Sunday 22 May 2016

I’ve always been a lover of savoury food - cheesy, salty, vinegary, chilli, you name it! Unless I’ve baked it myself (or a friend or colleague has done so) I rarely indulge in sweet things, just pass me the cheese and biscuits and be done with it. Since cheese doesn’t especially agree with me (we’ll save the cheese feasts for when I’m seriously prepared for over-indulgence) and I was getting a little bored of popcorn (N.b. this is a sin in itself, popcorn should never be boring – I just wanted something a little different), I was itching to reach for something else. I wanted something a little more nutritious than a packet of crisps (although those who know me will know I’ll always be reaching for salt and vinegar) and with that can of chickpeas sitting on the naughty shelf of the cupboard I thought I’d have a hunt around for a recipe.

In the world of FODMAPs, legumes are – in general – given a bad name due to GOS (galacto-oligosaccharides) which broke my heart when I was venturing out into the big ol’ world of FODMAPS (or should I say, lack of). What was a girl to do when she lived on the things?!

Then a wonderful, wonderful thing happened – I’d done my research.

FODMAPs are water soluble.

So? This means that canned legumes (namely lentils and chickpeas, I’m not sure about other ones) are usually safe to eat in certain amounts as long as the liquid they’re in is discarded and the legumes are washed thoroughly (yes, this means that the chickpea water ‘aquafaba’ is a no-no). YES! My prayers had quite literally been answered and that poor can of chickpeas that had previously been banished to the naughty shelf could come down.

I stumbled on quite a few recipes for roasted chickpeas, some more exotic than others, but what I really craved was a real punchy hit of salt and vinegar with the crunch and satisfaction that you’d get from your favourite crisps (but with a little more goodness). So, without further ado, here’s a very simple recipe for some roasted chickpeas – ever-so-slightly adapted from Oh She Glows.

Salt and vinegar roasted chickpeas 

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed thoroughly)
  • Approx. 2 cups of white vinegar (NOT malt if you’re following a low FODMAP diet)
  • 1 teaspoon of salt (table is perfectly fine here)
  • 2 teaspoons of olive oil (no need to dig your posh EVOO out from the cupboard, but not the light stuff). 

Directions:
1. Line a baking tray (we use those reusable non-stick baking sheets – no waste!)
2. Add chickpeas and vinegar into a pot and bring to the boil before taking off the light and leaving for 20-30 minutes – uncovered (keep in a well-ventilated area for this and open up a window, boiled vinegar is strong stuff!)
4. Preheat oven to 200C.
5. Drain your chickpeas and discard the vinegar. Place into baking tray and massage the oil and salt so that each chickpea is covered.
6. Roast for a good 30-45 minutes (oven dependent). They’ll be OK up to the 15 minute mark but from then on I checked on them every 5/10 minutes and gave them a shake. Make sure they don’t burn, basically, as they tend to go a bit bitter.
7. Leave to cool slightly and tuck in! Enjoy with a glass of vino and your favourite movie.


Getting enough fibre on a low FODMAP diet can be a bit of a challenge (unfortunately a lot of high fibre foods are also high on the FODMAP scale too) but a safe-serve of chickpeas will give you approximately 2.5g of fibre!

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Tuesday 17 May 2016


I have a confession to make, I'm a lazy cook. Yes, I occasionally get the bug where all I want to do is make these intricate little creations and watch the smiles appear on my loved ones faces (or maybe they're wincing and reaching for the bucket, who knows), experiment with these wild and wonderful creations and thank my Mother for her creative trait. Most of the time (like, 90% of the time) I would settle for quick, easy, cheap, and cheerful - minimal washing up please!

Bring on the potato pie!

I was craving something easy to rustle together on Sunday as part of my food prep. I'll admit, this week we were a little slack on the food prep side of things. We managed to slow roast a chicken and rustle up a few bits and bobs alongside this creation, but otherwise it was relaxed. In fact, I think we spent most of the day tidying up and then celebrating over a booked holiday (I'm heading to Turkey in 3 weeks). It was getting a little late in the day to be cooking for the week but I'd already got my pen and paper out and minimal ingredients out on the side and I needed to just give it a go! 

This is a recipe suitable for the low FODMAP diet if you're out of the elimination stage. It's wheat free, lactose free, and relatively FODMAP free too... Just watch out for asparagus! I tolerate it well (thankfully - I love the stuff) but it contains moderate levels of fructans. Some sources say avoid completely, some say <3 spears are low FODMAP but use your own judgement here and omit if unsure.

