This week Donegal Daily’s cooking columnist, Chef Martin Anderson of Sonder, gives us a few tips for shedding the pounds and shares a mouth-watering taco recipe with us…
I attended the Bump & Beyond Show on Sunday and what a fun filled fantastic day was had by all, plenty of informative stands and speakers, including myself, and loads of information on services available for expectant mothers, and fathers of course!
One of the stands there was Rushe Fitness and of course Emmett was there in person and we were talking about his new fitness program, The Little Black Dress challenge, I was delighted to see that he has a booklet available for those taking the challenge and in the booklet he explains in simple terms just what a portion of food looks like, there are meal plans and pictures to explain to you your needs.
As I read through the booklet I realised just how much food we over consume on a daily basis and then we wonder why the belts are starting to tighten or when you try on clothes and they don’t fit and you blame the maker not the eater!
If you have dined with us at Sonder you’ll appreciate that we are generous with our portions, however if you take a closer look you will see that we actually serve the correct amount of food for a balanced meal, we’re looking after you and you don’t even know it!
The average person needs 2000 -2500 calories per day depending on your lifestyle, height, current weight and whether you wish to lose weight or not.
Athletes need more calories but then they burn them off. Calories on menus are supposed to help, personally I believe this will not reduce the current epidemic of over eating, moderation & exercise is the only solution if you wish to lose weight.
Over the years the portion sizes of certain foods has increased – unless of course you are talking about chocolate bars, they have reduced in size due to the cost – so we just eat 2 now!
Take a look at the image below. It’s a good indication of how they have grown and what we need to do to burn them off!
When preparing your main meal at least a third of the plate should be vegetables or salad, go easy on the dressings, 3-4oz of protein or enough to fill the palm of your hand, pasta, rice or potatoes should be no more than the size of the front or your fist 70-100g maximum.
Try and cook your meat, fish or vegetables without adding extra oils. Natural fat is good – it’s when we add the extra fats that the calories start to show up.
Eat raw fruit before your meal and use a smaller plate, large plates tend to be filled when cooking at home, it’s alright for us chefs to use big plates we only put a wee bit of food on them anyway.
One of the easiest things to do is push back from the table!
Take your time when eating and relax, it’s not a race, food is supposed to be enjoyed, all that time to cook a meal and then it’s devoured in 3 minutes!
Drink a glass of water before you eat, this will fill you up and drinking water helps with weight loss too, it keeps the kidneys flushed out!
It’s only 7 weeks to Christmas so now is the time to start getting in shape for the party season, remember the average person gains half a stone over the Christmas period !
This weeks recipe is for a very tasty evening meal treat, it’s easy to prepare, tasty, fun to cook and eat and it’ll go down well with all members of the family.
Mushroom, Potato & Chorizo Tacos
You will need:
Small wraps or taco shells, warmed in an oven.
1 block of Feta Cheese, crumbled
400g of Wild or white mushrooms of your choice. Washed and sliced.
Butter for cooking.
Diced cooked potatoes , allow 1 medium cooked potato per person
Chorizo sausage, try to get the whole sausage and cut them yourself, 1 will feed 4 people
Fresh coriander.
Method:
>Take the skin off the chorizo and cut into small dice and set aside .
>In a sauté pan heat a little butter and add the mushrooms, cook quickly and remove from the pan, next cook the chorizo and add to the mushrooms.
>Fry the potatoes in the same pan, there should be some oil from the chorizo in the pan already .
>Keeping the potatoes in the pan add the mushroom & chorizo mix and toss well together .
>Warm the wraps or taco shells and fill with the finished potato, chorizo & mushroom mix .
>Sprinkle with the crumbled feta cheese and chopped coriander, return to the oven and allow he feta to warm up.
>Serve with a large tossed salad, loaded with cherry tomatoes, red onion & jalapeños. You may also serve wedges of lime and a sweet chilli sauce as a dressing.
I love this style of food, it’s fun to share with the family, the portion sizes are correct and it’s tasty too.
Follow Sonder on Facebook or add me on snapchat @cheftothestars.
Check out my column next Friday where I’ll give you a simple Christmas cake recipe to begin the countdown to Christmas!
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