Blackened Chicken, San Fran Quinoa Salad

Meal 80 - September 28th - Blackened Chicken, San Fran Quinoa Salad

In a moment of potentially disastrous judgement, several months ago Lolz and I signed up to the Ealing Half Marathon, either forgetting or ignoring the fact that it would be happening just days after my sister's wedding. In a typical week prior to a half marathon, I would ensure I was well hydrated by drinking lots of water, I'd ease off the alcohol, go for a couple of short, easy runs, and do a bit of carb loading in the few days prior to the race. Unfortunately this tried an tested regime was abandoned in favour of lots of meat, booze, dancing and general unhealthiness. Lolz had conveniently sustained an injury forcing her to pull out of the race by this point but, I, being much more hard core, would be seeing it through. After getting home from the pub on Saturday afternoon, I decided it was time for a healthy pre-race meal. I opted for this salad, full of quinoa, spinach, lean chicken and other energy-boosting goodness.

Mighty Mackerel, Mixed Tomato and Quinoa Salad

Meal 44 - May 15th - Mighty Mackerel, Mixed Tomato and Quinoa Salad

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a grain like crop, grown primarily for it's edible seeds. I am of course talking about quinoa, the nature of which I was as clueless about as it's pronunciation. I am exaggerating of course - eating quinoa is a crucial rite of passage for all middle class wannabes and although I had never tried it before, I knew that it was basically a posher variety of cous cous.