Lovely medium raw fillet steak on a bed of spicy veg. Looks like a massive plate. I had no trouble finishing it off.

I feel a little bit guilty, we just discussed this week at work what a burden to environment beef is. Our company has nothing to with food unfortunately, but the topic came up as Barry who looks after our environmental agenda presented some numbers and suggested that we stop serving beef in our canteen. Not entirely unexpectedly to anyone apart from maybe Barry his proposal didn't go down well with the audience mainly consisting of middle-aged Yorkshire men who recognise three food groups: pork, beef and gravy. (I know I'm being prejudiced and unfair, I actually know a vegetarian Yorkshire man, young Adam from work and it is entirely possible there are others.) In the debate I supported Barry perhaps slightly hypocritically considering my secret steak habit and the fact that I don't eat in the canteen because I'm based in our Southern office. But opposition was fierce. The main reason for this tended to be "I like beef". Fair enough.

But stats are very much supporting poor heckled Barry, I hope it's safe for him to return to work soon. According to him 26% of all greenhouse gases come from food production, and about half of that from beef. If you disagree with the numbers talk to Barry, but I had a quick look and although there are lots of estimates out there, whatever numbers you go by the fact remains, beef is quite a culprit.

So I am going to improve my ways and do some vegetarian cooking tomorrow. I am planning to do some chickpea and hummus patties for which I prepared this nice light hummus already.

But I did pop into Waitrose and got two venison steaks so as not to make this move too cold turkey-like. I think deer are less farty than cows, just by looking at their physique you can kind of make this conclusion, so they probably burden the environment less than their more flatulent domesticated cousins. And one can't very well be expected to eat chickpea burgers all the time, can one?

Gorgeous Scottish venison with broccoli, asparagus and a salad.

My Friday night dinner date with Jamie Oliver - unfortunately we disagreed about mackerel.

So today I made this lovely light hummus. This (and the steaks) are all part of my convoluted new lifestyle which aims to invigorate  my sad middle-aged metabolism and get rid of some excess belly blubber. Included is a menu of lots of protein, complex carbs, fibre, controlled amounts of fat and thus sadly very little cheese, apart from cottage cheese which is not really cheese.

And combined with my new HIIT exercise regime I can already see a little change and scales confirm a loss of about 4.5 pounds or 2 kilos. And I can do a set of shitty commando planks without wanting to strangle Emi Wong, one of my youtube trainers.

And back to the hummus. Even compared to my best ever silky-smooth hummus with lots of tahini this lower fat version is really tasty. For this version I didn't peel the chickpeas because I thought this way it probably has more fibre in it. I have no evidence of this. But I have first hand evidence and can testify in court that peeling them is boring as hell. I used good quality chickpeas (a glass jar = good quality in my world), so the hummus was still really smooth and velvety. I didn't add any oil at all and only one not too heaped tablespoon of tahini. One day when I am industrious enough I will do them both and taste test them side by side.

But I can recommend this on it's own. And I will tell you how it works in the hummus and chickpea burgers once I get to them.

Best ever low calorie hummus

Calories in the entire pot 360 kCal, fat 15g

200g of drained chickpeas and some of the liquid
1 level tbsp of tahini
1/2 clove of garlic
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp cumin
Salt

Grate the garlic and add all ingredients in the mixer. Mix well, check the taste and add more salt or lemon if necessary.

The last meal of our French week was an adult and sophisticated (kids had been taken to their train) candlelit Sunday dinner of Ratatouille and Pissaladiere.

Everyone I suppose knows Ratatouille made famous by a French rodent with a love of cooking. The lesser known of my dishes Pissaladiere, which has nothing to do with men's toilets, is a tart topped with onions, anchovies and olives. It is a sort of a Provencal version of pizza I suppose. Provence neighbours Italy, so no wonder they share similar ideas and tastes.

Olives should be black - otherwise a very authentic effort!

I thought I would love the pissaladiere and almost didn't bother with the ratatouille. I thought basically it's just a mush of soggy and watery vegetables in tomato sauce. I think had too many bad versions during my veggie days. But I thought there must be something to it, because it's so famous. Maybe done by someone with obvious and abundant talent like Remy or myself it would be a great dish. And I was right, it was awesome.

I was disappointed with the Pissaladiere though. I think it probably would have needed a generous helping of cheese on top and maybe the base should be thinner. Oops, sounds like pizza.

