A favourite

This is one of my favourite recipes - there's quite a bit of preparation involved and that can be a drag mid-week but it's really worth it.  Really.

Chicken in black bean sauce with noodles (Serves 2; 530kcal, 46g protein, 62g carbs, 10g fat, 9g fibre, 3.5 fruit & veg)

• 1 medium onion
• 2 tbsp good soy sauce
• 3-4 fat cloves of garlic
• 1 large red or green chilli pepper
• 25g fermented black beans
• 15ml flavourless oil (groundnut, grapeseed etc.)
• 10g cornflour
• 120g mushrooms
• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1 large piece of ginger (approx 10-15g)
• 1 large green pepper
• 1 Tbsp rice wine/Mirin
• 1 medium carrot
• 84g bundle of Clearspring Noodles, Organic Wheat, Brown Rice
• 100g white cabbage
• 1 vegetable stock cube OR 1 sachet of miso

Measure the cornflour, mirin and one tablespoon of the soy sauce into a dish and mix gently to dissolve the cornflour.  Cube the chicken breast and add to the mixture in a bowl at least 30 minutes before you intend to start cooking.   Stir and turn occasionally to make sure the chicken is well-coated.

Make up the stock/miso with about 200ml water and set aside.  Peel and finely slice the garlic and ginger.  Also finely slice the chilli pepper (leave the seeds in unless you want to keep the fire levels a bit under control in which case de-seed and make sure the white skin/flim on the inside is removed and discarded).

Finely dice the onion.

Finely slice the cabbage and cut the carrot into fine batons - the closer to matchsticks the better.

Slice the mushrooms.

De-seed and slice the peppers (I used yellow ones this time, but green is better).

Finely chop the black beans (a mezza-luna is best for this if you have one).

Prepare and cook the noodles as per the instructions and set aside.

Add oil to a large wok or other round-bottomed non-stick pan and heat.  Add the onions, chilli, garlic and ginger and soften for a few minutes before adding the chicken and marinade into the pan.

Once the chicken is sealed, add the cabbage and carrot and cook for a couple of minutes to soften a little.

Add the peppers.

Add the mushrooms and stock and cook for another minute or two.

Add the black beans and heat through before adding in the cooked noodles. Stir for a few seconds to mix thoroughly and then serve and eat immediately.

Buffalo stew - a high protein meal in a bowl

Buffalo is becoming a lot easier to come by in the UK, thanks to farms like Laverstoke Park.  I was initially introduced to buffalo by Alternative Meats, but now there are larger home delivery grocery companies like Abel and Cole that stock and deliver it to your door.

As meats go, buffalo is extremely high protein as a percentage of the total kcal payload.  Comparing average lean beef braising steak with the Laverstoke Park buffalo braising steak:-

                           Beef    Buffalo
kcals/100g         126.3    95.0
Protein                 23.0    21.7
Fat                         3.8    0.7
Carbohydrate        0.0    0.4
% protein             68.8    91.8
% fat                    31.2    6.7
% carbohydrate     0.0    1.6

As you can see, bang for buck, buffalo gives you a heck of a lot more protein for your kcals.  There are also differences in the micronutrients, primarily B12 and iron, but they seem to vary more depending on the feed of the livestock and grass-fed seems to mostly show improved levels of desirable micronutrients than grain-fed.  Lots of research out there on the Internets...

On with the recipe!  And yet again, using the Star Chef is a win in terms of minimising washing up and attentiveness in the kitchen.  Browning and cooking all in the same pot and you can leave it to do the slow cooking thing and not worry about drying out, over-cooking or sticking to the bottom of the pot.  (if only there was a better mechanism for getting the pot out of the device... that's the only annoying bit)

Buffalo stew (serves 4;  395 kcals,  57g protein, 6g fat, 18g carbs, 3g fibre, 1 portion fruit & veg):-

• 1kg good quality cubed buffalo braising steak (beef will do fine as a substitute)
• 30g plain flour (wholemeal)
• 15ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium onions
• 2 large carrots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp tangy jam (cherry, apricot, plum - not raspberry or strawberry)
• 200ml red wine
• 400ml beef stock (made from a good quality cube is fine)
• fresh rosemary
• fresh thyme

 
Peel and slice the carrots, onion and garlic.  And finely chop the herbs.

