I’m often stumped on a Sunday night on what on earth I’m going to eat for the week ahead, especially when week nights are all about being healthy in preparation for falling off the wagon on weekends. Since my memory isn’t the greatest, I’m going to start writing down any good healthy dinner & lunch options I actually enjoy so I can refer back on those Sunday nights.

I’m a creature of habit and I will literally have the same dinner at lunch every weekday for weeks and weeks on end so there won’t be too many. The intention here is not food porn – just really healthy, easy meal ideas.

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Red Lentil/Tabouli-type salad with Lamb

I found something similar in a magazine and just doctored it so that it’s low fat, low salt, low sugar and low calories – seriously it’s low everything! … except it tastes amazing and it will fill you up.

First cook ¾ cup of red lentils in boiling water for about 3 minutes, then remove and place in cold water.

Then chuck all this in a bowl:

2 finely chopped capsicums (any colour – I chose yellow & red)

1 finely chopped Lebanese cucumber, seeds removed

1 finely chopped tomato, seeds removed

1 small red onion finely chopped

1 bunch of mint roughly chopped

1 bunch of parsley roughly chopped

Juice of one lemon

Good shake of cumin, around a small tbsn

Drizzle of olive oil

Pepper

Remove as much moisture from the veggies as possible by draining in a colander or patting with paper towel especially if you want to eat the salad again that week.  Add lentils and toss. Add more cumin or lemon & pepper to taste.

Serve with some pan fried lamb and tzatziki or if you’re feeling super skinny, just have it on its own.

It makes enough that you can have it another 1-3 times, I would have it again for lunch at least twice the same week.

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I tried another option to go with this salad last night which was great. Keep a big batch of the salad in the fridge and then you can alternate between lamb & chicken.. it would also be really nice with falafel!

Chicken thigh with fat trimmed, tossed in olive oil, garlic & dried chili flakes. The chili flakes lose most of their heat when cooked so keep that in mind and don’t use sparingly – chuck it all on there!  Panfry, but make sure the windows are open in your kitchen!  It was a cold night in Melbs so I had my apartment all closed up and I almost choked to death from the fried chili!

Serve with some lemon & hummus, instead of tzaziki.