Breakfast

  • Big pan-cooked breakfast or breakfast out in a nice pub/café
  • Choose from
  • Eggs
  • Bacon
  • Gluten-free sausages
  • Mushrooms
  • Tomatoes

*If eating out be aware that sausages may not be gluten-free

  • Or fruit salad (you could drizzle your fruit with a little nut butter) + avocado slices on the side for extra healthy fats
  • Or any other breakfasts you have enjoyed this week

Lunch

  • Prawns cooked with chorizo, garlic and lime
  • Or homemade soup or gazpacho + green salad with half an avocado

Dinner

  • Main: Whole chicken roasted with lemon with salad and/or any veg of your choice (Winter)
  • Or BBQ with salads and sweet potato wedges (Summer)
  • Pudding: Baked fruit – any combination of apricots nectarines, peaches or pears baked with cinnamon and served with whipped coconut milk/cream

 

Sunday Cook-up!

Today is also your day to get prepared for the coming week. Remember that planning and preparing is the key to sticking with the plan! Same as last Sunday you could do the following (all optional):

  1. Roast or grill chicken for salads during the week (I’m going to poach a whole chicken today – Jamie Oliver has a recipe where you poach it then take out chicken, take all meat off and put carcass back in to make a stock. You then have all the meat for salads etc) and a stock for stews and stuff during the week. Can do it in a big pan or a slow cooker). You could also make soup from the stock by adding some veggies 10-20 minutes before the end of cooking time. Remove the vegetables once cooked and place in a blender. Add as much stock as you want for soup and blend until smooth.
  2. Chop all your veggies (carrots, celery, cucumber, peppers etc) for crudites and store in an airtight container in the fridge
  3. Make your granola and store in an airtight container in the fridge (this will last you for the duration of the plan)
  4. Roast a batch of sweet potatoes and keep in the fridge for easy meals and snacks
  5. Make a batch of soup for the week
  6. Make guacamole or hummous for snacking on
  7. If you want to eat boiled eggs for a snack then you can boil a few fresh ones up today. They will last in the fridge (in their shells) until the sell by date on the eggs.
  8. Make your lunch for tomorrow if you won’t have time to make in the morning.


 

Roast Chicken

You can roast your chicken plainly with just a little oil, salt and pepper, or play around with a mixture of herbs and spices. Here, I’m using lemon, garlic and rosemary which gives a beautifully aromatic tang to the chicken, but thyme works equally well, as does a little chopped tarragon mixed with butter which, when gently pushed down between the skin and flesh of the breast meat before roasting produces the most wonderfully moist and flavoursome meat. Or try a dry spice rub using whatever you have lying around in your spice rack – cumin, fennel seeds, paprika, chilli powder, bay leaf, allspice – a chicken is like a blank canvas that will work with almost any combination of flavours.

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole free-range chicken
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 large sprig of rosemary (15-20 cm), or equivalent
  • Olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • A little water

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
  2. Ensure that your chicken is properly cleaned and trussed ready for the oven – your butcher will happily truss the bird for you, and most supermarket chickens come oven-ready. Still, briefly rinse the chicken under cold running water, ensuring that you thoroughly rinse out the cavity. Dry well with a clean kitchen towel.
  3. Place the garlic in a pestle and mortar, along with a little salt, and pound it to a paste. Zest the lemon on the finest side of your grater and add the zest to the garlic. Pick half of the leaves from the rosemary and finely chop them – add them to the garlic and lemon zest. Bruise together using the pestle.
  4. Season with a little more salt and some black pepper, and squeeze in the juice of the lemon. Stirring continuously, slowly drizzle in olive oil until a loose dressing-like consistency is achieved (you will need roughly equal the amount of olive oil as lemon juice).
  5. Slice the onion into thick rings and lay them in the bottom of a roasting tin. Place the two celery sticks in an ‘X’ shape on top of them. These will act as a trivet for your chicken.
  6. Place the chicken on top of the onion and celery, and thoroughly rub the rosemary-lemon-garlic mixture into its skin. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 175°C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Roast for approx. 60-80 minutes, depending on the size of the bird. When the skin is deep golden in colour and crisp, the chicken is ready. If in doubt, push a sharp knife or skewer into the thigh of the chicken – this is the thickest piece of meat, so if the juices here run clear when the knife/skewer is removed, the bird is thoroughly cooked.
  7. Allow the chicken to rest in the roasting tin for at least 15 minutes before carving. The juices that have been released through resting can be drained from the roasting tin and served with the chicken.

 

Baked Fruit

Ingredients:

  • Any combination of apricots, nectarines, peaches or pears (or any seasonal fruit you want to use)
  • 1 orange
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • Cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
  2. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice into a small bowl.
  3. Split the vanilla pod in half and scrape the seeds out into the bowl with the orange juice.
  4. Cut the fruit up and place in a large baking dish.
  5. Drizzle the orange and vanilla all over the fruit and then either sprinkle with ground cinnamon or place a few cinnamon sticks among the fruit.
  6. Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until the fruit is soft.
  7. Serve with coconut or cashew cream (recipes below).

 

Coconut Cream

Leave a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight so that it separates. Open the can (DO NOT SHAKE before opening!) The cream will be at the top and the water at the bottom.

Scoop out the cream and place in a bowl. Keep the water for smoothies. Using a hand held whisk or a stick blender; whisk the coconut cream until thick.

 

Cashew Cream

Ingredients

  • 100g cashew nuts, soaked overnight
  • Water

If you are not keen on coconut milk/cream poured over your desserts, then cashew nut cream makes a fab dairy-free alternative. You need to soak the cashews in boiling water in a large bowl for about 4-6 hours or in cold water overnight.

Then drain the cashews and rinse really well. After that, place the cashews in a blender or food processor (a Nutribullet is great for this) and cover with cold water, about 2cm or 1 inch over the level of the cashews. Blend thoroughly to make a cream. Add more water to make a thinner pouring cream if necessary. This will last for 3 days in the fridge.

If you do not have a high-speed blender you might need to sieve the cashew cream through a fine mesh sieve to get a smooth consistency.