RECIPE: Chilli Coconut Chicken

I'm going to try and start blogging a few recipes that I've put together or found on the Internet that have made eating alot of meat and vegetables that little bit more interesting.  This is a Phase 2 recipe as now I'm introducing a few things back into my diet - in the case of this recipe coconut milk.  So here goes:

Serves 2

1 chilli finely sliced (if you don't like food so hot then deseed and slice)
1 heaped tsp finely chopped or grated ginger
1 teaspoon of organic virgin coconut oil
2 chicken breasts, washed and sliced into thin strips
1 bunch spring onions
1 pepper chopped into chunks
200g broccoli florets
1/2 carton about 200ml organic coconut milk
20g organic dessicated coconut

Heat the coconut oil in a large pan or wok on a medium heat, then add the chilli and ginger for a few minutes stirring occasionally to prevent sticking/burning (you don't want this to brown just to soften).  Next turn the heat up a little and add the chicken.  Once the meat is sealed (about 3-4 minutes) add in the vegetables and sautee for a few minutes until the onions and peppers being to soften a little.  Add in the coconut milk, stir and put a lid on the pan and leave stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until the broccoli is cooked to your liking (I prefer mine a bit perky).  Once you are happy that the broccoli and chicken are cooked (the chicken may take longer if you have cut it into larger strips/chunks) turn the heat off and sprinkle over the dessicated coconut.

I had this on its own but if you want you could serve the chicken over more lightly steamed vegetables.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Information (per serving)
Calories: 456
Carbohydrates: 20g
Fat: 21g
Of Which Saturates:16g
Protein: 44g
Fibre: 8g

LHS

I've been away from the blog for a while.  I got to the end of phase 2 with Jillian and I have to be honest I was wondering if it was worth all the hassle and planning life around never missing the dvd and trying to make up any sessions I had missed.  Couple that with the small progress I was making it didn't seem worth it, especially when I wasn't putting all my effort into eating right either.

Stepping back from exercise, feeling a bit down about getting near to any sort of goal and poor food choices meant I crept back up to 119 lbs (8stone7).  Now I know that's not big but it's not about the number if I weighed more than that but looked lean I would do that in a heartbeat but the reality is that extra weight was fat and fluid/bloat from eating junk and it's time to do something about it.

So that's where LHS comes in -  Lean, Healthy, Strong.  Right now I'm taking on phase 1, which I think its best described as paleo but without the fruit.  Breakfast is meat with nuts, I know that doesn't sound do appealing and the first few days I struggled with it, missing my usual oat bran.

Lunch #1 more meat with cruciferous veg.  Now I don't always have leafy greens, sometimes I have rocket or watercress and chopped raw vegetables to mix it up and get a bit of colour into my day, oh and I have a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on the salad too.

Lunch #2 is basically the same thing, more meat and vegetables although as I'm at work I find it hard to be hungry for this meal so I don't always make it through all of the vegetables but I make sure I eat all the meat.

If I get to the gym or train at home then I'll have a protein shake (but made with water instead of milk - no dairy allowed) if not then for dinner its.... yeh you guessed it even MORE meat with leafy greens.

Every morning I have a multi vitamin and after every meal I take 4 fish oil caps, yeh that's right four.... four times a day.

Now I know that doesn't exactly sound exciting, and on day one I felt sick for most of the day, the idea of eating any more meat made me want to be properly sick, by day two and into day three I had an awful headache and felt a bit tired, but then it started to lift and I felt normal again.  Better than normal I suppose, getting up isn't quite so hard and I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep at my desk anymore.

After 10 days I lost 8lbs.  Obviously that's not all fat but I think that seeing as my food baby has all but disappeared I'll claim that in the name of progress!  I'm on phase 1 for 21 days which will be over on the 9th so will check in then and see how it's gone.

I'll be back soon with some pictures - sorry this post has been so text heavy and boring!

Day 35 and 36

Day 35 - cardio.  I really really thought about not doing the dvd today, just coming home putting my kit on taking pictures and saying that I did it.  Then  I realised if I put on my kit and then got changed again WHAT IS THE POINT.  Not just that but nothing is ever going to change if I sit on my bum doing nothing.  So with that I walked home and enjoyed the sun and realised there are worse things in life than doing 30 minutes of Jillian...

Here are the pictures for day 35, complete with v unflattering and clearly too small shorts:

So I promised I would pay better attention this time to let you know what happens in Cardio 2, well here's how the circuits are made up, each exercise is 30 seconds:


Jump rope
Butt kicks
High knees
Alternating knee thrusts
Jumping jacks
Fast feet (hate this)
Skaters
Skiers
Plie hops (burny thighs!)
Cross jacks (like a jumping jack but crossing alternating the front foot crossing over and crossing the arms over at shoulder height)
Half squat with uppercuts (oi Jillian thought we were doing cardio not quads!)
Towel run to the left
Towel run to the right
Hooks to the left
Hooks to the right
and then the circuit is finished up with my ultimate favourite...
BURPEES

Do that 3 times and then it's all over - Easy.....

