Easy, Healthy Lunch Idea: The Fajita Salad

Working in the middle of a field really does have it's benefits; fresh air, nice views from the office and most importantly, no shops nearby so I can't nip out and get a sneaky Subway for lunch.  I make a packed lunch every evening right before I go to bed, so that I get maximum sleep time and just so it's done and out the way.

Recently, as we know, I've been trying to make a lifestyle change.  Whilst I've got going to the gym down, and I'm sorted on the fitness side of things, my eating habits definitely need some work.  I've been trying really hard to eat well whilst I am at work.  I usually have a sandwich or a wrap, but it gets a bit boring and there are more healthy options to be had!  I'm a bit of a salad dodger - I can think of a million and one things that I'd rather eat than a salad.  And I always end up hungry through the afternoon.  I wanted a lunch with all the healthy bits in a salad, just...nicer.  I'm quite good at throwing things together and hoping for the best, but here I am writing my second recipe post which is this fajita salad - all the ingredients of a fajita, but without the high calories.

You will need...

           35g BROWN BASMATI RICE

           CHICKEN BREAST

           SMALL RED ONION

           1/2 RED PEPPER

           1/2 YELLOW PEPPER

           1/2 TOMATO

           2 CLOSED CUP MUSHROOMS

           HANDFUL OF SPINACH

           GROUND CUMIN

           HOT CHILLI FLAKES (OPTIONAL)

Weigh out your rice - it's so easy to go overboard on rice, so weighing it out is the best way to ensure a perfect portion for lunch.  On the packet, it's usually 75g of rice for a portion, but seeing as this is just a lunch, I halved my portion and found it to be just right.  It's important to get brown rice, because it has a low GI meaning that it will keep you fuller for longer, and it's just better for you than white rice!  You'll want to put your rice on now, as this takes the longest to cook - usually around twenty five minutes.

First things first, you'll need to chop all your ingredients.  I sliced my onions and peppers into fajita style slices, sliced my mushrooms and diced my tomato.  My chicken breast was ready chopped, but if yours isn't, just roughly chop your chicken into bite sized pieces.

To avoid extra calories, use a non-stick frying pan so that you don't need to use oil!  I dry fried my onion and my chicken breast.  If you absolutely must use oil, try using the spray one calorie oils to make sure you don't go for it on oil.

Add your peppers and mushrooms to the pan and stir fry until they soften.  I add my diced tomato last just as a bit of an extra flavour.  The main part to the fajita flavouring is your ground cumin.  If you give this a sniff, it's just screaming fajita to me - I give this a good sprinkle across the ingredients and stir in.  If you are wanting a little extra spice, add some hot chilli flakes or some fresh chillis.  Remove the pan from the heat and wait for your rice to finish cooking!

When your rice is done, drain and rinse with boiling water to get rid of all the starch.  Add your rice to your fajita pan, and stir in to mix with all the ingredients and coat it with the fajita flavour.

Put the pan back on a low heat, and add a handful of spinach.  Stir until the spinach has wilted slightly and then remove from the heat and put in your lunch box to cool.

You can eat this cold, but I prefer to reheat mine again at lunch the next day.  I literally don't know how I would make this an amazing food photograph, but you'll just have to trust me that it's nice!  I always get compliments on how good it smells, and not to blow my own trumpet, but it tastes pretty damn nice as well!  The best part that it is really filling and comes in according to My Fitness Pal at just 270 calories!  If you wanted to, you could also serve this with a bit of guacamole on the side!  You can find my recipe for that here.  So there it is...my one pan, low calorie lunch wonder.

What's your favourite thing to eat as a healthy lunch?  Will you try my Fajita Salad?

Adventure Time: Valentines Week

Well I have been taking the mick a bit haven't I!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I have been a very busy bee!  The week before last, I had a very busy week at work and lots of deadlines to meet, so blogging was the last thing on my mind when I got home, I just wanted to sit and do nothing which, apart from going to some gym classes, I did!

Last week, Liam and I both booked the week off from work so we could spend some time together and just mess around doing whatever we fancied!  We usually don't do much for Valentines Day because we're just not bothered, maybe a meal out somewhere or something, but this week off fell on the week of Valentines Day, so we called it our Valentines Week!

One of the things we had planned to do was finish our snow boarding lessons, so we booked those at Xscape in Castleford.  Our predictable hotel choice was Premier Inn - we stay in one at every possible opportunity!  It was great for getting to Xscape because it was just across the car park.  We didn't have snow boarding booked until the Monday, so we managed to get some cocktails in on the Sunday evening!  We started at Burgers & Cocktails by Giraffe where it happened to be Happy Hour!  We had an amazing Peach Melba Ice Cream Smoothie thing when we were there last, so thought we'd try out their alcoholic treats!  My favourite was definitely the Bubble Gum Slurpee!

