Last week wasn’t a great week for Operation: Shrink Butt. With the wedding and all the trillions of things you need to do for preparing, not to mention the copious catch ups with friends I hadn’t seen for years meant… a whole lot of eating and drinking the wrong things.. I finished up the weekend feeling like a toxic, dehydrated blown up version of how I began the week!

Never mind, this week was back on track. I upped the water each day, increased some gentle exercise (walking and some light weights) and most importantly made up lots of colourful salads to eat!

Now I’m not usually a fan of salad. I am, in fact, a self proclaimed salad dodger!! BUT I’ve come up with some yummy varieties of salad that actually taste like a real meal. Full of flavour and substantial!!

Here’s some of my favourites that I turned to this week to make me feel healthy and wholesome..:

Spinach & Strawberry Salad
Baby Spinach
Strawberries
Cucumbers sliced and quartered
2 Tbsp Currants
1 Tbsp Coconut flakes (optional)
4 thin slices of chorizo dry fried & cut into tiny pieces (yum)
1 rasher of prosciutto also dry fried then broken up
1Tbsp Sunflower seeds
1 heaped Tbsp Slivered almonds
Drizzle with balsamic & serve

 

In this next one, I actually used ingredients I had grown in our very own veggie patch! Yay us!

Veggie Patch Salad
6 Asparagus
1 red onion chopped up
2 zucchini sliced up

Spray fry pan with a little coconut oil
Then fry onion until brown
Add Asparagus and fry till softish
Add Zucchini and fry until softish
While still on heat, sprinkle a little balsamic and a tiny bit of honey to caramelise. Toss around fry pan quickly and then serve either hot as a side dish or cold spread over a plate of rocket or baby spinach! (You could also use capsicum, carrot or whatever else you have handy – even left over roast veggies would be great)

Some other ingredients you can add to salads to “yummify” them..

Crushed pistachios
Marinated olives
Marinated or fresh feta cheese
Mango pieces
Apple slices
Pomegranate chunks
Marinated onions or picked onions
Pickled walnuts (yum)
Pickled chillies
Fresh mint
Fresh coriander
Lychees (canned or fresh)
Diced pumpkin cooked in a baking dish with a drizzle of balsamic (My Sister in law Kendall taught me this one & it’s great!)
Fennel seeds or sesame seeds

I love adding new ingredients to my salad of a baby spinach base. Sometimes it’s a bit too much and the combination doesn’t taste great, but just sometimes you can come up with a winning combination that’s fun to make and delicious to eat!

 

Yummy stuffed capsicums

2 capsicum (any colour)
1 Tbsp of light cheese
A little bit of Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top before cooking
Enough Tomato paste to cover all the veggies well
Chopped vegetables – I love zucchini and capsicum and a little bit of asparagus, corn, pumpkin

Cut the top of the capsicum and pull out all the seeds and centre
In a bowl combine all the chopped veggies (cut them nice and small so they cook quickly)
Add the cheese, the tomato paste (as much or as little as you want) and stir until well mixed into the paste.
Using a spoon or your hands! Full the capsicum shells and then sprinkle the filled shells with a bit of Parmesan cheese.
Put on a baking tray in the oven at 200 degrees for about 25-30mins until they look cooked through and soft!
Enjoy on their own or as part of a meal!
Yum!