It has been weeks since I hit the gym and I have absolutely no excuse other than I just have lost all motivation and umph.  It’s silly really – as I know how intrinsically my mood is dependent on my exercise levels, in fact my mood follows this very simple equation:

Alex + Food + Exercise = Happy and energetic

Alex + Food – Exercise = Moody, listless, feeling fat and horrible to be around (sorry ‘C’!)

It’s funny, when I was working full time in Singapore and had full busy days, I felt so motivated and organised and was always able to fit in a workout every evenings of the week. Now, when I am unemployed and have all the time in the world…I struggle to find time.

How can that be? I can think of 101 different excuses that I ‘have’ to do rather than go to the gym, and now that I haven’t been to the gym for a while – I have ‘gym dread’ whereby I know it’s really going to hurt. Why does it take months and months of building up your stamina and muscles, yet only a few slovenly and overly indulgent weeks and you are back to square one? It just is not fair.

OK…I think I have gone on long enough on my ‘gym rant’ . Basically, today ‘C’ got sick of seeing me moping around the apartment  and dragged my sorry arse to the gym, and am really glad he did. It’s amazing how good you feel after you get your adrenalin pumping and then you wonder why you have avoided it for so long!

So, in tune with being back on the wagon, so to speak, I wanted to make something ‘healthy’ for dinner and remembered that I had torn out this recipe for Pork and Udon Noodle Soup months ago from ‘C’s Men’s Health magazine – and thought that today was the day to make it.

In all honesty – I didn’t have very much faith in this recipe. I mean it looked good, otherwise I wouldn’t have torn it out in the first place – but for some reasons I was slightly suspicious of a recipe found in a man’s health magazine. However, I have to say that it was a great soup, incredibly easy and quick to prepare and the portions are just right for two people. ‘C’ loved it and I know I will be making it again soon, and the best part is you can change the meat to whatever is your preferred choice, and I’m sure it will taste just as good.

Ingredients

• 2tsp canola or vegetable oil
• 2tsp ginger, grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 150g of lean ground pork
• 1tsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 3 cups beef stock
• 50g of whole wheat udon noodles.

Directions

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles according to the package instructions. Around 12 minutes.

In the meantime, add the oil to a large sauce pan over medium heat. Toss in the ginger and cook until fragrant and slightly softened, 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute.

Add half of the scallions, the ground pork, soy sauce, salt and pepper and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon until the pork is cooked through about 5 minutes. Pour in the beef stock and bring to the boil.

Once the noodles are ready, divide into two bowls pouring the broth and meat over it. Top with the remaining scallions and serve.

NOTE:  I didn’t have any beef stock at home so I used a whole vegetable stock-cube to 3 cups of water instead. I also don’t use reduced sodium soy – so just used the normal soy and felt there was absolutely no need to add any more salt.

The recipe also calls for a poached egg in each serving  – but out of pure laziness (and the fact I have never made a poached egg) I decided to skip this step, and I really did not feel as though I was missing out (although I do love poached eggs!)