Steak and Chips

I, for one, absolutely love steak and chips, and I'm preeeeeety sure I'm not the only one. It's a proper good meal and I only usually indulge once every so often because it's not the healthiest of choices and depending on the type of steak you like (not gonna lie, I go for one that's mid-priced for no particular reason!) it can get quite expensive. However, while I was on Slimming World I discovered their version. Luckily, it's not like healthy fish and chips (who wants boring grilled fish?) because it still tastes, and more importantly, LOOKS (kind of) like unhealthy steak and chips!

This is my dinner from the other night that I made - steak, chips and peas with cream, mushroom & onion sauce. I'm aware it doesn't look too appetising but it tasted good and was so filling! Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1 piece of steak with the fat cut off
1 potato
a few mushrooms
1 onion
a couple of table spoons of creme freche
wholegrain mustard (if you want)
frozen peas (or fresh peas if you fancy!)
Fry Lite

1) peel 1 potato and slice into chips, put them in an oven tray and spray with FryLite - cook for 40 mins or until golden
2) while the chips are cooking, slice the onion and mushrooms and cook slowly. I usually dry-fry these but if you want you can add some FryLite
3) cook your steak, again in FryLite - it doesn't need too much though - to however you like it cooked (you can leave this bit until last if you want, I covered mine in foil and put it in the oven to keep warm though)
4) when your chips are almost ready to be served, add a couple of tablespoons of creme freche to your onions and mushrooms along with a tablespoon of mustard and stir. You can keep adding creme freche until you've got however much sauce you want.
5) serve & enjoy!

Anybody else got any healthy cheats of otherwise sinful meals?

Diet Classes - A Simple Guide!

One of the things that we agreed was nice about our little blog was that we have ambassadors for all the major diet classes out there - or at least, the big 3: Weight Watchers, Slimming World and Rosemary Conley.

If you're thinking of starting a diet class, it's a great way to lose weight. Reporting in to someone every week can really make a difference to whether or not you resist that extra biscuit! But if you're overwhelmed by choice and struggling to choose, we've put together this handy guide...

Weight Watchers by Gemma

I’ve been to Weight Watchers before and it really worked for me but unfortunately I moved away to university and existed on a diet of alcohol and cheese toasties for three years. I’m back home now and decided to go back to my local class and try to and undo all the bad effects of student living.

There is a weigh-in at the beginning of each class and then the class leader gives a little talk about a different aspect of weight loss. You are given a tracker sheet every week to write down what you are eating and a booklet with recipes and tips in.
There is chance to talk to the group about any recipes you enjoyed in the previous week or something you have been doing that boosted your loss. My leader always helps me to reflect on my good and bad weeks and isolates problems that are holding me back from achieving my goals.

Weight Watchers is based on ‘The Four Pillars’ approach which basically means a combination of healthy eating, activity, small changes in behaviour and group support lead to weight loss. To do this you are given a ProPoints budget for the day which is based on your gender, age, weight and height. On top of this you are given a weekly allowance to use when you like. You can either enjoy slightly larger portions each day or you can blow it all on a night out with friends which is what I usually do.

The WW plan is not based on counting calories, you count points. You can easily find out what points values all your favourite foods contain by either working it out with the easy points calculating card or you can look them up on the website. The website is a great resource, it has lots of recipes, a place to keep a food diary, you can track your weight loss and chat to other WW members on the message board.

I'm not sure how much the class is if you pay weekly but I paid £12.95 for my first month and it rises to £19.99 per month. If you want any more information about the class leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

Slimming World by Guest Blogger Helen
I started Slimming World on January 19th 2010. Within 11 months I'd lost almost 5 and a half stone. Slimming World has completely changed my life and I can't imagine not following the plan now.

