Red Cabbage Coleslaw Light

A head of cabbage goes a long way. So do a bag of carrots. A quarter head of red cabbage and two large carrots made a tub of coleslaw which lasted us for days. 

Oh yes, this is a light version of coleslaw. No mayonaise to be seen. No, sir.

We're on a bit of a health kick (apart from the brownies I made last week, ahem) so I'm trying to find simple substitutes for the more calorie laden ingredients. So, mayonaise be gone. Long live greek style yoghurt. 

Substituting yogurt for mayonaise for all our salad dressings makes a huge difference and you don't have to compromise on taste. Jamie Oliver has been saying this for years and he's so right.

Red Cabbage Coleslaw

Quarter head of red cabbage

2 large carrots

Handful parsley, chopped

For the dressing:

4 tbsp greek style yoghurt

1 tbsp vinegar (whatever's handy) or lemon juice

1 tsp mustard

1 tbsp worchester sauce 

Tasbasco to taste

Salt and pepper

Just shred the cabbage and carrots in a food processor (or slice cabbage very thinly and grate the carrot) and mix with the parsley and dressing. Eat. 

Speedy Supper: Chorizo, Chickpea, Spinach and Black Olive Hash

Speedy Supper alert! Sometimes the quickies are the besties. This speedy dinner for two takes 15 minutes.

6 inches of chorizo, diced

Can of chickpeas, drained

Tsp garlic puree 

Tbsp red pepper pesto

12 black olives, halved

Few handfuls of spinach, chopped 

Pinch of chilli flakes

Zest of half a lemon

Bulgar wheat, cooked as per instructions

Sautee chorizo until it releases orange oil. Add chickpeas. When they are warmed through add garlic puree, red pepper pesto, chilli flakes, olives and lemon zest. Loosen with a couple of tablespoons of water if needed. Mix through the spinach and when it has just wilted serve the hash on top of hot bulgar wheat. Easy!

What I do when I'm not doing this

My day job rules.

Oh, yeah. I haven't really mentioned my day job on this blog before. Well. Today's the day. I work for a London and Wiltshire based catering company called Top Hat Catering. Our Beloved Leader, Top Hat MD Hattie Mauleverer-Jones, employed me in June and it's been an educational, funny, exhausting, brilliant six months so far. Far too much fun for a day job.

I wear quite a few different hats at Top Hat. My primary role is running the company's marketing. I manage Top Hat's online presence (blog, facebook, twitter, pinterest) and compile marketing materials. I also put on an Event Manager hat for some of Top Hat's jobs, which means I get to boss people around and sometimes hold a clipboard - two of my favourite things. Sometimes I am 'cheffing' on an event which means I prepare the food on the job - constructing canapés, or assembling a buffet lunch, that kind of thing. This is a lot of fun. And on some days I get to work in the kitchen! Last week we were making our Christmas Hampers and I made several hundred handrolled Chilli Chocolate Truffles (see photos below) and a batch of Dill Sauce. My idea of total bliss. 

I could ramble on about all the Top Hat food for pages but I think a picture speaks a thousand words. Or in this case, a bunch of composite photos. 

Disclaimer time. I wish I could say I cooked all of the food in these photos. Nope. 'Fraid not. 

Most of our food is made by our Head Chef, Janine King (affectionately known as Ja) who is quite simply brilliant. As well as being a phenomenal chef who cooks some of the most delicious food I have ever eaten (her Beef Wellington is unbelievable) she is also one of the loveliest people I have ever worked with. I love Ja's attitude to food. She loves food wholeheartedly and loves making people happy with her cooking. She is passionate about using sustainable produce and reducing waste in our kitchen. She's brings an infectious energy to the Top Hat kitchen and her food is fresh, flavourful modern and exquisite. Magic. I'm hoping some of her talent rubs off on me.

Top Hat can cater just about anything. Champagne and canapé receptions, dinners, buffets, christenings, weddings. From minute to monumental, friendly to fancy, modest to lavish, and many other adjectives, Top Hat are here to help. Having a Christmas party? Check out our menus.

Here's the Chilli Chocolate Truffles that I mentioned. I made a lot of them. Hand rolled. It was awesome messy fun. See?

And a few weeks ago I got the chance to try my hand at fresh pasta which Ja made into ravioli starter for a 3 course dinner. I got messy again and it was ace. 

