Food for the body and soul

The healthy eating continues this week, in part at least. Wednesday saw another dinner, the focal point of which was to be the country's favourite grumpy millionaire and his troupe of wannabes scratching each other's eyes out for a £250 million investment in a business of their choice. I'd been longing for halloumi for some days so H visiting for supper was a perfect opportunity to try a new way of serving it (as well as preventing me from eating an entire block!). H is also a halloumi fiend, so the fact that we ate the entire block of cheese between us renders this Halloumi with chickpea salsa and couscous rather less healthy than indended.

So, more couscous this week, and flavouring it with herbs, oil, red wine vinegar, and stock almost made it flavoursome; I wonder whether or not the work to make it nice is worth it? I shouldn't moan: this was a good supper, particularly as it featured chick peas, which are another pet love of mine (expect to see more of them here, as Sam and I are currently on a strict poverty diet). It was light, filling, quick and easy to make, and, had we not eaten double the recommended amount of cheese, it would have only racked up 489 calories. The balance of flavours here is also very good, despite the use of vinegar and the saltiness of the haloumi. I believe H could even taste it through the cold she is currently harbouring.

So onto something once again from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and definitely not part of my current eating regime: blondies. These little delights are the white chocolate counterpart to brownies, and I made them for a bake sale at work for the MS Society, a cause close to my heart. So if not good for the body, they were good for the soul, and could in the long term do someone else some good.

The recipe for these wasn't too tricky at all. I will say this though, or rather ask it: is it normal for white chocolate to split when you melt it? Mine looked most peculiar -- it definitely wasn't seizing, but some odd chemical reaction was taking place (probably serves me right for buying own brand chocolate instead of the finest Green and Blacks). Despite the alarming appearance of the melted chocolate, I added the sugar, beat in the eggs, and all of a sudden it looked normal!

They are very nice (Sam and I had to carry out some quality control tests before I could possibly think of donating them). As I think I've mentioned before, I can't really eat chocolate; I can have the white stuff, but generally I do find it a bit sweet. Because of the pecan nuts in these, though, they don't become sickly.

Next week I'll have a tot up and see how many dishes there are to go, but I reckon I'm still on course! And a note to C, who commented last week: I am looking into no-fun, wheat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free cakes, and will make one, but you have to come up and do some tasting!