90 Day Graduate….I did it!

90 days done! Graduated! Perhaps not with honours though, as things began to slow down towards the end. I might have already mentioned I wasn’t as dedicated as other “students” are to the Body Coach plan, and as the 90 days drew closer, I got worse and worse. Our holiday, which was the finish line for me was in sight, and we had numerous celebrations and parties in the run up to it which I wanted to enjoy without guilt.

I’d basically lost the bulk of the weight that I wanted to, a total of 4kg and 13 inches, which I was really pleased with. It’s incredibly hard to remain focused and commited to such a plan when looking after a 2 year old whilst also weaning a 6 month old baby. I began to find that there was little headspace left to plan different meals for everyone and after 90 days I was kind of done with it. A lot of the meals just too long to make. I loved the exercise, doing 5 short high intensity workouts a week was doable to begin with, but with each cycle, the workouts got slightly longer and the kids older that everything became more challenging.

I’m now looking forward to mixing exercise up a bit more again. Some gym classes like Body Attack, some spin cycles, the odd HIIT workout and perhaps even some running again. I think I achieve better results by doing different forms of exercise rather than just repetition of the same thing as I just began to lose my mojo for it.

I’ve discovered the concept of what he practices though. Having less carbs with each meal by replacing them with extra vegetables is very easy to do. Equally, when having reduced carb based meals, these are to have a higher level of fats which your body requires to fuel everyday activities. So I’d like to try and maintain the balance of nutrition somewhat but allow myself some more treats, especially at weekends!

So here is a collection of the final meals I enjoyed in cycle 3:

Chicken Arrabiata with Penne

My kind of dinner, pasta, chilli, chicken and veg.  This was really balanced, only used 50g pasta, 1/3 less than I’d previously help myself to. Quick and simple, midweek winning.

Low Carb Granola

I love this, and I’m still eating it 5 out of 7 days a week even though I’ve finished. You batch make about 9 portions which was really simple to do, and then serve up with some yoghurt. Generous portion and keeps you filled up til lunch. Perfect.

Coconut Daal with Chickpeas

This was full of filling pulses despite being a reduced carb meal so it was very hearty. Can easily make a big batch and freeze saving for a cold wintery day!

Trail Mix Bites

These were the craze of the summer. The Body Coach gurus posted additional snacks, one of which was a trail mix of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate. People quickly cottoned on that you could chop up the fruit and nuts and mix into melted chocolate and leave to set. Amazing treat with a cuppa!

Coconut Poached Chicken with Mangetout

Another dish filled with chilli! Was super easy to make, warming broth based dinner. When meals are full of different textures and flavours I do tend to forget about there being a lack of carbs!

Chocolate Protein Porridge

Not a visual showstopper but it was tasty enough. I don’t think I need to add chocolate to my porridge though, I’m perfectly happy with porridge as it comes or with a bit of honey or compote. Does keep the hunger locked up til lunch though.

Mexican Burger with Chipotle Sauce and Guacamole 

Great friday night treat, but I wouldn’t ordinarily cook a burger for dinner unless we were having a BBQ. Really good though.

Cod & Chickpea Stew

Cinnamon French Toast 

More like a pudding than breakfast so nice for a change but not a regular meal for me.

Chicken Sausages with yellow split pea mash

This was another recipe that I loved! The split pea mash was slightly time consuming but it was really delicious and a change from potato. Easy to do if you’re at home and can soak / cook the peas in the day.

Avocado and Berry Smoothie

This type of smoothie I’d never have thought would be on a diet plan. It’s really rich and smooth and again surprisingly filling. It’s good to find meals that don’t have a large amount of carbs to fuel your body for low intensity activity days.

Loaded Potato Skins with scrambled egg

Another recipe that involves a bit of time and effort but they were really delicious. Carb refuel meal using sweet potato, generous portion size for 1.

Speedy Speedy Kedgeree

This was a speedy cheat for a kedgeree and it was simple to knock out. You steam cook the fish in the microwave which I’d never thought to do before!

Satay Chicken

I love satay chicken when we get a chinese so I was looking forward to this one. The chicken was good and the broccoli was doused in chilli so an extra thumbs up!

Butternut Squash Rosti’s with Salmon & Poached Egg

These were good, but not as good as a real potato rosti! They were quite time consuming to make like a few of the dishes, which was beginning to get a bit taxing!

