My homemade tangy salsa.

This salsa was just thrown together whilst experimenting and just happened to taste delicious! Experimenting seems to be working very well for me lately, especially when it comes to my cooking (both for my blog and Pie Magazine). This is a lovely chunky salsa with a tangy taste and is very simple to make. Great for spreading in sandwiches, wraps or burgers or piled high on nachos or crispbreads! I naughtily ate the leftovers on its own, as my Mum and sister both aren't very keen on avocado and I had no one else to share it with, but it's not very calorific, so I indulged guilt-free!

This salsa is approx. 150 kcal for all of it! If you share it, just divide 150 by however many people you share it amongst.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 a small-medium avocado

- 1/2 a red pepper

- 1/2 a medium red onion

 - juice of 1/2 a lime

- generous squeeze of ready-made sweet chilli sauce

Method:

1. Firstly peel the skin off of the avocado. Now dice the avocado, red pepper and red onion and then mix it all together in a bowl.

2. Now squeeze in the fresh lime juice and the squirt of sweet chilli sauce. Mix it all together so it's all nicely coated in the sauce and it's all quite shiny looking. Leave to sit for 10 or so minutes to let the flavours soak a bit, and then you have your chunky, tangy salsa ready to eat!

I spread my salsa into a wholemeal wrap with some Quorn 'roast style sliced fillets'. Very quick and easy and extremely tasty and filling! Great for a light, summery lunch.

Homemade gooseberry jam.

Using the gooseberries I picked at Bake Farm (click here for blog post), I decided to use part of my day off to make some gooseberry jam. I have never made any kind of preserve before, so this was very new to me. It was so much simpler than I ever imagined. I thought you'd need lots of fancy equipment, but I was wrong. Do you own an empty jar, funnel, saucepan, saucers, cooker and a wooden spoon? Yes? Well you can make this jam!

This recipe makes about 1 jar of jam. Each tablespoon of this jam is approx. 50 kcal.

Ingredients:

- 320g gooseberries, 

- 320g granulated sugar

- juice of 1/3 of a lemon

- 200ml water

Method:

1. Although this recipe fills about one jar completely, I would sterilize two, just in case. To sterilize the jars and their lids, wash them with hot, soapy water and then rinse them off with very hot water. Now place them on a tray lined with baking paper and put into a cold oven. Once in, turn the oven on to 120°c. Place two saucers in the freezer, which you'll use to test the jam later.

2.  In a medium saucepan on a high heat, put the gooseberries, water and lemon juice in and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down and simmer for 10-15 minutes until it turns pulpy.

3. Now, on a very low heat, pour in all of the sugar and stir until it dissolves completely. Once dissolved, turn the heat up high and bring to a hard boil. Boil for about 7 minutes. The jam mixture should start to turn a reddy/pinky colour.

4. To test if the jam is ready, take out one of the chilled saucers and put a little blob of the jam mixture onto it. Leave it to cool slightly. Run your finger through it, if it wrinkles, it's ready. If it doesn't, boil the mixture for a further 3-5 minutes and test again. Keep repeating this until it's ready.

5. Take the jars out of oven and leave to cool slightly. Using the funnel, pour the jam mixture from the saucepan into the sterilized jar(s). I managed to only fill one jar perfectly to the top. Remove the funnel and screw the lid on tight and leave to cool overnight. This jam should keep for about 6 months.

Enjoy your yummy, sweet, homemade gooseberry jam spread on toast, ricecakes or crackers. :)

Portobello mushroom pizzas.

This is a little recipe of mine that I have been experimenting with over the past 2 weeks, chopping and changing and trying to improve the taste each time I make it. As I may have mentioned before, I LOVE pizza. It's my takeaway of choice. A big, fat cheese pizza with a BBQ sauce base is normally my choice, but I also love a good cheesy tuna topped pizza. Every now and again it is good to treat yourself to little naughty foods, such as pizza. But it's very easy to let it get out of control. Moderation is key. But you can remake a much healthier version of your favourite pizza at home. Replace the doughy base for portobello mushrooms! Simple as that. It may sound a bit small compared to the size of a regular takeaway pizza, and it is, but it really does make up for it in taste, and can be surprisingly filling too. I chose to remake my much loved cheesy tuna topping for my portobello mushroom pizzas, and here's what I did:

This recipe serves 4 people, approx. 75 kcal per mushroom pizza.

