Sometimes it’s easier to make a few small changes than try to change your whole diet in one go. These 4 healthy food swaps are all great ways to make your diet just that little bit healthier, without feeling like you are denying yourself too much. Plus find out more about the exciting project I’ve been working on lately and, of course, the linky for #CookBlogShare Week 45.
Well, after a busy month last month, October has been a much quieter one – which is great as it has allowed me to get my head down and actually write something I have had in mind for ages to create: my 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan.
Why a create a 4 week meal plan? Well, I have had quite a few comments from my lovely readers over the last few years, telling me you wish someone would just wave a magic wand and take away the stress of having to come up with a delicious dinner each evening.
Well guys, I have listened to you and to help you out I have created a 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan full of my most popular recipes, which I am giving away FREE!
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I am so super excited about this meal plan because it is SO MUCH MORE than just another meal plan!
So what’s included?
- 4 weeks of meal plans – that’s dinner sorted every night of the week!
- 4 shopping lists – 1 for each week, with everything you need for every dinner.
- Individual shopping lists for every single meal – so you can quickly and easily make swaps and changes or make up your own meal plan if you want to mix things up a bit
- A comprehensive guide to using the meal plans – hints, tips and advice on how to get the most out of the meal plans, how to make swaps, how to rearrange the meals to suit your life and so much more.
- FAQs – I have tried to answer all of the most obvious questions so do check that section out, but if there’s something else you are unsure about that you need answering – just send me an email and I’ll do my best to answer ASAP!
And all of this is 100% free – yep, you heard right – completely free!
If you want to start making your life easier, CLICK HERE to download my 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan today!
Anyway, enough of me burbling away about meal plans (can you tell I am excited?). Let’s crack on with #CookBlogShare…
4 Healthy Food Swaps
Over the years I have tried numerous times to ‘get healthier’, but so often I found that when I tried to change everything all at once, I failed miserably. What has really worked for me is making little healthy food swaps and changing things gradually. I have found making small changes and making them one at a time to be a much more effective route to a healthier diet.
Little things I have done have included – reducing the amount of calorie laden drinks I consume (I used to have several glasses of orange juice and mugs of hot chocolate a day), making a real effort to include more veggies and wholegrains in my diet, trying to cook from scratch as often as possible and eating healthier snacks (and just generally snacking less!).
The recipes that really caught my eye in last week’s #CookBlogShare linky, were all in the same vein – little changes to familiar meals to make them that little bit healthier. ‘Cos every little helps, right? 😉
If you are not a #CookBlogShare regular and are wondering what an earth I am going on about, #CookBlogShare is a place for bloggers to share their recipes. If you are a blogger and have a recipe to share, you can link up your post by following the instructions below. If you are not a blogger, but love food and cooking, do check out the recipes that will be appearing below. If this week is as good as they usually are you will find some awesome recipes – the #CookBlogShare bloggers are very good at what they do!
Shepherd’s Pie with Pumpkin, Turkey and Spiralized Potatoes
So first up, we have this fab Shepherd’s Pie with Pumpkin, Turkey and Spiralized Potatoes from Monika at Everyday Healthy Recipes. I couldn’t not include Monika in this roundup, as making little healthy food swaps and changes towards a healthier diet is what Monika’s blog is all about. Monika has made her shepherd’s pie that little bit healthier by using lean turkey mince and adding extra veg in the form of pumpkin. Plus I love how she has gone for spiralized potatoes, rather than the usual mash – not only does this look beautiful – and I am sure must taste amazing, but it also means cutting out the cream and butter that usually gets added to mashed potatoes.
Healthy Fish and Chips
I am a huge fan of the healthy homemade fakeaway and have quite a few on my blog – especially curries! So I absolutely had to include this recipe for Healthy Fish and Chips by Debbie at Proper Foodie. Debbie is a registered nutritionist, so her recipes have always got a healthy twist. This healthy version of a British classic is oven cooked, rather than deep fried, and so uses far less oil than a typical takeaway. She also keeps the skin on the potatoes for all that extra goodness that we know is hidden in the skins. Finally she serves this with smashed minted peas – another vegetable to count towards your 5 a day!
