Category: cheese

Healthy snacks

Are you a snacker? Do you find you ‘need’ to eat every couple of hours? Do you find the gaps between meals just that bit too long? Whether dieting or not, try and avoid the fatty, processed junk food, cakes or chocolate. Some foods are ideal as quick-to-grab snacks to graze on during the day. For weight loss, aim for more frequent but smaller meals to kick start your metabolism. But ensure these are healthy snacks. Aim for a mix of fibre, protein, healthy fats and low sugar to make you feel fuller more quickly and yet for longer.

The process of chewing helps your body feel full. So look for snacks that require a good chew, rather than slurping down on a soft fudge or chocolate bar. Ideal snack foods would be crunchy fruit, raw vegetables and nuts. You can prepare these ahead of your working day. Most of us have some kinds of little plastic pots with lids stocked up in cupboards (yup where do they come from – I swear they breed!).

Slice up some fingers of vegetables such as carrots, peppers, cucumber, celery, mange tout, mini sweetcorn. Ideal on their own, you can add a healthy dip such as hummus or peanut butter if you like. For an element of sweetness, slice up a nice crunchy apple, some blueberries, raisins, Brazil nuts and sunflower seeds. Again, if you need a dip some natural yoghurt would be a nice addition.

Try and start your day with a good breakfast. This will help you having a sudden blood sugar drop mid-morning. Often, what we believe to be hunger is actually dehydration. So ensure you drink plenty of water during the day. Have a drink if you feel hungry yet you know it’s not been long since you last ate. If satiated, then you weren’t actually hungry, you were thirsty. That said, don’t drink instead of actual meals, that isn’t healthy.

A lot of our eating timescales are habitual. As a species, humans like consistency and habits form easily. Try to avoid insisting on a set time for your coffee or tea break, or at least don’t always take a slice of cake or sugary biscuit at the same time. These should be occasional treats, not a daily habit. If you can mix up your break times, you won’t find you feel hungry shortly before this time as a matter of habit.

Do you have a night-time supper shortly before bed? This is rarely necessary and more a habit. However, if you have early meals (eg 6am breakfast, 12pm lunch, 5pm dinner) but go to bed say around 11pm, then perhaps a light snack around 9pm is justified. But make it light not stodge or sugar.

So let’s look at some simple snacks or small light lunches that will help boost your blood sugar levels and keep you going until the next mealtime.

Pepper and guacamole: slice some peppers into fingers, mixed colours for a colourful snack with a mixture of taste. Add your own home-made guacamole:

  • avocado,
  • chopped salad tomato,
  • finely chopped red onion,
  • finely chopped chilli (quantity and type dependent on the heat you prefer),
  • a little lime or lemon juice,
  • a little chopped coriander.

Roughly mash all the ingredients together, or pulse in a food mixer or blender, to the consistency you prefer. Store in a bowl, covered with cling film, in the fridge.

Cottage cheese with fruit and walnut: With a small tub of plain cottage cheese, add one chopped walnut and fruit of your choice. Tropical fruits go best, for example pineapple, mango or papaya. For a bit of extra crunch, spread on a high fibre wholemeal cracker.

Cucumber and hummus: As cucumber is particularly plain in taste, I would recommend going for a flavourful hummus – red pepper or lemon and black pepper for example. Slice half a cucumber into 2-3 inch portions then into fingers. For a little crunch, maybe add a small handful of pretzels.

Nuts: Mixed nuts are a brilliant source of protein and healthy fats, but you may want to add sultanas or raisins for a top up of sweetness. Avoid salted nuts to avoid excess sodium in your diet.

Olives and feta cheese: Mix chopped squares of feta cheese into a container with your preferred choice of olives, and a gentle drizzle of light extra virgin olive oil – flavoured or plain.

