Tag Archives: healthy

Baking, Dairy Free, Family Meals, Gluten Free, Recipes, Special Diets, Vegetarian, Wheat Free

Sunshine Bars, super healthy goodness in a bar.

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These healthy, delicious oaty bars have to make you smile, packed full of fruit, seeds and with only 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp honey in the whole recipe, these really are a healthy alternative to a sugar laden flapjack.

They are gluten free (as long as the oats are gluten free of course), wheat free and dairy free too.

I baked these on slightly grey, possibly trying to rain, Bank Holiday Saturday and you know what, straight after they came out of the over the sun came out, little bars of sunshine they are 🙂

These would be great for lunchboxes, as breakfast bars or keep them handy when you need a snack and they will hopefully keep your hands out of the biscuit box.

 

Sunshine Bars
Yields 12
A healthy, fruit, oaty bar packed with goodness, great for packed lunches, snacks or as an on the go breakfast.
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Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
194 calories
35 g
0 g
5 g
4 g
1 g
73 g
3 g
18 g
0 g
4 g
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
73g
Yields
12
Amount Per Serving
Calories 194
Calories from Fat 46
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 5g
8%
Saturated Fat 1g
3%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 2g
Cholesterol 0mg
0%
Sodium 3mg
0%
Total Carbohydrates 35g
12%
Dietary Fiber 4g
17%
Sugars 18g
Protein 4g
Vitamin A
4%
Vitamin C
5%
Calcium
3%
Iron
8%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Does this look wrong?
Ingredients
  1. 200g oats
  2. 100g apricots
  3. 100g dates
  4. 150g raisins
  5. 25g sunflower seeds
  6. 20g linseeds
  7. 2 tbsp oil
  8. 1 tbsp honey
  9. 2 mashed bananas
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5, grease and line a flapjack tin.
  2. Chop the apricots and dates.
  3. Mix the oats, dried fruit, sunflower seeds and linseeds together.
  4. Mash the bananas in a seperate bowl, add these to the mixture along with the oil.
  5. Heat the honey for 20 seconds in the microwave and add to the mix.
  6. Spoon into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cover for half of this time with foil or baking parchment to prevent the top layer of fruit burning.
beta
calories
194
fat
5g
protein
4g
carbs
35g
more
Dietitian UK https://www.dietitianuk.co.uk/

 

Family Meals, Gluten Free, Recipes, Special Diets, Vegetarian, Video, Weaning, Wheat Free

Homemade Pizza vlog made with my Toddler

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We all love a bit of pizza, in our house we make our own pizza – why? Well….

1)I’m wheat intolerant,

2) It’s just healthier,

3) It’s so easy in our bread machine,

4) We can choose our favourite toppings.

5) My toddler loves cooking and this is one recipe she can almost do all of.

Here’s my wheat free pizza base recipe.

Take a look and see us in action making our pizza, this vlog literally made me howl with laughter, I hope it does you too!

 

Baking, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Recipes, Special Diets, Wheat Free

Gluten Free, Wheat free Banana and Choc Chip Cake.

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It’s been a hard few days….I fancied cake. Being a wheat intolerance, lover of all thing healthy, dietitian type, going to the shop was not an option. So I embraced the baking love and created this beauty.

 

Dietitian UK: Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Banana and Choc Chip Cake
Dietitian UK: Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Banana and Choc Chip Cake

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if it would work….but it did, the big bonus, it took about 10 minutes to whip up. I really should have more faith in myself!

Recipe:

1 cup Rice flour

1 cup Gluten free blend (I used Doves Farm)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xanthum gum

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup rapeseed oil

3 eggs

1 handful of chocolate chips

 

Mix the dry ingredients first, then add the eggs and oil.

Pour into a well greased and lined loaf tin.

Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips.

Bake at Gas Mark 5 for 35 minutes.

 

I used frozen, defrosted bananas. Whenever I have bananas going a bit over-ripe I stick them in the freezer for baking purposes. For example we often make our famous flapjack.

Next time I’m going to stir the chocolate chips through, they were kind of an afterthought….but a pretty tasty one!

Get baking guys 🙂

Family Meals, Gluten Free, Recipes, Special Diets, Weaning, Wheat Free

Roasted Beetroot Pasta, It’s Pink!

