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Recipes & Tips for
Healthy Eating

Cooking with your waist line in mind shouldn't be a chore and you certainly shouldn't feel hungry or like all you can eat is rabbit food! So here are a few tips and tricks we use here at Amy's Catering to keep the calories down and the health benefits high when we cater for you!

Have you seen our healthy choice menus?

Special Diets...

1/31/2013

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So next week I have a big catering job and one of my guests is Gluten intollerant! Obviously I had a lot of reading to do about what foods I could and couldn't use and then designed a new menu based around this!

I think one of the main things for people with special requirements, be them religious, chosen or medical, is that they don't feel awkward and separate from the rest of the group. That's why where possible I try to make the entire menu suitable for what ever the special diet requires! Obviously with a gluten intolerance some things have to be bought in special, like the bread for sandwiches, but others can just be adapted.

So here are the changes Im making to my menu:

I'm swapping Mediterranean Cous Cous for a spicy rice salad! Rice is naturally gluten free so no special products has to be bought and everyone gets to enjoy the same dish.

I make my own chicken tikka pieces and unknowingly these were gluten free so no changes were needed there!

There are more and more gluten free products available in supermarkets thesedays but the chances are gluten intollerant guests are going to have tried them all! So I'm making my own cakes and biscuits just replacing my regular flour with a gluten free one!

I'm hoping that the little touches like this will make me stand out to clients that I'm happy to go that extra mile to offer everyone the same high quality, fresh, homemade food!

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The Wooden Spoon... and other kitchen essentials!

1/16/2013

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It sounds silly but I think nearly all of us have a few 'favourite' items in our kitchen! Do you always chose a particular mug for your coffee?  Is there a pan that you seem to cook everything in? Well in my kitchen there's a wooden spoon!

This wooden spoon has been in my family nearly as long as I have and my parents got it free with a wok that's long since past it, but this spoon lives on.... Now there isn't really anything special about the spoon, in fact sometimes it even seems a bit impractical to use it but still I find myself looking for it, and often being dissapointed to find that its currently in the dishwasher!

The truth is that you get into habits, in the kitchen just like everywhere else, and sometimes these habits don't really make much difference to how you cook - like choosing a particular wooden spoon isn't going to make my dinner taste better! But some habits you get into can make a huge difference not only to how your food tastes but also how good it is for you!

Oil is one of my pet hates in the kitchen, people seem to use oil for everything and a lot of the time it just isn't necessary, particularly not in the qualities we use it! Even olive oil, arguably one of the 'healthy' options has around 120 calories per tablespoon, and if, like me, you keep a track of your calories, you don't want to be wasting them on something that doesn't taste good or fill you up! Essentially we use oil to stop things sticking to the pan or baking tray so here are a few simple swaps you can make to replace, or at least the amount of oil that you use in your cooking!

Non-stick! Good quality non-stick pans and baking trays can really make a world of difference to your cooking - just remember not to use metal utensils on them as this can damage the non-stick surface.  You can get not-stick liners now for your baking trays that can be re-used, or why not try good, old-fashioned, grease proof paper!

Spray! Personally I am a huge fan of the low calorie cooking sprays like Frylight.  At around 1 calorie a spray you can really cover your pan.  Spraying instead of pouring can save you using more than you need and if you just can't resist the distinctive taste of olive oil, why not get yourself an oil mister or just fill a pump spray bottle with the oil of your choice?  Its not just oil that you can spray either, there's now a range of low calories spray salad dressings you can try!


I hope this has made you think about little habits you can change that can really make a world of difference to your cooking so that it still tastes great, but with a little less guilt! Look out for a recipe update shortly and a few more tips and tricks to make all your favourite foods, but with a few less calories and a lot more taste!


Did you know? Here at Amy's we never add any oil when cooking meat... we only use the natural fat that renders down during the cooking process! This means less calories and more flavour - now who wouldn't want that?

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    About me:

    Food has always been a love of mine and being able to cook healthily and still make all the things I love to eat has really changed the way I think about food.  Since starting catering it's been great for me to get feedback on my healthy twists on classic buffet foods and we are always looking to expand our menus!

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