My favourite healthy eating recipes

My Healthy Eating journey which started in the New Year, has brought me so many delicious recipes that I will continue to cook and enjoy long after my diet relaxes. I simply would not have the willpower to continue restricting my calorie intake if I was having salads every day. I love my food and being a busy mum, my meals, especially at the weekends bring me a lot of joy! I also love to entertain and cook for my loved ones and if I missed out on those things I would quick give up!
I have shared many of my meals on my Instagram stories and I am always inundated with messages asking for the recipes. So, I’m going to share my favourites with you!
I must stress that many of these recipes are not my own. They’re adapted from Slimming World mainly, and another of my favourite sites Pinch Of Nom.

When I fancy making something new, I tend to look up about three or four recipes and pick and choose what I think will suit my taste and adapt it to what I believe will work best.

I also must state the importance of counting the calories yourself as I estimate these myself according to my calorie counting app MyFitnessPal and I wouldn’t like to give you inaccurate information, I don’t follow slimming world either, so you’d have to check the Syn value. What I will say is that I have been having 1260 calories a day since the start of January and little over 6 weeks on I have lost a stone. When I reach my target weight I’ll be doing further posts about my top weight loss tips and must have items in your cupboard!

Unfortunately the photos of the food is of poor quality as they’re screenshot from old Instagram stories! It would have taken me a while to cook and photograph all of these meals perfectly and I wanted to post them for you quickly due to high demand.

 

Chicken Satay

When I found this recipe on Pinch Of Nom I was ecstatic! Chicken Satay is my favourite dish ever. I couldn’t believe that there could possibly be a way of making it without fatty peanut butter and creamy calorific coconut milk. But there is! And it tastes fabulous! There is one ingredient which I had to buy online called PB2 which is basically a powdered peanut butter. It’s made with slow roasted peanuts and pressed to remove the fat. Genius, right? You can buy it here. I did omit a couple of ingredients from their recipe such as fennel as I hate the stuff. I also added some curry powder, changed the vegetables and added chicken stock to enhance the flavour.

 

Serves 2

Spray your wok with low calorie cooking spray over a high heat brown two dicedchicken breast

Add one diced onion

Add two thinly slices carrots, chopped baby corn, some sliced colourful peppers and two chopped spring onions.

Add a tablespoon of soy sauce and fry for a few minutes

Meanwhile make your satay sauce. You will need:
Add ½ teaspoon of cumin powder
Add ½ teaspoon of ground coriander
Add 1 thumb sized piece of root ginger
Add two cloves of garlic
Add ½ chopped onion
Add 1/2 a red chilli (remove seeds if you don’t like it too hot)
Add 2 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Fish sauce (This adds great flavour but smells odd initially!)
1 ½ Tablespoon of sweetener
1 Tablespoon of mild curry powder
1 Jelly Chicken stock cube
600ml Alpro coconut milk
4 Tablespoons of PB2
2 Tablespoons of cornflour
Salt and Pepper

Place all your spices into a food processor/blender until very fine.

Fry onion, garlic and chilli until soft.
Add all the spices in and stir for one minute. (Not the cornflour)
Add in remaining ingredients and simmer on a medium heat for ten minutes or until smooth then add to the pan.
Turn the heat up high, mix the cornflour with a little water and stir into the simmering sauce until it thickens.

I serve this on a bed of rice. It’s amazing.

Beef Burgers

I kid you not, these are the best burgers I have ever tasted despite being low fat! I can’t wait to make these on the BBQ in the summer. The kids absolutely scoffed these when I served them with little mini burger buns which can easily be found in both M&S and Aldi. I like mine on a wholemeal bun.

Your mixture could end up being too wet which means they fall apart in the pan. The breadcrumbs should help with this. Also, do not flip your burgers until completely browned on one side. This help them keep their shape.

Serves 4

In a large bowl add:
Half a finely chopped fried onion and two minced fried garlic cloves. (Use fry light)
500g of 5% fat beef mine
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon of Worcester sauce
½ teaspoon of sea salt
Black pepper
1 Teaspoon of English mustard
1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
Pinch of parsley
1 Tablespoon of breadcrumbs

Mix all ingredients well.

Get your hands in the bowl and work all the contents together. Form into patties and over a high heat fry in some low-calorie spray until brown on both sides.
Add some crispy lettuce and a small service of light grater cheddar and you’ll be in heaven!

Beef Stroganoff

This was adapted from Pinch of Nom. I have changed quite a few aspects. I’m rather fussy with my meat and for this I always use fillet steak but use whichever kind you like.

Serves 2

Dice two steaks into strips and season with sea salt and ground black pepper.
Spray a large frying pan with fry light on a medium heat and quickly seal the beef on all sides.
Remove the meat from the pan and add 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.
Add some more fry light and fry onions and mushrooms (if you like them, I don’t!) until brown.
Add one tablespoon of Dijon mustard and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add 500 mls of beef stock and reduce the liquid by half.
Next stir in 220g of Philadelphia Lightest and ensure there are no lumps remaining.
Add the beef back into the pan for 10 minutes and simmer.
Sprinkle some parsley over and serve with fluffy rice or chips for a traditional stroganoff, however my favourite is to serve with pasta as the sauce is so rich and thick!

