I was pretty impressed with the range of idiot proof kits that they have on offer for growing herbs and vegetables at home easily. The “grow your own” range is a nice option. For less than 2 euro you can get a “kit” which includes the seeds, compost and a pot. Of course you could put your own together if you wanted to, but this removes all the “pain” out of the process.

I picked up a couple of herbs and some rocket and we’ll see how things pan out.

They also had a pretty good choice of herb plants of various sizes, so I also grabbed one to go with a very handy “self watering” plant pot I picked up.

At the moment I’ve got parley and thyme in it, but there’s space for up to four different plants. Each section is removable and you basically remove a section and then fill it with water up to the level. It should then water itself. I’ve no idea how well it works, but as I travel quite a bit and can be absent for up to 10 days at a time I like the idea of leaving my plants on auto-pilot. If this kind of system works I might be able to get some house plants too!

Having plenty of fresh parsley to hand is nice. I’ve been adding sprigs of it to a wide variety of dishes and even throwing a bit into sandwiches!

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

John's Grill (Photo credit: blacknight)

I used to work in a steak restaurant with an open grill back in the early 1990s. I got used to the taste of grilled meat, so I’ve been using a George Foreman grill of some kind for as long as I can remember.I knew it was a healthier option, but hadn’t realised how healthy until recently.

According to some calculations, grilling, using a George Foreman or any other grill, reduces the amount of fat by up to 42%! That’s pretty impressive. Even if the amount of fat removed is exaggerated the other juices that come out of meat probably aren’t going to do you any good, so grilling probably helps.

Frying a steak is not something I’d ever imagine myself doing. Turning on the George Foreman and grilling it comes naturally.

The only downside to using a George Foreman is that cleaning the grill plates after a good session can be a bit of a chore, though with most models you can easily remove the metal plates and wash them.

Perusing the official George Foreman site you’ll come across some very tasty ideas for grilling and they also have a diet plan (PDF).

Related articles

• Grilled Marinated Chicken (fat.ie)

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

Tomato spinach and mushroom sauce (Photo credit: blacknight)

For the last year or so I’ve been trying to grow some fresh herbs in my kitchen. Unfortunately it hasn’t always been successful and I’ve probably ended up having to dump as many plants as I’ve been able to keep.

The only herb that seems to grow without issue and can survive my rather sporadic watering schedule is parsley.

Everything else seems to do ok for a couple of weeks and then die off.

Having a constant supply of fresh parsley is fantastic. While parsley may not be the most exciting herb on the planet it certainly adds taste to food when you’re able to cut off a few pieces and chop it up.

If anyone has any tips or tricks on growing kitchen herbs indoors please do share them!

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

A single broken poached egg on 2 pieces of toast bread. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As an alternative to scrambled eggs this morning I had poached eggs on toast for breakfast.

I love the taste of the egg combined with the toast and it’s simplicity itself to prepare.

Removing the eggs from the saucepan is pretty easy as long as you have the right kind of spoon

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

Eating more fresh fruit and vegetables means there’s less packaging coming into the house, which isn’t a bad thing.

It’s also become marginally easier to buy products that have less packaging.

For example, while I wasn’t in the market for chocolate eggs this Easter, I did notice that some of the more popular brands, like Cadbury, have reduced the amount of non-recyclable packaging they’re using. They claim to have reduced the packaging on their eggs by 40%, which converts to over 2000 fewer lorry loads!

Here’s an image to illustrate the change:

What am I recycling?

Pretty much all the paper and cardboard, tin cans, egg trays, milk cartons, any plastic packaging for food that isn’t covered in blood etc.,

I hadn’t been recycling a lot of the cans previously, but once I started doing it I noticed a couple of things.

First of all I hadn’t realised how many cans I was using. Between cans of soup, tomatoes and tuna the sheer volume of tin cans that had been going into the rubbish bin was significant. This also means that there’s more space in my normal bin for things that I can’t recycle (yet).

Another thing that I hadn’t been recycling was milk cartons. Oddly enough we’ve been recycling them in the office for a long time, but I hadn’t been making the effort at home.

There is a small bit of extra work to do if you start recycling cans and empty cartons. You have to rinse them! But it’s not much work and I think it’s worth the effort.

The only thing that’s annoying about recycling where I live at the moment is that there is no collection for glass, so you have to find a bottle bank every few weeks.