Croque Monsieur

How this is classed as reduced carb I’ll never know, but I was happy to have it on my plate. A healthier take on the classic but still tasty enough. It uses yoghurt on top, which works ok to keep the amount of cheese down!

Meatball Goulash

A lot of the reduced carb meals like this don’t come with any side of carbs which is ok, but I was making a side for my husband which I often got jealous of! Plenty of meat and veg, but a little bit of rice to soak it up would be lovely!

Now to continue the journey on my own……

 

 

 

Wooah, we’re half way there…

90 days in this glorious summer suddenly feels quite long. Whilst the recipes are lovely, it’s beginning to feel a bit restricting with so many parties and BBQ’s! Needless to say I’m not eating 100% to plan and drinking more rose and gin that Joe would deem suitable! Ooops.

But as I’ve said before, for me it’s a lifestyle thing, fitting in more exercise into my week and eating good clean food with it for perhaps 80% of the time. Yes, these summer weeks might be more like 70% but it’s still better than eating poorly more of the time. I also have been 100% on doing my 5 HIIT (or alternative) work outs a week, so that is definitely an improvement. It shows too, as I’ve managed to lose another kilo in the last two weeks. WOO HOO! 3 down, maybe 2 to go if I’m lucky and persistant! Can I hold on through to the end?!

I’m not getting hung up on the scales too much anymore either. I can tell I’m already “leaner” as the jeans fit in places they didn’t 6 weeks ago, and by a long way, and with the weighted HIIT exercises I’m putting on muscle which we all know is heavier than fat!

I’m half way through cycle 2 and so half way through the whole plan. I’d read a lot of people review cycle 2 as bloating due to the increase in carbs but I’ve really enjoyed them. You don’t have to restrict carbs from your diet to lose weight. They are a key energy source and really important. I’m eating two carb meals a day on workout days and feel more energised, less hungry and also feel like I’ve been sleeping better too. That’s the whole point of his cycle 2, to see how your body feels compared to cycle 1 where you only had one carb meal a day on workout days. Then on cycle 3 you can choose what your body needs. We are all individual and no one diet suits us all. I say diet in the loose term of lifestyle eating rather than a restrictive one.

I”ve now tried most of the recipes so there is time to do my favourite ones again before getting in the last cycle of recipes which I do look forward to as I hate to repeat meals so often. I love cooking new things, to be inspired by new ingredients and flavours so the same 30 recipes over a month for three meals a day does get a wee bit tiresome!

But here we go, my review of cycle 2….

Reduced Carb Almond & Honey Pancakes. 

I was dubious about these given the cocoa pancakes on cycle one were an epic fail but these are REALLY good, and reduced carb too! Not too difficult to make when making a portion for one, but when I doubled up for the husband the pancake frying part got a bit tedious! They are light and fluffy and full of nutty goodness!

The Breakfast Pizza

This is the pièce de résistance for most people on cycle 2. It is great to tuck into another takeaway. The dough is made from flour and yoghurt so very healthy. My frying pan was slightly smaller than I’d prefer so it made a smaller base meaning the toppings were quite piled up but putting an egg on a pizza is one of my favourite things!

Turkey, Sage and Onion Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

I preferred this to the prawn burger in cycle one, mainly because it was a meaty burger. Not too dry but turkey mince is never juicy like a beef burger can be.

Breakfast Burrito

Another great recipe that is classed as reduced carb when you’re still getting proper classic carbs! I couldn’t make this roll into a burrito so the next time I made it I swapped the wrap for a piece of toast. Toast topped with scrambled egg, bacon, onion, tomato, red pepper, cheese and hot sauce is a great way to start the day!

Indonesian Stir Fry

I’ve made this one a couple of times as it’s really quick and easy as uses cooked chicken breast, and I love a fried egg too! Packed up with kale it’s a big dish, it’s a goodun!

Seabass with spiced crushed potatoes

I was quite excited about the prospect of this one as it’s quite a standard midweek dinner, but there was A LOT of potato! It was good but no wow. It’s good and simple clean good though, just a shame sea bass fillets are so expensive!

