The Healthy Eating Guide

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I love bread, but too much yeast doesn’t do me much good so I often make Soda Bread - it’s quick and easy, and this recipe freezes really well too.

12 oz (350 gms) Plain Wholemeal Flour
4 ozs (100 gms) Plain white flour
4 ozs (100 gms) Walnut Halves - Optional!
2 tbsp (30 gms) Mixed seeds - linseed, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame
Pinch salt
1 tsp (15 ml) soft Brown (muscovado) sugar
1 tsp (15 ml) bicarb of soda
3 tsp (15 gms) sunflower margarine
2 tsp (10 gms) cream of tartar
10 fl ozs (300 ml) milk plus a little extra to brush on the top

Mix together the flours and walnuts if using (hold back a few for decoration), seeds, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda. Rub in Continue Reading »

I love pancakes, crepes, galettes in all their varieties and types and I make them often. I know there are lots of electric pancake makers around but I have to say I like to make them in a proper pancake pan and I was introduced to this one a few weeks ago. It would be unfair of me to keep it from you - it’s brilliant for doing the Leek Pancakes Recipe. The Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned 10-1/2-Inch Round Griddle is a fairly hefty Cast Iron pan but it is preseasoned so there’s no problem there. You would be well advised to handwash and dry it but it’s not too much hassle and a pan like this is worth taking care of. It’s not fancy, it’s not even particularly pretty but it is a great pan - I had to laugh at one of the reviews I saw on Amazon …

“I’m a lousy cook and I love pancakes. I’ve always had to go to a restaurant to get a decent pankcake because I never figured out how to make them right.

But when I got this Griddle I started turning out perfect pancakes every time! There must be something about iron. I’ve never had any iron cookware before. And the size is just small enough so it’s not too heavy, but the flatness allows me to make a “short stack” of pancakes all at once.

This is the most joy that $12.00 has brought into my life in a long time. And, I’ll save a ton of money over the rest of my life not going to restaurants to get pancakes!!”

All I can say is - I agree!

It’s been really cold where we are today so I decided to do one of my favourite comfort food recipes for our meal this evening. It’s very quick to prepare though it takes a little while to cook unless you do it in the microwave. I have to say I prefer it done in the oven with Jacket Potatoes or Roasted Vegetables. There are quite a lot of veg in this recipe, you can peel them if you want to but I don’t bother.

1 lb (450 g) Pork fillet, trimmed and cubed
2 Cooking Apples, sliced
1 Onion peeled and sliced finely
8 ozs Prunes (without stones!)
2 Potatoes, cubed
4 tsp (20 ml) fresh sage, finely chopped - or half this quantity if dried
10 fl ozs (300 ml) good dry cider (you can use stock if you prefer)

Mix together the cider or stock and the Sage
Put all the other ingredients in a large casserole dish. Pour in the liquid. Cook at 190C, 375F or Gas mark 5 for about 90 minutes or until tender.
If you want to do this in the microwave reduce the liquid by half and cook according to the instructions for your microwave, adding more liquid if necessary.

Told you it was easy!

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.