Weekly Blog #11

It was supposed to have been a busy week but various plans were cancelled so, other than yesterday evening, I have been at home every night so have done quite a bit of cooking including:

 

 

This messy plate of food was my attempt at @thomasblythe's recipe for braised chicken with black pudding.  It should have been done with chicken legs and chantenay carrots but I got the butcher to section up a whole chicken so I used the breasts and drumsticks.  I couldn't get my hands on chantenay carrots at short notice, so regular ones had to do.  It was really tasty but I think that the key to it is getting good black pudding - this was from the butcher near my office and it was overspiced with cloves.  Just not savoury enough.

 

I also made Esther Walker's sausage and cabbage hotpot (recipe here).  It's the second time that I've made it and this time I cooked the cabbage leaves for only 3 minutes rather than the suggested 5 and I think it worked better this time; it wasn't wet at all once I shook them off before layering it up.  I used Waitrose's extra lean sausages (which lend themselves well to being casseroled, less well to being baked/fried/grilled etc) and Lurpak Lighter, so it's actually pretty diet friendly when served with a few boiled potatoes (I didn't finish them.)

 

 

Finally, a quick midweek meal was gnocchi with courgettes, reduced fat creme fraiche and prosciutto.  This undoubtedly works better with pasta (penne or similar) but it was easy and not too fattening as I used only a tablespoon of the creme fraiche.

 

 

My meal out this week was last night when I went to Koya where I had the Kinoko Atsu-Atsu with Onsen Tamago (hot udon noodles in hot dashi broth with mushrooms and walnut miso and a poached egg.)  I had this the only other time that I've been to Koya but that time I had the Hiya-Atsu (cold noodles, hot broth) and I remember it being much nicer than the food I had last night.  I'm not sure whether it was an off night, but my dashi broth just didn't taste of anything.  It felt like one of the worthiest meals I've eaten in months which was a bit sad.  It looked nice though:

 

 

Overall, I feel like I've settled down a bit.  I'm back to eating breakfast every day and taking my lunch into work with me which is half the battle as I'm not tempted to buy crisps and chocolate at lunchtime if I don't need to leave my desk.  My evil neighbour made me do two pilates sessions with her which left me barely able to move on Sunday.  Overall I lost 2.8lbs this week which I'm incredibly pleased with, especially as I really didn't do very much.  Onwards and downwards...