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This weekend we went to the farmers market and I just couldn’t help but buy a bunch of large, large beetroot. They have sat looking at me from the veg rack for a few days and today I knew I needed to use them. But how?

I knew roasting them would be ideal because of their size and roasting veggies always draws out their sweetness, so I washed them, cut the leaves off and put them in the oven to roast at Gas Mark 6. This gave me 45 minutes or so to plan what to do next!

It’s Friday so in our house that’s quick meal night as I have feed toddler, feed myself and  get toddler to bed all before 7pm. So I went for pasta and was mighty pleased with the result, a bit on the pink side but delicious and packed full of veg. Beetroot contain folate, manganese, vitamin C, fibre and potassium amongst other nutrition. The red colour is due to Betacyanins, a phytonutrient and antioxidant. Roasting for more than 1 hour or boiling for too long can lead to this antioxidant being damaged so keep the cooking time down.

Recipe (serves 2 plus toddler):

(gluten free, wheat free, low fat, weaning food)

  • 4 large beetoots
  • 1 tbsp rapseed oil
  • pasta (can be gluten free)
  • 2 tbsp low fat creme fraiche
  • 2 tbsp quark
  • pepper

 

  • Wash the beetroot and cut the leaves off, but do not peel. Place in a roasting tray and drizzle with 1 tbsp oil, roast for 45 minutes at Gas Mark 6.
  • When the beetroot feel soft  (you can stab them with a knife to check), remove and peel them. I did this under the cold tap as I was in a rush and had no time to let them cool. The skin will come off easily.
  • Chop the beetroot into bite size chunks and put into a non stick pan on a medium heat. Add the creme fraiche and quark and let is cook gently for 10 minutes.
Dietitian UK: Beetroot mixture cooks in the pan
Dietitian UK: Beetroot mixture cooks in the pan
  •  Meanwhile cook the pasta.
  • Season to taste then mix the beetroot into the pasta and serve.
Dietitian UK: Roasted Beetroot Pasta
Dietitian UK: Roasted Beetroot Pasta

It’s pink, it’s pretty and it’s packed with goodness. Go try it out!

 

Family Meals, Nutrition Education, Other

Meal Planning: make life simpler, smarter and sustainable.

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Every now and again I get myself into a bit of a stressful state, life feels like it’s overtaking me, I have lists of things to do, nothing feels like it’s getting done and suddenly I realise I’ve no idea what we’re eating for dinner and am running low on food. DISASTER. You know that feeling?

Hilariously as a dietitian I am often found writing meal plans for others, but then I forget to write my own. OOOPS. I love recipes, food, cooking, meal ideas and all that jazz, so actually for me sitting down and planning out the meals for the week is a relaxing and fun thing to do, it means I have time to think through the week, flick through some recipe books, bring those food ideas to the front of my brain and at the end of it I have at least one part of life under control.

Here’s mine for the next 2 weeks, I’d love to see yours!

Dietitian UK: Meal Planner
Dietitian UK: Meal Planner

5 Reasons to Meal Plan:

  1. SAVE TIME in the long run. Half an hour planning means you won’t be stood in the kitchen later racking your brains for a meal idea.
  2. Use it as a chance to check the BALANCE of your weeks meals, see the tips below.
  3. SAVE MONEY by then planning your shopping list so you don’t end up with random ingredients that you don’t need.
  4. SAVE WASTE by using all the ingredients in your fridge and planning it so you can take leftovers for lunches or fill the freezer.
  5. SAVE STRESS. Having a plan helps my stress levels, I can plan the quicker meals for busy days and know what I’m doing from day to day.

5 Top Tips for Balance over the week:

  1. Meat free Monday: Plan in some meat free days, we usually have 3-4 a week.
  2. Fishy Friday: Aim for fish a couple of times a week, oily fish contains those heart healthy omega 3’s.
  3. Reduce the Red Meat: to just 1-2 times a week.
  4. Veggie Vitality: Eat a range of colourful veggies over the week.
  5. Treats  Ahoy: Keep that takeaway or those chips to planned times, so they don’t appear on the menu too often.

