What I Eat in a Day 9

Helloooo! How is the new year treating you all? I'm loving 2017 so far ( I know it's only been 4 days!). I feel like this is going to be a good year for us! I'm also loving being back in my normal eating routine. I love the festive feasting for a bit but after a while I just need to get back to a big plate of veggies. Today's post is my weekly what I eat in a day post, i'm still really loving these posts, I love trying to make my food look a little prettier. Yesterday was a really good day for food for me, healthy and very tasty, all the recipes turned out very well. So, let's get on with the food...

BREAKFAST

 Porridge made with whole milk and topped with banana slices, cocoa nibs and honey.

I didn't waste too much time getting back to my old favourite, did I? Although I did change it up slightly with the cocoa nibs! The cocoa nibs are something new for me, I had never tried them before. We got these as a Christmas gift in a Hotel Chocolat hamper (lucky us, I know!) so I was very excited to give them a try! They are delicious, let me tell you! They give a lovely hint of chocolate without being too sweet in the morning and I love the crunch they give to your bowl of porridge! They also look really pretty on top of your porridge, so they really are a great ingredient. I will have to try other ways of using them, any suggestions...? Feel free to comment down below!

LUNCH

 Roast lemon and rosemary chicken with peas, crispy potatoes and roasted root veggies, 3 clementines.

Lunch was leftovers from the night before! It was our last holiday night so we decided to go out in style with a healthy-ish roast! One fact about me is I absolutely LOVE a roast dinner, you just can't beat it! We roasted a chicken a top some red onion, a garlic bulb, butternut squash and carrots with lemon and rosemary and it was so scrummy! I also made some lovely crispy rosemary potatoes, which were so tasty! I toyed with the idea of mash with this, I LOVE mash (I am Northern Irish after all!) but thought the crispy potatoes would work better. So lucky me, I had these tasty leftovers for lunch, yay!

AFTERNOON SNACK

 Pink smarties and a cup of coffee.

After that huge lunch you wouldn't of thought that I would need an afternoon snack but alas the Christmas chocolate in the cupboard was calling my name! And of course you can't have chocolate in the afternoon without a coffee. I also needed a serious perk up, there was too much lounging over Christmas! The pink smarties were a gift for Christmas, I put them into a little ramekin to try and stop myself eating the whole tube (smart idea I thought!).

DINNER

Baked whole ricotta with cherry tomatoes, lentils and spinach.

This dish was high in health! So many vegetables in one dish! This recipe came from the BBC Good Food January issue and did not disappoint! Anything with lentils and i'm there! The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute green lentils for puy lentils. Don't get me wrong I love puy lentils but they are soooo expensive! Green lentils are much cheaper and you don't compromise on flavour. I had never baked a whole ricotta before but  will definitely be doing this again, it sort of firms up and takes on a more filling texture, this was such a good vegetarian dish!

And that's it! That's everything I ate yesterday and it was all very delicious and nutritious, just the right sort of start I wanted for 2017! Start as you mean to go on and all that jazz! I hope you enjoyed this post and it has given you some ideas for meals! I also hope that you have had a good start to 2017 and that it brings great things for you! Thank you for reading,

Rachael xx.