The format of the group is similar to Weight Watchers in that it starts with a weigh in and then there is what's called 'Image Therapy'. Basically it's a big chat where the Consultant asks each member how their week has been and whether they've discovered any good recipes, etc. At first I was slightly put off by the cheesiness of it (everyone gets a clap, whether they've lost, maintained or gained) but now I actually really enjoy it. My Consultant never reads out the gains and is incredibly supportive and congratulatory when you've had a good week. You get awards in the form of stickers for each half stone lost, for when you've lost 10% of your body weight and for various other things.

Slimming World doesn't offer as many food products as other diet plans but there are cereal bars and lots of books to buy at my group. There are three meal plans and they're all incredibly non restrictive. If you do a green day then you can eat as many carbs as you like. Yes, as much pasta, rice and potatoes as you can handle. If you're on a red day then you can eat as much protein as you like. MEAT, basically. And if you do an Extra Easy day then you can eat both carbs and meat but 1/3 of everything you eat has to be what's called a superfree food (fruit and vegetables, bsaically). With each plan you get a certain number of Healthy As (cheese and milk) and Healthy Bs (cereal, crispbreads, dried fruit, etc) and those are the only things that have to be weighed and measured. You really can eat SO MUCH. My friends are constantly amazed at the amount I actually eat. Every naughty food (chocolate, crisps, etc) has a syn value and you're allowed to have between 5 and 15 syns a day. Just as an example, a large glass of white wine is about 8.5 syns!

The Slimming World website is also a really good resource and there's a facility for inputting your weight each week. It's really motivational watching the line go down towards your target!

Slimming World costs about £4.85 a week but they also offer 6 and 12 week countdowns, With a 6 week countdown you pay just under £25 (so you get one week free) and with the 12 week countdown you pay just under £50 (so you get two weeks free). Oh, and one of the best things.... when you get to target you get to go for free (providing you stay within your target range)!


Rosemary Conley by Sarah V
I started Rosemary Conley because my mum was doing it. It's a little different to the other two classes because not only does it include a weigh-in and a motivational talk, it also includes a 45 minute exercise class. There are various to choose from - aerobics, salsacise, and they've just started doing Zumba. I imagine all classes are different, but the age group at my local one is definitely quite mature. However, I like this - it means the exercises are easy to follow (and you can go up or down a level, depending on what suits you) and you don't feel embarrassed being surrounded by scary women in lycra thongs! Also, if you mess up the exercise, it's just funny - because everyone does it. The weigh-in is private between yourself and the instructor, and she only reads out the weight losses - never the gains. There are also loads of DVDs available - they're a little cheesy, but I find them much more bearable than the ones presented by ex-soap stars and ex-Big Brother contestants!

The diet plan is fairly simple. It focuses on eating low-GI food, sticking to foods that are under 5% fat (look for how much fat is in 100g) and gives you a guide to how many calories you should be eating at each meal, plus allocations for snacks and milk. There are also branded meals, soups and cereal bars available. Rosemary (yep, she's a real lady - she's like 60 so probably bionic) even has her own range of cheese! There's also a magazine which is fab - full of low fat recipes.It's really easy to follow as you don't have to worry about converting your food into points etc. Also you're encouraged to have a little of what you fancy - I find that if I'm good all week and have one bad day, I'll normally still do okay. But after you've been dieting for a while, your concept of a 'bad day' totally changes - it's rare for me to pick up one chocolate bar and 'one for luck' now!

You can find out more at the Rosemary Conley website. Classes are around £6.50 per week (monthly subscription services are also available) or you can also follow the plan online.

Hope that helps! Any questions, just give us a shout!

Crispy greek pie (vegetarian)

I'm a bit of a pastry fiend. I love the crunchy texture and the way it flakes when you bite into it but it's not the healthiest of food to eat so usually when I'm dieting I try my best to stay away. However, I found this tasty recipe which has pastry AND cheese and is not so bad for you. It feel like a treat. It also contains spinach, which as a vegetarian who struggles with eating enough iron, is always good!

