Recipe: Quorn mince and green lentil curry.

It was my turn to cook dinner last week and I decided to be adventurous and try something new.  I have eaten quorn on numerous occasions when I lived away from home as a student but my family hadn’t so I thought there’s no time like the present to serve it to them. I knew my brother would pull a face being the meat-lover that he is and not the most willing to try vegetarian options, but I hoped to change his mind about this sustainable protein source!

I found a recipe for “Quorn Meat Free Mince & Vegetable Curry” on the quorn website and thought it sounded delicious, I just adapted it slightly in terms of veggies used. I liked the fact this recipe had an abundance of herbs and spices to add flavour, because I know quorn can be quite bland and not have much of a taste. This was also a positive when trying to convince a stubborn meat eater that quorn tastes good.

Ingredients (serves 4):

300g Quorn mince

1 tspn olive oil

2 garlic cloves

1 tin chopped tomatoe

1 tspn tomato puree

1 red onion

1 red pepper

1 can green lentils drained

Curry Spices:

1 tspn chilli powder

1 tspn ground ginger

½ tspn ground coriander

½ tspn ground cumin

½ tspn ground turmeric

Combine the spices together and set aside in a bowl. Fry the veg and garlic in oil and then add the spice mix. Add tinned tomatoes and tomato puree. Add the quorn mince and green lentils. I served with brown rice.

Unfortunately I did not win my brother over completely with the quorn in that he still prefers beef due to the flavour. I mean I prefer the flavour of beef mince but I think of the health and environmental benefits when consuming quorn!

Workouts in the last week or so…

I have been the worst blogger the past week or so. I’ve had so many uni deadlines that I just haven’t had the time but the dissertation is just about done and due on Monday so the workload will quieten down a bit, finally!

So last Monday I went for a run, it feels strange saying this now but it was actually snowing! Hasn’t the weather been so bipolar the last couple of weeks? Today it was glorious sunshine and I have the beginning of a tan, yay! I had my head stuck down in uni work all day and badly needed fresh air, so I forced myself out into the half blizzard and managed to run 3.5 km. The weather took its toll on me after a while so I did not manage a full 5 km. I find a run is a great way to de-stress from revising all day, regardless of the weather try and get out if it is safe. Trust me it will help a million!

Then on Wednesday I trained legs. Just my usual workout that you will find in the most recent leg workout post. My squat wasn’t as heavy but I am trying to work on form more just now to prevent lower back pain. A guy in the gym told me I do bend my lower back slightly even though I don’t think I am, so he suggested I try squatting with the Smith machine. Personally I find it difficult to squat on a Smith machine with the bar fixed, so I have opted for lowering the weight instead. I do a max of 45 kg just now.

Friday was upper body day and I slightly changed things up.:

I started with a 15 minute run to try and up the cardio

I then did face pulls 3 x 10 at 13.5 kg

Tricep extensions with cable 3 x 10 at 12. 5 kg

Lat pull downs 3 x 10 at 23 kg

Overhead press 3 x 10 at 15 kg

Upright row 3 x 10 at 20 kg

Body weight press ups 2 x 10

Ab work to finish.

Then the weekend exercise consisted mainly of steps at work and then a night out for May day.

Today I was back at the gym for legs and again this did not differ much from the norm except I used dumb bells for straight legged deadlifts and one 10 kg dumb bell for hip thrusts. This was due to part of the gym being closed to the public. I also did hip abductors instead of pull throughs for this reason.

Have a great week everyone!