I didn’t sleep well last night and woke up feeling tired.  It was sunny so I took the dogs to Bulverhythe to see if a walk beside the sea would rejuvenate me.It did, as it always does, but I still felt a bit tired.I reviewed the weekend’s meals while I walked and they were not good enough; either in terms of being on the diet plan or being nutrient dense enough.  So I resolved to head home and have a large green smoothie.  Green vegetables are so nutritious and I have not eaten enough lately and an easy way to consume a lot of raw green leaves is in a smoothie or a salad.  So I had a smoothie for breakfast and a salad for lunch.

I added some seaweed which I dislike but if I let it soak for a while in whatever liquid I am using, it becomes soft and can be blitzed so small in my Vitamix (blender) that I don’t notice it.  I think this has zero syns.  Some seaweeds do but this is 100 % natural seaweed.I used 500 ml almond milk (half my HE A) and packed the blender with green vegetables:  cavolo nero, and, from the garden, Japanese spinach and mizuna. I feel better just looking at those green leaves.Plus a scoop each from the 2 green powders I regularly add to my food.  I usually only add one at a time but today I had both.  I also added 2 bananas.  You are meant to add syn values when you blend them, even though bananas are free usually.  This is because you would eat more in a smoothie than as a whole fruit.  However, I would eat 2 bananas if that was all I was eating so I did not add any syns for this glass of greenness.

It was certainly green and tasted very virtuous! It’s not for the faint hearted but tastes ok and I was glad of the nutrients.The veggie patch is doing well.  These are the Japanese spinach plants.This is the mizuna, which I usually add to salad but it was fine in a smoothie too.  It’s a bit peppery, similar to rocket.I am thrilled with how quickly it has grown as I only planted the seeds, directly outside on the 26th August – less than a month and they are ready to eat.I planted radish (and lettuce and borage) on the same day and they radishes are now growing well too.  The lettuce and borage are progressing but far more slowly.For lunch I was aiming for a large green salad and topped it with a carrot and corn salad which I have not made before.  This recipe comes from one of my favourite cook books – ‘My New Roots’.It was really easy and tasted lovely.  Although I must say I don’t like carrots cut in to rounds.  Is that weird?  The recipe said to cut in to rounds but I much prefer sticks and I cut both ways to check.  Yup, sticks beat rounds hands down.

My New Roots’ Sundown Carrot and Grilled Corn Salad

Ingredients

• 2 large corn cobs
• knob of coconut oil (I didn’t use any oil when cooking the corn)
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 a fresh chilli, chopped in to tiny pieces
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp cold pressed olive oil
• 3 medium carrots (recipe says purple but I used orange), sliced thinly
• 4 spring onions, sliced in to thin rounds
• 1 small bunch coriander, chopped
• smoked sea salt

Method

1. Brush the corn with oil (optional) and grill for 10-15 minutes until the corn is tender.  Set aside to cool, then scrape the kernels in to a large bowl.
2. In a small bowl which together the lime zest and juice, chilli, maple syrup, sea salt, cumin and olive oil
3. Add the carrots, spring onion and coriander to the large bowl containing the corn.  Pour the dressing over, toss to combine and set aside for at least 10 minutes to let the flavours soak in.
4. Season with smoked sea salt and enjoy.

This was a simple lunch and very tasty.  I ate the carrot and corn salad on a bed of round lettuce and mizuna.

I calculated the salad had 6.5 syns in total.  I ate half for lunch and a quarter for supper.

For supper I made pasta in a cavolo nero and garlic sauce.  I based it on a Jamie Oliver recipe you can find here .  I used 2 tbsp oil (instead of 100g Jamie uses !!!!) and made the sauce blend smoothly by adding some of the cooking water.  I didn’t have a leek so my green sauce was made with cavolo nero and garlic plus some fresh basil and also 1 tbsp sesame seeds and 1 tbsp linseeds (HE B).I blitzed the cooked garlic and cavolo nero with fresh basil and the seeds.Then stirred that in to the cooked pasta.

I also roasted some cherry tomatoes (from the garden) and 2 standard sized tomatoes.  I didn’t add any oil, just a little salt and pepper.Harvey and I both had the same supper and both declared it perfectly pleasant and very adequate.I liked the combination of colours, flavours and textures.So my day’s eating was very nutritious and I feel much better.  I end the day on 12.5 syns and having walked 9,000 steps.  I will try to get that up to 10,000 before bed tonight.