Half term eats

Poached eggs, with balsamic vinegar, asparagus and avocado.

It’s half term!  Which means I get to watch dole-TV, catch up with my besties and best of all COOK!  I made plenty of yummy food on Saturday- with poached eggs, avocado and asparagus for lunch, then gammon in cider with roasties (recipe here) and a Gizzi Erskine Victoria sponge (clickhere) for dinner since my in-laws came to visit.  So the bank holiday weekend has been a mix of eating well with the odd treats thrown in too.

Gizzi Erskine Victoria Sponge- works every time!

Family roast dinner- good times.

This morning started with bacon and maple syrup pancakes (recipe here) and they were even better today than last time, mainly because I let the pancakes sit on the pan and fry before I started poking them with a fish slice! 

I also experimented today with quinoa porridge after seeing a lot of photos of it on Instagram!  I’m a quinoa fan but only really cook the one recipe I know which is veggie korma quinoa (recipe here).  Porridge, so long as it’s not a packet mix loaded with sugar and additives, is such a good breakfast.  Oatmeal is delicious hot or cold, but the added benefits of using quinoa instead of oatmeal is that it contains more protein and every type of amino acid your body needs for healthy tissue and a tip-top immunity system. It's also gluten free too!

Quinoa Porridge (makes 2 large bowls or 3-4 smaller servings):

250g quinoa (rinsed, otherwise it can taste bitter)

1 cup (8 fl ounces) of either coconut milk, lactose free milk, semi-skimmed or skimmed milk ( I used coconut milk for my first attempt and it was tasty, but I’ll probably use my lactose free milk next time and add more flavour through the toppings).

250ml water

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp sea salt

Method:

1.        Pour you chosen milk, water, vanilla extract and sea salt into a pan.  Add the quinoa.

2.       Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes, until the liquid has reduced, the contents have thickened and the quinoa is soft.

3.       Serve immediately with any of the toppings below!  You may need to add an extra splash of milk to the finished dish if you find it too thick.  This porridge can also be made the day before too.  To re-heat, loosen the mix with some milk and warm up in either a pan or microwave.

Serving suggestions and toppings:

·         Mango would work well if you make the porridge with coconut milk- it tastes like mango sticky rice for any of you who have tried this dish in Thailand....pure, utter taste bud bliss!

·         Strawberries and blueberries are a porridge staple!

·         My NEW FAVE....sea salt and maple syrup, it’s a healthier equivalent of sea salt and caramel flavour!

·         Dried cranberries.

·         Banana.....the list of toppings is endless!

Happy, healthy eating!

Healthier pancakes...and a bit about lactose intolerance

If you read my post last week, you’ll have heard me raving about my new love for the traditional America breakfast of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup.  For Sunday lunch (and because it was our two year anniversary- ahhhhhhh) I decided to experiment and make my own pancakes and maple syrup- but a healthier version.  The bacon isn’t exactly salad, but a little lean bacon now and then won’t kill you.  Maple syrup is a natural sugar so gets the thumbs up.  Also, pancake batter contains no white sugar (THE ENEMY)- it is simply milk, eggs and flour.  For this recipe, I swapped refined, white flour for whole meal which is a healthier carb.  It keeps you fuller for longer and your blood sugars stable, meaning you won’t get sweaty and shaky when you’re feeling a bit peckish later on.

Sadly, these pancakes aren’t gluten free but they are lactose free. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it elsewhere in my blog, but I am lactose intolerant.  I haven’t had an official test to diagnose it, but my GP recommended eliminating dairy back in 2010 when I went to see him with wheeziness and a strange sensation under my left ribs (turned out the lining of my stomach was inflamed, though I thought the heart condition I once had had flared up again- more on that to follow).  As soon as I cut out lactose, I was cured.  Whenever I reintroduce some, I have to do so carefully and in small doses.  When the symptoms return, it’s time to cut out dairy again.  I generally tend to be fine so long as I have either lactose free or soya milk (I use the Arla milk below for EVERYTHING).

 I do use regular butter and normal cheese in my recipes and seem to be ok with these products in small amounts, but I make sure that if I have a cheese pizza one night, I lay off dairy for the rest of the week. Arla also do a lactose free cheese too and goat cheese is a lot easier for lactose intolerance sufferers to digest.

