Thermomix Red Thai Prawn Risotto

I’ve tried and tried, but I just can’t make this risotto look appealing. It’s frustrating because it’s actually one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in a long time. There’s something so wintery and warming about it without it being terribly bad for you or yawningly bland.

I originally found the recipe in the 4Blades magazine. I was in need of some more Thermomix recipes and after doing a quick Google search for ‘Thermomix recipes’ I stumbled across the 4Blades magazine. It’s a magazine that’s contributed to by various different Thermomix recipe bloggers and they release an issue every month. Needing to further justify my unnecessary expensive purchase, I subscribed to the magazine for £2.99 a month. So far I’ve had two or three recipes out of each one I’ve received – definitely worth the investment.

I haven’t really changed the original recipe very much because it was bloody delicious to begin with. I’ll try and link to it if I can find it online.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 1 tablespoon of garlic paste
• 1 red chilli
• Bunch of fresh coriander
• Bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon of red curry paste
• 20g of olive oil
• 100g carrot cut up into large pieces
• 1 red pepped quartered
• 400g of coconut milk
• 400g boiling water
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 300g risotto rice
• 500g raw king prawns

 

Method

1. Put the onion, spring onions, garlic paste, red chilli, coriander, parsley and oil into the bowl and chop 5 sec/speed 5. Scrape down the sides when it’s finished.
2. Add the curry paste and cook for 5 mins/Varoma/speed 1/MC off.
3. Add the red pepper and carrot. Chop for 3 sec/speed 8. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add 100g of the coconut milk. Cook 2 mins/100°c/speed 1/reverse.
5. Add the remaining coconut milk, risotto rice, water, stock cube, salt and pepper to taste. Mix together 2 sec/speed 3/reverse.
6. Cook for 16 mins/100°c/speed 1/reverse/MC off. Put the simmering basket on the top to prevent the mixture from splattering.
7. Add the prawns and use a spatula to mix together. Cook for 2 mins/100°c/speed 1/reverse.
8. Let it sit for a couple of minutes before serving. It’ll be hotter than the sun!

 

I really do promise you that this taste 100% better than it looks. The above method is for the Thermomix but I’m sure it’ll be easily adaptable to do it on the hob. You’d just have to chop everything by hand and stir it every now and again when it’s cooking.

If you try it let me know.

Happy healthy cooking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

 

 

Pesto Chorizo Pasta

This dish started as a ‘what can we have for tea that will only take 10 minutes’ mad rush, but actually it was bloody delicious. At the time of the panic Mr Rose and I were in London and needed something for tea when we got back to York. We ducked into Wholefoods for a meander round and picked up some delicious ingredients to cook with when we got home. I could have spent hours in there just looking around and buying really expensive foods that I don’t really need.

In my opinion there’s little better than homemade pesto for tea. It fills the house with such a lovely smell and it tastes way better than the jarred variety. I made mine in the Thermomix (see I am using it) but it could be easily made in a food processor too. Mr Rose protested a few times that making pesto was too much effort and we’d be too tired. I pretended it was a great slog and I was such a hard working wife, but it literally only took me 30 seconds to make it!

Ingredients for pesto (makes about 4 servings)

• 80g parmesan cheese but up into small squares
• 60g pine nuts
• 80g fresh basil
• 120g extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Thermomix method for pesto

1. Put the parmesan cheese in the mixing bowl and grate 10sec/speed 10.
2. Add pine nute, basil, olive oil, garlic clove and salt. Chop 20 sec/speed 7.

Ingredients for dish

• 1 chorizo sausage
• Handful of spinach
• 1 red onion – chopped
• Fresh pesto (see above)
• 150g pasta (I chose spelt after a recommendation from Lily Pebbles and it was delicious)

Method for dish

1. Put the spelt pasta on to boil and cook according to packet instructions. Mine took 7 minutes.
2. Fry the red onion in a little bit of coconut oil.
3. Add the chorizo sausage and stir until the onion is coated in the chorizo juices.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of the fresh pesto and stir to combine.
5. Once cooked, add the paste and stir to combine.
6. Add a handful of spinach. Wait for it to wilt a little.
7. Serve with a grating of parmesan on top.

