Lunchbox idea #4.

I haven't posted a lunchbox idea in a while, so I thought it was about time I did. So here it is:

This is a little twist on the classic sandwich filling, egg and cress - only difference is pretty much just using the egg whites instead of the whole egg and I've added in a sausage! Egg and cress tastes lovely on it's own but the sausage just gives it that extra smokey-tasting something-something. ;)

To make this, just make 3 hard-boiled eggs, boiling them in water for about 10 minutes, and meanwhile cook a Quorn sausage (doesn't have to be Quorn) in the grill for 10-12 minutes. Once the eggs are done, peel them and separate the egg whites from the yolks, throwing the yolks away. Chop up the egg whites into little bits and mix them with about 1 tbsp of low-fat mayonnaise. Then add in some fresh salad cress and mix it all together again. Once the sausage is cooked, cut it into small slices/pieces and stir it all into the egg and cress mix. Season, to taste, with freshly ground salt and pepper. And voila - it's done. Simple as that. :)

Now add it into whatever you want, such as a wrap, a salad, a sandwich, a pitta bread, a bagel, etc. All super tasty!

Leaving the egg yolks out reduces each egg's calories by about 55kcal. It takes out a lot of the protein from the egg, but then you also get protein from the sausage, which is less calories than the 3 egg yolks put together! So all together this filling is approx. 135kcal (using a Quorn sausage). Then just add the calories of whatever you put it in (I used a Weight Watcher's wrap, so I'll have to add 107kcal). Yum yum!

Homemade pumpkin & apple soup.

Lately I have been dying to try cooking with pumpkin, simply for the fact everywhere is selling them and I've never tried one before. I spent quite a while deciding what I wanted to make with my pumpkin - a pie, a cake, a soup, a salad - so many to choose from! I finally decided to make a soup as veggie soups are normally pretty healthy, everyone loves a good soup and today is definitely "soup weather" (cold and rainy).

This is the first soup I have ever made from scratch (with some help from my lovely boyfriend - thank yooou!). I always thought soup would be hard to make, but it was surprisingly easy. This soup was so delicious! The cider really gave it that kick. Such a unique taste - really hard to explain.. But trust me, it is amazing - even my boyfriend loved it!

This recipe serves 4 people and only has approx. 177kcal per serving!

Ingredients:

- 1 small pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded and cubed

- 3 small/medium apples, peeled and chopped

- 1 small/medium brown onion, diced

- 2 garlic cloves, chopped

- 500ml (1 pint) of vegetable stock

- 250ml (1/2 pint) of dry cider

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- freshly ground salt and pepper

(If you aren't happy with using cider, you can always substitute it with 250ml (1/2 pint) of not-from-concentrate apple juice).

Method:

1. Get a large saucepan and heat up the oil. Cook the onions and garlic in the pan for 2-4 minutes, until the onions are slightly translucent.

2. Now add in the pumpkin, apple and season to taste. Cook for another 2-4 minutes.

3. Pour in the cider, and cook for 1 minute. Then add in the vegetable stock. Bring everything to the boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 25-30 minutes.

4. After it's finished simmering, pour the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth.

5. Now pour it back into the saucepan and heat it back up, so it's nice and hot when served.

6. Spread evenly into 4 servings and serve immediately. Serve alone, or add some cream/milk into it, or even enjoy it with some fresh baker's bread (such as a slice of cottage loaf - yum!).

P.S. I'm pretty sure this soup can be kept in a sealed box to be heated up the next day, or even frozen to enjoy on a later date - I can't see why not. :)

Low-kcal pizza - yes there is such a thing!

I'm not going to lie.. I adore pizza! I use to enjoy late pizza nights with my boyfriend faaar too often (occasionally we still do, but very rarely compared to before). But pizza makes my waste line suffer. I thought I'd have to sacrifice my love for pizza to be able to lose weight.. That was until I saw a pizza recipe in the magazine, Healthy Food Guide (September 2012's issue, page 41). I was also bought a recipe book, called "100 Pizzas From 1 Easy Recipe" - it was a gift from my Nan. It's a book full of lots of different pizza topping ideas. So I decided to have a go at making one.

I took the recipe for the pizza base and pizza sauce from my magazine's recipe. I chose a pizza topping idea from my recipe book, which is called "Neapolitan Pizza" - a cheese-less, but still super tasty topping! I mix and matched my recipe from both sources as the base and sauce in the magazine was lower kcal than the book, but the topping in the book was lower kcal than the one in the magazine. But I also altered the recipe slightly by using granulated sweetener, rather than actual sugar.

