Treat Tuesday - you up for that?

6^th November 2012

When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else -- we are the busiest people in the world. Eric Hoffer

 

So yesterday I opted for meat-free Monday, and I managed it, I also decided no wine till Friday and I handled that too.  This week my body is a shrine ;=) in preparation for the party season that lies ahead of us, I thought it would be treat my body like a temple for a bit.

I had poached egg on a square crumpet with roast tomatoes for 7pp to start my day.  I’ve found these poachie bags that make your egg look and taste perfect – brilliant they are, had from the co-op £1.68 for 20.

Lunch was Roast Cherry tomato Soup cooked in my Actifry, I need to get more use out of it than a chip maker!  I had a nice crust of seeded bread with that too.

 

Then I cooked on the afternoon and made mushroom tarts, my Sparkly friends recipe, only instead of shortcrust I used filo, but either is fine, here’s the recipe

 

And I also made a macaroni and cauliflower cheese, so finished my day on a bit of that as it’s really filling.

 

Rounded it all off with an early night, recharging and re-energising my body which doesn’t like this cold weather yet, it hasn’t made the changeover quite yet! 

 

Once the sun rose in the sky yesterday it was really quite a nice, bright day, despite the temperature, I managed to fit in two walks with Alfie and a walk round the supermarket so a total of 7pp earned on my pedometer! 

 

I made enough food yesterday I don’t really have to cook today, however I have a chicken defrosting and I’m thinking I might make a curry later to eat tomorrow, and possibly make Indian spiced potatoes in the Actifry, that should work I reckon.  They’ve been reduced to £89.99 on Amazon, typical when I paid £120 less than 3 weeks ago! 

 

I’m also going to make a roast pepper soup using the actifry too, it roasts the veggies lovely then I just throw it all in the food processor to whizz up – sorted!  I do love spending time in the kitchen when I’m in the mood, although the kitchen isn’t big enough for all my mess!

So for me yesterday was ‘Meatfree Monday’, today is going to be ‘Treat Tuesday’ this will involve something indulgent or enjoyable that doesn't include wine, in my case the thing I’m detoxing from! For my bestie it’ll be chocolate which is what she’s detoxing from, it’s about  realising there's more to life than chocolate & wine and of course everyones idea of indulgent or enjoyable will be different.  So please feel free to join us on treat Tuesday, even if you’re not detoxing, you could just use the opportunity to realise that food/drink you just can’t say no too, you can and there’s plenty other amazing things out there you could replace it with.

 

Here’s the recipe for the mushroom tart;

 

Mushroom Tart

Total PPs per recipe 32

Serves 4

8 PPs per serving

 

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

3 punnets mixed mushrooms (I used forestiere, shitake and chestnut), roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed or 3 blocks frozen garlic

seasoning

1 tsp dried sage

 

1/2 pint skimmed milk

35g plain flour

30g strong low fat cheese, grated

1 pack jusrol shortcrust pastry

20g stilton, crumbled

sprigs of rosemary

 

Method

Put the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic then add the mushrooms. Fry on a gentle heat until the mushrooms have halved in size and then simmer to reduce all the liquid off. Turn off and cool. Season and add the sage.

 

Make the cheese sauce using the bung it all in except the cheese, and whisk together cold method, then heat until thickened. Stir in the cheese.

 

Line a 20cm loose bottomed tin with the pastry (you won’t need it all) and then add half the mushrooms, then some sauce, then mushrooms and so on. I do it like this as you don’t want the sauce to go over the edge of the pastry and this way you have some control. You may well have sauce left over for pasta tomorrow night!

 

Gently mix in and flatten out. Then sprinkle the stilton over the top and the sprigs of rosemary.

 

Bake for around 30-35 mins at 200C until the top is golden.

Release the sides of the tin and allow to cool for 5-10 mins as this will make it solidify slightly and allow easier cutting.

 

Note: the only thing I did different was used filo, 3 layers to each muffin case, they worked out at 2pp each because they were small.  I also just poured the mushrooms into the sauce then spooned the mixture in.  I have to say though Liz’s looked more lush with the shortcrust!