Ingredients

 300g Maris Piper Potatoes - grated with liquid squeezed out (so approx. 250g grated potato)
 4 medium eggs (50g each)
 100ml milk (I used semi skimmed Lactofree)
 2 spears of asparagus (woody ends removed and thinly sliced / peeled)
 1 sliced tomato (100g)
 About 5g melted butter to grease your dish
 Plenty of salt and pepper to taste

Method
 1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
 2. Grease your pie/small quiche dish.
 3. Whisk together eggs and milk.
 4. Layer half of your grated potato on the bottom, season well, and add your peeled asparagus.
 5. Pour over half of your egg/milk mixture.
 6. Layer the remainder of the potato, season, and press down. Add the rest of your liquid mixture.
 7. Pop into the centre of your preheated oven and bake for between 45 mins to 1 hour until golden brown and fully set.

Enjoy!

Serves 3.
Calories per serving: 309 || Carbs: 33 (3g sugar) || Fat: 17 || Protein: 13

Portion it up when cool and add a side salad for a perfect lunch.
 
On a side note (and completely unrelated as per), it's been lovely these past few days (ok - intermittently lovely). Since I've been upping my fitness levels (and dying thanks to day one of the pre-training week of BBG - yes, day one!) I thought I should make the most of this beautiful afternoon and go for a little walk after work. A quick pootle around the block turned into a 3.3 mile wander past the fields and farms near me, but isn't it beautiful?!

Little Fish, xo

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Sunday 8 May 2016


To say I'm a natural runner is a big, fat, lie. My hands are held high... I admit it. Back in school I was the one coughing and wheezing during cross country or doing anything humanly possible to get out of it (male PE teacher and even the slightest of whispers about PMT seemed to do the trick). Long distance just wasn't my thing, If anything I was more of a sprinter, though this was more of an 'if I put my all into this I can actually win without feeling like I'm about to keel over' kind of thing rather than this devout love for the sport.

I just didn't get it. I didn't get the enjoyment. I didn't see what was so exciting about feeling like I was about to meet my maker, face flat in the mud (to be honest even now that doesn't sound appealing).

It was actually only about 4 years ago that I decided to give it a go and see what the fuss was about. Granted, my first run wasn't successful. I was in the midst of my Masters and trying to run to escape the harsh reality that deadlines were looming, or to brush off anxiety, or to even please the (now ex thankfully) boyfriend who seemed to class anything larger than a twig as fat and anyone doing less than a 20 hour day as lazy. I know right? Bullet. Dodged.

Coursework handed in, exams passed, York was left behind, hearts were broken, weight was lost, and we've just fast forwarded about 8 months. I'd just signed up to do a 10km Race for Life round Tatton Park. Why?! Because one of my lovely friends had just ran the London Marathon as an asthmatic and here was me crying over a mile. I thought it would be wise to aim for something a little shorter-distance whilst I was waiting (aka, training) for the 10km so I signed up for a little fun 5km Color Run (highly recommended by the way - a little pricey but so much fun). It doesn't take a genius to work out that a 5km is very very different to a 10km. had to change my mind set.

So, more determined than ever I had to make a few little changes:

1. Speed. I'm used to sprinting or at least rushing into things head first. I'm quick from the word go. Great for 100m runs, not so good for longer distances. It was always picked up, too, that my starting speed was just too great. I was wanting to reach the finish line before I'd even started, a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

2. Fitness. My heart is terrible. No matter what I do my cardiovascular fitness sucks. My blood pressure drops, my heart rate peaks too high, I go dizzy and clammy, and I'm left on the side retching and trying to get some air in my lungs. Not the prettiest of pictures but I never said I was an artist.

3. Trainers. I overpronate (which in itself isn't a huge issue as there are so many that roll our ankles inwards). My problem was I had no idea I did until I developed a pretty nasty case of post-tib tendonitis. Great job Rachel, great job. I was running in my old Nike Pegasus 29 which as beautiful and comfy as they were they didn't offer the support I needed and, as a result, I ended up with rolling ankles. Many times. And boy it hurt. A lot. I've since upgraded to my Asics Gel Trounce 2 which do the job just nicely and (fingers crossed) no injuries yet!

