The holiday season is upon us and many may be planning trips away over the Christmas/New Year season. It's easy to start dreaming of all the food and drink 'must haves' in the holiday location and forget about maintaining good eating habits. I will be going away to Taiwan and Hong Kong and I am already searching up all the famous food stalls and restaurants I will be visiting! A day or two of this may be harmless  but mindlessly eating my way through Taiwan and Hong Kong can mean coming back 5kg heavier! With the summer weather in Australia, I can imagine how coming back heavier from a holiday may not be ideal for most! Here at 6 tips on how to keep on top of weight gain during a holiday:

 

 Egg tarts at KFC in Fu Zhou count as food we can't get here =P! 

 
These stairs were a killer but the view at the top was amazing!

 
That's my cousin! We climbed all the way to the top of that tower in this pic! It was -12 degrees in Beijing that day but we braved it to climb a tiny section of the great wall! 

6. Eat your veggies
5 serves of veggies! No exceptions! I try and stick with this even when I'm away as it is a simple thing to do. As I'll be having buffet breakfast every morning I'll be squeezing in my veggie serves first thing in the morning! Mmmmmm roast mushrooms....

Also sticking to the plate model of half a plate full of veggies, 1/4 protein source and 1/4 carbohydrate source is also another way to ensure you're eating a balanced diet. 

Bonus 7! 
Don't feel guilty. A holiday is meant to be enjoyed and I think for most, eating a bit extra is the norm. Despite planning, many factors can still be out of your control. Many people will find themselves putting on a kilo or two during the festive season and this is OK to acknowledge and move on. If your new years resolution is to lose 5kg yet your holiday made you put on 2kg it's easy to feel discouraged, feel it's unachievable and ditch weight loss altogether. But DON'T! Strength is when you persevere despite the set backs!    

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season! I'll be back with lots of photos of yummy food from Taiwan and Hong Kong soon!

So I promised a meatier dish and here it is!

Chicken and Chorizo Paella.

This has got to be my favourite one pan dish. It's super fragrant, delicious, full of vegetables and loved by everyone.

I have to say it probably isn't the most authentic paella but if you want to impress, this is an easy dish to win anyone over. Except my parents; they're not paprika fans....

I recently made it at my birthday party and it was enjoyed both fresh from the pan and reheated at 1am in the morning! 

When I say this is a 30minute dish.... it may be pushing it a bit. You know how Jamie Oliver has those 15min and 30min meals where you're suppose to have done half the prep? Well this is that kind of 30min dish. 

Don't be scared off by the long ingredients list, they're all simple things you can keep in your pantry or use for other things. 

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into a 1/2-inch dice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 link chorizo, cut into 2cm slices
• Half dozen prawns (reserve the heads)
• 1 onion,diced
• 1 medium sized carrot, diced
• 1 capsicum, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 and 1/2 cups arborio rice (Or if you can find the authentic bomba rice)
• 3 cups reduced salt chicken stock
• 1 tomato diced or half a can diced tomato
• 1 generous pinch saffron threads
• Handful mushrooms chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Set a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Toss the chicken with the olive oil and paprika. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through – about 5 minutes. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the sausage, onion, capsicum, and garlic to the pan. Cook until sausage has browned and vegetables have softened – about 5 minutes.
3. Add the rice, stock, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrot and saffron. Throw in the prawn heads too.
4. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid has absorbed and the rice is soft. Stir in the cooked chicken and prawns. 
5. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper (It doesn't really need salt in my opinion!). Let stand for another minute or two before serving.

  







I've added some wilted spinach leaves into the last one and used scallops instead of prawns. Adding the prawn heads to the dish really gives it a great seafood flavour but I guess scallops are a little bit more no fuss!

I think the great thing about this dish is how much vegetables you can put in it while still being able to satisfy meat hungry individuals. I used mostly vegetables that are firmer so they can keep their shape after cooking. After cooking for 20mins the vegetables soaked up all that meaty chorizo taste so my siblings didn't even blink an eye at the mushrooms (their least favourite vegetable!).

You can see from my photos that the things I've added can vary. Other vegetables that could be added include peas, pumpkin, corn, cauliflower, beans and rocket. This dish can handle anything your fridge has or doesnt have. I do feel the essentials are paprika, saffron, arborio rice, onion, garlic and stock. Everything else you can vary so whether you like your seafood, chicken or snails (apparently in an authentic paella!) paella it's up to you!    

What's your favourite one pan dish?

I was going to post a recipe tonight but seeing as it's Wednesday, the most unmotivating day of the week (to me), I think we need to look at cake pictures.

In my family, we celebrate a birthday each month from August onwards and I use it as an excuse to make something more decadent. I take off my dietitian hat and choose a cake based on how pretty it looks. I know... so superficial... but we eat with our eyes as well as our mouth!

