Cheeky Peanut Butter Snack

If you asked me 10 years ago if i would eat spoon of peanut I would of said 'No' but now I quite like the nutty stuff as time has gone by.  The best type of peanut butters are ones which are literally (sounds stupid to say this) but are literally made of peanuts.  Sounds daft to say that however doesn't it however you'll be surprised that so many brands add unnecessary ingredients to make it taste better or to preserve it- why?!

Anyway, the best peanut butter I can recommend is the Meridian Crunchy Peanut Butter - made purely from peanuts.  For those of you who are not a fan of crunchy there also sell a smooth version.

A TBS of this will set up back 4.5 syns and I love to team mine with a fruit. I find apples and bananas are the best - plus obviously cinnamon.

A great tip if you do not know, is to eat this after a gym work out.  Peanuts are jam packed with protein and protein is especially good to repair muscle damage. Chicken obviously works too and is free on Slimming Wotkd, but if you fancy something a little different here's an idea for you.

XAX

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Salmon with Feta and Capers

Heads up everyone - you know what time it is.... it's Slimming World healthy recipe sharing time!!!

Todays recipe is our fishy favourite salmon.  I love salmon, I love it whole or flaked into a salad... it's just really tasty.  Another two things I also love is feta and capers.  If you share a greek salad with me, be warned you'll be fighting me for the feta on the plate.

Anyways.  A really quick meal which will take no longer than 25 minutes to prep and dish up.  What you'll need is;
- Salmon fillet (plus some seasonings for it if you wish)
- Feta cheese
- Capers
- Vegetables of your choice

And here's how to create it;

- Start off by pre-heating your oven to 180 (fan oven for me but just read the instructions on the fish).  - Take your boneless fillet of salmon and a baking tray and what I usually do is take my tin foil and make a little parcel for the fish.  I place the fish in, season with pepper and herbs - lemon juice too!  I then throw on my healthy extra A choice which is the 45g of feta.  You can cook it with the salmon or you could crumb it over cold afterwards if you wish.  I then pop on about a TBS of capers on top.
- I seal up the parcel and pop into the oven for 22 minutes.
- Whilst that is cooking away I prepare my veggies.  Photographed I have courgettie, brussels and baby corn which I steamed.
- when the timer on your oven beeps your salmon will be cooked. Serve with the veggies and you're done. Enjoy!

XAX

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Slimming World Pancakes

Today is a long weekend for me as I have the day off. Yipee!  Usually when it is a work day I will have over night oats.  Same old thing every day as it is easy to take to work and eat it at my desk.  However as today is a stay at home and be lazy day, I can spend as much time as I like making a yummy breakfast.  I opted for pancakes obviously.

If you want to follow along and have these to, what you will need is...

35g of plain oats
1 tbs of vanilla extract
2 medium eggs
2 tbs of muller light yogurt (I'm using vanilla with dark chocolate)
Stevia sachet for sweetness

This easy recipe which literally takes no time at all to prep (and eat).  Here's what you do.

- Weigh out your oats then add them in to your blender cup (I use the nutribullet) a long with two beaten eggs, vanilla extract, stevia and muller light - then blend it all up until smooth.  If you want to make it more textured, don't over blend.


- Whilst your ingredients are whizzing up - spray Fry light in to a frying pan (you want the pan to be hot hot hot before adding mixture)


- Pour in mixture.  You can either make lots if little bite sized pancakes or three medium (or one giant one).  Depends what takes your fancy.

- You will be able to tell it's cooking when the texture of the pancake begins to solidify and small bubbles appear.  When this happens use a fish slice and flip it and cook for a further minute.

Helpful tip: when you go to make the next pancake spray the fry light again as the pan would of dried out.  Don't want your pancake to stick do we?

Now you're done, eat them straight away with some fruit on top.  I added half a banana and some muller light.  Hope you enjoy.

Syn Free Slimming World Healthy Recipe!

Angela

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Healthy Home Made Popcorn

We all love a cheeky snack don't we?  Sometimes it doesn't have to be a naughty snack,  but it can be a healthy one with a little something naughty added to it.  I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate and I also love popcorn.  Oh yes chocolate and popcorn two of my favourite treats yum yum. 

To me popcorn isn't too bad, trust me there are worse things you can eat.... I could name plenty if you'd let me.  Anyway... I am a sucker for salty popcorn goodness.  It is seriously addicting.  Instead of buying a packet of ready made popcorn I opted to make my own.  It was a little more time consuming but we'll worth it and fun!

To make this all you need is... 

* A large sauce pan and a lid for it. 

