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I’m actually ok with quick ways to make tasty meals. Not everything needs to be fresh cooked from scratch to be nutritious or healthy. I absolutely plan to have this as a Christmas week recipe this year . I think we’ll all completely enjoy it. This is a quick recipe to make a full meal in minutes.
Place the sausages and onions into an ovenproof dish, drizzle with the vegetable oil and place in the oven until the sausages are cooked and the onions are soft. This should take about 20-25 minutes.
Make up the gravy if using instant, and prepare the Idahoan mash according to package instructions.
Pour the gravy over the sausages and onions, then top evenly with the mash, using a fork to create some texture.
Sprinkle with crispy onions the return to the oven for 10-15 minutes to brown the mash before serving.
Keyword Idahoan mash, Idahoan mash pie, idahoan mash,, idahoan perfect mash, sausage and mash pie, sausage pie
Idahoan Mash was formed when a group of local growers from Lewisville, Idaho decided to join forces to start a potato dehydration plant, leading to the Idahoan Brand. I’ll be posting some recipes soon as I try making it myself, although you can have a look here at some recipes that might work for you.
Wondering what to give our kids for Halloween and Festive food can be a difficult place to be. There is so much choice, but if you are like me and need pictoral inspiration, here are some lovely recipes that might help you pop a plan in place for your own celebrations.
History of Halloween
The encyclopaedia Brittanica says that the roots of Halloween go back to an ancient festival known as Samhain, a Celtic tradition. Halloween is believed to be the day where souls of the deceased return home, and occupants began dressing up and setting bonfires as a way of warding off spirits. This is where the beginning of Halloween or the Eve of all saints day, and legends started to grow, with witches, ghosts and all things spooky.
Accessory Ideas
Create a twist of your usual food by using accessories and ingredients to turn a regular dish into something special. Carve beef tomatoes or sweet peppers to stuff them with your ingredients of choice. Adding party spiders can be good to make any food look amazing for kids.
Put your chopped onion and rapeseed oil into your machine if you have a saute version, or do the sauteeing on the stove. Lightly fry your onions until soft.
Add the garlic and stock cubes, and finish the saute, by adding carrots and pumpkin. Stir and switch off the saute button.
Add in milk, water and salt/pepper to taste. Ensure the level of ingredients and liquid is below the maximum and above the minimum fill marks.
.
Stir well, and ensure the lid is on tight.
Select the smooth setting.
I served with a little parsley.
Nigella Lawson Recipe with a Halloween Twist – Devils Food Cake
50gBest Quality Cocoa PowderSifted. I used Green and Blacks
100gDark Brown Muscovado Sugar
250mlBoiling Water
125gSoft Unsalted ButterPlus some for greasing.
150gCaster Sugar
225gPlain Flour
Half teaspoon Baking Powder
Half teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
2teaspoonsVanilla Extract
2Large Eggs
Frosting
125mlWater
30gDark Brown Muscovado Sugar
175gUnsalted ButterCubed
300gBest Quality Dark ChocolateFinely Chopped
Instructions
Preheat the oven to around 180C/Gas 4/350F. Nigella recommends to line the bottom of two sandwich tins approximately 8 inches in size with baking parchment paper and butter the sides. I don’t have baking paper, so I improvised with a few sprays of cake release in my tins.
In a large bowl, put a half cup of the muscovado sugar with the cocoa and the boiling water. Whisk it together until it is mixed and leave to the side.
Cream butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
Mix the flour, baking powder and bicarb together in a bowl ready to use.
Drop the vanilla extract drop by drop into the butter and sugar while still mixing. Quickly add in one egg and then add a scoopful of the flour mix and then the second egg. This is a new way of doing it for me as I tend to just throw them all in together.
Add all the rest of the cake ingredients to the mixing bowl and finally fold in the cocoa mixture.
Put half the mixture into each baking tin and cook in the oven for approximately 30 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean.
When cooked, leave the tins to cook for a few minutes before turning out the cakes to cool.
