Fridge Raiders - what's in my fridge?

I find that by having a few healthy staples in your fridge, that you can rely on being in there every week, makes all the difference in maintaining your healthy eating regime.

About 3/4 of our weekly shop looks the same every week. Berries, yoghurt, eggs, spinach, peppers, mushrooms and lemons are guaranteed.

So let's take a look at what the fridge tends to look like, and please notice, there isn't a supermarket prepared meal in sight.

We always have lots of garlic and lemons in, and often root ginger. We have a slice of lemon in our green tea every morning and we love garlic. Lemon and garlic can be added to most dishes to improve flavour.

We usually have four - five tubs of yoghurt in as this is one food we eat more than anything. We regularly get Fage O% fat Greek Yoghurt and flavour it ourselves but also find Skyr and Rachel's to be just as filling and the lowest sugar options of any other flavoured yoghurts. Rachel's Coconut is my favourite but they didn't have it this week and we also get Skyr unflavoured to be even healthier. The protein content in all three brands is great with a low sugar and fat count.

Cottage cheese has become a regular on our shelves as of late and it is used in salad dressings, flavoured with either lemon, or more often Harissa which is featured in the image below. Again, high protein, low fat therefore making it an excellent and filling edition to a lot of meals.

Having these jars in is a great tip for adding healthy flavour to a variety of meals. The Harissa as mentioned helps enhance dressings or is great rubbed on salmon. The capers add a salty flavour to stews, casseroles or on top of white fish. Sundried tomatoes improve EVERYTHING. I often have them chopped up and mixed in with grains such as pearl barley for extra flavour. Olives are a great source of healthy fats and taste beautiful mixed with tuna and feta (also a weekly staple but not photographed this week) for a delicious spin on a Greek salad. We also often have in pesto and Thai curry paste (both regularly homemade but not always). I don't always use these in the traditional sense eg, pasta and curry. I rub them on meats and fishes to add extra flavour when baking or stir the pesto through a grain salad for an additional light flavouring.

There is always some form of berry, often a rotation of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, in the fridge. We have them every morning with yoghurt which is then topped with no added sugar Alpen or Museli of choice. Generally, for smoothies we use frozen berries - it is more cost effective and makes the smoothie nice and cold. Carrot batons are great for when you feel snacky. We often find we eat through boredom so these keep our hands and mouths busy, stopping us reaching for biscuits.
We have mushrooms every week as they are our favourite in omelettes, stir fry and my Fajita bowl (recipe coming soon). We eat one or two of these for tea every week as they are fast and easy. Having a couple of staple dishes that you do every week is a great way to keep to a healthy diet - but more on that in a later blog. Beansprouts really bulk up a stir fry as well as other dishes and salads.
We ensure we have a couple of green veggies in each week that often go with a protein and sweet potato dish which is as straightforward as it sounds.

The stir fry packs supermarkets offer are excellent if you are tight on time which we were this evening. Otherwise, it is easy enough to throw together your own. We always have lots of proteins in and fish every week. Salmon is the most popular and chicken is used for teas and lunches.

The salad draw always has spinach, another lettuce variant (often rocket), cucumber, peppers, chillis, tomatoes and spring onions. These all generally make up the base of most salads. Peppers, onion and spinach are also heavily used on evenings for dinners such as omelette and Fajita bowls.

This week we had a bottle of white wine which was kindly gifted to us from a neighbour. We aren't heavy drinkers but do enjoy a glass here and there. Generally, we prefer red but this was a good white. It also flavoured a risotto I made and a paella. I drink dairy alternative milks, I love cows milk and drink that too but find I bloat if I consume too much so I use coconut, almond or more recently cashew milk for my museli so I can afford to have an occasional glass of milk to indulge. Matt however, drinks cows milk and doesn't like my alternatives.

We both suffer with a big sweet tooth (hint's in the blog name), so I often find ways to satisfy it without feeling too guilty. We eat a lot of dark chocolate and find chocolate milks - which are also great post workout recovery drinks - are delicious. As I am also a milkshake fan, this kills two birds, or cravings in this case, with one stone. This Alpro coconut chocolate one is lovely and sweet, my fav at the mo.

