I don’t know about you but after saying ‘Sod it, it’s Christmas, I’m allowed to eat everything in sight‘ for the last month or so I’m feeling like I definitely need to go on a health kick. January needs to be a naughty snack and stodgy food free zone. I’m not really one for living on salad so I’m on the search for simple healthy meals that are still satisfying and won’t bore me to death.
I tried this recipe from Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals not long ago and I think it might be a good one to do again in the healthy eating regime. Jamie worked closely with a nutritionist to write this book so there’s loads of info about the calorie content of each of the meals in it. Whilst as scrumptious as ever a lot of recipes in the book a pretty guilt free! I’ve made a few things from this book now and I’ve noticed that the portion sizes are really well controlled particularly in carb-based dishes with rice and pasta being kept to a sensible minimum. There’s lots of substituting cream for natural yoghurt and other good healthy practices like that too.
I thought this recipe was a really great way of doing chicken quickly, easily and still managing to make it exciting and tasty. I also love a recipe with loads of veg so the big pile of greens went down a treat, you can almost feel the goodness being absorbed into your system!
The best thing about this dish was the potato gratin. We tend to think of this as a super thick and creamy, indulgent side dish which takes ages to prepare and cook, but Jamie’s way of doing it here makes it so simple and just by switching out a few ingredients and keeping the amounts sensible its really not that naughty. It’s definitely worth giving it a go.
If you wanted to be really good and cut out the carbs you could easily make a few more greens and cut out the potato gratin and you’d still have a really delicious meal.
I pre-ordered this book on Amazon as soon as I heard about it because I absolutely love Jamie Oliver and 30 Minute Meals was my favourite programme ever, so you can only imagine how excited I was when I heard about this one. But putting aside my slightly biased point of view, I really would recommend you give this book a try. It’s full of recipes that you can realistically fit into your routine and I’m a big fan of the nutritional aspect, mainly cos it means I don’t have to feel so piggy!
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