 

For a quick ‘I can’t be bothered’ tea it was lovely and I think we were both secretly a bit proud that we didn’t just whack a pizza in the oven!

If you try it let me know.

Happy healthy cooking and a Happy New Year.

Around the Corner Fitness.

Book Review – ‘What I Eat in a Day’ by Niomi Smart

 

In a bid to spice things up in the kitchen (recipe variety wise) I’ve found myself buying a few new cookbooks of late. One of which has been ‘Eat Smart’ by Niomi Smart the clean eating, almost-vegan YouTube sensation. I follow Niomi on YouTube and, although not vegan myself, I found myself trying out a couple of the recipes she’s suggested in her videos; her hummus has been a staple in my lunchbox for a good few months now. When she mentioned that she was releasing a cookbook, her video hadn’t finished before I was pre-ordering a copy.

I’ve made a few things from the book now and mostly they’ve gone down very well. In addition to the ones below, the Mexican Chilli Bowl on page 99 deserves a special mention. It’s absolutely delicious with a dollop of sour cream and a few cheeky nachos!

Mauritian Masala with Coconut and Coriander Rice (p.106)

The first time I made this curry I had to strip down to my bra to eat it. Sweat was coming out of all orifices; I followed the recipe to the letter and it was way too hot for a northern girl like me. The second time I made it I was wary and so underdid the spices. By the third time I think I just about got it right. Of course, I’m much lazier than Niomi and opted for garlic paste and ginger paste rather than crushing/grating my own.

Ingredients

• 200g brown rice
• 1 teaspoon of coconut oil
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 2 teaspoons of garlic paste
• 2 teaspoons of ginger paste
• 1 tablespoon of mild curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 200g of butternut squash (sweet potato works equally well)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves
• 1 small courgette (cut up into pieces)
• 1 red pepper (cut up into pieces)
• 2 tablespoons of fresh coriander
• 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut

 

Method

1. Cook rice according to packet instructions.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Let it cook for approx. 5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and ginger and stir. Add the spices and stir to coat the onion.
4. Add the squash and thyme leaves with 1/2 cup of water. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes.
5. Add the courgette and pepper with 1 cup of water. Simmer for approx. 20 minutes depending on how thin/thick you want your sauce to be. Cook until squash is tender.
6. Once the rice is cooked, drain it and mix in the chopped coriander and coconut.
7. Serve the curry with a sprinkling of fresh coriander on top (if you’re a bit poncy like me!)

I’ve found myself having this rice with everything – it’s delicious!
Having got to grips with some of the savoury recipes in the book I headed over to the back to sample the sweet treats. My favourite one so far is the Blueberry & Coconut Flapjack (so much so that the recipe book now opens itself to that page).

Blueberry & Coconut Flapjack (p.220).

I took these into work for a review and they were gone before lunchtime. One of my colleagues even asked for the recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas
• 300g rolled oats
• 90g desiccated coconut
• 150g blueberries
• 90ml of coconut oil
• 50g coconut sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a 20cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Mash the bananas with the back of a fork until smooth and set aside.
3. Mix the oats and coconut in a large bowl and add the blueberries.
4. Melt the coconut oil in a pan over a low heat, add the coconut sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the mashed bananas.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
6. Put the mixture in the baking tin and press down.
7. Bake in the oven for approx. 30 minutes until golden.
8. Slice into 12 squares whilst it’s still warm.

 

 

Overall I think Niomi’s book was a good investment for me. I bought it from Amazon on pre-order and it cost me £12. I do think that was a tad expensive seeing as I could get it cheaper now in the supermarket, but I have enjoyed the recipes and it’s one that I’ll keep on my bookshelf for a long time.

If you try any of the recipes please let me know.

Have a happy and healthy week.

Around the Corner Fitness.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Coconut Curry

After being stuck in a rut for a while I’ve been making good on my promise to try a few new recipes and branch out a little. I’ve tried a few from the recipe books recently (coming soon), but my favourite of the new ones has to be a sweet potato and chickpea coconut curry. I know I’ve been searching for recipes recently because this one popped up on my Pinterest feed – I didn’t even need to search for it, it just jumped into my lap!