We then had our tea at TGI Fridays (and again on Monday...) and a few more cocktails in there.  We don't have a TGI Fridays nearby where we live, so going there is always a treat for us!  We had nachos to share, and my usual choice of garlic chicken with a cheesey mash, and Liam had a burger.  Once again, I broke a blogging rule and didn't photograph my food before eating it, but I have zero self control.  After our meal, we went to the arcades and played on a few penny pushers and a toy grabber where I WON.  Never in my life have I won on one of these, but here I am with my prize.  I literally screamed when I realised it wasn't going to be let go.  What a saddo!

Snowboarding was amazing, but so tiring!  You aren't allowed a camera in the SnoZone area, so unfortunately I have no pictures!  We did our first two levels in April last year for Liam's birthday, and because I started working seven days a week shortly after, it got hard to get back to Castleford to finish off our lessons!  It was three hours of falling over, skidding about and knee bending with maybe a little skill thrown in!  To top it all off, ITV News were filming there during our lesson because of the Winter Olympics so if you're in that region, you might have seen me in the background of an interview with my boarding boot stuck on my board!!

Liam managed to pass both his level three and four, but I have to go back and do my level four again because the steeper slope was just too scary!  When you snowboard, to slow yourself down you need to lean into the slope because if you lean away from the hill, you speed up - it was a bit hard to get my head around, but on the smaller gradients I was feeling pretty confident!

Over the week, we didn't really do much, just enjoyed spending time together and watching cartoons!  But we did start to enjoy ourselves cooking our evening meals.  I got Liam a burger recipe book for Christmas, and we used it for the first time this week.  We made cheese stuffed burgers, but also slipped some bacon in with the cheese.  I swear they were the best burgers I've ever had - so tasty, I don't even have an after photo, but that just gives me an excuse to make them again and share our adapted recipe with you all!

On the Wednesday, we decided that we would take a trip to Cleethorpes for a day by the sea.  We didn't go for long, but had some seaside fish and chips and spent our afternoon in the arcades on our favourite ever penny pusher - PacMan Pac Ball.

Saturday was another busy day for us!  Our friend Katie has just moved house, so we went over for a house warming party and a night out in Sheffield.  We went to Leadmill, had a few too many drinks, went on a bucking bronco (twelve whole seconds I managed...pretty impressed!) and then got taxis back to hers!  The next day we didn't leave until quite late, but spent the day eating, obsessing over milkshakes and then played some Nintendo 64!

I'm back at work now, which is horrendous having had an amazing week off, and I can see this week going really slowly, but I have lots of things to blog about so I'm sure I'll end my days on a high!  Apart from when I am at the gym, working off the possible half stone I gained whilst eating like a King for a week.

What did you do for Valentines Day?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I can't believe that it is Christmas tomorrow.  I finished work yesterday with an early finish, won a few prizes on the works raffle and I'm starting to plan what I am going to be wearing this afternoon for my annual Christmas Eve drinks in town with my boyfriend and my family.  Christmas Eve is always the same for me...Christmas drinks with practically the entire town, followed by a take away.  You can't go wrong.

Making my Christmas Eve that little bit better...boiled egg and soldiers.  I haven't had these in forever, and last week I was sent this cute little egg cup from IWOOT.  I was waiting to use it for ages, but because I work seven days a week, a quick lunch is usually the case but today...oh, today is THE day.  It's called Bad Egg*, but I think it might have been designed a little lazily...I don't see what a moustasche and some sunnies do to make this egg bad, but oh well!  At £4.99, it's a bit expensive to splash out on a bit of a novelty for yourself, but makes a perfect stocking filler, or secret santa gift!

So!  I shall see you again after Christmas, I hope Santa comes and spoils you all rotten!  Stay tuned and I will report back on what Santa bought me seeing as I've been pretty good this year!

What are your plans for Christmas Eve?  Any Christmas Wishes this year?

*This product was sent to me from IWOOT for review purposes.

Holy Guacamole!

Today is my anniversary with my boyfriend Liam.  We've been together for nine years today!  How very amazing, and I'm very happy!  So happy in fact, that this evening I've been preparing a Mexican feast for us both to indulge in as soon as he finishes work.  Liam and I both - to put it bluntly - bum Mexico.  We have been to Cancun twice with our group of friends and it's literally the best place ever, it is worth every single penny!

 

Aside from the sun, sea and nightlife, one of the things that I love the most about being in Mexico is the guacamole.  There are literally no words to describe how amazing this stuff is over there - I've never found guacamole as good!  The next best thing to Mexican guacamole is home made guacamole.

 

 

It's so simple to make, and is so much nicer than shop bought guacamole and it takes no time at all!  To make this bowl of guacamole, I used;

           TWO RIPE AVOCADOS
           ONE RED ONION
           ONE TOMATO
           THE JUICE OF ONE LIME
           ONE CLOVE OF GARLIC

All you need to do is chop your Avocado's in half, scoop out the middle and mash.  Finely chop the tomato and the onion and add to the mashed avocado.  Add the juice of one lime, stir that in.  And mince your garlic clove and crack that in there too!  I also added a bit of salt and pepper just for some seasoning, because all pro chefs add salt and pepper...

I swear the photograph that I've included doesn't do the guacamole justice.  Just give it a go, you will not regret it!  You can even spice things up a little by adding in some chopped chilli!

So...will you be trying to make your own guacamole?