Curried Lentils from the Store Cupboard

Curried Lentils from the Store Cupboard

These curried lentils are quickly becoming a favourite side dish because the ingredients are all stock cupboard essentials.  Delicious with roast chicken and greens!

Ingredients

  • 300g red lentils
  • 1 large diced onion
  • 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 900ml chicken stock
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric

Method

Saute the onion and garlic in a pan until lightly golden.  Stir in the spices, tomato puree and cook for another 2 minutes.  Don’t worry if the spices stick to the pan a little.

Add the lentils and chicken stock to the pan and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Add water or cook for longer as necessary to achieve the desired consistency.

Will keep very well in the fridge, so make a batch for the week.

Awful, not Awful, Slow Carb Breakfast

Awful, not Awful, Slow Carb Breakfast

My Easy Slow Carb Breakfast recipe was very popular… well, obviously it was, it had sausage and runny eggs!

This breakfast is a bit more of a store cupboard “shit! I’ve not made breakfast and I’m heading to bed” recipe, and it sounds fucking awful.  In fact I totally expected to be repeating Tim’s slow carb mantra “food is just fuel, food is just fuel, food is just fuel” whilst I forced it down my throat.

The plus side, is that you can make 5 days worth in under 3 minutes, and then fill the fridge with portions in tuperware, ready to grab as you run out the door.

I was expecting that by day 3, the tomatos would be disgusting, and the avocado a strange brown colour, and of course, everything lost it’s liquid and would congeal in the bottom of the tuperware.

I was pleasantly surprised though.  I’ve just eaten my “day 3” portion, and it’s not just tolerable, it’s actually pretty nice.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tins Tuna or Salmon
  • 2 Tins Lentils
  • 6 Chunky Diced Tomatos
  • 2 Chunky Diced Avocados

Method

Seriously?  You think there’s a method to this?  Chop it up, portion it out.  Job’s done.

Let me know if you try it, I promise it’s not bad at all.

Easy Slow Carb Breakfast

Easy Slow Carb Breakfast

I started a new job last week, which necessitates the formation of new habits.  Changes in circumstance like this provide a fantastic opportunity to piggyback habit formation on top of those that will be created naturally.  So now I’m back on Slow Carb 🙂

I found after a few days that not breakfasting was causing me issues.  Please take a moment to pray for the innocent pack of cashew nuts that was callously destroyed.  Oops.

My previous success on Slow Carb was accomplished despite mostly shunning carbs, but now I feel that I need them particularly in the mornings.

Raiding the cupboards one evening to try to put together a pre-prepared breakfast led to a rather nice discovery…

Ingredients

This should make enough for 5 breakfasts.  Make it on a sunday night, shouldn’t take more than 30 mins tops!

  • 6 97% Pork Sausages, chopped or “meatballed”
  • 2 tins Kidney Beans
  • 10 Poached Eggs
  • 2 Chopped Avocados
  • Virgin Avocado Oil

Method

Fry the sausages in a little oil.  I prefer to pinch them out of the skins to make little meatballs, it’s just as easy as chopping them and the texture is much nicer.

Meanwhile poach some eggs.  Make sure you cool them in some iced or running water to halt the cooking process.

Divide the cooked ingredients evenly into tupperware containers, with the poached eggs on top.  Drizzle a little avocado oil over the eggs for a little extra punch.  Chuck the containers in your fridge, they’ll happily keep all week.

If you find you’re a little short on sausage (ooer), consider buying several packs, frying them off and freezing them.  18 sausages spread over 2 weeks would obviously increase your sausage quota by 50%.

If you liked the sound of this recipe, check out my Sausage, Chorizo and Bean Casserole recipe, which I eat most weekdays for lunch.  On the weekends I like to make my  Chicken and Butter Bean Salsa Salad, it’s full of delicious tomatos and avocado!