Ingredients:
- 4 large portobello mushrooms
- 2 salad tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 (approx. 40g) red pepper, finely diced
- 1/4 (approx. 25g) red onion, finely diced
- 1/2 a 140g tin of tuna chunks in brine, drained and flaked up
- 30g "lighter"/low-fat cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/2 tbsp virgin olive oil, for drizzling (optional)

After placing the toppings on the mushrooms, you may find you won't need to use all of the toppings. Don't worry! I didn't use them all up either. Read at the bottom of this recipe a way that you could use up the leftovers.

If the toppings on this pizza don't take your fancy, you could try these:
You can recreate almost any of your favourite pizza toppings to go on your portobello mushrooms bases. You could top one with diced tomatoes, grated cheddar and mozzarella cheese and, once cooked, add some basil leaves and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top for a margherita pizza. You could add a little sliced up pepperoni and sausage and a little squeeze of BBQ sauce on top of some diced tomato and grated cheese for a meaty pizza. And of course sliced up ham, pineapple and sweetcorn on top of diced tomato and grated cheese for a Hawaiian pizza. Get creative & see what other tasty pizza toppings you can come up with!

Method:

1. Preheat the grill to 180°c. Prep a suitable tray with foil (as the mushrooms will produce a watery liquid as they cook).

2. Carefully pull out the stalk of the mushroom. This next bit is optional: (I chose to do it as I feel the outside covers over a lot of the centre part, which you need to fill). Peel all of the portobello mushrooms' "skin" off (see photo). Now wash them with some water.

3. Place the mushrooms, cap side facing upwards (see photo), onto the tray and cook under the grill for about 5-7 minutes. Once done, take them out and carefully turn them over, ready to be filled.

4. Now fill them evenly with the tomatoes, as the base layer. Now sprinkle a tiny bit of the cheese and then top with the red pepper and red onion (before putting these on, I mixed them both together - you don't have to do this, but I found it easier). Spread the tuna on top & then finally sprinkle all of the remaining cheese over them. Pat/push down the toppings gently after each layer so that nothing is just balancing on top.

5. Place them under the grill for approx. 10-20 minutes (depending on how well your grill grills, mine's rubbish!), until the cheese is melted/golden and it's piping hot throughout. If using, drizzle a little bit of extra virgin olive oil over the top. Serve immediately with a side salad or some homemade potato chips/wedges.

If you have leftover toppings, as I did, you can use those towards making another delicious meal. I had tuna, tomato and a little bit of onion and pepper left over. So I put it all in a bowl, added a dollop of low-fat mayonnaise and stirred it all together, and now you have a tasty sandwich/wrap filling. I filled mine into a wholemeal wrap, grated over 10g of low-fat cheese, folded it up and stuck it in my health grill for 2 minutes. It was absolutely delicious and the flavours taste great together. The filling also tastes good cold and still tastes nice without the cheese. You could also use it as a jacket potato filling. If you have no tuna leftover, you could use the diced veggies to create a chunky salsa. You could add in a freshly chopped chilli for some heat and maybe some avocado for some taste and texture. Stir it all up together with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Homemade Quorn enchiladas.

These enchiladas were originally created by just experimenting with random ingredients I had in my cupboards. This isn't my first attempt at creating enchiladas from scratch. I've tried once previously, but I only made it a single serving. As I loved my first creation so much, I made it again but altered the recipe slightly to enhance the flavours. Originally I didn't include pepper, chilli, paprika or cayenne pepper into it. Considering I never looked up any recipe and have never made or even seen a homemade enchilada before, it turned out amazingly.

My best friend, Emily, came over for the afternoon so I thought it would be a great excuse to attempt to create the same dish all over again, but "family-sized" (and of course, her stirring-skills were a great help to me as I prepped the ingredients as I went along - not recommended, as if you don't have the extra help, this can be rather time consuming!). The dish went down a hit with everyone, and they've all requested that I make this dish for them on a regular basis, which feels great to hear!

