Happy New Year and I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas full of fun, with a little bit of you time squeezed in there too!
And how are the New Year’s resolutions going? Are you even a New Year’s resolution kind of person? If you are then stick with it. It will be worth it!
To be honest I don’t usually make a resolution but this year I have decided to set myself a 2019 challenge. Let me explain.
A couple of months ago I was reading through a back copy of The Good Food Magazine when I came across a 5-a-day pull out poster. I decided to stick it to the back of a cupboard in the kitchen so we could all keep an eye on what we were eating. It was interesting to see what made up one of your 5-a-day and it helped us increase the amount of fruit and veg we ate.
Recently I’ve been doing some reading on nutrition and the need to not only eat lots of fruit and veg but to eat a wide variety of fruit and veg. Looking at the chart I saw that there are 14 items featured that I have probably not eaten this year. And that realisation gave me the idea to challenge myself to eat everything from the chart at least once in 2019.
So, what are going to be the real challenge foods?
Thankfully most of the foods on the chart are prettily readily available in the U.K., at least for some of the year, although I think getting hold of damsons will be difficult – I’ll probably have to pick them myself. And I have no idea what to do with them apart from make damson gin. Does that count?!
The foods on the chart that I don’t like will also be a challenge. These include prunes, swede, turnip, marrow and broad beans (some childhood memories are surfacing!). However, I am a big believer in the theory that if you eat something often enough you develop a taste for it – especially if it’s prepared well.
I will keep you up to date my journey and it will hopefully inspire some new ideas and recipes and give me a taste for a few things I’ve historically put on the side lines.
So, that’s my challenge! Have you set yourself a 2019 challenge or taken a New Year’s resolution? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
At this time of year it’s common to set some healthy eating goals after all the festive over indulgence, even if it isn’t a specific resolution. I’ve decided to post my recipe for Vegan Spanish Chickpeas with Spinach as it ticks lots of healthy eating boxes and will get three of the veg ticked off my list. This is a fantastically easy, low fat, low carb, vegan recipe that you can have on the table in 20 minutes and is one of my ‘oh my goodness, it’s 5.30 and I still haven’t started tea’ recipes.
If you have never cooked with smoked paprika before then it’s worth buying some. You can get it in all the supermarkets nowadays, or here (affiliate link*) if you wish. It’s one of those ‘game changer’ spices. Just make sure that you buy the mild version, often labelled ‘sweet’, unless you like everything really spicy!
*Affliliate link: I will receive a small percentage of the sale if you purchase this product through the Amazon link above. The price of the product is the same as if you went through the Amazon website directly.
Vegan Spanish Chickpeas with Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 onion (thinly sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 2 tins chopped tomatoes
- 2 tins chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
- 2 large handfuls baby spinach
- Salt
To serve
- Crusty fresh bread rice or a big pile of green veg
Instructions
- Put the oil, onion and garlic into a large pan and fry over a low heat until the onion is soft and translucent. Do not allow to brown.
- Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, paprika and sugar if using. Bring to a simmer and allow to bubble gently for 10 minutes.
- Add the spinach to the pan, put on the lid and allow the spinach to wilt down. Stir everything together, season to taste and serve.
Nutrition
This Recipe has been shared with
Happy New Year Anna! 🙂 Love the sound of your 2019 food challenge. I find it is super easy sometimes to get stuck in a rut if you’re not careful and eat similar fruit and veg without venturing out to the unknown so to speak lol. Good luck with your challenge and hopefully you’ll get all of the above ticked off your list! 🙂
I’m a huge smoked paprika fiend (that and cinnamon are my two favourite spices)! Your Spanish chickpeas sound absolutely delicious, perfect healthy meal in a hurry. x
Happy New Year to you too Jo. Thank you – we’ll see how I do! Hopefully the challenge will lead me to some lovely new recipes! I have to say, I love cinnamon too – it’s probably my favourite sweet spice x
Hi Anna, hope you have all had a great Christmas & Happy New Year.
Callum has gone vegetarian, so this recipe will be great! He buys and cooks all his food but, his new year challenge is to find foods without palm oil, it is a lot of hard work finding foods without but a great learning curve for us, plus going vegetarian we find we have to work extra hard supplementing protein.
Will check through your recipes but, if any In your archives spring to mind could you re-link them to me.
Always enjoy experimenting with your ideas, inspires a ‘can’t cook, won’t cook’ person.
Susan x
Hi Susan. Wow – so it’s all change in your household! I guess, with going vegetarian, it will be about learning to adapt recipes so you are not too limited. I’ve had a little think. There are the obvious vegetarian recipes on my blog such as my Sweet Potato Curry and some of the soups. My Swiss Macaroni Cheese would be just as good without the bacon, but
don’t forget the onions – they are gorgeous, my Bibimbap can be made vegetarian very easily and my Juicy Chicken Enchiladas would be great if you use paneer instead of chicken. It behaves a bit like halloumi and I really like it. I hope that helps. Good luck with all the changes x