Diet & Weight Loss: No Carb Pizza Omelette!

As a female who wasn’t blessed with the ability to lose weight and be toned just by existing, I find myself constantly looking for ways to achieve this but without feeling like I might die of boredom at having to eat bland, tasteless food; or indeed feel like I’m missing out on lots of other delicious foods that I know I enjoy and crave deeply from the exact second that I make the decision to get back on the healthy eating wagon.

And, because I’m a vegetarian, I have always found myself relying perhaps a little too heavily on carbs also, to make a meal feel substantial, filling and obviously tasty. So knowing I needed to lower my carb reliance and increase protein to start seeing further results, I spent the last 4 years forcing myself to find ways to eat eggs so that I could actually enjoy them, which meant that they weren’t too eggy, both in taste and texture; as despite not being vegan, I didn’t eat eggs (unless in cake) for a very, very long time.

I just couldn’t get my head around what they were (let’s not even mention it now as I am still not at ease with it and I don’t want to undo my hard work over these years, ha) so my protein intake was less than impressive. I have now mastered the art of making both omelettes, and scrambled eggs by adding vegetables, cheese, and other flavourings that have enough other textures/tastes to make them actually quite enjoyable to me.

Success… I now have a healthy, low carb meal option that actually leaves me feeling full, and satiated. I still miss carb heavy food, but now look for ways to try and satisfy cravings for them without leaving myself feeling guilty that I’ve fallen off the wagon again. Obviously a treat is fine, but as a lifestyle change that is realistic, I need to enjoy the food I am eating and not just eating it because it’s healthy.

One massive craving for me that I really miss whilst trying to be healthy has to be pizza. I bloody love it! But it doesn’t love my waistline… it’s just not healthy, and that carb-heavy base makes me put on a stone just thinking about it (sympathy please). So how could I find a way to satisfy a regularly recurring craving for the gooey, pizza goodness? Well, with an omelette base, of course.

Luckily, I have been sneaky well informed, and researched enough to have found a ‘diet’ that might suit me as it allows me to eat cheese(!); and not only allows, but encourages (high fat, low carb – keto diet)… yep, I think I might have found ‘the one’ - diet wise, anyway.

And so I decided to do an eggsperiment (geddit? I’ll book my own taxi for that) to see if I could make this omelette taste anything like a passable pizza to me. And by goodness, I think I actually have! Obviously it’s never going to replace your favourite pizza from wherever, but it’s also not going to make you die from diet guilt, or have your buttons popping off your clothes by indulging in it.

Ingredients:

2-3 eggs (or more if you’re making for more than one person, or particularly hungry)
Chopped tomatoes/passata
Herbs (mixed, or fresh basil works)
Chopped onion
Cheese (hurrah, I used cheddar but any melty one that you fancy is all good)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Or whatever toppings you fancy, obviously. I just kept this one very simple, as I didn’t know if it would work or not.

Method: 

 

I cooked the chopped onion in a small amount of oil (I used olive, but any is fine, just don’t use too much as you don’t want a greasy pizza sauce) until translucent, then added the tomatoes, herbs, and seasoning before cooking through so the flavours were developed enough. You could make this in advance and freeze it, or use it as a base for pasta sauce too. You could do this without the onion, and add them at the end, or not at all if you prefer.

Then, I decided to stick to just a plain omelette base as I knew there’d be less chance of it breaking. I whisked the eggs with salt and pepper, then cooked it both sides in a frying pan so that it was golden brown, and feeling fairly sturdy.

I then transferred my omelette to a foil lined tray and spooned enough ‘pizza sauce’ to cover it, sprinkled plenty of cheese over it (and any other ingredients you choose), and then put it under the grill until it was melted (this particular cheese didn't melt as well as I'd hoped, but still tasted good).

Then I ate it, obviously. I really, really enjoyed it too. So I actually do think I have found something I can eat and enjoy regularly that does satisfy that pizza craving I get, until such a day where I can have a real pizza as a treat.

Happy days. I can’t believe I’ve written so much about eggs though, ha.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Pancake Day: Healthy, Flour Free, Low Carb Pancakes!

It’s Pancake Day! But I’m on a bit of a mission to lose some weight, tone up and generally be healthy, so I took to the internet to look for ways that I could participate in the eating of pancakes, but in a slightly healthier way.

