Becoming Accountable

Welcome world

So, when I got back into blogging back in November I had this image of spending my evenings tapping away at my keyboard with a cup of tea, or quite possibly a glass of wine, and writing a new post every day full of beautiful pictures, intriguing recipes and witty stories from my day.

Well as we can all see that most certainly didn't happen. I found myself remaking the same recipes that I had already written about, losing and then breaking my camera, electronica have an alarmingly short life span around me, and having few if any amusing anectdotes to write about. Since this is more or les just me rambling to myself I had no one to hold me accountable for my extreme lack of posting and yet again this blog slipped into the background. Sure I posted the odd recipe but those were mainly ones I had written up ahead of time and just forgotten to post. This last week however I've been trying to become a bit more organised in my life in general and hold myself a bit more accountable for my actions. This started, as most things in my life do, in the kitchen when I realised just how much money I spend on food and how much of it seems to not get eaten.

I hate wasting food and as a student I really can't afford to so this week I decided to actually plan my meals ahead of time and only order exactly what I needed for the next week and a bits worth of meals. This also seemed like the perfect time to tackle my unfortunate tendancy to cook enough for a small army and then eat all of it. I mentioned in an early post that I was trying to lose some weight and get into shape  however I've now accepted that this is never going to happen if i carry on eating for a team rather than a person. This being the case I headed to the internet to find out a) how much I should be eating a day for someone of my size and b) what food keeps well in the freezer (leaving enough to freeze has been a somewhat novel experience or me).

So last thursday (the 19th) a sat down and planned out all of my meals for the week working out exactly how much of each thing I needed to order and how long they would keep in the fridge. Unsurprisingly my shop was quite a bit cheaper than it is and surprisingly I've found that I've not been left feeling hungry when following the suggest serving sizes.

So here's the plan. I'm going to aim to put a short post up each day for the rest of this meal planning challenge including the recipes and portion sizes in an effort to try and make myself stick to it and in case any of the recipes are things you want to try. Each days worth of food comes in at or under 1500 calories (who knew calorie counting was still a thing) not that I count calories but I initially started logging my meals on MyFitnessPal which gives you all the nutritional information about your food.

So theres the plan. I'm also going to put up the recipes from earlier in the week, I've tried not to repeat anything during the week though I haven't been 100% succesful.

Until next time
Ellie xXx

P.S. whilst pictures do make everything more exciting I am currently without camera and the camera on my phone has a bit of a mind of its own so pictures will have to come later I'm afraid

E x

Halloumi and Red Onion salad #StudentsCanCook

Welcome World

I live with two guys and have spent the last few months being told that a salad is not a meal. Now by salad I think they mean lettuce with some dressing and if you're hungry that probably wouldn't fill you up. When I thin salad though I tend to go Ceasar Salad or Pasta salad or my current favourite, Halloumi and Red Onion. It filling and flavoursome and requires negligible amounts of actual cooking, all you need to do is grill the slices of halloumi. I will quite often have this as a quick lunch if I pop home between lectures.

Ingredients:

• Baby leaf salad
• Red Pepper, sliced into batons
• Red Onion, sliced
• Garlic Croutons - I like to make my own and keep them in a bag in the cupboard for using on salads
• Halloumi cheese
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Slice the halloumi into slices about 1/2cm thick and drizzle the halloumi with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper on both sides and stick the halloumi under the grill allowing it to brown on each side, flip it over half way through so both sides cook evenly. The second side will cook much faster than the first.
2. Chop the halloumi into cubes and put to one side. On a plate/in a bowl put your salad leaves, red onion and red pepper and drizzle them with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. toss the salad so it is evenly dressed
3. Put the croutons and halloumi on top of your salad  

Ta Da you have a quick and healthy lunch. If you want to take this with you as a lunch to have on the go mix the oil and lemon dressing in a small pot and put it on just before you eat to stop your salad going soggy.


 Until next time
Ellie x