Herby Lentil Salad & My Favorite Salad Dressing

Lentils: love em. I cooked a big batch this morning so that I have them on hand to toss into dishes all weekend; 1/2 cup of dried lentils yields nearly 2 cups cooked lentils, so a little goes a long way. They're economical tiny protein powerhouses, and I'll put them in just about anything. Curry, salad, soup, you name it. Today I needed a healthy pick-me-up after bingeing on unhealthy snacks yesterday (cough - leftover Easter chocolate and chips - cough), so I literally threw a little bit of everything in the fridge into this salad. 

I started with a handful of mixed baby leaf lettuce salad, then topped it with an heirloom tomato, some sliced Persian cucumber, olives (a lot of olives, because I buy them in bulk at Costco I love them so much),  spring onion (scallion), and two heaped tablespoons of my cooked lentils. I tossed them on while still warm, because I think the contrast of temperature and texture makes salads really interesting and more delicious. Then I topped it off with chopped tarragon (vastly underrated herb, in my opinion) and basil, and finished it off with my favorite salad dressing. One word: YUM. Seriously, yum. It's a salad that actually fills you up, too, thanks to the mighty little lentils. 

Check out the recipe for my favorite dressing - it takes 10 seconds to make, and can keep in the fridge for up to a week. Baby food jars are the perfect size for shaking it up!

It's Not What It Looks Like

Sometimes we bloggers get so caught up in making things picture perfect that readers might think that our kids are well dressed, our homes are always tidy, and our hair and makeup is always done. So here's a little recap of my day, to put your mind at ease:

10am

We finally get out of our respective beds. No joke. Chloe decided that her 5am feeding was time for everyone to wake up and play, so once daddy left for work, she and I took a nap from 8 to 10 to recover from her early morning adventures. Did I mention that we're in the throes of a growth spurt, and she's been eating every hour for the past lol, 3 days? Yeah. Lots of sleep being had over here. Not. We'll take what we can get. 

12pm

Laundry folded and put away, dishes washed, bed made, time for a workout. But Chloe didn't want to be put down so I ended up doing some squats in front of the TV until she calmed down enough to sit in her bouncy chair and watch Tiny Pop so I could do a 5-minute workout, in which I had to stop about 10 times to put her binky back in. I'm on Day 4 of the 30 Day Flat Abs Challenge, but technically it's day 6. I'm 2 days behind and it's not even been a week. Yep.

This is a no-shame, no-airbrushing mom body pic. Not because I'm preaching anything, just because it's the reality of it, and it's part of my journey back to fitness. Nothing wrong with that. And as I kept *mostly* covered up, trust me, you're welcome. Sorry for the poor photo quality; phone selfie in a poorly lit room. You know how it goes. 

1pm

Made a really yummy tuna salad, because I didn't actually eat a real meal yesterday. My dinner was roasted sweet potato wedges - I literally just cut up two sweet potatoes, and put them in the oven. It's all I had time/energy for. So here's my pole caught tuna salad with cucumber, spring onion, heirloom tomatoes, lemon juice, shredded beetroot and mixed greens, topped with a soft boiled egg. Made a double batch and extra egg so I can have a decent lunch tomorrow, too. 

2pm

Popped on the sling and decided to try taking it out of the house for the first time now that Chloe can hold her head up steadily on her own. She usually likes it and falls right asleep, but my overstimulated child was wide awake as we walked to Waitrose less than half a mile away to pick up the spinach I forgot when we did the grocery shopping yesterday. I got my free coffee (perks of having a MyWaitrose card, so if you don't have one, get one!) and sat in the café when I saw another mum from the antenatal classes, all tall and skinny with her fancy pram and designer changing bag. Well, my baby is always well behaved in public, and she was sitting up and looking around and babbling, so I thought I'd be smug about it. Nope, Chloe threw a stink fit and screamed bloody murder for no reason, so after a couple of minutes I just abandoned my coffee, bundled her back up in the sling and walked away embarrassed. Of course, as soon as I stepped foot outside the cafe, Chloe went back to her calm and happy self. Thanks for knocking me down a few pegs, kid. 

4pm

Used the spinach and kale I picked up at Waitrose to make a quick green smoothie in the Nutribullet. I figured it was a better snack option than finishing a big bag of Penn State pretzels (*cough* - yesterday - *cough*) so I blended it up quick and sat down to write this post. Oh, and the first two bananas I peeled were rotten inside. Awesome. Perfect and yellow outside, manky as hell inside. Yum.

I'm planning to make a garlic & herb roasted chicken for dinner, with roasted courgette (zucchini) wedges with a balsamic glaze, and dairy-free mashed sweet potatoes. And now I have to go change a *very* stink diaper that just occurred, and then tackle the pile of ironing hanging from the living room door handle. It's 5pm and Chloe still hasn't taken a decent (more than 20 minute) nap since 8am. Wish me luck!

I'll probably end up posting this at like, 10pm, so don't mind the delay. C'est la vie.

Happy St Patty's Day, btw!