My sudden lactose intolerance is a mystery to me and I have two theories about why I suddenly developed it.  Firstly, back in August 2007, I was travelling in Canada and suffered from an insect bite which I slathered in antiseptic and covered with a plaster.  Two months later in October, I went to my local walk-in centre feeling wheezy and suffering chest pain, but had put it down to something muscular as I was still running and attending the gym regularly.  Half an hour after arriving, I was in the back of an emergency ambulance being rushed straight to resuscitation in A&E (or the ER for my lovely American readers!)  An ECG at the walk-in centre had found my heart was firing signals in the wrong direction and I had to see a doctor immediately.  I was referred to a cardiologist after a doctor discovered a heart murmur that I’d never had before.  The next couple of months were a blur and in the middle of persistent fevers, tremors, headaches, glandular fever and feeling unwell, and a gazillion blood tests, my cardiologist diagnosed a dose of pericarditis (an inflammation of the heart wall due to a bacterial infection, meaning the sack your ticker lives in was doing a nice job of crushing mine).  My dose of pericarditis was the final, late symptom of something called Lyme Disease.  a tic borne disease that is common in the US and Canada and becoming increasingly common in the UK too (more here on the NHS website- spread the word  people because knowledge is power with this nasty little disease).  

The treatment was simple: massive doses of antibiotics to blast the infection (I was roughly on 3000mg of penicillin a day, after I’d been blasted with Doxycycline, which is powerful enough to be used as an anti-malarial) and huge quantities of anti-inflammatory drugs (both prescription and ibuprofen).  I am now fit and well I’m pleased to say, though I do have a harmless, soft heart murmur left after the infection.  I was finally discharged from the cardiologist in 2012, 5 years after contracting Lyme Disease.  Big high five to the NHS who covered thousands of pounds worth of Lyme Disease tests, other tests, echo-cardiograms and nights in hospital!  How does all of this relate to my lactose intolerance though?  Well, I do wonder if the high quantities of anti-inflammatory drugs I was taking  affected my stomach lining, as they can cause a reduction in prostaglandins (chemicals in your body that promote inflammation) which are important in protecting your stomach lining from acid and generally keeping it in good health.  However, bearing in mind how ill the Lyme Disease had made me, having a lactose intolerance now seems a very small price to pay.  The Lyme Disease also reminds me every day how precious and important my body and my health is.  Believe me, anything going wrong with your heart is the MOST frightening (and potentially deadly) thing you will ever encounter- so don’t let obesity and a poor diet get you there when heart trouble stemming from this can be so easily avoided.

My second theory though about what caused my lactose intolerance is far more alarming.  I think it’s down the shitty, unhealthy additives that manufacturers put into our food.  Have you noticed now how many foods that pregnant women aren’t allowed to eat?  Have you noticed how many more people, especially children, suffer from allergies requiring them to carry an epipen?  Have you noticed how many more people can’t digest dairy of gluten and have to cut it from their diets?  Food allergies are everywhere but 30 years ago, there was virtually no such thing.  Yes, food allergies can happen suddenly (my neighbour became gluten intolerant after she had her gall bladder removed!) but I just don’t get how I can have dairy every day for 30 years of my life and then suddenly have my body turn against me when I eat it.  Also, whenever I was backpacking and eating the local dairy in South America, India, Asia, I never once suffered with my lactose intolerance- probably because in these developing countries, they don’t mess with their food as much as we do!  Admittedly, I did have the shits but that was down to Delhi belly rather than lactose intolerance...

Anyway, if dairy and gluten are disagreeing with us, I’ll make sure that my recipes try to embrace this and as a lactose intolerance sufferer, my recipes are usually kind to my tummy.  The whole meal pancakes were amazing and hopefully if you do suffer from coeliac disease, you’ll be able to adapt this to suit your tummy too! 

Ingredients (serves 2):

6 rashers of lean, smoked bacon

Maple syrup (the Aldi one is amazing)       

100g whole meal flour

½ a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

A pinch of salt

One egg

250ml of lactose free milk

Method:

1.        Mix the egg into the flour, salt and baking powder.  Then, slowly add the milk, whisking well after each addition until you have a batter. Set to one side so it can stand before cooking.

