Courgetti comfort: veg-packed and awesome!

Back in the day, before I realised that you could actually eat real food to be healthy (and didn’t have to limit yourself to rabbit food), my go-to comfort food to warm me up was a big bowl of greasy pasta. I’d eat it when I was feeling miserable, despite the fact that pasta is one of my IBS triggers and would leave me in an even more miserable state! Go figure, right?! ‘Ah shame Bella, I know you’re feeling a bit under the weather right now, here’s something to make you feel even more like crap!’ …. Not so clever. But how often do we do that?

So now, my comfort food is something that’s actually going to comfort! It’ll nourish and love and give me an inner cuddle, instead of a sharp kick to the intestines. Huzzah! This little beauty was invented initially because it was pissing down with horrific rain and I just wanted something to warm me up – and I had a shed load of green veg in the fridge that needed using up! And thanks to my trusty spiralizer (it was top of my Christmas wishlist!), this is super quick n’ easy – although you can absolutely make this by peeling the courgettes too!

I’ve also just recently discovered Umami Pepper… oh my! I freaking LOVE this stuff!! Umami is the ‘fifth taste’ – the other 4 are sweet, sour, salt and bitter – and it gives such a great flavour to dishes. I got mine from Tescos – I’m not sure where else it’s being stocked. It’s an awesome way to add a bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’ to your dishes! If you don’t have it, this recipe will work fine with normal black pepper instead.

Ingredients

Courgetti, chicken and greens… Rammed with veg and yumminess

• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 chicken breast, cubed
• 1 slice lean back bacon
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• lots of umami pepper
• chilli flakes to taste
• dried basil
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• large handful green beans, sliced
• large handful asparagus spears, cut into rounds except for the spear heads
• 2 large handfuls sugar snap peas, sliced
• 2 tbsp mozzarella, cubed
• 1/2 large courgette, made into noodles

Nice and simple – melt the coconut oil in a pan and add the chicken and then the bacon and cook gently until the chicken is white all over. Season well with the umami pepper, chilli and dried basil. Add the garlic and stir to coat and soften slightly. Then chuck in all of the veg except for the courgetti and stir fry for a few minutes until the veg has softened and is cooked. Add in the mozzarella and the courgetti and literally just stir through to coat in the seasoning before serving.

So tasty, so quick, and perfect for an inner cuddle. 🙂

This is the penultimate 5 a day recipe in the #May5aday series! What do you want to see for the final recipe?? Something sweet? Something savoury? I hope you’ve been consciously trying to up the amount of fruit and veg that you’re eating!

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