Do you understand why I love my job? This is why.

So for all your catering needs, be it an intimate at-home three course dinner, a cheery Christmas buffet, a country wedding, or a chic canape party - get in touch with Top Hat Catering.

Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is done and gone. I missed it. I was busy. But the weekend came and I was craving some kitchen time. So I loaded up a bunch of Food Wishes videos for inspiration. Hey presto, Pumpkin Pie.

This recipe is a combination of Chef John's recipe, the recipe on the side of the Libby's pumpkin can, and something of my own creation. The big difference is that I substituted a mixture of coconut cream and coconut milk for the condensed/evaporated milk called for in the other recipes. A happy accident really - I forgot to buy any - but it really seems to work. The pie is still creamy and smooth and there's no heavy coconut taste noticeable because the spiced pumpkin flavour is so strong. I also reduced the amount of sugar and added honey instead because I usually find American recipes a little sweet for my palate. And it really was a success. One of those 'I can't eat less than 2 slices' kind of success.

Now listen. This is my first pie. Of any kind. So I'm feeling a little smug right now. More than a little. But please, indulge me. Making a homemade pie feels like some kind of milestone for me. Like I became a proper grown up. Like I said, please indulge me.

So here's the blow by blow...

For the crust:

I used Chef John's recipe for an easy homemade pie crust. I did it in two batches because my food processor is a tiny compact.

12 oz plain flour

200g butter (ice cold from the freezer)

1/2 tsp salt

7 tbsp ice water

1 tbsp white vinegar

NB. It's really important to use ice cold butter straight from the freezer. 

Combine the water and vinegar in a small bowl. In a food processor, pulse together the cold butter, flour and salt until you get something that looks like crumbs. Add half of the water/vinegar mixture and pulse again to get a courser crumb texture. Finally add the rest of the water and pulse until it is just starting to clump together. See in the photo below, my mixture was still pretty crumb-like but when I pressed a handful together it formed a dough. This is perfect. 

Dump onto a floured surface and form it roughly into a ball. Do this quickly and don't be tempted to knead it! Cut the dough in half. Flatten each half into a disk, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins. I rested mine for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 C (mine is an excitable fan oven so I set to 160) and grease a 9 inch pie dish or baking pan. I didn't have a pie dish so used a shallow cake tin and it worked great.

When it's rested, roll out one disk on a well floured surface. The other half you can freeze for a future pie - it will last up to three months. If you've rested the dough for as long as I did (2 hours) the rolling might take a while as the dough will be quite firm. Persist, flouring lightly to stop it from sticking, until you have a circle that will fill your dish/tin. Don't worry about cracks or craggy edges, it all gets turned into the rim of the pie.

To get your crust into the tin, roll it on to your rolling pin then roll it out over your pan. Gently work the dough into the tin, using a ball of well floured dough to press into the edges. 

Squash the excess dough together to form the rim and crimp with your fingers. Prick the base and sides of your crust with a fork to prevent it puffing up in the oven. Beat an egg in a small bowl (you can use the one from the pie filling) and brush the rim thoroughly. Line with crumpled baking parchment and fill with baking beads (I used rice) and blind bake for 8 minutes. Remove the beads/rice and bake for another 8 minutes or until it's lightly browned. While it's baking you can get your filling ready...

For the filling:

400g can of pumpkin
160ml can coconut cream
6 tbsp coconut milk (use the cream from the top, not the water)
4 oz sugar
4 tbsp honey
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl combine the pumpkin, coconut cream, coconut milk, sugar, honey, egg (you can use the one that you used to egg wash the crust) and egg yolks, spices and salt. Mix together really well - the mixture needs to be really smooth. Pour into the blind-baked pie crust and bake at 180C (160C for hyperactive fan ovens) for 45-50 minutes.

To test if it's done, insert a knife a few inches from the crust and check if it comes out clean. The very middle may still have a wobble but that's okay. Allow it to cool completely in the tin before serving.

It had more cracks than I would have wanted but for a first attempt I was very very happy. It was delicious and the texture was almost perfect. Soft, velvety and not too sweet. There was no coconut flavour that I could make out, it just tasted creamy and beautifully spiced.

And it didn't last long...

