Cottage Pie and benefits of the Air Walker (not walking on a plane...)

Today has been so tiring and it's only 8 o'clock. Eating for me is really hard on days like this when I'm stressed out and just want to sit and eat junk food to make me happy. But Mum saved me with a Cottage Pie and a Cranberry Oat Bite:)

(Please excuse my amateur photography and tacky plastic cup)

I love Cottage Pies and they're so simple to make. To serve 4 people we used 150g of quorn mince, 1 onion, 4 large potatoes, a handful of mushrooms and 25g of low fat cheddar. We cooked the onions with the mince and mushrooms then when it's all sealed place in the dish you'll serve in and let it cool for 20 minutes. The mince needs to cool first or the mashed potato will sink when you put it on (top tip from Mum there.) While the mince is cooling cook and mash the potatoes and then spread across the top after 20 minutes add the cheese and bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 degrees, or until the cheese is golden brown. As you can see we had some peas too. This cottage pie is 104 calories, 1.8g fat and no sat fat (woop!)

The air walker mentioned in title is the only piece of exercise equipment (other than the wii fit but I'm not sure if that counts..) we own. It wasn't ridiculously expensive and it has many fitness benefits in one machine that doesn't make you vile and sweaty (yes really). 

It gives you a full body work out and uses your arms, legs and engages your abs too. It's mainly toning but is a cardio workout too which is why I think it's one of the best, yet underrated, pieces of equipment to invest in at home. One hour of low-impact aerobic exercise on a machine like an air walker can burn about 365 calories for a 160-lb. person, 455 calories for a 200-lb. person and 545 calories for a 240-lb. person, according to MayoClinic.com.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/191779-what-benefits-will-i-get-from-using-an-air-walker/#ixzz2RbFu8Fnv

So if an investment is what you're looking for, this is what I'd go for on a low budget.

The beginning of this post I stated "it's only 8 o'clock" it's now 8:40 so I apologise
Lots of Love
Han
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Cranberry Oat Bites

This week has been really hard to not keep snacking. Me and Mum never really buy snacking food apart from Snack 'a Jacks so we dug out some old recipes and started baking some healthy but sweet satisfying snacks!

We started off making Cranberry Oat Bites. The Oat Bites are from an old vegetarian microwave cook book, which means there's no preheating ovens or anything it's literally 10 minutes in the microwave. 

Ingredients:

120g butter or vegetable margarine 

150g soft brown sugar

120g plain flour

pinch of salt 

90g rolled oats

120g cranberry sauce

60g almonds (whole)

Step 1: Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream together until they are fluffy and light in texture.

Step 2: Stir in the flour, salt and oats, mixing all the ingredients together until the mixture resembles course breadcrumbs

Step 3: Press 2/3 of the oat mixture into the base of a well greased 20cm/8inch square baking dish

Step 4: Stand the baking dish in the microwave oven on a rack or inverted saucer to prevent the base from cooking too quickly

Step 5: Cook on MEDIUM for 5 minutes, or until the oat base is just firm

Step 6: Put the almonds into a bag and smash with a rolling pin (or which ever technique works for you)

Step 7: Put the cranberry sauce and almonds together in a bowl and mix together well. 

Step 8: Spread this cranberry mixture over the cooked oat base

Step 9: Crumble the remaining mixture over the cranberry sauce and press down gently with a spoon or round bladed knife to finish

Step 10: Continue cooking the cranberry bites for a further 5 minutes on HIGH

Step 11: Allow the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes and cut into 16

Step 12: Wait until the mixture is completely cold before taking them out of the dish

Step 13: ENJOY!

These scrummy oat bites are only 293 calories, 2.7g fat and 0.3g sat fat, this snack is diet proof! And so nice, please try them, even if you don't like cranberries you could use some sort of jam or another fruit to put in the middle, same if you don't like almonds, you could easily swap the nuts.

Happy Baking

Han 

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Beating the Sunday Munch and Chicken Dinner

Sunday is such a hard day for me when it comes to healthy eating, it's always a day when I never have anything significant to do which leads to sofa munching for most of the day. To try and beat this endless cycle, I first, try to find something to do for example walking the dogs or going for a run, however, there's only so much walking my little puppies can take and running is a once a day thing for me. So I end up back at home munching again. To overcome this I find the best thing to do is to try and find something that you think will fill you up, for example some wholemeal toast topped with light butter or maybe some light soft cheese. But when you're stuck doing coursework for the rest of the day the cravings for food come back again. One of my favourite snacks is cream cheese and crackers but this is one of those things that can be good but can also turn out badly for the healthy eating. I find it a good snack because you have to make the effort to make it which prolongs the amount of time you spend eating it and also gives you something to do. Then instead of a Jacobs selection cracker box I use Ryvita crispbreads and only have 3 and then use the light cheese triangles from Aldi which are only 29 calories, 1.9g fat and 1.2g sat fat each. 

