Road To Health

In preparation for my 15kg weightloss challenge, I made some salsa to eat with my foods as I needed some healthy accompaniments to my meals. I love making this salsa as it is versatile, easy to make and tastes delicious. This particular recipe is similar to a traditional Mexican Salsa Roja and goes so well with enchiladas, tacos, nachos and fajitas. My preferred option being the Nachos as I love to serve it with delicious Cajun spiced Braai Meat. My mouth is watering at the thought of it. Here is the recipe, I encourage you to try it out. You can store it in your fridge for a few weeks but it doesn't last that long!!


Ingredients:

•  6 large tomatoes, cut into quarters (You can use any kind, I prefer big juicy plum tomatoes.)
• 2 Large Red Bell Peppers, de-seeded and halved
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 large green chillies
• 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
• Himalayan Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
• A drizzle of Olive oil, don't be shy but dont be very heavy handed either.
• 1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1/2 tsp Cumin Powder

My mom showed me how to make this. It was a firm favorite growing up. Its simple and so satisfying. I just love to eat it with a variety of veggies. I would usually have had it with spicy tomato spaghetti and veggies with white sauce. But since we are trying to make better choices I decided to make these with some wholewheat pasta with onions ans peppers and some roasted veg.


Ingredients:

• Chicken cut into pieces, I used 4 legs and 4 thighs, removed all skin and trimmed any excess fat.
• 3 cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced.
• 1 sprig of Rosemary (I was out of fresh so used 1/2 tsp dried Rosemary)
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbslp Coconut Oil

Hey everyone! So today I did really well. I also got in a good brisk 5km walk.

I started my day with a cup of Rooibos tea which I added 1tsp gelatin powder to. If I see any benefits I will write a blogpost about it but for now i'm just feeling the waters. Then, I had a banana smoothie. I used 1 medium Banana, 1/4 cup raw oats,  1/4 plain yogurt, 1/4tsp honey, and a dash of cinnamon. This is becoming a firm favorite but I do need to mix it up with other fruits.

For my Mid- morning meal I had the white of 1 boiled egg, 1 tblsp of cottage cheese, 1tblsp of my Roasted tomato and Red pepper salsa, a handful of baby spinach leaves and half an avo. Yum! Clean eating can be so yummy and there are so many different options!



Lunch were these delicious aubergine pizzas with the white of 1 boiled egg. I came across the recipe on pinterest and it took me to this blogpost. Instead of using an italian tomato sauce I used my salsa which I had on hand and it worked so well. This was a quick, fuss free and delicious option.

For supper I made some delightfully simple Salt and Pepper chicken with some roasted veg and wholewheat pasta with onions, peppers and cottage cheese. You can find the recipe for the chicken here.

I logged my meals with MyFitness Pal and managed to eat within my calorie limit.  Alhamdulillah! Here's to many more yummy, healthy days.

Sorry I've been M.I.A, I've had no time for blogging. Every time I sit down to blog something distracts me. A perfect example: just when I started typing this my son felt the urge to wash his hand (toddlers & bathrooms: hazardous) so I ran in after him, of course my gran was shouting at me to get him out before he got to the taps. But I also heard her telling him to go wash his hands!! Drama!

Anyway so seeing as though I was absent from posting, I did keep up with some good eating habits except for Saturday past when it was MA's birthday. I went and bought some cake and we had a small tea party at my aunts place. I did eat a bit of everything, cheesecake included! My friends and I decided we would use 1st March as a starting point for our goals. So ive done exactly that and yesterday went well with good eating but lack of exercise. Today has been an even better day. You can follow my food diary enteries for this 15kg weightloss challenge on consequent blog posts. I've also got a few recipes to share including my yummy Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper salsa. Delish! I did not completely forget about blogging so I have loads of photos to upload.

Today was so much better than yesterday. I ate over my daily calorie limit again due to poor choices. According to MyFitnessPal, I ate 1934 calories, just 194 excess calories.

