Chickpeas! The healthy equivalent to peanuts.

Mmmmm tasty yummy salted peanuts, or even better dry roasted peanuts! Can't beat them, but when your on a diet they are simply to unhealthy, rather than missing out why not try chickpeas as a heathy alternative!
Chickpeas? I hear you say, well don't knock them till you've tried them! This super duper quick and easy way to cook them will soon become your favourite nibble when watching that waistline.

The beauty of this recipe is that it's got so many variations depending on how adventurous your feeling or what your craving at the time. My favourite is BBQ, literally the sky's the limit with this one really. I quite often make two flavours at a time and mix them together when cooked for a bit of variation.

Roast chickpeas.

• 1 tin of chickpeas (drained)
• 1 tsp of light olive oil
• 2 tbsp of spice/seasoning powder of your choice, such as tandoori powder, curry powder, BBQ rub, garlic powder...
• sprinkle of sea salt

Pre heat your oven to 200c (fan oven)
In a bowl add all ingredients together and stir gently till all the chickpeas are evenly covered.
If doing two different flavours simply put half the peas, oil and powder in separate bowls to mix apart.
When everything's coated spread ONE even layer over a baking tray and cook for around 20min, till browned lightly and crispy.
Remove from the oven and grind a couple of grinds of salt over them. Leave to cool and scoop into a airtight tub.

Enjoy!!!
Perfect to put into lunches to.

Our local meat market sell what they describe as meat 'glazes' like a dry rub that you use on chicken etc, these are absolutely amazing to use, they leave the chickpeas slightly sticky and very yummy, the only thing you need to be careful of is they take less cooking, more like 15min, as the glaze burns easily.

Pictured is a two flavor batch, half tandoori and half smokey BBQ meat glaze.
Mine were slightly over done as the dog decide she wanted a wee in the last five min of cooking! Still very yummy tho!

Super healthy spinach.

So I'm on a bit of a diet kick at the moment, got to get a stone gone for summer!
This leaves me trying to think of new and interesting ways to make healthy food also scrummy food too.
I have had this bag of spinach in the fridge now for a week, it's got to be eaten because I'm not throwing it away lol!
So what to do with it? I'm thinking a nice Saturday afternoon lunch, nothing fancy or time consuming, something quick and simple, but more importantly low calorie.

Garlic and spinach stir fry. (For one)

• 1 bag of baby spinach leaves
• 1 Clove of garlic
• sprinkle of chilli flakes
• splash of light olive oil

Chop the garlic, as fine or course as you like it, I like my chunks quite big but go with your taste. Put into wok with a small splash of olive oil and the chilli flakes, again adding to taste depending how hot you like it, stir fry till garlic just starts changing colour. At this point add your leaves (mine were pre-washed, if you need to wash first make sure they are super dry) toss them around until well mixed and the oils coated it all, turn heat down to medium and loosely cover with the biggest saucepan lid you own, it doesn't matter if its not all covered. Leave to cook away for about a minute then uncover and stir it all up again, then re-cover, cook for another 1-2 minutes until all the leaves have started to shrivel up and go darker. Turn off heat, uncover and give a quick stir, then leave in the hot pan to sit for a moment or two.
Eat while still nice and hot!
All done in less than five minutes!

Makes a nice bowl full for one person, a tasty lunch for less than 75 calories! Always a winner in my book! If your not having to be so strict with your calorific content then a generous shaving of Parmesan over the top would be delicious! Or a splash of soy sauce while cooking too would make a tasty addition.

(Oh and erm yeah, you might have some brilliant garlic breath afterwards, sorry)