Fake it for quick & healthy food!
WE Brits love our food – with a Subway poll revealing we think about grub for two hours a day.
And takeaways are often on our minds, as we eat 100million as a nation per week.
But the tasty treats can be loaded with belly-bulging levels of fat and calories.
Now a book by top fitness coach Courtney Black, 24, shows you how to make your own “fast food” favourites more healthily at home.
She believes it’s a myth that you have to deny your urges for tasty fare to have a healthy diet.
Courtney, who boasts 850,000 followers on Instagram, says: “I think a lot of the time people think you’ve got to always eat boring chicken and rice… but you can get creative.”
That can even include devising your own “fakeaways”, covering everything from steak bakes to burgers that look like the real thing – but they pack much less in the way of damaging ingredients.
Courtney reckons making traditional takeaway dishes at home is key to losing weight, explaining: “It’s a lower-calorie way where you’re using better ingredients, not so much saturated fat and you know what you’re putting into your meal.
“You’re cutting out loads of added sugar and salt too. Rather than deep-fat frying something, you might be covering it in breadcrumbs and baking it in the oven.
“You might use spray oil to cut down on fat too.”
Courtney’s own “fakeaway” favourite is a chicken katsu curry which uses cornflakes as a coating to keep the calories and fat in check.
Her top tips include using leaner cuts of meat, such as 5% fat pork mince, to make your own sausage-and-egg muffins at just 329 calories a pop.
Cooking with reduced-fat grilled bacon medallions helps create a tasty fry-up for only 359 calories.
And a leaner homemade steak bake than you can buy on the high street can be rustled up using lean beef mince and puff pastry.
Courtney’s recipes have been inspired by her own journey that saw her battling eating disorders as a teenager.
She adds: “I eventually realised you don’t have to deprive yourself to eat healthily.
“It’s all about balance. You don’t have to cut out so-called comfort food.”
Fit Foods And Fakeaways by Courtney Black is published by Thorsons tomorrow.