So I've gone pictures mad on the blog today.  And the next pictures will go some way to explaining the rest day.  Doing Body Revolution seems to have resulted in my annoying my inner thigh muscles so now I've got some fetching bruising!  These bruises definitely aren't from bashing my leg I know that because a) I haven't been hit in any of those places by anything/anyone (lol) and I haven't walked into anything and b) I don't know how I could have done it accidentally given the locations and not even noticed.  I look like I've played 80 mins on the rugby pitch:

Sorry about the positing I'm sitting in, that was the easiest way to get a picture and at least you can't see any rudies :)  That middle bruise is the most painful and the muscle its on feels raised too, so today because of that and because I have to head into London tonight before a meeting I'm having a rare Wednesday off.  I won't have a rest day on the weekend like normal though so I'm not skiving off I promise.

Food yesterday was an improvement (yes!)  Breakfast was my usual and favourite:

Morning snack was a red delicious apple which was such a lovely colour and so shiny after I had washed it it had a bit of a Snow White vibe - luckily it wasn't poisoned.  Had that with a few pecans:

Lunch was 4 falafel (100g) half a bag of rocket, an organic carrot, a slice of roasted chicken breast a dollop of hummus (had less than half of what is in the tupperware - Mr D was a bit enthusiastic)  I also had half an orange pepper and a big chunk of cucumber but you can't see it buried under the salad:

Dinner was prawn curry with baby corn and mange tout served with 60 g (raw weight) of Waitrose red and normal quinoa and bulgar mix.  It was yummy, so yummy I had eaten it before I took a picture - sorry!

So as today is a rest day I won't be around tomorrow but will be back with hopefully better news on the rank leg and ready for more Jillian!

Day 34

Suddenly feeling like there are a lot of days left until this is all over, in fact as I'm not even a week into phase 2 yet it seems like phase 3 is a long time away and motivation is starting to leave me.  When I sit at work/home/wherever thinking about what I'm going to cook this week or do on the weekend it does get a bit depressing to think always about food and not falling so spectacularly off the wagon like I did on the weekend.  It does make you think whether it's all worth it.

Probably enough of that?  Pictures of day 34:

This front shot looks loads worse than it has lately - this is clearly what happens when I eat carbs with total abandon.

 With flash:

Food on Monday was thankfully better than the weekend.  Started off with the usual:

 I'm coming to the end of my bag of oat bran and wonder if it's time to change up breakfast?  I'd really love to have omlettes or something like that but I can't eat breakfast until about 9 and by then I'm already at work so it's pretty much scrambled egg or something cold.  Will have to have a think on that.

Lunch was leftover lamb and veggies:

Now that doesn't look so hot but I promise it was yummy!  Too much food though as I only ate about half/ three quarters of it all.  Note to self.  Lamb is filling!

Dinner was a FK pizza (had sauce and wraps to use) which I topped with mushrooms, thinly sliced pepper, meli melo tomatoes (I love those tomatoes!) and 3 slices of delicious Bresaola, all topped with a wad of rocket - what else?

Think I need to start snacking again and trying harder to fit in a protein shake or a high protein snack in the afternoon.  But what do you do when you just aren't hungry???

Day 32 and 33

This week I decided to get workout 5 out of the way on Saturday morning seeing as we were off to the rugby all afternoon.

Photos for day 32:

DVD was hard work, thankfully Mr D had popped out to the supermarket for a bit so didn't see the sweaty shouting mess that I became!  He did come back in time to witness me splayed all over my matt at the end which I have to say wasn't one of my better looks.

Food started off with good intentions.... Protein shake after dvd for breakfast, at the rugby I chose an organic burger full of salad and didn't eat all of the bun (even though it was delicious!) then WINE happened.  Next thing you know we're off into town for some drinks with friends and pub fish and chips was consumed.  NOT GOOD.

On the plus side wasn't so wined out of my head that we missed the last train/tube home so that in itself is progress to normal nights out.

Sunday I was up super early to meet a friend in town but due to some shoddy organisation on my part (and putting her number in my phone wrong when I got rid of my blackberry) it didn't work out and I was in the car on the way to the station when the meet for called off and so as I was starting to feel pretty hungry I accidentally went here for breakfast:



If you aren't familiar with North Watford eateries, that is MacDonald's.  One sausage and egg mcmuffin breakfast later I fell asleep on the sofa.  FAIL. 

Attempted to salvage the day by taking a walk to pick up Mr D's car and visiting the local veg shop only to find it closed, which ended with a trip to Pret, and a sad egg sandwich for lunch as it was pretty late by then and none of their delicious salads were left.

Dinner was slightly improved and thankfully contained vegetables - yay!  We had fiery lamb shanks with mashed potato (not so clean and lean!) with broccoli, green beans and sweetcorn.

All in all a pretty poor weekend!

Day 31

Day 31, Friday, and that can only mean one thing:

CARDIO!

