My first attempt at pasta!

I don't know if anyone else has ever had a go at homemade pasta, but I watch it on TV all the time and it looks so easy I just thought... I may as well give it a go! And I guess it is pretty easy... but only when you know what you're doing! So this is a little bit about my first attempt at pasta - I wouldn't call it a total failure but neither would I call it a success - but practice makes perfect, right?



I was following this recipe (as accurately as I could!) for Spinach and Ricotta Tortellini, which I made in advance and froze for a couple of weeks. Then I roughly followed the recipe for for a Butter, Sage and Pine Nut Sauce, and cooked some of the pasta up tonight for tea!


When making the pasta, I got in a bit of a mess - I always get in a mess when there's flour involved - but I was fairly pleased with the ball of stuff I had that sort of resembled the pasta dough I was aiming for. It was at this point that I realised I didn't have a rolling pin (I now do, as well as a pasta maker, after telling this story to my mum and boyfriend just before Christmas!)

As I was making these around the gift giving period, I improvised with the closest thing I could find to a rolling pin - the cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper! Needless to say, the rolling of the pasta was not as smooth or as thin as it should have been and the tortellini was probably ruined from here on... but I'm not a quitter!





The spinach and ricotta filling was fine to make, but spooning it into my little slabs of pasta and trying to not get in even more of a mess was a little trickier! Anyhoo, I managed to make them and then wrapped them individually in cling film to freeze so as not to stick the tortellini together.

 

Tonight I boiled my little funny-shaped attempts at tortellini and cooked the pine nut, sage and butter sauce and dished it up... and I was pleasantly surprised! For something that could have been a total disaster, it definitely tasted like pasta and the thinner areas around the filling were pretty good! Some of it, admittedly, was too thick and a bit chewy and they were all shapes and sizes... but not bad for a first attempt!



I'll definitely be giving it another go sometime soon, but I will not use a tube of wrapping paper and I will try to have a finished dish that looks little more like tortellini!

My best ever Fried Rice Recipe

The other night I made the best fried rice ever... it was tasty, healthy, cheap, easy and lasted me a dinner and two lunches! With just a few bits of veg I had left over in my fridge and a selection of Thai flavours I concocted this yummy dish, and I really didn't expect it to go quite this well... It was that good I probably won't be able to recreate it, but I've done my best to write a bit of a recipe for it here so that you can have a go and so I can try and remember how I did it!! Apologies for the big headedness - you will just have trust me that this was just THAT good!

Ingredients (don't trust these completely, alter as you wish, and feel free to add whatever veg you like!)

Serves 2-3
two white fish fillets (I actually just used cheapo frozen white fish!)
1 portion of rice (about 1/3 cup)
1 large carrot, grated
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
2 eggs
olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
about half a broccoli (cut the florets into small pieces)
2 lemon grass stalks, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1 chilli, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3spring onions, chopped
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of Thai sweet chilli sauce
salt and pepper
a large handful of fresh coriander, chopped roughly

Recipe (or something similar!)

Bake the fish in the oven for 15-20mins depending on the size of the fillets. Boil a pan of water and add your rice. Cook until it is soft and then drain. Mix the grated carrot with the sugar and white wine vinegar. Crack the eggs into a jug and whisk with a fork. Leave all these to the side for later.

Put a dash of oil in your wok over a medium-high heat, then add the onion and broccoli and fry until the onion starts to soften a little.

Then add lemon grass, garlic, chilli and red pepper and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the carrot mixture and spring onions and fry for a further minute before tipping the veg into a bowl, leaving the wok empty.


Put another dash of olive oil into the wok and add your whisked eggs. Keep moving it around with a wooden spoon until the eggs begin to cook, making sure that none of it sticks to the pan.

Add the ready cooked rice and mix in. Make sure all of the egg is cooked, then add your veg mixture.

Mix in your soy and sweet chilli sauces and season with salt and pepper.

Finally, throw in as much coriander as you like (it's my favourite herb and an essential flavour to this dish!), mix altogether and serve.

YUM!!!!!