Cheese and crackers: choose a wholegrain or rye cracker, and pair with your favourite cheese. Hard cheeses tend to be lower in fat. If you require a sweetness, add some thin slices of crunchy apple. If you like a chutney kick, go for a good strong taste and use sparingly. Ultimately, no chutney is technically a diet ingredient so a little with a good taste is best.

Apple and peanut butter: Look for a peanut butter without sugar and added oil. Pair with apple slices to dip.

Mixed berries and yoghurt: Choose a mix of your favourite berries, such as blueberries, redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. Sprinkle into or on a low fat natural or Greek joghurt. If you need extra sweetness, sparingly drizzle on some natural honey.

Celery and cream cheese: choose a low fat cream cheese, and dip with sliced celery sticks. Some people like to add salt with celery, but don’t if you need or want to reduce your sodium intake. This is quite a bland snack, so why not add extra flavour with your favourite herbs and spices.

Root vegetable crisps: If you’re a crisp fiend, and just can’t let them go, swap potato crisps for vegetable crisps. You can buy them, or make your own (simple recipe available in my book ‘Picnics, Parties and Drinks’).

Dark chocolate and almonds: If you ‘need’ chocolate, then go for dark. The darker the better. Milk and white chocolate have so much fat and sugar added. Dark chocolate can be bitter, however, if you’re not used to it. So you may want to add some raspberries for sweetness as well as almonds or other nuts.

Popcorn: aim for plain or salted popcorn, rather than sweet or toffee coated.

Melon and prosciutto: wrap slices of your favourite melon, honeydew for example, with thin slices of prosciutto ham.

Roasted chickpeas: drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas, then dry them as much as possible. Place in a bowl and drizzle with oil, then sprinkle with salt and any herbs you may want to add for flavour. With your hands, mix together to ensure all the chickpeas are coated then spread them out evenly onto a dry baking tray. Roast the chickpeas at 400F/200C for 20-30 minutes, stirring or shaking the chickpeas every 10 minutes to ensure even roasting. Don’t worry if any chickpeas pop or split. Once golden in colour remove from the oven and, while still warm, sprinkle spices if you want (eg chilli or paprika) and stir through. When warm these are crispy, but when cool they become more chewy.

Avocado with salsa: make your own salsa: blend together chopped tomatoes, finely chopped red onion, garlic clove pressed or chopped, dash of lime juice, sprinkle of coriander. I personally like to add some chopped cucumber for coolness. If you like heat, add some finely chopped chilli. Either eat with slices of avocado, or fill the hole in half an avocado. If not dieting, add some low salt tortilla chips for added crunch.

These are just a few ideas, more small meals and mini eats can be found in my second book ‘Picnics, Parties and Drinks’ on Amazon for kindle download: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0773TG4JY?ref_=k4w_oembed_rIVl4ULIfziBcT&tag=kpembed-20&linkCode=kpd

Happy snacking, and take care,

Love

Maggie x

 

 

 

 

 

lockdown 2020 part 2

This year so far has been remarkable in many ways. The discovery of the Covid 19 pandemic has shaken the whole world. Life has changed and for some, permanently.

catPeople stopped commuting into their offices, millions of us worked from home instead. We took to online video conferencing, suddenly seeing a whole different side of ‘The Boss’ struggling to hold a conference call with a couple of nursery-aged kiddies interfering or running around naked, and pets that had no intention of respecting personal space. Families, being unable to see each other in person, took to regularly holding remote family quiz nights.

Of course, we’ve seen many negatives, some people became very paranoid, some scared, some obsessed with conspiracy theories. Those with violent tendencies exacerbated in the close-confines of home with no external escape. We saw some dreadful tragedies, and people struggled. On the flip side, it also positively brought communities together, the able-bodied running errands and doing shopping for those unable to fend for themselves.

fruit and veg

People have turned to many old-fashioned ways. Rather than running to the supermarket for massive shopping hauls, we’ve used our local corner shops, ordered fresh fruit and vegetable deliveries, professional bakers set up home ordering and delivery services from their domestic kitchens, pubs turned to takeaway services and breweries delivered polypins of ale to your door. The traffic reduced significantly, and we were able to hear wildlife again. In our local city centre, an otter was wandering about one evening! Worldwide, wildlife reclaimed public spaces, and pollution fell dramatically.