The original recipe can be found here, a very interesting vegan based website focusing on health and wellbeing through food. As per usual I’ve tweaked and messed with it a little (the original website had parsley?!).

Serves two

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 teaspoon of coconut oil
1 teaspoon of garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of coriander leaf
1 teaspoon of ginger paste
1 red chilli
400g of chopped tomatoes
400g can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 sweet potatoes (chopped into small chunks)
400g of coconut milk
1 bunch of fresh coriander
180g of brown rice
Method

1. Melt the coconut oil in a large pan and add the onion. Cook for several minutes until softened and then add the garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, coriander leaf, ginger paste and chilli. Stir and allow to mingle together for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes, chickpeas, sweet potato and coconut milk to the pan. Bring it to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. It will take approximately 30 minutes to thicken and reduce down.
3. Whilst the curry is cooking, cook the rice according to the packet instructions.
4. When the curry has reduced to your taste, add the chopped coriander.
5. Serve.

At first tasting, it appears a little bland, but once you’ve had a few spoonfuls it’s delicious. The sweet potato really soaks up all the flavours and spices. Next time I’m going to add a sprinkle more cumin but that’s only because I bloody love it! I can feel it creeping into our weekly rota as I type.

If you try it let me know.

Happy healthy cooking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

GOAL!

My initial fitness goal is up tomorrow; I will have squeezed myself into a dress for my brother’s wedding, no spanx required. Admittedly there was a choice of two dresses and I went for the slightly more forgiving and less slutty one, but even still – mission accomplished. The photos are still coming in, but when I find a more suitable one I’ll put one in.

Now thoughts turn to what is next. I’ve done the York 10k this year and have been consistently going to Treadfast classes, which incidentally I now completely LOVE (I’m going to really struggle to give up my gym membership in September). Surprisingly my favourite part of the PT course so far has been the nutrition side of things so I think something along this line is going to be my next goal along with the triathlon that I’m interested in.

Seeing as writing things down seems to be the best way to make me actually do things, here’s the list:

• Start swimming consistently at least once a week. I’ve already made head-road into this insofar as I’ve bought a pair of goggles. I’ve had one ‘proper’ swim since my big purchase and alternated 2 lengths of breaststroke with 2 lengths of freestyle (or front-crawl as my mum calls it). I got to about 21 lengths and then I lost count. One of my next swimming purchases will be a length counter. I’m also finding I’m getting a big bored. I think I’m going to add an underwater MP3 player to my Christmas list.
• Run twice a week. I’ve managed to go consistently once a week in the summer and I know that that isn’t enough to keep where I want to be. Now that my running buddy is back from her exotic travels I’m sure it’ll be easier.
• Track my eating again. It’s been too easy to let it go in the summer without having a strict timescale to stick to. We’ve also been on holiday and baby Rose and I have consumed our body weight in ice-cream on the hot days. I’m trying to not beat myself up about this, but just focus on the next step. Seeing as I’ve enjoyed the nutrition side of the PT course I’m going to track what I’m eating and start tracking macros. I’ve not done this before so it’ll be an adventure into the unknown.
• Try a wider variety of recipes. I’ve got stuck in the same 8 or so again. I need to have a flick through the recipe books to add in some extra ones.

I don’t want to split my attention between too many things, so that might have to do for now. Nevertheless, these four are achievable. We’ll see where we are with them in a month or two.

 

Happy healthy thinking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

Motivation Pt.2

 

As we were going to bed the other night Mr Rose said to me, “Why did you want to lose weight?”. To me this was a bit of a daft question. I was fat; I didn’t want to be fat anymore.

Mr Rose then probed deeper, “But why didn’t you want to be fat?” Again, this was a bit of a daft question to me. I wanted to feel less self-conscious in my clothes, I wanted to feel comfortable with people taking photographs of me and not like I wanted to run away (or be the one taking the photo as I so often was before) and I didn’t want to be the biggest one in my friendship group. Also, clothes in high-street shops are designed for skinny-minnies. That was the point when I realised that all of my answers were appearance related. Am I that shallow?

