Three Ingredient Pancakes!

Technically it's four, but I'm not counting water, and you can substitute a lot into these too.

Basically, my breakfasts everyday for the past I don't know how long have simply been porridge made with water with a variety of added treats; blueberries, granola topping, peaches, nutella, honey, peanut butter, bananas...you get the picture.

But I wanted something that had a little more protein in, which is where these pancakes come in!

They're super simple and I can whip them up in the same time as a bowl of porridge, which is ideal when I don't have too much time on a morning.

You will need:

• 1/3 cup porridge oats - this is just the size scoop I use, but you could do it with a full cup and make more
• 1 egg
• Dash of cinnamon
• Enough water to make a decent looking pancake batter - you could substitute in coconut milk, almond milk, normal milk! Anything that will make it more liquid. 

Pop all your ingredients in a jug (or a bowl, like I use), whisk everything together, then pop it in a hot frying pan sprayed with low calorie cooking spray (or coconut oil! I tried that yesterday and it worked really well). 

You could also add in frozen blueberries if you'd like, which I may in the morning. But just top it with whatever that'll make it taste yummy. Here it's just with honey, but get adventurous!

Ginger, chilli and lime chicken breasts with harissa and chorizo chickpeas

Super-long-blog-post-title is long!

I work later than my fiance, and as such we generally like making meals that are quick and easy and require the least number of ingredients possible. This fits that bill completely!

It's so yummy, and warming! Technically with a low-FODMAP diet, you're not supposed to have chorizo and most other sausages, but I bought it, had it in my fridge, and I refuse to let food go bad!

You will need:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 lime
• Chilli flakes - as many as you like
• Half inch of grated ginger
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 little chorizo sausages (50g) chopped
• 1 teaspoon harissa paste

So I cut the breasts in half and flattened them a little, then rubbed them with a mix of chilli, lime zest and ginger, then grilled them until cooked. While cooking, I drizzled them with lime juice, too.

Meanwhile, chop up the chorizo and heat in a pan until the oils begin to run, then add in the chickpeas, tomato and harissa paste. It only needs to cook for about 5 minutes, as that all it'll take for the chorizo to be cooked through and the chickpeas, too. 

Then you simply plate it up! Very yummy, protein filled, low calorie meal. Ideal. 

Coconut Prawn Curry

I love a good curry. I enjoy a little spice, as I feel like I've eaten more if there's a lot of flavour. This certainly fits the bill for that!

It's super creamy and yummy, and you could switch out the prawns for some chicken easily enough. This was made in approximately 20 minutes in one pan on the stove.

For it you will need:

• 1 can coconut cream
• 180ml vegetable stock
• Garam masala
• Cauliflower
• Prawns

So first I boiled my cauliflower in the vegetable stock until cooked through, then I added in the rest of the ingredients - simple as that really. You could add some curry powder in too if you wanted a bit of spice to it. 

This was made, placed in the fridge and then reheated and it tasted just as good reheated as it did fresh!

Progress Report

It's been about two weeks since I set off on this diet journey. I've cheated some days, eaten some things I know I shouldn't, and honestly, I've felt the worse for it.

One of the first days I caved and we ordered a Dominos pizza for tea. I got a gluten free base and low fat cheese, but I just felt awful afterwards. Feeling like that is all the motivation I need to continue in this direction.

So far I've been pretty good at preparing meals for lunches ahead.

Mostly though I'm feeling great.

And the scales are reflecting this change in diet. I've so far lost 8lb. I'm not really feeling it yet, but one of my colleagues at work commented on the fact she thinks I've lost weight, which is lovely to hear!

Here's hoping I can keep it up in the following weeks.

Lemon and Thyme Chicken

The butchers near where I work is excellent. The people who work there are so friendly and helpful, and they have some of the nicest cuts of meat and are always there to offer advice for what to do with them!

So the other week when they had 10 chicken breasts on for £10 I of course had to jump on it. They were all big, from free range hens from a farm only 2 miles down the road from the butchers. Now that's what I call local produce!

So the next easy meal had to be chicken, and it couldn't be simpler.

You will need:

• Chicken breasts (I used 4)
• Dried thyme - or fresh
• 1 lemon zested 
• 200ml chicken stock

Rub the chicken breasts with the thyme and lemon zest, then place in a baking dish with the stock and the lemon cut into quarters. Then bake in the oven at about 150C Fan until the juices run clear - about 30 to 45 minutes depending on your oven.