I hope this has given you a little insight into how to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Let me know what's in your fridge and we can compare!

French Fancies

I just spent an incredible weekend living the life of Riley in the French Alps.

We had the opportunity to go for a three day break to Morzine with fellow couple and close friends Emma and Dave. It was a once in a life time opportunity to go to this very prestigious and elite skiing town which had a thriving atmosphere as it was overrun by rally cars and mountain bikers during the Summer, to take in the views and eat lots of great food.

This is the part where I tell you, I am still a normal human being who eats naughty foods and sometimes too much of it, just like everyone else. But as expected, the food in France, Oh My God.... I actually had THE BEST CROISSANT of my life and I don't care how cliché it is to say. My only regret is gobbling it down too fast that I didn't get a photo of the big, golden, crispy pastry. 

Never the less, plenty of food snaps were taken in my usual, blasé style.

The bakery from where we purchased said croissant was frequented on more than one occasion and the following three photos, I am sure, will explain why. 

I had a Croque Monsieur, of course, but it wasn't hot which was the only minor criticism but it was still incredibly delicious and very suitable for a slight hangover which we may or may not have been suffering. I also had a raspberry éclair which was filled with creme patissiere and oh my god. I will leave it there. 

As great as the bakery was, there were many, many more good meals to be had. The next photograph may shock you. 

Yes, that is a huge hanging contraption filled with steak. This was, may I add shared between three men and I also indulged in a little alongside my deliciously creamy risotto. This was the best steak I have ever eaten it tasted like heaven. It was full of flavour and so well cooked. This was an unlimited option and the steak was replenished once this large amount was finished. It was a lot but it was good!

And last but not least, the one meal I have to speak about, which was admittedly, extortionate but another once in a life time experience that we will never forget, is the meal in the mountains.

Literally, so deep into the mountains that you can't drive up to it, the waiters drive down to a car park and collect you. The panoramic view of mountains all around was unbelievable. You can see through this photo of us at the table, what we looked out onto. 

This is where I had my own, fantastic steak experience. I ordered the sizzling hot plate steak. And what I got was a beautiful large hot plate, with a large portion of stunning and tender steak slices to cook at my own pace to my own liking. It was excellent. And the potatoes that came with it were so good, I could have bathed in them! They buttery, creamy flavour was something I would never be able to replicate and my mouth is watering thinking of them now. Oh dear!

Here is the steak, with THOSE potatoes and the most delicious garlic butter ever! Oh God take me back!

Got to have it rare!

This of course was followed by a Tarte Tatin. What else! And well, just look at it. 

If only I could explain how well cooked the apples were, how delicious and crumbly the pastry was and how creamy and vanillary the ice cream was! Great way to finish a meal.

And finally, it wouldn't be a jaunt to France without trying the wine. We had a lot of Gamay. It was peppery which is something I wouldn't have normally thought would be nice but it worked. Especially with red meat. So much so that we brought some back! 

But this wine... 

Was easily my favourite. We had it in the fancy mountain restaurant and it was so smooth and light it went down rather quickly. 

All of this food was great but of course, there is a risk of feeling heavy and bloated. However, in the Alps there is so much walking and scenery to take in, that we were averaging 20,000 steps per day, making us feel a little less guilty and a little more hungry. Perhaps we would have reigned in the indulging had we been sedentary the whole time, but I am glad we didn't. I mean, just look at it! 

I have thoroughly enjoyed reliving my French dinning experience here and I hope you have all seen that sometimes, it is okay to just go out and enjoy life. 

If you have had some excellent foodie experiences share them! Let's see some photos and reminisce about great food together! 

Eating pud and feeling good!

Sometimes, chicken and veg just doesn’t cut it. Sometimes, you need something to finish a meal off. And there really is nothing better than a nice warming, hearty, apple crumble.

Now this is my healthified version, but by no means should it be eaten every day. When it comes to desserts, making them healthy all comes down to the ingredients. If you are one of these who hates “new” ingredients and won’t step foot into a health food store look away now. (In this particular recipe there is only one ingredient that requires sourcing from somewhere other than a supermarket. Although, by now I bet the really big ones do stock coconut sugar.)

