Day 25 – Maple Glazed Carrot Tart

I have loved today – I have been enjoying leftovers of the wonderful Maple glazed carrot tart that I made late last night from BBC Good Food. I found BBC Good Food after BF sent me a link to their definitive 5 a day guide and did a search for a carrot recipe to try after giving up on finding anything interesting or yummy sounding from the Change4life website. It had mushrooms, hazelnuts, carrots, puff pastry and maple syrup – all things I like so I was so excited about this different way to eat carrots.

If you like all of the above I would highly recommend that you check out the website at http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/golden-glazed-carrot-mushroom-hazelnut-tart. With it being so filling though I would maybe half it as both me and BF could only manage half before we gave in to leaving it for leftovers. Even today this still as leftovers tasted so yummy – despite being lots of textures they seem to work so well.

The only downfall was that I did end up taking ages to make it – it says 50 minutes cook and 15 minutes prep but I took 2 hours from start to finish in the end (though this was while trying to wash up, hang up washing and working out what to do). I will be making this again but next time I’ll be way more prepared so I’m sure it will not take anywhere as long to prep it.

After the stresses and strains from trying to deal with Change4Life, BBC Good Food are almost like a white knight riding in to rescue me from uselessness and disgusting recipes. They even have these wonderful sounding courgette fritters that I want to test out and I have barely looked into their website yet!

Today has been a mixed day – on one hand I have had a lovely tart leftovers on the other I was so full from even half the tart that I only had an apple for lunch which had the exact same effect! It has been one of those day where the food is so filling that I struggled more to eat a meal than it was finding things for me to eat. It is a good side effect – I eat less as I’m too full to snack but it then makes it harder to meet my challenge!

I think I realise why people who eat the standard healthy diet we are all preached to eat (but hardly ever do) are so skinny yet seem to say they feel like they eat so much! If you really do try to eat 5 a day and then some protein, carbs and drink the 2 litres of water we are supposed to everyday I don’t think I would ever be able to snack again at this rate.

This challenge has definitely changed my opinion of diets – you don’t have to starve and in fact you can end up feeling so stuffed, eat yummy food and still be healthy. I think keeping this up (minus the blogging everyday about it – sorry) will be an incredible outcome for me. I know that I will need to plan food better – another great thing I have learnt from this challenge) but I just wonder if in the long run how much healthier I will get in terms of weight, hair, skin and just better in general.

Well tomorrow is the start of the final 5 days – I still can’t believe that this is coming to an end so fast! It only seems like yesterday I was struggling to get my head around portions and getting all 5 portions in a day.

Will you try the 5 a day challenge? Have you been inspired? I would love to hear from you and share your story! Have you tried out the carrot tart? Or any other BBC Good Food recipes that you would recommend? Leave a comment below as I would love to hear what you think!