Finally, the perfect banana cake!

Every time I get those brown bananas in my fruit bowl I think 'ooh lovely, a yummy banana cake' and it never quite works out. BUT practice makes perfect! 

Here's the recipe for moist, sweet, moreish (and not too unhealthy) banana and walnut cake.

Ingredients:

3 small ripe bananas (the browner the better!), mashed
100g plain flour
3 eggs
100g butter or other spread
100g soft brown sugar / 50g sweetener (or you could use all sugar or all sweetener)
1 tsp baking powder
small handful chopped walnuts (or any other nuts)
handful of raisins
2 tsp cinnamon or ground ginger

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease a loaf tin.

Mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour, eggs, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly. Stir in the banana, nuts and raisins. Pour the mixture into the tin. Bake in the oven for around 50 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean).

Serve warm with a dollop of creme fraiche, ice cream or greek yogurt.

Starbucks - skinny brekkie?

Best choice brekkie in Starbucks

Yesterday morning I had a dilemma – rushing for a long train journey and having not had time for breakfast. What would be the healthiest option to keep me full until lunchtime?

Under the pressure of a quick moving queue, I failed and went for a soya cappuccino and a ‘healthy’ granola bar – as soon as I took a bite I knew it wasn’t the healthy choice.

So what would’ve been the best brekkie option?

• Starbucks porridge – 244 calories (204 with soy milk) and very berry or dried fruit compote (avoid the honey or maple syrup)

• Natural yogurt and a fruit salad – 215 calories

• Buttermilk pancakes – 227 calories

And what to avoid:

• The granola bar (grrr) – 390 calories (25g sugar!!)
• Luxury fruit bread – 481 calories (39g sugar – that’s around 10 tsp!)
• ‘Skinny’ lemon and poppy seed iced muffin – 399 calories and 49.6g sugar – 12.4 tsps!
• Sausage buttie – 449 calories, 22.1g fat (almost a third of your recommended daily intaken and almost half of your recommended saturated fat intake).

And drinks?

The best

Skinny/Soy decaf cappuccino – 70 calories, 0.1g fat

Green tea – 0 calories, 0 fat

Breakfast tea w.skimmed milk, 0 calories, 0.1g fat

The worst

Grande latte made with whole milk – 223 calories, 11.5g fat

White chocolate mocha with whipped cream – 500 calories, 22.1g fat, 58.6g sugar (that’s 2 mars bars!)

Perfect post-workout drink

Who needs expensive recovery shakes? I whipped this up in less than a minute and it cost around 40p a serving!

1/2 tin of peaches (get the ones in natural juice)
1/2 pint skimmed milk (or soya milk if you prefer)
 
Blend together and ta-dah! Perfect mix of carbohydrate and protein. And milk boosts post-workout muscle recovery. 

Eggs again?

Watched a great programme last night on the beeb Britain's favourite supermarket foods. Once again it highlighted that eating eggs won't raise your cholesterol significantly. Two or three a day in fact is fine! Great source of protein and vitamins A and D too.

Also showed rugby players drinking milk instead of a sports drink after exercise and their muscles recovered much quicker. Get downing the white stuff after exercise (just go for skimmed or semi-skimmed!)

Success!

So the Valentine's feast was a success. Here are the recipes if you want to try your hand at some Cuban cuisine:

Crispy plantain:
2 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced finely like a banana
1 tsp hot paprika
1 tsp rock salt
1 tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil

Boil the plantain for around 5 minutes in lightly salted water. Remove using a slatted spoon. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the plantain. Sprinkle with paprika and rock salt. Cook over a high heat until crispy and golden brown, turning regularly.

Black bean stew:
1 tin black beans
1 onion
4 garlic cloves – 2 chopped, 2 whole
1 green pepper
1tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
½ veg stock cube
½ chopped red chilli
Pinch of salt
Black pepper
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp white wine
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp tomato puree
It looks like loads of ingredients but literally just throw them all in together and cook for about 30 minutes! You could pick and choose which ingredients to keep or miss.  Taste as you go along!

Coconutty prawns
 
450g frozen or fresh, peeled, jumbo prawns
1 medium onion, sliced

1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste
1 tbsp butter/olive oil
2 tsps ground coriander
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsps vinegar
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1/2 - 1 tin of coconut milk (depends how creamy you want it!)
1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes.

Fry the onion and garlic paste in a pan with the butter/oil. Mix spices, vinegar and ketchup in a bowl. Add to the pan and cook for around 3 mins. Then add the coconut milk and tomatoes. Cook for around 10 minutes then add the prawns and cook for a further 3 minutes. Serve with brown rice.

Happy Valentine's Day

What's on the menu tonight? Caribbean/Cuban fusion. Which means black bean stew, coconutty prawns, rice and (slightly fried) plantain. Oh yes, and a couple of mojitos (nutritionist's drink of choice don't you know!)

I'll take a photo and let you know how I get on with my experiment.

Pick up a pumpkin

Want an economical, versatile and healthy food? Pick pumpkin! £1.50 makes you a pumpkin pie/souffle and delish roast pumpkin which you can have as a side, in a salad, or in risotto.

Low-carb pumpkin pie

Ingredients
400g pumpkin (about half a small pumpkin or use canned if you can find it - Whole Foods is a good bet)

60g xylitol or splenda

2 eggs

3 tbsp wholemeal flour

175ml skimmed or unsweetened soya milk

80ml single cream

2 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp salt
 
How to do it
 
Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC. Add all of the ingredients to a blender or food processor and mix until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a lightly greased shallow pie tin or dish and put in the oven. Immediately

turn the oven down to 180ºC. Bake at this temperature for 40-50 minutes or until set in

the middle. Serve with a sprinkling of flaked almonds and yogurt, creme fraiche or single cream.
 

Roast pumpkin

1/2 pumpkin, peeled and chopped into small chunks
Drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dried herbs (sage, thyme, oregano)
Pinch rock salt

Put pumpkin in a large roasting dish and drizzle with the oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with the herbs, salt and add a splash of water.

Roast in the oven at 180 degrees for about 30minutes until pumpkin is tender. Serve!