Healthy Mexican Dinners

I love to cook, and I love cooking from scratch especially. Cooking the entirety of your meal is a great way to make healthier substitutes and stay on track also. I find small things like making my own sauces is so much healthier and still tastes great, in comparison to store bought.

Spicy food is definitely my favourite by far. What's great too is there are so many variations and most are really good for you. I get my cooking inspirations from a few different places, my go-to's have to be Roz Purcell and her Natural Born Feeder. Roz is great for supplying simple instructions and using every day ingredients you can find in your local store. Other times I look to BBC Good Food or Joe Wicks and The Body Coach.

I like BBC because their offer macros with each meal and variations of certain meals too, which is great if you're trying to be very careful. All ingredients are easy to find as well at your local SuperValu,Tesco or Aldi etc.

I really like Joe's recipes too but I find a lot of the ingredients harder to find. I also found his book Lean in 15 good, but I didn't like that you never really used the same ingredients again. I was buying loads of spices etc. and struggled to find recipes I could re-use them, that was the only annoying thing really.

Chilli Con Carne

Chilli is definitely my favorite recipe I've found on BBC yet. I love this so much and it's so easy to make! A serving is roughly 380 calories, which is less if you substitute lean mince for turkey mince too.

Ingredients:

1 big onion

1 pepper - red preferably

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp oil (I use olive oil)

1 tsp of a hot chilli powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

500g lean minced beef

1 beef stock cube

400g can chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato purée

A 400g can red kidney beans

Plain boiled long grain rice is usually recommended but I always go for the Uncle Ben's Mexican styled rice, I think it adds even more flavour. I also add jalapenos and chopped chilli's for an extra kick too.

How to Make:

1. Heat oil in a large pan, cook the mince, onions and pepper.

2. Add garlic, stock and spices.

3. Slowly stir in chopped tomatoes.

4. Add in kidney beans and leave simmer.

5. Cook the rice - I microwave the Uncle Ben's style for 2 minutes.

6. Ready to serve (for me I add jalapenos and chilli's now)

Enchiladas

Can you tell I'm obsessed with Mexican food yet? Another easy and tasty recipe. I like these because I can make them how I want them. If I'm in the mood for chicken, turkey or to even be extra healthy and have bean enchiladas. This meal typically is about 400 calories again, depending on how you make yours.

Ingredients:

1 tsp oil (I generally use olive for the flavour but you could use coconut etc.)

2 regular onions, finely chopped

2-3 tsp chilli powder (I always choose the hottest I can find)

2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

2 x 400g cans kidney beans

6 small tortillas (I use wholemeal)

50g extra-mature grated cheddar

How to Make:

1. Heat oil in a large pan, cook the mince, and onions.

2. Add chilli powder.

3. Slowly stir in chopped tomatoes and kidney beans and leave simmer.

4. Fill tortillas, fold over and roll up ends to avoid fallout.

5. Sprinkle cheddar on top.

6. Put in the oven until toasted enough for your liking

7. Enjoy