Fruity Green Ginger Smoothie
One of the biggest healthy food swaps that my husband and I have made recently is switching from having cereal or toast for breakfast to having a fruit, nut and vegetable packed smoothie instead. I absolutely love starting the day with a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals and it’s great to have made serious headway towards that 5 a day count before the day has even properly started. Corina from Searching for Spice has started a similar smoothie habit recently in an effort to try and stave off those winter colds and has come up with this gorgeous Fruity Green Ginger Smoothie, which I have to say is going to go right to the top of my must try smoothie list!
Pumpkin Macaroni Cheese
Regular readers of Easy Peasy Foodie will know I am a huge macaroni cheese fan and so this Pumpkin Macaroni Cheese from Jo at Jo’s Kitchen Larder just had to be included in my roundup. Macaroni cheese is not usually seen as a health food but I just love how Jo has made a couple of easy swaps to make her mac n cheese that little bit healthier. First she has used wholewheat pasta instead of white pasta and secondly she has added pumpkin into her cheese sauce. Not only does this help boost your intake of veggies, but it must also seriously improve the flavour!
#CookBlogShare Linky Week 45
And so we come to this week’s linky. You can link up any foodie post that you have – both old and new posts are welcome. All you need to do is:
- Link up a recipe or foodie post by clicking the blue ‘add your link’ button below and following the instructions (maximum of 4, please).
- Add a link from your post back to this post (so everyone else can find it and link up too!) and / or add the #CookBlogShare badge to your post (you can find the code below).
- Comment on one of the host’s posts and a minimum of 2 other posts linked up here, and generally share the love with a bit of social media action!
If you wish, you can tweet a link to your recipe to me @easypeasyfoodie and also (if you have room on the tweet!) my co-hosts Kirsty @k_phillipson, Jacqui @jacdotbee and Monika @MonikasRecipes, using the #CookBlogShare hashtag and we will retweet them. You can also post your recipe on the Cook Blog Share Facebook Page.
Need some help on Instagram? You and me both…so let’s help each other! Whenever you post to Instagram, use the #CookBlogShare hashtag, then quickly hop over to the #CookBlogShare feed, liking as many as you can and commenting on any that particularly catch your eye. Not a big job at all, but if we all do it, it would make a BIG difference!!
I will comment on all the posts this week and pin them all to the Cook Blog Share Pinterest Board. I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been making!
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Just to remind you, by joining in, you are giving the #CookBlogShare hosts permission to use your pictures in a round up and on social media, if your recipe is selected as one of our favourites!
Pin 4 Healthy Food Swaps for later
Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook says
Eb, you are so very generous to share your meal plan ideas/recipes for free! I’ve been eating a lot of junk, too, the past weeks and I need healthy recipes this time. These are all great recipes – yum! Thank you for hosting #CookBlogShare this week. I hope you are having a good time.
Eb Gargano says
I love helping people, Jhuls – especially with anything to do with food! I had so many comments from people about wishing someone would just do all the meal planning stuff for them, that I wanted to create something to help. My 4 week meal plan is the result! So pleased you like it! Eb x
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
I love your meal plan idea Eb – I had a read of it when I got the e-mail the other day and it’s FAB! So helpful for busy families 😀 Gret round up Eb too, I just love the texsture of the spiralised potatoes finishing Monika’s Shepher’s Pie 🙂
Angela x
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Angela – that’s so kind of you to say! I really enjoyed making it (though it was a lot of work!) I am so pleased it has been so well received 😀 Oh yes, I know what you mean about Monika’s Shepherd’s Pie – so impressive. I can just imagine how wonderfully crunchy it is. Eb x
Jacqui Bellefontaine says
Great round up Eb. A few tweaks to our diet in the run-up to the festive season is a great idea and so easy with such lovely recipes to get us started.
Eb Gargano says
Haha – that’s a very good point. Here’s to a super healthy November before the onslaught begins!! 😀 Eb x
Vicki Montague says
What an incredible thing to give away for free!! Wow. You have been very very busy. I love the recipes you chose from last week…that spirilized potato shepherds pie looks epic!
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Vicki 😀 Yep, I have been pretty busy…but have enjoyed putting it together immensely – being organised and food are two of my favourite things in the whole world 😀 Eb x
Corina Blum says
I think your meal plans are fantastic Eb! Such a great resource and have reminded me of quite a few of your recipes I’d still love to try. Thanks so much for featuring my smoothie recipe this week. I hope it’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas as I’ve shared rum sauce x
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Corina 🙂 So pleased you like the meal plans!! It’s never too early to be thinking about Christmas in my book! 😀 Eb x
Nico @ yumsome says
Fab round-up, Eb – I especially like the idea of adding spiralised potatoes to a shepherd’s pie!
