Simple Pleasures

Yesterday in the supermarket I saw something I haven't seen in Singapore before... a perfectly ripe golden peach.  I just had to buy a few.  I spent about five whole minutes standing in front of the peach bin selecting the four best specimens I could find - the locals must have thought I was crazy, smelling each one for ripeness, checking every inch for bruising... oh well!

I ate the first one this morning and it was every bit as good as I was hoping for - delicious!

I think I'm going through a bit of an egg obsession at the moment.  I'm having a poached egg on toast for breakfast almost every morning, and yesterday for a BBQ I took a quiche.  I'm pretty certain that an egg is almost a perfect food, and good to eat which ever way you like it (except raw... too much for me).  I guess an egg a day might be a bit too much, but I'm going with it for the moment.

Apparently my disastrous (but yummy) baking attempt from last weekend has not scared me off using the oven.  This quiche (if I do say so myself, and I do) was a roaring success!  So simple, very few ingredients, so tasty.  I just have to share the recipe.  But as it's pretty much impossible for me to actually stick to a recipe, I made a few changes - which I think made it much healthier.  I used filo pastry instead of puff, yoghurt instead of cream, spinach instead of silverbeet (Swiss chard) and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top at the end.  And put it all in a spring-form tin (easier to remove).  Ok, so I admit the parmesan is not a health benefit...

• INGREDIENTS:
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 bunch Swiss chard, ribs removed, leaves chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)

• 1 1/4 cups whipping cream
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch of ground nutmeg

METHOD:

Roll out pastry on floured work surface to 12-inch square. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Fold under; crimp edges. Cover; chill.

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add leeks and thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover; cook until leeks are very tender but not brown, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add chard; saut until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; cool.

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F. Whisk cream and next 5 ingredients in large bowl. Mix in cooled leek mixture. Pour filling into crust.

Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake until filling is puffed and just set in center, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer to rack; cool 10 minutes.

Progress update from Thursday - 1 kg down for the week!  That makes 1.5kg in total.  Not bad for two weeks!  And weirdly enough it has been easy and fun!  Of course it's incredibly motivating to see the numbers going down, and I know at some stage they will stop.  I'll have to figure out that mental hurdle later.  But for now the small changes in lifestyle are working.

There are a few key things which are making this so much easier (I've been thinking about them).

1. Home cooking - I love to cook healthily anyway, but with the two of us on this bandwagon, we are more motivated to cook at home vs eating out.
2. I have restless tastebuds and love the challenge of a new recipe.  One of my favourite things to do is flick through recipes looking for delicious-sounding ideas for dinner that week/night - my favourites folder on my Epicurious app is so full.
3. Getting enough sleep. Without a doubt a huge contributor.  More sleep - more energy - more likely to exercise/cook dinner/work more efficiently/choose a healthier lunch at work.  I'm not consistent enough yet, but much better than I used to be.
4. Team Effort - I am definitely feeding off my boyfriend's motivation, and it helps, especially in moments of weakness.  Thank you!  :-)