Eggs Royale

Brilliant fake eggs royale. It’s reduced carb too so only uses one half of a whole meal muffin but you don’t miss the other half. Spinach, smoked salmon and two poached eggs as you’d expect and then a less rich hollandaise that uses yoghurt in place of most of what would be butter so lighter too. If the sauce didn’t take so long to make I’d be eating it more often.

Thai Prawn Curry

This is a great mid week reduced carb dinner that you can serve to the husband with rice so he’s happy! There was so much veg, some sweet potato too that I didn’t miss the rice. Never thought I’d be saying that!

Chicken, Kale and Barley Soup

This was less of a soup, but more of a casserole! It was hugely chunky and as a result very filling but just too much celery, carrot and kale even for me!

Thai Salmon Fishcakes

These were ok, and the cucumber salad lovely but think I’d make with potato rather than sweet when making again. You can use the online swap tool which even says that’s ok 🙂

Chilli Paneer

I was so surprised by this little gem! I’d NEVER buy paneer but I thought I’d give it a go. It was crazy quick and I love hot and spicy and the paneer gets cooked so it’s a little melty in the mouth. Really nice!

Chilli Beef Nachos

Hands down one of my favourites on this cycle. It uses two corn tortillas but still manages to be reduced carb. I’d naturally like a whole lot more cheese all over these bad boys but the level of spice in the beef gave it enough flavour to happily scoop it all up with the corn chips.

Mixed Bean Chilli

Because beans are full of carbohydrates this is a carb refuel meal. But I really missed something else. Probably meat rather than rice. It was good, but I like a meaty chilli!

Steak and Mushroom Hash

This was another one that I originally put off making as the carbohydrate was sweet potato and it doesn’t feel carby enough! This cycle has a LOT of sweet potato.

But I was surprised, as usual. It was something different, felt healthy and nutritious, and filling too.

(Sweet Potato) Cottage Pie

Given the vast amount of sweet potato recipes, I actually ran out and so substituted it for classic white potato. It was so so – pretty standard cottage pie but that’s it, nothing amazing to shout about here.

Quick Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

I absolutely loved this salad. Full of fantastic colours and flavours and a good zing too. Really fresh and well balanced. I’d make this time and time again.

Pea and (Goats) Cheese Risotto

I’m not a fan of goats cheese so I substituted it with Mozzarella which worked fine. The peas alongside the risotto rice make it a substantial risotto. It wasn’t as rich or as naughty like a classic risotto but it was good nevertheless.

Go Go Green Smoothie

I wasn’t even going to give this one a go until someone commented that I really should when instagramming another smoothie. My head was fixed that I needed to “eat” my breakfast and not drink it. But the 90 days plan is beginning to change my mind set. This tastes really hydrating and virtuous so it’s been great the morning after a few drinks! It has flax seed and protein powder to fill you up. I’ve had it fairly frequently now!

Speedy Sausage and Lentil Stew

I have to admit I was slightly let down by this one, because I was making it for 3 (husband and left overs) it wasn’t speedy at all! A lot of chopping and took quite a long time to simmer down, even then it wasn’t as rich as I’d have liked it. Love sausages though 😉

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Hash Browns with Poached Egg and Bacon

Relatively time consuming to make, even with a food processor to grate all the cauliflower and sweet potato but once done, it was a good post HIIT workout weekend brunch. It’s the bacon and eggs that really made it!

Tuna and spiced aubergine

Generous portions of tuna make this an excellent dish. I sadly overdid my Tuna more that I’d like but it was still really good sitting on the bed of nuts and aubergine. A fantastic low carb meal. I think it’s this type of meal I’ll have more often once a graduate; replacing white carbs with slow cooked veg.

Prawn and Chilli Linguine

Ah pasta… my long lost friend! Naturally loved this. Decent portion of pasta bulked out with tenderstem broccoli and cherry tomatoes. I love these huge atlantic prawns too, really meaty and delicious!

Beef and Hummous Flatbreads

My husband and I absolutely loved this one. Generous portion of hummus on top of the flat bread make it really filling. The beef is well spiced and topped with the harissa yoghurt and pomegranate seeds it’s really tasty. Different textures make it really well balanced.

Beef and Cashew Stir fry

Plain and simple stir fry. It’s a reduced carb meal so it’s bulked out with lots of vegetables and lots of protein with the cashew nuts. I added noodles to my husbands portion to keep him happy!

