Sunday - Shakshuka!

Shakshuka

Sunday 25 March, the day we have one hour of sleep cruelly stolen in the night. My nights sleep was  already some what disturbed by Lauren having a sleep over and needing the radio on, cats up curtains, cats in wardrobes, cats in drawers, the husband creeping in, in the early hours, to find a missing sock or some other walking essential before heading up Kinder Scout. I woke at 7 with the intention of getting up and doing some work, but thought it would be nice to stay warm and snug until Lauren woke up, what actually happened was I fell back to sleep and we both woke at 8:45 having snuck back our lost hour and given away an hour of day in return!
The good news was it was late for breakfast and early for lunch, a good excuse to try something new. We have a new cafe opened in our nearest town called The Hidden Bakery, I'm obviously not allowed to go in there, they do amazing bread and cakes to sell your soul for...including some very tempting looking Portuguese Custard Tarts. I am allowed however, to stare longingly at their menu on the internet where I notice they serve freshly made Shakshuka for breakfast, which sounds very interesting. I've also seen the Hairy Bikers making it on the TV - here's their recipe.
I made mine by frying 1/2 a diced, small red onion in fry light, adding in some chopped garlic and 1/4 red pepper, 1/4 green pepper, diced. When the veg was soft I added 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp hot paprika and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, a good twist of salt and pepper and 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes. I stirred in a good handful of chopped spinach (not traditionally added, but I have spinach in most things). Once the spinach had wilted, I cracked 2 eggs on top of the tomato mixture, covered the pan and simmered for about 5 minutes. You want a set white and a soft yolk (well if that's your thing!). Once the eggs are at your preferred stage crumble over some feta, I used 65g weight watchers salad cheese, but I would recommend using proper feta. Finally I sprinkled over some chopped coriander. I probably committed Shashuka sacrilege as I had half the pan for brunch served with half a tin of baked beans! I can say it was delicious, however, I discovered my hot paprika is HOT paprika, it was super spicy but really aromatic with cumin, cinnamon and coriander.

Who could have known I would have needed lunch after that, but I did and it was time to fulfil another need - a fish finger sandwich. A 60g wholemeal cob, a handful of spinach, 2 (I know - only 2!!) grilled haddock fish fingers, 1/2 tsp of light mayonnaise and 20g low fat cheddar, it may seem like a sandwich of sandness to you but to me it was a triumph and satiated a need for a bit of indulgence.
we followed it with a pudding of Muller Light Cafe Latte low fat yoghurt and a chopped banana.

After ironing and binge watching old Countdown episodes, we needed to get out of the house. As both Lauren and I have cinema passes, we decided to give Pacific Rim: Uprising a try. I have a strange disease that makes me want to see these films, I don't care though. I know they are essentially rubbish but I love them, I love being entertained by the utterly ridiculous as long as it's not "real".  To be honest the first annoyed me a but, my heart belongs to Idris Elba in the form of "Luther" only and I couldn't get to grips with his "Stacker Pentecost" character, but  I did like the Kaiju and Jaegers enough to want to see the sequel, which I enjoyed, it was entertaining, enough of a story to keep me going and I could suspend my reality enough to let a few things slide. I did keep saying "surely there are people in those buildings!" a lot!
Cinema snacks of grapes and a 2 finger Kit Kat.

Before we left for the theatre, I popped my joint of beef in a low oven at just 60C. Another thing I've been wanting to try for ages. 4-5 hours until the internal temperature reaches 50 degrees. equals rare beef. Tom Kerridge did it in his first series and again in his most recent and I've always wondered if it works. Well after 4 hours it was at 42C. Because the family were demanding tea, I raised the temp to 200C to brown the meat. Tom suggests taking a blow torch to it as it does still look uncooked (even after 4 hours), or I would advise browning before or after cooking. I checked the meats internal temperature regularly and removed it when it was slightly browned and just a little over 50C. I let it rest for 20 minutes and then carved it into thin slices, a lot of blood came out when I carved, so maybe it could have done with longer to rest, but it was still super tender and it didn't look rare when served so good for anyone who doesn't like blood on their plate. We had ours with roast potatoes cooked in the air fryer, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, a Yorkshire pudding and gravy made with beef stock, fat free meat juices and 2 tbsp cornflour.

Finally as we sat down to watch an old episode of Portrait Artist if the Year we had a coffee with Alpro Lemon Protein low fat yoghurt and strawberries.


Summary
Types of fruit and veg: 11
Syns: 4 for fish fingers, 1/2 mayonnaise, 5 for kit kat and 1/2 for lemon yoghurt, total of 10
HEA: 20g low fat cheddar, 30g low fat feta
HEB: 60g wholemeal cob