Smoked Haddock with Creme Spinach and Tomatoes

Smoked Haddock with Creme Spinach and Tomatoes

Another tasty, zero-carb dinner substituted by Creme Spinach and Fresh roasted Tomatoes. My first fish recipe to be uploaded, and a meal I eat regularly! Students often rule out fish as an 'expensive' or 'complicated' choice for their meals. But actually, it's nearly always included in the deals in supermarkets and is great to help avoid that bloated feeling (Girls will understand!) The picture above is a portion for 1, but below you'll find instructions for 2 servings.

Things you'll need:

Serves 2

• 2 Smoked Haddock Fillets
• Handful of Baby Tomatoes
• 1 Bag of Spinach*
• 1 x Tbsp Low fat Creme Fraiche
• Olive Oil
• 2 Large Tomatoes (Optional)
• Pepper (Optional)
• Grated Cheese (Optional)

Price Overall Approx (Tesco): £2/£2.21

Per Serving: £1/1.11

*I learned that Fresh Spinach goes off very quickly, which is no good for students! So buy a bag of Frozen Spinach and it can be thrown straight into the pan with no need to defrost. 

Cooking Instructions:

• Pre-heat Oven to 200 Degrees C. 
• Fry Spinach in Olive Oil until wilted. Add tbsp of Creme Fraiche and season with Pepper. 
• Put Spinach in bottom of a oven-proof dish. Lay Smoked Haddock Fillets on top and scatter Baby Tomatoes around it. Add sliced Large Tomatoes on top of the Haddock and Grated Cheese on top to your acquired taste.
• Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until Fish is cooked through.

Most students will turn their nose up at the thought of eating Spinach. But with a bit of added Creme Fraiche, Pepper and Cheese it's really tasty (and good for you, by the way!) This recipe works with normal Haddock as well as Smoked. Also works well with potatoes if you're particularly hungry, although I have found that altering your vegetable intake makes up for the missing carbohydrates. And for those who are particularly weight-conscious, cutting down the Creme Fraiche and not adding Cheese will make this dish very low fat! 

Spicy Meatball Ratatouille

Spicy Meatball Ratatouille

ORIGINAL RECIPE

A super cheap, carb-free dinner for any time in the year. I can't remember how exactly I came up with this dish but it probably originated from the Italian classic: Spaghetti and Meatballs. If you love a bit of spice in your food, this meal is for you!

Serves 2-3

Things You'll Need:

• Pack of 12 Meatballs 
• 1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 Courgette
• 1 Onion
• 1 Pepper
• 1 Chilli Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Oregano (Optional)
• Basil (Optional)

Overall Price Approx (Tesco): £4

Per Serving: £1.30

Cooking Instructions:

1. Fry the Chopped Onion in Olive Oil 
2. Add the Meatballs until browned
3. Add the sliced Courgette, Pepper and Chilli and fry for 2 Mins until soft
4. Add the Tinned Chopped Tomatoes and Season with Oregano and Basil (Optional).
5. Leave to Simmer for 10 Minutes until the Meatballs are cooked through and the sauce reduces to your taste.

To fill you up more, this meal goes very well with not only Spaghetti but also Ciabatta Bread warmed through in the oven! A cheap delicious student meal for those who enjoy spicy food!

A New Breakfast Option

Fruity Smoothies

This combination of Strawberries, Kiwi Fruit, Passion Fruit and Mango all blended together produces a delicious fruit smoothie as an alternative Breakfast option for those health-conscious students. And don't be put off by the colour, as a wise person once told me a healthy meal is one which is as colourful as possible!

There are a lot of false presumptions about fruit smoothies. I did my research before putting together one myself, and it seems that yes, the manufactured Smoothie companies pack high amounts of additives and sugars into them to make them 'tastier', but it is far healthier to make your own from scratch as you know exactly what you're putting into them. So that's just what I did!

The second presumption about fruit smoothies is that they are horrendously expensive (and therefore way out of us students's reach!) This is true to a certain extent, but it was when I saw how a friend of mine made her morning smoothies that I changed my mind. If I were to blend whole apples, mangoes, passion fruit, etc, then Yes, this would eventually cost me an arm and a leg. And fruit doesn't exactly have the largest use-by date either. So, this is how I did it: Frozen Fresh Fruit. Nothing added and nothing taken away, they are used for lots of different things such as home made deserts and decoration on food. But they also make delicious smoothies without any worry of going out of date! 

Each Pack of Frozen Fruit costs £2 in Tesco (See Here). I normally buy two different ones and I get around 8 smoothies out of them - that's 50p a smoothie and a weeks breakfasts sorted! Not as bad as you thought?