Oh, and it tastes bloody amazing!! I tried to describe how it tastes but I honestly can't do it justice. Imagine the most amazing tomatoey pizza topping you've ever had, mix it with crunchy pastry… something like that. Nomnomnom.

INGREDIENTS:
makes 4 servings

200g spinach leaves
175g jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil
100g feta cheese
2 eggs
1 pack of filo pasty (you won't use it all - I used 3 sheets)

I actually just made half of the recipe which made two servings, although I think this would be the perfect thing to take into work for lunch and just eating a quarter of it along with some salad would give you a filling lunch. It tastes good cold, but when you re-heat it, it goes extra crispy mmmm.


1. Put your spinach into a large pan and pour a few spoonfuls of water over it and cook on a low heat until it just begins to wilt. Make sure you don't let it wilt fully as it will wilt even more when baking and you'll be left with nothing.


2. Chop up your sun dried tomatoes and crumble your feta whilst waiting on your spinach to wilt. You don't have to follow the suggested amounts by all means. I used less cheese and more tomatoes.


3. Put everything into a bowl, crack your eggs over it and mix until everything is all gooey and coated in egg. It really doesn't look that appealing at this point, but don't let that put you off! You actually don't taste the egg at all once it's cooked.


4. Unwrap your filo pastry and (gently, it's very delicate!) take one piece out and lay it to the side. Cover the un-used pastry with a few damp pieces of kitchen towel to stop it drying out. Now using a pastry brush, brush some of the oil from your sundried tomatoes over the pastry. Oil side down, drape the pastry in to your tin, leaving pieces overhanging at the sides. Repeat this step a few times until you have around 3 layers of pastry. (Please notice my nasty burn scar - This is why you should always use oven gloves and never use a flimsy towel instead!)


5. Almost finished! Spoon in your filling, spread it out and fold the pastry in and give it a final brush with some sundried tomato oil on top. Now put it in the oven, at gas mark 4, for 30 minutes or until golden on top. Et voila - delicious dinner which feels really naughty but actually isn't that bad!



Per serving:
250 kcalories, protein 13g, carbohydrate 23g, fat 13 g, saturated fat 5g, fibre 3g, sugar 5g, salt 0.3 g
7 pro points on the Weight Watchers plan.

Tip: Take iron and vitamin C together. The presence of vitamin C can increase iron's absorption by as much as 30 percent. A glass of orange juice is the perfect drink to have along with this meal.

Banana Loaf Recipe

I'm one of those girls who wants to have her cake and eat it.  I certainly do not want it to get in the way of me losing weight though so am going to try and then share some 'healthy' recipes with you.  As this one is mostly banana I figure it must also count for one of your five a day...

Makes 14 Slices
201 calories per slice

Ingredients
50g butter
175g light brown soft sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
350g peeled ripe bananas, mashed
200g self-raising flour sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g walnuts, roughly chopped
6 walnuts halves

Preheat the oven to 180°C / Fan 160°C

Line and grease a 1kg loaf tin

Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy

Add the beaten eggs and gradually whisk them into the butter and sugar

Add the mashed bananas and beat the mixture well

Carefully fold in the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda

Stir in the walnuts

Put the cake mixture into the prepared loaf tin and decorate with the walnut halves pressing them gently into the mixture

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minute until the cake has risen and is golden.

Allow to cool

Eat without a trace of guilt :)

Unfortunately my boyfriend is allergic to walnuts so I made mine without.  The nutritional info per slice without the nuts works out as follows, based on 14 slices:

155 Calories, 3.85g fat of which 2.2g are saturates (3 points on 'old' weightwatchers, 4 on Pro points)

AMAZING!!  And the best bit is it doesn't taste remotely like 'diet food'

Little tip - to make sure i just get a measured slice and not a 'Sarah slice' I measure the cake and mark out the portion size using an edible food pen.  A bit OCD maybe but it makes sure I am not kidding myself that I am only having one portion when I have in fact eaten half the cake...