In my quest, I found recipes that used almond flour instead of regular flour for a less carb heavy solution; but I thought that the calories in this may be too high for my personal consumption (as I’m watching my calories as well as trying to eat cleanly), due to the fact that nuts in general are quite calorific. 

Then I had a eureka moment when I came across a recipe that called for eggs, oats and bananas and wondered if I could omit the oats to make it even less calorific and carb heavy! So I tried it, and it turns out that yes I could. Now I’m not saying that these have the regular pancake texture – and when cooking them they are quite fragile, so it’s better to make them smaller (but more of them)… but they’re close enough, and with some honey and lemon on (I stayed quite traditional) I think they’re rather yummy.

I used:

1 Ripe banana

2 Free range eggs

A Dash of vanilla extract

Coconut oil (for frying).

 

Optional Extras:

Feel free to add in vanilla extract, cinnamon, cocoa powder or any other spices/flavourings into the mix, depending on the flavours you prefer. And also if the mixture isn’t ‘quite’ there for you texture wise you could add in maybe a tablespoon or 2 of coconut or almond flour. I’ve also read that ground flaxseeds work well to hold the mixture together.

Toppings:

I stayed quite traditional with my honey and lemon toppings, but you could add pretty much anything that you’d normally have on your pancakes… especially if you’re not being totally rigid about the health factor. I think next time I might try some with strawberries and raspberries pureed in the food processor with a little honey in.

Apologies for the pathetic one pancake in my final photograph, in my excitement to get the others to the plate, I ended up dropping them on the floor, and I only had enough mixture left to make this feeble, lonely one more. I guess that’s another way to lower my calorie intake, though?! ;-)

Speaking of calories, this mix (without toppings) works out to be around 300 calories (depending on the weight of banana you use) and I think would be enough for 2 people (based on 2 small to medium pancakes each), so around 150 calories per serving, excluding toppings. 

Happy pancake day.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Wordless Wednesday - Ladurée Macarons!

On a recent visit to London, I indulged myself and bought a box of utterly fabulous macarons from the lavish Ladurée store at Covent Garden.

I bought a box of 8, but unfortunately, 2 of them were scoffed (by Mr Beauty Scoop and I) before I managed to photograph them - whoops. The flavours I went for were: Milk Chocolate, Almond Marshmallow, Cherry Blossom and Salted Caramel (2 of each) and they were all absolutely gorgeous, although my favourite was the Cherry Blossom. Yum.

They're pricey but they're worth it. Have you ever had Ladurée macarons? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Food: Cheese & Onion Pie!

This was my gorgeous cheese and onion pie that I made a couple of weeks ago as a belated nod to National Pie day. It's so unhealthy (cheese and pastry, come on - and that's not mentioning the mashed potato that accompanied it) but it tastes so good. I try to balance it out by having smaller portions and a huge side salad though - not sure how much good that does, but it's the thought that counts.

It's so easy to make, just use a basic shortcrust pastry recipe (I used this one but you could also buy ready made stuff), roll it out and line a pie tin - or even a small, oven proof plate with half of the pastry (after lightly greasing it).

Grate a LOT of cheese into the dish (I prefer cheddar), remembering that the cheese will melt so you should add extra in, just to be sure ;-) and some finely chopped onion too.

Top the pie with the second half of the pastry, crimp the edges to seal the pie and then stick a knife in the lid to allow steam to escape!

You then need to egg wash the top (that's what makes it gorgeously golden, but you can use milk if you'd prefer), before baking at a medium-high heat until the pastry is cooked and looking golden brown. The cheese and the onion always seem to be ready at just the right time when doing it like this - but if you cut your onions a bit bigger, you may need to pre-cook them a little before!

Then.... devour, yum!

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Food: Healthy Vegetable Paella!

If you read yesterday's post, you'll see that I am back on the healthy eating wagon, after much excess over Christmas and New Year (and yep, I know it's February now, but the festive period seemed to be over so quickly, that I treated most of January like it was still Christmas - clearing out the party food before it went out of date etc) and will be updating on here with my progress including photographs/recipes for successful meals, or pretty looking ones every now and then. Hope you don't mind.

I am a vegetarian but I don't like missing out on good food just because somebody says it should contain meat or fish, so I adapt them and leave out the meat/fish and any stock/derivatives from them that are usually put into these recipes. Sometimes I cheat a bit if I'm in a rush or if it doesn't make any difference to the end result, as you will see below, where I use ready bought seasoning, but I never compromise on flavour as if I'm using precious calories to eat something, I have to enjoy it - otherwise I risk snacking to make up for it (lol).

