Any celebrity health guru worth their weight in salt would remind you to ‘eat the rainbow’. We’re always reminded to pile on the ‘greens,’ avocado is great for salads, beans, peas and broccoli are easy to boil up in a few minutes and make simple and healthy additions to almost any meal. ‘Reds’ such as raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes help to keep the heart healthy and improve memory (perfect for last minute revision cramming!). ‘Yellows’ and ‘Oranges’ are not only a good source of Vitamin C, boosting energy levels, but can be a great help against a dreaded hangover. Eating a wider range of colours of fresh food is the easiest way to maximise the amount of nutrients that your food provides, ensuring your meal is balanced and healthy and ultimately, it means that your plate will look more exciting(!).
Many people shy away from making from scratch in fear of lacking experience in mixing ingredients and flavours and whilst I don’t have the space for me to reel off every combination of ingredients that create healthy and tasty meals, there are some easy rules to follow. For Asian style stir fries stick to things with colour and a crunch. Peppers, carrots, green beans and pea shots are all inexpensive, but will give a definite vibrancy to your dish. Team with noodles or rice, and soy sauce, sweet chilli and teriyaki paste for an easy, but really tasty dish. Don’t forget to group root vegetables together, such as potato, carrot, sweet potato and butternut squash with chopped red onion for a hearty roasted vegetable tray (chop into chunks, add a drizzle of olive oil, a smattering of salt and pepper and into the oven), or parboil and mash to sit alongside your main meal.
For me though, cooking is rarely that technical. I prefer to cook and eat fresh, in season produce. And these days, there really isn’t any excuse. Most supermarkets these days will have an extensive range of fruit and veg for you to experiment with. As Christmas still has a slight squeeze on our wallets as we approach the end of this month, money saving techniques are a plenty. Try swapping more expensive meats for vegetarian options once or twice a week. Beans, lentils and pulses are filling, and work well with most flavours. Also, if possible, doing smaller food shops more often, mean you can buy fresher ingredients, without worrying about any going off at the back of the fridge. Peppers, courgettes and butternut squash will keep in the fridge but work well in sauces, roasted or dry fried as a side allowing them to be fully used and not wasted.
However, a balanced diet of different food groups allows for treats in moderation and here at Vision we also know that even the greatest of intentions can waver and falter at times, and don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about those little slips. Here is a pretty straightforward cupcake recipe, using every-day baking ingredients.
Ingredients:
110g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self-raising flour
125g plain flour
120ml (semi-skimmed) milk
1teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 160*C, and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
In a large bowl cream the softened butter and sugar until cream (beating with an electric mixer takes around 3-5 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a few minutes after each addition. Sift in half of the flours and add half of the milk. Combine well and repeat, mixing in the vanilla extract. Carefully fill the cases around 2/3 full and bake in the oven for around 20-25minutes. If you have any mixture left over you can cook it as a second batch (rather than overfilling the cases), because I can assure you, your housemates will be flying to the kitchen once they smell these coming out of the oven. Leave to cool. And if they haven’t all disappear by now, and if you want to treat yourself further, top with vanilla buttercream. Beat 110g softened butter, with 60ml milk, 1teaspoon vanilla extract and 250g icing sugar until smooth. Gradually add another 250g icing sugar until the buttercream is smooth and creamy. Grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy!