Last night we were having steak fajitas so I got some rump steak, bashed the life out of it, cut it into strips and made the MOST amazing marinade. Seriously, you have to try it.

In a pestle and mortar I crushed a large clove of garlic with 2 cubes of brown sugar (perruche natch :wink: ) and a tablespoonful of cumin seeds, I then added a tablespoonful of smoked paprika, a teaspoonful of smoked chillies, a tablespoonful of dijon mustard, a couple of tblsps of dark soy and about 3 tblspns of really good Kentucky bourbon. And I lightened the whole thing up with the juice of half a seville orange.

OMG it tasted amazing and that was before it had worked its magic on the steak. It was really delicious and one of my internet friends sugessted using it on ribs and I agree that would be amazing.

Chickpeas are fabulous

I am getting married in July and needed to try out the vegetarian main course so I made it last night.

There will be about 10-15 vegetarians at the wedding so I wanted it to be lovely and not just goats cheese tart. So I made spiced chickpea cakes with roasted vegetables and a herbed yoghurt dressing. It was delicious and had the added benefit of being very low fat. This is what I did:

I drained and rinsed 3 cans of chickpeas.
I finely chopped two onions, 3 cloves of garlic, one red chilli and sauteed them in olive oil with about a tablespoon of cumin seeds, a table spoon of ground coriander, a tablespoon of smoked paprika and lots of salt and pepper.

I then took half of the chickpeas and pureed them with a stick blender until they were like a dry houmous consistency.

I then mixed the whole chickpeas in with the mashed chickpeas and the sauteed vegetables. I mixed in chopped fresh coriander, parsley and basil and thyme and a good squeeze of lemon juice. I then shaped the mixture into patty shapes about the size of the palm of my hand. I then put them in the fridge to rest for 20 mins.

Meanwhile I chopped leeks, red peppers and butternut squash into similar sized lumps and roasted them in olive oil.

And I made a dressing by mixing fat free yoghurt with lemon juice and salt and herbs.

I fried the chickpea cakes in a little olive oil on both sides and finished them in the oven.

I served them by placing a little watercress and spinach salad on the plate, three cakes on top and the veg piled on top of the cakes and then drizzled the dressing over the lot of it.

Do try it.

Tentitively back on track

So I had a bit of a relapse. Unfortunately we had a death in the family so Alanna and I went back to Dublin and there was quite a bit of superfluous wine drinking and then when we returned I had to organise Alannas sixth birthday party. This featured chocolate rice crispy cakes and, even if I say so myself, a rather spectacular white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate butter cream icing and edible pink glitter.

So when I returned to the WKSC I had gained a pound.

And so I have been running. TWICE this week. I do not look pretty afterwards.

Onwards and upwards.

Whilst in Ireland I did have a very lovely low fat pasta dish made by my brother who, if he was feeling benevolent, might upload the recipe here.....