Sarah Jayne’s Journey

Today is election day in London where we are voting for our mayor. There are also local elections around the whole of the country but in my neck of the woods the London Mayor race really is the only one getting proper attention. I am a bit (okay a lot of) of a politics nut and I never miss the chance to vote (in two countries, actually).

It was seriously pouring down with rain all day so no matter what time of day I went it was going to be a wet walk to the polling station. I put it off as long as I could but eventually I went out and of course came back cold and wet. So, I wanted to do something warming and filling for our meal tonight.

I was pretty good for my first two meals of the day with cereal and a salad as normal and I wanted to keep on track even though I wanted something comforting. So, I reached for one of my new favourite foods - pearl barley.

I never cooked pearl barley until about a year ago when I decided to try it and now we usually have it in some form once a week. It is really cheap and very filling which is a great combo for anybody and it is even better for those of us watching what we eat because it is very low fat and is a slow burning carb such as that which is good for diabetics and those of us on Low GI plans.

This is the barley dish I came up with tonight. I am a spice wimp and so I used mild chili powder but if you like things hotter use a hotter powder.

Spicy Tomato and Bean Barley Bake - Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
1 cup carrot, sliced medium thickness
1 cup celery, chopped
1 1/4 cups mushroom, sliced
1 cup pearl barley
1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, drained
5 cups V8 vegetable juice
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons mild chili powder
2 1/2 ounces fat free sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Use an oven proof dish casserole or pot that can also be used on the stovetop and put over a medium heat on the stove.

Once the pot is hot spray with some non-stick cooking spray or use a bit of oil if you wish and put the onions in and fry off for about 5 minutes until they are going soft.

Add the carrots, celery and mushrooms and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring often.

Add the pearl barley and the pinto beans and stir through for 2 minutes.

Add the V8, garlic powder and chili powder and stir to make sure everything is well combined.

Cover and put into the oven and cook for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Keep checking it now and then to make sure it isn’t going dry. It is done when the barley is tender and most of the juices are absorbed.

Take out of the oven and dish out onto serving plates or bowls and then divide the cheese between the dishes and sprinkle on top. Serve.

My next weigh in is in 12 days so I am really going to try to eat as little meat as possible between now and then. I know I will have two days next week when I will have to as we have a house guest but other than that I am going to aim for as many meatless meals as possible such as this one.

I suppose the weekend wasn’t all that bad. I didn’t count calories on Sunday and treated myself to an ice cream cone and that did make me feel guilty to a degree but it was the only really ‘bad’ thing that I had eaten all week. Still, the most important thing following a day when I haven’t counted calories is to get right back into counting them the next day because one lazy day breeds very quickly with me.

So, today I am proud enough that I managed to get myself right back on track. I find that if I don’t start the week doing things correctly then I am less likely to have a good week.

Anthony woke me up at 7am and asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I work from home and I don’t start until 9am so I usually am still asleep when he leaves but then get up at 8am and do some time on the exercise bike. Since he asked though, I got up with him and we went on a walk that lasted about 50 minutes. I would have done more calories on 40 minutes of the bike but I would happily give up burning a few calories to get 50 minutes of chatting with him as we walk. Even if it does mean getting up early…I think.

I ate pretty well too. I had cereal with skim milk for breakfast with two mandrian oranges on the side. Then I had a salad with a little bit of low fat ham and cheese on top and a fat free dressing for lunch. I have been having more meat that I generally like to have lately. So, I went for a meatless evening meal tonight and made ‘Moroccan spaghetti’. All of which left me with the total of 1,464 calories for the day. Hopefully that goes some way for making up for that ice cream yesterday.

For those of you on the look out for low fat recipes, here is the one for the meal we had tonight. It was a very low fat meal and it is really good for those of us that have insulin issues or follow low GI plans because all of the carbs in it are slow burning and low gi. You don’t have to use the whole wheat pasta but I do because it is really packed with fiber and as much as it is a bit gross, fibre is what both fills us up and helps to get rid of the fat.