Breakfast

These egg muffins are such a treat, quick and easy to make and its one way of getting eggs in without feeling out off by eggy smells or tastes. You can see how I made them here.




Lunch 

I had last nights leftovers and I know I shouldn't have but I did anyway.

Dinner

I forgot to take a picture for you all but ooooohhh my goodness! We had Spitfire Chicken & Grill. Its a new restaurant that opened up at Kromboom Centre. Really gives Nandos a run for their money. delicious food! I had a 1/4 chicken in their Aged Chilli sauce which is one of their hottest marinades. We had some chips too! Scrumptious! I'll do a review later on!

OOops! So i'm beginning to realize that blogging does take time. My apologies for not submitting yesterday. Ugh it was all bad yesterday, bad cramps, bad food, bad water intake, bad exercise. Such and unproductive day but today was far better. According to MyFitnessPal, I ate over my daily calorie limit but would have been okay had I done 15 minutes of cardio. That didn't happen though, BAH HUMBUG! Anyway, here is my food entry.

Breakfast

1 bowl of Tastee Wheat Porridge. My son and I shared a bowl. Its his favorite and he eats it on most mornings. We always add sugar, cinnamon and whole milk! yummm!


Lunch

At lunch time I was laying around having tummy cramps so... I just ate Simba crisps and I had a marshmallow egg too.

Dinner

Dinner was a bit better than lunch but actually not so much since the Chicken steaklets are unbelieveably high in calories. We had Cheesy Garlic Chicken Steaklets with Mac & Cheese and some steamed mixed veg. I was out of wholewheat pasta so I used normal pasta. Could have made a better choice there.

I used:
4 Chicken legs and thighs, skinned and washed them.
1 tsp Ginger & garlic paste
3/4 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Tumeric Powder
1 tsp Tandoori Paste
1/2 tsp Crushed Chillies
1 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 tblsp Tomato Paste

Pre- heat the oven to 180°. Combine all ingredients into a paste and marinate chicken with this. I recommend you let the dish marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. Transfer to an oven- proof dish. Cover with foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes. In the last 5 minutes of baking, I turned the oven to grill, this helps to achieve that traditional "tandoor" charring. Once its done, Garnish with some fresh Coriander and some Garam Masala.



I used:
1 medium Cauliflower head.
1/2 tsp Tumeric
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Tikka Paste
1 tblsp

Heat a wok with 1 tblsp Butter, I would usually use coconut oil but i'm all out so i'm using Butter. Chop up the cauliflower in to florets, braise in the butter and add the spices and tikka paste. Stir fry it until all the cauliflower is equally covered in spices. At this point, I turn the stove down to low heat and cover with a lid so that it can steam lightly. I like to have my cauliflower slightly cruncy but my husband likes it cooked all the way through so that's how I made it today.




I also made some Roti's for the family to enjoy. I do this very simply by mixing 2 cups of flour with 1/8 cup of oil and a pinch of salt. I then add enough boiled water to make a soft pliable dough. I bring it together with a fork so that I don't burn my hands. I leave the dough to rest for 1/2 an hour and then I start making dough balls, roughly golf ball sized. Meanwhile I heat the frying pan. I like to have 2 rolled out already before I begin "frying" them. The pan needs to be very hot in order for the roti's to cook quickly and to puff up nicely. I dry fry them as prefer them to their oily alternatives and they need to be rolled REALLY thin so that they are light and airy. I had a little helper too!

One of the main reasons for writing this blog is so that I can be accountable for what I eat, when I eat it and how much I eat. I have terrible disciple when it comes to food. In the mornings, i'll eat when I feel like it, I usually have some oats with cinnamon, milk and sugar. Then, i'll have lunch which will conveniently be made up of the previous night's leftovers or a sandwich. Dinner is the best meal of the day, I love to cook and make yummy dishes for the family.