Tina tries... Up close and personal

By Tina Betts

In her first ever gym session, Tina is put to work by her personal trainer…

I’m nervous about meeting my personal trainer for the first time. My most pressing worry is… argh, what do I wear?

My trainers are caked in mud, as the last time I used them was for gardening, and my trackie bottoms are stored safely in a suitcase on top of the wardrobe (they’re certainly going to need an iron!)

But with trainers cleaned and bottoms pressed, I'm ready to meet my nemesis… Nuffield Health’s Lloyd. Turns out he’s a laid-back kind of guy who quickly puts me at ease, but just as quickly puts me to work. Taking into account last week’s MOT and having listened to my goals, he’s worked out a programme for me. I start with a set of exercises, so he can gauge my fitness level (squats, twists, mountain climbing). With each set he ups the challenges. So far, so good as, 20 mins in I'm still standing and confident I can get through this first session without looking like a numpty.

I resist the urge to giggle every time Lloyd asks if I can "feel it in my glutes yet?" I have no idea where my glutes are (I now know they’re bottom cheeks, and yes, I can feel them). I’m also introduced to my core – that’s tummy, mid and lower back, hips, shoulders and neck regions. And, boy, do they get a work out (I’m really feeling it the next day).

Was the workout worth it? Well! I’ve overcome my reluctance about gyming it - I’m even excited about my next session. Best thing is, I’ve realised I can do it. Over the next few weeks Lloyd is going to help me build up my stamina and, to help, he’s suggested I fit in a cardio session. So next week you can read all about my aqua aerobics session. Now where’s that cossie?

Personal training sessions at Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centres cost from £55 for a single session. A five-hour booking costs £230 (that’s £46 a session) but it’s cheaper if you pay by direct debit. See www.nuffieldhealth.com.

We’d love to hear about your endeavours to get fit… 

Get all your five-a-day in one dish!

By Harry Eastwood

This salad is a deconstructed version of ratatouille, which makes for a delicious, fresh and full-flavoured alternative to the traditional vegetable stew. It can be made ahead – and, in fact, tastes even better. It ticks plenty of health boxes as it’s high in fibre and low in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. Most people can enjoy it, as it’s vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free. And the best thing about it? One serving counts as a full five portions of your five-a-day.

Ratatouille salad with anchovies and lemon

Serves 4

1 large aubergine, cut into small cubes

2 medium courgettes, topped, tailed and cut into very small cubes

4tbsp olive oil

1 large Spanish onion, peeled and finely diced

1 medium yellow pepper, cored and chopped into small cubes

1 medium orange pepper, cored and chopped into small cubes

2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste

3 anchovies, very finely chopped

10 medium ripe tomatoes on the vine

Freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon

Handful of basil leaves, torn from the stem

1. Heat a large frying pan until very hot.

2. Toss the aubergine and courgette cubes in the olive oil until evenly coated. Add them to the hot frying pan and cook over a high heat for 5 min, until the edges have turned a golden colour. You may find that you need to do this stage in two batches.

3. Tip the hot vegetables into a large bowl with the onion, peppers, garlic and anchovies. Season generously with pepper, then cover with clingfilm. Set aside for 10 min, while you prepare the tomatoes.

4. Chop the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds and centre with the help of a spoon. Finely chop the flesh, then add to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

5. Finally, squeeze the lemon juice over the salad. Set aside (wrapped in clingfilm) for 1 hr in the ambient temperature of your kitchen to let the flavours mingle and develop. Scatter the basil leaves over just before serving and add more pepper if needed. Serve with crusty bread, if you like.

SWAP IN/SWAP OUT

I love the savoury flavour the anchovies bring, but you don’t have to add them – this ratatouille is delicious without. You could include pine nuts if you want the salad to be a little more hearty and reduced-fat feta or mozzarella chunks are lovely thrown in at the last minute, too.

Per serving: 210kcal, 6g protein, 12.8g fat, 2g saturates, 19.2g carbs, 17.1g sugar, 9g fibre, 0.3g salt, 77mg calcium, 2.7mg iron

 

Harry’s supporting our mission to Fight the Fads – Make Every Meal Healthier. To find out why she’s rallying against the fad diet industry, pick up our October issue.

For more substantial salad recipes, check out Harry Eastwood’s A Salad For All Seasons (Bantam Press, £20).

Tina tries…

In our new series on shaping up, Healthy Food Guide’s art director Tina Betts starts on her journey towards a proper exercise plan to supplement her day-to-day walking…

By Tina Betts

How did it happen? I’m 43, and things are starting to sag. I haven’t changed my eating and drinking habits, so age is starting to catch up with me. I inherited my ‘walk everywhere’ gene from my Dad. I don’t have a car, so think nothing of whizzing down to Sainsbury’s with my trolley bag. But despite frequent trolley dashes, there’s a big but – my big butt, in fact! I’m lucky that I’ve always been a healthy weight, but it’s starting to creep up, the muffin top is rising steadily and there’s no way I’m going to fit into my dream 40th birthday dress again, at least not the way things are going.

My fear of exercise means I’ve never liked the gym or classes. It’s the classic ‘I was always the last to be picked’ for the team at school. It’s made me a tad anxious in sporting environments.

But that all changed a few weeks ago. As part of a work feature, I tried a yoga class for the first time with my work colleagues. And I could see the attraction of exercising as a group. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. And so, Tina tries… was born. It’s a week by week log of my mission to get fit - and get me back into that party dress.

My first stop was the Health Check at Nuffield Health at their flagship centre at London’s Cannon Street (it’s really more hip hotel than soulless gym). All members go through checks before starting their fitness plan.