Halloumi Salad

Halloumi is one of my favourite foods at the moment. I always have a couple of blocks of it in the fridge and one of my favourite ways of eating it is piled on top of a salad of tomatoes, beetroot, avocado and almonds. A drizzle of olive oil, maybe a toasted pitta bread and dig on in. 

Orange Curd - Video Recipe

Okay, folks. Here's my second attempt at a video recipe. I made this orange curd to fill my version of my mum's Curd filled Layer Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Ganache - recipe for that coming soon, promise. This recipe makes enough curd to fill one cake. It's basically a jar's worth. Recipe text below. 

Lemon is the most popular of the curds, I think, but I really like the gentle mellowness of a curd made with orange and it really works with the sharp chocolate ganache. I add the juice of half a lemon to give the curd a slightly more citrussy tang. Amazing filling for cakes. Also great on toast...

75g sugar
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
Juice of half a lemon
2 eggs, well beaten
50g unsalted butter, cold

Put a glass bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (or use a bain marie) making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water.
Combine sugar and zest in one bowl, eggs and juice in another. Add wet to dry and combine.
Put mixture into the warm glass bowl and add the cold butter chunks. Stir stir stir and stir. After 15-20 minutes the curd will have thickened.

Darjeeling Macarons with Honey Buttercream

These were far from perfect. They had a crisp shell but they were too fragile and crumbled at the edges. They had wonderful little 'feet' but they weren't particularly uniform, and the base was a bit gnarled. The buttercream had an amazing texture but was too sweet.

But. 

For a first attempt I was VERY happy. More than happy. Very very happy. Ecstatic. 

I was terrified but they were delicious. You should totally try making them. Ignore the fear. Do it anyway. I followed this recipe to the letter (with the exception of using Darjeeling rather than Earl Grey) and watched this how-to video and this how-to video, which were SO helpful. Check them out for step by step instructions on macaron technique, which is a complicated affair.

The buttercream filling was a bit too sweet to my taste and I think I'll tone down the honey next time as it overpowered the subtle tea flavour in the macaroons. But all in all this felt like a personal victory for me. Macarons are notoriously difficult but they turned out pretty good for a first attempt. It's obviously an art. There's a lot of instinct involved but now that I'm over the fear I'm taking flavour suggestions for the next batch. Anyone got a good macaron recipe for me?

Thankyou Yoo-Eatz, for this great recipe!

Celebrity Bake Book

Earlier this year I was asked to contribute to the Celebrity Bake Book in support of the Ben Kinsella Trust. I was really happy and honoured to be part of this initiative, which launched last night. And look what I got in the mail!

I have two recipes in the book: Lemon and Almond Loaf Cake and Chocolate Orange Muffins.

Do grab a copy if you can. It's stuffed full of recipes by chefs, tv folk, politicians and generally cool people. All royalties go to the Ben Kinsella Trust, an amazing organisation that promotes knife-crime awareness and educates young people about the consequences of knife crime.

Buy it on Amazon here!

Blueberry Scones

Can you believe I'd never made scones before? Frankly, neither can I. 

Blueberry Scones

200g self raising flour

50g butter, cold

125ml milk

25g caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Good pinch salt

1 beaten egg, for brushing on top

100g blueberries

Preheat oven to 220C. 

Rub the butter into the flour. Stir in sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk and slowly incorporate into a loose dough. As it starts to come together, add the blueberries. Don't over work the dough! Just bring it all together into a ball and knead very gently on a floured surface. Roll into an inch thick circle. Cut into rounds with a cutter if you have one - I didn't so I used a small glass. A good tip is to dip your cutter in flour to stop it sticking. Put your scones on a greased baking sheet or silpat. Bake for 10-12 mins until golden. Allow to cool on a rack. (We are impatient and didn't wait for them to cool so they kind of disintegrated as we cut them...but they were still yum)

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Raspberry Orange Almond Cake

Some recipes come to you in a flash. And sometimes they really work. This evening, as the bath was running, I got the idea for this cake. It took me the time it took to run the bath to rustle this cake together and get it in the oven, so I could soak as it cooked. I took some quick snaps of it but I didn't expect it to be anything special, and certainly not blog-worthy. We munched slices with dollops of creme fraiche and after a few bites we realised it was a winner. Essentially, if this Strawberry Cake spent a passionate night with this Lemon and Almond Loaf, the unplanned but happy result would be this dessert. Now there's an image that will haunt my dreams. As with a lot of my recipes, it won't win any beauty contests but it's flippin' good, if I do say so myself. Also, it's really easy to whip up. 