I loved this meal. It's so simple to make, we used paella rice, threw whatever veg we could find in there (which ended up being: green beans, sweetcorn, peas, peppers, onion, tenderstem broccoli, and tomatoes) with it, with a pack of paella spices (from Tesco, as we were in a rush because it's quite expensive to do it this way, otherwise) and cooked as you would any other paella, just without a meat and/or fish stage.

I also added lemon wedges to steam with it for a few minutes with it at the end - the lemon flavour goes SO well with this, and steaming it makes it really juicy so that it gives out its flavour easily.

Easy peasy, very tasty and healthy too - what do you think? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Victoria Beckham Recommends... Roasted Kale!

Christmas has long since passed and here I find myself yet again, trying to get back on the healthy eating wagon. So, with that in mind, I've been looking for tasty alternatives to fatty food. I came across Victoria's Tweet recently, declaring her addiction to kale.

I thought it sounded alright, I imagined it would taste a bit like crispy seaweed that you get from chinese restaurants and potentially replace any craving for salty snacks like crisps. So, I came back from shopping with a bag of curly kale, ready and hopeful about this new discovery and tipped half the bag on a baking sheet, sprinkled with some Maldon sea salt and popped it in the oven.

Now let me tell you, if you're planning on trying this - you need to watch it carefully, as it can burn very quickly - you can see in the first photo that some of ours has slightly burnt bits on. I think we cooked ours for about 10 or 15 minutes (I know, I should really have timed it) and I think really, it could have done with ever so slightly less in our oven, with it being fan assisted.

The end result is errrm, interesting. The kale does go very crispy, but it is also very delicate too so a light hand is needed when picking it up, as it does have the tendancy to collapse in your fingers and go everywhere. My initial taste of the finished product did kind of remind me of seaweed, but then I got an aftertaste... not a very nice one. It reminded me of the smell of cigarettes, mixed with cabbage - I don't know if this is because it was on for slightly too long or not, but as a non-smoker, it made me feel ill. I couldn't finish it, and I'm too scared to try again - ha, wimp I am.

So, a fairly unsuccessful mission, but at least I tried. Have any of you tried this before? Can you report back to me if it is normal to have this weird aftertaste, or was I just unlucky?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Food: Dulce De Leche Brownies!

I hope you don't mind me chucking in a few non-beauty posts - although I do think these brownies are definitely beautiful, so maybe that's not too bad?!

Anyway, I saw these being made on Something For The Weekenda while back and they instantly made my mouth water, I just had to make them. I've had a bit of a baking bug over the last few months (when I say a bug, I mean I've baked a few times, more than I have in a long time) and so it was decided that I would make them, and I am SO glad I did - yet also wish I hadn't (as they're clearly not healthy in the slightest - luckily I have quite a lot of people who are always willing to help me eat them)!.

They are delicious though, seriously - the caramel dolloped in them and on the top provide bursts of soft, slightly gooey sweetness that you just know is going straight to your hips, yet you don't care. Utter bliss, and my photographs do not do it justice.

The recipe is here but I'll also paste it below for quickness for you - they're very easy to make too!

"Ingredients

125g/4½oz condensed milk
150g/5½oz dark chocolate
115g/4oz unsalted butter, cubed
25g/1oz cocoa powder
3 free-range eggs
200g/7oz caster sugar
140g/5oz plain flour

To serve

chocolate sauce
double cream

Preparation method

1. To make the dulche de leche, fill a saucepan with water and boil the tin of condensed milk for four hours. Take care to ensure the water does not boil down completely. Carefully remove the tin from the water and set aside to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 175C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 20cm/8in square cake tin.

3. Place the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and suspend it over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder, eggs and sugar before quickly folding in the flour.

4. Pour half of the batter into the cake tin and drop dollops of the dulche de leche over the mixture. Using a spoon, swirl the dulce de leche into the batter to create a marbled effect.

5. Add the rest of the batter on top and repeat Step 4.

6. Place the cake into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked through. Test by pushing a skewer into the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is ready. Set aside to cool.

7. Cut the cake into 7.5-10cm/3-4in squares and serve with chocolate sauce and cream."