Healthy Dinner:Salmon On A Mushroom & Spinach Bed With A Mango Salsa Salad

Happy Thursday All,

Hope everyone had a lovely day today.

I get really excited about dinner just as much as I get excited about my smoothies along  with a whole lot of other things that I won't mention on here ... *chuckles*

I love to browse the web and search for healthy ingredients that consists of the contents of my fridge as I have lot of things in my fridge...fruits, veggies you name it I got it :-)

So I came across this lovely hearty belly filling dinner and thought... YES that's what I am having. 

So let's get started....

Ingredients 

bell peppers ( Red & Yellow)

coriander

cherry tomatoes

red onion

salmon

spinach

lime

mango chunks

mushrooms

olive oil 

seasonings

For the Mango Salsa Side Salad

dice the onions, bell peppers, mango slices and place in a clean bowl
chop some coriander leaves finely, add to the mix with black pepper, a pinch of salt and olive oil

mix well and place in the fridge

For the Salmon

preheat the oven and oil your baking tray or foil

remove from package and clean gently with some white vinegar

season with some salt and black pepper

place in the oven for 25-35mins until it's cooked and nicely done

I like my salmon nice and brown

For the Bed of Spinach

heat a tea spoon of olive oil in a wok

add washed mushrooms,onions and tomatoes and stir fry for 4-5 mins

add salt and black pepper

add washed spinach or kale to the wok and stir

squeeze some lime juice into it and stir

Place the spinach mix on the plate with the juices flowing, add salmon on top and finish it off with your mango salsa side salad

                                    

                                               Enjoy and have a lovely evening.

Credit : Dean Henry https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_PK7c4dtTf4TfFaFIQ2kGw

Carrot Ginger Plum & Pears Smoothie

Ingredients

carrots

coconut water

frozen pears

ginger

plums (remove stone)

Instructions

place all your fruits in blender and blend together until smooth

serve cold

Enjoy.

Citrus Strawberry Smoothie

Sun is shinning, the weather  is sweet

Make you want to move your dancing feet

To the rescue, here I am 

Want to know ya, where I stand - Bob Marley Sun Is Shinning Lyrics

I love me some Bob Marley!

How is everyone doing on this sunny & thankful Tuesday?  I am just dandy and the sight of some sunshine is an additional bonus. When the sun is out, I feel like my triple A batteries to life have been recharged with extra energy .. ha ha!!

Today we have a mix of citrus fruits with lemon,low fat yogurt and honey.At the weekend I bought some oranges and when I put a knife to it and opened it up, I realised they were actually blood orange tangerines....oh well! Waste not,Want not!!

Let's make a smoothie ...

Ingredients

• 1 banana
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 blood orange tangerine or orange
• cup of water(I have added water because i don't want my smoothie to be too stodgy)
• frozen strawberries
• honey
• low fat yogurt

Instructions

• peel skin of fruits, place in blender, add yogurt, honey and water
• blend till smooth
• serve cold

nice texture

Tasty

Enjoy.

Banana Smoothie

Happy Tuesday Smoothie Lovers, 

Today I have made a simple and single fruit smoothie recipe, nothing fancy pancy today  ha ha!!

Ingredients

• frozen banana
• coconut water
• blood orange tangerine

Instructions

• place frozen bananas in the blender and add coconut water
• blend until smooth
• garnish with blood orange tangerine or any fruit you have.
• serve cold

Enjoy and have a lovely evening.

Sunny Sunday with Baked Sweet Potatoes

Happy Sunny Sunday!! 

I hope everyone's having a lovely Sunday.

You'll be glad to know that this weekend the sun came out for us in the United Kingdom Yay!! The weather was beautiful .Thank You Jesus!! More of this weather please Lord...more :-) 

I hope the sunshine has come to stay!!

I haven't had sweet potatoes in a very long time and instead of the normal roast potatoes on a Sunday I bought some sweet potatoes instead.

Sweet potatoes  have some great benefits which include a high volume  of vitamins B6 and C.