Slimming World Chips with a garlic and herb dip

Oh, this is a staple for me. I cannot live without chips. Straight cut, curly fries, wedges…..I can eat them every day. We are told that chips are bad for us which of course when they are fried they are. But you don’t have to fry them to make them crispy!

Serves 2

Peel 4 large Maris piper’s potatoes.
Dice them into fairly thick wedges. Personally, I don’t think thinner chips work well with this technique.
Next, parboil them for around 10 minutes
Drain the water and allow to steam for a couple of minutes.
Now here’s the important part to make them crispy. You want your wedges rough around the edges. Grab a colander and roughly shake by placing this over the pot. Once your wedges have broken up a little, place them on a chip crisper. You can buy one here.
Spray liberally with fry light, make sure they’re coated.
Sprinkle some salt, ground black pepper, mixed herbs and paprika. I also love the Swartz chip seasoning.
Place in a preheated oven. They will take around 30 minutes on 220 degrees. Turn them halfway.
Serve with a yummy dip that will put Domino’s to shame and has barely any calories!
Mix two tablespoons of Heinz seriously good mayonnaise light.
Add a sprinkle of mixed herbs
Add sea salt
Add two crushed garlic cloves
Mix together and dunk until your heart’s content!

Chicken curry

Serves 2

This is SO easy that even my husband can make it. Sorry Shaun. If you haven’t heard of Mayflower curry sauce, then boy you’re in for a treat! You can buy it in B&Ms and Home bargains for £1 a box which contains several portions. I buy about ten boxes at a time as it’s so cheap, versatile and it’s frequently sold out. You can get a hot version too if you’d prefer!

So, their famous curry recipe is actually on the back of the box, but I will tell you how I make it!
You can of course cook your chicken however you prefer, but if you have a slow cooker then you must try my method. I simple place two chicken breasts in my slow cooker on HIGH for three hours. That’s it. I don’t add water or oil. It’s not needed. All I do is sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.
About 15 minutes before my chicken is ready I dice an onion in quite chunky slices and fry in fry light. Always add a dash of salt to your onions to draw out the moisture.
I then add a handful of frozen peas.
Meanwhile, grab a saucepan and make up a portion of curry sauce according to the box instructions. All you do is mix the powder in cold water and stir it until it heats up and thickens.
Finally, mix all the ingredients together and add my chicken breasts. They will break up and be so beautifully soft – just like the Chinese! Serve with some slimming friendly fried rice and enjoy!

Salt n Chilli Chicken

Serves 2

This recipe is UNREAL. It’s just like the Chinese only much better and without the grease! It’s one of slimming world’s most famous recipes!

Make your salt and pepper spice mix:
Toast sea salt flakes in a hot pan until they brown. This step is very important for an authentic flavour.
Mix your toasted salt with 1 Tablespoon of granulated sweetener. My favourite is sukrin which you can buy here.
½ tablespoon of Chinese five spice
1 pinch of Chilli flakes
1 Table spoon of ground white pepper
Next you will need some SMASH. Yes, it’s off-putting to imagine coating your chicken in instant mash granules but trust me, it WORKS! Place 1/3 of the packet in a bowl and mix in some sea salt. Lightly beat an egg mix, dip individual pieces of diced chicken in the egg and roll in the smash. When you are finished place the chicken pieces on a baking tray than has been lightly sprayed in fry light. Place in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.
Meanwhile spray a frying pan with fry light and gently cook one diced onion, some diced colourful peppers and add your spice mix!
When your chicken is cooked through add it to the onions and pepper mix and add a splash of light soy sauce. Serve with some slimming world friendly rice and add a dash of mayflower sauce or satay sauce as mentioned above!

Chilli con Carne

Serves 2

If this blog post teaches you one thing, it to never buy premade Chilli sauce again. When you make your own you’ll be blown away at the difference!

Now you can make this exact recipe on the hob, however, I love making it in my slow cooker. I prep it the night before, cover in the fridge with some foil and pop in my slow cooker when I go to work the next morning. Simples.
Firstly, you want to brown your rice. Make sure it’s only 5% fat. Then pop in your slow cooker bowl.
Next, fry and onion and 3 minced garlic cloves in fry light and when browed add to the mince.
Pop in some colourful diced peppers
Into your bowl add:
1 Tablespoon of chilli powder
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 Tablespoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of paprika
One tablespoon of tomato puree
300 ml of hot beef stock
30 minutes before it’s ready add one can of red kidney beans.
Cook on low for around 8 hours and serve with rice or a baked potato!

I have several more recipes but I felt this blog was getting a bit long, so look out for part two featuring soups and more chicken dishes. I hope you enjoy cooking up a storm and tag me @pinkpeonyhome  

 

Love