2.        Grill your bacon and begin fry your pancakes when it is almost done.

3.       To fry the pancakes, add a little oil to a hot frying pan and then wipe around the pan with kitchen paper to absorb the excess.  Pour in half the batter to make your first pancake.  Once it starts to bubble on top, slide a spatula underneath it to prevent it burning. Once most of the batter on top has cooked, flip it over and give it another minute or so on the other side.

4.       Top the pancakes with your bacon and drizzle with the maple syrup.  Serve and enjoy!

I need to work on giving my pancakes neater edges- don't touch them until the batter is bubbling on top!

Believe me when I say you don’t ever want to suffer from a food intolerance. The general symptoms of bloating, stomach aches and cramps, lethargy and a lack of energy are no fun and these are the exact symptoms you will suffer from anyway if you eat a poor diet that is loaded with sugar, junk food, white carbs and general gluttony.  Putting the right stuff inside your body is the most life-changing and life-saving thing you can do for yourself.

On a final note, because I love some food porn, here's some for you!  It was my friend's birthday yesterday and I took her to Sugar Junction for lunch (link here).  She is a fully fledged and diagnosed coeliac but luckily, there was plenty on offer for her at Sugar Junction.  

Sugar Junction's gluten-free orange and almond cake

I had the eggs royale for lunch and we shared a piece of orange and almond gluten free cake to celebrate her birthday. The cake was delicious- moist and light- and if you are gluten intolerant, the gluten free cake from Sugar Junction is just like the real thing. It was delicious!

Eggs Royale- the perfect amount of protein and carbs- so yummy!

Happy, healthy eating!

Healthier Cottage Pie

Again, the heating has been on at home this week and I spent yesterday back in my winter coat.  Despite the cold, wet weather, I did have another brilliant breakfast of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup at Sugar Junction in Manchester’s Northern Quarter (click here) 

It is officially my favourite tea room ever!  Saying I’ve travelled to America quite a few times, I have never tried the pancake/bacon/maple syrup combo over there, but have found this American breakfast staple (or so I thought it was) becoming more popular over here.  The pancakes at Sugar Junction are amazing- thicker than the average pancake, but also light and fluffy too.  The maple syrup is a good sugar and when you throw bacon into the mix, you end up with a breakfast that ranks up there with sea-salted caramel.  The sweet and salty combo is just delicious! 

I’ve decided that I must make my own at home for breakfast next weekend, but will try making the pancakes with wholemeal flour to keep them healthier than they would be with white flour.  As for bacon, well a little bit now and then won’t kill you!

This weekend has been a blur of comfort food and I'm holding the winter-like weather to blame!  To me, Cottage Pie is another winter dish that should only been eaten between November and March, but the cold weather means I’m craving it!  I made a healthier version of Cottage Pie this morning, so that it’s ready to go into the oven tomorrow evening after work.  The mince is simply fried with an onion in a little olive oil then instead of mash made with white potatoes, milk and lashings of butter, I used sweet potatoes instead as they are a much healthier (and I think tastier) type of spud.

Ingredients (serves 4):

Olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 packet of minced beef (I used the larger pack from Aldi, think it was 800g)

¾ a pint of boiling water

2 oxo cubes

A bag of sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

Sea salt

A splash of milk

Method:

1.        Put the oxo cubes into the water to dissolve.  In the meantime, heat a little olive oil in a pan and fry the onions until softened.

2.       Add the mince and fry until it has browned.

3.       Add the oxo cube stock, bring to the boil and allow to boil until most of the stock has reduced and the mixture is thicker.  Keep the heat high and stir often to check it isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan. When it’s ready, pour your mince into an oven proof dish.

4.       Boil your potatoes with a little sea salt. Once soft, drain and mash, adding a splash of milk to give them more of a ‘fluffy’ consistency!  No butter needed as these mashed potatoes are delicious enough without the unhealthy extras!

