Overcoming Food Fears with Tilda Rice*

It's fairly common knowledge amongst my close friends and family that I'm a 'fussy eater', but I rarely even attempt to explain why. I don't choose to 'turn my nose up' at things, or refuse to try a new food because I'm being obstinate on purpose, believe me. In the past few years I've extended my palate and the range of food that I eat massively, but to this day I still struggle to even consider trying new things, or changing the way I eat. 
My mental health and general anxiety are closely connected to the way I eat. I'm 100% an emotional eater, but it goes beyond just eating when I'm sad or happy or worried. There are certain foods I associate with happiness (watermelon and nachos, for example), and if I've had a bad day, then a 'normal' meal just won't suffice, and it might even end in tears because I haven't had one of my special meals that I associate with happiness.
This may all sound very strange, but it has a massive impact on the way I eat and what I choose to eat. Gradually over the past three years of our relationship my boyfriend and I have worked together to expand my idea of 'safe' and 'happy' foods, that I can eat to maintain a good mood, and I've started eating things I could never have imagined eating before. If you had asked me back in 2013 whether I would ever eat paella or sushi, I would have grimaced and replied with a firm 'nope', but now these, and other more adventurous foods, have a place in my diet. 
It's not even just the content of the food that my anxiety impacts, but the way the food is presented and eaten as well. Meals with lots of different components (e.g. a roast with meat, potatoes, stuffing and several types of vegetable) take me forever to eat because I have to have a mouthful that contains the right proportion of each type of food. This involves me chopping everything up into the 'right' size before eating it, and I just can't imagine not doing that. This is possibly the most irritating aspect of my food anxiety - if you're eating with me I WILL take forever.
As well as this, if I'm cooking for myself the different foods on my plate cannot be touching or piled on top of each other, unless it's a dish that is designed to be like that, for example, paella. So, it actually takes a little longer to plate up, and god forbid if anyone smothers my food in a sauce I don't like. 
New foods also pose quite a threat. It took two years of incessant persuasion for my boyfriend to even get me to try sushi, and then I discovered that I loved it ... whoops. This means that I'm *that* person that goes to a pizza restaurant and orders margarita, because I know I like it.
So, when Tilda Rice offered to send me some samples of their new rice and pulses pouches, I was more than a little nervous. They sent me: the chickpea, harissa and lemon pouch*; the pinto bean, green chili and lime pouch*; the edamame, spring onion and wasabi pouch*; the split pea, green chili and coriander pouch*; and the black bean, jerk and coconut pouch*. In essence, the pouches contain basmati rice with a sauce and a form of pulses.
Not only do some of the pouches contain new foods for me, but also everything was mixed. However, I had agreed to write this post, so I wanted (and needed) to push myself into trying to whip something enjoyable up out of these pouches of goodness. 
I'm not going to lie, I didn't enjoy all of them too much - everyone has their favourite and least favourite flavours right? Well I don't like barbecue sauce (I know, I know, it's a crime), so jerk sauce never goes down very well with me. However, the chickpea, harissa and lemon pouch was utterly divine, and I would actually repurchase it for a nice easy lunch when I'm feeling a little lazy. 
How did you overcome your food fears with them, I hear you ask? Well, for starters I didn't rush my sampling of them. I probably tried one every other day and decided not to put too much pressure on myself. If I didn't like it and couldn't finish it, that was fine, because I had put myself out on a limb to try it.  I also ensured that I had something I knew I liked to accompany it. With some I made a little curry sauce and chicken, and with others I had homemade chunky pasta sauce. Combining familiar flavours with these new ones definitely made them a lot easier to handle. 
Do you have any food fears like me?
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Favourite Recipe: Homemade Chicken and Chorizo Paella

I know that officially paella is meant to be a seafood dish, but (ashamedly) I'm not the greatest fan of the fruits of the sea. I am however, a massive fan of both chicken and chorizo. The latter isn't a strictly clean meat, but is not used in great quantities in this dish. I really believe that the way forward in adopting a clean eating lifestyle is to obey the 8020 rule - 80% clean and 20% not so clean. It really means you don't go completely off the rails and splurge on a week of KFCs and pizzas. I tend to make a fairly big batch and freeze portions - great way to have a whole week's worth of dinners in one hit!

