Three Healthy Pasta Recipes to Keep You Warm this Winter

The chilly winter weather often has an influence on your diet. You find yourself eating more comfort foods and drinking more hot chocolates, but can’t your winter warmers also be healthy? If you want something warm and flavourful, while still taking care of your wellness, we’ve got the answer for you: chicken and pasta. The following recipes are vastly beneficial for your wellbeing – both physically and emotionally – and they’re also pretty easy to make!

 

1. Chicken Pasta in Spinach Sauce: This recipe is good for your heart. To start, cook 500g of fresh spinach in a pot containing 1½ cups of chicken broth until the spinach softens. Then, drain and stain the spinach and keep the broth to one side. Keep things as is if you want a rough sauce, but if you want something smoother you should use a food processor to blend the cooked spinach and a few tablespoons of the broth. Add 250g pasta shells into a large pan of boiling water, and cook until froths appear on the top. Drain the shells and keep aside. In a pan, heat two teaspoons of olive oil on a medium flame, add four cloves of chopped garlic and sauté, making sure not to let the garlic turned brown. Add your spinach and sprinkle on ½ a teaspoon black pepper, ½ a teaspoon nutmeg and ½ a teaspoon salt. Add 250g of chicken breast sliced in to cubes, and the remaining broth, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Then, stir in the cooked pasta, stir and for two to three minutes for all the flavours to come through.

 

2. Mexican Style Chicken Pasta:Wash and chop six thoroughly drained canned tomatoes, four chopped Scallions and one large green bell pepper. Set these aside and pour five cups of salted chicken broth into a pan. Add in one teaspoon chilli powder, two cloves of minced garlic and one teaspoon cumin. Bring these ingredients to a boil on medium flame and stir in the chopped vegetables. Cut up 250g of skinless, boneless chicken and add this to the pan, covering and simmering for 10-15 minutes on low flame. Once the chicken is tender and the vegetables are mushy, take the pan off the heat. The liquid should have reduced and thickened. Cook a packet of spaghetti and, while that’s cooking, heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add another clove of minced garlic and throw in the cooked spaghetti. Toss around till the spaghetti is well coated with garlic infused oil. Throw your chicken mixture into the heavy bottomed pan and add in six to eight chopped green chillies. Simmer for 5 minutes on a medium flame to blend all the flavours together, then garnish with ½ a cup of chopped coriander and one cup of shredded cheese.

 

3. Greek Penne with Chicken: In a large vessel of salted water, boil a packet of penne pasta, drain and keep aside. Hold on to ½ cup of this boiled water. Place a heavy skillet on high flame and melt in two tablespoons of butter. Add one tablespoon of olive oil, then place in two minced garlic gloves and two chopped red onions. Stir fry until the ingredients turn pink; add 250g of chicken breast cut in to small pieces, and sauté for 10-12 minutes. Reduce the heat and add in a can of artichoke hearts, a can of chopped tomato, a cup of shredded feta cheese, ¼ cup of chopped parsley, ½ cup lemon juice and a tablespoon of dried oregano. Stir in the pasta and, if it seems too dry, add ½ cup of water you boiled the pasta in to make a sauce that coats the pasta well. Cook for about three minutes to let the flavours to combine. Season with black pepper and salt and serve.

Categories: add 250g, bottomed pan, chicken, chicken broth, chicken pasta, heavy bottomed, medium flame, minced garlic, olive oil, pan add, Pasta, Winter Warmers

Get Started on Your Dukan Diet with Our Four-Day Plan!

If you want to lose weight and take care of your wellbeing, the Dukan Diet can help you do it. However, if simply getting started is sending your wellness in a spin, fear not; we’ve got a four-day meal plan just for you.

 

Day One: For breakfast, you can have two scrambled eggs (made with skimmed milk) with as much chopped smoked salmon as you like. At lunchtime, mix of finely chopped 175g extra-lean ham, 225g fat-free quark, finely chopped chives and marjoram, four finely chopped shallots and Tabasco, and roll into small balls – this serves four. For out dinner-for-two Vietnamese beef, combine 400g sirloin steak (cut into small cubes) with two tablespoons soy sauce, one tablespoon oyster sauce, one big piece of grated ginger and a little black pepper. Let this marinate for 30 minutes or more. Brown four crushed garlic cloves in a pan, add beef and stir over high heat for 10-15 seconds for medium-rare.

 

Day Two: At breakfast, sprinkle 200g fat-free yoghurt with oat bran, one drop of vanilla essence and sweetener. Lunch on day two is an oat bran pancake, made by stirring together 1½ tablespoons oat bran, 1½ tablespoons fat-free quark, dried herbs, a pinch of salt and pepper, two egg yolks and 175g of either flaked tuna, smoked salmon, ham or chicken. Beat the leftover egg whites until stiff peaks form, and then fold into oat bran mixture. Cook it as you usually would pancakes. For dinner, preheat oven to 220ºC and season 800g white fish fillets before you wrap them in greaseproof paper. Bake for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180ºC and remove the fish from the oven. In a blender, blitz the fish, 300g fat-free fromage frais, four eggs and five tablespoons chopped herbs. Pour the mixture into a baking dish, place this dish into a bigger dish and half-fill the bigger dish with cold water. Bake until cooked through (roughly 45 minutes).

 

Day Three: Combine two tablespoons of oat bran and a little wheat bran with skimmed milk and sweetener. Microwave for two minutes and that’s your breakfast! Rosemary beef burgers for three are on the lunch menu. Combine 750g minced beef, a chopped onion, two crushed garlic cloves, two tablespoons plum sauce, one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, two tablespoons finely chopped rosemary, one to two tablespoons finely chopped mint or basil and one lightly beaten egg. Shape into burgers, grill until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, and serve with salad. For dinner, beat three egg whites until stiff, and add six tablespoons fat-free quark, one tablespoon cornflour, one crushed garlic clove, chopped herbs, one chopped white fish fillet and three thinly sliced crabsticks. Bake in a lined tin at 180ºC for 45 minutes and you have your fishcake dinner.

 

Day Four: These oat bran breakfast muffins serve four. Heat the oven to 180ºC and beat four egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, mix eight tablespoons oat bran, four tablespoons fromage frais, half a teaspoon of sweetener and lemon zest or cinnamon. Pour into cases and bake for 20-30 minutes. For lunch, make a vinaigrette with one teaspoon of olive oil, four teaspoons of cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix 600g lettuce, tarragon leaves and 200g cooked and shelled prawns in a bowl. Soft-boil four eggs for 5-6 minutes and serve while still very hot, on top of dressed lettuce and prawns. Finally for dinner, cut four thick pieces of salmon into thin slices, and gently fry these slices in a non-stick pan for one minute each side. Brown two chopped shallots, reduce heat and add one tablespoon of mustard and six teaspoons fromage frais. Simmer for five minutes and return salmon to the pan. Add finely chopped dill, cook until heated through and serve with asparagus (This meal serves four.)

Categories: 4-day plan, crushed garlic, Dukan Diet, egg whites, finely chopped, free quark, fromage frais, nbsp day, oat bran, pan add, tablespoons finely, Weight Loss