Stuffed courgettes/zuchinni

Hi, so this recipe I thought of really as I was trying to use up some courgettes and other bits and pieces in the fridge and it turned out really well so thought I'd share it with you...

It's basically courgettes (or zuchini) stuffed with cheese and vegetables, and it is lovely!!

Here's how:

• First take a courgette (or more) and slice all the way down the middle (longways). 
• Carefully use a sharp knife to hollow out the courgette as much as you can while taking care not to cut the skin. 
• Chop up the courgette that you have cut out of the middle and set aside. 
• Heat some oil in a frying pan, I like flavoured oils ie garlic oil or basil oil but any will do. 
• Fry the chopped courgette over a gentle heat and leave in the pan frying gently
• Chop up some mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and a couple of sundried tomatoes
• Grate some cheese or crumble some feta or goats cheese
• Add the mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and spinach to the courgette mix and continue frying
• When the spinach has wilted and the courgette is looking quite transparent add the cheese and turn the heat down until it has melted into the mixture. Then turn the heat off.

The mixture at this point will look something like this (and will taste lovely!):

• Spoon the mixture into the hollowed out courgettes and put into an oven dish
  
• Pop the courgettes into the oven (sprinkling with a bit more cheese of you fancy) and bake at a medium heat for 30 minutes 
• Enjoy! 

Hope you like them, they really are delicious!!

Typical lunches/everyday food

Hi,  sorry again that it has been so long since I last wrote, I’ve not tried any exciting recipes recently but here are some ideas of things that I’ve been eating.

The main thing to note is that I have got stuck into a rut of eating pretty much the same meals every day, lots of salads (albeit quite interesting ones with lots of nice ingredients), a few omelettes, aubergine pizzas (which I wrote about here) and some stir frys. However, despite that I really have found that since being on the diet my appetite has really reduced and I don’t eat nearly as much as I used to. Oh I also have quite a lot of Atkins bars too!

Really enjoying having one of these coffees a day:

It really doesn’t feel like you’re on a diet when you have coffees like these!

Anyway here is a typical lunch that I take into work, it’s quite a lot of food and I don’t eat it all in one go, the main reason for this is that I have pretty much stopped having breakfast, though I do have an atkins bar mid morning, therefore when it gets to lunch time I am pretty hungry! 

So, it's obviously quite self explanatory but i'll talk you through it:

• An Atkins bar- I do have one of these, often more per day, as I do have a sweet tooth and they're so nice and quick and easy. Lots of the online forums have said that they stop you losing weight but I have had not problems with them. The main problem is how expensive they are!!
• Boursin cheese cubes- I don't take these everyday but I do always take some form of small snacking cheese like laughing cow, Babybel etc. 
• A pot of assorted cheeses and cherry tomatoes- this is so filling and satisfying, I always mix about three different cheeses in there and snack on it throughout the day whenever I get hungry. 
• A big salad- not sure what is in this one here but typically they have lettuce (a few different types), cucumber, cherry tomatoes (a few different ones), spinach, kale and samphire (fried so it's crispy), quorn pieces or fillets, again fried usually but not in too much oil. The for dressing I usually have pesto or Hellman's Casear dressing as they're both low in carbs. 

Here's another salad I made, this time it's rocket, baby leaf, spinach, kale, stirfried broccoli, feta and tomatoes:

And here's another, this isn't one for one the go, however it really doesn't take long to throw together some lettuce, feta, hard boiled egg, and for this one I also added mushrooms cooked in a little bit of cream cheese and hard cheese and some grated cheese mixed with mayonniase. Delicious!

I like to fry the things for the salad in lots of different types of oils, this way the flavour is a bit different and it stops them getting boring, for example I use sesame oil which is great for stirfrying broccoli and kale, basil or garlic oil is great for quorn and asparagus, normal olive oil is great for quorn and for samphire. But basically I just mix and match each time!

Another meal I've discovered which is super easy and are great for taking into work and snacking on is these mini stuffed peppers:

These are really easy to make basically:

• Fry some mushrooms chopped into very fine pieces mix in a little bit of pesto and cream cheese, you can add some other vegetables like asparagus, chopped into fine pieces 
• Cut the tops off the peppers then spoon the mixture in using a teaspoon
• Put the top back on 
• Bake on a medium heat for about 15 minutes, these can then be heated up in the microwave for about 3 minutes and eaten alongside your salad, or alone. 

That's it! It's a lot of food but it's very filling and really tasty and doesn't feel like diet food at all!

I'd love to know what sorts of veggie things other people take in for lunch when they're on the Atkins!