5.       Top your mince with the mash and place under a hot grill to crisp up the potatoes.  You can prepare this dish the day before too and fridge it overnight.  If you’re cooking it straight from the fridge, I’d heat it in the oven first (about 170 °) and then finish it off under the grill.

ENJOY!!

Happy, healthy eating!!!

More slow cooked goodies

So late April/ early May is still feeling like February.  I’ve got my winter coat out again, the central heating cranked up and I’m still munching on things that I’ve made in the slow cooker which for me, is more of a gadget  I should be using in winter when it’s comfort food season, not the spring!  Nevertheless, I have discovered two new recipes from the book below, which cost £4.99 from Asda. It’s a pretty cute book and well worth investing in a copy if you’re a slow cooker fan and need some inspiration. 

My faves for this week have been the chicken with sundried tomatoes and olives and the red Thai curry with beef.  I have tweaked the recipes slightly and the chicken dish gets you about a weeks’ worth of freezeable lunches as well (Yes, I know freezeable isn’t a word, I just coined it! Any linguists out there will see it’s an example of derivational morphology and the good old adding a suffix at the end!)

Chicken with sundried tomatoes and olives with tuna pasta lunches:

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 chicken breasts

1tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

30g plain flour (gluten free is fine too)

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

125ml dry white wine

2 tins (800g) of chopped tomatoes (plus an extra tin for the pasta lunch)

155g of stoned olives

75g sundried tomatoes

One 500g bag of whole wheat pasta (just cook as much as you need or if making the lunches, do the full bag)

1 tin of sweetcorn and one tin of tuna (drained) if making the pasta lunch

If you want to skip making the pasta lunches and make your chicken dish go further, use 4 chicken breast fillets instead.

Method:

1.        Place the chicken, flour, salt and pepper into a plastic freezer bag and give it all a good shake so that the chicken is evenly coated.

2.       Place the onion, garlic, wine, olives, tinned tomatoes and sundried tomatoes into the slow cooker.  Add your chicken, placing it under the mixture so that it doesn’t dry out during cooking.

3.       Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.  Serve with the pasta and some of the sauce.  And since there’s loads of this left, you can use it to make leftover lunches....

For the tuna pasta lunch:

1.        Throw your tuna, sweetcorn and remaining pasta into the slow cooker with the leftover sauce and give it all a stir. You could also chuck in any leftover olives and sundried tomatoes too- anything you fancy really!  If the dish is a little thick after adding all of your ingredients, mix in the extra tin of tomatoes to loosen the sauce.  Put into foil tins and freeze.

Red Thai curry with beef:

I’ve tweaked this recipe a little from the version in the book and use a full tin of coconut milk to keep the meat tender and thicken the sauce at the end using corn flour.  I’ve also cut out the sugar from the original recipe and use healthier sweet potatoes rather than white ones.

Ingredients:

75g of Thai red curry paste

One tin of coconut milk

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce (though think mine was Chinese?  So any fish sauce will do!)

75g smooth peanut butter

800g of diced beef (mine was from Aldi)

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

125ml beef stock (1 stock cube will make plenty)

2 tablespoons of corn flour

Brown rice to serve

Method:

1.        Put the curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce and peanut butter into the slow cooker and mix together.  Then add your potatoes, beef and stock, giving it all another good mix.

2.       Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  About 30mins before the dish is ready, stir through the corn flour to thicken the sauce.

3.       Serve with brown rice and freeze any leftovers.

I didn’t take a photo of the finished dish in the slow cooker, because it doesn’t look particularly good on camera!  It is delicious though, so don’t be put off by its diarrhoea-like appearance (I’m really selling this recipe to you, aren’t I?!)

In other news this week, I also did a check of my BMI on the NHS Direct website.  It took about 30 seconds (as long as you have your weight and height info) and is really handy  to check where you are on the scale.  I was in the middle of healthy weight, which, I think, is the perfect place to be and must mean that I'm eating well and moving around enough too!

Happy, healthy eating!

Plus size wars- My take on body size.

So this was an interesting TV programme...  Not that you need a TV programme to ignite the plus size debate.  I’m  cynical of the label ‘plus size’ to describe sizes 14 upwards- as someone who views herself as slim, I wear a size 14 in jeans (these ones are the long leg Eden range from Dorothy Perkins and I own about 5 pairs click here).  