Why I can't diet and the book that made me try

James Duigan Clean & Lean Flat Tummy Fast

The Book 

 

I recently bought this book because I'd heard about it at work - James Duigan has been Elle Marpherson's personal trainer and I definitely wouldn't mind looking like her! Published by Kyle Books and priced at only £12.99, this book is all about eating right and exercising right for a flat tummy. There are some healthy everyday recipes that I plan to try soon, and lots of fitness plans. He talks a lot about which foods to eat a lot of, and which ones to try and avoid, and this general health information is why I wanted it. Interestingly, stress, caffeine and spicy food can all be a cause of tummy bloating... maybe I should just cut down on those three things!!

Turkey and Cucumber Snack

In the book there is a 14day diet that looks quite manageable - low carbs but a range of different meats, fish and veg. There is also a 6day diet, which I have attempted this week, consisting mostly of lean white meat, white fish, and a (small) variety of green veg. It also suggests you take fibre, multivitamin and fish oil supplements each day, as your body isn't getting quite everything it needs. Only drinking water, and apart from the occasional squeeze of fresh lemon or lime, no added flavours, sauces, dressings or any sort of cooking oil.

Why would I want to?

 

Next week I am going interrailing around Eastern Europe, visiting a load of different cities and interesting places I've never been before... for a month!!! I'm so excited and will hopefully be able to share a load of the different food I have on here, so keep reading!

So the reason I wanted to do a 6day diet was to shed some of the Christmas weight that I've still not got round to shedding (yes, I know we're in June!) and tone up a bit for short shorts and bikini wearing on the Croatian beach!! I thought... 6days of boring food, how tough can it be?

 

 

Tough

Egg White Omelette with Spinach

Tough motivating with nothing flavoured food, tough trying to do more exercise than I've done for a while with a much lower calorie intake, tough turkey that I left in the oven because I wasn't interested in cooking it, tough to refrain from temptation when your sister decides to bake for the first time in years, just tough full stop.

Cobbler and Purple Sprouting Brocoli

Now that's not to say that James Duigan doesn't know what he's talking about. The lean white meat or fish with green veg that he recommends has definitely made me feel less bloated and I feel like I've lost a bit of the chubs around my belly. I do think it is a good meal plan and exercise regime, and probably one of the most healthy and nutritous 6day diets I've seen.

But it's so boring!!! I found that I wasn't craving chocolate or a pizza, instead just desperately craving some flavour!

Baked Chicken and Asparagus

I stuck to it properly for the first two days, then the third day I ate the right food but added a little black pepper and/or lemon to some of the fish and chicken. Then today (day 5) I've decided I'm going to cook dinner. Nothing particularly bad for me, or with too many carbs, but just something to get my mouth tingling!

Haddock with lime and ginger

So yes, I've failed the diet. But I figured if I just eat healthy between now and going on Wed then I won't put anything back on and it won't have been a total waste of time! Good book, good results (probably) but terrible on my part!!! Sorry James, I don't think a quick 6day fix is right for me!

Quick Mid-Week Meal

Chorizo, Mushroom and Onion Omelette

Just a quick, easy, on-the-go meal but a really yummy one. I love omelettes because you can put just about anything in it and it will taste great. This one is not so adventurous, but will give a great result.

Ingredients

butter
1/4 of an onion, chopped
handful of mushrooms, sliced
2 eggs
splash of milk
few chorizo pieces (this version is done with sandwich chorizo, not the good sausage stuff)
black pepper
cheese, grated (optional)

Recipe

Put your chopped onion in a frying pan with a small amount of butter. When it is starting to soften then add your mushrooms.

While these are fying, crack both eggs into a jug and add the milk. Whisk 'em up good and proper with a fork. I always add a healthy sprinkling of black pepper in here, and mix that up as well.

When the mushrooms are looking a bit brown and giving off that great smell, add the chorizo. Shortly after, pour in the egg mixture and turn the heat down a tad.

Leave it a couple of minutes to cook through - not turning too brown underneath, but until it is starting to look less runny on top. Add the grated cheese.

Give it a little while more, then use a spatula to loosen around the edges, folding it in half, then serve!

Easy peasy, yummy scrummy, cook me an omelette, I'm in a hurry!!