So, the holiday season is well and truly over and with it the excess of rich food, great booze and everything indulgent. It’s now time to cut out the ‘bad stuff’ and focus on the healthy and clean………………..

Ha, who am I kidding! Sorry, but I don’t buy that lark at all, why should my love of food be curtailed by seasons and chronological convention?? Nope, I intend to continue unabated in the same vein – BUT I will also continue to balance what I eat with how I work it off and this is the trick guys and girls – portion control and exercise.

To give you an idea of how I balance my pies, curries, roasts and pizzas – I train Martial Arts 3 times per week, I long-board most weekends and supplement this with Tai-Chi and weight training each morning. This is part of my life, it’s hard-wired into my system and as a result I eat whatever the hell I want…but I don’t ‘nose-bag’ Each recipe you see on this blog will have a portion control aspect to it, in fact they are all geared towards just two people.

So, my advice for the New Year…keep the butter, the bacon, the sugar, the white bread the red meat and the Veg but make sure you have balance, be active, stay active, enjoy your food.

So with that in mind here is a simple New Years starter for ten – a simple crispy Chicken Thigh Tray bake.

Ingredients – serves two

6 medium chicken things – skin on but trimmed

3 sweet pepper (yellow, red, green) – seeded and thickly sliced

1 medium red onion thickly sliced

1/2 glass white wine

100mls Chicken stock

1 tbs sweet paprika

1 tps cayenne pepper

1 tbs garlic salt

This is stunningly good as a Monday night supper – lets face it ,Monday sucks and when you get home the last thing you wanna do it cook so set this up on Sunday evening and all you need to come Monday is sling it in the oven.

Kick off by trimming most of the fat off the thighs, leave a bit for crisp-ness and fat. Next dust the thighs with the cayenne, paprika and garlic salt and set to one side.

Throw the veg into a wide baking tray, lug in some olive oil, salt and pepper and massage everything so the peppers and onions get well coated.

Set the chicken thighs on top of the veg, fling over a  scattering of sea-salt and add the stock and white.

That’s it – to cook simply bounce into a medium hot oven (170c) for about 30-40 minutes or until the thighs are well browned and crispy. As always, cut into the chicken close to the bone to ensure it is cooked properly – any pink then let it stay in the oven longer.