This unassuming little cake packs some serious flavour, and it leans towards almost the texture of a pudding. It's very moist because of the almonds but surprisingly light. It's a sweet batter but the puddles of tart raspberries and fragrant hit of orange zest keep it from being sickly. The sugar on top is optional, but it helps gives the top a bit of a crunch which is a nice contrast to the super soft fruity sponge. Like with the Strawberry Cake the fruit sinks into the batter and using frozen berries helps them to keep their shape rather than dissolving. Not muchos pretty, but muchos tasty. 

This one's going in the book. 

Raspberry Orange Almond Cake

Weigh three large eggs, still in their shells. Whatever they weigh, use this as your measurement for the butter, sugar and almond/flour combination. My eggs weighed in at 155g, so my recipe is as follows (obviously, yours will be different depending on your egg weight)

3 large eggs

155g butter, at room temp

155g caster sugar + 2 tbsp for dusting top of cake

155g ground almonds and self raising flour mixed together (two thirds ground almonds, one third flour)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 2 oranges

Large handful of frozen raspberries (frozen hold their shape better, but you can use unfrozen) 

Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 200C. Cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add eggs one by one. Add zest and vanilla extract. Add ground almonds and flour. Beat until just combined. Pour into lined baking tin. Place raspberries over the top of the batter. Sprinkle the top with 2 tbsp caster sugar. Bake for 25-30 mins, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10/15 mins then turn on to a rack. Serve with creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream. Nom.

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Courgette Carbonara

Here's yet another quickie. I rustled up this vegetarian take on spaghetti carbonara a few weeks ago during one of my huge carb cravings. Again, it's a really simple dish but really tasty. I made quite a low-fat version but you could podge it up a bit by swapping the creme fraiche for single cream. And of course  by adding bacon. But honestly, for a speedy lunch, this simple dish satisfies. I adore a classic carbonara (and I promise to post my easy peasy fool proof method the next time I make it) but this is a lighter take on it, still rich and silky but not too guilt inducing. 

Courgette Carbonara

For 2. Ish.

(Once again, I can't give you exact quantities of ingredients - I just went on instinct and chucked stuff in.)

Spaghetti, enough for two
Large courgette (or two small) grated
Glug olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
One egg
Large handful grated parmesan
Dollop creme fraiche (I used low-fat, ho hum)
Big pinch ground black pepper

- Put the spaghetti on to cook in well salted water.

- Gently saute the courgette and garlic in olive oil. Don't brown it, just soften a little. Stop before it gets mushy.

- In a small bowl, combine the egg, parmesan, creme fraiche and pepper.

- When the pasta is cooked, add it to the courgette pan and pour on the sauce. With heat on very low, stir it all together for 1 minute, then turn off the heat (before it turns to scrambled egg) and serve.

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Speedy Supper: Chorizo and Black Olive Spaghetti

Another quickie post. This pasta dish was a result of one of those uh oh, the cupboards are bare moments. Husband was away and I hadn't done any shopping that week because I can never be bothered to think about cooking when he's not around. But I was suddenly ravenous. I needed food and I needed a lot of it. Occasionally I get carb cravings so deep and intense I just can't fight them. I have to give in immediately and cook a huge pan of pasta and scoff the lot. Usually straight from the pot, I'm not proud to say. So I put on some spaghetti and hunted for something to go with it. Jar of pasta sauce? No. Pot of pesto? Nope. Carbonara ingredients? Not even close.

So this happened:

One of my the most successful speedy makeshift dinners I've had in a while. One I'm proud to put on the blog. One I've made again since.

Chorizo and Black Olive Spaghetti

(I can't give you amounts for this because it was more of a 'chuck some stuff in a pan and hope for the best' recipe. Use your best judgement and don't skimp on the olives...)

Spaghetti

Chorizo, finely chopped (I used chorizo slices which I chopped up small) 

Black olives, chopped

Good pinch of chilli flakes

Olive oil, lots of it

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Pinch ground pepper

Fresh basil, chopped

Put spaghetti on to cook in well salted water. 

While it cooks just saute chorizo, olives, garlic and chilli flakes in a few large glugs of good olive oil over a medium heat in a wide bottomed saucepan - I actually used a large frying pan. Saute until the orange oil has been released from the chorizo but don't let the garlic burn. 

