How to make your food 'skinny' #1

Hello!

I mentioned in a previous post that you can continue to make your favourite meals but by changing a few simple ingredients, you can make them 'skinny'. This will be the first of a few posts to to include the helpful tips I've picked up along the way.

1. Curry - to make this healthier, start making your own paste or using a jar paste instead of a pre-made sauce. Jar sauces contain a lot of cream, sugar and unnecessary calories. You can get a few different curry pastes in supermarkets, including thai red/green pastes! Most jars have directions on how to use but most require water and cream or water and coconut milk. If the paste requires cream, try to use a low fat yogurt instead as it gives the same creamy texture without adding loads of calories. I tend to water my curry down quite a bit, only because it saves using lots of coconut milk or yogurt and then bulk it back up with a lot of mushrooms.
2. Spaghetti bolognese - this has always been one of my favourite meals. As much as I love the way my mum makes it, I've had to tweak it over the years to suit my new diet. Instead of using beef mince, use turkey mince. It's not much cheaper but it's half the calories of beef (even lean) and fat, meaning you don't have to drain after browning. When using turkey mince, make sure you use a beef stock cube or two, as the turkey can be rather bland, so you will need to add all the flavour you can! It's always handy to have packets of beef stock to hand, as well as dried mixed herbs! Use less mince and pasta and bulk out with mushrooms (if you like them) and/or tomatoes.
3. Shepherds pie - again, I love this meal. Using the same turkey/stock tip as above, you can make shepherd's pie diet friendly. Make sure you bulk this meal out with vegetables such as carrots and peas. Spices are important as well, as they add very little (if any) calories so always flavour your food with herbs and spices where possible. I use a little all spice in mine as well as good ol' Worcestershire sauce! The topping could still be potato but make sure you half the amount you usually make. Alternatives could be sweet potato, suede & carrot or new potatoes that have boiled and then been crushed slightly, scattered along the top and browned!
4. Fajitas - mexican is one of those foods I just don't eat enough of, but that's because it's so bad for you (well.. the mexican I eat anyway) so I try to have it occasionally. To make this meal a little healthier, I always use a low calorie wrap. The weight watchers wraps are a around 110 calories per wrap, which isn't bad but you need to keep an eye out. Instead of using sour cream, try using low fat natural yogurt. If this is too bland, then add some crushed garlic, spring onion or other spices you have in your cupboard. Make sure you pile up the lettuce, as this is VERY low calorie. When I make these for Struck and I, I use one chicken breast between us and bulk it out with peppers, mushrooms and onions :] they're still very filling, just less meat and more vegetables! You can also buy the pre-made sauces/sachets or make your own. As it's spice based, it doesn't make that much difference but the oil used to cook the chicken can make it a little unhealthier.
5. Fish pie - I always struggle when making fish pie as the mash is made with milk and butter as is the white sauce. I find this lovely but way too heavy so to make it a little lighter by making the white sauce with cornflour instead of making a traditional rue. To make a white sauce using cornflour, measure out the milk required and stir 1-2 tbsp with 1 tsp of cornflour. Gently heat the remaining milk in a pan on a low-medium heat, slowly adding the cornflour mixture. It will take 10-20 minutes but eventually the milk mixture will thicken and create a white sauce. Before making the white sauce, if you poach the fish in the milk, it'll help flavour the milk/sauce a little. The mash potato can be made 'skinny' by leaving out the milk and butter! When draining the potatoes, reserve a little of the water and use this to mash the potatoes. If you would like to add a little garlic/herbs or butter then do, just depends on the flavours you're going for.

I hope you found those 5 interesting!

Another 5 to follow soon :] x