12wbt

As you may or may not be aware, I am partaking in a 12 week body transformation at the moment. It is not a fad diet or drastic lifestyle change. It is simply about eating good, portioned food and exercising - how easy?! And, for the most part, it has been easy. (I've never been great with portion control though.)

Since I'm cooking a lot more and eating out less, there isn't so much rad food to blog about. So here's a bit of an update regarding the 12wbt foodie experience so far.

The roast garlic and pumpkin soup was amazing. Best of all, I made so much in one batch that I still have some in the freezer. It has become a favourite post-workout lunch for me on the weekends and it was incredibly easy to make too.

During week one though, Dan and I went a bit rogue - we were craving pizza. So without giving into temptation too much, we made guilt-free, mountain bread pizzas. For these, we didn't follow a recipe but they are so adaptable and very easy to make. (So rogue!)

My biggest failure in the kitchen so far (in the past few weeks anyway) was the meatballs. For some reason I can not get meatballs to keep their shape. Given my inadequacies, I would use the same ingredients to make a bolognese rather than meatballs in the future.

One of my greater successes, though, was the lasagne. I added a layer of vegetables to the original recipe and it was scrumptious. I think I'd add even more vegetables next time. But I'd never made lasagne before, so making this was both a little nerve-racking and fun.

Over the past few weeks I've also cooked, eaten and loved...

Lemon and chilli marinated pork with roast sweet potato and greens

Basil & walnut pesto spaghetti with roast tomatoes and pumpkin

Beef with creamy mustard mushroom sauce and greens

And this week we had Penang chicken... wow! It did not taste like healthy food at all. But I managed to keep to the correct portion size - in fact I had a little bit less chicken, so that I could add some rice.

So as you can see, eating healthy ain't all bad. We've had fantastic food, which has spanned many flavours and cuisines. All the food I've shown above has been for dinner/lunch, but I am eating breakfast more regularly too - omelettes and philly on toast are my staples thus far.

I'm eating well (and often), most days I love the exercise and over just three weeks I've managed to find a decent routine. Dan is definitely feeling the benefits too. Oh and I even managed to dish up some fairly healthy treats when I had friends over on the weekend - success!

As Tom Stoppard (author/playwright of one of my high school literature texts - Arcadia) said

"A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier."

- Dani

If you want to follow my 12wbt journey, check out www.withaflugelhorn.blogspot.com.au