Spicy tomato onion scrambled eggs

As you may know, im a strong advocate for a good filling breakfast every day. And for me, since 2008, that means savoury (except for tge odd pancake interlude), so eggs, fish, avocado, beans, halloumi, tomatoes, mushrooms.....

Today i decided to do something slightly different with my eggs - scrambled with an indian twang, onions, tomatoes, and home grown parsley.....

Ingredients (serves 1)
- 1/4tsp garam masala
-1/4tsp each ground cumin and coriander
-1/4 onion, diced
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- a good bunch parsley, finely chopped
- half a fresh green chilli, diced
-2 eggs
- dash milk (opt)
-oil/butter
-salt

Method
Crack eggs into a bowl, and add a dash milk.
Saute the spices in a frying pan on  medium heat until you can smell the aroma. Add some oil and the onion, and saute 5-10 min until translucent. Add the tomatoes and parsley and cook another few minutes. Remove from heat and pour the entire mixture into the egg bowl. (So everything is in one bowl).
Mix everything together.

Heat some butter in the frying pan on low-med heat and pour the mixture back in. Stir every 30 seconds until cooked to desired texture. Serve on wholegrain toast.

Ab Fab Mushroom Lentil Canneloni

This is the most absolutely delicious vegetarian canneloni. It's based on a recipe I found online at ngsdinner blog, but modified a little... I think I'm going to try lasagne next time.

For Lentil and Mushroom FillingMakes 4-5 cups
1 cup dried lentils
2 carrots
1 onion, diced
5 sun dried tomatoes in oil
4 cloves of garlic
2 cups of mushrooms, diced
1/2 tsp Marmite
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 cup of red wine
1/2 cup tomato passata
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tsp Italian mixed herbs (or whatever herbs you have to hand)
Dash chilli sauce
Salt, pepper

Wash the lentils and cover with an about 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil with a pinch of salt, cover and lower the heat. Cook for 15min until most of the water is gone and the lentils are soft.

Saute onion for about 5 min until buttery. Add garlic and sun dried tomatoes. Grate the carrots and add to the pan. Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan. Add 1 tsp fennel seeds and 2 bay leaves along with any other herbs and spices. Stir and let all the water cook out of the veg. This will take about 10 min. When the water is almost gone add the Marmite and tomato paste. Mix in. Add the wine. Let the wine cook out. Add the tomato sauce and lentils (drain the lentils first if there is lots of water). Cook for about 10 min, check the taste, turn off and let cool.

For the Cannelloni
1 box cannelloni
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 ball of fresh mozzarella sliced (125g)
few sliced olives and herbs to top
Lentil and Mushroom filling

Pre heat oven to 200c (400f). Put half the tomato sauce in a big baking dish. Fill the uncooked cannelloni and pack tighly into the baking dish. Cover with the rest of the tomato sauce. Top with the mozzarella, olives and herbs. Cover with foil and back for 20min. Uncover and bake for 10min or until the cheese starts to brown.

My Journey to Strengthening

I promised myself that 2016 would see more about the 'lifestyle' part of my blog, rather than just the food, so here we are....

Over the last 5 years or so, I had started to observe a number of things about my body:

•           It was impossible for me to do a correct chaturanga despite doing yoga weekly for 12 years.
•           I was getting severe neck pain/dizziness after car and plane trips.
•           A steep mountain bike ride or hike, gave me stiff quads for days after, and groin pain.
•           I had terrible neck/shoulder posture
•           During an afternoon walk up a steep suburban hill, a friend told me that I was unfit, even though I had been doing regular exercise daily for years.
•           In doing ashtanga yoga pose Utthita Hasta Padangushthasana D (balance pose), I could not lift my leg higher than about 20cm off the ground.

I had always been an avid exerciser, having done aerobic exercise 3-4 times a week my whole adult life. So I was confused about why I seemed to be so much worse than everyone else despite being so fit. I even starting to give up on many of the exercise activities I loved.

I finally decided that something drastically needed to change. So in August last year, I set about building my overall body strength. I started spending 1 hour, 3 times per week, doing a full body strength training workout, which I developed at home using information on line. It involves 20 reps of about 25 different activities, using 1-2kg weights or my own body weight.