Read more about the benefits of sweet potatoes http://www.care2.com/greenliving/9-reasons-to-love-sweet-potatoes.html

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes

clear bag

chicken drumsticks (cleaned & seasoned overnight)

gravy granules

seasonings (salt,sugar and mixed herbs)

mixed vegetables

olive oil

                                                   For the Sweet Potatoes
                               Preheat oven and wipe the foil or baking tray with some olive oil

                               Wash the skin of the sweet potatoes and then peel

                     Cut the sweet potatoes into circular or your desired shape

               Place sweet potatoes into the clear bag, add seasoning, olive oil and shake well

 Place the sweet potatoes shapes unto the tray and allow to bake for 25mins and turn over                                                       once sides are done

Baked Sweet Potatoes

                                                        For the Chicken

                  Clean chicken, add seasoning and place in bowl and season overnight

                                    Preheat oven and oil the foil or baking tray

          Place chicken on the tray & allow to cook for 35-40mins turning over once each                                                                   side is cooked

Ensure your chicken is cooked properly before serving

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks

For the Gravy

Bring water to boil

Add gravy granules to a small saucepan or metallic bowl, add little cold water and mix well till it's a runny paste

Add hot water to gravy mix and stir until it's nice and thick without any lumps

Place in gravy funnel

Gravy

For the Mixed Vegetables

Rinse the vegetables

Bring water to boil and add a pinch of salt

Place vegetables in boiling water allow it to steam for 4-5mins

Drain vegetables

Serve Baked Sweet Potatoes, Chicken, Vegetables with Gravy.

Voila

Enjoy!!
                            

Cucumber Kale Mango & Pear Smoothie

Happy Saturday!!!

I am currently loving the fruits and vegetables smoothie swirl mix. The taste of the vegetables as you take your first sip on the smoothie and before you get to the end the sweet fruit hits your taste buds  hmm-mm bellissimo.

Ingredients

• cucumber
• frozen pears (skin peeled)
• frozen mangoes (tinned)
• kale 
• unsweetened almond milk

Some of my readers have asked me to list alternatives fruits as they might not have the fruits I use in their countries.

 

Blend fruits and vegetables separately

Alternative fruits

• to achieve the green mix : you can use spinach/green salad leaves or any green vegetable will do.
• to achieve the cream mix : you can use mangoes,apples, pineapple or bananas

Green & White Smoothie

Fruits and Vegetables Smoothie

Instructions

• to achieve the swirl you will need to blend the fruits separately
• place frozen mango and pears in the blender, add unsweetened milk and blend until smooth
• place kale and cucumber in the blender, add unsweetened milk and blend until smooth
• pour the mangoes and pear mix in your cup and top it up with the kale and cucumber mix
• serve cold

Enjoy.

Banana and Raspberry Smoothie

Happy Friday Smoothie Lovers,

Yay!! It's Friday!!

I hope everyone had a lovely day and you're all looking forward to the weekend.

I have a very simple recipe for you today.

Ingredients

• frozen banana
• raspberries 
• unsweetened almond milk
• alternative fruits to achieve the pink colour: Strawberries, Blueberries or Blackberries

Some of my readers have asked me to list alternative fruits as they might not have the fruits I use in their countries. If you do not have raspberries, you can use strawberries, blackberries and blueberries to achieve the below rich pink texture.

Remember to blend your fruits separately.

Bananas and Raspberry Mix

Rich Pink and Thick Banana Texture

Instructions

• to achieve the below you will need to blend the fruits separately
• place frozen banana in the blender, add unsweetened milk and blend until smooth
• place raspberries in the blender, add unsweetened milk and blend until smooth
• pour the banana mix in your cup and top it up with the raspberry mix.
• serve cold

Tastes like ice cream

Enjoy and have a lovely weekend.

