Healthy Pizza Bites

Healthy bite-sized pizza bites that you can whip up in minutes. 

To get around the calorie-punch that normal pizza gives, try using courgette slices for a healthier alternative to the base. High in fibre and water, and lower in carbohydrate and salt, it's a super easy way to vegetate your pizza plate. 

Additional Tip: Use a strong cheese such as feta instead of cheddar so you don't need to use so much. 

Mini Courgette Pizza Bites

Makes 12-15 bites

What You'll Need:

1 courgette/zucchini

1/2 jar tomato pasta sauce

1/2 onion

1/2 a pepper/capsicum (colour of your choice)

50g feta cheese

1 chicken breast (optional)

The How-To:

1. Slice the onion and cook over a low heat until transparent (~5 min)

2. Chop the chicken (if using) into small cubes and add in with the onion

3. When the chicken is cooked, pour the tomato sauce over the stir through, and remove from heat. 

4. Slice courgette into discs about 1/2cm thick

5. Scoop a heaped teaspoon of onion/chicken/tomato mix onto each slice of courgette

6. Add a small piece of pepper/capsicum on top 

7. Top with a small piece of feta

8. Place on a baking tray and grill until warmed through and cheese turns golden brown (feta will not melt much).

9. Enjoy!

Note: Be sure to let cool for at least 5 mins before eating as they can get very hot!

Courgetti: Courgette Spaghetti

Courgette (known as zuchinni to our friends across the pond) is one of the most versatile, easy-to-prepare ingredients you can find. 

Using a julienne peeler (which you can easily buy online for about £3) you can use this wondrous vegetable to make courgetti: courgette spaghetti.

Simple to make, so deliciously crunchy, so refreshing on a hot day, so good for you. 

Gram for gram, ordinary white spaghetti contains ten times the calories and none of your daily vitamin C recommendation (courgettes have 30%).

(image sourced here)

Per 100g, you will get 17 calories, 0 of which come from fat. In fact, 95 of those 100 grams come from water, meaning that when you eat a courgette, you are not only upping your hydration, you are also getting full without taking on too much extra energy. Ideal for those watching the waistline or going low-carb.

The How-To:

- Quite literally, use the julienne peeler as you would a potato peeler - but instead of making slice it makes spaghetti strands. 

- Use the whole courgette - the dark green skin looks great and contains lots of fibre

- You can cook the courgetti by popping it into the sauce you're planning on putting over it, but I prefer to keep it raw and get the great crunch!

Other ways to use the ever-so-excellent courgette:

- Scooped out and grilled to use as taco shells

- Sliced to use instead of pasta sheets in lasagne

- Thickly sliced and flash-grilled in a sandwich press as an easy veg side in the workplace

- Courgette pizza bases

- Sliced and topped with cottage cheese and salmon for a healthy (and good looking!) starter at a dinner party.

Less-agne: Healthy Lasagne.

I love lasagne. Layers of cheese, pasta and meat - could there be anything better? Turns out, there could. Because the one thing I don't like about it is how uncomfortably full and sleepy it makes me. Not to mention that there is usually no veg involved at all (in my books - unacceptable).

So here's how we solve that one:

- Add red lentils in with the beef (or Quorn mince if using)
- Include a layer of carrots and kidney beans
- Add a layer of courgette next to OR instead of pasta sheets if going lower-carb
- Use cottage cheese instead of bechamel/cheese sauce

BOOM, there's at least 3 of our five-a-day and a big reduction in the calorie punch right there.

Here's one I prepared earlier...

What You'll Need:
Feeds ~ 8 people
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 500g mince/quorn (as preferred)
- 1 cup red lentils
- 1 veggie stock cube
- 2 carrots
- 2 courgette/zucchini
- 1 jar tomato-ey pasta sauce
- 1 can kidney beans
- 1 large jar cottage cheese

- 200g cheese for melting on top- cheddar is usually good

The How-To:

For the meaty bit
1. Gently cook the onion and garlic over a low heat until see-through (~5 mins)
2. Meanwhile, bring a kettle to boil and cook the red lentils in with the veggie stock cube until mushy (about 20 mins). Don't worry about water:lentil ratio, just drain at the end. But somewhere around twice the water to lentils seems to work.
3. Add the mince into the onions and cook through (if quorn, cook until piping hot)
4. Add in the jar of tomato sauce (leaving a bit of sauce leftover) and stir through
5. When cooked, add in the lentils (drained)
6. Meaty bit ready.

For the rest
1. Wash the courgettes and chop the ends off. Slice length-ways to get 'sheets'
2. Give carrots a good old wash too, and cut into 'penny' shapes
3. Steam the carrots for 5-10 mins until chewable

Enough chat, let's build this thing

1. In your dish of choice, dollop the remainder of the tomato sauce at the bottom and spread out.
2. Layer pasta sheets over the top
3. Courgettes next 
(This order is important as the moisture from the tomato sauce and courgettes will soak into the pasta sheets and make them yummy and squishy)
4. Next, a layer of the meaty bit.
5. A layer of kidney beans (drained) and carrots
6. Cottage cheese
7. Another layer of pasta sheets and courgettes
8. Grate cheese all over
9. Cook in an oven at 180 degrees until cheese on top is golden (25 mins ish)

Voila! What you should have there is a lasagne that makes your insides happy (oh so much healthier than the usual), your eyes happy (so many colours!) and of course, your tastebuds.

Nom.

A Starter that Won't End Your Appetite: Salmon and Courgette Bites

Smoked Salmon and Courgette/Zuchinni Bites

When at a dinner party, it's very easy to over-eat the nibbly bits at the beginning and before you know it whoops-look-what-happened-by-accident-I'm-full-and-we-haven't even-begun. We've all been there.

So what to do?

Having not-so-havy nibblies at the start is a great way to work up the appetite whilst avoiding too much pressure on the old waistline. Plus, it's a convenient way to sneak one (or more!) of your 5-a-day in.

My current fave: smoked salmon and courgette/zuchinni bites. Bite for bite compared with chips and dips they have a third the calories, double the protein and less than half the fat. Boom.

To Create these Bite-Sized Gems:

Makes ~10 bites

1 courgette/zuchinni

1 tube cream cheese (philadelphia garlic and herb is good to give a bit of extra flavour)

1 pack smoked salmon

Pepper, rocket and lemon to garnish

The How-To:

1. Slice the courgette/zuchinni into 1cm thick slices

2. Grill for approx 5 minutes, until slightly soft

3. Remove from grill and scoop a teaspoon of cream cheese onto each slice

4. Pop a little wedge of salmon on the top

5. Squeeze over some lemon juice, and a sprinkling of ground black pepper

6. Serve

	One Salmon + Courgette Bite	Equivalent Size chips + dip*
Calories	46 calories	148 calories
Protein	4.2g	1.94g
Carbohydrate	0.6g	13.5g
- of which sugars	0.6g	1.02g
Fat	2.9g	7.57g
- of which saturated fat	0.9g	1.25g
Salt	0.45g	0.53g

* Doritos original flavour + sour cream and chive dip