Welcome to our blog!

Thank you for stopping by! Like a lot of people/couples we have a few extra pounds or dare I say the word ‘stones’ to lose! One of our main motivations to lose weight is getting married! The big day is 23rd August 2019 so we have precisely 82 weeks, 1 day and 4 hours (not that I’m counting!) to lose over 9 stone between us! Eeeek that just made it seem real! 

So luckily we both share the same view when it comes to losing weight – eat less calories and you will see the pounds come off. It’s simple science really! There is no need to spend lots of money on expensive diet plans, food and weekly weigh-ins, just consume less calories – simple! We are by no means saying that following a ‘diet’ won’t work, it will, however, we believe in changing for life not just for a few months! 

For the past 3 weeks we have changed our diets and started eating much more healthily (no takeaways!) and have lost over 2 stone between us. We still have a long way to go, but seem to be heading in the right direction so far! 

Over the next weeks we will be sharing recipes, photos and hopefully inspiration for anyone who wants to read, this will probably just be our family and close friends who feel sorry for us, but it makes us feel better anyway, so just humour us! 

Heather & Matt

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My Fitness Pal – an app to aid in weight loss?

I always here people saying that they just can’t lose weight! That they’ve tried everything and they just can’t do it!

Obviously some people may have health issues resulting in weight gain, but most of the time we are just over eating (or drinking!) The foods which we are consuming can usually be held accountable for the number on those scales!

Tracking what you eat, I believe is the most effective way to lose weight and maintain a healthy diet.

This is why the My Fitness pal app is so helpful! I would suggest you eat how you normally do for a week, making sure you put everything you eat and drink into the app, this will be a true reflection of how many calories you are actually consuming! It will help see where you are going wrong and what you need to do to change.

It’s true, counting calories isn’t fun, it’s tedious and time consuming but, speaking from experience, once you have used the app for a couple of months, you will soon start to understand foods better and possibly not need to be as strict with the counting!

The app is really easy to use and more importantly it’s free!
You start by creating a fitness profile, including your weight, height, exercise level and how much you are looking to lose and the app will recommend a daily net Calorie target for you to achieve your weight loss (or gain) goals. You can pay for the premium version but in my opinion you dont need to! Let’s explore some features!

Exercise Tracker 

MyFitnessPal has more than 350 exercises stored in a database and it shows how much each person burns during each activity, based on their height, weight, and gender. It includes most cardio and strength training workouts, as well as Pilates.

Calorie counting 

There are currently over 3,000,000 foods on the database allowing users to search for a food or simply scan the barcode on the product. This then shows you how many calories are in the product and also key nutritional information!

Community

There is a large forum where you can meet and chat to people, share recipes, tips and tricks to help keep you motivated. (We have not used the group’s but have heard good things!)

 

 

 

Meatballs and gravy with a dairylea surprise!

A delicious comfort meal for a cold day!

These meatballs are extremely tasty and the little dairylea surprise in the middle makes them that bit nicer!

We served with cous cous but they go even better with some creamy mash!

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

500g lean steak mince (less than 5%)

3 dairylea triangles

1 egg (beaten)

1tbsp of Worcester sauce

1/2 tbsp of garlic granules

1/2 tbsp of onion granules

Pinch of sea salt and black pepper

For the gravy:

1 beef stock pot

1 beef stock cube (dissolved in 500ml of boiling water)

2 small red onions (sliced)

200g of mushrooms (sliced)

1tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1tbsp of Worcester sauce

1/2 tsp of Xanthan gum

Pinch of dried thyme

Frylight

Method

In a bowl mix together all of the meatball ingredients (except the dairylea).

Shape into flat burger shapes and add 1/4 of the dairylea triangles into each one.

Close the meat around the dairylea into a meatball shape.

In a pan sprayed with frylight brown the meatballs and then set aside.

Brown the mushrooms and onions in a pan until softened.

Add the Worcester sauce, vinegar, thyme and 300ml of beef stock and cook for 5 minutes.

Whilst that is cooking add the xanthan gum a little at a time to the remaining stock and whisk really well.

Add it to the pan and stir through.

Pour the gravy mixture into a casserole dish, add the meatballs and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

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Pork loin steak on a bed of roasted Mediterranean vegetables and cous cous

We found ourselves eating quite a lot of curry dishes over the past week so decided to try something a bit different tonight!

We bought some pork loin steaks when we went shopping, wasn’t sure what to do with them so decided to throw some things together and luckily it worked and tasted amazing!

