Easy Peasy Stuffed Zucchini

Living in the same household with a hockey player means you need to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Back in the days in Poland I mainly cooked for myself and most of the cooking took place over the weekends. Moving to France and living in the same place again has meant cooking more frequently and after cooking the same chicken pasta or chicken with rice day after day you start being desperate of discovering some new ways of using similar ingredients. With a sports player there's certain limitations to what you can (=should) eat because of the games etc.

I rarely use any recipies when I cook and normally just think of some flavor combinations that work well together. I cooked stuffed zucchini this week for dinner and made enough so that we had something for lunch the next day as well. This dish is easy to make and there's a billion variations you can do to the recipe! Below's what I used to make mine with this week.

Stuffed Zucchini

ca. 40min

5 round zucchinis

300g chicken breast

1 bag (ca60g or 2portions) basmati rice

1 yeallow bell pepper

1 echalote

125g garlic&herbs cream cheese

parmesan 

gruyere (grated emmental works ok)

salt

pepper

garlic (dried, from a mill)

honey (optional)

Heat oven to 200c. Bring water to boil in a kettle and cook the rice. While the rice is cooking, chop the chicken breast, onion and bell pepper into small cubes. 

Cut the "hats" off the zucchinis and then carve the soft insides out. Chop the insides to small pieces. 

Add butter/vegetable oil to a frying pan and add the chicken in, once it has some color to it, add the onions, bell pepper and insides of zucchini. 

Place the zucchinis and their hats next to them on an oven plate (use cooking paper under so they don't stick to the pan) and place to the oven for ca 10 minutes so they pre-cook before stuffing them.

Spice your chicken and veggies with salt, pepper and garlic powder (you can also add in dried or fresh herbs here!). When the water starts to rise from the zucchinis, add the cream cheese in. Mix well. Add the cooked rice in, mix and check the flavour. At this point you can add a little parmesan to the mixture as well as a little drizzle of honey depending of your preferance. Once the mixture is somewhat thick and there's no more excess water on the pan, you're good to start stuffing the zucchinis.

Take the zucchinis out of the oven and start stuffing. This is the easiest if you use two table spoons to do the work. Press the stuffing in so you can fit the maximum in. Add some gruyere on top of the zucchinis and leave the hats still on the side. Put the zucchinis in the oven until the cheese has taken a golden colour. 

When serving, add the hats on top for decoration. Enjoy!

PS. There may be some excess stuffing, this is good to be eaten as it is as lunch for example, but in case you have some extra bell peppers you can stuff them with the same filling if for example there is someone in your household who isn't too big of a fan of zucchini.

Happy Cooking and Happy Friday!

8 (false) Reasons For Not Doing Yoga

By all means, I am not a yoga expert so if you're expecting pictures of dancer asanas etc. you shall be disappointed. As I started to have problems with my back (=rheumatism) again at the beginning of the year and while the inflammations decided to have a rather permanent stay at the premises of my body, I became desperate.

I could not do my regular gym resume, no running (this was so disappointing it really killed my mood!), at some point I couldn't even go for long walks etc. I was literally trapped inside an old woman's body before reaching my 30s. I started to refer to myself with the nickname grandma, in a sad way it felt accurate. What wasn't comfortable was that due to high stress levels and no movement I wasn't losing any weight but morelike gaining back what I had lost with hard work the year before. I needed the endorfins that I normally would get from running, but how?

I think I've said this before, but here it comes again "things have a way of working out". I had been sitting alone in my corner of the office for a year, when one day a new colleague joined the company and came to sit in my area of the office. We started chatting and the conversation turned to health and exercising, it turned out my new office neighbour was a yoga teacher! She insisted that I come and try a lesson at the school she teached in one day. Slightly suspicious at first, I decided what the hell, I'll give it a go as I can't do much else at the moment anyway! And after my first visit, I understood, that all the reasons I had before for not trying yoga, were wrong.

Here's my (false) list of reasons for not trying yoga and how I overruled them after trying yoga:

1. You're not flexible. You don't have to be, the flexibility is a bonus that comes with time and practise. 

2. You're not the skinny yogi type. There is no weight limitation for yoga, everyone can do it. Yoga can help with your weight control.

3. You're not strong enough. Yoga helps develop strength, you start with the strength you have and time after time you get stronger.

4. What will the others think. This is such a cliché. Everyone else is busy doing what their doing, nobody cares! And on the other hand, what everyone else thinks about you is none of your business.

5. It's outside my comfort zone. The best things happen outside your comfort zone.

6. It's too hard. Good things never come easy.

7. Yoga is not a sport. Everyone who's tried it knows better.

8. I have no time for it. Every minute counts. With good time management you can easily fit a 30 minutes session to your morning. Every session doesn't have to be 90 minutes long!

Have a lovely evening!