Jumping on the Healthy Eating Bandwagon

Ok... I'm going to start this post by confessing that a) I haven't actually made any New Year's resolutions this year through a crippling fear of the disappointment that will follow when I inevitably break them, and b) I have a terrible tendency to yo-yo diet. These things do not make me the best person to come to for any kind of healthy eating / diet tips, however I do have a few recipes for those of you with a little more motivation than me! 

When I have successfully lost weight in the past, it hasn't been through any celebrity fad, crash diet, or intensive exercise regime. I generally follow a few golden rules, and with a little determination they give me the results that I want...

1. Try to cut out alcohol, but don't ban yourself. If you are having a drink, try white wine and soda, or vodka and slimline tonic or cranberry, and have a small glass of water between drinks. 
2. An absolute unbreakable rule is to drink between one and a half and two litres of water per day. I always keep a sports bottle of water with me when I'm on a weight loss mission.
3. Make time for three meals a day. It doesn't even matter what they are. My weight suffers when I fall out of that routine, when I convince myself I don't have time for breakfast. One day I will learn that three square meals a day is the only way!?

Any-way. I'm a foodie blogger, not a diet expert, so here are a few of my go-to recipes as promised...

Vegetable Soup

I blogged about soup a few months ago - the full recipe is here. The beauty of this is you can use absolutely anything in it, and season it however you like. I like to make a big batch at the weekend with the leftovers from a Sunday roast, and then freeze in individual containers - they make a perfect low-fat low-cal lunch either at home or the office. These ones are Sweet Potato with a few Chillies for spice...

Vegetable Soup Freezer Pots

Chicken Wraps

As a sales rep by day, I spend a lot of time in the car, with no kitchen or microwave, and the constant lure of fast food at the services. I find chicken wraps ideal to take in the car when I know I'm going to be out at lunchtime, however they get bland and boring very quickly. I use these few quick fix marinades to add some excitement to my chicken breasts;

• Chinese Style: 5tbsp Dark Soy Sauce, 3tbsp Brown Sugar and 1tsp Chinese Five Spice
• Tikka Style: 1tsp of Masala (or any other) Curry Paste in 200g Crème Fraiche 
• Mediterranean: 3tbsp Honey plus the juice of 1 lemon

Marinade overnight, and then grill and slice for tasty, high protein, low calorie wraps, salads or sandwiches.

Muffins

Because my worst food habit is skipping breakfast, these little beauties are my morning saviours! The full recipe is in my blog post here, and again it is one of those amazingly adaptable recipes that has unlimited possibilities. I made a quick batch tonight using some frozen blueberries and a teaspoon of lemon extract. You can make them even more healthy by using wholemeal self raising flour, and skimmed milk. The recipe makes a batch of 12, and they are perfect for freezing once cool, and then popping in the oven one-by-one to warm through. 

Lemon and Blueberry Muffin

Good luck to everyone out there who has made resolutions for 2013 - I'd love to hear everyone else's diet tips and healthy eating recipes - please comment below! 

V x

The Quest For The Perfect Christmas Cake

There are many things that I am trying to turn my hand to this year, with Christmas Cake being high up on the list for a number of reasons. Firstly, I am hoping that (if and) when The Pantry Door starts to officially trade, I will be able to sell them. Secondly, because this year, I am hoping that they will be a key feature in my Christmas hampers for friends and family. And thirdly, but no less important, because you have to have Christmas cake, and it's about high time I learned to make one!

Because Christmas is steeped in tradition and recipes passed down from generation to generation, I decided against Google as my source of inspiration this time, and tried a more traditional approach... I asked my Mum. My Mum is a great baker, her cakes are legendary. So much so in fact that I remember at school whenever I took a slice of my Mum's cake in my packed lunch I would auction it off to the highest bidder! (Always safe in the knowledge that I could spend my 20p on whatever I chose, and still have a slice of delicious cake when I got home...)

So I phoned my Mum, expecting, to be honest, for her to pop over for a cup of tea, and then, with exaggerated secrecy present me with a faded brown page, passed down from the ages, containing the ultimate Christmas cake recipe. In reality, she brought me a ready measured Christmas Cake Kit from Tesco. True, it was endorsed by Mary Berry, but that's not really the point.

However I set about the task in earnest, and unpacked the bag of ingredients and the recipe card. I actually have to credit the brilliant simplicity of these kits. All the dry ingredients are measured, bagged and labelled in the kit, and all you need to add are butter, eggs, and citrus peel. The sheet gives you step by step instructions on making the cake mix, and the recipe and quantities are all written down so you can actually keep it for another year.

The Mary Berry endorsed Tesco Kit recipe is as follows;

210g dark brown sugar
210g butter
4 large eggs
1 orange
1 lemon
40g chopped almonds
10g black treacle
210g plain flour
3g mixed spice
833g soaked fruit mix (currants, raisins, sultanas, cherries, apricots, mixed peel and brandy)
10g apricot jam
200g marzipan
250g icing sugar

The method is surprisingly simple. Pre-heat the over to 140 degrees. Grease an 8 inch tin, and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Make a lid for the cake from parchment as well, and cut a small hole in the centre to let any steam from the cake escape during cooking.

Line Tins with Greaseproof Paper or Baking Parchment

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy. Add the eggs, almonds, treacle, and the zest of the orange and lemon, and mix well.  Sift in the flour and mixed spice, and fold into the mixture. Add the soaked fruit, and combine well until evenly distributed through the mix.

Christmas Cake Mixture

Place the mixture in the prepared tins

The instructions said to bake for four and a half hours, but to do the skewer test after three and a half. I actually used a series of small cake tins to make my cakes, as I have plans to decorate them individually as gifts, so I checked my bakes after an hour, and they were pretty much done. I gave them an extra 20 minutes, and then put on a cooling rack. 

