Tuesday, 21-04-20

Good morning.

When I got going to make the asparagus quiche, I realised two things.  Firstly that six asparagus spears doth not a quiche make (said the recipes) and secondly that I actually had quite a lot of bits and bobs of stuff that would work in a more general quiche.  So I dug out my nice big quiche dish and all the veg I needed and off I went.
Earlier, I sprayed and roasted some yellow pepper (because that's what one of the recipes said) until charring (doesn't take long) and then just covered them to cool.  When they were cool, the skin just peeled off nicely.  I will do that again, it does make the pepper taste delicious.
I boiled some new potatoes and sliced them to line the bottom of the dish (after spray oiling it).  Then, in the same water, I gave the spears and some frozen peas five minutes of cooking while, in a non stick pan, I spray fried some courgette slices until they were just starting to 'char' (more flavour and it stops them going all watery in the quiche).

On top of the potato I placed the asparagus, peas, the chopped yellow pepper and a couple of baby corns, cut into chunks before putting the courgette slices around the outside and dotting cottage cheese around - like this.

I beat up some eggs - I think I used eight altogether.  I just kept adding and adding until it looked enough.  To them I added some thyme, some salt and pepper, some garlic granules, some thyme from the garden, a pinch of mustard powder and 90g finely grated cheese (three healthy extra As-worth).  After pouring it into the dish, I placed some halved mini-tomatoes and finished it off with another 30g grated cheddar (the fourth healthy extra A) before baking it for around 30 mins at 180C.

And it came out beautifully.


I suppose it's really a baked frittata rather than a crustless quiche because I didn't add any milk (or cream, heaven forbid) to the egg mixture.

It looked quite 'arty' when it was cut.

I cut it into four but, really, I should have cut it into six; it was certainly substantial enough.
Even making four portions, each portion contains one healthy extra A, no syns and plenty of speed as well as carbs from the potato and protein from the egg and the cheese.  Very balanced and complete.

And it made a lovely lunch!


There's two slices left and I shall wrap them well and pop them in the freezer which takes care of two more lunches this coming week.

Today's plans:
B:  mushroom omelette and tomatoes
. . . and that sorts out my over-abundance of eggs.
SW:  free

L:  asparagus soup, flat bread to dip; apple
I hesitate to call this 'cream of' because no cream has come any closer than next door (possibly!).  I will add a splash of milk when reheating it though.
When I made the quiche, I did the 'bend the asparagus spears and see where it snaps' (which does work) thing and was left with a little pile of stems that still have flavour and goodness and which I certainly wasn't going to throw away!
All I did was pop them in my thermomix (one could use an ordinary saucepan) with some chopped onion, some of the good chicken stock I made last week and some thyme from the garden and boiled it all up until the stems were soft (they don't lose their 'woody' element but they do go soft) and then gave it all a good blend before pushing it through a sieve.
Actually, while typing this, I thought I might add some soft cheese instead of milk - asparagus and cheese - lovely.
SW:  nothing for the soup itself, half a healthy extra A for some soft cheese and one healthy extra B for the dipping bread

D:  quiche, coleslaw, parsnip chips; yogurt
I may warm up the quiche and I just fancied some parsnip chips.  Done in the actifry, they don't actually go crunchy like the chips do but they do caramelise rather nicely and have great flavour.  The coleslaw, like the quiche, is leftovers from yesterday.
SW:  one healthy extra A for the cheese in the quiche, half a syn for the mayo in the coleslaw, two syns for one tsp oil to make the parsnip chips and half a syn for the yogurt

S:  plum, easy peeler

Body Magic:  Lindsey's exercises, allotment (it's mowing day today which is going to take considerable push power!

Summary:
one and a half heAs and one heB
three syns

Annoyingly, I have gained this week.  Perhaps it is muscle gain because actually since starting work on the allotment, my clothes are a fair bit loser so I was sure I had lost a bit of weight.  Or perhaps my blip on Saturday did more damage than I thought.
Oh, well, I'm staying on the wagon and, hopefully, it will be gone again before the SW zoom meeting next Tuesday.  I'm not at all fussed about it really.

And finally, did anyone see Daily Kitchen yesterday where Matt made Jack's Versatile Veggie fritters?  I thought they looked so good and I'm going to give them a go tomorrow, I think.