While the cake is cooking, take the frosting ingredients, ie the water, muscovado sugar and the butter into a pan on low heat to melt. When the mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add in the chopped chocolate. Nigella recommends swirling the pan to hit the chocolate with heat. I forgot that bit, and just used a spatula and it seemed to turn out ok. Once the chocolate is melted, whisk until glossy and smooth.
Leave the frosting for about an hour, but whisk it up a few times in that hour while the cakes are cooling and ready for the frosting.
Take one of the cake halves and turn it top side down. Spread with a third of the frosting and put the second cake half on the top and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides. If you want to create a swirly effect use a spatula. Some people will try for a smooth effect.
A favourite of mine, and an easy dish to make for all the family. We tend to make this type of dish without very spicy ingredients, so ours is quite a cool and easy to eat for all the family dish. Although it’s not recommended to add tomatoes to this dish, I actually often do, as I like that extra tastebud zing.
This is one of those one pot curries, where all you need to do is add some rice and seasoning to go from creation to eating in less than 30 minutes. If you have a fussy eater or one of the family who likes more spices than everyone else, just make a little dish alongside in a mini sized pan. This is a great curry if you’re cooking for kids or grown ups who like and also don’t like spicy-hot food.
Add your ghee/oil of choice to a frying pan over a medium heat for one minute or until hot. Add your chopped onion and stir frequently until soft.
Add chicken breast and cardamon. Cook the chicken until it is fully sealed, turning often in the pan.
Add the garlic, cumin, ginger, garam masala, coriander, turmeric, salt and pepper. Also add any spices if you plan to make the curry a spicy one. Cook, turning the chicken often, until the chicken is fully coated with the spice mixture.
Add the ground almonds or cashews, the yoghurt and cream and bring to a gentle simmer until the chicken is fully cooked. (this will depend on the size you have chopped your chicken into – usually anything from 5-10 minutes). Stir well to ensure your curry does not stick to the pan.
Stir in the coriander and serve. Popular serving suggestions are nan bread, chapati, rice and mango chutney.
Notes
Serve Hot. Not suitable for freezing.
Keyword chicken curry, chicken pasanda, curry recipe, indian recipe
Although I would be tempted to freeze this recipe, I’d prefer to pop it in the fridge as soon as it’s cooled and eat within 3 days as I tend to use a low fat yogurt. The higher the fat count, the better chance it has of looking better. In saying that, food that is defrosted still tastes amazing, but just doesn’t have the same look as cooked from fresh.
This pairing of leeks and tasty wild mushrooms with Indica Rice and aged cheese makes this rice and leek pilaf a hearty and filling dish. Quick and easy to make, ideal for a quick supper or a Saturday lunch with friends. Use highly versatile European Rice, grown in Greece, to ensure quality and flavour.
There are few meals as easy as making a sauteed rice dish, and as a rice fan, I’m happy to post this. It’s a type of meal that we make in the Scottish Mum household frequently although we use regular mushrooms rather than dried.
500gramsDried Mushrooms Porcini, Trumpets and Morels
500mlLukewarm Water
500gramsLeeksFinely Chopped
100gramsAged Graviera Cheese or Vegan Parmesan Cheese Optional
60gramsButter or Vegan Alternative
20mlCognac
1tspSugar
Salt and PepperTo Taste
TarragonPinch
Instructions
Soak the dried mushrooms in the lukewarm water.
Place a pot of water, with a teaspoon of sugar and pinch of salt, over a medium-high heat and simmer the leeks until they soften. Drain the water.
Place a saucepan over a medium-high heat, melt half the butter, and sauté the rice and partially cooked leeks with the pinch of tarragon, salt and pepper.
Add the mushroom, the cognac and then slowly stir in the mushroom water.
Simmer the mixture for about 20 minutes until cooked.
Grate the cheese.
When ready, remove from the heat, stir in the remaining butter, add the grated cheese, and serve hot.