Serves 4

Calories 550 per portion 

Ingredients

4 pork loin steaks (all fat removed)

20g of plain flour

50g of Panko breadcrumbs

1 egg whisked

2tbsp paprika

1 vegetable stock cube

250ml water

200g cous cous

Pinch of salt and pepper

Frylight

2 sweet potatoes (chopped into small squares)

1 red onion (chopped into quarters)

1 courgette (sliced)

1 red pepper (chopped into strips)

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Line 2 baking trays with foil and frylight.

Mix the breadcrumbs, paprika, salt, pepper and flour in a bowl.

Dip the pork into the egg and then into the breadcrumb mixture and place on the baking tray.  Spray each one a couple of times with frylight and bake for about 30 minutes.

Add the vegetables into the other baking tray, sprinkle a tablespoon of paprika over them, mix to ensure they’re all covered, spray with a little frylight and roast in the oven until soft.

In a pan bring 250ml of water and a vegetable stock cube to the boil. Remove from heat, cover and allow to stand for 20 minutes.

When the pork and vegetables are ready, fluff up the cous cous and serve!

 

 

 

 

 

Halo Top – low calorie ice cream that tastes nice?

I’m sure you have all heard about that low calorie ice-cream everyone is raving about!

One word AMAZING!!!!

Like a lot of people I have an extremely sweet tooth and love nothing more than a cheeky bowl of ice cream, unfortunately when you’re counting calories you can’t really afford to share a tub of Ben and Jerrys and use over 500 Calories whilst doing it!

On average Halo Top ice cream has around 300 Calories per tub (depending on flavour) it contains more protein per tub than regular ice cream (24 grams vs. 16 grams), less fat (8 grams vs. 64 grams) and even less carbs (16 grams vs. 80 grams)!

I personally don’t do artificial sweeteners and haven’t consumed any for over 10 years (will leave my reasons for another day!) Usually healthy desserts are full of them but I was extremely pleased to find that Halo Top contains uses organic stevia and Erythirol, a natural sweetener found in many fruits.

I was at first dubious as to whether I was going to enjoy the ice cream, think Matt was getting pretty frustrated with hearing ‘ you know it’s going to taste horrible’ and other annoying phrases!

How wrong was I?! It tasted amazing, for me there was no difference to the taste of halo top to other ice cream brands. It was creamy, sweet and satisfying!

The only negative in my opinion is that there aren’t many ‘pieces’. For example if you compare the Halo Top cookie dough ice-cream to a more caloriesome one, the amount of cookie dough chunks is nowhere near as much or as tasty! But for under half the calories and fat you can’t ask for more!

 

 

Homemade chips!

On a diet and craving chips?!

I would definitely recommend cooking them like this rather than heading for the chippy!

Method

Peel and chop potatoes into chip size pieces.

Line a baking tray with foil and spray with frylight.

Part boil them in a large pan. (Only needs to be for about 5 minutes, they actually take longer in the oven the softer they get!!)

Drain well.

Add to the baking tray (work better if they are not overlapping and on top of each other!)

Spray the chips with some frylight and put in the oven for 30-45 minutes or until golden and going crispy!

Would recommend turning the chips half way through cooking.

Just remember to count your sprays! 1 spray = 1 calorie!

 

TFC & chips (Tikka fried chicken)

Love KFC? Love curry? You absolutely have to try this! We keep hearing people raving on about the different fakeaways when you’re on a diet, so decided to try a different combination!

We both feel absolutely stuffed and although I hate it when people say ‘that was better than a takeaway’ (never believe them!) For us that was on par if not slightly better than any takeaway we have ever had!

We served with frozen peas and made some Mayflower curry sauce up in the microwave for dipping!

Serves 2 (we had a huge portion though so could feed 4!)

Calories – 650 per person

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts (500g of chicken)

40g of Panko breadcrumbs

2tbsp of tikka spice mix (see below)

1 egg (whisked)

600g of potatoes (raw)

Frylight

For the spice mix: (pop remaining mix into an airtight container for next time!)

3tbsp of paprika

2tbsp ground coriander

2tbsp ground cumin

2tbsp garam masala

1tbsp turmeric

1tbsp ground ginger

1tbsp garlic powder

1tbsp salt

1/4 tbsp black pepper

1/4 tbsp cayenne pepper

Method

Chop the potatoes into chip size pieces and bring to the boil in a large pan of water.

Drain the potatoes and add to a baking tray sprayed with frylight. Spray the chips and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes (check and rotate a couple of times during cooking)

Foil and lightly spray a baking tray with frylight.

Chop the chicken and remove fat (as an estimate we got about 3 pieces from one breast)

Dip each piece of chicken into the egg and then into the breadcrumb mix.

Place the chicken on the baking tray, spray once with frylight and bake for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked .

Serve and enjoy!

 

 

Cous cous & Halloumi burgers

Any recipe that contains halloumi is a winner for me!

This is a real healthy, low fat meal and good for the vegetarians out there!

Matt is a proper meat lover and he even likes this meal!

We served with salad, mushrooms, sweet corn and a home made salsa.

Serves 4

Calories – 160 per burger (not including bread or wrap!)

Ingredients

150g of cous cous

3 eggs (beaten for binding)

Handful of fresh mint (chopped)

1 grated carrot

100g of halloumi

1 Vegetable stock cube (dissolved in 150ml boiling water)

Frylight

Method

Add the stock to a bowl with the cous cous and carrot, stir well, cover and let sit.

Cook the halloumi until lightly browned in a pan with a little fry light.

Uncover the cous cous, stir and add the halloumi, eggs and mint.

Once combined form into burger shapes.

Spray a pan with frylight and cook the burgers over a medium heat for 15 minutes, turning half way!

 

 

 

 

Spaghetti & meatballs

Not sure what to cook for tea tonight? Why not try these delicious meatballs! They are quick and easy to make and taste amazing! Pure comfort food in a bowl!

Serves 3 and a toddler!

Calories 550

Ingredients

260g of uncooked spaghetti or linguine.

30g of reduced fat cheddar to top (optional)

Fry light

For the meatballs:

500g of extra lean steak mince (5%)

1 egg (beaten)

1tbsp Worcester sauce

1/2 tsp of onion powder

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

Half a handful of finely chopped parsley

A pinch of salt and pepper

For the sauce:

1 tbsp of sukrin gold (or sweetener of your choice)

2tsps of dried mixed herbs

2 tsps of garlic powder

1 onion (finely chopped)

1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp of tomato puree

1 beef stock cube (dissolved in 360ml of boiling water)

450ml of Passata

Handful of mushrooms (if you don’t like mushrooms you can add a carrot or chopped peppers etc..)

Method

Chop onions and mushrooms and set aside.

In a bowl combine all of the meatball ingredients. Ensure it is well mixed.

Once combined divide the mixture and make into meatballs.

Spray a pan with frylight and cook the meatballs on a medium heat until browned. Set them aside.

Spray the pan with a little more Fry light and add the onions, mushrooms and garlic powder. Cook until onions begin to soften.

Add the sweetener, Passata, tomato puree, mixed herbs, balsamic vinegar and made up stock and slowly bring to the boil.

Cook the spaghetti, when soft drain.

Add the meatballs and simmer for 30 minutes.

To serve we added spaghetti to a bowl, poured the sauce over and added the meatballs then topped with cheese!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tikka chicken wraps

A lovely way to enjoy the amazing tikka flavour without adding all of those calories and fat usually associated with It!

Matt had flatbreads with his (which are less calories!!) See photos for information.

We served with Caesar salad – but for less calories you can simply add some lettuce and low calorie mayonnaise.

Calories – 500 for 2 wraps

Ingredients

Low fat wraps

450g chicken breast

1/2 lemon

2 tbsp fat free natural yoghurt

3tsps paprika

2tsps ground coriander

2tsps ground cumin

2tsps garam masala

2tsps turmeric

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp garlic powder

1tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

 

 

 

Method

Combine the spices In a bowl and set aside.

Dice chicken into chunks.

In a bowl add the chicken and the juice of half a lemon.

Add 3 tablespoons of the tikka spice mix and mix round well.

Add the yoghurt. Stir through thoroughly ensuring the chicken is covered.

Cover and allow to marinate in the fridge (we suggest for at least 60 minutes)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees

Line a baking tray with foil, place the chicken in a single layer on it and cook for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Serve with your choice of bread and/or salad.

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Chinese chicken curry

This curry is extremely tasty – you can change the vegetables  and meat in the recipe for alternative meat/veg. It’s very quick and easy to make. We have enjoyed with rice and as a treat day we had a mini naan to dip!

Calories – 200 per person

Ingredients – serves 2

300g chicken breast

85g Mayflower curry sauce mix

460ml cold water

80g frozen peas

200g mushrooms

1 small onion

1/2 pack of baby corn

Fry light

Method

Dice chicken, onion and mushrooms.

Spray a frying pan with a little frylight and brown chicken and onions until onions begin to soften.

Add the mushrooms and babycorn to the pan and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes.

Take ingredients out of the pan and

In a bowl or jug combine the water and the curry mix, whisk well.

Add the mix to the frying pan and bring to the boil, stirring continuously until the sauce begins to thicken.

Add the chicken and veg along with the peas to the sauce and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Serve with your choice of rice and/or naan.