REVIEW: Ben's Canteen

Ben's Canteen, London

Last weekend my boyfriend Patrick & I decided to sample the delights of Ben's Canteen on St John's Hill, London.

Fast Diet Update #2

As I have mentioned before in this blog, I am trying to follow the Fast Diet (also known as Intermittent Fasting and 5:2). If you haven't heard of this diet before I explain the basic principles here or find more (professional) info on it here. To tell the truth I haven't been sticking to it very religiously recently and I have probably only done 2 fast days in a month - I should have fasted for a total of 8 days in that period. Surprisingly though I haven't put any of the weight that I had previously lost back on which I am very happy about! But I have been back on it this week and I thought I would share with you what I ate on my fast days this week in the hope that it might help or inspire any of you that also follow this diet. I split my meals into 3 - breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm always on the go at work so I normally have to buy my lunches out so the choices I make are important. I'm also not too strict on myself, I don't count every single calorie to the digit and I make rough estimates so some days I may be over or under the 500 calorie allowance.

Day 1.

Breakfast: Small bowl of porridge made with water, a splash of soy milk and some blueberries. (aprox 100 kcals)

Lunch: Large bowl of vegetable soup (200 kcals)

Dinner: Corncake with a spread of light philadelphia, 1/2 a tomato and a tangerine (approx 150 kcals)

Day 2.

Breakfast: Banana and Coffee (80-100 kcals)

Lunch: Tuna Nicoise Salad (170 kcals - less if you skip the dressing, I used half)

Dinner: Poached egg on toast, 1 slice of smoked salmon and half a tomato, green tea (approx 250 kcals)

I'm starting to notice that "fast days" are getting easier. My body must be getting used to not having many calories on certain days. In fact, after a heavy weekend of eating and drinking I find I actually look forward to my fast days now. The only downfall to this is that at the beginning my stomach had shrunk and so I was eating less on my "feast days" too. However, my body getting used to this constant fasting followed by feasting means that on my feast days I have no problem stuffing my face. This week the goal is to be ever so slightly more restricted on my feast days too. I have also taken up swimming on the evening of my fast days. I find this keeps me busy so takes my mind off the hunger and apparently it is perfectly fine to exercise on fast days if you have the energy. I'm hoping to lose another 2lbs to add to the 4lbs I have already lost by the end of this week. I will let you know how this goes.

I plan to blog about this again as taking pictures of everything I've eaten has really spurred me on to be inventive with my meals and stick to the calorie limit! Wish me luck for this week.

Isobel x

Healthy Breakfast Muffins

A super healthy 'pumpkin spice' muffin recipe. These delicious little cakes look & taste like tempting comfort food, but with none of the guilt & calories. 

Lets face it on a cold snowy morning all you want is an extra 10 minutes in bed, with a batch of these sitting safely in your kitchen you can stay under the covers a tiny bit longer knowing that a nutritious breakfast awaits you.

If you have a couple of minutes to spare pop one in the oven or microwave to warm it up slightly for an extra dose of winter comfort.

I took my inspiration from this Martha Stewart recipe to get a rough idea of the quantities. But I basically added in whatever took my fancy (cutting out some of the more unhealthy ingredients along the way).

As a muffins go these are very nutritious, but if your feeling ultra healthy there are a few more swaps you could do to make it a completely guilt free treat!

If you're concerned about the sugar use Truvia, (a brand of Stevia in the UK) an all natural herbal sweetener with none of the nasties you find in artificial sweetners.
Or if you want to pop a muffin in your gym bag for a post workout snack, substitute some of the flour (about a 1/4) for vanilla or natural flavoured protein powder.

Pumpkin makes a great fat substitute in baking, if you have a look at the ingredients, theres just one tablespoon of coconut oil & no butter. The pureed pumpkin makes up almost half of the total ingredients.

Pumpkins are packed full of beta-carotene a powerful antioxidant that helps protect against cancer, vitamins A, C, E which are great for your skin & are also super low calorie.
You can buy tinned pumpkin from Waitrose & Wholefoods in the UK.

The other superfood ingredients hiding in this recipe are the maple syrup (antioxidant powerhouse & stabilises blood sugar), cinnamon (lowers cholesterol, anti clotting effect on the blood & many many more), ginger (anti-inflammatory), greek yoghurt (packed full of protein), coconut oil (just about every health benefit you can think of, read about it here!) & nuts & seeds (contain protein & lots of vitamins & minerals).

To make 12 medium sized muffins -

180g wholemeal spelt flour

4 tablespoons oats

100g soft brown sugar

250g pumpkin puree 

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 eggs

125ml greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

handful each of dried cranberries, chopped walnuts & pumpkin seeds

Simply mix the wet ingredients together then add them to the dry ingredients. Add the chopped nuts, berries & seeds, mix it all together.

Spoon into the muffin cases & top with a few pumpkin seeds & a sprinkling of demerara sugar.

Cook at 200 C for 15-20 minutes.

Once your kitchen is filled with a delicious warm spicy scent, have a look at them, they should have risen & have a light golden crust on top.

There you go, a low GI, low fat breakfast ready for the rest of your week. 

Each muffin should come in at around 200kcals & less than 5g of fat. SO much better for you than something like a Starbucks 'rise & shine' muffin, which looks very similar but contains 425kcals & 24g of fat.

Harriet x