Tradition dictates now, that the cakes are wrapped in greaseproof paper and tin foil, and are fed with more brandy every couple of weeks until they are decorated for Christmas. I have made two batches, and the first are now coated in marzipan waiting for the final touches with the icing. I cannot wait to see my designs come to life!

All in all, I have to say that the Christmas Cake Kit was not such a bad idea, and actually I picked up another couple at the supermarket last week for £5 each, which, lets be honest, you would never manage to buy the individual ingredients for, and actually, you are still doing all of the cooking so it isn't really cheating... is it? I suppose, as always, the proof will be in the eating - I'll let you all know how it goes on Christmas Day!

V x

The Only Muffin Recipe You Will Ever Need

It's been a little while since I posted a recipe up here, as I have been concentrating on my cake decorating and the projects I had promised friends. Tonight I wanted to share with you the easiest, most versatile muffin recipe you could wish for. I'm writing it tonight as I have sat here working most of the evening craving something sweet, and had nothing in the house to eat. I glanced upon a packet of chocolate chips in the back of the cupboard, and before I was really aware of what I was doing I found myself mixing flour and butter in a bowl...

I had a phase last year where I made muffins every week to take in the car for breakfast, and experimented with so many recipes and variations, breakfast muffins, oat muffins, chocolate, raspberry, blueberry, wholemeal, you name it! I adapted from a range of recipes, and this is the method that I settled on, it's quick, easy, and so so adaptable.

So, the ingredients list is;

380g self raising flour (or 355g and 25g cocoa powder if you want chocolate muffins)
100g butter
200g caster sugar (I always prefer golden caster sugar as it has a slightly more caramel flavour)
300ml milk
1 egg
...Plus 100 - 200g of whatever you want your feature ingredient to be - chocolate chips, blueberries, chopped dried apricots, cherries - the possibilities are endless!

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees, and line a bun tin with 12 muffin cases.

Start by sifting the flour into a mixing bowl, and adding the butter chopped into small cubes. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until you create a breadcrumb like texture. This usually only takes a minute or two.

Add the caster sugar to the flour, and stir until combined.

Beat the egg, and add to the milk. You may wish to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract at this point if it compliments the flavours in your muffins. Slowly poor the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, and combine well until all the flour has been incorporated. Add your additional ingredients (fruit etc) to the mixture, stir through, and then divide into the 12 muffin cases.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins are a golden colour, and firm to touch. Remove from the oven, and place on a cooling rack.

And then dig in! These are delicious still warm from the oven with a cup of tea in the evening, as an easy breakfast on the go, or as a treat in packed lunches. Once they have cooled, 2 minutes in a warm oven will perk them up nicely.

The muffins I made tonight in the photo above are triple chocolate - with cocoa powder, and dark and white chocolate chunks mixed in. You really can go to town on mixing this recipe up however, here are some variations I have made in the past...

1. 150g fresh blueberries and a teaspoon of cinnamon
2. 100g fresh raspberries and 50g white chocolate chips
3. 50g chopped crystallised ginger and 50g chopped dried apricots
4. For a healthier breakfast option, try using a wholemeal self raising flour, and adding dried fruit and nuts
5. Replace the butter at the start of the recipe with mashed banana for a high fibre, low fat option, and add 100g chopped walnuts

I would love to hear any other ideas out there for new flavours for these muffins, please post below if you have any to share...

Vx

If In Doubt - Make Soup

When I talk about a kick at the pantry door, the absolute essence of the philosophy is that moment when, for any one of a number of reasons, you find yourself in the kitchen, with all your cupboard doors ajar, the fridge door wide open, and you are asking yourself what on earth to make for dinner. Maybe it's not quite payday. Maybe you have neither the time nor energy to get to the shops. Maybe, as often happens in our house, you have a mixture of half used packages and leftovers that don't quite know how to assemble themselves into a proper meal.

Whenever this happens in my house, I make soup. Soup is one of the most under-rated, healthiest, lowest in calories, tastiest, and absolute easiest things in the world to make. It needs no recipe, culinary expertise, little time to make, and its possibilities are endless. I use one simple rule when I make soup - the volume of liquid must slightly outweigh the weight of the solids, normally 500g mixed vegetables to 700ml stock.

Today I made a soup from a bag of sweet potatoes that needed using up. I used a chicken stock cube to make my stock, and added to it the sweet potatoes peeled and chopped, three sweet peppers that were close to their best, and a generous helping of thyme. I left the pan to simmer for an hour whilst I got on with my chores, and returned when the vegetables had softened to the point that they were starting to break up. I added half a bag of spinach that was sitting in the fridge, cooked it through and then blended until smooth.

Gary and I enjoyed big steaming bowlfuls for lunch, with piles of buttered bread, and the remainder has been divided into individual pots and frozen, so that we can defrost and cook a single portion whenever the mood takes. This also makes a cheap and easy healthy lunch option if you work in a place where you have access to a microwave.

Making soup like this, the possibilities are endless, these are some of my favourite options;

Spicy Vegetable

Start by frying a chopped garlic clove and a fresh chilli, then add the stock and vegetables. If you do not have a fresh chilli, 1 tsp of dried chilli flakes could also be used. Butternut Squash or Parsnips are ideal flavours to compliment the spice.

Smoky Bacon and Lentil

Start by frying chopped onions and bacon in a little oil until golden, then add the remaining vegetables, potatoes, and red lentils. Then add the stock.

Chicken and Vegetable

Follow the recipe above, adding 200g cooked chicken. Leftover meat from a Sunday Roast is perfect, alternatively grill 2 chicken breasts, dice and add to the soup before blending.

I would love to hear some of your variations or favourite soup recipes, please post below!

Enjoy! V x