But the best way to beat it is eating a chicken dinner for tea. Lush. And I'm not the only one enjoying it..

It's certainly the most excited I've seen them for a while! I love chicken dinner, it's another huge comfort food  and so, so lovely to enjoy with the family and friends. However, it's another one of those meals to be careful of, as a general rule with roast dinners (and most meals) go for about 30% protein (about the size of the palm of your hand), 20% of potatoes (starch) and 50% vegetables. If the Sunday munch is still leering over you stock up on the veggies rather than anything else. And then go for a jog afterwards.

Happy munching

Han

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The King (or Queen) of Comfort Foods and a cheeky little snack

The Jacket Potato

Jacket potato has to be one of my favourite foods EVER. However, some people can really over do it and make a perfectly healthy and nutritional lunch or dinner into something incredibly unhealthy. Bean and 30g of lighter cheese has to be one of my favourite toppings but another good one is tuna and light mayonnaise, or chilli, especially made with quorn. But be careful to weigh out your toppings because it's so, so easy to go too far. 

My favourite beans are Branston rather than Heinz, but it doesn't really make a difference. This jacket potato  weighs in at 312 calories, 7.8g of fat (due to the cheese) and 4.5g of sat fat. And it's so filling and is the best food to eat after a long day of rushing about and a long shift at a restaurant;)

One of my favourite snacks at the moment are the new Snack a Jacks Crunchy Curls. They're so simple and so tasty, my fave is the cheeky chutney flavour. It's such a great snack with only 88 calories, 1.3g of fat and 0.1 of sat fat! Compared to a pack of Walkers Ready Salted which is 171 calories, 10g of fat and 1g of sat fat! And it still feels like you've just eaten a packet of crisps! Perfect for lounging on the sofa after a long dog walk.

Happy Eating

Han

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Exotic Fish and Humble Toast

I remembered to do breakfast today! But still forgot my lunch. Sorry.. So for breakfast was (as seen in the title) toast. It's very boring and it's not nutritionally great but I couldn't have cereal because we've run out of milk. 

For tea was a new recipe for me and Mum, Mediterranean Fish. It was ratatouille (courgettes, onion, mushrooms and yellow and green peppers in oil then added chopped tomatoes on top. It's really simple but so, so good. Along with this we had sweet potato mash. I don't know my feelings on sweet potato, I can't tell whether I like them or not. I like them with the ratatouille but on it's own I don't think I'm a fan.

The fish part of this dish was basa. It's not a fish I've ever heard of so I was dubious to start but it was on special offer so we thought we'd try it and it was really great. To cook we just put the frozen fillets in the pan with the ratatouille and left to cook and it was so tender and just melted in my mouth. Yum.

Not only was this a great tasting dish but it was only 421 calories, with two fish fillets! And  6.5g of fat and only 1.1g of sat fat. I ate about an hour ago and I'm still satisfied and don't think I'll need anything else to eat tonight, it's lush.

Lots of Love

Han

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Quorn Curry

Quorn is a complete god send to me. I've never eaten meat as my parents were vegetarians when I grew up and when I started wanted to try meat I literally couldn't stand it. I adore fish and sea food and I'll have a bit of chicken with a Sunday Roast but otherwise I don't eat meat. Quorn is great, it's so good for you and it's got hardly any sat fat. Today I was determined to take pictures of everything I'd eaten but I completely forgot, so I do apologize. However, I did remember my dinner. Tonight I had Quorn curry, it was cooked with mushrooms, tinned chopped tomatoes, a tikka masala flavouring paste (not a jar of sauce), a tbsp of tomato puree and finally, the (very odd) secret ingredient a low fat forest fruits yoghurt! Basically we have no cream to thicken it up with but it did taste nice, it was more of a herby curry rather than a spicy one. 

Sorry it's a short one

Lots of Love

Han

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Stir-Fry And Shih Tzu's

This was tonight's dinner for me. Stir-fry. It's so lush and so quick and easy to do. This particular Stir-Fry was made with a Morrisons Family Stir-Fry pack of Chinese Style veg, Blue Dragon fine thread egg noodles, a sauce made with hot curry oil, a dessert spoon of honey, light soy sauce and finally some prawns. Some people enjoy a lot of sauce with their stir-fry, I prefer mine like this but adding some sauce is great too. This dinner clocks in at 345 calories, 6g fat and 1.2g saturated fat, and it's so filling :)

The Shih Tzu part of this post was these little cuties jumping at the sight of me and Mum sat at the dinner table with the sounds and smells of a busy kitchen. Abbey (left) and Rosie (right) are young rescue dogs and haven't quite learned dinner etiquette yet and they dance under our feet and jump by the chairs to get a peek at what we're munching on.  

Try the stir-fry! 

Lots of Love

Han

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