The prawn & the cocktail

Any guesses as to why I woke up so unnecessarily early this morning?

It’s another fuzzy-head Saturday morning, and although I am in desperate need of tea & toast, I am definitely making the most of this lie in! This week has been pretty non-stop. My parents came to the city and between the coffees & cocktails we managed to catch up on life, the universe and everything! Sometimes a little slice of home is just what you need. But being totally out of routine this week has meant squeezing in yoga & the gym between lectures and having to get a bit creative when it came to meal times – basically trying to use up everything and anything in the fridge! So there was definitely a theme to my make-shift meals.

As long as I have my kitchen basics I can usually come up with something satisfying – spinach, avocado, eggs, bananas, oats, hummus & chili flakes are my absolute essentials when it comes to the weekly shop. After these it’s just a case of choosing extra fresh veg, fruit & meat/fish or stocking up on cupboard essentials like wholegrain rice, quinoa, pasta and bread. At the beginning of this week I had some real cravings for mango and prawns, and not as individual ingredients but the actual combination of the two! Who knows why, foodie’s brains work in mysterious ways. So here’s how I satisfied this Caribbean craving:

Mango-shrimp salad (with homemade tortilla chips & avo-salsa): (Serves 1)

This salad is so fresh and bursting with flavour, it’s dairy free and can easily be made gluten free by substituting the wholewheat tortilla for a GF version. Adding a little fruit to your salads is a really delicious way to pack your meals with antioxidants and also satisfy that sweet-tooth! This is also a really quick and easy weekday meal that can be thrown together whilst the tortilla chips bake, a true bowl of love.

• 1 serving of deliciously chunky avo-salsa (recipe link here!)
• 1 wholewheat tortilla wrap
• 2 lime wedges
• 1/2 cup mango, chopped
• 1 small extra handful of fresh coriander leaves, torn/roughly chopped
• 1/2 pack of small prawns (I tend to rinse them before adding)
• 1 big handful of spinach, roughly chopped
• cucumber, chopped into small quarters
• 1 tbsp mixed omega-3 boosting seeds – optional (e.g. sunflower, sesame, chia)
• sprinkle of paprika
• sprinkle of dried chili flakes
• 1 tbsp hummus
• Salt & pepper

For the tortilla chips:

Preheat the oven to 120°C (fan). Slice the tortilla like a pizza into triangles and spray/drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil (or other oil of your choice!). Line a baking tray with parchment paper or foil and place the triangles evenly onto the tray with spaces in between. Sprinkle over some paprika, salt & pepper. Leave to bake for around 20 mins until the tortilla crisps up a bit – keep an eye on them for burning!

For the salad: 

This part is super easy – just combine all of your chopped ingredients with the avo-salsa mix, prawns and mango, and season to your liking with a few lime wedges, S&P, chilli flakes and maybe some paprika & hummus. Sprinkle over some superfood seeds and get creative with it – add in whatever you fancy! You might have some extra veg that needs using or maybe some healthy & refreshing homemade tzatziki (link here!). 

With the leftover prawns, mango and salad ingredients, I managed to put together some other nutritious and delicious weeknight treats & lunches. I’m also loving seeds at the moment and finding lots of new ways to incorporate them into whatever i’m making. Healthy meals on a tight time schedule don’t have to be difficult or fancy! These are some of my favourite make-shift meals from this crazy week:

I hope you have a lovely weekend! And if you’re like me this morning, suffering from a post-prosecco hangover, be sure get some fresh air and plenty of water! Here’s a link to a useful post…