Triple Delight Smoothie

Ingredients

Purple layer

frozen blueberries

unsweetened almond milk

Green layer 

cucumber

frozen kale

unsweetened almond milk

Orange layer 

frozen bananas

frozen mangoes

unsweetened almond milk

Green, Red and Orange Smoothie 

Instructions

Blend each of the ingredients separately and layer

Serve cold

Triple Delight Smoothie

Rich blend of fruits and vegetables

As you sip on this smoothie you're hit with the green taste then boom comes the banana and mango sweet mix which ends nicely with the sharp blueberry mix :-)

A nice mix of fruits and vegetables to make a triple delight smoothie.

Have a lovely evening.

Aubergine Courgette Pepper Mushroom Sausages & Egg

As I was looking online for healthy recipes to have for supper with all the leftover vegetables in my fridge I came across this hearty recipe full of vegetables and thought voila!! I  have amended the recipe and added one or two more vegetables.

Ingredients

1 aubergine/egg plant diced

2 bell peppers diced

 1 courgette diced

egg or chicken or salmon

6 frankfurter sausages chopped & grilled

1/2 ginger minced 

1 onions chopped 

5 mushrooms chopped

salt & seasoning

Let's Cook

Instructions

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large wok

              Add diced aubergine & courgette and cook until it's brown on both sides

Once browned remove from wok and place in a plate

 Add chopped sausages,onions, mushrooms, bell peppers to the hot wok

Stir until brown

Ingredients prepped

Rich  display of vegetables all combined

Add aubergine to wok and stir together.

Fry or poach egg

Serve Aubergine,Peppers, Mushrooms, Sausages with Egg

You don't necessarily have to use egg, you can have it with some chicken or salmon

Delicious

Verdict: Absolutely delicious, filling and very healthy.

Check out Jeanette's original recipe 

Credit:http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/2013/08/eggplant-pepper-mushroom-turkey-sausage-hash.html

Fruit Infused Water

Happy Thursday!!

Water! Water! When I think of water I think of this bland substance in my mouth that continuously makes me run up and down like a puppet! ha ha!!

Water is your body's principal chemical component and makes up about 60percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water. Water flushes toxins out of your vital organs.

Read more about the benefits of drinking water

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4287/10-Reasons-Why-You-Should-Drink-More-Water.html

Let's be honest most people don't like the taste of water either and don't drink half of the recommended intake.Water they say is good for you and the recommended intake of water is 8 PINTS blimey!! I said it makes me run up and down like a puppet .. after 8 pints I might as well chain my self to the little girls room ha ha!!

In my very first post I talked about researching on how to drink  more water as I knew that water would aid me with my weight loss and one of the very many suggestions that came up was " Infused water". 

What is infused water? Well it's simply infusing your water with fruits, adding fruits to your water to derive a nice flavor to excite your taste buds ...that's my simple definition,it's nothing technical!

Infused water has become my favourite method to drinking lots of water. My fridge is filled with lemons, limes and cucumbers as I infuse my water with these fruits. Sometimes I infuse my water with berries, apples and any other fruit that I have in my fridge. I have gone through lots of bottles of water in the last few months thanks to the infused water method. When I don't drink water I feel thirsty and recognise that I need water.

My water intake in the last few months has increased

Jugs in my fridge with fruits

Lemon, Apples, Grapefruit, Cucumbers

Challenge yourself today to drink more water today!!

There are so many great sites that can help you with suggestion on how to infuse your water 

http://fruitinfusedwaters.com/

http://www.fruitinfusedwater.com/

http://www.zing-anything.co.uk/the-health-benefits-of-infusing-water-with-fruit/ 

Are you drinking enough water? 

Try infusing your water to aid you with your water intake.

Till  the next time ... Keep Smiling! Stay Healthy! Keep Fit! Stay Hydrated!

Tea Lovers

Happy Tuesday All,

How's everyone's day going ?

I hope the weather is nice and warm wherever you are! Sadly I can't say the same...but I'm hoping that the sun shines on us soon.

I'm taking a different  route on the blog today to talk about one of my loves which is TEA!!

Anyone fancy a cuppa?

We do love our tea in Good Old Blighty and  a cuppa tea seems to solve a lot of problems. Honestly it does ha ha!!