This year for my sister's birthday I made her a big white cake. You might remember last year I made her a Strawberry and Cream Cake.



This cake has a lot of frosting.... You can see a few flecks of crumbs from the cake because I just refused to put on any more extra icing! I must say I cheat a bit and used store bought frosting as I was exhausted after doing the layers! The best part of the cake though was inside....




It's a Rainbow Cake! 

I used the Martha Stewart recipe (minus the ridiculous amount of frosting) and this cake took me HOURS! I only had one lone cake tin so had to bake each individual layer separately.

It was worth it though. Seeing the faces of my family in amazement at the colours! This is by no means the best rainbow cake ever, in fact if you google rainbow cake you'll find a trove of amazingly decorated rainbow cake and this 28 layer one.... but I was so proud of it!

To be honest the cake tasted like an average sponge cake so tastewise it wasn't anything spectacular however the colours made everyone feel like they were eating a rainbow!

The second big birthday cake I made was for a dear friend who loved pink and wanted both vanilla and chocolate flvoured cake! I was really into trying to make an ombre cake and only semi succeeded. I was in a mad panic the night before after having to rebake a layer then wrecking the home made frosting! I had a small tub of store bought frosting left and quickly made a crumb coat before refrigerating. By the morning I was in a mad dash to buy more frosting, get to my friend's house and frost the whole cake as well! This is the end result:

Pink Ombre Chocolate and Vanilla Layer Cake



Oh yeh I forgot my icing pens so just used the piping bag... As you can see it's not quite the perfect ombre effect but I didn't want to add more frosting to the cake and my time was running out! Luckily the birthday girl loved the cake (or so she tells me)!

The inside:

Recipe here.

The third (and fourth) cake I made this year was a

Chiffon Cake



This is an orange chiffon cake I made but for my mum, dad and aunty I made the pandan version. I LOVE chiffon cake! They are super light, fluffy, soft and did I mention fluffy? The problem though is because they feel so light I can probably eat the whole cake by myself without a problem... If I squished the cake down it'll probably fit into the palm of my hands!

The has to be my standout cake. My dad told me I should just make 2 every time because we went through this so quickly! Best. Cake. Ever.

And I think we should end with the best cake ever. 

The frozen yoghurt craze has really swept across Sydney with stores popping up everywhere. In fact I can think of half a dozen stores off the top of my head! Some are self serve while others are priced according to size but all are marketed as a healthy dessert. But is it really?

Low fat?
Yes, as most frozen yoghurt places advertise, frozen yoghurt is low in fat. This is because the product is made with yoghurt (often with low fat milk) rather than cream so naturally it becomes lower in fat. However the two things that add taste and texture to food is fat and sugar. If the fat component is gone something else has to be added in to replace it; usually sugar. This means that most frozen yoghurt has about as much sugar or more as ice cream and this is before any toppings are added. To mimic the creamy texture that fat would give, emulsifiers, binders and thickeners are often added.


How about the probiotics?   
Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria found in probiotic drinks, pills, yoghurt and newly in fruit juice. More and more research is going into probiotics now as its effects seem to reach beyond gut health. Gut microbiota (or the colony of bacteria in your gut) is thought to have a role in immune function. 

Something that will probably stay with me forever was a lecture I had at university on gut microbiota. The lecturer showed us a video of a faecal transplant... A patient had a faecal transplant done (faecal matter fed through a tube down their nose after it was filtered with coffee filters) to save their life from a life threatening bacterial infection. It worked a charm in resetting their immune function! Yep amazing stuff! It wasn't the easiest thing to digest in the morning but it was very intriguing.

Sorry to talk about human waste in the middle of a post about yoghurt......

When I started researching what types of probiotic strains are used for frozen yoghurt I came up empty. Most places had no information on the type or amount of beneficial bacteria in their product. This is important to know as you want strains that have good evidence backing up its health benefits and you want enoughbacteria that some reach your gut where it's needed. Also important is how the yoghurt is made. If excessive heat is used in the processing of the product much of that good bacteria is destroyed before freezing.

How many calories?

Yogurberry and Twisted both have nutrition information on their website. 100g of frozen yoghurt have around 400-500kJ (95-120Cal). This can be higher in the flavoured varieties and I have noticed that some places put a little disclaimer to the low calorie or fat claim that states only the original yoghurt are low in calories or fat. 400-500kJ is actually a good size for a snack however the problem is that often the serving sizes can be huge! You wouldn't see a bowl that big at ice cream places! Frozen yoghurt places that are self serve often don't even give you the option of a smaller bowl and even I find myself paying for 300g at the checkout.

Research by a leader in consumer behaviour, Brian Wansink, has shown that bigger serving plates lead to mindless over eating. This paper shows that even nutrition experts, given a bigger bowl, will serve themselves 31% more ice cream than those with a smaller bowl. Of course the other problem with self serve places is that I end up wanting a little bit of everything which ends up being a lot of everything...

