BBQ TIME!

Barbecues are definitely one of my favourite perks of summer! Perfect excuse to invite all the friends around and enjoy the sunshine! I've already had 2 barbecues this year! But the only down side of BBQ's is all the calories.. It is so easy to just sit and pick or eat far too much.. Or even worse if you get your food dished up for you, and you eat it all so you don't look rude (this seems to happen to me quite often)..

I thought I'd put together a list of my top 5 favourite BBQ foods that both dieters and non-dieters can enjoy!

1. Quorn Smoky BBQ Sticky Fillets - these are my personal favourite! And only 64 kcal per fillet! They taste incredible! If I could I'd eat these all day everyday, haha. They can be barbecued, grilled or cooked in an oven, personally I prefer them barbecued as it brings out the BBQ flavour better!

2. Grilled Portobello Mushrooms - stick a large portobello mushroom onto the barbecue and just let it cook! It's approx. 76 kcal per. large grilled mushroom. I had my first one the other day and it was amazing! I can't believe I never thought of sticking these on the barbie before! Nom!

3. Barbecued Bananas - these are DELICIOUS! You can do these 2 ways.. One: you can just leave the banana in their skins, stick them on the barbecue and once the skin starts going black and blistering them turn them over and cut them down the middle long ways (you can then add things into the middle of it, like chocolate, if you wish). Then once the other side has blistered, pick it up with oven gloves or tongs, and use a spoon to scoop the banana out into a bowl. Two: peel the bananas out of their skins, wrap the banana in tin foil (if you want fillings cut the banana long ways down the middle and then fill, before wrapping with foil). Stick them on the barbie for approx. 10-15 mins, then unwrap and serve. Yum!

4. Vegetable Skewers/Kebabs - These are so tasty and low-kcal! Just get metal skewers (with non-metal handles) or wooden skewers (if you use wooden ones, wet the skewer before putting veg on it else the skewer will burn on the barbecue). Stick vegetables on them, such as green, red, orange and yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes, button mushrooms, bits of onion, aubergine, etc. If you're a meat lover, you can also stick chicken, turkey, or any meat on there really.. But you'll have to cook them for longer and they'll obviously be higher calorie.

5. Strawberries and Splenda - No barbecue is complete without strawberries for desert! Always goes down well. Instead of cream or sugar though, buy some granulated splenda sweetener. It tastes like sugar, maybe even sweeter than sugar actually, and looks like it too, but it's calorie free! Just cut up the strawberries and sprinkle a tea spoon over each bowl and serve! Mmmmm!