The swimming continues.  Undeterred by the rain the intrepid swimmers set off again and were rewarded by the rain stopping as they reached the sea shore.The sea was much calmer today than yesterday which meant we were able to actually swim more, rather then just bobbing about and enjoying the huge waves.  The colours of the water and the clouds made for a very dramatic swim today.

The sun nearly shone but not quite.Our only company in the sea today was a fishing boat, surrounded by gulls hoping to get lucky with some fish.  As a vegan I obviously do not like fishing but if people are going to eat fish, I would rather they bought fish caught by the local fishing boats as their fishing methods are more sustainable than the huge ships used by the supermarkets.

These people are even more sustainable as they are trying to catch their own!

I ate well today.

Breakfast

Rice, 2 kiwi fruits and 250 g stewed apples (HE B) with a little cinnamon.

Lunch

Leftover swiss chard and red lentil dal mixed with baked beans and a huge pile of stir fried veggies, just flavoured with garlic, chilli and soy sauce (mushrooms, red onion, orange pepper and pak choy) , garnished with coriander.  All free and speed foods.

Dinner

I found these little pots in my spice cupboard and decided I fancied making a smoked paprika flavoured supper.One of the first vegan blogs I started reading was Oh She Glows written by a Canadian vegan called Angela Liddon .  I have her cookery book and flipping though it I found her recipe for a Tex Mex casserole.  I have made it before and know we both like it.

Oh She Glows’ Tex Mex Casserole

Ingredients (serves 4 – 6)

• TEX MEX SPICE BLEND:
  • 1 tbsp chilli powder ( I used a bit less to reduce the heat)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (I used the chipotle rub instead)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I left this out)
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt (I used my smokey salt)
• CASSEROLE
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons oil (I subbed with veg stock to reduce calories/syns)
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 orange and 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 jalapeno (if desired), seeded and diced
  • salt and pepper
  • 90 g fresh or frozen corn (I used 2 corn cobs)
  • 1 can of tomatoes
  • 250 ml tomato sauce (I used 200 ml tomato puree)
  • 120 – 200g chopped kale or spinach
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 500g cooked rice
  • 50 g vegan cheese, grated (I used 100g)
  • 1 – 2 handfuls corn tortilla chips

Method

1. Make the Tex Mex spice blend; combine all the spice ingredients in a small bowl and set aside
2. Preheat the oven to 190° C
3. In a large pan heat the oil (or veg stock) and add the onion, garlic, peppers and japaleno and fry gently for 7-8 minutes until softened.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Stir in the Tex Mex spice blend, corn, tinned tomatoes, tomato sauce/puree, kale/spinach, beans and rice and half the cheese.
5. Pour the mixture in to a casserole or serving dish, sprinkle with crushed tortilla chips (I did not do this, as I just served them separately so I didn’t eat any) and the remaining cheese.  Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 15 minutes.

You could serve this with a salad, salsa, guacamole or avocado.  I just had mine as it was and it was delicious.

This meal was all free foods and speed foods apart from the cheese.  I used 7 syns on 50 g of ‘Violife for pizza’ cheese as that has a reasonable melty quality and tastes ok too.

Earlier in the day I made a coffee with 100 g cashew milk which is 1.5 syns so the day’s total syn count is 8.5.

My HE A was 300 ml soya milk in tea (I had a lot less than that today)

So a good diet day and another swimming day.