I chopped up two cooking apples into bite size chunks and put them in a pan with a splash of water, literally a splash, you don’t want over gooey apples. When they were softening slightly I sprinkled over a little bit of coconut sugar and a squeeze of honey. Then I let it all cook and caramelise and get yummy.

It is also worth mentioning at this point that I did extra so that I had this delicious apple mixture as an extra topping for my yoghurt in the morning  - so worth it!

Once this cooked I distributed it into to little ramekins. My top tip here is to serve it in individual ramekins for portion control. By serving it this way, you can’t make too much and then go back for a second serving. :( Yey for waistline nay for taste buds. 

 

While the apple mixture was cooling I combined some oats, with a small amount of butter – this is why it isn’t 100% “clean” – some coconut sugar and lots of cinnamon. I pressed it all together in my fingers until it was just about combined and then sprinkled it evenly over the apple mixture.

Then I just baked it in a 180 degree oven for 20 mins. We were so excited that I totally forgot to get a photo of the finished product but I guess that just gives me an excuse to make it again. :) 

For the full recipe visit my recipes page

Homemade fish tacos - Friday night feast

This is one of my favourite recipes! It is a "taco" so it feels naughty, however, it is anything but. It is also a feast and if you serve it the way I did, it feels more indulgent as you grab at ingredients to stuff your home made tortilla so it's bursting with flavour!

First thing's first, make the tortilla. This is sooo easy I don't know why more people don't do it.
You need 100g of flour - use whatever healthy flour you have, I used a mixture of brown and rye as that's what I had in.

Mix the flour with around 60ml of water. Add it slowly as all flour is different, sometimes it may need more, sometimes a little less. Use your judgement to get a nice firm dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes and make yourself busy.

Now roll the dough out, this makes four for me so split it into quarters. I'm not that good at getting a super thin dough but roll it out as thin as you can and then slap it on a dry non stick pan

Can you see the bubbles?

Caution! Do not leave unattended. These tortillas cook soooo quickly. As soon as it starts to puff up, flip it over. This will only take a minute or two. 

Now clean up the floury mess before the other half comes in a shouts at you for leaving footprints all over the floor *flashbacks*.

Chop up your chosen fish, I would recommend haddock, it is cheap, sustainable and is filled with seven essential vitamins and minerals. Chop up your peppers - by choosing different colours you are getting even more vitamins. I also grilled spring onions whole to give them a sweetness and a char that is delicious. 

Whilst chopping I also diced the chilli, lime and coriander for the dressing. The next step is to cook it all. Just whack it all in one pan to save on washing up! 

While this is all sizzling away, it's time to make the dressing. This time I wanted a nice fresh and light tasting sauce so I took my greek yoghurt and mixed it right in the pot, (this is what real home cooking looks like).

Grate the zest of one lime into the yoghurt, squeeze the juice from half the lime in, chop some chilli and throw it in, as much or as little as you like and then add coriander or other herb of choice. Coriander is my fav!

Once everything is cooked put it on plates for everyone to help themselves like so...

Squeeze over extra lime and voila! Enjoy x

For full recipe details go to my Recipes page

Eat the rainbow!

By now we all know the main principal of healthy eating is to have a good balance of the three macro nutrients, Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat.

But that's not the end of it. It is imperative to get as many vitamins and minerals into your diet as possible to make sure your body performs at its best.

Now, there are many ways you can try and do this but the easiest way to ensure you get plenty, is to eat the rainbow.

Obviously, I don't mean skittles, but if your plate is all one colour, it looks bland and boring. But if your plate is splashed with reds, greens, oranges etc not only does it look more interesting but it provides many more nutrients. Each one can really benefit the other too, for example, eating vitamin C with iron increases absorption so combining a nice lean piece of steak with a red pepper salad is a great way to maximise nutritional intake.

Phytonutrients are what give foods their colour and each colour has its own unique property. For example, orange foods, eg carrots and sweet potato have carotenoids which help with vision (yes granny was right, carrots help you see in the dark) and blue/purple foods like blueberries have anthocyanins which help to keep your heart healthy. Now, I won't go into every single colour but you get the idea.

