Bacon and Chickpea Frittata

1 onion, chopped
4 bacon rashers, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained
Any vegetables you have on hand, for example, frozen peas, baby spinach, leftover cooked vegies
4-6 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg
1 cup grated cheese

Start by frying your onion and bacon for about five minutes, then add the chickpeas and other vegetables. Pour the egg mixture over the top of everything. The egg mixture should cover most of your ingredients in the pan leaving some of the ingredients poking through the top of the egg. Sprinkle the whole lot with cheese and cook it on a medium heat for several minutes until the bottom is set. Pop the frypan under the grill for a few more minutes until the top is a lovely golden brown. Be careful with the handle of the frying pan when doing this part, you don't want to burn yourself! Serve it up on its own or with salad.

Chorizo and Chickpea Salad

2 tsp olive oil
400g chorizo sausages, thinly sliced
250g punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
420g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
70g baby rocket, washed, drained
70g feta cheese, crumbled
2 Tbs balsamic salad dressing

Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the chorizo. Cook for 4 minutes, turning, or until crisp and golden. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining chorizo.

Add cherry tomatoes to frying pan. Cook, tossing, for 2 minutes or until just softened.

Combine warm chorizo, tomatoes, chickpeas, rocket, feta and dressing in a large bowl.Season with salt and pepper. Toss gently to combine. Spoon into serving bowls.

Serves 4

Ten healthy habits from the Mediterranean

• Eat legumes. They're common throughout Mediterranean countries and in a traditional Greek diet are eaten twice a week to avoid eating meat for religious reasons, says Kouris, herself part of a research team at Monash University that found legumes to be the most important food contributing to longevity in over 1000 elderly people in five countries.
• Eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, rocket, endive, chicory and amaranth (excellent sources of magnesium and plant omega- 3 fats, she says). You'll sometimes find amaranth - often called Chinese spinach - displayed with Asian veg in some greengrocers.
• Eat a range of coloured vegetables including tomatoes and capsicum - they're high in antioxidants, including lycopene.
• Use extra virgin olive oil. There's some evidence, says Kouris, that olive oil, like omega-3 fats, don't seem to add weight around the waist as much as animal fats and processed (hydrogenated) vegetable fats that are high in saturated and trans fats.
• Include some fermented foods like yoghurt or fetta cheese that may help provide gut-friendly bacteria.
• Slow cook meats with vegetables, including tomato, garlic, onion and olive oil. This slow cooking of meat is less likely than grilling to form carcinogens, she says. Stewing also retains nutrients in vegetables.
• Eat fish and seafood. Traditionally, fish is eaten more often than animal meats, she says.
  Be generous with herbs like oregano, rosemary, dill and mint; they make vegetables taste great so you want to eat more of them. Indeed, "you don't hear Greeks saying they hate vegetables," says Kouris.
• Snack on nuts and seeds. Traditional snacks include pumpkin seeds, roasted chickpeas, almonds, walnuts, as well as dried and fresh fruit.
• Think outside the salad dressing and use vinegar as flavouring for other dishes. Besides adding a tangy flavour, says Kouris, it also lowers the GI (Glycemic Index) of foods and helps you absorb more iron. It's a traditional ingredient in this classic Greek lentil soup on the Healthy Eating Club website (a good site for credible nutrition info).

Smoked Chicken Salad

Well, I've barely managed to survive another year of Christmas gorging and my poor body is craving salad - and lots of it! So who am I to deny it...

Tonight I gave my fav salad a slight makeover as I've been drooling over the yummy Danish fetta that has been in my fridge since before Christmas and tonight I could no longer resist.

So here is the recipe:
Smoked Chicken Salad
1 smoked chicken breast, skin removed and discarded (into my trendy new indoor composter :-) and shredded
1/3 red capsicum, diced
1/2 lebanese cucumber , diced
handful of greeen beans, ends removed and cut into 2cm pieces
handful of snow peas, ends removed and cut into 2cm pieces
1 small tin chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1 small tin super sweet corn kernals, drained & rinsed
1 carrot, pelled and diced
1 avocado, chopped into large chunks
1/3 pack Danish fetta, crumbled

Place all ingredients into a large salad bowl and toss well. The fetta and avocado will coat the vegetables and create a delicious dressing.

Serves 2

Variations:
I usually dry fry some pine nuts or almond slivers in a small frypan and throw them in.
I don't usually add fetta but this was a nice addition - although it did make it less healthy and a bit heavier (I'm feeling like I need to go for a walk...not good!)