Moroccan Spaghetti - serves 4

Ingredients:

11 ounces whole wheat spaghetti
1 red onion, chopped finely
3 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup mushroom, sliced
28 ounces chopped tomato, from a can
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 pinch salt
1 pinch black pepper
10 ounces chickpeas, from a can, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
3/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

Put spaghetti in a large pot of boiling water and cook as long as the packet suggests. Mine takes 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a non-stick pan and spray with low fat cooking spray.

Add the onions, garlic and mushrooms and sautee until they start to get soft which was about 5 minutes for me. If they start to stick just put in a splash of water. This is a good way to ‘fry’ things without fat.

Add the tomatoes, cinnamon, cumin, turmeric and salt and pepper and lightly simmer for about 8 minutes stirring frequently.

Stir in the chickpeas and heat just long enough to cook through, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the fresh herbs and just mix through until they start to wilt.

Add in cooked spaghetti and stir to make sure all of the pasta is coated in the sauce.

Serve.

For anybody that is looking for more low fat recipes, Recipezaar is a really good place to exchange them. My profile page is here but there are a lot of low fat / low calorie cooks there too.

As I said yesterday, Friday nights in our house lately have been low fat burger night. I am trying to invent different types of low fat burgers so we don’t go out and buy a takeaway. The last few weeks have been turkey burger so this week we decided to have an actual beef burger.

So, tonight’s low fat burger creation was Mushroom and Horseradish burgers. I blitzed the mushrooms up in a food processor to try to get them to sort of replace the breadcrumbs that people tend to put in burgers and also because they have a lot of moisture content I hoped they would also help keep the lean meat moist. I thought that the horseradish sauce might have packed a bit more of a punch but really it was a mellow back taste. So, I spread a little of the horseradish sauce on the burger bun to add a bit of that zip.

Mushroom And Horseradish Hamburgers

Ingredients:

1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 small onion, quartered
2 garlic clove
1 cup mushrooms, quartered
3 tablespoons horseradish sauce
1 beef stock cube, crumbled
1 egg white

Directions:

Put the onion, garlic and mushrooms into a food processor or chopper and blitz for about 40 seconds to a minute until everything is mixed and the mushrooms are finely chopped.

Put the ground beef into a bowl and add the mixture you just blitzed, the horseradish sauce, stock cube and the egg white.

Combine the mixture with your hands and then put into the fridge for about 30 minutes to let it firm up.

Take out of the fridge and form into four equal sized patties.

Then either fry them in a pan or do as I do and lightly brush them with very little extra virgin olive oil and grill them on a Foreman type grill. It takes about 8 minutes for them to be cooked through.

Serve.

Because I have to write down everything I eat I decided to try to channel the obsession into something a bit creative and start attempting to make up healthy recipes and share them. I post them over on Recipezaar (great place for recipes) but figured folks here might be open to sharing the lower fat/ healthier recipes they have created.

Fridays are a nightmare for me diet wise. I can go all week with being really good and then my partner will come home and really want something junkie. He is very supportive of my weight loss efforts and will happily eat my veggie bean curries and like all week without complaint. So, a few weeks ago I decided to try to make Friday nights a bit of a treat night where I try out a different kind of low fat/ reduced fat burger in an attempt to give us a bit of a junk food feeling but not break the diet too much.

I will be trying out a new burger invention tomorrow night but this is the one we had last Friday night.

Thai Inspired Turkey Burgers

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemongrass, chopped up
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped
1/3 cup green onion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
1 lime, zest of, only
2 tablespoons water
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 egg white

Preparation: 

Put the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, green onions, cilantro, chili flakes and lime zest into a food processor or chopper along with the water and blitz them until they are finely chopped and combined.

Add the mixture to the turkey and also put in the egg white.

Mix the turkey and the other ingredients together by hand until they are well combined.

Put into the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes for them to firm up a bit.

Take out of the fridge and shape into four equal sized burger patties.

Then either fry them off in a pan as you would normally do or do as I do and brush them very lightly with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and cook them on a Foreman type grill. It takes about 8 minutes or so for them to be fully cooked.

Serve.