This has slowed now as we’ve begun to move out of lockdown to a revised normality, people aren’t panic-buying from our supermarkets any more. I truly hope that many of the resurgenced old-fashioned practices will continue for some time to come.

Baking and cooking your own meals from scratch doesn’t have to be difficult. If you learn some basics, and use a bit of imagination, you may be amazed what you can achieve.

One simple and quick make is a quiche. Begin with a short crust pastry, and whatever odd bits of food you need to use up.

quiche

Pastry

The following quantity can be sized up for a bigger quiche or if you want the pastry to rise up the sides like a pie. I prefer it to be base-only, so I used a half-kilo dough for a 8-9 inch diameter flan dish.

Recipe:

    • 500g plain flour
    • Pinch of salt
    • 250g cold butter – cut into small cubes

Method:

With your hands, gently blend in the salt, then add the cold butter. Gently, rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips. This will take a while, but you want all the butter evenly blended into the flour, more buttery than the ‘breadcrumbs’ mix you’d use for a sweet pie recipe. Once combined, add a teaspoon or so of water, but you may not need much. You want the dough to just stick together. Cover the dough (I pop it in a food bag) and pop it in the fridge to chill for a good half hour at least.

Once thoroughly chilled, gently roll out the pastry dough into the size and shape that fills the bottom of your chosen dish (which you’ve generously greased). Prick the pastry with a fork, then blind bake it for 10-15 minutes. It doesn’t need to be golden, but should be just-cooked. You don’t want a ‘soggy bottom’!

While the pastry is baking, prepare the filling.

Recipe:

    • 3 large eggs, gently beaten
    • 35ml milk
    • 1 tablespoon softened butter
    • 1 tablespoon plain flour
    • 170g grated cheese
    • Chosen filling ingredients

I chose to make a mushroom and onion quiche but you can choose anything you wish: a traditional bacon Quiche Lorraine, or ham and leek, or tomato and spring onion for example. You may also prefer to use cream rather than milk for a particularly decadent version. If so, don’t add the butter or flour in the filling mix.

Firstly, consider what your filling is to be. Unless you’re using ‘ready-to-eat’ ingredients such as ham and tomato, you’ll need to cook them before adding to the basic filling mix.

In a bowl, stir the beaten egg and milk together. Separately, add the flour into the grated cheese, then add this to the egg mixture with the softened butter. Gently whisk until all the ingredients have combined. Season with a little salt and pepper, or add herbs if you wish.

Then add in your chosen filling ingredients, and pour the whole mixture into your pre-baked pastry dish.

For my mushroom and onion quiche, chop half a large white onion into approximately inch-long slices, and fry them on a medium heat. Once starting to look opaque, add a good handful or two of sliced, mixed white and chestnut mushrooms. Let them gently cook through until the onions are golden but not too dark.

Cook the quiche at 180-200 degrees for about 35 minutes. You’re looking for this to be slightly soft to the touch, but firm. If worried, test with a skewer to ensure the eggs are cooked through.

The quiche can be eaten hot or cold.

If you find this quantity  of filling is a bit too much for your chosen dish, why not pour any excess into a cupcake tin for quick breakfasts or snacks.

I hope we’ll all return to a better new normal, whatever your normal might turn out to be.

Stay well, stay safe, and happy cooking!

love,

Maggie x

 

 

salads

Summertime = salads. ‘Nah, boring’ I hear wails of dismay. But, salads don’t have to equal a few sad lettuce leaves and squishy tomatoes. With a bit of time and thought a salad can be a very enjoyable, healthy, meal. Salads consist greatly of raw foods so no loss of nutrients, and many ingredients you may choose are bouncing with health-giving properties. Continue reading “salads”