IS THERE ANYONE AWAKE UP THERE!

Tuesday 6th October 2020
Expect nothing - appreciate everything.

 

Half 4 in the morning and I was woken by mom shouting 'Is anyone awake up there!', she'd apparently gone down and was cold, let's just say she makes a hell of an alarm clock!  She's in pain with her leg, thankfully the district nurses are coming today. 

Well remembering the mantra 'just one more', helped me yesterday as I had a ham sandwich, if it wasn't for that thought, I wouldn't have added the tomato which actually made it even more delicious. 

It's easier not to add the veggies or fruit isn't it, but when you can be bothered it does make a massive difference.  I found out a recipe yesterday that I absolutely love and it's showing how veggies can be the star of the show; 

Spinach pici pasta

 

Serves 4, Cooks In 50 minutes,

16sp per serving if you drizzle a tsp of oil over dish, 14sp if you leave that bit out.

 

200g baby spinach

300g Tipo 00 pasta flour or plain flour (30SP), plus extra for dusting

olive oil (2tbsp – 9SP)

4 cloves of garlic

½ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes

200g baby courgettes

320g ripe cherry tomatoes on the vine

50g pine nuts (11SP)

½ a bunch of fresh basil, (15g)

50g Parmesan cheese (7SP)

extra virgin olive oil (1tsp per plate = 2SP per plate)

 

In a food processor, blitz the spinach and flour until a ball of dough forms, letting the machine do all the work. Touch the dough – it shouldn’t be sticky, you want a playdough consistency, so add a little more flour, if needed. To make the pici, simply tear off 2cm balls of dough and roll them out into long thin sausage shapes – think fine green beans – on a clean surface (the beauty is that they’re all different, so get little helpers involved, if you can). Cook the pici straight away, or leave them to dry out for a few hours, or even overnight.

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil (9sp). Peel, finely slice and add the garlic, along with the chilli flakes. Finely slice and add the courgettes, then halve and add the tomatoes. Cook it all for 5 minutes, then stir in the pine nuts and add a ladleful of boiling water. Leave on the lowest heat while you cook the pasta.

Add the pici to your pan of boiling salted water. If it’s freshly rolled it will only need about 5 minutes, but if you’ve let it dry give it 8 to 10 minutes, checking on it to make sure you get lovely al dente pasta. Drain, reserving a mugful of cooking water, then toss through the veg. Reserving the baby basil leaves, finely slice the bigger ones and stir into the pan with most of the finely grated Parmesan, loosening with a little reserved water, if needed. Divide between your warm plates and serve with a few drips of extra virgin olive oil (if you do that's extra SP's, 1tsp is 2sp, with the remaining Parmesan and the baby basil leaves sprinkled over.

You can save points by using spray light instead of olive oil or less oil, maybe use low fat cheese, you don't have to use the pine nuts, but honestly the spinach pasta stuff is great and you can even let the kids make it because it's fun to make.  You could make the spinach pasta on it's own and have it with other ingredients, get creative. 

I had a very busy morning yesterday and I have a busy day today, having a second job is fun and I'm loving learning but it also means I'm working more hours so I need to find a balance because I didn't cook because of it yesterday, I didn't have a proper breakfast because I forgot, so had a slice of bread, that's not good!  Today I will plan better, it's no good being able to pay the bills (even now they've been reduced) if I'm not eating healthily. 

Therefore today, I will go and cook me some eggs for my breakfast, I'll add tomatoes as my just one more.  I've defrosted a beef curry for dinner, so I'll just need to decide what to have for my other meal.  Ooo I need just one more with the curry?  I could wait to eat till my shopping comes and having a bit of salad, or I have half a cabbage in the fridge, I could fry up some of that, which is delicious.  

Right, I'm off to jump in the shower not the heating's warmed the house up, it's definitely the second half of the year temperature wise isn't it! 

Let's really embrace this 'just one more' idea this week, it's a great idea to keep going permanently, especially when you're off track, it's a way of being healthier even if you're not sticking within your allowance or tracking. 

Mwah luv ya xx 

Love me