Sunday 28 June 2015

Jambalaya

Last summer, I went on the most amazing trip across America with my favourite holiday company, G Adventures (check out their sitehere).  In 18 days, I travelled from San Francisco all the way across to New Orleans but it didn’t occur to me to add any extra days onto the end of the trip so that I could eat my way through New Orleans and it’s southern-style cooking wonders. 

The Louisiana swamp


The wildlife- besides hundreds of crocs!

Me and a baby gator, bred in captivity after he lost his mum!


On my last night before my flight home, I did try some traditional fried chicken with sweet potato waffles and it was delish!  Sadly though, that was my one and only meal in New Orleans as the next day, it was airline food all the way. 

I love jam-jar drinking glasses.  I've got some arriving any day now!


 I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to try the famous Louisiana dish, Jambalaya, so when I found a recipe for it in a cook book, I decided to give it a try.  I have adapted this recipe so that the veg gets a little more cooking time and used brown rice instead of white because we know how much better it is for you!

Ingredients:

½ a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, regular pepper and salt
2 tsp of thyme
350g diced chicken breast
1 onion (chopped)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 yellow peppers, diced (yellow peppers are really good to help your hair grow apparently!)
2 sticks of celery, diced
115g pancetta
175g chorizo sausage, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
225ml chicken stock
450g raw prawns
450g cooked brown rice

Method:

1         Mix together your cayenne pepper, regular pepper and salt in a bowl. Add the diced chicken and toss to coat.  Set aside until later.
2         Place the onion, garlic, peppers, celery, pancetta, chorizo, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and the chicken stock into your slow cooker.  Cook this batch of ingredients on low for 2 hours.
3         After two hours, add the chicken to the slow cooker. Stir into the mix, cover with the lid and continue to cook for 6 hours on low.
4         For the last 30 minutes of cooking, add your cooked rice and raw prawns. Stir through the mix and cover again until the cooking time is up.  A handy hint I’ve been told about slow cookers lately is that if you remove the lid half an hour before serving, this allows the dish to thicken up.  I’d keep this dish covered though to allow the prawns their half an hour to cook, then you could switch your cooker to ‘warm’ and take the lid off then.
5         Serve and enjoy though sadly, Jambalaya would probably taste much better if you were eating it next to the Mississippi!

This dish was really tasty but because I haven’t tried the real thing in New Orleans, I can’t possibly compare it!  Looks like this might be the perfect excuse to visit New Orleans again though!

Jambalaya...by Helen!



Happy eating!

Sunday 14 June 2015

Working out!

I’m currently doing the 30 day ab challenge and arms challenge and really noticing the benefits- my stomach constantly feels flatter and slimmer (even after the previous weekend’s blow out at the hen do). I thought that maybe all the sit ups and crunches were burning belly fat around my tummy since I was really working the muscles there but after a Google sesh, it appears that this is a myth and that good eating and cardio activity is the key to burning fat- sits up will give you more definition which I am definitely noticing.

The ab challenge gets you doing 4 simple exercises:

1.        Leg raises to tone your lower abs (video demo here)
2.       Sit ups, because when it comes to abs, there’s no getting away from these (video demo here)
3.       Crunches (watch how to do them here)
4.       The plank- which is good for building strength around your core.  It’s good too, so I’ve heard, if you suffer from back problems as by strengthening your core, it helps take pressure off your back.

It’s the same with the arm challenge too, a series of simple exercises repeated daily:

2.       Mountain climbers (video here about how to do them but they are an awesome little exercise)
3.       Tricep dips (demo here and using the bottom two stairs of your pad usually put you in a good position for this exercise)

There is an app available from the Apple store to support your 30 day ab or arm challenge and tells you how many reps of the above exercises you need to do.

If you are into your apps though, some of my favourites for fitness are the Nike Running app, whichbasically clocks your distance, time and calories burned on an outdoor or treadmill run.  You can select a power song too that will automatically start playing if you slow down and request cheers from your Facebook friends too whilst you're out plodding.  It also adds up your total distances too, so you feel really pleased with yourself when you open the app to see you’ve run 25k in the space of a week. Happy heart.

Another one of my favourite apps is called Seven, also available on the app store.  It’s free and takes you through a seven minute interval training workout.  Open the app and it will instruct you to do a range of exercises from jumping jacks to the plank.  I don’t use this as often, choosing to run and go to the gym instead, but it is an absolute winner if you’re short on time and want to begin to do some sort of exercise each day.

For me though, my big work out is still running.  I love it and it’s the exercise that works for me, along with a few leg, bum, ab and arm workouts at the gym.  I’ve clocked up 12 miles of running this week and have thrown in some outside runs too just to keep my body working and so my fitness level doesn't plateau.  I’m running the Pretty Muddy 5k race next weekend and hoping to do it in a decent time despite the mud and obstacles!




This week, I’ve also felt like I needed more vegetables in my diet, so I’ve been steaming veggies that I would usually eat for dinner and taking them for lunch, served with a piece of salmon/ chicken and sometimes with a blob of leftover humus too.  Filing and delictious.  I tend to use my steamer for cooking veg, giving carrots and green beans 20 minutes and then throwing in the broccoli and asparagus in for the last ten minutes of cooking.  Toss all of your veg together in a bowl with a little sea salt and black pepper, adding some Chiloa if you wish.