If you prefer your real meat to your meat substitute, just replace the Quorn/vegetarian mince with real mince. I assume you'd cook it the same way, but don't quote me on that as I have next to no experience cooking with meat (apart from my recent recipe for "Homemade lean beef burgers", of course).

Serves 4 people (approx. 460 kcal per serving) if you're giving two enchiladas per person, or serves 8 people (approx. 230 kcal per person) if you're giving one enchilada per person.

Ingredients:
- Low-kcal cooking spray
- 300g frozen Quorn/vegetarian mince
- 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 x carton of tomato passata
- 3 x garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 x brown onion, diced
- 1.5 x red peppers, diced
- 1 x red chilli, finely chopped
- 1 x dash of paprika
- 1 x dash of cayenne pepper
- 1 x tbsp tomato ketchup
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 x dash of Worcestershire sauce
- 8 x medium soft wholemeal tortilla wraps
- 80g lighter/low-fat cheddar cheese, grated

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to about 200°c. Prep a large rectangular oven-proof dish by spraying it well with low-kcal cooking spray.

2. In a medium sauce pan on a medium-high heat, pour in the frozen Quorn mince and brown it off. Now pour in half of the chopped tomatoes and half of the tomato passata and add in 3/4 of the onion, all 3 garlic cloves and 1 pepper. Stir well and cook for approx. 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the paprika, cayenne pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and seasoning and cook for a further 2 minutes.

4. Now separate the mince mixture between the 8 tortilla wraps as evenly as possible. Place them side by side, with the overlapped sides of the tortilla wraps facing downwards to keep them closed.

5. In a medium bowl or saucepan, pour in the remaining chopped tomatoes, tomato passata, onion, red pepper and a dash of Worcestershire sauce and stir together well.

6. Pour this tomato mixture evenly along the middle of the tortilla wraps, trying to keep both ends of the tortilla wraps exposed. Sprinkle the grated cheese evenly all over the top of the sauce.

7. Place the dish into the middle of the preheated oven and leave to cook for 30 minutes, until it's piping hot throughout, the exposed ends of the tortilla wraps have crisped up and the cheese has melted and has turned a lovely golden colour. Try not to burn it!

8. Serve immediately. You can serve either two enchiladas per person, or just one per person, plus something nice extra on the side, such as Mexican style rice, nachos with dip(s)/cheese or some vegetables.


P.S. Just so you know, I won't be posting at all for the next week or so, as I'm jetting off to sunny Magaluf! I managed to lose 5 lbs in about 2/3 weeks, but knowing the nature of this type of holiday (booze and fatty foods) I'll probably put it all back on and more, and will have to start back at square 1 when I return). I will be sure to post about my holiday when I get back, and I already have a new recipe in mind to create and post about when I get back too, so keep your eyes peeled! Have a lovely week everybody. :)

Vegetarian sweet potato & Quorn dopiaza curry.

I do really love an Indian takeaway from time to time! My family are more keen of a Chinese but I much prefer a spicy Indian! But with the amount of grease and fat in it, I don't like to have them very often. For a very long time I have been meaning to create a healthier curry for me to enjoy, without feeling the guilt. And I have FINALLY got round to doing it! I've put together a vegetarian dopiaza curry (medium heat) and it's absolutely delicious! I picked to do a dopiaza curry because that's one of the ones I often order at my local Indian and I love it - it's a little hot, spicy and heart-warming. But, just so you all know: I have never ever made a curry before; I didn't look up a recipe; and I used a pre-made curry sauce (as I would have no idea where to start, without a recipe at hand to follow).