Chicken and Butter Bean Salsa Salad

Chicken and Butter Bean Salsa Salad

Literally just finished eating this, and it was awesome.  It requires very little prep, so you can easily knock it up in 15 minutes.  I ate a double portion today and I can’t finish it, it’s surprisingly filling.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

  • 1 Large Chicken Breast
  • 1/2 Red Onion
  • 4 Firm Tomatos
  • 1 Avocado
  • Handful Coriander (Cilantro)
  • 1 Small Tin Butter Beans
  • Extra Virgin Avocado Oil (Optional)

Method

Cut the Chicken Breast into cubes and fry in a little olive oil.

Finely Dice or slice the onion, and cube the avocado and tomatos.  Chop the coriander and mix everything with a liberal pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper.  Leave to stand.

Open and drain the butter beans, add some boiling water to the tin and leave to warm for a few minutes.  Drain the warmed beans and add with the cooked chicken to the mixture.

Add a splash of Avocado Oil if desired and serve.

Fucking delicious.

Notes

Obviously cook a batch of chicken and keep in the fridge if you’re planning on eating it a few times in a week.  Make sure you warm the chicken before you eat it though, it’s tough and not as nice if left icy cold.

Warming the beans also gives them a nicer texture in my opinion.

I like to keep my tomato chunks pretty large (6 chunks per normal sized tomato), but you can mix that up, and try out cherry tomatos or beef tomatos.

Red onion is sweeter than white onions, but you’ll still get a great result if all you’ve got are white.

Happy New Start!

Happy New Start!

It’s been a couple of months since I posted here.  If truth be told, it’s been a couple of months since I was really on Slow Carb.

October through December saw the culmination of my business failing.  It had been on the cards for some time, and I’d been struggling to keep the ship afloat in a sea filled with icebergs.  From November onwards, I just didn’t have the strength to battle with work and keep focused when I came home in an evening, so Slow Carb suffered during that time.

I started on the Slow Carb Diet just a month or so before the wheels started coming off my business, so I managed for 6 months and lost 3 stone (42lbs, 19kgs).  There was no way I could allow myself to have wasted all that by piling the weight back on.

I went in to it with my eyes open though.  I set myself a limit.  I could continue flaunting my slow carb diet so long as my weight stayed below 18 stone.  In fact, I was amazed at how slowly I gained weight.  On 4th November, I weighed in at my lowest weight of 17st 4lbs.  My weight today is 18st 1.8lbs.  In 2 months of being “off plan” I put on less than a stone!

Considering how quickly I know I’ll be able to shed that, I think that’s amazing value!

This is the week that I’m back on plan.  I’m very fortunate that I found a solution for my customers, so the majority of my stress and grief with the business is behind me.  It’s a near year, and for me, a new start in so many ways.

The Slow Carb Club has floundered during the last few months also, I haven’t been able to give it any attention, and as a result people have drifted away.  I’m hoping that New Year’s Resolutions will see some people returning, and in fact we’ve already got a few messages to that affect.

Time to focus on not being fat 🙂

Bouncing Back

Bouncing Back

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about being bad.  Last week I was supposed to get back on track, but I didn’t, I was worse, and this time I actually don’t regret it.  Now I feel great!

The beers I deserved back then were again deserved, and this time we went out and spent an evening at a nice pub, and then ate the pizzas and the other naughtyness.  I was disappointed that I was destroying that week’s progress, but honestly I really needed the break.  Cutting loose (to a limited degree) felt really good and in the morning I didn’t regret it, in fact, the following day I did it again!

I watched with a mixture of horror and amusement, as my weight rose by nearly half a stone (7lbs) by the end of #faturday.  It’s remarkable how quickly you can undo progress!

I committed to getting back on track this week, and I’ve already shed the weight I gained.  In fact, as it’s only Wednesday, I’ve still got time to hit the 3.5st weight loss goal that’s been just out of reach for the past few weeks.

I’m writing about this, because it’s good to remind myself that it only takes a few small wins to really feel the momentum return.  Bouncing back from a low period doesn’t take a lot if you really embrace every high moment.