Experimenting with artichokes

One of my favourite winter soups is jerusalem artichoke soup. It has an irresistable flavour that stands on its own. However tonight I experimented with another vegetable with amazing flavour - the globe artichoke. Although they have similar names the two plants are quite different. The jerusalem artichoke is a tuber and the globe artichoke is a thistle.  

It was the first time I've ever cooked a globe artichoke so I wasn't sure what to do. Luckily the internet is brimming over with useful tips for artichoke novices like me. There are videos for cleaning, cooking (chose your style) and even for eating them.

I chose the simple boiling method and served it on a bed of lemon and olive oil tossed fettucine with a tomato, almond,onion and mushroom sauce. The tomato sauce wasn't quite thick enough so I need to work on that but the flavours worked well.

At the start of week three my healthy change of diet is working well. I'm starting to lose some weight and I'm not craving those orange and poppy seed muffins. Spring is in the air so I'm starting to walk a bit more. It's amazing what difference a blue sky makes.

Savoury breakfast recipe - Aromatic Porridge

For the first week of my new routine I cut out sugar and yeast. I'm cutting out yeast for a couple of weeks as I've had yeast intolerance in the past, so its just to give my body a break. For the second week, which starts tomorrow I'm cutting down on fat intake more strictly too. I can still eat some fresh fruit but no berries. This left me with the question what can I eat for breakfast?

This morning I decided to cook porridge. I usually sprinkle it with a little brown sugar however that is definitely off my list so I decided to experiment and go for a more savoury flavour. For the last minute of cooking my oats in low fat milk I added in a quarter of a teaspoon of garam masala powder. Then I added a handful of bran and some slices of fresh pear.  This made a really hearty very savoury breakfast. The recipe isn't perfect yet. There was an element of the garam masala I used that was a little dry. However I'm happily on the right track. Here is a yeast, sugar and low fat breakfast that is absolutely scrumptious.

For the first time all week my weight is down, but only very slightly. Fingers crossed the loss continues.

I can't fit into my jeans!

How could it happen? In my twenties and early thirties I was the same weight. However in my late thirties and early forties the weight has crept on. A little bit more every year and now I can't fit into my jeans. I've decided that it's time to take action and to do something about it. The purpose of this blog is to find a way to get fit and healthy again without sacrificing delicious food and without going hungry.