This recipe serves 4 people and contains approx. 218kcal per serving. So here's what I did:

Ingredients:

- 1 jar of 'Tesco' dopiaza sauce (450g)

- 500g sweet potato, peeled and cut into small cubes

- 1 whole small/medium brown onion, chopped largely

- 150g portobello mushrooms, cut into large pieces

- 85g frozen 'Quorn' chicken style pieces

- 1 packet of 'Just Add' one shot chilli (15g) (or 1-2tsp fresh finely chopped chilli)

- 'Fry Light' 1 kcal cooking spray

Method:

1. Firstly, fill a medium-large saucepan with water, put onto a hight heat and bring to the boil. Once boiling add in the sweet potato. Boil until the potato starts to turn soft (test with a knife - you should be able to just about push a knife through it, but no super easily). Once ready, take off the heat, drain the potato and leave to one side.

2. Now put the Quorn chicken pieces, along with the onion and mushrooms, into a medium-large wok and put it onto the high heat that the saucepan was on. Spray it all with Fry Light, stir regularly and cook until the Quorn has cooked through (taste a little or cut in half to check) and the onion and mushrooms have started to brown.

3. Now add all of the sauce into the wok and turn the heat down to medium (to help stop the sauce spitting). Stir occasionally. Now stir in all of the chilli. After 2 minutes, add in the sweet potato. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly, until all is pipping hot.

4. Share it all equally into 4 and serve immanently. Enjoy!

As no one else in my house likes mushrooms, sweet potatoes or chilli so I separated the curry into 4 containers - I've eaten one and froze the other 3, to enjoy another time.

TIP: meal prepping in advance is a great way of keeping your healthy eating on track! Whenever you are low on food in your cupboards, having a naughty day and are in need of a quick, healthy meal to give you a boost or are just craving an Indian takeaway, take it out of the freezer and heat it up - sorted!

My experimental bean burgers.

Anybody who knows me personally will probably know that I love I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! I have been watching it everyday! The other day, after watching Rosemary Shrager (TV Chef and one of celebrities in the jungle this year) turn their boring beans into mini bean burgers, it inspired me to give bean burger making a go. I decided to try it without looking for a recipe in books or online, just to see what I'd come up with. Unfortunately the burgers I created didn't stick together as planned. It started off as a circular burger shape, but ended up as more of an oval shape.. But they did taste really good! In my opinion, they tasted like sage and onion stuffing - yum yum! So if you like stuffing, you'll most probably like this.
Here's what I did:

The way I have made it below serves 2 people and is approx. 125kcal per bean burger (without the cheese on top).

Ingredients:
- 1 big tin of three bean salad (contains cannellini beans, flageolet beans and adzuki beans)
- pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper
- a small splash of Worcestershire sauce
- a pinch of dried mixed herbs (or herb(s) of your choice)
- 1/2 tbsp oil
- 20g of low fat grated cheddar cheese (optional)

Method:
1. Empty the entire tin of beans into a sauce pan, place on the hob and cook for about 4-5 minutes - do not allow to boil. Once that's done, drain the beans well and then put them back into the sauce pan.

2. Get a masher and mash up all the beans until they're mushy. Season to taste and add the Worcestershire sauce and herbs to taste too (if you're comfortable with it, give the beans a little taste before adding each thing to make sure they taste alright, plus you might like the taste without the herbs/Worcestershire sauce).

3. Place a frying pan onto the hob and heat up the oil.

4. (This step is messy). Now, using your hands, mould the mushy beans into 2 burger shaped "balls". Once moulded, place these onto the frying pan.

5. Fry these for approx. 10 minutes, turning often, until golden on both sides. (Turning them over is where it all went wrong and crumbly for me. They squished back together, but not into the original shape).

6. Once finished, transfer these onto a plate and serve with a bit of cheese on top (optional). You can serve these alone, in a roll/sandwich, with vegetables, with your Sunday roast, etc. - whatever you fancy!

Enjoy!

If you know of anything I could do or add into my little experiement to make these bean burgers stick together better whilst frying in the pan, pleeease let me know - I'd be soooo grateful! :)

Low-kcal twist on the traditional English breakfast.

Everyone loves a good traditional English breakfast (also known as a "fry-up"). But they are often very fatty, greasy and full of calories.. So I thought I'd take it upon myself to try and come up with a healthy, filling version of the breakfast, with as few calories as I can possibly make it. So here it is! This breakfast serves 1 person and is approx. 200kcal (if made with the "meat" product I chose).