Mr Rose wasn’t impressed with this. These things aren’t as important to him. I wonder whether losing weight for appearance related reasons is mostly a female thing (or whether that’s horrendously sexist).

I’m not totally shallow. Yes I wanted to lose weight to look better, but I also wanted to lose weight to feel better too. I have more energy when I’m consuming less sugar and I love the buzz I get post-run. This was more appealing to Mr Rose, who is going to track energy as a way of motivating himself to eat well.

Thinking about my reasons for wanting to lose weight has also given me a bit of a kick up the backside as well. Just keep swimming…
Happy healthy thinking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

I had a disaster!

So I thought I could adapt one of my favourite recipes for the Thermomix. I thought I could manage to do this by myself, just sort of making it up as I went along. I could not. By the end of the evening our dinner looked like someone had vomited it back up and I was sent out to go get us fish & chips – a double disaster because it knocked the diet out of whack and cost me £12. When did fish & chips become so expensive?!

 

In a bit of an ‘oh I haven’t used the Thermomix much and I’ve paid so much money for it’ panic, I decided to have a go at the one pot spicy pasta dish but adapt the instructions so it would be suitable. It started off well; it managed to cook the onions and the chicken.

The problem came when I had to add all the other ingredients in, particularly the pasta. I put the blades on the reverse setting but it still seemed to mush everything together.  We ended up with chicken soup rather than a solid dinner!

It smelt really nice at least; our entire house smelt of roast dinner (I still have no idea why). Don’t get my wrong, I enjoyed the fish & chips very much, but it was a little frustrating.

I think the baking side of the Thermomix is a lot easier than the cooking side. Back to the drawing (and Pinterest) boards to gather some, more suitable, ideas.

Happy healthy cooking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

First Attempt at Pitta Bread

I had a tiny slither of time yesterday so decided to make pitta bread. It was a poor decision; lots of rushing around was done and a trip to B&Q to get storage boxes was needed whilst the dough was proving. Perhaps choosing to make a bread that I hadn’t made before on a time poor day was a tad ambitious! Nevertheless, they turned out really well and have been super tasty for lunches with a dollop of hummus.

Ironically I sold my bread maker yesterday. I hadn’t used it since we moved (2 years ago now) and there’s no need for a bread maker in the Rose residence anymore since the wonder gadget Thermomix kneeds dough.

This recipe is taken from the Basic Cookbook that comes with the Thermomix. Mine’s all crinkled and wrinkled since I left it out in the recent downpour. I was browsing the recipes whilst baby Rose was playing on the slide and completely forgot about it. It’s been in the airing cupboard ever since.

Ingredients
1 tsp dried yeast
270g water
1tsp sugar
1 tsp olive oil
500g bread flour
1 tsp salt

Method

1. Put the yeast, water and sugar into the mixing bowl and warm 30sec/37°c/speed 2
2. Add olive oil, bread flour and salt and kneed for 3 min/
3. Transfer dough into a bowl, cover with cling film and prove for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 250°c and put the baking trays in the oven.
5. Divide dough into 8 pieces, form each into a ball and allow to rest for 15 minutes. With a rolling pin roll each piece into a flat circle (15cm diameter) and allow to rest for a further 15 minutes.
6. Place 2-4 of the dough circles on the hot baking tray and bake for approximately 4 minutes (or until golden brown).
7. Take the hot pittas out of the oven when ready, place on a clean surface and cover with a clean tea-towel. This will help them keep puffed up.

Excuse my poorly shaped circles. I’d like to say I did it on purpose to make them look more rustic and ‘homemade’; in reality it’s because I’m a little bit shit!

Now, I’m no bread expert but I was fairly chuffed with these. To say my only bread making before this had been a white loaf, I’m chuffed. I remember going round to my boss’ house a few summers ago and she had made her own pitta breads and hummus from scratch. In utter amazement I asked her, “Why the bloody hell would you do that when you could just go to co-op?” After having one of these tasty delights (and being a bit more clean eating educated) I now completely understand why!

My pittas even had a pocket!