Will this help me lose weight? No. I just think it’s a positive move to improve my overall lifestyle.

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

Previously my lunch on work days (Monday to Friday) was a roll or possibly a salad plate from the corner shop. They do absolutely fantastic salads, but the really tasty parts are really heavy ie. coleslaw and potato salad.

Under my new regime I have the same lunch pretty much every day. That does sound a bit boring, but I’ll sacrifice a little boredom in order to maintain consistency.

My lunch these days consists of:

• Fruit. Usually a couple of apples and one or two bananas. Sometimes this might be tangerines .. it depends what I have
• Yoghurt. I usually opt for some kind of low fat one. Recently I’ve been getting the Glenisk range of “Greek Style” yoghurts. They come in a good variety of flavours.
• Soup. When I can I get one of the really tasty soups from “Just Food” I try to use them. However that’s not always possible, so any can of soup that can be cooked in the microwave works
• Wholemeal bread – usually two slices. No butter or other additions. It goes well with the soup.

Apart from the obvious nutritional benefits (which will vary depending on which soup I choose) the whole thing is pretty light in terms of calories. According to my calculations it’s about 500 calories in total.

What kind of things do you have for lunch?

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

Irish chutney

Shopping for food can be incredibly boring, especially if you’re always buying the same things over and over again. I love trying out new things, which is why I was delighted with the “fish in a bag” idea (it tasted wonderful in case you’re wondering). So this weekend I also picked up a couple of jars of chutney made by small Irish producers who I hadn’t tried before.

I grew up eating my mother’s homemade chutney which she used to make from the windfalls. She had this fantastic recipe for “no cook” chutney which she used to make by soaking the ingredients in buckets and basins around the house before bottling. It was delicious!

I’ve developed a taste for slightly spicier food since then and like to have something around to add a little “bite” to cheese or chicken.

SuperValu in Midleton have a pretty good range of Irish produce from smaller producers and exploring their shelves can lead to some fantastic discoveries like the “Spicy Apple Chutney” from Poynton U. who are based in County Cork. It tastes homemade, though it’s a little bit on the pricey side. Having said that, if I’m going to misbehave a little I like to do it in style, so paying a small bit more for something which tastes genuine is worth the investment

The other brand I picked up was Rocker Foods’ “Sweet Chilli” chutney. It’s got a nice kick to it, without it being too strong. I like spicy, but I also like being able to actually taste my food.

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

This weekend I came across a pretty slick solution to my conundrum.

It’s an oven (or microwave) ready bag of fish from SuperValu.

I picked up some very tasty looking trout fillets for only €4!

I love this idea and will be having the trout for dinner this evening.

The idea is simple, yet brilliant. You simply place the bag, with the fish still in it, directly into your oven or microwave and cook it for the recommended time. For my trout fillets that’s going to be about 3 or 4 minutes the microwave. I’ll probably serve them with some new potatoes and maybe a bit some steamed vegetables.

And I won’t have a house stinking of fish for days afterwards!

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

When I was a student in Limerick I used to pick buy it regularly and cook it in a number of different sauces.

This recipe is inspired by one of those supplied by Tesco Diets. They call it a Provençal chicken, though I’m not sure if that’s really accurate.

The quantities in this recipe are for two, as I was cooking for someone else (obviously!)

If anyone knows of a supermarket or butcher that sells chicken thighs already skinned I’d love to know about them! I’ve tried skinning chicken thighs in the past and it’s a lot of pain for very little gain. So I’ve been cooking chicken thighs with the skin on ..

In terms of calories etc., this isn’t the healthiest option I’m afraid, though it’s not horrendous (probably around 700 – 800 calories?)

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in Vries Français (Photo: Wikipedia)

I’m not allowed to eat certain things these days. Well I could eat them, but the number of calories per serving would put me over my daily limit pretty quickly!

Dominos pizzas in the Netherlands have come up with a pretty cool way to both market themselves and keep their delivery riders safe. And for those that don’t know the word “lekker” in Dutch means “tasty” or “nice”:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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• Hilarious: Domino’s e-scooters get safer with man-made engine sounds (dvice.com)
• Video: Domino’s Pizza Safe Sound scooter is the funniest thing on two wheels (autoblog.com)
• Domino’s Solution for Soundless Electric Scooters Is Rather Brilliant [VIDEO] (mashable.com)

This post originally appeared on Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline - It's All About Getting Healthy & Sticking To A Diet