Prawn, chickpea and curried mustard leaves

Ingredients (serves one)

1/2 can of curried mustard leaves (you can get this from the 'world' section of Tesco's Hove)
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
handful of chick peas
handful of king prawns
extra garlic and chopped chilli to taste

Chop garlic and chilli if adding and saute in a little stock or water with the tomatoes on medium heat. After a few minutes add the curried mustard leaves, and chickpeas and warm. then add the prawns and cook for a further five minutes or until the prawns turn pink.Serve with quinoa.
This is a fantastic 'cheats' recipe which tastes delicious and takes no more than ten minutes to cook.



This is a great, quick dinner that takes minutes to cook and is d

Why you could be sabotaging your diet

If you are always on a diet but never seem to lose any weight, perhaps you are falling into one of these well known traps.....

'I exercise, so surely I must be burning off calories?'
Yes, exercise burns calories but not as many as you think and not to the point that you can eat what you like. How much you burn during any type of exercise varies according to your weight,length of time you work out, plus how hard you work out.
Yet most people unconsciously think exercise allows them to eat whatever they like, thus filling up the deficit they have just created, plus some!
Solution: Don't even think about exercise as a way of helping you lose weight. Think instead of changing your diet and you WILL succeed. Less calories in means less weight. And if you're thinking why bother exercising, don't forget that exercise boosts your metabolism and builds muscle to ensure your body looks good. There's no point looking slim if you can't get into a bikini because your body doesn't look good. Plus never underestimate the feel good factor that exists with exercise which is better than any other high, legal or not!


Drinks don't count, right?
And no, we're not even talking alcohol here. It's those drinks you take on board without even thinking about. The type where you get to the end of the day and if someone asked you to write down what you'd had, you wouldn't even mention because you've forget ten them or think that liquid can't possibly cause weight gain - or prevent weight loss. Think again.
A glass of orange juice, 200cals, a small semi skimmed latte, 100calories, a yoghurt fruit smoothie, 300 calories.
'So what?', you might think but if your aim is to cut 500 calories a day, one of these could contribute to half of that. Besides it's not just the calorie effect of that one drink that can have an affect.
If you keep not just that. drinking things that are sweet, you will always crave sweet. Fruit juices send your blood sugars soaring, then will leave you feeling tired so you reach for yet more sugary fixes.
Solution: Drink water and get used to it. Lots of people say they don't like water but it is because your taste buds are hardwired for the 'sweet tastes' of lactose in milk, sugars in fruit juices. When you get used to water everything else takes mega sweet.

Every magazine feature I read says olive oil is good for me
This is true as it is a fantastic source of essential fatty acids. But what's good for one person is not good for another if your aim is weightloss. Just one teeny, tiny teaspoon of olive oil is 42calories. Next time you cook with it,or use it in a dressing measure out how much you use. Oil has the amazing capacity to look like hardly anything when you put it in a pan but it's usually about a tablespoon or more. That's around 130calories right there.
Solution: Try different dressings that don't use oil such as yoghurt and mustard with lemon juice. Use different cooking methods, such as poaching or steaming. Even assuming you only cook with olive oil once a day that still saves you 910 calories a week. Do that for 6 months and that could equate to half a stone weight loss.

I'm doing exactly what the diet says
So, you're following the diet to the letter. Exactly. Not one foot wrong. And still you're not losing weight. Why? More often than not it's down to portion size. Just because something is healthy, too much of anything whether it's fruit, rice cakes or WeightWatcher's bars can scupper a diet.
Solution: Weighing things out is a pain in the butt but it is the only way to 'get your eye in' as it were. Weigh out the things you have most often, whether it's quinoa, oats, whatever and that will probably be the only time you need to do it. Or, if you know that hunger in the morning tends to make you pour out a big portion of muesli, weigh out seven portions and bag them ready for the week ahead.

here a nibble, there a nibble everywhere a nibble, nibble
You can do brilliantly eating the right portions and exactly the right meals. Then you fall down by over snacking.
Eating a few mini snack meals through the day is good but only if they are the right type of snacks. Two oat cakes with cottage cheese, apple with yoghurt. These are all great slow release GI foods mixed with protein that are high in satiety. When you go wrong is suddenly having a few too many nibbles of nuts, or those two oat cakes or rice cakes turn into five or more. The average oat cake has 50 calories, so that's a 250 calorie snack but the likelihood is you've discounted it in your mind and not even considered it food. Think about only taking out snacks pre-packaged in the exact amounts. If you're at home, then pre-package your snacks for the day and then get put the rest on a top shelf which requires you to stand on a ladder to get to them. AT least then if you eat them you are conscious of your snacking not just doing it habitually.

