dive in to the chocolates and cakes but I have managed to have none.  Yup, absolutely none at all.  I have had more wine than usual ( I aint no Saint!) but other than that, have eaten really well.  I am very irritated the scales at the Leisure Centre are now broken for the second week so I can not see how I am doing.  I think quite well.

Here are some of my favourite meals from the past few days.

I was craving a smoothie on Wednesday morning.  I put 2 tbsp of hazlenuts, 1 tbsp of walnuts and 1 tbsp hemp seeds in to a cup. I covered the nuts and seeds in water and left them to soak for a couple of hours. I then blended them with some Greek style natural yogurt and raspberries, blueberries and pomegranate. Plus some treasures from my goodness bags. Yum! Tacos for tea.  The only ingredients in a Taco shell are corn, salt and sunflower oil!  I made up my own version of the filling.  I never use the meal kits as the Taco mix tends to contain garbage like MSG which we do not need!  My mince mix includes beef, onions, tomatoes and tomato puree. Served with lettuce, tomato, grated Cheddar and sour cream.  They were very moreish. For lunch on Thursday I wanted to make a more substantial salad dressing than a French Dressing. This one was a red pepper and Tahini blitzed in the Vita Mix with spring onion, lemon juice, garlic and spring onion.  It was tasty but a little thin so I am not ready to share the recipe yet.  I wanted something thick and creamy in consistency. I poured the red pepper Tahini dressing over a large salad which I served with a baked potato and Cheddar. Happy Halloween!  I thought of you in particular Kath, and missed you, as I always do on Halloween ( and other times). I began today with an omelette.  This is a 4 egg omelette which I made for Harvey and myself.  I cook the “filling” first.  Today I gently stir fried an onion, mushrooms, spinach and ham.  Then I place that in a bowl while I nearly cook the egg.  Place the filling back in the pan, fold over the egg when it is nearly cooked through but not quite and let cook gently for a couple more minutes. Serve and mangez. I was busy again today so made a quick and easy lunch of bacon and salad in wholemeal finger rolls. They were good. I shut my computer down shortly after 5pm tonight.  I was in the mood for cooking and turned to one of my favourites, Hugh F-W’s Veg Everyday!  This was a bit of a store cupboard supper as we are low on fresh food.  Amazing what you can find though when you look.

I made the Mexican Tomato and Bean Soup but used less stock so it was more of a casserole consistency.
Served over brown Basmati rice with sour cream and coriander.  Delicious.

Mexican Bean and Tomato Chilli

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 fresh green chilli (optional)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 400ml vegetable stock
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 3 large ripe tomatoes
• 400g tin black eyed peas
• 1 tsp oregano
• Salt and Pepper
• coriander, sour cream and Cholula to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan
2. Add the chopped onions and saute gently for about 5 minutes
3. Add the garlic, chilli and cumin and stir for a minute
4. Add the stock, tinned tomatoes, chopped fresh tomatoes, beans, oregano, salt and pepper
5. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 40 minutes
6. Turn off and let sit for 10 minutes so flavours meld
7. Serve over brown Basmati rice with sour cream, fresh coriander and Cholula

I am now on the red wine.  I have had a lovely sociable week which has included drinks in the local pub with my neighbours, chilling and listening to music in the Grey Lady with Mirella and more drinks in the local with Lucy.  It was all very lovely.  Tonight I am kicking off the weekend with a glass of red, an open fire and snuggling up with the little fella in front of the telly.

Cheers to you all.  Have a wonderful weekend.