ABOUT EUROPEAN RICE
European Rice is high quality rice grown in Greece since the 1950s and other European countries. There are two varieties: Indica Rice (long rain) and Japonica Rice (medium grain). European Rice has a high nutritional value, being rich in B vitamins, such as Niacin, Thiamine, Riboflavin and Selenium. The EU is both self-sufficient and a net exporter of Japonica rice. All European rice complies with the Integrated Quality Management System for the Agricultural Production of Rice, which is based on good agricultural practices which respect the environment, protect the producer-grower’s health and offer a healthy and safe product for consumers. For more information see: https://www.europeanrice.eu/
Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Scottish Mum Blog Additional Disclaimer: No payment was received for the publication of this Rice and Leek Pilaf Recipe with Wild Mushrooms.
When we measure ingredients, it’s important that for some dishes, the measures are precise. For us in the UK, it’s fairly simple. We use scales for pretty much everything. I don’t think I even own anything that measures in cups, apart from an old glass jug that has liquid cups on the side.
Saying that, I don’t feel measuring in cups is at all accurate, but I know it’s how most ingredients are laid out in the recipes we use from America.
It’s fairly frustrating for us this side of the pond, as dry ingredients can be both flour and sugar, and their weights are very different. Which is why I really struggle with the inaccurate cup method of measuring for baking especially. I would like to try a few American recipes, but I’m not at all confident, so I try to convert them to more familiar grams and ounces.
Using conversion charts can also be quite tricky. They don’t explain the difference in volume of sugar and flour, so we can get really mixed up.
I’ve made a free kitchen conversion chart for you, to help with the difficulties in interpreting recipes from metric to imperial, US to UK.
ml = millilitre l = litre g = grams kg = kilogram C = Celsuis
Imperial
tsp = teaspoon tbsp = tablespoon oz = ounce lb = pound fl.oz = fluid ounce F = Fahrenheit
Kitchen Scales (Affiliate Links are included in this paragraph, both in images and text links)
If you want to buy a kitchen scale to help with measurements, there are loads to choose from. Here’s an image of my favourite Salter scales on Amazon.
Kitchen scales aren’t all equal. Some of more traditional size are dependent on the old UK imperial system, which is rarely used in Europe now. They are more imprecise and won’t allow for liquid volume weights.
If we don’t have scales that help with liquid volume, buying a good quality jug, that has several liquid volumes marked, can be very helpful.
Liquid versus Dry Ingredients
When we measure liquid ingredients, they are measured by volume, or in other words, by the space they take up for measuring. They are heavier and fluid ingredients.
Dry ingredients tend to be dry, and are measured more by weight than liquid volume. While a good set of scales can measure both dry and liquid, a heavier ingredient will like water, will take up less space than a dry ingredient like flour. For baking, it is especially important that weights and measures are accurate. Just a few mls too much of fluid can ruin a great pastry, and a few extra grammes of flour can totally throw a light cake into an unappetising mess.
While in the US, many ingredients are weighed out by using cups or jugs, neither measurement is totally accurate. Measurements by kitchen scales are more accurate, and are easier to manage.
The biggest problem we have when cooking in an air fryer, is knowing how to convert traditional recipes to fit with the tiny oven style cooking of air frying. Our air fryers are essentially just mini ovens on steroids, with faster cooking times and the ability to churn out delicious meals at a lower cost than a traditional oven.
Fast forward to the air fryer explosion, and the biggest problem we all have, is the conversions. To help with that, I’ve added an easy air fryer conversion chart for better results. It’s free for anyone for anyone to use. Feel free to save the chart and download it to your hearts content.
This link will take you straight to the Air Fryer Conversion Chart for the UK.
Rip up the bread, squash it and line the bottom of the muffin trays.
Take half teaspoon of soft cheese and put it on top of the bread. Don't try to spread it at this point, or it will lift the bread from the muffin cases / trays.
Tale a half teaspoon of the meat/vegetables/leftovers of your choice, and put it on top of the soft cheese.
