Sunday 29 March 2015

Fish- yeah, minging title, I know!

Fish.  Let’s face it: it’s like Marmite.  It divides people into two camps which are from one extreme to the other.  You either love fish or hate it.  Personally, I’m a lover of it and should probably eat more. I love salmon, cod, haddock, mackerel, prawns and of course any form of fish in batter with a portion of chips and mushy peas next to it.
When I cook fish, I tend to bake it in the oven wrapped in a foil parcel so that it steams in its little foil jacket and you end up with fish that flakes away from the bone rather than being overcooked.   Heating your oven to 180°C, seasoning the fish with a little sea salt and freshly ground pepper and cooking for around 20-30 minutes (depends on  the size of piece I guess, so keep checking it) wrapped in a foil parcel works well every time. Serve your fish with salad or fresh veg and you’ve got an easy, healthy dinner!

If you fancy something a little different, then one of my favourite recipes is salmon with green beans and pesto. 

Ingredients (serves 2 or the second parcel can be popped into the oven the following evening:
2 salmon fillets
A bag of green beans (from the fresh veg section rather than frozen)
2 tablespoons of green pesto
1 lemon, halved
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Baby potatoes, a knob of butter, oregano
2 pieces of kitchen foil, large enough to make a ‘parcel’.

Method:
1.        Parboil your green beans for around 10 minutes, drain, and distribute equally between the 2 pieces of foil, placing it in the middle.
2.       Place your salmon on top of the beans. Squeeze the lemon on top of the salmon and beans, followed by some ground sea salt and black pepper. Then, top this with a tablespoon of pesto.
3.       Bring the edges of the foil together to make a parcel.  There should be a little bit of room between the salmon and the top of your parcel to allow the heat to move around it, so don’t wrap it up tightly as you would a sandwich.

4.       Place the parcels on a baking tray and bake in the oven for around 30 mins, sometimes longer as this won’t cook as quickly as a piece of fish on its own would.
5.       Serve with boiled baby potatoes in their skins. Stir through the butter until it has melted and sprinkle the buttery spuds with oregano.



Enjoy!

Next week is going to be my easy detox week again.  I’ve indulged a little this weekend with a grilled chicken kebab on Friday night (although to be fair, grilled chicken, loads of salad and a thin nann bread probably isn’t all that bad  for a takeaway- I could have had much worse).  I was also in Belfast for the day visiting my Canadian relatives who were visiting family in Ireland.  I had by far the best burger EVER for lunch at The Titanic Museum, and my Titanic Burger filled me up until I had a pint of Guinness at the airport whilst I was waiting for my return flight.   


I’ve also done loads of online shopping this last week, ordering everything in a size 12 and 14 just because with some stores, cuts and fabrics, you just never know!  A detox up until Thursday night (when the Easter holidays start and the night will involve my best friend, Prosecco, an early birthday celebration for my man and a takeaway) should hopefully mean it’s all the size 14s being sent back with some pretty new stuff in my wardrobe.  Spring has sprung, so it seems like the perfect time for some new clothes and a detox.


Happy, healthy eating! xxxx

Sunday 22 March 2015

Comfort food and a new power drink!

It’s March.  I’m writing this in bed with the window open and sun streaming through.  It looks like spring but still feels like fricking winter- the bloody gritters are out every night still and I’ve used de-icer twice on the car this week!  It is still cold but feels like spring is just around the corner, which is why this week has been a real food mix- loads of and fruit and veg, a couple of Greek salads with olives and feta, but also comfort food in the form of homemade soup (vegetable and left over potato and leek from the freezer) and for the first time ever: tuna pasta bake.  I’ve never made this in my life as have always thought of it as bad carbs and stodge that doesn’t fill you up and gives you calories but not the nutrition to go with it.  The other day though, I randomly fancied trying to make a tuna pasta bake and adapted a recipe I found on the BBC good food website, turning it into a healthier version.  It isn’t as nutritionally good as the detox pasta recipe (see below- somewhere) but it was a healthier version of  the comfort food I needed and my man and his kids loved it too, so a dinner to suit everyone.  I served mine with a huge side salad as well.




Ingredients:
2x 185g tins of tuna in brine/ spring water
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tins of chopped tomatoes with herbs
350g whole wheat fusilli pasta
300g broccoli, chopped into small florets
200g pack of light soft cheese
100g grated cheddar
200ml vegetable stock
Olive oil

Method:
1.       Heat a little olive oil in a pan.  Tip in the tomatoes, garlic, vegetable stock and simmer whilst you cook the pasta in a separate pan, adding the broccoli just before the pasta is done and simmering them both together until both the pasta and broccoli are cooked.
2.       Stir the soft cheese and the tuna in with the tomatoes and garlic, and allow the sauce to simmer again for a few minutes.
3.       Drain your pasta and broccoli and place in an oven proof dish.  Pour the tomato mixture into the dish as well and top the lot with the grated cheddar.
4.       Place under the grill until the cheese is bubbling and golden.  This dish is also yummy when microwaved the next day!