This recipe makes 2 very yummy, light, fluffy based pizzas, at approx. 290kcal per 1/2 pizza! Much better calorie-wise compared to a takeaway pizza - can't go wrong with that! :)

Ingredients:
(For pizza dough)
- 275g plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
- 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
- 1 tsp granulated Splenda sweetener
- 1 medium egg, beaten

(For pizza sauce)
- 250g passata
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp granulated sweetener
- small handful of chopped basil

(For pizza topping)
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 small tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp dried Italian herb seasoning
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- fresh basil leaves, roughly torn, to garnish

Method:
1. For the base, put the flour, yeast and 1 tsp of sweetener in a large bowl. Mix the egg with 125ml of warm water and pour it into the dry ingredients. Mix well and knead lightly to make a soft dough, adding more water if needed. Divide in two and roll out onto a flat surface, dusted with flour, to make 2 x 20cm diameter circles. Transfer to baking trays, lined with baking paper, and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place (such as an airing cupboard) for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 200°c/fan 180°c/gas 6. For the pizza sauce, heat the passata, oregano and 1 tsp of sweetener in a saucepan for 5 minutes until it thickens. Add in the chopped basil.

3. For the topping, divide the pizza sauce between the two pizza bases, spreading almost to the edges. Scatter over, evenly, the garlic, sliced tomatoes and the herb seasoning and drizzle over a little oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for around 15-25 minutes, or until the base is crisp underneath and the crusts are golden. Garnish with the torn basil leaves and serve immanently. Enjoy either on it's own or with a little side salad! :)

Been a naughty girl..

I'm sorry for not posting as often as I usually do.. This last week has been a hard one! I've slipped up, pretty badly.. Working so much lately (had a 13.5 hour shift Saturday), a friend's 21st birthday party (involving a lot of alcohol and a massive hangover), 2 days at Alton Towers theme park (with a 4 hour drive each way) and a night at a hotel - sticking within my calories for each day has been pretty much unrealistic.

Normally I kind of enjoy having a naughty meal/snack or two for a change from all the healthy eating.. But for some reason I haven't enjoyed any of it really. After eating all this rubbish, I have been really desperate to just dig into loads and loads of healthy veggies! I feel so fat, bloated and tired after eating so badly for just under a week.. But now I'm home, with nothing but work in my way, and I can eat absolutely anything I want - yaaay!

I am expecting to put on about half a stone from all the rubbish I've ate - a fish burger, vegetable crisps, munchies, a cookie, chips, pizza/pasta/salad buffet, alcohol (lots of it), a sandwich, etc.! Very ashamed of myself and very anxious about weighing myself tomorrow. But I'm only human and can't beat myself up too much about it. What's done is done - I've got to face the consequences and guilt of my bad choices, suck it up and start a fresh. Next week I will lose whatever weight I've put on this week, for sure! :)

Before/after - baggy trousers!

Look at those trousers! I was rummaging through my wardrobe last week and came across my first pair of work trousers, from when I first started my job back in 2009. They are a size 16, and they use to fit me perfectly! And of course, I tried them on to see the difference between then and now, and just.. wow! Couldn't believe how big they were! They drop to my ankles if I don't hold them up myself. I am now size 8-10 (in the majority of shops). Just crazy. I thought I'd share this with you all! I love comparing my photos and clothes from before and now - you never quite realise how much different you look until it's in front of you.

If anyone has any before/after photos, I'd love to see them!

Bruschetta.

I found this is my 'Healthy Food Guide' magazine (page 60-61, September 2012 issue). This recipe is so simple and quick to make and tastes absolutely gorgeous! It's a lovely little dish, great to have at lunchtime, as a starter or as a biggish cheeky snack. It's fresh, light and filling - a very summery dish. The magazine gives you 1 basic bruschetta recipe with 9 different ideas to chop and change this recipe up to suit you.

Here's the basic recipe (serves 4, approx. 177kcal per serving):

Ingredients:

- 4 salad tomatoes, diced

- 1 small red onion, diced

- small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped

- 1 garlic clove

- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

- 1 tbsp good-quality balsamic vinegar

- freshly ground black pepper

- 8 slices of bread, such as ciabatta or sourdough

Method:

1. Preheat the grill to high. In a medium bowl, combine the tomato, red onion, basil, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. Season with black pepper.

2. Put the bread slices under the grill and toast until crisp and browned. Top each with the tomato mixture and serve.

See - as simple as that! Absolutely delicious!

Here's the variations that I chose to do from the suggestions when making this recipe:

Avacado: Add 1 diced medium avocado to the mix, then spoon over the toasted bread (246kcal per serving using only this change).

Tangy lemon: Replace the olive oil and vinegar in the tomato mix with 1-2 tbsp lemon juice. Sprinkle over a little lemon zest before serving (148kcal per serving using only this change).

Baked banana and raisin oatmeal.