Ingredients (makes 6 servings):

1 chicken breast

80g chorizo

1 onion

1 red pepper

3 cloves garlic

300g paella rice 

2 chicken stock cubes

100g frozen peas

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoons paprika

a dash of cider vinegar

Parsley

Ground black pepper

Sea salt

Lemon juice

Coconut/extra virgin olive oil 

1.) Chop the chicken breast up into chunks. Slice the chorizo. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Deseed the pepper and cut into long thing strips - if you cut them too thick they will take longer to cook and may end up being hard at the end!

2.) Place the onion, garlic, chicken and chorizo in a large frying pan or wok along with a generous amount of coconut oil. Add the paprika and cook for five minutes, stirring regularly. 

3.) Add the red pepper. Cook for another five minutes, again stirring regularly.

4.) Whilst this is cooking, boil the kettle to make two pints of water - one for each stock cube. 

5.) Add the rice into the pan (don't put any water in first!). This allows it to soak up the flavours already in the dish. Stir for a minute or so.

6.) In one jug, place one stock cube, a pint of boiling water, some ground black pepper, salt and parsley. Stir and pour into the pan. Add the turmeric (this is what will give the rice its yellow hue)

7.) Leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, until almost all of the water has been absorbed/boiled away. Then add the second jug of water with the second stock cube. Repeat the first part of this step.

8.) Boil the peas for five minutes and add.

Enjoy!

Love and Light

Steph 

**All photos are property of Sophie Hartley**

Any comments/questions are very welcome

Healthy Chicken Paella Soup

This summer was the first time in years in which I've travelled to another country. I was fortunate enough to spend a week in coastal Malaga, Spain with my boyfriend in June. Here I tried paella for the first time and fell in love with it. I'm not the world's greatest seafood fan, so what I ate wasn't *true* paella as it was chicken and chorizo based, but hey, it was paella in Spain so I'm counting it. During a bout of why-does-English-weather-suck in September I caved and bought a chicken paella meal soup from Sainsburys (try it, trust me you won't regret it). Living on a student budget and wanting to be as healthy as possible however, led me to create my own recipe - here it is!

Ingredients (makes 2 servings):

1 small chicken breast

2 cloves garlic

50g peas

1 can chopped tomatoes

60g brown rice

1 tsp lemon juice

Paprika

Ground black pepper

Salt

Thyme

Basil

Dried chopped chili

Parsley

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 

2.) Boil some water for the rice. Start cooking the rice. Remember to check the pack for how long to cook it, but brown rice should take about 25 minutes to cook. I actually prefer brown rice to white rice, which is a win when you're trying to eat clean, but the recipe works equally well with white (although you'll have to adjust cooking times). 

2.) Pour a little bit of olive oil over the chicken. Season with ground black pepper, salt and basil. The olive oil helps to keep it from drying our whilst cooking so that you get a lovely juicy chicken. 

3.) Once the chicken is in the oven (it should take about 20 minutes to cook) you can start working on the sauce. Finely chop or crush the garlic. Heat a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil in a pan and cook the garlic for one minute. 

4.) Add the chooped tomatoes. Now comes the seasoning. Add a pinch of the dried chopped chili, basil, thyme and parsley. Season with ground black pepper to your liking. Now it's time for the key ingredient: paprika. I'm not the greatest fan of spicy food, so if you are it may be wise to adjust the spice measurements to your liking. I usually end up putting between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon of paprika in. The best idea is to measure along the way to make sure you adjust it to your liking. 

5.) Leave the sauce to simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes.

6.) Whilst it's cooking, boil some water for the peas. Cook for roughly five minutes. Add the peas to the sauce.

7.) By now the chicken should be cooked. Slice it up into thin strips and add to the sauce.

8.) Finally add the rice and serve. You can reheat the second serving for another day. 

Love and Light,

Steph :)

**DISCLAIMER** 

All photos are property of Sophie Hartley

Vegan Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Recipe

Every so often I like to spice up my stack of recipes with something I wouldn't otherwise make. So, I go a-hunting for something to freshen up my routine. This is one of those things. I am forever grateful that I started this blog, as it's encouraged me to try my hand at so many new dishes I would never have even come across, and this is one that (I think) you should get excited about.

Originally I found the recipe in a cookbook which I recently purchased at a car boot sale (recipes hardly get worse with time, so why pay more for new books?!), but have since adapted the recipe to make it suitable for my diet. At only 81 calories per serving, this is by far the least calorific evening meal I've found. Although the portion sizes aren't incredibly large, you can pair this with other foods such as a baked sweet potato to create a larger meal.