The end is in sight for cycle 1…

I’m currently on day 28 of the 90 day SSS (shift, sculpt, sustain) program and each cycle is 30 days long. Because I had a holiday in the middle, and definitely drank more wine and gin, and ate more chocolate than I should, I’m extending my cycle by a few more days. I effectively pressed pause for a few days which is what the support heroes recommend. They also say that life is for living and that this is a lifestyle change and not a strict diet… here here!

So far, I’ve really enjoyed the meals, nothing has been wholly inedible but there are a couple that I chose not to make again. With that said, I am beginning to get a little bored of the same options, luckily cycle 2 is in sight and with that I’ll receive another 30 odd new and fresh recipes, and even better with the weight HIITS I’ll be able to eat carbs twice a day on workout days!

I wonder about post 90 days if I’ll go back to previous eating (not so bad) habits or if I’ll continue with reduced carb meals with correctly balanced nutrition for the majority of meals. Time will tell. I definitely think I’ll continue to exercise 5 times a week, even if it’s a brief 20 minute HIIT. That’s what i intend at least. I do look forward to using a wider range of ingredients again, it feels like I’m eating spring onions, smoked paprika and cumin in every meal!

It has so far been absolutely fine, it has taken a lot of mind power to prep 3 Meals a day for a week alongside HIIT workouts at the appropriate times and looking after a toddler and a breastfed baby but thankfully, I have a very supportive husband who has taken the kids at the weekend or evenings of home when needed to squeeze the workouts in.

So here it is, another quick round up review to more cycle 1 recipes!

The prawn burger carb refuel meal; it felt small at the end of an evening when I did my HIIT. Very tasty though. I made it a second time for the husband and he wasn’t a fan, everytime he went to take a bite his head was saying burger and he got prawn!

The infamous PBJ smoothie! People either love it or hate it. I was so ready to hate this but it actually was really delicious! However, I can’t drink my breakfast. It just doesn’t feel right so I have mainly converted into overnight oats by mixing all but he ice and just a little almond milk to loosen in the fridge overnight and voila! 40g of Peanut butter is such a treat!

Overnight Oats; these I loved as a carb refuel meal, but as I began to turn the PBJ Smoothie into an overnight oats, I would then choose the apple bircher for breakfast for more of a change if I managed to do my HIIT first thing.

The chipotle charred chicken salad has far too much spring onion, so the second time, I cut this back. It felt massive and was very tasty but I was hungry quite soon after! Maybe it’s just a mental thing because I’ve only eaten salad!

The Protein Pancakes were not to my liking, they had such a funny bobbly texture, almost like cod roe! I took the ingredients, left out the yoghurt (which I served on the side) and used just a splash of water to loosen, and mixed together with 1 tsp of baking powder and popped into a muffin tray and baked for 15 mins at 180 degrees. 3 Massive muffins for breakfast is a good breakfast! Only issue was trying to eat them in front of my 2 year old son who clearly doesn’t see why I can have cake for breakfast and he can’t!

This has become a bit of a favourite. It’s Salmon with roasted beans and broccoli in a tahini sauce. And served with a little bit of rice which whilst small does help my brain think I’m having carbs and not missing out! It was so simple to make as the veg just gets roasted in the oven and then you pan fry the salmon and mix the sauce through the veg. Very tasty and light for these hot summer days.

Another great light fish dish, took a bit more prep as you need to blitz up lots of parsley and parmesan to make the delicious crust for the cod. But it’s worth the effort. Served on a bed of asparagus, tomatoes and lentils it was filling too. Just a shame asparagus is really expensive as the portion of it is huge!

Quick and tasty carb refuel lunch meal is the smoked salmon and egg bagel. No frills here, I cheated with the spinach and used frozen, but all very delicious! Feels good to be on a diet plan and still be able to have a bagel!

This frittata serves 3! The original recipe is spinach and feta but as I’m not a fan of feta, I could replace it with salmon which worked great. The spinach forms a crust at the bottom, then you have the egg and potatoes in the middle topped with the salmon. Generous portion size, and served with a big leafy green salad it made a great lunch.

Beef Teriyaki Skewers and a green bean salad. This felt like quite a light dinner, but it was full of flavour. I love Asian flavours so always a thumbs up from me. Would be easy to do on a BBQ too. 