Pastry free quiche has been on the menu too for lunches this week as a midday protein fix.  I’ve discovered  a new flavour too, using my standard recipe (again, see below) with pork lardons/ pancetta and fresh spinach.  It was so good!  Make sure you cover the spinach leaves with the egg and push down any pesky ones that float to the top- otherwise they tend to go a bit crispy.



Also this week I’ve been well impressed with a new power drink: water! Yep, that humble liquid straight from the tap rather than some fancy, expensive green smoothie! I used to drink two litres of water a day religiously but since we moved floors at work (meaning I’m further away from the staff loos!) I haven’t been as good at knocking back gallons of water each day.  The other week though, I started hammering the water again and making sure I finished my 2 litre bottle of the stuff between arriving in work at 7.30am and dinner time at home in the evening.  I also drink tea and coffee in the day too.  It’s really easy to drink this much once you’re in the habit and you just have to remember to get a few gulps down you at regular intervals- even when you don’t particularly feel thirsty. 

The difference it has made is amazing, especially to my skin!  The skin on my face was looking a bit dry and tired but now it really is much more glowing, radiant and even my make-up looks  better.  I swear as well that some of my fine lines, especially around my eyes, have improved too!  Guzzling water as well just keeps me feeling fresh and healthy throughout the day and if I feel like I need to start nibbling, I drink some water first and that usually does the trick (apparently we misread feeling thirsty for being hungry and reach for a snack before we have a glass of water first to see of that does the trick).  So yeah, big high five to getting your two litres a day...I’ve started on mine as we speak and when you see the difference in your skin, you’ll be addicted!  Try it for a week and you’ll be a converted water guzzler!


Happy eating xxxx

Sunday 15 March 2015

My ultimate roast dinner

I love a roast dinner and count it as a treat!  Though you can do a healthy version with boiled baby spuds, chicken and loads of veg, you can’t beat the ultimate roast dinner of a ham joint, veg, parsnips and potatoes roasted in goose fat!  I cooked this for Christmas and for Mother’s Day too- it’s perfect every time!

For the gammon:
Ingredients:
A 1 kg unsmoked gammon joint (I use the £4.75 from Aldi- BARGAIN!)
A litre of apple cider
2 carrots, sliced
2 sticks of celery, diced
1 onion, halved
4 cloves
A teaspoon of juniper berries

Method:
1.        Place the gammon joint into the slow cooker.  Add the carrots, juniper berries and celery.
2.       Peel the onion and cut in half.  Make 2 small cuts into each half of the onion and stuff with the cloves. Place into the slow cooker.
3.       Pour in the cider, cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  Delicious hot, cold, the night after or on a sandwich!






For the roast spuds/ parsnips
Ingredients:
Maris Piper potatoes/ parsnips (however many you feel you need)
A jar of goose fat (usually from Asda, Sainsbury’s, Aldi sometimes too)
Coarse sea salt

Method:
1.        Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, then peel your potatoes/ parsnips and cut into your regular, roast potato size/ shape!
2.       Place in a pan of COLD water, bring the potatoes to the boil and parboil for about 10 mins.  Strain the potatoes in a colander and give them a good shake to ‘fluff’ them up- this will make them even crispier! Do the same with the parsnips.
3.       Heat about 3 tablespoons of goose fat in a tin in the pre-heated oven until it has melted.  Then, taking a few of the boiled potatoes/ parsnips at a time, douse them in the goose fat, ensuring they are coated, then transfer onto a baking tray. Use forks for this as any excess fat will drain from the potatoes more than it would if you were using a spoon- you don’t want the potatoes swimming in goose fat when they are on the baking tray!
4.       Place your potatoes in the oven for about 45 mins, turn them over about halfway through cooking.  The parsnips probably only take about 20 mins and should also be turned halfway through cooking so they go nice and crisp! Sprinkle with sea salt before serving.

So this was my super easy Mother’s Day dinner, served with carrots and peas and gravy too of course:


Dessert





Dessert was also a full sugar Victoria sponge cake.  I used the recipe from Gizzi Erskine’s book and gave it plenty ofstrawberry jam and whipped cream.  I used fresh strawberries and blueberries for the topping, sweetened with a sprinkle of icing sugar.  I did put a thin layer of cream on top of the cake too to help the fruit stick.  It was soooooo yummy!!

This dinner is certainly something that I could eat everyday, but would be the size of a house if I did!  Happy, healthy eating means moderation, so if you're good most of the time, make sure ypu enjoy this ultimate roast and dessert one night!