We served them whole in our little tupperware lunch boxes with mashed sweet potato and roasted carrots. 

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I might have bought the biggest butternut squash I've ever seen in my life. I wish I'd taken a photo of it next to my head. Seriously it was enormous.

Anyway. As it was so big, I decided to make a few different dishes out of it...well two. The first was this, a super yummy and low calorie butternut squash soup, and it has only two ingredients! (if you don't count spices)

For this lovely soup you will need:

• Half a large butternut squash (or one whole one if you'd like to make more)
• 5 carrots
• Dash of turmeric

So I halved my butternut squash - which was not easy so I had to ask Rob to help - and removed the seeds, then I placed it skin side up in a roasting dish and left it in the oven at about 150C Fan for a bit over an hour. 

Once removed from the oven, I removed the skin, cut the squash into cubes and placed it in a large pan.

Meanwhile I cut the carrots into rounds and boiled them till nice and soft, then drained them and added them to the squash. Then with my immersion blender I blended them all together!

It was super simple, took no thought at all, and I left it all to go as I tidied the house and played board games with Rob.

Harissa Chickpeas and Spinach

This is a really quick and simple dish that can be used alone as a light lunch, or as a side for a more substantial meal. 

It's super easy to make and extra tasty!

You will need:

• 1 can chickpeas - drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons harissa paste
• 200ml chicken stock (or veg stock)
• handful of spinach 

Simply place everything in a pan and simmer for around 10 minutes until the chickpeas are cooked through.

This dish does freeze fairly well, too, due to the liquid in the recipe.

Shopping Trip

Yesterday we did our shopping!

I feel like we bought a ton of food, for not an awful lot of money, and all of this should do us for all of this next week, and hopefully into next week too.

Here's what we got:

• 4 avocados
• 2 courgettes
• 1 butternut squash
• 1 cucumber
• 1 broccoli
• 1 cauliflower
• 4 sweet potatoes (big ones)
• 1 bag of spinach
• 2 melons
• 3 lemons
• 2 cod steaks
• 4 salmon steaks
• 500g diced lean beef steak
• some prawns
• 1 jar of capers
• 1 can of coconut cream
• 5 bananas

All for £39!

I am unbelievably chuffed with that, so I'm now hoping that not only will our waist become slimmer but our purses will be a bit fatter too :).

Going to get on with some cooking today, so hopefully I'll have some recipes up over the next few days. 

low-FODMAP/whole30

What is a low-FODMAP diet?

FODMAP stands for: Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides  and Polyols.

Foods that contain lots of these can be associated with bloating, abdominal cramps, flatulence etc. They are, in essence, IBS triggers. As such many sufferers of IBS are advised to try the low-FODMAP diet in order to recognise an individual's triggers and learn to accommodate them. The diet is not meant to be done indefinitely, only for about 4-6 weeks, before you start reintroducing foods one at a time.

So what is a high-FODMAP food (ie, what won't I be eating for the next few weeks):

• Wheat - basically all wheat and anything containing gluten
• Dairy products - some diets say you have small amounts of dairy, I on the other hand will be cutting out everything. No more milk, yogurts, cheese...anything!
• High fructose fruits - apples, strawberries, peaches, raisins, watermelon
• Processed meats
• Some vegetables - onions, garlic, mushrooms, kidney beans, soy beans

This list of restrictions is very similar to Whole30, which is a restrictive diet in order to reset yourself and your system, plus lose some weight!

It's a massive change as I'm not used to restricting my diet...at all. Luckily my fiance Rob is doing this whole thing with me. He's not giving up dairy, but he is giving up wheat, which is a big deal for him, I know.

Sorting out my meals for the week at the moment, and I'll have my shopping list up soon :)

What is Feel Better Inc?

First off, Hi.

My name's Rebecca, and not so long ago I was diagnosed with IBS (though I am in the process of being tested for Crohn's due a positive family history). As such I was started on a variety of medicines to help control my symptoms. But there were days when I was still feeling terrible.

Therefore, I was advised to try the low-FODMAP diet. Which is where this blog comes in.

As I take on this diet, I need to not only record what I'm eating, but how this food is making me feel, as such I will strive to post pictures of all my meals and what I thought of them here. Hopefully when I then start reintroducing higher FODMAP foods I will be able to recognise my triggers and readjust my diet accordingly.

Hopefully some nice things will come out of this blog anyway :)