Beetroot, Butternut & Chicken Salad

May I just say I’m a butternut freak, you’ve probably noticed. I post butternut recipes regularly. I guess I love it, because it looks like sunshine on your plate. Part of enjoying food is how it looks, if it’s pretty I enjoy it a whole lot more.

   

Ingredients:

300g cooked beetroot (you could buy it cooked or steam it for 15 minutes)

250g Steamed Butternut

300g baby leaf Spinach

2 Chicken Breasts cut into strips

1 tablespoon Honey

1 teaspoon Chicken Spice

Method:

Firstly coat the chicken in chicken spice and seal it into a hot frying pan. No need for oil, the honey will help the chicken to get golden brown.

Seal the flesh of the chicken and add the honey.

Fry for about 5 minutes and take off the heat. It should be cooked without being dry, nothing like dry chicken.

Now you could be creative, compile the salad in layers.

First layer will be spinach, followed by butternut and beetroot. Lastly add the chicken.

Drizzle the left over honey juice from the pan over your salad and viola; you have a tasty summer dish.

You could add pumpkin seeds, even some parmesan. I added almonds to my dish. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Tuna Cakes

We all know we need to eat more fish, but it gets boring. The same old fish and chips every week. So I decided to try something new. I call it, Tuna Cakes. I decided to use tuna, because it is high in omega 3 fatty acids. 

Omega 3 is such a wonderful supplement with great health benefits. It could lower cholesterol, reduce high blood pressure, ease joint pains, fight wrinkles, improve memory and could even boost your mood.

Ingredients:

200g mashed potatoes

2 tins of Tuna

1 egg

1 teaspoon parsley

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pinch of Paprika (You could add more if you like hot food)

Salt to taste.

Method:

Add all the ingredients together, mix well.

Add about 5ml of olive oil in a very hot pan.

Scoop a tablespoon of the mixture into the pan and press down to flatten it slightly.

Leave it for about 3 minutes per side, or until it’s golden brown.

This mixture will make about 8 fish cakes.

I served these Tuna cakes with some sweet chilli sauce. You could serve this hot or cold, next time I might add a bit of spring onion to the mixture. Overall this is a healthy fun recipe, I hope you enjoy it!

Pumpkin and Butternut Pie

These last few months has been hectic, and once again I am reminded how precious time really is. I think the greatest gift you could give someone you love is your time. I love to show I care by taking time to do things for people. One of the things I love to do is making their favourite dishes. The dish I’m about the share today, my dad absolutely loves.

I love pumpkin pie, but I always try and find a way to make a dish healthier yet keep it tasty. I think I got this one right.

Pumpkin and Butternut Pie - as you can see it was a hit!

Pumpkin and Butternut Pie

Ingredients:

250g Steamed Pumpkin

400g Steamed Butternut

1 teaspoon Butter/Margarine

2 teaspoons Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

200ml Milk

1 heaped tablespoon Custard Powder

Sugar and cinnamon mix to “dust” the pie with. (Mix it 3:1, for every 5ml of cinnamon use 15ml of sugar. This is good to use on pancakes as well.)

Method:

• First steam the Pumpkin and butternut and mash it together, I use my hand blender to get a smooth consistency.
• Next add the butter, sugar and cinnamon and mix well.
• Lastly dissolve the custard powder in the milk and add to the pumpkin mix.
• Pour it into a baking dish, and lightly dust with a sugar and cinnamon mix.
• Bake in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 30 minutes.
• Take it out to cool slightly before serving.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, I know what I’m making for Christmas…

Peanut butter – guilt free cookies

I found this recipe in a magazine, and thought: “yeah right! This will never work.” I was very sceptical, but tried it.

It worked! I couldn’t believe it. It is hearty, filling and best of all guilt free! Well mostly guilt free… See one cookie, counts as 1 portion of fat. The best part is, it is so rich you can’t really manage to eat more than one cookie at a time.

Peanut butter is a good source of healthy fats and could lower your risk for diabetes type two. It is also a good source of protein. It will make you feel fuller for longer. As everything in life, enjoy in moderation. My gran used to say whenever there is a "too" in front of a a phrase it's not healthy (too much chocolate, too much running, too much make-up), keep it simple.

Peanut butter – guilt free cookies

1 cup of natural peanut butter

1 cup of Castor sugar or sugar replacement

1 egg

Mix it all together, it will form a dough. Roll little balls and press them flat on a prepared baking tray. Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking tray before removing it.

You get about 20 – 30 regular sized cookies out of the mix. I made small cookies and served it as dessert with some nice filter coffee. YUM! 

