What's for dinner? #2

Here's the second instalment of What's For Dinner! This time I loosely followed a recipe and it's a great meal for a family, or a dish that can last a few nights.

Pumpkin & Ginger Pasta Bake

This was a recipe I tweaked from the internet in an attempt to not waste any of my pumpkin from the
Halloween carving. A delicious pasta dish, with no cheese! Of course you could add cheese if you wanted to.

Ingredients:
12 oz wholewheat pasta
15 oz pure pumpkin, either fresh or canned
1-2 medium onions, diced
2 garlic cloves, either crushed or chopped finely
1/2 courgette, chopped width-ways into circles and then cut into quarters
1/2 cup water, kept after boiling the pasta
A small amount of ginger, grated - a little goes a long way!




Recipe:
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
Boil pasta for it's allotted time minus two minutes. While the pasta is cooking, sauté the the onions and garlic until soft with a little oil (I use the one calorie spray). Once the onions and garlic is soft, add the courgette and sauté further. Add the pumpkin into the frying pan, and toss all the ingredients together in the pan for a little while. Then add the pasta and the 1/2 cup of water to the pan, mixing all the ingredients together for a couple of minutes, until the water has mostly evaporated.

Once this is done, all you need to do is put all the ingredients into your tray, I used an 11"x6" glass casserole dish. I then added the ginger and mix it in to the dish with the other ingredients. You can also sauté the ginger with the ingredients in the pan if you want to, but I didn't decide to add ginger until it was too late.

All you need to do then is put the dish into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, and it's done! It's a super duper easy recipe, I did it late at night (when I probably should have been sleeping) but it was a very quick preparation and cooking time, and it was definitely delicious!

I really enjoyed writing this recipe and I hope you guys enjoyed it too! Let me know if you tried this recipe out and if you tweaked it in any way.

My first day!

Well here we go, the first day to the rest of my journey! I thought I'd fill you in with how the day has gone.

1. What I ate.
For breakfast, I had my usual of overnight oats (recipe to come, if you're a fan of porridge but fancy something without the heat and less stodgy, this is definitely for you!). I didn't have anything on top of it today, however I did buy some dried fruits for future breakfasts, and I think I'll try putting some flavoured yoghurts on top too!
I had a late lunch after the gym, and I made myself a green juice using spinach, rocket, cucumber, lemon, garlic (just a little bit) and an apple. I added a couple of ice cubes just to thin it out a little bit. Basically I just threw them all into a container and used a hand blender on it until it became a smoothie/juice.
For dinner I made a delicious pasta bake using the innards of a pumpkin I carved today. I didn't think I'd enjoy a pasta bake without the lashings of cheese but it was very refreshing. The recipe will be coming up in a "What's for dinner?" post very soon.
As for snacks, I'm still oversnacking, but at least now I've chosen more healthy foods to snack on as opposed to salty crisps or sandwiches. I had one snack of pistachios, in attempt to curb my craving for salty foods. And guess what, it worked! I love pistachios. I also had some of the Kelloggs Cracker Crisps which were also delicious and only 95 calories per 21 crisps, so it's a crisp snack I can get away with. I also did have a mini coffee that they were giving out as a trial from a Nescafe stall in town.

2. My first session with my trainer.

As I've said before, I love my new trainer. Today I had my first training session with him where I got to try out the routine tailored to me. My main routine is resistance training which consists of a circuit of push resistance, leg resistance, pull resistance then 3 minutes of cardio repeated 3 times. It's a really tough routine but it's going to make such a difference. I do this routine 2-3 times a week spread out over the week. For the days in between, I also have an cardio interval training program to follow. I've learnt from my trainer that it's not about pushing yourself until you can't breathe, it's about finding your optimum heart rate and keeping yourself there for the whole workout to burn the most amount of fat. It's been a huge lesson for me and I can't wait to continue.

3. Water, water, water.

I've improved my water intake drastically. I haven't started recording my water intake which is my next step but I've been drinking a lot more water and making it fun. My favourite thing to add to water right now is a few slices of cucumber (cut into quarters) and some slices of lemon, leaving the glass of water in the fridge for up to 30 minutes then drinking it. It gives water a much more fresh taste without the sugar of a cordial.

Hope you've enjoyed this post, I'm feeling positive about this!

Love always, J xo