Healthy carrot snack

Last evening I  was sure, that I have to work at home, edit a short film and need to be awake until late. I was thinking what kind of food I should make to survive the night without munching lot of calories...decided to use just vegetables and I had a half of avocado at home...
...So I made carrot-aspargus-pepper snack and made an avocado-yoghurt dip. That filled me for dinner and has covered my hunger for snack while I was working.

Calories 300ish
Time: 15 minutes, Budget: £3-4

You need:
californian paprika
100 g chopped baby carrot
100 g aspargus
half white onion
drops of olive oil
100 g fat free yoghurt
half small avocado
garlic

In a pan heat the olive oil and add the chopped onion. Add the carrot, asparagus and the paprika at least. Fry them until you find the carrot enough soft - the others getting soft sooner. Add a dash of water, it helps.
While you boil and fry the vegetables, in a small bowl mix the avocado with the yoghurt with a fork and add some garlic. (Depends on how you like it.) I think no more description needed...:) You made your daily spoonful of health.

Scrambled tofu

Ok, first of all, I totally forgot to take some pics during cooking yesterday...so I will steal from somewhere to illustrate...
I had some tofu at home, left from the weekend, so I decided to create something new from it. I haven't cooked with it before, and didn't know anything about it's different types, usage etc...
So I found out that my tofu is silk, which means it is soft, you can cook with it, but you can't bake it in whole cubes. Finally I have found lot of recipes for silk tofu, included "cheese" cake - I will definitely try it. Last evening it chose the scrambled tofu, and made some changes in the receipt. So let's see my version below.

Ingredients for 2
calories 210/portion
time: 10 minutes, budget £3

200 g silk tofu
1 onion
2tsp olive oil
150 g spinach
1 Californian paprika
8 cherry tomato or 1 normal tomato
(2 slice of dark rye cracker + 70 calories)


 I fried the chopped onion on a tsp olive oil, added a half cup water, added the spinach (hand torn) and the chopped paprika. I was waiting while the spinach got soft. Than I added the chopped tomato. Quickly, in a separate bowl scramble the tofu with salt and a tsp olive oil. When the water totally evaporate from the pan, added the scrambled tofu and stir fry with the vegetables.

Now your scrambled tofu is ready. I put some lamb lettuce on to a plate, 2 slice of dark rye crackers and topped with a spoonful of health(y) scrambled tofu.

For my man, I fried 2 bacon to make him happy with some tasty meat. :)

Zucchini stew

It was a long, peaceful weekend, I spent my time at home, half working, half housekeeping. I didn't want to spend to much time on cooking especially I was on my own, my man has been out of the city. (He said he finally had some nice food, lots of meat and chocolate...:)) Anyway I went shopping on Friday and thinking about what I should choose to make food for 3 days just for myself. (That is really hard for me, to cook only for one...I am always over the limit and at the end I need to threw out rest of the food.) So made a decision to cook zucchini stew, which is one of my old special from my teenage, when I couldn't cook so many dishes but I was seriously vegetarian. It so variable, you can add some more veggies to it, can mix-match with rice or bulgur wheat, couscous, with or without tomato sauce, parmesan etc...Let's see my version from Friday.

Ingredients
calories: 250
time: 20 mins, budget £2

1 and a half courgettes (zucchini)
chopped white onion
spoon of olive oil
fresh basil
150 g tomato sauce (used Lloyd Grossman, Tomato and Basil)
water
salt
garlic (as you like it)
half cup of brown rice (or any which you like: bulgur, cous-cous...)

First of all boil the water for your rice, it is the longest part. While you boiling the rice, you can get ready the rest of your food. Fry the onion on olive oil in a pan, add some water, salt and the chopped zucchini. Let it boil till the zucchini getting half soft. Add the tomato sauce, garlic and the fresh basil. Boil them together till getting soft. You can add the rice to the pan and heat them up together or just put the rice on your plate and top with your stew.

I recommend if you counting calories very seriously,  you should add the side dish separately to the stew. The stew is 170 calories.

Nearly that's it - just a spoonful of health. Enjoy!


Sunday I had the same with bulgur and I added some mushroom as well.