This is just a half portion of the Huevos Rancheros. We were going out to a BBQ later that day, but I needed to eat something after my workout before going so my husband and I shared it. Being a carb refuel meal it had the tortilla and black beans, so was very satisfying!

The Chicken Cashew Curry was a good curry too. This one sadly didn’t get served with poppadoms though! Just a massive portion of veg that I’m beginning to get used to!

I had to try this one as a carb refuel meal, but part of me thought that beans as a refuel is a waste when I can have bread! But it was really filling. Also, it turns out that chicken sausages are really tasty too! Very quick and easy to make, and anything with an egg on top gets a thumbs up from me!

These turkey lettuce wraps look great but they are incredibly fiddly to eat! I made a batch of the turkey mix but the second time I just served it on a bed of salad leaves to save myself the trouble to trying to catch it all! You can tell turkey is a very lean meat as it is a bit too dry for my liking. 

During the world cup fever, I made the buffalo chicken bites with slaw. I used a really hot sauce that my husband battled with but I loved! This was really delicious and felt like a bit of a fakeaway. Need to do this one again! You do need the help of a magimix shredder though to make the slaw!

Steak Tacos for a carb refuel! Great meal, fine for a lunch, but just doesn’t feel enough if for a dinner, especially if you’ve just worked out. Maybe I’m just a piggy! Very quick and easy though.

I found the reduced carb breakfast options a bit limited, he tries to encourage you to think that you can eat anything for breakfast, but I’m not sure I can eat a stir fry first thing in the morning! So between the PBJ Smoothies, Overnight Oats and Protein Muffins I went to do a “CYO” (create your own) based off your tailored portion sizes and made these three egg muffins with peppers spring onions, spinach and cheese. They tasted good and could be prepared ahead but eggs just don’t fill me up, I was hungry 10 minutes later!

This salad really surprised me! I was originally put off as it the Vietnamese Beef on smashed cucumber salad, sounded like it was just on cucumber and the meal just wouldn’t touch the sides for me! However, it was also with radishes and edamame beans which are of course filling. The steak marinade was really good, and if it wasn’t for trying to not eat too much red meat each week and finding this gem so late into the plan I’d have cooked it a lot more!

The last meal I tried (I think I’ve now cooked all bar 3) was the piri piri chicken bake. It was a carb refuel meal, that I had always been put off making as the carb in it was sweet potato. I like it, but it doesn’t really feel like a reward carb. However, the husband was out (and isn’t a fan of sweet potato) and I was coming to the end of the cycle so I thought I would give it a chance. After all, I was so surprised by the “cucumber salad”! The fact it was spicy was a good sign and I love roasted veg too, so it was a very crummy dish, despite being a bit cheated that it wasn’t carby enough for me!

Week 1 done! 💪🏻

Oh and it ended on a high with the amazing chicken jalfrezi curry! As you may know I like a bit of a fakeaway and this was great, I used the hot chilli powder to really give it some punch and it didn’t disappoint. And with poppadoms on the side too.. winning! I have to admit, I did have a glass of wine with it, I’d had such a long slog of a day. The husband is away so after putting the kids to bed it was a lot of tidying up and chores to get done on my own so fully deserved it in my opinion!

Besides, life is for living. I will (and have already) cheat a little on the program but I believe I’ll still get results if I’m on it 80% of the time! Obviously they won’t be as good, but I’m not looking to become a gym junky, just a happy and toned up mummy!

The 80/20 rule is my mantra, eat well and healthily 80% of the time, so that when you enjoy treats or have a bit of a blow out the other 20% of the time you won’t suffer with weight gain and you won’t have deprived your body or mind so you’re happy all round. And happy mummy equals happy baby, happy kids and happy daddy!

Other highs this week have been a create your own (CYO) 3 egg omelette with tomato, peppers and cheese for breakfast. (Reduced Carb)

The chicken Caesar salad bagel was immense! It was a post workout refuel meal and it was divine. You can’t not love a bagel that needs to be converted into an open sandwich because there is simply too much filling!

The reduced carb BBQ Turkey Meatball Bake was great for dinner and then leftovers for lunch the next day. It’s a little strange having a hot meal like that at noon, but it’s so easy if all I have to do is reheat it up, it makes a nice change from sandwiches!

On Fathers Day, I didn’t think I could put the husband through an Uber light carb lunch so pumped out a hiit workout before lunch so we could enjoy the chicken mac and cheese! We had been to the pub for lunch the day before so didn’t feel too guilty!

