Lamb and Butternut Tagine with Tabouleh

Melt-in-your-mouth meat

This page may contain some compensated links. Read the disclosure for more info

With regard to fertility, red meat confuses me a little.  

Meat was never something I enjoyed eating.  

When I was a toddler and ate red meat, it would make me ill, so my parents stopped giving it to me.  

As a teen, I claimed I was allergic for school camps, but when I ate at a friends house before sleepovers I would try to eat what I could out of thanks and respect for the meal being provided.  

One night my friend laughed at me saying she thought it was funny that I pushed my meat around the plate, only ate about half and then spent the rest of the night turning green.  I wonder if her parents thought I had an eating disorder - I was skinny enough.

In any case I stopped trying to eat it after that. 

When I started seeing my acupuncturist in January, hoping to balance my cycle after my miscarriage, she diagnosed me as blood deficient according to TCM.  She suggested eating some red meat would help with balancing that and therefore improving fertility.  

I was very happy to take her advice - especially as I conceived within six weeks of seeing her.  

Other sources eg The Fertility Diet suggests a fully vegetarian/almost vegan diet would be best.  

As a compromise I have promised Mr Duncan that we can buy red meat once a week, but I try to cook it with lots of veg so we're only consuming smallish portions.

So I still had half of the butternut left that needed using and half a can of chickpeas left over from the curry on Wednesday so I asked Mr Duncan to pick up about 300 grams of organic lamb to make a tagine.

Fertility focus

Butternut Squash is rich in beta-carotene which your body converts to vitamin A and also contains zinc and selenium which is important for ovarian and sperm health.
Chickpeas are a good plant source of protein.
Apricots are a good source of beta-carotene.
Lamb is a source of protein, heme iron and zinc, though go easy on quantity as too much meat will upset the alkaline balance you're trying to achieve.
Parsley (in the tabouleh) is recommended in The Fertility Diet by Sarah Dobbyn as one of the best foods for promoting fertility with high levels of vitamin K and both iron and vitamin C which helps the body absorb iron.

Ingredients

• 300 gms lamb (we used neck)
• Ras el hanout - this is basically a mix of your best morroccan flavoured spices.  I had a small jar I received as a gift to use up, but otherwise I'd have mixed together my own from whatever I had in the cupboard.
• Coconut oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Chicken stock
• Butternut
• Chickpeas
• Handful chopped dried apricots

Method

1.  Chop up the lamb into small chunks and rub with the spices.  

2.  Leave in the fridge to 'marinate' in the spices for at least two hours.
3.  Set the oven to 180 C. 

4.  Heat a teaspoon of coconut oil over a medium flame in an oven-proof lidded pot (I used our camp oven from the Landy, but we're planning on buying one from Le Crueset).

5.  Brown the lamb in batches and remove to a plate.  

6.  In the same pan sweat the onions, garlic and ginger.  

7.  Return the lamb and add the chicken stock.  

8.  Bring to a simmer, cover with lid and put in the oven to cook very slowly for 45 minutes.

9.  After 45 minutes, stir and add the butternut, chickpeas and apricot - add a splash of water if it is too dry to nearly cover the butternut.  I mixed the butternut under the meat at this point so didnt need any more moisture.  

10.  Return to oven for another 20-30 minutes.  

11.  It is ready when the butternut is tender, the meat should fall apart.

I served this on quinoa with home made tabouleh.

 

Dairy Free Seafood Chowder

It tastes much better than it looks in my terrible photo

When I made paella the other night, it came to my attention that I had a bag of frozen seafood mix in the freezer.  

I had thought it was frozen prawns so had to fish prawns out of the mix for the paella, but still needed to use up the remainder before it got freezer burn.  

This particular seafood mix is prawns, squid and mussels and normally I'd make a seafood risotto with it, but I wanted something a bit lighter that I could throw together quickly when I got home from Cub Scouts.

In my second waitressing job, when I was a teen in New Zealand, Seafood Chowder was a very popular choice for a starter.  

I had a look for Seafood Chowder recipes online but the ones I found were full of cream and butter.  

