Royal Wedding / British Inspired Foods

Hello everyone! Apologies for the lack of posts this week, we've all been rather busy enjoying the sunny weather (and perhaps a few cheeky chocolate easter eggs too!) so haven't been able to post as often as usual. A few people I know are hosting Royal Wedding parties with plenty of cakes, fatty foods and plenty of alcohol today so I thought I'd put together a little menu of foods fit for a king that fit in with a British theme and won't sabotage your diets!



RYVITA ROYALS

Whilst everyone eats their neatly-cut-but-carb-ridden cucumber or egg mayo crustless sandwich fingers you can tuck into a delicious Ryvita cracker with a whole range of toppings. There are literally hundreds of recipe ideas (and a lot of royal wedding recipe ideas too!) on the Ryvita website, although my personal favourite has to be cream cheese and cucumber. I've also heard that adding some salmon or ham is delicious, if you're not vegetarian! The cream cheese feels so naughty, but as I'll be using the low fat version it's not too bad.

Philadelphia Light - 47 calories per 30g.
Ryvita Pumpkin Seed & Oats Crispbread - 45 calories per slice.
Cucumber - something ridiculous like 8 calories for every 50g.
TOTAL: (approx) 73 calories.



STRAWBERRY MERINGUES

Okay so it's not quite the same as a crumbly scone loaded with clotted cream and strawberry jam, but it's almost as good and less than half the calories! Sarah actually posted a recipe using meringue here but this one is much quicker to put together as it uses pre-made meringue nests! As an extra treat you can also add a little bit of cream if you like, or maybe Lucy's suggestion of using some Total Greek yoghurt with a few extra ingredients instead of cream (as discussed in this post) would be better if you're being really strict?

Tescos meringue nests - 55 calories per nest.
Fresh strawberries - approx 5 calories each.
Double Cream - 140 calories per 30ml.
TOTAL: 150 calories.



PIMMS & LEMONADE

And you can wash everything down with a great big British glass of fruity Pimms and lemonade. Sarah V touched on the issue of which alcoholic drinks are better than others in this post, and generally spirits with mixers (especially diet mixers) are the best option for keeping within your calorie count.

Pimms - 25 ml will have 40 calories
300ml can of Diet Schweppes Lemonade will have 5 calories
330ml can Full Fat Schweppes Lemonade will have 90 calories
TOTAL: 45 calories with diet mixer, 130 with full fat mixer.

Whether you're celebrating the Royal Wedding or trying to ignore it completely I hope you have a lovely day! We'll be back on Sunday with our weekly Summaries, and we've got a new guest post lined up for tomorrow!

Surviving diet saboteurs!

Am I the only person who feels like I have to apologise for being on a diet? Whenever there’s a weekend away or a meal out, just being conscientious about what I eat seems to irritate people. I’ve found myself giving into chips or crisps just to appease them, with the logic that it’s just one day, after all, but when you feel you need to start a diet, it’s normally because there have been an awful lot of ‘just one days’.

I’m still struggling with this, to be honest, but I’m starting to come up with some useful tips to help myself survive these occasions. I’d love to know what you all think though – please contribute!





The above technique is not recommended for weight loss.
The Pub
I am always outraged when I find out that alcohol has calories in it. I can't shake the assumption that anything liquid is calorie-free. It's not, of course. Alcohol is evil to the dieter - not least it severely weakens your willpower, both at the end of the night and during the morning after. Of course, the best thing to do is cut out booze entirely if you're dieting, but if you don't want to do that, there are ways to get round the badness and still enjoy a drink. Your best options are spirits and diet mixers. A single shot of gin or vodka is only 50 calories, and if you have it with a diet mixer you're not adding much on there. Beer and cider are shockingly high in calories, as are cocktails and alcopops. There's about 100 calories in one glass of wine, so not too bad... but it quickly adds up if you're drinking a few!

Fry Up
If you’ve had a few too many the night before, this bad boy is hard to resist. I’ve tried to do it when I’ve been staying in a Premier Travel Inn and go for the cereal option, but when everyone is tucking in to nice hot breakfasts, it’s a miserable existence. Now, I go for the best of both worlds – BEANS ON TOAST. Scrambled eggs are normally full of butter, and not many places do poached or boiled eggs, but EVERYWHERE does beans. Brilliant.

The Chippy
Just the thought of real, proper chip shop chips is making my mouth water. Oozing vinegar… YUM. There’s an especially awesome one around the corner from my house. Now, I don’t eat fish, so I can’t help you there, but my favourite healthy takeaway solution is actually a KEBAB. I know, I know. But stay away from the scary Doner wheel, and instead order a chicken kebab. It’s basically grilled chicken and salad in a pitta. If you’re eating it at home, ask for no sauce and then add some light mayo and sweet chilli sauce. So yummy. Super healthy.

Pizza
PIZZA EXPRESS PIZZA EXPRESS PIZZA EXPRESS. They’re doing some fab low-fat options at the moment, and they really are nice. But if you’re in the supermarket, take a look at their oven pizzas. They are AMAZING. Really flavoursome, sure, but most of them are around 600 calories FOR THE WHOLE THING and 5-7% fat. The Leggera range are all awesome, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the calorie info on the (not marketed as low-fat) Polla Pesto, La Reine and Sloppy Guiseppe.
NOTE: If you’re in a Pizza Express restaurant, make sure you check out the nutritional info on their website first. The salads aren’t always the best option – the Pollo salad is worse than most of the pizzas!

Chinese/Japanese
If you’re having a fierce craving for noodles, try to resist the local takeaway and pop down to Wagamama. Most of their food is cooked on griddles. My personal favourite, the Ginger Chicken Udon, is about 500 calories and super low in fat. Also, order Edamame beans – they’ll fill you up, and they’re basically just peas. Yum. If you just HAVE to have a real chinese though, go for boiled rice and avoid anything battered, fried or described as 'crispy'. Chicken is your best bet - try it with oyster sauce, mushrooms or chicken chop suey. Also, Google tells me that chow mein dishes aren't too naughty, but I have my doubts - they always taste so greasy from my local!

Chinese Food Aftermath. Carnage.

Indian
I live with my sister, and her boyfriend’s favourite food is curry. I am quite the wuss when it comes to spicy food, so I tend to stick to the mild options. Yup, the ones that are FULL of cream. They’re awful. I’ve never looked up the calories and fat content in a chicken korma because I just don’t want to know. However, there are lots of dry options you can order, such as tandoori chicken or mixed grills – very low in fat, and you can have them with steamed rice, salad - and you can even add some of the little sauces like mango chutney and raita. They’re not all amazingly low in fat, but they’ll be a LOT less than a whole curry.

I think that’s my inspiration run dry for now – also I’m writing this at the start of my lunchbreak and I’m really quite hungry now – but how are you all finding it? What are your secret tips for surviving Diet Saboteurs?