Hairy Dieters Week 8

Oh how time flies, I can’t believe I’ve had the Hairy Dieters book for 8 weeks now.

This week comprised of 3 new meals that I’d not cooked, a meal out at a local pub for my birthday and then two meals we’d had before from the book.

First up was the Coconut prawn curry, I served it with a small portion of rice and half a garlic chapatti, which obviously added a few extra calories but it was worth it. The curry it’s self was delicious, packed full of coconut and spices but could have done with an extra chilli kick. I did leave out the corn flour though as the sauce looked quite thick and I didn’t want to make it too thick and gloopy.

Next up were the Italian style meatballs, I oped for pork mince for the actual meatballs and it worked really well, they held together nicely and didn’t take long to cook, the flavour of the actual meat and herbs was spot on. The sauce on the other hand was nice but just missing something, maybe a touch bland it could have done with some herbs or a little bit of extra depth.

The last of the new meals was the chicken and mushroom risotto, I was looking forward to seeing how the flavours worked because I usually load my risotto up with white wine, peas, ham/bacon, even a sprinkle of gruyere and drizzle of balsamic, although my healthy version leaves out the cheese and has less bacon in, considering the hairy dieters version didn’t have any of those it was really tasty,  I’ve never thought of mixing creme fraiche into risotto before but it definately added that extra dimension and the chicken added a nice texture and bit of bite to the dish.

Friday saw me making the Cod and Prawn Gratin again as we had the mother in law round for tea, It went down a treatand was even easier to make the second time round. I served it with a huge pile of steamed vegetables and a couple of new potatoes.

Saturday saw the return of the meat and potato pies that I’d cooked and frozen last week, I actually think the freezing improved the pies, the chilli came through a little bit more and the pasty was even crispier after it’s second time in the oven. I’m almost tempted to make a huge batch of these and keep them in the freezer for last minute meals. We had them with mushy peas and a few homemade chips, yes I know chips aren’t healthy but it was Saturday and we fancied a treat!