Two of my recent lovely buys from H&M and Primark for my holidays were a size 16, which I know is ridiculous because at 6ft 1 and 11 stone, 3lb, there’s no way I’m a size 16- this is all down to cut, style and the way sizes vary widely on the British high street. 

Oh dear...size 16 bikini bottoms, damn you Primark! But hey, I look good!

Shock horror- size 16 shorts!! Those abs coming along nicely though...thanks for showing them off, H&M.

I did leave one comment on Twitter about the show, saying how I thought the girls were fabulous but was concerned about their health and was immediately told that it was none of my business...hence this post.  Sorry Twitter, but 120 characters just wasn't enough for this one!

As I’ve said about this food blog from the start, I’m not a nutritional or fitness expert but I believe that moving around a little and putting the right food in your mouth allows your body to naturally be its healthiest weight and shape.  I despair at starvation to be supermodel skinny and loathe fad diets like Juice Plus and slimming pills.  The only things I have cut out of my own diet are refined white sugar and white carbohydrates.  As a girl who needs carbohydrates and sweet things though, I have swapped all white carbs for brown alternatives and use unrefined sugars such as maple syrup to sweeten dishes.  If I want chocolate, ice cream, takeaway, booze or a humungous chip barm on white bread, I’ll have it....BUT ONLY IN MODERATION and as a treat rather than it being a regular part of my diet!  I’m slurping on wine as we speak, in case you were wondering.

I truly admired the confidence of these girls on the programme and the way they inspired that same confidence in others.  As a tall girl, I was forever bullied at school, found it hard to buy clothes that fit and wish that I’d had some sort of a role model like the bloggers featured on the show.  The girls were fun, bright and had beautiful faces I would die for but for me, I just felt that the health risk associated with being a real plus size (and by this, we’re talking well over a size 18) is just too great.  Being overweight is problematic enough, let alone when you throw full on obesity into the equation.  When I was 10lb heavier last year, I was still within a healthy BMI.  However, as a runner, those extra 10lbs made a difference!  I was slower; there was certainly more bounce around my hips and I suffered with my knees too.  Plus, the only reason why I was carrying the extra weight in the first place was because I was sneaking too many sweet treats and the weight was all down to the main enemy: refined white sugar.  My body didn’t need the sugar and when I ditched it from my diet, I ditched the excess weight as a consequence of that healthy decision.  Being obese and overweight is quite simply a health risk, and I stand by that opinion no matter what backlash I may get for saying it.

‘Perfection’, and all our warped views of this, should not be about a skinny body, it should be about a HEALTHY body.  If you exercise and put the right things into it, this will be a natural process that happens to your body as a result of your choices and you WILL look your very best.  Yes, there are factors outside an individual’s control, plus some health and medical issues that can cause weight problems.  However, I stand by my opinion that the majority of people who are either obese or extremely skinny didn’t get there as a result of eating a healthy, balanced diet which cuts out the bad, chomps on the good and has a little treat now and again.  Rather than worrying about clothing companies catering to our differing sizes, perhaps the emphasis should be on educating people, regardless of their size, as to what your body needs to be in its very best and healthiest shape.  We need to love our bodies enough to treat them like a temple, then THEY can work the magic all on their own to transform into the size they want to be for you.

I have a bag of kale and I'm not afraid to use it!

Apologies about this post being late, though there's no excuse really saying I've had two weeks off work.  I've been pretty lazy over the break, having tried out virtually no new recipes and hardly visiting the gym either.  I'm not beating myself up about it though as that's what holidays are for.  On the weekend I was due to post this, I was in York with my uni mates guzzling plenty of prosecco and munching on cream tea and gastro pub food.  Bliss.

