Friday 11 September 2015

Healthy Weekday Meal #14.........{Miso Salmon with Stir Fry Veg}








This is one of those great meals that takes next to no time to throw together and cooks really quickly as well. Inspired by a meal that my friend Paul ate when we met up for a drink the other day (non-alcoholic for me). Do what I do and buy some of the pouches of microwavable brown rice (50p in Sainsburys) and save yourself even more time!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I'm training hard at the moment and the amount I am exercising has increased beyond recognition. Healthy eating supports all that I am doing and so this meal I have found to be perfect when coming in from a run or a swim - gets to your plate fast and fills you up nicely whilst being extremely good for you! Play around with the veg in this, Paul's one had red peppers in it which as H hates them I didn't bother with but they would work well! The Sriracha adds the heat so add more or less depending on how spicy you want it, this had a nice kick! 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Miso Salmon with Stir Fry Vegetables

 
2 salmon fillets
 
for the marinade:
4 tbsp. teriyaki sauce
2 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp. Sriracha
1 1/2 tsp. miso paste
 
1 tbsp. coconut oil
4 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
4 large shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, sliced into ribbons (I used a peeler to do this)
1/2 head of broccoli, sliced into florets
fresh ginger, thumb sized piece finely grated
leaves of 2 pak choi
 
to serve - brown rice (or whatever rice you like or noodles)!
 
place all the ingredients of the marinade in a bowl and whisk together. place the salmon into a oven proof dish and cover with half of the marinade. cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven at about 200oC for about 20mins until the salmon is cooked (I uncovered it for the last 5 mins so the marinade went nice and glazed). In the mean time warm the coconut oil in a wok and then add all of the vegetables apart from the pak choi and cook for a few minutes. add the remaining marinade and the pak choi and cook for a further 4 minutes or so until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. serve over brown rice with the salmon on top.
 
 

Thursday 10 September 2015

A Splash of Purple on your Plate





I am a sauce kind of girl. I love sauces - tomato, mayo, mustard, tartar. BBQ whichever, whatever, I love a sauce! It's always a struggle on a Sunday morning when I have to think about what sauce to have in my sausage or bacon sandwich - should I go tomato or BBQ, red or brown. Well, Premier Inn have gone and thrown another colour into the mix - Purple Sauce! Yes, purple - my favourite colour when I was a teenager (yes I know, very unoriginal).  
 
 
Purple food stuff may not sound like the most attractive offering but when I received my bottle from the lovely people at Premier Inn I was very pleasantly surprised at how "naturally" purple it was - naturally purple, what a phrase!
 
 
It probably looks natural because it is made from natural ingredients, the main one being blackberries (yay for a sauce using such a traditional British fruit). It also contains spices such as black pepper, chillies and cumin. It is also pleasing to see that it contains no artificial colours or flavourings which makes me pretty happy!
 
 
 
I tried this sauce on my favourite breakfast treat - a sausage sandwich. And it was the perfect compliment to the juicy, fat Cumberland sausages I picked up from our local butcher. As a side note I like to griddle toast my bread for a sausage sandwich....so good.
 
 
 
Back to the sauce, I really enjoyed it. To me it was a really interesting mix of the smokiness of a BBQ, the fruitiness of brown sauce and the tangy-ness of a tomato sauce - it was like the perfect combination of all my favourite breakfast sauces. I usually like mustard on my sausage sandwich but the slight heat from all the spices meant I didn't need to add that either!
 
 
 
 
I'm very lucky that I was sent a bottle of the sauce so this can make a regular appearance at my breakfast (and lunch and dinner) and if you want to give this a try then you'll find sachets of Purple Sauce on the breakfast table in Premier Inn restaurants across the country from 20th July – get there quick, it’s only available for a limited time.  Although I personally think that they should be selling it on the supermarket shelves - a sauce this good needs to be available to all!
 
 
 
Disclaimer: The lovely people at Premier Inn sent me the sauce to try. All thoughts and ideas are my own


Wednesday 2 September 2015

Healthy Weekday Meal #13........{Chicken and Sweet Potato Chilli}




For  a while now I have been seeing lots various posts for turkey and sweet potato chilli - and for a while I have been intending to give it a go. When I got in from work yesterday I was going for a run so I wanted to make something that was quick and healthy so I could devour it when I got back form said run. I didn't have any turkey mince but I did have some chicken so I just ground that up in my food processor and it worked just as well. You can do what I did and blend up all the sweet potato for quite a thick chili or you can keep half as chunks and just blend the other half. Both seem to work.  




Chicken and Sweet Potato Chilli


400 - 500g chicken breasts, blended until small chunks / or just use turkey mince
1 onion, sliced 
3 cloves garlic, finely diced 
2 dsp chilli powder (i used hot but you can use medium if preferred)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried red chilli flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
2 medium sweet potatoes , diced (i kept the skins on but you can peel if you want)
400g tinned chopped tomatoes 
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
200g black beans, drained (alternatively use kidney beans)
300ml chicken stock
water
S&P
Greek yoghurt to serve 

in a tbsp of olive oil cook the chicken, onion, garlic and spices until chicken is browned and onions are soft, make sure you season well. I added a bit of water at this stage to keep the mixture moist. remove from pan. add the sweet potatoes to the pan and cover with the stock (add some extra water if you need to) then let boil until soft. blend the potatoes and stock until smooth. Add back in the pan with the chicken and onions and the tin of tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. simmer and add some water until you have the desired consistency. after 10 minutes add the beans  and cook for a further 10 minutes, season. Serve with a dollop of greek yoghurt. You can serve it with rice or a salad and avocado but I found it filling enough on its own!