Super Simple Baked Paella

The WellNow Co Paella bowl served

This version of a paella offers the combination of comfort, a multitude of flavours and a dish equally popular in summer and winter making it a family staple in our house. The oven-bake aspect means once you have everything in the pot you don’t need to be hanging over it until it’s cooked.

It’s also a very versatile dish. You can load more veg in or leave out some. It’s a great one to use up veg about to turn. Courgettes, mushrooms, red or green peppers and more can be added.

Makes enough for a family of 5 for dinner, leaving loads for lunch the next day too!

The WellNow Co Paella ingredients

Ingredients:

300g risotto rice

1 x 200g whole Chorizo cubed

360g Prawns raw chilled

2 medium onions diced

4 Carrots diced small

1 Yellow pepper chopped

1 large Celery stick chopped

1-2 garlic cloves depending on preference

500g Passata

800ml Chicken or veg stock

Saffron – a couple of threads

1-2 tsp Mixed herbs

Handful of chopped Coriander leaves

Chopped parsley for serving (optional)

Method:

  1. Fry the onion for a few mins until it looks slightly opaque (see-through).
  2. Add the chorizo and cook for a few minutes to allow the flavours to come out.
  3. Add the celery, carrot, peppers and garlic and cook for a few minutes.
  4. Add the rice and stir through for a minute or two on the heat.
  5. Add the passata, saffron, mixed herbs, coriander and stock and stir.
  6. Put a lid on the pot and transfer to a pre-heated oven at 200F (180C) for 20 mins.
  7. Add the prawns and cook for a further 10-15 mins until the prawns are cooked through.
  8. Serve with a sprinkle of chopped parsley and devour!
The WellNow Co Paella in the pot

You can find more recipes from The WellNow Co here.

3 Easy Steps to Meal Planning

The WellNow Co Meal Planning

By Suzanne Leyden

As a skill meal planning may not be regarded as sexy. But it has incredible qualities that shine through and make it very desirable. What other activity can offer a combination of improving your time management, reducing stress, improving nutritional intake, cost effectiveness and is sustainable too? I mean come on, surely we should all give it a try.

The problem so many people have is that they are short on time in the first place. When it comes to meal planning people sometimes think they want to be handed a finished meal plan and that’s the extent of it. For guaranteed success, however, the reality is different. There is a bit of work involved up front but the pay-off, already outlined, is well worth it.

It really is the starting point of taking control of your health, your way, entirely on your terms. It has the best chance of succeeding this way. If it doesn’t work for you straight away, you’ve invested in it personally so you know how to go about tweaking it so that you can revise it to work for you.

The three things you need to approach meal planning for success are:

The WellNow Co Meal Planning
Photo by Ella Olsson on Unsplash

THE WHY

Set the right goals so that you stay motivated and on-track. Being clear of your objective in terms of meal planning is the recipe to success. Is there an underlying reason you want to get meal planning from a nutrition perspective? Maybe you want to eat more healthily, become more sustainable by incorporating in-season ingredients into your daily meals or you might simply want to improve the habits of your family. It could be that you want to manage your weight better, increase your energy or reduce your household costs. Knowing your why is critical to your success. It’s important to spend a bit of time asking yourself ‘why meal planning?’ because it’s when things start to falter you can remind yourself of this and get motivated to stick with it.

The WellNow Co Meal Planning
Photo by S’well on Unsplash

THE WHAT

Once you understand the outcome you want to achieve then you can have this as a focus when you are choosing your meals. Get informed as much as you can in terms of nutritional needs for your circumstances. Learning more about reading food labels may be something to consider. There will undoubtedly be taste considerations that need to be addressed also. Decide how you want to address these. You may want to push the introduction of a wider variety of vegetables into your weekly diet, or your children’s diet. This can be incorporated into your plan. You are in control.

The WellNow Co Meal Planning
Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

THE HOW

Having the most appropriate tools for you is key. An approach or template or format that you can relate to and can make work for you is the first step. Then you need to make the plan work for your schedule and circumstances. Knowing the limitations and boundaries to your schedule and the people who will be impacted by your meal plan will allow you to tailor and tweak the plan to optimize success. Don’t plan to overhaul your entire diet in one go. Take on small changes and allow yourself time to bed them down and succeed at them before moving on to the next. Start with X number of dinners a week, or choose which meal to address so that it suits your needs right now. Your shopping then can become streamlined to avoid waste and maximize nutrition, maybe even taking into account what’s in season.

SOLUTION FOR YOU

To really get you in gear and help you bed down meal planning into your weekly routine then this online programme is for you. ‘3-Steps to Meal Planning for Health’ is The WellNow Co.’s video led online programme full of tools and information to get you meal planning like a pro. Check it out now, you won’t regret it.

THE WELLNOW CO 3 STEPS TO MEAL PLANNING FOR HEALTH
The WellNow Co’s ‘3-Steps to Meal Planning for Health‘

Featured Photo by Ella Olsson on Unsplash

Have Yourself a Healthy Christmas with your leftovers: Turkey Bone Broth

The WellNow Co Turkey Bone Broth

Bone broth has had something of a resurgence in the last few years but it is essentially stock, which is made from boiling bones of turkey, chicken or beef or another healthy animal. And who doesn’t want to have a healthy Christmas to help counteract some of the indulgences we all have?! Bone broth is packed with nutrients that help to support immune and digestive health along with having lots of benefits for the skin, teeth, hair and bones. It’s so easy to make but does take time to boil. If you don’t have a slow cooker or the full 8 hours to be at home while it’s cooking, boil it for as long as you can.


It’s a great use of the turkey leftovers and will contribute to having a healthy Christmas by taking advantage of all the benefits of bone broth and being sustainable while you’re at it. It makes it really sustainable to use any meat to it’s fullest. And by freezing any stock you don’t use straight away, makes it the Christmas present that keeps on giving! I usually make a big soup and freeze in portions, and will add it to casserole and risotto when using up other leftovers too.


I have included the vegetables that I regularly use when making bone broth but like many of our recipes, you can mix this up, depending on what you have in stock (pardon the pun!).

Ingredients:
1 Turkey carcass (preferably organic)
1 onion cut in half
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic
2 litres of water (this might vary depending on the amount of bones and the size of your pot)
1 tsp dried turmeric
1 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 springs thyme
Salt (preferably pink Himalayan) & pepper to season

Method:

  1. Place the turkey carcass into a large saucepan along with the onion, celery, carrots and garlic.
  2. Pour in enough water to almost cover the turkey (approx. 2 litres).
  3. Now add the turmeric, pepper, bay leaf, thyme and season with the salt and pepper.
  4. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a light simmer.
  5. Leave to simmer with the lid on for up to 8 hours to get all the goodness from the bones. The longer the better!
  6. Remove the turkey and veg so you’re just left with the liquid. I usually drain the liquid into a separate container using a large sieve to catch the carcass and veg.
  7. The stock can be used straight away or left to cool and frozen.

Note: The stock can be frozen in small containers or ice trays for use in dishes as and when you need it.

Meal Planning? What The Health?!

We all have the best intentions to eat healthily, but when you’re staring down at a chocolate croissant as you’re grabbing a coffee between kid’s drop off, racing to work and just trying to find a moment to breathe – healthy eating can be left on the shelf.

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