Every fruit, vegetable and grain has its own unique property offering a whole range of benefits. For the purpose of this blog, let me give you one of my favourite summer salad recipes, with additional nutritional info:

Rainbow Salad

Rocket: Only 25 calories per 100g. Strong delicious taste which stands up to most food. Laced with vits&minerals including: Iron, Calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and Magnesium.
Cucumber: 16 calories per 100g. High water percentage to help with hydration and feeling full. Source of Vitamins A, C and K, Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorous and Manganese.
Yellow pepper: 27 calories per 100g. Excellent source of vitamin C. Also, Vitamin A, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Magnesium, Vitamin B6, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.
Edamame: 122 calories per 100g. Great source of protein at 11g per 100g as well as high in vitamin and mineral content including, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Vitamin K, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Folate, Manganese.
Feta: This would be the "fat" in the salad and also acts as a dressing due to it's tangy flavour. 14g of protein per 100g, good source of Calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin B6 and B12 and Riboflavin which helps activate other vitamins.
Tesco Pink Slaw - Red and white cabbage, red onion and carrot. Calories = 38 per half pack (70g).

Enjoy x

Holiday Work Outs

I know, I know, I have done it again and left it far too long in between blogs. I had a good excuse though, I had two holidays :)

Two holidays is a lot for one month and the extra eating combined with a lack of exercise can sometimes leave you feeling a tad podgy. This year I took steps to ensure I could minimise the excessive bloat.

The first thing I did, and it sounds very simple and straight forward, but I am sure a good chunk of you will agree, is easier said than done, I wasn't greedy. I went with the mindset that I would have one naughty thing a day. While this wasn't always the case, I did make sure to not have a dessert if I had an ice cream that day, and I tended to have one naughty meal and then tried to eat as best as I could for the other meals.

Generally, breakfast and lunches were healthy, but if a naughty lunch slipped in (cheese toasty I am looking at you) I kept the portions small.

In Sweden we spent all day walking around, so even if there was time for a workout, we certainly did not need it. Our best was 26,000 steps in one day. But in Cyprus, where we lounged and lazed, we had to work out but of course, being on holiday, we didn't want to waste precious tanning time so it had to be quick and effective.

The key was to do it first thing in the morning before it got too hot. I developed a quick (roughly 16 minute) HIIT routine designed to burn fat. I did it when I woke up before I ate to put my body into fat burning mode. Even though I did it at 9am most days while the back garden was still in the shade, it was brutal. The temperature was HOT HOT HOT and I was doing this in 32-35 degrees. Please bare in mind that you should only do what you can in this weather as you don't want to overheat and make yourself ill.

Matt and I also did a couple of 1.5mile runs. Sounds short, but you try running with the sun that hot pounding on your back. The extra sweat made up for the extra miles trust me.

So here is my HIIT Routine: It worked in 30 second stints and followed the same pattern of 30 second cardio burst, 30 second body weight exercise and 30 second rest. At the end of the routine, I rested for a minute and then repeated this two more times totaling 3 sets.

Mountain Climbers: Get on all fours into plank position. Bring your right knee up to your left elbow and then back. Repeat on the other side. Continue this pattern as fast as possible for 30 seconds.

Squats: We all know how to squat! Make sure your knees don't go over your toes and work and getting your bum lower to the ground each time.

Rest 30 seconds.

Burpees: My nemesis. Stand up straight, drop to the floor with your hands flat on the ground and jump your feet backwards. Jump your feet back towards your hands and then come back up and jump. (I did a knee tuck jump here sometimes - jump variation is up to you) And repeat the whole process. Sounds easy enough right? See if you still think that after 10 burpees.

Push Ups: Harder than you think. If you're a beginner, try the easier variation and put your knees on the floor.
Get into plank position and slowly lower your chest to the ground and come back again. Go as slow as you need to, it's better to do a proper push up then 20 half assed ones.

Rest 30 seconds.