Ingredients:
- cooking oil spray (such as "Fry Light")
- 2 egg whites
- a dash of Worcestershire sauce
- 60g spinach, washed
- 50g mushrooms, sliced
- 105g baked beans (e.g. 1/4 of a big Heinz baked beans tin)
- pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper
- your choice of meat product*

*I chose 1/3 of a pack of "Quorn pepperoni style slices", but you could also use 1 Quorn/meat-free sausage, 1-2 rashers of Quorn/meat-free bacon, 1 lean meat sausage, 1-2 rashers of lean bacon, with the fatty bits cut off.. Whatever you want really, but remember to adjust calories accordingly!

Method:
(You will need to be good at multi-tasking, and own a lot of pans, to get everything timed just right).
1. If using sausages/bacon, stick these in the oven first, at a medium-high heat, for however long the packet says, turning over halfway through cooking.
2. In a sauce pan, pour in the baked beans and place on a low-medium heat. Stir this occasionally to be sure the beans don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
2. Meanwhile, spray a frying pan with the cooking oil spray. Place on a medium-high heat and place in the sliced mushrooms. Keep stirring these often to get them nice and evenly cooked.
3. In another sauce pan, place in a splash of water and all the spinach and put a lid on top, keep an eye on this, as once it's all wilted it will be cooked and ready.
3. In another frying pan, spray all around with the cooking oil spray and place on a high heat. Add in the egg whites and quickly add in a splash of Worcestershire sauce (this is optional, but I just think it gives it that extra something) and season with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. This will cook relatively quick, so be sure to turn it over once it begins to go quite white - don't let it burn!
4. With any luck this should all be cooked and ready to plate up at roughly the same time! Serve immediately with your choice of sauce (although, personally, I don't think it needs it!) and a cuppa on the side. ;)

Enjoy!

Sweet potato jackets.

I have tried sweet potatoes in the past, a very long time ago whilst I was attempting a strict, week long detox diet (which epically failed, by the way).. I really didn't like them though. But I recently decided to give them another go, and I actually love them! Such a unique, sweet (but not too sweet) flavour. Very delicious! I tried it in the form of a jacket potato. I really do not like jackets made with regular potatoes - they just taste too potato-y (sounds stupid, I know), but I was eager to try one made with sweet potatoes instead. And I was not disappointed! It's a good comfort food and is very filling! It's quite calorific though.. The way I made it below (including the cherry tomatoes) is approx. 558 kcal - faaaar too many calories for my liking. Next time I'd use a smaller potato and a less fattening filling.

All you do to make this is:
Pick a good sized sweet potato (the one I used was a bit too big and I ended up wasting some of it..). Prick the potato with a fork/knife lots of times - make sure you do it all the way around! Then put it into the microwave for about 5-10 minutes, depending on the size, until the potato is soft. Pick and, if necessary, prepare your favourite filling(s). I chose sundried tomatoes, green pesto, mozzarella and Linwoods flaxseed for my jacket. Once the microwave *dings* take out the potato, cut a line down the middle of the jacket, or slice a cross into it and squeeze it at the base to "pop" the top. Fill it with your chosen filling and serve! As a little side for my jacket, I cooked 4 cherry tomatoes still on the vine. They were lovely - sweet and slightly tangy.

Personally, I think the toppings I picked sound lovely, and alone they do taste great.. But if I were to use these exact fillings in a sweet potato jacket again, I would definitely leave out the mozzarella. It just didn't taste right with the sweet potato. They did not compliment eachother at all. And also it did not melt as much as I would have liked.. As it all starts cooling the mozzarella starts stiffening, so it doesn't mix in with the potato like the tomatoes and pesto did. But that's what experimenting is all about - working out what works and what doesn't. :)

Other filling ideas I have and really want to try are:
- baked beans
- low-fat cheddar
- low-fat butter
- tinned tuna with light mayonnaise, sweetcorn and red onion
- extra light philadelphia with herbs
- flaked steamed salmon with light mayonnaise
- salsa

If any of you think of or know of any other yummy filling ideas, please let me know!