Speaking of which, I’ve discovered Chiloa hot sauce (seehere) and am using it all the time to dress salads or as an alternative to mayo.  Saying it’s a manufactured sauce too, the ingredient list is pretty
minimal and there’s no oils or sugar added.  It’s definitely become one of my cupboard staples!



I’ve also become a little bit obsessed with courgette this week and having it simply with pesto for lunch or with a piece of grilled salmon for my evening meal.  I simply use my spirializer (this one) to turn 2-3 courgettes into a whacking big pile of ‘spaghetti’, but without the gluten, sugars and carbs.  It is surprisingly filling and you can pile it high on your plate too because unlike pasta, it’s completely guilt free!


Finally though, this week I had a big reminder as to why I choose exercise and healthy eating over junk food and refined sugar.  The hot weather meant it was time for some summary clothes and I wore my faithful skinny jeans with a floaty cream top.  Below is a photo of me in the same outfit before I quit sugar in 2013, compared to how I am now.  Back in 2013, I probably didn't need to lose any weight but seeing the two pictures together gave me a real shock and will always serve as a reminder that cutting out refined sugar and eating clean is the best lifestyle change you will ever make.



Happy Eating!


Sunday 7 June 2015

So much love for half term!

Apologies for this slightly delayed post.  Saying I was off for the week, I should have had plenty of time to write my post, but I didn’t really know where the week went. Well actually, I do- it was a wonderful haze of nice food, catch up with friends, a hen do and wedding talk with one of my besties- plus I got to try on my bridesmaid dress!

I did, in the middle of all this fun, get time to try the odd new recipe and pack away some nice food.  I finally tried Wagyu beef burgers (£2.99 Aldi) and can safely say they are the BEST burgers I have ever tasted.  The meat is quite heavy and juicy, making it feel like the ultimate burger.  I had these with sweet potato wedges (recipe here) and sprinkled them with a bit of paprika for an extra kick. I actually think that burger and chips is my favourite meal of all time, but I won’t make a habit of eating it because I feel it’s a meal that should be thought of as a ‘treat’ rather than a daily food staple.  In fact, the Wagyu burger will be my last burger until my birthday night out…roll on June 21st!





My exciting food-related Instagram news too was that THE Gizzi Erskine liked my photo of her Victoria sponge that I made last week when the in-laws came for dinner.
  I just love her and I was starstruck for the rest of Wednesday.  She noticed me and my Victoria Sponge!!!  Awesome recipe though and works every time (click here and scroll down to recipe) but not a dessert to cook if you’re on an eat clean or sugar free kick.  But again, if you see it as a treat and just make it for a special occasion, what’s the problem?

Wednesday afternoon was also pampering time and I went for my express facial- my regular treat to myself!  When it comes to preening, I don’t wear giant, plastic nails or have a spray tan every week- I tend to do it all myself and treat myself to my only beauty indulgence which is a facial.  It’s usually a well-earned treat too because it forces me to relax for an hour plus, with all the clean eating, makes me feel fresh and as though I’m glowing on the outside- which I suppose I am, thanks to healthy eating and a good bit of face scrub.  I was chatting to my beautician who was also telling me how coincidentally, she and her husband have started the whole ‘eat clean’ diet and introduced me to a brilliant website called ‘Kitchen Shed’ (link here).  I spent a lot of time over half term just reading the recipes and doing a list of all the things I want to cook.  I discovered a brilliant lunch on there which is a blessing because it’s so quick and makes 2 portions.  Basically you just need a tin of chickpeas; tuna in spring water; 2 tablespoons of humus; an avocado and some fresh basil.  You mix together the chickpeas, tuna and humus; top with some basil leaves and serve with the sliced avocado.  It’s a filling, fresh and perfectly clean lunch!



However, clean eating was officially called off on Friday night.  I curled up with this amazing dark chocolate and a book after getting set for the hen party weekend!  It involved a very beautiful and lovely bunch of ladies, fish and chips on the beach and ready-mixed cans of Malibu with diet coke (which remember, isn’t an overly bad drink because Malibu contains NO added sugar unlike everything else).




Fish and chip lunch was burned off by a dance class and then we stocked up on wine and three courses at Frankie and Benny’s that evening.  Did I feel bloated and guilty after eating so much food?  Nope.  Because as I said in my very first post that if you eat well the majority of the time, there is opportunity for a blow out like the one I had this weekend.  When I tried on my bridesmaid dress (photos to follow in August after the wedding, obvs) and had my showgirl fancy dress on, I felt trim, fit, healthy and full of energy and that is what motivates me to keep on the good stuff. 
Granted, on Sunday and Monday, I had a proper stomach ache and bloating, but I find that this happens when I indulge in the bad food that I don’t make the habit of eating in the week.  It goes to show how your body responds to junk and if you’re eating this sort of stuff all the time, then it certainly isn’t good.


Also read this article (click here) the other day too- it kind of sums up everything that I believe about eating and explains why processed food gives us such stomach aches if it’s responsible for causing inflammation in our bodies which, in turn, leads to high cholesterol and heart problems.  Scary stuff and again makes me feel really positive and happy with my food choices.