BTW, I couldn’t sign up for your meal plan because when I hit ‘send’, I got the following message:
“Oops! It looks like there was an error: There was an error with your submission: The requested resource could not be found.”
🙁
Eb Gargano says
I know – pretty awesome, right?! I can almost taste the crunchiness 😀 So sorry you had trouble signing up – but thanks for letting me know. It’s all fixed and I’ve just noticed you pop up in my dashboard as having received the meal plans, so I am hoping all the gremlins have now gone 🙂 Would love to know what you think! Eb x
Jo / Jo's Kitchen Larder says
First of all, what a fantastic idea to create such a helpful resource. I’m going to check it out in a minute as I don’t do meal planning very well really ,if at al,l and I do wish I could be a bit more organised and think ahead meal wise. Thanks for that! 🙂
Thank you so much for including my pumpkin mac’n’cheese in this week’s round up too! 🙂 x
Eb Gargano says
A pleasure to include your lovely macaroni cheese in my roundup! And thanks so much for signing up for my meal plans! Hope they help you get more organised 🙂 Do let me know how you get on with them – would love to know what you think! Eb x
Cat says
Very tasty sounding recipes! I especially liked the idea of the spiralised potato on the shepherd’s pie x
Eb Gargano says
I know! Such a fab idea, right? Monika is one clever lady!! Eb x
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food says
**YOINK** That was the sound of me downloading your 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan. What an amazing resource—I can’t believe you’re giving it away!! This is such a great round-up: the fun twist on Shepherd’s Pie sounds just delightful, and since that’s a comfort food favorite of mine, I’m stoked that it’s lightened up! I can’t wait to give all of these a try. YUM!
Eb Gargano says
Haha – I wish it really did make that noise every time someone downloaded them – I’ll just have to imagine it 😀 Thanks so much for your kind words. I had a lot of fun making them – I love meal planning and I am very happy to share my meal plans – they make life so much easier!! Eb x
Donna says
I’ve started doing meal plans recently, it makes everything so much easier. I keep telling myself I should publish them, if only for force myself to stick with it! Thanks for sharing your meals 🙂
Eb Gargano says
Oh don’t they just? It seems like it’s a lot of faff at first, but actually in the long run you save loads of time. And actually with these meal plans, I’ve done most of the hard work, so actually the rest is easy. I used them to do my online shop today and got it done in about 20 minutes!! Good luck with you meal plans 🙂 Eb x
Lizet Flores de Bowen says
Love all the healthy options for this week. That shepherd’s pie had my name on it ??
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Lizet 🙂 That shepherd’s pie is proving very popular – such a great idea! Eb x
Marilyn says
Thank you for hosting another inspirational party! Enjoy your week.
Eb Gargano says
A pleasure, Marilyn. Hope you have a lovely week too! Eb x
Sadhna Grover says
Hi EB, Thanks for the party dear. Green ginger smoothy is so nice, I bookmarked it to try.
Eb Gargano says
I know – it sounds gorgeous, doesn’t it? I am going to give it a go too! Eb x
Monika Dabrowski says
Thank you so much for including my pie (and a lovely writeup) in the roundup! I’ll be back tomorrow to take a closer look at your meal plan, I have so much to catch up on now my blog is back up:)
Eb Gargano says
A pleasure – you have had so many lovely comments about your pie! Hope all is well with your blog tomorrow 🙂 Eb x
Jas @All that's Jas says
Yummy features! Thank you for hosting the party each week.
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Jas! Always a pleasure 🙂 Eb x
Debbie says
Loving your meal plan idea Eb!! Great read and collection recipes as always- thanks so much for including my fish and chips ?
Eb Gargano says
Thanks, Debbie! A pleasure to include your healthy fish and chips – such a great idea and I loved reading about your trip to the factory 😀 Eb x
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Oh my goodness Eb, you are a machine! Where do you get all the time to do everything? I meal plan every week and wouldn’t be without it, it saves my sanity! Fab round up and thank you for hosting xx
Eb Gargano says
Haha – not really. Just very organised. I have to be if I want to get everything done on my blog that I have on my very long to do list. Meal planning is fab, isn’t it? Definitely saves my sanity – along with lots of time and money!! Thanks for your kind words. Eb x