Haloumi Salad

Bank holiday weekends aren't great for a healthy lifestyle. Not for me anyway. I'm not the sort who is going to spend a bank holiday walking up a big hill in the Lake District or going canoeing in Wales. So after two curries in two days plus beer and some Caribbean food at the Notting Hill Carnival my stomach had taken a bit of a beating over the weekend. I woke up at 4am this morning with a bad tummy and couldn't even think about eating any breakfast until 11. So I needed something healthy for dinner.

Haloumi Salad (Serves Two)

250g haloumi, cut into chunks
250g cherry tomatoes, cut in half
200g salad leaves (I used a bag of Sainsbury's curly mixed salad)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp mint, finely chopped
6 tbsp plain yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon
1-2 tbsp water
salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of chilli flakes.

1) First divide the salad leaves, tomato and red onion into two bowls. Then make the dressing. Mix the yogurt, garlic, mint and lemon juice. You'll need a tablespoon or two of water to loosen the dressing. Then season with salt and pepper and set aside.
2) Now for the haloumi. Cut it into thick slices and then half it. Put the olive oil and chill flakes in a bowl and then turn the haloumi in it. Then get a griddle pan hot (you can do this in the frying pan or under a grill) and cook the haloumi until it is browned on both sides.
3) When the haloumi is ready divide it between the bowls and pour the yogurt dressing over the top.

I admit that haloumi isn't exactly low-fat but with the minty yoghurt dressing this is so fresh it feels as though it is doing you good. Mint is supposed to soothe aching stomachs and I did feel loads better after eating this.

Grilled chicken with ratatouille (kind of)

The problem with cooking for one is that you often have to eat the same meat twice. See, things like chicken breasts usually come in twos in the supermarket and although I'd like to buy meat from a local butcher all the time it's not easy to find one that is open after work. So for the second night in a row I had grilled chicken, only this time I made a kind of ratatouille to go with it. I say kind of because I'm aware that ratatouille is usually made with aubergines, not just courgettes, peppers and tomatoes...

Grilled chicken with ratatouille (serves 1)

1 chicken breasts
A few sprigs of rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large courgette, thickly sliced
1 pepper, thickly sliced
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
1 ciabatta
1 tbsp soft butter

1) Cut the peppers and courgettes into thick slices. Then heat a little olive oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Fry for a minute and then add the courgette and peppers. Fry for a couple more minutes, add the tomatoes, a sprig of rosemary and cook over a low heat.
2) Make some slashes in the chicken with your knife and stuff the gaps with rosemary. Season and put under the grill for 10 minutes, turning half-way.
3) Meanwhile mix a little butter with a clove of finely chopped garlic. Halve the ciabatta and spread lightly over the top. Remove the chicken from the oven and put the ciabatta under the grill until toasted. By now the ratatoullie will be ready so serve up.

Ratatoille can be a bit sloppy but with the chunky chopped veg this has a nice texture and the peppers and tomatoes add some sweetnes which perfectly complements the rosemary scented savoury chicken. The garlic ciabatta's great for mopping up the tomatoey sauce too. Sudddenly eating grilled chicken two nights in a row didn't seem so bad

Grilled chicken with lentils and yoghurt

I'd been writing a food blog for about a year on MySpace when my Dad got gall stones and had to start a low-fat diet. I told my Mum I'd devise one for him using some of my recipes. So I looked through my recipes and realised that most of them included plenty of butter, cream or booze. I didn't think too much of it until I saw my Dad lose more than two stone in two months. The fact that he now weighs less than me doesn't sit well so I thought I'd give the diet a go myself. I will still have to treat myself to the odd high-fat dinner but, for the next couple of months, most of my dinners will hopefully make me thinner. Starting with...

Grilled chicken with lentils and yoghurt (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
150g puy lentils
1 bay leaf
1 bag herb salad (mine was from Sainsbury's)
6 tbsp natural yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp mint, chopped
salt and pepper

1) First put the lentils in a pan of boiling water with the bay leaf. Cook until tender which should be about 20 minutes.
2) Meanwhile, mix the olive oil with lemon juice and parsley in a in a bowl and rub the chicken breasts in it. Then season the breasts with salt and pepper and cook under the grill until golden and the juices run clear. This should take about 10 minutes
3) Mix the yoghurt, garlic, mint and season lightly with salt and pepper.
4) Slice the chicken breast and serve on the lentils with the yogurt dressing blobbed over the top.

If you're not going to use fat you have to make up for the lack of flavour. I always find herbs or spices do the trick. With the minty yogurt dressing this is a light and almost refreshing chicken dish that's great for a hot summer evening. Pity it's raining...