Spicy Beef Jerky

As If I didn’t already LOVE my dehydrator, enough!

I decided to put it to the test and make some beef jerky. Now I absolutely love beef jerky, it’s one of my all time favourite snacks (and it’s super healthy!) But it really is soooooo expensive in the supermarkets here. Even more so in motorway service stations!!

It was beyond simple and I’m so pleased and slightly amazed by the results! Everyone who’s tried my first batch has said:

“Wow, that’s better than the packaged stuff!”

It’s not as chewy as the pre packaged stuff you can buy, so doesn’t taste like your fighting your way through the sole of an old shoe.

Ingredients:

(as usual, whatever I found in the cupboard)

∙A few drops of Tabasco sauce (to personal taste)

∙Worcestershire Sauce

∙Light Soy Sauce

∙Fillet Steak (obviously)

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Step 1

Slice thinly the steak into bite size pieces

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Step 2

Pour the marinade into a shallow dish

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Step 3

Layer the meat in the dish so that it’s only one layer if possible

 

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Step 4

Cover with cling film and get all the bubbles out so that the marinade gets the top of the jerky

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Step 5

Leave for at least 2 hours, overnight if possible in the fridge

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Step 6

Pat dry the steak with kitchen roll until all of the excess marinade is gone

 

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Step 7

Layer in the dehydrator, and set it to the lowest setting, (I used 40C) and leave for 24 hours

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Step 8

Congratulations. You now have Jerky.

 

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Love Flash xXx

Lost At Sea..

Yup, That’s pretty much how I'm feeling right now. The weather is utter rubbish just now in Aberdeen which has caused cancelled flights for a few days. I was meant to be off yesterday at lunchtime but it’s now scheduled for 8am tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!!

I get a few days at home before my Chris gets off his rig too and we head down to Englandshire for a few days to view some housies! 

 SOO frigging excited to be buying a house with the man I love ADORE 

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Anyways... back to food.

I’ve got a huge mountain of recipes in my little black book that my brain has devised and I need to perfect each one before sharing them on here for you, but not a lot of time, so I need your help to pick one of the following deserts:

·Clean Chocolate Torte

·High Protein Pina Colada Ice Cream

·Raw Carrot Cake

Leave a comment below and let me know which one tickles your fancy, and if I get no replies, then I’ll post pictures but wont share the recipe.

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I also have a number of projects I've just started:

 One long term, one not so long term, and one I’m aiming to have finished ASAP!

In case you didn't know... (and if not, where have you BEEN?!) I've just qualified as a nutritionist and I'm super excited about what challenges that holds for me in the near future! So the project I'm hoping to have finished soon is getting my website up and running so that I can start taking clients and get myself settled into my new role. 

The second project I'm working on just now is adding to my qualifications: I'm doing my Personal Trainer course! So... soon I’ll not only be able to feed you into shape, but I’ll be able to certifiably kick your butt into shape as well.

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My third project is long term, and slightly scary! I'm not going to share what it is just yet, but this is just me putting on record that as of ....

NOW!

Project: Scrap. . . Has begun.

I am aiming to have it complete in 18-24 months.

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Love Flash xXx

Chocolate Fruit and Nut Bites

As promised, here are my chocolate fruit and nut nibbles!

These were, yet again, the product of one of my random:

 ‘What would happen if I....’ thoughts...

Basically I went into the cupboard to find something and was faced with about 15 packets of opened dried fruits and nuts so I decided to use them.

So... Ingredients:

5g each of:

-Sesame Seeds

-Pine Nuts

-Goji Berries

-Dried Sour Cherries

-Dried Blueberries

-Shelled Pistachios

10g each of:

-Walnut halves

-Desiccated Coconut

-Hazelnuts

-Flaked Almonds

-Raisins

1 Scoop of Chocolate Whey

1 pot of Dark chocolate Alpro Soya Yogurt

100g Fage 0% Total Yogurt

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Step 1

Chop up all your fruit and nuts

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Step 2

Mix your Whey, Fage and Alpro Soya together

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Step 3

Add the fruit and nut and mix again

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Step 4

Spoon into silicon moulds

 (conveniently I get 10 portions!)

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Step 5

Put into the freezer for 3-4 hours

(I of course, impatiently poked them every 30 minutes to see if they were ready yet, they look exactly the same as when I put them in!!!)