The lemon and herb pork was another great meal we enjoyed, although I hate the prep of making an escalope! The pork portion was so generous, I didn’t feel like I missed the carbs.

The seared tuna on Asian slaw I’m on the fence with. It started off great, but there was simply so much slaw that the spring onions were repeating on me all night long! Maybe I’ll just make with less next time, it’s still a lot of slaw though, makes the generous portion size of tuna look tiny!

All in all, a great week of food. It’s been quite stressful making 3 meals a day with the kids but I try to “prep like a boss” as much as I can. I’ll find my way and it will become more manageable and then the recipes will change when I hit cycle 2 and it will be a new juggling act again!

The first few days..

When you get your program through your inbox it’s very exciting, like getting a whole new cook book but everything is made specifically for you. What to cook first!

It’s true what they say, to stay on track it’s best to really prep and plan ahead so that you don’t make naughty substitutes. It’s quite a headache to do when you’ve got kids at your ankles, am I making this recipe for just me? For me and the Hubbie? Some for the next day too? Some for the freezer? Despite it taking a while to chop up all the veg when batch cooking it pays off in he long term, I love a stocked freezer!

This salad called out to me immediately, chipotle chicken burrito bowl. It was amazing! Full of great flavours, spicy chicken, avocado, black beans and mozzarella. Loved it!

Dinner time was less easy on the eye but with generous amounts of prawns and chorizo the stir fry was also a winner. Made enough for our lunches the next day too!

When it came to Friday night, I wanted to have more of a treat, a salad wasn’t going to cut it. However, NY style steak and eggs was going to hit the spot nicely!

It’s reduced carb so only 100g of potato for me, but it’s mixed with chopped tomato and as the potato is made into little cubes it doesn’t look too measly!

Weekends used to be for brunching, a thing of the past these days! Nothing leisurely about eating anymore! But as the husband was around, it meant I could at least cook us a hot breakfast. Spanish style shakshuka is a tomato based sauce with peppers, red onion and chorizo with paprika and cumin, then it gets the eggs poached into it. Delicious! Of course it needs so sourdough toast with it, but for now I’ll have to accept that’s a no no!

The start of my Body Coach Journey

I’ve always been so intrigued by Joe Wicks’ lean in 15 programs, everything about it rings true to me. It’s all about good exercise and eating right. So many diets are calorie counting or cutting out fat that you end up depriving your body of essentials that it needs.

I did slimming world for a couple of months after baby 1, and I did lose the weight but I got a bit fed up of not being able to eat healthy snacks with good natural oils such as avocados and nuts because of their fat content even if it was good for you. Instead I was eating artificially flavoured muller lights like no tomorrow… no comparison really!

This body coach plan should also be sustainable afterwards as it’s teaching you about how your own body works and whether you tick better on more carbs or not. I love exercise, so it’s ticking all the boxes except for how to do all this food prep and hiit workouts with a toddler and baby in tow!

If you don’t know how it works, you fill out a questionnaire about body vitals, eating and drinking habits and also your activity level (I’m definitely not the level of a desk job anymore!) and in a few days you get your personalised food plan with 30 odd recipes for the next 30 days. There are also measurements for creating your own so you can get adventurous when wanting to think outside of the box!

You must try to do HIIT workouts 5 times a week which are only 25 mins long, and Oh My God they are hard! You really feel like you’ve had a workout and it’s great you can do it from your own home. Then as a reward you get to eat carbs with your next meal! Winning.

I love carbs, so rest days in particular where it’s reduced carb meals only will be tough, but it will be good for me and if it sheds the post baby love handles, even better!

Anyway, here’s to shifting away the mumbod and hopefully feeling a bit more bikini ready for the holiday in September!

Feeling full of enthusiasm I set my alarm clock early with the intention to do the hiit before baby and toddler woke up. I ran into problems immediately! The baby bless, her decided to not wake for her usual 4.00 feed and so was then stirring when I got up. New plan needed; quick feed, lay down and get back to it. Well the feed was ok but once I started the workout she was crying for me. Why of course, she was now up for the day! So she came to watch me from her bouncer, lucky girl.