* One TBS of cooking oil (you can use anything - except olive) 

* A bag of kernels

* Some salt (optional) 

* Chocolate of your choice - I used dark :-)

* Another pan, hot water, a heat proof bowl plus a wooden spoon (this will be your banmarie)

* A large baking tray

How to make it is easy.

In your pan,  place your TBS of oil and add about 1/2 cup of the kernels (more if you desire).  Make sure the kernels get a light coating of oil. Then pop on your lid.. Cook it on a medium heat.

You'll soon hear popping.  Every now again pick the pan up,  holding down the lid and give it a shake and replace back on the heat.   The is no 'ready' time just until the is no more popping or the popcorn is busting out of the pan... You can always lift the lid to see.. but be careful.

Take off heat and leave for a few minutes. Then lift the lid and sprinkle on your salt.  Replace the lid and shake.   You can now eat it if you want but I'm covering mine in chocolate.

Melt your chocolate in a banmarie, whilst it's melting place your popcorn on a baking sheet as flat as possible.  Once the chocolate has melted you can you use a fork to dribble on your chocolate.  Once happy with the way it looks... Leave it to cool.

You're done..... now eat!!!!

XAX

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Cooking Inspiration

I love planning and putting together meals, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Being creative is great and I completely encourage it in any shape or form and of course in the kitchen.  After time we may end up feeling uninspired and because of this sometimes meals can become repetitive and boring. No one likes to eat the same meals day in day out do they??

These days many look to the internet for inspiration but I like the old traditional way of grabbing a book.  Will books exist in years to come??? Any ways I picked up this book Five Ingredients, Ten Minutes by Jules Clancy in Home Sense a few months ago.  The name and the fact it only takes ten minutes to knock up the dishes in this book grabbed my attention.

If you are looking for fast not very good for you meals, then this is not for you.  Each recipe in the book contains only five ingredients and are healthy and delicious.  I'll be honest and tell you that some are a little basic, however you could perhaps add a few extra ingredients if you fancy.  As for getting the dishes ready in ten minutes...I'm not the most skilled knifes-men and I'd rather keep all my fingers in tacked...but that said if your organised you can easily get the meal done in that time.

The book contains lots of pictures so you can see what the finished result will be and the instructions are easy to follow.  There are also variations in case you are fussy and don't like a particular items on the list.  Any one should be able to make these meals as most ingredients are likely to be in you fridge/freezer or stored in your kitchen cupboards.

I completely recommend this book if you are looking for some healthy eating clean meal recommendations.  You can pick up your copy from Amazon right HERE.

XAX

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Healthy Banana Oat Cookies

There is always a time when I just crave something naughty, be it a woman thing or just fancy a pig out... you know how it is.  However this can be difficult if you are attempting to live a healthy life style and not to eat so much crap.  I am up to day 21 of entering my daily food in take in to My Fitness Pal.   Not a naughty thing has crossed my lips with the exception of a piece of dark chocolate now and again.  But day 21 has proved challenging.  So with some very ripe bananas I did some baking.  But healthy baking I might add and yes there is such a thing.

What you'll need ingredients wise are...

3 cups of porridge oats
3 large or 3 1/2 small ripe bananas (ripe being the KEY word there)

That's it!!  That is all you need.  However you can add some optional extras like the following...

Nuts: almonds/pecans/walnuts
Chocolate chips: dark/milk/white
Coconut flakes
Vanilla or Almond extract
Dried fruit: cranberries/sultanas/raisins

If you include an optional extra, you need to add 1/2 a cup.  

In my cookies I added a TBS of nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of raisins.

Equipment you need is a food processor, measuring cups, baking trays, a large bowl and wooden spoon.

1.  Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
2.  In a food processor blend your oats in to flour.  Some little lumps are OK so don't worry about it being perfect.
3.  In a large bowl place your peeled bananas and mash them up until smooth.
4.  Add your oat flour - at this point I threw in my 1/2 cup of dried fruit, cinnamon/nutmeg and and a TBS of vanilla extract.
5.  Combine together with a wooden spoon, then on your greased baking tray (I sprayed mine with Fry Light) place balls of the mixture.  Flatten each one with a fork.
6.  Place into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Now take them out and let them cool.  Then enjoy them with a cuppa.

You will have these cookies prepped, baked and eaten within 30 minutes.  Or if you cannot eat them all at once, they will keep for about 10 days in an air tight container.  They may not look the nicest but they taste pretty darn good plus they are better than a Mars bar!!  This can also be a Slimming World Healthy Recipe.

XAX

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Weekend Breakfasts

I love the weekend.  Mostly because those two precious days are my days of rest plus I don't have to rush breakfast time.  Breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day, I really enjoying creating a yummy dish.  During the week it can be far too busy to give it much thought, I still am healthy but I cannot really sit down to enjoy it.

