My first foray into juicing... Apple, cucumber, kiwi, ginger and lime

Calories: Approx. 166 per person. Serves 1.

Happy Wednesday!

After a massively over-indulgent few days, I thought I would attempt to start my day on a very healthy note and take my first step into the world of juicing.. I fancied something a bit zingy and fresh so I decided to combine the following ingredients.  I thought they would all go together and I, more importantly, had all the ingredients in the house. The result was delicious! Really fresh, zingy and healthy! My daughter has just had chicken pox and my son has now also got it so I thought that I could do with an extra lift whilst there are germs aplenty floating around the house!!

Ingredients

1 apple
1/2 a cucumber
1 kiwi fruit
1/2 a lime
a chunk of ginger*

Method

Just chuck them all in your juicer and enjoy the result! Et voila!

I think I might add a bit of fresh mint next time too. And I might try it with something stronger for a cheeky cocktail some time (maybe not at 9 in the morning though!!).

*A tip! When I buy fresh ginger I never use it all before it starts to go wrinkly and lose it's goodness so I peel it (really finely so you don't lose any of the good stuff) then chop it into chunks, around the size that you would normally use for cooking, pop them in a freezer bag and straight into the freezer.  When you need it, you can grate from frozen and even chop (takes slightly more effort though) and it's as fresh as when you bought it. And no waste. Perfect.

It's Wednesday today so that means the fish man will be coming. Think I'm going to get some sea bass and have it with my home made salsa verde. Yumm. I'll pop the recipe on later...

I'm off to attempt to work whilst looking after my spotty soldier! Enjoy your day, whatever you're up to!

Feta, tomato and basil pancakes

Calories: Approx. 225 per person. Serves 4. Based on using low fat greek salad cheese.

Hi!

As I mentioned yesterday, I went out for lunch with my friend today at the Northumberland Arms. I had seafood Thermidor and Parmesan fries. It was gorgeous! But I definitely ate too much and as I can't actually do any proper exercise at the minute due to a broken toe I seriously need to kerb the calorie intake now!

I'm thinking I'll make a savoury pancake for supper and have it with a green salad dressed simply with some red wine vinegar and Maldon salt. 

Ingredients

I'm going to use a basic pancake batter:

100g plain flour

2 eggs

300mls semi skimmed milk

Pinch of salt 

2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

80g feta cheese, crumbled but not too finely (I actually used low fat Greek salad cheese)

About 8 basil leaves chopped

Chilli flakes to taste

Ground black pepper

Approx. thumb sized piece of chorizo, chopped

This recipe can easily be halved. 

Method

Mix up the pancake batter to a smooth consistency, then add the rest of the ingredients except the chorizo. 

Fry off the chorizo until the fat has rendered.  Remove from the pan and add to the batter. Remove the oil too so that you can use it to fry the pancakes in. If there's not enough, you'll need to add a little extra oil. I used a little fry light to save on calories. 

Add a ladle of batter to the pan. Enough to cover the pan and make a thin pancake (don't make it too thick as it'll be harder to flip over). When it's bubbling check that it's nicely coloured underneath and turn it over.

Fold it up on your plate with your salad and drizzle with some balsamic syrup, if you have it. 

Sorry, I forgot to take a pic before I started tucking in!

Bon appetit!

Yum!!

My Fail-Safe Thai Prawn Salad...

Calories: Approx 129 per person. Serves 2

I am such a lucky girl to live in this great village. Not only is it in the beautiful countryside, home to lots of friends, it also houses The Running Fox (http://runningfoxbakery.co.uk/)- one of the best bakeries/ cafes around. People flock from miles to sample their amazing breads, pies and cakes and their famous afternoon teas. You should see the size of the things - you wouldn't eat for a week (although, i'm so greedy, i'd probably manage!). Today, my friend and I treated ourselves to the dish of the day for lunch- speciality burgers in cheese and pickle rolls. I had the pork and apple burger.  It was completely delicious and there wasn't a morsel left. Yum, yum, yum.  My friend had the beef and stilton burger and judging by her plate, she was equally as pleased with it.  She then had a toffee apple tart and I helped her with it!! I'm salivating as I type.

This doesn't happen very often but I am also going to the other fabulous eatery in the village, The Northumberland Arms for lunch tomorrow. It's a lovely pub and restaurant and it is always fantastic!  http://www.northumberlandarms-felton.co.uk/

How lucky am I?!!

Now to devise a calorie-free supper to counteract my gluttony. Hmmm, think it'll have to be.....

My Fail-Safe Thai Prawn Salad. 

I basically marinate cooked, peeled prawns in a mixture of juice of 1 lime, chilli flakes (I like mine nice and hot!), approx 1 tbsp thai fish sauce, a tsp of sugar, 1 clove of garlic, half a thumb of ginger, some chopped coriander and approx 2 tbsps rice wine vinegar then when they've been soaking for a while (as long as your hunger will allow) use the marinade as a dressing for the salad.  If I have any mango, I like to have that in the salad too - it goes so nicely together. I use a basic salad of loads of baby leaves, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes and the mango. Nothing too fancy as I don't want anything clashing or overshadowing the mango and the marinade.

This is super-fast, super-easy, super-healthy and super-deelish- perfect!

I've calculated that the calories for the marinade, prawns and mango (based on 180g prawns and 1 large mango) are 258 so that's 129 per person. Fab!!

Enjoy!

Update 3rd March 2014

I only had raw prawns tonight so I upped some of the ingredients in the marinade as I knew I'd lose some during the cooking. I also added 3 sliced spring onions. I used 2 limes, a good few splashes (prob about a couple of tbsps) of fish sauce, about the same of rice vinegar, about half an inch if ginger, a heaped tsp sugar, 1 large clove garlic, fresh coriander and loads of chilli flakes. I had some lazy lemongrass and galangal so I added those too. 

I chucked it all in a hot wok and let it cook for as short a time as possible until the prawns were cooked through. Then I put it all on top of my salad and mixed it through. It was fab. So zingy and fresh and good for the soul! Yum, yum, yum. 

The calories would be slightly higher here as I used more lime, fish sauce and vinegar and also the lazy lemongrass is pretty calorific. Still low fat and seriously good for you though!