Monday cook up

What a productive day! My teen needed to get to Tweed by 9:15am for her driving lesson, so I used that spare hour to do a bulk grocery shop with hubby and bubby. When home, I also managed to fold several loads of washing and properly put most away, do 2 of the 3 loads of washing that was piling up after the weekend, vac the kitchen/ dining, clean the fish tank, and of course, cook. I started with zucchini slice... 

I grated 6 smallish zucchinis this time. It made mixing hard so I had to up-size the mixing bowl. For the recipe, check out here.

The result, perfect for snacks and suitable to freeze. It makes 15 squares of low carb, nutrient dense yumminess.

I made a large batch of protein balls for hubby today. I ended up with 24, or 12 days supply. For the recipe, click here. The only difference is the quantities, and this time, I added coconut oil to the mix.

My non teen is off to Japan tomorrow, so tonight was a simple family dinner farewell. I made up a beetroot dip and tweaked the original recipe a bit. The new recipe is...

2 smallish beetroot, scrubbed, trimmed (not peeled) and roughly chopped

3 spring onions

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

1/4 cup raw almonds

tablespoon of sunflower seeds

chunk of parmeson cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of half a lemon

1 tblspn apple cider vinegar

1 heaped tblspn dijon mustard

salt & pepper

Blitz. 

Yum!

I also made my standard spinach pesto. See here for recipe. I didn't make it in the magic bullet this time, I used the larger processor, and I added more spinach, some spring onion instead of garlic and a small amount of fresh herbs as I have been a little too enthusiastic with my herb wall and need to let it regrow :)

A layout of simple foods for dinner: olive oil bread, zucchini slice, chorizo salami bites, marinated peppers, cheese bites, stuffed olives, veggie sticks, salmon roll-ups, dip and pesto.  

My first serve. What doesn't look like a lot of food ends up becoming a very filling meal. Small bite sized foods are my temptation. Because they are little bites, I tell myself I can eat more. So much regret now! But oh so yumm!

Tomorrow, we start the countdown again. There are over 40 days til Christmas. I am going to countdown each day with, at the very least, a list of what I have been eating, cooking the family for dinner, and adding weekly weigh-ins. I want to not only get my health back, but be fabulously gorgeous for the new year. That means- NO SUGAR or JUNK FOOD, healthier family choices, and maybe, just maybe, a healthier menu for this family Christmas. Any ideas or blog suggestions welcome. I will be scouring the net looking for ideas too.

That is your lot for today. Until tomorrow, thanks for reading :)