Nuffield Health’s senior wellbeing adviser Katarina Berceliova took me through my body MOT, checking my BMI, resting heart rate, blood glucose levels (all healthy) and quizzed me about my sleep patterns (fine) and lifestyle habits (cholesterol and alcohol quotas not so fine). Generally, at 5ft 5in and 9 stone 3lb, my BMI at 21.2 is very good and my blood pressure spot on. But I know I need to do something about my fitness levels – I’ve reached the age where you can’t take anything for granted. 

I came away feeling optimistic with three main Wellbeing Action points: to monitor my blood cholesterol, up my water consumption and increase my activity and fitness levels.

Come back next week to read about my first ever session with my personal trainer. I have to admit, just those words make me nervous…

Gluten-free cooking made easier

By Norma McGough

If you’ve been diagnosed with coeliac disease, adapting to a gluten-free diet can seem daunting at first, but with a few ingredient switches, you can still enjoy your favourite recipes. Try these…

* There’s a lot of gluten-free pasta available now, so you can still enjoy spaghetti bolognese and lasagne if you also use cornflour for your cheese sauce and buy a gluten-free bolognese sauce.

* Try alternative cereals such as quinoa and teff. Quinoa is nutritious (it contains protein, fibre, iron and folate) and ideal as a basis for salads – and teff adds a delicious nutty flavour to biscuits. 

* If you’re ever stuck for ideas in the kitchen, branch out into different cuisines: Mexican meals include a lot of corn and rice, which are both naturally gluten-free cereals, so you could maybe go for corn tacos with chilli, guacamole and salsa; Indian and Thai curry sauces, also served with rice, are usually made with combinations of onions, garlic, ginger and fresh chilli with spices, maybe with coconut milk or ground nuts, so are often gluten free, too. 

* A bit of experimentation, plus speciality flours and baking aids (including gluten-free baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and xanthan gum) can make gluten-free baking a success. It’s the gluten that gives your bread, cakes and pastry the right texture and provides structure, which is why gluten-free bread can be dry and solid, and cakes and pastry a lot more crumbly. But there are many speciality flours available in supermarkets that work perfectly well in your favourite recipes.

Want more help or information? Visit Coeliac UK’s website. Whether you’ve been diagnosed, are seeking a diagnosis or need information to support friends and family with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis, Coeliac UK is there to help. It provides a range of member services to help you understand more about coeliac disease and the gluten-free diet, including access to its Recipe Database, electronic Food and Drink Directory and Venue Guide.

Lactose-free peach melba fairy cakes

By Rebecca Almond

Just peachy! Lactose-free cupcake

For those of you who are lactose intolerant or know someone who is, you’ll be familiar with the problems often faced when searching for lactose-free recipes. So it’s great to hear top London cookery school L’atelier des Chefs has teamed up with Lactofree to offer a series of cookery courses to inspire lactose-free cooking.

From 6 September to 9 November, you can learn how to create favourite dishes – from curries and French cuisine to cakes and bakes – using Lactofree’s cream, spread, dairy drinks and cheeses. And the good news is, it couldn’t be easier! The products can be used just like their lactose-containing equivalents – it’s just a matter of making a straight swap.

We went along to test the claim for ourselves and whipped up a batch of peach melba fairy cakes.

‘If anything, baking with Lactofree Spreadable is easier than butter,’ says head chef Neil Matthews. ‘It has a softer consistency so can be used straight from the fridge. The spread does make a looser cake mixture, but the quantities and cooking times are exactly the same.’ And they taste like the real deal, too.

To whet your appetite, the chefs at L’atelier have kindly shared their Lactofree cupcake recipe, exclusively for HFG blog readers! Why not give it a go, then visit atelierdeschefs.co.uk/en/cooking-classes/themes/1375-lactofree-cooking.phpto see their full range of Lactofree cookery courses.

Peach melba fairy cakes

Prep: 15 min + cooling Cook: 15 min Makes: 24 cupcakes

For the fairy cakes

250g Lactofree spreadable

250g caster sugar                                                          

250g self-raising flour                                                  

4 eggs

1tsp baking powder

50g fresh raspberries                                       

A few drops of red food colouring 

For the peach compote

50g caster sugar

30g fresh peaches, cut into 1cm pieces

100ml dry white wine

For the icing

250g icing sugar, plus extra to dust

100g Lactofree soft cheese

150g Lactofree spreadable                                           

A few drops of red food colouring                              

20g fresh peaches, chopped, and 50g fresh raspberries, halved, to decorate

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line 2x12-hole fairy cake trays cupcake cases. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the Lactofree spreadable and 250g sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition until well combined. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then gently fold to combine. Add the food colouring and mix gently, then add the fresh raspberries and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, then bake for 12–14 minutes.

2 Remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Heat the caster sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until it turns into a dark caramel. Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the peaches. Add the white wine, then return the pan to a medium heat, stirring continuously, for 1 min or until the peaches soften. Remove the mixture and set aside to cool completely.

3 To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, then add the Lactofree soft cheese, Lactofree spreadable and food colouring and whisk until smooth and combined. Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a star nozzle attachment.

4 Using a small knife, cut a small piece from the middle of each cupcake and set aside. Spoon some of the peach compote into the middle of each cake, then pipe in a little of the icing. Replace the cake pieces, then pipe on a little more icing. Decorate with the raspberries and fresh peach pieces, then dust with icing sugar.

Tip: When using coloured butter icing, use disposable rather than fabric piping bags as the food colouring can stain.

Per cupcake 

222kcal


2.3g protein


12g fat


5.5g saturates


27.2g carbs


20.6g sugar


0.6g fibre


0.3g salt


45mg calcium


0.4mg iron

For more on lactose intolerance and the Lactofree range, visit lactofree.co.uk