Steamed fish with Spicy Noodle Vegetable Salad

It's that picnic time of year when the sun shines and the temptation to just grab the old standards, hummous, French bread, a slab of brie, crisps and a cold glass of Rose kicks in. But therein lies disaster if you're following the Fitbitch way.
Obviously once in a while is fine but think laterally of all the other delicious things you can eat on the beach or the parks if you just put a little bit more thought into it. Like this delicious salad dish which you can make for dinner and then keep some spare for lunch the next day. It's packed full of protein, healthy Omega 3s plus low GI carbohydrate in the form of buckwheat noodles much better than rice noodles or pasta.
If you don't fancy fish, serve it with thin slices of beef or chicken.
Calories: 232, Protein: 26g Fat: 19 Fat: 6

Ingredients
Serves one
White fish fillet, (I used haddock but sea bream or sea bass works much better)
5p piece amount of buckwheat noodles
Herb salad (Infinity foods one is delicious!)
1 carrot cut into batons
2inch piece of cucumber, cut into batons
1dsp of mixed seeds

For the dressing
Fish sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Lime juice, squeezed
Orange juice, squeezed
Birds Eye chilli, chopped finely
1inch piece of ginger, sliced finely

Roast the fish in a piece of foil paper with a squeeze of fresh juice. Meanwhile make the buckwheat noodles and the dressing. All you need to do for the dressing is mix according to taste. Keeping tasting regularly until you get the right mix of sweet and sour. I like lots of chilli so use a whole one, too much for some!
Once the fish is done combine all the salad ingredients, dress and place the fish on top. (Note - add the salad leaves for lunch on the day all they will end up soggy).

Vegetable Frittata

Don't forget that you need to be sticking to low fat protein in the evening with low GI carbs. Think green or white veggies (except potatoes!) no orange or red starchy ones. A fritata is the perfect choice, easy and simple to make and you can just add a startchy veg to it for partners or children.
Ingredients (to serve 3)
6 eggs
Bunch of asparagus spears, lightly steamed (they still want to have 'bite')
1 inch piece of feta cheese, crumbled (alternatively, you can use smoked salmon, smoked haddock etc)
3 tomatoes, sliced
50g of garden peas
6 olives sliced
handful of parsley, mint and basil chopped
dash of skimmed milk
1 spray of sunflower oil
(you can use any mixture of veggies - note in here I've used courgette but asparagus are now in season and go well with peas)

Start by prewarming the oven, 200. Whisk the eggs with the milk and some salt and pepper. Set aside and lightlhy saute the asparagus, then add the egg mixture. Ensure it is on a medium heat and let the egg being to set. You should see it begin to brown around the edges. Then add the garden peas, tomatoes, feta and herbs.
Let it set a little more (if you smell burning you have the heat on too high)before popping into the oven (best to use a pan with oven proof handle!).
Keep your eye on the tortilla and the heat of the oven should begin to 'set' the rest of the mixture, which you can check by inserting a skewer into the middle.
Finish off by flashing under the grill, making sure to turn it for a delicious, browning.
Serve with a green side salad dressed with balsamic. You can also try a healthy version of garlic aioli by adding one crushed garlic clove to fat free Greek yoghurt with a dash of lemon.

What is your best homemade Fitbitch recipe?

Pearl Barley and pepper salad with poached egg and spicy split pea pate

The Fitbitch eating plan is not a prescriptive diet. It's about following the principles of low GI carbs with low fat protein. It is about experimenting with recipes and learning to enjoy food rather than food becoming something that you fear or that you think about with dread.
Over the camps we've heard of some fantastic recipes being tried and here is your chance to share them, and at the same time getting the chance to win a 20% discount off the next camp starting in June.
Add your recipes below to the comments including all the ingredients and amounts - the winner will be announed Friday 4th June.

Courgette, Pea, Chilli & Mint Salad

Some people just hear the word salad and their brain immediately sends out the message, 'Light meal, not enough, need carbs.' If you're one of those people think of this as Courgette spaghetti instead. It's a light meal but substantial enough for the evening on Fitbitch principles

Ingredients
ONe courgette, sliced into ribbons using cheese cutter
Cup of garden peas
quarter of avocado, diced
two tomatoes, chopped
Fresh mint finely chopped
Half a blood red orange
1 tsp of sunflower seeds

For the dressing
1/2 birds eye chilli
Rice wine vinegar
Orange juice
Fish sauce

Combine all the vegetable ingrdients and mix the dressing according to taste. Pour on and serve.
If you want to make this more substantial, add chicken breast or tuna.

Fish with Coconut, Chilli and Lemongrass Crust

Sometimes you just need to have something a little bit special. More often than not, our brains are hardwired to think that that something special is chocolate, cakes or biscuits. But start thinking of savoury things that are outside the normal things you eat and which seem like a treat too.
This dish is one of those things. It is a little bit high in fat at 19g but that's fine if the rest of you day has been good. And on the plus side it is low in calories and provides a good balance of protein and low GI carbohydrates so it is fine even if you are doing the Fitbitch eating plan although only if you have one camp. Just don't have it more than once a week!

Ingredients
seabass fillet (the fillet in this picture is a firmer fish but can't remember what - any white fish will work)
Juice of one lime
One stalk of lemongrass
1 tbsp of dessicated coconut
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 birds eye chilli, finely chopped
slither of apple

wash and pat dry the fillet. Meanwhile in a mortar and pestle add the chilli, lemongrass, and chilli, all which should be extremely finely chopped. Now add the coconut and firmly pound until the coconut begins to take on a reddish tinge from the chill. Add the sugar and pound again. Next, add the juice of the lime and use your hand to completely combine all the ingredients. Add more lime or a bit of rice wine vinegar if it needs to be wetter. Then press firmly down on to the skin of the fish. Then lay it on a slice of apple placed on foil (this will help keep the flesh moist) and make a parcel. Place in a preheated oven at 180-200F and bake until cooked.
Serve with buckwheat soba noodles, a good low GI food and Morning Glory sauted in a pan with 1tsp of Oyster Sauce. Delicious!
Calories: 456, Carbs: 49 Protein: 23, Fat:19