Having completed two rounds of COVID Iso I thought it would be helpful to share some meal ideas to get you through the pain. Fortunately through COVID we have a weekly delivery from my organic supplier so there is plenty of food available and then it is really just a question of how much time to spend cooking. For most of the time it was just the two of us so between some bulk meals and a little bit of contactless delivery we had a fairly good range of options over the long weekend.

So what was on the menu ? The first night a big batch of Cauliflower and Chicken Curry with vermicelli noodles, mainly because I forgot to put on the rice early enough. That gave us enough for two nights dinners.

CHICKEN AND CAULIFLOWER CURRY

2 tablespoons curry paste
600 gm chicken breasts (cut into bite size pieces)
½ cauliflower – cut into small flowerets
1 head of broccoli (2 cups peas can substitute)
1/4 cup peanut butter (or nut butter like ABC mix)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 can coconut milk
Coconut oil

Brown chicken in a small amount of oil. Remove from pan. Put oil in pan and fry curry paste for 30 seconds. Stir in nut butter, fish sauce, sugar and coconut milk. Add cauliflower (steamed lightly for 8 minutes before adding) and broccoli (also steamed for 5 minutes) until cooked through and then return chicken to pan and warm through. Serve with rice or vermicelli noodles.

Easter lunch was supplemented by a share of the prawns that were delivered by my Mum. I added a couple of interesting salads, namely a Warm Cherry Tomato salad and a Ceasar salad with croutons from the Herb and olive foccacia and a little crisped prosiutto! The tomato salad went particularly well with the prawns and the use of leek rather than onions as recommended in the recipe worked well with the honey, herbs and oil saute. Given the amount of the cooking liquid I really just added a spash of balsamic rather than making a separate dressing.

My original plan for Easter was a family lunch and my centrepiece was turkey with stuffing cups. Fortunately the turkey was two pieces of buffe so we will have a few meals from it. This time it made two sets of dinners with roast vegetables and green beans one night and then the leftover roast potato with a side of broccoli and cauliflower roasted with lemon, garlic, olive oil and rock salt. This side is my favourite as it is quick to make and very tasty thanks to the lemon garlic oil and rock salt.

Christine Pope is a naturopath and nutritionist who enjoys finding lots of good food that’s gluten free. If you enjoyed this blog you might also like A tea lovers guide to the Blue Mountains and Gluten Free North Coast. Please add any other suggested restaurants in the comments section below.