Add oil to a non-stick pan, heat gently and soften the onion and garlic.

Add the cubed meat and brown.

Add the flour and jam and stir to coat the meat.  Then add the stock, herbs and carrots and cook on a low heat for 2-4 hours.

Serve with root vegetables (celeriac, sweet potato and parsnips go particularly well), either in chunks or mashed/pureed.

BTW the mash here is celeriac vanilla puree.  Recipe to follow as it's -stunning-!

FUN!

My second session with my new trainer was a total doozey again!  I feel GREAT!

Little warm up on the TRX straps and then into some real explosive training with some Bulgarian Sacks (I used the 12kg ones after getting to grips with the technique with the 8kg one).  Which I had to look up when I got home as I've not come across those before.  Some more kettlebell work and interval training with a harness (sprinting on the spot against the resistance of it and doing burpees against it) and bungee rope and a skipping rope.  Utterly thrashed and burned a gazillion kcals and I really really enjoyed myself!  Next session in 4 weeks and in the mean time there are some things I can play with in the gym by myself.

Tricky lunches

Lunches during the week have historically been difficult for me.  Having hauled myself out of the pit of "sandwich&crisps" years ago, I've been through salads, shop bought soups and home made soups.  The latter being particularly tricky due to lack of re-heating facility at work, which has now been worked around by the use of a wide-mouthed Thermos flask.  It still remains something that annoys the crap out of me that it takes up so much time and effort to make lunches.  However, I struggle on most of the time and I'm in a home made soups phase at the moment...

Winter Squash, Beans and Chorizo soup (4 portions; 305kcals, 17g protein, 40g carb, 10g fat, 12g fibre, 5.5 portions of fruit&veg):-

• 1 large Winter Squash (approx 1kg after de-seeding and peeling)
• 15ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Tsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 Drained Can/224g Borlotti Beans
• 1 Vegetable Stock Cube
• 1 Drained Can/180g Kidney Beans (in water, not sauce)
• ½ Ring/112.5g Spanish Chorizo Ring
• 1 Tin/400g Tinned Plum Tomatoes

Almost any Winter squash will do in this recipe; Butternut, Turks Turban, Sunshine, Table Ace, Pumpkin (all varieties) etc. but not Spaghetti Squash as that's a bit too stringy and the texture isn't creamy enough.  Peel and de-seed the squash.

Slice into thick slices, then cut into cubes.

Place the cubed squash in a large container that has a lid, add the fennel seeds and olive oil, put the lid on and shake/toss to coat all of the pieces well.

Spread the chunks over a baking tray and bake in the oven on a medium heat for 30 minutes or until soft and chewy-looking.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit.  Make up the vegetable stock with a little hot water and have some extra water on standby.  Add the stock to the squash chunks along with the tinned tomatoes and blend to a thick, smooth consistency with a hand blender.  You should see soft ridges in the paste.

Gradually add more hot water, continuing to blend until you have a soup consistency you would like.  I'd err on the side of thicker than thinner as you can always thin it a bit more later.

Chop the chorizo into small cubes.

Add the drained beans and chopped chorizo to the squash soup/puree.

Then gently stir together to coat the beans and chorizo chunks but not break them up.

If eating immediately, re-heat gently in a pan and serve.   Otherwise you can chill it in portions and it will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for a few weeks.  Reheat carefully and do not add salt until reheating is complete otherwise the beans will become hard and unpleasant.

More ow

I accidentally ran all the way home from work.

Ow.

That is all.