Always remember to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast! People (especially dieters) tend to skip their breakfast in the hope they'll lose weight, or to save calories.. This doesn't tend to work - if anything, skipping breakfast will aid weight-gain, rather than weight-loss. This is because your metabolism slows down whilst you're sleeping and doesn't speed back up again until you eat.. So if you eat breakfast, your metabolism will start up sooner than if you left it until lunchtime to eat, which means you'll burn calories faster! There is loads of research and evidence that can be found online that supports this. So please don't skip breakfast. It really is the most important meal of the day!

I found this yummy baked oatmeal recipe on Mr Breakfast - a whole website dedicated to breakfast! I have adapted the recipe a tiny bit to make it contain a little less calories.. But if I were to make it again, I would definitely cut it up into 8/9 squares, instead of 6 -making each square even less calories than it says below!

This recipe serves 6 people and is 296kcal per serving.

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg white
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 3 cups/210g rolled oats
- 1.5 cups/330ml unsweetened almond milk
- 0.25 cups/g seedless raisins
- 0.25 cups/55ml oil
- 6 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract


Method:
1. Preheat the oven to medium-high temp.
2. In a  large bowl, lightly beat the eggs and egg white. Add all the remaining ingredients. Stir until well combined. Now leave the mixture to set for 10 minutes, to allow the oats to absorb up some liquid.
3. Stir the mixture once more, before pouring it into a baking pan (make sure the baking pan in generously covered with a spray-oil, such as "Fry Light").
4. Leave to bake for 35 minutes.
5. Once finished, cut the oatmeal into 6 pieces and serve warm. You could serve it with a little golden syrup drizzled on top (this step is optional) - yum!

Quorn spaghetti bolognese.

I would say that spaghetti bolognese is one of the most popular dishes to have at home - we have it about once a week in our house! It's filling, tasty and can be made to suit you. Some like it cheesy, some like it chunky and some even like throwing in some meatballs to the mix! You can customise it pretty much to however you want. Weirdly enough, before I was a "vegetarian" (yes, I know I eat fish, but I completely avoid meat), I never use to like spaghetti bolognese. But when I found the meat substitute, "Quorn", I actually started to like it. Just because you're a vegetarian doesn't mean you have to miss out on a meal as amazing as this! Just replace the beef mince with Quorn mince, or the meatballs with Quorn meatballs and you can enjoy it too! In my opinion Quorn is far more tasty than meat anyway.. And a lot healthier too! So here it is, homemade Quorn spaghetti:

This little dish was actually something my sister put together (I did ask if it was okay to put it on my blog - she said yeah), but I really want to share it with you guys! It was so nice that I couldn't help but tuck into it a little before taking a photograph.. Oops!

This recipe serves 4 and has approx. 415kcal per serving (without any cheese).

Ingredients:
- 300g dried spaghetti pasta
- 300g Quorn mince
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
- 400g passata
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper
- 15g HP brown sauce
- 1.5 tsp dried mixed herbs
- 1.5 tsp dried onion granules
- 1.5 tsp dried chopped garlic
- low-fat cheese, grated (optional)

Method:
1. Fill a large saucepan, about three-quarters full, with water and a tiny pinch of salt and place on a high heat. Bring it to a fierce boil. Once boiling, add in the dried spaghetti pasta. Leave the pasta to cook (approx. 10-15 minutes), but remember to stir it occasionally so it doesn't all stick together.
2. Meanwhile, in another medium-large saucepan, placed on a medium heat, add in the Quorn mince, passata, chopped tomatoes and tomato purée. Cook for a minute or two, continually stirring. Then add in the HP brown sauce, vegetable stock cube, salt, pepper, onion granules and chopped garlic. Give it a good stir so it's all mixed together nicely. Then turn the heat down a little and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring a few times, until it reduces and thickens to your preferred consistency.
4. Once you think the pasta is cooked (either taste a bit to check or get a piece of the spaghetti and throw it at a wall - sounds bonkers, I know.. If the spaghetti sticks to the wall it's supposedly cooked) take it off the heat and use a colander to drain it. Evenly dish out the cooked spaghetti pasta between 4 plates. Then take the Quorn/tomato mixture off the heat and also dish it out evenly between the 4 plates.
5. If you like your spaghetti cheesy, grate about 10g of your preferred cheese on top of each dish. Make sure you do it straight away so the cheese melts! Use whichever cheese you like (although low-fat cheese is better for you calorie-wise)!

P.S. To jazz this recipe up a little, you could swap the Quorn mince for Quorn meatballs (adding them in at the same time you would the mince) or you could add in some chunky vegetables to give the dish a bit more texture, such as carrot, mushrooms, onion, whatever you fancy really (add these in at the same time as the sauce, stock & seasonings). Enjoy!

(Above: Quorn spaghetti bolognese, made with Quorn meatballs, instead of mince, and an extra 10g of low-fat cheddar cheese - approx. 514kcal).

Shapers meal deals!

