The Healthy Eating Guide

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Baked Beans are something that most people love but the tinned variety are often loaded with salt and sugar and that really takes away any chance of them following any sort of healthy eating guidelines.  This is my own recipe for Baked Beans which is just as tasty and a great deal more healthy!

8 ozs (200gms) dried haricot beans, soaked overnigh, rinsed and drained
2 tsp (10 ml) English Mustard powder
2 tbsp (30 ml) Molasses or Black Treacle
2 tbsp (30 ml) Tomato Puree
15 fl ozs (450 ml) good vegetable stock
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
Seasoning to taste

Preheat the Oven to 190C, 375F Gas Mark 1
Put the beans into a large saucepan of boiling water and cooke for 25 - 30 mins.  Skim the surface if necessary druing cooking.  Drain and place into a large casserole dish.
Add the chopped onions and mix
Mix together the Molasses, English Mustard and Tomato Puree and the stock.
Pour over the beans, cover and place in the oven
Bake for 2 - 3 hours until the beans are tender.  If the sauce thickens too much add a little more stock.  Season before serving.  Don’t be tempted to add salt during cooking as this will can the beans tough.

It is almost impossible to overcook this dish so don’t worry if you leave it in the oven a little longer.
Serve hot with anything you like that goes with beans!

From time to time I like to share things I have found of benefit in my search for healthy eating guidelines and recipes that I have found beneficial. One of those is Najib Siddique’s book ‘The Complete Guide to Delicious Healthy Eating’. Like me, he believes that healthy eating doesn’t have to be all about bland, tasteless and boring food which you need to have the patience of a saint to both prepare and enjoy.

Whilst not a diet book by any means, this is a comprehensive guide to what is good and what is not good to eat. If you follow healthy eating guidelines you will find that your body weight naturally adjusts to it’s optimum. We were not all built to be stick insects! Healthy eating involves eating enough food to maintain an active and healthy body, not one that just exists.

As he quite rightly says, our food choices are limitless these days and it is often difficult to know where some of the more unusual things that are coming into our diet fit in terms of healthy eating. How many types of bread do we have now for example?

The Complete Guide to Delicious Healthy Eating covers a wide range of topics on choosing foods, what’s good, what’s not so good, sensible guidelines if you feel you must diet, and a comprehensive examination of our dietary habits and how to change them for the better. There is a wealth of information that is invaluable for anyone who is aiming to try and improve their health and wellbeing by looking at what they eat. Recommended reading in my view.

This is one of those healthy eating recipes that no one believes it is good for you because it is so tasty. You can add anchovies to the Sauce if you wish though not everyone likes the flavour.

PANCAKES

4 oz (100 g) wholemeal flour - plain
10 fl ozs (300 ml) skimmed milk
1 egg
1 tbsp (15 ml) Chives - chopped
3 - 4 med sized Leeks cut into fine strips
4 oz (100 g) Mushrooms
2 tbsp (30 ml) Parsley - chopped
1 tbsp (15 ml) Sunflower Seeds
2 ozs (50 g) Gouda or Emmenthal Cheese
1 tbsp (15 ml) Freshly grated Parmesan
1 oz (25 g) polyunsturated margarine
Seasoning to Taste

SAUCE

1 large bunch chopped watercress
1 tbsp (15 ml) Capers
3 fl ozs (75 ml) good Olive Oil
1 garlic clove - crushed
Zest and juice of a lemon
2tbsp (30 ml) Vegetable stock
4 Anchovy fillets - drained. These are optional.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the egg, gradually beat in the milk and mix until you have a smooth batter. Add the Chives.
Prepare a 7 or 8 inch pan suitable for making pancakes. If you have a
Galette or Crepe Pan so much the better.
Lightly grease the pan and pour in enough batter to make a thin pancake. Cook for 1 - 2 minutes each side. You should have enough batter to make 8.
Cook the leeks in the margarine until soft, then add the sliced mushrooms. After a couple of minutes stir in the parsley and sunflower seeds. Add seasoning if you wish.
Lay the pancake out and divide the filling amongst them and then roll them up. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish which has been lightly greased, unless it is non-stick.
Put the Watercress, capers half the olive oil and the anchovy fillets if you are using them into a blender and process until smooth. Gradually add the rest of the oil, the lemon juice and the garlic.
Add the vegetable stock a little at a time until you have a smooth pouring consistency to your sauce. Warm through gently in a saucepan.
Pour the sauce over the prepared pancakes and sprinkle the cheeses on top.
Bake at 190C (375F)Gas mark 5 for about 20 minutes until it is golden brown.
Serve with a crisp green salad.

