At the beginning of September I decided to challenge myself to eat predominantly green foods for the month. This was both a culinary challenge as I wanted to see how creative I could get in the kitchen as well as a health challenge.

This time of year I always like to be as healthy as I can be, when the temperatures start to decline it becomes a whole load easier to catch a cold, so I wanted to eat as many vitamin packed immune boosting foods as possible.

Also, the festive season is creeping up which always involves too many late nights, last orders and lazy meals (but in a really fun way) so I wanted to make sure that I am in the habit of preparing and eating lots of healthy hangover banishing food. Also, me and most of friends are turning 30 this year so it will be a busy one!

I will admit that this month included a lot of pesto, spinach and broccoli and some days it was very difficult to be creative. It became clear after week 2 that Sundays didn’t count but I’m still glad I did it. See below for my three favourites from green month.

Breakfast

I am not a breakfast person at all. On a weekday my go to has always been a smoothie, and maybe some cashew nuts if I’m starving, so having green smoothies everyday was actually an absolute pleasure. This, my favourite smoothie, is extremely refreshing and the sharp flavours tempered with the milder, sweeter ingredients is invigorating in the morning. I like to keep most of the ingredients frozen so that I don’t need to add ice.

You will need:

• Handful of kiwi
• Handful of pineapple
• 2 cm ginger
• 1 cup spinach
• Juice of half a lime
• 300ml coconut water

How to make:

• Put all ingredients in blender (I use a NutriBullet) and blend until smooth

Lunch

Lunch was a bit of a challenge for me as I get bored quite easily and I like to move to warm food when September hits. A lot of spinach heavy salads and green leaf stir frys were consumed which I certainly enjoyed but my favourite lunchtime meal was this pesto grain vegetable bowl. Inspired by the food in my fridge, I really enjoyed this and it was so easy to throw together as meal prep for the next few days. I like to warm this up but it can also be enjoyed cold. I used a Merchant Gourmet pack for two reasons. Firstly they are delicious and secondly they make this recipe, and all that they accompany, 100 times easier.

You will need:

• Merchant Gourmet Glorious Grains (or whichever grain you decide to use)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 corn on the cob
• Tenderstem broccoli
• 100g goats cheese
• Red onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• Half red chilli
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon wedge
• 2 tablespoons pesto (homemade or store bought)

How to make:

• Prepare ingredients, slice onion, garlic, chilli, chop broccoli into 2 inch pieces
• Rub lemon on corn and place under the grill, rotate until cooked, then slice the corn off of the cob (or you could steam sweetcorn with peas)
• Steam peas and broccoli*
• In a large frying pan, cook onions, chilli and garlic. When onion becomes translucent add Merchant Gourmet and season**
• Add sweetcorn, peas and broccoli to the frying pan and mix all ingredients together
• Add pesto to frying pan and mix everything together
• Crumble goats cheese on top and enjoy***

*If this is meal prep then rinse steamed vegetables in cold water so that they retain colour

**Again, if this is meal prep then leave to cool before adding vegetables and pesto

***Once again, if meal prep, crumble goats cheese onto bowl before plating/eating

Dinner

Dinner is my favourite meal of the day by far. I love looking through my fridge and deciding what ingredients to use and what will go well together. I always have a well stocked freezer and pantry which is full of spare veggies that I can use to pad out a meal and herbs and spices to make it actually taste interesting.

You will need:

• Fillet of salmon
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 inch ginger
• 100g Spinach
• Half a courgette
• Half a cup of peas
• Sesame oil
• Garlic
• Chilli

How to make:

• In a bowl, mix soy sauce, honey and ginger. Add salmon and leave to marinate for at least 10 minutes
• Prepare vegetables: slice courgette and garlic, defrost peas (I just pour boiling water over them for 2/3 minutes)
• Grill salmon – 4 minutes on skin side and then 3 minutes on the flesh side (Alternatively you can steam for 6 minutes)
• Fry courgettes until soft, add garlic and chilli until fragrant. Add peas and spinach and grate ginger on top. Season and add a good glug of sesame oil and toss, then cook until spinach has wilted

In terms of vegetables for this recipe, anything goes. I think that this goes well with broccoli, edamame and asparagus. I also like to serve on a bed of jasmine rice when I’m really hungry.

All in all I am very glad that I spent September eating predominantly green foods, I learnt a lot of new recipes and pairings and enjoyed some great flavours. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I did. Let me know if you make any in the comments or over on Instagram.