They looked absolutely delicious but not really appropriate while Mr Duncan is on his blood pressure programme.

In the morning I put the frozen seafood mix in a bowl of water to thaw and de-salt.

Fertility focus

Mussels, like other shellfish are a rich source of vitamin D and vitamin B12.  They also contain copper, iron, selenium and zinc.
Prawns are rich in zinc which is essential for healthy sperm.

Ingredients

• Coconut oil
• Onion, finely chopped
• Carrot, diced
• Potatoes, diced
• Water - about 500 mls
• Seafood mix (prawns/squid/mussels)
• Coconut milk - about 100 mls
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Parsley

Method

1.  Sweat the onion in a teaspoon of coconut oil 

2.  Add carrot and potatoes to soften (like a mirepoix if you've been watching the cooking shows).  

3.  Add water, cover and bring to a boil.  

4.  Simmer for about 10 minutes until potatoes are nearly cooked. 

5.  Add roughly chopped seafood mix and simmer until the seafood is heated through.
6.  Remove from flame and blend with a hand mixer - I like my chowder chunky so I only blend about half of it, until the 'broth' becomes creamy with blended potato but there are still lots of unblended bits of seafood and veg.  

7.  Mix in coconut cream and return to flame to re-heat.  

8.  Serve garnished with chopped parsley.

Chicken Fajitas a la California

Although I was always a fan of Mexican restaurants in New Zealand, when I lived in San Francisco I discovered the delights of Californian-Mexican food.  

Compared to the stodgy cheesey stuff I loved in New Zealand, Cal-Mex is light, fresh, healthy and tasty.  

I regularly treated myself to dos tacos at the taqueria down the road on my way home from yoga class. 

Later, working in Dallas, I discovered that TexMex is a very different beast and not really to my taste - too much yellow cheese.

When I get a craving for Mexican in London, I either wander down to the local Tortilla or, depending on whats in the fridge, I put together a fajitas feast.  

I try to make it as healthy as possible by using my own fajitas mix, dry frying the food and using very little cheese and non fat yoghurt as extras.

We had peppers onions, tomatoes and avocado and some tortilla wraps in the cupoard.  

After just starting to eat meat once or twice a week in the last year or so, in the interests of lowering blood pressure and fostering fertility I've once again decreased our meat intake.  

For our Mexican meal, Mr Duncan was under strict instructions to pick up one, and only one, chicken breast which was more than enough for the both of us.

Ingredients

• Fajita spice mix - I throw together a generous teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, chilli powder, dried basil or oregano and smoked paprika.  The online recipes also include salt and garlic powder, but we're off the salt for blood pressure reasons and leaving it out doesn't seem to make much difference to the taste.
• Chicken breast, sliced crossways into strips
• Sliced onions and peppers/capsicum (or corguettes/mushrooms/eggplant)
• 2 tortilla wraps per person

Serve with all/any of

• Sliced avocado
• Shredded lettuce
• Chopped fresh tomato (made into a fresh salsa with onion/fresh coriander/lime if you have it)
• Grated cheese
• Plain yoghurt
• Pickled Jalapeno peppers

Method

1.  Mix the spices in a bowl and toss with the chicken strips until they are all well coated.  

2.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate while you slice up the veg.

3.  When all the prep is done, heat a frying pan over a medium flame and cook the chicken in the dry pan, turning frequently for about five minutes until it is all sealed on the outside.  Some of the spice mix will get stuck on the bottom of the pan.  That is fine. 

4.  Remove the chicken to a plate.
5.  Add the peppers and onions to the pan and a splash of cold water, enough to pick up the spices stuck to the bottom and half steam the veg as you stir fry it.
6.  Remove the veg to a plate and return the chicken to reheat.  

7.  Serve strips of filling across tortillas with extras.  

8.  Roll the tortilla and eat with your hands.  I actually find it easier to cut the tortillas in half and roll them a bit like japanese hand rolls.
. 

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Chickpea Curry with Chapati

Home made chapati

This post may contain some compensated links. Read the disclosure for more info.

