Baked Green Bell Pepper

It is quite cold in these few days in London.  Temperatures have been dropping to below freezing since Monday night.  The Met Office website states that December will be colder than average and there is a small chance of snow at the beginning of next month. I am looking forward to a snowy Christmas in UK.

Sometimes I feel tired and sluggish during winter.  I find the most effective way to fight winter tiredness is to do regular exercise.  After doing an hour of Pilates in the afternoon, I feel more energetic and also improve my sleep.  In addition, a good diet can help me to wake up feeling fresh.  I reduce having food containing lots of sugar, like candies and chocolates.  Then I add more fruit and vegetables in winter meals and always boil soup for the whole family.  It is because the air is very dry here.  

Every morning I always have a big bowl of porridge oats and a piece of whole grain toast for breakfast.  When I woke up this morning, I thought of adding a bit ‘green’ to my breakfast.  I baked a green pepper which is stuffed with veggie and mozzarella cheese.  It is yummy!  It makes me feel healthy and starts the day off right.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serve: 1

Ingredients:

-      1 medium size green pepper (top and seeds removed)

-      40g onion (finely diced)

-      38g pumpkin (finely diced)

-      20g portobello mushroom (finely diced)

-      20g baby spinach  

-      30g mozzarella cheese (shredded)

-      1 tbsp fish sauce

-      1 garlic clove (crushed)

-      ¼tsp olive oil

-      100 ml water  

Method:

1.	Preheat oven to 180°c.
2.	Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.  Add oil and garlic, stir-fry for 30 seconds.  Reduce to low heat; add pumpkin and 70ml water. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes.  Then add onion, mushroom, 30ml water and fish sauce, stir-fry for another 2 minutes over low-medium heat.  Toss in baby spinach and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.
3.	In the meantime, fill the pepper with the cooked vegetables and mozzarella cheese.
4.	Arrange stuffed pepper in a baking dish.  Bake in preheated oven until heated through, about 20-25 minutes.
5.	Ready to serve with toast and green smoothie.

Sweet corn with Minced beef potato cakes

I love thai food very much, like spring rolls, green curry chicken, satay sticks, pat Thai and so on.  They are all yummy dishes.  Last month, my daughter and I went to Bangkok for a three-day short break.  The weather was very lovely.  We went shopping, enjoyed the tasty dishes and had great and relaxed spa and massage.  We chose a buy-one-get-one free package on the first day, we could personalize our spa experience, such as choosing the aroma and facial scrub we like, room temperature, etc.  Then we tried the four-hand massage on the second day.  After the massage, we were taken back to the reception and seated at the table for our afternoon tea.  We enjoyed it very much. 

I really miss Thailand a lot.  Even I share my lovely experience with my friend this morning.  She said she likes going there with me in the near future.  Hope we can have time to be together at Thailand soon! The dish I prepared is served with Thai sweet chili sauce.  Yum! Yum!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serve: 3 (Total: 8 pieces)

Ingredients:
- 250g baking potato (boiled and mashed)

- 130g minced beef

- 60g sweet corn

- 60g onion (finely chopped)

- 1 shallot (finely chopped)

- 30g bread crumbs

- 1 egg                                                                   

- ½ tsp dried parsley

- 1 tsp table salt

- 7 tbsp plain flour

- a pinch of ground black pepper

- thai sweet chili sauce

Seasoning:

- 2 tsp light soy sauce

- ½ tsp oil

- ½ tsp sugar

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp water    

- ½ tsp corn flour

- a pinch of ground black pepper

Method:

1.	Season the minced beef with soy sauce, oil, sugar, water, corn flour, garlic powder and ground black pepper.
2.	Add water in a saucepan and boil the potato for about 15 minutes until tender.  Drain well and mash the potato. Season the mashed potato with salt, ground black pepper and parsley and then set aside.
3.	In a large mixing bowl, mix the mashed potato mixture, minced beef, onion, shallot, sweet corn and 4 tbsp plain flour well.
4.	Preheat the oven to 180°c.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk an egg. Place 3 tbsp plain flour in a small plate.
5.	Pat some flour on both hands.  Shape the mixtures into 8 patties.  For each patty, coat with plain flour, egg and bread crumbs carefully all over.
6.	Place the patties on a baking tray with a non-grease baking paper.  Bake the patties at 180°c for 30 minutes until golden brown.
7.	Serve with thai sweet chili sauce.

Spinach Baked Egg

During the 3-week Asia visit, I ate a lot and got fat again.  I keep stick to a healthy diet and have regular exercises after coming back.  I keep doing 1-hour Yoga three times a week and 1-hour Pilates once a week.  This afternoon I made a healthy light lunch.  I have this yummy dish with 2 small pieces of garlic toasts. 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serve: 1

Ingredients:

-           1 free-range egg

-           50g spinach (washed baby spinach)

-           2 small closed-cup mushrooms ( finely chopped)

-           2 small baby plum tomatoes (finely sliced)

-           1 reduced fat matured white cheese (chopped)

-           ½tsp olive oil  

-           1 garlic clove (crushed)

-           a pinch of salt and ground black pepper

Method:

1.	Pre-heat oven to 200°c.
2.	Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.  Add ¼tsp olive oil and garlic into the pan.  Add spinach, 50g water and a pinch of salt; stir-fry about 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.  Drain well.
3.	In the meantime, add ¼tsp olive oil and 50g water in the pan and cook the mushroom for 1-2 minutes.  Drain well.
4.	Place the spinach, mushroom, cheese and tomato in a ramekin.  Then break an egg and bake for 10-12 minutes until the egg is just set.
5.	Serve with garlic toasts on the side.