Stir in the spaghetti and basil. Serve with another glug of extra virgin olive oil and a big crack of black pepper.

*

It's a good lesson to remember. Simplicity. If your ingredients are good, it only takes a couple of them combined to make a great dish. 

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Blueberry Kiwi Ginger Smoothie

Oh boy. I know. I really know. I've been totally neglecting the blog. Totally. 

I'm sorry. I don't know if anyone cares. But I care. This blog has been good to me and in return I have ignored it. I have good excuses: 1. I got married and 2. I got a job. So, yeah. I've been busy. But I still feel like a lame-o. I've been stockpiling recipes and photos so expect some posts to come. Soon. That's a promise. I even have a pile of unblogged wintery recipes from my Christmas hampers which I will be cracking out now that it's summertime. Ho ho ho.

But in the mean time here's a quickie. We were given a Magic Bullet Blender as a wedding present and I've pretty much used it every day since it arrived. It is amazing. I haven't even explored all the things it can do other than smoothies; soups, pesto, chopped nuts, rubs, dips, cocktails. The list goes on and I can't wait to explore. Mainly I've been making smoothies and here's my favourite:

Frozen fruit is ideal to have on hand for quick smoothies and speedy frozen yoghurts. I usually have a raspberries, blueberries, mango chunks and a bag of mixed berries stashed in the deep freeze. We've been starting our days with a smoothie a lot lately, which is a great way to start the day and you can be infinitely creative with what you throw in the blender. This this one is my favourite and so simple:

Kiwi, Blueberry and Ginger Smoothie

3 Kiwis, peeled and sliced

2 handfuls of frozen blueberries

1 tsp finely grated ginger (I keep mine in the freezer, it's easier to grate)

Apple juice

Bung it all in a blender and top up with apple juice. Blend blend blend. Drink drink drink. 

*

Oh and here's a picture of me and D getting wed. This is the dude who inspired me to get into food and then write a blog about it. I can never thank him enough, but I will continue to try. 

And this is what we ate:

Hell, yeah.

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Live Below The Line - Roundup

As promised, here is my round up of my Live Below The Line week. For 5 days I lived on £1 a day. Why? Because 1.4 billion people around the world live on this amount, and I wanted to join the hundreds of people around the world raising awareness and money to fight extreme poverty.

First order of business. There are only two days left for you to sponsor my Live Below The Line week! Please sponsor if you can. I'm £40 shy of my target, so it won't take much to get me there. Just go here:

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/effiesfoodblog

All money goes to UNICEF. And as a reward for helping me reach my target, here's a medley of my LBL breakfasts. Yum. (not yum)

So.

In no particular order, here's what I noticed during that week:

1. Coffee. I drink a lot of it. It provides a warm, delicious punctuation mark during my day. Great. But grabbing a latte from a coffee shop costs at least £2. Twice my daily budget. Nope. Just a water for me, please.

2. Snacking. I snack a lot. All day long in fact. When I can't snack, I feel... weird. Unsettled. Irritated. Saying 'no' to yourself all day is unpleasant.

3. Porridge. Plain porridge. Made with half milk, half water. Everyday.

4. Some stuff I made, was really quite delicious. Like this chickpea and broccoli cooked in chorizo, garlic and lemon:

Very tasty. Just a handful of ingredients. Quick to make. Cheap. What more can you ask for in dinner?

5. Eating when out and about is not possible. There's no 'I'll just grab a sandwich from Pret...' no, sir. Tupperware was necessary. And a microwave. And frankly, that's no fun. Especially when the contents are as dull as my daily rice and vegetable mush.

6. I work at a restaurant. We get free food. I had to say no to pancakes, burgers, burritos, fajitas, taco salads. That sucked. And made me think, holy cow how lucky am I to get FREE FOOD. EVERY. DAY.

7. On my one night out, I was super conscious of how my friends felt. There was an elephant in the room. Conversation kept going back to my diet, how I felt, could I cheat, etc. It made me feel for my friends with severe food allergies or intolerances. They are always having to say no to food, question ingredients, grill waitresses. For a week it was a pain. For life - that really blows.

8. You know that feeling when you start a diet? The first few days when your stomach is adjusting. It felt like that every day. A bit fluttery in the stomach. Not even hunger, more just a niggling feeling that I needed something. And I did. I needed more nutrients. Millions of people live with this feeling every day.