Ratatouille recipe (serves 2)

Oil
1 yellow onion
1 clove of garlic
1 red pepper
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil
3 tomatoes
1/2 vegetable stock cube / stock pot
salt and pepper
1 small aubergine
1 small courgette
Pinch of saffron (optional but definitely recommended)

Heat oil in a pan. Chop the onion and cut the red pepper into 1.5 cm squares. Add to pan a cook on low to medium heat for 5 minutes. Mince the garlic and add to the pan. Continue to fry until the vegetables start to soften. Add the chopped fresh herbs and the chopped tomatoes. Cover the pan and let simmer until tomatoes have softened and given out their liquid.

Cube the aubergine and courgette into about 1.5 cm cubes Add to pan. Crush the saffron fronds in pestle and mortar and add. Season with salt and pepper.

Simmer covered on low heat for about half an hour. If there is too much liquid remove the cover towards the end and let the excess evaporate. It should be thick not soupy. Check seasoning. Garnish with fresh basil and serve with crusty fresh bread.

Here's another healthy manproof weeknight dinner. Whenever cooking healthy foods for husband I have to make sure it's also filling. I am quite happy with a bowl of tomato soup, but husband needs something a bit more substantial. Something that can't be classed as girl food, this is particularly important for vegetarian or vegan foods, which in his head are inherently unmanly. Beans are great in this respect because cowboys eat them too.


This bean soup is cheap, healthy, quick, easy, comforting and filling. What else do you want?? Oh, yes. It's also very tasty. For maximum taste you would probably want to cook your own beans and get some flavour into the beans at that stage already. I used canned beans, but will improve my slothful ways and start soaking and cooking my own beans. God knows I have enough bags of dried beans and other legumes of all kinds in the cupboard to take us through an average length war.

I made this soup last night quickly after work before heading out to meet our next feline lodger. My colleague is going away for a couple of weeks at the end of September so I have said we'll look after her cat, Samuel.

Initially I went a bit over the top with garlic. I thought it's not possible to have too much garlic. It is! So I had to add a bit of this and that to dilute down the garlic a little. I chucked in a handful of parsley also in the hope of toning down the garlic. End result tasted good and there was lots of it. Below the amounts I should have used and will next time around.

The soup was ready on the stove for husband for when he got home from work and I went to meet Samuel, who is a very cute little boy. We bonded over some Dreamies tuna snacks and had a little cuddle already. (Treats and cuddles are part of the deal in our all-inclusive luxury cattery.) He will come for a two-night practice stay this weekend to get to know us both better and check the amenities before his 2 week stay next month. That's a long time for a little boy to be away from his mummy.

Rustic Tuscan bean soup recipe (serves 2)

Oil
1 small onion
1/2 leek
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or sage)
1/2 courgette (optional, I only added this because I had some lying around)
400g can of chopped tomatoes
1.5 cups of vegetable stock
Salt
Pepper
300g mixed beans (I had cannellini, kidney and pinto)

Chop the onion, leek, celery and carrot. Heat the oil, add the chopped vegetables and sauté gently for up to 10 minutes until vegetables start to soften. Mince the garlic, chop the herbs, add to the pan and cook for another minute or two.

Add the tomatoes,stock, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the courgette and simmer for another 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the beans and heat through. Check seasoning and sprinkle some fresh herbs on top. Serve with a thick slice of warm home-baked crusty bread,



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Last week I didn't cook a lot. It was a super busy week at work. Husband was also working late, so there was a skipped dinner and a couple of nights of leftovers during the week, so most of the plan was abandoned.

I did the super healthy salmon patties. They are quick, tasty and fulfilling and will appear on the menu again soon.


Friday I didn't have time to go to fishmongers, so it was supermarket seabass fillets stuffed with cherry tomatoes, basil and spring onions and baked with some broccoli and asparagus on the side. They were lovely and again it was a very healthy meal. I made a side of Zoodles, because it is an important food trend to get amongst. They turned out reasonably ugly because I don't have a spiraller. And they need other kinds of fine tuning as well, so not worth a blog post just yet.

Saturday the weather was lovely so instead of my baked chicken with orzo and rice I barbecued the chicken legs and served with a lemony rice and orzo pilaf with was amazing. Try it or be sorry. Make sure you add lots of herbs though, that's what makes the dish.


And Sunday was our wedding anniversary, so I had booked Gordon Ramsay's Maze for dinner, which was spectacular. We don't often eat out, and when we do it's usually nothing fancy, so this was a real treat. And luckily we had a voucher because the bill came to an eye-watering £200+.

I don't think it's right to spend that amount of money in one meal for two people, it's just excessive and wrong. So if anyone has vouchers and feels wrong about it you can send them to me and I'll dispose of them in an ethical manner.

Our modest meal at Maze

This week we'll continue with husband's belly busting health kick which suffered a bit of a setback in the hands of Gordon Ramsay. So we'll be healthy and restrained all week, but in the weekend I will feed him well, say what you will.