Get planning those meals and please share – I’d love to hear how you do things and what meals you include.

Family Meals, Gluten Free, Other, Recipes, Special Diets, Weaning, Wheat Free

Spicy Bean Burger Heaven

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I love bean burgers. They are one of those foods that want me make to turn vegetarian. But they just aren’t one of those things that I make very often. Till now.

Tonight was one of those evenings where I hadn’t got round to planning dinner, so I turned to the fridge for inspiration…. the bowl of kidney beans was calling my name. We also had  carrot and courgette’s eyeing me. Bingo.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting these to work well as I literally threw them together on a whim, but in my experience that’s often when my best recipes occur. In my opinion this is one of them.

A great recipe for Family Meals, for weaning, it’s vegetarian, gluten free, wheat free, dairy free….need I say more?! Oh, hold on… ITS TASTY!

Ingredients:

1 tin kidney beans

2 carrots

1 courgette

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp Curry powder (I used a Sri-Lanka blend, use your favourite mix)

1 tbsp mixed fresh herbs or a pinch of dried

seasoning

Method:

  • I am a complete cheat. I used my food processor. To do this – place the beans, carrot, courgette, onions, garlic in the food processor and provess until finely chopped.
  • If you don’t have a food processor then grate the carrot and courgette, finely chop the beans, onion and garlic.
Dietitian UK: Bean Burger Mix
Dietitian UK: Bean Burger Mix
  • Shape the mix into large patties, pressing the mixture firmly together. I made 5 patties in total.
  • Place on a greased baking tray, pop into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. (You could make ahead to this stage and cook later or freeze them at this stage).
Dietitian UK: Bean Burger's Firming Up
Dietitian UK: Bean Burger’s Firming Up
  • Cook in a large pan or on a griddle, turning part way through cooking.
  • I served ours with salad and potato wedges.
Dietitian UK: Homemade Bean Burgers and Salad
Dietitian UK: Homemade Bean Burgers and Salad
Seriously yummy.

 

Gluten Free, Recipes, Wheat Free

Sri-Lankan Plum Chutney

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We’ve had a right plum glut this year, after making much plum jam I decided something else was needed. We love a good chutney….along with cheese, fresh salads and maybe a little wine. For me a chutney needs to be thick, fragrant and a bit spicey, so here is my take on a chutney recipe, inspired by my Sri-Lankan roots.  I’ve added in some spices from the Spice Isle.

It took me flipping ages to make, but having tasted it I can say it was well worth it. A labour of love to make and a labour of love to eat.

Sri-Lanka Plum Chutney Recipe:

1 kg plums – halved and destoned

2 large cooking apples peeled and chopped

2 large onions finely chopped

4 garlic cloves crushed

250g dried prunes

150g sultanas

500g brown sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 heaped tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground cardomom

1/2 tsp groound cloves

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

575ml malt vinegar

  • Chop, destone and crush all the ingredients – it’s a lot of prep but put on some music and dance whilst you do it 😉
  • Place in a large pan and bring to the boil.
  • Reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 hrs or until thick enough to leave a trail when you run a wooden spoon through it. Be warned, the chutney will thicken a bit more once you put it in jars.
  • Keep stirring occasionally as it simmers.
  • Taste before potting up, add extra cayenne if wanted.
  • Pour into sterilised jars and seal. This will improve over time and keep for at least a year.
Dietitian UK: Sri-Lankan Plum Chutney
Dietitian UK: Sri-Lankan Plum Chutney
Gluten Free, Recipes, Wheat Free

We’re jammin’ Plum stylee

4 Comments

I love my house and I love my garden. We’re fortunate enough to have 2 ancient yet bountiful fruit trees, a greengage and a plum. All that fruit is amazing and super tasty, but it can be hard work knowing what to do with it all. Today was PLUM DAY. It’s a day I both love and dread. I love eating the picking, eating and planning, I’m less keen on the destoning and preparation of fruit. I’ve officially decided you can get RSI from plum destoning.

This year I decided to make plum jam – it’s an old recipe that we’ve used several years in a row, requires only 3 ingredients and I think it’s pretty fool proof. If you’re someone who hasn’t made jam before then give it a go. I made 2 batches of this so now we have plenty of jars for us and some to give away too. I know jam has a lot of sugar in but a little also goes a long way. In our house, it’s a treat 😉

With still more plums to use I had to consult the recipe books….and found a yummy sounding Prune Chutney, which of course I have adapted to suit me as I never actually follow a recipe. I can’t wait to try this one. Cheese, cold meat….and chutney – OH YES.

Plum Jam Recipe (makes about 8 jars):

3kg plums (no need to destone or chop – WHOOP)

2 kg sugar

500ml water

  • Use non squidgy, unblemished plums for this, not qute ripe ones ill work well as well as ripe ones.
  • Place the plums and water in a large pan (I use my pressure cooker pan) with the water and bring to the boil, bubble for 30 minutes.
  • Remove from the heat and add the sugar, stir in and then place back on the heat and bring to the boil.
  • Boil for 10 minutes and stir, continue to boil and stir, gently removing the stones as they come to the surface, but keep the rest of the fruit in the pan (sounds obvious but a certain husband removed stones plus fruit leaving no jam!).
  • After about 20 minutes it should be ready, look thickened and jam like 😉 I don’t do any jam tests but can tell when it’s ready.
  • Pour into sterilised jam jars and seal.
Dietitian UK: Plum Jam
Dietitian UK: Plum Jam

Do you have fruit trees in your garden? What do you do with all your fruit?


Family Meals, Gluten Free, Recipes, Wheat Free

Frittata, Frattati, Frittato

2 Comments

Frittata. It’s a great word. Try playing around with it in your mouth. It lends itself to all kinds of twists and turns.

In our house Frittata night usually means it’s been a busy day, the cook of the house is tired and something quick and easy is needed for dinner. This recipe is satisfying to make, satisfy to cook and satisfying to eat. Plus it’s healthy, packed with high quality protein and plenty of colourful veggies. If you are the type of person who eat with their eyes then this will not fail to disappoint.

Personally I think the fresher the eggs the better. We have chickens so are very spoilt. Eggs provide a great protein source, in fact eggs are the benchmark for protein against which other protein foods are compared to.  they also contain zinc, iodine and phosporus along with the fat soluble vitamins A,D and E. Although eggs do contain about 11% fat, about half of this is monounsaturated, the healthy fat.

Onto the recipe. This is great served warm, straight from the pan with salad or cold the next day for lunch.

Recipe:

Serves 2 plus 1 toddler (withe leftovers for lunch)

5 eggs

A mix of veggies (e.g. peas, diced carrot, diced onion, finely chopped green beans and cherry tomatoes)

2 medium sliced and diced potatoes or sweet potatoes

rapeseed oil

mixed herbs

salt and pepper

  • Drizzle about 1/2 tbsp oil into a pan and saute the potatoes first.
  • After a out 5 minutes add the rest of the veggies and saute for another 3-5 minutes. Add a splash of water if it starts to stick.
Dietitian UK: Veggie and Sweet potato being Sauteed.
Dietitian UK: Veggie and Sweet potato being Sauteed.
  • Meanwhile beat the eggs, add the seasoning and herbs.
  • Spread the veggies out in the pan and try to arrange them a little so there is an even mix of them across the pan.
  • Pour the eggs into the pan and swirl it around a little so the veggies are covered.
Dietitian UK: Frittata cooking.
Dietitian UK: Frittata cooking.
  • Cook for 5 on a medium heat  and then put under the grill to cook the top surface. Cook until the top is golden and firm to the touch.
Dietitian UK: Fully Cooked Frittata
Dietitian UK: Fully Cooked Frittata
Baking, Family Meals, Wheat Free

Baking Banana Flapjacks – our first vlog!

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Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and try out a vlog. It’s a bit long so next time I’ll remember to keep it short and sweet….but I’m quite suprised with the end result….not too bad 😉 Personally I think that’s all due to my glamourous assisstant!

Please do take a look and let me know what you think…..and feel free to share too.

Due to the length (6 minutes) it’s on You Tube.

Please click above, here is a photo of the end result – yum yum!

Dietitian UK: Toddler enjoys banana flapjack
Dietitian UK: Toddler enjoys banana flapjack