This weekend I have documented my meals to share.  Perhaps I can inspire someone to recreate??  I hope so.

Here goes. 

Saturday...
... pancakes were on the menu - the healthy version however (I'll pop receipe up soon).  I have not had these for ages so I grabbed two eggs and one banana - added a little cinnamon and nutmeg to season it.  I gave them all a good mashing and ta-dah healthy pancakes are born!! I managed to squeeze out four servings (which I ate all of -yum yum). Strawberries on the side and there you go.... food heaven.  I also had a smoothie which was ice cubes, blueberries, apple and pineapple plus extra water.  You can never have enough H2O!!!

Sunday...

... was eggs again but however I added red onion and spinach.  I fried half a red onion in coconut oil to soften them and the added frozen spinach to cook (which took forever as it was frozen like a rock!!). Once cooked through, I broke two eggs and stirred with my wooden spoon... Added some Himalayan pink salt to season then I served it up with half an avocado.  This was sooooo yummy, I know I cooked it but it was lush!  My smoothie was 80mls of coconut water, one banana and some frozen red berries. I also added ice and water.  Fluids fluids fluids!

What do you love to eat for breakkie???!

XAX

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Breakfast in bed

Today was a breakfast in bed kind of day.  A beautiful Sunday day plus I was feeling slightly under the weather! Due to the later, my super-duper hubby took pity on me and whipped up a delicious breakfast in bed and this is what I got. 

Egg on a bed of peppers, tomato, cubed feta and avocado. 

Lush!!!

I thought my hubby's creation was blog post /picture worthy (don't tell him or he'll get a big head) as it was quite yummy and also extremely healthy.  I'm really into my eggs at the moment, as I find the feel me up and I do not tend to pick between meals.  I totally recommend this meal as it was lovely.

All he did was poach an egg in a pan and while that was cooking - he soften some orange pepper and tomatoes on the hob.  He then scooped out half an avocado, grabbed some herbs and a small amount of cubed feta cheese to serve with it.

Pretty simple and very tasty.  What did you eat today??

XAX

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Tomato Butter Beans with Courgette Ribbons

The other night I posted this picture on my Instagram account (link below).  It was one of those evenings where I was home alone and didn't really feel like I had a fridge bursting full of inspiration. Happens to us all right?

I didn't want to spend money on ingredients and just wanted to use what I already had.  I grabbed everything I had in the fridge and kitchen cupboards and came up with this:  Tomato Butter Beans with Courgette Ribbons.

What you see before you is

Passatta
Plum tomatoes
Red onion
Fresh basil leaves
Aubergine(or eggplant)
Courgette (or zucchini)
Butter beans
Seasoning of garlic and pink Himalayan sea salt.

In my pan I threw in coconut oil and cooked my red onion.  Once soften I poured in passatta, chopped basil and aubergine, garlic and my plum tomatoes. I let this simmer away to thicken and reduce.

In another frying pan I added a small amount of water which I brought to the boil, I popped in my ribbons of courgette and let the steam cook until soft.

Stir your tomato mixture and add the butter beans to cook for a few minutes.  Then when soft drain and add the courgette ribbons. You could just pour the tomato mixture on top of the ribbons when serving however I wanted the sauce all over my ribbons.

That was it. A healthy bowl of yummy goodness. Vegan and vegetarian friendly too!!  Try it out!  This is also a Slimming World Healthy recipe.

XAX

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Breakfast: What I Ate

Being someone with little time to spend over the stove cooking up eggs every morning, I like to enjoy healthy fast breakfast alternatives which I don't have to think too hard about. Quick and easy... I like it! 

This morning I had overnight oats for breakfast.  As the name suggests, they are prepared the night before and it literally takes less than 5 minutes of my time.  What I also love is you can make at least three days worth of overnight oats in one go.  Space in your fridge and some decent Tupperware is all you need.

I make it using the following ingredients:

Porridge Oats - 1/3 cup

Almond Unsweetened Milk -1/3 cup 

Yogurt (I use low fat) - 1 cup

Cinnamon and Nutmeg (to season)

Raisins - I add a small handful 

Throw everything in to a bowl or container of your choice, mix up then place it into the fridge overnight.  In the morning, bring it out and give it a stir - eat!!  Easy peasy. 

You can really can adapt this recipe to how you want it.  Don't like raisins?  Use fresh fruit instead, just add it in the morning when you're ready to eat it. Like it sweeter just add honey or maple syrup - just remember this is meant to be healthy!  Remember your portion sizes.

It might not look to amazing (cold gloppy porridge some say) however it is yummy.  

Enjoy.

XAX

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