Then another 10 minutes in, the toddler is standing up in his cot calling out that he’s done a poo! Typical!! Another quick speedy nappy change and lay down and I finally got to complete my interrupted but first workout!

Maybe mornings won’t work for me!

That be said, I did enjoy tucking into the Apple Bircher for post Carb refuel meal for breakfast! This is going to be a juggling act and a half!

It was easy to make, put the oats, protein powder, a mix of dried cranberries and raisins in a bowl with a pinch of cinnamon. Add the Apple juice and leave to soak in the fridge overnight. The next morning stir through grated apple, ground flaxseed and yoghurt and top with almonds! Yum!

Low fat fakeaways

Sofie is now 3 months old and I feel like I’ve been sitting on the sofa feeding permanently whilst feeding myself cookies and cake. As a result I’m putting on more weight than I’m burning by feeding and my weight has gone up since having her!

Time for operation byebye mumbod! I’ve been looking at a few options, just mindful healthy eating, a slimming world plan or the 90 day body coach. In the end, because I want to feel enthusiastic about something new and because I agree with all the macronutrient science behind it, the body coach has won.

It takes a few days for your plan to come in, so in the mean time I knocked out a few family friendly dinners that are low fat, low or no syn and my favourite slimming world meals. Of course they are, they are full of carbs… Still don’t get how that works!

There are some good fakeaway recipes out there, you basically bulk up massively on the vegetables, but because the flavours are there, you still feel like you’re eating a teriyaki or sweet and sour dish.

These are my top 3!

1. Egg fried Rice with Chicken Teriyaki

This takes a bit of prep chopping up peppers, pak choi, spring onions, mangetout and garlic but it is so good. The sauce is easy to make, put all the ingredients in a bowl, marinate the chicken for 5 minutes. Cool the rice while you fry off the chicken in its sauce. Remove from the heat and fry off the veg. Add the drained rice, make a well for the egg, stir to scramble and cook. Mix all together and add the chicken!

2. Sweet and Sour Salmon Noodles

Similar to above in terms of all the veg chopping, but everything fresh is going to require it! Fry the veg off, add the salmon pieces in the sauce, and lastly add in the noodles, cover and simmer allowing the noodles to cook in the sauce!

3. Prawn and Spring Onion Risotto

This is another great cheat, it’s a great tasting risotto except for the fact it’s missing the vermouth, oodles of butter and a generous portion of Parmesan rather than a sprinkle! But that aside, the prawns and spring onions really come through making it taste like a fresh and tasty risotto!

There you go, you can eat like a king and be healthy!

BBQ Pizza!

We treated ourselves to a beautiful gas Weber last year, so a pizza stone accesory was always going to be a must! We gave it a go briefly last year but we struggled to get it on and off the stove… until this year we welcomed the pizza paddle. REVOLUTIONARY!

I read a few different pizza recipes, and have as a result come up with my own and it worked a treat! Thin, crispy, a little bit sour and held the toppings onto it perfectly.

I also tried freezing a batch and after defrosting on the kitchen counter it was as good as the first fresh batch so don’t be afraid to batch make the dough and freeze to save time on another day, especially when you want to leave it to ferment slightly overnight.

I think the trick to a good pizza is to keep it simple, we started with a margherita and the next time added some chilli slices and chicken pieces. You don’t want to make it to heavy. All I need to do now is work on making my base into a perfect circle!

Here’s the recipe that worked a treat!

Ingredients: (serves 4)

For the sauce:

• 1 tin of plum tomatoes
• 1tbsp olive oil (plus more to drizzle)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano or mixed herbs
• Leaves picked from small bunch of fresh basil

For the dough:

• 500g 00 flour (and extra to dust)
• 18g fresh yeast
• 15g fine rock salt

Plus semolina flour for paddle

Toppings:

• 50g parmesan
• 200g mozzerella
• Or any other additional toppings of your choice

 

Method:

To make the dough and for it to have a slightly sour flavour, makes this 24 hours ahead.

