Fish & Healthier Diet - part 3 -

So, I am doing 5 portions of fruits and veg a day, I should had "with great difficulties", I am contemplating enjoying 100g of dark chocolate (that should not be too hard) to lower my blood pressure -as it is a source of antioxidant- the next step is fish.

According to medical research one portion (115g) of fish, 4 times a week will provide you (& me) with enough Omega-3 to reduce significantly blood stickiness consequently preventing clotting

Will any fish do? this is where things get blurry, really it should be oily fish but my understanding is that 2 portions of oily fish out of the 4 should do the trick.

The other day He cooked a delicious fish meal, seemed to take very little time once all the ingredients where assembled and certainly had a very pleasant impact on the taste buds.

Amazing Apples


he and I went to an apple festival at the week end. There are hundreds at this time of the year, being there, I realised that supermarkets are really not helping .
The number of variety is mind boggling, fresh, sharp, sweet, it is all there, so could someone tell me why I can get one type only of cooking apple at my local supermarket and 3 or 4 types of eating apples among which, the right disgusting golden delicious.
Back home with my little bag of all sorts, I contemplated what I will do, and today I turned my bramleys into Apple and ginger Jam.
yummy, so here is the recipe straight from my old favourite: Marguerite Pattern's basic basics
APPLE GINGER JAM
Ingredients
450g/1b cooking apples, weight when peeled and cored (but retain peel and cores)
450g/1 lb sugar
4 tablespoons dices preserved ginger
1tablespoon water

Cut the apples into 1.5cm dice, put into the preserving pan with the sugar, ginger and water. Tie the peel and cores in a price of muslin and add to the pan. Allow to stand for several hours. During this time some juice will flow from the apples. Simmer the fruit over a low heat, stirring regularly until all the sugar has dissolved; raise the heat and boil steadily, rather than rapidly, until setting point is reached. Remove the bag of peel and cores. Spoon into the hot jars and seal down.

I used 1 and half teaspoon of ground ginger instead of diced preserved ginger.

The result is rather sweet but hey, it is a jam. Any how it is delicious.

Why Was I Kept In the Dark?

It's chocolate week. How could something like this escape my attention, I will never know? I would call this a tragic oversight. Especially since in my bid to be more healthy, I have been reading all about the virtues of dark chocolate: 100g (a small bar) per day can lower your blood pressure even more than vegetables.
No kidding, scientists have poured sweat and blood .......and possibly some wine too over their research publishing the results in 2004 in the British Medical journal. There is a group of 7 superfoods which helps lowering cholesterol: Fruits and Vegetables 400g daily, dark chocolate, so will you excuse me while I disappear for a little while in search of chocolate as I have not been very good with vegetables today

5 a Day Starring the Sweet Potato

I thought that my diet was relatively healthy, I thought it included 5 fruits and veg a day.

Confident, I started counting. day in, day out, I was missing ONE. I can see you smiling but have you counting yours? and what does 5 a day mean.............?

Pay attention here are some guidelines:
1/2 a very large fruit such as mango, melon but avocado too
A whole medium size fruit : apple, peach
A couple of little specimen figs, plums
A handful of smaller ones blueberries etc
A small bowl of mixed salad/ soup
A wine glass.........of fruit or vegetable soup
A handful of veg including beans, lentils, chickpeas and .....sweet potato
As far as I can see my only option is to add fruits to my breakfast or make sure there are 2 veg at dinner time, hence I am looking for easy veg recipes & came across this one in the free Asda magazine.
Cook and mash sweet potatoes, add a 2tsp of honey, a little milk or a spoon of cream, I put it to the taste, delicious.

Bye Bye Cherry Tomatoes

It is time to say good bye to cherry tomatoes. They should be fading away from gardens, markets and supermarkets' shelves until next year.
On Saturday, We (that's he, his mum and I) trotted to the opening of the East Greenwich Pleasaunce Market, I hope this one is to keep and won't be a flash in the pan like so many others.
It is a jolly nice affair, not too big, not too small, The marketing is a little weird though the cliffhanger -so to speak- is "All products made, grown or reared within 100 miles of the market" which they'd better be because if they don't they will be many farmers ploughing the seas and pigs will have to learn to swim!
So there we were, greeting our wonderful local Councillor, when I spotted a flash of ruby bright, cherry tomatoes and suddenly remembered that my friend Pat trusted in my hand a crumble recipe as I was on my way to board the plane in Lyon. So I will do what she did and leave you with the recipe, sorry no photo, once again, it did not linger around long enough for me to get the camera.

If you have some cherry tomatoes left why not try cherry tomatoes and mozzarella skewers ?




























Cherry Tomato crumble
SERVES 4
Ingredients
2 lbs cherry tomatoes
5 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces goat's cheese (firm or soft)
2 ounces pine nuts
4 ounces breadcrumbs
2 ounces Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 tsp mixed herbs
salt and pepper

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F, 190 C/ gas mark 5.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan, add the cherry tomatoes, season cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened; remove from the heat.Fill an oven proof dish with the tomatoes and crumble the goat’s cheese on top. Heat remaining olive oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the pine nuts and breadcrumbs;
Scatter breadcrumb mix over the tomatoes and cheese, then top with the the Parmesan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden.

Book review : Tapas Bar By The Australian Women's Weekly

Before my holidays I briefly mentioned "Tapas Bar : easy snacks form the Mediterranean". I received this book, courtesy of the Australian Women's Weekly, to review on behalf of Blogger Aid Changing the Face of Famine.
I now have had time to leaf through "Tapas Bar" thoroughly. Traditionally Tapas come from Spain but the Aussies have put a new spin on the concept. In Australia Tapas is a generic word of snacks and finger food, this book gathers over 100 recipes of tasty little morsels from all around the Mediterranee.
On the plus side:
  • £6.99 is real good value for book which is packed with so many ideas.
  • Each recipe is triple tested so there can't be any mishap though....
  • Recipes are for all abilities some are dead-easy, others require a little more skill.
  • It suits vegetarian, fish lovers, meat eaters there is something for every body.
I have now used Tapas Bar twice, once during the week when I packed up for the day rather late and had no idea what to cook for diner, and last Saturday at the annual friends and neighbours picnic.
I like the choice of countries
  • Tapas from Spain antipasto from Italy and mezze from the Middle East.
  • There is a useful glossary and a conversion chart at the end of the book
  • Each recipe has got a photo so that you can see what the outcome should look like.
For each country there is at least one double page with several versions of the same recipe for example From Italy there are 5 recipes for Carpaccio.
My only problem with it was my attempts did not quite work, the skewers were over cooked and the dip too runny. This is possibly my doing so don't let this stop you buying the book.

Lemon and chilli chicken skewers
  • 400g chicken breast fillets, cut into 2 cm pieces
  • 340g chorizo, cut into 2 cm pieces
  • 1 medium yellow capsicum (200g), cut into 2 cm pieces
  • 12 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
  • 1 tapblespoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  1. Combine ingredients in large bowl, cover, refrigerate 30 minutes
  2. Thread chicken chorizo, capsicum and bay leaves, alternately, onto skewers
  3. Cook skewers on heated oiled grill plate (or grill or barbecue) until chicken is cooked through and chorizo browned lightly
prep + cook time 30 minutes / makes 12
tip soak 12 bamboo skewers in water for at least an hour before using to prevent them from scorching during cooking
recipe copied straight from Tapas Bar.
si

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