The toppings can also add in a fair few calories. I always get overwhelmed with the choices available as they can range from fruits to lollies, cereals and biscuits. While a few pieces of strawberry won't make much of a difference, if you add just 1 Oreo biscuit you are adding 200kJ and about 5 pieces of mochi can be 150kJ. Just half a tablespoon of shredded coconut can add 350kJ! It's easy to see how the energy content of the frozen yoghurt can climb up quickly and drift away from a healthy snack.

Top tips when having frozen yoghurt
1. Pick the smallest size bowl. It's big enough, really.
2. If it's self serve, survey the flavours available and pick 1-2 yoghurt flavours only.
3.Make sure the toppings are mostly fruit based.




I'm a big ice cream and frozen yoghurt fan but I find I often over-indulge with frozen yoghurt because of the healthier halo it carries and the amount of choices I'm presented with (yes even I'm not immune sometimes!). Sometimes a scoop of ice cream can actually be the healthier option. Remember frozen yoghurt is only as healthy as how much you have and what you put into it!   

Update: I've just read an interesting study that may suggest eating foods that appear "guilt free" actually doesn't give our body the same satisfaction as foods perceived to be indulgent. What this means is that if you have that froyo thinking it's good for you, your body won't register the same sense of fullness as, if you had an indulgent snack that you think is bad for you. Therefore it may just be better to have that indulgent snack and feel satisfied!  

I had grand plans to post up a meaty dish but instead this dish took my fancy so meatier dish will have to wait.

This was something I came up with in less than 30mins. If I was smarter and didn't forget to cook pasta for a pasta dish... it probably would have taken a shorter amount of time...

I have recently worked with Australian Avocados and felt inspired to put avocados in everything... This was one of the successes. If you like guacamole dip then you will love this dish!

Beef Spaghetti Tossed in a Guacamole Sauce

Serves: 1
Preparation and Cooking Time: <30mins

Ingredients: 

• Enough fettucine for one 
• 6 button mushrooms 
• 6 snow peas in pods
• 1/4 of a carrot
• Palm size piece of lean beef
• 1/2 a large avocado
• 1.5 tablespoon of salsa dip
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of honey wholegrain mustard
• Optional: jalapeno

Method: 

1. Bring some water to the boil and add fettucine (follow packet instructions to see how long you should cook it for. Don't overcook!)
2. Prepare the ingredients that need to be cooked: quarter the mushrooms and cut each snow pea into 3 segments. Slice the beef into thin strips
3. Scoop out 1/2 an avocado into a mixing bowl and mash it up so there aren't any big chunks.
4. Add the salsa dip, chopped coriander, lemon juice, wholegrain mustard and jalapeno to the mashed avocado and mix
5. Place the mushrooms, snow peas and beef into a non stick pan and stir fry for 5 minutes or until cooked. 
6. Hopefully your pasta is done by now so strain it and place the pasta into the mixing bowl with the guacamole sauce. Mix so that the sauce coats the pasta well.
7. Transfer the cooked mushrooms, snow peas and beef into the mixing bowl as well. 
8. Grate some carrot into that mixing bowl as well. 
9. Toss everything together in the mixing bowl with a fork and add salt and pepper to taste!
10. Transfer to a bowl and enjoy or if you're lazy like me and sitting at home by yourself it's totally acceptable to just eat from a stainless steel mixing bowl.... Don't judge me...  

Because there's elements of cooked and raw ingredients in this dish, it's only mildly warm when ready to eat. This means it's fantastic in summer!

What's also good is the abundance of good fat in this dish. Avocados are a great source of monounsaturated fat which actually helps lower LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and raise HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) in the blood. You can say monounsaturated fat is often misunderstood as a bad thing just because it's associated with the word fat! Fat soluble vitamins such as Vitamin E and K are also found in fat so avocados are a good source of these vitamins.

What's also suprising is that half an avocado actually has 5g of fibre (almost 17% of our recommended daily requirements for fibre!) despite it tasting soft and creamy!

Avocados have a million other health benefits but I think what everyone wants to know is that this dish rocks. It's creamy without the cream, tart and tangy from the lemon and salsa and keeps you feeling full for a long time! For those that have never used avocados I've included some tips on how to choose and ripen an avocado below:

Ripening and Storing Avocados
The best way to ripen avocados is in a brown paper bag with a banana or apple.  I normally buy 1-2 already ripe Hass avocados (they are purple-brown when ripe) and the rest I buy green unripe avocados to keep for longer in the fridge.

If you've got an avocado cut open, put a few drops of lemon juice or white vinegar on the flesh and wrap up to pop in the fridge. This stops it from browning.