Recipes
Croí Recipes
Often the food you cook yourself tastes the best! Also, you have the advantage of knowing exactly what goes into your food when you prepare it yourself. Cooking healthy food at home doesn’t have to be boring.
Check out some of these Croí recommended recipes
below for some great tips and ideas:
Fish Recipes
- Sole & Salmon Roulade
- Tuna or Salmon Pizza
- Oaty Fish Crumble
- Haddock Crumble
- Fish Fillets with Sherry
- Citrus Mackerel
Healthy Baking Tips
- Swap butter or hard margarines for sunflower or olive oil based margarines instead. For example; Golden olive, Flora or Low Low Gold are suitable for baking.
- Instead of whole milk, use low fat milk
- Use half wholemeal flour and half white flour in the recipe to increase fibre content
- Add a handful of oat flakes to further increase fibre content
- Reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe to half
- Use sweeteners instead of sugar where possible, for example Splenda and Canderel
- Add spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg or flavourings such as vanilla and almond extract to enhance the sweetness.
- Go for custard with desserts instead of cream. To make custard use low fat milk and sweetener instead of sugar
- Replace sour cream with low fat natural yoghurt
- Light or extra light cream cheese works perfectly in cheesecake recipes
- Substitute every ounce of cooking chocolate with 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
- Reduce the quantity of nuts by half and toast them. By toasting the nuts it helps develop the flavour, so fewer nuts required!
- Reduced-fat baked goods tend to bake more quickly – so lower the oven temperature by 25° and/or check the product a few minutes before the end of the usual baking time
Healthy Lunchbox Tips
HEALTHY LUNCHBOX TIPS:
♥ Variety is the spice of life! Avoid the same sandwich five days in a row.
♥ Make the lunch appealing by adding in different colours and textures: baby sweet corn, sliced red pepper, cucumber and carrots.
♥ The lunchbox should include at least one portion of carbohydrate for energy. Choose from bread, wraps, pitta pockets, crackers, baps and a selection of rolls.
♥ Include at least one portion of vegetables or salad and one portion of fruit. Choose from a selection of fresh fruit, mini boxes of raisins, dried fruit such as mango, apricots and dates, unsweetened fruit juice or smoothies.
♥ Add a portion of dairy for their growing bones. Go for milk, cheese, yoghurts, fromage frais or a yoghurt drink.
♥ Add a source of protein for growth and muscle development. Choose from hummus, ham, beef, cold chicken or turkey, tinned fish, eggs or cheese.
♥ Fluids are important for children. Always include a drink in the lunch box to prevent dehydration. Go for water, fruit juice or milk as a healthy option. Stay away from the sugary and fizzy drinks!
♥ Make sweet stuff, such as chocolate, biscuits and cakes an occasional treat rather than an everyday lunch item (some schools prohibit chocolate snacks & biscuits as part of school lunches).
♥ Involve the kids! Fussy children are more likely to eat a lunch that they have helped make.
♥ Overall try not to give the same foods on consecutive days. Make the lunchbox interesting e.g. add different types of bread each day etc.
LUNCHBOX IDEAS
Lunchbox 1:
- Stuffed pitta pocket (leftover meat, lettuce, tomato and a little light mayo)
- Mixed nuts, seeds and dried fruit
- Low fat yoghurt
- Vegetable soup in flask
- Water
Lunchbox 2:
- Wrap with tuna, sweetcorn and mixed peppers.
- Carrots sticks/batons
- A stone fruit (nectarine, peach, plum) or banana
- Yoghurt drink
- Little unsweetened juice
Lunchbox 3:
- Salad roll (wholebread bap filled with cucumber, crunchy lettuce and tomato, smeared with hummus)
- Handful of grapes
- Slice of cheese
- Fun size carton of milk
Smoothie Recipes
Note: Each Recipe provides 2 glasses (2 portions)!
- 5 strawberries
- 1 medium banana
- ½ cup low fat milk
- 4 tablespoons low fat yoghurt (e.g. Onken Natural Fat Free Yoghurt)
- 1 tablespoon of rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon raisins or muesli (no added sugar!)
- Add fruit, yoghurt and milk into blender and whizz until smooth.
- Add the oats, raisins or muesli to the blender.
- Whizz to the desired consistency
- 2 oranges
- 1 pink grapefruit
- 1 lime
- Peel oranges and put in blender.
- Squeeze the juice from the grapefruit & lime into the blender.
- Whizz!
- ½ galia melon
- 2 or 3 handfuls of seedless white grapes
- 2 kiwi fruit
- Remove the seeds of melon.
- Place the flesh of melon and the grapes into the blender.
- Cut the kiwi fruit in half and scoop out the flesh into blender.
- Whizz altogether!
- 1 large apple
- 1 small, fresh chilli
- A thumbnail of fresh ginger
- 150 mls of low fat milk
- 3 tablespoons of low fat yoghurt
- 1 medium avocado
- 1 lime
- 5-6 ice cubes
- Cut the apple into wedges and put into blender.
- De-seed and finely chop the chilli.
- Peel and finely grate the ginger and then put the ginger and chilli into the blender.
- Add the milk and yoghurt and whizz once, then spoon the avocado flesh into the blender.
- Squeeze the lime into the blender, whizz it once more and serve over ice!
- ½ a small pineapple
- 1 small mango
- 1 orange
- 1 lime
- Remove the skin from the pineapple and slice the flesh into the blender.
- Peel the mango and slice the flesh into the blender with the pineapple.
- Squeeze the orange and the lime, add the juice to the blender and whizz!
- 1 apple
- 1 lemon
- 1 banana
- ¼ pineapple
- Cut the apple into wedges and put into blender and whizz!
- Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice into the blender, adding the banana too.
- Remove the skin from the pineapple and slice the flesh into the blender.
- Whizz until smooth! Serve over ice or add 4-5 ice cubes to the blender!