New Eating Direction: Low Glycemic Index Foods

I have taken a slightly different direction in my cooking after doing some reading. This month I have been cooking foods with good proteins, good fibres and complex carbohydrates that score low on the glycemic index.
First thing to tackle was snacks. I have a real intolerance for sugar and have been experimenting with natural alternatives, I made some some really simple nut and seed bars by blitzing up some dried apricots, pecan nuts and sunflower seeds, adding some dessicated coconut, coconut oil and a table spoon of agave nectar, then pressing the mixture into a baking tray and baking for around 25 minutes. They were nice, didn't last a long time before becoming slightly soggy though so might need soring wrapped in greaseproof paper perhaps?

Next I made pickled vegetables. There are carrots, chillies, fennel, cucumbers and garlic cloves in there. First you heat some apple cider vinegar, diluted with water - three parts to one. Add a couple of spoons of unrefined brown sugar, a teaspoon of salt and simmer until all is disolved, Then poor over the vegetables in a jar, adding dill, mustardseeds and some fennel seeds too. Leave in the fridge until cooled. Ready to snack on in 24 hours, but tastier the longer you leave it.

Finally we snacked on crudite with a homemade chipotle mayonnaise. I mixed regular mayonnaise with smoked paprika, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Really tasty.

Quesadilla with Corn and Salad

Tonight's meal was a first for me, I made quesadilla. Preheat the oven to a low heat, to keep each quesadilla warm whilst the others are cooking.

You use flour tortilla, with whatever filling you like. We had chorizo, manchego cheese, red onion and kidney beans. I think you need cheese though, to hold it all together. You place one tortilla in a round skillet pan - used about five sprays of one calorie olive oil spray, then evenly spread the topping. press down on the filling and then add the top tortilla. Once the bottom tortilla has browned, you have to toss them. That's really difficult. You have to do it really quickly so that the filling doesn't shoot out. It's tricky.

Kev and Ollie loved them, Kev ate four and Ollie ate five. Although the former added hot sauce and the latter, his version: absolutely loads of mayonnaise.

Tonight's Dinner was... Halloumi and Prawn Salad - low carb, under 350 calories

Tonight we had some salad leaves, mixed with tomato, red onion and cucumber - all thinly sliced. I then fried some padron peppers in a skillet with a spray of 1 calorie olive oil mist, added them to the salad, fried some halloumi in the same pan, added that and then dropped in a bag of raw king prawns. I had made a dressing of lemon juice, parsley
(chopped, fresh) seasoning, olive oil and chopped fresh chilli. I poured half of this into the skillet with the prawns and mixed the rest with the salad. Once the prawns were done I mixed everything together and served. It was fresh and zingy, pretty tasty and really healthy.

No Ollie again tonight, Kev ate his with gusto and without any extra sauce or salt but then he was distracted by his new iPad so I don't know if he even noticed he was eating dinner.

Mango Chicken: low carb, under 300 calories

Delicious, fresh and really filling. 

Rub a skinless, boneless chicken breast (sliced in half lengthways if it's thick) with salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary. Fry in a skillet with 1 calorie olive oil spray and a squeeze of lime until cooked through. Keep warm. Then add chopped mango and a shake of cayenne pepper to the skillet, fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes, add a splash of rum, a teaspoon of chopped ginger, a dash of red wine vinegar and a couple of spoonfuls of lime. Cook for another couple of minutes. Put the chicken on a bed of lettuce and sliced peppers (squeeze some lime and salt on top of the leaves and toss). Pour the mango sauce over everything and serve.

It was quite spicy and so no chilli sauce was used by my husband. 

We both felt really full afterwards.

Ollie wasn't here tonight to critique but I think he'd like it. 

  

Tonight's Low Carb' Dinner: Jamie's Jerk Pork

This recipe isn't mine. It's stolen and slightly adapted from that pseudo cockney Jamie Oliver. It's jerk pork with a corn and crunchy tortilla salad.

It actually took a lot longer than that fake prole' claimed. He said fifteen minutes and it took me about an hour. You put two tortillas in an oven proof dish and bake them for about ten minutes until the edges are crispy. You griddle the corn on the cob with some olive oil and seasoning. The pork is a fillet which you slice into 1 1/2 inch discs. I couldn't remember exactly how Jamie made his jerk sauce and he's keeping that secret pretty close to his faux working class chest. Here's how I made mine: I 'wanged' ginger, honey, soy sauce, thyme, allspice, one scotch bonnet, red wine vinegar, two cloves of garlic and some olive oil into my 'Jamie Oliver' blender. Sorry. Then I blended it together whilst adding about three quarters of a pint of chicken stock. I reduced the mixture over a medium heat, until it had become a syrup.

I spooned about three tablespoons into a frying pan and cooked the pork in it until it had caramelised on the outside and was still tender on the inside.

For the salad I put some romaine lettuce, tomato, pepper, red onion into the dish with the tortillas. Then I added the corn which I removed with a sharp knife. I put about a tablespoon of olive oil on top, with a squeeze of lemon and some salt.

I did add some fresh parsley to the salad and some soured cream to the dishes as you can see. That's it. You can see why it took more than a 'pukka' fifteen minutes.

Kev's verdict was: 'unbelievably tasty'
He didn't add any hot sauce but he did add an extra spoonful of jerk sauce.
Ollie wasn't here.
We discussed whether we can afford to go to Bali on honeymoon.

Overall 9/10, I will definitely make this again but will make a big pot of jerk sauce so that it's quicker next time.

Next Week's Low Carb' Dinners

Don't worry, we will be back to healthy eating from tomorrow, and here's what we will be having.

High Carb' Pie

I've gone viral, and not in a good way, so Kev's cooking tonight which means it's a high carb', high calorie, high fat pie. It's beef and stilton pie with daupinoise potatoes.