Bolognese sauce

It’s mother’s group day today!  I do look forward to this each fortnight.  It’s just a few of us with our girls chatting, gossiping and of course, food is always involved.

I had a mince pie, a Vol au Vont, and a small slice of cake (I must say Charlotte had most of the cake).  She loves her food, just like mummy.  Whenever she sees me eating, she would come crawling, and today she was saying mum mum mum mum (not as in mummy though, as in mum mum food) as she was racing towards me and my plate, it was so cute.

I made bolognese sauce for dinner tonight.  I added tons of vegies and white wine.  I love adding red or white wine to my bolognese nowadays, it gives the sauce a much richer taste and changes a jar bolognese completely.

Yes, I do use jar bolognese sauces, only good quality ones though.  I remember once using the Ragu pasta sauce, it was so…. bland, and the sauce just had a funny taste, we ended up chucking it all in the end.

In terms of which wine I choose?  It all depends on what I have at home, as long as it’s dry.  I usually add other stuff to the sauce, like extra tomato paste, herbs like basil and/or parsley.  Tonight it was both.

I cook the sauce for as long as I could too, usually for about one to two hours.  I used to think that bolognese is a quick meal, you come home late from work and throw it together quickly for dinner.

That’s not to say you can’t still do that.  But after watching an episode on Celebrity Masterchef Australia, and Gary commented that he likes to let the sauce cook for a long time to develop the flavour, I did it one afternoon.  I must say I am really glad I put in that extra efford.  It added different depths to the flavour, everything mellowed out, you don’t taste any harsh flavour, yum….  If you have time, give it  go, you don’t have to do too much once everything is added, just let it simmer on the stove and stir it occasionally.

Haloumi haloumi I want haloumi

I woke up this morning and remembered about my healthy plan and this blog. I thought to myself, mhmm… Yes, I have to be good today.

Big bowl of cereal with milk and blueberries, good start.

At work, as usual there were plenty of temptations. A client had brought in two HUGE tins of home made melting moments. I’ll have to fight this!

And I did!

Hopefully they’ll be gone by the time I go back to work on Thursday.

I tried to choose healthy snack through the day but I am constantly hungry. I guess it will take time for my stomach to shrink down.

I am craving haloumi. I might make a haloumi and chorizo salad for dinner. I know it’s probably not the healthiest choice but I’ve still got to enjoy my food. At least I am having it as a salad.

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken

Tonight’s dinner is from a recipe a colleague gave me.

Baked honey mustard chicken, with an interesting twist. It has curry powder in it. This combination might sound strange, but intriguing too. It sounded really easy so I thought I would try it.

It turned out to be absolutely delicious, sticky, tasty with a subtle curry flavour.  I served it with a big bed of salad and small mound of rice.

Half way through dinner, A said, “Should we be having 2 thighs each?”  Don’t know, but I am probably 3/4 full now when dinner is finished, so I think that’s about right.

Now off to the study for 30mins on the cross trainer.

 

 

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Recipe

1/3 cup wholegrain mustard

1/2 cup honey

1 tblsp curry powder

1 tblsp olive oil

6 chicken thigh cutlets

Combine mustard, honey, curry powder and oil in a large bowl. Add chicken and mix well to coat.  (I amarinated the chicken overnight to get maximum flavour)

Cook uncovered in oven (180) for about 40 minutes, basting occasionally during cooking.

Serve with salad and rice/potato.

 

 

The Start

Ok, I’ve decided to get healthy.

It’s time.

I have overindulged recently and since the birth of Charlotte a year ago, I am definitely now in the OBESE band according to my BMI.

I enjoy my food too much though.  So I thought the easiest way would be to cut out the junk food and enjoy quality food, in smaller quantity.

I will try to cook yummy and healthy meals more often.

To keep me motivated I will try to blog the food I eat each day.  Hopefully this way I’ll remember the good meals so I can cook them again.  That used to be a major problem, come each night not knowing what to cook and end up cooking the same dishes over and over again or worse…. resorting to takeaways.

Of course, I’ll try to do more exercise to, that won’t be hard, increasing from no exercise at all….

Here goes….