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Step 6

Pop out the moulds when they are hard.

Leave for 5 minutes before eating.

(If you can resist... my first one was a lollypop!)

Keep in the freezer for up to a week 

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And courtesy of My Fitness Pal here is the breakdown:

Love Flash xXx

Chocolate Protein Pancakes

In a word: NOM!

 I'm on a strict diet just now so my breakfast consists of: Whey protein, 50g Oats and 6 egg whites.

 Which I've been eating all separately since I've been offshore, but, now that I'm home... 

I thought I'd translate the above into pancakes and throw some fruit in for some vits and mins :)

So, below, we have:

1 Scoop of Chocolate Whey
30g Oat Flour

20g Mixed fruits

4 Egg Whites

100ml Water

I get about 10 pancakes outta this.

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Step 1:

 Mix the wet and Mix the dry

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Step 2: 

Mix both together

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Step 3: 

Make Pancakes! Duh

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Step 4: 

Admire my action shot 

(Yes I cook in my running gear...I was hungry)

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Step 5: 

Create a B-E-A-Utiful stack and top with: 

Bananas and Manuka

Or make like me the next day, and microwave some frozen berries and serve HOT!

The whole mix makes:

414 Calories

50g Carbs (21g of fruit sugars)

45g Protein

6g Fat (2g of Sats)

 

 You know you wanna ;)

Love Flash xXx

Chicken and Spinach Filo Pie

Pretty much completely fluked this recipe. I used no recipe and just chucked things in as I went along. But as usual, my luck prevailed and it turned out amazingly and my friends and my dad even had seconds!

Best part is... When I totted up exactly what Id used in it this morning and counted the macros it was even better!!
 Less than 190 Calories per slice, 20g of Protein, 13g of Carbs and 6g of Fat!

SCORE!   

So here's how it went....

Ingredients:

200g tub of Philidelphia Extra Light

2 Cubes of Frozen Chilli

2 Cubes of Frozen Corriander

Juice of 1 Lime

1 tsp Honey (I used Manuka 10+)

1 tsp Cumin

1tsp Nutmeg

1tsp Tumeric 

(Yeh I was just throwing anything in the cupboard in it!)

250g Bag of Fresh Spinach

6 Chicken Breasts

30g Sunblushed Tomatoes

30g Feta Cheese

5 Sheets of Filo Pastry 

1 Egg (for basting)

10g Sesame seeds (for sprinkling)

You'll also need one of two roasting bags and a spring form baking tin.

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Step 1

Pre-heat your oven to 180C

Add all the Philli, spices, and lime juice into a bowl.

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Step 2

Stir it together.

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Step 3

Wilt the spinach

And take a small amount (1/5) and chop it up to add to the cheese mix

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Step 4

Chop up the chicken into small pieces and add to the mixture.

Then add the mix to your roasting bag/s  so that they lay flat on a tray.

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Step 5

Bung them in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and cut off a tiny corner of the bag (you don't want to lose ALL the juice) over the sink and allow most of the liquid to drain away.
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Step 6

Chop your tomatoes and feta.

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Step 7

Now, ashamedly I forgot to take a picture of the hardest part... Lining the tray with the filo pastry!! 
 My friend Demi came in and she was distracting me ;)  
So here's a Flamingo: 

Basically, you want to line the baking tray with a lot of filo overhanging the edge of the pan, so I put the first sheet up and down, the second left to right, and the third and forth layer criss-crossed. Baste each layer with some egg so it sticks, not too much.

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Step 8

Layer the chicken into the pan... 
(See what I mean about lots of overhanging filo pastry around the edges?) 

And top with your cheese and tomato

Then cover completely with the remaining spinach.

Voila!

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Step 9

Fold over the pastry that is overhanging the edge of the pan and crumple so that it looks messy.

Use the rest of the beaten egg to coat the top so that it goes nice and crispy and brown in the oven, and sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

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Step 10

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes and serve straight away, or once it's cooled down.

I managed to get 10 good slices out of this!

Serve with whatever you fancy. We had ours with an avocado and tuna mushy salad/dip/terrine... not really sure what to call it! But it was TASTY!!! I'll be getting that recipe up very sooooooon!


Love Flash xXx