Happy eating!





Sunday 8 March 2015

My detox week and sugar-free carrot cupcakes triumph!


It’s been a good week in terms of yumminess.  I started my detox on Monday morning and was religious when it came to drinking 2 litres of water a day, having my lemon and hot water in the morning and having my green tea with jasmine at lunch (they sell it now in Aldi!!)  I had no mid- week alcoholic of fizzy drinks, ate only brown carbs (brown bread, brown rice, brown pasta) and no refined sugar. I even left out my sugar free cake versions too.  The result?  I dropped 4lb which put me back onto my 11 stone 3lb happy weight.  I had been exactly 11 and a half stone before I did my 5 day detox which lasted from Monday morning to Friday evening- when I enjoyed a pizza, a cocktail, and some chocolate at the cinema!

 I’m convinced my detox worked (or at least got rid of any bloating) and I only got to the gym once last week as well.  I felt much better, less bloated and psychologically, I felt guilt free because I knew I had cut only cut out the bad food and just feeding myself on the good.  Even if I hadn’t have lost the weight that I did, I still felt good because I was only putting good things into my body.  4lb might not be significant to some and a lot less than what you would lose on the Juice Plus nonsense diet or any other fad diet, but I lost this weight by eating well, including plenty of carbs, and just eliminating the crap we don’t need- mainly refined sugar.  A lot of these fad diets want you to cut out food, surviving on juice and that’s why you pile the weight back on as soon as you look at a piece of toast!  Slow, steady and eliminating white, refined sugar and substituting white carbs for brown really is the way to keep the weight off and not lead you to the brink of starvation.

Since I’m loving ditching the nasty white stuff and instead using unrefined sugars, I decided to adapt a recipe for carrot cake cupcakes.  This recipe is one of my all time favourites and the cakes are amazing- even if you do make the recipe with sugar, the sunflower oil makes the cakes a lot lower in cholesterol as well.  They’ve just had the taste test from my man and his kids and they went down a treat!


Carrot Cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cakes:
58g stevia (natural sugar alternative, £5 for a tub of Trivia by Silverspoon at Sainsbury’s)
175ml sunflower oil
3 large eggs
150g plain flour
1 and ½ tsp of baking soda
1 and ½ tsp of baking powder
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground nutmeg
A pinch of ground sea salt
225g of grated carrot

(If you want to make the regular version of this recipe, just substitute the stevia for 175g of soft, brown sugar)

For the frosting:
300g full fat cream cheese (either Philadelphia or shop own-brands work well. Must be full fat rather than reduced fat though and at room temperature)
1 and ½ tablespoons of runny honey
The zest of 1 orange.


(If you want to make the regular version, ditch the honey and orange zest and mix 150g of icing sugar with the cheese, until fluffy)

Method:
1.       Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. When the cakes are cooking, check on them regularly and move to a lower shelf/ lower the temperature of the oven if needed- they tend to burn easily before they have even cooked through if you don’t keep an eye on them.
2.       Line a muffin tray with 10-12 paper cases.
3.       Mix the oil and sugar together in a bowl, then at the eggs and beat well.
4.       Stir in all the dry ingredients. Beat everything together before stirring in the carrot.
5.       Transfer to a jug and pour into your paper cases.  Place in the oven  for around 20 minutes.
6.       For the frosting, beat the cream cheese.  Add the first tablespoon of honey and the orange zest and test the flavour.  Add another ½ a tablespoon of honey (or more) if needed- or keep sweetening the mixture with a little extra until you are happy with it.  I find the 1 and a ½ tablespoons does the job- the orange gives the frosting a really nice taste as well.
7.       Spread on your cakes once cooled and store them in the fridge.




Happy eating!

Sunday 1 March 2015

Time for a detox!

I hate these detox diets where you can’t eat certain things- or anything for that matter.  Detox programmes are simply another fad diet that will make you miserable and feel deprived.  You will drop weight quickly but pile it all back on again as rapidly as you lost it.  For me, I’d fall at the first hurdle of a detox programme because I wouldn’t be allowed my morning coffee- that really would be game over already and make me feel miserable and like I'm being denied something.  However, after seeing the photo below on Facebook, it got me thinking about an extremely easy detox where you basically cut out the crap for a week.



I do eat well but do have the odd drink and bits of sugar too, so I think going on a week long detox using the picture above for inspiration would be a winner. You can still eat, enjoy cups of tea or coffee, you are just basically ridding your body of the crap it really doesn't need.  Throw in some water, green tea and no alcohol, and you will be on a detox diet without realising it or depriving yourself!  


My detox will be from Monday to Friday (there is NO WAY I’m denying myself  a glass of wine over the weekend).

