Lemon-scented polenta porridge

recipe from fit food by teresa cutter

Lemon-scented polenta porridge
serves 4

3½ cups water
150g (5 oz) polenta
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut essence
Finely grated zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup pure maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup low-fat coconut milk or malt-free soy milk
4 bananas, sliced
1 punnet blueberries
2 tablespoons flaked toasted almonds

Bring water to the boil and pour in polenta. Turn down to a gentle simmer.
Add the salt, vanilla, coconut, lemon zest, juce, maple syrup and coconut milk.
Cook over a gentle heat stirring frequently for about 20-25 minutes until nice and thick.

Divide between serving bowls. Top with sliced banana, blueberries and toasted almonds.

Gluten-free Fish & Chips

Sometimes I want a particular type of food (savoury or sweet) or a particular style of food (Thai or Italian, for example). Tonight for dinner I wanted a particular texture: crunchy. I decided to make polenta-crumbed fish and some oven baked chips. This is a super-easy way to make gluten-free crumbed fish – just coat the fish in some plain yoghurt, then in polenta before cooking (I used a regular frying pan with a little bit of canola oil).  The chips are just baking potatoes, cut into ‘chips’, sprayed with a little oil and baked in a 200 C oven for about 40 minutes.

Rewinding back to this morning, I did a 5K run (outside). It was nice weather out this morning, and my legs held up well after doing a longer run yesterday.

Breakfast was quinoa with yoghurt and mango.

Lunch was egg and salad, plus a gluten-free wrap with sterol spread (not pictured)

Off to watch some more tennis. See you tomorrow!

Quinoa, Yoghurt and Berry Parfait

Quinoa is gluten-free but it has quite an ‘earthy’ taste so I don’t eat it very often. I was inspired by a quinoa recipe I saw recently in the O2 Diet, and decided to give it another go.

Last night I cooked some quinoa and put some frozen berries in the fridge to defrost so I’d be able to quickly put together breakfast after my cardio session this morning (50 minutes on the elliptical).

Quinoa, Yoghurt and Berry Parfait

Ingredients

- 1 cup cold cooked quinoa (approx 150g)

- 200g plain yoghurt (I used Black Swan lactose-free yoghurt)

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 2/3 cup frozen blueberries, defrosted

- 2 Creative Gourmet berry antioxidant smoothie cubes, defrosted

Method

1. Mix the cooked quinoa, yoghurt, vanilla and cinnamon together in a small bowl

2. Gently mix the defrosted blueberries and smoothie cubes together.

3. Spoon 1/3 of the quinoa mixture into a glass, then 1/3 of the blueberry mixture. Repeat the layers twice, ending with blueberry mixture on top.

I really enjoyed this and so did Rob, who usually prefers eggs for breakfast.

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Lunch was a gluten-free wrap with hummus, sliced roast beef and ‘tabouli’ (made without cracked wheat)

Dinner was steak, potatoes and roasted vegetables

I had the dressing on my stitches changed today and everything seems fine. I just have to avoid getting the area wet until the stitches come out on Monday so no swimming for me for the next week or so.

See you tomorrow!