Crack your four eggs into a cup and whisk. Add in seasoning of choice. I used chicken seasoning. Add a 25g grated cheese. Use a fork and mix well.
Take the egg mix and divide between the 12 dishes. Then take a fork and slightly mash down the mixture until it is evenly spread.
Sprinkle some grated cheese on the top.
I cooked mine at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes. Check the oven after 10 minutes & adjust where necessary. Ensure your food is fully cooked before removing from the oven.
When I stood watching a female friend pick up a bottle of milk and pour it out, saying it was past its’ best, despite not even smelling it. I sneakily took a look at the use by date by offering to pop the bottle in the recycling. It still had three days to go. I couldn’t resist. She poured out about 2 pints of milk for absolutely no reason. I asked why she’d poured it out as the milk was fine. Her response was that it only had a few days left and she didn’t want to take the chance.
Now for most of us, that kind of wastage is simply ridiculous. It’s throwing good money away to replace food that isn’t even at the use by date. I’m not a pensioner, but even I grew up with no dates on food, meaning we had to choose the time food was no longer safe to eat or drink. I’m actually amazed our species has lasted so long, as we’re just so absolutely BAD at judging safety of food, because we really have never had to work it out for ourselves.
For cooked food, my grandmother used to work on the association of three’s. Three hours to the fridge/freezer, and three days to the bin. There were no dates on sliced meat from the local shop, but it never lasted long enough to worry about turning. For milk, she would have kept it until it began to turn, but given that milk rarely ever lasted that long, it isn’t something we had to worry about.
Then it came to my kids. My eldest and youngest, both started refusing to eat crisps or biscuits that were past their best before date. I grew up learning to ignore best before dates as they are really just best quality guarantee dates for longer lasting products. I have no idea where they got that idea from, and I do my best to help them stop this ridiculousness. My teens will often refuse to eat perfectly good food that is close to or past a best before date. They clearly struggle with best before and use by, even with my constant nagging.
The problem is that younger people in my circles, are too used to an abundance of food. Before the rise of the super supermarket chains on mostly every corner, food was simpler, and we bought less. There were also far fewer choices and we ate far more healthily as families where we could afford it. As a general rule, my parent and grandparents brought home enough for each day. A pint of milk on the doorstep daily, with eggs and cream once a week. We tend to go further to shop nowadays and buy food that is aimed at lasting longer by the manufacturers and processors.
To make food last longer, they add all sorts of preservatives and additives, which reduces the quality of our food. I’m not convinced longevity is improved in most cases as almost everything, including bread, now seems to come previously frozen and defrosted before hitting the shelves. When I see best before dates, I can see my grandmother in my mind, saying best before dates is a way to persuade people to spend more of their money on new food. She knew what she was talking about, and as she owned and ran a grocery shop for many years, she was quite shrewd.
Food is different now. We’re faced with best before, use by and sell by dates on almost everything we buy.
Throwing away a fortune of perfectly good food, seems to be a problem with understanding and knowledge, and don’t forget that profit making industry.
Best Before Dates
For customers. This is simply a guide on when food should be eaten for the best quality, which the manufacturer will class as the date they will no longer guarantee freshness, scent, consistency etc. Things like sweeties and crisps, biscuits, packets, jars and tins of food, all fall into this category.
Some products will have a best before date before opening, which then it moves to a use by date of a few days kept in a fridge. Things like sauces, mayonnaise, long life milk and orange juices etc, fall into this subset of best before.
Use By
For customers. Again, a use by date isn’t always a date where food will be guaranteed to make us sick. It is, however, an indication of best quality, and helps shoppers to know when a food should be eaten by. As this is most often attached to foods with shorter shelf life, such as fresh bakery, dairy, meats, poultry etc, the quality can go down fast after the use by date. Manufacturers build in a buffer level, but the use by date is an indication of when safety of the product may begin to reduce.
Sell By
For retailers. This date lets shopkeepers and staff know when to remove the product from sale. The product will not be dangerous at this point, and there are still a few days to the use by date, but this allows a manufacturer to control how long their products with very short shelf life are displayed to customers.
Before I start, I’ll just say I did not receive any reward for posting this. When it’s coming up to Christmas time, lots of us often look for inspiration and something different from the regular Martini, Manhattan, Mojito or many more of the oldies.
I’d received a press release from Aloha 65, and learned that it was created by a British barman, at his Florida beach bar, and created to lure in surfers looking to wind down after riding the waves. It started off as homemade gifts, but became a crowd pleaser, a unique sundowner to put a smile on the faces of tired paddleboarders. Some quick facts below and a couple of recipes shared by Aloha 65.
Vegan Friendly
What’s in it?
Beautifully and naturally crafted, Aloha 65 is vegan and made only from fresh ingredients and has no added colourants. It’s an all-natural, 27% ABV spirit drink made from just six botanicals including pineapple, ginger, and a kick of scotch bonnet chilli. Aloha 65’s ‘Sun on a Beach’ hot sauce is made from the same ingredients (minus the alcohol, of course), and their spicy pineapple ‘detonators’ use just two of Spirit of Aloha 65’s main ingredients, pineapple and chilli, and well… boom!
The Alohan spirit
‘Aloha’ isn’t just a friendly greeting, it’s a way of life. It puts a smile on your face. Alohans, as we like to call them, live each moment to the full and always bring their A-Game, but with respect for others and their environment. Aloha 65 is a proud supporter of Ocean Generation.
Recipes
Aloha 65 Holiday Cocktail
Aloha 65
Originally sent to me as a Halloween Cocktail, the styling and imagery just bring Christmas to my mind, so I'm sharing it as a Christmas Recipe.
One of my all time favourites is an avocado. I’m always surprised by friends who never actually eat one, and have no idea what it is or what it can be cooked in. That’s slightly depressing for me, as it’s something I’ve eaten for so many years, it’s become a staple ingredient in my home.
As avocados come from evergreen tropical trees, the word avocado refers to both the tree and the fruit we eat. There are literally hundreds of varieties, but what we eat, is the extremely nutritionally laden fruit, which can be referred to as both a fruit and a seed of the avocado tree.
I think the confusion around using avocado is that it’s called a fruit, but it isn’t a sweet fruit. With a creamy texture, they have a high fat content rather than a high water content, and are more buttery flavoured than sugary.
Looking at the nutrition list, we can see that although carbs are sitting at 8.5, a whopping 7g are from fibre, which makes this a very nutritionally beneficial fruit for diabetics.
2 – Low Glycemic Index – Helps Slow Digestion
As mentioned in point 1, the high fibre content for the carb count, means that this is a very good carbohydrate indeed for those who are trying to keep their blood sugar down. With a Glycemic Index of 0 or no record, this is a fruit that has no impact on blood sugar levels.
In fact, adding avocado to bread or other carbs, with avocado having no GI, with such high fibre and healthy fats, the meal will be digested more slowly and keep you feeling full for longer than other toppings or creamy additions to other carbs.
3 – Fat Content is Healthier Than Many Other Low GI Foods
A whopping 14.7g in 100g are fat, however the majority of the fat in an avocado is actually the healthier version of fat, called monounsaturated, which can help in lowering bad cholesterol levels. There is a link in the reading list below that gives you more information about what monounsaturated fat is and why it is the good fat. The short version is due to monounsatured fat coming mostly from plant sources.
With around 7g of fibre in half an avocado, there are all sorts of gut health benefits to eating avocados. Eating an avocado in a day, is a very large 14g of fibre, which is going to help keep constipation at bay, and as a result, would help reduce the risk of IBS and piles.
5 – Vitamin E Matters for Eyes
Nutritionally, we tend to ignore the importance of vitamin E. With that 2.1mg of Vitamin E in half an avocado, it’s a rich source of vitamin E. Alongsice carotenes, it’s thought to help keep eyes in good condition and healthy.
As an antioxidant, vitamin E is important for skin, hair and nails, as well as the eyes. It can also help reduce the speed or onset of macular degeneration, which is serious and progressing, and something my father suffered from. It’s 100% sure that he would never have known how avocado might have been able to help him slow the speed of his sight loss. I can also see how it would have helped my mother, as she had cataracts, another condition that vitamin E can help reduce the progression of.
6 – Linked Health Issues
Metabolic syndrome is a fairly new term, but it is a range of issues which can all be helped by the same management techiques, for example, better diet and exercise. Symptoms include high blood sugar, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, being overweight, high cholesterol etc.
Eating avocado as part of a management system which looks at keeping the syndrome at bay, or controlling symptoms via eating better and moving more, and avocados can play a big part. With the high fat content, avocado can help reduce hunger pangs and keep us full for longer, while working in tandem with a lifestyle that can help to lower weight as part of a weight management programme, reduce cholesterol levels and keep type 2 diabetes from causing negative effects.
7 – Avocado Eaters are said to be More Healthy
Generally speaking, those who eat avocados, tend to be people who are food and health conscious. While there is also the debate about financial constraints, this isn’t the article to go there. This is simply about benefits of avocados for those who eat or would like to eat them.
Those who eat avocados are usually those who exercise and experiment with their food, but this is not always the case. There’s always room to add healthy food to our weekly shop if we can afford them, and being a little adventurous and trying new things can be good for us.
8 – Easy to Add to Food
It’s easy to add avocados to meals and pop into recipes of all kinds, as well as being ideal to use as hidden veg in kids soups and sandwiches.
Smushed avocado for using on toast, in dips like guacamole, and as filler for sandwiches.
Add in cubes to salads, soups and stews.
Slice in layers, and pop a poached egg on top.
Photo by Dana Tentis on Pexels.com
9 – Improve Dental Health
Avocados are said to help with dental health. As that low GI food, it isn’t adding syrupy sugar to your mouth as you eat, and the flavonoids can help keep bacterial and fungal grown in our mouths from becoming a problem and leading to bad breath.
10 – Aids Wound Healing
While avocados aren’t a miracle food, they really one one that is helpful for us all to live well as part of our diet. Looking at the points above, and taking them as a whole, wound healing is helpful and understandable, when we consider the benefits that can help with prevention of bacterial and fungal overgrowth, so in the same way, avocados can help with wound healing through keeping the metabolic system functioning well.
Summary
Personally, I wouldn’t eat avocado on toast or smushed in general, but I do use it in soups, puddings and make dips with cream for raw vegetables. Saying that, growing up, it was never an ingredient that my mother would have put into her shopping basket. I think lack of internet in those days also made a difference in what things we choose to try. In my grandmothers day, avocado was probably never, ever an item in any shop she ever visited.
Yes, avocados are high in fat, but it’s the healthier monounsaturated fat, while they also contain loads of beneficial vitamins and minerals, keeping blood sugar levels steady and cholesterol levels low. Lots of good reasons to incorporate avocado to your weekly food shop.
Celebrity chef James Strawbridge has created the following recipe for the UK’s fairest food delivery service 44 Foods.
Brie & Fig Parcels by James Strawbridge
Ethical, sustainable, and selling high quality British produce only, 44 Foods boasts a range of more than 20 cheeses from across the UK – which are delicious either on their own, in recipes, or paired with their stunning new range of British wines.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Cut the filo into 10cm squares and use them to line a greased muffin case. Overlap the square sheets by rotating every 45˚ to form a flower shaped parcel. Brush melted butter between each layer and repeat.
Once the filo pastry has all been used, fill the tart cases with a slice of ripe fig and a few pieces of diced brie sprinkled with chopped thyme. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cheese melts and the filo is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and whilst still warm drizzle with honey and sprinkle each parcel with a pinch of smoked sea salt.
Serve warm with a chilled glass of Sharpham rosé to accompany.
That lucious, lovely, silky, creamy smooth taste……..
Chocolate and I would be joined at the hip if I weren’t diabetic. Not just any chocolate though, as I’m not a true chocolate connoiseur. I like milky chocolate, creamy chocolate, the not bitter milk chocolate that takes my breath away and stings my tongue. Dark chocolate makes me thirsty. I can’t find any way around it, but chocolate is versatile enough to be on my shopping list, even with the diabetes. I just eat it in moderation.
A few chocolate facts
People mistakenly associate chocolate with diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure in all quantiites. For sue, eating a couple of hundred grams of chocolate a day equals a recipe for unhealthy living, but that’s not how most of us eat chocolate.
Chocolate, via cocoa, does actually contain some beneficial to health ingredients, which in some studies, have even suggested chocolate in moderate quantities can help reduce cholesterol.
Chocolate is high in calories, no matter which version is eaten. White chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, they’re all very high.
Some studies claim that hot chocolate or low levels of chocolate consumption via drinking hot chocolate, can even help with dementia and cognitive function, but there is much research required to confirm or build on that.
In the UK, researchers found riders used less oxygen cycling in trials after eating dark chocolate, which cycling weekly reported on in 2015, and regains covering in the news now and then.
Light and Dark Chocolate – What’s the Difference?
Dark chocolate is often portrayed as being the more ‘healthy,’ option. To be fair, I don’t think there’s terribly much in it if someone were to binge on chocolate.
As a rule, they are both in the region of around 550 calories per 100g. That’s a significant amount of sugar, fat and energy in such a small amount of food.
I’ve picked my favourite chocolate, Cadburys Dairy Milk, to do this comparison, although the internet keeps trying to persuade me that dark chocolate is better for me, I can’t help what I like to eat.
MILK SOLIDS 20% MINIMUM, ACTUAL 23%. COCOA SOLIDS 20% MINIMUM. CONTAINS VEGETABLE FATS IN ADDITION TO COCOA BUTTER.
COCOA SOLIDS 36% MINIMUM. CONTAINS VEGETABLE FATS IN ADDITION TO COCOA BUTTER.
Summary for Chocolate
As chocolate has such high calories, it’s always going to a food where moderation is the only sensible way to consume it, whether enjoy it or not. Some studies are suggesting chocolate has high levels of antioxidants and is helpful for health, but like all other food, moderation is sensible with a varied diet.
As a diabetic, I’ve heard the term “diabetes on a plate,’ to describe different foods, which is a pretty ignorant way to look at any food. For insulin dependent diabetics, sugar is what can save their lives if they go into a hypo, and for the non insulin dependent diabetic, one square of my favourite chocolate is always going to help alleviate a chocolate craving, whereas any amount of squares of a substitute or so called diabetic friendly chocolate, are still going to leave me disappointed and wanting the real thing.
As with everything, the other junk saying is ‘nobody ever got fat eating apples.’ Seriously, that just shows me someone is ignorant. It’s a load of old cobblers. Calories is he energy out v energy in argument, and yes, there are better calories than others, depending on the food eaten, however, if your body only uses 1300 calories a day to live, and you eat 1400 calories a day of apples, yes, you’ll gain weight eating apples. That might mean 25-30 apples a day, but yes, it’s very possible to get fat eating apples.
In the end, no harm has come to anyone from eating a few squares of chocolate. A few squares, not a few bars, or a few hundred grams a day. There’s a difference. For me, bring on the chocolate. I even cook with my choice of milk chocolate. Cooking chocolate is always disappointing and has no taste for me. I’ll always go for the real thing or do without as a flavouring. I’m always happy as I don’t really like eating cake, so give me a square of chocolate any time. My blood sugar is perfectly fine.
Bring on the smooth milky taste for me…..
Newest Comments:
Absolutely lovely, I made extra and will add garam masala ect to make s lovely smooth curry sauce
Nice post!
Looks delicous...thanks for sharing the wonderful receipe...
Absolutely lovely, I made extra and will add garam masala ect to make s lovely smooth curry sauce
Nice post!
Looks delicous...thanks for sharing the wonderful receipe...