Going Green Smoothie Bowl

It's a really rainy, dark, dreary day. Not that that's surprising weather for England, though.

I woke up this morning with a case of the sniffles, and decided to bust out the Nutribullet and make something really vitamin-packed for my breakfast so that I could nip these sniffles in the bud. I keep seeing all of the hype surrounding smoothie bowls; I'll admit, I didn't really understand the concept of eating a smoothie out of a bowl until now. It makes perfect sense now, though - it's all about the toppings. Sort of like eating soup with croutons, I suppose. You get the contrast of textures and flavours, instead of just blitzing everything together into the smoothie. I didn't buy anthing especially for this smoothie, just looked around the kitchen for things I always tend to have on hand (organic baby spinach, fruit of some sort, cucumber, etc) and voila! Smoothie bowl.

Spinach: High in niacin and zinc, as well as protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, E and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese.

Bananas: High in dietary fiber and potassium.

Pecans: Contain more than 19 vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, B, and E, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus,potassium, and zinc. Just one ounce of pecans provides 10 percent of the daily recommended intake of fiber. Pecans are also rich in age defying antioxidants.4

Chia seeds: Protein

Cucumber: A good source of copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin C, phosphorus, magnesium, biotin, and vitamin B1. They also contain the important nail health-promoting mineral silica.

Kiwi: An excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin K as well as a very good source of copper and dietary fiber.

If you have some on hand, try using orange juice instead of water (or fresh pressed apple juice, which is what I used because it's what I happened to have in the fridge) in your smoothie. The vitamin C in orange juice is great when you're under the weather.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied (and really full!) from my smoothie bowl. I can see what all of the hype is about, and I'm excited to make it again. Have any favourite smoothie bowl recipes? I'm looking to try some more, so let me know!

Monday Musings: On Going Dairy Free

I spent my entire pregnancy dreaming of the wheel of Camembert that I would eat as soon as I came out of the delivery suite. And I did. Literally. Steve went to the supermarket the morning I gave birth and brought me a fresh baguette and my favourite bleu, Camembert, Brie, and butter and I stank up the postnatal ward with my beloved and much-missed cheeses. But in the midst of my funky-smelling bliss, I was completely unaware that I was wreaking havoc on my precious little girl's digestion.

Chloe didn't have her first bowel movement until she was 2 days old, and was growing increasingly fussy and colicky by the hour up until she finally was able to. When she came home, the pattern continued and she went another 4 days without a poo. At a week old, she developed jaundice and looked like she'd been smothered in Fake Bake. Then she had another 4 (or was it 5?) days of constipation and increasing discomfort, breaking my heart to see her so unhappy, as ourselves and the midwife became increasingly concerned. 

Fresh pressed apple juice and prunes became my new go-to snacks, and we were eventually able to get Chloe pooping regularly by 2 weeks old. On a hunch, I decided to cut dairy out of my diet. I had noticed that her fussiness increased after I had eaten cheese, and sure enough she was feeling better within a few days. After a week without dairy, I had milk in my tea, and the problems started again! I conferred with the health visitor at our next appointment and we decided that it was best if I continued a dairy-free diet until she's a bit older (most babies grow out of a dairy sensitivity before 1 year old). 

So, it's almond or soy milk in my tea, and avoiding cheeses, and reading labels (Waaaa! Nutella!). I posted a recipe last week where I made pasta without using Parmesan, and for snacks I've opted for fresh fruit (kiwis are in season, somewhere, according to their sudden presence and low prices in every supermarket) and the Aldi equivalent of Nature Valley granola bars. I really want to use my Nutribullet more this week, but I've avoided it thus far because Chloe is usually asleep when I'd like to make a smoothie and it sounds like a jet taking off. 

Here are a few more dairy-free meals I've made this past week (and yes, I was a little heavy-handed on the Asian theme; it was Chinese New Year, after all):

Left: Roasted potatoes, radishes and chorizo with baked eggs and salad. Right: Chili and lemongrass salmon and prawn fishcake (from Aldi) with salad. 

Left: Korean beef bowl over rice, with steamed broccoli and courgettes in a soy dressing. Right: Homemade roast pork ramen with mushrooms and spinach.

Left: Smoked haddock risotto with asparagus, courgettes, and an egg. Right: Thai red curry chicken and veggies with sticky rice.

I mentioned my struggle to find a dairy-free butter alternative, so I gave this one a try: 

And it's ok. I say ok, because I don't really know what I was expecting, but I felt a little let down by the lack of creamy buttery-ness. I guess I just assumed that it would taste like margarine? I don't know. Maybe I should have opted for the not-so-healthy looking one (Flora now makes a dairy-free spread) so perhaps I'll give it a try next time. After all, if I'm being naughty and smothering something in "butter", I might as well have the one that tastes most like butter. This does the job for now, though; I'm not saying it's bad, just that it's a bit light in flavour for my liking. 

If you'd like me to post any of the recipes from the meals above (except the fishcakes, obviously), let me know! And please feel free to comment if you have any tips or stories about living dairy free :)