I've been reading The Fertility Diet by Sarah Dobson.  And although my usual eating style is very close to her suggestions I want to further increase our intake of healthy whole foods and cut down on Mr Duncan's consumption of meat.

This week we got a butternut squash and some spinach.  

Now I love making pumpkin soup with any orange coloured squash and steamed spinach is one of my favourite side dishes but we have loads of spices to use up before we leave for Australia so I decided it was time for a curry.

Fertility focus

Turmeric is good for stabilising blood sugar levels which helps with managing weight and hormone balance.
Home made Chicken Stock is recommended in The Baby Making Bible by Emma Cannon for nurturing fertility
Chickpeas like all legumes are a good plant source of protein.
Butternut Squash is rich in Vitamin A and also contains zinc and selenium
Spinach, like all leafy greens, is rich in iron, folic acid and vitamin K
 

Ingredients

• Coconut Oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Tumeric
• Garam Masala
• Butternut squash
• Chicken stock
• Chickpeas
• Coconut milk
• Spinach 

I made this for two (though it turned out to be three servings) with half a butternut squash, half a tin of chickpeas and about 100mls coconut milk.

Method

1.  Heat a teaspoon of coconut oil in a wok and sweat roughly chopped onion until softened.  

2.  Mix in finely chopped garlic and ginger then add turmeric and garam masala.
3.  While the onion is sweating, peel and chop the butternut squash into bite sized chunks.  

4.  Add the chopped butternut to the wok and fry off a little until all covered by spices and onion.  

5.  Pour in enough chicken stock to just cover the squash.  

6.  Put on a lid and let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the butternut is nearly done.
7.  Add coconut cream and chickpeas and simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens enough to cling to the back of your wooden spoon.  

8.  Stir in chopped spinach until it wilts.

I served this with home made chapatis based on a very cut down version of this recipe - basically half a cup of flour, a dash of olive oil and water, rolled very thinly and dry fried for about 45 seconds on each side.

L.
x

Sewing Maternity-wear for Fun and Love

Super-cute maternity cargo pants

The past week had just proved to me I no longer fitted my usual clothing as I'd been holding together my various skirts and trousers with hairbands.

So I took the opportunity of the rainy day to sort through what I could and couldnt continue to wear in my wardrobe.

Cue pile of stuff that I wouldnt be able to use again until I lost the baby weight.  This included most of my work tops, as they were too short to cover my just emerging 15 week belly and that tell tale hairband.

Cue pile of stuff I could continue to wear with the use of some clever tricks.

Hmm.  

That second pile has very little in it.  

What am I going to wear to work on Monday!?

When I was pregnant the first time my job involved attending lots of boring conference calls that other people regularly called in to up to 20 minutes late.  

That is a long time to keep focussed on work when nothing is happening.  

I took to browsing sites showing how to sew for maternity - both mother and babe.  

I looked at LOADS of links (thanks Mr Google and blogging pregnant women everywhere) and bookmarked the ones I liked.

So I went back to a few of these bookmarks and made my plans.  

I had a pair of cargo pants I've mostly only used for gardening since the zip broke, and a tank top in a similar tone that had shrunk in the wash and was NEVER going to be able to cover my belly again.  With them together I could make maternity pants.

Perfect for re-fashioning!

I also identified some of Mr Duncan's shirts I could potentially repurpose for maternity tops.  

I started with about 8 shirts I'd never, ever seen him wear. After some intense whining on his part negotiation I ended up with these two with which to do what I wished.  

They're not even in my colour.  Sigh.  Needs must.

I thought I'd try to make the long sleeved purple number into the very cute refashioned maternity top at romantic history and the short sleeved shirt into the shirred maternity tunic top from DIY Maternity.


I could look in some charity shops for appropriate shirts to make tops from some of the other tutorials I liked:

Babydoll maternity top
Pintuck shirt
Snug belly T
T-shirt to pin-tuck tunic

I was all set to commence with the sewing machine in the morning.  

At 11.50pm that night I experienced a sudden gush of brown water which ended in the loss of my second baby.

So that was that.

I hope, one day, to post my own versions of these tutorials.

L.

x