9. Protein is expensive. A couple of very sweet followers commented that I wasn't getting enough protein in my diet which is why I was feeling unsatisfied and weird. I had the luxury of being able to 'buy' an egg and a piece of chorizo from my fridge but that's just not an option for people who actually live on this little.

10. Flavour is important. Life is flatter, duller, less alive without flavour. It's so basic.

11. I wanted to make the photos look pretty. I'm not sure why. Maybe blog-vanity. Maybe habit. I think I wanted to maintain the tone of my blog, even during the challenge. Because the point is that it is possible to live, to survive, on very little, and ultimately I am very lucky that I only have to live like this for 5 day. I didn't want my blogposts to become maudlin or self-indulgent or self-pitying. Even a bowl of porridge can be pretty when you have an iPhone.

12. Waste. When you have very little, you waste very little. I really noticed how much I would have normally chucked in the bin, unused. The big broccoli stem - chopped it up and used it in the vegetable rice. The outer cabbage leaves that were a bit manky - I would have chucked them normally but they just needed a little sprucing, picking off the brown edges. Using the zest as well as the juice of the lemon on the chickpea dish - I was determined to cram as much flavour into my food as I could, and waste as little food as possible.

13. I don't like having to plan. Don't me wrong. I love planning meals in advance, thinking about ingredients, plotting when to try a new recipe. But I don't like HAVING to plan. I like to be able to stick my head in the fridge and know that there will be enough nice ingredients to cobble together something tasty for dinner. I like being able to call out for chinese. I like being able to nip into a sandwich shop or noodle bar. And the reality is that all of those things I take for granted are a luxury, globally speaking. When you only have this to last you for a week:

...you have to plan. Or you'll end up hungry.

14. The main thing is choice. Not having any. I take for granted the amount of choice I have in my daily life. Choice of what I eat. Where I live. What I do for a job. Education. The clothes I wear. Who I marry. When to have children. Amazingly, I sometimes get annoyed at all that choice, saying it's too hard to make a decision when there are so many options. Isn't that ridiculous, really? Kind of gross.

So, I guess the main thing I've taken away from this challenge is to be more aware of the choice that fate has afforded me. Not just choice regarding what I eat. Everything. And that is something to be humble and grateful for.

I've got it good. Really good. I'm lucky.

Thank you UNICEF, for asking me to be part of this initiative. It has been an honour and I've learnt a lot. Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, sent me a message, left a comment. Thank you for reading and supporting.

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Day 5 - Live Below The Line

Well, folks. We've reached the end of this challenge. It's been fascinating. Hard. Thought provoking. Most of all, deeply humbling. Thank you all for reading, for your encouraging comments and messages, and for sponsoring me on this week. Thank you UNICEF for asking me to be participate and blog about the Live Below The Line initiative. I've learned a lot and I'm proud to have been part of it.

For my final Live Below The Line meal I made a (relative) feast with the remains of my shopping (see below) It was actually quite delicious. I now feel pretty nourished, probably because I have had at least 3 of my five a day for the first time this week. 

Tomorrow I can eat anything I want. 

I wish I could say I was looking forward to that. But I'm not really. Well, I mean, of course I am (oh, my good god I want a bacon sandwich so bad) but a part of me is feeling bad about no longer sticking to the plan. It's only been five days but I've started to acclimatise. I believe my stomach has shrunk, and I noticed this morning that my palate is shocked by how sweet my morning orange is - I guess because of the total lack of sugar in my diet. And there is something satisfying about the rigor of sticking to these rules. But. Tomorrow the challenge is over and I can proudly say that I managed to stick to the rules at most of the time. 

Now. Knowing that I have an annoyingly busy weekend ahead of me, long shifts and hectic days, I am going to get an early night. I plan to do one more post - a round up of my experience this week - before returning to our regular programming. Until then...

This is what I ate today:

Breakfast: My old favourite, plain porridge, an orange, hot water with lemon.

Lunch: None (busy busy, naughty Effie) just a cup of illegal coffee made for me by a friend.

Dinner: Rice combined with the leftover chickpeas from wednesday and a stock cube dissolved in 1/4 cup of water, sauteed cabbage with garlic and chilli flakes, broccoli and carrots with lemon zest.

Looks pretty tasty right?

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