Despite my lack of cooking over the holiday, I did buy a bag of kale from Aldi.  It's certainly a food everyone is raving over; I was keen to try out a kale crisp recipe!  I preheated the oven to 170 degrees, drizzled some olive oil, salt salt, ground garlic and ground black pepper into the bag, shook up the lot of it and placed on a baking tray. I baked the kale in the oven for about 15 minutes and was actually disappointed with the result.  The kale didn't really have a nice flavour and tasted quite bitter, though the cripsy texture was nice and reminded me of seaweed you get from the Chinese takeaway.  Some of the brower, crispier leaves tasted worse than the greener ones.  I didn't munch all of my superfood crips and instead went out and got a caramel McFlurry #fail

Not to be put off, the next night and using the last remains of my kale, I went for the simple option and just boiled the stuff with a little sea salt for about 8 minutes.  The result? A much tastier side dish in the form of a superfood and a change from the veggies I usually eat.  Winner!  I'll definitely try the kale crisps again though- maybe now I'm back to normality at work my cooking will get a bit more into the swing of things! 

Moroccan Lamb Tagine

It's been an AWESOME week!  It was the first week of the Easter holidays which started with a large chocolate egg!  We then went on a road trip to London and The Making of Harry Potter.  I was really good along the way and packed loads of healthy snacks, meaning that my first Big Mac meal of the year, followed by a huge full English at the hotel the next morning, were completely guilt free! I definitely eat differently when I'm away from home and out of a routine but that is totally fine because indulging for a couple of days makes absolutely NO difference when you eat well 80% of the time. Simples!

Because it's been a busy week, I haven't really had time to do any real cooking or trying new recipes.  The slow cooker has been out though- it currently has a gammon joint in it for dinner tonight; I also used it to make my Easter dinner of Morrocan Lamb tagine.  The recipe below is a concoction of various ones on the internet and it is really delicious!  You can fry your lamb a little before you throw it into the slow cooker as this gets rid of some of the fat which you may notice once the dish cools/ defrosts if you have frozen it.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine
Ingredients:

800g minced lamb (two packets if you're buying it from Aldi)
1 onion, chopped
1 heaped tbsp of plain (or gluten free) flour
2 tsp of ground cinammon
1 heaped tsp of coriander leaves, cumin, turmeric, ground ginger
1 tbsp runny honey
300ml lamb stock (made from a lamb stock cube according to packet instructions)
1 400g can of chick peas, drained
A large handful of dried apricots, halved
2 large handfuls of baby spinach

Method:

1.  Basically- throw it all in apart from the spinach.  So mix the lamb with both the chopped and dry ingredients in your slow cooker pot.  Then add the lamb stock followed by the honey and give it all a good stir together.

2.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  About half an hour before the dish is done, add your spinach leaves and mix through. Season with the salt and pepper if needed.

3.  Serve with either baby potatoes, brown rice, couscous or even a salad.  Freeze any leftovers.

No photograph of this one- I've been super efficient today deleting old pics and uploading others. Whoops...

I have got a picture though of my latest Aldi bargains!  I have raved about Aldi several times in this blog and always seem to be using their ingredients- they're not sponsoring me or anything, it's just that their food is so good!  I was an Asda girl until last year when I decided to give Aldi a whirl.  i did my full weekly shop for a fraction of the price.  Their fruit and veg is miles cheaper and much fresher than it ever is in Asda; Aldi's meat is also much better too in terms of quality and price.  It seems too that Aldi have realised the new trend for healthy eating and are stocking things that I had to previously go to Holland and Barrett for- things like seeds, ground almonds (a flour replacement), etc.  This week's haul of lovely healthiness was as follows:

First up, a bag of kale...not sure what exactly I can do with it, but it is considered a superfood and is full of antioxidants, vitamin K, antioxidants...you name it, it's got it! Plus it was only 75p. I also picked up a bag of milled linseed (£1.99 per bag) with goji berries, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.  All of the ingredients are ground so that you can sprinkle this on porridge, salads, in yoghurt or use it in smoothies.  It's basically a nutritional top-up for your fibre and Omega 3 levels and contains lots of healthy fats.  The little box of trail mix was 49p and like the milled linseed, is sugar and additive free.  It's a selection of sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds that you can graze on through the day and these are more superfoods that you would pay a fortune for in a health food shop.  Basically, get it all down you- it's good stuff!

I suppose next week's post will be dedicated to my experiments with my bag of kale.  Wish me luck!

Happy eating xxxx