Sweet potato & Spinach soup

Here at Fitbitch Boot Camp, we love a soup. They're delicious, low calorie and blimmin' filling! This is the perfect lunch time soup - or top with a poached egg for something more substantial.
Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic
1 birds eye chili
bunch of broccoli
3 large tomatoes chopped and diced
big handful of baby spinach leaves
1 sweet potato, chopped
dsp fenugreek
2 dsp ground coriander
sea salt
pepper
Yoghurt to serve

Bung the garlic, chilli, broccoli and sweet potato in a pan, cover with water. Season with the spices and salt and pepper and leave to simmer. Once the potato has cooked through, add the spinach and stir in. (add water at any stage when it becomes too thick or looks as if it's going dry). The spinach will take seconds to cook through. Whizz with a handheld processor (make sure it's under the level of the soup!) Check for seasoning and serve with a spoonful of yoghurt. Delicious!
Sorry, no pic as it wouldn't upload!

Mussels in chilli tomato broth

Most people are petrified of cooking mussels themselves but they are so simple to do. And best of all, they're perfect food if you're on either Stage One or what I'll call the 'Fitbitch Relax' eating plan.
To prepare them do the following:
1. If any of the mussels are already open, give them a sharp flick of the a fingernail. If they don't close, throw them away.
2. Scrub the shells with a wire pan scrubber. Any hairy beard bits, grasp firmly and pull out. And that is it!
Now, on to the cooking...
Ingredients
Bowl full of mussels
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 hot chili, or to taste
handful of tomatoes, diced
Squeeze of lemon
Coriander, parsley, basil or any other fresh herb

Saute the chili, garlic and tomatoes on a low heat in lots of fresh lemon juice. Add some water to prevent it drying but just enough to cover. The tomatoes should begin to reduce down helping to form a thick, stewy broth. This should take around five - ten mins.
Next, tip in the mussels,(add a few tbsp of water - you don't want the sauce too thick) leave on a low heat with the pan lid on for three to five mins. Give the pan a rattle or stir around and they're ready to serve. Any mussels that haven't opened (or that you have to prise apart) don't eat. Top with chopped chives, coriander or whatever else you have.
The best thing about this is that a huge bowlful only contains around 150 calories and around 20gs of protein.
If you want to eat it with something, have it with quinoa if you're on the Stage One of the eating plan. If you are now maintaining you can use a tiny bit of linguine if you wish. Be careful though - I usually tell people to avoid pasta because most people habitually eat it with cheese, olive oil and red wine and the trick is to avoid anything that triggers these kinds of things!

The Eat as Much as You Like Soup!

When the cold, dark nights draw in, soup is the perfect thing to eat. And if you make it yourself, you can make delicious concoctions that are fat free. Don't ever be scared to experiment when you're making stuff either - for some cooking comes naturally, others not so much. But at the end of the day, you're not going to kill yourself by making a mistake with a veggie soup. It just might taste a bit bland. Here's a Butternut Squash and Chickpea soup.

Ingredients
2 Birds eye chillies
3 cloves of garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cumin
Turmeric
5 carrots, peeled and chopped
Bunch of celery
1/2 butternut squash
6 tomatoes, chopped

Chop everything up and chuck in a sauce pan. Cover with water, add the seasoning and simmer until the veggie's are soft but not completely mushy! Whizz in a food processor or with a hand blender. I like to leave mine a little bit chunky.
Then adjust the seasoning to taste and add the chickpeas and serve. This is so healthy, you can eat as much as you like!

Trout with horseradish dressing on Rye

This makes a fab tasty lunch or light dinner. Roast a whole trout in foil in the oven with the juice of one lemon and salt and pepper for seasoning. It should take around 20mins but you will know when it is ready as the skin should just peel away easily and the flesh will fall from the bones.
Take the fish off the the bones and mix in a bowl with a dressing made of 2 dsp of low fat yoghurt with 1tsp of horseradish, fresh lemon, salt and pepper and chopped spring onions or chives. Toast one thin slice of rye bread and layer with fresh spinach, tomatoes and the fish. Delicious!

Diet saboteurs

Are you always on a diet but never manage to lose any weight? Or perhaps you're on Fitbitch Boot Camp and despite thinking that you're sticking to the diet as the next person, they're shrinking before your eyes while you look the same?
The likelihood is that either your portion sizes are too big, or you are eating something that you think is healthy but isn't.

