Posted on March 22, 2016 by Kate Halsall

Something you may not know about me is that I used to LOVE Ready Steady Cook – and I’m not sorry! I went to see it live when it toured the country and I even applied to be on the show. Imagine my delight when one of my exams for my cooking diploma was in the style of ready steady cook – we were the chefs who were given suprise ingredients and had a certain amount of time to cook something great with them (I cooked 2 starters, 2 currys and sides – oh yeah!). So why am I sharing this with you?

I’ve found that sometimes clients find it difficult to stay motivated when they’re new to food planning, batch cooking, healthy eating, keeping food diaries and so on. So what I’ve started doing is introducing a recipe challenge once a fortnight (of course you could challenge yourself more if you wanted too!). This can be in the form of ready steady cook – where a friend or relative suprises you with food and you have to cook something; or its to find a recipe that you have never tried before and cook it! I always ask for proof too – I don’t mean that I ask them to bring it in, but I want pictures or the recipe or both!

The pictures at the start of this blog is from one such challenge. My client was home alone one Sunday and saw that as her opportunity to cook Roasted Butternut Squash, Red Pepper and Lentil Soup.

Then came my attempt at trying something new – I have to practice what I preach!! I had some friends coming round for tea, and decided to try a recipe for a veggie chilli. Despite it overflowing in the pan and not cooking within the specified time, it didn’t dawn on me how many servings I was actually making – turns out it was 10!! Once I’d split it up into separate pans and it all cooked properly, it meant that I’d also prepped my food for a number of meals – 3 whole tupperware boxes of the stuff!

If you fancy giving it a try, here’s the recipe (just get all your storage containers ready!):

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/kerryann-s-chilli-con-veggie/#IjudAcvfLxk4ZEkI.97

So if you’re stuck in a rut with your food, or are looking for a challenge – set yourself a recipe challenge and see what happens!