Yo sushi!

I've put on a bit of weight from being ill last year and not being very active combined with being stuck inside and eating far too many kettle chips. I've gone up a clothes size and still have some issues with fatigue so I decided last week to try to tackle things by doing some exercise and having a bit of an overhaul of my eating habits. So, the plan is to eat really healthily in the week, uping my intake of raw foods whilst using my exercise bike whilst watching the Olympics on telly for inspiration. Here's a few of the meals I've had starting with a Sweet Potato and Black Bean chilli stew. This is adapted from a recipe that used to be on Post Punk Kitchen which doesn't seem to be there any more but it's a real favourite of mine. At the end of cooking you give it a good mashing with a potato masher which creates a great texture.

Salad with radish, olives, carrot, heirloom tomatoes, alfalfa and mung bean sprouts and a shop bought 3 bean mint salad. The crispbread is a raw food one from Inspiral topped with humous. Expensive but soooo good and they are filling.

Mixed leaves, heirloom tomatoes, 3 bean mint salad, sweet potato and squash baked with fresh thyme and marinated mushrooms. For the mushrooms I cleaned and sliced a punnet of organic chestnut mushrooms then marinated them in a mix of olive oil, soy sauce, nooch, garlic, agave and liquid smoke. I mixed it all up in the morning and left it in the fridge so it was ready when I got home from work.

On Saturday I taught Matt to make sushi. We used some of the mushrooms from above and also the roasted sweet potato and squash. Inspired by the PPK recipe for Yamroom roll I mashed the sweet potato and squash with some sesame oil and sesame seeds. We combined this mix with the mushrooms for some of the rolls and it was amazing. There was also that good old classic, the avocado roll.

I've really enjoyed all the food this week. I'm planning to keep it going for 2 months and it will be interesting to see if it makes a difference to my energy levels and sleeping patterns. There's going to be a lot of stress coming up in the next 12 months as we enter a huge re-structure at work so it also feels like a good time to start consciously looking after myself. That being said I want to make sure that I stick to this so weekends are for treats so I don't feel deprived. That included a veggie breakfast yesterday and I'm meeting friends for lunch today so I think I can see a veggie burger, fries and onion rings in my near future!