Barb's Healthy Hearty Minestrone - Filling & nutritious!

Yesterday I took a look in my fridge and had vegetables that needed to be eaten, since it was lunch time I decided to turn the veges into a lovely soup! This soup is delicious, full of nutrition and come winter I think will be a staple meal for me to have to curb cravings or have for lunch or dinner!

Barb's Hearty Healthy Minestrone! - Serves 4

2 tins 400g crushed tomatoes (passata)
1 tin 415g red kidney beans
2 carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
1 red onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
6 medium sized button mushrooms
2 tsp italian herbs
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cups water

Grab a large pot and heat 1 tablespoon olive oil. Fry onion, garlic, celery, carrots and italian herbs and cook till the onion is soft. Add the two tins of tomatoes, 2 cups water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook till the carrots are tender. Add the kidney beans, brown sugar and mushrooms and cook a further 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Salmon Mango Chilli Cream Cheese Tarts - extremely simple appetizer!

These tarts or tartlets are so easy to make your kids could make them! Everything I used is either reduced fat or low in fat, we do not have fat free anything in New Zealand which is a pain in the rear!

12 small pre-made short pastry cases
1 small pack sliced salmon
100g Mango Chilli Cream Cheese
Dill to garnish (optional)

Place pastry cases on a platter and fill each with 1 tsp of Mango Chilli Cream Cheese.

Slice the salmon into 1 inch strips and place on top of the cream cheese.

Note: Incredibly simple use low fat ingredients to keep the tarts low in fat, great for guests who are watching their weight!

Green Juice - simply refreshing!

Today I made a Green Juice out of apple, cucumber and parsley and WOW, it was delicious! The cucumber gave this juice a clean finish on the palate and the granny smith apple gave the juice a sweet and tart flavor and as for the parsley, you could only just taste it which is great. This juice provides a good range of vitamins and minerals and I felt great after drinking this.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cucumber
1 granny smith apple
small bunch of parsley

Juice all of the above, serve in a tall glass and give it a good stir. If you let this juice sit for too long, the juices will separate, so get it down ya!

Enjoy!

Carrot, Cucumber and Apple Juice!

This juice is delicious and the cucumber gives it a refreshing taste. This makes a good sized glass so make sure you serve it tall! Carrots are jam packed with vitamin A, an important vitamin for healthy eyes and carrots also have loads of fiber. Cucumbers are mostly made up of water but have minerals that help with soothing skin irritations and swelling and apples have vitamins A, B and C, fiber and an excellent source of energy!

3 carrots
1 apple
2 inch piece of cucumber
Juice the carrots and apple on high speed then the cucumber at a lower speed. Grab yourself a tall glass, pour the juice in and enjoy!

To have a nice chilled juice just simply store your fruit and vegetables in the fridge!

Homemade 100 Calorie Snacks

When you are on a weight loss plan sometimes sticking to the plan can be difficult when you get to that time of the day where you are hungry, but not wanting a meal, yes, it's snack time. Throughout my weight loss, 10am and 3pm can be the most challenging times of the day, the time when I used to reach for a candy bar rather than an apple. But it's not every snack time where a piece of fruit will satisfy my hunger pangs, so today I sat down and thought of alternatives to eat that are not pre-packaged rubbish, instead, they are snacks that you can easily make yourself and take to work.

FRUIT: the most obvious of snack choices but did you know that there are a lot of fruits that don't get anywhere near the 100 calorie mark, most sit around 50-80 calories so you can eat more!

1 cup strawberry halves 49
1 medium pear 96
1 small banana 72
1 cup grapes 62
1 gala apple 74
1 cup watermelon 46
2 plums 60
2 Kiwi 100

Celery (5") filled with Low Fat Cream Cheese (28g) 73
2 Wholegrain Crackers with Low Fat Cottage Cheese 77.5
3/4 cup Honey Puffs 96
Banana Spinach Spirulina Smoothie 89
Homemade Minestrone 82

These are just a few of the foods that I now use to curb my snack attack!

My favorite juice recipe! - Beetroot Carrot and Apple

Beetroot, Carrot and Apple Juice - Serves 1

This juice is a fantastic way to start the day, I feel energized and ready to go after drinking this and it's a great way to get a boost of multivitamins!

1 carrot
2 apples
1/2 small beetroot (peeled otherwise it tastes dirty...eew)

Into a juicer blend the beetroot, carrot, then apples.
Serve in a tall glass

Berry Yoghurt Parfait - Easy snack or breakfast!

I love, love LOVE yoghurt especially greek yoghurt, so creamy, but oh dear, so fattening! Luckily there are some fantastic low fat alternatives that you can buy. This parfait recipe is EXTREMELY basic, anyone can make it and it takes minutes to whip up!




Berry Yoghurt Parfait - Serves 1

1/2 cup low/no fat greek yoghurt
1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries
1 tsp clear honey
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

This recipe is ultra simple!

Mash the berries and stir in the honey.
Grab a glass and spoon a little yoghurt into the glass then top with some of the berry mixture, then more yoghurt and so on till you've used all the yoghurt and berries to create a layered effect. Top with pumpkin seeds and enjoy!

note: you can use any nuts as a topping or a weight watchers gingernut cookie or you can turn it into a dessert by adding a sponge finger and some dark cocoa nibs...mmmmm!