Keep Calm and Get Organised

It's time to get organised. Every single healthy eating cook, dietician or nutritionist talks about organisation as the key to staying on track and it's not hard to see why. For me, going out to buy lunch or only thinking about dinner on my way home leads to lazy choices and giving in to cravings.

I've found these fantastic planners on a great blog called Life with Munchers and she has all sorts of useful tools for organising your life (particularly if you have a family). I've downloaded her 'Weekly Meal Planner' and 'Favourite Recipe' templates and spent quite a long time going through books collating lists of favourite recipes that will support my new way of eating. 

This is exactly the sort of OCD activity that I love so it naturally gave me a huge amount of satisfaction to plan a whole week and write up what I would be eating! It's useful to look at where I'll be each day and work out what fits best alongside other commitments.

I'm incredibly tired today and very glad last night's chilli is ready for my lunch and keeping me away from the chocolate-y call of the High Road. It's generally my pattern that I will always cook a minimum of two servings so generally my dinner one night will also be my lunch the next day.

Tonight is Ella's Easy Quinoa with Green Veggies. As yet I have been unable to cook quinoa well and today was no exception. The amount of water specified in the recipe is CRAZY and it's very soggy and overcooked by the time it has been absorbed. Colleague K is the queen of quinoa and advises adding water gradually like a risotto so I'm going to try that next time - in the recipe below I've gone with the advice on the packaging but you may have your own technique.

However, as a quick supper this isn't bad. I steered clear of the tahini which I'm not very keen on and made a few other tweaks but this would be a good way to use up whatever veg you had left in the fridge and you could add meat or fish as well. I'm not great with quantities (I always seem to produce loads) but again I think this feeds 2-3 depending on how much veg you add - I put a lot more than the recipe suggested.

120g quinoa

360ml vegetable stock

1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced

2 courgettes, sliced into thin half moons

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets then stalk finely sliced

1 bunch asparagus cut into thirds (or short lengths)

2 tbsp tamari

pinch dried chilli flakes

1. Prepare the stock, add the quinoa and cook according to packet instructions (I think stock gives more flavour than water, just like with couscous).

2. Chop vegetables and stir-fry in some garlic oil over a fairly high heat.

3. Add the chilli and tamari, cook for another couple of minutes.

4. Stire in the cooked quinoa and serve.

This reheated well in the microwave and kept well in the fridge. I was glad I'd made something nourishing as tiredness tends to be my number one weakness when it comes to comfort eating. I think even if you thought there was no food in the house you could make a version of this and feel that you'd made yourself something nice. If I have more energy next time I'll probably add ginger and some other things to make it a more asian-style, but you could equally add herbs and maybe some sun-dried tomatoes for a more mediterranean vibe.