A Salad for All Seasons with Florette - Roasted Squash with Thyme and Taleggio

I don't know about you but I'm bored of beige food. Winter makes me want to make stews, hearty pies and stodgy food. I'm craving something light, colourful and tasty and without the calories that come with pastry and rich sauces. I tend to think of salads as exclusively summer food but let’s eat more salad! It’s fresh, colourful and healthy fast food. In A Salad for All Seasons, Harry Eastwood shakes things up, introducing us to over 100 delicious, original and easy-to-make salads to see you through the year. 

The Autumn and Winter sections of her book offer warm, hearty, nourishing combinations, such as Roasted Squash with Thyme and Taleggio and Spinach, Lamb and Fig with Orange and Honey Dressing. Roasted Squash with Thyme and Taleggio.  

I love books that encourage me to eat seasonally. The variety of dishes included in this book has inspired me to try and make salad more of an everyday item, and not just an accompaniment. Florette love their salads. Just like we love all fresh, tasty, great-quality food. And what they love most of all is when people tell them how they’ve their salads to create delicious meals of their own, in no time at all. I hope they are happy with what this salad newbie created with one of their fresh bags of mixed leaves. 

335 calories per portion 

3 of your 5 a day

Serves 4

600g mixed squashes, seeds removed (use any squash you like)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 red onions, cut into thin moons
2 tbsp thyme leaves, stripped from stalks
200g Taleggio cheese, cubed
a few handfuls or rocket leaves

For the dressing
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C/ gas mark 6

Cut the squashes into half moons of around 2cm thickness. Toss them in the oil and roast in the top of the oven for 5 minutes. Make sure the squash is spread out so it can roast evenly. 

Turn the oven settings to grill. Remove the tray from the oven and add the onion slices, sprinkle with thyme and place back in the oven. Grill for a further 10 minutes until the squash is blistered and golden. 

Meanwhile make the dressing. Mix the balsamic vinegar and maple syrup in a pan with a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. The syrup will thicken and become glossy. 

When the squash and onions have cooked remove them from the oven and pile onto a serving platter. Season with salt and pepper. Dot the cheese cubes all over and give it  good toss with the rocket. Drizzle the warm glaze on the top. Serve warm. 

You can use Fontina instead of Taleggio and sage instead of thyme. I found it hard to get these cheeses (the shops were full of festive wensledayle and Cranberry) to I used a good Gorgonzola. I also added a squeeze of lemon juice to my salad. You will love this salad, it warming, the dressing is sweet and the cheesy is gooey mmmm.

If you want to create some healthy and tasty salads yourself make sure you check out the Florette website for plenty of salad recipes and tips about flavour combinations and how to use leftovers.

Festive ways to get fit this winter #SimplyhealthHealthyHabits

Eat, drink and be merry! I've definitely been doing all three of those and with party season in full swing there are some surprising ways you can burn excess calories without compromising on fun. Christmas is both busy and a time of indulgence, so it’s especially difficult to stick to healthy habits. There are plenty of fun seasonal activities that could help you keep up your fitness regime this winter and I'm going to list a few to get you inspired to move more this winter.

I recently tried ice skating for the first time since I was a teenager. Ice skating requires constant movement, which makes it a great way to burn hundreds of calories per hour. It's also a fun way to get outdoors in the winter, but indoor ice skating rinks are another way to enjoy this activity all year round.

I was terrified, thought I was going to fall over for the entire session but I gave it my best shot. I think I probably burned loads of nervous energy calories. I know I'm all too guilty of cooking up huge carb filled meals at this time of year, adding some Baileys to my coffee and neglecting my bike when its cold and wet. I really enjoyed getting out of the house, having fun and getting some fresh air.

If you want to find out more about how many calories winter activities can burn head over to Simplyhealth who have made a guide to festive ways to get fit.

Other fantastic calorie burning winter activities include:

Walking - Why not take a long brisk walk after a heavy Christmas dinner? There are plenty of places to walk and if you add in a hill you’ll see greater benefits. Walking in snowy conditions is also tougher and will therefore provide a greater calorie burn.

Hit the dance floor - Christmas parties often end up on the dance floor and if you're out with friends don't lurk around the side, have a great time and dance the night away. You could easily balance out a glass of wine this way.

Gaming - I don't mean be antisocial and play in your Xbox all day boxing day. Get the Wii fit out, Just Dance or any of those games and interact with your family members and have fun whilst being more active.

How do you keep fit during the winter? Got any top tips for staying active over the festive period?

