Enjoying your favourite foods

I think a lot of people are deterred from taking a first step to eating
healthily by visions of having to live on a diet of brown rice and
vegetables and missing out on their favourite foods.

I'm a firm believer that food should be a source of pleasure so the best
approach is to adapt your favourite foods to make them healthier so you can
still enjoy them.

Ok so I sadly haven't found a healthy alternative to pies! But there are a
lot of English favourites that can easily be adapted:

Roast chicken dinner .. Actually a pretty healthy meal if you don't eat the
skin on the chicken and have boiled new potatoes or roasted sweet potato
wedges instead of roasted potatoes.

English fry up ... Skip the fried bread and hash browns, have some wholemeal
toast, poached or scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms and some
grilled trimmed bacon.

Bacon buttie ... Have a wholemeal or granary roll, grilled trimmed bacon and
a few slices of grilled tomato instead of ketchup which is laden with sugar
- giving up the ketchup might be tough but if you cut down on sugar your
taste buds will adapt and you'll soon be happy to skip it.

Spaghetti bolognaise .... Make it with less than 10% fat mince and drain the
fat off once you've browned the mince. Add lots of veggies and make the
tomato sauce yourself or use some passata with herbs.

Curry ... A Friday night take out favourite but can be laden with sugar and
cream. Skip the sauces and the naan and go for grilled chicken tikka with
rice or a chapati and some veggie side dishes. Or if you want a curry with
a sauce check with the restaurant that it's not been made with sugar or
cream (yoghurt is fine). Waitrose also do some good readymade curries with
a 'clean' list of ingredients.

English puddings aren't so healthy ... all the pastry, sponge and custard
... but a hot pudding is such a comfort on a cold evening. Try stewed fruit
with cinnamon, baked apples stuffed with chopped walnuts and dates, grilled
bananas (grill with some honey on top) served with some natural or greek
yoghurt or even make a crumble but with a topping of oats, ground almonds
and fructose instead of the usual flour, margarine and sugar.

And if any of you have any favourite meals you can't live without but don't
know how to adapt send them in to NITC and I'll see if I can come up with a
healthy version!