Jumping Jacks: These are the fun ones. We all know how to do these. BTW, does anyone know if there is a difference between jumping jacks and star jumps?

Walking Lunges: (Walking part is optional) Lunge your right leg forward bending your left leg until the knee almost touches the floor. Each leg should come to a nice 90 degree angle. Now repeat on the other side. Do this on the spot or get some momentum going forward  to walk.

Rest 30 seconds.

High Knees (or run on the spot if you're tired): Simply run on the spot but try and bring your knee up as high as it will go. If you really push yourself, your heart rate should soar.

Plank: Depending on the floor (I had a hard tiled floor) Put your hands or your elbows flat on the floor, toes balancing out behind you and hold your core tight. 30 Seconds is a piece of cake ;)

If you're not sweating, you're not working hard enough!
Rest for One minute and repeat the whole process at least two more times. Hardcore folk can do 5 sets!

This is made easier with an interval timer. There are plenty of good apps available, the one I use sounds a great load noise every 30 seconds and is literally called IntervalTimer on the Apple App Store.

Of course, this doesn't have to just be a holiday work out. Try it at home when you're short on time. Let me know how you get on!

Stop saying no to CHO!

I am tired of hearing about all these fad diets. One in particular that bugs me is "paleo" or "low carb"!

Why would you do this to yourself? Why can people  not understand that we need carbohydrates, they are our body's main source of fuel!

Ideally, at least 50% of our diet should be carbs. This same feeling is reflected to low fat too. I know there has been a little resurgence lately and more people are understanding that not all fat is bad but it is not enough.

I still have to speak with people daily who choose low fat things that are caked in sugar.

We need to find a balance. Yes, you may see the odd low fat product which isn't a con and if you're looking to reduce calorie intake, I would recommend it due to fat's high calorie content. A great example is Fage Total 0% Yogurt. It is actually genuinely good for you. High in protein and calcium, no fat and more importantly, no added sugar! It is creamy and delicious and you can flavour it how you like. That is the key, that way you know exactly what is going into your food and your body. Skyr is also a good brand FYI.

But this post is not about fat it is about carbohydrates.

Your body turns carbs into glucose or blood sugar which enters your cells, tissues and organs to provide energy. The key is to aim for starchy and fibre based carbs to keep you full and stay away from simple carbs - which is a term I am sure most people have heard of by now.

My other half recently spoke with a friend who told him he did two to three days per week low carb - we're talking 100grams per day max - to help him shred and look more defined and so Matt insisted we did it too. I caved and agreed, more than anything to prove a point. We were both starving all day and all we could think about was naughty foods such as pizza. The next day, carbs were reintroduced, and despite eating what we normally would, it wasn't enough, again we were hungry all day and couldn't be satisfied. Because our stores had been depleted. We had no energy in the gym either. The key thing to remember here is, we are both usually very active. All we wanted to do was sit on the sofa and eat food. I felt this little experiment proved my point.

Here are some top tips for consuming a healthy balanced diet with carbs.

Choose wholegrain (not brown bread, wholegrain!) and start your day with some slow releasing carbs like oats. If you don't fancy hot oats try my Overnight oats

Replace your usual sandwich casing with a wholegrain bread, wrap or pitta alternative. Check the ingredients list to make sure something wholegrain based is the first ingredient. Or move away from the traditional sandwich all together and make a tasty salad using brown rice, quinoa, bulgar wheat or whatever takes your fancy.

Eat whole fruit over fruit juice, less sugar, more fibre and certainly more filling.

Eat more beans and legumes for a good dose of slow releasing carbs and protein.

Don't be afraid of carbs, embrace them and learn which are good and bad. Obviously, we all know cakes, biscuits, chocolate etc.. are "bad" carbs so just limit the amount you eat. Don't cut them out though! Why should you, we all deserve to enjoy something a bit naughty once in a while. It stops us bingeing if we don't restrict ourselves too much. Just learn moderation. Eat well most of the time and exercise. I think I have said before but the 80/20 rule is the best thing I have heard. Eat well 80% of the time, enjoy whatever you want to eat the other 20%. Happiness is the real key to good health!