This cardio dvd is different to phase one.  Instead of doing 9 exercises each for a minute there are loads in 30 second bursts.  I can't remember them all because to be honest as I was doing it I just wanted it to be over!  Will pay more attention and report back the next time I do it.

Pictures for day 31:

Ha those shorts look ridiculous.

Food could have been better - feel in a bit of a rut lately.  Here's breakfast:

Lunch was leftover chicken filo pie with sweetcorn and cabbage - looks rank in that picture sorry.

Dinner was FK pizza, didn't take a picture seeing as it's featured on here about a million times before.

So not great food, and with the weekend coming it's about to get a lot worse.....

Day 30

Phase 2 workout 6

Jillian definitely isn't messing around in phase 2!  There was a circuit where you had to do supermans with weights, now I can't remember if it was RI30 or 30 Day Shred where you have to do that with a sort of pull down but I used my lightest weights and I just had nothing.  I couldn't lift the weight at all - what's happened to me!!  Hopefully its because my muscles are sore and I'm tired but if that happens again I've got big problems!  The last circuit (I think it was the last one) was brutal on my abs, and now I'm properly afraid of what is going to happen in cardio 2.  If there is no blog on Monday then it's probably because Jillian Michaels has actually killed me!

Enough whinging, pictures for day 30:

 On the phone to my mum - sorry.

 

Food today was poor again, I can't seem to get in the hang of doing the drive from Wales to London and get time to eat lunch so it was another day with no lunch - bad.

Breakfast was my usual:

Obviously no lunch picture because there wasn't time.  Was totally knackered after being beasted by Jillian so when he got home Mr D helped make the pie (actually he made most of it I just gave instructions from under my blanket and put the filo top on - lazy wife)

So fail on the food front but have been making up for it today........

Day 29 - Phase 2

Arrrrrrgh!!!

Pictures from day 29 (before I knew what was coming!)

Food was average today.  Oatbran for breakfast as normal

Then for lunch I had a FK pizza:

 

 

Black grapes as an afternoon snack:

 

For dinner I had 2 cider and apple sausages with roast parsnips, steamed broccoli and cabbage. yum-my.

Day 28 - PHASE ONE COMPLETE!!!

Woooooo phase one is DONE! 

Here are the pictures compared with day 1:

I'll admit I'm a bit disappointed as these aren't as good as the 30 day Ripped in 30 results that I had but they are different so that's good and I'll just keep going and we'll see how its looking at the end of phase 2 :)

Day 27

Almost at the end of phase 1, and Monday brought the last day of workout 4.  I'm a bit sad to see workout 4 go, mostly because I liked it but because I'm afraid of what is going to come in the next few days!

Anyway here are the pictures for day 27:

 With flash:

Food today was oatbran, pb, coconut and blueberry breakfast, for lunch I had leftover chicken tikka and aloo gobi and in the evening I got cracking on this:

That was Thai prawn curry for dinner for Mr D and I, and again in Tupperware for lunches the next day and a quinoa quiche for Mr D to get through whilst I'm away for work.  I heart leftovers.

Day 25 and 26

Day 25 was Saturday and the day I decided to take my rest day as we were off to the Theatre and staying with Mr D's parents so I didn't think I'd get the chance.

Was rubbish at food and remembering to take pictures of my meals this weekend but here's what I had for breakfast on Saturday morning:

 Glass of juice, boiled egg, one rasher of bacon and a piece and a half of toast - apparently Mr D ate the other half whilst he was waiting for the egg to boil.  Who am I to complain - I got breakfast in bed!

We went to a matinee and due to a slight error of timekeeping on my part we thought we would be there with half an hour to grab something before hand but apparently we got there bang on time so had to go straight in and take our seats.  By the time the performance was over it was 5, dinner was booked for 8 and we had to rush back home for the rugby ( Mr D is a Welshie... well he thinks he is but I'm not getting in to that now!) so as we ran through Waterloo to get the next train we hopped into M&S where I'm afraid my lunch was a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and a chocolate bar - FAIL. 

As I was still feeling pretty rough I had a lie down whilst the Wales game was on (thankfully they won so I had a happy husband)  and we whizzed off to dinner.  Tried hard to make sensible choices, had half a slice of bread with my minestrone soup starter, went a bit wrong with beef stroganoff for main and then epic fail when the desserts came out and I plumped for tiramisu.  All washed down with a couple of glasses of wine.  Not the best rest day anyone has ever had is it?

Sunday... I had oat bran as normal (yes I took all the ingredients to the in laws because apparently I'm mental)  on the way home we stopped in waitrose and I got us some sourdough to have a light sandwich at lunch:

That lunch looks pathetic.  Although I enjoyed the sourdough I'm really not a sandwich kind of a person, that doesn't look like a meal at all does it?

So then we watched the rugby and we were both happy because England won :D

Then it was time for workout 3 again so here are the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner after that was meant to be filo chicken pie but I'd forgotten some ingredients so we popped out and got an indian - I know that's bad but I had a dry chicken tikka starter, chicken tikka massala and aloo gobi and mixed all that together.