Meal Plan for the week

Monday                Saturday's leftover chicken and rice
Tuesday                Tuscan bean soup
Wednesday           Pan fried trout fillets
Thursday              Chicken, leek and vegetable soup stew or leftover Tuscan Soup
#fishfriday            Grilled grouper          
Saturday               My awesome BBQ moose burgers
Sunday                 Paella Valencia

I am sharing my plan with Mrs M - come and see what else is cooking!

I try to generally eat and cook healthy food. I actually like healthy things like vegetables and fish, salads, soups and rye bread. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, I can have chocolate in the house and I don't immediately need to scoff it all. I also don't like anything deep fried, believe it or not.


I have a bit of a cheese habit though, the harder and fattier the better, gouda, gruyere, emmental, cheddar, edam, manchego... And if you combine it with potatoes somehow or melt it on top of anything, that's me done for. Sometimes I just melt some in the microwave on a plate if I can't think of anything else to put under it. Kind of a quick fondue.

Ok back to the story about my healthy eating habits.

I went through a bit of a crazy time in my late teens when I'd just had enough of years and years of my brothers' oh so funny jokes about my weight. I was always normal weight, but unfortunately the benchmark was my scrawny little sister, the bone bag. When we played Monopoly one of us was a banker. I often wanted to be. I was allowed, if they got to call me the Bank Lardo. If my sister wanted to be banker they'd call her the Bank Moose (she has a bit of a long face). Nice.

At least I could do something about my alleged fat whereas my poor sister was stuck with the long face (she later grew into her face and turned out a beautiful lady).

So to shut them the fuck up I pretty much stopped eating for about 6 months. So that wasn't so healthy. My periods stopped and my parents got very worried. Mum made the school nurse spy on me to make sure I ate something during lunch. And when of course I didn't, the sneaky bitch told my mother. I got over it luckily with no physical or (obvious) mental harm and my brothers shut up about my weight after that. Not because of compassion or kindness, but because even on their scale (!) there was no fat left to joke about.

So anyway ever since then I've been a bit paranoid about putting on weight. Having a reasonably healthy diet and trying to squeeze in a couple of runs (they are jogs really, or limping around with sciatica at the moment, but running just sounds much more impressive) a week seems to be working for me as a balanced way of life. The thing is when you're past your peak in terms of collagen production a few extra pounds actually work in your favour. Facially. Butt wise not so much.

As a wise friend once said, at this age the choice must be made [between butt and face].

But nowadays an added reason to cook healthy food is husband who has an absolutely shit genetic build. He is already on blood pressure medication and I stalk him with a blood pressure mojito - oops autocorrect, I wish there was a blood pressure mojito, it sounds a lot more fun than a monitor which of course is what I stalk him with. For his cholesterol I feed him Benecol spread and yoghurts, and I've switched to a low sodium salt and keep the salt level reasonably low. Although I think if you don't put enough salt you might as well not eat at all.

Nevertheless husband has developed a bit of a belly in my loving care and also maybe over the summer holidays in my mother's loving care. Not much and he exercises a lot, so it is not getting out of control. But to respect his wish to try to slimline the belly a bit I have been even more healthy than normal this week and cooked very light dinners for us. Although then after a very light and healthy dinner he may require a bowl of custard.

Instead of pan-fried fish cakes with potato mash and bread crumbs, which of course are yummy and not particularly unhealthy, I made equally lovely but even more healthy, maybe more burgery than cakey salmon patties with no carbs. Not that I think carbs are particularly bad, good carbs are a great source of energy and fibre, and I am not an advocate for the Atkins diet at all. That diet would definitely kill my husband in no time. So there's an idea for anyone, who's maybe less happily married, a couple of recent real life examples spring to mind, the Scandalous Lady W and the Dutchess. I have been in period drama land lately. Not very happy girls those two. Lovely dresses and jewellery clearly don't make up for an arse for a husband. But rather than eloping with weaselly men who chicken out at the critical moment, the way out of the unhappy marriages might have been bacon and eggs.

Insanely healthy Salmon fishcakes recipe (makes 4) 

440g (4 fillets) salmon
zest of a lemon
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
2-3 spring onions
salt
lemon pepper
dash of Tabasco or small amount of fresh chopped chilli

Heat the oven to 200C. Chop the salmon. Chop the onion finely. Mix all the ingredients together. If you have time leave in the fridge a while for the flavours to develop, but you can also cook immediately. Form into four patties, place in a lightly greased oven dish. Bake for about 10 minutes, flip over and bake for another 10 minutes. Mine weren't getting any colour so I turned the grill on for the last 5 minutes to brown them a little.