I think next time I’ll have a go at replacing the white bread flour with wholemeal and perhaps have a go at tweaking the amount of sugar. Nevertheless a successful first attempt and one I’ll repeat again.

Happy healthy baking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

 

The Thermomix Has Arrived!

The Thermomix arrived on Monday; I’m so excited to start playing with it. Having only had it for 2 days, I haven’t done much with it so far but the bits I have done I’ve loved.

When the demonstrator lady came round we made soup, bread rolls, frozen fruit sorbet and a broccoli and cauliflower gratin (that was really grim and I ended up throwing away). Each item took hardly any time at all to make and I was a bit wowed by how easy it seemed to make everything. Since un-packing it on Monday I’ve had another stab at the frozen fruit sorbet (this time with raspberries and lime in a nod to cocktail style ice-cream) and yesterday baby Rose and I made some marshmallow rice-crispie squares in it. I still can’t get my head around how quick everything was and we hardly made any washing up.

I’m going to be experimenting over the coming weeks and if I have any roaring successes I’ll post them on here. I’m looking forward to experimenting (playing with it really does feel like I’m in a science lab).
Happy healthy cooking.

Around the Corner Fitness.

Eating Out – The Healthy Guide Part 1

Every day on my Twitter feed and YouTube subscription list I’m bombarded with people going to glamorous healthy locations for breakfast, lunch and out for dinner. A: How have they got the time, energy and money to do that? And B: Why do these people have all the healthy options to choose from? I live in York, which is a reasonably average sized, very pretty tourist city. You would think that there would be an abundance of healthy places to eat in town, but it seems like the business owners of York want everyone to be full of pub food, Italian food and scones with cream and jam. Don’t get me wrong, I love a bowl of pasta and some garlic bread as much as the next person and I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a cream tea either, but York is crying out for healthy places for residents to eat.

Other places shall be investigated, but the one that immediately springs to mind is Filmore and Union. They have a handful of cafés in Yorkshire and one in York train station, but my local one is the one on Petergate in York city centre. I’ve been in for lunch a couple of times and always go for the ‘Smashed Avocado on Toast’ (yes, I know I’m a cliché but it’s delicious!) but I had never been for dinner before. Things co-incided when my friend Katy (from pizza fame on the Deliciously Ella post) texted me. The conversation went like this:

Katy: Hey how are you? We should catch up soon, it’s been too long! xx
Me: Hey. I’m good thanks. Fancy going out for tea one night maybe next week or the week after? I really want to go to Filmore and Union for tea but haven’t found a good excuse yet xx

The poor girl didn’t get a choice; I just launched it on her!

Because the restaurant part is only upstairs we booked a table. We didn’t need to – there were a few spare but I’m glad we did; I don’t think I could have handled the disappointment. We decided not to have starters but Katy ordered a large glass of wine despite complaining (with reason) about the price. When I asked her at the end of our meal if the wine was worth the money her reply was, “No glass of wine is worth that much”. Granted, she’s not a wine connoisseur, but she does drink the most wine out of everyone I know. I had a ‘Slim Down’ juice which was advertised as pineapple, apple, lemon, strawberry and orange juice. It was yum.

For main Katy had the aforementioned avocado on toast and I had a skinny beef burger which came with a raw veg noodle salad, spinach, cashew hummus and served with baked avocado and coconut wedges. It also came with a tzatziki dip:

It was absolutely delicious and even though there wasn’t an abundance of food I was absolutely full after eating it. Of course that didn’t stop me ordering a pudding!

I also really like how, on their menu, they give indications as to what foods are appropriate for each diet. I know my gluten free friends would find it incredibly helpful.

It was a really lovely evening, both in terms of the food and the company and I’ll definitely go back again. We were half way out the door before I went back in to get a loyalty card after spotting a poster near the door. It’s the perfect excuse to go back and I’ll definitely use it.

Atmosphere: 8/10
Food: 10/10
Price: 7/10

The only major bugbear I have with the place is it’s tiny! I have absolutely no chance of getting in there with a pushchair. Hurry up and grow Baby Rose!
Happy healthy eating out.

Around the Corner Fitness.