(1 cookie = 1 fat serving)

Asparagus and Pan fried Salmon

Since I started my healthy eating journey I’ve lost a total of 9kg! I can’t believe it, as you can see from my blog posts I still have loads of tasty dishes and desserts!

Things that are helping me on this journey:

•  My husband and family is very supportive, without their support I wouldn’t be able to keep following a healthy lifestyle.
•  Planning, planning, planning! I know which days will be hectic so I plan quick and easy meals for those days.
• When I dine-out I always choose the healthiest option on the menu. This usually includes: salads without dressing (rather use balsamic vinegar), Steak and baked potato, fruit salad and ice-cream (or steal a bite from your hubby! Lol), Smoothies instead of milkshakes.
•  I bake my own wedges at home; it’s tastier and much healthier.
•   I’ve become a calorie snob, no more cheap sweets or chocolates to curve a craving. If I want something I make sure I bake it, or that it is quality chocolate like 70% cocoa.
•  I don’t award myself with food anymore; I rather go for mani’s, pedi’s, etc.
•  I’ve relaxed about food, every day is a new day.
•  Most importantly, I’ve chosen life. Before I used to think: “oh I’m depriving myself of all the good stuff!”. Now I know food can still be just as tasty and healthy. Now I know that if I do not eat healthy and do not look after myself I deprive myself of my health. What is more important to you? A crappy chocolate bar or being able to live life with no restraints?

This weekend was hectic and not full of the best choices either, so instead of sulking about everything I did wrong I made a change with a healthy lunch. Asparagus and pan fried Salmon.

Asparagus and Pan fried Salmon

125g of Asparagus

1 piece of Salmon

First off lightly steam the asparagus for about 5 minutes. Now throw it in a pan with 5ml of butter, a squirt of lemon juice and salt and pepper. Just fry it on high heat for 2 minutes. Set it aside.

Next salt and pepper the Salmon, fry it flesh down in the left over juices of the asparagus. Make sure the Salmon is sealed, this will only take a view moments. Now turn the Salmon on its skin side and cover the pan with a lid. Turn down the heat; it will steam/fry until it is cooked. I like my salmon to be a bit pink in the centre, just keep your eye on it.

Lastly, enjoy!

Butternut and Chicken Quiche

It’s almost summer time again. The time of year where you never feel like cooked food, and you definitely don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen when you could be enjoying the sun. This is why I think quiche is the perfect summer dish. Its light and you can serve it hot or cold. You can keep it in the fridge and just add salad to complete the meal.

Quiche is versatile, you can add almost any combination and it will still taste divine! My favourite combo’s are spinach and feta, and butternut and chicken.

Today I want to share my Butternut and chicken recipe.

You’ll need to start with the crust. They say woman are better pastry chefs, because their hands are colder :). Cold is indeed the trick to a light and flaky pastry. Try to have all your ingredients as cold as possible.

Butternut and Chicken Quiche

 

Pastry - You will need:

220g Cake Flour

Pinch of salt

180g Room temperature Butter

1 egg yolk

Cold water

Sift flour and salt, and the butter. Gently rub the butter unto the flour using your fingertips, don’t overwork it.

Add the egg yolk and just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Shape into a ball and wrap your pastry in cling wrap and leave in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Again the key is not to over work the pastry, and to keep it chilled.

Now is the time you can start cooking the butternut and chicken for the filling.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface.

Lightly flour the pastry and gently start to roll the pastry out.

It should be about 5mm thick, and big enough to fit a 24cm pie dish.

Place it in a dish, prick it with a fork and bake blind, (this means put some wax paper over your pastry and fill the dish with some beans or rice, it will help to keep the pastry’s shape) for 10 minutes in a 200 degrees Celsius oven.

Uncover the pastry and bake for another 7 minutes.

Your pastry is now ready to be filled with yummy ingredients.

Filling - You will need:

200g of cooked butternut,

2 Cooked chicken breasts flaked,

Some mushrooms thinly sliced,

1 fried onion,

Some chives, salt and pepper,

3 eggs + the left over egg white used in the pastry,

400ml of low fat Milk

Start by placing the fried onion all over the bottom of the pastry. Now layer the butternut, chives and chicken. Make sure that there’s an even spread of ingredients.

Now mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour this mixture over the filling ingredients.

Now bake the quiche in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 30min or until golden brown.

The quiche will need to cool slightly; this will just help it set better.

There you have it, a basic quiche recipe. You can now make your own combination by replacing the butternut and chicken with your own ingredients, add more spices, try different things. You can even replace some of the milk with cream for a richer quiche.

Have fun!