Waste not Wednesday!

19th October 2016

No regrets... just lessons.  No worries... just acceptances.  No expectations... just gratitude.  Life is too short.

Another successful day in the bag yesterday,  earned 11 FitPoints, 11,906 steps, 49 active minutes according to my fitbit!  I ended on 40sp included milk in tea, so yeah I'm using the FitPoints but it's all improving and I'm repeating my mantra to myself regularly to remind me to keep going as well as writing it at the top of my tracker each morning, "I'm doing this for me".  My meals were

Breakfast - oats, sliced apple, natural yogurt and a banana - 4sp

Lunch - smoked haddock kedgeree - 12sp

Snack - slice of white bread - 3sp

Tea - fish finger sarnie, lettuce & tomatoes with a bit of tartare sauce - 13p

Glass of wine - 6sp

Skimmed milk in drinks - 2sp

Notice the white bread!  Something I don't usually have in my house but it was left over from yesterday's meeting and I hate waste!  Did you know in the UK we throw away 7 million tonnes of edible food and drink from our homes every year, costing the average household  £60 every month - OUCH!

That's quite some waste, I need to think of ways to use up this bread, maybe a savoury bread pudding, or I could make mom a bread pudding if I have some dried fruit, I might get inventive and use apricots.  A savoury dish is safer I'm sure!

Thinking of waste - are you carving out a pumpkin this year?  Do you know what's scarier than witches, ghosts and ghouls at Halloween? How about the haunting 18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin that ends up in the bin each year? That's the same weight as 1,500 double decker buses!  Yep that's the truth according to the internet! 

Apparently 64% of pumpkin buyers at Halloween don't use the insides, so if you're on of them, how about this year you do!  It'd go in a soup quite easily, just throw in any veggies you fancy, or check out the recipe on the Weight Watchers website or what about a lasagne, this sounds good! 

Pumpkin, sage and mushroom lasagne

Serves 6, 5 Points per serving

Prep time: 30 min, Cook time: 70 min, Difficulty: Moderate

Now that the weather is starting to cool off, it's nice to cosy up with some satisfying food like a lasagne.

Ingredients

1500g Pumpkin

5 spray(s) Calorie controlled cooking spray

4 clove(s) Garlic, crushed

750g Mushrooms (button and Shitake) thinly sliced

375ml Skimmed Milk (5sp)

3 medium Shallots, ends trimmed, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons Sage, Dried, or fresh, chopped

250g Lasagne sheet, dry (25sp)

1pinch Salt, and freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/400°F. Peel and seed half of the pumpkin and cut into 2cm cubes. Remove the seeds from the remaining pumpkin.

Step 2

Spray a non-stick baking tray with low fat cooking spray. Place the unpeeled pumpkin on the baking tray, cut side down. Roast in oven for 35-40 minutes or until very soft. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Step 3

Meanwhile, spray a large non-stick frying pan with low fat cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add half of the garlic. Cook, stirring for 10 seconds or until fragrant. Add cubed pumpkin and mushrooms and cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Step 4

Combine milk, shallots, remaining garlic and sage in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil. Cover and remove from heat.

Step 5

Scrape flesh from roasted pumpkin. Place in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher. Add milk mixture and mash to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Step 6

Spray a 24cm x 24cm square casserole dish with oil. Spoon 1/3 mashed pumpkin into base of casserole and spread. Top with 3 uncooked lasagna sheets. Spoon over 1/3 of mushroom and pumpkin mixture. Top with 1/3 mashed pumpkin. Repeat with two more layers, ending with remaining mashed pumpkin.

Step 7

Cover with foil and bake in oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Divide into 6 pieces and serve immediately.

Notes

This lasagne is little different to the standard. We've used roasted pumpkin, sage and mushrooms. By using skimmed milk and mashing pumpkin, we haven't had to use a heavy béchamel sauce. Plus it's cheese free too, so this really is guilt free! This lasagne will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days in an airtight container. It is also suitable to freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

Right I'm off, got to give the kitchen a good tidy, we've got a repair man coming to fix our grill!  Then I've got to prepare for cooking twice tonight in meetings and four times tomorrow, I won't have time to do that in the morning.  Mmm busy day ahead I thinks...

I'll stay on track though because I'm doing this for me!  Focusing on the healthy and happy, moving that little bit more, will fit in my half hour walk somewhere and drink that water to keep my tweak of the week going.

How about you - have you got this?