I personally like to mix and match: I buy a 'Tropical Fruit' selection, for example, and also a 'Smoothie Selection' and have a small handful of each. Unfortunately, you do have to cheat slightly by adding some Juice (any flavour will do) to make it pourable and drinkable! Juice does tend to have added sugar and, unfortunately, I've found this is only really avoided in the more expensive brands. But no more than 90kcal per glass, and you're likely to have less than that in your smoothie. 

Gradually add the juice and blend with the frozen fruit and there you go! You have a delicious, ice cold, low calorie, 1 of your 5 a day fruit smoothie to start your day!

(Optional: I also add granola into mine to keep me going that bit longer! Don't blend it but stir in at the very end. Enjoy!)

There's something about Nandos

What is it about Nandos when it comes to student eating? It seems to have become more and more student-friendly over the years. If it wasn't the free refills, which satisfy all your fizzy sugary needs, the introduction of the Nandos 'Loyalty Card' certainly sealed the deal. Obtaining a free quarter, half, and then WHOLE chicken got all students taste buds tantalising, demanding them to go back for more. The sight of the iconic 'Nandos Stamp' printed on your precious card warms the cockles of students hearts, as they get closer and closer to what all students love: Free Food. But this cunning marketing strategy would only succeed if the food was truly delicious, surely?

What is so great about Nandos food is that it can satisfy all tastes and choices. Whether you like your chicken steaming with spice, or just enough to excite the taste buds, Nandos has a variety of marinades to suit all. On top of this, the customer has the freedom to pick their accompaniments to their chicken. When the calorie-counters of us see the dreaded 'all meals served with chips' something makes us very frustrated, wanting to get all our monies worth by forcing down each one even when we don't really want to.

So, as a student health-conscious blog, I would recommend the spicy rice and corn on the cob to complement your free quarter, half, or whole chicken. You avoid the delicious (yet horribly fattening) creamy mash (yes, made with CREAM) and salty, deep fried chips with extra Peri-Peri salt. Your corn on the cob comes with butter but separate from it, giving you the option to treat yourself or not. Ultimately, it works perfectly for those students who LOVE Nandos but don't want to walk away feeling bloated and guilty. Of course Nandos is not going to aid any diet you are currently on, but this is my student-healthy (different from normal healthy!) tip for this restaurant. Because, lets face it, students could never deny themselves a Nandos!

Chicken and Chorizo Paella

A very colourful and tasty meal. Alternative to the seafood paella!

Serves 2 - 4
Things you'll need:

• 2-4 x Chicken Breast 
• 225g Long Grain Rice
• Half Chorizo Sausage
• 1 Onion
• 1 Garlic Clove
• 1 Pepper
• Tsp Tumeric
• 1 Can of Chopped Tomatoes
• Chicken Stock in 300ml of Water
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Tomatoes (Optional)
• Frozen Peas (Optional)

Total Cost Approximately: £8.60

Per Serving: £2.15

Dish idea taken from: BBC Good Food

In my opinion, most of these ingredients are cupboard essentials. Before you go running and crying about not wanting to buy Chicken Stock cubes and Tinned Tomatoes - think again. You may spend slightly more on the first shop, but it saves you money in the long run!! Plus, this recipe will serve between 3 and 4 people in total, depending on your portion sizes. So this is certainly a cost-friendly dish, beating the ready-made Supermarket Paella on both cost (per serving) as well as nutritional value.

Cooking instructions:

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan and brown the chicken. Add the Garlic, Onion and Tsp of Turmeric. Cook for 2 Minutes.
2. Add sliced Chorizo, Rice and the Chicken Stock. Cover and cook for 15 Minutes.
3. Add Chopped Tomatoes, Sliced Pepper, Frozen Peas and Fresh Tomatoes. Simmer for further 10 minutes until chicken is tender and rice has absorbed the stock.

Freeze any portions you do not use!

University: to drink or not to drink

Some might say this photo appraises University lifestyle: a whole array of cans, bottles and  absolutely anything we might find in our cupboards all piled up after a weekend of drinking, fun and one hell of a hangover. And, after the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee weekend, this is what we were faced with. How did it make us feel? Perhaps slightly surprised, ill, impressed, or a combination of all three.

I came to the conclusion that drinking is a part of University, whether we like it or not. So, being someone conscious of keeping fit and active, I decided to change a different habit: food. An air of paranoia crept in on me in Freshers week, where I ate so healthily I even surprised myself. The thought of gaining weight through alcohol is inevitable, but through food? This can be changed, I thought. Of course I gave into the odd takeaway, Indian, Dominoes, Kebabs, and then spent the next hungover day surviving off chicken dippers and other awful substances. 

But since then I have make a conscious effort to eat better, wading through recipe books and online databases, making life easier for someone who doesn't have the time to do that and settles for McDonalds or KFC just out of sheer laziness. Well, your body needs YOU! And hopefully you can draw inspiration from this blog and apply yourself in a healthy and productive way whilst studying (or drinking?!)