Yummy!

Healthy Eating Guides often stress the need to cut sown sugars in our diet – but offer little by way of alternatives.  There are chemical sweeteners but I don’t particularly like those so I have to find alternatives, and there are many that you can use for both sweet and savoury dishes.

One of my favourites is dried apricots, these are brilliant in crumbles and Fruity desserts or cakes, and are good in a stuffing for chicken or pork.  You can use dried peaches too but I don’t like the flavour quite so much.  If I want to cut down the sugar and fat in a cake recipe I make a date puree by warming some pitted dates in milk and then blitzing them, it does affect the colour of your cake a little but you can barely taste the dates and it can reduce the sugar and fat content by up to half.

Figs, Prunes and Vine fruits are also useful and can be used in both sweet and savoury without any problem.  Do remember to wash any dried fruits you use –they are often dusted in sulphur as a preservative and should be carefully cleaned.

For savoury dishes where you want a sweet flavour rather than actual sweetness you can use Allspice, Ginger, Cardamom, Nutmeg and Coriander  with equal success  Desiccated or shredded Coconut is also useful but be careful that it isn’t sweetened when you buy it, a mistake I made once.  Also useful are fruit juices, particularly Apple which can be used as part of the fluid in any recipe, sweet or savoury.

The best method is to experiment a little and you will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of sugar you can cut out of a recipe.  I also find that with most cake recipes, just cutting the sugar by up to one third causes no problems and fits well within healthy eating guidelines.

If you need to snack this quick and easy hummus can be made in advance and kept in the fridge.

1 x 15 oz (450g) can of Chick Peas
2 x Peeled garlic cloves (or more if you prefer)
1 x Slice Wholegrain bread
2 tbsp (30 ml) Tahini
Zest and Juice of a Lemon (adjust to taste)
Freshly ground Black Pepper
5 tbsp (75 ml) good Olive Oil
Pinch of Chili flakes (optional)

Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until smooth.

Put into a covered container and leave in the fridge for approx three hours before serving.

Wholewheat crackers or toast spread with this hummus make a satisfying and healthy snack when you get an attack of the munchies. It is equally good as a Starter for a Dinner party or as a light lunch when served with a green salad.

Many healthy eating gurus will tell you that snacking is bad for you, an equal number will tell you that grazing is what you should do – so which is right.  In my view, both have merit.  It really depends on your body type, your lifestyle and the balance of your overall diet.   Eating smaller meals more often prevents snacking – but isn’t it the same thing?

The real question there perhaps is ‘Why are you Snacking?’ If it’s because you are hungry, then the chances are you are not eating enough to supply your energy needs, if it boredom or habit, liking eating Popcorn when watching TV then you should perhaps look at your behavior patterns – or what you choose to snack on.  Very often people think they are hungry when what they actually want is a drink so if you find yourself continuously tempted when you know you aren’t hungry – have a drink instead.

If you do feel the need to snack then try and make sure you choose foods that are healthy.  Cereal Bars are better than chocolate bars, fruit or vegetables are better still.  It’s easy enough to have a box of prepared fruit or vegetable sticks in the fridge if you are at home.  When you are out or at work then cereal bars are a more practical choice.  Crisps, sweets and chips are not good but a handful of crunchy nuts and seeds are more satisfying and much healthier.

If you find that it is thirst, not hunger that is driving your snack habit, consider what you drink.  Sweet fizzy drinks give you a quick sugar buzz that will soon drop and leave you feeling worse than before.  If you don’t want water, try fruit juice diluted with water as a thirst quencher, fruit or green tea can be good too, if it’s something more substantial you want a fruit smoothie can go down well but they can also give you something of a sugar buzz as they don’t take long to get into your bloodstream.

The main thing you should bear in mind when you choose a snack is ‘Does this fit sensibly into my diet’, if it does, great!  If not, think again and try to follow the healthy eating guidelines by choosing something different.

It’s been a really cold and frosty day here today and it reminded me of this lovely recipe that I sometimes have as a healthy eating alternative to hot chocolate.

2 large Bananas - as ripe as possible
1 pint (600 ml) apple juice - unsweetened
4 oz (100g) Blackcurrants, frozen are fine
Honey to taste

Place all the ingredients in your blender or smoothie maker and blitz until smooth. Sieve to remove seeds if you prefer.

Pour into a pan and heat gently til almost boiling or heat in the microwave, stirring once.

Pour into Mugs and add honey if desired

Makes 4