Variable tuna salad

What could you do if you have a half empty fridge...with different foods from your weekly menu...but not enough for any complete dish?

Mix them, top with tuna and a spoon of pesto. Spice it and enjoy.

 I used
olives (5)
cherry tomato
green beans
lamb lettuce
green leaves
fresh basil
tuna (40gramms)
red pesto

depend on the added ingredients 200 ish calories, 10 minutes to get ready from maximum of £3

I mixed all the green leaves with the chopped tomato and chopped olives. Fried a bit the green beans with a spoon of pesto, added the tuna. Heated them up - just because I wanted to eat something warm, and mixed with the base salad. I used only fresh basil to spice my evening spoonful of health.

Have a pint...

So, yes, there we are. What should we do if we like to go out, and we know, that we will drink some alcohol. Which is not dangerous on its own, but...!Who has never wanted to eat a bowl of chips, or a big burger after a pint or two. I used to do the same: drinking, munching something and on my way home took a big burger, or some nice Indian or Turkish dish...and on the top, you could eat more than normally, won't you?! So that's the most problematic point of the whole diet, calorie counting and healthier life. Non of the diets forbid you to enjoy a glass of dry wine...but without the benefits. Let's see what are my tricks:

• eating olives, 5 contain 12 calories
• low fat popcorn 
• picking raspberries or blueberries
• keep some calorie less crackers with you, you can munching from it, if you feeling very hungry
• ask for sweet potato chips instead of 'normal' - never tried, but much less calories :)
• eat any fish, except battered ones: scallop, squid or prawns quite popular as starters
• have some carrot, dipped into fat free yoghurt - instead nachos, crisps...

And after all, you need to behave yourself...:)

Finally, what drinks I am recommending:

• Guiness - 155 calories
• Strongbow cider - 169 calories
• large glass rose/white dry wine - 180 calories
• medium (Shiraz) wine - 120 calories

If you fancy for something else, try to avoid soft-drink mixes and sweetened liqueurs

Cheers!

Grilled halloumi salad

My dinner was delicious... Recipe coming tomorrow.

UPDATE :)

So let's start with recipe for grilled halloumi salad, which is came from my friends grilled cheese-asparagus-strawberry salad. She has made it for us as a starter, but it is filling enough for dinner :)

Ingredients for 1 plate

220 calories

time: 5 minutes, budget: £3

1 slice of light Halloumi cheese (I used Tesco light Halloumi, which is 70 calories/30g)

1/2 bunch asparagus

large handful lamb lettuce

small spoon olive oil or nut-dose butter

dash of balsamic vinegar (I used Leonardi Cherry flavored)

nutmeg, salt depends on how savory or sweety you fancy for

Quickly fry the chopped asparagus on the butter or olive oil. At the same time prepare the lettuce on your plate. Add a bit of nutmeg and salt to the asparagus. Topped the asparagus on the lettuce, drop the cheese to the same pan. It takes 1-1 minute to get grilled both sides. Then put it on your plate, pour the balsamic vinegar on the top...your daily spoonful of health is ready, sit back and enjoy!

Fake risotto

Yesterday I made some kind of risotto for dinner...I call it risotto, but it is slightly different, but as delicious as the original one :)

You can use any of the regular spices for give it the original taste. Let's see my version.

Ingredients, for 2 

250 calories/portion

time: 20 minutes, budget: £3.50

small spoon olive oil
1/2 chopped white onion
1/2 pack of fine trimmed beans
1/2 bunch of asparagus
1/2 pack of babycorn & mangetout
6 cherry tomatoes
1 cup of bulgur wheat
half banana
water
Parmesan on the top
spices as you like it - I used a bit of chili, nutmeg, salt of course, black pepper

Fry the onion on the olive oil, add the chopped vegetables, except tomatoes. Add spices. Heat a bowl of water for the bulgur, you can add the bulgur to the cold water and boil them together. Use 2-3 cups of water and keep an eye on, add more during heating if needed.

If your veg soft enough, add the mashed half banana and the tomatoes.

Add the cooked bulgur to the whole mix in to the pan, and mix together. It should get similar texture to risotto...taste it and add some more spice if needed.

Top it with Parmesan, but not too much. Enjoy your spoon of health!