Super soup and sensational salad

Day two of being snowed in at the Wilson household and I’m just going with the flow. James was on his day off so we went and dug my car out and moved it closer to the main road, hopefully I’ll be able to get out and about tomorrow!

I started my day with Davina’s Superbody DVD, the 40 minute Super Sculpt workout with the additional 10 minutes of upper body training. I really enjoyed getting a bit of a sweat on! Breakfast was a Chocolate Cherry Green Monster containing black kale with stalks removed, frozen cherries, scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, ground flax and nut mix and oat milk. I topped it with some Dorset Cereal Nutty Muesli and flaked almonds.

I was asked in the comments to my last post where I get my kale from. It is rather hard to find I think. This kale was in my organic veg box. I know that Sainsbury's sell a bag of chopped curly kale but I don’t like it as I prefer getting the whole leaves. At the moment they are selling Taste the Difference Cavolo Nero which is lovely. I also think Waitrose may sell some kale too. Unfortunately all the green grocers and markets I go to don’t seem to have it either. Kale is such a nutritious food – hence why its so great being blended raw in smoothies, baked in the oven for kale chips and steamed or sautéed. If you like kale where do you get yours from? What’s your favourite way to eat kale?

For lunch I made a really tasty warm salad:

Warm Shredded Brussel Sprout and Roasted Pumpkin Salad with Pearl Barley, Feta and Cranberries (serves 1 hungry person)

• 1 1/2 – 2 cups of shredded brussel sprouts (I chopped mine using my food processor)
• 1 cup of roasted pumpkin or squash
• 1/2 cup of cooked pearl barley
• Approx 50g of feta, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon of dried cranberries

For the dressing:

• 1/2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

Begin by lightly stir frying the shredded sprouts in a little olive oil over a medium high heat. Add the pumpkin and pearl barley and continue to stir fry until warmed through. Add the feta and cranberries then transfer to a bowl, pour over the dressing and toss. Serve.

 

This was lovely, all the flavours worked so well together. I had been inspired by various shredded sprouts salads seen in the blog world recently including these recipes from Mama Pea and Shutterbean. When a big stalk of sprouts turned up in my organic veg box I knew I had to give a shredded sprout salad a try! I finished my meal with three sliced kiwis:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a slice of my delicious Spiced Apple and Parsnip Bread with a Butterscotch decaf coffee.

Dinner was a bowl of really gorgeous Carrot, Ginger and Orange Soup:

Carrot, Ginger and Orange Soup (makes two large servings)

• 1 fat yellow onion, finely chopped
• 5 large carrots, washed and chopped
• Hot vegetable stock (I use hot water and 2 teaspoons of vegetable bouillon)
• Approx 2 inch piece of root ginger grated to give 1 tablespoon of minced ginger
• 1 orange – juiced and then 1 teaspoon of zest

Fry the onion in some olive oil on a medium heat until transparent. Add the carrots and ginger and fry for a minute before covering them with hot vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until the carrots are very tender. Remove from the heat and blend using a hand or jug blender until smooth and creamy. Add the orange juice and zest. Place back on the stove to warm through then serve.

I topped mine with a sprinkling of mixed seeds. This is an awesome soup - very tasty, low in calories, low in fat and high in vitamins. It tastes like it should have been far more difficult to make but its so easy. Just perfect for this time of year. It should also freeze really well.

I also had two sliced organic apples and some Amaretto chocolate:

My tummy is happy :-)

So wish me luck for tomorrow everyone, I hate to go on about the snow but it is seriously effecting my life right now. I would like to get to the gym tomorrow for a treadmill run but if that doesn’t happen then I’m going try out a couple of old DVD’s or James rowing machine. I don’t like relying on DVD’s for a good cardio workout as they never seem to get my sweat on like the gym equipment or a run, but needs must!

I can also barely believe that its 1st December tomorrow, I can not wait for Christmas! James got the decorations down from the loft today but we need to be a bit more creative this year as we don’t have the space for a full sized tree. As long as I have lots of candles and fairy lights I’m a happy girl. When do you put your decorations up?