I think I may have discovered the best food meal deal offer ever - "Shapers"! It's found in a store called Boots. Great for lunches - they have the biggest choice of foods I've ever seen; sandwiches; wraps; salads; fruit salads; crisps; chocolate bars; popcorn; juice drinks; energy drinks; soft drinks; etc. etc. For £3.29 you can pick up 1 main, 1 snack and 1 drink. They're tasty, filling, quite cheap and - best of all - they're low-kcal (all Shapers combinations are supposedly under 500kcal). Also if you own a Boots advantage card you can collect points too - bonus! ;) I've only just found out about these meal deals and I've already tried 4 different combinations, and I will definitely be having many more!

Here are 3 of them to show you (I don't have a photo of the 4th one..):

My Shapers meal deal #1 - £3.29 - total calories: 219.

In this meal deal, I enjoyed an 'Around the World' Latino style roasted vegetable & rice salad with salsa (170kcal) and a melon & mango fruit pot (29kcal). I also had a can of Relentless - Libertus energy drink (20kcal) (not photographed), as I had a very very long day at work, but I didn't actually like the drink and ended up throwing half of it away anyway. Other than that, this meal deal was lovely! Lots of exciting flavours in the rice salad and the salsa was lovely! The fruit pot was nice and tasted fresh, but I wish it had a more even ratio. You'd expect melon 50:50 mango, but it was more melon 80:20 mango..

My Shapers meal deal #2 - £3.29 - total calories: 289.

In this meal deal, I enjoyed an 'Around the World' Thai style vegetable jungle wrap (250kcal), a pineapple fruit pot (36kcal) and a sparkling cream soda drink (3kcal). The wrap was sooo good! The spices were strong and very tasty and very well wrapped (normally I find most wraps fall apart and more filling ends up on the floor than actually in your mouth)! The pineapple was delicious! The drink was strange, but I really liked it! I had never tried "cream soda" before so I thought I should give it a bash, and it was actually surprisingly nice - very sweet! I will probably buy this drink again.

My Shapers meal deal #3 - £3.29 - total calories: 316.

In this meal deal, I enjoyed an 'Around the World' Oriental style king prawn, mango & sweet fire chilli wrap (267kcal), a crunchy & juicy grape snack bag (48kcal) and a bottle of Diet Coke (1kcal). The wrap was lovely! A crazy combination of flavours! The mango and chilli sauce is very tangy, but very tasty! The apple and grape snack bag was okay.. The apple was lovely and had a great taste to it, but the grapes were a little off and squishy in my opinion - I'll probably avoid this snack option next time.. And Diet Coke is just awesome anyways - yummm!

I would recommend these meal deals to anyone! Find your nearest Boots store and please give them a go! You won't be disappointed - there's something there for everyone! :)

(EDIT - 4 more meal deals that I've had since making this post):

Graze day! Top tip & get your first Graze box FREE!

Today is what I call a "Graze Day" - I received my fortnightly Graze box through the post this morning! I was pleasantly surprised with the punnets I received. I LOVE seeds and Graze's flapjacks, so I can't wait to dig into them (although they are both pretty calorific compared to most other punnets..)! And I have never tried the fig and cherry one before, so it'll be nice to try something new. The dipping punnets are great to take to work to munch on, on my tea-breaks, as they're quick to eat and not too messy! I love having my snacks when I'm peckish throughout the day (mainly between lunchtime and teatime and sometimes before I go to bed). They're quite filling and very tasty - yum yum!

In my Graze box I also received a little leaflet, and in there it's saying about their new treat coming out soon - "Healthy Popping Corn"! I cannot wait until this comes out! I love popcorn! And at a bonus, each flavour popping corn, that Graze are bringing out, are under 100 calories - yay! They are going to be microwavable, so they'll also be nice and hot - how I think popcorn should be enjoyed! :)

TOP TIP: Graze always supply the nutritional information and use by date for each snack you receive, but it's written inside the little leaflet and it's not actual written anywhere on the punnet itself.. So - for all you calorie counters - as soon as you receive your Graze box, just get out a permanent marker and write the calorie content and use by date of each yummy snack straight onto the film lid of the punnet. That way you will never forget how many calories it contains or when it goes out of date, plus you won't have to carry the information around with you separately at the risk of losing it.

Here's a little treat for all of you! Enjoy your first Graze box for FREE! Just go to Graze's website and enter the code:

N6JMVCHD

Don't forget to rate/slate the punnets, so you don't end up receiving something you already know you won't like. Also use the "send soon" tick-box for things you want to try asap. You'll probably be asked to enter your card details, but this is just incase you want to continue receiving Graze boxes in the future for a cheap cost (I've been enjoying my Graze boxes since January 2012). But if you don't, once you receive your first free Graze box, you can go back to their website and cancel all future boxes - it's a very trustworthy site and it's very easy to cancel/postpone your boxes.

Enjoy! :)