Rest. Rest was the best thing I could do and now looking back I wish I could've shaken my shoulders a little and give myself a reality check. Pushing through the pain and the injury only set me back and caused more angst and dodgy ankles, was it worth it? No. Did it matter at the time? No. Have I learnt from my mistake? Hell yeah!

So now, timing doesn't matter to me. At all... but yes, sometimes I need to remind myself of this when I'm kicking myself that my 5km runs are now more stop-start than a rush hour M6 carpark, but at the end of the day as long as I'm actually out there doing it and I finish the damn thing, nothing else matters.

Now, back to business. This May I am taking part in a fundraising activity called Outrun May (click the link for more information) powered by Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity close to my heart. I've set myself the target to run between 20-30 miles this month (I'm aiming for 26.2 - that's a marathon in a month) which I'm logging on Strava. Every penny counts - literally - because then I know that someone is backing me every step of the way. There will be tears, sweat, and pain (though hopefully not any blood - I'm aiming to not fall over this time!) and I need that support.

If you'd like to throw a few pennies into the pot, please head over to my Just Giving page (Rachel is running for Macmillan Cancer for Outrun May) and click away. I'm going to keep everyone updated on my progress week-by-week (5 miles completed for the first week) via facebook, twitter, instagram, this blog, word of mouth, by any medium so apologies in advance :-)

Much love, Rachel x

[Image from Pinterest]

 Side note: The grammar-freak within is having a meltdown over the image I used but never mind, it's pretty and it's exactly what I needed....
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Wednesday 4 May 2016

These hands just weren't made for bread. Even before going gluten (well, wheat) free I’ve been rubbish at bread making. Whilst watching Paul Hollywood work his hands on the Great British Bake Off and I can’t help but feel the utmost jealousy. I know it comes with practice - don’t get me wrong - but I knew I had to be doomed after I killed my yeast off during Food class in high school (don’t cut corners and add all of your dry ingredients to a bag, seems like a wise idea unless you realise that salt - in high amounts - kills off the yeast, oops).

Alas, we’ve been experimenting with bread recipes. I can’t for the life of me think where this one was from so apologies. We modified it slightly by using 1 cup of buckwheat in place of 1 cup of flour to try and boost the nutritional content a little. It did mean that the overall mixture was drier and more dense, but it still made a pretty tasty little loaf.

I wouldn’t say this is suitable as a sandwich loaf replacement (it’s definitely not fluffy and light!) but it tastes pretty darn good toasted, with butter and your favourite jam, or thinly slices and stuffed with cheese and toasted!

It’s gluten free, lactose free, totally FODMAP friendly, and void of any of those hidden nasties you often find in shop-bought gluten free bread (inulin anyone?!)


  • 2 cups gluten-free flour (I use Doves Farm)
  • 1 cup of buckwheat flour (mill your own buckwheat, it’s far cheaper)
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp dried active yeast
  • 1.25 tsp xantham gum
  • 1 cup of warm milk (I use lactose-free)
  • 4 tbsp salted butter
  • 3 large eggs
  • Pinch of salt

First prepare your yeast! Add to milk that’s just warm to touch (you don’t want it too hot as it’ll denature your yeast), whisk, and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Normally the lactose in milk will provide enough of the sugar for the yeast to feed on. As I use lactofree milk, I added one of the tbsp of sugar into the milk mixture [check on it from time to time, it should have a frothy layer - if not, check your expiry date!

Add your flour, gum, and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Give your milk/yeast mixture a whisk and gently pour into the flour, mixing well.

Add your butter, and mix.

Add your eggs one by one, mixing after each addition, and add your sprinkling of salt (I actually didn’t use any additional salt in my bread and found it a little lacking so if you’re watching your watching your sodium - omit!)

Now, this whole process if a LOT easier with a stand mixer. Lesson learnt, I’ve been scoping out Kenwood K Mixers to make gluten-free bread making a dream. If you, like me, don’t have a mixer, then you need to rustle up a bit of elbow grease and give this a real good mix for about 5 minutes. It’s murder, trust me, but hopefully yours will come out a little lighter than mine did!

We proved this bread twice to get a decent rise - one hour each time in a warm place. After the first prove, transfer to a well greased bread tin and prove again.



Smooth out the top, sprinkle with golden linseeds and pumpkin seeds if you wish (and all the best of luck - mine fell off after baking!), and bake in a preheated oven (160 degrees) for 40 minutes.

Remove, leave to cool slightly and then tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 15 slices: 129 calories || 5g fat || 22g carbs || 3g protein
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