My Detox Rules:

I will be eating what I normally eat on a day to day basis (I put a picture on Twitter and Facebook each day, so follow me on Twitter @YearFood).  For my detox though, I'll also be sticking to the rules below.

  • No biscuits or cakes, I'm even cutting out my refined sugar free healthy versions.
  • No sweets, pastries or chocolate, fast food or ice cream (easy enough as I would only have these for a treat anyway)
  • No white bread, pasta or rice (again, an easy one as I don't touch the white crap.  Replace your white foods with brown bread, rye bread, brown rice and whole wheat pasta) 
  • No mid-week alcohol (I sometimes have a small wine on a Tuesday night).
  • No fizzy drinks- though I have diet coke or slimline tonic, I think I'll stay off these for the week.
  • Religiously drink 2 litres of water a day- which I usually do but can be a bit lapse with this one.
  • Continue to drink my regular tea/ coffee/ decaff, but also have a green tea with jasmine each day after lunch. Again, I'm pretty good at downing my daily green tea but do forget.  I like the Twinings green tea with Jasmine though Asda's own version is good too.  Green tea is really good for helping with weight loss as it basically cleanses your insides!
Achievable?  I think so-just because the main benefit is YOU CAN EAT and are just cutting out what your body doesn't need.  I'll let you know in my next post how it goes.

Valentine’s Day and Pancakes

I’ve never been one for having a huge celebration on Valentine’s day, just because I love my boy every day and make sure he knows it!  We don’t go out for a meal on Valentine’s Day either, just because the food everywhere suddenly becomes very over priced and I think it takes more time, effort and consideration making a meal at home- it’s more of a loving gesture than just booking a table!  One of my favourite dinners is steak and chips, which I usually tend to have if I’m eating in a pub.  I cook it quite often as well, but make a healthier version with sweet potato wedges instead of chips, then take out the onion rings and other yummy bits that make a pub steak a real treat for when I’m out.

Steak and sweet potato wedges dinner for two.
Ingredients:
2 steaks (mine were rib-eye and I ALWAYS buy my steak from Aldi- it’s cheaper than the other supermarkets and isn’t pumped full of extra water)
A small box of mushrooms
Frozen petit pois
Several sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges (go for the usual wedge shape/ size!)
Olive oil
Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

Method:
1.        Start with the wedges, so preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Put your wedges into a colander and drizzle with olive oil and sea salt and black pepper.  Give the wedges a good shake, ensuring the all have a little oil and seasoning coating them- any excess will drain out of the bottom of your colander.  Place the wedges onto a baking tray and put into the oven for about 45 minutes until the wedges are crisp.  You will need to turn them a few times during cooking so that they cook evenly.
2.       Get your steaks out of the fridge to allow them t warm up to room temperature.  Rub some ground sea salt and black pepper onto both sides of each stead and set aside ready for cooking.
3.       For your sides- fry the mushrooms in a little olive oil and set aside ready for reheating.  If you’re making garlic mayo, crush 2 cloves of garlic (or more to suit your taste) and mix with some mayo.  The petit pois can also be cooked in boiling water at this point too and left to be reheated when the wedges and steaks are ready.
4.       Once your wedges are almost done, it’s time to cook your steaks.  Put some olive oil in a pan and use some kitchen paper to grease the pan and soak up the excess oil.  Fry your steaks according to taste.  I like mine to be very bloody and rare, so will fry it for about 4 minutes on each side.  Obviously well done and medium rare need a little longer.  I tend to turn the steak over every few minutes and cut into it once or twice to check the colour.  Once your steak is done, set aside on a plate and cover with foil to let the meat rest- this makes it even more tender apparently!
5.       Enjoy your steak dinner!






Pancakes
Pancakes really aren’t that bad as an occasional treat, plus making them with whole wheat flour makes them even better.

Ingredients:
100g plain flour (or whole meal for the healthy option)
250ml milk (semi-skimmed or lactose free works fine)
1 egg
A pinch of salt

Toppings:  I prefer to keep mine healthy, but a bit of a treat as well.  Greek yoghurt with blueberries and strawberries is nice.  For something sweeter, I like banana and maple syrup (which is an unrefined sugar and better than the nasty white stuff).  If you have to go for sugar, try dark muscovado sugar with a little lemon juice.  For a chocolate fix, melt some dark chocolate for your pancake or for a taste of Thailand, serve your pancake with coconut milk.

Method:
Mix all of your ingredients together and fry the bad boys!  Melt a little butter in a non-stick pan, again using a piece of kitchen paper to ‘grease’ the pan and remove any excess melted butter.

Once one side of the pancake is done, you’ll find that you can get a fish slice under it quite easily to flip it over and cook the other side.  Serve with your choice of healthy toppings.




Happy Eating!