I am a  lover of many things including tea. I wanted to share this lovely tea that I recently received. Well when I say received I mean err pinched from my Sister. Yes, I am at it again . ...she bought the Kusmi Tea in a pack of 5 and I helped myself to two (green lemon green tea & strawberry green tea).

Aye the benefits of being the older sibling is that you can help yourself to anything you want ... I bet the middle kids wish they were the older siblings now, well it's too late now ..perhaps in another life time eh? ha ha!

Let me introduce you to " Kusmi Tea" . This tea is everything and really true to taste i.e  the strawberry actually tastes like strawberry and it has a lovely smell. I love green tea especially after overindulging in that delicious meal and I feel that I can no longer create space for more food.... green tea always come to my rescue.. 

I know a lot of people are not a big fan of green tea but this tea is different and the one thing I like about it is that you don't need to refill your mug with a tea bag all you need to do is refill your mug with hot water as the herbs are already in there.

With this tea no addition of honey is required,but if you want to then you can. This tea has a rich taste and blend of herbs ideal for breakfast, daytime or  bedtime. I find myself sipping on it most evenings after a long day and it's now my go to drink when I am studying in the evenings.

I have not been able to put it down, it sits right here next to my keyboard as I sip on it and type away most evenings. It's a great detox tea too.

Kusmi Detox Tea

Beautiful packaging that can fit in your handbag :-)

To me tea has so many benefits

• It's a great detox
• If you are too heated, it will cool you;
• If you are too cold, it will warm you;
• If you are sad, it will cheer you up;
• If you are excited, it will calm you.

Rich Herbs - A little goes a long way

Voila ... one sip and you'll feel relaxed.

Good Ol' tea eh!

Read more about Kusmi Tea http://en.kusmitea.com/

Make your self a cuppa and enjoy!!

Spinach Omelette For Breakfast

Good Morning,

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and you're all raring to go at the start of a new month.

Here's a nice healthy breakfast to get you energised and started for your Monday morning.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• avocado
• cherry tomatoes
• strawberries
• spinach

Have a lovely Monday!!

Ginger, Mango & Pear Smoothie

Hello Smoothie Lovers,

Happy Sunday!!

Happy New Month -June 1st!!

It's my cousin's birthday today...so a quick shout-out to my cousin.

Happy Birthday Fem!! I'll make you a special birthday smoothie when I see you- God Bless You!!

We have now reached the last month in the second quarter of 2014! There's an old saying

" Time and tide waits for no man " and indeed the months are flying by in 2014!

The start or beginning of every new month is a good time to take stock and look back at that list. What list might you ask? I call it an achievement list or list of things to do!!

I am a pen to paper sort of person, so in as much as I have a lot of space in my memory I love to write things down, this way I can always go back and review them. Even a simple daily to do list is noted on a post it not for me. You should see the taste of the wall above my desk- it's covered in post it notes of things to do:-)

I don't know about you but I have an achievement list of things to do before the end of 2014 and each month as I complete them I tick them off and if need be I'll  carry them over to the following month.I am very pleased to say that my list is coming along nicely and I have only carried over two actions into June which I will most definitely complete by the end of June- So help me God.

One thing that I have noticed is that if you do not plan for yourself, the world will plan for you!

So I'll urge you to make that list today,it is never too late and we still have six more wonderful months to go before the end of 2014. Believe that with God all things are possible so take that leap of faith and go ahead and do those things  that you have always dreamt of doing and you'll be glad at the end of 2014 that you made that list.

Today I have a lovely recipe for you.

Ingredients

• 2 pears
• coconut water/ water
• ginger
• Slices of tinned frozen mangoes

Instructions

• I decided to peel the skin off my pears as I wanted to ensure that the smoothie didn't turn brown or have brown bits in it from the skin of the pears.
• Peel the pears, chop  and place in blender, add frozen mangoes, ginger and coconut water or water
• Blend till smooth and serve cold

Mango, Pears, Yellow & Ginger Smoothie

Mango, Pears, Yellow & Ginger Smoothie

The addition of ginger gave it a real kick.A smooth texture with a divine taste!!

Try it and let me know what you think?