In the early stages, I was so shattered that I didn’t really have the energy to do other forms of exercise. I cut down on yoga. I stopped running. And although I kept biking, I restricted myself to flat/down-hill rides only. I continued with Zumba ;-)

After about 4 months I started to notice many positive changes:

•           Lifting my bike into the car, and carrying groceries became easier
•           Squatting to clean shower walls, and bending down to the dishwasher became easier.
•           My shoulders weren’t sagging as much when biking
•           Chaturanga was getting a tiny bit easier
•           My neck pain / dizziness has gone, and my neck didn’ t feel like it was going to fall off!
•           I could sit in the car and couch longer without pain
•           I could do ab work without straining my neck

After 6 months the changes have become more pronounced, and the exercises are becoming a little bit easier. This has enabled me to pick up light running again. I have become more conscious about how interconnected we are. For example that shoulder work requires strong abs, and that abs work requires a strong neck. And I’ve begun to notice more about how other people’s posture looks.

Over the next few months I plan to further strengthen so that I can do squats with more than just my body weight, and get to a point where I can do a chaturanga more confidently. From there I will look to maintain rather than further strengthen, which will give me more energy for my favourite exercises.

If only I had worked all this out years ago. But I guess some of you wise ones will tell me that life is full of eureka moments that take us from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, from where we can build to conscious competence and then unconscious competence!.... so I’m sure there are many more of these to come!

Here is a copy of the strengthening routine that I have been doing 3 times per week for the last 6 months. It involves 20 reps of about 25 different activities, using 1-2kg weights, or my own body weight. my-strengthening-workout

I would be interested in comments/thoughts/advice to aid my further development. x

My Strengthening Workout

Here is a copy of the strengthening routine that I have been doing 3 times per week for the last 6 months. It involves 20 reps of about 25 different activities, using 1-2kg weights or my own body weight. 

Mrs Venning’s Green Sauce

Last year when we were in Nelson, we went to our friend's place for dinner, and his mum cooked a delicious summer feast, one dish of which was roasted vegetables with green sauce. Here is the green sauce, and soon I'll post the veg. Thanks Mrs Venning!

Ingredients:

Large handful fresh basil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 anchovy fillets, drained (rinsed if canned in salt)

2 tsp mild ready-made mustard

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Put all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor blender and whiz until smooth. Keep the processor running and pour the oil through the tube in a steady flow. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Decant into a covered bottle or jar and put aside until needed. Keeps for a week in the refrigerator. 

Serving Suggestions:

Roast veg, or lamb cutlets. Delish!

Grape, rose and hibiscus sparkling summer punch

This is for you Aubs..... :)

I went to a pre-xmas get together on 19th dec, and wanted to take something a bit different, so concocted a lowish-sugar refreshing punch, which lots of people seemed to like.... so here it is for reference...

                                                  Photo courtesy of Aubrey.

Day 1
Make some rose and hibiscus tea
Add 1 cinnamon stick
A couple of cloves
A couple of all spices
Leave to cool down and infuse over night

Day 2
Combine:
2 parts soda water
1 part cold rose and hibiscus tea
1 part sparkling grape juice

Add
Freshly chopped strawberries
Chopped orange segments

Jo's Healthy and Yummy Crunchy Granola - nom nom.....

I made this recipe up using the best a few recipes I found on line... And it turned out delish. Actually, I don't eat cereal for breakfast, and haven't done so for about 7 years!....  ever since I lived in Japan for 3 months, and was converted to savoury breakfasts...... which made me feel so much better, gave me more energy for the day, and helped to considerably reduce my intake of sweet food overall.... mmmmm.... dried fish, egg, rice, and pickles for breaky.... The memories are swarming back..... he he ;-) .... (go on, you should try it)...... Anyway, cereal is my go to in the afternoon when I feel like a quick and healthy snack.... When I say 'cereal', I mean the healthy type, not the type you find in a box with 15+% sugar!.....

Picture to come...

Dry Ingredients
- 2.5 cups oats, I used half and half rolled and whole oats
-  1/2 cup seeds: pumpkin, sunflower, chia, linseed, sesame
- 1.5 cups nuts: bashed almonds, walnuts and cashews
- 1/2 cup coconut thread
- 4 dates, chopped finely

Wet Ingredients
- zest 1 orange
- grated vanilla pods
- 3 soup spoons* honey or golden syrup (I used 2 honey, 1 syrup)
- 3 soup spoons* oil (I used a mix of almond and coconut)
- Pinch salt

Method
Pre heat oven to about 120 degrees. Prepare dried ingredients, and mix. Melt and mix 'wet' ingredients. Slowly pour wet into dry, whilst stirring. The put in a couple of trays (be sure to lay thinly, so that it can dry effectively). Put in oven for 1 hour**, stirring every 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, and leave over night to dry further.

* My soup spoons are small than a table spoon, but bigger than a tea spoon.
**Note that it's better to put it in the oven for longer, at a lower heat, as this dries it out better, making it more crispy, and reduces risk of burning.