Diet saboteur: Granola
Reality: Many cereals, particularly those that do a stunning job of packaging themselves as a healthy alternative are full of sugar, hidden or otherwise. Dorset Cereals for instance are packed full of sugar busting dried fruits but worse by far is Granola.
This is made by adding oil and sugar to cereal and then baking it. Most of us would never dream of eating a pile of biscuits for breakfast but that's effectively what you're doing.
Fitbitch Alternative: Make your own granola by soaking oats, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, grated apple, grated carrot and a few finely chopped nuts in apple juice. Then spread on a baking tray and bake very slowly at a low heat for 1-2hrs. Serve with yoghurt.

Diet saboteur: Honey
Fair enough it's not as bad as processed white sugar but it's still sugar. And what makes it worse is that it's perceived as healthy so you tend to overuse it. Just 1 tbsp contains an average of 50 calories. yet if you're the type to use honey, you tend to use it on toast, on your yoghurt and on cereal. That's 150 calories just there. Moreover, it's a high GI food so it will only leave you craving more.
Fitbitch Alternative: Agave nectar - it's still sugary but it releases energy more slowly.

Diet saboteur: Oat Cakes
You hear it all the time in diet features - snack on oat cakes. Yes, they release energy slowly but most people have absolutely no idea how many they eat in a day. Oat cakes usually come in individual 'handy' snack sizes of five. That's 289 calories just eating them plain. Of course it's fine if you can eat with control and just have two. But then if that were the case you probably wouldn't need to be on a diet.
Healthy alternative: Edmame beans or soya beans.

Diet saboteur: Grapes
The reason everyone likes grapes is frankly because they're sweet. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that a 450g pack of red grapes is around 300-400 calories. If you're trying to restrict yourself to 1500 cals or less that's the equivalent of a lunch or dinner. you might think you don't really eat that many grapes but next time you buy some really watch yourself, you'll be surprised how easy it is to scoff them without even noticing.
Healthy alternative: one piece of fruit that you can't overeat

Spicy tuna with autumn salad

Halloween is just around the corner, and suddenly there are pumpkins and squashes everywhere you look. They may be a bugger to peel and cut up but it's well worth it for a comforting, nutritious addition to a salad.

Tuna marinade
Two cloves of garlic, finely grated
1inch of ginger, finely chopped
1 Birds eye chilli or more if you like it very hot
Juice of one lemon and two limes
Fish sauce to taste
Rice wine vinegar to taste

Marinate the tuna steaks for a30mins at least.

Meanwhile, chop the pumpkkin and parboil in salted boiling water to cut down roasting time. Season with lots of salt and pepper and add the juice of two or three lemons and an orange. Put in the oven to roast until cooked through. When cooked, add a teaspoon or two of Dijon mustardto the roasting dish and stir in to give the pumkin a dressing. Leave to cool for a bit and add the leaves and chopped tomatoes. If you add to early or put the pumpkin on top of the leaves they wilt and become soggy.

To cook the tuna steaks, heat a griddle pan until smoking hot. Place the tuna steaks on the pan and leave for 3-5mins depending on thickness. Turn and do the same for the other side. They should be served pink or even red in the middle according to taste - and freshnes of the steak. There's nothing worse than grey, tough dry tuna steaks!
use the leftover marinade as sauce and serve!

Quinoa with rainbow dressing

Just back from Switzerland and to prove it's not all Gruyere and chocolate, this is a lunch I had from a little hippy cafe in the heart of Lausanne. I've made up the recipe from what I deduced from taste but it was delice and easy to make.
Some of you might think, 'not another quinoa recipe' but this grain is fantastic. It's full of nutrients and unlike other grains it contains a high level of protein. it's much lighter and has a lower GI than many other grains such as couscous, bulghar wheat and the like.

Quinoa
1 courgette, sliced
2 carotts, thickly chopped
(I'd also add 1 red pepper chopped plus two cloves of garlic for extra taste)

For the green sauce
Cucumber
Fresh mint
Garlic
Yoghurt

For the red sauce
Roasted tomatoes, skins off
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
pinch of paprika


In an oven dish roast the veggies, using fresh lemon juice in place of oil.
Meanwhile, in a food processor whizz up the cucumber, fresh mint and garlic. Add the yoghurt and seasoning to taste and give it another whizz until you get the taste you're after.
For the red sauce, roast the tomatoes first and then whizz in a food processor. You may want to add some tomoato puree to thicken.
Serve the vegetables on top of the cooked quinoa with the sauce.