5:2 diet with LighterLife Fast

I've always had an issue with my weight and this blog documents my ups and downs regarding weight loss. Getting to grips with it in a way that easily fits in with my busy lifestyle is a constant struggle for me. Now that I'm older a combination living with a partner who likes rich foods, attending fun foodie blogging events and a baking hobby mean that I can pile the pounds on quickly if I have a hectic few weeks without noticing.
I've been following a diet plan on and off for about 6 years with some great results but counting points and weighing food can be very tiresome, I was really pleased to be chose to take part in a three month trial that will do away with any fuss or worry.

I'm sure you have all heard of the 5:2 diet, also known as the Fast diet – but just in case you haven't here is a quick overview. The idea behind the diet is that you eat normally 5 days a week (healthily, not scoffing too much) and then fast the remaining two. On the fast days you quarter your calorie intake, it is advised that you eat 600 calories and get your RDA of key vitamins and minerals along with fibre and protein. The two fast days should not be taken consecutively.

The reason I was drawn to the 5:2 diet was that dieting 2 days a week seems a lot easier to follow and fits in better with my lifestyle than tracking what I eat 7 days a week. It allows me to work out on the days that I am not fasting and to still enjoy eating out or unexpected drinks and not feel guilty about treats. I was a little worries before starting that I wouldn't be able to concentrate at work on 600cals a day and that I would feel tired. Trying to figure out what to eat for just 600 calories a day but feel full would be a headache but luckily there is now a solution – LighterLife Fast, which is now exclusively available at Superdrug.

On a fast day, it’s almost impossible to get all your recommended daily allowances (RDAs) of the essential vitamins and minerals your body needs if you were to prepare meals yourself. LighterLife Fastpacks are specially formulated nutritional food options that contain all the protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals required.

The idea behind LighterLife Fast is to make life easier on those fast days providing you with four LighterLife Fastpacks  for those 600 calorie days.

The new range starts at £7.99 for a box of four Fastpacks.  The Fastpack options include:

• Savoury meals such as Spaghetti Bolognese and pasta carbonara
• Porridge – the breakfast favourite!
• Four delicious shakes – vanilla, strawberry, banana and chocolate
• Four scrumptious meal bars in nut fudge, crispy peanut, cranberry & raspberry and toffee flavours

I chose porridge for breakfast, pasta cabonara for lunch and spaghetti bolognese for dinner. All options were tasty but smaller portions than I would normally eat. I found a few things really helped me with the plan, one of them was to add the water to the food a little at a time when cooking and stir a few times. They turned out much better using that method. I also added black pepper to the cabonara and a dash of cinnamon to the porridge to add to extra flavour.

The peanut bars were a great snack, they were large and filling and had a hint of chocolate. Very tasty!

I've been following the LighterLife Fast plan for two weeks now and I've been very pleased with the weight loss results:

Week 1: -2lbs

Weeks 2: -2.5lbs

I was pleasantly surprised with the results. As you can see from my instagram stream I really don't hold back on my non-fast days. I've gone out for afternoon tea, cooked a bonfire night feast and had cheese fondue and still manged to lose some weight. I've got two weeks until I go to Budapest and really want to lose another 4lbs before going so I'm going to be a little more restrained on my non-fast days to ensure the weight keeps on going down.

Have you ever tried the 5:2 diet? Would you consider then LighterLife Fast method of 5:2 fasting?

*LighterLife Fast has sent me a months worth of their Fastpacks to try and document my experience. 

#RealJuice with Philips and Madeline Shaw - Weekend juice recipes

Juicing seems to be buzz word this year in the  health community but taking part in a juice detox can actually not be that good for you or your health. Philips are campaign for #RealJuice and want to encourage people to ditch bottled juice in exchange for one fresh juice a day rather than an extreme detox.

I am currently following the #RealJuice plan created by Madeline Shaw (Millie Mackintosh’s nutritionist) and Phillips. You can read more about the plan and my first 5 days following it here but I've shared the weekend recipes below.

Here are a couple of tasty recipes from the plan that you can try yourself at home:
Saturday: Hangover helper juice - 3 medium-size tomatoes, 3 stalks of celery, 1 peeled lemon (or less according to taste), 2cm of ginger, 1 jalapeño pepper (seedless), 1/2 a cucumber

This is a spin on the classic bloody mary and the ginger and pepper gives it a real kick.

Sunday: Classic cleanse juice - 3 carrots, a beetroot, an apple and two stalks of celery.

Beetroot contributes to cleansing of your living, helping to reinvigorate your body. It was a little too earthy for my tastes so I simply added another apple. Delicious!

Which of these juices sounds the most tempting to you?
Have you tried any of the juices from the first five days of the plan?