1. Mix the flour in a bowl with 300ml of warm water. Mix well and leave to rest for an hour.
2. Add the yeast to 2tbsp of water and mix, then add the salt. Mix this well into the dough and leave for a couple of hours to double in size.  You can use it from here, but I prefer to pop it in the fridge for up to 24 hours to gain that sour taste.
3. When the dough is ready, remove from the fridge and allow to come back to room temperature.
4. Tip onto a slightly floured surface and divide into 4 balls. It’s important to get them as round as possible to help get that circular pizza base.
5. Cover with a tea towel and leave for another hour.
6. While these rest, you can make the sauce. Tip away some of the sauce from the tin so that  it’s not too wet and put the tomatoes in a bowl with the olive oil, herbs and seasoning to taste. Pulp a little, but keep a little chunky for a good texture.
7. Heat your BBQ to max, it needs to be about 400 degrees C. Then pop in the stone to heat for 15 minutes.
8. Whilst the BBQ heats the stone, take a ball and with putting one palm in the middle, stretch it with your other hand up to the forearm. Turn the pizza over in one movement turning it 90 degrees. Stretch it over the forearm, turn, and repeat. Do this until the pizza is the desired size.
9. Sprinkle some semolina flour onto the paddle and pop the base on top. Quickly spread over the tomato sauce, and tear pieces of the mozzarella on top. Add the basil leaves and its ready to slide onto the pizza stone!
10. Leave to cook for about 6 minutes, try not to peak or the heat will escape!

Decorating on the paddle makes it easier than transferring over but you have to work quickly!

On the stove, BBQ set to max, shut the lid and don’t keep peaking!

There you have it, rustic but perfect pizza!

 

Crab & Asparagus Pappardelle

Yes, it is another pasta dish! It’s just so comforting but with crab and asparagus it gives it more of a lighter summer feeling rather than a heavy winter warmer.

I got a dressed crab from our local fishmonger, it is expensive but it’s so good right now, and using both the white and brown meat gives the dish full flavour. Can’t fault it.

It’s simple to prep and if using fresh pasta, it takes less than 10 minutes to cook too.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
• Pinch fennel seeds
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• large handful parsley, finely chopped, stalks separated
• 1.2 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 50ml vermouth
• 1 dressed crab (white and brown meat)
• 200g fresh pappardelle
• 200g fresh asparagus, bases trimmed at the snapping point, sliced on the diagonal
• 1 tbsp creme fraiche
• chopped chives and hazelnuts to garnish

 

Method:

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan over a high heat and add the fennel seeds, chilli, shallots, parsley stalks, lemon zest with some salt and pepper. Fry for about 5 minutes until the aromas really come through.
2. Add the tomato puree, and after a couple of minutes, deglaze by adding the vermouth.
3. Add half of the crabmeat and combine to make a thick sauce. Remove from the heat and rest.
4. Cook the pasta and asparagus slices together for 3 minutes. Drain, reserving some of the water to the side. Add the the sauce to the pasta and mix to coat adding some of the pasta water to loosen if necessary.
5. Add the remaining crab meat, creme fraiche and lemon juice, and dish up topping with the chopped chives and hazelnuts!

Crispy Fried Rice with Prawns & Green Beans

More speedy dinners to satisfy the midweek hunger! All my favourite flavours in this great dish; garlic, ginger, chilli, lime, coriander to name a few and best of all, it comes in under 500 calories!

You can make this recipe using pre bought cooked rice, but if you have the time, making your own is dead simple. You just cook the rice as per normal packet instructions but when you drain, run under cool immediately under water so that it chills quickly to remove the risk of any rice poisoning. There can be nasty dormant bacteria that live on the rice grains that can reactivate if left at room temperature for too long. For this reason you should also never reheat rice twice.

Once cooled, put in a dish, cover and leave in the fridge. This will help to dry it out, then it will be ready to use later on in the evening!

There is a little bit of prep, but 10 minutes max, this can be prepped ahead when you make the rice so that when it comes to cook everything is at hand and it’s ready on the table in 10 minutes!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 200g raw tiger prawns
• 100g green beans
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 lime zested and juiced
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced
• 1 pouch of ready cooked rice, or 150g rice cooked and chilled
• Handful of cashew nuts and coriander leaves to garnish

Method: 

1. Fry the prawns, beans, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime zest & juice and 3/4 of the chilli in a bit of vegetable oil over a high heat for 2 minutes, moving all the time so not to burn.
2. Add the rice and mix together. Thin out over the pan and leave to cook and crisp up in the pan. Mix over and do twice more.
3. Season with pepper to taste and serve with the remaining chilli, chopped cashews and coriander to garnish.

Perfectly simple and full of flavour!