The Healthy Eating Guide

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Jelly is a much maligned pudding. We tend to think of it as something that only children eat. I love jelly - it is a lovely summer dessert which you can prepare so quickly and it keeps in the fridge for several days. You can even have it as a snack of you just want something quick and not too disastrous as far as following sensible healthy eating guidelines is concerned.

You can use any fruit that is available - I find it brilliant for using up fruit that might otherwise go to waste.

Ingredients:-

20 gms (¾oz) Powdered gelatine or a packet of sugar free jelly crystals
750 mls (25 fl ozs) unsweetened apple juice - or any juice of your choice
300 gms mixed fresh fruit of your choice

Method:-

Mix the gelatine with 75 ml (5 tbsps) of water in a heatproof bowl and leave it to soak for 5 minutes or so, or follow the directions if using a sugar free jelly. Put the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering warm water until the gelatine dissolves. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes before gradually stirring in the fruit juice. Mix well.

Prepare the fruit by peeling, coring, dicing etc into bite sized pieces or smaller. Divide amongst four individual dishes or place into one large mould as required.

Gently pour over the gelatine mixture and chill until set.

Serve with a spoonful of Greek or low-fat natural yoghurt.

Serves 4

We are told that we should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to ensure our health and well being.  This is a minimum amount to help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and other serious illnesses.  However there is a great deal of confusion over just how much is a portion and whether frozen, dried or canned fruit and vegetables count.  The simple answer to that is that they do count, as do juiced fruits and vegetables and it doesn’t matter if they are cooked or raw.

So how much is a portion - the following list is just a guideline - and do remember five a day is a minimum amount!

• A whole medium-sized fruit - eg, an apple, banana or orange
•  A slice of a large fruit, such as melon, or pineapple
•  An adults handful of grapes or two handfuls of berries such as Blueberries or Raspberries
• A tablespoon of dried fruit such as sultanas or dried  cranberries
• Approx 100ml of fruit or vegetable juice
• A 200 gm tin of fruit - preferably not sweetened
• A small bowl of salad
• Approx 100 gms of vegetables - eg, peas, carrots or cabbage
• Approx 6 dried apricots  or a similar amount of other dried fruit such as apples, peasrs or peaches

The vegetables and fruits in a cooked dish generally work out at about one portion, so for example the onions, mushrooms, beans and tomatoes in a chili would equate to one of your daily portions.  A bowl of homemade vegetable soup would be about a portion as well.

Generally speaking you should only count one juice portion a day as you don’t get the dietary fibre that you would with the whole fruit.  Drink more by all means but only count it as one portion.

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!