FOOD // More Eats

I've been on a bit of a health-kick these last ten days or so.. along with the majority of the blogging world, it would seem. Admittedly, it's partly because I'd like to lose a few pounds before our holiday to Tunisia. More importantly, it's because of those low, lethargic feelings that have been haunting me of late, which I know can be helped along with a bit of exercise and some good quality food!

As a result, I've been experimenting with a few new (to me) recipes and really enjoying the process of cooking.
Here are some of the things I've been munching on of late..

Apple and Parsnip Soup 
To make this, I roasted 500g of chopped parsnips in the oven for about 25 minutes at 180C.
In the meantime, I fried off one small onion (diced), one stalk of celery (chopped) and a teaspoon of garlic salt in a large pan. I then added a litre of vegetable stock (made with 2 stock pots) as well as one small baking potato (peeled and chopped) and two granny smith apples (peeled, cored & chopped) and brought to the boil. The roasted parsnips were then added in, as well as some salt and pepper, and it was left to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
I then took it off the heat and liquidised with a hand blender before serving.

Baked Salmon and Stir-fried Veg
Every now and then I lapse from being vegetarian into pescetarian.. which is probably just as well given my protein intake.
This was a really simple dinner made by glazing two salmon fillets with a quick concoction containing a teaspoon of honey, a tablespoon of light soy sauce, some chilli flakes & a crushed garlic clove, which I baked in the oven for 20(ish) minutes at 180C. The accompaniment was mangetout, broccoli, baby corn and spring onion fried in lemon juice and chilli flakes.

This is a very sad looking picture. I think the correct term is 'rustic'.

Sweet Potato & Bean Burgers
I made these today and, contrary to what the picture might suggest, they were super tasty.
I used this recipe, but with a few minor alterations: I couldn't find adzuki beans, so used haricot instead; I didn't use "nutritional yeast", because what even is that?; I only used about a teaspoon of oil because the sweet potato is so wet it seemed unnecessary; and I had to resort to using crushed up crackerbreads because I forgot about the breadcrumbs.
Served in a tortilla wrap with yoghurt, beetroot and mint dip and a bed of spinach, accompanied by corn on the cob, this was delish!

Butternut Squash & Chilli Soup
I've become a pretty avid soup fan because it's so handy to make a big batch and then heat up a bowlful whenever it's needed. This week's choice of soup was based on this recipe, but I missed out the butter and used less oil to make it lighter, and skipped the creme fraiche because it seemed such a wasteful thing to buy for 4 spoonfuls! It made for a fairly spicy dish in the end, but eaten with some rice cakes and extra light Philadelphia it's just right!

Yummy!

What's been on the menu in your house recently?

As you can see, I've developed a bit of a thing about Instagramming photos of my food. Feel free to follow me if that's remotely of interest.