Aphrodisiac Valentines Day Menu Healthy Recipes & Giveaway!

Aphrodisiac Valentines Day Menu Healthy Recipes & Giveaway!

With Valentine's Day just around the corner I wanted to share with you my super sensual Valentine's Day menu and recipes that will guarantee to impress any girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife! Each meal contains an abundance of aphrodisiac foods to get you in the mood - from suggestive colours and shapes to foods that cause physical reactions inside the body!

I also have a love-themed giveaway for you curtsy of an amazing gift company called Just Mustard.. just click the link below to watch my Valentine's Day Menu Video, subscribe and comment to enter! - The giveaway will close Tuesday 12th Feb .. good luck!

 

[To Enter the Giveaway - Click Here]

  

 

Breakfast: Wholegrain toast topped with tomato puree & a heart-shaped boiled egg

Lunch: Serve an avocado & rocket salad topped with pine-nuts (goes great in a sandwich too!)

 

 

Snacks: A banana!

Evening Meal: Honey & ginger chicken with asparagus (serve with basmati rice)

Dessert: Pineapple & strawberries covered with dark chocolate!

To make the ginger & honey glazed chicken...

 

You will need..

 

4 chicken breasts

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp Dijon or wholegrain mustard

4 tbsp water

2 tsp ground ginger

2 garlic cloves (or 2 tsp of ground ginger)

Black Pepper (to taste)

 

And here's what to do..

 

1) Pan fry the chicken breasts to give colour all over

2) Mix together the dressing ingredients and add to the chicken

3) Mix well and cook for 20-30 mins over a medium heat until the chicken is cooked

 

To make the chocolate covered fruits..

 

You will need..

 

100g dark chocolate

A small punnet of strawberries

A small can of pineapple rings

 

And here's what to do..

 

1) Break the chocolate into chunks and melt in the microwave for a few mins

2) Dip the strawberries into the chocolate and twirl to let the excess chocolate drip off

3) Drain the pineapple rings and dip half of them into the chocolate as above

4) Place the fruits onto a foil covered tray or plate

5) Chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins

Have a great week.everyone.. and Happy Valentine's!

 

Nic x

 

P.S And here's a picture of the prizes up for grabs... click here for the Just Mustard website!

 

My First 'Vlog' - How to break BAD diet habits!

My First 'Vlog' - How to break BAD diet habits!

So, I finally took the plunge and made my very first Vlog (Video Blog)!

 

In this video I give you my top 5 tips for breaking those bad diet habits that could be halting your weight loss attempts or be causing weight gain. Please give it a 'thumbs' up and comment if you like it!

 

You can subscribe to my You Tube channel by clicking [here]


I'm planning on making more You Tube clips and have already had some fantastic suggestions of them on Twitter so thank you - if you have any more please leave them in a comment below or email me!

Thank you for watching :)

 

Nic x

Healthy Baking Tips

Healthy Baking Tips

In June I blogged about my cake making process with Herman (Herman the German Friendship Cake!) and since then I have been asked to be their Q & A nutritionist [click here for the official website]. As their nutritionist I will also be posting regular healthy baking tips - so you bake your cake and eat it too!

So, here's my first article.. I hope it gives a little inspiration on how to make your baking a little bit healthier :)

My Top 5 Healthy Baking Tips!

Baking doesn’t have to be unhealthy. Here are my top tips on how to either reduce the calorie content or boost the nutritional goodness of your baking.

1) Add fruit. Dried fruit is packed with antioxidants, nutrients and fibre and goes well in most baking dishes. Try cranberries or cherries in a cake and raisins or blueberries in muffins. There’s no reason why ‘treat’ foods can’t count towards your 5 a day too!


Apricot & Dried Fruit Granola Pots
- click here for the recipe!

2) Substitute the fat. Replace half the amount of fat (e.g. butter) used with either mashed bananas or apple sauce. Calories and fat are instantly reduced!



Oat & Date Slices
- click here for the recipe!

3) Cut the sugar. Calorie-free sweeteners such as Splenda or Truvia (from the Stevia plant) are a great replacement for sugar in baking – just check the packet of your chosen sweetener to see if they are suitable for heating (as some aren’t!) and experiment! When I made my Herman cake I used sugar to develop the batter mix (to feed it!) and then sweetener in the final cake mix.


My Healthy Blackforest Crumble will be uploaded *soon* - made with Freedom - 100% pure fruit syrup (less calories and lower GI than sugar)

4) Go easy on the chocolate. Adding bars of melted chocolate to your baking can seriously increase the fat and calorie content, so instead why not use mini chocolate chips – stir them into your baking, without melting first and then sprinkle on top. This way you have chocolaty tastes with every bite just without as many calories!



Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips - baked by Mollie (Personal Trainer)
- click here for the recipe


5) Reduce the portion size. Baking smaller muffins and cutting your cakes or desserts into smaller pieces will instantly reduce the calories per portion, with no compromise in taste – perfect.



Banana Cloud with Nutella
- click here for the recipe

Watch this space for more healthy baking tips!

Nic x

Cooking Inspirations

Cooking Inspirations

How do you choose what to cook? Do you look in recipe books? Online? Ask your friends or family? I thought I'd share with you my top 'cooking inspirations' .. where I go too to get ideas of what to cook and blog.. maybe I can inspire you too!

A few of my Recipe Books!

Recipe Books

Recipe books are great for ideas of what to cook.. I personally like to see pictures of what I'm going to cook first, but that's just me! My top tip for buying a new recipe book is to look at it first. Go to a book shop and have a flick through the books on sale.. remember what you want it for and then see if the book meets your needs. For example, do you want a 'healthy' cooking book e.g. for low fat recipes, or do you want a recipe book to inspire evening entertainments.

I personally am a fan of the GoodFood range from the BBC - I love their simplicity.. a recipe on one page (with not too many ingredients!) and a picture of the meal on the other. The books are crammed with tasty dishes to cook and are divided up into different sections, for example: salads, soups & snacks / 30-minute or simple suppers / meals without meat / weekend specials or entertaining / desserts. I have 101 meals for two, 101 more one-pot dishes and 101 more low-fat feasts (as pictured above).

Jamie's 30-Minute Meals is a relatively new purchase.. and I must admit I have only 'eaten from it' so far.. but that's what inspired me to buy it - the delicious meals you can create from it! The Food Hospital Recipe Book is great for people who want to learn more about the power of food treating illnesses and medical conditions.. it doesn't have a lot of recipes inside but I like it!

Mornflake also kindly sent me the above recipe book, from which I baked 'oat & date slices' and would recommend it to anyone who likes to cook with oats!

Online

I love searching for healthy new recipes on the Internet and although it is slightly awkward cooking whilst looking at my phone/laptop you could just print them out! Here are my top websites for my cooking inspiration:

Nairn's

Mornflake

Quorn

British Turkey

Lean on Turkey

BBC Good Food - Healthy

Channel 4 - Healthy

Healthy Aperture

Pinterest

I've only recently discovered Pinterst but can safely say I'm addicted to it! If you haven't heard of Pinterest, it's basically an online pin board on which you can 'pin' any picture that you find on the Internet. Then when you need some cooking inspiration you can just look at your pin board, click on a picture of a food that you like the look of and *bam* it takes you to the website with the recipe on.. I seriously love it.

You can check out my pin board [here].

Nic's Nutrition

Yes, I really do look at my 'recipes page' for inspiration and cooking instructions.. I love every recipe that I blog, otherwise I wouldn't share them with you and I cook the dishes time and time again!

Click [here] to see the selection of healthy recipes that are featured on my website!

 

I hope you have a great weekend!

Let me know if you recommend any good websites for recipes!

Nic x

P.s .. The winners of the My Muesli giveaway are .. LGBrown and SW25 !! *congratulations* - I will contact you directly to arrange delivery of your prize! Thank you everyone for your entries!

My First Hand Blender!

My First Hand Blender!

I bought my 'first hand blender' the other week and have used it so much I wanted to spread the word (I love to spread 'handy' tips!!). I was rather hesitant at first about buying another piece of kitchen equipment.. I mean I've survived this long without it so what good could it do me now?!

First, here it is.. and if you're wondering, it was super cheap too - just £5 from my local supermarket! Again I was hesitant about spending so little but I thought hey, if it breaks then lesson learnt and I'll buy the more expensive brand next time (on the shelf next to it was one for £25).. but so far so good and it goes to show that you don't have to spend a lot to get a top quality product!

The hand blender is easy to hold and comes with 2 speed settings...

It's easy to assemble... (you only need to wash the bit on the right)

Mini-blades!

If you're wondering 'should I buy a hand-blender' then I would say it is perfect if:

- You like small pieces of kitchen equipment that are easy to store and clean

- You don't want to spend a lot of money on a bigger food processor

- You have a busy life and need something that is super quick to assemble

- You love (or would love) to make any of the following: fruit & yoghurt smoothies, soups, pancake mix [click here], dips [click here for mackerel dip], or baby food (I'm sure this list can go on though).

I hope this post has inspired you as to the many things that you can create by investing in just one piece of kitchen equipment.. do let me know the tasty things you create with yours!

I can't wait to share with you more recipes that I have created super quickly with this hand-blender.. starting with a very tasty and super healthy mackerel dip *click here*!

I hope you're all having a great week!

Nic x