Cooking!

As part of my healthy living regime, I’ve been cooking up a storm. Essentially, I’ve been trying to prepare as much of the food I eat as possible, which has meant getting up early to make breakfasts and lunches instead of grabbing cereal at work or buying lunch from a café; making my own stocks and soups, etc.

Another reason is that I am quite a foodie and most low-fat foods in the supermarket just don’t inspire me. Also, I am signed up to an organic veg box service which means that once a fortnight I get a crop of food to use up. And since the contents are a surprise, I get to push my boundaries and think creatively. 

I am doing Weight Watchers, so my criteria for each main meal is that it must be fewer than ten points – other than that, anything goes. 

Here is what I cooked last night: stuffed courgettes with a side salad tossed in parmesan and balsamic vinegar. 

The salad was my own invention, but I got the courgette recipe from AllRecipesUk using smaller quantities of everything (100g mince, 50g brown rice)and substituting lean beef mince for the lamb. And yes, that is cheese on top - I grated 25g of parmesan, topped all my courgettes and still had a generous amount for my salad. Even with the more modest quantity of filling I made I was able to stuff two large courgettes and freeze about 1/3 – enough to stuff a small aubergine I think.