I’m so excited to be guest blogger over at Oh No Rachio! today with my geometric meal planner DIY! achel has recently set up a group for creatives over on Facebook and we connected through this, although I’ve been reading her blog for a while now. I designed this project to fit around Rachel’s inspiring fitness posts – a meal planner can be really helpful if you’re trying to eat well. We try to do this as much as possible, and it helps me to avoid buying things we really don’t need at the shops! Planning the meals that you are going to eat each week means that you know exactly which ingredients you need to buy. And if it isn’t on the list, it doesn’t go in the trolley or basket!

If you like the tutorial but don’t want to make a meal planner, you could always use it as a general weekly planner instead. Write down any events that you have on each day in a different colour for each person, and then you’ll know what the plan is for the whole week! I find things much easier when I know what’s going on. In fact, I’m definitely an organiser!

See the full geometric meal planner DIY tutorial here – and be sure to check out the Oh No Rachio blog and shop too!

Post updated 12th February 2020.

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Ingredients

1 medium banana (the riper the better really)

10 strawberries

A dash of milk – I use skimmed, but any would be fine

You’ll also need a good blender

Method

1. Put the banana in the blender and whizz it up really well. (We have a turbo button on our blender so I always use that!) Then add the strawberries and whizz again.

2. Add a dash of milk and pulse the smoothie in the blender. Don’t do it too much or it could go everywhere! You can add as much or as little milk as you like here to get your preferred consistency.

3. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

You could always add a couple of spoons of Nutella instead of the strawberries…slightly less healthy but really good!

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Ingredients

Olive oil, for cooking

2 large red onions, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

400g red lentils

800ml vegetable stock – plus extra boiling water to avoid sticking

6 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

2-3 tablespoons madras curry paste (or use a milder one if you prefer)

300g baby spinach leaves

Sea salt and black pepper to taste (we don’t usually add additional salt)

Thick live probiotic yoghurt, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Heat a little olive oil in a pan, add the onions and garlic and cook for 4-5 minutes until softened.

2. Add the lentils and a little of the stock and simmer. Keep adding small amounts of stock bit by bit as the lentils cook and soften, as if you were cooking a risotto.

3. Once the lentils are starting to soften and break down, add the chicken and curry paste and stir well. Continue simmering and adding the stock until the chicken has cooked through. If the lentils start to stick to the pan at this point, just add a little extra boiling water to loosen it. We have found that we usually add at least 300ml extra boiling water as they do tend to stick quite a bit.

4. Add the baby spinach at the last minute, season with salt and pepper and stir until the spinach has wilted.

5. Serve immediately, with a dollop of yoghurt on top, if you like. Enjoy!

Edit: Want to make your own curry paste?

Little One absolutely loves this curry! We’ve been doing Baby Led Weaning with her since she was almost 6 months, and we must have tried this with her a couple of months in. We didn’t want to use a jar of curry paste with her because of the salt levels, so we made our own curry paste using a recipe from The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook. It’s so delicious! She loves naan bread too so we always serve this with naan and a little bit of rice, which helps to make this go further too.

This curry paste will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. You can either use ready ground spices or grind your own in a grinder (or use a pestle and mortar). We usually leave out the chilli at the moment, but you can make this as hot as you like!

1 fresh mild/medium chilli pepper, deseeded (optional)

5-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated

2cm (3/4″) piece of fresh ginger, grated

4 tbsp ground coriander seeds

4 tbsp ground cumin seeds

2 tbsp mustard seeds, crushed

1 tbsp chilli powder (optional)

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp paprika (we use sweet smoked paprika)

Olive oil

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add as much oil as you need to get the desired consistency.

Post updated 6th May 2017.

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Tom is making his recipe debut on my blog today – he quite often makes things up when cooking, and this is what he made up for dinner tonight! A yummy cassoulet which was carb-free (great if you’re trying to eat healthily). He left the sausages whole so that there would be leftover veggie stuff – this will go great with a jacket potato or some pasta so we’ll box it up for the freezer.

Ingredients

6 sausages (Tom used some chipotle chilli ones, but you can use whatever you like)
3 peppers
1 chilli
Black pepper
Thyme (dried or fresh)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small brown onion
1 big garlic clove
1 courgette
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of cannellini beans
1 tbsp tomato puree
Grated nutmeg
Grated parmesan cheese
Dash of soy sauce
Handful of finely chopped mushrooms
A handful of spinach
Juice of half a lemon

Method

1. Put the sausages, peppers, chilli and oil into a baking dish. Add some fresh or dry thyme and season with black pepper. Put in oven to roast for about 45 mins (or until sausages are cooked and peppers have blackened slightly).

2. Then in a large pan, sautee the onion, garlic and courgette. Add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of cannellini beans and stir well. Add the tomato puree and Henderson’s relish, before grating in some nutmeg and parmesan cheese (as much of each as you prefer).

3. After this has simmered for a little while, add the rest of the ingredients and leave to simmer again. When the sausages and peppers are cooked, add them to the pan.

4. Serve with some green veg (we had mange tout) for a perfect carb-free meal!

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